The Political History of Virginia during the Reconstruction/3-The Daily Ledger

When Congress on December 4, 1865, refused to receive

the Southern representatives, it was evident that harder

terms would be required of the late seceding States. The

period of the President's supremacy, from May to December, 1865, had passed. Afterwards came a year of inquiry and of discussion on the part of the Congressional majority, and then the reconstruction. In Virginia the reconstruction proper was comparatively brief, lasting from March 2, 1867, to January 28, 1870, a period much shorter than was experienced in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida, where it continued for quite a decade. For some time after the downfall of the Confederacy, the policy of the Republican party towards the Southern States remained uncertain. As the year 1865 wore on, the party lost confidence in Johnson and then became rapidly hostile to his policy. The President's hasty attempt to renew the Federal relations of the Confederate States was partially responsible for this hostility, and to this was added the conduct of these States themselves. The emancipation had suddenly thrust forth upon the South an immense, homeless, laboring population, which, in its new-found liberty, was not inclined to settle down immediately to industry. Such a condition of affairs was alarming and possibly dangerous. The Southern legislatures attempted to correct it by passing codes that were, in some cases, restrictive to the point of rigidness. The North had been narrowly watching the course of the Southerners in regard to the negroes and the new codes at once stirred up an exceedingly

[1] Wilson's "Division and Reunion," p. 260.

The Political History of Virginia during the Reconstruction/3

The Beginning of the Reconstruction. p.41

active and bitter criticism. It is true that Virginia had had

no share in these legislative proceedings when Congress met

on December 4, 1865, but her legislature speedily adopted

vagrant laws which placed her in the same class, in the

Northern opinion, with the other Confederate States. The new assembly, which passed the vagrant acts, met on December 4, 1865. It was a representative body and accordingly conservative. Some members, indeed, had served under the Confederate government. John B. Baldwin, of Augusta, one of the ablest politicians in the State and a former member of the Confederate Congress, was elected speaker of the house of delegates. But none of the prominent leaders in the secession movement, such as Robert M. T. Hunter and William Smith, were present. The National Intelligencer said of this body : "It is a curious fact that in the house of delegates, ninety-six, or with one exception, every member is an old time Whig, while in the senate it is pretty much the same." The assembly at once showed its representative sentiment. The restrictions imposed on Confederates as to suffrage were removed on December 8, 1865, when, in accordance with the result of the recent election, the disfranchising article of the Alexandria constitution was repealed. The legislature substituted no other conditions for voting and made no further reference to disfranchisement. It next attempted to bring about a reconciliation with West Virginia. The war had shaken and well-nigh wrecked the State, but this, the first legislative body of the new era, went immediately to work to regain for Virginia all that was yet possible. On February 15, 1866, the assembly passed an act appealing to West Virginia to reunite with Virginia and directing the appointment of a committee to negotiate with West Virginia concerning the payment of her share of the State debt.

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