University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER V.

BACON'S REBELLION—HOSTILE DESIGNS OF THE FRENCH.

As Virginia had provided for herself a government substantially
free, the political changes in England could have little effect
upon her repose, provided no attempt was made to interfere with
the freedom of her trade, or her local government. She seemed
content to be under the protection, rather than control, of whatever
power the people of England thought proper to place at the
head of affairs, provided that power did not seek to extend the
conceded authority. In this mood she had adhered to Charles I.
until the Parliament, by its commissioners, promised a preservation
of all her privileges; she acknowledged Cromwell upon a
similar promise, and his son Richard under the same idea; upon
his resignation she held herself aloof, thus proving how perfect
and how independent was her own local government, until the
voice of England should declare who should rule; and upon the
accession of Charles II. she gave in her allegiance to him. As in
all these British changes she remained unconcerned and unmoved,
so the last caused neither extraordinary joy nor regret. The colonists,
thus free from external sources of uneasiness, proceeded to
legislate upon internal matters; providing rewards for the encouragement
of silk and other staples; negotiating with Carolina
and Maryland for the adoption of uniform measures for the improvement
of tobacco, and diminishing its quantity; and providing
for the erection of public buildings, the improvement of Jamestown,
and other subjects of general utility.

While the colonists were proceeding in this useful occupation,
they were alarmed by the intelligence of the re-enaction

of the navigation act, odious with new prohibitions, and
armed with new penalties. The Virginians had long enjoyed a
very beneficial trade with other countries besides England, and
had early perceived its advantages, often urging the propriety of
its continuance, and contending that "freedom of trade was the
life of a commonwealth." But the object of the navigation act
was to confine its trade exclusively to England, for the encouragement
of English shipping, and the emolument of English merchants,
as well as the promotion of the king's revenue; without regard to
the gross injury done to the colony by depriving her of the benefit
of competition in her harbors. The colony remonstrated in vain,
and continued boldly her trade with all such foreigners as would
venture to encounter the risk of being taken by the English cruisers,
and encountering the penalties of the act.

It appears to have been for some time the practice to send felons
and other obnoxious persons to the colony, to expiate their offences
by serving the planters for a term of years. At the restoration
many of the veteran soldiers of Cromwell, to whom it was anticipated
the return of the ancien régime would not be particularly
palatable, were shipped to Virginia to work off their spleen in the
cultivation of tobacco. It appears that this new business was not
as agreeable to them as they had found the psalm-singing and
plundering of the royalists, under the command of their devout
leader; and they accordingly quickly organized an insurrection,
by the operation of which they were to change places with such
of their masters as were left alive by the process. But this outbreaking,
which seems to have been well planned and extensively
organized, was prevented by the compunction of one of their associates,
who disclosed the whole affair to the governor the evening
before it was to have gone into effect; and adequate means were
taken to prevent the design. Four of the conspirators

were executed. But this evil of importing jail-birds, as
they were called, increased to such an extent that it was prohibited
by the General Court, in 1670, under severe penalties.

The increase in the amount of tobacco raised by the increase of
the colony and the settlement of Maryland and

Carolina, far outstripped the increase of taste for it,
rapid as that was, and caused such a glut of the commodity that
its price fell to an amount utterly ruinous to the planter. In this
the exclusive privilege of purchase which England enjoyed, notwithstanding
the extensive contraband trade, no doubt largely
contributed; but this the planters could not prevent, and their
only remaining resource was in diminishing the amount of tobacco
raised. To effect this various schemes had been devised, but they
were all liable to be evaded, and were, if successful, too partial
in their operation to effect the object desired. Nothing could be
efficient, short of a total cessation from planting for one year, and
this was at last accomplished after long negotiations with Maryland
and Carolina.

Many other staples had been recommended from time to time to
the planters, and even encouraged by bounties and rewards, and
this year, it was thought, would give them more leisure to attend
to the subject. But it is not probable that many engaged in the

occupations proposed, which required the investment of capital,
the acquisition of skill, and the aid of time to render them profitable;
and the year's leisure only served to increase the growing
discontent, especially as towards its end Maryland began to be
suspected of bad faith.

There were other causes of discontent which probably prevailed
between different classes of society. Loud complaint was made
of the manner in which taxes were levied, entirely on persons
without regard to property, which, as there must have been a very
large class of poor free persons now existing, from the frequent
emancipation, and expiration of the terms of those who came over
as servants, besides those who were free but poor when they came
to the country, must have created considerable excitement. An
effort was made to remedy this evil by laying a tax on property,
but ineffectually; the only result being a small export duty on tobacco,
in aid of the general revenue.

While the taxes bore thus hard upon the poorer portion of the
community, they also had just reason to complain of exclusion
from the right of suffrage by an act of 1670, and from the Legislature,
to which none but freeholders could be chosen; as well as
of the enormous pay which the Burgesses appropriated to themselves,
of one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco per diem, and
one hundred for their horses and servants. The forts were also
complained of as a source of heavy expenditure, without any
benefit; their chief use, indeed, being rather injurious, as they kept
off traders who violated the navigation acts.

