much for consideration of either preservation of the Union or emancipation!
A committee was appointed to consider the Willey Amendment. The committee was directed to study the possibility of compensating loyal slave owners for their financial losses. Never a popular solution in the western counties, the committeeâs resolution for compensation was tabled. Then, on February 17, 1863, the Wheeling convention delegates unanimously approved the Wiley Amendment and the full revised state constitution for West Virginia. 70
Despite efforts by Senator John Carlile and others to convince West Virginians to oppose the Willey Amendment [essentially opposition to the pro-emancipationist language of the Willey Amendment with which Carlile and his supporters took issue], voters in the emerging new state ratified the revised constitution for the state of West Virginia on March 26, 1863. The vote was a lopsided tally of 28,321 votes to 572. 71 Upon receiving the results, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation on April 20, 1863, declaring that in sixty days, on June 20, 1863, West Virginia officially would become the thirty fifth state of the American Union.
Two days later, West Virginia voters went to the polls on May 28, 1863, to elect their new stateâs âpermanentâ government officials. Arthur I. Boreman of Wood County, was elected as the stateâs first governor. Additionally, citizens of Jefferson and Berkeley counties [in the eastern panhandle, adjacent to Maryland] voted to become part of West Virginia. The federal government affirmed the latter action, another de facto secession of territories from the Commonwealth of Virginia without its assent. 72
On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the thirty-fifth state in the Union. Inaugural ceremonies were held in Wheeling, the initial capital of the new state. In his inaugural address, Governor Boreman referred to West Virginia as âthe child of the rebellion.â He stated that âto-day after many long and weary years of insult and injustice, culminating on the part of the East, in an attempt to destroy the Government, we have the proud satisfaction of proclaiming to those around us that we are a separate State in the Union.â
10
W EST V IRGINIA C ONSTITUTIONS AND P OLITICS
The process by which West Virginia was created marks the only time in United States history that a state was created outside the boundaries of the prescribed constitutional process. The government of the United States abetted and created an illegal and unconstitutional façade to develop a rationale to justify secession, in this case secession of part of a sovereign state from another.
According to the United States Constitution, Congress, and the President, the Commonwealth of Virginia had never left the Union. Therefore, Virginia could not be compelled to forfeit any of its lands without its own consent. That issue of never recognizing the right or legitimacy of state secession was made consistently and adamantly by Lincoln, Congress, and the Republican Party prior to, during, and following the U.S. Civil War. Therefore, Virginia really never left the Union. And thereafter, Virginia never granted its consent.
Article IV, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution states: â⦠no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress â¦.and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state .â (Authorâs italics).
Article IV, Section 4, continues: â The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government , and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature
A committee was appointed to consider the Willey Amendment. The committee was directed to study the possibility of compensating loyal slave owners for their financial losses. Never a popular solution in the western counties, the committeeâs resolution for compensation was tabled. Then, on February 17, 1863, the Wheeling convention delegates unanimously approved the Wiley Amendment and the full revised state constitution for West Virginia. 70
Despite efforts by Senator John Carlile and others to convince West Virginians to oppose the Willey Amendment [essentially opposition to the pro-emancipationist language of the Willey Amendment with which Carlile and his supporters took issue], voters in the emerging new state ratified the revised constitution for the state of West Virginia on March 26, 1863. The vote was a lopsided tally of 28,321 votes to 572. 71 Upon receiving the results, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation on April 20, 1863, declaring that in sixty days, on June 20, 1863, West Virginia officially would become the thirty fifth state of the American Union.
Two days later, West Virginia voters went to the polls on May 28, 1863, to elect their new stateâs âpermanentâ government officials. Arthur I. Boreman of Wood County, was elected as the stateâs first governor. Additionally, citizens of Jefferson and Berkeley counties [in the eastern panhandle, adjacent to Maryland] voted to become part of West Virginia. The federal government affirmed the latter action, another de facto secession of territories from the Commonwealth of Virginia without its assent. 72
On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became the thirty-fifth state in the Union. Inaugural ceremonies were held in Wheeling, the initial capital of the new state. In his inaugural address, Governor Boreman referred to West Virginia as âthe child of the rebellion.â He stated that âto-day after many long and weary years of insult and injustice, culminating on the part of the East, in an attempt to destroy the Government, we have the proud satisfaction of proclaiming to those around us that we are a separate State in the Union.â
10
W EST V IRGINIA C ONSTITUTIONS AND P OLITICS
The process by which West Virginia was created marks the only time in United States history that a state was created outside the boundaries of the prescribed constitutional process. The government of the United States abetted and created an illegal and unconstitutional façade to develop a rationale to justify secession, in this case secession of part of a sovereign state from another.
According to the United States Constitution, Congress, and the President, the Commonwealth of Virginia had never left the Union. Therefore, Virginia could not be compelled to forfeit any of its lands without its own consent. That issue of never recognizing the right or legitimacy of state secession was made consistently and adamantly by Lincoln, Congress, and the Republican Party prior to, during, and following the U.S. Civil War. Therefore, Virginia really never left the Union. And thereafter, Virginia never granted its consent.
Article IV, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution states: â⦠no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state ; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress â¦.and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state .â (Authorâs italics).
Article IV, Section 4, continues: â The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government , and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature
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