Was there anything Virginia could have done to keep West Virginia from seceding?

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Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
What if anything could have Virginia done to keep West Virginia from seceding and forming West Virginia? I guess we would have to agree that West Virginia actually seceded from Virginia. It appears that the U.S. Legislature did not have a problem with this occurring and Supreme Court did nothing to stop this. In the end the Supreme Court gave this their blessing and their is no higher court that could reverse the decision of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court even agreed that Berkeley County and Jefferson had seceded from Virginia if though these wo counties were not allowed to vote.

I was wondering is there was any legal, political, or military action that Virginia could have taken to stop West Virginia from leaving and forming thier own state? It does appear that the majority of the people in the western section of Virginia did want to form their own state once Virginia seceded from the Union. Still it was not like the people of West Virginia did not keep this plan to secede from Virginia if Virginia left the Union a secret. So the state of Virginia did have a short time to counter this from occurring.
 
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