But these evils in domestic legislation were trivial, compared
with those produced by the criminal prodigality of Charles, who
wantonly made exorbitant grants to his favorites of large tracts
of lands, without a knowledge of localities, and consequently without
regard to the claims or even the settlements of others. To
cap the climax of royal munificence, the gay monarch, in, perhaps,
a merry mood, granted to Lords Culpeper and Arlington the whole
colony of Virginia, for thirty-one years, with privileges effectually
royal as far as the colony was concerned, only reserving some
mark of homage to himself. This might be considered at court,
perhaps, as a small bounty to a favorite, but was taken in a very
serious light by the forty thousand people thus unceremoniously
transferred. The Assembly, in its extravagance, only took from
them a great proportion of their profits; but the king was filching
their capital, their lands, and their homes, which they had inherited
from their fathers, or laboriously acquired by their own strenuous
exertion.

The Legislature sent three deputies to England, to remonstrate
with the king against these intolerable grants, to endeavor to procure
his assent to some charter which might secure them against
such impositions for the future; and if they should fail in the first
of these objects, to endeavor to buy out the rights of the patentees.
To bear the expense of these three deputies, Mr. Ludwell, Mr.

Morryson, and Mr. Smith, the enormous annual tax of fifty pounds
of tobacco was laid upon every titheable person for two years,
which, though it was for a popular object, was considered as of
itself an intolerable grievance, at which we cannot wonder when
we reflect that many who had to pay this tax did not own a foot
of land. The amount can only be accounted for, by supposing
much of it was to be used as secret service money, with such of
his majesty's minions as could only see justice through a golden
medium.

These deputies exerted themselves with remarkable success,
and procured from the king an order for a charter, precisely in
conformity to the petition which they presented, and providing
against the grievances of which they complained; especially
grants from the crown without information from the governor and
council in Virginia that such grants would be of no injury; dependence
immediately upon the crown of England, and not on
any subfeudatory; and exemption from taxation without consent
of the Grand Assembly. His majesty ordered the solicitor-general
and attorney-general to prepare a bill embodying these and the
other matters embraced in their petition, in due legal form, for his
signature; but the matter, notwithstanding the most assiduous
attention of the deputies, was so long delayed in going through
the official forms that it was finally stopped, before its completion,
in the Hanaper office, by the news of Bacon's Rebellion.

Soon after the deputies left Virginia, the difficulties of the colony
had been increased by the addition of an Indian war, which, although
not now, as formerly, a matter causing danger of destruction
to the whole colony, and requiring all its strength to repel it, was
yet a subject of great terror and annoyance to the frontier.

A standing army of five hundred men, one-fourth of which was
to consist of cavalry, was raised by the Legislature,

and every provision made for their support and regulation;
but after it was raised, and in a complete state of preparation
to march against the Indians, it was suddenly disbanded by
the governor without any apparent cause. This was followed by
earnest petitions to the governor from various quarters of the country,
to grant a commission to some person to chastise the Indians,
the petitioners offering to serve in the expedition at their own expense.
This reasonable request was refused, and the people, seeing
their country left defenceless to the inroads of a savage foe,
assembled of themselves in their primary capacity, in virtue of
their right of self-defence, to march against the enemy. They
chose for their leader Nathaniel Bacon, junior, a young gentleman
of highly respectable family and education, who, although he had
returned to Virginia but three years before, from the completion
of his studies in England, had already received the honor of a
colonel's rank in the militia, and a seat in the Legislature for Henrico,
in which county his estate lay,—exposed by its situation to
the fury of the Indians. He stood high in the colony, and was
possessed of courage, talent, and address, which fitted him well
for such an enterprise. After Bacon had been selected by this
volunteer army as their leader, his first step was to apply to the
governor for a commission, in order, if possible, to have the sanction
of the legitimate authorities for his conduct. The governor
evaded this rational and respectful request, by saying that he could
not decide upon so important a matter without his council, which
he summoned to consult, at the same time artfully hinting to Bacon
the injury which he might probably do himself by persevering
in his course. Bacon dispatched messengers to Jamestown to
receive the commission, which he did not doubt would be ultimately
granted; and as public impatience would not abide the
dilatory proceedings of the governor, and he was probably nettled
at the insinuations addressed to his selfishness, in the governor's
communication,—he proceeded on his expedition, authorized
only by the will of the people, the danger of the country,
and the anxious wish of those who trusted their lives to his
control.

