LXIII.
LXIII. SIR JEFFREY AMHERST.
LXIII. Governor-in-Chief.
LXIII. 1763-1768.
Perhaps none of the Colonial Governors appears in the
list of Virginia's executives with such a distinguished military
record as Sir Jeffrey Amherst; none certainly had his
dreams of ambition more fully realized, and none reaped in
ampler measure the honorable rewards of a grateful country.
He had the honor of laying Canada at the foot of the British
throne, and of destroying French supremacy in this coveted
possession. Lord Jeffrey Amherst was descended from an
ancient Kentish family near Seven-Oaks, where he was born
in 1717. He early devoted himself to the profession of Arms,
receiving an Ensign's commission when only fourteen years
of age. When twenty-five years old, he acted as aide-decamp
to Lord Ligonier in the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy,
and afterwards served on the staff of the Duke of
Cumberland at Laffield and Hastenbeck. In 1756 he
received the colonelcy of a regiment, and was appointed
Major-General, and in the summer of 1758 commanded the
expedition against Louisburg, which, together with the
whole island of Cape Breton, surrendered to his arms. The
capture of Fort du Quesne, Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Quebec
in due time followed, and in 1760, the whole of Canada
being reduced, General Amherst received for his share in
these exploits the thanks of the House of Commons and the
Order of the Bath. In 1763, he was made Governor of Virginia;
in 1770, Governor of the Isle of Jersey, and in 1772,
Lieutenant-General of the ordnance, and officiating Commander-in-Chief
of the English forces. Besides these and
several other military honors, he was in 1776 created a peer,
by the title of Baron Amherst of Holmesdale, in the County
of Kent. On the breaking up of the "North" administration,
Lord Amherst was removed from the commandership-in-chief
and the lieutenancy of the ordnance, but in 1787
received another patent of peerage as Baron Amherst of Montreal,
with remainder to his nephew, William Pitt Amherst.
On the staff being reäppointed in 1793, he was once more
called upon to act as Commander-in-Chief. In 1795 he
resigned the commandership-in-chief to the Duke of York,
and in 1796 received the rank of Field Marshal. He died in
1797, in the eighty-first year of his age.
Lord Amherst was twice married, but left no children. He
was made Governor of Virginia in 1763, but when, in 1768, it
was desired by the Ministry that he should reside in the Colony,
he resigned the office and was succeeded in July, by Lord
Botetourt. Amherst County, Virginia, was named in honor of
Lord Amherst. He is represented as a man of collected and
temperate mind, not given to parade or ostentation, a strict
officer, yet the soldier's friend. It is also written in history
that "Sir Jeffrey Amherst, in his advice to the Ministry, strenuously
opposed the repeal of the Stamp Act." How different
was it with the noble Pitt! In this present age of the glory and
power of America, when the public mind turns to commemorate
the virtues and valor and talents of her earliest and best friends,
should William Pitt be quite forgotten? Foreseeing the separation
of the American Colonies from the mother country, if
the arbitrary measures then adopted should be continued, he
advocated in the House of Commons, especially in 1766, a
conciliatory policy and the repeal of the Stamp Act. In the
House of Lords, as Lord Chatham, he continued to recommend
the abandonment of the coercive measures employed
against America, particularly in 1774; but his warning was
rejected, and in 1776 the Colonies declared themselves independent.
He still, however, labored in the cause, and used
all his efforts to induce the government to effect a reconciliation
with the American states; and as he was speaking with
his accustomed energy on the subject in the House of Lords,
April 7, 1778, he fell. He died on the 11th of the following
month. Who that has followed his burning appeals for America
can doubt, if he had lived on
this side of the Atlantic, that
his name today would be a household word, as deeply reverenced
as any of the Revolutionary heroes? With deep emotion
do we read these words of one of England's most illustrious
statesmen, orators, and patriots, and gratefully remember
him, who turned from his high estate of power and
grandeur to become a party in the distant colonial struggle:
"On a question that may mortally wound the freedom of three millions
of virtuous and brave subjects beyond the Atlantic Ocean, I cannot
be silent. America, being neither really nor virtually represented in
Westminster, cannot be held legally, or constitutionally, or reasonably,
subject to obedience to any money bill of this kingdom. The Colonies
are equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind,
and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen; equally bound by the laws,
and equally participating of the Constitution of this free country." *
"Taxation is no part of the governing power. The taxes are a
voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone. In an American tax,
what do we do? We, your Majesty's Commons of Great Britain, give and
grant to your Majesty—what? Our own property? No. We give and
grant to your Majesty the property of your Majesty's Commons in
America. It is an absurdity in terms." * * * * * *
"The Commons of America, represented in their several Assemblies,
have ever been in possession of the exercise of this, their Constitutional right,
of giving and granting their own money. They would have been slaves
if they had not enjoyed it." * * * * * * * *
"I never shall own the justice of taxing America internally, until she
enjoys the right of representation." * * * * * *
"No man more highly esteems and honors the British troops than I
do; I know their virtues and their valor; I know they can achieve anything
but impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of British
America is an impossibility. You cannot, my lords, you cannot conquer
America. * * * * * * * * * * *
"You may swell every expense, and accumulate every assistance, and
extend your traffic to the shambles of every German despot; your
attempts will be forever vain and impotent—doubly so, indeed, from this
mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates to an incurable resentment
the minds of your adversaries, to overrun them with the mercenary
sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the
rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman,
while a foreign troop remained in my country I never would lay
down my arms; no, never, never, never!"
He fought for the Colonies afar, upon the battle-field of
parliamentary debate, and in the fervor of his demand for
justice to the oppressed, glowing with thoughts that had for
years weighed heavy on his heart—he fell, all suddenly, into
the arms of death—but, from his pinnacle of fame, his dying
plea was for—
America! Macaulay thus describes him when
at the zenith of his power:
"The situation which Pitt occupied at the close of the reign of George
the Second was the most enviable ever occupied by any public man in
English history. He had conciliated the King; he domineered over the
House of Commons; he was adored by the people; he was admired by all
Europe. He was the first Englishman of his time, and he had made
England the first country in the world. The Great Commoner—the name
by which he was often designated—might look down with scorn on coronets
and garters. The nation was drunk with joy and pride. The Parliament
was as quiet as it had been under Pelham. The old party distinctions
were almost effaced; nor was their place yet supplied by distinctions of a
yet more important kind. A new generation of country squires and rectors
had arisen, who knew not the Stuarts. The Dissenters were tolerated;
the Catholics not cruelly persecuted; the Church was drowsy and indulgent.
The great civil and religious conflict which began at the Reformation
seemed to have terminated in universal repose. Whigs and Tories,
Churchmen and Puritans, spoke with equal reverence of the Constitution,
and with equal enthusiasm of the talents, virtues, and services of the
Minister."
And now that in this country, the Washington monument
towers all other shafts beyond; now that Virginia has raised
her triumphal memorial at Old Yorktown, and Vermont has
lifted her battle column at Bennington; now that Columbus
will be remembered in the greatest exhibition of the world's
progress ever seen, should America forget the noble Pitt,
he who defied kings and princes and the sweet voice of
popular applause, to tell the story of her wrongs, and who
planted his name on the side of her constitutional liberties?
"No, never, never, never!"
