University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VIII

THE ELIMINATION OF THE CARPETBAGGERS
1869 TO 1879

The victory over the Radicals had been fairly won under
the careful supervision of the Federal authorities. The Radical
domination of the state government by means of the colored
vote was ended. But they retained their hold on the local administration
in the black counties and were a constant menace
to the political welfare of the State. Grave economic troubles
had arisen out of war and Reconstruction. But before the people
of the State could turn their attention to these matters, the
political field had to be cleared of carpetbaggers and their
radical followers, and the negroes relegated to the background
in the affairs of government.

The economic troubles were intimately bound up in state
politics with the state debt of over forty-five million dollars
that had been contracted before the War of Secession for
works of internal improvement.[1] The greater part of this debt
had been made during the hopeful decade just preceding the
war. During the decade of war and Reconstruction which followed,
it was enormously increased by the unpaid interest that
accumulated. Had there been no war, the debt, representing
for the most part good investments, would not have been a
burden to the people. In 1870, however, it weighed like a millstone
upon the State, and was to dominate Virginia politics
for the next two decades. In 1866, the payment in full of the
debt and accumulated interest was pledged by the last legislature
representing the old regime. By the code of honor of

this regime, those who governed the State guarded its honor
as jealously as they guarded their own honor in their personal
dealings. Fraud had been practically unknown in the public
affairs of the Commonwealth. The stand taken by the legislature
in 1866 was heroic in view of the extreme poverty of
the State at that time.

At the beginning of his administration, Governor Walker
took too hopeful a view of the situation. In his message of
March 8, 1870, he advocated the funding of the entire debt on a
basis most favorable to the creditors, and the passage of other
laws to strengthen public and private credit. His advice was
heartily seconded by the press of the State and was approved
by conservatives everywhere.

The legislature showed by its acts a desire to conform to
the new order of things and to follow the lead of the Governor
in an effort to strengthen the financial condition of the Commonwealth.
A good system of public schools was inaugurated
under the very efficient management of the first superintendent
of public instruction, Dr. W. H. Ruffner; and provision was
made for putting into operation the new system of local government
required by the Underwood Constitution. But by
taking advantage of the provision in the constitution that reapportionment
should be made on the basis of representation
in the General Assembly, the legislature broke up the gerrymander
of the Underwood Constitution.[2]

Closely associated with the debt question was the question
of railroad ownership and control. Governor Walker advocated
the abandonment of the State's interest in the railroads.
As a result of its policy of borrowing, the State owned a controlling
interest in its main lines of communication. In response
to the advice of the Governor, the legislature, after
a bitter struggle, passed an act[3] providing for the sale of the
State's railroad stock at a sacrifice. The negro vote was the

deciding factor in the passage of this bill.[4] The act was not
favorable to the interests of the State, and the people felt that
their common property had been bartered away. This was one
of the most important pieces of legislation of that session.

The most important act of the session, however, was the
Funding Act, which was passed two days later. By this act it
was provided that the old bonds could be exchanged for new
ones, bearing six per cent interest—the old rate—for two-thirds
of the amount of the old bonds respectively, and the
overdue interest on them. With these were to be given interest-bearing
certificates for the other third, upon which was to be
the indorsement that payment of this would be made in accordance
with such settlement as would thereafter be made between
Virginia and West Virginia. Interest promises were to be
in the form of coupons receivable in payment of taxes or other
dues to the State.[5]

The bill was rushed through the House at the close of the
session with little opportunity for debate. It received the support
of half the Conservatives and of all the Republican members
but one.[6] The negroes, who were Republicans, voted
against the bill at first but reversed their vote three hours
later.[7] It was believed that they had been bribed.

After the passage of this act the revenues of the State
were not sufficient to pay the six per cent interest on the debt
and at the same time pay the other appropriations provided
by her laws.[8] The current expenses of the State, which had
averaged a little over half a million dollars, now required an

annual appropriation of over a million dollars. To offset this,
only little was realized from the sale of the State's railroad
assets under the act of March 28, 1871.[9] Furthermore, taxes
were already high and the people were in very straightened
circumstances. The negroes, who constituted over a third of
the population, had practically no property at all to be taxed.

