Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia

by Dorothy Margaret Torpey

In the same year, Richmond was the scene of a dreadful disaster. When a sensational political case was about to be tried by the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals which held its sessions above the Old Hall in the State Capitol, the gallery in the court room collapsed due to the weight of the spectators. It crashed so hard that it broke through the ceiling of the Old Hall of the House of Delegates causing the death of sixty-two persons and injury to two hundred and fifty-one other individuals. This tragic incident focused attention on the need for more careful supervision of the construction and maintenance of buildings, especially where crowds are likely to congregate.

In the following year, the United States Supreme Court, which has original jurisdiction in the settlement of disputes between two or more states of the Union, was asked to settle a controversy between Virginia and West Virginia concerning the joint boundary line. The Supreme Court held that the new State of West Virginia was valid and agreed with West Virginia as to the territory within her jurisdiction. At the same time, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act whereby the state debt of approximately forty-five million dollars was to be funded. West Virginia was to be responsible for funding one-third of this amount since she had helped accumulate this debt before her separation from Virginia.

In 1872, the Virginia General Assembly appropriated money to establish an agricultural college at Blacksburg. This college was created as a result of the Morrill Act of Congress whereby federal funds were appropriated by Congress and awarded to colleges which emphasized the teaching of agriculture and of mechanical arts. The federal funds were received from the money collected from the sale of public lands. Therefore, such colleges were called "land-grant" colleges. The college of Blacksburg, originally known as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, was the first land-grant college in Virginia and is now known as the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

The recessions which took place in the United States in 1867 and in 1869 and the Panic of 1873 indirectly helped Virginia because, instead of devoting much time and effort to Virginia's internal problems as had been planned upon its re-admission to the Union, the Congressmen at Washington were busy with the national problem of getting the United States in a more prosperous economic condition.

When the political parties held their gubernatorial conventions in Virginia in 1873, the Conservatives nominated General James L. Kemper and the Republicans nominated Robert W. Hughes. Kemper won, and the chief issue in the election was the debt problem. The Conservatives had advocated payment of the debt in order to maintain the credit of Virginia in the eyes of the public and to assume what they considered a proper obligation. However, some of the Conservatives believed that the debt would have to be lowered somewhat if it were ever to be paid in full and that, from a practical standpoint, it would have to be adjusted to the ability of the state to pay. This group of Conservatives was called the "Readjusters." In 1870, the state had been gerrymandered (districted politically) in an effort to create Negro majorities which would guarantee "carpetbagger" rule because the "carpetbaggers" seemingly had been very helpful to the Negro. The Conservatives who had won the election then enacted some reapportionment laws which resulted in the restoration of white rule in the cities. They also took it upon themselves to abolish approximately one-third of the local jobs created by the Underwood Constitution. In 1876, a law was passed which required the payment of a poll tax before voting in the state of Virginia. Although originally this tax was levied for revenue purposes, it automatically kept some of the Negroes from the voting polls because they could not afford to pay this tax. At the same time another law was passed, disfranchising all voters who had been found guilty at any time of petty larceny. Since this method had been commonly used by the Negroes directly after their emancipation, this law was criticized by some individuals as discriminatory toward the Negroes and contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment.

As time passed, the old question of the state debt loomed more important and more controversial than ever. The problem had two types of backers: one group called the "Readjusters" who believed that the debt should be drastically reduced or practically repudiated; the other group called the "Funders" who believed that Virginia was honor-bound to pay the original debt in full. The "Funders" surprisingly enough consisted of the planter and merchant class men whose financial losses had been the greatest during the war. The "Readjusters" persuaded the Negroes to adhere to their ideas primarily for political reasons. The arguments centered around such issues as: (1) whether the interest on the debt should have been cumulative during the War between the States, (2) whether Governor Walker had greatly over-estimated the potential resources of Virginia in considering the capacity of the ability of the people to pay, (3) whether the payment of a debt primarily because the honor of a state is involved is a major factor in an economic world, (4) whether the Federal government had regarded the State of Virginia as "conquered territory" and hence should assume the ante-bellum debts of this "conquered territory," (5) whether the debt itself should be reduced in all fairness because of the severe war property destruction in Virginia and because one-third of Virginia's entire state area had been reduced by the creation of West Virginia as a separate and permanent state, (6) whether Virginia had been forced by the Federal government to have the status of Military District No. 1 from 1865 to 1870 and hence would the state be held responsible for debts incurred during this period, and (7) whether local state government debts should be paid before payment should be made to outside debtors such as those in New York and London. In 1877 Colonel Frederick W. M. Holliday, the Conservative or "Funder" candidate, defeated General William Mahone, the "Readjuster" candidate for the Governorship.

Mahone subsequently succeeded in getting himself elected to the United States Senate in 1879. He became so politically influential that he eventually secured the nomination and the election of a "Readjuster" Governor for Virginia in 1881 and a Republican Lieutenant-Governor. At this time, he publicly declared himself a Republican. His "Readjuster" friends gained control of the General Assembly and removed several state government officials solely for political reasons. Mahone was considered responsible for the use of the "Spoils" System throughout the State of Virginia. During the administration of a Readjuster Governor, the debt of Virginia, as could be expected, was re-adjusted to approximately $23,000,000. Since many of the Readjuster party members consisted of Negroes, the poll tax was repealed also. The public school system and even the court system became infiltrated with politics. Often the responsible positions in these fields were filled by employees of political ability or affiliation rather than by employees with qualifications pertinent to such positions. After much rioting and corruption, Mahone's political machine finally lost control of the state in 1883.

A permanent reminder of the "Readjuster" Party was formulated in 1880 with the creation of Dickenson County from Russell, Wise and Buchanan Counties. It was named for one of the leaders of the "Readjuster" Party, William J. Dickenson. This county has the distinction of being the youngest county in Virginia.

In 1892, the state debt problem was settled more satisfactorily when the balance of the debt was established at a figure lower than the original but higher than the "Readjuster" figure and the rate of interest was lowered. The creditors and the debtors cooperated in this situation, and the credit of Virginia was gradually re-established.

During the Reconstruction Period, a great majority of the Republican Party members in the South were Negroes. Lincoln, himself, had been a Republican. Since it was during his administration that the war started and that the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, the word "Republican" in the South had for many individuals the connotation of a moral and social stigma. So permanent were the scars of events of the Republican Reconstruction era that until 1920, the former seceded states never cast an electoral vote for a Republican candidate in a national election. Thus, a vote solidly or unanimously for the Democratic Party resulted and the term "Solid South" came into existence.