State officers were elected on May 28, when the following unconditional Union candidates, receiving a vote of about 30,000, were chosen without opposition: Arthur I. Boreman, Governor; J. E. Boyers, Secretary of State; Campbell Tarr, Treasurer; Samuel Crane, Auditor; A. B. Caldwell, AttorneyGeneral; also three judges of a court of appeals.

The inauguration of the new State, which was marked by imposing ceremonies, took place at Wheeling, the capital, on June 20, 1863. Mr. Pierpont, the retiring executive of reorganized Virginia, briefly addressed the assembled citizens and urged them not to forsake the flag; he then introduced his successor, whom he pronounced "true as steel." Governor Boreman in his short speech said that the only terms of peace were that the rebels should lay down their arms and submit to the regularly constituted authority of the United States.

The Legislature of West Virginia convened on the same day. Waitman T. Willey and P. G. Van Winkle were elected United States Senators.1 In his first message Governor Boreman recommended to the General Assembly the immediate passage of laws effectually to extirpate slavery, and also the enactment of a law that no man should be permitted to vote or to hold office until he had taken the oath of allegiance.

have adequate notice. In short, a great majority of them were then and now, December, 1866, opposed to annexation. Other irregularities are alleged in the complaint of Virginia. A decision, however, has been rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the new Commonwealth. [See Virginia vs. West Virginia, 11 Wall., p. 39; also Transcripts of Records, Supreme Court U. S., Vol. 152, December Term, 1870.]

'Notwithstanding the new State had been organized by a law which passed both Houses of Congress, and was approved by the President, Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, when the members-elect presented themselves before the Senate, opposed their admission on the ground that there was legally and constitutionally no such State in existence as West Virginia. On his motion to administer the customary oath thirty-six Senators voted in the affirmative, five in the negative. [Globe, 1 Sess. 38th Cong., pp. 1-3.]

In the Presidential election of 1864, the first held since the adoption of the Constitution in which any State deliberately neglected to appoint electors, 33,680 votes were polled in West Virginia; of this number the Union ticket received 23,223 and the McClellan electors 10,457.* Elections had also been held in Louisiana and Tennessee by authority of the governments established there under Mr. Lincoln's plan of reconstruction; the Republican majority in Congress, however, denied the validity of the organizations in the two States last named and refused to count the votes which they presented. This question will be fully considered when we come to trace the development of the Congressional plan. At the regular State election Governor Boreman was chosen without opposition, receiving 19,098 votes. With the subsequent history of the new Commonwealth the subject of reconstruction is not much concerned.

By the formation of an independent Commonwealth the counties beyond the Alleghanies were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the restored government, which after the inaugural ceremonies at Wheeling selected for its capital the city of Alexandria, where it continued till May 25, 1865, to exercise its functions in those parts of the Old Dominion within the lines of the Union army. A State government was promptly organized by the election of a legislature and of executive officers. In this establishment the loyal eastern counties participated. Mr. Pierpont was elected Governor for the term of three years beginning January 1, 1864. A Lieutenant-Governor, a Secretary of State, a Treasurer, an Auditor, an Adjutant-General and an Attorney-General were also

chosen.

The Governor in his message to the Assembly mentioned slavery as doomed, and recommended the calling of a con

1A History of Presidential Elections, Stanwood, pp. 246-247. Edition of 1884.

vention so to amend the State constitution as to abolish the institution forever. In compliance with this suggestion the Legislature, on December 21, 1863, passed an act directing a convention to be held at Alexandria on the 13th of February succeeding to amend the constitution and prohibit slavery in the counties of Accomac, Northampton, Princess Ann, Elizabeth City and York (including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth). These with Berkeley County had been excepted from the operation of the Emancipation Proclamation.

None but loyal citizens who had not assisted the insurgents since January 1, 1863, were allowed to take part, and those whose right to vote might be challenged were required to swear support of the Constitution and to declare that they had not in any way given aid or comfort to the enemy.