There had been little interest taken in the campaign of
1870. Three Republican and five Conservative representatives
were elected to Congress. The color line had appeared as usual
between the two parties. At the end of the legislative session
of 1870-1871, party issues were still ill defined. The debt and
railroad controversies of that session had not been strictly
along party lines. Party platforms had been conciliatory and
not clear cut. There were factions in both parties because of
recent legislation, and on account of strife between the carpetbaggers,
supported by the negroes, and their allies, the scalawags,
over the distribution of Federal patronage.[10] But the
Conservatives reorganized the party in their convention of
August 30, 1871. The old ante-bellum leaders, who had been
barred from politics, now made their presence felt. It should
be noted, however, that six negro members from Richmond
were given a hearty welcome at this convention and Governor
Walker was invited to be present. About a month later the
Republican convention formulated a platform in which the
Conservative party was severely arraigned. The Funding Act,
which had received the votes of their own delegates when
passed, received special condemnation. It was also stated in
the platform that the Conservatives had not fulfilled the requirements
of the new constitution in regard to the public
schools, and also in regard to the right of negroes to sit on
juries.

In the November election which followed, the Conservatives
increased their majority in the House of Delegates by fifteen

members, and in the Senate by six.[11] The number of negroes
in the House was reduced from twenty-one to fourteen, and
in the Senate from six to three.

In the meanwhile, the financial situation of the State was
becoming very serious. The state government found it impossible
to meet the obligations imposed by the Funding Act
of March, 1871, and defaulted in the payment of the interest
on the new bonds. In March, 1872, an act was passed over
the Governor's veto forbidding tax collectors from receiving
the coupons, already issued, in payment of taxes.[12] But the
Virginia Court of Appeals, in December, 1872, declared this
act an impairment of the obligation of contract and therefore
unconstitutional.[13] As a result, coupons were redeemed as before.
A deficit occurred in the State's revenue. On account of
this the public schools suffered most heavily.[14] The new development
in the debt question was looked upon with alarm by
the Conservative leaders, especially those of the old school,
who believed with William L. Royall that "all of this proceeded
directly from the new order of things which the introduction
of the negro as a voter produced."[15]

The legislature of 1872-1873 did not improve the situation
by acts to reduce the expenses of the government or to aid
the credit of the Commonwealth though elected with that end
in view. The Conservative party failed to carry the State for
Horace Greeley, the Liberal-Republican candidate, in the national
election of 1872. In the Congressional elections of that
year, Radical (Republican) candidates were elected from the
four eastern and southern districts—the black districts—of

the State. The remaining five were won by the Conservatives.[16]

The Republican success in this election greatly encouraged
them and aroused the Conservatives to increased efforts in the
campaign for the election of the higher State officers and
members of the General Assembly.

The campaign of 1873 was one of unusual interest throughout
the Commonwealth. The Radical or Republican convention,
assembled in Lynchburg on July 30. About half of its
members were colored.[17] Robert W. Hughes, a former secessionist
and a man of ability, who came from southwestern
Virginia, was nominated for governor; C. P. Ramsdell, a
carpetbagger from an eastern county, for lieutenant-governor;
and David Fultz, an old Union man, from Augusta County, for
attorney-general. Thus every faction of the party and every
section of the State were represented. The platform adopted
was generous, progressive, and of wide appeal.

The Conservative convention, held in Richmond a few days
later, August 6, was one of the largest and most enthusiastic
meetings ever held by the party. Their nominations and platform,
like those of the Republicans, were made with a view
to harmonize contending factions and sections. General James
L. Kemper, from the Valley, an officer in the Mexican war
and in the War of Secession, was nominated for governor,[18]

James Lawson Kemper

Governor, 1874-1878

Colonel R. E. Withers of the Southwest, for lieutenant-governor;
and Raleigh T. Daniel, a prominent lawyer and
party leader, of Richmond, for attorney-general. Kemper
owed his nomination largely to the influence of William Mahone,
whom he had supported in the contest over the railroads.
Withers, on the other hand, was an enemy of Mahone.[19]

The return of the old leaders to political life was made possible
by the wholesale removal of disabilities by Congress in
1872. The same qualities that had brought these men to the
front in times of war brought them to the front in political
affairs, and their rank in the army made them heroes in the
popular mind. The platform adopted by the convention had
much in common with the platform adopted by the Radicals
the previous week, but it was not quite as liberal in content
and tone. A comparison was drawn between the condition
of Virginia under Conservative control and that of other
Southern states under Radical rule; justice to all, regardless
of race or nativity, was made the aim of the party; the new
system of public schools was pointed to with pride, and liberal
support of public school education was advocated.[20] Conservatives
were advised to vote against all independent candidates.

