LXXII.
LXXII. THOMAS NELSON, JR.
LXXII. Governor.
LXXII. June 12, 1781, to November 30, 1781.
It surely demanded the heart of a hero to assume charge
of affairs in Virginia at the critical period when Thomas
Nelson consented to become her Governor. The tide of war
had rolled from North to South, and now was rolling back
again to engulf, if possible, the revolutionary cause upon the
soil of the Old Dominion. The British successes in the
North had been followed by more decided victories in the
South, and the conquest of the whole country seemed to be
but a question of time to the elated English. Virginia, ever
regarded as the centre of the Revolution, was now selected
as the most salient point at which to bring the whole matter
to a conclusion. So, by sea and land, the British began to
concentrate their forces about her devoted territory. In the
midst of all the discouragements which environed the Revolutionists,
one gleam of light shone on the darkness—it
flashed from the treaty of February 6, 1778, with France.
The surrender in 1777 of Burgoyne's whole army to General
Gates at Saratoga, had so advanced the cause of America in
the sympathies of France, that her wavering policy then
became fixed, and on the 6th February, Louis XVI. entered
into treaties of amity and commerce, and of alliance with the
United States, on the footing of the most perfect equality and
reciprocity. This alliance under Providence was certainly
one of the great causes of the final triumph at Yorktown,
and of the permanent establishment of American independence.
And now, in 1781, when hemmed in on every side,
the hope which sustained the patriots came mostly from their
French allies. The British were closing in upon Virginia,
and desperate seemed the cause of liberty. It was in such
an hour as this that Thomas Nelson assumed the rudder of
the ship of state, to guide it through the gathering storm, not
knowing what the end might be.
Thomas Nelson, junior, was born in York County, Virginia,
December 26, 1738, and died in Hanover County,
Virginia, January 4, 1789. But between "the coming" and
"the going" he wrought a noble work, and left his footprints
in the sands of time. He was the son of William Nelson,
for many years President of the Colonial Council of Virginia,
and at one time Acting Governor of the Colony, and
grandson of Thomas Nelson, the first of the name in Virginia.
This last Thomas Nelson, came from Penriff, near the border
of Scotland, and was called "Scotch Tom" on that account.
Thomas Nelson, the subject of this sketch, was early
placed by his father under the care of the Reverend Mr.
Yates, of Gloucester County, Virginia (afterwards President
of William and Mary College), in order to prepare
him for an English university. At the age of fourteen he
was sent to England, and was for some time at a preparatory
school of Dr. Newcome, at Hackney, and afterwards under
the special care and tutorship of Dr. Porteus. He graduated
with distinction from Trinity College, Cambridge, and after
an absence of seven years, he returned to Virginia. Being
just twenty-one years of age, he was elected to the House of
Burgesses on his voyage home, as an evidence of the esteem
in which his father was held, and of the hopes entertained of
the son.
In 1762 Thomas Nelson married Lucy Grymes, of Middlesex
County, Virginia, eldest daughter of Philip and Mary
Randolph Grymes; settled at Yorktown, and, being associated
with his father as a merchant, was in affluent private circumstances.
At his father's death he came into the possession
of a handsome patrimony.
Thomas Nelson early became a decided partisan in the
patriot cause, and rendered efficient services in the House of
Burgesses. He was a member of the revolutionary Conventions
of 1774 and 1775, and was appointed by the Convention
in July, 1775, Colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment, which
post he resigned on being elected to the Continental Congress
in the same year. He was again called to administer in
home affairs, and was a prominent member of the Virginia
Convention of 1776, which met in May to frame a Constitution
for her government. Here he offered the Resolution instructing
the Virginia delegates in Congress to propose a Declaration
of Independence. Having been elected one of these
delegates, he had the satisfaction of seeing the hopes and
wishes of his people embodied in a crystallized form, and with
unfaltering faith in its declarations, set his seal to the historic
instrument, July 4, 1776. In the following year he was compelled,
through indisposition, to resign his seat in Congress.
In August, 1777, on the approach of the British fleet
within the capes of Virginia, Thomas Nelson was appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the state forces, and soon after, in
response to an appeal from Congress, he raised a troop of cavalry
which he led to Philadelphia, the point which had now
become the theatre of war. During this campaign around
Philadelphia, an illustration of the devoted heroism of the colonists
may be seen in the following incident related by General
Henry Lee, in his "Memoirs of the War in the Southern
Department of the United States." In speaking of the battle
of Germantown and the scene at Chew's house, he pays a
handsome tribute to young Captain Matthew Smith, a son of
John Smith and Mary Jaquelin, of "Shooter's Hill," Middlesex
County, Virginia, and a descendant of some of the earliest
and most distinguished settlers of that Colony. General
Lee says:
"The halt at Chew's house was taken after some deliberation, as the
writer well recollects, being for that day in the suite of the Commander-in-Chief,
with a troop of dragoons charged with duty near his person.
Many junior officers, at the head of whom were Colonel Pickering and
Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, urged with zeal the propriety of passing
the house. Brigadier Knox opposed the measure with earnestness, denouncing
the idea of leaving an armed force in the rear, and being always
high in the General's confidence, his opinion prevailed. A flag of truce
was instantly dispatched to summon the British Colonel, while appropriate
bodies of troops were prepared to compel his submission. As had been
suggested, the summons was disregarded by Musgrave, who persevered in
his judicious defence, and Captain Smith, of the First Virginia Regiment,
Deputy Adjutant-General, bearing the flag, fell with it waving in his
hands. Thirsting after military fame, and devoted to his country, he
obeyed with joy the perilous order, advanced through the deadly fire
pouring from the house, presuming that the sanctity of his flag would
at length be respected; vain expectation! He fell before his admiring
comrades, a victim to this generous presumption."
