University of Virginia Library

OUTLINE
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION, PROGRESS OF COMMERCE, ROANOKE SETTLEMENTS.

The claims of the Icelanders, the Welsh, and even the Norwegians,[1]
to the discovery of America, seem in modern times to be
universally set aside in favor of a native of a milder clime. Indeed,
the evidence by which their respective claims were sought to
be established was so vague, contradictory, and unsatisfactory,[2]
and their discoveries, if proved, so entirely accidental, and useless
to mankind, that it is not at all astonishing that all the merit
should be given to that individual whose brilliant genius first demonstrated
a priori the existence of a continent in the western
waters, and whose adventurous daring[3] led him to risk his life in
the search of a world, of the existence of which he was only informed
by his science, with little aid of any human experience;
or that posterity should give to Columbus the undivided glory of an
exploit for which he received only the ignominy of his contemporaries,
and to Italy the honor due the birthplace of so distinguished
a son, from whose brilliant achievements she has received little
else.

In 1460, the Portuguese discovered the Cape de Verd islands,
and afterwards extended their discoveries farther south. This near
prospect of an easier and more direct route to India, had already
begun to excite the jealousy of the Venetians, who then nearly
monopolized the trade of India, and to elevate the hopes of the
Portuguese, who expected to enjoy a portion of the wealth and
luxury which the Venetians derived from that trade; when the
minds of both, and indeed of all Europe, were turned in another

direction by the occurrence of an event in the history of maritime
discovery, compared with which all others sunk into insignificance.

This event was the discovery of America, by Christopher Columbus.
The education of this daring mariner, his dis-

appointments and dangers, his difficulties and his
brilliant success, or the melancholy story of his sad reverses, and
the example afforded in him of the ingratitude of kings, it is not
the purpose of the writer to narrate. He refrains from recounting
so temptingly interesting a narrative, because it would lead him
too far from his purpose, which is only to narrate succinctly the
progress of navigation and discovery to the time of the first colony
settled in Virginia,—and because the same story has been so
well told by Robertson, Irving, and others, that it ought to be familiar
to all.

Notwithstanding the advances in navigation which have been
enumerated, the art of ship-building was still in such a rude and
imperfect state, that the vessels in which Columbus embarked on
an unknown sea, a modern mariner, with all the advantages of
modern science, would scarcely venture in, to cross the Atlantic.
The largest was a vessel of no considerable burden,[5] and the two
others scarcely superior in burden to large boats, and the united
crews of the three only amounted to ninety men. including officers,
and a few gentlemen, enturers from Isabella's court.

But notwithstanding these inadequate means for the prosecution
of maritime discovery, the ardor of enterprise was so much excited
by the brilliant achievements of Columbus, the greedy thirst
for gain, and hope of finding some country abounding in gold, together
with the eager desire which still prevailed of discovering
some passage through the great continent of America, which might
lead to India, that in twenty-six years from the first discovery of
land by Columbus, the Spaniards had visited all of the islands of
the West Indies—they had sailed on the eastern coast of America
from the Rio de la Plata to the western extremity of the Mexican
Gulf—they had discovered the great Southern Ocean, and had acquired
considerable knowledge of the coast of Florida. It is also
said that these voyages in search of a nearer passage to the East
Indies, had extended much farther north, but not however until
that country had been discovered by the seamen of another nation,
of whose exploits in the field of maritime adventure we shall
presently speak.

The great interior was still unknown, the whole western and
the extreme southeastern coasts were still undiscovered, and the
long line of coast from Florida to Labrador had only been seen,
and touched upon in a few places.