In spite of the fortunate nominations and the progressive
platforms of the two parties, the true issue of the campaign,
negro control in politics, could not be concealed. The campaign
was a struggle of the carpetbaggers to regain their former
prominence through the aid of the negroes. The bitterness
of their fight was increased by the realization that this would
be, perhaps, their last one if they were defeated at that time.
So sharply drawn was the line between the whites and the

blacks that, as The Nation expressed it, it was "barely an
exaggeration to say that it was a struggle of races."[21] The
Conservatives, who had refrained from recognizing the color
line in former campaigns, now frankly did so, and challenged
the whites to be true to their race by supporting their party.
They had tried in vain to effect some kind of compromise to
break the solid ranks of the negroes under their Radical
leaders in order to avoid the race issue in politics. There was
now but one course to pursue,—that of drawing the color line
just as their opponents had done. The whites in the central,
eastern, and southern counties of the State had borne patiently
the results of Reconstruction. They had in their local
offices, and as their representatives in the legislature, their
former servants—carriage-drivers, butlers, shoemakers, and
field hands—and self-seeking white adventurers from without
the State, and native demagogues. Some of the negro officers
were honest and capable men who exerted a good influence
over their people; but even these were lacking in training and
experience to represent educated white constituencies, which
had always possessed a genius for politics and high standard
for its officers. According to Dr. W. H. Ruffner, the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction, there was in these counties
"one agonizing desire; it is for honest, enlightened, local
government, and for deliverance not only from the actual
incubus, but from the constant dread, of semi-barbarous
rule."[22] The weakening of the Republican party by the many
political scandals during President Grant's administration,
and by the panic of 1873, diverted the mind of the North from
Southern affairs and gave the Conservatives in Virginia more
freedom from outside influence in politics. It was also at this
time that there occurred the famous decisions of the Federal
Supreme Court in the Slaughter House Cases, which marked
a reaction in that court against the undue interference of the
Federal government in the political affairs of the individual
states.

During the campaign of 1873, the Radicals adjured the
negroes to support their party and reminded them that the
whites, or Conservatives, had once held them in slavery and
would do so again if they could control the government. In
answer, the Conservatives urged the whites to be loyal to their
race and to remember the crimes committed under negro local
rule in the State. For example, reference was made to the
ravishing of an old lady by two of Kellogg's colored policemen,
of which deed the Lynchburg News said, "It seems monstrous
to suppose that any white man, having a mother, sister, wife
or daughter, can march up to the polls and vote to place in
power a party which connives at such outrages."[23] The horrible
example of Radical-negro rule that could then be seen in
other Southern states afforded the white Conservatives an
ample and just reason for the existence of their party.

The election resulted in the defeat of the Republicans.
Kemper won with a majority of 27,239 votes out of the 214,237
cast. Withers and Daniel were also elected. In the General
Assembly the Conservatives had as the result of the election
33 men in the Senate and 99 in the House of Delegates. The
Republicans had 9 men in the Senate and 33 in the House.
A third of the Republicans in the Senate and over a half of
the Republicans in the House were colored.[24]

One of the hardest things for outsiders to realize was the
friendly relations that still existed between the members of

the two races in Virginia outside of politics. In spite of bitterness
engendered by political strife and outside interference,
when blacks met whites in everyday life, the old attachment
that had existed between master and servant before the war
continued to exist. The negroes did not cease to look to the
whites for protection, advice, and employment; and the whites
depended upon the negroes for their labor. In speaking of
this in 1873, Dr. Ruffner said, "In spite of the political contests
in the race line, the personal relations between the white and
colored people are not only friendly, but are more free and
genial than commonly exist between the corresponding classes
of whites."[25] In his message to the General Assembly of
January 1, 1874, Governor Kemper pointed to the fact that
there was not a single discrimination in regard to race in the
laws of the State, and that the Federal government had not
had a single occasion to interfere in the domestic affairs of
the State upon the pretext of injustice or inequality in the
Virginia code of laws, or in their application and enforcement
between the races. In reference to the recent defeat of the
carpetbaggers, he said, "Recent events prove how futile, and
how disastrous to its authors, must be any attempt to array
the colored race as a political combination upon any principle
of antagonism between the races. All such attempted combinations
of the past are dissolved and dispersed and we are
afforded a golden opportunity for settling forever the internal
jealousies which have hindered our material progress, and for
completing the pacification of all elements of the body politic."
The Governor advocated the division of the races socially and
their mutual aid along all lines of progress. He desired the
moral and educational betterment of the colored people. In
political affairs, he was confident that the white people would
lead, on account of their superior numbers, wealth, political
training, and intelligence.[26]