Sir William Berkeley, (whose conduct, notwithstanding the
high encomiums bestowed upon him, seems to have been marked
in ordinary times only by a haughty condescension, which in his
excellency was called suayity of manners, and in those times of
difficulty, by vacillating imbecility,) after temporizing in the most
conciliating manner with Bacon until his departure, now denounced
him and his followers as mutineers and traitors, for daring to
defend their country after his excellency had refused them a commission;
and gathering together such forces as he could collect,
consisting principally of the wealthy aristocrats in the settled
country, who probably liked the mode of taxation which was
least injurious to them, and who suffered little from Indian incursions
upon the frontier, he marched to put down the rebellious
troops. He had not proceeded further than the falls of James
River, when he received intelligence of a rising in the neighborhood
of Jamestown of a more formidable nature than Bacon's,
which compelled him to retreat and take care of affairs at home.
This new ebullition of feeling was headed by Ingram and Walklate,
and was probably produced by the indignation of the common
people at the absurd conduct of the governor in first refusing a
commission to Bacon, and then marching to destroy him, while
engaged in so useful an occupation. Be this as it may, we find
them insisting upon dismantling the forts, which were intolerably
oppressive, without producing any good effect against an enemy
whose progress was by stealth, whose onset was sudden and
furious, and whose retreat was immediate. Against such an enemy
active operations in the field were required, and the vigorous
prosecution of the war in his own country. The forts, probably,
were regarded by the poor as instruments of power in the hands
of the rich; which they kept up by oppressive acts, while they
took measures to put down Bacon's operations, which constituted

the only hope which the people had for protection. The governor
was obliged to yield to the storm. The forts were ordered to be
dismantled, and the obnoxious assembly was dissolved, and writs
issued for a new election, in which, for the first time, freemen, as
distinguished from freeholders, were elected.

In the mean time, Bacon had been very successful in defeating
the Indians, destroying their towns, and taking them captive; and
was returning leisurely to Jamestown when he heard of the
revolution there. This induced him to leave his little army, and,
with a few followers, embark for Jamestown; but he was taken
on his voyage by Gardiner, who was cruising to intercept him, and
sent a prisoner to the governor. Bacon had been elected a member
for Henrico in the new legislature, and was pardoned and permitted
to take his seat upon his confessing the impropriety and
disobedience of his conduct, praying pardon of the governor, and
promising future obedience. Credible report says, that he was
induced to make this full and humiliating acknowledgment upon
a promise by the governor, not only of pardon, but of a commission:
and, indeed, without supposing it the result of a compromise,
it is difficult to account either for this act or his subsequent
conduct. The causes which induced his next step are not sufficiently
explained by the historians of the times, but it was probably
produced by the solicitations of his friends in the legislature,
who found that they could gain no redress of grievances. He
collected troops in the country, and marched to Jamestown; he
surrounded the state house with his enraged soldiers, demanding a
commission for him; which, by the earnest solicitation of the
council and assembly, was at length obtained from the governor,
together with a full act of indemnity for his present conduct, and
a letter, highly applauding his designs and his proceedings, addressed
to the king, and signed by the burgesses, the council, and
the governor.

Thus relieved from all former sources of fear, and provided
against future contingencies, Bacon again sallied forth towards the
frontier. But the governor had not long been relieved from his
presence before he dissolved the assembly, and retiring into Gloucester,
again declared Bacon a rebel, and his army traitors, and
raised the standard of opposition. Upon being informed of this,
Bacon immediately fell back by forced marches upon Gloucester,
and compelled his puissant excellency to retreat with precipitation
to Accomac. This county was at that time considered as a distinct
territory, although under the control of Virginia, and Bacon, taking
advantage of this against an unpopular governor, called a convention
for the purpose of settling the government, declaring that
the governor had abdicated. This convention met at Middle Plantation
on the 3d of August, 1676, and declared that the government
was vacant by the abdication of Sir William Berkeley, and
that, by invariable usage, the council or the people might fill the
vacancy until the king's pleasure should be known. Writs were

then issued by five[108] members of the council for a new election of
burgesses. The convention next declared Sir William Berkeley
guilty of aiding and abetting certain evil disposed persons in
fomenting and stirring up the people to civil war; and that they
would aid in discovering all such evil disposed persons, and opposing
their forces, until the king be fully informed of the state of
the case; and that they would aid Bacon and his army against the
common enemy, and in suppressing the horrid outrages and murders
daily committed by them.

Bacon having now provided a regular government for the country,
proceeded once more against the Indians, who had formed a
confederacy and gained several advantages since his retreat. He
destroyed the Pamunky, Chickahominy, and Mattaponi towns
and their corn, in retaliation of the late excesses. The Indians
retreated before him, with occasional skirmishes, until they reached
their place of general rendezvous near the falls of James River.
He there found their whole force posted on an eminence overhanging
a stream, which, from the sanguinary nature of the conflict,
has been since called Bloody Run. They were protected by
a stockade fort, which was stormed by the impetuous ardor of
Bacon and his followers, who made great slaughter among them,
encumbered as they were with their old men, women, and children.

In the mean time, Berkeley had not met with that warm reception
which he had anticipated among the loyalists of Accomac;
but, on the other hand, he had been presented with a strong and
spirited remonstrance against the objectionable acts of Parliament,
and a requisition that they should be suspended, at least so far as
regarded that portion of the country. How the matter terminated
we are not informed.

