The Black and Tan Conventions met December 3, 1867 in our venerable and historic Capitol to frame a new constitution for the Old Dominion. In this body were members from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Maryland, District of Columbia, Ireland, Scotland, Nova Scotia, Canada, England, scalawags or turncoats by Southerners most hated of all: 24 negroes and 35 white Virginians in a total of 105, chaired by John. C. Underwood of New York.

Visitors went to the Capitol as to a monkey or minstrel show. Most of these darkeys, fresh from tobacco lots and corn and cotton fields, were as innocent as babes of any knowledge of reading and writing. They were equally guileless in other directions. Before the body was organized, an enthusiastic delegate bounced up to say something, but the Chair nipped him untimely in the bud: “No motion is in order until the roll is called. Gentlemen will please remember parliamentary usage.” The member sank limp into his seat asking in awed whisper of his neighbor: “Whut id de worl’ is dat?” Perplexity was great when a member rose to “make an inquiry”. “What dat he gwi make?” was whispered round, the question being settled summarily: “Well, it don’ make no diffunce”. We ain’ gwi let him do it nohow case he ain’ no Radicule”. (Radicule, the bastardization of the word “Radical”, i.e., the Radical wing of the republican party which pushed the punitive Reconstruction Acts and posed as a friend to the southern black)

Black, white, and yellow paiges flew around, waiting on members; the blacker the dignitary, the whiter the page he summoned to bring pens, ink, paper, apples, ginger-cakes, goober-peas. And newspapers! No sooner did darkeys observe that whites sent out and got newspapers than they did likewise; and sat there reading them upside down!

The Gallery of colored men and women come to see the show were almost as diverting as the lawmakers. Great were the flutterings over the seating of John Morrissey, the “wild Irishmean”, mistaken for his namesake, the New York Pugilist. “Dat ain’t de man dat fit Tom Higher? I tell you it am! Sho’ got muscle! He cum tuh fit dem Preservatives over dar”. According to the happy darkey knack of saying the wrong thing in the right place, a significant version of “Conservative” was thus applied to the little handful of representative white Virginians.

Curiosity was on tip-toe when motion was made that a stenographer be appointed. “Snographer? What’s dat?? Maybe it’s de pusson whut takes down de speeches befo’ dee’s spoken”, explained a wise one.

...this occasion for eloquence was not to be ignored by the Honourable Lewis Lindsay, representing Richmond. “Mistah Preisdet, I hopes in dis late hour dat Ole Fuhginny am imperilated, dat no free-thinkin’ man kin suppose fuh one minute dat we ‘sires tuh misrippersint de idée dat we ain’ qualify de sability uh de sternogrhy uh dis convention. I hopes, suh, dat we kin den be able tuh superhen’ de principles uh de supposition”

(The Honourable Lewis Lindsay Again) – on the subject of mixed race schools --- “Mistah Presidet, de real flatform suh. I’ll sw’ar tuh high heaven. Yes, I’ll sw’ar higher dan dat. I’ll go down an’ de uth shall crumble intuh dus’ befo’ dee shall amalgamise my rights! ‘Bout dis question uh cyapret-bags. Ef you cyapret-baggers does go back on us, woes be unto you! You better take yo’ cyarpet-bags an’ quit, and de quicker you git up an’ git de better! I do not abdicate de superstition tuh des strange frien’s, lately so-called citizens of fuhginny. Ef dee don’ gimme my rights, I’ll suffer dis country tuh be lak Sarah. I’ll suffer desterlation fus! When I blows my horn, dee’ll hear it! When de big cannons was thund’in an’ de missions uh death was flyin’ thu de a’r, dee holldreed: {“come, Mr Nigguh, come! And he done come! I’se here tuh qualify my constituents. I’ll sing tuh Rome an’ tuh Engla’ and tuh de uttermos’ parts u de uth”

That clause against mixed schools was a rock upon which the Radical Party split, white members with children voting for separate education of races; most darkeys “didn’t want no sech claw in de law”.

...Lindsay took occasion to wither white “Radicules” on the color distribution in the gallery. “Whar is de white Radicule members’ wives and chillun?” - waving his hands towards the white section. “When dee comes here, dee mos’ly set dar se’ves on dat side de House, whilst I brings mine on dis side...”

....They voted themselves per diem salaries and used up $70,000 of the $100,000 that was available in the state treasury. .... General Schofield, military governor, spoke to the convention and scolded them on their extravagance, and on their resolutions excluding white Virginians. They ignored him. The Convention eventually adjourned because someone said the Ku Klux Klan was on the way.