The danger from Sir William Howe's movements against
the Colonists having been averted, Thomas Nelson's corps
was disbanded, and he resumed his duties as a member of the
General Assembly of Virginia. Here, he strongly opposed
the proposition to sequestrate British property, on the ground
that it would be an unjust retaliation of public wrongs on private
individuals. In February, 1779, Nelson again took his
seat in Congress, but was soon obliged by illness to resign.
In May, 1779, he was suddenly called upon to organize the
militia of his State, to repel an invasion of Virginia by the
enemy, and when early in June, 1780, Virginia resolved to
borrow $2,000,000 to be deposited in the Continental Treasury
by the middle of the month, Thomas Nelson, in that period
of despondency and distrust, did, by his own personal efforts
and on his own personal security, raise a large portion of the
amount. This loan was in obedience to a call from Congress
for contributions to provide for the French fleet and armament.
General Nelson, also, about this time, advanced
money to pay two Virginia Regiments ordered to the South,
whose arrears were not discharged. Thus were his ample
fortune and credit freely and liberally expended for the public
good.
And now, at a period almost of despair, he took the helm
of State, being chosen by the people, Governor of Virginia,
June 12, 1781, and in person, with the militia he could summon,
opposed, with sleepless vigilance and wonderful military
sagacity, the enemy invading his State. It was in no small
degree owing to his exertions that the American Army was
kept together during its stay in Virginia. Participating in
the siege of Yorktown, as Commander of the Virginia militia,
and having charge of the first battery which opened upon the
enemy in the town, he pointed the first gun at his own
dwelling, offering to the gunner a reward of five guineas for
every shot fired into it. This house had been taken by Lord
Cornwallis as his headquarters.
During these days of trial and of peril, Governor Nelson
had been compelled to assume dictatorial powers. Obeying
the higher law of stern necessity, he did not hesitate to step
beyond the written code, assuming here, as everywhere, any
perilous consequence to himself, if thereby he could save his
country. For these assumed powers, he was, however, fully
indemnified by the following Act of Assembly:
CHAPTER XXIV.[492]
AN ACT To indemnify Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, late Governor
of this Commonwealth, and to legalize certain Acts of his administration.
I. Whereas upon an examination it appears, that previous to, and
during the siege of York, Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, late Governor
of this Commonwealth, was compelled by the peculiar circumstances of
the State and Army, to perform many acts of government without the
advice of the Council of State, for the purpose of procuring subsistence
and other necessaries for the allied Army under the command of his
Excellency, General Washington:
II. Be it enacted, That all such acts of government, evidently productive
of general good and warranted by necessity, be judged and held
of the same validity, and the like proceedings be had on them as if they
had been executed by and with the advice of Council, and with all the
formalities prescribed by law.
III. And be it farther enacted, That the said Thomas Nelson, Junior,
Esquire, be, and he hereby is, in the fullest manner, indemnified and
exonerated from all penalties and damages which might have accrued to
him from the same.
It seemed a fitting recompense, that General Nelson
should have the honor of being Governor of Virginia when
Cornwallis surrendered, October 19, 1781; when upon Virginia
soil the British gave up 7,247 regular troops, 840
sailors, and 106 guns; when beneath Virginia skies the
broken sword of the Commander of the English Army sealed
the independence of America. Owing to failing health Governor
Nelson was now compelled to retire from public duty;
not, however, until he had seen the morning break upon the
cause he loved so well. He resigned the office of Governor
in November, 1781, and passed the remnant of his days in
the retirement of a country home.
General Nelson had entered upon the Revolutionary War
a rich man; he came out of it so poor, that after a few years
had passed away, and he was laid in the old graveyard at
York, without a headstone or slab to mark the spot, his property,
save the old house in deserted York, and some broom-straw
fields in Hanover, was put up at public sale to pay
the debts contracted in his country's cause. Even the old
family Bible with the births and baptisms of the family,
with the little table on which it stood, was sold on that
occasion.
When the illustrious Virginia leaders of this period pass in
review before us, we can dwell in admiration upon the lofty
principles, the varied talents, the prudence and the courage
which made "The Father of his Country" great; our souls
can glow and burn when we remember the services of Patrick
Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton,
George Wythe, George Mason, and Richard Henry
Lee; but the name of Thomas Nelson challenges a tenderer
recollection. The tear will spring as we behold that grand
old man, the embodiment of Christian and patriotic virtue,
resting from his labors in the evening of life. We see him
crowned, 'tis true, with the love and blessing of his emancipated
country, but we behold him bent beneath the weary
disease of asthma, contracted in the soldier's camp, having
the gaunt figure of poverty as the companion of his fireside,
and the hungry spectre of debt as his constant shadow. He
died at his seat, "Offley," a small wooden house in Hanover
County, Virginia, January 4, 1789. A bronze statue, one of
the six which adorn the Washington Monument at Richmond,
Virginia, commemorates his services.
"But his Fame, consigned to the keeping of that Time which,
Happily, is not so much the Tomb of Virtue as its Shrine,
Shall, in the years to come, fire modest Worth to noble Ends."
A century has winged its flight since Thomas Nelson
died, but in the presence of his history the inspiration of
sacrifice is as fresh today as when renewed Virginia first
wept above this buried Curtius of the Revolution.
