VIRGINIA. 



759 



crimination, while a large part of the most in- 

 telligent of the white citizens would be de- 

 prived of that privilege. A minority of the 

 committee made a separate report, embodying 

 an earnest protest against the adoption of such 

 provisions. The article, as finally adopted after 

 a protracted debate, provides that every male 

 citizen of the United States, twenty-one years 

 of age and upward, who shall have been a 

 resident of the State twelve months, and of 

 the county, city, or town in which he shall offer 

 to vote, three months next preceding any elec- 

 tion, shall be entitled to vote upon all questions 

 submitted to the people at such election, with the 

 exceptions designated in the following section : 



Every person who lias been a Senator or Represent- 

 ative in Congress, or elector of President or Vice- 

 President, or who held any office, civil or military, 

 under the United States or under any State, previous- 

 ly having taken oath as a member of Congress, or as 

 an officer of the United States, or as member _of any 

 State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial offi- 

 cer, or who shall have engaged in insurrection or re- 

 bellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to 

 the enemies thereof. This clause shall include the 

 following officers : Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, 

 Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, Sec- 

 ond Auditor, Register of the Land-Office, State Treas- 

 urer, Attorney-General, Sheriffs, Mayor of a city, or 

 Clerk of a town, Commissioner of Eevenue, County 

 Surveyor, Constables, Overseers of the Poor, Com- 

 missioner of the Board of Public Works, Judge of 

 the Supreme Court, Judges of Circuit Courts, Judge 

 of the Court of Hustings, Justices of the County 

 Courts, Recorder, Aldermen, Council of a city or 

 town, Coroners, Escheators, Inspectors, of tobacco, 

 flour, etc., Clerks of the Supreme, District, Circuit 

 and County Courts, and of the Court of Hustings, 

 and Attorneys for the Commonwealth : Provided, the 

 Legislature may, by a vote of three-fifths of both 

 Jlouses, remove the disabilities incurred by this clause 

 from any person included therein, by a separate vote 

 in each case. 



All persons, before entering upon the dis- 

 charge of any function as officers of the State, 

 are required to take and subscribe the follow- 

 ing oath : 



I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will 



support and maintain the Constitution and laws of 

 the United States, and the constitution and laws of 

 the State of Virginia ; that I recognize and accept the 

 civil and political equality of all men before the law; 



and that I will faithfully perform the duty of 



to the best of my ability. So help me God. 



In addition to this, all State, city, and county 

 officers must take the test-oath prescribed by 

 the act of Congress of July 2, 1862, which is 

 in these words : 



I do solemnly swear (or affirm) tliat I have never 

 voluntarily borne arms against the United States 

 since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have volun- 

 tarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encour- 

 agement to persons engaged in armed hostility there- 

 to ; that I have never sought, nor accepted, nor at- 

 tempted to exercise the functions of any office what- 

 ever : under any a'uthority or pretended authority in 

 hostility to the United States ; tnat I have not yielded 

 a voluntary support to any pretended government, 

 authority, power, or constitution, within the United 

 States, hostile or inimical thereto ; and I do further 

 swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge 

 and ability, I wUl support and defend the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States against all enemies, foreign 

 and domestic ; that I will bear true faith and allegi- 



ance to the same ; that I will take ^this obligation 

 freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of 

 evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge 

 the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. 

 So help me God. 



This not only met with strong opposition 

 from the conservative delegates in the conven- 

 tion and a large portion of the influential citi- 

 zens of the State, but General Schofield him- 

 self, in a speech to the convention in April, de- 

 clared that it would be " practically impossible 

 to carry on a government predicated upon that 

 basis." "I have been now for more than a 

 year," he said, " administering the laws in ac- 

 cordance with the reconstruction acts of Con- 

 gress in this State. I have had to select and 

 appoint registering officers as well as civil offi- 

 cers in the different counties throughout the 

 State. In some of the counties I have been 

 able to find one, and only one, in some two, 

 and in some three, men of either race, who 

 could read and write, and who could, at the 

 same time, take the oath of office. There are, 

 I believe, in Virginia, some counties which 

 will require to carry on the government thirty 

 or more civil officers such as magistrates, sher- 

 iffs, constables, overseers of the poor, etc. You 

 cannot find in these counties a sufficient num- 

 ber of men who are capable of filling the of- 

 fices, and who can take the oath you have pre- 

 scribed here. They pay a very limited salary, 

 and even common laborers could not afford to 

 come from abroad for the purpose of filling 

 them. I have no hesitation in saying that I 

 believe it impossible to inaugurate a govern- 

 ment upon that basis. That provision, if left 

 in the constitution, will, I believe, be not only- 

 opposed to the wishes of your friends, but will 

 be fatal to the constitution, and, perhaps, fatal 

 to yourselves. I say, then, that whether your 

 government, organized under this constitution, 

 will be a good one or a bad one is to be deter- 

 mined by the qualifications of the men elected 

 to carry it on. In this view of the case, you 

 should have left open the widest field from 

 which to choose these men, and I have no 

 doubt that both parties will exert their utmost 

 strength, and put forward their best and ablest 

 men to inaugurate the new government." 



This provision was not, however, modified, 

 and it was made the duty of the Legislature to 

 frame a registry law, under which every per- 

 son, before being allowed to register his name 

 as a voter, must take the following oath : 



I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am 



not disqualified from exercising the right of suffrage 

 by the constitution framed by the convention which 

 assembled in the city of Richmond on the 3d day of 

 December, 1867, and that I will support and defend 

 the same to the best of my ability. 



Provision was made for the organization of 

 the legislative, executive, and judiciary de- 

 partments of government, on a basis not mate- 

 rially different from that adopted .in other 

 States. A system of public schools is to be es- 

 tablished in all the counties by the year 1876. 

 The constitution was not signed by the dele- 



