Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868

The Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868, was an assembly of delegates elected by the voters to establish the fundamental law of Virginia following the American Civil War and the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. The Convention, which met from December 3, 1867 until April 17, 1868, set the stage for enfranchising freedmen, Virginia's readmission to Congress and an end to Congressional Reconstruction.

After 1866, according to the Radical Reconstruction Acts of Congress, a rebelling state which had vacated its delegation in the U.S. Congress was required to constitutionally incorporate the 14th Amendment before it was allowed to participate again. That Amendment guarantees that all persons born in the United States are citizens both of the United States and of their state. States were no longer allowed either to curtail the privileges of their citizens or to deny equal protection of their laws to any citizen. The Radical Congressional Reconstruction legislation required the suffrage for black men.

During Reconstruction, U.S. General John Schofield administered Virginia as Military District One. By the time he called a new state constitutional convention for 1868, three distinct parties had coalesced in Virginia. Radical Republicans included most ex-slave freedmen, and organized to advocate full political and social equality for blacks, but also wanted to exclude ex-Confederates from political participation either in government or at the ballot box. Moderate Unionists (including many pre-war Whigs), sought political equality for blacks, but believed that ex-Confederates had to be included in the political community because of the terms of surrender as well as majority among the white population. Conservatives wanted to ensure white control of the state (although crippled by former Confederates who urged a boycott of the nominating convention, and also opposed Radical influence on issues such as public education.

In the elections for the Constitutional Convention, Radical Republican superior organization gained a surprise triumph over both Moderates and Conservatives, resulting in a majority of Convention delegates. The statewide majority of white ex-Confederates immediately organized Virginia's Conservative Party by meeting and forming the Committee of Nine shortly after the convention began meeting in December 1867. They incorporated the moderate former Unionists to seek white-only control of the state.

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