According to John G. Morgan in his book West Virginia Governors, “The historic morning of June 20, 1863, the official birthday of the 35th state, was cloudy with a threat of showers, but the sun broke through reassuringly.”
A crowd assembled outside Linsly Institute in Wheeling, where Arthur Boreman would stand on a platform and take the oath of office as the first Governor of the new state.
Morgan writes that a newspaper account said the 39-year-old Boreman had “abundant black hair, a full-flowing beard, a strong face marked with strong intellectual features and a well-rounded high forehead.”
Boreman was born in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, but when he was four his family moved to Tyler County., West Virginia. He became a lawyer and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1855. However, Boreman held a dim view of the government of Richmond and became a leading advocate for statehood for western Virginia.
Boreman, a Republican, began his inaugural address 153 years ago today with a few lines about being humbled by the honor and “celebrating the most auspicious event in the history of this people,” but he then launched into a lengthy and pointed criticism of Virginia.
“The East has always looked upon that portion of the State west of the Mountains, as a sort of outside appendage—a territory in a state of pupilage,” Boreman proclaimed. “The unfairness and inequality of legislation is manifest on every page of the statute book.”
However, the new Governor’s grievances extended beyond what he perceived as the inferior treatment and into Virginia’s departure from the union.
“As if to make the separation more complete, Eastern Virginia adopted the fatal doctrine of secession, while the West spurned and rejected it as false and dangerous in its extreme,” he said.
It was only near the end of his speech that Boreman focused on his vision for the new state, but even then it was only after he cautioned that “military matters” (the Civil War would last two more years) would occupy most of his energies and he could not be expected to “give much time at present to the internal civil policy of the state.”
However, Boreman did say that he would do whatever was within his power to “advance the agricultural, mining, manufacturing and commercial interests of the state,” adding that one priority was to establish a public education system.
Boreman closed by asking for the indulgence of the people, confessing that, “I shall, no doubt, often do wrong; this is the lot of man.”
But the state’s first governor got a lot of things right. He was an advocate for statehood and put a priority on education. He was popular enough to be re-elected twice–the Governor’s term at the time was for two years—and was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1869.
According to The West Virginia Encyclopedia, “Boreman supported the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race.”
As Governor Boreman indicated 153 years ago today, our state was born out of an independent streak, one that can still be found in the hearts and minds of many West Virginians.