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Authors: Richard H. Owens
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cannot be convened) against domestic violence.â (Authorâs italics).
The government of the United States had no constitutional or legal rights, including those implied in the war powers of the president acting as commander-in-chief, to abridge the rights of the duly elected government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, despite the fact that the state, as so often stated by President and the U.S. Congress, was in a state of rebellion. The crucial fact is that at no time did Lincoln or Congress ever acknowledge that Virginia and the other ten states of the Confederacy ever left the Union.
All of those points, and more, were made in the detailed opinion rendered for Lincoln by his Attorney General, Edward Bates. Bates concluded firmly that there were no legal or constitutional grounds for the admission of West Virginia. 73
A contrary point of view from Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase carried the political perspective to the presidentâs desk. Chaseâs key point, and the legal fictions on which the entire affair hung, was that West Virginia in effect was Virginia, had the right to truncate itself, and could allow the amputated portion to apply for separate statehood. 74
Despite Chaseâs contentions, there was and is no provision in the United States Constitution to permit the federal government without due process of law to dissolve or replace the elected government, representatives, or officials of a state, even if those officials have violated an oath of office. Overall, the Cabinet split three and three. Attorney General Bates, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and Postmaster General Montgomery Blair were against the measure. Treasury Secretary Chase, Secretary of State William Seward, and Secretary of War Edmund Stanton were in favor of the statehood proposal. 75
The United States Constitution requires that any new state formed from an existing state or states must gain approval from the original state[s] for separation. Following adoption of the U.S. Constitution and its implementation in 1789, West Virginia was only one of three states formed by separation of part of one state to form another. Vermont was formed from areas claimed by both New York and New Hampshire with the consent of both states. Massachusetts allowed Maine to form a separate state. Other lands west of the Appalachians that became future states [such as Kentucky, Tennessee, and the states of the old Northwest Territory] were formed from lands ceded earlier by the states under the Articles of Confederation prior to adoption of the Constitution.
Legal approval by Virginia for separation of its western counties never occurred in the formation of West Virginia. But since the âRestored Government of Virginiaâ was determined by President Lincoln and the Congress of the United States to be the legal government of Virginia, it literally granted permission to itself on May 13, 1862, to secede from the Old Dominion and form the new state of West Virginia. 76
Thus, before and after their attempt to secede from what Lincoln correctly termed an âinviolableâ and permanent Union, Virginia and the states of the Southern Confederacy were entitled to the full protection of the U.S. government and the Constitution of the United States. That included freedom from dissolution of the elected governments in those states or severance of a stateâs territories without the stateâs consent. The process by which West Virginia was created and âadmittedâ to the Union was unconstitutional and invalid. From birth, West Virginia was a rogue state.
________________________________________
In regard to the West Virginia constitution, the subject of slavery produced the most controversy. Delegate Gordon Battelle proposed gradual emancipation of slaves already in the state and freedom to all children born to slaves after July 4, 1865. That begged compliance with the Willey Amendment on which West Virginiaâs admission to
The government of the United States had no constitutional or legal rights, including those implied in the war powers of the president acting as commander-in-chief, to abridge the rights of the duly elected government of the Commonwealth of Virginia, despite the fact that the state, as so often stated by President and the U.S. Congress, was in a state of rebellion. The crucial fact is that at no time did Lincoln or Congress ever acknowledge that Virginia and the other ten states of the Confederacy ever left the Union.
All of those points, and more, were made in the detailed opinion rendered for Lincoln by his Attorney General, Edward Bates. Bates concluded firmly that there were no legal or constitutional grounds for the admission of West Virginia. 73
A contrary point of view from Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase carried the political perspective to the presidentâs desk. Chaseâs key point, and the legal fictions on which the entire affair hung, was that West Virginia in effect was Virginia, had the right to truncate itself, and could allow the amputated portion to apply for separate statehood. 74
Despite Chaseâs contentions, there was and is no provision in the United States Constitution to permit the federal government without due process of law to dissolve or replace the elected government, representatives, or officials of a state, even if those officials have violated an oath of office. Overall, the Cabinet split three and three. Attorney General Bates, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, and Postmaster General Montgomery Blair were against the measure. Treasury Secretary Chase, Secretary of State William Seward, and Secretary of War Edmund Stanton were in favor of the statehood proposal. 75
The United States Constitution requires that any new state formed from an existing state or states must gain approval from the original state[s] for separation. Following adoption of the U.S. Constitution and its implementation in 1789, West Virginia was only one of three states formed by separation of part of one state to form another. Vermont was formed from areas claimed by both New York and New Hampshire with the consent of both states. Massachusetts allowed Maine to form a separate state. Other lands west of the Appalachians that became future states [such as Kentucky, Tennessee, and the states of the old Northwest Territory] were formed from lands ceded earlier by the states under the Articles of Confederation prior to adoption of the Constitution.
Legal approval by Virginia for separation of its western counties never occurred in the formation of West Virginia. But since the âRestored Government of Virginiaâ was determined by President Lincoln and the Congress of the United States to be the legal government of Virginia, it literally granted permission to itself on May 13, 1862, to secede from the Old Dominion and form the new state of West Virginia. 76
Thus, before and after their attempt to secede from what Lincoln correctly termed an âinviolableâ and permanent Union, Virginia and the states of the Southern Confederacy were entitled to the full protection of the U.S. government and the Constitution of the United States. That included freedom from dissolution of the elected governments in those states or severance of a stateâs territories without the stateâs consent. The process by which West Virginia was created and âadmittedâ to the Union was unconstitutional and invalid. From birth, West Virginia was a rogue state.
________________________________________
In regard to the West Virginia constitution, the subject of slavery produced the most controversy. Delegate Gordon Battelle proposed gradual emancipation of slaves already in the state and freedom to all children born to slaves after July 4, 1865. That begged compliance with the Willey Amendment on which West Virginiaâs admission to
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