1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election

none January 2025 September 2023 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election presidential no 1859 Virginia gubernatorial election 1859 (Virginia) 1864 West Virginia gubernatorial election 1864 May 28, 1863 125px Arthur I. Boreman - Brady-Handy.jpg Arthur I. Boreman National Union Party (United States) 25,797 99.99% File:1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election by county.svg 250px County resultsBoreman: #850400 >90%No votes: #808080 Governor Francis Harrison PierpontAs governor of the Restored Government of Virginia Unionist politician (American Civil War) Arthur I. Boreman National Union Party (United States) The 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election was the first gubernatorial election, held on Thursday, May 28, 1863. Unionist Arthur I. Boreman was elected virtually without opposition. This was the first of two gubernatorial elections held in West Virginia during the American Civil War; 17 counties were occupied by Confederate military forces on Election Day and did not participate in the balloting. In a contested convention held at Parkersburg, West Virginia, the Union Party nominated Judge Arthur I. Boreman over his nearest rival, Peter G. Van Winkle. Despite fissures within the statehood movement driven by the Willey Amendment, an abolitionist proposal backed by U.S. Senator Waitman T. Willey, no challenge to the Union ticket emerged from either the radical or conservative ends of the party. Secessionists loyal to the Confederacy did not recognize the legitimacy of the new state and consequently did not participate in the campaign. Boreman received over 99 percent of the vote in 33 participating counties against only three votes for other candidates. Voter turnout was anemic, and newspapers complained of the slowness of the returns; however, by June 13, sufficient returns had been received for officials to certify Boreman's election. He was inaugurated as the first governor of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, in a ceremony at the Linsly Institute in Wheeling alongside other officers of the new state government. Background History of West Virginia#Civil War and split thumb|300px|Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the United States, compiled from the census of 1860. Enslaved and free people of color cumulatively comprised just 5% of the population in the counties that became West Virginia, while exceeding a majority in the wealthy Tidewater region.Foner Eric Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 2014 HarperPerennial New York 38 Updated https://archive.org/details/reconstructionam0000fone_q8w6/mode/2up Cultural, economic, and regional differences had long separated Western Virginia from the eastern Tidewater counties that dominated political and economic life in Antebellum Virginia. Slavery dominated the Tidewater, while it had a substantially weaker presence in the western counties, which remained economically underdeveloped.McPherson James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era 1988 Oxford University Press New York 297–98 https://archive.org/details/battlecryoffreed0000unse/mode/2up By 1830, the disparity between the sections was such that Western Virginia would have elected a majority of members in the General Assembly if representation were allocated in proportion to the free population, (the "white basis,") but the Three-fifths Compromise and the mass disenfranchisement of lower-class whites allowed eastern slaveholders to dominate the Assembly and state offices, although a minority of the overall population.Simpson Craig Political Compromise and the Protection of Slavery: Henry A. Wise and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850-1851 Virginia Magazine of History and Biography October 1975 83 4 387–405 4247978 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4247978Chandler Julian A. C. Representation in Virginia 1896 Johns Hopkins Press Baltimore 38n1 https://archive.org/details/representationin00chaniala/mode/2up After 1830, the political orientation of the Shenandoah Valley shifted eastward as the region became more closely linked to slavery, while Northwestern Virginia grew increasingly alienated from the Tidewater.Curry Richard Orr Curry Richard Orr Radicalism, Racism, and Party Realignment: The Border States during Reconstruction Johns Hopkins Press Baltimore 1969 87 Crisis Politics in West Virginia, 1861–1870 https://archive.org/details/radicalismracism0000unse_o8g5/page/80/mode/2up Following the election of Abraham Lincoln and the commencement of hostilities between the United States and the Confederacy, the Virginia Secession Convention voted to secede from the Union on April 17, 1861; 26 of the 31 northwestern delegates voted against the ordinance. Western unionists convened the First Wheeling Convention on May 13 to discuss options for resistance in the event of Virginia's secession; following approval of the secession ordinance by a popular referendum on May 23, the Second Wheeling Convention issued the "Declaration of the People of Virginia" condemning secession as unconstitutional and treasonous, declared all state offices vacant, and installed Francis H. Pierpont as head of the Restored Government of Virginia. The success of the Western Virginia campaign established Union military control over the region and enabled unionist leaders to adopt and ratify a dismemberment ordinance between August 20 and October 24, beginning the process of formally separating from Virginia.McPherson, 298–99. Although broadly popular in the Trans-Allegheny counties that had voted against secession, the new state movement divided unionist leaders. Conservatives in the Union Party privately opposed dismemberment and attempted to undermine the statehood movement by annexing a number of secessionist southwestern