As we have seen, President Abraham Lincoln and Congress conspired to make Nevada a state just days before the 1864 presidential election, although Nevada did not have enough residents to qualify for statehood.

Nevertheless, the new state seated two U.S. senators, one member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and chose three members of the 1864 Electoral College – all supportive of Lincoln and his policies.

This was not, however, the first time that Lincoln and his political allies had broken the rules to admit a new pro-Lincoln state. In 1863 they created West Virginia and gave it three U.S...