England did not at an early period make those advances in navigation,
to which the eminent advantages of her insular situation

invited, and gave no promise of that maritime distinction, and
commercial wealth, to which the wise policy of her subsequent
rulers have led her to attain. From the times of the conquest to
the discovery of America, England had been engaged in perpetual
wars, either foreign or domestic; and thus, while the southern portion
of Europe and the free cities on the Rhine were advancing so
rapidly in opulence and power, England was destitute of even the
germ of that naval strength to which she is so much indebted for
her present greatness. Every article of foreign growth or fabric
which she consumed, was wafted to her shores in the barks of
other nations, and the subsequent mistress of the seas scarcely
dared to float her flag beyond the limits of her own narrow jurisdiction.
Scarcely an English ship traded with Spain or Portugal
before the beginning of the fifteenth century, and it required another
half century to give the British mariner courage enough to
venture to the east of the Pillars of Hercules.[6]

Feeble as the marine of England then was, her reigning monarch,
Henry VII., did not lack the spirit required for undertaking great
enterprises, and accident only deprived him of the glory of being
the patron of the discoverer of America. Columbus, after the
failure of his own native country of Genoa to encourage his great
enterprise, and his second rebuff from his adopted country, Portugal,
fearing another refusal from the king of Castile, to whose
court he then directed his steps, dispatched his brother Bartholomew
to England to solicit the aid of Henry VII., who being then at
peace, was supposed to have leisure to undertake a great enterprise
which promised such renown to himself and emolument to
England. Bartholomew was captured by pirates on his voyage,
and robbed of all his effects, which, with an illness that followed,
prevented him from presenting himself at court, after he arrived
in England, until he could provide himself with suitable apparel
by his skill in drawing maps and sea-charts. He

brought himself to the notice of Henry by presenting
him with a map, and upon his representing to him the proposal
of Columbus, he accepted it with "a joyful countenance, and
bade him fetch his brother." So much delay had been produced
by the circumstances mentioned, that Bartholomew, hastening to
Castile, learned at Paris, from Charles, king of France, that his
brother Christopher's efforts had already been crowned with the
most brilliant success.

When we reflect upon the difficulties which were thrown in the
way of Columbus at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, even
after they became convinced of the practicability of his scheme,

and the yet more arduous difficulties which he encountered on his
voyage, from the mutinous timidity of his crew, we may well doubt
whether Henry's courage would have sustained him in the actual
accomplishment of the enterprise, or whether England at that
time afforded mariners sufficiently hardy to have persevered a sufficient
length of time in a seemingly endless voyage upon an unknown
sea.

Fortunately, perhaps, for mankind, the courage of England was
not put to the test of making the first great adven-

ture; and whether she would have succeeded in
that or not, she was not destitute of sufficient courage to undertake
an enterprise of very considerable magnitude at that day,
soon after the existence of land in our western hemisphere had
been discovered.

The merit of this new enterprise is also due to a native of Italy,
and his motive was the same which prevailed in most of the adventures
of the time,—the desire to discover a new route to India.

Giovanni Gaboto, better known by his anglicised name of John
Cabot, a Venetian merchant who had settled at Bristol, obtained
from Henry a charter for himself and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian,
and Santius, allowing them full power and authority to sail
into all places in the eastern, western, or northern sea, under the
banners of England, with five ships, at their own proper costs and
charges, to discover countries before unknown to Christians, to
plant the banners of England in all such places, and to take possession
of them, to hold as vassals of England, to have the exclusive
monopoly of the trade of all such places, paying to the king
one-fifth of the clear profits of every voyage. All other persons
were prohibited from visiting such places, and the Cabots were
bound always to land on their return only at Bristol.

Under this patent, containing "the worst features of colonial
monopoly and commercial restriction," John Cabot, and his celebrated
son Sebastian, embarked for the west. The object of Cabot
being to discover the passage to India, he pursued a course more
northwardly than any selected by previous navigators, and the
first land he reached was the coast of Newfoundland, which on
that account he named Prima Vista; next the Island of St. John;
and finally the continent, among the "polar bears, the rude savages
and dismal cliffs of Labrador;" and this seems to have been
the only fruit of the first British voyage to America.

