VIRGINIA. WESTERN. 



801 



In the winter of 1860-'61 the Legislature of 

 the State of Virginia was convened in special 

 :i to consider the exigencies pressing up >n 

 the country in consequence of secession of the 

 Gulf 6 i'hat Legislature pa=sed a law 



directing the people of Virginia to elect dele- 

 to a convention to be held on February 

 14th, at Richmond, to determine the duty of the 

 State under the extraordinary circumstances 

 with which she was surrounded. A vote was 

 required to be taken at the same time when 

 the d<. re elected, to decide whether, 



if the convention passed an ordinance of - 

 sion. it should be referred back to the people 

 for their adoption or rejection. The majority 

 of votes in favor of such reference was nearly 

 sixty thousand. The convention assembled, an 

 ordinance of secession was passed and formally 

 referred to the people to be voted upon on the 

 4th Tuesday of May, 1861. The authori: 



:o levy war against the United 

 States on the next day after the passage of the 

 ordinance, and Virginia was immediately an- 

 nexed to the Confederate States, and their 

 troops immediately occupied portions of the 

 Mass meetings were immediately held 

 in Western Virginia to take into consideration 

 the best means of preserving their allegiance to 

 the Unite 1 ". - A convention of nearly five 



hundred delegates assembled there early in 

 May, 1861, which declared the ordinance of 

 seces-ion to be null and void : that its provision 

 suspending the election of members of the Fed- 

 eral Government was a usurpation, and that if 

 the ordinance of secession was ratified by a 

 vote they recommended the election on June 

 4th of delegates to a general convention to be 

 held on the llth to devise such measures as 

 the welfare of the people might demand. This 

 convention met at Wheeling. Meantime 

 nearly all the judicial and executive officers in 

 that part of the State had fled to Richmond 

 before the Federal forces. Legal protection to 

 life, liberty, or property was given up. This con- 

 vention declared the office of governor, 

 vacant. i% by reason of those who occupied 

 them having joined the rebellion,'' and pro- 

 ceeded to fill those offices. The action of this 

 convention was not confined to Western Virgi- 

 nia, but intended to embrace the whole S 

 The governor elected thus stated the object of 

 the convention : 



It was not the object of the Wheeling convention to 

 set up any new government in the State, or separate, 

 or other government than the one under which they 

 had always lived. They made a single alteration in 

 the Constitution of the State, which prescribes the 

 number of delegates in the General Assembly which 

 shall be necessary to constitute a quorum. 



A declaration was made by the convention, 

 and an ordinance adopted for the reorganiza- 

 tion of the State Government. According to 

 this ordinance the Government to be reor- 

 ganized, either in its executive or legislative 

 departments, was not for a part of the State, 

 but for all of Virginia. In conformity with 

 VOL. II. 51 



this ordinance a State Government was reor- 

 ganized in all its branches in every county of 

 ~~ate not occupied by an armed : 



On the 20th of August, 1861, the convention 

 passed an ordinance " to provide for th 

 mation of a new State oat of a portion of the 

 territory of this State." In compliance with 

 its provisions delegates were elected to a con- 

 stitutional convention which assembled at 

 Wheeling. 1861, and proceeded to 



draft a Constitution, which was submitted to 

 the people on the first Thursday of April, 1862. 

 The vote in favor was 18,862, that against it 

 "14. 



The governor appointed by the convention 

 of June, 1861, which declared the State offices 

 vacant, now issued his proclamation convening 

 an extra session of the Legislature, elected and 

 organized under the same authority, and which 

 claimed to be the Legislature of Virginia. This 

 .ature met on the 6th of May, 1862, and 

 1 an act, giving its consent to the forma- 

 tion of a new State, and forwarded its con- 

 sent to the Congress of the United States, to- 

 gether with an official copy of the Constitution 

 adopted by the voters, and with the request 

 that the said new State be admitted into the 

 Union. 



On the 31st of December, 1862. the follow- 

 ing act of Congress was approved by the Pres- 

 ident : 



An act for the admission of the Stats of " Western 

 Virginia " into the Union, and for other purpose*. 

 Whereas the people inhabiting that portion of Vir- 

 ginia known as West Virginia did, bv a convention 

 assembled in the city of Wheeling on the twenty-sixth 

 of November, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, frame 

 for themselves a Constitution, with a view of becom- 

 ing a separate and independent State ; and whereas at 

 a general election held in the counties composing the 

 territory aforesaid on the third day of May last, the 

 said Constitution was approved an'd adopted by the 

 qualified voters of the proposed State, and whereas 

 the Legislature of Virginia, by an act passed on the 

 thirteenth day of May, eightee'n hundred and sixty- 

 two, did give its consent to the formation of a new 

 State within the jurisdiction of the said State cf Virgi- 

 nia, to be known by the name of West Virginia, and 

 to embrace the following named counties, to wit : 

 Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, ^Marshall, Weuel, Marion, 

 Monongalia, Preston, Taylor, Tyler, Pleasants, Ritchie, 

 Doddriage. Harrison. Wood, 'Jackson. Win, Roane, 

 Calhoun, Gilmer, Barbour, Tucker, Lewis, Braxton, 

 Upshur, Randolph, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay, 

 Nicholas, Cabell, Wavne, Booue, Logan, Wvoming, 

 Mercer, McDowell, Webster, Pocahontas, "F.. 

 Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton, Hardy, 

 Hampshire, and Morgan ; and whereas both the con- 

 vention and the LegTslature aforesaid have requested 

 that the new State should be admitted into the Union, 

 and the Constitution aforesaid being republican in 

 form, Congress doth hereby consent that the said 

 forty -eight^counties may be formed into a separate and 

 independent State. Therefore 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Jiepretenta- 

 fives of the United States of America in Conor ess as- 

 sembled, That the State of West Virginia be and is 

 hereby declared to be one of the United States of 

 America, and admitted into the Union on an equal 

 footing with the original States in all respects what- 

 ever, and until the next general census, shall be en- 

 titled to three members in the House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States : Provided, aluays, That this 



