Lewis stand? It is a matter of public notoriety that he sought, obtained, and executed large contracts with the Confederate Government to make iron to be used for military purposes. Surely it was quite as strong an evidence of hostility to the United States on his part to furnish its enemy iron to make cannon, and shot and shell to kill Federal soldiers, as it was on mine to give and in public speeches to urge others to give food and clothing to famishing and naked soldiers, and the prisoners of both combatants.

Mr. Lewis and I differ as to the true construction of the oath. He and I occupied the same position of opposition to the war. I fed and clothed Confederate soldiers, and made speeches urging others to do the same. He fed and clothed soldiers, and manufactured large quantities of iron for the Confederacy, under special contracts with it. He seems to think that his opposition to the war reaches through and gives color to all his acts during the war; that as he was involuntarily involved in the war, that that want of volition will apply to all his acts. In my judgment, the oath requires that the test of volition shall be applied to each separate act. If he voluntarily bought iron works and entered into, and executed contracts for making iron, he has incurred the penalty intended to be denounced by the act of 1862. If I am in error, and Mr. Lewis's construction of the oath be correct, then I can take it as readily as he.

In conclusion, I will add that I have received from several Northern States assurances that my election will be hailed with satisfaction by the conservative men of the North. My earnest and persistent opposition to secession is well known throughout the Northern States, and I have good reason to believe that I would be admitted to my seat.

The question seems to me to narrow itself down to this. Whose views are you to consult in selecting your representative? Are you to seek to conciliate the radicals or the conservatives? If I am elected, I shall co-operate with the conservatives. The radicals having taken open ground against the policy of President Johnson; I will seek to strengthen his hands, and support him against his enemies.

Common prudence, as well as common gratitude, dictates this course.

Virginia must now take her stand. If we surrender the great principle now in issue, where is concession to stop? Each concession will furnish the groundwork for further demands, and we may find in the end that we have conceded until we have forfeited our own self-respect and the respect of our adversaries. Better that Virginia be unrepresented than misrepresented.

ALEX H. H. STUART.

The result of the election was the choice of Mr. Stuart by an overwhelming majority, but he and his colleagues were all refused admission to their seats.

CHAPTER XXX

VIRGINIA MADE MILITARY DISTRICT No. I-THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1867-1868PERSONNEL OF ITS MEMBERS

HE members of the General Assembly elected in October, 1865 assembled in Richmond on December 4th. Both houses were organized, and Colonel John B. Baldwin of Augusta County was chosen. Speaker of the House of Delegates. He was an eminent lawyer and an able debater; and had been a colonel in the Confederate Army and a member of the Confederate Congress. The members of the Legislature were all representative, conservative citizens, and of the ninety-seven members of the House of Delegates all but one had been old-line Whigs.1

Much constructive legislation was enacted to meet the changed condition of affairs wrought by the war, and the acts of the session fill four hundred and fifty-eight pages. The influence of Colonel Baldwin over the body was so commanding that it was customary to refer to it as the "Baldwin Legislature." The next session assembled in December, 1866, and at its expiration by limitation in April, 1867, an extra session was immediately held in the same month. The printed acts of these two sessions contain nine hundred and sixty-eight pages.

The "restored government" of Virginia had been recognized by Congress and the President of the United States ever since its formation in Wheeling, in 1861, as the legal government of the State of Virginia. It had given the consent of Virginia to the formation of the new State of West Virginia out of a part of her territory, and after the fall of

1History of Virginia (Morton), p. 81.

the Confederate Government, President Johnson had recognized Pierpont as Governor of Virginia. The Alexandria Legislature, which with Governor Pierpont constituted the "restored government" of the State, met in Richmond on June 19th, 1865, and, among other things, ordered an election to be held in October, to choose members of the Legislature to succeed those whose terms were soon to expire. The election was held, and the Legislature assembled and performed its duties in a regular and orderly manner, as did also its successor at the session of 1866-1867.

Thus it would seem that Virginia, as represented by the "restored government," had never been in rebellion and had never ceased to be a member of the Union.

Nevertheless on March 2nd, 1867, Congress passed an act for the more efficient government of the "Rebel States." Pierpont and his "restored government" were treated very much as "rebels," and Virginia was degraded from her position as a sovereign State to a military district. A majorgeneral was placed in command of the district with headquarters in Richmond, and was clothed with supervisory powers over the State Government. In fact, Governor Pierpont had been subject to the orders of generals from April 3rd, 1865, until the expiration of his term of office on April 6th, 1868, when General Schofield, then commanding the district, appointed Henry H. Wells, Governor. But the Act of Congress of March 2nd, 1867, declared that the civil government was provisional only, and was in all respects subject "to the paramount authority of the United States, at any time to abolish, modify, continue or suspend the same."1

On March 23rd, 1867, an act was passed by Congress providing for an election to determine whether or not a constitutional convention should be held, and at the same time. to choose the members to sit in it. If a majority of the votes cast was in favor of holding a convention, then the commanding general was to notify the persons elected and fix

1Munford, Code of Va. 1873, p. 24.

the time and place for the convention to meet. The constitution was to be submitted to the voters for ratification. If ratified, a certified copy was to be transmitted by the president of the convention to the President of the United States, who was to transmit the same to Congress, and when the proposed Constitution had been approved by Congress, the State was to be entitled to representation in Congress.

This act, known as the Reconstruction Act, conferred upon the negroes the right to vote for members of the convention, and required that there should be a registration of the voters prior to the election. Accordingly, General Schofield, who was then in command of the military district, issued an order on April 2nd, 1867, suspending all elections by the people, until the registration was completed. It thus resulted that no sessions of the Legislature were held from the expiration of the session of 1866-'67, until 1870. The registration began on June 22nd, and was completed on July 20th. The number of voters registered was 225,933, of whom 120, 101 were white and 105,832 were colored. The colored voters were in a majority in one-half of the counties, and in close political alliance with these ignorant negroes were a large number of ignorant Northern men who had drifted to the State with the Federal Army as petty officers, chaplains, commissaries, clerks and sutlers.1

The election was held in October, and the Convention assembled in the hall of the House of Delegates in Richmond on December 3, 1867. The personnel of the members was a fair type of the voters, and it is safe to say that no such motley and ignorant body of men ever before assembled in a legislative body. The Richmond Dispatch of April 20, 1868, gave an account of the members as follows:

"The Convention consisted of one hundred and five members, of whom some thirty-five were Conservatives, some sixty-five were Radicals and the remainder doubtful. The Radicals were composed of twenty-five negroes, fourteen

1Annals of Augusta County, Waddell, page 320. History of Virginia, Morton, p. 97.