University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER IV

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1867

Registration under the Reconstruction Acts took place in
the summer of 1867. Those who had held any state or Federal
office, and afterwards supported the Confederacy were disqualified
from holding office and from voting. The following
were classed as state officials: "Governor, Lieutenant-Governor,
Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts,
Second Auditor, Registrar of the Land Office, State Treasurer,
Attorney-General, Sheriff, Sergeant of a city or town,
Commissioner of the Revenue, County Surveyors, Constables,
Overseers of the Poor, Commissioners of the Board of Public
Works, Judges of the Supreme Court, Judges of the Court of
Hustings, Justices of the County Courts, Mayor, Recorder, and
Aldermen of a city or town corporation, Escheators, Inspectors
of tobacco, flour, etc., Clerks of the Supreme Court, District,
Circuit, and County Courts, and of the Court of Hustings,
and Attorneys for the Commonwealth."[1]

The Commanding General of the District estimated that
70,000 of the whites were disfranchised in this way. Although
this estimate is "more ingenious than convincing," as Professor
Dunning puts it, it is certain that thousands of the leading
men—all who had had experience in administration—were
disfranchised.

The number of registrants totaled 225,933, of which 120,101
were white and 105,832, or 47 per cent, were colored. The
colored voters formed a majority in half of the counties. But
since these were the most populous counties of the State, they
were at an immense advantage when it came to representation.

There were 90,555 registrants in the white section, the northern
and western part of the state, and 125,895 in the black
section to the south and east. By a strict apportionment on
the basis used, one representative to 2,061 constituents, there
would have been forty-four representatives from the white
counties and sixty-one from the colored counties—in spite of
the fact that in the State as a whole the majority of the whites
was 14,269. The actual apportionment gave the districts under
white control forty-seven representatives to the Convention,
and those under colored control fifty-eight.[2]

When the colored population was enfranchised in the
spring of 1867, the Republican party was already organized
and in the field. There was no other party in Virginia. Furthermore,
that party had two highly developed organizations
to bring the negroes into line, the Freedmen's Bureau and the
Union League. The Freedmen's Bureau was established in
Virginia on June 15, 1865. The State was divided into eight
districts, each under an assistant quartermaster. These, in
turn, were divided into sub-districts under the command of
military officers. The creation of this bureau was the logical
result of the obligation which emancipation imposed on the
Federal Government. It began its work as a strictly nonpolitical
institution and accomplished no little good. But it
assumed more and more authority of a political nature and
finally controlled practically all the relations between the
races. Its influence now caused trouble. This organization
not only protected and cared for the freedmen but also
impressed upon their minds the debt which they owed the
Republican party. The political strength of the institution
was great. But more powerful as a political factor was the
Union League. It was organized in Virginia late in 1866. Its
secrecy and the mysterious solemnity of its ritual made a
strong emotional appeal to the colored people. They were
taught in the ritual that their only friends were the Union

Republicans, and that their chief enemies were their former
masters who were not of the Republican party.[3] They were
also encouraged to assert their newly acquired rights in season
and out of season.[4]

As soon as the people of Virginia had recovered from the
stupefaction into which they had been thrown by the Reconstruction
Acts, they began at once to attempt to win the colored
vote from the control of the Radicals. But the futility of their
efforts is plainly shown by the returns of the fall elections.

There was also a futile attempt made by the conservative
colored leaders to win their people from the control of their
unscrupulous leaders and to find some basis of compromise
with the native white conservatives. The State owes much to
the self-control, wisdom and moderation of many such colored
men, who, though too much in the minority to accomplish
a great deal, did their best to narrow the breach that was
rapidly separating the two races. As early as April 15, 1867,
a committee of colored men in Richmond invited several prominent
white men to give their political views. The meeting was
addressed by William H. McFarland, Marmaduke Johnson,
and Raleigh T. Daniel, who was introduced by the chairman
of the colored committee, Solon Johnson.[5] Three days later,
a great mass meeting assembled in the Courthouse Square in
Petersburg. It was called by a number of the most influential
white citizens of the town and had as its presiding officer,
Robert McIlwaine. A correspondent of the Richmond Dispatch
thus described the meeting: "The crowd was immense,
and the whites and blacks mixed up indiscriminately, and the
best disposition was manifested by all present." A series of
resolutions was unanimously adopted advocating equal school
advantages for the white and colored and equal legal and
political rights to both races. The negroes were invited to

attend the political meetings of the whites and to participate
in their deliberations.

