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152. Virginia 1797 Governor
153. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Berkeley County
154. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Botetourt County
155. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Brunswick County
156. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Cumberland County
157. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Essex County
158. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Fairfax County
159. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Fauquier County
160. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Goochland County
161. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Norfolk County
162. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Pendleton County
163. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Powhatan County
164. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Prince Edward County
165. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Shenandoah County
166. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Spotsylvania County
167. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Sussex County
168. Virginia 1797 House of Delegates, Westmoreland County
169. Virginia 1797 State Senate, Class 2, District 2, Special
170. Virginia 1797 State Senate, Class 4, District 2
171. Virginia 1797 State Senate, Class 4, District 6
172. Virginia 1798 Clerk of the House of Delegates
173. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Amelia County
174. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Amelia County, Special
175. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Bath County
176. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Botetourt County
177. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Brunswick County
178. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Cumberland County
179. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Essex County
180. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Henrico County
181. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Norfolk County
182. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Pendleton County
183. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Powhatan County
184. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Prince Edward County
185. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Sussex County
186. Virginia 1798 House of Delegates, Westmoreland County
187. Virginia 1798 Speaker of the House
188. Virginia 1798 State Senate, Class 1, District 1
189. Virginia 1798 State Senate, Class 1, District 2
190. Virginia 1798 State Senate, Class 1, District 4
191. Virginia 1798 State Senate, Class 1, District 5
192. Virginia 1798 State Senate, Class 1, District 5, Special
193. Virginia 1799 Clerk of the House of Delegates
194. Virginia 1799 Executive Council
195. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Ballot 2
196. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Ballot 3
197. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Ballot 4
198. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Ballot 5
199. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Dismissal
200. Virginia 1799 Executive Council, Dismissal
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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