Virginia:

JOURNAL OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, FOR THE SESSION OF 1865--66.

Richmond: Allegre & Goode, Printers, 1865 [1866]. Original half sheep and marbled boards [rubbed, front cover detached but present]. 550pp. Lightly toned, Good+.

The Session began on December 4, 1865. Governor Peirpoint's opening message observes, "The former slaves of the state have become freemen. Much apprehension is felt in regard to the future of these people." Fears of "an indisposition on the part of the negroes to work" should not result in new legislation. "Freedom, in its great essential, consists in the privilege to a man of appropriating whatever he earns to his own use. To be free, labor must be voluntary. Idleness brings its own punishment." In a lengthy discussion of Reconstruction he assures his constituents of his opposition to the proscription of former Confederates: "I have made every exertion to restore to each man in the state all the rights of a citizen...No state can be governed under a republican form of government where three-fourths of the people, embracing the largest tax-payers, are disfranchised."
This book records Virginia's earliest efforts to recover from the devastating War-- with much material on transportation, fiscal policy, banking, legal and constitutional responses to the change in the status of the former slaves.
Swem [Official Documents] 15408. Item #27253

Price: $150.00