The governor was not allowed to remain undisturbed in Accomac,
until he could again succeed in raising a force which might
give trouble. Bacon's party was in possession of all the vessels
in the colony, and two of his friends, Giles Bland and William
Carver, went with their force to cut off supplies from the governor,
or, as his friends surmised, to surprise him. But if such was their
object they were defeated, for Captain Larimore, from whom one
of the vessels had been taken, gave intimation to the governor's
friends that he would betray his vessel into the hands of a party
sufficiently strong to keep possession. The proposal was acceded
to, and at midnight six and twenty men, obeying Larimore's signal,
were along side of his ship, and had possession almost before the
crew were aroused from their slumbers; the other vessels were
then easily taken. Thus, Sir William finding himself in possession
of the whole naval force of the colony, while Bacon was
absent on his expedition against the Indians, he collected together

a force of some six hundred men, consisting mostly of aristocratic
gentlemen and their servile dependents, and took possession once
more of Jamestown. As usual, his first act in returning to power,
was to disavow his acts in favor of Bacon as made under duress,
and again to declare him a rebel, and his soldiers traitors.

Bacon was on his return from his successful campaign when
this news reached him; most of his followers had dispersed, but
he hastened on with the remainder, without regard to their
fatigues in the recent campaign. He arrived before Jamestown
late in the evening, fired his artillery and sounded a defiance, and
then coolly dismounted and laid off his trenches. His men that
very night, by the aid of trees, earth, and brushwood, formed a
tolerable breastwork, and the next morning advanced to the palisadoes
of the town, and fired upon the guard, without loss. Sir
William Berkeley, well knowing that time would increase the
force of his adversary, while it diminished his own, next resolved
to try the effects of a sally; and some of his men at first behaved
with some show of courage, but the whole body soon retreated in
disorder before the well-directed fire of Bacon's men, leaving their
drum and their dead as trophies to the victors. Bacon would not
allow the victory to be followed up, as it would have placed his
men under the range of the guns of the shipping. To prevent the
use which might be made by this auxiliary, he planted several
great guns so as to bear on the ships, which served also to alarm,
though they could not annoy the town.

Now the marked difference which existed between the character
of Bacon's troops and those of the governor was exhibited,
and that, too, in a manner well calculated to exhibit the character
of Bacon's proceedings. Berkeley's troops, consisting principally
of mercenary wretches, whom he had scraped together by the
hopes of plunder, deserted every day when they found that the
governor was determined to defend the place, and that they were
likely to get more blows than booty in the contest, until at last the
governor was left with little more than twenty gentlemen, whose
sense of honor would not allow them to desert his person. Bacon's
troops, on the other hand, were daily reinforced by accessions from
the country people, who clearly considered him as an intrepid soldier,
who had delivered them from the butcheries of the savages;
and a patriot, who was now endeavoring to put down an odious
and oppressive government.

The governor, finding his followers reduced to so small a number
that it would be madness to attempt to defend the place, at
length yielded to the earnest solicitations of those about him, and
deceiving his adversaries as to his real design, by exhibiting evidences
of a contemplated attack, he went on board a ship at midnight,
and was seen next morning riding at anchor, beyond the
reach of the guns in the fort at Jamestown. Bacon, with his followers,
after their week's siege, marched into the empty town the
next morning, the governor and his party having carried off or

destroyed every article of value. The possession of Jamestown,
in this situation, was of no advantage to Bacon or his followers.
The men who had left their homes to defend their country from
the incursions of the Indians, could not remain together for the
purpose of defending the capital from their hostile governor, who
was quietly waiting in the river for them to depart, in order that
he might again resume possession. What could be done with a
town which could not be defended, and, if defended, was of no
value to the possessors; but which was all-important to the enemy?
The answer to this question was manifest, and Bacon's
proposal for its destruction was received with acclamation; several
of his followers, who owned the most valuable houses, applying
the firebrand with their own hands to their own property.
The sight of the flames started Sir William Berkeley on a cruise
to Accomac; and Bacon having overcome all opposition to the
government established by the convention, dismissed the troops to
their homes.

The death of Bacon, by leaving the republicans without a head,
revived the courage of the governor so far, that he ventured in his
ships to move about upon the bay and rivers, and attack the inhabitants

