The Cotton Kingdom a Chronicle of the Old South (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1919. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI THE PLANTER IN POLITICS The political basis of the plantation system was the county court, and the county court of the South came from the banks of the James and the York rivers. In old Virginia a county court was composed of a group of justices of the peace meeting once a month to try petty cases of law. These justices were the grandees of their respective neighborhoods. They were vestrymen in the established church, owners of plantations, and lords of manors. Their wives were the ladies of the land and their daughters set the hearts of young blades aflame when they appeared in church. They were men of good common sense, familiar with the codes of Virginia and to a less degree acquainted with the precedents of English law courts. Everybody looked up to them; and they made themselves responsible in considerable measure for the good behavior of the countryside. What they thought was right was likely to become law. Now when these bewigged and bepowdered gentlemen took their seats on the county bench, the wheels of justice in the old commonwealth of Virginia began to revolve. But aside from the ordinary business of courts, they sat in administrative sessions to appoint sheriffs and road overseers and to order the building of bridges and schoolhouses. At informal meetings they determined which of their number ought to stand for election to the next assembly, passed upon the conduct of returning members of Congress, and as time went on learned to denounce the conduct of rascally Yankees. The government of Virginia during the first hah* of the nineteenth century rested securely upon the shoulders of the county justices of the peace. In fact, these justices inherited their social position from honorable English ancestors who had sworn by the name of the King...