The End of Reconstruction in Virginia

Virginia's Readmission

After the ratification of the Underwood Constitution, Virginia began rebuilding its government, an essential step to gain readmission to the Union. In one of the most important elections in Virginia history, the Conservative Party and Republicans battled for control of Reconstruction Virginia. The Conservative Party saw that opposition to the Underwood Constitution and black suffrage was untenable, at least for the time being. They instead turned their attention to gaining control of the new General Assembly. The Party formed the "Committee of Nine," which petitioned the Federal government for permission to hold elections. With the help of moderate Republicans, President Ulysses S. Grant allowed them to hold an election for governor and a referendum on the constitution while still under military occupation in 1869.

The radical Republicans in the state nominated Henry H. Wells, a "carpetbagger" from Michigan, who chose a black physician, J. D. Harris, to share the ticket as his lieutenant governor. Wells alienated many moderate Republicans who eventually split to form their own party. The so-called True Republicans nominated Gilbert C. Walker, a New Yorker and prominent businessman who had lived in Norfolk since 1864. The Conservative Party saw a chance to exploit the Republicans' split and originally nominated Colonel Robert Withers, but in the end, most were afraid that it would be the Conservative rather than the Republican vote that would be divided. Instead, the Conservative Party threw their support to the True Republicans' nominee, Gilbert Walker.

Voters approved the Underwood Constitution in a landslide. Walker also won a substantial victory, but the election revealed how woefully divided the state was by race. Almost all the black vote went to Wells with the white vote going to Walker. In the legislature, Conservatives and True Republicans won the day. However, twenty-seven of the delegates to the new General Assembly were black. Mostly radical Republicans, they were the first African Americans to become lawmakers in Virginia. Still, Virginia was one of the only Southern states to throw off radical Republican rule at the time, and a massive Conservative resurgence was on the horizon. Even as Virginia was preparing for readmission to the Union, Radical Republicans were rapidly losing control.

The new General Assembly quickly complied with all the remaining requirements for readmission, including the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Virginia was officially readmitted to the Union on January 26, 1870, with the approval of Congress and President Grant.

Federal troops remained in Virginia for a time, but their influence was not nearly as pronounced by the early 1870s. Only 20,000 Federal troops still remained in the entire South at the time that Virginia was readmitted. Their waning influence allowed terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate blacks into political marginalization, though their influence would not be fully felt until the late 1870s. Conservatives continued to rise in power in Virginia and throughout the South as the Republicans' will to continue their reconstruction plans began to wane and their attention turned elsewhere. By the election of 1876, Conservative governments had taken control of almost the entire South except for South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida.

The Compromise of 1877

Reconstruction officially ended with the Compromise of 1877, which settled the disputed Presidential election of 1876. In that election, Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio. The Democrats threw their support to Samuel J. Tilden, governor of New York. Tilden apparently won the electoral college and the popular vote, but Republicans refused to accept the results, insisting that states in the Deep South had not counted African American votes. Both sides accused the other of fraud and voter suppression, and the true winner became very unclear.

With no clear winner, Congress established an election commission to decide. When the commission chose to award all the disputed electoral votes to Hayes, Democrats protested so forcefully that many feared a second civil war. Democrats in Congress refused to allow the official counting of the electoral votes until February 1877 when leaders from both parties met and came up with the Compromise of 1877. Democrats accepted Hayes' victory so long as Republicans would appoint a Southerner to the cabinet, fund internal improvements in the South, and most importantly, remove federal troops from the South. Hayes took office and ordered the removal of federal troops, leading to the collapse of several Deep South Republican governments. With the Compromise of 1877, Reconstruction came to a formal end, failing to protect black rights in the South.