Readjuster
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Readjuster Party
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|---|---|
| Founded | 1877 |
| Dissolved | 1895 |
| Succeeded by | Democratic Party |
| Ideology | Populism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
The Readjuster Party was a political biracial coalition formed in Virginia in the late 1870s during the turbulent period following the Reconstruction era. Readjusters aspired "to break the power of wealth and established privilege" among the planter elite of white men in the state and to promote public education. Their program attracted biracial support.
The party was led by Harrison H. Riddleberger of , an attorney, and William Mahone, a former Confederate general who was president of several railroads. Mahone was a major force in Virginia politics from around 1870 until 1883, when the Readjusters lost control to white Democrats.
Immediately after Virginia's adoption of a new state constitution and readmission into the United States in 1870, the first state legislature (a majority of whose members had never held political office before) after extensive lobbying passed the Funding Act of 1871. This affirmed the state's pre-war debt by issuing bonds at 6% interest for 2/3 of the debt's face value at that same interest rate and promised to pay the remainder after agreement with West Virginia. Virginia's governor elected at that time, Gilbert Carlton Walker was a banker in Norfolk and supported affirmation of the pre-war debt. He had the support of the Conservative Party formed by the Committee of Nine and characterized the issue as a "matter of honor." Confederate bonds were still worthless, and by this time prewar debt (exchanged after the law) had mostly been bought by out-of-state and even British investors at greatly discounted prices.
In the decades before 1861, the Virginia Board of Public Works had invested in canals, roads, and railroads, by purchasing stock in and/or receiving mortgages on turnpike, toll bridge, canal and rail transportation companies. By 1861, those $34 million in investments with deferred 6% interest totaled about $46 million. During the American Civil War, most of the railroads had been used for military purposes by armies on both sides, and had become strategic targets. Railroad lines were ripped up, terminals burned, bridges blown up and rolling stock destroyed. Several northwestern counties also seceded from Virginia to remain in the Union as the State of West Virginia. Much of what little railroad and canal infrastructure remained was in West Virginia.
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