Virginia Vagrant Law

The Dispatch responds to a New York Tribune article that criticizes the Virginia Vagrant law.

It is stated that Governor Peirpoint was officially informed that it would meet the President's approbation if the late vagrant law passed by the Virginia legislature for the special persecution of Negroes should be vetoed by him. The governor saw fit to sign the bill, and hence the necessity of General Terry's stringent order.- New York Tribune The governor of Virginia has no veto power. If he had, he could never have had a chance to veto a bill which the presiding officers of the two Houses had not signed when it was "nullified." We trust the Tribune will do Virginia the justice to state that, however objectionable in itself the bill in question is, it was copied word for word from a Pennsylvania law.

“Virginia Vagrant Law,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed June 1, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/49.