Originally Posted By: canvasback
Hey, any of you California residents.....is the New California effort a wacko pipe dream or does it have some chance. My understanding is they are trying to follow the US Constitution and they have the example/precedent of West Viginia to guide them.


The West Virginia precedent is thin at best. During the War, Virginia extended up past the huge bituminous coal region of western Pennsylvania and subsequent furnaces of Pittsburgh and its tremendous steel and iron capability. This geographical salient into the North made Washington very nervous. A lot of irregularities, voting and otherwise were associated with this disunion from Virginia.

Quoted from

Pittsburgh During the Civil War 1860-1863

Beth Trapani Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University Research Showcase

Page 6 states that,

"Pittsburgh was also a bastion of industrial strength that helped the North to win the Civil War. One of the City's most important contributions was the Rodman guns cast at the Fort Pitt Works, which supplied the North with 1,193 cannons during the war—nearly 15 percent of the total manufactured.20 Not only did Pittsburgh's mills pump out steel and its arsenals create guns and other war supplies, but boats of many kinds used in the war on the Mississippi were built in Pittsburgh, particularly the steam rams which helped to smash the Confederate fleets at Memphis."

Many in Hillbilly today feel this vote and subsequent separation was a sham.

Of course this perspective depends on the books you read and the people you ask.