Lincoln signs West Virginia into statehood by sniggie

Photo: Statue of Abraham Lincoln at West Virginia's capitol, Charleston. Background: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was the final signature of West Virginia's petition to become the 35th state of the United States. To do so, West Virginia traveled a winding road away from Virginia. Wikipedia explains the discontent of West Virginians with Virginia: "Its residents were discontented for years with their position in Virginia, as the government was dominated by the planter elite of the Tidewater and Piedmont areas. The legislature had electoral malapportionment, based on the counting of slaves toward regional populations, and the western white residents were underrepresented in the state legislature. More subsistence and yeoman farmers lived in the west and they were generally less supportive of slavery… " The straw that broke the camel's back was when Virginia voted in 1861 to secede from the United States. The vast majority of the representatives of the western mountainous part of Virginia (West Virginia) did not support leaving the U.S. nor were they supportive of slavery. Virginia's proclamation of secession would have the effect of splitting its own state. A third of Virginian land would be lopped off when its western mountainous region left.