Wymer
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Athens Messenger
Speaker to discuss the Civil War, politics and the creation of West Virginia
ATHENS, Ohio — The Southeast Ohio History Center’s Lyceum Luncheon Brown Bag Speaker Series will host author and United States District Judge Edmund Sargus of Belmont County, Ohio, on Nov. 19 at noon. Sargus will talk about the creation of the state of West Virginia during the American Civil War. Sargus and fellow authors, Eric Wittenberg and Penny Barrick wrote Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia. Their thesis presents a unique legal, social, and political analysis of how the western counties of Virginia broke away to form a new state when Virginia decided to join the Confederacy. Their book chronicles the unprecedented mechanism used to create West Virginia during a national emergency. It focuses on the constitutional questions that deeply concerned President Abraham Lincoln, who went as far as polling his entire cabinet before signing the statehood bill. Edmund Sargus is an alumnus of Brown University and Case Western University School of Law. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in 1995. The Southeast Ohio History Center is located at 24 West State St. in Athens. For more