In the following year a new patent was given to John Cabot,
and the enterprise was conducted by his adventurous

and distinguished son, Sebastian. In this expedition,
which was undertaken for the purposes of trade as well as discovery,
several merchants of London took part, and even the king
himself. Cabot sailed in a northwest course, in hopes of finding a
northwest passage to India, as far probably as the 58th or 60th
degree of latitude, until he was stopped by the quantities of ice
which he encountered, and the extreme severity of the weather;
he then turned his course southward and followed the coast, according
to some writers to the coast of Virginia, and in the opinion
of some, as far as the coast of Florida. The only commodities
with which he returned to England, as far as our accounts inform
us, were three of the natives of the newly discovered countries.
He found, upon his return, the king immersed in his preparations
for a war with Scotland, which prevented his engaging in any
further prosecution of his discoveries, or entertaining any design
of settlement.

It is not our purpose to notice the Portuguese discoveries under
Cotereal, the French under Verrazzani and Cartier, or their abortive
attempt at settlements in Canada and New England. Nor
shall we notice the extensive inland expedition of the Spaniards
under Soto from-Florida, through the states of Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, across the Mississippi, and into Louisiana,—or the attempts
of the French at settlement in Florida and the Carolinas,—
these matters belong rather to the history of the United States,
than to the sketch of the history of Virginia which we propose to
give. We pass at once to the British attempts at colonization in
America.

The progress of maritime adventure extended rapidly. The
evidence exists of several English voyages having been made not
only to the coast of North America, but the Levant, the harbors
of northern Africa and Brazil. The visits to the fisheries

of Newfoundland had become frequent; and the commerce
from that source had become of such importance, and had been
the subject of such long and oppressive exactions, as to require
the action of parliament for their prohibition.

India was still the great object with the merchants, and the discovery
of a nearer passage than that offered by the Cape

of Good Hope, the great desideratum with mariners. The
northwestern passage had been attempted thrice by the Cabots in
vain; a northeastern expedition was fitted out, and sailed under
the command of Willoughby and Chancellor. Willoughby with
his ship's company were found in their vessel frozen to death in a
Lapland harbor; Chancellor with his vessel entered the port of
Archangel, and "discovered" the vast empire of Russia, till
then unknown to Western Europe. This discovery led to
the hope of establishing an intercourse by means of caravans
across the continent to Persia, and thence to the distant
empire of Cathay.

Elizabeth afforded every encouragement to the maritime enterprises
of her subjects, and especially encouraged the newly established
intercourse with Russia. The hope of discovering a

northwest passage was by no means as yet relinquished.
Martin Frobisher, after revolving in his mind the subject for fifteen
years, believed that it might be accomplished, and "determined
and resolved within himself to go and make full proof thereof,"
"knowing this to be the only thing in the world that was left
yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and
fortunate." Frobisher was too poor to supply himself with the
means of carrying his designs into execution; but after much solicitation
at court he was patronised by Dudley, Earl of Warwick,
who supplied him with two small barks, the one of twenty and
the other of twenty-five tons burden, and a pinnace of ten tons.
With this little fleet he set sail. The expedition was entirely unfortunate.
One of his barks deserted and returned home, the pinnace
went down in a storm, "whereby he lost only four men:" with such
small vessels and crews did the hardy mariners of that day venture
to cross the Atlantic. The Admiral's mast was sprung, and
the top-mast blown overboard, by the same storm in which he lost
the pinnace; but, nothing daunted, he persevered, and entered Hudson's
Bay. The only thing accomplished by the voyage was the
taking possession of the cold and barren wilderness in the name
of Elizabeth, carrying home some of the gravel and stones, one
of the latter of which, resembling gold, or probably having some
gold artificially mingled with it after it reached London, caused
the gold refiners nearly to go mad, and the merchants to undertake
one of the wildest expeditions recorded in the annals of discovery;
besides this show of gold, which was pronounced very
rich for the quantity, the only other acquisition was a poor native,
whose simplicity was imposed upon by the most treacherous devices,
until he was decoyed to the English vessel, and then seized
by force, and carried away from his friends. He bit off his tongue
from despair, and died soon after his arrival in England, from cold
taken on the voyage.

The mania which the story of the little bit of gold produced in
London caused a fleet of several vessels to be fitted out, of

which the queen herself furnished one, to bring home the
rich produce of these icy mines. The ships returned with black
earth, but no gold.