wherever he could find them defenceless, and snatch a little
plunder to gratify his needy followers; always retiring when the
opposite party appeared to oppose him. This predatory species of
warfare preventing the quiet pursuit of agricultural labors, and
destroying all the comfort and happiness of society, without producing
any beneficial result, soon grew wearisome to both parties.
Sir William Berkeley, whose cruelties, especially to his prisoners,
had gone far to keep up the enthusiasm of popular excitement,
finding that his name had ceased to strike that awe which habitual
respect for one high in authority had formerly given it, and that
his punishments excited indignation rather than terror, felt disposed
to take advantage, by milder means, of the returning pacific disposition
on the part of a people whose stubborn tempers could not
be brought into obedience by force. With this view, he treated
his prisoners with more liberality, published an act of general indemnity,
and proposed a treaty of peace to Ingram and Walklate,
the principal leaders of the opposing party since the death of Bacon.
So anxious were the people to be relieved from the present
confusion and anarchy, and the governor once more to rule with
uncurbed sway, that a treaty was speedily concluded, only stipulating,
on the part of the governor, a general oblivion, and indemnity
of past offences; and, on the part of his opponents, a surrender
of their arms, and a restoration of such property as they had taken.
Thus easily did these unfortunate men deliver themselves again
into the lion's power, after having defeated him at all points, and
inflicted deep and irremediable wounds upon his inflated vanity,
and pompous mock-dignity. The governor, when he had his enemies
in his power, instead of trying to heal the wounds of the
bleeding state by mildness and conciliation, only added to its sufferings
by a bloody retribution for all the trouble which he had
been made to endure. Fines and confiscations, for the benefit of
his excellency, became the order of the day, and an occasional
execution, as an extra treat to his vengeance. He at first attempted
to wrest the honest juries of the county to his purpose, but in vain,
—ten prisoners were acquitted in a single day. Finding that his
enemies were thus likely to escape his grasp, by the unflinching
integrity and sense of justice prevailing among the people, he
determined to avoid the use of a court constituted upon principles
of the English constitution, which he found so little subservient to
his will, and tried his next victims under martial law. He here
found a court of more congenial spirits. The commissioners of
the king give an account of some of these trials, such as they
were carried on even after their arrival, which mark well the
spirit of the times. "We also observed some of the royal party,
that sat on the bench with us at the trial, to be so forward in
impeaching, accusing, reviling, the prisoners at bar, with that inveteracy,
as if they had been the worst of witnesses, rather than
justices of the commission; both accusing and condemning at the
same time. This severe way of proceeding represented to the
assembly, they voted an address to the governor, that he would
desist from any further sanguinary punishments, for none could tell
when or where it would terminate. So the governor was prevailed
on to hold his hands, after hanging twenty-three."

A notable way which the governor adopted to replenish his purse,
after the disasters of the war, was to relieve the rebels from a trial
in one of his courts-martial, in which they were to be condemned,
upon their paying him a great portion of their estates, by way of
compromise. This method of disposing of men's estates, without
trial or conviction, was protested against by his majesty's commissioners,
as a gross violation of the laws of England, but which Sir
William's friends seem to think only a just retribution for the
losses sustained by himself and the royal party during the rebellion.
Enormous fines, payable in provision, were also found a convenient
method of providing for the king's troops which had been sent over
to subdue the colony.

His majesty's commissioners fortunately arrived in time to stay
the wrath of the vindictive old man, who would, as an eye-witness
says, "he verily believes, have hanged half the county if they
had let him alone." They urged him in vain to publish the king's
proclamation of a general pardon and indemnity; and then proceeded
to hold their commission for hearing and redressing grievances.
As the proceedings of the governor diffused a gloom, the
generality of which was co-extensive with the immense numbers
that were engaged in the rebellion, so did the proceedings of the
commissioners spread a universal joy. Crowds of persons now
came forward to present their grievances—widows and orphans to
ask for the confiscated estates of their husbands and fathers, who
had been butchered by the military tribunals of the governor;
others came in to complain of the seizing of their estates without
the form of a trial; and many, who had submitted themselves upon
the governor's proclamation of indemnity and pardon, complained
of subsequent imprisonment and confiscations of their property.

The commissioners state in their report to the king and council,
that "in the whole course of their proceedings they had avoided
receiving any complaints of public grievances, but by and under
the hand of the most credible, loyal, and sober persons of each
county with caution; that they did not do it in any mutinous manner,
and without mixture of their old leaven, but in such sort as might
become dutiful subjects, and sober, rational men to present."
When they found that all their representations to Sir William
Berkeley, to endeavor to induce him to restore the confiscated estates,
which were in the possession of himself or his most faithful
friends, were in vain, they ascertained as many of the possessors
as possible, and made them give security to take care of them
until his majesty should determine as to the restitution which they
should recommend him to make. The commissioners also devised
several matters of utility for the peace, good government, and
safety of the colony; which they recommended his majesty to

adopt. Sir William Berkeley returned in the fleet to England,
leaving Sir Herbert Jeffries, who had been sent over with the
commissioners, as governor. Upon his arrival, he found that his
cruel conduct in Virginia was looked upon with horror by most
of his former friends and the council, and was not sustained by
the king, subservient loyalty to whom had been the source and
spring of his high-handed measures. The old knight, thus finding
himself execrated in Virginia, and despised in England, soon languished
and died under the load of infamy with which he had
crushed the fair fame of his earlier years. Thus ended the life of
Sir William Berkeley—a governor, whose early character historians
have delighted to honor, and whose subsequent conduct they have
sought to excuse: but of whom we can find nothing better upon
record, than the negative merit of not opposing the legislature in
its schemes of government in the early part of his reign; but whose
latter years are disgraced by cowardly imbecility, and stained with
crime.

