th, was elected president and W.J. Cowing, secretary. A number
of radical changes in the old constitution, framed by legitimate
authority in ante-bellum days, were consummated during the two months'
session of this convention.

[Footnote 40: It should be noted that Loudoun County furnished three of
this number.]

The Alexandria government held sway very nearly two years. The
legislature met for its second session December 5, 1864, and
re-elected J. Madison Downey, of Loudoun County, speaker of the house
of delegates.

The Pierpont government was not in itself of great importance. Its
influence extended to only a dozen counties and three cities and,
"under the shadow of bayonets, it was the rule of a few aliens in the
midst of a generally hostile population. Men at the time and since
have laughed at its legitimist pretenses." It would have been
summarily dismissed by the people but for the protection afforded it
by the Federal armies. Thus it appears that the "Restored Government
of Virginia" was not based upon the consent and approval of the
governed. Yet, suited to a policy of expediency and aggression, it
was, with quivering and unseemly eagerness, recognized as the legal
government of the State by the Lincoln administration.

_Emancipation._

A significant event of the war was the issuance by President Lincoln
of his celebrated emancipation proclamation. This highly important
measure, promulgated on New Year's day, 1863, sounded the death-knell
of slavery, an institution that, in the South, had seemed commercially
indispensable.

The tidings spread rapidly through Loudoun producing, however, no
change in the amicable relations existing between the white and
colored races. In all sections of the South some apprehension was at
first felt lest the negroes be tempted by Federal rewards to
insurrection and the state militias be required to suppress outbreaks.

The people of Loudoun, of course, shared in these early misgivings,
but here, as elsewhere, the negroes, as a whole, manifested no outward
signs of disaffection. History must record to their credit and praise
that while actual warfare was being waged on the soil of Loudoun they
quietly awaited the final issue of the fiery struggle.

Entire communities of women and children were left in their charge,
while all able-bodied white men were away on the battlefield, and the
trust was faithfully kept. Instances of criminal acts were so rare
that at this period