Virginia and Virginians eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia from Sir Thomas Smyth to Lord Dunmore. Executives of the state of Virginia, from Patrick Henry to Fitzhugh Lee. Sketches of Gens. Ambrose Powel Hill, Robert E. Lee, Thos. Jonathan Jackson, Commodore Maury |
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EXPLANATORY NOTE.
For a due understanding of the status of the several and successive
executives of Virginia from its settlement, some explanation seems necessary.
It may be thus concisely given: By the charter of the London
Company for Virginia, from King James the First, of England, dated
April the 10th, 1606, under which colonization was first effected, the chief
direction of the affairs of the colony was vested in a Council in England,
appointed by the King. They, in turn, named the resident Councillors
in the Colony—each body electing its Executive or President. This plan
was modified somewhat under a second charter granted the Company
May the 23d, 1609, by which it was empowered to choose the Supreme
Council in England, and under its instructions and regulations a Governor
was provided, invested with absolute civil and military authority,
with the title of "Governor and Captain General of Virginia." The
resident Council was still retained. In the absence of the Governor-in-Chief,
authority was vested in an appointed Deputy, or Lieutenant-Governor,
or, in the absence of such officer, in the President of the
Council. Upon the annulling of the charter of the London Company,
and its dissolution July the 15th, 1624, the King henceforth appointed
the Governor-in-Chief, who, however, but rarely resided in the Colony,
his functions there being exercised by a Deputy, or Lieutenant-Governor.
The resident Council was continued, being appointed by the King on
the recommendation of the Governor, or Lieutenant-Governor. This
mode obtained whilst Virginia remained a British Colony. The salary
of the resident Governor in 1670, then Sir William Berkeley, was
£1,200. In 1754 the salary of the Governor-in-Chief was £2,000, of
which he retained £1,200, paying his Deputy, the Lieutenant-Governor
residing in Virginia, £800. Upon the rupture with the
from Williamsburg, the seat of government, in June, 1775, a recently
dissolved Assembly met in Convention in the town of Richmond, July
the 17th following, and organized a provisional form of government and
plan of defence, with a Committee of Safety consisting of Edmund Pendleton,
George Mason, John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell
Lee, Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges, James Mercer, Carter Braxton,
William Cabell and John Tabb. A succeeding general Convention met
by appointment at Williamsburg, May the 6th, 1776, and on the 29th
of June following adopted a State Constitution which provided a Council
of State, and a Governor, with a salary of £1,000, to be elected annually
by a joint ballot of the Assembly. It is of interest to note in exhibition
of the depreciation of the currency of the period that the salary of the
Governor was successively increased until in October, 1779, it was made
£7,500, and in May, 1780, because of the instability of the currency,
was fixed in the primitive medium of Virginia and paid in 60,000 pounds
of tobacco. In November, 1781, the amount was restored to £1,000,
payable in specie, and this, or its equivalent in decimal currency —
$3,333.33⅓—continued to be the salary until by act of the Assembly of
June the 5th, 1852, it was increased to $5,000. In 1781 the term of
the Governor was made three years. Under the amended Constitution of
Virginia, of 1851, the Council of State was abolished and the Governor
made elective by popular vote. Upon the surrender by General R. E.
Lee, of the Confederate Army, April the 9th, 1865, Virginia was under
martial law until May the 9th following, when, under proclamation of
President Andrew Johnson, Governor Francis H. Pierpoint assumed the
government, which he held, provisionally, until April the 16th, 1868,
when he was superseded by Henry H. Wells, under the military appointment
of General John M. Schofield, commanding the First Military
District, comprising Virginia. A State Convention met at Richmond
in December, 1867, and framed a new Constitution, which, having been
adopted by a vote of the people on the 6th of July, 1869, the State was
re-admitted to the Union, and a Governor—Gilbert C. Walker—elected,
who took his seat January the 1st, 1870, for a term of four years.
| Virginia and Virginians | |