several important events happening in his home state. In 1809-1810,
a Literary Fund for Virginia was established as an aid to public
education by providing money for school expenses. The state
legislature under the direction of Governor John Tyler, Sr.,
provided that "all escheats (land the title to which was reclaimed
by the state), confiscations, penalties and forfeitures, and all
rights in personal property found derelict (deserted or abandoned)
should be appropriated to the encouragement of learning." As time
passed, this fund expanded considerably and was used to improve
elementary education. Only the most proficient students were allowed
to attend public secondary schools. The General Assembly encouraged
the establishment of classical schools and academies via revenue
secured from lotteries. In 1816, the Federal Government paid
$1,210,550 to Virginia in return for a loan granted to the Federal
Government by Virginia for the defraying of expenses incurred during
the War of 1812. This payment was allotted to the Literary Fund.
From 1800 through 1816, the State of Virginia had four new counties
formed: Tazewell (formed from Wythe and Russell Counties and named
for Henry Tazewell, a United States Senator), Giles (created from
Montgomery, Monroe and Tazewell Counties and named for William
Branch Giles, a Congressman from Virginia who served four terms),
Nelson (formed from Amherst County and named for General Thomas
Nelson, military leader and Governor of Virginia in 1781), and Scott
(formed from Lee, Russell and Washington Counties and named for
General Winfield Scott, lawyer and military leader).
In 1811, Richmond suffered from a dreadful tragedy. Richmond had
grown in approximately twenty-five years from a village to a
thriving city. As the capital city of the state, it had become a
center of wealth, social activities and entertainment. The leading
actors and actresses of the country played at the Richmond Theater
with pride. On the evening of December 26, 1811 as a play was in
progress, the scenery at the back of the stage caught fire. When an
actor shouted "The house is on fire!", chaos and confusion resulted.
In addition to the flames which rapidly roared through the theater,
the panic and hysteria contributed to the death of seventy-three
individuals, including Governor George W. Smith and many other
distinguished citizens. Gilbert Hunt, a slave, is credited with
saving approximately twenty women and children by catching them as
they were hurled to safety from flaming windows. The doors of this
theater had been constructed in such a way that they only opened
inwardly. Thus, when the audience madly rushed for an exit, numerous
individuals were crushed since the doors could not be opened
outwardly. As a result of this terrible tragedy, theater doors in
Virginia and in other states were constructed in the future to open
outwardly from the inside. A structure of stuccoed brick, known as
Monumental Church, has been built by the architect, Robert Mills,
upon the site of the old theater, and on a monument at the door is
an inscription bearing the names of those who died in this incident.
In 1816, thirty-five western counties of Virginia held a convention
at Staunton and demanded that the General Assembly be informed of
their grievances and be asked to adjust same. After the War of
1812, the western counties believed that the State Constitution
of 1776 was no longer appropriate and that the earlier counties,
in spite of their longer political experiences, were greatly
over-represented in proportion to their population as compared with
the population of the western counties. One particular criticism
was the representation plan of membership in the General Assembly.
Although the white population was much greater in number west of
the Blue Ridge than in the east, the western counties had only four
delegates in the Assembly in comparison to thirteen delegates from
the east. Therefore, these convention delegates demanded a revised
or new state constitution which would include fair treatment, in
their opinion, for the western counties of Virginia. The Staunton
convention of 1816 caused other residents of Virginia, especially
the politicians, to realize that this mountainous area was
increasing in population and in interest in state and in national
affairs and that it expected a similar increase in power and in
influence in the state government of Virginia.
In 1817, James Monroe was inaugurated the Fifth President of the
United States. A native of Westmoreland County, Monroe had had
considerable political and diplomatic experience before becoming
President. He had been a practicing lawyer in Fredericksburg, a
Revolutionary War participant who had been wounded in the Battle
of Trenton, New Jersey, a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional
Convention at Williamsburg, a member of the Virginia General
Assembly, a United States Senator, an American envoy to France, a
Governor of Virginia, a United States Minister to France where he
helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase, a United States Minister
to Spain, a United States Secretary of State and a United States
Secretary of War under President Madison. His two presidential terms
are often referred to as the "Era of Good Feeling" because wars and
international disputes were unknown in this period.
Foreign policy was a highlight of Monroe's two years. A treaty
with Spain in 1819 transferred East Florida to the United States,
included an official admission that West Florida rightfully belonged
to the United States, provided that the United States would assume
and pay claims of citizens of the United States against the Spanish
government amounting to five million dollars and defined the
boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. Another incident taking place in
this general area of the United States was the permission granted
by the government of Mexico to Stephen Fuller Austin, a native of
Austinville, Virginia, to establish a settlement for colonization
on a land grant in Texas. He became the leader of the section and
participated in so many happenings in the history of Texas that
later, the capital, Austin, was named in his honor.
