CHARLESTON, W.Va. — By the final days of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln faced one of the most unusual decisions of his presidency. The Civil War had entered its second winter, Confederate armies still occupied much of the South, and the Union’s future remained uncertain.
Yet waiting on Lincoln’s desk was legislation unlike anything any previous president had considered—a bill asking him to approve the creation of an entirely new state from territory claimed by Virginia.
The proposal promised important military and political advantages for the Union, but it also presented a constitutional question unlike any Lincoln had faced. Could a new state legally be carved from Virginia while Virginia itself claimed to have left the Union?
For 10 days, Lincoln sought written opinions from every member of his Cabinet before deciding whether to sign the bill that would create what became the nation’s 35th state.
Read also: For readers unfamiliar with how the state came into existence, see our companion feature explaining why the U.S. has two Virginias.
A movement begins in western Virginia
The proposal that reached the White House had been nearly two years in the making. After Virginia voted to secede from the Union in April 1861, many residents of the state’s western counties rejected the decision. Delegates meeting in Wheeling organized the Restored Government of Virginia, declaring it to be the lawful government of the state despite the Confederate government operating from Richmond.
Under Gov. Francis H. Pierpont, the restored government won federal recognition, giving supporters of statehood the legal foundation they believed they needed to move forward.
Delegates soon approved an ordinance authorizing the creation of a new state, a proposal that voters overwhelmingly endorsed. At first, however, the new state was not called West Virginia.
It was named “Kanawha,” a title later abandoned after delegates debated alternatives including “Allegheny, “Augusta,” “Columbia, “New Virginia,” and “Potomac” before settling on West Virginia.
Historians Phil Conley and William Thomas Doherty recount that one delegate argued “Kanawha” should be dropped because it was too difficult to spell, prompting laughter from colleagues familiar with the frequent misspellings of Monongahela.
The delegates then drafted a constitution establishing a new state government, creating a public school system and defining the powers of its courts. Slavery proved the convention’s most divisive issue, and the debate followed the proposed state to Washington.
The constitutional steps leading to statehood remain one of the most closely studied episodes in West Virginia history and are detailed by the West Virginia Encyclopedia.
Senator Waitman T. Willey eventually broke the impasse with a compromise calling for gradual emancipation, a provision that secured congressional approval while preserving support for statehood among western Virginians.
The question lands on Lincoln’s desk
When the legislation reached Lincoln on Dec. 21, 1862, most of the political work had already been completed. Western Virginians had organized a loyal government, written a constitution, won approval from voters and persuaded Congress to pass a statehood bill. Yet one question remained unresolved: Had the Constitution truly been satisfied?
Article IV of the U.S. Constitution requires the consent of a state’s legislature before another state can be created from its territory. Because Virginia had joined the Confederacy, Lincoln had to determine whether the Restored Government of Virginia possessed the constitutional authority to give that consent. It was a question with no clear precedent.
Rather than relying solely on his own judgment, Lincoln asked each member of his cabinet for a written opinion.
Even Lincoln’s closest advisers could not agree. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of State William H. Seward, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton urged him to approve statehood. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Attorney General Edward Bates, and Navy Secretary Gideon Welles argued that he should veto the bill.
Many of Lincoln’s wartime papers and presidential documents are preserved in the Library of Congress Abraham Lincoln Papers collection.
A decision that changed American history
Lincoln ultimately concluded that admitting West Virginia was both lawful and necessary to preserve the Union. While acknowledging the constitutional uncertainty, he believed the loyal citizens of western Virginia had earned the nation’s support after refusing to follow the Confederacy.
Explaining his decision, Lincoln wrote that the Union could scarcely afford to lose West Virginia’s support “in Congress and in the field” and observed that admitting the new state would also move additional slave territory toward eventual freedom. On Dec. 31, 1862, he signed the bill.
One final vote remained. West Virginians approved the Willey Amendment in March 1863, allowing Lincoln to issue a proclamation declaring that the new state would enter the Union sixty days later.
On June 20, 1863, West Virginia officially became the nation’s 35th state, with Arthur I. Boreman sworn in as its first governor while Francis H. Pierpont continued leading the Restored Government of Virginia in the portions of the state that remained under Union control.
Lincoln is remembered for preserving the Union, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and delivering the Gettysburg Address. His decision to approve West Virginia’s statehood, however, remains one of the least familiar episodes of his presidency.
Conley and Doherty observed that the state was not created by a single act of secession or a lone presidential signature, but through a carefully orchestrated sequence of conventions, elections, legislative actions, congressional compromises, and executive judgment.
Without Lincoln’s approval on New Year’s Eve 1862, the map of the United States—and the history of West Virginia—might look very different today.
Abraham Lincoln never saw the state he created
Although Abraham Lincoln signed the legislation that made West Virginia possible and proclaimed its admission to the Union, historians believe he never actually visited the new state. When West Virginia entered the Union on June 20, 1863, Lincoln remained focused on directing the Civil War, and the demands of the presidency kept him in Washington until his assassination less than two years later.
His closest encounter with what is now West Virginia likely came before the war, when he traveled through Virginia as a young lawyer on the expanding railroad network. The state whose creation required one of his most difficult constitutional decisions would remain one he knew largely through reports, correspondence and military dispatches rather than personal experience.
Read more: Readers interested in Lincoln’s presidency and his Civil War leadership can explore additional exhibits and historical resources through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.