Virginia was prominent in advocating a gen eral convention to make necessary changes in the Articles of Confederation. When that body pro duced the Constitution of the United States, many able patriots, Lee, Mason, Monroe. and particularly Patrick Henry, bitterly opposed its ratification ac destructive to State rights. Finally, after long debate, it was ratified, June 25, 1788, but by only ten majority, and chiefly through the ardent championship of .Tames Madi son. The addition of a Rill of Rights and 20 amendments was recommended. Lee, Grayson, and Madison helped to seenre the first ton amend ments to the Constitution. The State was jealous of its rights. and on account of the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts (q.v.) in 1798, put for ward Madison's Virginia Resolutions (see VIR CINIA AND KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS), Whieb de clared for a strict construction of the Constitu tion. Priority of settlement, character and amount of population, valuable staples. and dis tinguished men made the colony powerful and kept the State prominent in the early years of the Republic. During the first thirty-six years of the nation a Virginian was President for thirty-two, and the proportion of her citizens in other high offices was very large. The title 'Mother of Presidents' as well as 'Mother of States and Statesmen' seems deserved. The fa mous trials of John T. Callender and Aaron Burr at Richmond in 1806 intensified issues be twten Federalists and Republicans and brought into prominence John and John Ran dolph] of Roanoke. The burning of the Richmond Theatre marked 1811 with public. mourning. In 1513 Admiral Coekburn was repulsed ;I t C1s:1m.y Island and Norfolk saved from the British. The University of Virginia, planned by Thomas Jef ferson and founded in 1810, was the first Ameril can university for advanced work. Slavery had Neon recognized by statute in 1661, lint Vir ginia's firs( Assembly had prohibited the slave trade (1775), and Jefferson in his joint revision of the Virginia Code with Wythe and Pendleton in 1779 proposeN1 emancipation and colonization of slaves. Saint George Tucker in 1796 offered another plan for the abolition of slavery, while Monroe, Randolph, and the Legislature promoted the African Colonization Society (1800-16). A slave, Gabriel, futilely plotted (1800) to mas sacre the whites of Richmond. In 1831 an in surrection (see TURNER. NAT) by 40 negroes in Southampton County killed 60 persons, alarming Virginia and the South. Thomes Jefferson Ran dolph's bill for emancipation was fully and free ly discussed with other plans and lost by a mere majority. ln the Federal convention Virginia had fought for the immediate prohibition of the slave trade against a combination of New Eng land and the extreme South demanding extension. A new or amended Constitution, adopted by the State convention (1830), extended the suffrage, and its work was continued by a similar conven tion in 1850. This emphasized the opposition be tween eastern and western Virginia on the ques tion of a mixed basis or white basis for represen tation. and, reagitated by the Legislature (1S45 46). hastened their separation in 1862. During Nullification Virginia opposed the coercion of South Carolina, but endeavored to act as a paci ficator.
In spite of the capture of Harper's Ferry in 1859 by John Brown (q.v.), and his plan to raise a general slave insurrection, the State opposed secession. It suggested the peace convention of the States and sent commissioners to Washing ton to endeavor to prevent hostilities. The State convention met February 13, 1861, and as late as April 1st it voted (SO to -15) against seces sion. Two days after President Lincoln's call for troops to coerce the seceding States, an ordinance of secession and adhesion to the Confederacy was voted (SS to 45). April 17th, which was rati fied by a popular majority of 16,241. Mean
while a 'temporary convention' was formed with the Confederate Government in July, 1861. Rob ert E. Lee followed his State and became com mander-in-chief of the Confederate Army. Rieh mmill became the strategic capital, and Virginia a great battleground of the Confederacy. West ern Virginia had little sympathy with secession. and on May 13th delegates from 25 counties met at. Wheeling, declared the ordinance of seces sion null and void, and called a convention to meet June 11th, which elected Francis H. Pier pont (q.v.) Governor. Later the Restored Gov ernment of Virginia was established. Pierpont continued to exercise his office until the estab lishment of West Virginia (q.v.) as a separate State. In 1863 be moved his government to Alexandria under the guns of Washington and asserted authority over those counties within (lie Federal lines. and in 1864 a new Constitution by these counties. At the close of the war l'ierpont was recognized by the Federal authorities as the lawful Governor, and moved to Richmond; he put the Constitution of 1861 into limited effect, military authority still being pa ra mount.
The Reconstruction -tots gave negroes the right to vote for convention delegates and a new Constitution was adopted in 1868 embody ing negro suffrage and other new features, but so great was the popular feeling against it that it was not submitted to the people until a new act I if Congress allowed a separate vole on the disfranchising clauses. These were rejected, but the State was readmitted January 20, 1870, and at once came under control of the native horn whites. Trouble began, however, with legislation regarding the State debt. In 1671 a bill was passed funding two-thirds of the State 'debt, into bonds, the coupons of which should be receivable fur taxes. The other third of the debt was con sidered to be the share of West Virginia. which share that State refused to acknowledge. The Legislature of 1872 repealed the lax mutton fea ture. but it was held by the courts that as $17, 000,000 had already been funded in these bonds, the State was bound to receive them, even if their receipts kept the State treasury in chronie bankruptcy. Many offers of compromise were made, and many attempts to prevent the presen tation of the coupons for taxes, leading to con flicts of jurisdiction between the State and the United States courts. Certain State officers in exercise of the duties ordered by the Legislature were punished for contempt of court by the United States judge. In 1890 the decisions banded down by the United States Supreme Court favored the Stale on the whole, and in 1891-92 a final settlement was made with the bondholders, chiefly English, who received $19, 000,000 in new century bonds for bonds and un paid coupons amounting to $23,000,000. The question entered politics and Governors, Con gressmen, and Senators were elected on the issue of the readjustment of the State debt. William Mahone became a leading figure in Virginia poli tics. The Readjuster Party, however, cooperated with the Republicans, and its major adherents were finally absorbed by them. The question, while a vital issue, had the effect of dividing the negro vote. In 1901-02 a constitutional conven tion was held, having for its chief objects re trenchment and suffrage restriction. The new Constitution was proclaimed without submission to the people, May 19, 1902. One result was largely to suppress the negro vote. From the be ginning the State has been Democratic in na tional polities. The hold was never broken until 18110, when the vote was cast for the Constitu tional Union candidate. John Bell. Since its re admission the vote has been steadily east for the Democratic national candidates, with the ex ception of 1872, when the Republican candidate, Grant, was preferred to his opponent, Greeley, an old abolitionist.