Readjuster party
The Readjuster Party was active in Virginia between about 1877 and 1895. The party had set itself the goal of breaking the power of the rich and privileged and was betting on the expansion of the education system. In Virginia it was led by William Mahone (1826-1895), who then represented the state of Virginia in the US Senate between 1881 and 1887 .
The party emerged from an alliance of parts of the Republican Party , the Democratic Party and the African Americans . A key point of their party program was the reduction of Virginia's pre- civil war debts , which came mainly from investments in infrastructure. The party's opponents demanded that Virginia repay all debts, including those of the war, plus interest. The Readjuster Party was also against the so-called "Poll Tax" laws, which attached the right to vote to certain properties. William E. Cameron was personally selected by Mahone as a candidate for governor of Virginia. Cameron then held this office between 1882 and 1886 as the only governor of Virginia who belonged to this party. Mahone himself made the leap as a senator in the US Congress . There he joined more and more of the Republican faction.
In the course of the 1880s this party gradually disintegrated. In Virginia, then predominantly dominated the Democrats, who were the governors of this state between 1886 and 1970 without interruption.