tate in Western Virginia; that he
understood that the inhabitants were thoroughly loyal; that they were
opposed to slavery; and that they would make a powerful and prosperous
State. Despite these considerations, he was not prepared to adhere to
the program of admission. He objected, therefore, that the application
had not come up in the proper constitutional form. The commonwealth
was not organized into a territorial form of government, and so, said
he, no enabling act could be passed. The constitutional provision that
no State may be divided without the assent of the legislature thereof
was not, in his opinion, adhered to. He questioned the legitimacy of
the so-called "Restored Government of Virginia" after a part of the
State had seceded from the Union.[113] It was his contention that the
failure of the State government caused the sovereignty of the State to
accrue to the Federal Government. Any application for admission into
the Union, on the part of West Virginia, should proceed on this
theory.[114]

Replying to these arguments, Mr. Brown, of Virginia, claimed
constitutional regularity of procedure in forming the new State and in
seeking to have it admitted into the Union. He referred to the case of
Kentucky as a precedent, attempting thereby to show the competency of
Congress to admit a State formed within the jurisdiction of another.
He pointed out that the Senate, the House, the Executive Department of
the United States Government and a State Court in Ohio had, all, by
their several acts and relationships with the Wheeling Legislature
recognized it to be the legal legislature of Virginia. Discussing the
original powers of the people, Mr. Brown asserted "that the principle
was laid down in the Declaration of Independence that the legislative
powers of the people cannot be annihilated; that when the
functionaries to whom they are entrusted become incapable of
exercising them, they revert to the people, who have the right to
exercise them in their primitive and original capacity." "When,
therefore, the government of old Virginia capitulated to the
Confederacy," said he, "the loyal people of Western Virginia acted in
accordance with the directing principle of the Declaration of
Independence."[115]

Conforming to the opinion of Mr. Brown, Mr. Colfax urged the admission
of the proposed new State, "because in their constitution, the people
provided for the ultimate extinction of slavery."[116] Among other
speakers ur