While Monroe was President, Congress had a difficult situation to
face. Missouri applied for admission to the Union in 1819. Since
there were eleven free and eleven slave states in the Union at this
time, there was equal representation in the Senate from the North
and from the South. However, the North had increased much more
rapidly in population than had the South with the result that there
were 105 Northern representatives in the House of Representatives
and only 81 Southern representatives in the same body. Therefore,
the South did not want any additional free states admitted to
the Union at this time to upset the equal balance in the Senate.
Consequently, a bill which had been proposed to admit Missouri to
the Union with the understanding that slavery was to be abolished
there directly upon such admission failed to pass in the Senate.
In the same year, Maine, a free state, applied for statehood.
Slavery had become a significant sectional issue by 1819 and Henry
Clay, a native of Hanover County, proposed the now-famous Missouri
Compromise of 1820: Maine was to be admitted as a free state,
Misouri as a slave state; slavery was to be forever excluded in
the rest of the Louisiana Purchase Territory north of the parallel
of 36´ 30´´ (southern boundary of Missouri). Although Henry Clay,
later known as the "Great Pacificator" or "Peacemaker" because of
his ability to make compromises in difficult situations, moved to
Kentucky in his "twenties," he studied law with the famous Virginia
lawyer, George Wythe, and acquired many of his political beliefs in
Virginia. President Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise expressing
his approval of this bill.
A new trend in foreign policy was formulated by President Monroe,
with the help of his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, in
his annual message to Congress on December 2, 1823. The Monroe
Doctrine, as it was later termed, stated that there was to be no
further European colonization in the Western Hemisphere, that no
European nation was to interfere in the government of any nation in
the Western Hemisphere and that violation of either of the previous
principles would be considered unfriendly to the government of the
United States. In return, the government of the United States would
not interfere in the governments of Europe.
From the time of the Revolutionary War, societies opposed to slavery
were organized in the United States. Religious and non-religious
groups favored the emancipation of the slaves, but the greatest
problem facing those who favored freedom for the slaves was the
finding of a suitable environment for the freed, uneducated Negroes.
The South which had the greatest number of Negroes would have
favored emancipation much more readily if this problem could have
been solved satisfactorily. Washington and Jefferson both opposed
slavery and Washington in his will provided for the freeing of his
slaves upon the death of his wife. Jefferson proposed that the
Negroes be freed and then sent out of the United States. Monroe
likewise strongly opposed slavery and suggested that the Negroes be
allowed to settle in an independent country of their own.
In 1816, an American Colonization Society was formed which was
granted permission by the Congress of the United States to send
emancipated volunteer Negro slaves to Liberia, Africa where they
could organize an independent country of their own. The Virginia
legislature heartily supported this project. Bushrod Washington,
a nephew of George Washington, served as one of the presidents of
this national colonization society. John Marshall was the first
president of the state branch at Richmond. The capital of Liberia,
an independent republic since 1847, is Monrovia, named in honor
of James Monroe, who personally urged the establishment of this
independent country for Negroes.
On March 4, 1825, the "Virginia Dynasty" ended, and President
Monroe returned to his home state, Virginia, where he remained
until the death of his wife. Virginia had earned the title of
"Mother of Presidents" because it had furnished four of the first
five Presidents of the United States: George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. By 1825, Virginia had
lost its first rank in population to New York State, primarily
because of the large number of immigrants in the North. The
population of Virginia, however, had passed the million mark.
During Monroe's presidency, an ex-President of the United States
undertook a task in his home state which he had patiently
waited to perform. In 1819, the Virginia legislature passed an
act establishing a state university in Virginia. Jefferson had
worked very hard to get this personal ambition of his realized
because he believed that a state has the obligation of educating
its citizens. He constantly discussed his idea with influential
men of the time and was elated when the University of Virginia
was finally created by law. Jefferson personally recommended
the accepted site of Central College in Charlottesville, drew
up the plans for the university building and grounds, chose the
materials for construction, selected the workmen and then assumed
the responsibility of personally supervising and directing the
actual building project. One of the outstanding architectural
characteristics of the University grounds is the famous Serpentine
Wall designed and built by Jefferson himself. Jefferson's interest
did not cease with the supervision and construction of the buildings
but extended to the intellectual area with his outlining the course
of study which was followed carefully at the University for several
years. The University of Virginia was opened for students for the
first time in 1825 with an enrollment of forty students and seven
faculty members. It has continued to be an outstanding institution
for higher education in the United States. This institution, unlike
the former ones in America, was independent of a church and was the
first institution to offer the elective system of subject matter,
allowing students to make their choice with music and liberal arts
first included in any curriculum of higher education. Jefferson thus
participated significantly in the education field in addition to
making political, historical and inventive contributions.
