CHAPTER VII

Removal to Norfolk and admission to its bar-My first appearance in an interesting suit-Elected to the House of Delegates-Personnel of the body-Reconstruction-The Underwood Constitution-Noble effort of Conservative members to save State from disgrace and ruin-The Disfranchising and Test Oath clauses-The convention in Richmond in December, 1867.

In September, 1865, I removed to the city of Norfolk with a view of practising my profession. I was an entire stranger in that communtiy, and I found there an able, learned, and accomplished bar, consisting of such men as Tazewell Taylor, John S. Millson, George P. Scarborough, Charles B. Duffield, Charles Sharp, George Blow, Richard H. Baker, W. H. C. Ellis, William H. Burroughs, John J. Burroughs, James W. Hinton, W. M. Chaplain, William Baker, L. D. Starke, Richard Walke, W. W. Old, W. B. Martin, W. H. White, R. B. Tunstall, W. G. Elliott, and John S. Tucker.

Soon after my arrival in Norfolk, I sauntered one morning into the court-room and found the court and jury engaged in the trial of a very interesting and exciting case of unlawful detainer, in which a widow was the plaintiff and a very obnoxious carpetbagger was the defendant. The venerable Judge Richard H. Baker was presiding as judge of the court. His son, Richard H. Baker, counsel for the plaintiff, very kindly invited me to take a part, and proposed that I should make the closing argument. Of course I accepted his proposition with alacrity, as it afforded an opportunity to make my debut at the bar. The jury promptly returned a verdict for the widow. This was my first introduction to the people of Norfolk, and for it I feel that I am under lasting obligations to my friend Mr. Baker.

In this connection I must be permitted to make my most profound acknowledgments to the noble and patriotic people of Norfolk, Portsmouth and the counties composing the

Second Congressional district of Virginia for their uniform courtesy and kindness to me during a long series of years. Coming among them an entire stranger without any claims whatever upon their patronage and support, they took me by the hand and extended to me such a cordial recognition that I shall ever feel bound to them by ties stronger than bands of steel. Whenever I return to the city by the sea I am much gratified to observe so many evidences of progress and improvement. Unless I am greatly mistaken in the signs of the times, the day is not distant when our longcherished dreams will be fully realized and she will be hailed throughout all our borders as the great commercial emporium of Virginia and the South.

In the winter of 1866-7 I was elected by the people of Norfolk to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates occasioned by the resignation of W. H. C. Ellis, Esq., and I took my seat in that body on the 5th day of December, 1866. John B. Baldwin was Speaker of the House, and that legislature has ever since been known as the Baldwin legislature. He was a man of vigorous intellect, commanding presence, and genial manners. It is not surprising that such a man should wield a powerful influence over his associates in the legislature.

Among its more prominent members, besides the Speaker, may be mentioned James Marshall, W. W. Crump, Charles Herndon, Z. Turner, F. N. Watkins, W. M. Cabell, A. M. Keiley, and John T. Seawell.

As is well known, an act was passed by the Congress of the United States on the 2d of March, 1867, entitled "An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States."

On the 23d of March, 1867, a supplemental act was passed by Congress which provided for the election of members to a convention to establish a new Constitution for Virginia. The convention assembled in Richmond on the 3d day of December, 1867, and proceeded to frame a Constitution commonly known as the Underwood Constitution. That Constitution was framed by aliens to the Commonwealth and newly emancipated slaves. The convention consisted of 105

members, of whom 72 were Radicals and 33 were Conservatives. On the Radical side there were 24 negroes, 14 white Virginians, 13 New Yorkers, I member each from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, South Carolina, Maryland, and the District of Columbia; 2 from England and one each from Ireland, Scotland, Nova Scotia, and Canada. The convention organized by the election of a New Yorker as president, a Marylander as secretary, a Marylander as sergeant-at-arms, an Irishman from Baltimore as stenographer, an assistant clerk from New Jersey, while two colored men were appointed doorkeepers. A minister from Illinois was appointed chaplain. The page boys, with one exception, were colored or sons of Northern men, and the clerks of the committees, with two or three exceptions, were Northern men or negroes,

The Conservative members, although few in number, stood together in solid phalanx and made a noble effort to

the State from the threatened disgrace and ruin. Among the most prominent of them were John L. Marye, Eustace Gibson, James M. French, William McLaughlin, J. C. Gibson, William L. Owen, and James C. Southall.

