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Chapter 14: The Thirty-fifth State
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The Thirty-Fifth State The Voters Approve Dismemberment of Virginia. On October 24, 1861, after most of northwestern Virginia was safely behind Union lines, residentsof the thirty-nine counties named in the ordinance adopted by the Second Wheeling Convention, along with those of Hampshire and Hardy, voted on the dismembermentof Virginia. Less than thirty-sevenpercentof the approximately fifty thousand eligible voters in the forty-onecountiescast ballots. Of those who did, 18,408 favored a new state and only 781 opposed division of the Old Dominion. Although the Wheeling Intelligencer professed to see an "astonishing unanimity" of sentiment in the vote, in reality the returns reflected the deep divisionof feelingin western Virginiaand intimidationon the part of supporters of the new state. Seventeencounties giving majoritiesfor dismembermenthad ratified the Virginia secession ordinance earlier in the year. Only five of the forty-onecountiesreported more than fifty votes againsta new state, and three of them-Brooke, Hancock, and Ohio-were in the Northern Panhandle, where overwhelming public support obviated the need for tightly controlledballoting and allowed freerexpression. Eleven counties, including Boone, Braxton, Clay, Gilmer, Hardy, Putnam, Raleigh, Roane, Tucker, Upshur, and Wetzel, did not record a single vote in opposition. Eighteen others, among them Barbour, Cabell, Doddridge, Hampshire, Harrison, Jackson, Kanawha, Lewis, Monongalia , Pleasants, Preston, Randolph, Ritchie, Taylor, Tyler, Wayne, and Wirt, reported less than twenty negative ballots. Six predominantly secessionist counties provided no returns. The ConstitutionalConvention:Personneland Organization.At the same time that they voted on dismemberment, residents of counties named in the ordinance elected delegates to the First Constitutional Convention of West %rginia. Altogether, sixty-onepersons were chosen, with fifty-threeserving in the regular session (November26, 1861-February 18,1862)and fifty-six in the recalled session (February 12-20, 1863).Webster and Monroe counties sent no delegates to either session. Disturbed conditions interfered with voting in Calhoun, Clay, Fayette, Logan, McDowell, Mercer, Nicholas, and Wyoming Wheeling Intelligencer, October 26, 1861 The ThMy-Fifth State 141 counties, which were represented by petitioning groups under the influence of either the military or the Methodist Church. Delegates from Greenbrier, Morgan , Pendleton, and Pocahontas counties, who attended only the recalled session, were chosen by irregular methods. For instance, Dr. D.W. Gibson of PocahontasCounty was elected by refugees at Buckhannon in Upshur County. Among the delegates were twenty-three farmers, seventeen lawyers, and fourteen ministers or licensed exhorters. Whatever their callings, most were churchgoersand influencedby the evangelicaltone of western religion. Charles H. Ambler and Festus P. Summers held that had not the lawyers, notably Peter G. Van Winkleof Wood County, imposed "purposeful andpracticalobjectives" upon the convention, the new state "could and probably would have been sponsored by religious zealots."2 They denied the oft-asserted claim that the Methodists made West Virginia, but they acknowledged that Methodist ministers exercised both direct and subtle influences. Leaders of the convention included John Hall of Mason County, who was chosen president over conservative James H. Brown of Kanawha County, and Ellery R. Hall of Taylor County, who was elected secretary. Keenly aware of the historical importance of the debates and proceedings of the convention, Van Winkle suggested at the outset that they be reported and published, but the convention failed to take the necessary action. Fortunately, Granville Davisson Hall, areporterforthe WheelingIntelligencer, kept completestenographicnotes of both sessions, and the delegates, at the urging of Van Winkle, authorized their transcription, but they failed to provide funds for immediate publication. Hall preserved his precious notes and copies of every document printed for the convention until 1906, when, through the efforts of Virgil A. Lewis, the first historian and archivist of West Virginia, they were purchased by the state. In 1942 they were finally published, with Charles H. Ambler, chairman of the history department of West Virginia University,as the principal editor. Nameand Boundaries.On December 2 the constitutionalconvention took up the question of a name for the new state. Motivated in part by sectionalism, some members contended that the name Kanawha, which appeared in the dismemberment ordinance adopted by the Second Wheeling Convention, was hard to spell, already borne by a county and two rivers, and had less claim than one that would preserve the name Virginia. After considerable wrangling, the convention chose West Virginia, which received thirty of the forty-four votes cast. Kanawha received nine votes, Western Virginia and Alleghany two each, and Augusta one. Determination of a proper boundq for West Virginia produced far more acrimoniousdebate.SinceChapmanJ. Stuartof DoddridgeCounty,chairmanof the Committee on Boundary, had actually tried to obstruct...