The New State in Congress.
December 10, 1862
The House resumed the consideration of the Senate bill for the admission of the State of West Virginia into the Union.
Mr. Noell, of Mo., briefly stated the reasons why, after careful investigation, he had come to the conclusion to vote for the bill. As a representative of a slave state, he would save the life of the Union whether constitutionally or not.
Mr. Segar, of Va., without entering into a discussion of the unconstitutionality of the measure, which had already been exposed, said that the fundamental principle that all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the people, had been ignored in this case. The consent of North-Western Virginia had not been given to the proposed New State organization.
He proceeded to show that this was the case. Congress had no right to interfere with the domestic concerns of a State which in effect they proposed to do as to Northwestern Virginia. In the name of the loyal people of the Eastern portion of the State, he protested against the injustice now sought to be inflicted. What would become of the loyal people outside of the proposed limits of the new state? They would all be turned over to a traitor Governor of a traitorous State. He wanted the Wheeling government to serve as a nucleus around which all the counties might rally. He believed that the entire state would gradually return to the fold of the Union.
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: December 1862