The municipal government that found itself in possession of the town at the close of the war continued without any election, or any attempt to hold an election, until the Spring of 1867. At that time it seemed to be the opinion and desire of the Mayor and Common Council that an election should be held and that a full corps of officers for the town should be chosen. The only law under which the Council could act and order an election was the charter which was in force prior to the war and which prescribed that elections for Mayor and Common Council should be held on the third Monday in March of each year. In accordance with this provision of the charter the Council ordered an election to be held on the 18th of March, 1867, for the election of a Mayor and Common Council, but the question of the qualification of voters having arisen, and the Council being unable to decide who were entitled to vote under the new order of things, referred the question to General John M. Scofield, who was then in command of Military District, No. 1. General Scofield suspended the election "until the necessary preparations can be made to fully and fairly carry out the provisions of the act of Congress of March 3rd, 1867, concerning the elective franchise and the qualification of officers." On receipt of this order of suspension the Council passed the following resolution: "That in pursuance of said order, the election heretofore advertised to be held on Monday, the 18th instant, for Mayor and Common Councilmen, be and it is hereby suspended until further orders. And whereas, further, under General Orders No. 1, issued from the same headquarters, all officers under the existing provisional government of Virginia are continued in office for the present, this Council, in accordance with said orders, do hereby resolve that the persons at present, discharging the duties required by the charter of this corporation, be and they are hereby continued in their respective offices until further orders." And there was a peculiar significance in the word orders! THE IRON-CLAD OATH. In April, 1867, the famous order was issued from "Headquarters, Military District, No. 1, of the State of Virginia," requiring every officer in the Commonwealth, State, municipal and county, to take the oath adopted by Congress in 1862, commonly called the test oath, and which was known through the South after the close of the war as the Iron-clad oath. This order affected every officer in the State, from the Governor down to the smallest officer, and it created quite a sensation. The oath was as follows: