Mar 28, 2019 - Sale 2503

Sale 2503 - Lot 376

Unsold
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(RECONSTRUCTION.) Virginia school trustee's commission and loyalty oath. 2 printed forms, 10 x 8 inches and 8 1/2 x 7 inches, one completed in manuscript for Henry M. Holladay of Livingston, VA and signed by James L. Kemper as Governor of Virginia; folds, minimal wear. [Richmond, VA], 11 April 1874
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A commission issued to a school trustee in Livingston, VA, signed by the state's first post-Reconstruction governor, ex-Confederate general James Kemper. It is accompanied by a blank printed "Oath for School Trustees," a variant of the loyalty oath required of all state officials in Reconstruction Virginia: "I will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States. . . . I recognize and accept the civil and political equality of all men before the law." This must have been sent to the school trustee for his signature along with the commission. With the waning of Reconstruction, he must not have felt obligated to "accept the civil and political equality of all men" any more--it remains blank and was never sent back to the state.