University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VI.

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA—FINCASTLE COUNTY.

1773-1777.

The House of Burgesses of Virginia in the fall of the year
1772, in answer to the petition of the inhabitants and settlers on
the waters of the Holston and New rivers, representing their inconveniences
by reason of the extent of Botetourt county and their
remote situation from the courthouse, with the consent of the
Governor and Council enacted a law providing that from and
after the first day of December, 1772, the said county of Botetourt
should be divided into two distinct counties; that is to say,
all that part of said county within a line to run up the east side
of New river to the mouth of Culberson creek, thence a direct line
to the Catawba road where it crosses the dividing ridge between
the north fork of Roanoke and the waters of New river, thence
with the top of the ridge to the bend where it turns eastwardly,
thence a south course, crossing Little river to the top of the Blue
Ridge mountain, shall be established as one distinct county, to be
called and known by the name of Fincastle; and all that other part
thereof which lies to the east and northeast of said line shall be
one other distinct county and retain the name of Botetourt. The
act establishing Fincastle did not designate the place of holding
the court of the county, but, by order of the Governor of the
Colony, the Lead Mines, now in Wythe county, Virginia, was designated
as the county seat of the new county.[1]

Pursuant to a commission from the Governor of the Colony
bearing date December 1, 1772, directed to

• William Preston,

• William Christian,

• Stephen Trigg,

• Walter Crockett,

• Anthony Bledsoe,

• Arthur Campbell,

• Benjamin Estill,

• William Inglis,

• John Montgomery,

• Robert Doach,

• James McGavock,

• James Thompson,

• William Russell,

• Samuel Crockett,

• Alexander McKee,

the first County Court for Fincastle county assembled at the
Lead Mines, on New river, in the present county of Wythe, on
the 5th day of January, 1773. The following members of the
court being present:

• Arthur Campbell,

• William Preston,

• William Christian,

• Walter Crockett,

• James Thompson,

• William Inglis,

• Stephen Trigg,

• James McGavock.

Arthur Campbell and James Thompson administered the oath
to William Preston and William Inglis, and they to:

• William Christian,

• Robert Doach,

• James McGavock,

• Stephen Trigg,

• Walter Crockett,

• James Thompson,

• Arthur Campbell.

Subsequently in the year 1773, William Campbell, James McCorkle
and William Herbert were commissioned and qualified as
members of the court. The following officers of the new county
qualified on that day:

Sheriff Fincastle county,
William Preston.

Deputy Sheriffs:

• Daniel Trigg,

• James Thompson,

• John Floyd,

• Henry Moore.

Surveyor Fincastle County,
William Preston.

Deputy Surveyors:

• John Floyd,

• Daniel Smith,

• William Russell,

• Robert Preston,

• Robert Doach,

• James Douglas.

Clerk Fincastle county,
John Byrd.

Deputy Clerks:

• William Christian,

• Stephen Trigg,

• Richard Madison.

King's Counsel or Dept. Attorney:

• John Aylett, Jan. 5th, 1773.

• Thomas Madison, May 3rd, 1774.

The following attorneys qualified in this court during the existence
of the county:

• Ephraim Dunlop,

• John May,

• Harry Innes,

• John Aylett,

• Benjamin Lawson,

• Luke Bowyer,

• John Todd,

• Charles Simm,

• Gabriel Jones,

• Thomas Madison.

On the first day of the court many interesting orders were entered,
several of the number being here copied as entered:

"The Court doth appoint the house adjoining the Court House,
where the court is now held, for a prison, which house William
Preston, Sheriff, doth protest against as insufficient.

"Ordered that Stephen Trigg send for weights and measures
for the use of the said county, as soon as possible and on as low
terms as he sells goods to his best customers on."

"Ordered that John Byrd do provide all necessary law books for
this county, and that he bring in his charge."

A number of orders were entered by the court on the first day
of its existence, in regard to that section of Fincastle county lying
upon the waters of the Holston and Clinch rivers.

Leave was given Francis Whitney and William Kennedy to
erect mills on the properties on which they lived, on the Holston
river and the waters of Holston river.

In this connection it is worthy of notice, that at the time permission
was given to Kennedy and Whitney to erect their mills,
there was but one mill on the waters of the Holston, so far as the
records show, to-wit: the mill of Arthur Campbell at Royal Oak.

"It is further ordered by the court that William Edmiston,
George Adams, John Beaty, Joseph Drake, David Snodgrass and
James Kincannon, or any three of them, being first sworn, do view
the nighest and best way from the Town House (now in Smyth
County, Va.,) to the Eighteen Mile creek (now Abingdon), and
report."

It seems that there was some contention among the settlers on
Holston as to the location of this road; for, on the 2nd day of

March, 1773, the above order was set aside by the court, and on
that day it was ordered that John Hays, Benjamin Logan, William
Campbell, Arthur Bowen and Thomas Ramsey, or any three of
them, being first sworn, do view the several ways proposed for said
road and make a report of the conveniences and inconveniences
attending the same. The viewers thus appointed made their report
to the County Court on July 6, 1773, recommending that the
lower road be established, which report was confirmed and the road
established, and William Campbell, William Edmiston and James
Bryan were appointed overseers of the said road.

The above is all the information that the records contain of the
controversy in regard to the establishment of this road, but I apprehend
that the action of the court in establishing the road as
they did had considerable bearing in settling the future location
of the county seat of Washington county at Abingdon.

Upon the second day of the court it was recommended to his
Excellency the Governor that he will be pleased to establish the
courthouse for this county at a piece of land commonly called
McCall's place, now the property of Ross & Co., and the lands
of Samuel Crockett, in lieu of the Lead Mines, for the several
reasons following:

That the said McCall's place and Crockett's lies on the Great
Road that passes through the county, and that it is well watered,
timbered and level.

That it is more central than the mines, and that it is in the
neighborhood of a great deal of good lands and meadows.

That the Lead Mines are near the south line of the county, that
there is no spring convenient, the place is very bare of timber and
in a neighborhood where there is very little pasture, and it is
certainly off the leading road.

From which order Arthur Campbell dissented.

While the records are to some extent indefinite as to the action
of the Governor upon this petition, it is clear that the county seat
was not removed from the Lead Mines during the existence of
the county of Fincastle, as is evident from other records that
have a bearing upon this subject.

The County Court on March 2, 1774, entered the following
order:

"Ordered that the surveyor lay off the prison bounds, and that

he include all the houses and some part of the waters." This
clearly applied to the Lead Mines.

The act of the Legislature of Virginia establishing Montgomery
county directed that the county seat should be Fort Chiswell, and
one of the first orders of that court was to appoint commissioners to
contract for and superintend the erection of a courthouse.

The above facts, when taken in connection with the circumstance
that Fort Chiswell was at no time mentioned in the records of the
County Court of Fincastle county, except in the petition above set
out, are conclusive in regard to this matter.

On May 2, 1773, the court ordered that Robert Davis, Alexander
Wylie, Robert Buchanan, and Hugh Gallion, any three of
whom being duly sworn, do view the nighest way from James Davis'
(at the head spring of the Middle Fork of the Holston) to James
Catherine's (near the head spring of the South Fork of the Holston),
but the records of Fincastle fail to show that this road was
established.

The next order of importance entered by the court was on May
5, 1773, when the court ordered that Isaac Riddle, Wesley White,
James Young and James Montgomery do view the nighest and best
way from Eleven Mile creek, on Holston, by Jones' place at the
crossing place, going to Watauga, and report.

The commissioners made their report on July 6, 1773, and the
road was established, and James Montgomery, James Young and
Isaac Riddle were appointed overseers.

On March 3, 1773, James McCarthy, Matthew Mounts, John
Smith, Thomas Byrd, Nathan Richerson and Peter Lee, or any
three of them, being first sworn, were ordered to view the nighest
and best way from the Town House on Holston to Castle's Woods
on Clinch river, and make report.

The commissioners made their report on July 6, 1773, and the
road was partially established, beginning at John Dunkin's in Elk
Garden, thence over the mountains to Poor Valley, about five miles
to the westward of the old path, and from thence by the Big Lick,
through Lyon's Gap to the Town House.

On March 2, 1773, the court directed John Maxwell, Robert Allison
and Robert Campbell, or any three of them, to view the
nighest and best way from Catherine's Mill to Charles Allison's,
and so on to Sinclair's Bottom, and report.

On July 6, 1773, the commissioners reported, and the court directed
a road to be established from Catherine's Mill to Charles
Allison's house on the condition that the people on the South Fork,
or any others on same road who think it useful, do cut the same
themselves.

On the same day the court ordered that William Edmiston,
Robert Edmiston, Alexander McNutt, Robert Buchanan, and John
Edmiston, any three of whom may act, do view a road from Charles
Allison's house down the South Fork to Robert Edmiston's house
and report.

On May 5, 1773, the County Court directed Arthur Campbell
to take a list of the tithables on the Clinch river and on all its
forks, as low as the Elk Garden, and on the Wolf Hill creek.

And William Russell to take a list of the tithables from the
Elk Garden, on the Clinch, down to the county line.

And Anthony Bledsoe to take a list of the tithables from Captain
Campbell's down to the county line, on the North, South, and
Middle Forks of Holston river.

And that Captain James Thompson do take a list of the tithables
in Captain William Campbell's company.

On May 4, 1773, the court directed James Hays, John Hays,
Archibald Buchanan, and Robert Davis to view the nighest and
best way by Robert Davis' into the leading road from Holston.

At the meeting of the County Court on July 6, 1773, Jonathan
Jenning was fined forty shillings for speaking of the court with
contempt and saying that they were self-interested and partial.

And on the same day Stephen Trigg, James McCorkle, Walter
Crockett and James McGavock were directed to agree with workmen
to repair the second house from the courthouse for a prison
in such manner as is necessary.

And on the 9th day of July, 1773, Joseph Black, Andrew Colvill,
Samuel Ewen, William Blackburn, George Blackburn, Samuel
Briggs, Davis Galloway, John Berry, Christopher Acklin, John
Keswick, John Vance and Benjamin Logan were directed to clear
the nearest and best way from Samuel Brigg's, on Eighteen Mile
creek, to James Bryan's, on Eleven Mile creek.

On November 2, 1773, on the petition of a number of the inhabitants,
it was ordered that William Priest, Henry Willis, Joseph
Martin, William Bowen and Joseph Craven, any three of

whom may act, after being duly sworn, do view the best way from
Maiden Springs settlement (now in Tazewell county) into the
Great Road.

No further orders pertaining to Washington county were entered
by the court until March 2, 1774, on which day Patrick Porter
was given leave to build a mill on Falling creek, the waters
of Clinch river, this being the first mill erected on Clinch river,
so far as the records disclose.

On the same day, on the motion of Charles Allison, leave was
given him to build a mill on his land, on the South Fork of Holston,
near the head spring.

On the same day the court appointed Andrew Miller and Thomas
Ramsay commissioners to view the nighest and best way from
Thomas Ramsay's, by Kennedy's mill, to the Great Road.

At a meeting of the court on May 3, 1774, the court, on the
petition of the inhabitants of Beaver creek, ordered Benjamin Logan
to open a road from James Fulkerson's to the wagon road at
Joseph Black's (now Abingdon), the best and most convenient way.

On the same day the court directed Anthony Bledsoe to take a
list of the tithables in Captains Looney's, Shelby's, and Cocke's companies,
William Campbell in his own and Captain Arthur Campbell's
companies, and William Russell in his own and Captain
Smith's companies.

The County Court of Fincastle county was composed of men of
dignity and respectability, and they purposed to deal with the attorneys
practicing at their bar in such a manner as to command
the respect of the bar and the citizens of the county, and, as an
evidence of the manner in which they dealt with the members of
the legal profession, we here copy an order made by this court on
May 3, 1774:

"John Gabriel Jones, having misbehaved himself in the court, it
is ordered that for his contempt he make his fine with our Lord,
the King, by the payment of twenty shillings, and that he be
taken," etc.

On the same day a peculiar order was entered, which read as
follows:

"John Dougherty came into court, and, it being fully proved
that his left ear had been bitten off by a person in an affray, it is
ordered that the same be recorded." It is hard to perceive his object

in making this proof and having it recorded unless there existed
at that time, or at an earlier date, some law or custom by
which criminals lost their ears.

At the August term of this court it was directed that a road be
built from Arthur Campbell's mill to Blue Spring, at the head
of Cripple creek, by way of Rye Bottom, and on August 3d, being
the same day as the above order, the court directed a road to be
built from Arthur Campbell's mill to Archibald Buchanan's, on
the North Fork of Holston river.

In the preceding pages we have given a great deal of the records
of the County Court of Fincastle county directing the opening of
the first roads and granting permission to erect the first mills on
the waters of the Holston and Clinch rivers, and it cannot be otherwise
than interesting, for, previously to the opening of these roads,
the early settlers of this country, as a general rule, were compelled
to follow the Indian and buffalo trails made before their advent.

The main trail down the Holston and through Washington
county was, from the very earliest time of which we have any
record, called the Great Road. Before the erection of the first mills
on the waters of the Holston, if the early settlers wished to have
meal, it could be obtained in one way only, and that by cracking
the grains of corn with a hammer or by some other similar method.

The first deed executed to any of the settlers on the Holston was
dated January 5, 1773, and was made by Edmund Pendleton. It
conveyed to Benjamin Logan and John Sharp 676 acres of land
situated on Beaver creek, alias Shallow creek, and was the same
land surveyed by John Buchanan for Edmund Pendleton on April
2, 1750.

On the same day Edmund Pendleton conveyed to William
Cocke and Robert Craig 950 acres of land situated on Spring
creek, alias Renfro's creek, being the same land surveyed by John
Buchanan, deputy surveyor of Augusta county, for Edmund
Pendleton on April 2, 1750, and described in the survey as lying
on Renfro's creek. This survey covered a considerable part of the
farms now owned and occupied by C. L. Clyce, Jerry Whitaker,
Allen Lester and H. B. Roberts on Spring creek.

The four conveyances above described are older by more than
one year and three months than any others to be found in the present

bounds of Washington county, the next oldest conveyance
bearing date April 14, 1774.

It may be interesting at this point to know the oath required of
the members of the first County Court administering justice among
the settlers upon the Holston. We here copy the oath:

"You shall swear that as a justice of the peace in the county
of Fincastle in all articles in the commission to you directed, you
shall do equal right to the poor and to the rich, after your cunning,
wit and power according to law; and you shall not be of any
counsel of any quarrel hanging before you, and the issues, fines and
amercements that shall happen to be made, and all the forefeitures
which shall fall before you, you shall cause to be entered, without
any concealment or embezzling; you shall not let for gift or other
causes, but well and truly you shall do your office of justice of the
peace, as well within your county court as without; and you shall
not take any gift, fee or gratuity, for anything to be done by virtue
of your office, and you shall not direct or cause to be directed,
any warrant by you to be made to the parties, but you shall direct
them to the Sheriff, or bailiffs of said county, or other the King's
officers or ministers, or other indifferent persons, to do execution
thereof, so help you God."

The oath of a justice of the County Court in Chancery was as
follows:

"You shall swear that well and truly you will serve our sovereign
lord, the King, and his people, in the office of a justice of the county
court of Fincastle in Chancery, and that you will do equal right to
all manner of people, great and small, high and low, rich and poor,
according to equity and good conscience and the laws and usages
of this colony and dominion of Virginia, without favor, affection
or partiality. So help you God."[2]

A considerable number of people had settled in the immediate
vicinity of Abingdon, and eastward to the head waters of the Holston,
and in the beginning of this year two congregations of Presbyterians
had organized in the county—one at Sinking Spring
(now Abingdon) and another at Ebbing Spring, on the Middle
Fork of the Holston river, near the James Byars farm; and in the
month of April, 1773, Samuel Edmiston was commissioned by the
two congregations above mentioned to present a call to the Rev.

Charles Cummings at the Reverend Presbytery of Hanover when
sitting at the Tinkling Springs, in Augusta county. This call was
reduced to writing and signed by the members of the Sinking
Spring and Ebbing Spring congregations. It was presented to
the Presbytery by Samuel Edmiston for the services of Mr. Cummings
at Brown's meeting-house, in Augusta county, on June 2,
1773. The call with the signatures thereto is as follows:

"A call from the united congregations of Ebbing, and Sinking
springs, on Holston's river, Fincastle county, to be presented to the
Rev. Charles Cummings, minister of the gospel, at the Reverend
Presbytery of Hanover when sitting at the Tinkling Spring:

While the settlers at Pittsburg provoked this difficulty, it seems
that the settlers on the Holston and Clinch were the principal
sufferers thereby.

Numerous surveyors, with their instruments, visited Kentucky
during this year. Among the number were James Douglas, Hancock
Taylor, Isaac Bledsoe, and John Floyd. The last named left
the home of Colonel William Preston at Smithfield on April 9,
1774, accompanied by eight men. They passed down the Kanawha
river to the Ohio, where they were informed by a company they
met that an Indian war was probable; notwithstanding which information
they continued their explorations, surveying many tracts
of land on the Ohio and in the present State of Kentucky. We here
give a list of a few surveys made by the men who visited Kentucky in
this year. We copy this list from the fact that it is exceedingly
interesting, and for the further reason that it contains the first surveys
made by the white man in the present State of Kentucky:

Notable Tracts of Land, Surveyed by John Floyd, Hancock Taylor and James Douglas,
in 1774-1775, lying mostly in Kentucky

                                                                   

Time.	Name.	Acres	Location.
April 25, 1774	Mitchell Clay.	1,000	Both sides Bluestone Cr., Clover Bottom.
April 20, 1774	Wm. Inglis.	200	H'd Spring Wolf Cr., Burks Garden.
April 22, 1774	Wm. Inglis.	1,000	Abbs' Valley.
June 7, 1774	Col. Wm. Christian.	2,000	Bear Grass Creek, Br. of Ohio.
June 3, 1774	Jas. McCorkle.	1,000	Bear Grass Creek, Br. of Ohio.
April 15, 1774	Col. Geo. Washington	2,000	Bank of Cole River.
June 7, 1774	John Floyd.	1,000	W. Bear Grass Creek.
July 8, 1774	Patrick Henry.	2,000	Elk Horn Creek, Br. of Kentucky.
July 7, 1774	Patrick Henry.	3,000	Elk Horn Creek, Br. of Kentucky.
July 11, 1774	Wm. Christian.	3,000	Elk Horn Creek, Br. of Kentucky.
July 12, 1774	Wm. Russell.	2,000	N. Br. Ky. River, 95 miles from the Ohio.
July 6, 1774	Wm. Preston.	1,000	S. Br. Kentucky River.
July 20, 1774	Audley Paul.	2,000	N. Br. of Kentucky.
May 6, 1774	Wm. Christian.	1,000	S. Side Ohio, 3 miles above mouth of Ky.
June 2, 1774	Wm. Byrd.	1,000	About 11 miles below mouth of Ky., called "Mt. Byrd."
May 24, 1774	Wm. Fleming.	3,000	On Ohio River.
May 27, 1774	John Corlin.	200	On Ohio, 19 miles above falls.
June 2, 1774	Henry Harrison.	1,000	On Ohio, 2½ miles from h'd of fall.
Mar. 23, 1774	Samuel Scott.	40	The Narrows, Giles County.
Aug. 8, 1774	Andrew Lewis.	2,000	Sinking Cr., 8 miles from Ky. River, N. course from Harwood Landing.
Aug. 16, 1774	Evan Shelby.	2,000	Elk Horn Cr., Branch of Kentucky.
May 31, 1774	Zachary Taylor.	1,000	On Ohio, Mouth Bear Grass Creek.
June 17, 1774	Zachary Taylor.	2,000	Br. Ky. that empties at Great Crossing.
June 29, 1774	Adam Stephens.		N. side Ky. River and N.W. side Elk Horn Creek about 8 miles from a remarkable buffalo feeding place, the Ky. River.
June 1, 1774	John Connally.	2,000	S. side Ohio River opposite the falls.
June 1, 1774	Wm. Byrd.	1,000	S. side Ohio, nearly opposite first island above the falls.
June 2, 1774	Thomas Bower.	1,000	Near falls of Ohio.
June 14, 1775	James McDowell.	2,000	S. Fork Licking Cr., Br. of Ohio.
July 11, 1775	Samuel McDowell.	2,000	Elk Horn Cr., Br. of Kentucky.
June 12, 1774	Wm. Christian.	1,000	Salt River, 20 miles from Great Falls Inc'd Spring and Buffalo Lick.
June 24, 1775	Jethro Sumner.	2,000	Elk Horn Creek (Sumner's Forest).
June 3, 1774	Arthur Campbell.	1,000	Br. Bear Grass Cr., S. Br. Ohio.
May 12, 1774	Wm. Christian.	1,000	Big Bone Lick and Buffalo Lick.

This is a partial list only of the many surveys made in west
Fincastle county, now in the State of Kentucky, by Hancock Taylor,
James Douglas, and John Floyd.

These men were sent to Kentucky by direction of the Governor
of the Colony of Virginia, and all the lands thus located were for
men or the assignees of men who took part in the French-Indian
war of 1754-1763, and who acquired their rights under the King's
proclamation of 1763. When the war with the Indians broke out
Lord Dunmore was exceedingly anxious to give information of that
fact to the surveyors, and he directed Colonel William Preston,
who had charge of the defenses of Fincastle county, to communicate
the fact to the surveyors. Colonel Preston authorized Colonel
William Russell, who then lived on the Clinch river, to employ
two faithful woodmen to go to Kentucky and convey the information
to the several companies of surveyors and their assistants,
and on the 26th of June, 1774, Captain Russell wrote Colonel
William Preston as follows: "I have engaged to start immediately
upon the occasion two of the best hands I could think of, Daniel
Boone and Michael Stoner, who have engaged to reach the country
as low as the falls, and to return by way of Gasper's Lick, on
Cumberland, and through Cumberland Gap, so that by the assiduity
of these men, if it be not too late, I hope the gentlemen
will be apprized of the imminent danger they are daily in."
Boone and Stoner set out immediately upon their trip, and warned
Colonel James Harrod and thirty men at Harrodsburg, now Kentucky.
They found another company of surveyors at Fontainebleau
and on the Kentucky river they found Captain John Floyd
and his men, and thence they passed to the falls of the Ohio, where
they warned the surveyors at Mann's Lick, and, after an absence
of sixty-one days, they reached Russell's Fort on Clinch river,
having traveled 800 miles on foot. Captain John Floyd immediately
set out for the settlements, and on the 13th day of August,
1774, he reached the home of Colonel Preston at Smithfield, and
reported: "That on the 8th of July he and three others parted with
fourteen men, who were also engaged in the surveying business,
and went about twenty miles from them to finish his part of the
work, and that they were to meet on the first day of August at a
place on the Kentucky, known by the name of the Cabin, in order
to proceed on their homeward journey. That on the 24th of July

he, with his three men, repaired to the place appointed, where he
found that a part, or all of the company, had assembled according
to agreement, but had gone off in the greatest precipitation, leaving
him only this notice written on a tree: `Alarmed by finding
some people killed, we are gone down,' upon which he, with his
small party, immediately set out, steering for our settlements; and
after an extremely painful and fatiguing journey of sixteen days
through mountains almost inaccessible and ways unknown, he at
last arrived on Clinch river. He did not well understand the
notice left him on the tree, whether part of the company had assembled
at the Cabin, and that they had gone down to the camp in
order to warn those who were at work in that neighborhood of
danger, or whether the whole company had met and were departed
down the Mississippi, as several in the company had before proposed
returning home that way, with a view both to see the country
and avoid the fatigue of returning by land. The names of
some of the party not then returned are here inserted, viz.: James
Douglas, Hancock Taylor and Isaach Bledsoe; Surveyors John Willis,
Willis Lee, Captain John Ashby, Abraham Hempenstall, William
Ballard, John Green, Lawrence Darnell, Mordecai Batson,
John Sodusky, James Strother and John Ball."

