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.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of April, A.D. 1863,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.