Restored government of Virginia

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The Restored government of Virginia was the Unionist government of Virginia during the Civil War.

When the Second Wheeling Convention met in June 1861, it adopted "A Declaration of the People of Virginia," which declared the state offices of Virginia vacant. The convention then elected a new governor and other officers and created the reorganized state government that President Abraham Lincoln recognized as the legitimate authority in Virginia. The Restored government met in Wheeling until West Virginia attained separate statehood on 20 June 1863. Governor Francis Harrison Pierpont moved the Restored government to Alexandria effective 26 August 1863. The Restored government adopted a new Virginia constitution in 1864 that recognized the creation of West Virginia, abolished slavery, and disqualified supporters of the southern Confederacy from voting. The constitution went into effect only in the Union-controlled areas of Virginia--several northern Virginia counties, the Norfolk area, and the Eastern Shore.

After the fall of Richmond and the end of the Civil War in May 1865, the executive officers moved the government from Alexandria to Richmond, and government under the Constitution of 1864 thereafter went into effect for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia until adoption of the Constitution of 1869.