The northwestern Indians were greatly alarmed at the encroachments
of the white settlers, who were daily surveying and settling
the lands on the banks of the Ohio and in the wilderness of Kentucky.
The white settlers insisted that they had a right to survey
and settle these lands under the provisions of the treaty made with
the confederacy of the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix in 1768, and
they were greatly exasperated by the conduct of the northwestern
Indians in denying their right to said lands and in murdering
their people and plundering their settlements. The white settlers
had long been restrained by the British Government from avenging
their wrongs on the Indians, and now they clamored for war.
When the news of the disposition of the Indians reached Williamsburg
the Governor of the Colony and the House of Burgesses of
Virginia immediately took steps to protect the western settlers.

By the direction of Lord Dunmore, Lieutenant-Colonel William
Christian, in the month of May, 1774, left Williamsburg for Fincastle
county with instructions to use every means possible to prevent

the inhabitants from leaving the settlements on the approach
of the Indian war.

As soon as he reached his home a council of the militia officers
was held on June 25, 1774, at the Lead Mines, at which council it
was resolved that Lieutenant-Colonel Christian should march with
a body of militia to the Clinch settlements. The militia was at
once mustered in and equipped at the personal expense of Colonel
Christian, William Preston and Major Arthur Campbell, and proceeded
to the Clinch settlements, where every preparation was
made for war. A considerable part of this force accompanied
Colonel Christian to Point Pleasant in the following August. General
Andrew Lewis was directed by Governor Dunmore to organize
a sufficient force to carry war into the enemy's country. The organization
of this body of troops was intrusted to General Andrew
Lewis and Colonel Charles Lewis, of Augusta county. As it would
require some time to organize this body of troops, it was thought
proper to send an advance guard into the enemy's country to restrain
the Indians while the whites were preparing, and early in
June about 400 men, under the command of Colonel Angus McDonald,
assembled at Wheeling and immediately marched to the
Indian grounds, on the Muskingum, with the loss of two men killed
and eight or ten wounded. The Indians fled, and in a few days
returned and sued for peace, but their pretensions were not sincere;
and they were only delaying McDonald while they removed
their property and their women and children beyond the reach of
the Virginia troops. Thereupon Colonel McDonald burned the Indian
towns and crops and retraced his steps to Wheeling. As soon
as the troops had retired from the Indian country small bands of
Indians invaded the western settlements at many points.

Many of the people of Fincastle county were murdered, and by
the first of August all the people in Fincastle county, except a few
of the settlers on Holston, were gathered into small forts; and
such was the unhappy situation of the people that they could not
attend to their plantations, nor were the scouts employed by the
county able to investigate the inroads of the enemy, as they came
in small parties and traveled along the mountains with great caution.
About the last of June one Knox, who went to Ohio with the
surveyors in the spring, reached the settlements and reported:
"That on the 13th of June one Jacob Lewis departed from the

camp on Salt river in the morning to hunt, and had never been
heard of since; that on the 8th of July, being at said camp, about
one hundred miles from the Ohio and nearly opposite to the falls,
he, with nine others, was surprised and fired upon by a party of
about twenty Indians; that two men were killed on the spot, viz.:
James Hamilton, from Fredericksburg, and James Cowan, from
Pennsylvania, and as the enemy rushed upon them before it was
possible to put themselves in any posture of defence, they were
obliged to abandon their camp and make their escape to a party of
thirty-five men who were in that neighborhood. Next day, the
whole company, being forty-three in number, after burying the
dead, set out for the settlement on Clinch river, where they arrived
on the 29th, after making several discoveries of the enemy on the
way."

General Andrew Lewis had orders to raise four companies of
militia from Fincastle and Botetourt counties, to rendezvous at
Camp Union, and to march thence down the Kanawha to Fort Pitt,
at the junction of the Kanawha and Ohio. Three companies of
men were raised in Fincastle county and were commanded by:
Captain Evan Shelby, the forces from the waters of the Holston,
Captain Wm. Russell, the forces from the waters of the Clinch,
Captain Wm. Herbert, the forces from the waters of New river.

Captain Russell left Russell's Fort on Clinch river previously
to August 13th, 1774, and Captain Evan Shelby began the march
with his forces on the 17th of August, 1774, both companies joining
the regiment of Colonel Christian on New river; from which
place Colonel Christian, with his regiment, proceeded to Camp
Union. On the 11th day of September, 1774, the army of Gen.
Lewis began the march down the Kanawha, and, after the expiration
of twenty-five days, they arrived at Point Pleasant and camped
upon the banks of the Ohio. When the army of General Lewis left
Camp Union, Colonel Wm. Christian, with four hundred men, was
directed to remain and guard the provisions until the return of a
company of horse that had been sent to the mouth of Elk, when he
was to hurry things forward. But the companies of Captains
Russell and Shelby accompanied the army of General Lewis upon
its march from Camp Union to Point Pleasant and were attached
to the command of Colonel Charles Lewis, of Augusta county.

At the same time, Lord Dunmore raised a considerable force in

the lower Valley and was to march to Fort Pitt, and thence to
Point Pleasant, where he was to meet General Lewis. Instead of
doing so, he marched into Ohio. General Lewis, upon his arrival at
Point Pleasant, waited several days, expecting the arrival of Lord
Dunmore, and, not hearing from him, he dispatched messengers,
but whether he received a reply before the battle is a matter of dispute.
On Sunday, the 9th day of October, the sturdy Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians from Fincastle county spent the day in religious
exercises, little dreaming that on the coming day they would be surprised
by the Indians and win the most hotly contested battle with
the Indians recorded in the annals of our history.

BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT.

Early Monday morning, October 10th, James Mooney and James
Hughey, of Captain Russell's company, left the camp in quest of
deer. When about three miles distant from their camp, they unexpectedly
came in sight of a large body of Indians, in their encampment.
The Indians, when they discovered the two men, fired
upon them, and Hughey was killed by a white renegade by the name
of Travenor Ross. Mooney made his escape, and, returning to the
camp, reported that he had seen a body of the enemy covering four
acres of ground, as closely as they could stand by the side of each
other.

About the same time, two members of Captain Shelby's company,
James Robertson and Valentine Sevier, who had been out hunting,
returned to camp and reported that they had met a body of hostile
Indians advancing upon the camp, and that they had fired upon
them at the distance of ten steps. It being dark, the Indians were
thereby halted. As no official report of this battle has been preserved,
I will here give the report as obtained by Dr. Hale from a
letter published in the Belfast (Ireland) News Letter, a paper
published at that time.

BELFAST.

Yesterday arrived a mail from New York brought to Falmouth
by the Harriot packet boat, Captain Lee.

When Colonel Charles Lewis fell, Captain Evan Shelby succeeded
to the command of the regiment, and Isaac Shelby, his son,
succeeded to the command of his father's company, and late in the
evening General Lewis directed Captains Isaac Shelby, Matthews,
and Stewart to assail the Indians in the rear, by advancing up the
Kanawha river, protected by the bank and undergrowth. In the
execution of this order considerable difficulty was experienced, and

possibly, failure would have been the result had it not been for
the request of John Sawyers an Orderly Sergeant in Captain
Shelby's company, for permission to take a few men of the company
and drive the Indians from the position which afforded them
protection. Permission was granted and the Indians were dislodged.
The companies above mentioned having gained their rear, the Indians
precipitately took their flight across the Ohio.

It is generally admitted that this was one of the most hotly contested
battles between the white men and the Indians that took
place in the history of the early settlement of our country. The
terrible conflict that took place between the white men and the
Indians in this battle is hard to depict in ordinary language. De
Hass thus describes the conflict:

"The battle scene was terribly grand. There stood the combatants,
terror, rage, disappointment, and despair riveted upon the
faces of one, while calm resolution and the unbending will to do or
die were marked upon the other. Neither party would retreat,
neither could advance. The noise of the firing was tremendous. No
single gun could be distinguished, it was one continuous roar.

"The rifle and the tomahawk now did their work with dreadful
certainty. The confusion and perturbation of the camp had now
arrived at its greatest height. The confused sounds and wild uproar
of the battle added greatly to the terror of the scene. The
shouting of the whites, the continued roar of fire-arms, the warwhoop
and dismal yelling of the Indians, were discordant and terrific."

Colonel Christian, whom General Lewis had left at Camp Union,
as soon as he had complied with the orders of General Lewis, set
out for Point Pleasant, with all the troops under his command
except one company of Fincastle men, whom he left under the
command of Anthony Bledsoe at Camp Union to guard the supplies
and take care of the sick. He marched his troops with all
possible expedition, and arrived at Point Pleasant on the evening
of October 10th, after the battle had been fought. Soon thereafter,
Lord Dunmore negotiated a treaty of peace with the Indians at one
of their towns in Ohio, by which the northwest Indians ceded all
their claims to the lands lying south of the Ohio river, to the King
of England.

General Lewis marched his army back to Camp Union where it

was disbanded. The body of militia that went from Fincastle upon
this expedition were armed with rifle guns, and, being good woodsmen,
were looked upon to be at least equal to any troops for the
number that had been raised, in America. It is sufficient to know
that the credit of having been the first to discover the approach
of the Indians, and thereby, possibly, to secure the preservation of
General Lewis's army, was due to the vigilance of the backwoodsmen
from Fincastle. And in addition to that, it should be a matter
of pride to every citizen of this section of Virginia to know that
the troops from the waters of the Clinch and the Holston were
among the number to receive the first assault of the enemy, and to
their skill and bravery may be accredited, the successful flanking,
and consequently the precipitate rout, of the Indian army. The
killed and wounded among the Fincastle troops were considerable.
The names of a few of the killed and wounded are given below:

Robert Campbell, private, afterwards granted a pension of 10
pounds per year.

James Hughey, killed.

James Robinson, wounded.

Mark Williams, private, killed.

John Carmack, private, wounded.

John Steward, wounded.

John McKenney, wounded, three times.

Lieutenant Vance, wounded.

The following is a partial list of the men who accompanied Captain
Evan Shelby on this expedition:

• Isaac Shelby, Captain.

• James Robertson, O. S.

• James Shelby,

• Henry Span,

• Frederick Mongle,

• John Carmack,

• George Brooks,

• Abram Newland,

• Emanuel Shoatt,

• Peter Forney,

• John Fain,

• Samuel Fain,

• Samuel Samples,

• Robert Handley,

• William Casey,

• John Stewart, wounded;

• Richard Burke,

• Elijah Robertson,

• Richard Holliway,

• Julius Robison,

• Benjamin Graham,

• Hugh O'Gullion,

• James Hughey,

• Basileel Maxwell,

• Valentine Sevier, O. S.,

• John Sawyers, O. S.,

---

156





• John Findley,

• Daniel Mongle,

• John Williams,

• Andrew Torrence,

• Isaac Newland,

• George Riddle,

• Abram Bogard,

• William Tucker,

• Samuel Vance,

• Samuel Handley,

• Arthur Blackburn,

• George Armstrong,

• Mack Williams,

• Conrad Nave,

• John Riley,

• Rees Price,

• Jarrett Williams,

• Charles Fielder,

• Andrew Goff,

• Patrick St. Lawrence,

• John Bradley,

• Barnett O'Guillion.

Captain Wm. Russell's company:

• James Mooney,

• Joseph Hughey.

FINCASTLE TROOPS.

COMPANIES NOT KNOWN.

• Walter Steward, Adjt.
  Fincastle troops.

• William Campbell, Captain.

• William McFarland,

• John McKenney,

• John Moore,

• Conrad Smith,

• John Floyd,

• John Steward,

• John Campbell, Lieutenant;

• Moses Bowen, died with
  small-pox on expedition;

• Daniel Smith,

• Robert Campbell,

• Andrew Waggoner,

• John Gilmore,

• John Lyle,

• Francis Berry,

• James Robinson,

• — Hickman,

• William Tate,

• George Findley,

• Rees Bowen.

Daniel Boone, upon his return from Kentucky to Russell's Fort,
on the 13th day of August, found Captain William Russell absent
on the Point Pleasant expedition, and he immediately set out with
a body of troops to reinforce him, but was ordered back to protect
the settlers on the Clinch, where he remained for some time.

The forts on Clinch river, at this time, with the number of men
in each and the officers in command, were as follows:

Fort Blackmore, sixteen men, Sergeant Moore commanding.
Fort Moore, (twenty miles east), twenty men, Lieutenant Daniel
Boone commanding. Fort Russell (four miles east), twenty men,

Sergeant W. Poage commanding. Fort Glade Hollow, (twelve miles
east), fifteen men, Sergeant John Duncan commanding. Elk Garden[7]
(fourteen miles east), fifteen men, Sergeant John Kinkead
commanding. Maiden Spring, (twenty-three miles east), five men,
Sergeant John Crow commanding. Whitlow's Crab Orchard, three
men, Ensign John Campbell commanding.

Boone was very diligent in protecting the settlements and was
commissioned Captain for his valued services.

As soon as the Indians ascertained that so many of the citizens
from the waters of the Clinch were absent on the expedition to
Point Pleasant, they began a series of very alarming raids. On the
8th of September, 1774, they visited the home of John Henry, on
the Clinch river, now in Tazewell county, Virginia, in Thompson's
Valley, he, having on the 15th day of May of the same year, settled
upon a tract of land that Daniel Smith, Deputy Surveyor of Fincastle
county, had surveyed for him. Henry received a dangerous
wound from which he died, his wife and three children were taken
prisoners, and on the same day a man was taken prisoner by another
party of Indians on the Holston river. On the 13th day of
September, 1774, a soldier was fired upon by three Indians on the
Clinch river, but was not hurt. He returned the fire and, it is believed,
killed an Indian. This company of Indians were pursued
for several days, by Captain Daniel Smith and a company of militia,
but they could not be overtaken. On the 23d, two negroes were
taken prisoners at Blackmore's Fort, on waters of Clinch river, and
a great many horses and cattle were shot down. On the 24th day
of the same month, an entire family were taken and killed, at Reedy
Creek, a branch of the Holston river, near the Cherokee line. On
Sunday morning, the 25th, hallooing and the report of many guns
were heard. These last murders were believed to be the work of the
Cherokees, who appeared at that time in very bad humor.

The victory gained at Point Pleasant on the 10th of October put
a stop to all organized raids upon the frontier settlements, for the
time being. Upon the return of the Fincastle troops from the expedition
to Point Pleasant, the free-holders of Fincastle county assembled
at the Lead Mines and drafted an address to the Hon.
John, Earl of Dunmore, thanking him heartily for his exertions in

their behalf in the late war, and expressed the wish that the late
disturbances might be amicably settled.

On the 14th day of April, 1774, Dr. Thomas Walker conveyed to
James Piper 365 acres of land on a branch of the Holston river
called Wolf Hill Creek; on the same day, he conveyed to Alexander
Breckenridge 360 acres on Wolf Hill Creek, to Samuel Briggs 313
acres on Wolf Hill Creek, alias Castle's Creek, to Joseph Black, 305
acres on Eighteen Mile Creek (this being the name of the small
creek that flows through Abingdon) and to Andrew Colvill, 324
acres on Wolf Hill Creek. The persons above named were the first
settlers in the vicinity of Abingdon.

In the spring of the year 1774, the free-holders of Fincastle
county met at the Lead Mines, their courthouse, and elected two
members of the Virginia House of Burgesses to represent Fincastle
county, viz.:

• William Christian,

• Stephen Trigg.

It may not be amiss at this point to state briefly the laws governing
the qualifications required of the citizens of Fincastle county
to vote and hold office, in this, the last year that the Colony
of Virginia adhered to the crown of England. The freeholders of
every county possessed the liberty of electing two of the most able
and fit men, being freeholders and qualified to vote, to represent
their county in all the General Assemblies. The electors or voters
were required to own an estate of freehold for his own life or the
life of another, or other greater estate in at least fifty acres of land,
if no settlement be made upon it, or twenty-five acres with a plantation
and house thereon at least twelve feet square, said property being
in the county in which the electors offered to vote. The sheriff
was required to deliver to the minister and reader of every parish in
his county a copy of the writ of election, and, upon the back of
every such writ, he was required to endorse the fact that said election
would be held at the courthouse in his county upon a day
appointed by him. And the minister or reader was required to
publish the same immediately after divine services, every Sunday
between the receipt of said writ and the day of election, under
heavy penalty for failure to do so. It was further provided
that every freeholder actually residing in the county should personally
appear at the courthouse on the day fixed and give his vote,
upon the penalty of forfeiting two hundred pounds of tobacco, if he

failed to vote. The sheriff was required to appoint fit persons, and
these persons after being duly sworn, were required to enter the
names of every candidate in a distinct column, and the name of
every freeholder giving his vote, under the name of the person
voted for, all of which was required to be done in the presence of
the candidates or their agents, and upon the close of the polls the
sheriff was ordered to proclaim the names of the successful candidates.
And it was further provided, that any person who should
directly or indirectly, except in his usual and ordinary course of
hospitality, in his own house, give, present, or allow to any person
or persons, having voice or vote in such elections, any money, meat,
drink, entertainment or provisions, or make any present, gift, reward,
or entertainment, or any promise, agreement, obligation, or
engagement, to any person, etc., shall be declared guilty of bribery
and corruption,[8] and rendered incapable to sit, or vote, or to hold
office."

Thus it will be seen that the laws were very strict in regard to the
manner of holding elections, and it cannot be doubted, that an election
held under such laws would be honest and would express the
will of the people. Our present law-makers might well learn a
lesson from the example set them by the law-makers of the Colony
of Virginia, under the rule of King George III.

Early in the history of Fincastle county, the House of Burgesses
enacted a law which provided, "that from and after the first day
of December next, the inhabitants of the said county of Fincastle
shall discharge all fees due from them to the secretary and other
officers in said county at the rate of 8s and 4 pence, for every hundredweight
of gross tobacco.

The principle asserted by the regulators at the Alamance had
spread among the American colonies, until, at the time mentioned,
it seemed to permeate the whole American body politic, and, on the
other hand, the British Parliament had repealed all the port duties
imposed at their session in 1767, except the duty of three pence a
pound on tea, which was continued for the purpose of maintaining
the principle contended for by the British Parliament, to-wit: that
they had the right to tax the American Colonists without giving
them representation, and not for the purpose of revenue only.

The American Colonists were opposed to the principle of taxation
without representation, and they opposed a small tax as bitterly
as they opposed the port duties of 1767. The collection of the tax
was resisted at every point, and, at Boston, the cargoes of tea were
thrown into the sea. Whereupon the British Parliament passed
a bill closing Boston Harbor, upon which information great indignation
pervaded the entire colonies. The House of Burgesses of
Virginia observed the first day of the operation of the bill closing
Boston Harbor, as a fast day, and declared: "That any attack made
on one of our sister colonies to compel submission to arbitrary taxes
is an attack made on all British America, and threatened ruin to the
rights of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole be applied."
And they proposed a general Congress to take such action as the
united interests of the American Colonies might require. This
suggestion, made by the House of Burgesses, was accepted by all
the colonies and the first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia,
on the 5th day of September, 1774, just one month and five
days preceding the battle of Point Pleasant.

The officers and men under command of Lord Dunmore, hearing
of the action of the first Continental Congress, met and adopted
a resolution, which was as follows:

"Resolved, That as the love of liberty and attachment to the
real interests and just rights of America outweigh every other
consideration, they would exert every power within them for
the defence of American Liberty and for the support of her just
rights and privileges; not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumultuous
manner, but when regularly called forth by the unanimous
voice of our countrymen."

THE REVOLUTION.

The period with which we now purpose to deal will be ever
remembered, by reason of the production of one of those masterpieces
of political evolution which mould the world and fix the
destiny of mankind, an event unsurpassed in the history of the
world; the founding of the American Republic. In dealing with
this subject, we deem it necessary to an intelligent understanding
of the motives and actions of the men of that day, to give, with some
particularity, the story complete, from its inception to its culmination,

recognizing that a story partly told is misleading, and the
true merits of a controversy are oftentimes obscured by a mutilated
statement, or a half-told tale. For ten years preceding the resort
of the American Colonies to extreme measures, a bitterly contested
controversy constantly engaged the attention of the British Government
and the American Colonies, and it has been well said by
one of the fathers of our country, that the "Revolution was finished
before the war was commenced." Indeed, it seems to the student
of our early history at this distance from the time of the
occurrences of which we are now writing, that our early fathers in
leaving their homes, the highlands of Scotland, the bogs of Ireland,
the fertile lands of old England, were imbued with exceedingly unfavorable
feelings toward the land of their nativity. They were
devoid of that affection which usually accompanies the wanderer
from his native home, and it is certain that they lost no opportunity
to instil their prejudices and dislikes into the minds of their children
and neighbors, and to resist the operation and execution of
the laws enacted by the British Parliament and the rules attempted
to be enforced by the Governors of the Colonies. This spirit was
evidenced in old Virginia as early as 1666, at the time of Bacon's
Rebellion. This spirit, so prevalent among the English colonies in
America, can be attributed to the fact that a large majority of the
early emigrants were driven from their homes by the tyranny of
the English Government, and, after establishing themselves in
this country, their hatred was accentuated by the arbitrary conduct
of the English ministry, in pursuing a contracted policy, the natural
result of which was to abridge the liberties and property rights of
the colonies. A large majority of the early emigrants to the American
colonies were inspired by that spirit of liberty that has been
so much cherished in the history of our country. They were believers
in the principles which prevailed at the time of the execution
of Charles the First. Many of them were the followers of
Oliver Cromwell, and detested the arbitrary conduct of the King
and the rulers of England, and it was from this cause that they left
their native country to seek a home in the wilderness, with the determination
never to submit to the oppressions of their native land.

Many of the early emigrants found their homes among the high
mountains and the pathless deserts of the new continent, the
nursery of the spirit of freedom. Among the early emigrants to

this new country were numerous "Dissenters," a class of people
who worshipped God according to their own reason and conscience,
men who acknowledged no authority but that which had been established
by their own sanction and consent, and this applied to their
religious principles as well as to their ideas of government. They
did not admit the right of the British government to compel them
either to attend or to support the established church.

They were principally from the middle classes, and neither admitted
nor countenanced any claims to honor or distinction, save
such as arose from the exercise of industry, talent, or virtue. In
their native country they had been tenants, and did not regard
themselves superior to the lowest of their fellow citizens; in their
new homes they were freeholders, and believed themselves equal to
the best, and, naturally, they soon detested that idea which prevailed
in the English government, in accordance with which individuals
pretended to be their natural rulers and superiors.

During the French-Indian war, the British Ministry proposed a
union of the Colonies for the purpose of repelling the French encroachments
on the western waters; and, pursuant to this proposition,
the Governor and leading members of the provincial assemblies
convened at Albany, N. Y., in the year 1754. This Assembly
was unanimously of the opinion, that the Colonies were able to
defend themselves from the encroachments of the French without
assistance from the English Government. They proposed "that a
Grand Council should be formed of members to be chosen by the
provincial Assemblies, which Council, together with a governor to
be appointed by the Crown, should be authorized to make general
laws, and, also, to raise money from all the Colonies for their common
defence." This proposition was received by the British Ministry
with displeasure, and, in answer thereto, the ministry submitted
a counter-proposition, which was as follows: "That the Governors
of all the Colonies, attended by one or two members of their
respective Councils, should, from time to time, concert measures for
the whole of the Colonies, erect posts and raise troops, with a power
to draw upon the British treasury, in the first instance, for the
expense, which expense was to be reimbursed by a tax to be laid on
the Colonies by an act of Parliament."

