THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF 1867-68. "We feel too fully armed with the weapons of truth and reason, and sense and justice, to be dreaming of any necessity to be found of declarations of enforcing our opinions by mere violence." HON. JOHN L. MARYECONSERVATIVE MEMBER OF THE CONVENTION. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION -OF 1867-68. The people of Virginia lived in peace and tranquillity, under the Constitution ordained by the Convention of 1850-51, for ten years; and it was the organic law of the Commonwealth, during the dark and stormy period, from 1861 to 1865, when the Civil War raged so fiercely in her domain, her fair bosom was wounded by the struggles of hostile legions, and her gallant and patriotic sons won imperishable renown by the battles fought on her sacred soil, until her State Government was annihilated by the force of the Federal armies and the usurpatory acts of Congress. Though not precisely what all of her citizens wished, and founded, to a great extent, upon compromises of opinion and comity, as all the Constitutions of the past had been, the work had been well done, and to most of the people the instrument was acceptable and satisfactory. With the beginning of the great civil conflict of arms in her territory, all discussion and criticism of the Constitution and the Government of the State ceased; and the weightier and more pressing affairs, which taxed the energies and powers of her patriotic and noble people, superceded these civic affairs, which suited peace and leisure, and not the tempestuous days of alarums, desperate expedients and bloody engagements, which characterized the era from 1861 to 1865, But during these sombre, though glorious, days, and the period just antecedent to the withdrawal of Virginia from the United States, in 1861, there were many changes and vicissitudes that occurred in her history and domain, which finally resulted in the dismemberment of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the formation of West Virginia, and the rehabilitation of Virginia as a State in the Union. A proper and adequate knowledge of the history of these events is essential to the apprehension of the occurrences which eventuated in the readmission of the State into the United States, the assembling of the Convention of 1867-68, and the ordainment of the Constitution framed by that body. These incidents are replete with interest, admonition and instruction, and should be studied and pondered by the people of this State, at present and in the future, not only that they may become conversant with their history, but that they may act with enlightenment and moderation, and always strive, with vigilant appreciation of the dangers which jeopardize their rights and liberties, to maintain peace, conservative action, and an ardent love and reverence for the ancient establishment of government and order founded by our fathers. There is a recital, in the preamble to the Constitution, adopted by this Convention of 1867-68, stating that the General Assembly of Virginia, by an act, passed December 21, 1863, provided "for the election, by the people, of delegates to meet in general Convention to consider, discuss and adopt alterations and amendments to the existing Constitution of this Commonwealth;" and that delegates did assemble and adopt a revised and amended Constitution, as the form of government of Virginia. The Constitution, to which allusion is here made, was adopted by the Convention, which met at Alexandria on April 7, 1864, and was not submitted to the people of the State for ratification or rejection. This Constitution, therefore, was never the Constitution of Virginia, and this recitation, in the preamble of the present Constitution is unfounded in fact and unwarranted in law. When the Ordinance of Secession was passed, April 17, 1861, by the Virginia Convention, which met in Richmond, February 18, 1861, most of the members of that Convention, which had been convened for the purpose of considering the question of withdrawal from the United States, from the counties in the west and northwest of the State, beyond the Alleghany Mountains, who had been opposed to its adoption, retired from the Convention; and though the vote on the Ordinance in that body had been eighty-one to fifty-one for its adoption, and had been in strict accordance with the right to resume her powers of sovereign independence, which the State of Virginia had reserved, by the act of ratification of the Federal Constitution, in the Convention of 1788 (see above p. 38), resolved to revolt from the action of that body. Numerous meetings were forthwith held in those counties, and at these meetings these agitators and revolutionists, who had revolted from the Convention, declared for the appointment of five delegates from each county to a Convention to be held at Wheeling, May 13, 1861. This Convention met at Wheeling, at the time appointed. Twenty-six counties were reported as having sent duly accredited delegates to the Convention. At that time there were one hundred and forty counties and three cities in Virginia entitled to representation, and the delegates from these counties and cities were then holding the said Convention, at Richmond, in conformity to the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth; and the people of the very counties, who had elected delegates to the Wheeling Convention, had sent delegates to the Richmond Convention, and were entitled to representation therein. The people of these counties were by no means unanimous in their opposition to Secession, nor in favor of the Wheeling Convention. There were no regular elections held for delegates to this Convention, but they were generally appointed by small meetings. This Convention repudiated the Ordinance of Secession; called upon the people to elect three members of Congress, from the districts in the northwestern part of the State of Virginia, and provided for the ap |