ENTRY

William A. Anderson (1842–1930)

SUMMARY

William A. Anderson, who came to be known as the “Lame Lion of the Confederacy,” helped establish the Democratic Party‘s dominance in Virginia during and after the Reconstruction period. Wounded during the American Civil War (1861–1865), he was nominated to the House of Delegates in 1868 as a member of the Conservative Party, which sought to bring back the state’s pre-war power structure. In 1883 Anderson was elected to the House of Delegates as a member of the Democratic Party (the successor of the Conservative Party). He helped cement Democratic control over Virginia by engineering the party’s acceptance of the Readjusters’ successful debt reduction policy and by co-sponsoring a law that gave control of elections to Democrats. In 1900 Anderson became head of the Virginia State Bar Association, and his presidential speech became the basis for the provisions in the Constitution of 1902 that disfranchised African American and poor white voters. (Anderson was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1901–1902.) He served as attorney general of Virginia from 1902 to 1910 and in the House of Delegates from 1918 to 1919. Anderson died at his home in Lynchburg in 1930.

Early Years

Colonel Burnside's Brigade

William Alexander Anderson was born on May 11, 1842, at Montrose, near Fincastle in Botetourt County, the eldest of three sons and sixth of nine children of Francis Thomas Anderson, later a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, and Mary Ann Alexander Anderson. He was educated at home and also attended the Fincastle Academy. Anderson enrolled at Washington College (later Washington and Lee University) in Lexington in 1857 but did not graduate. In April 1861 he left school to join the Liberty Hall Volunteers, which he and his classmates had just formed. He enlisted on June 2 and became orderly sergeant of Company I, 4th Virginia Infantry Regiment. Anderson was shot in the left kneecap at the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on July 21, 1861, spent several months recuperating at the Richmond home of his uncle Joseph Reid Anderson, a prominent industrialist, and was discharged on December 14. In 1863 he entered the University of Virginia, from which he received an LLB on June 20, 1866.

Anderson returned to Lexington and began a long and successful career as an attorney and important conservative Democratic politician. By acting as counsel for a number of mining and other business firms, he became relatively affluent. Between 1889 and 1891 Anderson won praise for helping to attract foreign investment to turn the Rockbridge County town of Glasgow into a major industrial center, but the boom collapsed in 1893. Unlike many other investors, Anderson apparently made money out of the Glasgow bubble. He married Ellen Graham Anderson, daughter of his uncle Joseph Reid Anderson, in Richmond on July 19, 1871, but she died on January 25, 1872. He then married Mary Louisa “Maza” Blair, of Lexington, on August 9, 1875, and they had four daughters and one son.

Political Career

In 1868 Anderson first ran for elective office and was nominated to the House of Delegates, but the state’s military commander postponed the election. The next year Anderson ran successfully for the Senate of Virginia and represented Alleghany, Bath, and Rockbridge counties from 1869 to 1873. He was deeply committed to returning the antebellum patrician oligarchy to power and spent the next thirty years working toward that goal. In a legislative session known later for passing the two ill-considered bills, Anderson voted both for the controversial 1871 Funding Bill to repay in full Virginia’s $37 million antebellum internal improvements debt and for the act to dispose of the state’s railroad holdings at bargain rates. At the same time, as a lifelong advocate of education, he also sponsored and helped pass William Henry Ruffner‘s 1870 act to establish the public school system that the Funding Act was soon to deprive of state aid.

Harrison H. Riddleberger

Anderson did not seek elective office again until 1879, when he campaigned unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates as a Funder (who favored full funding of the state’s debt) against a pair of Readjuster candidates who had initially been elected two years earlier. The Readjusters, who wanted the state’s debt readjusted downward, first won a majority in the General Assembly in 1879. By 1883 the Conservative Party, renamed the Democratic Party, had learned from its losses and revised its platform in order to wrest control of Virginia’s government from the Readjusters. Anderson benefited from the change by winning election to the House of Delegates, defeating the three-term Readjuster candidates to whom he had lost in 1879. Anderson served as chairman of the Committee on Schools and Colleges, and in spite of his earlier vote on the Funding Bill he introduced the resolution by which the Democrats accepted the Riddleberger Act of 1882 as the final downward readjustment of the public debt. With Delegate J. Marshall McCormick, Anderson also sponsored what became the Anderson-McCormick Election Law of 1884, which was designed to give control of elections to the Democratic Party and thereby cripple the Readjuster and Republican parties. The result was widespread voter fraud.

