LXVII.
LXVII. JOHN MURRAY.
(EARL DUNMORE.)
LXVII. Governor-in-Chief.
LXVII. July, 1771, to June, 1775.
Earl Dunmore had been appointed Governor of New
York, January, 1770, and of Virginia in July, 1771. He
was born in 1732, and was descended in the female line from
the royal house of Stuart. He succeeded to the peerage in
1756, and is described as a man of culture—this, indeed,
seems to be the only commendation which history accords
him.
The people of Virginia, conciliated by Lord Dunmore's
apparent friendliness, desired through their Assembly to
honor permanently his name, and that of his eldest son,
George, Lord Fincastle. By Acts passed February, 1772,
the Counties of Berkeley and Dunmore were created from
Frederick County, and the County of Fincastle, created from
the County of Botetourt. But as time went on, the relations
between the Governor and his people changed, and Dunmore
and Fincastle became extinct names in the list of Virginia
Counties. Dunmore was changed to Shenandoah, and
Fincastle was divided into Kentucky, Washington, and
Montgomery.
Bancroft describes Dunmore as a man who came to America
"to amass a fortune, and in his passion for sudden gain,
cared as little for the policy of the Ministers or his instructions
from the Crown, as for the rights of property, the
respective limits of jurisdiction of the Colonies, or their civil
and political privileges. To get money for himself was his
whole system." He became arbitrary in his rule in Virginia
—prorogued the House of Burgesses from time to time as it
suited his pleasure, until at last, a forgery of the paper currency
of the Colony compelled him to call the Assembly
together again, by proclamation, March 4, 1773.
An English armed revenue vessel having been burned in
Narragansett Bay, an Act of Parliament passed, making such
offences punishable with death, and ordering the accused to
be sent to England for trial. This was in direct violation of
Virginia's remonstrance in 1769, and thus was another torch
added to the fire of liberty which was spreading far and wide
over the continent.
During these dark and threatening days, some of the Virginia
patriots were in the habit of meeting together in the
evening, in a private room in the Old Ralegh Tavern at
Williamsburg. Here they laid their plans and here they
pledged a common vow to make their country free. Whether
that vow should become a reality, rested on Virginia. Her
Assembly came together on the 4th of March, 1773. Says
Bancroft:
"Its members had authentic information of the proceedings of the
Town of Boston, and public rumors had reached them of the commission
for inquiring into the affairs of Rhode Island. They had read and
approved of the answers which the Council and the House, of Massachusetts,
had made in January, to the speech of Hutchinson, their execrated
Governor. They formed themselves, therefore, into a committee of the
whole House, on the state of the Colony, and in that committee, Dabney
Carr, of Charlotte, a young statesman of brilliant genius as well as fervid
patriotism, moved a series of Resolutions for a system of intercolonial
committees of correspondence. His plan included a thorough union of
Councils throughout the continent. If it should succeed and be adopted
by the other Colonies, America would stand before the world as a Confederacy.
The measure was supported by Richard Henry Lee, with an
eloquence which never passed away from the memory of his hearers; by
Patrick Henry, with more commanding majesty. The Assembly did
what greatness of mind counselled; and they did it quietly, as if it were
but natural to them to act with magnanimity. On Friday, the twelfth of
March, the Resolutions were reported to the House and unanimously
adopted. They appointed their committee, on which appear the names
of Bland and Lee, of Henry and Carr and Jefferson. Their resolves were
sent to every Colony, with a request that each would appoint its Committee
to communicate from time to time with that of Virginia. In this
manner, Virginia laid the foundation of our Union." * * *
"The associates of Dabney Carr were spared for further service to
humanity. He, himself, was cut down in his prime, and passed away
like a shadow; but the name of him who, at this moment of crisis,
beckoned the Colonies onward to union, must not perish from the memory
of his countrymen."
Richard Henry Lee is said by others to have been the author
of the plan of inter-colonial committees of correspondence,
and that it was in the Old Ralegh Tavern agreed that Carr
should present the matter to the House of Burgesses. On the
day after the dissolution of this Assembly the Committee appointed
by it addressed a circular to the other American Colonies.
Thus, steadily were the battalions of freedom forming!
"Glorious Virginia," cried the Assembly of Rhode Island,
glowing with admiration for "its patriotic and illustrious
House of Burgesses," and this brave little New England
Colony was the first to follow the example of the Old Dominion,
"by electing its committee and sending its circular
through the land."
We now enter upon a period of misrule which soon eventuated
in the activities of a Revolution. In 1773, the last
laws were passed in Virginia under the colonial government.