Although the people of Virginia did not accept the Petersburg
platform as their political creed, it was a long step
forward in the compromise movement among the Conservatives
of the two races. The Richmond Dispatch even went so
far as to predict that these resolutions would probably be
adopted as the platform of the Conservatives throughout the
state.[6] They were adopted by several local conservative conventions.
In Charlottesville, on April 24, 1867, a meeting was
called at the Delevan Hospital by a large number of colored
men, who invited speakers of both races "to interchange
political opinions." Speeches were made by William F.
Gordon and Col. T. J. Randolph, who represented the whites,
and by Fairfax Taylor and Rev. Nicholas Richmond, who represented
the blacks. Harmony prevailed at the meeting with
the exception of the speech by Fairfax Taylor, who was
reported as bitter and insulting to the whites. In conclusion,
Mr. Gordon read the Petersburg resolutions of April 18, to
which all seemed to subscribe heartily.[7] Influential negroes of
Cape Charles, Amelia and other counties called similar meetings.[8] This movement seems, however, to have had little
success in winning over the rank and file of the negroes to the
Conservatives.

In the meanwhile a new and much more important movement,
the "cooperation" movement, was inaugurated. The
purpose of this movement was to bring about cooperation
between the Conservatives and the Republicans in such a way
as to form a new Republican organization that would be less
extreme than that led by Hunnicutt. It had the support of
the moderate element of the Republican party both within and
without the State, and was supported by many of the most
influential Conservatives of Virginia. The resolutions adopted

at a meeting in Albemarle County in behalf of cooperation
show the aims of the cooperators. It was resolved, "That
having consented in good faith to the reconstruction of the
Southern States under the Sherman-Shellabarger Bill, we
consider ourselves bound in honor to the unconditional maintenance
of the Union of these states, and that we regard the
welfare of Virginia and of the other Southern States as
requiring that our people should cooperate with the party
that will give us protection for life and property, and believing
that the Republican party of the United States alone has
the power to give us protection, we desire to cooperate with
them."[9]

The respectability of the movement is shown by the names
of the persons connected with it. Among those appointed on
the committee of resolutions at the Albemarle meeting were
Col. John J. Bocock, William T. Early, W. F. Gordon, W. H.
Southall, J. R. Barksdale, Col. R. T. W. Duke, Dr. A. G.
Dabney and Dr. W. C. N. Randolph.[10] There were similar
cooperation conventions in a number of other counties of the
State, and by the end of July, 1867, cooperation had gained
considerable importance.[11]

Throughout the whole campaign of 1867 the extreme radicalism
of the Radical Republicans in Virginia gave much
concern to moderate Republicans everywhere. The New York
Tribune of April 12, 1867,[12] made this comment on the subject:
"Far be it from us to advise a campaign of bitterness. We
do not propose to influence the negro by exciting in his mind a
hatred of his former masters. Nor should we advise any
organization antagonistic to those masters. Agitators like
Mr. Hunnicutt, of Virginia, may mean well, but their zeal is
bitter and offensive. To organize a campaign on the Hunnicutt
plan is to abandon any hope of a permanent Union party

in the South. We cannot afford to array the white against the
black, or the black against the white."

In April, Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, came to
Virginia in order to deliver his party from the Hunnicutt
element, and to form a respectable Republican party around
the old Union men and former Whigs.[13] He did not succeed,
however, in disturbing the Hunnicutt organization. In fact,
he was too conservative for the Radicals and too radical for
the Conservatives. He also seemed to have had an exaggerated
idea of the number of men in Virginia who had been true to
the Union during the war, and was not as careful as he might
have been in his utterances before and during his visit to the
State. He had the support of John Minor Botts, who had
attempted at an early date to organize a conservative Republican
party in Virginia.