The act of Congress provided that the President of the United States might, at such time as he should deem best, submit the Constitution to the voters for ratification or rejection and might also submit to a separate vote such provisions of said Constitution as he should deem best. In his proclamation of submission, the President directed separate votes to be taken on the two most obnoxious clauses of the new Constitution, the one known as the Disfranchising Clause and the other as the Test Oath Clause. Under the proclamation of the President and the orders of the military commander of District No. 1, an election was held on the 6th of July, 1869, which resulted as follows: For the Constitution, 210,585 votes; against the Constitution, 9,136 votes. For the Disfranchising Clause, 84,410; against it 124,360. For the Test Oath Clause, 83,458; against it 124,715. The whole registered white vote was 125,114. The whole registered colored vote was 97,205. It will thus be seen that the colored people voted with great unanimity to disfranchise the whites.

The action of President Grant in submitting the two clauses referred to to a separate vote of the people was undoubtedly due to certain gentlemen who will be known in history as the famous Committee of Nine. That Committee consisted of A. H. H. Stuart, John B. Baldwin, John L. Marye, James F. Johnson, W. T. Sutherlin, Wyndham Robertson, William L. Owen, James Neeson, and J. F. Slaughter. They have all passed away, but their earnest and patriotic efforts in behalf of the people of Virginia will never be forgotten.

At the same election in which the new Constitution was ratified, there was also an election held for Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Attorney-General. At this election there were only two tickets in the field-the Radical ticket, headed by H. H. Wells, and the Liberal Republican ticket, headed by Gilbert C. Walker. The vote was for Walker, 119,535; for Wells, 101,204. John F. Lewis was elected Lieutenant-Governor in opposition to J. D. Harris, colored, and James C. Taylor was elected Attorney-General in opposition to Thomas R. Bowden. The nomination of the Walker ticket was brought about by a split in the Radical Convention. After it became apparent that Wells would be nominated, a few prominent men, opposed to him, withdrew from the convention and placed another ticket in the field headed by Gilbert C. Walker for Governor.

After the election of members to the Underwood Convention, Old Line Whigs and Old Line Democrats in Virginia, recognizing the necessity of sinking their past party differences and uniting for the purpose of saving something from the wreck, called a State Convention for the purpose of effecting a complete and thorough organization. That convention met in the city of Richmond on the 11th of December, 1867, and was composed of eight hundred delegates. Every section of the State was represented by prominent and influential citizens, among whom were such men as A. H. H. Stuart, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, John B. Baldwin, John Letcher, Thomas S. Bocock, Thomas S. Flournoy, James L. Kemper, John Randolph Tucker, James Barbour, and others scarcely less distinguished. Thomas

Jefferson Randolph, an Old Line Democrat, was selected as temporary chairman, and A. H. H. Stuart, an Old Line Whig, as the permanent president. A thorough system of party organization was adopted which proved to be very effective in bringing out the full strength of the Conservatives. Subsequently they nominated Robert E. Withers for Governor, James A. Walker for Lieutenant-Governor, and John L. Marye for Attorney-General.

While these gentlemen were making an able and energetic canvass of the State for the purpose of defeating the ratification of the Underwood Constitution, a new movement was inaugurated which resulted in the resignation of all the Conservative candidates and a tacit agreement on the part of the Conservative voters that they would support the Liberal Republican ticket headed by Gilbert C. Walker. This conclusion was reached by a convention which assembled at Richmond on the 28th of April, 1869, and of which R. T. Daniel was president. A Committee on Business was appointed and the majority adopted a report recommending the acceptance of the resignations of the Conservative candidates and making no recommendations as to how the members of that party should vote, it being tacitly understood that they would support the Liberal Republican ticket. That report was signed by Robert Ould, John B. Baldwin, John R. Edmunds, Fayette McMullen, L. B. Anderson, James C. Campbell, A. Moseley, W. D. Haskins, and W. T. Sutherlin. The minority report, signed by Hugh L. Latham, J. T. Mason, and myself, declared that the clauses of the Constitution to be submitted to a separate vote were immaterial in view of the leading measures of the Underwood Constitution, "negro suffrage and negro eligibility to office." In the debate which followed, the majority report was supported by John R. Edmunds, John B. Baldwin, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Robert Ould, and R. T. Daniel. The minority report was supported by Ex-Governor William Smith, James Barbour, B. H. Shackelford, James L. Kemper, and myself. The majority report was adopted by the convention upon the idea that under all the circumstances by which we were surrounded it was the best and safest policy. Perhaps they were right.