actically in
possession of the forty-eight counties, soon to become the State
of West Virginia.(15)

A convention held at Wheeling, June 11, 1861, declared the State
offices of Virginia vacant by reason of the treason of those who
had been chosen to fill them, and it then proceeded to form a
regular state government for Virginia, with Francis H. Pierpont
for its Governor, maintaining that the people loyal to the Union
should speak for the whole State. The Pierpont government was
recognized by Congress. This organization, on August 20, 1861,
adopted an ordinance "for the formation of a new State out of a
portion of the territory of this State." This ordinance was approved
by a vote of the people, and, November 26, 1861, a convention
assembled in Wheeling and framed a constitution for the proposed
new State. This also was ratified, April, 1862, by the people,
18,862 voting for and 514 against it. The recognized Legislature
of Virginia, in order to comply with the Constitution of the United
States, May 13, 1862, consented to the creation of a new State out
of territory hitherto included in the State of Virginia. The people
of the forty-eight counties having thus made the necessary preparation,
Congress, December 31, 1862, passed an act for the admission of
West Virginia into the Union, annexing, however, a condition that
her people should first ratify a substitute for the Seventh Section,
Article Eleven of her Constitution, providing that children of
slaves born in her limits after July 4, 1863, should be free; that
slaves who at that time were under ten years of age should be free
at the age of twenty-one; and all slaves over ten and under twenty-
one years of age should be free at the age of twenty-five; and no
slave should be permitted to come into the State for permanent
residence.

March 26, 1863, the slavery emancipation clause was almost unanimously
ratified by a vote of the people, and, April 20, 1863, President
Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring that West Virginia had
complied with all required conditions and was therefore a State in
the Union.

The anomalous creation and admission of this new State was justified
only by the rebellious times and in aid of the loyal cause. It
is the only State carved out of another or other States. It remains
a singular fact that the day preceding the final Emancipation
Proclamation of Lincoln, he approved a law of Congress admitting
West Virginia as a slave Stat