After registration had begun in March, 1867, the freedmen
became more and more engrossed in politics. The Union
League and the Radical agitators, of whom there were not a
few from the North at this time, had the negroes completely
under their control. According to Gen. Edgar Allen, its
Grand Deputy in Virginia, the Union League was "a system
of night schools in which they (the negroes) were instructed
in the privileges of citizenship and the duties they owed to
the party which had made them free and given them exercise
of suffrage."[14] Largely as a result of this political excitement
among the freedmen, labor became increasingly more
unsatisfactory.[15]

On March 20, 1867, the Republican State Central Committee
called a state convention to meet in the African Church
in Richmond on April 17. About half (forty-nine) of the
counties were represented. Of the 210 delegates present at
this convention only fifty were white. The assembly was

entirely under the control of Hunnicutt, who boasted in a
bitter speech to the delegates that "the rebels have forfeited
all their rights, and we will see that they never get them
back."[16] The negro delegates took an active part in the discussions
and made some very inflammatory speeches. They even
surpassed their white leaders in advocating extreme measures
against the native whites. They urged confiscation almost
unanimously. On the second day of its session the convention
resolved itself into a great mass-convention of negro and white
Radicals in the Capitol Square. There was considerable disorder
at both meetings of the convention. There were numerous
calls for the confiscation of "rebel" lands, cheers for
Thaddeus Stevens, condemnations of President Johnson and
of the "rebel aristocracy," and disputes between the delegates.
A few of the cooler heads among the freedmen counseled
moderation. Fields Cook, of Richmond, reminded his
people that the whites still had a majority in the State and that
harmony would be wisest. Several other colored speakers
gave the same advice, but none of them were heeded by the
crowd of excited negroes. Similar local Radical conventions
were held in the State at a number of places,[17] with the same
disquieting results.

The effect of all this radical propaganda upon the ignorant
freedmen is clearly seen in the riots and general restlessness
among them during the spring and summer of 1867, especially
in the latter part of April and during May.

Near the end of April, four negroes insisted upon their
right to ride upon a street car in Richmond and were taken
off by the police.[18] A riot was narrowly averted. The city
recorder ruled that the car company could make such regulations
as it chose concerning those who should ride on its cars.
But the president of the company decided to remove the
restrictions from the colored people.

On Tuesday, May 6, 1867, the United States Circuit Court
convened in Richmond. Judge John C. Underwood presided.[19]
It was an interesting event and well calculated to produce
uneasiness among the white people of the State. In the first
place the judge, Underwood, was one of the most bitter and
unscrupulous carpet-baggers in Virginia politics. And in the
second place, negroes served on jury for the first time in the
history of the State.[20] This event was unfortunate, especially
at this time, as it produced in the minds of the untutored
freedmen an exaggerated estimate of their own importance in
political affairs, and increased the friction already existing
between the races. Nor was Judge Underwood's fiery charge
to the grand jury of such a nature as to promote harmony
between the different elements in the state.[21]

On Friday, May 10, fourteen white and twelve colored
men were summoned as petty jurors of the Circuit Court.[22]
It was before a mixed jury chosen from among these men that
the notorious Judge Underwood summoned Jefferson Davis to
appear, after his two years' confinement at Fortress Monroe.[23]

On the same day that Judge Underwood summoned his men
for the petty jury a mob of negroes rescued from policemen
one of their number who had been taken into custody for disorderly
conduct. Several policemen were badly injured and a
number of others were in danger from a shower of stones
thrown at them by the mob. The spirit of the mob was shown
by a remark of one of its members, who said, "We got Judge
Underwood here now; we gwine to do what we please. He'll
protect us." They were having the difficulty of newly emancipated
peoples in not being able to distinguish between liberty
and license. Having been freed from one kind of restraint,
they were loath to recognize any restraint at all. After the

mob had refused to obey the mayor's order to disperse, General
Schofield appeared and requested them to go to their
homes. When they again refused to go, he had a regiment of
soldiers disperse the crowd.

On the next day, May 11, a negro mob attempted to take
from the police a negro who had been arrested for being drunk
and disorderly. The officers were stoned and fired upon. Federal
troops were again called out to rescue the police, and
order was finally secured by General Schofield by stationing
soldiers throughout the city.

