d or a bridge, and later the casino railroad. because of that transportation because the transportation declines, the ability of people to drive it increases. so you have a furthering of the entrepreneurial spirit. you cannot understand wheeling unless you understand the role the national road plays. this community would not have developed as fast as it did if the roads were not here. i have spent i don't know how many days traveling that national road from wheeling to cumberland. when i go visit family in northern virginia, i seldom take the interstate. it's not very interesting. but to go on that national ro

ad, and having seen photographs of it from the 19th century and to appreciate the fact you are on that road that was put in 150 years ago, 170 years ago, and it is fascinating. you know, if you are into history as i am, why wouldn't you want to travel some historic place? in terms of roads, there are not too many more roads as historic as this one. ♪ >> all weekend long, and american history tv is featuring wheeling, west virginia. wheeling's central market originally and open air market, is the oldest cast-iron market house in the country.

together with our comcast cable partners, c-span's cities tour staff recently visited many sites explicit -- exploring wheeling's rich history. learn more about wheeling all weekend here on american history tv. >> we are in the federal district court rooms of the united states customhouse of wheeling, virginia, finished in 1859, which is now known as west virginia independence hall. this is the birthplace of the great state of west virginia during the american civil war. it will be the place where conventions are held that will form a new government for virginia a government for virginia loyal to the united states and the union. this new government over virginia will then create the new state of west virginia. our nation was in the midst of a terrible civil war.

those in eastern virginia, predominantly, were supportive of the confederacy. so, when virginia takes her vote for secession, the last vote on april 17, 1861, the majority of the virginia delegates will vote to secede from the united states and to join the southern confederacy. those voters from northwestern virginia, who were overwhelmingly against secession, they would come back to this side of the mountains in west virginia. they would have mass meetings, public meetings, to decide what northwestern virginia would do, and they decided they needed to have a place for a more formal convention and wheeling would be the place rest to have that convention. it would be safe, given that it is this wedge of land between the great and powerful union states of ohio and pennsylvania. there were safety there. it was a place for them to meet, to formulate a plan, and to

embark upon one of the most incredible experiments in our american history and the only successful secession movement in american history. there were a lot of issues that brought this thing to a head. it came about over decades. they had issues to do with taxation and representation. for western virginians who were not large slaveholders like eastern virginians were -- at the beginning of 1861, there were 475,000 slaveholders in the state of virginia before dismemberment, and only up rocks 18,000 -- approximately 18,000 went with west virginia. slaves counted as 3/5 of a person toward the person -- toward the total of your

representation. if you consider the numbers i told you, 18,000 in western virginia versus 475,000 in eastern virginia, it is clear to say who rolled the state legislature. that was an issue with western virginians. the other had to do with taxation. again, the laws of virginia gave an 80% tax break for the property of slaves. western virginians would also crop about this. the number one property of eastern virginians were human beings and western virginians with their largely free labor system, they paid full tax on it. they cried foul about that. issues of taxation and representation. improvements. western virginians wanted rodents.

eastern virginians were more concerned with the agricultural south than western virginia's means. -- western virginians wanted roads. the commercial relations were to the north and west. all of our river ways, creeks, streams flow to the north and west and we were separated from them geographically by the grand alleghany mountains. so, all of those things taken together over many years, they kind of came to a head. along comes the american civil war and reignite some of those tensions between east and west virginia and it would be here in wheeling where they would jump on that opportunity. that is one thing our story here has to teach everyone. when you are presented with an opportunity, you must take it, because if they had not, it simply would not have worked out . among the other things that would occur at the customhouse the formation of the restored government of virginia, the

signing of the declaration of the rights for the people of west virginia. the name of our state was debated here in this room. the shape of our state was decided in this room. the constitution or our new state was also written in this state. and altogether we consider this to be the very birthplace of the state of west virginia. the gentleman here had no idea this would work out. the governor they would elect of this restored government of west virginia, he once referred to this as "a fearful experiment," fearful being the operating word. they knew if the confederacy were to win the war, likely they would be seen as traders to virginia. and traders in the 19th century, if you are guilty of treason you will be hung by the neck.

that is what they had to lose in this and indeed when they signed that declaration of rights, all of these men signed their names just as our founding fathers signed their names on the declaration of independence. the confederate governor of virginia put out a call for the capture, and so that is what they had to face in this fearful experiment, as the governor described. he was a lawyer from marion county, west virginia. pierpont never thought of himself as a politician. he never thought at the end of the war he would become the governor of a new government for virginia. it was a set of circumstances to which he reacted. the reason he was unanimously voted by the body here to be the

governor of this restored government was because he was the principal architect of this restored government. it was his idea. he was the one who set at home reading the constitution and came across the article that gave him the idea that they could use to form this new state and it said simply this. if you are going to make a new state from a parent state, the legislature of that parent state had to give her mission. what did western virginians do? we formed our own legislature, which then gave itself permission to form in a state. that is how it happened. now you can scratch your head and say, how does that work? is that even legal? well yes, because we followed belong the constitution and thankfully for our story, the united states won the civil war. if they do not win the civil war, our story here is completely different. but this is the government for virginia here in wheeling that

is the government recognized by the congress by president lincoln and eventually also by the supreme court. we are a state because of abraham lincoln. he was faced with the question of west virginia statewide. he was not happy, i can tell you . he had a pretty full plate at the time. lincoln had become -- it became a political decision for lincoln to create the new state of west virginia. he had a cabinet of six people. he took the question to his cabinet. he asked them to vote on the issue of west virginia's date -- statehood. his cabinet was evenly split. so, it would be abraham lincoln who would be the deciding vote to create the state of west virginia. now he got the bill for west virginia statehood in the middle of 1862. he decided on december 31, the very last day that he could have signed it, he did sign it, and

it is an important note that a few days later he would issue the emancipation proclamation. for abraham lincoln, the issuing of west virginia statehood followed by the emancipation proclamation is a one-to political punch. wheeling is the first capital of the new state of west virginia from 1863 until 1870. then it will go to charleston. there it will be for five years. they will bring it back to wheeling for the second time in 1875, and it will remain there for the next 10 years until 1885 and then it goes back to charleston. it was known as the floating capital because it went up and down the river. the customhouse was never the capital of west virginia, but for gw's it was the capital of the commonwealth of virginia --