In 1829 the citizens of Virginia voted for a special state
convention to be held for the purpose of drafting a new state
constitution. When the delegates met in Richmond on October 5,
ex-President James Madison was selected as President of this
Virginia Convention. Other notables present included ex-President
Monroe, Chief Justice Marshall and John Randolph. It was soon
obvious that there were two distinct types of delegates: the
eastern "conservatives" and the western "reformers." Debates and
discussions became so heated that this convention is often compared
to the federal convention of 1787 which exposed sharp differences
between the North and the South as separate sections. Governor
William B. Giles, A. P. Upshur, Benjamin Leigh, John Randolph and
Littleton Waller represented the east or Tidewater section while
Alexander Campbell, John R. Cooke, Philip Doddridge and Charles
Faulkner represented the western or mountainous counties. The most
objectionable features of the State Constitution of 1776, in the
opinion of the western counties delegates, were the following: (1)
the voting requirement of freehold land tenure, (2) the election
of the Governor by the state legislature rather than by the voters
themselves, (3) the actual carrying out of some of the Governor's
duties by a nine-man Council of State, (4) the equal representation
in the House of Delegates from each county regardless of population,
and (5) a procedure in the local and state courts which often
resulted in favoritism. The easterner combatted the criticism about
representation with the fact that he paid much higher taxes on his
land (in some instances as much as nine times more per acre). After
lengthy discussions, the new state constitution was finally written
and recommended for adoption. The following changes were included:
(1) voting was extended to leaseholders and householders, (2) the
Governor was chosen by a joint ballot of the Senate and the House
of Delegates, (3) the power and the responsibility of the Governor
was increased and the number of men and the powers of the Council of
State were decreased, (4) the representation of the western counties
in the Assembly was increased slightly, and (5) state courts were
slightly revised but county courts were practically unchanged. The
Constitution of 1829 was adopted, and John Floyd was the first
Governor elected under the new system.
The strong feeling of states' rights in Virginia became apparent
once more. When President Andrew Jackson threatened to use armed
force upon South Carolina in his attempt to coerce South Carolina
into paying Federal taxes, according to the Tariff of 1828 ("The
Tariff of Abominations"), Virginians became very alarmed. John
Randolph, a sick man at the time, traveled throughout the country
denouncing Jackson's coercive attitude. Virginia then sent Benjamin
Watkins Leigh to South Carolina to try to bring peace within the
Union again and to prevent South Carolina from seceding from the
Union. Governor John Floyd of Virginia stated that federal troops
would meet armed opposition if President Jackson ordered them to
march through Virginia to South Carolina and to force South Carolina
to pay the exorbitant tariff rates. Henry Clay's compromise tariff
law providing for gradually reduced tariff rates prevented possible
secession from occurring at this time.
In August 1831, a Negro preacher of Southampton County, Nat Turner,
started a local slave insurrection by persuading the Negro slaves
that it was time to kill the white people. Sixty whites, mostly
women and children, were killed before the rebellion could be
suppressed. Nat Turner and twelve of his accomplices were hung.
Many Virginians believed that Nat Turner's Rebellion took place
as a direct result of the writings of William Lloyd Garrison of
Massachusetts who published the "Liberator," a newspaper which
demanded the immediate abolition of slavery. The southerners,
in general, were so aroused by this rebellion that southern
legislatures passed laws prohibiting slaves from being taught to
read. In fact, a reward was offered for Garrison himself. Many
southern states passed resolutions requesting the northern states to
forbid the publication of abolitionist papers. In 1832 at a regular
session of the Virginia General Assembly, an act was proposed
whereby all slaves born after July 4, 1840 were to be free and to
be removed from the State of Virginia. The act was defeated in the
House of Delegates by a close vote of 67 to 60.
In 1831, Cyrus Hall McCormick of Rockbridge County invented the
"Virginia Reaper," a mechanical harvester which could harvest wheat
at a much faster rate than previously harvested by hand with a
sickle or a cradle. He did not get it patented, however, until
three years later. This was a most significant invention for the
State of Virginia as well as for the nation as a whole. The Virginia
Reaper affected grain, as the cotton gin had affected cotton, by
making it possible for grain to be grown and harvested in much
larger quantities. When Virginians first used the reaper, Virginia's
total wheat production increased so rapidly that Virginia ranked
fourth among the wheat-raising states in 1840. However, the climate
and soil of the West were more conducive to wheat-raising than in
Virginia, and, when the western farmers heard about the Virginia
Reaper, they were anxious to acquire such a machine for their own
use. The usual journey for such reapers included a wagon trip from
Rockbridge County over the Blue Ridge Mountains to Scottsville, a
canal trip from there to Richmond, a boat trip from Richmond down
the James River to the Atlantic Ocean, from Norfolk an ocean trip to
New Orleans and then a boat trip up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers
to their specific destination in Kentucky or Ohio--a water trip of
approximately 3,000 miles. Since the demand for his invention was
much greater in the West, McCormick moved from Virginia to Chicago
to build his factory in order that he could reduce his shipping
costs considerably. However, one may still see one of the original
binders at Walnut Grove, the restored McCormick homestead located
near Midway, Virginia.
