It does not matter a bit if you think it is ok or not, it was perfectly Constitutional. The previous Virginia legislature went by it's own accord into a state of treason. Those members who refused to engage in treason formed a restored legislature, and that legislature was recognized by Congress. That restored legislature agreed to the formation of a new state and congress accepted that.
Oh, please. Rowdee is right, you guys want it both ways. This is what we mean when we say that your side has only one principle: "we win!"
Well, you're wrong, you're palpably and nakedly wrong, and you would do a whole lot better to save yourself the embarrassment of standing up for these fictions, and just admit that Congress broke the Constitution when it dealt with a rump, phone-booth convention.
The West Virginians did not have sovereignty. The People, viz. the whole people of Virginia, acting within their rights as Sovereign, exercised their right to revolution after 30 years of discussion and five months of exploration of last-minute alternatives, by assembling in convention and voting as the People to take their sovereign State out of the Union.
Virginia, as a State, had the right to secede from the Union. Western Virginia, as something less than a State, had no equivalent right to break away from Virginia -- and everyone in Congress knew it, they just broke the Constitution to pack the Senate with a couple more Unionist-Abolitionist votes.
Whatever you say, President Clinton.....continue to pick and choose how the Constitution works....you and your ilk do more damage to the Country than even the liberals--because you are cloaked as a 'friend', a 'conservative', someone 'who can be trusted cause we think alike'....God help the Republic because there aren't enough good men left to do it....deceit under whatever cover is still deceit.
Good day.