It is not without significance that on the day of the last
attack on the police one Zedekiah K. Hayward, a prominent
agitator from New England,[24] was arrested, with the approbation
of General Schofield, charged with inciting the negroes to
"acts of violence, insurrection, and war."[25] After having
urged the freedmen to assert their rights of equality in all
things, and to "have high carnival" as soon as their white
allies had left the State, he added, "It is useless for me to
advise you what to do, for great masses generally do what
they have a mind to."[26]

Throughout the summer months of 1867 the political excitement
in Virginia increased. Botts, Peirpoint, and other
conservative Republicans refused to recognize the authority of
the Republican convention of April 17, on the ground that it
was not representative of the party of the State. A call was,

therefore, made for a new convention to meet on July 4, 1867,
in Charlottesville, to organize the Republican party of the
state.[27] This call was signed by over three hundred men, many
of whom were native Virginians of prominence, for the most
part former Whigs. The movement was entirely independent
of the Hunnicutt faction, and, therefore, threatened to disrupt
the Republican party in Virginia.

At this juncture the Republican leaders in Congress called
upon the Union League clubs in several of the Northern cities
to bring about harmony between the two factions of the party
in Virginia. As a result, the leaders of both factions met with
the mediators from the North in the Governor's home in
Richmond on June 16, 1867.[28]

The Hunnicutt faction made it plain that it would not
participate in the Charlottesville convention. As a compromise,
it was decided to have another convention at Richmond.
It was to meet on August 1, and a party platform was to be
made to take the place of that of April 17. Since Richmond
had succeeded Alexandria as the Radical center of the State,
Hunnicutt had won a decided victory over the more conservative
faction of the party. With the freedmen to back him, it
would be easy to control a convention in Richmond.

The cooperation movement rapidly gained strength during
July and August. The cooperators accepted negro suffrage,
but hoped to gain the leadership and thus avoid the dangers
of Radical Reconstruction. But the white and colored Radicals
in speeches throughout the State were advocating extreme
social and political equality. Some went even further. One
of the most prominent negro Radicals of Virginia, Lewis Lindsay,
in a bitter speech at Charlottesville in July, 1867, stated
that the negroes intended to elect a part of the legislature, the
members of Congress and the governor of the State; and that

Valley of Virginia

appointments should always be equally made between the two
races.[29] The freedmen had become more radical than their
white teachers. The possibility of the more conservative faction
of the Republican party gaining their support no longer
existed, if it ever did exist. Cooperation was doomed.

On the day before the meeting of the Republican convention
of August 1, 1867, the conservative faction of the delegates
met and approved of a platform, presented by John Minor
Botts, which condemned secession as a crime, advocated the
enfranchisement of all Confederates but their leaders, and the
punishment of these.

The Republican convention met on August 1, 1867, at the
African Church in Richmond. It was a great event for the
freedmen of the city. By 10 o'clock they had left the tobacco
factories and the streets, and had gathered around the church.
At 11 o'clock the doors were opened and the negroes crowded
in. Many county delegates, both white and colored, were excluded
from the building. The only whites that were admitted
were the fifty Radical delegates who had attended the April
convention. The convention was called to assemble at 12
o'clock. In the meanwhile Hunnicutt harangued the crowd.
He expressed his disapproval of the conservative Republicans
and cooperators in no uncertain terms, and warned his followers
against the "rebels" who were "seeking admission into
the council of the Republican party." "Now," he said, "we
tell the strangers that if they want to come with us they will
have to swallow a bitter pill. They must swallow the Constitutional
Amendments, the Civil Rights Bill, the Sherman-Shellabarger-Wilson
Bill, the Supplementary Bills, every
Reconstruction Act, the Iron-clad Oath, the 17th of April
platform, Wardwell, Hunnicutt, and the nigger; yes, the nigger,
his head, his feet, his hide, his hair, his tallow, his bones,
and his suet! Nay, his body and soul! Yes, all these they
must swallow, and then, perhaps, they can be called

Republicans."[30] The main duty of the convention, he said,
was to endorse the platform of the April convention. This
was promptly done.