It will be well to observe that thus early began the contentions
between the British Parliament and the English Colonies; the British

Ministry seeking to lodge the taxing power in the hands of the
British Parliament, a body in which the American Colonies were
not permitted to have representation, whereas, the Colonies insisted
that the taxing power should be vested in their local institutions.

This proposition upon the part of the British Ministry gave great
dissatisfaction to the people of the Colonies, as they objected to
being taxed by a body in which they had no representation, but no
further action was taken in regard to the matter, until the conclusion
of the war, in 1763.

Previously to the year 1764, when the British Parliament desired
a contribution from the American Colonies, the object was accomplished
by a simple requisition upon the legislatures of the several
Colonies for the sum needed and, in every instance, the requisition
had been honored and the money furnished with a willing hand.
But, in this year, the British Parliament sought to obtain from
the American Colonies by a speedier method the taxes desired.

A measure was proposed in the British Parliament by the Premier,
George Grenville, in the year 1764, having for its object, "the
raising of a revenue in America," the entire proceeds of which were
to go into the exchequer of Great Britain.

We have before mentioned the dissatisfaction produced by the
proposition to have the British Parliament levy a tax upon the
American Colonies, when the entire proceeds of the tax were to be
used for the development and the protection of the Colonies, and
the reader can well imagine the alarm and indignation that prevailed
in the American Colonies at the suggestion of the British
Premier, that the British Parliament should lay a tax upon the
American Colonies, the entire proceeds of which were to go into the
exchequer of Great Britain.

Pursuant to the foregoing proposition, Mr. Grenville, on the
10th of March, 1764, reported a resolution imposing certain
"stamp duties" on the colonies, with the request that it should not
be acted upon till the next session of the Parliament. This gave
the agents of the colonies in England an opportunity to transmit
copies of this resolution to the assemblies of the several colonies.

At the time of the receipt of this information the Virginia
House of Burgesses was in session, and immediately appointed a
committee to prepare an address to the King of Great Britain and
to the two houses of the British Parliament. We here give the

several addresses in full as prepared by this committee and reported
to the House of Burgesses "To the King's most excellent
Majesty."

"Most gracious Sovereign,

"We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Council and
Burgesses of your ancient Colony and dominion of Virginia,
now met in General Assembly, beg leave to assure your Majesty of
our firm and inviolable attachment to your sacred person and government;
and, as your faithful subjects here, have at all times
been zealous to demonstrate this truth by a ready compliance
with the royal requisitions during the late war, by which a heavy
oppressive debt of near half a million hath been incurred, so at
this time they implore permission to approach the throne with
humble confidence, and to entreat that your Majesty will be graciously
pleased to protect your people of this Colony in the enjoyment
of their ancient and inestimable right of being governed
by such laws, respecting their internal polity and taxation,
as are derived from their own consent, with the approbation of
their Sovereign or his substitute; a right which, as men, and
descendants of BRITONS, they have ever quietly possessed, since
first, by royal permission and encouragement, they left the mother
kingdom to extend its commerce and dominion.

"Your Majesty's dutiful subjects of Virginia most humbly and
unanimously hope that this invaluable birthright, descended to
them from their ancestors, and in which they have been protected
by your royal predecessors, will not be suffered to receive an injury,
under the reign of your sacred Majesty, already so illustriously
distinguished by your gracious attention to the liberties of the
people.

"That your Majesty may long live to make nations happy, is
the ardent prayer of your faithful subjects, the Council and Burgesses
of Virginia."

The memorial to the House of Lords was as follows:

"To the right honorable the Lord's Spiritual and Temporal, in
Parliament assembled; the Memorial of the Council and Burgresses
of Virginia, now met in General Assembly humbly represents,

"That your memorialists hope an application to your lordships,
the fixed and hereditary guardians of British liberty, will not be

thought improper at this time, when measures are proposed subversive,
as they conceive, of that freedom which all men, especially
those who derive their constitution from Britain, have a right to
enjoy; and they flatter themselves that your lordships will not
look upon them as objects so unworthy your attention as to regard
any impropriety in the form or manner of their application for
your lordship's protection of their just and undoubted right as
Britons.

"It cannot be presumption in your memorialists to call themselves
by this distinguished name, since they are descended from
Britons who left their native country to extend its territory and
dominion and who, happily for Briton, and as your memorialists
once thought, for themselves too, effected this purpose. As our
ancestors brought with them every right and privilege they could
with justice claim in their mother kingdom, their descendants may
conclude they cannot be deprived of those rights without injustice.

"Your memorialists conceive it to be a fundamental principle
of the British constitution, without which freedom can no where
exist, that the people are not subject to any taxes but such as are
laid on them by their own consent, or by those who are legally
appointed to represent them; property must become too precarious
for the genius of a free people, which can be taken from them at
the will of others who cannot know what taxes such people can
bear, or the easiest mode of raising them; and who are not under
that restraint which is the greatest security against a burthensome
taxation, when the representatives themselves must be affected by
every tax imposed on the people.

"Your memorialists are therefore led into an humble confidence
that your lordships will not think any reason sufficient to support
such a power in the British Parliament, where the Colonies cannot
be represented: a power never before constitutionally assumed,
and which, if they have a right to exercise it on any occasion, must
necessarily establish this melancholy truth, that the inhabitants of
the Colonies are the slaves of Britons, from whom they are
descended, and from whom they might expect every indulgence that
the obligations of interest and affection can entitle them to.

"Your memorialists have been invested with the right of taxing
their own people from the first establishment of a regular government
in the Colony, and requisitions have been constantly made

to them by their sovereigns on all occasions when the assistance
of the Colony was thought necessary to preserve the British
interest in America; from whence they must conclude, they cannot
now be deprived of a right they have so long enjoyed and
which they have never forfeited.

"The expenses incurred during the last war, in compliance with
the demands on this Colony by our late and present most gracious
Sovereigns, have involved us in a debt of near half a million, a
debt not likely to decrease under the continued expense we are at in
providing for the security of the people against the incursions of
our savage neighbors, at a time when the low state of our staple
commodity, the total want of specie and the late restrictions upon
the trade of the Colonies, render the circumstances of the people
extremely distressful; and which, if taxes are accumulated upon
them by the British Parliament, will make them truly deplorable.

"Your memorialists cannot suggest to themselves any reason
why they should not still be trusted with the property of their people,
with whose abilities and the least burthensome mode of taxing
(with great deference to the superior wisdom of Parliament) they
must be best acquainted.

Your memorialists hope they shall not be suspected of being
actuated on this occasion by any principles but those of the purest
loyalty and affection, as they have always endeavored by their conduct
to demonstrate that they considered their connexion with
Great Britain, the seat of liberty, as their greatest happiness.

"The duty they owe to themselves, and their posterity lays your
memorialists under the necessity of endeavoring to establish their
Constitution upon its proper foundation; and they do most humbly
pray your lordships to take this subject into your consideration,
with the attention that is due to the well being of the Colonies, on
which the prosperity of Great Britain does, in a great measure,
depend."

And the remonstrance to the House of Commons was this:

"To the honorable Knights, Citizens and Burgesses of Great Britain
in Parliament assembled:

"The remonstrance of the Council and Burgesses of Virginia.

"It appearing by the printed votes of the House of Commons
of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, that in a committee
of the whole House, the 17th day of March last, it was resolved, that

towards defending, protecting and securing the British Colonies
and Plantations in America, it may be proper to charge certain
stamp duties in the said Colonies and Plantations; and it being
apprehended that the same subject, which was then declined, may
be resumed and further pursued in a succeeding session, the Council
and Burgesses of Virginia, met in the General Assembly, judge
it their indispensable duty, in a respectful manner, but with decent
firmness, to remonstrate against such a measure, that at least a
cession of those rights, which in their opinion must be infringed
by that procedure, may not be inferred from their silence at so
important a crisis.

"They conceive it is essential to British liberty, that laws, imposing
taxes on the people, ought not to be made without the consent of
representatives chosen by themselves; who at the same time that
they are acquainted with the circumstances of their constituents,
sustain a portion of the burthen laid on them. The privileges
inherent in the persons who discovered and settled these regions,
could not be renounced nor forfeited by their removal hither, not
as vagabonds or fugitives, but licensed and encouraged by their
Prince and animated with a laudable desire of enlarging the
British dominion and extending its commerce; on the contrary, it
was secured to them and their descendants, with all other rights
and immunities of British subjects, by a Royal Charter which
hath been invariably recognized and confirmed by his Majesty and
his predecessors, in their commissions to the several Governors,
granting a power and prescribing a form of legislation, according to
which, laws for the administration of justice and the welfare and
good government of the Colony have been hitherto enacted by the
Governor, Council and General Assembly, and to them, requisitions
and applications for supplies have been directed by the Crown.
As an instance of the opinion which former Sovereigns entertained
of these rights and privileges, we beg leave to refer to the three
Acts of the General Assembly passed in the thirty-second year of
the reign of King Charles II, one of which is entitled `An Act for
raising a public revenue for the better support of the government
of his Majesty's Colony of Virginia,' imposing several duties for
that purpose, which, being thought absolutely necessary, were prepared
in England and sent over by their then governor, the Lord
Culpeper, to be passed by the General Assembly, with a full power

to give the royal assent thereto, and which were accordingly passed,
after several amendments were made to them here; thus tender
was his Majesty of the rights of his American subjects; and the
remonstrants do not discern by what distinction they can be
deprived of that sacred birthright and most valuable inheritance
by their fellow subjects, nor with what propriety they can be taxed
or affected in their estates, by the Parliament, wherein they are not,
and indeed cannot, constitutionally be represented.

"And if it were proposed for the Parliament to impose taxes on
the Colonies at all, which the remonstrants take leave to think
would be inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Constitution,
the exercise of that power, at this time, would be ruinous
to Virginia, who exerted herself in the late war, it is feared,
beyond her strength, insomuch that to redeem the money granted
for that exigency, her people are taxed for several years to come:
this, with the larger expenses incurred for defending the frontiers
against the restless Indians who have infested her as much since
the peace as before, is so grievous, that an increase of the burthen
would be intolerable; especially as the people are very greatly distressed
already from the scarcity of circulating cash among them
and from the little value of their staple at the British markets.

"And it is presumed that adding to that load which the Colony
now labors under will not be more oppressive to her people than
destructive of the interest of Great Britain; for the Plantation
trade, confined as it is to the mother country, hath been a principal
means of multiplying and enriching her inhabitants; and, if not too
much discouraged, may prove an inexhaustible source of treasure
to the nation. For satisfaction on this point, let the present state
of the British fleets and trade be compared with what they were
before the settlement of the Colonies; and let it be considered, that,
whilst property in land may be acquired on very easy terms in the
vast uncultivated territory of North America, the Colonists will
be mostly, if not wholly, employed in agriculture, whereby the
exportation of their commodities to Great Britain and the consumption
of manufacturers supplied from thence will be daily
increasing. But this most desirable connexion between Great
Britain and her Colonies, supported by such a happy intercourse
of reciprocal benefits as is continually advancing the prosperity
of both, must be interrupted, if the people of the latter, reduced

to extreme poverty, should be compelled to manufacture those articles
they have been hitherto furnished with from the former.

"From these considerations, it is hoped that the Honorable House
of Commons will not prosecute a measure which those who may
suffer under it cannot but look upon as fitter for exiles driven from
their native country, after ignominiously forfeiting her favors and
protection, than for the posterity of Britons, who have at all times
been forward to demonstrate all due reverence to the mother
Kingdom and are so instrumental in promoting her glory and
felicity; and that British patriots will never consent to the exercise
of any anti-constitutional power, which, even in this remote corner,
may be dangerous in its example to the interior parts of the
British empire, and will certainly be detrimental to its commerce."

The several papers above given breathe a spirit of humility and
dependence that did not correctly voice the sentiments of the Virginia
Colonists, and possibly thereby the British Parliament was
deceived and led to believe that the American Colonies would not
assert their opposition to the tax measures proposed, otherwise
than by protest through their Assemblies.

Most of the Colonies adopted resolutions protesting against the
enactment of such a law; some offering a specific sum of money in
lieu of the proposed tax, provided it was received as a voluntary
donation. But no one of the Colonies was willing to admit that
the British Parliament had any right to tax them, while they were
denied representation therein.

Mr. Grenville and his friends argued that the Colonies were
already represented in the same manner as a large proportion of the
inhabitants of England who had no vote in the election of members
of Parliament, and this same argument is often indulged in
by the advocates of a restricted suffrage at the present time. In
answer to this ridiculous argument, the Colonies contended that
"the very essence of representation consists in this; that the
representative is himself placed in a situation analogous to those
whom he represents, so that he shall be himself bound by laws which
he is entrusted to enact and shall be liable to the taxes which he
is authorized to impose."

But the sound reasoning and the humble petitioning of the
American Colonies did not influence the British Parliament, the
memorials and petitions were not permitted to be read in the House

of Commons, and in the month of March, 1765, the bill for laying
a stamp duty in America was called up in the House of Commons,
but little opposition was shown to the measure, and few indeed were
the members who denied the right of Parliament to tax the Colonies.

It may be worthy to note the circumstances attending the
debate upon this measure in the House of Commons. Mr. Charles
Townsend, an advocate of this measure, concluded his speech in
advocacy of the measure in the following words; "And now, will
these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished by our
indulgence, till they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence
and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their
mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we
lie under?" Colonel Barre, one of the most respectable members
of the House of Commons, with strong feelings of indignation
visible in his countenance and manner, thus eloquently replied;
"They planted by your care! No, your oppression planted them
in America. They fled from tyranny to a then uncultivated and
inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all
the hardships to which human nature is liable, and among others
to the cruelty of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take upon
me to say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of
the earth; and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty,
they met all hardships with pleasure compared with those they
suffered in their own country from the hands of those that should
have been their friends. They nourished by your indulgence!
They grew up by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to
care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule
them in one department and another, who were perhaps the deputies
of deputies to some members of this House, sent to spy out their
liberties, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon them.
Men whose behaviour, on many occasions, has caused the blood of
these sons of liberty to recoil within them, men, who were promoted
to the highest seats of justice, some who, to my knowledge,
were glad, by going to a foreign country to escape being brought to
the bar of a court of justice in their own. They protected by your
arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence, have
exerted a valour, amidst their constant and laborious industry, for
the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood,

while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your
emolument. And, believe me, remember I this day told you so,
that same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first
will accompany them still; but prudence forbids me to explain
myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from any
motives of party heat. What I deliver are the genuine sentiments
of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and
experience the respectable body of this House may be, yet, I claim
to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been
conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly
loyal as any subjects the King has, but a people jealous of their
liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated.
But the subject is too delicate. I will say no more."

Notwithstanding the opposition made to the passage of this bill,
it passed the House of Commons, and on the 22d day of March,
1765, having met with the unanimous approval of the House of
Lords, it received the royal assent. By the provisions of this bill,
this law was not to go into effect until the first day of November,
1765.

When the intelligence of the passage of this measure reached
Virginia, the indignation and rage of the people knew no bounds.
While no violence was offered, the Virginia House of Burgesses, by
a series of resolutions proposed by Patrick Henry, expressed the
sentiments of the people in a dignified and explicit manner, the
resolutions being as follows;

"Resolved, That the first adventurers and settlers of this, his
Majesty's Colony and dominion, brought with them and transmitted
to their posterity and all others his Majesty's subjects
since inhabiting in this, his Majesty's said Colony, all the privileges,
franchises and immunities that have been at any time held, enjoyed
and possessed by the people of Great Britain.

"Resolved, That by two Royal Charters granted by King James
the First, the Colonists aforesaid are declared entitled to all the
privileges, liberties and immunities of denizens and natural born
subjects, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding
and born within the realm of England.

"Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves, or
by persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who can only
know what taxes the people are able to bear and the easist mode

of raising them and are equally affected by such taxes themselves,
is the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, and without
which the ancient constitution cannot subsist.

"Resolved, That his Majesty's liege people of this most ancient
Colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of being thus governed
by their own assembly in the article of their taxes and internal
police, and the same hath never been forfeited, or in any other
way given up, but hath been constantly recognized by the King and
people of Great Britain.

"Resolved, therefore, That the General Assembly of this Colony
have the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions upon
the inhabitants of this Colony; and that every attempt to yest
such power in any person or persons whatsoever, other than the
General Assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy
British as well as American freedom."

The foregoing resolutions passed the House of Burgesses in May,
1765, and formed the first opposition to the Stamp Act and the
scheme of taxing America by the British Parliament. Heretofore,
it had been humble petitions, now, we have reached the point
where the Colonies were defiantly asserting their rights. Patrick
Henry, at this time, was quite a young man, this being the first
time that he had served his country in the House of Burgesses, and,
while he was inexperienced, he was inspired by that spirit of liberty
which was the common heritage of the early settlers of the Amercan
wilderness. When these resolutions were offered in the House
of Burgesses, many violent debates took place, and, after a great
deal of opposition, the resolutions were adopted by a majority of,
possibly, one or two votes. During the progress of the debate upon
these resolutions, Patrick Henry gave utterance to the following
words;

"Cæsar," exclaimed the orator, "had his Brutus: Charles the
First, his Cromwell, and George the Third may profit by his example."

The passage of these resolutions gave impetus to the cause of
American liberty and produced an alarming state of affairs among
the more timid and loyal inhabitants. In Massachusetts the opposition
took a different form, and, in the city of Boston, the populace
indulged in every act of violence that could be imagined, in the
exhibition of their dislike of the law and the law officers. The

ships in the harbor placed their flags at half mast, the bells
throughout the town were tolling, the ship masters who bought the
stamps were mistreated and insulted and required to deliver the
stamps to the people, who made a bonfire of them and of the law.
Meetings were held throughout the colonies, protesting against
this act of the British Parliament and asserting the inalienable
right of the American people.

On the second Tuesday in October, 1765, pursuant to a resolution
adopted by the Assembly of Massachusetts, the first Continental
Congress assembled at New York, "to consult as to the
circumstances of the Colonies and to consider the most proper
means of averting the difficulties under which they labored."
Twenty-eight deputies, representing the States of Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland and South Carolina, composed this, the first Continental
Congress held on American soil; Virginia, New York, North Carolina
and Georgia were prevented from sending delegates to this
Congress by the action of their royal Governors, by dissolving their
respective assemblies before action could be taken in the premises.

This Congress adopted a series of resolutions stating the griveances
of the Colonies and, in positive terms, asserting the exemption
of the Colonies from all taxes not imposed by their own Legislatures.
They also addressed a petition to the House of Lords and
to the King and Commons, and on the 25th of October adjourned.

The first day of November, 1765, the date fixed for the Stamp
Act to take effect, arrived, and the day in the city of Boston was
ushered in by the closing of business houses and the tolling of church
bells, and Governor Bernard and Justice Hutchinson, the advocates
of the British Parliament in Massachusetts, were hung in effigy
on Boston Neck, where the effigies were permitted to remain awhile,
when they were cut down and torn to pieces, to the great delight
of the people. In many places public notice was given to the
friends of Liberty to attend her funeral, and a large coffin was
prepared, upon which was written the word LIBERTY. This
coffin was attended to the grave by an immense concourse of people,
where, after the firing of minute-guns, an oration was pronounced,
and the word REVIVED added to the former inscription,
amidst the shouts and acclamations of the people. Throughout the
Colonies the stamp papers were forcibly taken from the stamp

officials and destroyed, and the business of the country proceeded
as if the Stamp law had never been enacted.

Upon the assembling of Parliament on the 14th day of January,
1766, upon a motion for an address to the King, William Pitt, one
of the greatest of English statesmen, offered the following remarks
upon the state of the country;

"It is a long time, Mr. Speaker," said he, "since I have attended
in Parliament. When the resolutions were taken in this House to
tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to have
been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of my mind for
the consequences, I would have solicited some kind hand to have
laid me down on this floor to have borne my testimony against it.
It is my opinion that this Kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon
the Colonies. At the same time, I assert the authority of this
Kingdom to be sovereign and supreme in every circumstance of
government and legislature whatever. Taxation is no part of the
governing or legislative power; the taxes are a voluntary gift and
grant of the Commons alone. The concurrence of the Peers and of
the Crown is necessary only as a form of law. This House represents
the Commons of Great Britain. When in this House we
give and grant, therefore, we give and grant what is our own, but,
can we give and grant the property of the Commons of America?
It is an absurdity in terms. There is an idea in some, that the
Colonies are virtually represented in this House. I would fain
know by whom?. The idea of virtual representation is the most
contemptible that ever entered into the head of man; it does not
deserve a serious refutation. The Commons in America, represented
in their several assembles, have invariably exercised this
constitutional right of giving and granting their own money; they
would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it. At the same
time this Kingdom has ever professed the power of legislative and
commercial control. The Colonies acknowledge your authority in
all things, with the sole exception that you shall not take their
money out of their pockets without their consent. Here would I
draw the line; quam ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum."

This address was replied to by Mr. Grenville in a speech that
voiced the sentiments of that part of the people of England that
wished to tax the Colonies, and, in reply, William Pitt submitted
the following remarks:

"Sir, a charge is brought aginst gentlemen sitting in this House,
for giving birth to sedition in America. The freedom with which
they have spoken their sentiments against this unhappy act is
imputed to them as a crime, but the imputation shall not discourage
me. It is a liberty which I hope no gentleman will be
afraid to exercise; it is a liberty by which the gentleman who
calumniates it might have profited.. He ought to have desisted from
his project. We are told America is obstinate, America is almost
in open rebellion. Sir, I rejoice that America has resisted; three
millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily
to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to
make slaves of all the rest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I maintain that Parliment has a right to bind, to restrain America.
Our legislative power over the Colonies is sovereign and supreme.
The honorable gentlemen tells us he understands not the difference
between internal and external taxation; but surely there is a plain
distinction between taxation levied for the purpose of raising a
revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of commerce.
`When,' said the honorable gentleman, `were the Colonies emancipated?'
At what time, say I, in answer, `were they made slaves?'
I speak from accurate knowledge when I say, that the profits to
Great Britain from the trade of the Colonies, through all its
branches, is two millions per annum. This is the fund which carried
you triumphantly through the war; this is the price
America pays you for her protection; and shall a miserable financier
come with a boast that he can fetch a pepper-corn into the
Exchequer at the loss of millions to the nation? I know the valour
of your troops, I know the skill of your officers, I know the force
of this country; but in such a cause your success would be hazardous.
America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man; she would
embrace the pillars of the state and pull down the Constitution with
her. Is this your boasted peace? not to sheathe the sword in the
scabbard, but to sheathe it in the bowels of your countrymen?
The Americans have been wronged, they have been driven to madness
by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have
occasioned? No; let this country be the first to resume its
prudence and temper. I will pledge myself for the Colonies, that,
on their part, animosity and resentment will cease. The system

of policy I would earnestly exhort Great Britain to adopt in relation
to America is happily expressed in the words of a favorite
poet:

Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House in a few
words what is really my opinion. It is, That the Stamp Act be
repealed, ABSOLUTELY, TOTALLY and IMMEDIATELY."

On the 22d day of February, 1766, a bill was introduced in the
House of Commons having for its purpose the repeal of the Stamp
Act, which bill was carried by a vote of 275 for, to 177 against, its
repeal. The joy of the people at the result of this action of the
House of Commons was great. The opposition to the repeal of
the Stamp Act in the House of Peers was much stronger than in
the House of Commons, and it was not till the 18th day of March,
1766, that the repeal was carried, and then by a majority of only
34. On the 19th day of March, 1766, the King appeared in the
House of Commons and gave his assent, and thereby the war
between the English Colonies and the British Government was
averted for the time being.

