The Daily Phoenix

West Virginia.--The New York Herald notices the "cautious manner" in which the President refers to West Virginia in his proclamation. He says nothing about the State of Western Virginia, but speaks of it as "that part of the State of Virginia lying West of the Alleghany Mountains," as "certain specified Counties in the State of Virginia," and as "the forty-eight Counties of Virginia designated as Western Virginia."

The Herald opines that this phraseology means something more than appears on the surface, and that perhaps the President doubts the constitutionality of the Act creating the "State" of West Virginia.

The Constitution declares that: "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."

There is only one alternative in this matter. Either the secession of Virginia was a fait accompli, or else the creation of the so-called State of West Virginia was unconstitutional. It was created "within the jurisdiction" of Virginia, and the consent of her Legislature was never asked or obtained. If Virginia was out of the Union at the time, West Virginia may have been regarded as territory acquired by conquest, and the organization of a new State therein would be as valid as that of New Mexico or California. But if Virginia was never out of the Union--as Mr. Johnson holds, and as the radicals dare not stultify their record during the war by denying--then the Act was clearly unconstitutional.