Those who could find no place in the African Church
assembled in "mass convention" in the Capitol Square.
John Hawkhurst, a radical, was made chairman. A motion to
invite John Minor Botts to address the convention was voted
down almost unanimously. The conservative Republicans
were again ignored and the April platform was adopted.[31]

At 8 o'clock that night there was a meeting in the hall of
the House of Delegates of members of the convention and
others who were dissatisfied with the action of the double
"mass convention" of the African Church and the Capitol
Square. Fields Cook, a colored politician with conservative
leanings, was in the chair. They decided not to form an
independent organization but to do their best to promote
harmony in the Republican ranks. Hunnicutt and his
followers held a meeting at the same time in Republican Hall.[32]

On its second and last day, the convention met at the west
end of Capitol Square. Much radical talk was indulged in,
and Hunnicutt, in a characteristic speech, advocated the disfranchisement
of all "rebels." The meetings of the convention
were very disorderly on both days. As a rule, the Radical
conventions, which were chiefly made up of freedmen,
were disorderly. The freedmen and their leaders had not
acquitted themselves well in the eyes of the country, and had
done the cause of universal suffrage no good. Furthermore,
the Republican conventions of April 17 and of August 1
increased the freedmen's love for the outward forms of politics;
gave them a high opinion of their own importance in political
affairs; made them more independent of their former
leaders, and more extreme in their radicalism. In some

places they now refused to admit whites to the Union League
and even formed armed organizations.[33]

The tumultuous convention of August 1, 1867, marks the
turning point in the political history of the negro in Virginia.
Although the attempt to bring the colored vote under the
influence of the conservative whites through fair means was
not abandoned until several years later, the color line became
henceforth sharply drawn in politics, with the negroes supporting
the least reputable factions in the respective campaigns.
The reputable whites who wished to cooperate with
them were ignored or insulted. Negro suffrage had come to
mean carpetbagism and radicalism. That negro suffrage had
come to stay was accepted by all. The whites were anxious
to compromise in such a way as not to draw the color line.
Had the negroes been content with the suffrage and conservative
white leadership, instead of allying themselves with carpetbaggers
and scalawags, advocating confiscation and disfranchisement
for the whites, and seeking office before they
were fitted for responsibilities of that kind, much bitterness
and disillusionment in politics might have been spared them.
But under the circumstances it was natural that they should
have acted as they did. They had just been freed from slavery
and were eager to enter into all the privileges of their new
estate. Politics, with its excitement, its conventions and
speech-making, was very fascinating to these childlike people.
The franchise was given them as a kind of panacea for all
their troubles. High hopes and ambitions impossible of
attainment were held out to them by misguided or unscrupulous
demagogues. Furthermore, the Radical leaders represented
the party that had been most instrumental in freeing
them from slavery at the cost of much blood and treasure,
and which was then in complete control of the Federal Government.
There were also the Freedmen's Bureau and the
Union League.

During August, September, and October, nominations were
made throughout the State for delegates of the constitutional
convention which would meet in December—if the act calling
it were not defeated at the polls. Political excitement continued.
Many freedmen abandoned themselves to attendance
upon political meetings; and labor was harder than ever to
obtain. The Conservatives had no organized party in the
State and not a few were apathetic toward politics. Many
of their most influential men had been disfranchised by the
"test oath" requirement of the act of Congress of July 9,
1867. The Radicals, on the other hand, were well organized
and aggressive.[34] Of the Radicals nominated for the convention,
about a third were negroes. Most of the conservative
Republican candidates were defeated. In Richmond, for
example, the names of Governor Peirpoint, Franklin Stearns,
and other prominent Republicans who did not follow Hunnicutt,
were not considered, and the great Republican mass
convention nominated instead the white Radicals, James
Morrissey (from Ireland), Judge Underwood (from New
York), and James W. Hunnicutt (from South Carolina), and
the colored Radicals, James Cox and Lewis Lindsay.[35] When
the conservative Republicans attempted to hold a meeting to
consider the nomination of a special ticket, a mob of freedmen
prevented them. The conservative Republicans were too few
to have any influence in the campaign.

