Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of West Virginia: title varies, Wheeling, var. state printers, 1863-. West Virginia is unique as the
only U.S. state carved out of the territory of another state without its consent. Although the actual separation came only during the upheavals of the
American Civil War, the roots of the separation sentiment were longstanding. The citizens in the trans-Allegheny territory comprising modern West
Virginia were only loosely tied to the tidewater society of eastern Virginia, and felt discriminated against and underrepresented in Richmond. By the
early 1770’s a serious proposal was made to the British government to create a fourteenth colony called Vandalia, which would comprise nearly all of
present West Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania and Kentucky. That proposal had already been approved by the Privy Council and was pending Royal assent
when the revolutionary War intervened. During the half century following the Revolution dissatisfaction with Tidewater control continued among the
westerners. The basic problem is that the eastern areas of Virginia encompassed a slave society, with a minority white population, while the western portion
was comprised of mostly non-slave-owning farmers and small tradesmen. However, the eastern portion of the state kept electoral control under a system
by which each county was represented by two members in the House of Delegates. Thus, even though the white population of the western portion of the
state went into a majority compared to the white male population of the east by the time of the 1840 census, only modest progress was made in
equalizing political representation. Pressures rising out of Southern Secession in 1860-61 provided the final breaking point. The heavily slave-holding eastern
portion of Virginia was naturally strongly secessionist. Under its influence a convention held in Richmond in April of 1861 voted 85 to 55 to join
the Confederacy. The opposing minority were mainly westerners, who returned to their region determined to go their own way. Two separate conventions
were held in Wheeling between May and August of 1861. The Second Convention voted to create a new state and put the proposal before the citizens of the
proposed thirty-nine separating counties. Western voters approved this proposal on October 24, and also picked delegates for a First Constitutional
Convention. The convention itself was held in February, 1862, and the constitution for a new state was approved by the voters on 4 April 1862. The U.S.
Congress and President Lincoln went through the processes of accepting the new state during the last half of 1862. A new constitution for West
Virginia was approved by the voters of thirty-eight of the counties on 18 February 1863, and the first state elections for West Virginia were held on 28 May.
The First Session of the new legislature was held in June 1863. (Records that are part of the Early State Records collection were digitized from a
microfilm copy of titles originally held by the Library of Congress).
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