f six States
from the Union and their subsequent formation of the Confederate
States of America, Governor Letcher issued a proclamation convening
the General Assembly in extra session on the seventh day of January,
1861.[45]

According to the act of the Assembly, a state convention was assembled
at Richmond on the thirteenth day of February. Forty-seven of the one
hundred and fifty-two delegates present represented counties now
included in the State of West Virginia.[46] On the sixteenth of April
the Convention met in secret session and the chairman of the Committee
on Federal Relations appointed early in February reported a measure
entitled "An Ordinance to Repeal the Ratification of the Constitution
of the United States."[47] The ordinance recited the reasons for the
repeal of the ratification of the Federal Constitution, dissolved the
union between Virginia and the other States, asserted the complete
sovereignty of the State of Virginia, released her citizens from
responsibility to the Federal Constitution, noted the date upon which
and provided the conditions under which the said ordinance would
become effective. It was adopted the next day by a vote of
eighty-eight to fifty-five. Immediate steps were then taken to form an
alliance with the Confederate States,[48] the same being effected on
the twenty-fifth day of April. Meanwhile some of the delegates from
Western Virginia withdrew from the Convention.

When news of the action taken by the Richmond convention reached
Northwestern Virginia a storm of protest arose. A vast majority of the
citizens of this region were not in accord with the action of the
State in seceding to the Confederacy. They were determined, therefore,
that the part of the State known as the trans-Allegheny region should
be saved to the Union. Resolutions emanating from the meetings held in
the several counties joined with the press to denounce the action
taken by the aforesaid convention. The Clarksburg[49] meeting,
assembled for this purpose on the twenty-second of April, sounded the
call for united action and proposed that a convention composed of the
twenty-seven counties of Western Virginia should assemble at Wheeling
on the thirteenth of May.

The May Convention assembled at the time and place indicated and
proceeded straightway to the business of the hour. The permanent
President, John W. Moss, of Wood county, outlined the purpose of the
Convention.[50] His remarks were followed by a r