counties to the proposed State of Kanawha. Ultimately, fifty counties would comprise the new State of West Virginia; counties that had voted against the secession ordinance contributed 60 percent of the population of the new state, while 40 percent lived in secessionist counties, several of which remained under Confederate military occupation.Curry, 83–84; 89–90. Unionists were further divided by the requirement, introduced by Congress, that West Virginia abolish slavery as a condition for statehood. Despite the opposition of such prominent unionists as John S. Carlile, the Willey Amendment (so named for its author, U.S. Senator Waitman T. Willey of Morgantown, West Virginia) was ratified by voters in March 1863, and West Virginia duly entered the Union on June 20. Nevertheless, the battle over the Willey Amendment permanently divided West Virginian Unionists. Those who had supported the amendment became known as Unconditional Unionists and eventually provided the cornerstone of the Republican Party in West Virginia, while Carlile and others who argued in defense of slavery in 1863 joined forces with Copperheads in the Democratic Party to oppose Lincoln's reelection in 1864.Curry Richard Orr A Reappraisal of Statehood Politics in West Virginia Journal of Southern History December 1962 28 4 407; 419–20 10.2307/2205406 2205406 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2205406 subscription Union Party Convention From May 6 to 7, 1863, the Union Party's state convention was held to nominate candidates for multiple political offices. Each county delegation was awarded a number of votes equal to its total white population. For the party's gubernatorial nomination Samuel Crane was nominated by James G. West, Boreman was nominated by E. M. Norton, and Peter G. Van Winkle was nominated by Ben Smith.May 9, 1863 The Nominations 2 The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53870701/the-wheeling-daily-intelligencer/ live https://archive.today/20200621165229/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53870701/the-wheeling-daily-intelligencer/ June 21, 2020 Newspapers.comMay 26, 1863 Letters of Acceptance 2 The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53872195/the-wheeling-daily-intelligencer/ live https://archive.today/20200621165728/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53872195/the-wheeling-daily-intelligencer/ June 21, 2020 Newspapers.com On the first ballot Van Winkle received a plurality of the vote, but did not receive the nomination due to a majority being required. West withdrew Crane's nomination before the second ballot in which Boreman defeated Van Winkle. Candidates Arthur I. Boreman, judge of the 19th circuit court of Virginia, former president of the Second Wheeling Convention and delegate from Wood County Samuel Crane, auditor of the Restored Government of Virginia and former delegate to the Second Wheeling Convention from Randolph and Tucker counties James W. Paxton Peter G. Van Winkle, former delegate to the Second Wheeling Convention from Wood County Results + 1863 West Virginia Union gubernatorial conventionParkersburg Convention https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1863-05-09/ed-1/seq-2/ Daily Intelligencer May 9, 1863 Candidate First ballot Second ballot Countyunits Votes % Countyunits Votes % Arthur I. Boreman 8.317 80,886 26.67 23.002 181,185 59.70 Peter G. Van Winkle 16.950 135,528 44.70 16.998 122,291 40.30 Samuel Crane 14.532 84,144 27.74 rowspan=2 colspan=3 James W. Paxton 0.200 2,636 0.87 TOTAL 40 303,194 100.00 40 303,476 100.00 General election On May 28, 1863, Boreman won the gubernatorial election without opposition.June 25, 1863 West Virginia 1863 Gubernatorial election 2 Civilian and Telegraph https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53863911/civilian-and-telegraph/ live https://archive.today/20200621143354/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53863911/civilian-and-telegraph/ June 21, 2020 Newspapers.com Results 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial electionOfficial Returns of the Vote for Officers of the State of West Virginia https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026845/1863-06-13/ed-1/seq-2/ Daily Intelligencer June 13, 1863 National Union Party (United States) Arthur I. Boreman 25,797 99.99 3 0.01 25,780 100.00% Results by county County Arthur I. BoremanUnion Total Votes Percent Barbour 770 100.00 770 Berkley Did not participate — Boone 102 100.00 102 Braxton 212 100.00 212 Brooke 678 100.00 678 Cabell Did not participate — Calhoun Did not participate — Clay Did not participate — Doddridge 742 100.00 742 Fayette Did not participate — Gilmer 289 100.00 289 Greenbrier Did not participate — Hampshire 135 100.00 135 Hancock 418 100.00 418 Hardy 91 100.00 91 Harrison 2,037 100.00 2,037 Jackson 534 100.00 534 Jefferson Did not participate — Kanawha 655 100.00 655 Lewis 1,184 100.00 1,184 Logan Did not participate — Marion 1,428 100.00 1,428 Marshall 2,067 100.00 2,067 Mason 747 100.00 747 McDowell Did not participate — Mercer Did not participate — Monongalia 1,585 100.00 1,585 Monroe Did not participate — Morgan 261 100.00 261 Nicholas Did not participate — Ohio 2,905 100.00 2,905 Pendleton 161 100.00 161 Pleasants 239 100.00 239 Pocahontas Did not participate — Preston 1,639 100.00 1,639 Putnam 232 100.00 232 Raleigh Did not participate — Randolph 239 100.00 239 Ritchie 667 100.00 667 Roane 177 100.00 177 Taylor 867 100.00 867 Tucker Did not participate — Tyler 720 100.00 720 Upshur 879 100.00 879 Wayne 289 100.00 289 Webster Did not participate — Wetzel 870 100.00 870 Wirt 375 100.00 375 Wood 1,603 100.00 1,603 Wyoming Did not participate — TOTAL 25,797 99.99 25,780 See also 1863 in West Virginia References 1863 gubernatorial West Virginia Category:May 1863 in the United States Category:Single-candidate gubernatorial elections in the United States