Compiled by Karen Hughes White and Joan Peters
Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County, 1996

With permission from the Afro-American Historical Association

Laws That Pertain to the Civil War, an Excerpt

1836. Resolution No. 1. This resolution, relative to the interference of certain associations in the Northern States with domestic slavery in the South, states that this Commonwealth only has the right to control domestic slavery within its limits and will maintain this right at all hazards and calls on co-states to restrain and punish their citizens who form abolition societies. Furthermore, Congress has no power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia or territories of the United States and any act having for its object the abolition of slavery therein would afford just cause of alarm to the slave-holding states and bring the Union into imminent peril.

1860. Resolution No. 31. This paper is adopted in response to the request of South Carolina and Mississippi for a conference of Southern States: the General Assembly recognizes an imperative necessity for decisive measures in our present relations with non-slave-holding states, but does not yet distrust the capacity of the Southern States by a wise and firm exercise of their reserved power to protect the rights and liberties of the people, and to preserve the Federal Union. We earnestly desire the concurrent action of the Southern States, but submit to South Carolina and Mississippi and all our sister states of the South that efficient co-operation will be more safely obtained by such direct legislative action of the several states, as may be necessary, than through the agency of an assemblage which can exercise no legitimate power, except to debate and advise.

1860. Chapter 425. This is an act to compensate Andrew Hunter, of Charlestown, in the amount of $1,500.00 for his legal services in prosecution against John Brown and others connected with the recent outrage at Harpers Ferry.

1861. Resolution No.1 passed January 8. The government of the Union has no power to declare war against any of the states, and when any one of the states shall determine under existing circumstances to withdraw from the Union, we are unalterably opposed to any attempt on the part of the federal government to coerce the same into reunion or re-submission and we will resist the same by all means in our power.

1861. Ordinance No. 1. The people of Virginia do declare and ordain that the ratification of the constitution of the United States is hereby repealed, and the union of Virginia and the other states under the aforesaid Constitution is hereby dissolved, to take affect when ratified by a majority of the votes of the people on the fourth Thursday in May, next; done in convention at Richmond, April 17, 1861.

1861. Ordinance No. 9. The governor of Virginia is authorized to call volunteers into the service of the state to repel invasion and protect the citizens of the state; passed April 17.

1865. Chapter XX. The session of the Virginia Assembly convening at Alexandria ratifies the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States abolishing slavery.

1866. Resolution No. 1. Resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia that the people of the Commonwealth cordially approve the policy pursued by Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, in the reorganization of the Union. We accept the result of the late contest and do not desire to renew what has been so conclusively determined. Involuntary service, except for crime, is abolished and ought not to be re-established; the Negro race among us should be treated with justice, humanity and good faith.

1866. Chapter 17. The following acts are repealed: All acts relating to slaves and slavery, and free Negroes.

1867. Chapter 46. On January 9th the Assembly ratifies the proposed 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States state that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside; and no state shall abridge the privileges of citizens of the United States, nor deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, not deny any persons the equal protection of the law.

1871. Chapter 57. All male citizens twenty-one to sixty years of age, entitled to vote and hold office, shall be liable to serve as jurors, except persons convicted of scandalous offense, or those guilty of gross immorality. The judge shall prepare a list of inhabitants as he shall think well qualified to serve, being persons of sound judgment.

1874. Chapter I. The General Assembly recognizes the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States as part of that instrument and desires in good faith to abide by its provisions as expounded by the Supreme Court of the United States. That tribunal recently held that it is only the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the United States that are placed under the protection of the Constitution and privileges of the citizens of the state are not intended to have any additional protection.

The bill before Congress, known as the civil rights bill, is in violation of this amendment. It is an infringement on the constitutional powers of the state; it is sectional in its operation and injurious alike to the white and colored population of the Southern States; its enforced application in these states will prove destructive of their systems of education, arrest the enlightenment of the colored population (in whose improvement the people of Virginia feel a lively interest), and produce continual irritation between the races.