University of Virginia Library

MEETING OF THE PROVISIONAL LEGISLATURE.

The third clause of the ordinance passed June the 19th, provided for
the meeting of the General Assembly on the 1st day of July, the members
of which had been duly chosen at the general election on the 23d
day of May, and in pursuance of the ordinance that body convened
at Wheeling on the day appointed. The session was held in the custom-house,
in which the offices of the governor and other State officers
had been located. Upon calling the roll, it was ascertained that there
were thirty-one members present. A speaker and clerk were chosen,
after which the governor's message was received. In it he reviewed,
at considerable length, the action of the Richmond convention, the
history of the movements which led to the reorganization of the State
governments and his own election. He informed the house that he had
entered into a correspondence with the President of the United States,
and informed him of the circumstances surrounding the loyal government
of Virginia, and had received from him, through the secretary
of war, assurances that all constitutional aid would be promptly
rendered.

Accompanying the message were copies of communications received
from the Secretary of the Interior certifying to the apportionment of
representation to which Virginia was entitled in the Thirty-eighth Congress,
according to the census of 1860. The attention of the Assembly
was called to the fact that the President, in a proclamation issued on the
4th inst., had declared vacant the seats of all representatives from Virginia
in the Congress of the United States by reason of their active
participation in the effort to overthrow the Federal government, and
he recommended that the house proceed at once to fill such vacancies by

---

TOMB OF MARY, MOTHER OF WASHINGTON,

At Fredericksburg, Virginia.

---

362

The General Assembly, on the 9th of July, went into an election, and
on joint ballot elected L. A. Hagans, of Preston county, secretary of
the commonwealth; Samuel Crane, of Randolph, auditor of public
accounts, and Campbell Tarr, of Brooke, treasurer. They then proceeded
to ballot for United States Senators, which resulted in the
election of John S. Carlisle, of Harrison, and W. T. Willey, of Monongalia.
They, together with the representatives from the three congressional
districts west of the mountains, who had been elected at the
same time the members of the General Assembly were chosen, at once
proceeded to Washington, where "they were admitted to seats in the
respective houses as senators and representatives from Virginia." On
the 24th of July, the Assembly, having finished the business before it,
adjourned.

Thus the machinery of the restored government was in complete working
order; but this did not satisfy the people, many of whom had for
years entertained the fond hope that at some time their relations with the
east should be severed, and a new State, independent of Virginia, should
rise west of the Alleghanies. All felt that the auspicious moment had
now come, and it was impressed upon the