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VIRGINIA. 



sioner of the revenue, county surveyors, constables, 

 overseers of the poor, Commissioners of the Board of 

 Public Works, judges of the Supreme Court, judges 

 of the Circuit Courts, judge of the court of hustings, 

 justices of the county courts, mayor, recorder, alder- 

 man, councilmen of a city or town, coroners, escheat- 

 ors, inspectors of tobacco, flour, etc., clerks of the 

 supreme, district, circuit, and county courts and of 

 the court of hustings, and attorneys for the Common- 

 wealth : Provided, That the Legislature may, by a 

 vote of three-fifths of both Houses, remove the disa- 

 bilities incurred by this clause from any person in- 

 cluded therein, by a separate vote in each case. 



AET. III. Sec. 7. In addition to the foregoing oath of 

 office, the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, members 

 of the General Assembly, Secretary of State, Auditor 

 of Public Accounts, State Treasurer, Attorney-Gener- 

 al, and all persons elected to any convention to frame 

 a constitution for this State, or to amend or revise this 

 constitution in any manner, and mayor and council 

 of any city or town, shall, before they enter on the 

 duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe 

 the following oath or affirmation : Provided, The dis- 

 abilities therein contained may be individually re- 

 moved by a three-fifths vote of the General Assembly : 



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



have never voluntarily borne arms against the United 

 States since I have been a citizen thereof ; that I have 

 voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or 

 encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility 

 thereto ; that I have never sought nor accepted, nor 

 attempted to exercise the functions of any office what- 

 ever, under any authority, or pretended authority, in 

 hostility to the United States ; that 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 will support and defend the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States against all enemies, foreign 

 and domestic ; that I will bear true faifch and alle- 

 giance to the same ; that I 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." 



The above oath shall be taken by all city and 

 county officers before entering upon their duties, and 

 by all other State officers not included in the above 

 provision. 



In the mean time the State remained under 

 the military jurisdiction of the United States. 

 On the 6th of February Congress passed a joint 

 resolution, providing that "the persons now 

 holding civil offices in the provisional govern- 

 ments of Virginia and Texas, who cannot take 

 and subscribe to the test-oath prescribed by 

 the act entitled ' An act to prescribe an oath 

 of office, and for other purposes,' approved 

 July 2, 1862, shall, by the passage of this reso- 

 tion, be removed therefrom ; and it shall be 

 the duty of the district commanders to fill the 

 vacancies so created by the appointment of 

 persons who can take said oath." Persons, 

 whose disabilities had been removed, were 

 exempted from the operation of the resolution, 

 and it was not to take effect in any case until 

 thirty days after its passage. General Stone- 

 man issued an order on the loth of March, 

 promulgating this resolution, and making the 

 removals from office which it required. On 

 the 21st of March the same officer made a 

 report to the Adjutant-General of the Army at 

 "Washington, in which he stated that there 



were 5,446 offices in the State, 532 of which 

 had been filled by General Schofield and 1,972 

 by himself: of the incumbents, 329 were able 

 to take the oath, and there were still 2,613 

 vacancies to be filled. In speaking of the dif- 

 ficulty of obtaining competent men to fill the 

 offices of the State, who were at the same time 

 able to take the test-oath, the commanding 

 general said: "In accounting for the very 

 small number of persons in the State who can 

 take the test-oath of office, it must be taken 

 into consideration that Virginia was one great 

 battle-field during the war ; that there was 

 small chance for escape from the rigors of the 

 conscript laws; that nearly every man was 

 directly under the eye and control of the Con- 

 federate government, and that some time or 

 other nearly every one gave ' aid, countenance, 

 counsel, or encouragement, to persons engaged 

 in armed hostility to tile Government of the 

 United States ; and besides, once having en- 

 gaged in the war, probably no portion of the 

 Southern people, old and young, male and fe- 

 male, were more earnest in its prosecution. 

 The conclusion will force itself upon every in- 

 telligent mind, that, if, with all the efforts that 

 have been made and the latitude that has been 

 allowed, the offices in the State have not been 

 filled by competent persons, they certainly 

 cannot be filled when the restrictions of any 

 one party are to be observed and complied 

 with, as will be the case upon the adoption of 

 the proposed constitution, under which it is 

 desired by some that the people of Virginia 

 shall be forced to live, and to the requirements 

 of which they are expected to consent." 



On the 27th of March, Provisional-Governor 

 H. H. "Wells was removed from office by an 

 order of the military commander, declaring 

 that "all the' powers conferred upon the chief 

 executive officer of the State of Virginia hy 

 its constitution and laws, and heretofore exer- 

 cised by the Provisional Governor thereof un- 

 der the reconstruction laws of Congress, are 

 herehy devolved upon the commanding officer 

 of the First Military District, and will, until 

 further orders, by him be assumed and per- 

 formed." 



Already, on the 5th of March, a general 

 order had issued from the headquarters of the 

 Array at Washington, removing Brevet-Major 

 General George Stoneman from the command 

 of the First Military District, and assigning 

 Brevet Major-General E. E. S. Canhy, the 

 commander of the Fifth District, to the posi- 

 tion. On the 31st of March another order 

 issued, assigning General Alexander S. Webb 

 to the command of the First District until the 

 arrival of Canby, thus relieving General Stone- 

 man from the position which he had held for 

 nine months, to the general satisfaction of the 

 people of the State. General Webb assumed 

 the command on the 2d of April, and his first 

 act was to restore Mr. Wells to the position of 

 Provisional Governor. On the 3d of April an 

 order was issued appointing military officers to 