Anderson did not seek reelection in 1885 but did serve for the 1887–1888 term and again chaired the Committee on Schools and Colleges. Elected a trustee of Washington and Lee University in 1885, he served on the board until he died forty-five years later. He was rector from 1913 until 1924 and supported breaking the school’s ties to the Presbyterian Church as a prerequisite for making it a major national university.

In 1885 Anderson became a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, serving until 1900. He also served on the Democratic Executive Committee from 1885 to 1890. Jeopardizing his party standing, he was one of many conservative Democrats who resented the ascendancy within the party of Thomas Staples Martin who had used railroad money and influence to become United States senator in 1893. Anderson joined a splinter movement to break Martin’s power, curb widespread voting fraud, and lobby for the direct election of U.S. senators. He served as permanent chairman of the conference and made the principal speech in Richmond on May 10, 1899, at the meeting of the disaffected Democrats to decide a course of action. However, Martin crushed the May Movement, as it was called, and retained his Senate seat. Nevertheless, election reform remained an issue that ultimately had to be addressed.

James William Gilmore

Many Democrats believed that voter fraud could be eliminated by disfranchising the black electorate. Chosen president of the Virginia State Bar Association on April 30, 1900, Anderson used his July 17, 1900, presidential address to explain how the forthcoming constitutional convention could disfranchise black voters without violating the letter of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In fact, his speech formed the basis of the suffrage provisions of the Constitution of 1902. Anderson and James William Gilmore easily defeated two Republicans on May 23, 1901, to represent Rockbridge County in the convention. Anderson was elected president pro tempore and chaired the Committees on the Elective Franchise and on Final Revision. He voted with the majority for the restrictive suffrage provisions adopted on April 4, 1902, but sided with the minority that favored submitting the constitution to a ratification referendum.

In the meantime, on August 15, 1901, the Democratic state convention nominated Anderson for attorney general of Virginia, and he easily defeated Republican D. Lawrence Groner on November 5, 1901, with 61 percent of the vote. On November 7, 1905, he won election to a second term, defeating Republican candidate George A. Revercomb with 66 percent of votes cast in an election that saw a one-third decrease in total votes from the 1901 figure.

Anderson served as attorney general from January 1, 1902, until January 1, 1910. The years were unusually busy ones for the office because of questions that arose under the new constitution, its requirement that the attorney general represent the interests of the state before the new State Corporation Commission, and Anderson’s defense of its controversial suffrage provisions and the decision to put the constitution into effect without voter approval. His most important achievement was instituting the Virginia v. West Virginia suit in the U.S. Supreme Court that in 1915 resulted in a final settlement of the longstanding disagreement between those states over debts incurred for internal improvements prior to the Civil War. Anderson served as paid counsel for Virginia in the case after leaving office as attorney general.

Later Years

Good Roads in Amherst.

At the age of seventy-six Anderson served one more term in the House of Delegates session of 1918–1919 and supported the better roads movement. He was one of the last Civil War veterans active in politics and because of the pronounced stiff-legged limp that had resulted from his war wound became known as the “Lame Lion of the Confederacy.” The sobriquet “Lame Lion of Lynchburg” had originally been applied to railroad executive and U.S. senator John Warwick Daniel, who had rebuilt the Democratic Party in the 1880s, but after Daniel’s death Anderson received the honorific title in appreciation of his lifelong commitment to the Democratic Party. Anderson died at his house in Lexington on June 21, 1930, and was buried in Lexington Cemetery.

