Wheeling Convention

The 1861 Wheeling Convention was held at West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling. The convention was a series of two meetings that ultimately repealed the Ordinance of Secession passed by Virginia, thus establishing the Restored government of Virginia, which ultimately authorized the counties that organized the convention to become West Virginia. The Restored Government was recognized by the Union, including President Lincoln, to be the State of Virginia with its capital in Wheeling. In part motivated by early Union successes, including the Battle of Philippi Races, it was preceded by the Clarksburg Convention and led to the Constitutional Convention of West Virginia.

First Wheeling Convention

The First Wheeling Convention was held on May 13 through May 15. Twenty-seven western Virginia counties were represented. Of the 429 delegates who attended, over one-third were from the area around Wheeling. Most had been chosen at public meetings, while others attended on their own initiative. Immediately a debate ensued over which delegates should be allowed to participate in the Convention: General John Jay Jackson of Wood County suggested seating all northwestern Virginians, but John S. Carlile insisted that only those who had been legitimately appointed by their constituencies be allowed to participate. Chester D. Hubbard of Ohio County ended the debate by proposing the creation of a committee on representation and permanent organization.

Some, including John Jay Jackson, argued that preemptive action against the Ordinance of Secession before it was ratified was unwise: the Ordinance had not yet been presented to the citizens of Virginia for a vote, and would not be until May 23. Others, including John Carlile, insisted on immediate action to "show our loyalty to Virginia and the Union", and on May 14, he called for a resolution creating a state of New Virginia. Waitman T. Willey responded to Carlile's plan by saying that it was "triple treason"- treason against the state of Virginia, the United States and the Confederacy. Carlile's motion was condemned as revolutionary, and most at the Convention instead supported resolutions offered by the Committee on State and Federal Resolutions, which recommended that western Virginians elect delegates to a Second Wheeling Convention to begin on June 11 if the people of Virginia approved the Ordinance of Secession.

econd Wheeling Convention

With the adoption of Virginia's Ordinance of Secession on May 23, the Second Wheeling Convention began on June 11 as decided at the First Convention. The meeting was held in Washington Hall and later the Custom House. The first measures adopted at the Convention ruled that 88 delegates representing 32 counties were entitled to seats in the convention, though other delegates would be accepted later. Arthur I. Boreman was selected to serve as president, and he declared, "We are determined to live under a State Government in the United States of America and under the Constitution of the United States."

On June 13, John Carlile introduced to the Convention "A Declaration of the People of Virginia," a document calling for the reorganization of the state government on the grounds that Virginia's secession had in effect vacated all offices of the existing government. Carlile presented an ordinance for this purpose the next day, beginning the debate. Virtually all the delegates at the Convention recognized the differences between East and West Virginia as irreconcileable and supported some sort of separation; the disagreement was over how this separation should occur. Dennis Dorsey of Monongalia County called for permanent and decisive separation from Eastern Virginia. Carlile, however, though he had called for a similar plan during the First Convention, persuaded the delegates that Constitutional restrictions made it necessary for the formation of a loyal government of Virginia, whose legislature could then give permission for the creation of a new state. On June 19, delegates approved this plan unanimously.

The next day, June 20, officials were selected to fill the offices of the Virginia state government (usually called the Restored government of Virginia to avoid confusion with the government meeting in Richmond). Francis Pierpont of Marion County was elected governor. On June 25, the Convention adjourned until August 6.

Archives

The proceedings of the the First Wheeling Convention were recorded by Judge Gibson Lamb Cranmer of Ohio County, Charles B. Waggener of Mason County, and Marshall M. Dent of Monongalia County. Judge Cranmer was also the Secretary of the Second Wheeling Convention and custodian of the manuscript proceedings, journals, and other documents of the Convention. Granville D. Hall was a correspondent for the Wheeling "Daily Intelligencer" during the conventions, and in his correspondence with Judge Cranmer in 1899 learned that the records for the convention had been lost during the flood of 1884 of Wheeling Island, where Judge Cranmer lived. Attempts were made to locate copies of the records in Alexandria, VA and in Richmond, VA, but no such copies were found. The records of these Conventions were reconstructed by Virgil A. Lewis, State Historian of West Virginia, from daily records printed in the "Daily Intelligencer" of Wheeling. They were published in a single volume "How West Virginia Was Made", by Virgil A. Lewis, in 1909.

External links

* [http://www.wvculture.org/history/statehood/statehood05.html First Wheeling Convention information]
* [http://www.wvculture.org/history/statehood/statehood07.html Second Wheeling Convention information]
* [http://www.wvculture.org/history/statehood/declaration.html Text of Carlile's "A Declaration of the People of Virginia"]
* [http://www.wvculture.org/history/statehood/ordinance.html Text of Carlile's "An Ordinance for the Reorganization of the State Government"]