The growing strength of the Conservative party was further

shown in the returns of the Congressional elections in the
fall of that year, 1874. With the exception of one representative,
William H. H. Stowell, administration candidate from
the Fourth District, all the representatives elected were Conservatives.
Excitement ran high during these political campaigns.
John Goode defeated James H. Platt, of Vermont, in
a warmly contested election for a seat in Congress from the
district in which Norfolk city is located. Platt had made himself
exceedingly obnoxious to the white people of the district
and Goode gives the following account of the reception that
he received upon his victory over Platt:

"The city was brilliantly illuminated and nearly the entire
population turned out to meet me at the station, and with a
torchlight procession escorted me to my house."[27]

In this district the negroes nominated as candidate one of
their number, Robert Norton, in a mass meeting at Yorktown.

After the defeat of the Radicals at the polls the Conservatives,
under the guidance of their old leaders, proceeded with
the undoing of Reconstruction in the State. Resolutions had
already been adopted by the previous Assembly to amend the
article in the Underwood Constitution relating to county organization.[28] These resolutions were now finally adopted. The
amendments, therein, provided for the abolition of a third of
the local officers, and for changing the name "township"
(which was a constant reminder of Reconstruction adventurers
who had introduced the township system in the Commonwealth)
to "magisterial district," the old name. This
amendment was submitted to the people in the fall of 1874 and
was ratified by a good majority.

Governor Kemper was not satisfied with the amendment
because it was not drastic enough, and strongly advocated
further amendments. "That instrument," he said, referring
to the Underwood Constitution, "imposes upon the impoverished

and sparce population of Virginia a frame-work of state
and local government so complicated and costly that it must
of necessity be oppressive in any but a densely settled state.
After Virginia had been stripped of a third of her territory
and more than half of her material values—when the legislature
should have been reduced in numbers one-half, and the
government conformed to the diminished size and resources
of the State—the legislative department was made relatively
large, its session twice as frequent, and the whole machinery
of the government more expensive than when the State was
powerful, rich, and prosperous. The Constitution is full of
details which belong only to the domain of ordinary legislation.
It puts unusual and meddlesome restrictions upon the legislative
power, which cripple the government in its efforts to
equalize the burdens of taxation, and to restore the state
credit. It contains provisions and allusions touching our past
history which are irritating and offensive to a majority of the
people."[29] Furthermore, he said, it had abolished the "anbecause
ti was not drastic enough, and strongly advocated
cient, honest and manly mode of voting by the living voice,"
and had substituted the secret ballot, a source of fraud, dissimulation
and falsehood.

During the session of 1874-1875 the legislature, acting upon
the Governor's advice, again laid violent hands upon the
Underwood Constitution, and the reaction against Reconstruction
went on apace. Two sets of amendments were adopted
for submission to popular vote. The first of these dealt with
that part of the constitution relating to the elective franchise
and qualifications for office; the second with the article relating
to the legislative department. To the former disqualifications
from voting—insanity, bribery at elections, embezzlement of
public funds, duelling (or aiding in a duel), treason and felony,—was
added petit larceny. The following oath, that had
been required of "every person offering or applying to register,"
was stricken from the constitution:

"I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . do solemnly swear (or affirm)
that I am not disqualified from exercising the right of suffrage
by the Constitution framed by the Convention which assembled
in the City of Richmond, on the third day of December, eighteen
hundred and sixty-seven, and that I will support and defend
the same to the best of my ability."[30]

Thus an unhappy reminder of the past was removed and
the ground was cleared of this obstacle to tender consciences
in the future.

By the second group of amendments, adopted at this time,
the number of members of the House of Delegates was reduced
from 132 to not over 100; the General Assembly would mee
biennially instead of annually; power was given the General
Assembly to provide for the government of cities and towns,
and to establish such courts therein as might be necessary for
the administration of justice; the General Assembly was given
the power to remove disabilities incurred by aiding or participating
in duelling; and finally, the former custom of requiring
the payment of a poll tax as a requisite for voting
was revived.

This tax requirement did not prove satisfactory as there
was no provision made for a set time for the payment of the
tax before the elections. It was consequently often paid at the
last moment for the voter. Fraud resulted, and much money
was needed by each party for the purchasing of votes. Furthermore,
some of the poorer whites were disfranchised
thereby. When the Readjuster party came into power in 1880,
the legislature proposed an amendment to abolish that part
of the constitution. The amendment, according to law, had
to be passed by a second session of the legislature. It was
approved a second time and was ratified by the people in 1882.

