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2. Virginia 1803 Governor
3. Virginia 1816 Speaker of the House
4. Virginia 1821 Governor
5. Virginia 1813 Governor
6. Virginia 1808 Governor
7. Virginia 1799 Speaker of the Senate
8. Virginia 1799 Executive Council
9. Virginia 1807 Speaker of the House, Ballot 3
10. Virginia 1807 Speaker of the House, Ballot 4
11. Virginia 1808 Treasurer
12. Virginia 1809 U.S. Senate
13. Virginia 1802 Speaker of the House
14. Virginia 1824 Court of Appeals Judge
15. Virginia 1812 Governor
16. Virginia 1796 Attorney General, Ballot 2
17. Virginia 1796 U.S. Senate
18. Virginia 1811 Court of Appeals Judge, Ballot 3
19. Virginia 1802 U.S. Senate
20. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Dismissal
21. Virginia 1798 U.S. Senate
22. Virginia 1817 Governor
23. Virginia 1814 Governor, Ballot 2
24. Virginia 1808 Treasurer, Ballot 2
25. Virginia 1796 Governor, Ballot 2
26. Virginia 1801 Governor
27. Virginia 1803 Speaker of the House
28. Virginia 1798 Speaker of the House
29. Virginia 1820 Governor
30. Virginia 1807 Speaker of the House
31. Virginia 1804 Auditor
32. Virginia 1823 Governor
33. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Dismissal
34. Virginia 1822 Governor
35. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Dismissal, Ballot 2
36. Virginia 1791 Governor
37. Virginia 1805 Governor
38. Virginia 1794 Governor
39. Virginia 1788 U.S. Senate
40. Virginia 1803 Treasurer
41. Virginia 1815 U.S. Senate
42. Virginia 1800 Governor
43. Virginia 1824 Vice President of the United States
44. Virginia 1806 Brigadier General
45. Virginia 1821 U.S. Senate
46. Virginia 1788 Governor
47. Virginia 1802 Public Printer
48. Virginia 1807 Speaker of the House, Ballot 2
49. Virginia 1817 Treasurer
50. Virginia 1804 State Printer
51. Virginia 1816 Governor
52. Virginia 1799 Clerk of the House of Delegates
53. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Ballot 4
54. Virginia 1801 Speaker of the House
55. Virginia 1802 Governor
56. Virginia 1816 U.S. Senate
57. Virginia 1824 Governor
58. Virginia 1814 U.S. Senate
59. Virginia 1811 Court of Appeals Judge, Ballot 2
60. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Ballot 2
61. Virginia 1796 Attorney General
62. Virginia 1811 U.S. Senate
63. Virginia 1797 Governor
64. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, First Seat, Ballot 2
65. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Third Seat, Ballot 2
66. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, First Seat, Ballot 4
67. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Third Seat
68. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Third Seat
69. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Third Seat, Ballot 4
70. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Second Seat
71. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, First Seat
72. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Removal, Ballot 2
73. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Second Removal, Ballot 2
74. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Third Seat, Ballot 3
75. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Seat, Ballot 3
76. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Removal, Ballot 3
77. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Second Seat, Ballot 2
78. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Seat, Ballot 5
79. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Second Removal
80. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Second Removal, Ballot 3
81. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Removal, Ballot 2
82. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Third Seat, Ballot 2
83. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Third Seat, Ballot 3
84. Virginia 1809 Treasurer
85. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Second Seat, Ballot 3
86. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Seat, Ballot 2
87. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, First Seat, Ballot 3
88. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Seat
89. Virginia 1809 Treasurer, Ballot 2
90. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Second Seat
91. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, Second Removal
92. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Second Seat, Ballot 4
93. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Seat, Ballot 4
94. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Removal
95. Virginia 1809 Executive Council, First Removal, Ballot 4
96. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Removal
97. Virginia 1805 Executive Council, Second Removal, Ballot 2
98. Virginia 1814 Governor
99. Virginia 1799 Governor
100. Virginia 1796 Speaker of the Senate
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The Commonwealth of Virginia rebelled from England and created its own constitution in 1776 as an independent state. This document was written primarily by James Mason and was basically a bill of rights rather than a detailed framework of government. When Virginia joined first other colonies, under the Articles of Confederation, and then the United States, under our present Constitution, its government functioned much as it had as a colony. It had a legislature, but that body and the county courts were dominated by an elite of what one historian has called "Gentlemen Freeholders." This colonial gentry was made up of men who had a good deal of land and twenty or more slaves. Yet the right to vote was much more widely enjoyed than in England. Although governors were appointed by the imperial government before the Revolution, there were popular elections for the House of Burgesses.
Thus colonial Virginians (at least, many of the white landholding men) were used to elections, and these were several-day events that were quite public and rather intensely social. From 1776 until 1850, the government of Virginia continued to function on its original principles, and the Virginia constitution was not significantly changed. Thomas Jefferson early had called for a revision of the constitution of the commonwealth. His most extensive analysis was in “Notes on the State of Virginia,” published in the 1780s. Most historians are also familiar with a well-known letter written just a year before his death when constitutional reform was being debated.
The Old Dominion (as Virginia was often called) during the period of the elections being presented here had a governor and his counsel elected by the legislature. The legislature was bicameral, and both houses were popularly elected by the freeholders—essentially white men who held a respectable amount of land or, after the legislature changed the law in 1785, lived in town and owned a house.
In the 1820s the movement for reform grew. There were a number of demands to democratize the government, by electing the governor popularly, for example, or by building a hierarchy of republics from the local level up (Jefferson’s favorite idea). Even so, the famous collection of prominent Virginian statesmen, including ex-presidents, senators, congressmen and even the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, made very little change in the suffrage, admitting only "householders." The governor's council was eliminated, but the number of elective offices was not expanded. The unequal system of representation in the legislature was addressed by a compromise giving more seats to the west—mostly the Shenandoah Valley—without creating a rational plan for the future.
During this period, Virginians could vote for their legislators, congressmen, and electors in the presidential elections. They voted yearly in the spring for legislators, every two years for their members of Congress, and every four years for presidential electors. At first they voted for the electors themselves, because they were not willing to say whom they might vote for. The freeholders voted at the polling place closest to their home—a polling place that was often a court house but sometimes a local store. These Virginians voted viva voce, so we have poll books in some counties for some elections to supplement the statistics taken mostly from newspapers.
Bibliography
- Dabney, Virginius.
Virginia: The New Dominion (1971) - Heinemann, Ronald L., John G. Kolp, Anthony S. Parent Jr., and William G. Shade,
Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia, 1607-2007 (2007). - Salmon, Emily J., and Edward D.C. Campbell, Jr., eds.
The Hornbook of Virginia history: A Ready-Reference Guide to the Old Dominion's People, Places, and Past 4th edition. (1994) - Official State of Virginia Site
- Library of Virginia
- Virginia Historical Society