the tax laws, which provided some relief to small businesses and farmers. Furthermore, many justices of the Virginia Supreme Court had terms expiring during the height of Readjuster power, so the Readjuster-dominated legislature elected Readjusters to replace them, as well as appointed former Confederate officer (and Taylor County, West Virginia legislator) George W. Hansbrough as the new reporter of judicial decisions. In 1882, Riddleberger pushed a measure through the Virginia General Assembly reorganizing the prewar debt and repudiating about 1/3 of the prewar amount attributed to West Virginia, which Governor Cameron signed and the United States Supreme Court later upheld. However, the bondholders continued to contest the decision, and also lobbied the Conservative Party of Virginia to affirm higher interest payments. State legislators elected Mahone as a U.S. Senator, and he served one term, from 1881 to 1887. In Congress, he primarily aligned on voting with the members of the Republican Party, as did fellow Readjuster Harrison H. Riddleberger, whom fellow legislators elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served one term from 1883-1889. Collapse While Republicans controlled the Presidency, Mahone controlled patronage in Virginia. When Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected U.S. President in 1884, patronage switched to what had been the Conservative Party (which became the Democratic party in 1883). The Readjusters lost control of the state legislature in 1883 after the Danville Massacre, which occurred immediately before voting began. Democrat Fitzhugh Lee became governor, defeating Readjuster John Sergeant Wise by 5% and succeeding Cameron in 1885. However, Readjuster Parson Massey won election as Lieutenant Governor in 1885. The collapse of the Readjuster party was also precipitated in part by its appointment of two freedmen to the Richmond school board. J. Taylor Ellyson, who would serve several terms as Richmond's mayor and later become Lieutenant Governor, was elected a state senator from Richmond on an anti-Readjuster platform. Legislators elected Democrat John W. Daniel to succeed Mahone in 1886. John S. Barbour Jr., son of President of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad had organized revitalization of the Democratic Party on conservative principles in 1883, and succeeded Riddleberger in 1888. Virginia's Democratic legislature supported only Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate, as Barbour and Thomas Staples Martin formed what would later become the Byrd Organization. Finally in 1892, the General Assembly adopted the Olcutt Act which forbade using the bond coupons to pay state taxes. The collapse of the biracial Republican