esolution of Mr. Tarr,
of Brooke County, to the effect that "a Committee, to be known as the
Committee on Federal and State Relations and to comprise one member
from each County, be appointed by the President to consider all
resolutions of the body looking to action by the Convention."[51]
Significant among the numerous resolutions presented was one by John
S. Carlile calling for a new Virginia,[52] but the sense of the
Convention was that such action was premature.

Out of the maze of resolutions offered, the committee finally made its
report. Among other provisions, the report recommended that in the
event of the ratification, by vote, of the Ordinance of Secession, the
counties there represented and all others disposed to co-operate with
them, should appoint delegates on the fourth day of June to meet in
general convention on the eleventh day of June at such place as
thereinafter provided, with a view to devising such measures and
taking such action as the people they represent might demand.[53] It
was further recommended that a central committee be appointed to
attend to all matters connected with the objects of the convention, to
assemble it at their discretion and to prepare an address to the
people of Virginia in conformity with the resolution there made.[54]

The passage, on the twenty-third day of May, of the Ordinance of
Secession, necessitated the meeting of the second convention. It
assembled on the eleventh of June at Wheeling. Upon the effecting of a
permanent organization, Mr. Dorsey, of Monongalia, offered a
resolution to the effect that immediate steps be taken to form a new
State from the counties represented.[55] Mr. Carlile endeavored to
show a lack of wisdom in such a course, saying: "Let us organize a
legislature, swearing allegiance to the Federal Government, and let
that legislature be recognized by the government of the United States
as the legislature of the State of Virginia."[56] He urged that under
that condition they would be under the protecting care of the Federal
Government and would be in position to effect a constitutional
separation from Virginia. His judgment prevailed.

The important acts of this Convention were: (1) the Declaration of
Rights of the People of Virginia and its adoption;[57] (2) the
adoption of an Ordinance for the Reorganization of the State[58] and
(3) the election of State Officers.[59] The Convention then adjourned.

On the sixth of August, the adjourned Conve