was assisted by Hening. Several other states had already organized their codes by subject, but conservative jurists, such as those that composed Virginia's bar, preferred the tradition of dating public acts from the year of independence. Leigh accordingly wrote an apologetic note in his preface to the Code on this issue and retained the dates in the side margin. The Code of 1819 mistakenly included the proposed Titles of Nobility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would have been the Thirteenth Amendment had it been ratified. Modern-day proponents of TONA's enactment incorrectly point to its inclusion as evidence that Virginia had ratified it, but it was merely an editorial error due to incorrect information. The Code of 1849 The Code of 1849 has been considered the most thorough revision ever of Virginia law. The General Assembly approved it in 1849, and it entered into force on July 1, 1850. The Code of 1849 contained 216 chapters in 56 titles, with individually numbered sections in each chapter. It also included annotations, in the form of footnotes that traced the development of institutions and legal doctrines back to the 17th century. It was nonetheless fewer than 1000 pages, something its compilers were proud of. The Code of 1849 was principally the work of former U.S. Congressman and acting governor of Virginia, John M. Patton, and legal scholar and Virginia Supreme Court reporter Conway Robinson. They had been asked by the General Assembly in 1846 to "suggest such contradictions, omissions or imperfections, as they may perceive in the statutes" and to revise the code "in such as manner as in their opinion will render the said general statutes most concise, plain and intelligible." Patton and Robinson submitted five reports to the General Assembly between 1847 and 1849, and their work was finally adopted and passed by the General Assembly with only minor modifications. The 1849 revision was generally accepted as a modernization of Virginia statutory law and remained in force for almost 40 years, including during the temporary secession of Virginia from the United States during the American Civil War. It also became the first statutory law of West Virginia, when it broke off from Virginia in 1863 to be admitted as a separate state. The code was updated in 1860 and 1873, but neither edition was adopted by the General Assembly as a revision. By the 1870s, the code had expanded to