The spirit of avarice was not to be stopped in her career by a
single failure; a new fleet of fifteen vessels was fitted out,

and to Martin Frobisher was given the command. A colony
was to be planted for the purpose of working the mines, while
twelve vessels were to be sent home with ore. After almost incredible
difficulties, encountered amid storms and "mountains of
floating ice on every side," the loss of some vessels, and the desertion
of others, they reached the northern Potosi, and the ships were
well laden with the black earth; but the colonists, being disheartened
by their hardships, declined settling on the coast, and all returned
to England. We are not informed of the value of the proceeds of
the cargo.

While the British queen and her merchants were indulging
themselves in fancies as brilliant and as evanescent as the icebergs
which encumbered the scene of the delusion, Sir Humphrey Gilbert,
a man of insuperable energy and fearless enterprise, formed a design
of promoting the fisheries, and engaging in useful colonization.

With this view he obtained a patent of the same character with
most of those which were granted to the early pro-

moters of colonization in America, conferring unbounded
privileges upon the proprietor, and guarantying no
rights to the colonists. The first expedition, in which Gilbert had
expended much of his private fortune, failed,—from what
cause is uncertain.

The second expedition, undertaken four years afterwards, was
still more unfortunate; for it lost to the world the gallant

and accomplished projector of the expedition. Five vessels
sailed from Plymouth on Tuesday, the 11th of June, 1583. Two
days afterward, the vice-admiral complained of sickness aboard,
and returned with the finest ship in the fleet to Plymouth. The
admiral, nevertheless, continued his course with his little squadron,
and took possession, with the feudal ceremony, of Newfoundland,
to be held by him as a fief of the crown of England, in accordance
with the terms of his charter.

The looseness of morals displayed by the mariners of that day
is truly disgusting, and increases our wonder at the daring of men
who could venture so far from home, in such frail barks, with
almost a certainty of encountering on the great highway, in their
fellow-men, greater perils than were presented by all the terrors
of the deep. Robbery by sea was too common, and often committed
in violation of the most sacred obligations, even upon persons
engaged in the very act of relieving the distress of the depredators.[21]
Gilbert seems to have been cursed with a remarkably
riotous and insubordinate company. The sick and disaffected
were left at Newfoundland to be sent home with the Swallow, and
the admiral proceeded with his three remaining barks.

On Tuesday the 20th of August they sailed from the harbor of
St. Johns, and on the 29th, in about latitude 44 degrees, the largest
remaining vessel, by the carelessness of the crew, struck, and went
to pieces, and the other barks were forced by a high sea and a lee
shore to struggle for their own preservation, which they accomplished
with difficulty,—alleging, at the same time, that they could
see none of the crew of the wreck floating upon timbers, but all
seemed to have gone down when the ship broke up. A few, however,
escaped to Newfoundland in the ship's pinnace, as was afterwards
discovered.

This calamity, followed by continual storms, in an unknown and
shoaly sea, enhanced by an extreme scantiness of provisions, and
want of clothes and comforts in the two little barks which yet
remained, induced the admiral, at the earnest solicita-

tion of his men, to return homeward. Sir Humphrey
Gilbert was vehemently persuaded by the crew of the Golden Hind
to remain with them during the voyage; but, as some malicious
taunts had been thrown out by some evil-disposed person, accusing
him of being afraid of the sea, he chose to continue to sail in his
little pinnace, the Squirrel, which was burdened beyond her
strength.

