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Originally Posted by Article IV, Section 3, U.S. Constitution
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
I suppose that Virginia, a seceded state, had little influence of Congress back on June 20, 1863, when WV was admitted as a state. Also fairly well-known is that the part of Virginia north of what is now the Chesapeake Bay Bridge never left the Union. At least literature at the rest stop on top of the bridge says so.
Much less well-known is that a northern Alabama county similarly seceded from Alabama when Alabama seceded from the Union. If I recall correctly, Alabama was among the first to leave.
Quote:
Originally Posted by William O. Douglas Autobiography
Frank Johnson grew up in northern Alabama's Winston County. Win- ston County, many have forgotten, seceded from Alabama in 1861 when the state seceded from the Union, saying the county was "not going to take up arms against the rebels, but at the same time it is not going to shoot at the flag of our fathers', Old Glory, the flag of Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson."
I wonder if there are any other such examples. I am sure there was little formality about the secession process.
The issues in Western Virginia came about when delegates from the counties west of the Allegheny mountains voted against secession in Richmond in 1861. They were outnumbered by those east of the mountains, so Virginia seceded. People in the northern parts, specifically Morgantown and Wheeling, saw this was bad for business, and the federal government was concerned about losing control of the railroad routes from Washington to Wheeling. They started meeting in Wheeling in gatherings called the Wheeling Conventions with representatives from the counties that did not want to secede from the Union. Eventually, they decided to remove themselves from Virginia.
Absent a legitimate government of Virginia willing to sent representatives to Congress, a "government in exile" was formed in Wheeling, which was "recognized" as the "legislature of the state concerned" by Congress. That's how the formation of West Virginia was completely constitutional.
Since the Constitution provided no process for a state to secede, naturally, there was no process for that to happen. If I remember my History correctly, after the Civil War was over, the cases worked their way to the Supreme Court where it was determined that secession was unconstitutional. Becoming a state is a one way street.
I've sometimes wondered why WV didn't become part of Virginia again in 1865.
The issues in Western Virginia came about when delegates from the counties west of the Allegheny mountains voted against secession in Richmond in 1861. They were outnumbered by those east of the mountains, so Virginia seceded. People in the northern parts, specifically Morgantown and Wheeling, saw this was bad for business, and the federal government was concerned about losing control of the railroad routes from Washington to Wheeling. They started meeting in Wheeling in gatherings called the Wheeling Conventions with representatives from the counties that did not want to secede from the Union. Eventually, they decided to remove themselves from Virginia.
Absent a legitimate government of Virginia willing to sent representatives to Congress, a "government in exile" was formed in Wheeling, which was "recognized" as the "legislature of the state concerned" by Congress. That's how the formation of West Virginia was completely constitutional.
Since the Constitution provided no process for a state to secede, naturally, there was no process for that to happen. If I remember my History correctly, after the Civil War was over, the cases worked their way to the Supreme Court where it was determined that secession was unconstitutional. Becoming a state is a one way street.
I've sometimes wondered why WV didn't become part of Virginia again in 1865.
I have read a part of the website, which was quite impressive. Of course, a simpler approach to the problem would be that no legitimacy attached to the secession whatsoever, and that geographical areas that remained loyal, by vote or otherwise, were entitled to protection by the Union. As for West Virginia rejoining Virginia, wouldn't that be allowing Virginia to "take a mulligan"? I would think that if an area goes into rebellion it does so at its own risk, some of that risk may well include territorial loss.
Another example was in Canada. When certain leaders in Quebec were pushing secession, Prime Minister Chretien and other Canadian leaders pointed out that "if Canada is divisible, Quebec is divisible", implicitly threatening that a good chunk of Montreal, the Eastern Townships and Hull (now Gatineau) could well want to remain in Canada, and shrink Quebec of much of its population and economic production, if not geographical area.
Now Winston County, Alabama, whose "secession" from Alabama inspired this thread and OP, was probably too small to become its own state.
Jbg, For whatever it's worth, there's a good book on the Virginia- West Virginia split.. It came out about ten years ago: The Great Schism (John Cowgill). It's a concise paperback. (I remember it not being too long, or expensive.. if it's still out there).
I've been thru Northampton County Virginia many times, and never heard that they didn't secede (with the rest of the Commonwealth)?
Winston County, Alabama never had enough people to become a state.
Obviously correct. The area of North Alabama and parts of Tennessee had a bunch of mixed responses to the war. The history of the L&N Railroad has some good examples of how an embargo on goods to the south was often thwarted by unloading goods and driving them by teams and then reloading them. A lot of people seemed to be more interested in business as usual than the war. The railroads suffered horribly during and after the war, which had economic repercussions that lasted for years.
Jbg, For whatever it's worth, there's a good book on the Virginia- West Virginia split.. It came out about ten years ago: The Great Schism (John Cowgill). It's a concise paperback. (I remember it not being too long, or expensive.. if it's still out there).
I've been thru Northampton County Virginia many times, and never heard that they didn't secede (with the rest of the Commonwealth)?
I read that in a book about another topic, and it was an offhand reference. It made sense, however, since in those days Chesapeake Bay would have been a natural barrier to troops, and Maryland was heavily occupied by Union forces to prevent it's secession. Another little-known fact is that when there was some risk to DC, certain government papers were spirited to New York City in case it had to resume its formal role as U.S. capital. I may have oversimplified a bit, though. I am in the middle of reading this lengthy essay (link), addressing the topic.
The issues in Western Virginia came about when delegates from the counties west of the Allegheny mountains voted against secession in Richmond in 1861. They were outnumbered by those east of the mountains, so Virginia seceded. People in the northern parts, specifically Morgantown and Wheeling, saw this was bad for business, and the federal government was concerned about losing control of the railroad routes from Washington to Wheeling. They started meeting in Wheeling in gatherings called the Wheeling Conventions with representatives from the counties that did not want to secede from the Union. Eventually, they decided to remove themselves from Virginia.
Absent a legitimate government of Virginia willing to sent representatives to Congress, a "government in exile" was formed in Wheeling, which was "recognized" as the "legislature of the state concerned" by Congress. That's how the formation of West Virginia was completely constitutional.
Since the Constitution provided no process for a state to secede, naturally, there was no process for that to happen. If I remember my History correctly, after the Civil War was over, the cases worked their way to the Supreme Court where it was determined that secession was unconstitutional. Becoming a state is a one way street.
I've sometimes wondered why WV didn't become part of Virginia again in 1865.
They forced Virginia to accept it as part of re-admission.
On he flip side were southern states which wanted to leave the Confederacy. In 1864, William Holden ran for governor of NC as the peace candidate, but lost. He wanted a negotiated peace with the Union. He got about 20% of the vote. In GA, anti-secessionists won 9 of 12 seats in the Confederate Congress in the 1863 election. Their failure to take control of state government was due in part to infighting among their leaders. By 1864, after the fall of Atlanta, even hard line GA Governor Brown had withdrawn the state militia from Confederate forces and called for an end to the war.
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