Restored Government of Virginia
From June 1861 to June 1863, during the Civil War and before West Virginia statehood, the United States recognized the Restored Government of Virginia sitting in Wheeling as the legitimate, pro-Union government of Virginia. Also called the Reorganized Government of Virginia, it controlled a contiguous area roughly the same as present-day West Virginia, along with parts of Northern Virginia and Tidewater. The rest of Virginia was under Confederate military control, with a state government in Richmond, and did not send representatives to Congress. The legislature in Wheeling chose two U.S. Senators for Virginia, John S. Carlile and Waitman T. Willey, who were seated by the Senate. Three U.S. Representatives elected in western districts of Virginia also went to Congress in 1861: Jacob B. Blair, William G. Brown, and Kellian V. Whaley. In 1861, as one of its first acts, the Restored Government began the process of creating the new state of West Virginia, which was achieved in 1863. The Restored Government of Virginia then moved to Alexandria.
Read more about this topic: United States Congressional Delegations From West Virginia
Famous quotes containing the words restored and/or government:
“Many things complicated by nature are restored by reason.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“A government deriving its energy from the will of the society, and operating, by the reason of its measures, on the understanding and interest of the society ... is the government for which philosophy has been searching and humanity been fighting from the most remote ages ... which it is the glory of America to have invented, and her unrivalled happiness to possess.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)