After the vessels had left the Azores to the south, and reached
the latitude of England, they encountered violent and continued
storms. On Monday, the 9th of September, the Squirrel was nearly
cast away, but recovered, and the admiral was seen sitting abaft
with a book in his hand, and heard to cry out to those in the Hind,
"We are as near to heaven by sea as by land." That same night,
at 12 o'clock, the Squirrel being in advance, her light suddenly
disappeared, and her hardy crew, with their gallant commander,
sleep forever in the deep. The Hind reached Falmouth

in safety, but after encountering eminent peril to the last
moment.[24]

The daring spirit of the mariners of that day is amazing. Sir
Walter Raleigh, the step-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, so far
from being intimidated by the melancholy fate of his relative, or
disheartened by the unprofitable and disastrous termination of
most of the voyages to America, undertook in the

very next year an expedition to the coast of the
present United States. He easily obtained one of the usual unlimited
patents from Elizabeth, and, leaving the cold north, with
its barren snows, its storms, icebergs, and certain evils, together
with its imaginary wealth, he spread his sails for the sweet south,
where he was sure to find a fertile soil and a delightful climate,
though his ship's company might not all be enriched by the discovery
of gold.

On the second of July they found shoal water, "and smelt so
sweet and strong a smell, as if they had been in the midst of
some delicate garden abounding with all kinds of odoriferous
flowers."

On the 13th they entered Ocracock inlet, on the coast of the
present state of North Carolina, and landed on Wocoken Island.
They commenced an intercourse with the natives, who proved to
be bold, confiding, intelligent, and honorable to their friends, but
treacherous, revengeful, and cruel towards their enemies.

The English explored a little the surrounding islands and bays,
and returned home in September, carrying with them two natives,
Manteo and Wanchese. The glowing description given by the
adventurers, on their return, of the beauty of the country, the fertility
of the soil, and pleasantness of the climate, delighted the
queen, and induced her to name the country of which she had
taken possession, Virginia, in commemoration of her unmarried
life.

It might be expected that so favorable an account would soon
lead to a new expedition. Accordingly, another was pre-

pared for the succeeding year, consisting of seven vessels.
Ralph Lane was appointed by Raleigh governor of the colony,
which consisted of one hundred and eight persons. Sir Richard
Grenville took command of the fleet, and several learned and
accomplished men attended the expedition, one of whom has transmitted
to posterity many interesting particulars of the nature of
the country, and the habits, manners, and government of its inhabitants.

The English soon began to maltreat the harmless, unpretending,
and simple natives, and they, on the other hand, to

grow jealous of the power of the overbearing
strangers. They soon learned the inordinate passion of the newcomers
for gold, and, taking advantage of their credulity, inflicted
upon them the labor of many fruitless expeditions in search of
pretended mines,—hoping at the same time, by these divisions, to
weaken the power of the little colony to such a degree that they
might be able to destroy it in detachment; but the English were
too cautious for this, and went too short a distance, and in force
too powerful for the Indians to encounter with the great disparity
of arms. The greatest advantage which accrued from these expeditions,
and indeed from the whole attempt at a settlement, was
the discovery of Chesapeake Bay.

The little colony, finding no gold, and receiving no supplies from
England, had begun to despond, when most unexpectedly Sir
Francis Drake arrived, on his return from his expedition against
the Spaniards in South America, with a fleet of three and twenty
ships. The sagacity of Drake perceived in a moment what was
necessary for the colony, and his generosity supplied them with
provisions, vessels, and other things necessary to maintain their
position, extend their researches, and, if necessary, to return to
England; but the accomplishment of his purpose was defeated by
a violent storm which suddenly arose, and nearly wrecked his
whole fleet, driving the vessel of provisions intended for the colony
to sea, and destroying the vessels which had been set apart to be
left for their use. He would have supplied others; but the colony,
with their governor at their head, earnestly requesting

permission to return to England, he complied with their
wishes. Thus terminated the first English settlement in America.

This little colony, during its sojourn with the Indians, had acquired
something of their fondness for the use of tobacco, and
learned to regard it with almost the same superstitious reverence,
as a powerful medicinal agent. Upon their return, they introduced
the use of this plant into England; and a weed at first disgusting
and nauseating to all who use it, has become gradually the favorite
luxury (and indeed with many a necessary of life) of all classes
of society, and of both the young and the old throughout the world,
—and this, after experience has proved that in most cases it is an
injury rather than a benefit to the health.

