The question pertains to Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 which states:New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.The question is this: Did President Abraham Lincoln break this article on the basis of the split of the state of Virginia to create the state of West Virginia? Obviously the legislature of Virginia did NOT give complete consent to this.

No he did not.  At the time West Virginia would have been considered the real Virginia since it was loyal to the Union.  So it was technically a state by itself (this is through Lincoln's eyes of course).  The Union government that governed what came to be West Virginia voted to secede themselves from Virginia and Lincoln recognized the sovereign will of the people by accepting their decision.  Confederate Virginians had no say in the matter because they were in rebellion and had disavowed the U.S. Constitution.....thus breaking their oath to it.  So basically it was like the "recognized" people of Virginia electing to rename their state West Virginia, and then when Virgina was brought back under Union control, it was readmitted as Virginia (though technically not the original Virginia).....if that makes sense? 🙂Of course Kentucky was broken off from Virginia so there was a precedent there as well.  The people of Virginia (what the Union recognized), voted to secede the county(s) of Virginia to create the state of West Virginia in the same fashion as they did previously with Kentucky.  So either way, Lincoln could claim he broke no constitutional laws.

So basically since Virginia had given up its rights as a state it had no say one way or the other.

Well yes and no.....the folks who voted for the creation of West Virginia were the recognized voters of Virginia.....but the state government formerly run in Richmond, was no longer recognized.  So in a way Virginians did vote and in a way they did not.  Such was the confusion of the Civil War. 🙂

Basically they did what the Texans did….well sort of….I'm not sure West Virginia was an independent nation before it became a state.  Perhaps they were an independent entity of some kind I don't know.  I'd have to look up exactly how the vote came about. 😀

I'm not familiar with the Kentucky Situation, how and when did that happen?

Kentucky was a county of Virginia until 1792 when it was reformed into another state.  Virginia couldn't administer the county effectively because it was West of the Appalachian Mountains and so it was decided that a new seat of government more centrally located in Frankfort could handle the influx of population moving there due to the aftermath of the Revolutionary War.  Isaac Shelby became the first governor (I live in the county named after him by the way).  Kentucky and the Northwest Ordinance Territories were won from the French in the French and Indian Wars, but the British wouldn't allow settlement into those areas because they were indefensible at the time....but colonists disobeyed the orders and squatted on the settlements at their own risk.  After the Revolutionary War the territories were reorganized to better facilitate the constant flow of settlers pouring in.  Kentucky was quick to be settled because of the Ohio River confluence and the Cumberland Gap passage that led straight through what became the Daniel Boone National Forest from the Carolinas.  Kentucky was long renowned as the best hunting land by the Cherokees and other Indian tribes so naturally that reputation added to its attractiveness.

Intresting. I thought it had been a territory before a state. I didn't know it had once been part of the old Dominion.

Yup, the whole state of Kentucky used to be one county in Virginia.  Now think how big Virginia would be if West Virginia and Kentucky were still part of the Old Dominion?  Now do you see why Virginia was so feared in the Constitutional Convention by the smaller states?

If I remember correctly the State of Georgia once went all the way to the Missisippi River before Alabama and Missisippi were formed( Yazoo Territory ?)It strikes me as strange that the states who tried to secede from the Union were not allowed to do so but West Virginia did essentially the same thing by seceding from Virginia.I guess the victors write the laws and the history books.