The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-06
CHAP. vi.

An Act for the Admission of the State of "West
Virginia. into the Tnion, and for other Pur-
poses.
Whereas the people inhabiting that portion of
Virginia known as est Virginia did, by Con-
vention assembled in the city of Wheeling on the
twenty sixth of November, eighteen hundred and
sixty one, frame for themselves Constitution
with view of becoming separate and indepen-
dent State and whereas at general election held
in the counties composing the territory aforesaid
on the third day of May last, the said Constitution
was approved and adopted by the qualified voters
of the proposed State; and whereas the Legisia-
ture of Virginia. by an act passed on the thir
tecnth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty
two, did give its consent to the formation of a
State within the Jurisdiction of the said State
of Virginia, to be known by the name of West
Virginia, and to embrace the following named
counties, to wit: Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Mar
shall, Wetzel, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, Tay
lor, Tyler, Peasants, Ritehie, Doddridge, Har-
Gilmer, Barbour, Tucker, Lewis, Braxton, Up,
shur; Randolph, Mason, Putnam, Kanawha, Clay,
Nicholas, Cabeil, Wayne, Boone, Logan, Wyom-
Fayette, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Monroe, Pendleton,
Hardy, Hampshire, and Morgan; and whereas
both the Convention and the Legislature afore
said have requested that the new State should be
admitted into the Union, and the Constitution
aforesaid being republican in form, Congress doth
hereby consent that the said forty-eight counties
may be formed into separate and independent
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives of the United States of America in
gina be, and is hereby, declared to be one of the
United States of America, and admitted into the
Union on equal footing with the original States
in all respects whatever, and until the next gen
eral census shall be entitled to three members in
the House ofRepresentatives of the United States;
Provided, always, That this act shall not take
effect until after the proclamation of the Presi-
dent of the United States hereinafter provided
for.
1t being represented to Congress that since the
Convention of the twenty-sixth of November,
eighteen hundred and sixty-one, that framed and
proposed the Constitution for the said State of
West Virginia, the people thereof have expressed
a wish to change the seventh section of the
eleventh article Of said Constitution by striking
out the same and inserting the following in its
place, viz: 1.-The children of slaves born within
the limits of this State after the fourth day of
July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be
free and that all slaves within the said State who
shall, at the time aforesaid be under the age of
ten years. shall be free when they arrive at the age
of twenty-one years and all slaves over ten and
arrive at the age of twenty-five years; and no
slave shall be permitted to come into the State
for permanent: residence therein" Therefore
Sec. q Be it further enacted, That whenever
the people of West Virginia shall, through their
said Convention, and by vote to be taken at an
election to be held within the limits of the said
State, at such time the Convention may pro-
vide, make and ratify the change aforesaid, and
properly certify the same under the hand OF the
president of the Convention it shall be lawful for
the President of the United States to issue his
proclamation stating the fact, and thereupon this
act shall take effect and be in force from and
after sixty days from the date of said proclama-
tiOn.
Approved, Dec. n, 1862.