A few days after Lane's departure, an English vessel arrived on
the coast with every necessary for the colony, but finding it deserted,

returned home. Sir Richard Grenville arrived soon after
with three ships, well furnished with stores for the colony; but not
finding it, he also returned, leaving fifteen men on Roanoke Island,
to keep possession in the name of Great Britain.

The genius of Sir Walter Raleigh was not of a nature to succumb
to slight failures, or ordinary difficulties. The suc-

ceeding year another colony was dispatched to settle in
Virginia; and that they might consider their settlement permanent,
and Virginia their home, many persons with wives and families
were sent.

A charter of incorporation was granted for a town, to be

called the City of Raleigh, a name revived in after times
in the present metropolis of North Carolina. John White was
appointed governor, and, with eleven assistants, constituted the
administration for the control of the colony. Ample provision was
made by the noble and liberal proprietor for the comfort of the
colonists, and a plentiful stock of instruments of husbandry provided,
to enable them to supply their own future wants, and establish
themselves on the only footing which could possibly be expected
to be permanent.

The company embarked in April, and arrived in July

at the place where they expected to find the fifteen unfortunate
men whom Grenville had left. But their grounds were
grown up in weeds, their tenantless dwellings had become the
abode of the wild animals of the forest, and their scattered bones,
blanching in the sun, were the last sad memorials which told their
fate to their anxious countrymen. Whether they fell by civil dissensions
among themselves, by famine or disease, or were yet more
miserably cut off by the overpowering numbers of a savage host,
taking advantage of their desolate situation, (deprived of sympathy,
and destitute of the hope of succor,) is one of the mysteries
of history which the ken of man may not unravel.

The sagacity of Raleigh had directed the new settlement to be
made on the shores of the magnificent Chesapeake, and there was
the new city to be built; but the naval officer, preferring trade
with the West Indies to exploring the coast, left White on

Roanoke Island, and compelled him to establish himself
there.

The colony soon became involved in difficulties with the natives,
partly from accident, and partly from the previously en-

gendered hostility of some of the tribes. Indeed, it would
seem impossible a priori, (even if we had not, unfortunately, too
much experience of the fact,) that two nations of such different
degrees of civilization, manners, and habits, with such different
designs, could long remain together in peace, harmony, and on the
footing of equals. It would seem to be the nature of man that the
ignorant tribe should be jealous, treacherous, and vindictive,—that
the more civilized should be greedy, rapacious, and overbearing.
And when a spirit of suspicion is once excited, the imprudence of

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.

From a portrait showing him in the fashionable dress of the period in which he lived.

a single individual too often involves in a quarrel all of the citizens
of the little communities: nothing is extenuated, and nothing is
attributed to accident; but suspicion in the injured party supplies
the place of malice in the aggressor. These difficulties made the
colonists feel more anxiously their dependence upon England, and
forced upon them a melancholy foreboding, that without frequent
and effectual assistance from the mother country, they could not
long sustain themselves in a strange and distant land, the natives
of which had become bitterly hostile. Under this impression,
when their last ship was about to depart from England, they forced
their reluctant governor, by excessive importunity, to desert his
charge, in order that he might lend his personal aid and influence
in sending them succor from home. He sailed with the
ship, but not until after his daughter, Eleanor Dare, the
wife of one of the assistant governors, had presented him with the
first white child born on the continent of North America.
This child was christened Virginia Dare, and, with her
mother, was esteemed a sufficient pledge of the exertions of the
governor in aid of the colony, and of his speedy return.

White found all England engaged in anxious preparation to
meet the threatened Spanish invasion, but this did not pre-

vent the generous Raleigh from dispatching him with two
ships of supplies for the relief of the colony. But the spirit of
gain overcame the spirit of humanity, and even the tender ties of
parental affection: instead of going at once to the colo-
ny, he employed himself in taking Spanish prizes, and
was at last himself overcome and rifled, which compelled him to
return to England, much to the chagrin of the noble proprietor,
and probably the destruction of the neglected colony.