Although the people of Virginia had laid down their arms, they
were not subdued, but continued to manifest, through their Legislature,
the same undaunted tenacity of their rights which had ever
characterized them. This was exhibited towards the king's commissioners
in one of the boldest defences of privilege which the
records of any nation can exhibit, and shows how strongly imbued
with the spirit of freedom the people must have been, when they
could snuff the approach of tyranny at such a distance, and put
themselves on their defence against their friends, lest their enemies
might take advantage of their concessions. The king's commissioners
were empowered to call for persons and papers, for the
purpose of prosecuting more effectually their inquiries into the
grievances of the colony. In conformity with their powers they
called upon the secretary of the Legislature for its journals, but
were surprised to find, that although their proceedings were popular,
and their object was to investigate and redress grievances of
which these very men complained, that they refused to allow
them to inspect their journals, returning for answer, that it was a
dangerous precedent, which might be used in violation of their
privileges. At this time, the governor and commissioners had
complete physical power over the colony, by the entire absence of
any thing like organized opposition, and from the presence of the
king's troops; and availing themselves of this power, they did not
hesitate to wrest the journals of the Assembly from the hands of
its officer by force. Upon which the Virginia Assembly published
a bold and manly declaration, setting forth, "that his majesty's
commissioners having called for and forced from the clerk of the
Assembly, all the original journals of the Assembly, which power
they supposed his majesty would not grant them, for that they find
not the same to have been practised by any of the kings of England,
and did therefore take the same to be a violation of their
privileges, desiring withal satisfaction to be given them, that they
might be assured no such violation of their privileges should be
offered for the future." The king was so much displeased with
this declaration, that although he pardoned the members of the
Legislature, he directed the record of it to be erased, and required
the governor to propose a bill to the next General Assembly condemning
the proceeding, and declaring the right of his majesty
and his officers to call for all the public records and journals,
whenever they shall think it necessary for his royal service.

Sir Herbert Jeffries deserves the merit due to an advantageous

treaty with the Indians, and a successful opposition to the petty
intrigues of the loyalists. He died in 1678, leaving the colony in
the hands of the lieutenant-governor, Sir Henry Chickerly, during
whose administration magazines and forts were established at the
heads of the four great rivers, to overawe the savages, and a silly
act passed prohibiting the importation of tobacco from Carolina
and Maryland, for the purpose of transhipment, which practice, if
they had suffered it to continue, might have proved very profitable
to the colony, besides putting the tobacco trade more exclusively
into its own hands. In the succeeding spring, Sir Henry delivered
the government to Lord Culpeper. The first act of his lordship
was to declare full and unqualified indemnity to all for their conduct
in Bacon's rebellion, and allowing reparation to those who
should be reproached for their conduct upon that occasion. This
popular act, added to the pleasing and conciliatory manners of his
lordship, so won upon the good-natured simplicity of the Assembly,
that they passed an act which probably no force could have
extorted from them. They raised the duties and made them perpetual,
instead of annual, as before, and, what was at once surrendering
up the great bulwark of that freedom, for the safety of
which they had been so long contending, they made the duties
henceforth subject to his majesty's sole direction and disposal.

The king rewarded Culpeper's address in obtaining this acquisition
to his power, by the addition of a thousand pounds to his
salary, and one hundred and sixty pounds per annum for his rent.
The Assembly, too, as if they could not do enough for a royal govenor
who could condescend to smile upon them, granted his excellency
a regular duty proportionate to the tonnage of every vessel
trading to Virginia. Culpeper having thus obtained a considerable
increase to his revenue by his trip to Virginia, proceeded to
England, to enjoy it, leaving the colony once more with Sir Henry
Chickerly.

The discontents of the people again began to extend to a degree
which could scarcely be kept within bounds. The troops which
had been sent over to suppress Bacon's rebellion were still kept
up. There were no barracks, and the people positively refused to
receive these idle and troublesome drones into their houses, although
they were regularly billeted by the government. The low
price of tobacco, too, was a never-failing source of complaint, as
well as the commercial regulations which aided in producing it.
The colony had urged Culpeper to exert his influence at court to
procure a cessation from planting, to which they had for some time
in vain endeavored to obtain the assent of Carolina and Maryland.

To these evils another was now added, which struck another
blow at commerce. The idea had been conceived that the colony
could not prosper without towns, and to promote their growth the
planters, living principally on the shores of the magnificent Chesapeake,
and the broad navigable rivers of Virginia, were required
to bring their produce to particular spots for the purpose of being

