closed with an
exposition, first, on slavery as the fundamental cause of the then
current distress in Virginia and in the nation; and second, on the
propriety of such an act at that particular time. This argument
doubtless had an unexpected effect in preparing the minds of the
people of the State for the acceptance of the plan of gradual
emancipation, the condition on which West Virginia was finally
admitted.[77]

SLAVERY AND THE ADMISSION OF WEST VIRGINIA

Waitman T. Willey, a member of the Senate from Virginia, having
obtained the permission of that body to do so, presented on May 29th a
certified original of the constitution together with a copy of an Act
of the General Assembly of Virginia, of May 13, 1862, under the
Restored Government, giving its permission for the formation of a new
State within the commonwealth of Virginia. He presented at the same
time the memorial of the General Assembly requesting Congress to admit
the State of West Virginia into the Union. Following the receipt of
these documents they were referred to the Committee on Territories, of
which B. F. Wade, of Ohio, was the Chairman.[78]

On the twenty-third of June Senate Bill No. 365 providing for "the
admission of the State of West Virginia into the Union" was reported,
read and passed to a second reading.[79] On the twenty-sixth day of
June, on motion of Mr. Wade, the bill was taken up for immediate
consideration in a committee of the whole. The bill proposed to admit
West Virginia into the Union on equal footing with the original States
in all respects whatever, subject, among other conditions, to the
following: "That the convention thereinafter provided for shall in the
constitution to be framed by it, make provision that from and after
the fourth day of July, 1863, the children of all slaves born within
the limits of the said State shall be free."[80]

Following the action noted, Mr. Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts,
quoted that provision of the bill relating to the emancipation of
slaves and raised the following objections, namely: (1) that by the
passage of the bill a new slave State would be admitted into the Union
and (2) that the existing generation of slaves would remain such
throughout the course of their lives. He was unalterably opposed to
the measure so long as it contained these features; and he, therefore,
sought to remove them by means of the same policy that Jefferson
applied to the territories of the Northwest. Accor