The Invincible Armada of Spain had to be overcome, and the
safety of England herself to be secured, before another effort
could be made to succor the little colony at Roanoke; and when
this was accomplished, leisure found the noble patron of the enterprise
too much impoverished by his previous unprofitable exertions
to fit out, at his own expense, another expedition. He was
obliged to assign an extensive portion of his powers to a company
of merchants and others who might carry his schemes into execution;
but with his profuse liberality, the active spring which had
quickened previous expeditions was gone, the spirit of gain rather
than of glory presided over the destinies of infant America, and it
was not until another year had elapsed, that White was

sent in quest of his subjects and his daughter.

When he arrived the colony was gone; an inscription on the
bark of a tree, indicating Croatan as the place whither they had
gone, was the last record of their existence seen by a civilized eye.
Conjecture has pointed to an amalgamation with the tribe of Hatteras
Indians as the history of their destiny, and old Indian traditions
and the physical characteristics of that tribe are said
to confirm the idea; but while humanity may indulge a hope,

credulity itself must entertain a doubt of the truth of the hypothesis.

White returned to England as soon as he found out that the
colony was gone, and Raleigh is said to have sent five several
times in vain, to search for his liege-men, but no tidings were ever
received of their existence or their fate. Thus terminated the
attempts at settlement on the coast of North Carolina, then called
Virginia; the scene next opens upon the broad bosom of the
"mother of the waters."[39]

CHAPTER II.

SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN—SUFFERINGS OF THE COLONISTS—ADVENTURES
OF SMITH.

We have now approached the period in which the British were
destined to make a permanent settlement in America. England
already possessed a population considered redundant, in consequence
of the inadequate means of support afforded by her limited
commerce and inefficient agriculture. The pacific and timid
character of James I. threw out of employment many of the brave
spirits who had served under Elizabeth, and left them the choice
of only two means of acquiring wealth or distinction,—and these
were either to draw a mercenary sword in the quarrels of strangers,
or to serve their king and country by transplanting their
energy and enterprise to a new world.

Bartholomew Gosnold chose the latter. He was a person of
rank and intelligence, and had already acquired distinction by his
courage and skill in arms. He solicited his friends for aid for
many years in vain, but at length attracted the attention of the
distinguished adventurer Capt. John Smith, Edward Maria Wingfield,
a merchant, and Robert Hunt, a clergyman, who, after taking
a year for reflection, entered zealously into his projects.

Nothing, however, could be effected until persons of wealth and
distinction could be found to patronise by their favor and aid by

their capital the enthusiasm of the adventurers. Sir Ferdinand
Gorges, a man of wealth, rank, and influence, had been informing
himself, by conversation with several American Indians who had
been carried to England by previous voyages, and by every other
means in his power, of the nature of the country; and from the
information he obtained became exceedingly anxious to possess a
domain on the western side of the Atlantic. He persuaded Sir
John Popham, lord chief-justice of England, to unite in his views.
Richard Hacklyt, the distinguished compiler of narratives of maritime
adventures, and one of the assignees of Raleigh, had not yet
relinquished his hopes of a permanent settlement in America, notwithstanding
the frequent previous discouraging failures, and
cheerfully joined in this new scheme of American colonization.
The exertions of these energetic and distinguished individuals
speedily raised a company, and procured a charter from King
James.

One hundred and nine years from the discovery of the North
American continent by Cabot, three small vessels,

whose joint tonnage amounted to only one hundred
and sixty tons burden, sailed for the coast of Virginia with a
colony of one hundred and five men. They were detained for six
weeks in sight of England by adverse winds. The voyage was
prosecuted under the command of Captain Newport, who sailed
by the old route of the Canaries and the West India islands; thus
consuming the valuable time and provisions of the colonists, in a
voyage unnecessarily long and circuitous. He did not arrive in
the Chesapeake until the 26th of April.

Dissensions had sprung up in the course of the voyage, which
there was no competent authority to quell, as the absurd affectation
of diplomatic mystery on the part of King James had sealed
up his instructions, and the names of those who were to constitute
the council, in a box which was not to be opened until after they
arrived in Virginia.

