Stuart. A. H. H. Stuart also specifically declined appointment to a peace commission in March 1864. Post-war About a month after Virginia's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, on May 8, 1865, Stuart chaired a mass meeting in Staunton, which adopted resolutions asking the U.S. Army's protection and declaring the populace not in rebellion. Stuart also took oaths of allegiance to the United States and to the loyal government of Virginia. Because he had never held Confederate office, Stuart was eligible for election and was again elected U.S. Representative in 1865. However, despite presenting credentials as a member-elect to the 39th Congress in 1865, he was denied a seat as were other newly-elected Southern delegates, because Virginia was not yet readmitted to the Union, pending its adoption of a new state constitution outlawing slavery, among other measures. As the University of Virginia commencement speaker in June 1866, Stuart lamented the end of Old Virginia. He also opposed Congressional Reconstruction. In 1866, Stuart was a delegate to the National Convention of Conservatives at Philadelphia. In 1867, Stuart criticized the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868, which was elected with universal suffrage and included black delegates. Shortly after it convened, Stuart became chairman of the Committee of Nine, which lobbied the new president Ulysses S. Grant, and managed to secure separate votes for the new state constitution, which passed overwhelmingly, and anti-Confederate measures, which failed. Thus, Virginia was restored to the Union in 1870. Augusta County voters again elected Stuart to represent them in the Virginia General Assembly in 1873, and he served on the Committee on Finance. His re-election was contested, but he won the second vote and served from 1874 to 1877. Stuart also served as rector of the University of Virginia from 1874 to 1882 and from 1886 to 1887, during which he came to accept public education but realized the funding problems (the institution received no funding from 1882 to 1884, and all its officers were forced out). He also served as president of the Virginia Historical Society from 1881 to his death, published a booklet concerning the Committee of Nine at its request, and continued his legal practice. Death and legacy Stuart died at his home in Staunton in 1891 (six years following his wife's death). They are buried at Thornrose Cemetery in Staunton's Newtown Historic District. His papers are held by the Virginia Historical Society and the University of