The Byrd Machine is one of the most famous political machines in U.S. history – but in Virginia – following the Civil War, another influential political force emerged: the Readjusters.
At that time, the Conservative Party, formed in 1867 and comprised of former Democrats and Whigs, united people who opposed radical Republican reformers in Congress and the state legislature.
Conservatives opposed the idea of giving the right to vote to Black men while denying it to men who had held political or military office in the Confederacy. They held the majority in the state legislature for ten years until a new party led by a former Confederate general wrestled control away.
The Readjusters
William Mahone, a Confederate general and railroad tycoon, was the architect of the Readjusters’ ascent to power.
Eventually becoming a member of the House of Delegates during the Civil War and later the United States Senate, Mahone capitalized on the public’s dissatisfaction with decisions made by the Conservative Party and built a political network across the commonwealth.
How the Readjusters gained power
Mahone first ran for the Conservative gubernatorial nomination in 1877 on the idea of readjusting or repudiating a portion of the state debt and eventually lost to Frederick Holliday.
In 1871, the Conservative Party passed the Funding Act, cutting social services and raising taxes in an attempt to reduce Virginia’s large debt burden after the war.
This angered poor white and Black people at the time. Mahone was able to rally them to support his movement by forming a new coalition — the Readjuster Party — in 1877.
Led by Mahone and Harrison H. Riddleberger, the biracial coalition of Conservatives and Republicans, which intended to reduce the debt and restore social services, quickly made electoral gains across Virginia in the years following the 1877 election.
They won the legislative majority in 1879 and again in 1881 when Virginia elected William Cameron, the Readjusters’ nominee for governor.
Mahone was elected to the United States Senate in 1881, and Riddleburger in 1883.
While the Readjusters controlled the state government, they invested heavily in schools, especially Black schools. They increased funding for what is now Virginia Tech and established Virginia State University. They also abolished the poll tax and the public whipping post.
This was all done by a party led by a former Confederate general.
“Mahone and the Readjusters forged the most powerful bi-racial political party in the postwar South, but it is important to keep in mind that this coalition was not inevitable,” said Kevin Levin, a historian who has written extensively about Civil War figures.
“Neither the Readjusters nor the Funders at first approached the Black community,” Levin continued. “In other words, the Readjuster Party was not established in an attempt to better the lives of Virginia’s Black population. The alliance was one of necessity and the results were revolutionary.”
Mahone faced backlash for working with Black Virginians.
“Mahone faced constant criticism from fellow veterans and many throughout the state believed that he had betrayed the white race,” Levin wrote. “There was strong pressure to end the party’s alliance with the Black community.”
Democrats gain power
Racism eventually led to the downfall of Mahone and the Readjusters.
Their reign came to an end when Democrats capitalized on racism and fear with Virginia voters.
In the early 1880s, white conservatives came together and reformed the Democratic Party.
Just before Election Day in 1883, the Danville Massacre occurred, a racially motivated attack by white supremacists resulting in four Black people and one white person dying.
Conservative Democrats effectively messaged across the commonwealth by predicting racial violence, miscegenation and Black rule if the Readjusters retained control of the General Assembly.
This led to the Readjusters losing their majority in the General Assembly.
They could never regain their power, and the party eventually collapsed.
After Democrats took control of the legislature in 1883 and won the gubernatorial election in 1885, they successfully retained control of the state government for the next 80 years.
Mahone then lost his Senate seat to Conservative Democrat John W. Daniel in 1886.
Both Mahone and Riddleberger only served only one term in the Senate.
While in the Senate, Mahone caucused with Republicans and used his influence as a third-party legislator to increase his power in the chamber, which was split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.
After the Readjusters lost their influence in 1883, Mahone remained affiliated with Republicans and led the Virginia delegation to the Republican National Conventions in 1884 and 1888.
He died in 1895 and was interred at his family’s mausoleum in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.
“I’ve said before that William Mahone is the most important Virginia politician in the nineteenth century after Thomas Jefferson,” Levin wrote.