Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Proclamation Admitting West Virginia Into The Union
by Abraham Lincoln
APRIL 20, 1863.
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.
Done at the city of Washington, this twentieth day of April,
A.D. 1863, and of the independence of the United States the
eighty-seventh.
