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The second Wheeling Convention of Virginia's western counties had passed on August 20, 1861 an ordinance "to provide for the formation of a new State out of a portion of the territory of this State." An elected constitutional convention met between November 26, 1861 and February 18, 1862, to produce a constitution. This document was put to a popular vote in April 1862. After the final constitution was adjusted to include the gradual end of slavery, West Virginia became the thirty-fifth state of the Union on June 20, 1863. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
John Alexander Jameson, The Constitutional Convention: Its History, Powers, and Modes of Proceeding (New York: Charles Scribner and Co., 1867), 173.
The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1862 ... (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1869), 801.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