In Virginia, this information was received with great joy by
all classes of people, and the Virginia House of Burgesses
voted a statue to the King. The joy that followed the repeal of
the Stamp Act was of but short duration. The Colonies began to
realize that, by the repeal of the Stamp Act, England had virtually
surrendered nothing, as parliament still maintained the right to
tax the Colonists, and, by the fall of the year 1766, discontent again
pervaded the Colonies. The Virginia House of Burgesses postponed
the consideration of the Act providing for a statue for the
King until some succeeding session. When the new Parliament
assembled in the year 1767, they received information that the
Assembly of New York had refused to pass a bill providing for
the support of his Majesty's troops which had been stationed among
the people of that Colony. Whereupon Mr. Grenville, the leader
of the Parliamentary forces favoring the taxation of the American
colonies, introduced a bill the object of which was to restrain the
Assembly and Council of New York from passing any act, until
they had complied with the requisition of the act thus mentioned,

which bill was almost immediately passed and became a law. About
the same time a body of British troops arrived in Boston, and
Governor Bernard immediately began to provide for their support
out of the public treasury. Both of the above acts produced a great
deal of discontent in the Colonies, and in the month of June, 1767,
a bill was introduced by Charles Townsend in the British Parliament,
imposing duties on glass, painters' colours, tea and paper,
imported into the Colonies. Also, another bill authorizing the
King to appoint a Board of Trade to reside in the Colonies. Also,
a bill establishing a Board of Admiralty in the Colonies to be paid
from the colonial revenue, but to be independent of all colonial
regulations, and another bill fixing the salaries of the Governors
and other officials of the American Colonies. These several bills
passed the House of Commons with but two dissenting votes, and
received the royal assent on the 2d day of July, 1767.

It will be observed that the system of taxation proposed by Mr.
Townsend and adopted by the British Parliament was, beyond
question, a legal exercise of the right of Parliament to regulate the
commerce of the Colonies, and this right had oftentimes, theretofore,
been admitted by the American Colonists, but the people of
New York and of Massachusetts were greatly irritated by the
presence of the British soldiery in their respective Colonies, and
acting upon the presumption that this action of the British Parliament
was nothing more than a forerunner of other oppressive measures
against the Colonies, numerous petitions and remonstrances
were addressed to the King and Parliament, but failed to accomplish
any good result. The merchants and citizens of nearly all
the Colonies assembled in their different towns and bound themselves
not to purchase good of any character from the British
manufacturers, while these obnoxious laws continued in force.

The Assembly of Massachusetts Colony addressed a circular letter
to the Legislatures of the other Colonies requesting their assistance
and co-operation, which letter was responded to by all the Colonies,
expressing their willingness to stand with Massachusetts by what
had been done and expressing their readiness to co-operate in what
might further be proposed for the common security and welfare of
the Colonies.

Bernard, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, communicated to
Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary for the Colonies, the action of the

Massachusetts Assembly; whereupon, his lordship directed Governor
Bernard to require the Massachusetts Legislature, in his
Majesty's name, to rescind their action, upon the penalty of being
dissolved, which message the Governor immediately communicated
to the Assembly, whereupon, the Assembly voted not to rescind
their action, the vote being 17 yeas to 19 nays, and they declared,
"if the votes of the House are to be controlled by the direction of
a minister, we have left us but a vain semblance of liberty." The
Governor, thereupon, dissolved the House according to his threat,
and the Governors of the other Colonies dissolved their respective
Assemblies upon their refusing to rescind their action endorsing
the Massachusetts resolves.

Lord Hillsborough, upon the receipt of this information, wrote
to General Gage, the British Commander at Boston, that at least
one regiment of troop would be sent to Boston to assist in preserving
peace. Upon receipt of this information, a meeting was held by
the people of Boston, and a committee appointed to wait upon
the Governor and request him to call the Assembly together.
This committee waited upon the Governor and presented their
request, which was denied. Thereupon, it was determined to hold
a general convention in the city of Boston, on the 22d of September,
and all the towns in the province of Massachusetts were requested
to send and did send delegates to this Convention.

The Convention met at Faneuil Hall, Boston, and adopted several
resolutions and adjourned. Soon thereafter, two regiments
of troops landed in Boston and, by direction of the Governor, were
quartered in the two public houses of the city, which gave great
umbrage to the people and produced constant difficulties between
the citizens and the soldiers.

The Colony of Massachusetts was in open rebellion against the
British Governor and the Parliament. At a meeting of the British
Parliament in the year 1769, a measure was adopted which was
intended to be a death blow to the liberties of the Colonies. This
measure directed the Governor of Massachusetts to ascertain the
names of all persons guilty of treason or misprisions committed
since the 30th day of December, 1767, and transmit this information
to one of the Secretaries of State, in order that his Majesty
might issue a special commission for inquiring of, hearing and
determining the said offences within the realm of Great Britain.

Heretofore, the offending Americans had been tried by a jury of
their own countrymen, upon all the charges that were preferred
by the royal government, and, as a general rule, acquitted, but
now the British Parliament proposed to have them arrested and
transported across the seas for trial in England. The Virginia
House of Burgesses assembled a few days after the receipt of this
information and adopted a series of resolutions, "declaring their
exclusive right to tax their constitutents and to petition the Sovereign,
either separately or conjointly with the other Colonies, and
affirming that the seizing of any person residing in the said Colony,
suspected of any crime whatsoever committed therein, and sending
such persons beyond the seas to be tried was highly derogatory
to the rights of British subjects." These resolutions were presented
behind closed doors for the purpose of preventing the royal
Governor from dissolving the Assembly before their adoption. The
example of Virginia was followed by the Assemblies of the several
Colonies.

In the fall of the year 1769, Lord Hillsborough, the British
Secretary for the Colonies, addressed a circular letter to the Governors
of all the Colonies, informing them that, at the next session
of Parliament, the duty upon glass, paper and painters' colors
would be removed.

The next session of the British Parliament convened on the 9th
day of January, 1770, and, on the 22d day of February, the
Marquis of Rockingham introduced the subject of the repeal of
these onerous duties, in the following manner. He said, "That
the present unhappy condition of affairs and the universal discontent
of the people did not arise from any immediate temporary
cause, but had grown upon the nation by degrees from the moment
of his Majesty's accession to the throne; that a total change had
then taken place in the old system of English government and a
new maxim adopted fatal to the liberties of the country, viz., that
the royal prerogative alone was sufficient to support government,
to whatever hands the administration should be committed." "The
operation of this principle," said his lordship, "can be traced
through every act of government during the present reign, in
which his Majesty's secret advisers could be supposed to have any
influence. He recommended, therefore, strongly to their lordships
to fix an early day for taking into consideration the state of the

country in all its relations and dependencies, foreign, provincial
and domestick, for we had been injured in them all. That
consideration, he trusted, would lead their Lordships to advise the
Crown, not only how to correct past errors, but how to establish
a system of government more wise, more permanent, better suited
to the genius of the people and consistent with the spirit of the
Constitution."

Before a vote was reached upon this motion, the Duke of Grafton
resigned the office of first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and
was succeeded by Lord North, who remained at the head of the
administration until the close of the American Revolution.

Among the first acts of Lord North's administration was one
for the repeal of the port duties fixed by the act of 1767, with one
exception, that being the duty on tea, "which the British Ministry
desired to remain in force, as an evidence of the supremacy of the
Parliament." It was argued by the friends of the repeal of the
port duties, that to retain the duty on tea would simply continue
the agitation and increase the disturbance in the Colonies without
accomplishing any good results. To such arguments, Lord North
answered, "Has the repeal of the Stamp Act taught the Americans
obedience? Has our lenity inspired them with moderation?
Can it be proper, while they deny our legal power to
tax them, to acquiesce in the argument of illegality and, by the
repeal of the whole law, to give up that power? No! the proper
time to exert our right to taxation is when the right is refused.
To temporize is to yield, and the authority of the mother country,
if it is now unsupported, will in reality be relinquished for ever.

"A total repeal," he continued, "cannot be thought of till America
is PROSTRATE AT OUR FEET."

It seems peculiar that the English ministry should have been so
short sighted as to thus insult the American Colonies, at the same
time that they were making to them great concessions with the
avowed purpose of restoring the Colonies to peace and quietude.
While the British Government lost the benefit of the import duties
by the repeal of the act of 1767, still, by the retention of the duty
on tea, the cause of the discontent in the Colonies remained. The
insult offered to the Colonists by Lord North in his speech, and the
presence of the King's troops in the province of Massachusetts and
New York, kept up the agitation in the Colonies, producing mob-violence

at many places. In the city of Boston a difficulty occurred
between one of the King's soldiers and a citizen of the town, which
resulted in the defeat of the soldier. He obtaining the assistance
of a few of his comrades, the contest between the citizens and the
soldiers became general, and the citizens, assembling in great
numbers, compelled Governor Hutchinson to remove the soldiers
immediately from the town. Similar difficulties occurred in New
York and in Rhode Island. Thus matters continued until the
12th of March, 1773, when Dabney Carr, a member of the House
of Burgesses of Virginia, introduced the following resolutions in
the House of Burgesses; which resolutions were adopted without a
dissenting voice.

"Whereas the minds of his Majesty's faithful subjects in this
Colony have been much disturbed by various rumours and reports
of proceedings, tending to deprive them of their ancient legal and
constitutional rights;

"And whereas the affairs of this Colony are frequently connected
with those of Great Britain, as well as the neighboring
Colonies, which renders a communication of sentiment necessary.
In order, therefore, to remove the uneasiness and to quiet the
minds of the people, as well as for the other good purposes above
mentioned.

"Be it resolved, that a standing committee of correspondence
and inquiry be appointed, to consist of eleven persons, to-wit:
the honorable Peyton Randolph, esquire, Robert C. Nicholas,
Richard Bland, Richard H. Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund
Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, Archibald
Cary and Thomas Jefferson, esquires, any six of whom to be a
committee, whose business it shall be to obtain the most early and
authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British
Parliament or proceedings of administration as may relate to, or
affect the British Colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain
a correspondence and communication with our sister Colonies,
respecting these important considerations; and the result of such
their proceedings, from time to time to lay before this House.

"Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said committee that
they do, without delay, inform themselves particularly of the
principles and authority on which was constituted a court of
enquiry, said to have been lately held in Rhode Island, with

powers to transport persons accused of offences committed in
America to places beyond the seas to be tried.

"Resolved, That the Speaker of this House do transmit to the
Speakers of the different Assemblies of the British Colonies on the
Continent, copies of the said resolutions, and desire that they will
lay them before their respective Assemblies, and request them to
appoint some person or persons of their respective bodies to communicate,
from time to time, with the said committee."

The retention of the duty on tea and the action of the different
Colonies in entering into an agreement neither to buy nor to sell,
nor pay any duty upon teas imported into the Colonies, had been
so rigidly observed that the East India Company suffered great
inconvenience from the accumulation of their stock and the refusal
of the American Colonists to purchase; and, to remedy this state
of affairs, this company proposed to the British Parliament to pay
double the amount of the import duties on tea if the Parliament
would repeal the duties, but the object of the Parliament not being
the collection of a revenue, but the subjection of the American
Colonies, the offer of the East India Company remained unaccepted,
and the oppression of the American Colonies continued
until it was evident that the American people had determined to be
free. After some time an act was passed by the British Parliament
allowing the East India Company to export their teas to America
free of duty, after which, large quantities of tea were shipped by
the company to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston.

As soon as the Americans heard of the repeal of the duty on tea
and the shipments made by the East Indian Company, they determined
that the tea should never be disposed of in America. When
the ships bearing this tea arrived at the American ports, they were
compelled to return immediately without unloading their cargo.

In the city of Boston a scene of great disorder prevailed. The
captain of the vessel carrying the tea made an application to the
Governor for the papers necessary to enable him to return to
England without unloading, which request the Governor positively
refused to comply with. Of this action the people were informed,
and, thereupon, a number, disguising themselves as Mohawk
Indians, boarded the ship, took out three hundred and forty-two
chests of tea and emptied their contents into the water. It was
thought that this occurrence would precipitate the war between the

Colonies and England, but such was not the case. Upon the receipt
of the news of the destruction of the tea, Lord North introduced
a bill for the closing of the port of Boston. The Constitution and
Charter of the province of Massachusetts were taken out of the
hands of the people and placed in the hands of the king, and all
the officers of the Colony were made dependent upon the king.
A bill was also passed levying a fine upon the city of Boston to
compensate the East India Company for the tea destroyed, and
another law was enacted providing that any of the king's officers,
charged with the commission of murder in the execution of their
duties in the Colonies, should be brought to England for trial. All
of the foregoing bills had been passed and received the royal assent
by the 20th day of May, 1774.

The consideration of these measures by the House of Commons
produced a long and heated debate, during which Colonel Barre,
who had on a previous occasion ably defended the Colonies, concluded
an able and patriotic speech in opposition to these measures
in these words: "You have changed your ground. You are becoming
the aggressors, and offering the last of human outrages to the
people of America, by subjecting them, in effect, to military execution.
Instead of sending them the olive branch, you have sent them
the naked sword. By the olive branch I mean a repeal of all the
late laws, fruitless to you and oppressive to them. Ask their aid
in a constitutional manner, and they will give it to the utmost of
their ability. They never yet refused it, when properly required.
Your journals bear the recorded acknowledgments of the zeal with
which they have contributed to the general necessities of the State.
What madness is it that prompts you to attempt obtaining that by
force, which you may more certainly procure by requisition. They
may be flattered into anything, but they are too much like yourselves
to be driven. Have some indulgence for your own likeness,
respect their sturdy English virtue, retract your odious exertions
of authority, and remember that the first step towards making them
contribute to your wants is to reconcile them to your government."

At the same time William Pitt, now Lord Chatham, gave the
House of Lords his views upon the bills proposed and the condition
of American affairs, in the following words:

"If, my Lords, we take a transient view of those motives which
induced the ancestors of our fellow subjects in America to leave

their native country, to encounter the innumerable difficulties of the
unexplored regions of the western world, our astonishment at the
present conduct of their descendants will naturally subside. There
was no corner of the globe to which they would not have fled, rather
than submit to the slavish and tyrannical spirit which prevailed
at that period in their native country; and viewing them in their
original forlorn and now flourishing state, they may be cited as
illustrious instances to instruct the world what great exertions mankind
will naturally make, when left to the free exercise of their
own powers. Notwithstanding my intention to give my hearty
negative to the question now before you, I condemn, my Lords, in
the severest manner, the turbulent and unwarrantable conduct of
of the Americans, in some instances, particularly in the late riots
at Boston, but, my Lords, the mode which has been pursued to
bring them back to a sense of their duty is so diametrically opposite
to every principle of sound policy, as to excite my utmost
astonishment. You have involved the guilty and the innocent in
one common punishment, and avenge the crime of a few lawless
depredators upon the whole body of the inhabitants. My Lords,
the different provinces of America, in the excess of their gratitude
for the repeal of the Stamp Act, seemed to vie with each other in
the expressions of loyalty and duty; but the moment they perceived
that your intention to tax them was renewed, under a pretense
of serving the East India Company, their resentment got the
ascendant of their moderation and hurried them into actions which
their cool reason would abhor. But, my Lords, from the whole
complexion of the late proceedings, I cannot but incline to think,
that the administration has purposely irritated them into these
violent acts, in order to gratify their own malice and revenge.
What else could induce them to dress Taxation, the Father of
American Sedition, in the robes of an East India Director, but to
break in upon that mutual peace and harmony which then so happily
subsisted between the Colonies and the mother county. My
Lords, it has always been my fixed and unalterable opinion, and I
will carry it with me to the grave, that this country had no right
under heaven to tax America. It is contrary to all the principles
of justice and civil policy; it is contrary to that essential, unalterable
right in nature, ingrafted into the British Constitution as a
fundamental law, that what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely
his own, which he may freely give, but which cannot be
taken away from him without his consent. Pass then, my Lords,
instead of these harsh and severe edicts, an amnesty over their
errours; by measures of lenity and affection allure them to their
duty; act the part of a generous, forgiving parent. A period may
arrive, when this parent may stand in need of every assistance she
can receive from a grateful and affectionate offspring. The welfare
of this country, my Lords, has ever been my greatest joy, and,
under all the vicissitudes of my life, has afforded me the most
pleasing consolation. Should the all-disposing hand of Providence
prevent me from contributing my poor and feeble aid in the day
of her distress, my prayers shall be ever for her prosperity; "Length
of days be in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor!
May her ways be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths be peace!"

The Legislature of Virginia was in session when the Boston
Port Bill arrived, and their sense of it was immediately expressed
by the following order: "This House, being deeply impressed with
apprehension of the great dangers to be derived to British America
from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston, in our sister Colony
of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbour are, on the
1st day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force, deem it
highly necessary that the said 1st day of June next be set apart by
the members of this House as a day of fasting, humiliation and
prayer, devoutly to implore the divine interposition for averting the
heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights and
the evils of civil war; to give us one heart and one mind, firmly to
oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American
rights; and that the minds of his Majesty and Parliament may be
inspired from above with wisdom, moderation and justice, to
remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger, from
a continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin.

"Ordered, therefore, That the members of this House do attend
at their places at the hour of ten in the forenoon, on the said 1st day
of June next, in order to proceed with the Speaker and the Mace, to
the church in this city, for the purposes aforesaid; and that the
reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read prayers and to preach a
sermon suitable to the occasion."

Lord Dunmore, the Governor of the Virginia Colony at that
time, immediately upon the receipt of the information as to the

action taken by the Virginia House of Burgesses, dissolved the
House. But the patriotic Virginians were not to be thus deprived
of their right to speak their sentiments; for on the following day,
eighty-nine members formed an association and adopted the following
resolutions:

"We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the late representatives
of the good people of this Colony, having been deprived,
by the sudden interposition of the executive part of this government,
from giving our countrymen the advice we wished to convey to
them in a legislative capacity, find ourselves under the hard necessity
of adopting this, the only method we have left, of pointing out
to our countrymen, such measures as, in our opinion, are best
fitted to secure our dear rights and liberty from destruction by the
heavy hand of power now lifted against North America. With
much grief we find that our dutiful applications to Great Britain
for the security of our just, ancient and constitutional rights, have
not only been disregarded, but that a determined system is formed
and pursued for reducing the inhabitants of British America to
slavery, by subjecting them to the payment of taxes imposed without
the consent of the people or their representatives; and that,
in pursuit of this system, we find an Act of the British Parliament,
lately passed, for stopping the harbour and the commerce of the
town of Boston, in our sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, until
the people there submit to the payment of such unconstitutional
taxes; and which Act most violently and arbitrarily deprives them
of their property, in wharves erected by private persons, at their
own great and proper expense, which Act is, in our opinion, a most
dangerous attempt to destroy the constitutional liberty and rights
of all North America. It is further our opinion, that as tea, on its
importation to America, is charged with a duty imposed by Parliament
for the purpose of raising a revenue without the consent
of the people, it ought not to be used by any person who wishes well
to the constitutional rights and liberties of British America. And
whereas, the India Company have ungenerously attempted to ruin
America, by sending many ships loaded with tea into the Colonies,
thereby intending to fix a precedent in favour of arbitrary taxation,
we deem it highly proper, and do accordingly recommend it strongly
to our countrymen, not to purchase or use any kind of East India
commodity whatsoever, except salt-petre and spices, until the grievances

of America are redressed. We are further clearly of opinion,
that an attack made upon one of our sister Colonies, to compel
submission to arbitrary taxes, is an attack made on all British
America, and threatents ruin to the rights of all, unless the united
wisdom of the whole be applied. And for this purpose it is recommended
to the committee of correspondence, that they communicate
with their several corresponding committees, on the expediency
of appointing deputies from the several Colonies of British
America, to meet in General Congress, at such a place annually as
shall be thought most convenient; there to deliberate on those general
measures which the united interest of America may, from time
to time, require.

"A tender regard for the interest of our fellow-subjects, the
merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain, prevents us from
going further at this time; most earnestly hoping that the unconstitutional
principle of taxing the Colonies without their consent
will not be persisted in, thereby to compel us against our will,
to avoid all commercial intercourse with Great Britain. Wishing
them and our people free and happy, we are their affectionate
friends, the late representatives of Virginia."

This association was formed on the 27th day of May, 1774, and
Stephen Trigg and William Christian, the representatives of Fincastle
county, in the Virginia House of Burgesses, were members
of this association.

Virginia had not suffered from the acts of the British Parliament
as had the colonies of New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode
Island, but her statesmen of those days were actuated by principles
that they loved and cherished, and, with a political wisdom
which should be the admiration of all the citizens of Virginia,
they were always ready and willing to resist any encroachment
upon those principles, whether the encroachments were made in
their own home or in the sister colonies.

The 1st day of June, 1774, was observed in most of the colonies
as a day of fasting and prayer, and in Virginia all business
was suspended, and the citizens bore a dejected aspect, but were
contemplating a brighter day, when their sorrow would be turned
to joy.

On the 17th day of June, 1774, the Legislature of the Massachusetts
Colony adopted a resolution calling a Congress of the representatives

of the colonies at Philadelphia on the 5th day of
September, 1774. The royal Governor of Massachusetts immediately
dissolved the Legislature as a punishment.

In Virginia the representatives of the several counties met at
Williamsburg on August 1, 1774, and adopted the following resolutions,
which fitly expressed the sentiments of the people of Virginia:

"The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her American
colonies, which began about the third year of the reign of his
present Majesty and since continually increasing, have proceeded
to lengths so dangerous and alarming as to excite just apprehensions
in the minds of his Majesty's faithful subjects of the Colony
that they are in danger of being deprived of their natural, ancient
constitutional and chartered rights, and have compelled
them to take the same into their most serious consideration; and
being deprived of their usual and accustomed mode of making
known their grievances, have appointed us, their representatives,
to consider what is proper to be done in this dangerous
crisis of American affairs. It being our opinion, that the united
wisdom of North America should be collected in a general Congress
of all the Colonies, we have appointed the following gentlemen
as deputies to represent this Colony in the said Congress,
to be held at Philadelphia, on the first Monday in September
next, viz., Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington,
Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison and
Edmund Pendleton.—and that they may be the better informed
of our sentiments touching the conduct we wish them to observe
on this important occasion, we desire that they will express, in the
first place, our faith and our allegiance to his Majesty King George
the third, our lawful and rightful sovereign; and that we are determined,
with our lives and fortunes, to support him in the legal
exercise of all his just rights and prerogatives. And, however,
misrepresented, we sincerely approve of a constitutional connexion
with Great Britain, and wish most ardently a return of that intercourse
of affection and commercial connexion that formerly united
both countries; which can only be effected by a removal of those
causes of discontent which have of late unhappily divided us.

"It cannot admit of a doubt that British subjects in America
are entitled to the same rights and privileges as their fellow subjects

possess in Britain, and therefore that the power assumed
by the British Parliament to bind America by their statutes,
in all cases whatsoever, is unconstitutional and the source of these
unhappy differences.

"The end of government would be defeated by the British Parliament
exercising a power over the lives, the property and the
liberty of American subjects, who are not and, from their local
circumstances, cannot be, there represented. Of this nature we
consider the several Acts of Parliament for raising a revenue in
America, for extending the jurisdiction of the courts of Admiralty,
for seizing American subjects and transporting them to Britain
to be tried for crimes committed in America, and the several late
oppressive Acts respecting the town of Boston and Province of
Massachusetts Bay.

"The original constitution of the American Colonies possessing
their assemblies with the sole right of directing their internal
policy, it is absolutely destructive to the end of their institution
that their legislatures should be suspended, or prevented by hasty
dissolutions, from exercising their legislative powers.

"Wanting the protection of Britain, we have long acquiesced in
their Acts of navigation, restrictive of our commerce, which we
consider as an ample recompense for such protection, but as those
Acts derive their efficacy from that foundation alone, we have
reason to expect they will be restrained, so as to produce the reasonable
purposes of Britain and not be injurious to us.

