h was organized on the 11th of
June were even more determined than those who had assembled the
preceding month. Without delay they declared the State offices of
Virginia vacant because of the treason and disloyalty of those who
had been elected to hold them, and they proceeded to fill them and
form a regular State organization of which Francis H. Pierpont was
appointed the executive head. They did not assume to represent a
mere section of the State, but in the belief that the loyal people
were entitled to speak for the whole State they declared that their
government was the Government of Virginia. This Western movement
was subsequently strengthened by the accession of delegates from
Alexandria and Fairfax Counties in Middle Virginia and from Accomac
and Northampton Counties on the Eastern Shore. Thus organized,
the Government of the State was acknowledged by Congress as the
Government of Virginia and her senators and representatives were
admitted to seats.

Notwithstanding the compliance with all the outward forms and
requirements, notwithstanding the recognition by Congress of the
new government, it was seen to be essentially and really the
Government of West Virginia. It was only nominally and by construction
the Government of the State of Virginia. It did not represent the
political power or the majority of the people of the entire State.
That power was wielded in aid of the rebellion. The senators and
representatives of Virginia were in the Confederate Congress. The
strength of her people was in the Confederate Army, of which a
distinguished Virginian was the commander. The situation was
anomalous, though the friends of the Union justified the irregularity
of recognizing the framework of government in the hands of loyal
men as the actual civil administration of the State of Virginia.

CHARACTER OF WEST VIRGINIA.

The people of the Western section of Virginia realized that the
position was unnatural,--one which they could not sustain by popular
power within the limits of the State they assumed to govern, except
for the protection afforded by the military power of the National
Government. Between the two sections of the State there had long
been serious antagonisms. Indeed from the very origin of the
settlement of West Virginia, which had made but little progress
when the Federal Constitution was adopted, its citizens were in
large degree alienated from th