Botts after he answered their knock, but he closed the door in their faces. In May 1866, Botts presided over a Unionist convention, and became a delegate to the Southern Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia later that year, where he argued against universal manhood suffrage. Botts proposed gradual emancipation of slaves, and would allow only some African Americans to vote. However, Radical Republicans defeated the Southern Unionists, and the Reconstruction Era began. Botts was defeated when he ran to become a delegate to Virginia's Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868, eventually led by John Curtiss Underwood. Botts last addressed Republicans in February 1868. Death and legacy Botts died on January 8, 1869, in Culpeper, Virginia. He was survived by one son, two daughters, and his younger brother Charles Tyler Botts (1808-1884), who was a journalist in California. John Minor Botts was interred in the Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond, as had been his wife Mary and at least their son Archibald, and as would be fellow unionists Elizabeth Van Lew and Franklin Stearns. John's grave marker reads: "He was under all circumstances an inflexible friend of the American Union. 'I know no North, no South, no East, no West. I know only my Country, my whole Country, and nothing but my Country.'" Elections of 1846, 1848, 1850 Botts was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846 with 55.37% of the vote, defeating Democrat Walter D. Leake. He then failed to be re-elected to Congress in races held in 1848 and 1850, but he was elected as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 where he spoke as a reformer to expand the Virginia electorate. Memoirs Botts published his memoirs, The Great Rebellion: Its Secret History, Rise, Progress, and Disastrous Failure (1866). See also Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1850 References External links My Inwood 1847 Richmond letter mentioning Botts John Minor Botts in Union or Secession: Virginians Decide at the Library of Virginia "Auburn," the Botts estate in Culpeper, Va. 1802 births 1869 deaths Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Virginia lawyers Politicians from Richmond, Virginia People of Virginia in the American Civil War Virginia Constitutional Unionists Southern Unionists in the American Civil War People from Dumfries, Virginia Whig Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 19th-century American politicians Lawyers from Richmond, Virginia 19th-century American lawyers