John Snyder Carlile (American National Biography)

Carlile's career was marked by controversy and seeming inconsistency. In his native Virginia, he was seen as a "radical" for his opposition to secession and support of separate statehood for West Virginia. In the Republican dominated Congress in Washington, however, he was denounced as a southern sympathizer and supporter of slavery. Carlile could be seen in both of these roles, because he simultaneously endorsed the sanctity of the Union and advocated a strict constructionist view of the Constitution that did not allow the central government to trample on states' rights. His political banishment after the Civil War was the price he paid for his convictions.