shipped. Thus taxing the planter with unnecessary freight and
commission for the benefit of such idlers as might congregate in
the towns. These acts were enforced by heavy penalties, and as
they contributed very much to the benefit of the town's people, the
penalty for the violation was rigorously enforced. These prosecutions
drove many traders from the country, and the poor planters,
to whom it was physically impossible to convey their crops to
these paper-towns, were doomed to see their crops rotting on their
hands by this injudicious legislation, or, if they attempted to evade
the law, have them wrested from them in the shape of penalties.
These several subjects of complaint induced the people of several
counties to petition the deputy governor to call an assembly, to
endeavor to provide a remedy for the evils. At the meeting of the
Assembly, there was much debate and declamation upon the condition
of the country, but no measure of relief was adopted. By
order of the king, however, the two companies of infantry were
paid off and disbanded, which put an end to one of the subjects of
difficulty. The dissolution of the Assembly without effecting any
thing, caused the impatience of the poor and ignorant people of
several of the counties to break through all restraint, and expend
their wrath in the destruction of tobacco-plants, at a season of the
year when it was too late to sow more seed. Sir Henry Chickerly,
with commendable moderation, only took measures to stop these
misguided people, without resorting to harsh punishments; but lest
it should be drawn into a precedent, the Legislature not long afterwards
made it treason. In the mean time, Lord Culpeper arrived,
and his haughty bearing to the Council and the Burgesses
soon gave intimation to them that his lordship's feelings towards
the colony had undergone a change. He enlarged, in his speech
to the Assembly, much upon the favor of his majesty in disbanding
the troops, and spoke of permission which he had obtained to
raise the value of the current coin; he then went on to declare
that the colonists did not deserve these gracious favors, but rather
punishment for their recent turbulence; he also expressed his
majesty's great dissatisfaction at the refusal of the journals, and
desired that that portion of their proceedings should be expunged.

Before this notable prosecution was ended, Lord Culpeper forfeited
his commission, and was superseded by Lord Howard, who
took the oaths of office on the 28th of February, 1684. His first
measure was to call an assembly, which, as a popular act, induced
the colony to hope some degree of mildness in his administration;
but these hopes were soon dissipated. He pursued the unfortunate
plant-cutters with renovated vigor, and such of them as had been
excepted in a proclamation of general pardon were now executed,
and their estates, after paying officer's fees, appropriated to the
governor's own use.

The assembly met and refused to proceed with business for the
want of a clerk, as their former clerk was in prison, and they refused
to elect another. In this situation of affairs the matter seems
to have been compromised, the governor no doubt despairing of
his conviction upon the absurd charges made, and Beverly and his
friends willing to end his long imprisonment and sufferings, by asking
pardon, at the same time not giving up the papers or the principles
for which he suffered. Be this as it may, Beverly threw
himself upon the mercy of the court, declining to employ counsel or
make any defence, and was pardoned. Probably these long-continued
sufferings, with other persecutions afterwards endured, injured
the constitution of Beverly, for we find that he died prior to
April, 1687. His noble conduct induced king James, the then reigning
monarch, to deprive the Burgesses of the election of their own
clerk, ordering the governor to elect him, and requiring the assembly
to make the clerk, so elected, the usual allowance for his services.

The accession of James II. was proclaimed with the usual demonstrations
of respect in the colony, and compli-

mentary assurances of loyalty on the one side, and
gracious regard on the other, were exchanged between his subjects
and the assembly. But nothing was done to secure the freedom
of the colony, and Lord Howard took advantage of the succeeding
recess of the assembly, to enlarge the fees and perquisites of his
office, and to impose new ones without the advice or authority of
the assembly. This body, which met in November, immediately
took into consideration these arbitrary exactions, and passed spirited
resolutions in reprobation of them, and made provision for the
defence of the citizens from similar encroachments in future. To
these acts the governor applied his negative, without assigning any
reason. Lord Howard, not satisfied with thus stopping the legislation
of the colony, proceeded in effect to acts of executive legislation,
by issuing a proclamation, in obedience, he said, to the king's
instructions, repealing several acts of the legislature, which were
themselves repeals of former acts, and declaring the acts repealed
by that body to be revived, and in full force, as before the passage
of the repealing acts. This proclamation the assembly protested
against as illegal and unwarrantable, as utterly subversive of the
government, annihilating the right of the popular branch, and
bringing all to bow in humble submission to the mercy of the prerogative.
The spirited conduct of the Burgesses could not be endured
by the governor, and he prorogued them.
The governor had sent to James an account of the
conduct of this assembly. This representation produced in reply
from James, a furious, quarrelsome order, calling their conduct
mutinous, and attributing it to their "unquiet dispositions and sinister
intentions to protract the time of their sitting to the great oppression
of his subjects, from whom they received wages;" concluding
by an order for the prosecution of their clerk Beverly, to
whom he ascribes all of these evils.

In the same year, several persons were imprisoned and punished
for treasonable expressions. The council was now as servile as
the governor could wish, and he proceeded without interruption in
his system of arbitrary innovation upon the established usages of
the colony, and the liberties of its citizens.

The province of New York belonged to the king as proprietor as
well as sovereign; and, in order to strengthen this

his own estate, he sent orders for all the other colonies
to assist in building forts, and supplying garrisons for its western
frontier, alleging that these measures were equally necessary
for the protection of all. In conformity to these orders a message
was received from governor Dungan, requiring the quota of Virginia;
but the legislature refused to appropriate a man or a farthing
for purposes from which they were to derive no benefit, but
rather an injury, as the protection of the north-western frontier
would drive the Indians further south, where they might commit
their depredations upon the unprotected citizens with more impunity.

