formation of a national government with adequate powers to supersede the lame confederacy. In 1787, under the presidency of Washington, the National Convention sat in Philadelphia, with the result that the present Federal Constitution was submitted to the states for ratification during 1787–1789. In Virginia the tide-water leaders urged adoption, while the upcountry men, following Henry, opposed; but after a long and a bitter struggle, in the summer of 1788 the new instrument was accepted, the low-country winning by a majority of ten votes, partly through the influence of James Madison. Thus the eastern men, who had reluctantly supported the War of Independence, now became the sponsors for the national government, and Washington was compelled to rely on the party of slavery, not only in Virginia but in the whole South, in order to administer the affairs of the nation.
In 1784, Virginia, after some hesitation, ceded to the Federal government the north-west territory, which it held under the charter of 1609; in 1792 another large strip of the territory of Virginia became an independent state under the name of Kentucky. But the people of these cessions, especially of Kentucky, were closely allied to the great up-country party of Virginia, and altogether they formed the basis of the Jeffersonian democracy, which from 1794 opposed the chief measures of the Washington administration, and which on the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws in 1798 precipitated the first great constitutional crisis in Federal politics by the adoption in the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures of the resolutions, known by the names of those states, strongly asserting the right and duty of the states to arrest the course of the national government whenever in their opinions that course had become unconstitutional. Jefferson was the author of the Kentucky resolutions, and his friend Madison prepared those passed by the Virginia Assembly. But these leaders restrained their followers sharply whenever the suggestion of secession was made, and the question of what was meant by arresting the course of Federal legislation was left in doubt. The election of 1800 rendered unnecessary ah further agitation by putting Jefferson in the President's chair. The up-country party in Virginia, with their allies along the frontiers of the other states, was now in power, and the radical of 1776 shaped the policy of the nation during the next twenty-five years. Virginia held the position of leadership in Congress, controlled the cabinet and supplied many justices of the Supreme Court.
Virginia played a leading rôle in the War of 1812, and up to 1835 her influence in the new Western and North-Western states was overwhelming. But the steady growth of slavery in the East and of a virile democracy in the West neutralized this influence and compelled the assembling of the constitutional convention of 1829, whose purpose was to revise the fundamental law in such a way as to give the more populous counties of the West their legitimate weight in the legislature. The result was failure, for the democracy of small farmers which would have taxed slavery out of existence was denied proportionate representation. The slave insurrection under Nat Turner (q.v.) in 1831 led to a second abortive effort, this time by the legislature, to do away with the fateful institution. The failure of these popular movements led to a sharp reaction in Virginia, as in the whole South, in favour of slavery. From 1835 to 1861 many leading Virginians defended slavery as a blessing and as part of a divinely established order.
In 1850 a third Convention undertook to amend the Constitution, and now that the West yielded its bitter hostility to slavery, representation was so arranged that the more populous section was enabled to control the House while the East still held the Senate; the election of judges was confided to the people; and the suffrage was broadened. Although the West was not pleased, the leaders of the slave-holding counties threatened secession.
In the national elections of 1860 Virginia returned a majority of unionist electors as against the secession candidates, Breckinridge and Lane, many of the large planters voting for the continuance of the Union, and many of the smaller slave-owners supporting the secessionists. The governor called an extra session of the legislature soon after the Federal election, and this in turn called a Convention to meet on the 13th of February 1861. The majority of this body consisted of Unionists, but the Convention passed the ordinance of secession when the Federal government (April 17) called upon the state to supply its quota of armed men to suppress “insurrection” in the lower Southern states. An alliance was made with the provisional government of the Confederate States, on April 25, without waiting for the vote of the people on the ordinance. The Convention called out 10,000 troops and appointed Colonel Robert E. Lee of the United States army as commander-in-chief. On the 23rd of May the people of the eastern counties almost unanimously voted approval of the acts of the Convention, and the western counties took steps to form the state of West Virginia (q.v.). Richmond soon became the capital of the Confederacy. The Civil War was already begun, and Virginia was of necessity the battle-ground. Of the six great impacts made upon the Confederacy, four were upon Virginian soil: the first Manassas campaign (1861), the Peninsular battles (1862), second Manassas (1862), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (1862–63) and the great Wilderness-Petersburg series of attacks (1864–65). About 50,000 men were killed in Virginia, and probably 100,000 died of wounds and disease. The principal battles were: the first Manassas, or Bull Run (July 21, 1861); those around Richmond (June 26–July 2, 1862); second Manassas (August 29–30); Fredericksburg (December 12, 1862); Mechanicsville (May 2 and 3, 1863); the Wilderness (May 5 and 6); Spottsylvania (May 8); North Anna and Belhesda church (May 29–30); Cold Harbor (June 3); the battles around Petersburg (June 15, July 30 and November 1, 1864); and Five Forks (April 1) and Appomattox (April 8–9, 1865).
With the surrender of the Confederate army under General Lee to Grant at Appomattox the task of reconstruction began. President Lincoln offered a very liberal plan of re-establishing the civil authority over the counties east of the Alleghany mountains, and Governor Francis H. Pierpont set up in Richmond a government, based upon the Lincoln plan and supported by President Johnson, which continued till the 2nd of March 1867, when the famous reconstruction order converting the state into Military District No. 1 was issued. General John M. Schofield was put in charge, and under his authority a constitutional Convention was summoned which bestowed the suffrage upon the former slaves, who, led by a small group of whites, who had come into the state with the invading armies, ratified the 14th and 15th amendments to the Federal Constitution and governed the community until 1869. Then the secessionists and Union men of 1861 united and regained control. Virginia was readmitted to the Union on the 26th of January 1870. The Constitution of the reconstruction years was unchanged until 1902, when the present fundamental law was adopted.
In national elections the state has supported the Democratic party, except in 1860, when its vote was cast for John Bell, the candidate of the Constitutional Union party.
| Governors of Virginia | ||
| Under the Company | ||
| Edward Maria Wingfield, President of the Council | 1607 (April to Sept.) | |
| John Ratcliffe, President of the Council | 1607–1608 | |
| John Smith, President of the Council | 1608–1609 | |
| George Percy, President of the Council | 1609–1610 | |
| Thomas West, Lord Delaware, “Governor and Captain General” | 1610–1618 | |
| George Percy, Deputy Governor | 1611 (March to May) | |
| Sir Thomas Dale, “High Marshal” and Deputy Governor | 1611 (May to Aug.) | |
| Sir Thomas Gates, Acting Governor | 1611–1612 | |
| Sir Thomas Dale, Acting Governor | 1612–1616 | |
| George Yeardley, Lieutenant or Deputy Governor | 1616–1617 | |
| Samuel Argall, Lieutenant or Deputy Governor | 1617–1619 | |
| Nathaniel Powell, Acting Governor | 1619 (April 9 to 19) | |
| Sir George Yeardley, Governor | 1619–1621 | |
| Sir Francis Wyatt, Governor | 1621–1624 | |
