Rogue State by Richard H. Owens Read Free Book Online

who controlled the United States Congress, or the opinion of President Lincoln who was moving in favor of steps to emancipate the slaves. Again, neither slaves nor free blacks would be allowed.
    Yet the rhetoric as well as subsequent mythology underlying the case for West Virginia’s separation from its parent Commonwealth included reference to the region’s opposition to slavery, an institution so prevalent in the eastern areas of the state, and, more importantly, the Tidewater politicians who so strongly upheld the “peculiar institution” in the Old Dominion. Ambivalence or opposition to emancipation or racial equality did not prove to be permanent obstacles to eventual admission of West Virginia to the Union.
    Determining boundaries of the new state was an equally difficult issue. The Committee on Boundary proposed that an additional thirty-two counties be added to the thirty-nine already included [or, alternatively, forty one, per the referendum; the numbers of proposed counties for the new state fluctuated continuously]. It was politically aggressive and highly unrealistic from both a political and military perspective. Debate ensued nonetheless. Some proposed counties were rejected. Reasons for rejection included those counties having large numbers of slaves, harboring secession sentiment, or carrying excessive financial debt. 56
    On December 13, 1861, the convention determined that West Virginia would include the thirty-nine original counties and five additional, making forty-four, with seven more counties potentially to be added if their voters approved. The final tally in the 1860’s was fifty, not fifty one, with five additional counties later added or created from existing ones subsequent to West Virginia statehood, making the present total of fifty-five counties in the Mountain State. 57 Nevertheless, the separatists from western counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia had taken several critical steps toward the creation of their rogue state.

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O N T HE B ATTLEFIELD
    Military events during the American Civil War had an important effect and parallel influence on politics in the emerging anti-Virginia secessionist movement in the western counties of the Old Dominion. Following a Union victory led by young General George McClellan over a small Confederate force at the Battle of Philippi on June 3, 1861 and McClellan’s subsequent occupation of northwestern Virginia, the second convention to consider separation met in Wheeling between June 11 and June 25, 1861. From that point forward, there was no Confederate military force or compulsion to prevent western Virginia’s separatist leaders from proceeding with their aspirations for their removal from Virginia.
    Union military occupation of much of western Virginia was thus a critical factor in subsequent political developments and the eventually successful moves to separate many counties in the western region of Virginia and form a separate state. On October 24, 1861, residents of thirty-nine counties in western Virginia approved the formation of a new Unionist state. The accuracy and legitimacy of those election results were questionable. Union troops were stationed at many of polls to prevent Confederate sympathizers from voting. It was hardly a free, open, democratic process. But it formed the basis for what followed.
    At the Constitutional Convention in Wheeling from November 1861 to February 1862, delegates selected counties for inclusion in the new state of West Virginia. Ambitious politicians ran the proceedings and sought to consolidate as much territory as possible within the new state. Many counties were included, but the majority of them were not consulted in this matter. They were, however, under Union military control or devoid of any significant C.S.A. military presence or pressure. From the initial list, most counties in the Shenandoah Valley were excluded due to their control by Confederate troops and those areas having a