Shouldn't Obama be appointing a panel that will name a Governor of Michigan?

[1939]

17. State claims to western lands

At one time, many of the east coast states claimed their northern and southern borders extended to the west for an indefinite distance and claimed ownership of all the land. One of the compromises worked out was to set western borders for the original thirteen states and allow the lands to the west (Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee) to revert to the federal government. In return, the federal government picked up the revolutionary war debt and soldier pension debt for all of the states. The federal government then sold off the lands to pay off the debts.

West Virginia was a political power grab by Lincoln and of dubious constitutionality. It can certainly be justified as being strategically smart from a military standpoint. Virginia agreed to not contest the land grab as a condition of being accepted back into the union and being allowed to vote for their own government.