In 1774, no laws were passed. At the Assembly which met
June 1, 1775, no laws were enacted. Governor Dunmore
dissolved on the 26th May, 1774, an Assembly, because the
House of Burgesses had by a resolution on the 24th of May,
set apart the 1st day of June (the day on which the Boston
Port Bill took effect) as a day of "fasting, humiliation, and
prayer," and ordered a sermon to be preached suitable to the
occasion. On the dissolution of the Assembly by Dunmore,
the Burgesses repaired immediately to the Ralegh
Tavern, and in the "Apollo" room adopted resolutions
against the use of tea and other imported commodities, and
recommended an annual Congress of representatives of the
Colonies. On the 29th of May, the Burgesses held a
meeting, at which Peyton Randolph presided, and they issued
a Circular calling an assembly of deputies to meet in
convention in Williamsburg, the 1st of August following.
This was the first public Revolutionary assemblage.
And now, in the midst of turmoil and distress at the
seat of government, the war-whoop of the savage was again
heard on the frontiers of the Colony. The white men
seem to have commenced the trouble, or rather to have punished
small offences of the Indians, by the spilling of blood.
This roused the tribes to fury and they wreaked their vengeance
on the frontier settlements. An army was raised and
placed under the command of General Lewis, who marched
to Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha River empties into
the Ohio. Here ensued a bloody battle. The Indians were
led on by a gigantic warrior named "Cornstalk," and they
fought with great desperation. When all seemed lost for the
Virginians, a reïnforcement arrived under Colonel Fleming,
who, adopting the Indian method of shooting from behind
trees, turned the tide of battle, which finally resulted in a
complete, though dearly bought, victory. The Virginians
lost 140 men, among whom were many valuable officers.
Governor Dunmore, who had promised to join General
Lewis, took another direction, and some eighty miles distant,
made his camp. Not to his prowess as a soldier, but to his
position as Governor, do we read that "Lord Dunmore
secured a treaty of peace with the savages." Dunmore now
concluded a treaty with the various Indian tribes, and at this
pacification the celebrated speech of Logan, the Cayuga
chief, was delivered. The circumstances relating to this
subject are, according to Thomas Jefferson, as follows:
"In the spring of the year 1774, a robbery was committed by some
Indians on certain land-adventurers on the river Ohio. The whites in
that quarter, according to their custom, undertook to punish this outrage
in a summary way. Captain Michael Cresap, and a certain Daniel Greathouse,
leading on these parties, surprised, at different times, travelling
and hunting parties of the Indians, having their women and children with
them, and murdered many. Among these were unfortunately the family
of Logan, a chief celebrated in peace and war, and long distinguished as
a friend of the whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance.
He accordingly signalized himself in the war which ensued. In the
autumn of the same year a decisive battle was fought at the mouth of the
Great Kahaway, between the collected forces of the Shawanese, Mingoes
and Delawares, and a detachment of the Virginia militia. The Indians
were defeated and sued for peace. Logan, however, disdained to be seen
among the suppliants. But, lest the sincerity of a treaty should be distrusted,
from which so distinguished a chief absented himself, he sent, by
a messenger, the following speech to be delivered to Lord Dunmore:
" `I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin
hungry and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and
he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war,
Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my
love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said,
"Logan is the friend of white men." I had even thought to have lived
with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last
spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of
Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop
of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for
revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my
vengeance; for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace; but do not
harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear.
He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for
Logan? Not one.' "
Early in 1775, the people of Virginia called another Convention,
which met in Richmond on the 20th March. Upon
an eminence which is now called "Church Hill," stands an
old wooden church, and it was in this "St. John's Church"
that the Convention met to deliberate upon the situation.
Here Patrick Henry voiced the people's hopes and sounded
that tocsin of liberty whose peals resounded over all the land.
Lord Dunmore, alarmed at the threatening aspect of affairs,
caused the removal of the powder from the magazine at Williamsburg
to an English ship. The people flew to arms
under Patrick Henry, and Dunmore was forced to pay for the
powder. On the 6th of June he fled with his family and
took refuge on board the Fowey, a man-of-war. What a
contrast does Lord Dunmore's exit from Virginia, present to
his entrance, only three short years before! Behold him on
his coming, received with expressions of warmth and affection
by the Assembly; later, two counties called in honor of
his family; a daughter born in the Colony and named "Virginia,"
formally adopted by the Assembly as the Daughter
of the Dominion, with provision for her life support; and
then behold Lord Dunmore, seeking to deprive Virginians of
the means of self-defence, and in the dead of night removing
all the powder from the magazine in Williamsburg; behold
him fleeing in conscious guilt to the
Fowey; behold him
plundering the inhabitants along the James and York Rivers
and carrying off their slaves; behold him making battle at
Great Bridge, and with a last, fell stroke, firing and destroying
Norfolk, the most flourishing town in Virginia! History
records these painful facts, and it is wise for the descendants
of the Revolutionary Fathers to remember through what
deep seas of suffering these heroes struggled to their freedom!
Lord Dunmore returned to England in the latter part of the
summer of 1776, and in 1786 was appointed Governor of Bermuda.
He died at Ramsgate, England, in May, 1809.