MAP
TIMELINE
May 11, 1842
William A. Anderson is born at Montrose, near Fincastle in Botetourt County. His parents are Francis Thomas Anderson and Mary Ann Alexander Anderson.
1857
William A. Anderson enrolls at Washington College in Lexington but does not graduate.
April 1861
William A. Anderson leaves school at Washington College to join the Liberty Hall Volunteers, which he and his classmates formed.
June 2, 1861
William A. Anderson enlists and becomes orderly sergeant of Company I, 4th Virginia Infantry Regiment.
July 21, 1861
William A. Anderson is shot in the kneecap at the First Battle of Manassas. He spends months recuperating in the Richmond home of his uncle Joseph R. Anderson.
December 14, 1861
After being wounded at the First Battle of Manassas, William A. Anderson is discharged from Confederate service.
1863
William A. Anderson enters the University of Virginia.
June 20, 1866
William A. Anderson receives an LL.B. degree from the University of Virginia.
1869—1873
William A. Anderson represents Allegany, Bath, and Rockbridge counties in the Senate of Virginia.
1870
William A. Anderson sponsors and helps pass William Henry Ruffner's act to establish the public school system in Virginia.
July 19, 1871
William A. Anderson marries Ellen Graham Anderson, the daughter of his uncle Joseph R. Anderson, in Richmond. They will have no children.
January 25, 1872
Ellen Graham Anderson, wife of William A. Anderson, dies.
August 9, 1875
William A. Anderson marries Mary Louisa "Maza" Blair, of Lexington. They will have four daughters and one son.
1879
William A. Anderson campaigns unsuccessfully for the House of Delegates as a Funder, or someone who favors full funding of the state's debt.
1883
William A. Anderson wins election to the House of Delegates as a Democrat.
1884
With J. Marshall McCormick, William A. Anderson sponsors what becomes the Anderson-McCormick Election Law, which is designed to give control of elections to the Democratic Party.
1885—1890
William A. Anderson serves on the Democratic Executive Committee.
1885
William A. Anderson is elected a trustee of Washington and Lee University in Lexington. He will remain on the board until his death.
1885—1900
William A. Anderson serves as a member of the Democratic State Central Committee.
1887—1888
After not seeking reelection in 1885, William A. Anderson serves again in the House of Delegates.
1889—1891
William A. Anderson wins praise for helping to attract foreign investment to turn the Rockbridge County town of Glasgow into a major industrial center.
May 10, 1899
William A. Anderson makes the principal speech in Richmond at a meeting of Democrats disaffected with the leadership of Senator Thomas Staples Martin.
April 30, 1900
William A. Anderson is chosen president of the Virginia Bar Association.
July 17, 1900
William A. Anderson, president of the Virginia Bar Association, delivers his presidential address to explain how the forthcoming constitutional convention can disfranchise black voters without violating the Fifteenth Amendment.
May 23, 1901
William A. Anderson wins election to the constitutional convention representing Rockbridge County. He is elected president pro tempore of the convention.
August 15, 1901
The Democratic state convention nominates William A. Anderson for attorney general.
November 5, 1901
William A. Anderson, a Democrat, is elected attorney general, easily defeating Republican D. Lawrence Groner with 61 percent of the vote.
April 4, 1902
William A. Anderson votes with the majority to pass a new state constitution notable for its restrictive suffrage provisions.
November 7, 1905
William A. Anderson wins a second term as attorney general, defeating Republican George A. Rivercomb with 66 percent of the vote.
1913—1924
William A. Anderson serves as rector of Washington and Lee University and supports breaking the school's ties to the Presbyterian Church as a prerequisite for making it a major national university.
1918—1919
William A. Anderson, a Democrat, serves in the House of Delegates.
June 21, 1930
William A. Anderson dies at his house in Lexington and is buried in Lexington Cemetery.
FURTHER READING
  • Moore, Lois G. “William Alexander Anderson, Attorney General of Virginia, 1902–1910.” MA thesis, University of Virginia, 1959. Summarized in Proceedings of the Rockbridge Historical Society 5 (1954/1960): 79–87.
  • Pulley, Raymond H. “The May Movement of 1899: Irresolute Progressivism in the Old Dominion.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75, no.2 (April, 1967): 186–201
  • Tarter, Brent. “Anderson, William Alexander.” In the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 1, edited by John T. Kneebone, et al., 161–163. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998.
  • Tarter, Brent. A Saga of the New South: Race, Law, and Public Debt in Virginia. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Tarter, Brent & Dictionary of Virginia Biography. William A. Anderson (1842–1930). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/anderson-william-a-1842-1930.
MLA Citation:
Tarter, Brent, and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "William A. Anderson (1842–1930)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 30 May. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
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