PREFACE
IT has from a long time back been an author's
privilege to say a word more or less confidential
to his Reader before committing himself
in cold type to the Public. The author of these
Essays now avails himself of this privilege to
express the hope that whatever their faults may
be, they may lead some of his readers to turn
for themselves to the almost unknown page of
their Country's History: the Record of the
early life of "The Antient Dominion." Few
know it now, yet no page of the History of the
Race will better repay patient study; for none
shines with more heroic deeds, or more sublime
fortitude and endeavor. Her History belongs
not to the present Virginia alone. It is the heritage
of every State carved from the mighty empire
once embraced within her borders. Of
the first six thousand settlers who came over
and seized and held this great country for
England and her People; nine out of ten "left
here their bodies in testimonie of their mindes."
But they left the Old Dominion founded, to be
the foundation of a new Nation. She brought
forth in time a new Civilization where Character
and Courtesy went hand in hand; where the
goal ever set before the eye was Honor, and
where the distinguishing marks of the life were
Simplicity and Sincerity.
It was by no mere accident that Washington,
Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Henry, Mason
and their like came from Tidewater and Piedmont
Virginia. They were the proper product
of her distinctive Civilization, and were not uncommon
types of the Character she has given
to her Children.
The writer is under obligations to all the
faithful Historians who have in the past labored
to preserve and set forth the true History of
Virginia as they were able to find it. And he
especially wishes to record his debt to the pious
labors of the late Alexander Brown of Virginia,
who devoted his life to the collection and publication
of the early records of the History of the
Old Dominion. To his monumental work, "The
Genesis of the United States," every American
Historian must ever be indebted.
The fact that these Essays came in part from
addresses delivered before various Societies at
different times, will account for certain repetitions
in them. The author, however, hopes
that this repetition may not be frequent enough
to prove tedious, and, moreover, he feels that
some facts cannot be too often repeated.
