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| Room in which the Convention met at Wheeling. |
June 13, 1861. |
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before it is sent.
If troops from Ohio or Pennsylvania shall be attempted to be passed on the railroad, do not hesitate to obstruct their passage by all means in your power, even to the destruction of the road and bridges.”
the people in all Eastern Virginia, under the pressure of the bayonet, as we have observed,1 ratified the Ordinance of Secession, and gave a majority of the votes of the State in its favor, while the vote in Western Virginia was overwhelmingly against it. A Convention was accordingly held at Wheeling on the 11th of June, in which about forty counties of the mountain region were represented.
It met in the Custom House; and each delegate, as his credentials were accredited, took a solemn oath of allegiance to the National Constitution and its Government.2
the Convention was organized by the appointment of Arthur J. Boreman, of Wood County, as permanent President, and G. L. Cranmer, Secretary.
The President made a patriotic speech on taking the chair, and found the delegates in full Union with him in sentiment.
The Convention then went to work in earnest.
A committee was appointed to draw up a bill of rights, and on the following day it reported through its chairman, John S. Carlile.
All allegiance to the Southern Confederacy was totally denied in that report, and it recommended a Declaration that the functions of all officers in the State of Virginia who adhered to it were suspended, and the offices vacated.
Resolutions were adopted, declaring the intention of the people of Virginia never to submit to the Ordinance of Sebcession, but to maintain the rights of the Commonwealth in the Union; also, calling upon all citizens who had taken up arms against the National Government to lay them down and return to their allegiance.
on the Third day of the session,
an Ordinance was reported for vacating all the offices in the State held by State officers acting in hostility to the General Government, and also providing for a Provisional
1 see page 884.
2 the delegates all took the following oath:--“we solemnly declare that we will support the Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, as the supreme law of the land, any thing in the Ordinance of the Convention that assembled at Richmond on the 13th day of February last to the contrary notwithstanding. So help me God.”
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