VIRGINIA, The Restored (or Reorgan ized) Government of. An irregular govern ment whose legitimist pretenses were recognized by the United States goverrunent in the crisis of the Civil War. Its most useful achievement was the erection of West Virginia, and its other chief interest was its service as a fore runner of reconstruction in Virginia. The pas sage of the Ordinance of Secession by the Virginia Convention at Richmond (on 17 April 1861) was solidly opposed by the delegates of the northwest counties who immediately began a movement for separate action in favor of the Union under the Constitution, resulting in a pre liminary anti-secession convention at Wheeling, in May 1861, and a second convention which met at the same place in June and, acting under the right of revolution, declared vacant the offices held by the secessionists of the east, elected new officers and reorganized the gov ernment under the name 'Restored') or We organized') government of Virginia.
This reorganized government, whose validity was acknowledged by President Lincoln, and which was represented by Francis Harrison Pierpont, acting as governor, entirely ig nored the existence of the legal State government at Richmond. Its first gen eral assembly, composed largely of for mer members of the Virgirua legislature, promptly took vigorous action against con federates of the western counties, declared the proceedings of the Virginia secession conven tion null and void, and finally (August 1861) took the last step of alienation from Virginia by an act providing for the formation of a new State and the call of a convention to form a constitution for it. In May 1%2 it gave the
consent of Virginia to the formation of the new State from Virginia territory. After the organization of the new State of West Virginia had .been completed— by formation of a new goverrmient, approval of its constitution by Congress and proclamation of the President — the glesonedy government of Virginia folded its tents and moved to Alexandria, where its jurisdiction, reduced to a small strip of ter ritory within the Union lines, existed only in the shadow of the Federal armies. Here under its re-elected governor (Pierpont) and its tiny legislature, and recognized by the Lincoln gov ernment at Washington, it continued to exist throughout the penod of the Oivil War, its chief work being the framing of a new Vir ginia constitution expressing the Lhtion senti ments of its Potomac legislators. At the close of the war, in May 1865, with its validity recognized by President Johnson, it tnoved to Richntond and remained the government of Vir villa until April 1867 when, by au order of General Schld, Governor Pierpont was re placed by General Henry H. Welb. Consult Callahan, J. M., (Serni-Centennial History of West Virginia) (1913); Eeitenrode, H. J., (Political History of Virginia dttring the Re construction) (1904).
Pattie M., CALLAHAN.