mitted to the people for ratification. A proposed amendment must receive the approval of two-thirds of the members elected to each House, after which it is submitted to the people and decided by a majority of those voting. General elections are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Legislative. The minimum number of members in the Senate is twenty-four, and in the House of Delegates sixty-five. The former are elected for four years, and the latter for two years. The Legislative Assembly meets biennially, on the second Wednesday of January in the odd years. The sessions may continue not longer than forty-five days unless with the concurrence of two-thirds of each House. Members receive $4 per day and mileage. The Legislature is prohibited from establishing any board or court of registration for voters. The House of Delegates impeaches and the Senate tries all cases of impeachment.
Executive. The Governor, Secretary of State, Superintendent of Free Schools, Auditor, Treasurer, and Attorney-General are each elected for a term of four years. The president of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, respectively, are in the line of succession to the Governorship in case of a vacancy in that office. The Governor is vested with the usual pardoning power. He may veto any bill or any item of an appropriation bill, but such action may be overruled by a majority vote of the members elected to either House.
Judicial. The Superior Court consists of four judges elected by the voters of the State to serve for terms of twelve years. The State is divided into thirteen circuits, in one of which two judges are elected and in the others one judge each for terms of eight years. Court is held in each county three times a year. There are county courts, consisting of three commissioners who are elected for six years, and a clerk of the county court elected for a like period.
Local Government. The different counties elect surveyors, prosecutors, sheriffs, and one or two assessors, all of whom serve for four years. Coroners, overseers of the poor, and surveyors of roads are appointed by the county court.
Finance. When West Virginia was set off from Virginia the question arose as to the share of the public debt to be borne by either Commonwealth. All attempts to reach an agreement failed, and the matter is still unsettled. The financial welfare of West Virginia has been safeguarded by the most stringent provisions in the Constitution, and there has been no debt incurred since the State entered the Union. The receipts for the fiscal year 1902 amounted to $2,348,987.89, and the expenditures to $2,292,533.86. The chief sources of revenue are licenses, land, railroad taxes, capitations, and intangible personal property.
West Virginia sends five members to the National House of Representatives. The capital is Charleston.
Militia. The men of militia age in 1900 wore 200,503. The organized militia in 1901 numbered 995.
Population. The population by decades has been as follows: 1870, 442,014; 1880, 618,447; 1890, 762,794; 1900, 958,800. In the last census year the State ranked twenty-eighth in population. The rate of increase for the last decade was 25.7 per cent., as against 20.7 per cent. for the nation. But few States have a smaller proportion of foreign born, the number of these in 1900 being only 22,451. There were 43,499 negroes. Of the total population, 499,242 were males and 459,558 females. There were 38.9 inhabitants to the square mile. In 1900 eight cities had over 5000 inhabitants each. These were: Wheeling, 38,878; Huntington, 11,923; Parkersburg, 11,703; Charleston, 11,099; Martinsburg, 7564; Fairmont, 5655: Grafton, 5650; and Moundsville, 5362.
Religion. The Methodists are the strongest denomination. Next in order come the Baptists, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and Lutherans.
Education. Separate schools are maintained for white and colored pupils. The revenue for school purposes is derived from the school fund and capitation and general taxes. The expenditures for school purposes in 1902 were about $3,000,000. In the census year 1900, the population of school age was 356,471, of which 186,410, or 51.7 per cent., were in attendance. The illiterates in the same year formed 11.4 per cent. of the total population of ten years of age and upward. The school report for 1902 showed an enrollment in the public schools of 276,234, a substantial increase over the 1900 figures. The principal institutions include the University of West Virginia, at Morgantown (see West Virginia University); Bethany College, at Bethany; and Morris Harvey College, at Barboursville. There are normal schools at Athens, Fairmont, Glenville, Huntington, Shepherdstown, and West Liberty. The West Virginia Colored Institute, at Institute, also gives a normal training course.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. The State maintains an asylum for incurables at Huntington, and miners' hospitals at Fairmont, McKendree, and Welsh. Hospitals for the insane are located at Weston and at Spencer, having in 1900 an aggregate of 1629 inmates. There are a school for the deaf and blind at Romney, with 209 inmates, a boys' reform school at Pruntytown, with 288 inmates, and a girls' industrial school at Salem, with 50 inmates. The penitentiary, located at Moundsville, is supported by the labor of the convicts. In 1900 there were 508 inmates.
History. For many years after the settlement of the eastern part of Virginia the western section was entirely unknown. John Lederer, a German surgeon in the employ of Governor Berkeley, was probably the first white man to explore the region, in 1669. In the same year La Salle floated down the Ohio River and landed at several places within the State. Abraham Wood in 1671 discovered the Great Kanawha, and Governor Spotswood of Virginia made an expedition into the present State in 1716. The grant to Lord Fairfax of the northern neck of Virginia included part of the present State, and his surveyors planted a stone at the headwaters of the northern branch of the Potomac to show the limits of his grant. When the western part of Virginia began to fill up with the adventurous Scotch-Irish after 1732, scattered pioneers crossed the mountains, and soon came in conflict with the French, who also claimed the