The election to decide whether there should be a constitutional
convention and to elect delegates to the convention
(should there be one) took place during October 18 to 21, 1867.
General Schofield and his subordinate officers tried conscientiously,
it seems, to have fair elections. However, the
commanding general was justly criticized for reopening the

polls another day in some of the black wards in Richmond in
order to give the freedmen a longer time in which to vote.
This resulted in changing the outcome of the election in one
precinct.[36]

The returns of the election of 1867 are very interesting in
showing the thoroughness of the organization of the negroes
under Radical leaders, and the unmistakable race line between
Radicals and Conservatives. Of the 120,101 white registrants,
44,017 did not vote. Of the 105,832 colored registrants, only
12,687 did not vote. Only 14,835 of the 76,084 white registrants
that voted were for a constitutional convention; and
out of 92,507 blacks that voted, all but 638 were for a convention.[37] The large negro vote polled indicates the efficiency of
the radical machinery. The colored voters were not only
marshaled to the polls, but were also instructed how to vote.
Their leaders and secret societies saw to it that those who
desired to vote for Conservative delegates were prevented by
threats, ostracisms, or open violence.[38] While there was a
very decided color line in the vote on calling the convention—
especially on the side of the blacks—there was an almost absolute
color line between Conservatives and Radicals in the
choice of delegates. The northern and western counties, those
having a minority of negroes, elected native white Conservatives;
and the more populous central and eastern counties,
where negroes were in the majority, elected white and colored

Radicals. A contest was now in progress between the white
race and the black race. In Richmond, the headquarters of
the white Radicals, there were registered 5,382 whites and
6,284 blacks. The vote on the candidates for the convention
was as follows:[39]

For Conservative Candidates

           

	White Vote	Colored Vote
Johnson	4,772	25
Sturdivant	4,767	21
Taylor	4,785	26
Evans	4,760	21
Sands	4,788	23

For Radical Candidates

           

	White Vote	Colored Vote
Hunnicutt	48	5,168
Underwood	48	5,169
Morrissey	48	5,169
Lindsay (colored)	48	5,169
Cox (colored)	48	5,169

Edgar Allen, one of the most prominent Radicals, was
elected from Prince Edward County entirely by negroes, with
the exception of one white vote.[40] These are but fair examples
of what took place throughout the black belt.

Of the 105 delegates elected to the convention, thirty-five
were Conservatives, sixty-five were Radicals, and the remaining
five were doubtful. This overwhelming victory of the
Radicals greatly increased their confidence and dismayed the
whites. Bitterness also increased. Finally, the Radical leader,
Hunnicutt, was arrested by the civil authorities in November
on the charge of attempting to stir up insurrection among the
negroes by an incendiary speech that he had delivered during

the fall campaign.[41] He was released, however, on bail by the
military authorities until after the adjournment of the constitutional
convention. Although the Conservatives had laid the
blame of the attitude of the negroes in politics upon such
white Radical leaders as Hunnicutt, they now began to attribute
to the negroes a fair share of the blame for the unhappy
situation. Race relations became more unsatisfactory.

As a result of the campaign of 1867, the Conservative party
was formed. Prior to December, 1867, the Republican, or Radical
party, was the only organized political party in the State
since the War of Secession. It was not until the white people
of Virginia had seen the negroes marshaled in a body against
them by their Radical leaders that they determined to organize
a Conservative, or white man's party to protect themselves
against the rule of demagogues and their horde of ignorant
followers.[42] The leaders of the old Democratic and Whig
parties of former days issued a call for a state convention of
men of conservative views to meet in Richmond on December
11, 1867. There were 800 delegates present at this convention,
representing all parts of the State. The convention also
represented the finest type of Virginia citizens. Among
those present were, Alexander H. H. Stuart, president of the
convention, R. M. T. Hunter, J. R. Branch, William Kemper,
Marmaduke Johnson, Raleigh T. Daniel, Thomas S. Bocock,
Thomas Jefferson Randolph, S. McDowell Moore, Robert S.
Preston, T. S. Flournoy, James L. Kemper, and Wood
Bouldin.

