in part overthrown by the successful rebellion. . . . The Senate admitted your senators, not as representing a new and nameless State, now for the first time heard of in our history, but as representing 'the good old commonwealth.'" The constitutional convention met at Wheeling, November 26, 1861, and, influenced more by the success of the United States army than by the grave objections urged by Bates, framed a new constitution, which was ratified May 3, 1862, by the "qualified voters" of forty-eight of the old Virginia counties. Berkeley and Jefferson counties were subsequently added. The mountain counties of Morgan, Hampshire, Hardy, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Greenbrier, Monroe, Mercer and McDowell (including the present counties of Mineral, Grant and Summers), did not participate in the initial movement, but were included in the formation of the new State. At the election of May 3d, Pierpont also was elected "governor of Virginia," to fill the "unexpired" term of Governor Letcher, and he continued to administer the affairs of the Trans-Alleghany until the new State was established, when he removed his "seat of government" to Alexandria.