"To obtain redress of these grievances, without which the people
of America can neither be safe, free, nor happy, they are willing
to undergo the great inconvenience that will be derived to them
from stopping all imports whatsoever from Great Britain after
the first day of November next, and also to cease exporting
any commodity whatsoever to the same place, after the 10th day
of August, 1775. The earnest desire we have to make as quick and
full payment as possible of our debts to Great Britain, and to avoid
the heavy injury that would arise to this country from an earlier
adoption of the non-importation plan, after the people have already
applied so much of their labor to the perfecting of the present
crop, by which means they have been prevented from pursuing
other methods of clothing and supporting their families, has rendered
it necessary to restrain you in this article of non-exportation;

but it is our desire that you cordially co-operate with our
sister Colonies in general Congress, in such other just and proper
methods, as they, or the majority, shall deem necessary for the
accomplishment of these valuable ends.

"The proclamation issued by General Gage, in the government of
the Province of Massachusetts Bay, declaring it treason for the
inhabitants of that Province to assemble themselves to consider of
their grievances and to form associations for their common conduct
on the occasion, and requiring the civil magistrates and officers to
apprehend all such persons to be tried for their supposed offences,
is the most alarming process that ever appeared in a British Government;
the said General Gage has thereby assumed and taken
upon himself powers denied by the constitution to our legal Sovereign.
He not having condescended to disclose by what authority
he exercises such extensive and unheard of powers, we are at a
loss to determine whether he intends to justify himself as the reprepresentative
of the King, or as the Commander in Chief of his
Majesty's forces in America. If he considers himself as acting
in the character of his Majesty's representative, we would remind
him that the statute 20th, Edward III., has expressed and defined
all treasonable offences, and that the Legislature of Great Britain
hath declared that no offence shall be construed to be treason but
such as is pointed out by that statute; and that this was done to
take out of the hands of tyrannical Kings, and of weak and wicked
Ministers, that deadly weapon which constructive treason had
furnished them with, and which had drawn the blood of the best
and honestest men in the kingdom, and that the King of Great
Britain hath no right by his proclamation to subject his people to
imprisonment, pains, and penalties.

"That if the said General Gage conceives he is empowered to
act in this manner, as the Commander in Chief of his Majesty's
forces in America, this odious and illegal proclamation must be
considered as a plain and full declaration that this despotick Viceroy
will be bound by no law, nor regard the constitutional rights
of his Majesty's subjects, wherever they interfere with the plans
he has formed for oppressing the good people of the Massachusetts
Bay; and therefore that the executing, or attempting to execute
such proclamation, will justify resistance and reprisal."

All of the American colonies, with the exception of Georgia,

joined in the common cause and sent delegates to the Philadelphia
Congress.

The second Continental Congress of the American colonies assembled
in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, fifty-two delegates
from twelve colonies present. This Congress was organized
by the election of the following officers:

President, Peyton Randolph, of Virginia.

Secretary, Charles Thompson, of Pennsylvania.

Patrick Henry, of Virginia, was the first member of this Congress
to address the chair upon the issues which had brought them
together. This Congress of able men and noble patriots occupied
more than a month's time in serious deliberation before anything
of importance was done. On the 8th of October, 1774 (two days
before the battle at Point Pleasant) they adopted the following
resolutions:

"Resolved, That this Congress do approve of the opposition
MADE BY THE inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay to the execution
of the late Acts of Parliament; and if the same shall be attempted
to be carried into execution by force, in such case all
America ought to support them in their opposition.

"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this body, that the removal
of the people of Boston into the country would be not only extremely
difficult in the execution, but so important in its consequences
as to require the utmost deliberation before it is adopted.
But in case the provincial meeting of that Colony shall judge it
absolutely necessary, it is the opinion of this Congress, that all
America ought to contribute towards recompensing them for the
injury they may thereby sustain, and it will be recommended accordingly.

"Resolved, That this Congress do recommend to the inhabitants
of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay to submit to a suspension of
the administration of justice, when it cannot be procured in a legal
and peaceable manner, under the rules of the Charter and the
laws founded thereon, until the effects of our application for a repeal
of the Acts, by which their Charter rights are infringed, are
known.

"Resolved, unanimously, That every person or persons whosoever,
who shall take, accept, or act under any commission or authority
in any wise derived from the Act passed in the late session

of Parliament, changing the form of Government and violating
the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, ought to
be held in detestation and abhorrence by all good men and considered
as the wicked tools of that despotism which is preparing to
destroy those rights which God, nature and compact have given
to America."

On the 14th, Congress agreed upon the following preamble and
resolutions:

"Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British Parliament,
claiming a power of right to bind the people of America by
statute, in all cases whatsoever, hath in some Acts expressly imposed
taxes on them, and on other various pretences, but in fact for
the purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties
payable in these Colonies, established a board of commissioners
with unconstitutional powers and extended the jurisdiction of
Courts of Admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but
for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a county.
And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before
held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent
on the Crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in
time of peace. And it has lately been resolved in Parliament, that
by force of a statute made in the 35th Henry VIII, colonists may
be transported to England and tried there upon accusations for
treasons and misprisions, or concealment of treasons, committed in
the Colonies; and, by a late statute, such trials have been directed
in cases therein mentioned.

"And whereas, in the late session of Parliament, three statutes
were made, one entitled `an Act to discontinue in such manner
and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging,
lading or shipping of goods, wares and merchandise, at
the town and within the harbour of Boston, in the Province of
Massachusetts Bay, in North America,' another entitled `an Act
for the better regulating the government of the Province of Massachusetts
Bay, in New England,' and another entitled `an Act for
the impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons
questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law,
or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the Province of
Massachusetts Bay, in New England,' and another statute was
then made `for making more effectual provision for the government

of the Province of Quebec, &c.,' all of which statutes are
impolitick, unjust and cruel as well as unconstitutional, and most
dangerous and destructive of American rights.

"And whereas, Assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary
to the rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate
on grievances, and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petitions
to the crown for redress have been repeatedly treated with
contempt by his Majesty's Ministers of State.

"The good people of the several colonies of New Hampshire,
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Castle,
Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, North
Carolina and South Carolina, justly alarmed at these arbitrary
proceedings of Parliament and the Administration, have severally
elected, constituted and appointed deputies, to meet and sit in
general Congress in the City of Philadelphia, in order to obtain
such establishment as that their religion, laws and liberties may
not be subverted: Whereupon, the deputies so appointed being now
assembled in a full and free representation of these Colonies, taking
into their most serious consideration the best means of attaining
the ends aforesaid, do in the first place, as Englishmen, their
ancestors, in like cases have usually done, for asserting and vindicating
their rights and liberties, DECLARE;

"That the inhabitants of the English Colonies in North America,
by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English
Constitution and the several charters of compacts, have the following
RIGHTS.

"Resolved, nemine contradicente, 1st. That they are entitled to
life, liberty and property; and they have never ceded to any
foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their
consent.

"Resolved, n. c. 2nd. That our ancestors, who first settled these
Colonies, were at the time of their emigration from the mother
country, entitled to all the rights, liberties and immunities of free
and natural born subjects within the realms of England.

"Resolved, n. c. 3rd. That by such emigration they by no means
forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they
were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and

enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances
enable them to exercise and enjoy.

"Resolved, n. c. 4. That the foundation of English liberty and
all free government is a right in the people to participate in their
legislative council; and as the English Colonists are not represented,
and from their local and other circumstances cannot properly
be represented in the British Parliament, they are entitled
to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several Provincial
Legislatures, where their right of representation alone can
be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal policy, subject
only to the negative of their Sovereign, in such manner as has
heretofore been accustomed; but from the necessity of the case
and a regard to the mutual interests of both countries, we cheerfully
consent to the operation of such acts of the British Parliament
as are bona fide, restrained to the regulation of our external
commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages
of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial
benefits of its respective members, excluding every idea of taxation,
internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in
America, without their consent.

"Resolved, n. c. 5. That the respective Colonies are entitled to
the common law of England, and more especially to the great and
inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage
according to the course of that law.

"Resolved, n. c. 6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such
of the English statutes as existed at the time of their colonization,
and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable
to their several local and other circumstances.

"Resolved, n. c. 7. That these, his Majesty's Colonies, are likewise
entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed
to them by royal charters, or secured by their several codes
of Provincial laws.

"Resolved, n. c. 8. That they have a right peacably to assemble,
consider of their grievances, and petition the King; and that all
prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the
same are illegal.

"Resolved, n. c. 9. That the keeping a standing army in any
of these Colonies in times of peace, without the consent of the

Legislature of that Colony in which such army is kept, is against
the law.

"Resolved, n. c. 10. It is indispensably necessary to good government,
and rendered essential by the English constitution, that
the constituent branches of the Legislature be independent of each
other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several
Colonies by a Council appointed, during pleasure, by the Crown
is unconstitutional, dangerous and destructive of the freedom of
American legislation.

All and each of which the aforesaid deputies in behalf of themselves
and their constituents do claim, demand, and insist upon,
as their indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally
taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatsoever,
without their own consent, by their representatives in their several
Provincial Legislatures."

And upon the 20th day of October, 1774, they agreed upon the following
articles of association, to which each member present subscribed
his name.

"First, That from and after the first day of December next,
we will not import into British America from Great Britain and
Ireland, any goods, wares, or merchandize whatsoever, or from any
other place, any such goods, wares or marchandise, as shall have
been exported from Great Britain or Ireland, nor will we, after that
day import any East India tea from any part of the world; nor any
molasses, syrups, paneles, coffee or pimento, from the British
plantations, or from Dominica; nor wines from Madeira, or the
Western Islands; nor foreign indigo.

"Second, That we will neither import, nor purchase any slave
imported after the first day of December next; after which time
we will wholly discontinue the slave trade, and will neither be concerned
in it ourselves nor will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities
or manufactures to those who are concerned in it.

"Third, As a non-consumption agreement strictly adhered to
will be an effectual security for the observation of non-importation,
we, as above, solemnly agree and associate, that, from this
day, we will not purchase or use any tea imported on account of
the East India Company, or any on which a duty hath been or
shall be paid, and from and after the first day of March next, we
will not purchase or use any East India tea whatever, nor will we,

nor shall any person for or under us, purchase or use, any of those
goods, wares or merchandize we have agreed not to import, which
we shall know or have cause to suspect, were imported after the
first day of December, except such as come under the rules and
directions of the tenth article hereinafter mentioned.

"Fourth, The earnest desire we have not to injure our fellow-subjects
in Great Britain, Ireland or the West Indies, induces us
to suspend non-exportation, until the tenth day of September
1775, at which time, if the said Acts and parts of Acts of the
British Parliament, hereinafter mentioned, are not repealed, we
will not, directly or indirectly, export any merchandize or commodity
whatsoever, to Great Britain, Ireland or the West Indies,
except via Europe.

"Fifth, Such as are merchants and use the British and Irish
trade, will give orders, as soon as possible, to their factors, agents
and correspondents in Great Britain and Ireland, not to ship any
goods to them, on any pretence whatever, as they cannot be received
in America; and if any merchant residing in Great Britain or
Ireland shall, directly or indirectly, ship any goods, wares or merchandize,
for America, in order to break the said non-importation
agreement, or in any manner contravene the same, on such
unworthy conduct being well attested, it ought to be made publick;
and on the same being so done, we will not from thenceforth have
any commercial connexion with such merchant.

"Sixth, That such as are owners of vessels will give positive
orders to their captains, or masters, not to receive on board their
vessels any goods prohibited by the said non-importation agreement,
on pain of immediate dismission from their service.

"Seventh, We will use our utmost endeavors to improve the
breed of sheep and increase their number to the greatest extent;
and to that end we will kill them as sparingly as may be, especially
those of the most profitable kind; nor will we export any to the
West Indies or elsewhere; and those of us who are or may become
overstocked with, or can conveniently spare any sheep, will dispose
of them to our neighbors, especially to the poorer sort, on moderate
terms.

"Eighth, That we will in our several stations encourage frugality,
economy and industry, and promote agriculture, arts and
the manufactures of this country, especially that of wool, and will

discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and
dissipation, especially all horse-racing, and all kinds of gaming,
cock-fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays and other expensive diversions
and entertainments. And on the death of any relation or
friend, none of us, or any of our families, will go into any
further mourning dress than a black crape or ribbon on the arm
or hat for the gentleman, and a black ribbon or necklace for the
ladies, and we will discontinue the giving of gloves and scarfs at
funerals.

"Ninth, That such as are vendors of goods or merchandize will
not take advantage of the scarcity of goods that may be occasioned
by this association, but will sell the same at the rates we have
been respectively accustomed to do, for twelve months last past.
And if any vendor of goods or merchandize shall sell such goods
on higher terms, or shall in any manner, or by any device whatsoever,
violate or depart from this agreement, no person ought, nor
will any of us deal with any such person, or his, or her factor or
agent at any time thereafter for any commodity whatever.

"Tenth, In case any merchant, trader, or other persons shall
import any goods or merchandize, after the first day of December,
and before the first day of February next, the same ought, forthwith,
at the election of the owner, to be either reshipped or delivered
up to the committee of the county or town wherein they shall
be imported, to be stored at the risk of the importer, until the nonimportation
agreement shall cease, or be sold under direction of
the committee aforesaid; and in the last mentioned case, the owner
or owners of such goods shall be reimbursed out of the sales the
first cost and charges, the profit, if any, to be applied towards the
relieving and employing such poor inhabitants of the town of
Boston as are immediately sufferers by the Boston Port Bill; and
a particular account of all goods so returned, stored, or sold, to be
inserted in the publick papers; and if any goods or merchandizes
shall be imported after the said first day of February, the same ought
forthwith, to be sent back again, without breaking any of the
packages thereof.

"Eleventh, That a committee be chosen in every county, city,
and town, by those who are qualified to vote for representatives in
Legislature, whose business it shall be, attentively to observe the
conduct of all persons touching the association; and when it shall

be made to appear to the satisfaction of a majority of such committee,
that any person within the limits of their appointment
has violated this association, that such majority do forthwith cause
the truth of the case to be published in the Gazette, to the end that
all such foes to the rights of British America may be publickly
known and universally contemned as the enemies of American
liberty; and thenceforth we will respectively break off all dealings
with him or her.

"Twelfth, That the Committee of Correspondence in the respective
Colonies do frequently inspect the entries of their custom
houses, and inform each other from time to time, of the true state
thereof, and of every other material circumstance that may occur
relative to this association.

"Thirteenth, That all manufactures of this country be sold at
reasonable prices, so that no undue advantages be taken of a future
scarcity of goods.

"Fourteenth, And we do further agree and resolve, that we will
have no trade, commerce, dealings or intercourse whatever with
any Colony or Province in North America, which shall not accede
to, or which shall hereafter violate this association, but will hold
them as unworthy of the rights of freemen and as inimical to the
liberties of their country.

"And we do solemnly bind ourselves and our constituents, under
the ties aforesaid, to adhere to this association until such parts
of the several Acts of Parliament passed since the close of the last
war as imposed or continue duties on tea, wine, molasses, syrups,
paneles, coffee, sugar, pimento, indigo, foreign paper, glass and
painters' colors imported into America, and extend the powers
of the Admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits, deprive the
American subjects of trial by jury, authorize the judge's certificate
to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise
be liable to, from a trial by his peers, require oppressive security
from a claimant of ships or goods seized before he shall be
allowed to defend his property, are repealed. And until that part
of the Act of the 12 Geo. 3, ch. 24. entitled `an Act for the better
securing his Majesty's dock-yards, magazines, ships, ammunition
and stores,' by which any persons charged with committing any
of the offences therein described, in America, may be tried in any
shire or county within the realm, is repealed—and until the four

Acts passed in the last session of Parliament, viz., that for stopping
the port and blocking up the harbour of Boston—that for altering
the Charter and Government of the Massachusetts Bay—and
that which is entitled, "An Act for the better administration of
justice, &c."—and that for "extending the limits of Quebec, &c.,"
are repealed. And we recommend it to the Provincial Conventions,
and to the committee in the respective Colonies, to establish
such further regulations as they may think proper, for carrying into
execution this association."

After the adoption of the foregoing resolutions and articles of
association, the Congress drew up a petition to the king, a memorial
to the people of England and an address to the people of the
Colonies, and another to the French Colonists of Quebec, Georgia
and Nova Scotia. This Congress adjourned on the 26th day of
October, 1774, after having decided to hold another Congress at the
same place on the 10th day of May, 1775, if their present grievances
continued. The proceedings of this Congress have enlisted the
admiration of the world for more than one hundred and twenty-five
years, and the work of the fifty-two men composing this Congress
will live while a Republican form of Government and free
institutions exist.

After the adjournment of this Congress, the Colonies were in
that condition which precedes the coming of a storm. The people
were willing to forgive and forget, provided their petitions were
listened to and their wrongs corrected; otherwise they were ready
to give their lives and property in defence of their liberty.

It was now time for the English statesmen to recognize, in the
resistance of the Colonies, that spirit of freedom which has ever
marked the actions of the Anglo-Saxon race.

At a meeting of the British Parliament on the 20th day of
January, 1775, Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies,
laid before the House of Peers all the papers relative to the
American Colonies. As soon as all papers were read, William Pitt,
the undying friend of the American Colonies, arose and moved that
an address be presented to the King, requesting him to direct General
Gage to move his Majesty's forces from the town of Boston.
He said: "America could not be reconciled, she ought not to be
reconciled to this country, till the troops of Britain are removed
from the Continent. Resistance to your acts was necessary, and

therefore just; and your vain declarations of the omnipotence of
Parliament, and your imperious doctrines of the necessity of submission,
will be equally impotent to convince or enslave America.
You may, no doubt, destroy their cities, you may cut them off
from the superfluities, perhaps the conveniences, of life; but
my Lords, they will still despise your power, for they have yet
remaining their woods and their liberty. He said that the spirit
which now animates America was the same that led to the revolution
in England, and that the friends of liberty on both sides of
the Atlantic had but one common cause. "In this great cause,"
he continued, "they are immovably allied; it is the alliance of
God and Nature, immutable, eternal, fixed as the firmament of
heaven." His Lordship admitted the right of Parliament to control
the complicated machinery of commerce and navigation, but
denied its authority over the property of the people of the Colonies;
"property is private, individual, absolute, the touch of another
annihilates it." He besought the House to rest upon that distinction,
to allow the Americans to maintain their principles of taxation,
and to confine the exercise of parliamentary authority to the
regulation of commerce. Of the Continental Congress the noble
Earl spoke in a strain of the highest eulogy. "History, my Lords,"
said he, "has been my favorite study, and in the celebrated writings
of antiquity have I often admired the patriotism of Greece and
Rome; but, my Lords, I must declare and avow, that in the master-states
of the world, I know not the people or the Senate, who in
such a complication of difficult circumstances can stand in preference
to the Delegates of America, assembled in General Congress
at Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your Lordships, that all
attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism
over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be futile."
The speaker went on to say, that ministerial manœuvres
would never be able to resist such a union as that of America, that
the hour of danger was not to be averted by the tricks of office, that
matters had now gone so far that even repealing the obnoxious
Acts would not restore the lost confidence of America, unless
his Majesty's armed force was withdrawn from the Continent.
The Noble Lord pledged himself, that they would one day find
themselves compelled to undo all their oppressive acts. He advised
them, therefore, to enter at once into that course, of their own
accord, which they must be ultimately forced to adopt. "To conclude,
my Lords," said he, "if the Ministers thus persevere in misadvising
and misleading the King, I will not say that they can
alienate the affections of his subjects from the Crown; but, I
affirm, they will make the Crown not worth his wearing, I will
not say that the King is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the
Kingdom is undone."

The motion of Lord Chatham was rejected by a large majority,
and the British Ministry declared their purpose never to abandon
a single right until the American Colonies were whipped into
obedience. The same day that William Pitt delivered the preceding
address in the House of Lords, the backwoodsmen of Fincastle
county met, pursuant to the resolves of the Continental Congress,
at the Lead Mines, their county seat, and took action in the
premises; of which the following is a correct account:

"In obedience to the resolves of the Continental Congress, a
meeting of the Freeholders of Fincastle County, in Virginia, was
held on the 20th day of January, 1775, who, after approving of the
Association framed by that august body in behalf of all the Colonies,
and subscribing thereto, proceeded to the election of a Committee,
to see the same carried punctually into execution, when the
following gentlemen were nominated: the Reverend Charles Cummings,
Colonel William Preston, Colonel William Christian, Captain
Stephen Trigg, Major Arthur Campbell, Major William Inglis,
Captain Walter Crockett, Captain John Montgomery, Captain
James McGavock, Captain William Campbell, Captain Thomas
Madison, Captain Daniel Smith, Captain William Russell, Captain
Evan Shelby and Lieutenant William Edmondson. . After the election
the committee made choice of Colonel William Christian
for their chairman, and appointed Mr. David Campbell to be clerk."

The following address was then unanimously agreed to by the
people of the county, and is as follows:

To the Honorable PEYTON RANDOLPH, Esquire, RICHARD
HENRY LEE, GEORGE WASHINGTON, PATRICK
HENRY, Junior. RICHARD BLAND, BENJAMIN HARRISON,
and EDMUND PENDLETON, Esquires, the Delegates
from this Colony, who attended the Continental Congress held at
PHILADELPHIA:

Gentlemen,—Had it not been for our remote situation and

the Indian War which we were lately engaged in to chastise those
cruel and savage people for the many murders and depredations
they have committed amongst us, now happily terminated under
the auspices of our present worthy Governor, His Excellency the
Right Honorable the Earl of Dunmore, we should before this time
have made known to you our thankfulness for the very important
services you have rendered to your country, in conjuction with
the worthy Delegates from the other Provinces. Your noble efforts
for reconciling the mother country and the Colonies, on rational
and constitutional principles and your pacifick, steady and uniform
conduct in that arduous work entitle you to the esteem of all
British America, and will immortalize you in the annals of your
country. We heartily concur in your resolutions, and shall, in
every instance, strictly and invariably adhere thereto.

We assure you, gentlemen, and all our countrymen, that we are
a people whose hearts overflow with love and duty to our lawful
Sovereign, George the Third, whose illustrious House for several
successive reigns have been the guardians of the civil and religious
rights and liberties of British subjects, as settled at the glorious
Revolution; that we are willing to risk our lives in the service of his
Majesty for the support of the Protestant religion and the rights and
liberties of his subjects, as they have been established by compact,
law and ancient charters. We are heartily grieved at the differences
which now subsist between the parent state and the Colonies,
and most ardently wish to see harmony restored on an equitable
basis and by the most lenient measures that can be devised
by the heart of man. Many of us and our forefathers left our
native land, considering it as a kingdom subjected to inordinate
power and greatly abridged of its liberties; we crossed the Atlantic,
and explored this then uncultivated wilderness bordering on many
nations of savages and surrounded by mountains almost inaccessible
to any but those very savages, who have incessantly been committing
barbarities and depredations on us since our first seating
the country. These fatigues and dangers we patiently encountered,
supported by the pleasing hope of enjoying those rights and
liberties which had been granted to Virginians, and were denied
us in our native country, and of transmitting them inviolate to
our posterity; but even to these remote regions the hand of unlimited
and unconstitutional power hath pursued us, to strip us of

that liberty and property with which God, nature and the rights
of humanity have vested us. We are ready and willing to contribute
all in our power for the support of his Majesty's government,
if applied to constitutionally, and when the grants are made by our
own Representatives, but cannot think of submitting our liberty
or property to the power of a venal British Parliament, or to the
will of a corrupt Ministry. We by no means desire to shake off our
duty or allegiance to our lawful sovereign, but, on the contrary,
shall ever glory in being the loyal subjects of a Protestant prince,
descended from such illustrious progenitors, so long as we can
enjoy the free exercise of our religion as Protestants, and our
liberties and properties as British Subjects.

