 | Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia. |  |
No. II.
Extracts from a Pamphlet reporting the Proceedings of a
Jubilee at Jamestown in Commemoration of the Second Centennary
Anniversary of the Settlement of Virginia, May 13,
1807.
Due notice having been given of the intended celebration, the preparations
commenced on the 10th. A packet, a sloop and schooner had
arrived before the 12th, with bands of musicians and a company of artillery
and cannon, and with a number of visitors.
On the 12th, the beach began to assume the appearance of a regular
encampment, from the erection of tents for the sale of various articles;
and the scene was agreeably diversified by groups of beautiful women who
were every moment passing from the main into the island. It was not
unusual to see groups of pilgrims stealing away from the throng and bustle
of preparation, from the wild revelry of joy and the enthusiasm of satisfied
and rapturous exultation, to saunter among the ruins, and converse in
fancy among the tombs with the illustrious dead whose virtues and achievements
had furnished the motives for their assemblage. It was in the
highest degree interesting and edifying to trace the effects produced upon
the minds and faces of the spectators by the view of these venerable remains
of other times. The eye, in surveying the ruin of the church-steeple
garlanded to its summit with irregular festoons of smilax and ivy, carried
back the mind to the interesting incidents and events of the first settlers.
A crowd of pilgrims were discovered on their hands and knees within
the churchyard, removing the dust and rubbish from the mouldering and
mutilated tombs, and exploring with anxious though patient curiosity the
almost effaced characters which affection and piety had sketched there
in the vain expectation that they would be immortal. Whilst engaged in
over the mind; the grosser passions of our nature, the dull pursuits of the
world, were forgotten, whilst each for a moment by the witchery of fancy
imagined himself in the presence of those gallant and venerable spirits
that once animated and informed the mortal tenants of those graves.
As it were by general consent, the discovery of the oldest stone became
an object of general emulation, and, in the course of the examination, the
results, as they seemed to be successful, were triumphantly announced.
Not even the searchers of gold-mines, whose mania is so deservedly ridiculed
and censured by Smith and our other historians, could have exceeded
the zeal and patience with which the pilgrims of 1807 examined
every character or fragment that promised to throw light on the character
of their fathers and the antiquities of their nation.
Beyond 1682, nothing legible could be traced; but, from the freshness
of the marble bearing this date, contrasted with the surrounding masses
of mutilated and mouldering decay, it was the general impression that
this stone was comparatively young.
Among the group of objects calculated to excite reflection on such an
occasion, it was impossible to avoid noticing the growth of a sycamore,[1]
whose germ had been inscrutably deposited between the fissure of two
massy tombs, whose growth was gradually but certainly effecting their
demolition. In vain did a brawny wreath of the poisoned oak, having
first wound itself round the sycamore, grasp the trembling marbles for
the purpose of averting their fall. The sycamore was a lever that incessantly
propelled them from their centres, and it was obvious that nothing
but its death could save them from falling without the line of the
base. To a reflecting mind every incident is fruitful. This seemed to be
a struggle between life and death; and, what may appear extraordinary, it
was the general wish that death should come off victorious in the contest.
On the 13th, the dawn was ushered in by a cannon: a second announced
the first faint etchings of the sun on the edge of the horizon. During the
night, several vessels had arrived, and the eye rested with pleasure on the
spectacle of thirty-two sail at anchor in the cove, boats plying incessantly
off and on from the shore, groups of beautiful women every moment
making their appearance, crowds flocking in and from every part of the
adjacent country, and the Powhatan evolving in silent majesty his flood,
margined as far as the eye could reach with cultivated plantations and
gay villas.
About 11 o'clock, the long-deserted shores of Jamestown witnessed a
spectacle equally picturesque and impressive. It was no longer the mournful
image and gloomy silence of depopulation. Thirty-two vessels graced
the ancient harbour; upward of four hundred ladies embellished the
scene, which became every moment more animated by the increasing concourse
band of music of Captain Nestle and his company of artillerists from Norfolk,
reflected no small lustre.
At 12 o'clock, in consequence of arrangements previously agreed upon
by the joint committees from Norfolk, Portsmouth, Petersburg, and Williamsburg,
a procession marched to the ruins of the old church-steeple and
the lugubrious group of tombstones contiguous to those ruins. The order
of the procession was as follows:—
1. Bishop Madison, and the orators of the day.
2. The deputies from Norfolk, Portsmouth, Petersburg, and Williamsburg.
3. The ladies.
4. Band of music.
5. Artillery.
6. A cannon-ball weighing five cwt., supported by eight men.[2]
7. Citizens at large.
During the procession, several tunes of a solemn nature were struck by
the music, and cannons fired at proper intervals. Upon reaching the ruins,
the venerable Bishop of Virginia ascended a tombstone, and, in that affecting,
pathetic manner which characterizes all his religious effusions, poured
out a prayer strongly expressive of the national gratitude for that peculiar
protection which the Deity has been pleased to bestow on the feeble but
auspicious germ planted two hundred years ago in the wilderness,—a germ
from which a State has sprung up now highly prosperous and flourishing.
Here two sentiments equally dear to the human heart, and equally powerful,—religion
and patriotism,—united their influence; and that influence
was irresistibly felt: pious tears were seen hanging on many a cheek furrowed
by age or adorned with youthful bloom.
BISHOP MADISON'S PRAYER.
