University of Virginia Library

William B. Giles, Governor,

March 4, 1827-March 4, 1830.

William B. Giles, son of William Giles and Anne Branch, his
wife, was born in Amelia County, Virginia, August 12, 1762.
He studied at Hampden-Sidney and Princeton Colleges, and
from Princeton he went to William and Mary College to study
law under the great law professor, George Wythe. From 1791
to 1803 he served in the House of Representatives, with the
exception of one term, 1798-1800, when he served in the House
of Delegates and supported Madison's famous resolutions and
report. In Congress he opposed John Jay's treaty in 1794
and the war with France. In 1804 he succeeded Wilson Cary

Nicholas in the United States Senate and being reelected
served till March 3, 1815. His failure to obey instructions in
1811 in voting for the United States Bank made him temporarily
unpopular in Virginia, which was increased by his opposition
to the Madison Administration. Mr. Giles was in private
life from 1815 to 1825, when he was a candidate for the United
States Senatorship, but was defeated by John Randolph. The
next year he was elected to the Legislature and on March 4,
1827, succeeded John Tyler as Governor. He was a member
of the State Convention of 1829-30, which convened on October
5, 1829, in the last year of his term. But he did not survive
long the close of this memorable gathering which occurred on
January 15, 1830. On December 4, 1830, he died at his residence,
"The Wigwam," in Amelia County.

In his messages, while advocating an extensive system of
internal improvements for the State, he denounced as contrary
to the Constitution the intermeddling of Congress with the
subject, and he was strong against the tariff. In a letter to the
Virginia Senators, Tazewell and Tyler, he advocated earnestly
the policy of laying an excise on goods imported from
any other State equal to the duty levied by Congress. He made
the telling point that "In distinct violation of the principle on
which American independence was founded, this tariff imposed
a tax, not by the representatives of the people bearing the
burden but by representatives of a distinct section of the
country, who did not participate in the burden of the tax."

The most important event of Giles' administration was the
meeting of the State Convention. The Constitution adopted in
1776 had existed till this time without change. It presented
a marked advance in the progress of democratic government,
but was still in many ways a copy of the old Colonial order of
government. Mr. Jefferson had not ceased to criticise it, and
it was especially objectionable to the large counties of the western
part of the State which had no greater representation than
the small counties of the East. The transmontane demanded a
white basis for representation, but the East, though unable to

defend equal county representation, insisted on a "mixed
basis" of white population and property. Eastern Virginia
demanded protection for its slaves, just as the Southern States
had demanded and received representation for three-fifths of
their slaves in the Constitution of the United States. Then
most of the taxes came from the East. Little Warwick County,
with its six hundred and eighty white persons, paid nearly
one-third of the tax paid by the 14,000 persons inhabiting the
large County of Monongahela.

After all theorizing about the fundamental principles of
law and government, the question confronting the members
was the union in one State of two dissonant factors, as existed
in the Union itself. The argument of the West was a good
one, if it meant separation, but it was subject to question, if the
East was to remain united with a section which had a totally
different set of interests to look after.

The Convention numbered in its membership of ninety-six
men two ex-Presidents, Madison and Monroe; the Chief Justice,
John Marshall; a future President, John Tyler, and many
others distinguished on the bench and at the bar and included
others who were yet to become Senators, Governors, members
of Presidential Cabinets, ministers abroad and members of
the Supreme Court of the United States. The East was led
by A. P. Upshur, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, William B. Giles,
Littleton Waller Tazewell and John Randolph of Roanoke,
and the West by Philip Doddridge, John R. Cooke, C. J.
Faulkner, Alexander Campbell and Lewis Summers. There
were, however, several from east of the Blue Ridge, like
William F. Gordon of Albemarle County, and Charles Fenton
Mercer of Loudoun County, that believed, like the Western
members, in an exclusive white basis.

A committee appointed to report on the subject was evenly
divided, and many propositions were offered but none adopted.
Till at last, when feeling had grown intense, a plan proposed
by William F. Gordon, in the nature of a compromise, received
the endorsement of the convention. The plan ignored the

JOHN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE

basis question entirely and simply attempted an equitable distribution
of the representation. This adoption was accomplished
by a union of the valley counties with the East
and was not satisfactory to the West, which threatened
secession.[105]

The net result of the work of the convention was to do
away with county representation altogether, to reduce the
council from eight members to three, to extend the suffrage
to leaseholders and householders, but the government of the
counties was allowed to remain in the hands of the justices
as of old, under the controlling power of the Legislature.
When submitted to the people the Constitution was ratified
by 26,055 votes for acceptance to 15,566 for rejection.