In 1836, Samuel Houston, a native Virginian of Rockbridge County who
had migrated to Texas, became the heroic leader at the Battle of
San Jacinto in the Texas Revolt from Mexico. General Houston with
a small group of Texans captured Santa Anna, President of Mexico,
in this battle and forced him to grant Texas its independence from
Mexico. Houston became the first President of the Republic of Texas
and, later, the first Governor of the State of Texas after its
annexation to the United States. The City of Houston was named in
his honor.
On November 11, 1839, the Virginia Military Institute, the first
state military school in the United States, was founded at
Lexington. This school was located adjacent to the Washington
Academy which is now known as Washington and Lee University. The
Virginia Military Institute was greatly appreciated because it
was no longer necessary for the Southern young men to travel to
West Point for military training and discipline. V. M. I. opened
originally with twenty-three cadets and two teachers: Francis Smith
and J. T. L. Preston, a lawyer who is accredited with having the
concept of a state military institute. It became the first normal
school in the state because during the first year of its existence,
the state legislature passed a law stating that the training of
teachers was to be considered as its chief objective. When the War
between the States took place, V. M. I. supplied the Confederate
forces with many of its military leaders, earning for itself the
title, "The West Point of the Confederacy." At the Battle of New
Market in 1864, V. M. I. cadets led by General John C. Breckinridge
defeated the Union Army by the remarkable capture of a Union battery.
From 1822 to 1850 thirteen additional counties had been created:
Alleghany (formed from Bath, Botetourt and Monroe Counties and named
for the Indian word, "Alleghany" meaning "Lost"), Page (formed
from Rockingham and Shenandoah Counties and named in honor of John
Page, Virginia Governor [1802-1805]), Floyd (formed from Montgomery
County and later, part of Franklin County and named for John Floyd,
Virginia Governor [1830-1834]), Smyth (formed from Washington and
Wythe Counties and named for Alexander Smyth, Inspector-General
of the Army in 1812 and a Congressman), Rappahannock (formed from
Culpeper County and named for the Rappahannock Indian tribe which
lived along the Rappahannock River which flows in this county),
Clark (formed from Frederick and named for General George Rogers
Clark), Warren (formed from Shenandoah and Frederick Counties
and named for Major General Joseph Warren who died in the Battle
of Bunker Hill), Roanoke (formed from Botetourt County and named
for the term, "Roanoke," which was used by the colonists to
indicate the shell-beads which the Indians used for money and
for decoration), Greene (formed from Orange County and named
for General Nathaniel Greene of the Revolutionary War), Pulaski
(formed from Montgomery and Wythe Counties and named for Count
Casimir Pulaski, Revolutionary War Polish Patriot), Carroll (formed
from Grayson County and named in honor of Charles Carroll of
Carrollton), Appomattox (formed from Buckingham, Prince Edward,
Charlotte and Campbell Counties and named from the Indian word,
"Appomattox," meaning "tobacco plant country") and Highland (created
from Pendleton and Bath Counties and named for the extremely high
altitude of this mountainous area).
In 1841, William Henry Harrison became the ninth President of the
United States and John Tyler became the Vice-President of the
United States. Both were born in Charles City County, approximately
twenty-four miles from Richmond. William Henry Harrison had
successfully defeated the Indian chief, Tecumseh, and his brother,
"The Prophet," at Tippecanoe River in Indiana. From this experience
he earned the title, "Old Tippecanoe" which became a part of the
1840 presidential campaign slogan: "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
William Henry Harrison has a most unique distinction in the history
of the United States in that he served the shortest term of any
President--March 4, 1841 to April 4, 1841. Upon his death from
pneumonia, believed contracted during the inauguration ceremonies,
the other Virginian, John Tyler, succeeded to the Presidency.
Tyler had been a Congressman, a state legislator, a Governor of
Virginia and a United States Senator before becoming President.
During his term of office, the United States and Canada agreed upon
a final boundary in the Treaty of Washington. Tyler approved the
annexation of Texas to the Union near the end of his Presidential
administration.