In his inaugural address, Mr. Stuart expressed the views
and aims of those present—in fact of the white people of Virginia—when
he said, "At the close of the war, we were assured
that, upon the repeal of the Ordinance of Secession, the

repudiation of the Confederate debt, and the emancipation of
the slaves, we would be restored to our rights in the Union;
but instead of these promises being fulfilled, a policy has been
inaugurated placing the Southern States under the control of
our inferior race. We have met to appeal to the North not to
permit the infliction of this disgrace upon us. Our rights
may be wrested from us, but we will never submit to the rule
of an alien and inferior race. We prefer the rule of the bayonet.
* * * We desire further to perfect our organization
so that all who desire that this shall continue to be a white
man's government may be able to act in concert and by a
vigorous and united effort save ourselves from ruin and
disgrace."

This address contained the main features of the set of
resolutions adopted by the convention. It was resolved:
(1) That slavery had been abolished, and that it was "not the
purpose or desire of the people of Virginia to reduce or subject
again to slavery the people emancipated;" (2) that the
State should be restored to Federal relations with the United
States Government, and that the people of Virginia would not
violate or impair her obligations to the Federal Government,
but would "perform them in good faith;" (3) that the people
of the State were entitled to all the rights and privileges
guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the United States;
(4) that "to subject the white people of these states to the
absolute supremacy, in their local governments and in their
representation in the Senate and the House of Representatives,
of the black race just emerged from personal servitude—
is abhorrent to the civilization of mankind, and involves us
and the people of the Northern States in the consequences of
surrendering one-third of the Senate and one-quarter of the
House of Representatives, which are to legislate over us, to
the domination of an organized class of emancipated slaves,
who are without any of the training, habits, or traditions of
self-government;" (5) that "this convention, for the people
of Virginia, doth declare that they disclaim all hostility to

the black population; that they sincerely desire to see them
advance in intelligence and material property, and are willing
to extend to them a liberal and generous protection. But
that, while, in the opinion of this convention, any constitution
of Virginia ought to make all men equal before the law, and
should protect the liberty and property of all, yet this convention
doth distinctly declare that the governments of the states
and of the Union were formed by white men to be subject to
their control; and that suffrage should be so regulated by the
states as to continue the Federal and state systems under the
control and direction of the white race;" and (6) that the
people of Virginia would cooperate with all men regardless of
party in restoring the constitutional union of the states and
the continuance of the government under the control of the
white race.[43]

It is obvious from these resolutions, and from the party
organization effected at this time, that lines of party and of
race had become definitely fixed for the first time by the whites
of Virginia since the War; and that a new and aggressive
white man's party, the Conservative party, was ready to
oppose the Radical (Republican), or black man's party.
Attempts to compromise, for the time at least, were at an end.

After the passage of the Reconstruction Acts in March,
1867, the white people of the state accepted negro suffrage as
inevitable, whatever they may have thought of its wisdom at
that time. They were anxious for peace, and would have
accepted the new conditions of defeat without opposition had
the Radicals in Congress and in the State not continued to persecute
them. The State was placed under military rule, its
leading men—all those who had had any experience in administration—were
disfranchised and disqualified from holding
office; its people were threatened with new punishments and
humiliations; and to the uncertainty and dread caused by the
action of Congress was added the agitation among the negroes
by outsiders. In spite of these discouragements the whites

attempted to win the confidence and leadership of the negroes,
and to cooperate with the best element in the Republican party
in bringing the State back into the Union upon a firm, conservative
basis. But the Republican party, which was for the
most part radical in Virginia, was the victorious party in the
Union, which held the reins of government. By means of the
Freedmen's Bureau and the Union League, it gained complete
control over the freedmen from the beginning, and increased
its hold upon them by vague promises of land and of office.
The Radical program consisted not only of extending all civil
and political rights to all freedmen, but also of excluding all
but a few whites from the franchise and from office. The purpose
of the Radicals was made clear in the speeches of their
leaders, Hunnicutt, Underwood and others, and in the conduct
of these men in the Republican conventions of April 17
and August 1, 1867. Compromise and cooperation were no
longer possible. Carpetbaggers, scalawags, and negroes had
drawn the color line in politics. The whites therefore,
organized the Conservative party to meet the new situation.