Free Rogue State by Richard H. Owens

Virginia was hardly a wholesome element of the anti-slavery crusade.
    Provisions to maintain the status of slavery for blacks under twenty-one, and the clear opposition to free African-Americans immigrating to the new state of West Virginia, indicated the racially charged and hostile atmosphere towards blacks west of the Blue Ridge. It also underscored the internal political motivation for separation of the western counties from the rest of slavery-dominated Virginia, as well as their eventual admission to the Union in 1863.
    On December 10, 1862, the House of Representatives passed the bill to admit West Virginia. On December 31, President Lincoln signed the bill into law, approving the creation of West Virginia as a state loyal to the Union without it actually abolishing slavery. In regard to the issue of emancipation, it is true that such a topic was highly controversial, even after the momentous date of September 22, 1862 on which Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. But for Congress and-or the President not to require full and immediate abolition in the new state of West Virginia in 1863 suggests several things.
    For political and military reasons, Lincoln and the Congress were in a hurry to slip West Virginia away from Virginia and into the Union. The military reasons were stated above. Politically, Republicans likely wanted to ensure West Virginia’s electoral votes in time for support in the 1864 presidential election. However, the situation demonstrated that there was still serious division in western Virginia and the nation over the crucial issues of slavery and emancipation. In this case, politics overrode both constitutionality and principle.
    Following Congressional and presidential approval, the next step was to submit the statehood issue to a vote by West Virginia’s citizens. By that time, those citizens included residents of the fifty counties of the expanded state that had been determined by the ambitious politicians of the Wheeling Convention. On March 26, 1863, the citizens of those fifty counties approved the statehood bill, and the revised West Virginia state constitution, including the Willey Amendment. On June 20, 1863, the state of West Virginia officially entered the Union.
    Subsequently, following the end of the war, the ‘Restored’ Government of Virginia moved to Alexandria, Virginia and eventually to Richmond. That Reorganized Government of Virginia continued to function as the Union government of Virginia until 1868 when a reconstructed government in Richmond took its place in the remaining portion of the Old Dominion. Virginia governments apparently came and went easily. At that time, the Reorganized Government of Virginia then became the state government solely for the state of West Virginia.
    Governor Francis H. Pierpont directed a post-war election to allow residents of Jefferson and Berkeley counties, areas already slated to be part of West Virginia by virtue of their vote on May 28, 1863, to determine whether their counties should remain in West Virginia or Virginia. Union troops were stationed outside polling places to intimidate those who might vote for Virginia. Despite local support for Virginia, residents who actually completed ballots voted overwhelmingly to place both counties in West Virginia. In 1870, in Virginia v. West Virginia, 78 U.S. 39 , the United States Supreme Court confirmed that decision and awarded Jefferson and Berkeley counties to West Virginia.
    That decision, however, did not address directly the actual process or admission of West Virginia to the Union. The Supreme Court did state in the Virginia v. West Virginia [1870] opinion that West Virginia’s admission resulted from a valid agreement between “a state” [Virginia] and the federal government.
    But again, the real questions remained unanswered. Did Virginia, or rather just a small dissident group of western Virginians acting and speaking for the entire population of the Old