Why wasn't West Virginia returned to Virginia after the Civil War?

Going back earlier, before Bermuda was split off it was part of the Virginia Colony.

Which would create the diet states:

Low Cal and No. Cal.

Yes, but Bermuda was split off in 1615, and at that time, the Virginia Company had the rights from Cape Fear to the Long Island Sound.

Which will never be settled because we can’t decide who gets stuck with Bakersfield.

I’ve always wondered how much that had to do with why some of the up-to-their-eyeballs-in-debt plutocrats were so gung ho on secession: win and your debts are gone, lose and you can say “I wasn’t foreclosed on, I lost it in the war”.

As my priest likes to say, “I never met a motive that wasn’t mixed.” :wink:

Just to further clarify: Even after recognizing West Virginia, the United States continued to recognize the Unionist restored government of Virginia as the government of the remaining portion of the Commonwealth (although the “restored government of Virginia” at most controlled those portions of Virginia that were directly occupied by Union troops at any given time).

During the war Virginia thus had no less than three would-be state governments, owing allegiance to two different proclaimed national federal governments:

1.) the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia (CSA), claiming all of what are now Virginia and West Virginia (but never actually controlling that entire territory; e.g., Union troops occupied the areas directly across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., for the duration of the entire war);

2.) The Restored Government of Virginia (USA), claming (but not really controlling) all of the modern state of Virginia, and eventually recognizing the State of West Virginia (USA) in the northwestern portion of Virginia as a fellow state of the Union, a la Massachusetts and Maine;

3.) The government of the State of West Virginia (USA), whose actual territorial control I’m sure fluctuated as well, though I think they did better than the RGVA did.

One can imagine Harry Turtledove writing an alternate history in which they all spend years arguing about the shape of the conference table in Paris.

My post said “past 100 years or so”, the examples you listed are from before the Civil War.

From time to time there are rumblings of the UP splitting off from the rest of Michigan, but nothing ever comes of it.

Also, consider the Mexican perspective. Their portion is already split into Baja (Lower) California and Baja California Sur. Our part is Alta (Upper) California.

So if this went through, there would be Upper Upper California, Lower Upper California, Lower California, and Lower California South.

Strictly speaking, the Wheeling conventions could send nobody to Congress. Representatives have to be elected by the people at large, and Senators by the Legislature.

Rather, the first Wheeling convention urged area Unionists to conduct their own elections to the US House of Representatives, which they did on May 23, 1861. And the restored Virginia Legislature–that is, those members who didn’t support secession–assembled (also in Wheeling) in July and elected two US Senators. Note that there were two distinct bodies in Wheeling–the restored legislature of Virginia, and the conventions which organized the future West Virginia. Some persons were members of both bodies.

When Congress assembled on July, the House seated the three Unionists elected in May, and the Senate expelled the absent pro-Confederate incumbents and seated the two Unionists elected earlier that month.

In the 50’s and 60’s the southern part of the state wanted to split off and form a new state but the North blocked it. Now the North would like to split off and rid of the southern part, but the southern part blocks it.

I thought that all of the southern Senators had resigned when their states seceded, except for Andy Johnson? If so, why would the Senate need to expel the Virginia senators?

I propose that North Dakota be re-named “Lower Saskatchewan” and South Dakota be re-named “Saskatchewan Sous-sol.” :slight_smile:

Only if Saskatchewan is then called Upper Former North Dakota; New South Wales can finally stop being so smug about having so many descriptors.

Good point. The Eastern Shore is still kind of like a ham hanging in a smokehouse. I wonder if they’ve ever moved for statehood.

And it would balance out West Virginia with an East Virginia! :wink:

I think DelMarVa is happy with things as they are.

There was talk of that, and William Donald Schaefer, the Governor of Maryland at the time, said: “What are they going to call it, Shithouse?”

Some time ago (in the 1990’s), Gov. George Allen of Virginia was making a speech. Referring to West Virginia, he called them, “The counties that call themselves ‘West Virginia’.” It sounded like he wanted them back.

Sorry, 130 years late and a dollar short, Georgie.