Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode number 276 of our Civil War Podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the podcast.

With this episode, we're going to pick back up right where we left off at the end of

the last show.

As y'all recall, in May 1861 in Virginia, a public referendum had ratified the state's

ordinance of secession.

And a month later, in June 1861, delegates representing the Western counties met at

the Second Wheeling Convention and passed a measure creating the new reorganized government

of Virginia.

The delegates took their authority and part from a prior U.S. Supreme Court ruling in

a case titled Luther versus Borden.

In that ruling, the Supreme Court decided that the question of who represented a state

was a political matter and was to be determined by Congress and the president.

Only Congress had the authority to decide which elected members would represent a state

in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

The president, though, had been delegated power by an act of Congress in 1795 to decide

which government was the duly constituted government of a state when sending aid to a

state threatened by insurrection.

In other words, the president allowed determined which parties represented the state and which

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