There was no change in the suffrage after this until 1902.[31]

Although the poll tax requirement as a requisite for voting
may have been aimed chiefly at the negro,[32] who it was believed
would not pay his poll tax, the fiscal need for the law was
largely responsible for its existence. The change in the constitution
was strongly urged by Governor Walker at the beginning
of his administration on this account. In 1873, Dr.
Ruffner advocated the payment of a two dollar poll tax as a
requisite for voting in order to provide money for the public
schools. He reminded the people of the fact that it was the
custom in Virginia before 1867 to require tax receipts of those
desiring to vote, and cited this as "evidence that this movement
(for the poll tax requirement) was not aimed at the
rights and privileges of any particular color or condition."[33]
He said furthermore that the restrictions on the franchise that
existed in some parts of New England at that time were much
more severe. In Connecticut, for example, no man could vote
who could not read; and in Massachusetts the ability to read
and write was required of voters.

The change in the constitution which placed the form of
administration for the respective cities in the hands of the
legislature, was one of the most important adopted at this
time. This, like several other contemporaneous changes, was
designed to deliver the local governments of the black belt
out of the hands of the negroes and their leaders.

It was at this time that disillusionment first came to the
negroes in regard to their white allies, the Radical-Republicans
from abroad. Upon the failure to receive the Federal support
which they had so earnestly prayed for, the more aspiring
and capable carpetbaggers had sought other occupations or
more propitious fields for their political activity. Some had
joined the Conservative ranks. But the less capable of these
unwelcome invaders still lingered in the black counties, courting
favor with the colored people in order to win an office
here and there. These men had, by their familiarity with the
colored people, and by their lack of real sympathy and regard
for them, brought upon themselves the contempt of the negroes,
who, after all, still prided themselves on their friendship
with the better class of whites. Financial troubles had
diverted the attention of the people of the North from their
former wards at the South. The negroes now began to realize
that they were not only forsaken by their former political
allies, but also that the whites were no longer in the mood to
compromise in political affairs.

The colored voters gave vent to their dissatisfaction in a
state convention held at Richmond on August 20, 1875. The
meeting was called for the purpose of preserving the rights of
the colored people, and of securing redress for the wrongs
which, they asserted, they had received at the hands of the local
authorities, and at the hands of the Republican leaders in
Richmond and Washington. There were many delegates present
from all parts of the State. Like former Radical gatherings
of this kind, it was characterized by much speaking, excitement,
and confusion. Resolutions were adopted as follows:

"Believing in a republican form of government, such as
emanated from the reversionary right of all power, it should
not or would not be deemed improper or impertinent for us,
who represent nine-tenths of the Republican voters of Virginia,
to state candidly and earnestly some of our grievances,
which we have borne patiently as a party and as a class. * * *

"Resolved, That we look with the utmost anxiety and alarm

at the condition of disorganization and disaffection existing
in the party in the state, caused by the appointment of a number
of Federal office-holders all over the state, many instances
of which occur to us who are pronounced Democrats, who
would blush Judas-like were Republican sentiments imputed
to them; and of others who are an incubus to the party, and
are preparing the way for a precipitate desertion into the
Democratic lines in case the late lamented Confederacy shall
succeed in establishing its power and supremacy again in
1876."[34]

The proposed amendment of the constitution making petty
larceny a cause of disfranchisement was discussed by members
of the convention and denounced as an unjust discrimination
against their race. Resolutions were adopted to that
effect.[35] One delegate said, "It is hard that a poor negro
cannot take a few chickens without losing his right to vote."

The effects of the end of carpetbag rule, and of the operation
of the new legislation undoing Reconstruction, may be
seen in the results of the elections of 1877 and 1878. As the
result of the former election, the number of Republican members
of the House of Delegates was reduced from twenty-two
to nine. There were only seven negroes left in the legislature.
The representatives elected to Congress in 1878 were Conservatives,
with the exception of one Republican from the
Fourth District. Now that the Conservative party was no
longer held together by the race question and the Republican
party had become practically a negro organization, the number
of independent members of the House of Delegates had
increased from six to twenty-three.

The negroes, who had been "noisy and jubilant" over
Hayes's election in the national contest of 1876,[36] did not

realize that his election meant a compromise between the
North and the South; nor did they suspect that it marked
the beginning of a deadlock between the great political parties
which was to exist from 1875 to 1879, and which was to prevent
all interference in Southern affairs by the national government.
Furthermore, there were many in both sections who
had begun to say, in the words of an eminent Southerner, "I
am tired of this turmoil and distrust. I want a country I
can love."[37]