But if no pacifick measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great
Britain, and our enemies will attempt to dragoon us out of those
inestimable privileges, which we are entitled to as subjects, and
to reduce us to a state of slavery, we declare that we are deliberately
and resolutely determined never to surrender them to any power
upon earth but at the expense of our lives.

These are our real, though unpolished, sentiments of liberty and
loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and die.

We are, gentlemen, with the most perfect esteem and regard,
your most obedient servants.

The meeting of the freeholders of Fincastle county, on the 20th
of January, 1775, in answer to the resolves of the Continental Congress
was not the first meeting held for this purpose in the Colony,
but it was, as far as we have any record, the first meeting in which
the freeholders declared that they were deliberately and resolutely
determined never to surrender their inestimable privileges to any
power upon earth but at the expense of their lives. The sentiments
of this meeting were definitely stated by the Committee of
Safety when they declared that the freeholders of Fincastle county
did not desire to shake off their allegiance to their lawful sovereign
as long as they could enjoy the free exercise of their religion as
Protestants and their liberties and properties as British subjects.
The Committee of Safety, appointed by the freeholders of Fincastle
county, was composed of fifteen men, any one of whom, by
reason of his intelligence and patriotism, was competent to draft
the address before given.

The members of that committee living at that time on lands

afterwards within the limits of the county of Washington, were
seven in number, as follows:

• Reverend Charles Cummings,

• Captain William Campbell,

• Captain William Russell,

• Major Arthur Campbell,

• Captain Daniel Smith,

• Captain Evan Shelby,

• Lieutenant William Edmiston.

Early in the year 1775, the British Parliament passed a bill
restraining the trade of Virginia and that of a number of the other
colonies.

Several efforts were made by members of this Parliament to
have measures adopted that would have a tendency to bring the
Colonies and Great Britain together, but all to no purpose. In
the Virginia House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry introduced a number
of resolutions for arming and disciplining the militia of the
Colonies, and the delegates to the former Congress held in Philadelphia
were re-elected, along with Thomas Jefferson, to serve
in the next Congress which met at Philadelphia in May, 1775.

In the month of April, hostilities began between General Gage,
commanding the British forces at Boston, and the troops of the
Massachusetts Colony, and the first blood of the Revolution was
shed at Lexington, Massachusetts, on the 17th day of April, 1775.
In a few days this news spread, and the entire Colony was in arms.
The first blow had been struck by the King's troops, and now the
Colonies took up their arms in self-defence.

In Virginia, Governor Dunmore, upon a plea that an insurrection
existed in a neighboring county, removed the powder stored in
the public magazine at Williamsburg, and placed it on board of a
ship by a small body of marines, on the 9th of April, 1775. This
action of the Governor provoked a great deal of discontent, and,
in answer to a request from the officials of the city of Williamsburg,
he promised to restore the powder whenever wanted, but declined
to do so at that time, for the reason that he had heard that the
people were armed, and that he did not think it prudent to put
powder in their hands.

This promise of the Governor did not satisfy the people, and,
arming themselves, they began to assemble and march through the
streets of Williamsburg, whereupon, Governor Dunmore sent them
a message in which he stated that if they interfered with any of
the King's officers he would declare freedom to their slaves and

lay Williamsburg in ashes. This information being communicated
to the surrounding country and the news from Massachusetts having
reached Virginia, the people flew to arms in all directions.
Patrick Henry placed no confidence in the promise of the Governor
and resolved upon making an effort to recover the powder.

He organized a company in his own county, and, with this company,
began his march to Williamsburg. Patrick Henry was very
popular with the people of the Colony and upon their hearing of his
determination, fully five thousand men tendered him their services.
The Governor was greatly alarmed by this occurrence and fled from
the capitol and boarded a man-of-war. Apprehending the consequences
of this act of Patrick Henry's, he directed the Receiver-General
of the Colony to meet Mr. Henry and pay him in full for
the powder that had been carried off, which he did. Thereupon,
Henry and his followers dispersed to their homes. Two days after
this occurrence, the Governor proclaimed Patrick Henry an outlaw.
Upon the 15th day of July, 1775, the Committee of Safety
for Fincastle county assembled at the Lead Mines, and adopted the
following resolutions in approbation of the course pursued by Patrick
Henry.

At a committee held for Fincastle County, July 15th, 1775,
William Christian, chairman. The committee, taking into their
consideration the clandestine removal of the gunpowder from the
magazine of this Colony by order of our Governor, are clearly and
unanimously of opinion that his Lordship's conduct reflects much
dishonor on himself, and he very justly deserves the censure so
universally bestowed upon him.

Resolved, That the spirited and meritorious conduct of Patrick
Henry, Esq., and the rest of the gentlemen volunteers attending
him on the occasion of the removal of the gunpowder
out of the magazine in Williamsburg, very justly merits the very
hearty approbation of this committee, for which we return them
our thanks, with an assurance that we will, at the risk of our own
lives and fortunes, support and justify them with regard to the
reprisal they made.[9]

Resolved, That the council of this Colony in advising and
co-operating with Lord Dunmore in issuing the proclamation of
the 3d of May last, charging the people of this Colony with an

ungovernable spirit and licentious practices, is contrary to many
known matters of fact, and but too justly shows to us that those
who ought to be mediators and guardians of our liberties are
become the abject tools of a detested administration.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that the
late sanguinary attempt and preparations of the King's troops, in
the Colony of Narragansett Bay, are truly alarming and irritating,
and loudly call upon all, even the most distant and interiour parts
of the Colonies, to prepare and be ready for the extreme event, by
a fixed resolution and a firm and manly resolve to avert ministerial
cruelty, in defence of our reasonable rights and liberties.

A perusal of these resolutions clearly show the spirit that animated
the people of Fincastle county. The third Continental Congress
assembled at Philadelphia on the 10th day of May, 1775, and
elected the following officers:

President, Peyton Randolph, Virginia;

Secretary, Charles Thompson, of Pennsylvania.

Among the first measures proposed and adopted by this Congress
was one looking to the placing of the Colonies in a defensive
position and, on the 7th day of June, 1775, the Congress passed
a resolution fixing the 20th day of July, 1775, as a day to be
observed by the twelve Colonies in humiliation, fasting and prayer.
About this time, General Gage, commander of the British forces
at Boston, issued a proclamation in the King's name, offering a
pardon to all of the people who would lay down their arms, except
John Hancock and Samuel Adams.

At this time, Peyton Randolph, President of the Continental
Congress, resigned his position as President of the Congress, and
thereupon John Hancock was elected president—this election
being in answer to General Gage's proclamation. On the 15th of
June, 1775, the Continental Congress, by a unanimous vote, elected
as Commander-in-Chief of all the continental forces George
Washington, of Virginia, and elected the following Major-Generals:
Artemus Ward, Philip Schuyler and Charles Lee, and Horatio
Gates, as Adjutant-General.

On the 17th of June, 1775, the battle of Breed's Hill was
fought, in which battle the British suffered a loss of eleven hundred
men, of whom two hundred and twenty-six were killed, eighty-nine
of the number officers. The American loss was four hundred and

fifty-three killed, wounded and missing. The Continental Congress,
in this month, ordered twelve rifle companies to be raised
in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and directed the issuing
of two million dollars in continental currency, for the redemption
of which they pledged the property of the twelve Colonies. General
Washington, immediately upon the receipt of his commission,
proceeded to Massachusetts, where he took charge of the continental
troops, and, by the middle of August, the rifle companies ordered
to be raised in Virginia, reached Cambridge, Massachusetts, in
time to take part in the capture of Boston.

While we have no documentary evidence of the fact, there can
be no doubt that a number of the riflemen from Fincastle county
accompanied the troops from Virginia. In the meantime, on the
6th day of July, 1775, the Congress of the United Colonies adopted
a memorial setting forth the causes that led to, and the necessity
of, their taking up arms.

On the 24th day of July, 1775, the Colonial Convention of Virginia
met at Williamsburg and appointed a Committee of Safety,
and passed an act for the raising of two regiments to be placed
under the command of Patrick Henry, who was made commander
of all the forces raised and to be raised in defence of the Colony.
The two regiments were speedily raised, and assembled at Williamsburg.

The Committee of Safety for Fincastle county, in answer to the
resolutions of the Virginia Convention, immediately dispatched a
company of choice riflemen from Fincastle county, under the command
of Captain William Campbell, this company being among the
first to arrive at Williamsburg.

On the 3d day of September of this year, a British ship-of-war
was driven ashore near Hampton, Virginia, during a storm, and,
on the morning of the 4th, the people set fire to and destroyed it.
The captain of the ship threatened to burn the town and actually
tried to do so, but the Virginia Committee of Safety dispatched
Colonel Woodford, with three companies of riflemen, to the assistance
of the people of Hampton. Of the three companies thus dispatched,
one was the company of Fincastle troops under Captain
William Campbell.[10]

When the British captain began his attack upon the town he

was so warmly received by Colonel Woodford and his men, that he
took to flight after the loss of a number of men. Thus it will
be seen that troops from Fincastle county took part in the first
engagement of the Revolutionary war, on Virginia soil, in which
blood was shed. Upon the receipt of this information, Lord Dunmore
issued a proclamation, proclaiming freedom to all the slaves
who would join his standard. He thus gathered a considerable
number of volunteers, of whom four hundred were slaves. Colonel
Woodford and his company returned to Williamsburg. Lord Dunmore
with his forces began a series of depredations upon the people
living along the sea-coast, and the Virginia Committee of Safety
again dispatched Colonel Woodford at the head of eight hundred
men to drive him from his position at the Great Bridge. Colonel
Woodford had not been long in the vicinity of the Great Bridge,
when Lord Dunmore dispatched Captain Leslie, with the regular
troops and slaves, to attack the troops under Colonel Woodford,
and, as the result of this attempt, every man of the British
troops was killed, wounded or captured; whereupon, Governor Dunmore
and his troops went aboard their ships, leaving Colonel Woodford
and the Colonial troops in complete control of the position
formerly occupied by the Governor.

The Colonial troops that assembled at Williamsburg formed
two battalions, and the first battalion, to which the troops from
Fincastle were attached, was officered as followed:

Colonel, Patrick Henry.

Lieutenant-Colonel, William Christian, of Fincastle county.

Major, Frank Eppes.

Lord Dunmore, after his defeat at the Great Bridge, placed all
his white followers on board the ships and left his negro allies
to shift for themselves. After some time his provisions began to
grow scarce, when he sent a request to the citizens of Norfolk for
supplies, which request was denied, and on the 1st day of January,
1776, he began to bombard the town of Norfolk, with four ships,
and, under cover of the fire from these ships, a company of sailors
landed and set fire to the town, which soon was a heap of ashes;
an uncalled for act upon the part of the British forces.

The British Parliament at its session in 1776, passed an act prohibiting
all trade and intercourse with the thirteen American
Colonies, and, about the same time, the King of England negotiated

treaties with some of the petty princes of Germany for the
use of a number of Hessian troops in the campaign against the
American Colonies. When information of this act of the British
Parliament reached General Washington, he decided to drive
the British from Boston and proceeded to do so on the 2d of March,
and, on the 4th day of March, General Thomas, with a detachment
of the American troops, took charge of Dorchester Heights overlooking
Boston harbor. In a few days thereafter, General Howe,
with nine thousand British troops, evacuated Boston without a
fight, and General Washington, at the head of the continental army,
took possession on the 17th day of March, 1776.

On the 6th day of May, 1776, the first constitutional convention
assembled in Virginia, at Williamsburg, pursuant to the directions
of the Committee of Safety, under an ordinance of the convention
of 1775, which directed that, in view of the fact that the
usual meeting of the General Assembly in a constitutional way had
been altogether obstructed, it had become indispensably necessary
for the oppressed people of this country, at a crisis so alarming,
to adopt such other mode of consulting and providing for the general
safety as may seem most conducive to that great end. The
members of this convention were elected in the same manner in
which the members of the House of Burgesses had been previously
elected, and the representatives in this convention from Fincastle
county, were:

Arthur Campbell,

William Russell,

both citizens of that part of Fincastle county afterwards included
in the subsequently formed county of Washington.

It is hard to understand, except upon the idea that the people
living upon the waters of the Holston and Clinch exceeded in
number the people living on the waters of the New river in Fincastle
county, how both members of this Convention should have
been residents of the western part of Fincastle county.

Some may say that this was done by consent, but such was not
the fact, for the elections in those days were as hotly contested
as any held in more recent times. It is worthy to be remembered,
that in these early days every freeholder was required to vote under
the penalty of two hundred pounds of tobacco for a failure, and
every freeholder was required to attend and vote on the day

appointed, at the Lead Mines, the county seat of Fincastle county.

The Virginia convention of 1776 was one of the most important
conventions ever held in the State, whether we consider the character
of the members, or the work done by them. The Virginia
Colony at this time was in open revolt, and Lord Dunmore, the
Governor, was an exile from the State.

The King by his proclamation had declared the citizens of the
Colony rebels and enemies, and now the people by their representatives
proceeded in an orderly manner to establish a government
for themselves.

The constitution and bill of rights adopted by this convention
clearly defined the fundamental principles of all free government,
and the Declaration of Independence, enunciated at this time, was,
beyond question, the forerunner of the Great Declaration of Independence
adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776.
The Bill of Rights adopted by this convention, is as follows:

"1st. Whereas, George the Third, King of Great Britain
and Ireland and Elector of Hanover, heretofore intrusted with the
exercise of the kingly office in this government, hath endeavored
to pervert the same into a detestable and insupportable tyranny,
by putting his negative on laws the most wholesome and necessary
for the publick good;

By denying his governours permission to pass laws of immediate
and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation
for his assent, and, when so suspended, neglecting to attend to
them for many years;

By refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the persons to be
benefitted by them would relinquish the inestimable right of representation
in the legislatures;

By dissolving legislative assemblies repeatedly and continually,
for opposing with manly firmness his invasions of the rights of
the people;

When dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of
time, thereby leaving the political system without any legislative
head;

By endeavoring to prevent the population of our country, and,
for that purpose, obstructing the laws for the naturalization of
foreigners;

By keeping among us in times of peace, standing armies and
ships of war;

By affecting to render the military independent of, and superior
to the civil power;

By combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction,
giving his assent to their pretended acts of legislation;

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;

For imposing taxes on us without our consent;

For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury;

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences;

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever;

By plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns,
and destroying the lives of our people;

By inciting insurrections of our fellow-subjects, with the allurements
of forfeiture and confiscation;

By prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, those very
negroes, whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused
us permission to exclude by law;

By endeavoring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions of existence;

By transporting, at this time, a large army of foreign mercenaries,
to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny already
begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy
the head of a civilized nation;

By answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition
of injuries;

And, finally, by abandoning the helm of government, and declaring
us out of his allegiance and protection.

By which several acts of misrule, the government of this country,
as formerly exercised under the Crown of Great Britain, is
TOTALLY DISSOLVED.[11]

The result of this action by the Convention was the formation

of a stable and efficient government for the State, and the organization
of the militia of the commonwealth.

This Constitution was proclaimed on the 29th day of June, 1776,
on which day the Committee of Safety, designated by the convention
of 1775, relinquished their authority, and Patrick Henry
was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth. At the same
time the Privy Council, Treasurer, Attorney General, and the
other state officers were elected by the convention. This convention,
by a resolution, adopted a design for a seal for the new commonwealth.
The design adopted was as follows:

Henry Stuart was the Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs
for the British Government, and in this capacity he wrote this letter.
This letter did not accomplish its purpose, and only had the
effect of exciting the settlers to more vigorous efforts to resist the
plans of the agents of the British crown. On the 8th of June Jarrett
Williams, an Indian trader, returned to the Virginia settlement
from the Cherokee towns and gave further information as to
the intention of the Indians, which information was embodied in

an affidavit given before Anthony Bledsoe, a justice of the peace of
Fincastle county. The affidavit was as follows:

Signed before Anthony Bledsoe.

The settlers on the waters of the Holston and Clinch were greatly
aroused by the information received, and the militia was organized
and armed for the purpose of resisting the contemplated
expedition planned by Cameron, the British agent. The reader
must remember that all the settlements as low down as Carter's
Valley, and including the settlement at Watauga, were governed
by Virginia laws at this time, and expected and received protection
from the authorities of Fincastle county in Virginia.

Upon the receipt of this information the Watauga committee
sent an express to Colonel William Preston, the county lieutenant
of Fincastle county, detailing to him their situation and requesting
the assistance of the authorities and supplies of lead and powder.
Colonel Preston replied to this letter on June 3d as follows:

The information brought by Thomas to the settlement was to the
effect that seven hundred warriors were to attack the white settlements
in two divisions of three hundred and fifty each, led by
Dragging Canoe and Oconostota. The one commanded by Oconostota
was to attack the Watauga settlements, while the other, commanded
by Dragging Canoe, was to attack and break up the settlements
between the North and South fork of the Holston river.

Battle of Long Island Flats.

Upon the receipt of this news a few of the militia hastily assembled
and proceeded to Amos Eaton's, the frontier house, about
fifteen miles in advance of the settlement, and began to build a
kind of stockade fort with fence-rails, and after some time a
breast-work was completed sufficient to repel a considerable number.
Thereupon expresses were sent to Thompson's Fort, now on the
Huff farm, in the upper end of this county; to Edmiston's Fort,
now near Lodi, Virginia; to Cocke's Fort, on Spring Creek; to
Shelby's Fort, on Holston river, and to the settlements near Wolf
Hills, and on the following morning about one hundred and seventy
men reported at Eaton's Fort under the command of:

• James Thompson,

• William Buchanan,

• William Cocke,

• James Shelby,

• John Campbell,

• Thomas Madison.

On the 19th day of July, 1776, the scouts returned to Eaton's
Fort and reported that a great number of Indians were making
into the settlements.

Upon the receipt of this information it was debated as to the
prudent course to pursue, to await the coming of the Indians in
the fort or to march out and meet them in the woods and fight them
wherever they could be found. Capt. William Cocke argued that
the Indians would not attack them in the fort, but would pass
by and assail the settlements, killing and butchering and carrying
off the property, and proposed to march out and meet the enemy.
The proposition made by Captain Cocke prevailed, and the entire
company, consisting of one hundred and seventy men, marched
from the fort in the direction of Long Island, which was about
seven miles distant. This company marched in two divisions, with
flankers on each side and scouts before, and had proceeded not more
than five miles when they discovered about twenty Indians meeting
them, upon whom they fired. The Indians returned the fire,
whereupon the white men rushed upon them and put them to flight.
Ten bundles and a good deal of plunder were captured by the white
men, and it was thought that some of the Indians were wounded.
The ground where this skirmish took place was not very advantageous
for a pursuit, and the men were with great difficulty restrained
from pursuing the Indians. A council was held, and it was decided

to return, as the officers had good reason to believe that a large
party of Indians were not a great way off. They accordingly returned,
and had not marched more than a mile when they heard a
noise like distant thunder, and looking around they saw the whole
Indian force running upon them at full speed, whereupon they
made a hasty retreat to an eminence, where they rallied, and Captain
Thompson, the officer in command, ordered that the right line
form for battle to the right and the left line to the left, and to face
the enemy.

In attempting to obey the orders of Captain Thompson, the head
of the right line bore too much along the road leading in the direction
of the station, and Lieutenant Robert Davis, perceiving that
the Indians were trying to outflank them, took a part of the line
and formed them as quickly as possible on the right, across the flat
to the ridge, preventing the Indians from accomplishing their purpose.
The officers and many of the men exhibited in this battle a
heroism almost unexampled. When the Indians began their attack,
it was with great fury, those in front halloing, "The Unacas are running.
Come on and scalp them." The Indian attack was made
upon the centre and the left flank of the whites at the same time,
and as a result the troops were thrown into great confusion, and it
was found almost impossible to form the troops in the face of the
Indian attacks. Whereupon Capt. James Shelby, stepping to the
front, ordered the several companies to go to the rear and reform
their ranks, while he, accompanied by Lieut. Wm. Moore, Robert
Edmiston, John Morrison and John Findlay, kept the Indians at
bay.

Gilmore, in his "Rear Guard of the Revolution," makes the statement
that Edmiston, in a hand-to-hand fight, slew three or four
Indians, Morrison as many more, and that Moore became engaged
in a desperate struggle with a herculean Indian chieftain, and, as
if by general consent, the Indians paused to await its issue. This
delay, no doubt, saved much loss of life among the one hundred and
seventy. It lasted for some minutes, but ended by Moore sinking
his tomahawk into the brain of the Indian. The whites, in the
meantime, had formed their line of battle about a quarter of a mile
long and began to pour a destructive fire into the Cherokees from
cover whenever possible. The Indians, having witnessed the end
of the conflict between Moore and their chieftain, made a rapid

advance upon Shelby and his companions, who, about this time,
began to fall back to their line. Whereupon the Indians made a
furious assault upon Robert Edmiston, who held a position in the
centre of the line, during which assault it was afterwards charged
that Edmiston used profane language, upon which charge he was
tried by the Ebbing Spring Presbyterian congregation. The engagement
lasted from one-half to three-quarters of an hour, when
the Indians disappeared as if by magic, leaving the white men
masters of the situation. Thirteen dead Indians were found on the
ground, and many more might have been found if search had been
made for them, for many trails of blood were seen where the dead
had been carried off or the wounded escaped. It is wonderful to
record the fact that no white man was killed in this battle and only
four slightly wounded. The names of the white men wounded in
this battle are, so far as I can ascertain, Joshua Jones and John
Findlay.

We here give a report of this engagement made by the captains in
command to Col. William Preston, the county lieutenant of Fincastle
county:

"On the 19th our scouts returned and informed us that they had
discovered where a great number of Indians were making into the
settlements, upon which alarm the few men stationed at Eaton's
completed a breast-work sufficiently strong, with the assistance of
what men were there, to have repelled a considerable number; sent
expresses to the different stations and collected all the forces in
one body, and the morning after about one hundred and seventy
turned out in search of the enemy. We marched in two divisions,
with flankers on each side and scouts before. Our scouts discovered
upwards of twenty meeting us, and fired on them. They returned
the fire, but our men rushed on them with such violence that
they were obliged to make a precipitate retreat. We took ten bundles
and a good deal of plunder, and had great reason to think some of
them were wounded. This small skirmish happened on ground
very disadvantageous for our men to pursue, though it was with
the greatest difficulty our officers could restrain their men. A council
was held, and it was thought advisable to return, as we imagined
there was a large party not far off. We accordingly returned, and
had not marched more than a mile when a number, not inferior to
ours, attacked us in the rear. Our men sustained the attack with

great bravery and intrepidity, immediately forming a line. The
Indians endeavored to surround us, but were prevented by the uncommon
fortitude and vigilance of Capt. James Shelby, who took
possession of an eminence that prevented their design. Our line of
battle extended about a quarter of a mile. We killed about thirteen
on the spot, whom we found, and we have the greatest reason
to believe that we could have found a great many more had we had
time to search for them. There were streams of blood every way,
and it was generally thought there was never so much execution
done in so short a time on the frontiers. Never did troops fight with
greater calmness than ours did. The Indians attacked us with the
greatest fury imaginable, and made the most vigorous efforts to surround
us. Our spies really deserve the greatest applause. We took
a great deal of plunder and many guns, and had only four men
greatly wounded. The rest of the troops are in high spirits and
eager for another engagement. We have the greatest reason to believe
they are pouring in great numbers on us, and beg the assistance
of our friends.