O God! Parent Almighty, who, though unseen, upholdest this ponderous
ball, and, breathing through the immensity of space, fillest with stupendous
life all which it inhabit; Spirit invisible, God of our forefathers, to thee
we raise the voice of praise and thanksgiving; oh, hear us, and deign to
accept this our imperfect homage. Thou great and glorious Being, who,
according to the plans of thy wisdom, didst first inspire our forefathers
with the elevated idea of seeking an asylum for man in this Western world;
thou, who badest the terrors of death to retire from their hearts, the remorseless
billows of the deep to be at rest, and the horrors of the howling
wilderness no longer to alarm, oh, hear, and, on this eventful day, suffer us
to pour forth, from the fulness of our souls, the tide of reverential affection,
of joy, and of gratitude; suffer us, the descendants and the heirs of
were first impressed to approach thy divine Majesty, to declare the wondrous
things which thou hast done for us, and to implore thy continued
protection.
Assembled in thy sight, we now prostrate ourselves before thee, upon
that ground which thou, O God, didst choose whereupon to rest the
wearied feet of our progenitors. Twice one hundred times hath this earth,
in obedience to thy command, performed its faithful revolution around the
fountain of light, since thy providential goodness was here testified by our
ancestors with heartfelt songs of gratitude and praise. The stream of
time hath swept before thee the generations which since have arisen and
passed away; but we, upon whom this day hath fallen, will rejoice in thy
presence, and, with a sincere and ardent gratitude, will recall to vivid
memory thy former and thy present mercies.
Hallowed be the place where thou didst particularly manifest thy goodness
to our forefathers, and where the heavenly plan for spreading wide
the blessings of social rights first beamed forth. It was here, O God, it
was on this chosen ground, that thou didst first lay the sure foundations of
political happiness. Here didst thou say to our forefathers, who, under
thy guidance, had defied the perils of an untried ocean, "Here fix your
abode; here shall the great work of political salvation commence; here
I will strike deep the roots of an everlasting empire, where justice and
liberty and peace shall flourish in immortal vigour, to the glory of my
name and the happiness of man. Here ye shall sleep; but your sons and
your daughters shall possess the land which stretcheth wide before you;
shall convert the wilderness and solitary place into fields smiling with
plenty; shall, in ages yet to come, exceed the sands upon the sea-shore in
number; shall, when two hundred years are accomplished, here resort,
here recall to mind your valour and your sufferings, and here, touched
with a lively sense of the blessings vouchsafed to them, they shall exalt
and adore my name, and acknowledge that the mightiness of my arm
and the overshadowing of my Spirit hath done those great and excellent
things for them."
Such, O God, was thy will. To thy servants now before thee has
been given the high boon of living to see the light of that day, and of
acknowledging that thy promises are as steadfast as the everlasting hills.
To us has been given the triumph which this day affords. It was thy
providence which reared the tender plant that here took root, and which
nourished it with the dews of heaven until its branches have cast their
shade from ocean to ocean. It was thy providence, gracious Benefactor
of man, which awoke in our breasts a just sense of the inappreciable value
of our rights, and infused that indomitable spirit which effected a revolution
the most important in the annals of time, and which led to the
establishment of civil governments throughout this rising empire upon the
broad and firm basis of equal laws. It was thy providence which inspired
which, amidst the dread convulsions that agitate the Old World, hath still
irradiated this thy chosen land with the blessings of peace. To thee, O
God, we ascribe, as is most due, that never-ceasing current of national
prosperity which has daily increased, and which, under thy auspices, we
trust, will continue to increase, until its waters, spreading throughout
every region of the earth, shall gladden, with their salubrious streams,
nations which are now the victims of ambition, and thence diffuse peace
and good-will among the whole family of mankind.
Continue, gracious Benefactor, thy mercies toward us. Oh, teach us
ever to love and to reverence thy name; teach us that the God of virtue
can love only virtue; teach us that it is thou only, the first Source of
happiness, who can secure it to the human race. Impress upon our hearts
an ardent love for thy holy religion: may its pure and sublime morality
be to us the rule of all duties: may it guard us against the debasing in
fluence of licentiousness and vice, and inspire the people of these United
States with those inflexible virtues which republics demand: may the
love of our country and obedience to law be the dignified characteristic
of citizens: may they never forget that, without religion, morality dies;
and that, without morality, republics are swept from before thee with the
besom of destruction.
Bless all the constituted authorities, and so rule their hearts and
strengthen their hands that they may drive from among us all manner
of vice.
Give prosperity to the different seminaries of learning; increase true
knowledge, and infix upon the hearts of the rising generation a just sense
of the duties which they owe to themselves, to their fellow-creatures, and
to their God.
Finally, O God, pardon our offences, and deign to hear our imperfect
prayer, for the sake of thy Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.[3]
The prayer being over, the citizens repaired to a lawn in front of the
principal house on the peninsula, for the purpose of hearing the orations
and poems prepared for the day. Mr. B. G. Baldwin, from Winchester,
then a student at William and Mary,—afterward Judge Baldwin, of
Staunton,—spoke first. He was followed by Mr. John Madison, also a
student from the upper country. The speeches were creditable to the
Mr. C. B. Blanchard, of Norfolk, and Mr. Le Roy Anderson, of Williamsburg,
which were interesting to the assembly.
Two days and nights were spent in these and other exercises of a different
character. After feasting and mirth on the island, which continued
two days and nights, the scene was transferred to Williamsburg,
where another day and night was spent in like manner,—very unlike the
manner of the first days of our forefathers on the island, whose first act
was the solemn celebration of the Lord's Supper.
While we approve the patriotic sentiments of this prayer, we cannot but lament
the absence of that without which no prayer can be acceptable to God,—the spirit
of penitence, of true Christian humility. It was the fault of the age. Let any one,
after reading this prayer, turn back to the beginning of our work, and read that
sent over with our early colonists to be used, not by a Bishop or other minister,
but by the officers on guard in behalf of themselves and soldiers: let him compare
the two together, and he will see the difference between the theology of 1607 and
1807.
| Old churches, ministers and families of Virginia. | |