While the colony was contending against their governor, a revolution
in England had dethroned the sovereign, and placed

William and Mary upon the throne. This change, while it
placed the council, which had made many loyal professions to
James, in an awkward position, was an event producing unalloyed
joy to the people of Virginia, as they could now hope for justice to
be done to their oppressive governor.

Soon after this occurrence, the war broke out between the allied
powers and Louis XIV. of France, and the colony was ordered to
place itself in the best posture of defence.

The complaints of the Virginia legislature against their governor
at length were taken up by the privy council, and although the
charges against Howard were not tried, yet redress against his
usurpation was granted, at the same time that the principles upon
which they contended that their rights had been violated, were denied
to be correct. Howard pleading ill-health, was not deprived
of his commission for not returning to the colony; but as it was necessary
that there should be a governor upon the eve of a war,
Sir Francis Nicholson was sent over. His conduct was mild and
conciliatory, and consequently popular; among other highly beneficial
acts passed under his government, was one for the establishment
of a college, which was very liberally endowed.

He was succeeded by Sir Edmund Andros as governor-in-chief,
who is represented to have been actuated in his

administration by a sound judgment and a liberal
policy; to have been exact, diligent, and methodical in the management
of business; of a conciliatory deportment, and great generosity.
Sir Francis Nicholson was again made governor-in-chief,
in November, 1698. He was an ambitious man, who had served
in the capacity of a governor and deputy governor in several of
the colonies, and taken great pains to become popular, and to make
himself well acquainted with the situation of all the colonies,
their wants, their trade, and their capabilities, with a view to
unite them, if possible, under one government, over which he hoped
to obtain the appointment of governor-general. The pressure of
war, with the combined force of the French and Indians, which
seemed now about to fall upon the colonies, and rendered some
union necessary for the purpose of defence, seemed highly favorable
to his design.

The French, at an early day, conceived a correct idea of the
importance of the British colonies in America. The Count De
Callier, governor of Montreal, during his residence in Canada, after
a long experience, derived from observations on the spot, had formed
the bold project of separating in two the English colonies by the
capture of New York. The success of this scheme would manifestly
have destroyed that concert so necessary to harmony and
efficiency of co-operation, and left the other colonies liable to be
cut off in detail, and would effectually establish the safety of
Canada, by enabling the French to keep in check the powerful
savage confederation, composed of the Five Nations, which had
lately, by a furious irruption, laid waste the country, even to the
gates of Montreal and Quebec. This plan of Callier's was adopted
by the French government. A fleet was sent to the

bay of New York, with orders to retain possession of
it until December, when, if no further orders were received, it was
to sail for Port Royal, land its munition and stores, and return to
France. The land force were to have marched from Quebec by
the route of the Sorel River and Lake Champlain. This expedition
was defeated by a destructive inroad of the Five Nations,
which carried death and desolation over the whole country, even
to the very gates of the capital. This unforeseen occurrence rendered
it necessary to retain the whole force at home, in measures
of self-defence, and saved New York, without her having to strike
a blow in her own behalf.

The British government, daily becoming more sensible of the
importance of the North American colonies, and seeing the danger
to which they were exposed by the plan of De Callier, set on foot
a plan of general defence in the year 1695, adjusting the quotas
of each colony to the ratio of its population, and forwarding the
scale to the different governors, to recommend for the adoption of
the respective colonial assemblies. Several of the colonies rejected
this scheme, because several of those which were thought
most exposed wished to employ it as their own interest dictated.
Among the refractory was Virginia, which could not be prevailed
upon, by all the art and ingenuity of the governor, aided by
his great enthusiasm in this his favorite plan, to vote a cent to
the enterprise, to his inconceivable chagrin and mortification.
Nicholson, finding his own efforts utterly unavailing, laid the matter
before the king, and urged the propriety of forcing Virginia to
see her true interests upon this occasion. William, in reply, recommended

a new consideration of the matter by the General Assembly,
alleging, upon the authority of Nicholson's report, "that New
York was the barrier of Virginia against the Indians and French
of Canada; and as such, it was but justice she should defend
it." The assembly deemed it but due respect to his majesty to
take the subject again into consideration, but found no reason to
change their former opinion, declaring "that neither the forts then
in being, nor any others that might be built in the province of
New York, could in the least avail in the defence or security of
Virginia; for that either the French, or the northern Indians, might
invade the colony, and not come within a hundred miles of such
fort."

The failure of this great subject irritated the governor beyond
expression; and excited in his mind the most inordinate antipathy
to the assembly. He charged the conduct of the assembly to a
spirit of rebellion, and inveighed against what he called its parsimony,
in the most unmeasured terms, offering to pay the quota of
Virginia out of his own pocket, and boasting afterwards that he
had done it; but, at the same time, taking the obligation of the
gentleman to whom he gave the bills, that no use should be made
of them until the queen should remit money to pay them. This
affectation of generosity was designed to gain popularity with the
other colonies.