• "James Thompson,

• "James Shelby,

• "William Buchanan,

• "John Campbell,

• "William Cocke,

• "Thomas Madison."

Several incidents are related as having taken place before and
during this battle that we here give as they have been preserved,
without vouching for the truth thereof. Benjamin Sharp, in a
letter published in the American Pioneer, gives an incident as occurring
during the battle. He says: "An Alexander Moore, a strong,
athletic, active man, by some means, got into close contact with an
Indian of nearly his own size and strength. My brother-in-law, William
King, seeing Moore's situation, ran up to his relief, but the
Indian adroitly kept Moore in such a position that King could not
shoot him without hurting Moore. The Indian had a large knife
suspended at his belt, for the possession of which they both struggled,
but at length Moore succeeded and plunged it into the Indian's
bowels. He then broke his hold and sprang off of Moore, and King
shot him through the head."

Several historians make the statement that William Cocke, one
of the captains upon this expedition, was charged with cowardice
by a number of the militia immediately after a council of the

officers, had decided to return to Fort Eaton instead of pursuing the
twenty Indians first discovered, and that Captain Cocke, soon after
the return march had begun for Eaton's Fort, halted the line and
delivered a speech in defence of his reputation. We cannot imagine
the reason why the charge should have been made, but from an examination
of the records of the Virginia Privy Council it appears
that on December 9, 1776, the following order was entered:

"It appearing from the deposition of Thomas Madison, Esq.,
that there are grounds to suspect Capt. William Cocke of cowardice
in a late action with the Indians, it is therefore ordered that the
said Captain Cocke be forthwith suspended; that the Governor be
requested to write to the county lieutenant of Fincastle directing
him to hold a court of inquiry touching the conduct of said Captain
Cocke, and to transmit to this board a copy of the same."

I cannot ascertain what disposition was made of this charge
against Captain Cocke, but I am compelled to believe that he was
acquitted, for he was afterwards elected to the General Assembly of
Virginia from Washington county, and in a few years thereafter
became one of the first United States senators from the State of
Tennessee.

The result of this victory was not only the destruction of a number
of the Indian warriors and the wounding of their savage chief,
Dragging Canoe, but it inspired the settlers with confidence in themselves
and a contempt of danger from the Indians. It is said that
ever afterwards the inquiry among the white settlers when in search
of the Indians was not "how many of them are there," but "where
are they to be found?" On the same day that the battle was fought
at the Long Island Flats another body of Indians attacked Fort
Lee at Watauga, in which fort were Capt. James Robertson and
forty others. But the Indians were repulsed with some loss by the
fire from the fort, but for three weeks skulked around the fort,
during which time a man and a boy, who had ventured to leave the
fort, were assailed by the Indians and captured, and the man scalped
on the spot. The boy, who was a brother of Lieut. Wm. Moore,
was reserved for a worse fate, he being afterwards burned at the
stake by the Indians. Mrs. Wm. Bean, who lived on Boone's creek,
was captured by the Indians, but was subsequently released through
the influence of Nancy Ward.

Colonel Russell, who was located at Fort Patrick Henry, was

ordered to go, with five companies of militia, to the relief of Fort
Lee, but he was so slow that Col. Evan Shelby raised a company of
about one hundred men in the vicinity of Wolf Hills and proceeded
to Watauga, where he found the inhabitants in their fort and the
Indians gone.

After the battle at Long Island Flats the Virginia militia returned
to the fort and the men dispersed to their several homes to
take care of their families and property. In the meantime all the
frontier settlements were breaking up and the settlers fleeing from
every quarter. The main road or trace was crowded with people
moving with the greatest haste to escape the invading Indians. At
the farm of Capt. Joseph Black, where Abingdon now stands, between
four and five hundred people collected together to build a
fort.

The erection of Black's Fort was begun on the 20th day of July,
1776, the same day that the battle of Long Island Flats was fought,
and the news of the victory of the settlers in that battle was received
the next day. Upon the receipt of this news all business was suspended,
while the Rev. Charles Cummings offered up a prayer
of thanksgiving, in which all the people heartily joined. The defeat
of the Indians at the Long Island did not end the trouble of the
settlers on the Holston. About the time that the battle was fought
a party of Indians came up the Clinch river burning all the property
and killing and scalping all the settlers that they could find.
Dividing themselves into small bodies, they invaded the settlements
from the lower end of what is now the present county of Sullivan,
in Tennessee, to the Seven Mile Ford, in Virginia. About the 24th
of July, 1776, Capt. James Montgomery, who had settled on the
south fork of Holston river, about eight miles from Black's Fort,
came to the fort, he and two other families having decided to defend
their own homes. He came in quest of intelligence, and was
earnestly besought by the people of the fort to bring in the families,
to which he agreed, and men and horses were sent to assist him.
This company soon returned to the fort with the families and some
of their property, and went back to bring in the rest of the property
when, to their surprise, they found the houses plundered and in
flames. The company thereupon hastily retreated to the fort, and
spies were sent out to locate the Indians if possible, but no discoveries
were made for some days, when at length the spies came in

one night and reported that they had discovered a fire on the bank
of the river above Montgomery's which they supposed to be the
Indian camp.[14]

Upon receipt of this information an express was sent to Bryan's
Fort requesting their men to meet the men from Black's Fort at a
certain place that night. The two companies met according to
agreement, and the spies conducted them to the spot where they
had seen the fire, when the Indians were surrounded from the river
below to the river above them, with strict injunctions to the men to
preserve a profound silence till the report of the captain's gun
should give the signal for a general discharge; and in this position
they waited for daylight. At the dawn of day, when the Indians
arose and began to stir about the camp, the crack of the captain's
rifle was followed by a well-directed fire from every quarter. The
Indians fled across the river, exposed all the way to the fire of the
whites. Eleven Indians lay dead at and around the camp, and the
number that fell and sank in the river is not known. The men
crossed the river and found numerous trails of blood, one of which
they followed to where an Indian had crept into a hollow log, whom
they drew out by his feet, and, according to his request, shot him in
the head. As a result of this slaughter of Indians the settlers at
Black's Fort were greatly rejoiced, and the eleven Indian scalps
were attached to a long pole and fixed as a trophy over the fort
gates.[15] Several days thereafter three companies prepared to go out
from the fort to visit their plantations and on other missions. The
first company to leave the fort was composed of John Sharp, his two
sons, and two sons-in-law. They went early and were unmolested.
The second company to leave the fort on that day was composed of
Arthur Blackburn, William Casey and his sister Nancy, who was
about sixteen years of age, Robert Harold and several others, and
about the same time a third company left the fort to visit the house
of Rev. Charles Cummings to bring his books and some of his property
into the fort. Both of these parties were attacked by the
Indians at the same time within hearing of the fort, where an indescribable
scene of disorder took place, the women and children
screaming, wives clinging to their husbands, mothers to their sons

and sisters to their brothers, to prevent them from going out of the
fort.

However, a number of them left the fort and ran to the rescue
of the companies as fast as possible, but before they arrived upon
the scene the Indians had done their work and gone. Of the second
company to leave the fort Arthur Blackburn was shot, tomahawked,
and scalped, but was found alive, brought in, and recovered from
his wounds. Along with this same company was William Casey
and his sister Nancy, a beautiful little girl about sixteen years of
age. As Casey was running for his life to the fort he discovered
the Indians in hot pursuit of his sister, and seeing Robert Harold,
another young man, close by, he called to him to come and help him
save Nancy. Harold obeyed, and, although there were from four
to seven Indians in pursuit, these young men rushed between them
and the girl, and by dexterously managing to fire alternately, still
keeping one gun loaded when the other was discharged, they kept
the Indians at bay till they gave up the pursuit and the girl was
brought in safe. The author of this account says, "Such acts of generous
bravery ought at all times be held as examples to our youth."

The third company was composed of the Rev. Charles Cummings,
his servant Job, William Creswell, the driver, James Piper
and one other; and when they had reached a point called Piper's
Hill, they were attacked by a band of Indians, and at the first fire
William Creswell, who had taken part in the battle of Long Island
Flats, was killed and two of the other men were wounded, James
Piper having his finger shot off, but the Rev. Charles Cummings,
with the remaining man, and his servant Job, held the Indians
at bay until he obtained help from Black's Fort, when he brought
off the wounded men in safety. William Creswell was buried near
the Presbyterian church, now Sinking Spring Cemetery, where his
grave may be seen at this day marked by a rude tombstone. An
exact reproduction of the inscription thereon is here given:

William Creswell
entered this place
July, 1776.

It has been stated that this is the oldest known grave in this section,
but such is not the fact. Poston's graveyard is situated on a
high knob in close proximity to the falls of the north fork of Holston

river, in this county, and in the graveyard is found a grave marked
by a limestone rock upon which is inscribed, "Mary Boyd, died Feby.
17, 1773, aged 3 years. Alexander Boyd's child." Tradition says
that this death occurred by the capsizing of Boyd's boat in passing
over the falls, Boyd at the time emigrating to the extreme frontiers.

From the period that Mr. Cummings commenced preaching in
the Holston settlements up to the time of this attack the men never
went to church without being armed and taking their families with
them. On Sabbath morning during most of this period it was the
custom of Mr. Cummings to dress himself neatly, put on his shot
pouch, shoulder his rifle, mount his horse and ride off to church,
where he met his gallant and intelligent congregation, each man
with his rifle in his hand. The minister would then enter the
church, walk gravely through the crowd, ascend the pulpit, deposit
his rifle in a corner of it, lay off his shot pouch, and commence the
solemn services of the day.[16]

The Rev. Charles Cummings was what would be termed in
our day "a fighting parson." Immediately after the occurrence
above stated Mr. Cummings and about one hundred of his parishioners,
under the command of Evan Shelby, hurried to the relief of
the Watauga settlers who were besieged by the Indians in Fort Lee,
and he accompanied Col. William Christian on his expedition against
the Cherokee Indians in the fall of this year, preaching at different
points in East Tennessee to settlers and soldiers whenever the opportunity
offered itself, he being the first minister of the gospel to deliver
the message of peace in the boundaries of the present State
of Tennessee. In the year 1776 the ground now occupied by Martha
Washington College and Stonewall Jackson Institute was a dense
chinquapin thicket, and the lands between the thicket and Black's
Fort were cultivated in flax. During the summer of the year
1776 two men and three women were pulling flax near the fort
with Frederick Mongle stationed as sentinel to give the alarm
should the Indians make their appearance. The Indians, who had
hidden themselves in the bushes above referred to, quietly approached
and wounded and scalped Mr. Mongle, but the other
persons reached the fort in safety by dodging from tree to tree.
The men from the fort came at once to the rescue, and, attacking

the Indians, drove them off. Mr. Mongle soon died from his
wounds, and his relatives claim that his grave, and not William
Creswell's, was the first made in Sinking Spring Cemetery. But
this contention cannot be correct, for Mongle was not killed until
several weeks after the death of William Creswell.

During the summer several murders were committed by the
Indians. Two men, who had gone out to bring up their horses,
were killed almost in sight of a neighboring fort, and of the two men
who went with an express from Fort Black one was killed and the
other made his escape.

As a result of the trouble with the Indians Col. Wm. Christian,
Capt. Wm. Campbell, and Capt. Wm. Russell returned to
their homes from the regular continental army to assist in the
defence of their homes from the combined attacks of the British
and Indians. The Governor of Virginia at this time directed Col.
Wm. Fleming, of Botetourt county, to dispatch a body of the
militia of that county to the frontiers of Fincastle county for the
protection of the inhabitants, and pursuant to this order Capt.
Thomas Rowland was dispatched with his company to the frontiers.
The following is a complete list of Captain Rowland's company:

• Capt. Thomas Rowland,

• Henry Cartmill,

• Martin Baker,

• John Wood,

• Thomas Bowyer,

• James Leatherdale,

• John Crawford,

• David Wallace,

• James Bryant,

• William Bryant,

• Robert Feely,

• Elijah Vinsant,

• John Moor,

• Thomas Eagnew,

• Isaac Richardson,

• James Nicholas,

• William Crawford,

• William Kyles,

• Martin McFattin,

• James Esprey,

• Samuel McFarrin,

• George Rutledge,

• William Calbert,

• Edward Carbin,

• Samuel M'Roberts,

• Thomas Peage,

• Stephen Holston,

• William Henry,

• George Givens,

• James Cloyd,

• Isaac Lawrence,

• William Wills,

• James McQuown,

• James Robinson,

---

234





• James Alcom,

• George Hutchinson

• (Botetourt parish),

• Rev. Adam Smyth, pastor,

• William Astin,

• William Leatherdale,

• Robert Woods,

• Edward Guilford,

• Joseph Bryant,

• William McFarrin,

• Jacob Kimberland,

• Robert Birdswell,

• Thomas Howell,

• Samuel Blair,

• David Harbinson,

• Jonathan Wood,

• Joseph Titus,

• William Richey,

• Joseph Kyles,

• Samuel McClure,

• Patrick Lockhart,

• John Mills,

• Henry Smith,

• James Gaunt,

• Joseph Carrol,

• John Jones,

• Henry Walker,

• John Burks,

• Thomas Arbuckle,

• David Lawrence,

• Patrick Lawrence,

• John Frager,

• William Ross.

This expedition accomplished nothing of value. This muster
roll is given as a matter of information to the many descendants
of these men who are now living in this county.

In the year 1776, at the time of the battle of Long Island Flats,
a man by the name of Lewis, with his wife and seven children,
lived in the bounds of the present county of Scott. He was
informed by Captain John Redd, that the Indians had declared war
and were on the warpath, and was advised to move into the settlements,
but he swore that he was in no danger, the Indians would
never find him, but, soon thereafter, the Indians visited his home
and killed and scalped Lewis, his wife and seven children. Among
the extreme settlers who left their homes and returned to the settlements,
was a man by the name of Ambrose Fletcher, whose family
consisted of himself, his wife and two children. Fletcher had
settled at Martin's Fort in Powell's Valley, and fled from that
point to Blackmore's Fort, on Cove creek, now in Scott county,
Virginia. He and his family remained in Blackmore's Fort for
a few days, when, the fort becoming very much crowded, Fletcher
built a small cabin, about thirty or forty yards back of the fort,
and moved into it. Shortly afterwards, Fletcher left his home to
go to a canebrake to get his horse, and, on returning, he found his
wife and two children tomahawked and scalped.

At this time the following forts were to be found on the waters
of the Holston and Clinch, so far as I can ascertain:

Thompson's Fort, located on the farm now owned by Huff Bros.

Edmiston's Fort, located on Snodgrass's farm at Lodi, Va.

Bryan's Fort, located at Kendrick's Mill.

Black's Fort, located at Abingdon, Virginia.

Cocke's Fort, located on Clyce Farm on Spring creek

Bledsoe's Fort, located —.

Shelby's Fort, located Bristol.

Eaton's Fort, located seven miles east of Long Island.

Fort Patrick Henry, located at Long Island.

Fort Lee, located, at Watauga.

Gillespie's Fort, located —.

Womack's Fort, located, near Bluff City, Tennessee.

Martin's Fort, located in Powell's Valley.

Priest's Fort, located in Powell's Valley.

Mumps' Fort, located in Powell's Valley.

Rye Cove Fort, located —.

Blackmore's Fort, located Cove creek.

Glade Hollow Fort, located in Russell county.

Hamlin's Fort, located near Castle's Woods.

Elk Garden Fort, located Russell county.

Fort Bowen, located at Maiden Spring.

Wynne's Fort, located Tazewell county, Wynne's branch.

Crab Orchard Fort, located Tazewell county.

At the same time that the Virginia settlements were suffering
from the invasion of the Indians, North Carolina, South Carolina
and Georgia, were experiencing like invasions. These four frontier
colonies decided to invade the Indian country and bring
them to their senses, by destroying their towns and chastising their
warriors. The Cherokee Indians occupied that vast country north
of the upper settlements in Georgia and west of the settlements in
North and South Carolina and Southwest Virginia. Their country
was divided into three sections, and the number of the warriors
in each was as follows:

       

Middle Settlements and Valleys	878
In Lower Towns	356
In Over-Hill Towns	757
Total	1,991

The Georgia militia, under the command of Colonel McBury and
Major Jack, invaded the Indian settlements on the Tugalo river,
routed the Indians and destroyed all their towns. The militia of
South Carolina, being about 1150 men, under the command of
General Williamson, in the early days of August, marched into
the Indian settlements and met and defeated, at Oconoree, Alexander
Cameron, who was in command of a large body of Indians
and white men. They burned a number of Indian towns and
returned to their homes. The militia of the State of North Carolina,
numbering about 2,000 men, under the command of General
Rutherford, marched into the middle settlements and valleys,
about the same time. Upon the approach of this army, the Indians
fled. Their towns were burned, to the number of thirty or forty,
and these troops returned to North Carolina. While the troops of
the States of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were
invading the middle settlements and lower towns of the Cherokees,
the Virginia authorities were making every preparation to invade
the over-hill towns.

On the 22d of July, 1776, the Virginia Council received a letter
from President Rutledge, of South Carolina, informing them that
hostilities had been commenced by the Cherokee Indians, and that
Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina had agreed to set
on foot an expedition against the lower towns and middle settlements
at once, and requesting the coöperation of Virginia, asking
that she carry war into the upper or over-hill towns. Thereupon,
the council directed Colonel Charles Lewis to march immediately,
with his battalion of minute men, to the frontiers. Upon the
receipt of this order Colonel Lewis immediately marched his battalion
of troops to the vicinity of New river in Fincastle county,
where it was ascertained that a number of his men were unfit for
an Indian expedition; whereupon, he was directed to discharge all
such and to recruit others in their stead.

On the first day of August, 1776, the Virginia Council ordered
that a commission issue appointing William Christian, Esq., colonel
of the first battalion and commander-in-chief of all the forces
raised for use in the expedition against the Cherokee Indians. It
was decided to send two battalions of troops upon this expedition,
which were officered as follows:

Commander-in-chief, William Christian.

Colonel, first battalion, William Christian.

Major, first battalion, Evan Shelby.

Surgeon, first battalion, Joseph Starke.

Colonel, second battalion, Charles Lewis.

Surgeon, second battalion, George Hart.

Captain James Thompson and his company formed the life
guard of Colonel Christian, the commander-in-chief, upon this
expedition.

The following captains, with their companies, accompanied this
expedition against the Cherokee Indians, so far as I can ascertain:

• Captain John Campbell,

• Captain William Russell,

• Captain Robert Boggs,

• Captain John Sevier,

• Captain James Thompson,

• Captain Isaac Bledsoe,

• Captain John Montgomery,

• Captain Daniel Smith,

• Captain Aaron Lewis,

• Captain Jacob Womack,

• Captain William Cocke,

• Captain Benjamin Gray,

• Captain William Preston,

• Captain Thomas Madison.

Captain Thomas Madison was appointed commissary and paymaster
upon this expedition.

But little is known of the participants in this expedition. I have,
therefore, gathered the names of the privates who took part in this
expedition, as far as I can obtain them. Their names are as
follows:

• Robert, Campbell,

• Thomas Hobbs, wounded.

• Thomas Berry, wounded.

• Christopher Watson,

• Matthew Allison,

• John Finley,

• Andrew Wallace,

• Humphrey Higgins,

• James Sawyers,

• William Crawford,

• James Buford,

• Joshua Renfro,

• William Hogart,

• Ephraim Dunlap,

• Michael Ocheltree,

• Benjamin Thomas,

• John Wood,

• Robert Finley,

• William Wills,

• Jacob Gardner,

• Samuel Ewing,

• George Caldwell,

• Jacob Early,

• James Berry,

• Henley Moore,

• Jacob Anderson,

• John Adair,

• James Robinson,

---

238





• William Hicks,

• David Getgood,

• Samuel Gay,

• Isaac Riddle,

• David Smith,

• Edward Ross,

• Gideon Farris,

• Jesse Womack,

• John Furnham,

• William Frogg,

• William Milum,

• Lance Woodward,

• Francis Katherine,

• Daniel Henderson,

• Amos Eaton,

• David Rounceval,

• Samuel Douglas, wounded;

• — Duncan, killed;

• George Berry, wounded;

• John Reburn,

• Abraham Crabtree,

• David McKenzie,

• Christopher Irwin,

• John Cochran,

• James Young,

• William Meade,

• David Wallace,

• Stephen Holston,

• Patrick Murphy,

• Isbon Talbert,

• James Campbell,

• Matthew Scott,

• Thomas Logwood,

• Robert Preston,

• Robert Campbell,

• Jacob Cogor,

• Daniel Kidd,

• John Goff,

• Cuthbert Jones,

• Samuel Campbell,

• William Markland,

• Joseph McCormick,

• James McCockle,

• Joseph Russell,

• Jonathan Martin,

• Gideon Morris,

• William Ingram,

• Robert Stewart,

• James Berry,

• Daniel Smith,

• William Haynes,

• John McClanahan,

• John Phelps,

• Abraham McClanahan,

• James Arnold,

• Hanrist Carlock,

• Andrew Little,

• Thomas Berry,

• John Latham,

• William Ramsay,

• James Bradley,

• Lambert Lane,

• John Rice,

• Joab Springer,

• Onsbey Carney,

• John Crane,

• Benjamin Drake,

• Benjamin Rice,

• David Irwin,

• George Miller,

• Thomas Ramsay,

• Thomas Fowler,

• Thomas Smith,

• George Coon,

• William Rice,

• Isaac Rounceval,

• James M'Farland,

• William Ross,

---

239





• Philip Love,

• David English,

• James Tuttle,

• Meredy Reins,

• Michael Gleaves,

• Christian Shultz,

• Samuel Ingram,

• James Newell,

• William Bennett,

• Littleton Brooks,

• Michael Rowland,

• William Mitchell,

• William Rice,

• Philip Williams,

• James Harris,

• Arthur Onsbey,

• William Nettles,

• John Harris, Jr.,

• William Lane,

• David Hunter,

• Michael Ohair,

• John Walker,

• Ebenezer Meads,

• Samuel Campbell,

• Francis Hamilton,

• James Daugherty,

• Frederick Fraily,

• William Edmiston,

• David Carson,

• James M'Cain,

• James Steel,

• Robert Gambell,

• Daniel M'Cormack,

• Jonathan Jennings,

• George Parker,

• William Peoples,

• Valentine Little,

• Samuel Fair,

• Alexander Butler,

• William Brown,

• Leonard Helm,

• James Greer,

• Samuel Ewin,

• Richard Thomas,

• Robert Stephenson,

• Robert M'Elheney,

• Isaac Thomas,

• John Craig,

• Adam Brausteter,

• Michael Dougherty,

• James M'Carthy,

• William Henson,

• Charles Rice,

• Jesse Henson,

• Jonathan Mulhey,

• Moses Winters,

• John Harris, Sr.,

• James Beets,

• John M'Farland,

• Nicholas Edwards,

• James Kelley,

• James Richardson,

• James Hamilton,

• George Newland,

• James Williams,

• Henry Whitner,

• Henry Richardson,

• John Muldrough,

• Michael Francisco,

• James Mason,

• Solomon Kendrick,

• William White,

• Charles Cocke,

• John Craig,

• Robert McNutt,

• Jacob Stearns,

• John Simpson,

• Thomas Price,

---

240





• Peter Haff,

• Henry Rice,

• William Lane,

• Philip Mulhey, Sr.,

• Lewis Crane,

• Isaac Lindsay,

• Samuel Martin,

• James M'Clern,

• James Smith,

• Lewis Whitner,

• William Calvert,

• Samuel Eason,

• James M'Donald,

• Samuel Montgomery,

• William Carr,

• John Gibson,

• James Walker,

• Philip Mulhey, Jr.,

• Andrew Cowan,

• John Adair,

• James Cameron,

• George Scott,

• Joseph Perrin

• Nicholas Edwards,

• John Hounshel,

• Adam Brausteter,

• James Doran,

• George Caldwell,

• Jeremiah Rush,

• Robert Hardwicke,

• Joseph M'Reynolds,

• Benjamin Logan,

• Robert Cowden,

• Andrew Irwin,

• John Gordon,

• Thomas Goldsby,

• Peter Turney,

• Anthony Bledsoe,

• John Walker,

• Evan Williams,

• Edward Piggett,

• Jacob Vance.

