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Proclamation Admitting West Virginia into the Union1Jump to section
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
Whereas, by the Act of Congress approved the 31st. day of December, last, the State of West Virginia was declared to be one of the United States of America, and was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever, upon the condition that certain changes should be duly made in the proposed Constitution for that State;
And, whereas, proof of a compliance with that condition as required by the Second Section of the Act aforesaid, has been submitted to me;
Now, therefore, be it known, that I Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do, hereby, in pursuance of the Act of Congress aforesaid, declare and proclaim that the said act shall take effect and be in force, from and after sixty days from the date hereof.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
[L.S.]
Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
Annotation
[1] DS, DNA FS RG 11, Proclamations. The Act of December 31, 1862, provided that West Virginia be admitted when the people had ratified a change in the seventh section of the eleventh article of the proposed constitution. The change ratified was the substitution of the following in place of the original section seven: ``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 under twenty-one years shall be free when they arrive at the age of twenty-five years; and no slave shall be permitted to come into the State for permanent residence therein.''