The above document is taken from the Colonial Records
of Virginia. This record was printed from copies of the
original obtained from the Public Record Office of Great
Britain; viz., the McDonald and De Jarnette copies, and an
abstract furnished by Mr. Sainsbury; Bancroft, also, obtained
a copy, but the De Jarnette copy being in loose sheets
was selected as the most convenient for the printer. Whenever
a difference in either of these versions occurs, the footnotes
make mention of it.
A natural desire had long existed to know something of
the proceedings of the first legislative Assembly ever held in
Virginia, an event which inaugurated a new era in the history
of the hitherto disturbed and oppressed Colony. The
historian, Stith, could find no trace of this paper; Jefferson
searched for it in vain, and the patient, painstaking Hening
believed it no longer extant.
What a prize then, is this "Reporte," in its full and circumstantial
details of the baptism of representative government
in the New World.
Here, it will be seen that this first legislative Assembly in
the wilds of America was opened with prayer, and that in its
deliberations the Church of England was confirmed as the
Church of Virginia.
When Christopher Columbus ceased from the recital of his
successful voyage of discovery before the Court of Spain, it is
said that Ferdinand and Isabella, "together with all present,
prostrated themselves on their knees in grateful thanksgiving,
while the solemn strains of the Te Deum were poured forth
by the choir of the royal chapel, as in commemoration of some
glorious victory." And yet, this first Assembly in the land
rescued from darkness by the liberality of Spain, was opened
by a prayer which rose to Heaven, not in the liquid language
of old Castile, but in the English tongue!
In the far past, the Creed held sway that the Pope of
Rome, as vicar of Jesus Christ, had power to dispose of all
countries inhabited by heathen nations, in favor of Christian
potentates; and yet, the three papal bulls of Alexander VI.,
"out of his pure liberality, infallible knowledge, and plenitude
of apostolic power," investing Spain with plenary
authority over all countries discovered by it, and confirming
its absolute possession of the same, all previous concessions
to the contrary notwithstanding; yet, with all the weight of
actual discovery, and the decrees of the pontifical throne
in support of Spain, not the triple crown of Rome, but "The
Church of England," first raised its spire in these primeval
forests. Here it laid broad and deep the foundations of that
Holy Religion which has been the bulwark of Virginia's
liberties, the strength of her manhood, the glory of her
womanhood; the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night, which for nearly three centuries has preserved the
true and higher life of this noble old commonwealth!
The London Company approved the Colonial Assembly
which had been convened by Sir George Yeardley, and on
the 24th of July, 1621, a memorable ordinance, established for
the colony a written constitution. Its terms were few and
simple, but the system of representative government and trial
by jury became an acknowledged right in the New World.
On this celebrated ordinance Virginia erected the superstructure
of her independence. "It constituted the plantation, in
its infancy, a nursery of freemen," and its influences—sometimes
written in letters of living light, sometimes written in
blood—may be traced through all her history.[482]
As an evidence of the increasing prosperity of the colony,
it may be stated that in 1619, 20,000 pounds of tobacco were
exported to England from Virginia; in April, 1620, a special
commission was issued by King James for the inspection of
this weed, and in June following, a proclamation for restraining
the disorderly trading in the obnoxious article. Thus its
uses and abuses began at an early period of colonial enterprise.
This year of 1620 is also memorable for the introduction
of negro slaves into Virginia. A Dutch man-of-war landed
twenty negroes for sale, and these were the first brought into
the country—
"The direful spring
Of woes unnumbered"—
to the far-off descendants of the colonists.
