Within two or three days after the April 17 vote on secession,
several of the northwestern Unionist delegates left Richmond to
return home. John Snyder Carlile, of Clarksburg, organized a
mass meeting that issued a call for a convention to meet in
Wheeling on May 13, 1861. The delegates met there for three days
and issued an appeal to the voters to reject secession at the
referendum scheduled for May 23. The delegates also called for a
special election if the statewide referendum on secession passed
so that delegates could be elected for a second convention to
assemble in June. After the first convention adjourned, a
committee chaired by Carlile issued an address "To the People of
North Western Virginia" urging the state's voters to reject
secession at the May 23 referendum and denouncing secession as
an illegal and unpatriotic act that would cause civil war.
Following the ratification of the Ordinance of Secession,
Carlile's committee issued an address that called for the
election of delegates to a second co