Southeast Ohio History Center to host Sargus for speaker series
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ATHENS – 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 at noon on Nov. 19 at the history center, 24 West State St., Athens. 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 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.
Sargus is an alumnus of Brown University and Case Western University School of Law. President Bill Clinton nominated him to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in 1995.
More information about Sargus' presentation, the Lyceum Luncheon Speaker Series or the History Center is available by calling 740-592-2280 or visiting www.southeastohiohistory.org.