On the 26th day of July, 1776, the Honorable Cornelius Harnett,
president of the Council of Safety of North Carolina, informed
the Virginia Council that the Cherokees entertained the design of
cutting off the persons employed at the Lead Mines, whereupon, the
Council ordered William Preston, the county lieutenant of Fincastle
county, to raise, at once, a stockade fort for the defence of said
mines and to garrison the same with a force of twenty-five men.

On the first day of August, 1776, the Virginia Council gave the
following instructions to William Christian, commander-in-chief,
and Colonel Charles Lewis, in command of the second battalion,
of the forces in the expedition against the Cherokees.

"When your battalion and the battalion under Colonel Charles
Lewis are completed, you are to march with them and the forces
under the command of Colonel Russell, and such others as may join
you from Carolina, into the Cherokee country, if these forces shall
be judged sufficient for the purpose of severely chastising that cruel
and perfidious nation, which you are to do in a manner most likely
to put a stop to future insults and ravages and that may redound

most to the honor of American arms. If the Indians should be
reduced to the necessity of suing for peace, you must take care to
demand of them a sufficient number of their chiefs and warriors as
hostages, for the performance of the conditions you may require of
them. You must insist on their delivering up all prisoners who
may choose to leave them and on their giving up to justice all persons
amongst them who have been concerned in bringing on the
present war, particularly Stuart, Cameron and Gist, and all others
who have committed murder or robberies on our frontiers. You
may require any other terms which the situation of affairs may
point out and you may judge necessary for the safety and honor of
the Commonwealth. You must endeavor to communicate with the
commanding officer of the Carolina forces and coöperate with him,
making the attack as near the time of his as may be.

You are from time to time to write His Excellency the Governor,
giving him a full account of your operations, and requiring his
further instructions. Instructions to Colonel Charles Lewis of the
second battalion of minute men: You are to order the captains
under your command to march their companies to their respective
counties, then to discharge such of their men as are not properly
qualified to serve on an expedition against the Indians, and to raise
with all possible dispatch in their stead the best recruits that can
be found for the service, and, having so completed their companies,
to repair to the Big Island on Holston river in Fincastle county, the
place of general rendezvous."

And, on the 6th day of August, 1776, the Virginia Council
directed the keeper of the magazine to forward to Colonel William
Christian 1,000 pounds of powder, two flints to be used on this
expedition.

It required some time to organize and equip the forces intended
to proceed against the Cherokee Indians, which work was carried
on with the greatest possible expedition, until the first week in September.

FINCASTLE COUNTY ORGANIZED UNDER THE STATE
CONSTITUTION.

The first county court of Fincastle county, under the Constitution
of the Commonwealth of Virginia, assembled at the Lead Mines,
(now in Wythe county), on September 3, 1776, at which time the

following members of the county court and officers of Fincastle
county qualified by taking the oath prescribed by an ordinance of
the Virginia Convention, which oath was administered by James
McGavock and Arthur Campbell.

MEMBERS OF THE COUNTY COURT:

• William Preston,

• James McGavock,

• Arthur Campbell,

• John Montgomery,

• James McCorkle.

Sheriff, William Preston, appointed by the court.

Deputy Sheriff, William Sayers,

Deputy Clerk, Stephen Trigg,

County-Lieutenant, William Preston.

Attorney-at-Law, Harry Innes.

But little business of importance was transacted at this term of
the court, so far as the records that have been preserved show.

Thus began the first organized government under the Constitution
of Virginia, in Fincastle county.

In the month of September, 1776, that portion of the troops under
the command of Colonel William Russell began their march to the
Great Island of the Holston, at which time Anthony Bledsoe entered
two wagons in the public service, to convey the baggage and provision
of the troops. This circumstance is mentioned, for the reason
that this was the first time, as far as can be ascertained, that
a wagon was taken by the white man, as low down as the Long
Island in Holston.

When Colonel Russell reached the Long Island, he thought it
necessary to erect a fort in a field on the land of John Latham, on
Long Island, which fort was speedily erected and every preparation
made for the coming of the troops under command of Colonel Christian.
A company of militia was enrolled at Black's Fort (now
Abingdon), and taken into the pay of the government, to guard
the new fort, called Fort Patrick Henry, at Long Island, and to
guard the provision and baggage wagons going to and returning
from that fort. By the first day of October, Colonel Christian, with
his entire army of 2,000 men, including about 400 men from North
Carolina under command of Colonel Joseph Williams, Colonel Love
and Major Winston, arrived at Long Island. When the army had
proceeded about six miles beyond Long Island, Colonel Christian

halted his army and offered a reward of one hundred pounds to
any person or persons who would proceed to the Cherokee towns and
bring him a prisoner, in order to obtain intelligence of the motions
of the enemy; whereupon, Samuel Ewing, John Blankenship and
James McCall undertook the business, and in a few days entered
the town of Toquo, after crossing the Tennessee river, where they
met an Indian man on horseback, whom they permitted to escape,
lest it might occasion a discovery. They next visited the house of a
king's man by the name of Lowry, where they were refused admittance.
They then proceeded to the house of one Davis, from whom
they obtained intelligence of the designs of the enemy, when they
returned to the army and gave a true account of the situation of
affairs in the Indian country, according to their information, and
they were paid by the General Assembly of Virginia the one hundred
pounds, pursuant to the agreement of Colonel Christian.

Upon the receipt of this information, Colonel Christian and his
army proceeded, in a very cautious manner, on their march to the
Tennessee, always encamping, at night, behind breastworks, to prevent
a surprise.

Colonel John Sevier commanded, upon this expedition, a company
of horse, the rest of the army being infantry. Sixteen spies
were sent in advance of the army to the crossing of the French
Broad river, a point where the Indians said the white men should
never cross. After being several days out, Alexander Harlin came
into camp and told Colonel Christian that 3,000 Indian warriors
were awaiting his arrival at the crossing of the French Broad. Colonel
Christian permitted him to go through the camp and to observe
the strength of his army, when he was dismissed by Colonel Christian,
with direction to inform the Indians of his determination to
cross, not only the French Broad, but the Tennessee river, before he
returned. The army continued its march through the wilderness,
under direction of Isaac Thomas, the noted Indian trader and friend
of Nancy Ward, as pilot. When they approached the crossing of
the French Broad river, a king's man by the name of Fallin
approached the camp with a flag of truce, to which Colonel Christian
paid no attention, permitting Fallin to pass through the camp unmolested,
that he might observe the strength of Christian's army. It is
said that the Indians had gathered on the opposite side of this crossing
determined to defend its passage to the last extremity, when a

white man by the name of Starr, in the absence of Fallin, persuaded
the Indians that it was folly to resist the invasion of the whites.
In an earnest harangue, he told them it was folly to contend with
the white man. That the Great Spirit intended he should overrun
and occupy all the low lands which should be cultivated. To
the red man he had given the hills and forests, where he might subsist
on game without tilling the soil, which was work fit only for
women. To struggle with the white man was, therefore, to fight
with destiny. The only safety for the Indians lay in a speedy retreat
to their mountain fastnesses."[17]

From some cause the Indians disbanded and dispersed without
offering any resistance to the white men. Colonel Christian and
his army crossed the river and pressed rapidly forward to the Cherokee
towns along the Little Tennessee and Telico, every one of which
was destroyed, except Chota, the home of Nancy Ward, the beloved
woman of the Indian tribe and the friend of the white man; and
Colonel Christian destroyed all grain, cattle and other provisions
found in the nation. When Colonel Christian had destroyed the
towns and property of the Indians and had chastised them as far
as it was possible to do so, he sent out a number of men with flags
of truce, and requested a talk with the Chiefs. A number of them
came in immediately and proposed peace. Colonel Christian told
them he was willing to grant them peace, but not until the tribe was
fully represented, and, thereupon, Colonel Christian fixed a day for
the concluding of peace in the following May, at Long Island in
Holston river, and, in the meantime, hostilities were to cease except
as to two towns on the Tennessee river, where young Moore, who
had been captured at Watauga, had been burned at the stake; which
proposition was accepted. Colonel John Sevier, thereupon, visited
the towns in question and left the same in ashes.

Colonel Christian finding nothing further to engage his attention,
returned with his army to the Long Island in Holston river. This
campaign lasted three months, and but a single white man was
killed. This was a man whose name was Duncan, a soldier under
Captain Jacob Womack. He was killed in an engagement with the
Indians. This man left a wife (she was a cripple), and five small
children, to whom the General Assembly of Virginia, on June 16,
1777, allowed the sum of twenty pounds for their present relief and

the further sum of five pounds per annum, for the period of five
years, with directions to Anthony Bledsoe and William Cocke, to lay
out and expend the same for the support and maintenance of Elizabeth
Duncan and her children. Several white men were slightly
wounded by the Indians and by accident, upon this expedition,
among the number being Samuel Douglas, Thomas Berry and
George Berry, Jr.

Upon the return of the army to the Long Island of the Holston,
Colonel Christian reorganized the same, and, for the protection of
the frontiers, left six hundred men at the island under the command
of Colonel Evan Shelby and Major Anthony Bledsoe.

The General Assembly of Virginia directed the Governor and
Council to take such measures for the preservation and disposition
of the horses and provision belonging to the government and in use
upon this expedition as should appear to be most proper and conducive
to the interest of the country. And, by the same act, the
Governor and Council were directed to give instructions to the commanding
officer of the army destined against the Cherokees, to
take such steps, at the end of the campaign, as were thought necessary
for the future safety and protection of the southwestern frontier
of this State. Whereupon the Governor and Council of Virginia
directed Captain Thomas Madison to take the necessary steps to collect
all the cattle and horses on hand upon the return of the army
from this expedition, and to take care of them, whereupon Captain
Madison employed:

• William Carmack,

• Stephen Richards,

• John Fulkerson,

• Andrew Greer,

• John Nash,

• Peter Looney,

• John Cox,

• Jonathan Drake,

• Henry Hickey,

• Hugh Blair,

• John Delaney,

• Matthew Dean,

• Cornelius Carmack,

• Joseph Greer,

• Samuel Looney,

• William McBroom,

• John Carmack,

• Ezekiel Smith,

• Isaac Drake,

• Benjamin Drake,

to herd and take care of the country cattle, from the 13th day of
November, 1776, to the 11th day of June, 1777. And Colonel
Christian, pursuant to the directions of the Governor and Council,
stationed the six hundred men as above detailed at Long Island,

and directed Captain Joseph Martin to proceed to the Rye Cove
Fort, about fifty miles from North Fork of the Clinch river, with
eighty men. The rest of the army were mustered out of service.
Captain Martin immediately began the march to the Rye Cove.
Upon this march he had to pass through a very dangerous gap,
called Little Moccasin, where the trail went through a very narrow
and deep gorge of the mountain and where the Indians had
killed a great many white people. When Captain Martin began
the march through the gap, he had his men in fine order and
strung out in single file. Just as the head of the column
emerged from the narrow defile, the whole column was fired upon
by Indians from the top of the ridge, where they were strung out
in a line as long as Captain Martin's. As soon as the Indians
fired, they ran off, having failed to kill any of Martin's men
But one man, James Bunch, a member of Martin's company,
had five balls shot through his flesh, whereby he was rendered
incapable of getting a livelihood by labor, and was allowed by
the General Assembly of Virginia thirty pounds for his present
relief and half pay as a soldier for three years.

The Indians having all fled, Captain Martin proceeded to Rye
Cove, where he remained until the first of May, 1777, when he
was ordered back to the Long Island, where he remained until
the treaty of peace was concluded between the Indians and the
whites on July the first.

In December of the year 1776, the commanding officer at
Fort Patrick Henry dispatched Samuel Newell and another person
to the Cherokee town for the Indian chief, the Raven of
Chote. Upon their return trip they were accompanied by the
Indian chief.

A short time thereafter, in the month of January, 1777,
Samuel Newell was again ordered to the Indian town, Chote,
with letters in regard to a family that had been murdered near
Fort Patrick Henry. While on his way to the town of Toquo,
he was tomahawked by the Indians and scalped, and soon thereafter
died in the town of Chote. His horse, gun, saddle and
bridle, saddle-bags and clothes were carried off by the Indians,
who murdered him.

A number of the citizens of Fincastle county petitioned the
General Assembly of Virginia for compensation for pasturage

taken and the provisions used by Colonel Christian upon this
expedition, among the number so petitioning being

• Amos Eaton,

• James Kincannon

• David Getgood,

• John Beatie,

• William Sayers,

• Ephraim Dunlop,

• John Latham,

• Evan Shelby,

• Abel Richardson,

• James McGavock,

• James Aylett,

• Robert Barnett,

• William Cocke,

The General Assembly of Virginia at its fall session in 1776,
allowed Isaac Thomas, the faithful friend of the white settlers,
one hundred pounds as a reward for the services he had rendered
the settlers by giving them information of the intended incursions
of the Indians, and paid him for the stock and property
lost at the time of the outbreak of the Indian war.

The Governor and Council of Virginia directed that for the
purpose of concluding a treaty of peace between the Indians and
the Commonwealth of Virginia a convention should be held at
the Long Island of Holston, in the month of May, 1777, and
appointed Colonel William Christian, Colonel William Preston
and Major Evan Shelby to act as the Virginia commissioners at
said convention. The Governor and Council of North Carolina
appointed Waightstill Avery, Joseph Winston and Robert
Lanier, commissioners upon the part of North Carolina at said
convention. The commissioners of the two States met the Indian
chiefs, who had been assembled through the efforts of Nathaniel
Gist, at the Long Island in May, 1777, and drafted a treaty,
which treaty was submitted to the Governor and Council of
Virginia on May 28, 1777, at which time the Council entered
the following orders:

"Having referred to the Governor of this board to direct a
treaty begun with the Cherokee Indians in such manner as they
think best,

"Resolved, That the Governor be desired to confer with the
Cherokee chiefs and warriors, from time to time during their
said meeting, on the subject of all disputes now subsisting
between them and this State, and in regard to the treaty of peace
now under consideration, and if he receive any proposals to

make a good and proper answer to them, preparatory to completion,
the conference to be held at the Great Island on two
days next month, and this board will attend at such conference
as may be appointed, and that Dr. Walker and Colonel Christian
be desired to provide from the public store, or, in their place,
proper presents to be made to the Indians now here and consider
what is necessary to provide for the Indians at the next meeting
at the Great Island.

"Adjourned at 10 o'clock.

• "John Page,

• "Dudley Diggs,

• "John Blair,

• Tho. Walker,

• Nathaniel Harrison,

• David Jamison,

• "Bartho Dandridge.

"Colonel William Christian, one of the commissioners appointed
on behalf of this State to form a treaty of peace with
the Cherokee Indians, having attended this board with the proceedings
of himself and the other commissioners at a treaty held
at the Great Island, in consequence of their former instructions,
upon considering the same the board entirely approved thereof,
and think it necessary that the same should be laid before the
General Assembly, which the Governor is desired to do, and Colonel
William Christian having also informed the board that
several of the chiefs and warriors of said nation of Indians will
accompany him to Williamsburg, resolved that they be received
and treated in the most friendly manner and furnished with all
necessaries until the General Assembly shall give further directions
in the matter."

This treaty was not concluded until the first day of July, 1777.
By this treaty a new boundary line was established between the
settlers and the Indians. The boundaries as fixed by this treaty
extended as far down as the mouth of Cloud's creek. This treaty
was signed by all the Indian chiefs except Dragging Canoe, who
was wounded at the battle of Long Island Flats. He said "that he
would hold fast to the talks of Cameron the British agent and
continue the war as before." While the treaty was being negotiated
two men were murdered on the Clinch river by Dragging
Canoe and some of his men, and conduct of this character was
continued for many years on the part of Dragging Canoe and the
Chickamauga Indians.

While this treaty was being negotiated a great many Indians,
with their squaws and children, had collected and were quartered
in the island, surrounded by a guard to prevent improper intercourse
with the whites, but, notwithstanding this precaution,
some abandoned fellow shot across the river and killed an Indian.
This produced great confusion; the Indians thought they were
betrayed and prepared to fly, and it was with much exertion that
the officers and commissioners pacified and convinced them that
such was not the fact. Afterwards, when the Council met, the
Raven opened the conference on the part of his people by a speech
in which he reverted to the case of the murdered Indian. He
said, "lest that unhappy affair should disturb the harmony and
sincerity that ought to exist at that time between the white and
red brethren, each party ought to view it as having happened so
long ago, that if, when the Indian was buried, an acorn had been
thrown into his grave, it would have sprouted and grown and
become a lofty spreading oak, sufficiently large for them to sit
under its shade and hold their talk.

This speech was thought by many to be equal to anything in
the celebrated speech of Logan.

From the fall of 1775 to the close of the Revolutionary war,
the settlers in this part of Virginia were compelled to occupy
their forts from early spring until late in the fall, as their settlements
were constantly visited by bands of Cherokee and Shawnese
Indians sent upon them by the British agents, but the settlements
enjoyed perfect freedom from the Indians from the first
appearance of winter until the return of spring. During this
interval of time the Indians were deterred from making raids
into the settlements, by the great danger of detection in consequence
of the nakedness of the trees, by the danger of being
traced by their tracks in the snow, and by the suffering produced
by exposure to cold while traveling and lying in wait. The
settlers took advantage of this immunity from attacks by the
Indians, cleared their lands, built their houses and made every
possible preparation for their crops during the coming season.

During the summer of 1776, elections were held throughout
the Commonwealth for members of the House of Delegates and
the Senate under the new Constitution. At this election the following
persons were elected members of the House of Delegates

from Fincastle county: Arthur Campbell and William Russell.
And the member of the Senate from Botetourt and Fincastle,
that being the Tenth Senatorial District, was Colonel William
Christian.

By an ordinance of the convention of 1775, adopted July 15,
1775, the Western District of Virginia, of which Fincastle county
was a part, was required to furnish sixty-eight expert riflemen
for the regular service.

And by an Act of the Assembly of Virginia adopted in October,
1776, a requisition of seventy-four men was made upon the
authorities of Fincastle county to be officered by a captain appointed
by the Governor.

A First Lieutenant,

A Second Lieutenant,

and an Ensign.

The officers of the company organized in Fincastle county for
the continental service in the year 1776 cannot be ascertained,
save in one instance.

John Buchanan was lieutenant of this company at its organization,
and was a lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment in the fall
of the same year, and remained in the service until killed in the
year 1777.

At a meeting of the General Assembly of Virginia, in the fall
of the year 1776, a petition from the inhabitants of the western
parts of Fincastle county was presented to the House and read;
setting forth that they became adventurers in that part of the
county in the year 1774, and were obliged by the incursions of
the Indians to abandon their settlements, after having discovered
and explored the country; that others afterwards became adventurers
and claimed the lands by warrants from Lord Dunmore,
under the royal proclamation of 1763, and a company of men
from North Carolina purchased, or pretended to purchase, from
the Cherokee Indians, all the lands from the southernmost waters
of Cumberland river to the banks of the Louisa river, including
the lands in Powell's Valley, by virtue of which purchase they
styled themselves the absolute proprietors of the new independent
Transylvania; that officers, both civil and military, are appointed,
writs of election issued, assemblies convened, a land office opened,
and lands sold at an exorbitant price, and a system of policy

introduced, not agreeing with that lately adopted by the late
United Colonies, and that they have the greatest reason to question
the validity of the purchase aforesaid; that they consider
themselves and the said lands to be in the State of Virginia,
whose legislature they acknowledge, and to which State they conceive
they justly belong; that having assembled together after
due notice, they elected two members to represent them in this
House, and hope they may be received as their delegates; that
they are ready and willing, to the utmost of their abilities, to
assist in the support of the present laudable cause, by contributing
their quota of men and moneys, and that in order to preserve
good order, they had, as was done in West Augusta, elected
a committee consisting of twenty-one members, and cheerfully
submitted the case to the House. This petition of the inhabitants
of that part of Fincastle county, now included within the
State of Kentucky, was accompanied by petitions from nearly
all the settlers on the Holston and Clinch rivers, and was presented
to the General Assembly on the eighth day of October,
1776, and the General Assembly on Friday, October 11, 1776,
adopted the following resolutions:

"Resolved, That the inhabitants of the western part of Fincastle
county not being allowed by the law a distinct representation
in the General Assembly, the delegates chosen to represent them
in this House cannot be admitted. At the same time the committee
are of opinion, that the said inhabitants ought to be
formed into a distinct county, in order to entitle them to such
representation and other benefits of government."

The petition for the division of Fincastle county was referred
to a committee of which Carter Braxton was chairman, which
committee, through its chairman, on Tuesday, October 15, 1776,
presented a bill for the division of the county of Fincastle into
two distinct counties, which bill was read the first time and
ordered to be read the second time. On Wednesday, October 16,
1776, this bill was read a second time and was committed to
Thomas Jefferson and the members from Augusta and Botetourt
counties, and on October 17, 1776, Mr. Jefferson, from the committee
to whom the bill for dividing the county of Fincastle into
two distinct counties was committed, reported that the committee
had gone through the bill and made several amendments

thereto, which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in
at the clerk's table, where the same was again twice read and
agreed to and ordered to be engrossed and read a third time.
And, on Wednesday, October 30, 1776, this bill was ordered to be
committed to Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Simms, Mr. Bullitt and the
members from Fincastle, Augusta and Botetourt counties, and on
November 19, 1776, Mr. Mason and the members from Frederick,
Hampshire and Bedford counties were added to the committee,
to whom the bill for dividing the county of Fincastle into two
distinct counties was committed. And on Monday, November
26, 1776, the bill for dividing the county of Fincastle into three
distinct counties was read a third time, and it was:

"Resolved, That the said bill do pass, and that the title be, an
Act for dividing the county of Fincastle into two distinct counties,
and the parish of Botetourt into four distinct parishes, and
Mr. Arthur Campbell was appointed to carry the same to the
Senate for their concurrence.

In the Senate, several amendments were proposed to the bill
passed by the House, which amendments, being communicated
to the House, were disagreed to, whereupon, the Senate communicated
with the House, through Mr. Ellzey, as follows:

"Mr. Speaker:

"The Senate do insist on the amendments by them proposed
to the bill entitled, An Act for Dividing the County of Fincastle
into three distinct counties, and the parish of Botetourt into four
distinct parishes. And upon the amendments being again read,
it was, by the House of Delegates,

"Resolved, That this House do recede from their disagreement
to the said amendments proposed by the Senate, which
action of the House having been communicated to the Senate, the
Senate insisted on the amendments proposed to the bill by them,
whereupon, the Virginia House of Delegates, on December 6,
1776,

"Resolved, That this House do insist on the disagreement to
said amendments, and that Mr. Campbell do acquaint the Senate
therewith."

Which resolution being communicated to the Senate, the Act
for the dividing of the county of Fincastle into three distinct
counties, and the parish of Botetourt into four distinct parishes,

was adopted, the Senate having receded from the amendments
proposed by them.

This act provided that from and after the 31st day of December,
1776, the county of Fincastle shall be divided into three
distinct counties, to be known by the names of Montgomery,
Washington and Kentucky.

Thus ends the history of Fincastle county, in so far as the
history of that county forms a part of the history of Washington
county.