The convention, consisting of sixteen members, assembled in the new capital at the appointed time and remained in session till April 11 following, when a constitution was adopted.1 Various amendments, relating chiefly to the regulation of the elective franchise and to the abolition of slavery, were discussed and agreed upon. The work of this miniature convention was ordered to be proclaimed without a submission to the people. It was not, however, recognized by Congress, though the civil government which authorized its formation was permitted to continue under it, provisionally only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, or supersede.

Though the bill for the admission of West Virginia passed both Houses, yet Congress was by no means unanimous in giving its consent to that measure. In the debates, of which a synopsis has been given, the hostility of Thaddeus Stevens and other influential members is scarcely concealed. This opposition to executive policy slowly gathered strength, and 1Ann. Cycl., 1864, p. 809.

by 1863 had become formidable enough to defeat the admission of Representatives from the Alexandria government. The Senators, however, remained, Lemuel J. Bowden till his death, January 2, 1864, when his successor was refused admission, and John S. Carlile till the expiration of his term in 1865.

On the assembling of the 38th Congress, which commenced its first session December 7, 1863, Joseph E. Segar, Lucius H. Chandler and Benjamin M. Kitchen appeared as Representatives from Virginia. On May 17 succeeding Mr. Dawes from the Committee of Elections reported a resolution to the effect that Joseph E. Segar, from the First District of Virginia, was not entitled to a seat in that Congress. The case of Mr. Chandler, regarded as precisely similar, was considered at the same time.

The district which Mr. Segar claimed to represent was composed of twenty counties; of these, Chairman Dawes asserted, only four participated in the election. Polling places were not opened in any other part of the district, the Confederate authorities being in possession of the remaining counties. As there could be no free exercise of the franchise in this situation Mr. Segar, it was contended, was not properly chosen, and, therefore, was not entitled to a seat. The vote cast, though not accurately ascertained, was estimated at 1,677, of which the claimant received 1,300. Because of his loyalty and the sacrifices he had made, the Committee regretted the necessity of deciding against him.

Mr. Segar, speaking in his own behalf, reminded the House that in a preceding election, when he received 559 out of 1,018 votes polled in three counties, he was admitted after a delay of seven or eight weeks; but when he was sent by a larger constituency and came as the choice of four counties he was informed that he had no right to a seat, and some of his colleagues who favored his admission in 1862 voted to ex

clude him. The Committee's report, he asserted, admitted the existence of such a State as Virginia. He asked Chairman Dawes a rather embarrassing question when he inquired how a State could have two Senators and no Representative in Congress. In conclusion he pronounced restored State organization and gradual accretion to be the best method of reconstruction.

Concerning the title of Mr. Chandler, from the Second Congressional District, Chairman Dawes stated that of the 779 votes polled in the election 778 were cast for the claimant. For the same reason as in the case of Mr. Segar only a small part of that District was free to participate in the election, and nearly all the votes were polled in the city of Norfolk. The committee reported against his admission on the same ground taken in Mr. Segar's case.

Chandler, who was permitted to state his case to the House, cited a resolution introduced by his former school-mate, Owen Lovejoy, the well-known abolitionist, authorizing the names of the three Virginia claimants to be enrolled as Representatives. That resolution, however, was tabled and their credentials referred to the Committee of Elections.

In 1860 the Union vote in his District was only 6,712; of that number 2,900, he said, were in Norfolk and Portsmouth; the latter city had cast more votes against secession than the remainder of his District. Great numbers of loyal men, however, left there at the beginning of the war. Electors being under no obligation to vote may allow an election to go by default when one citizen could return a member to Congress. Territorially restored Virginia was larger than Delaware and possessed twice the area of Rhode Island.

The case of Benjamin M. Kitchen, on which the Committee had previously made an adverse report, differed from those of the other two claimants in that he had received nearly all of his vote in Berkeley County, which possessed a