The southern cape of the Chesapeake received the name of
Henry, and the northern that of Charles, after the names of the
sons of James. After landing on Cape Henry, the box of instructions
was opened, and Smith[43] was found to be named as one of
the council, but he was excluded by the jealous malignity of the
rest. Wingfield was chosen president.

Soon after passing the capes, they reached the mouth of a large
and beautiful river, which they named after their sovereign James,
but which the natives called Powhatan. About fifty miles from
the mouth of this river, they selected a spot for their settlement,
to which they gave the name of James Town. There

could not, perhaps, be a company more unfitted for the
duty which it had to perform, than that which now commenced
the foundation of the British empire in America. The colonists
were in a wilderness, surrounded by savages, without a fortification
to repel their incursions, possessed of a scanty supply of provisions,
without means of planting,—and without a habitation to
protect them from the weather, save such as they might themselves
erect; yet in the whole company there were but four carpenters,
and twelve laborers, to fifty-four gentlemen. At first, however,
this rare collection of pioneers fell to work with spirit, each
to his appropriate duty. The president, who seems to have been
a very weak man, and ill-suited for his station, was too jealous of
his own men to allow exercises at arms, or a fortification to be
erected; and the only protection provided, was a sort of half-moon
formed of the boughs of trees, by the exertions of Kendall.
Newport, Smith, and twenty others were sent to discover the head
of the river. In six days they arrived at a town called Powhatan.
belonging to King Powhatan, situated at the falls of the river,
near the site of the present city of Richmond. They were kindly
treated by the Indians. When the expedition returned, they found
that Jamestown had been attacked by the savages, and seventeen
men wounded, and a boy killed. They were attacked while at
work, and their arms out of order; so that the whole were only
saved from destruction by the timely aid of the vessels. After this
experience of his folly, the president permitted the place to be
fortified; and the labor necessary to effect this, with so small a
force, while it was necessary, at the same time, to guard their
workmen by day, to watch by night, to prepare ground for corn,
and lumber to relade the ships, may be better conceived than described.
After a stay of six weeks, Newport prepared to depart,
and the council affecting a tender regard for the character of Smith,
whom they had falsely accused of a treacherous design to usurp
royal authority in the colony, and kept out of his seat in the council
under these charges, now proposed, that he might not be utterly
ruined by a trial, to send him home to the council, to be disposed of
as they might think proper. But Smith, conscious of innocence of
the absurd charge, boldly defied them, and demanded a trial. His
accusers suborned witnesses, who, instead of answering the expectations
of their employers, only exposed the subornation. The
company were so incensed at the infamous conduct of his accusers,
that they condemned the president to pay him £200, which,
when received, he generously threw into the common stock.
Newport sailed on the 15th of June, leaving one hundred men in
Virginia.

The president and Martin being unpopular men, and very deficient
in judgment and energy, committed the control of affairs
nearly entirely to Smith, who, by his example and his skill in
managing men, speedily reduced affairs to order, induced the men
to work, and provided comfortable habitations. His next object
was to obtain a supply of corn for the immediate necessity of the
people, which he did effectually, by frightening the people of

Kecoughtan, an Indian village, situated near the site of the present
town of Hampton—after first trying every means to purchase
their provision. Smith now constituted the only hope, not only for
the existence of the colony, as such, but for the lives of the individuals
of whom it consisted. Their recent wretchedness was
not a sufficient warning to them to preserve order, and to husband
their resources with prudence, now that plenty was provided; but
they lived as wastefully as if they had boundless magazines at
command. Smith, seeing this, caused the pinnace to be fitted up
for a cruise; and, in the mean time, availed himself of the opportunity
to become acquainted with the country lying on the
Chickahominy.

During one of these temporary absences of Smith, Wingfield
and Kendall, who had lived in disgrace since they were deposed,
laid a plot to carry off the pinnace to England, which the fortunate
return of Smith, before they had time to effect their purpose,
prevented. But not even then were they defeated without firing
on the pinnace, by which means Kendall lost his life.

Smith having gained possession of the pinnace, ascended the
Chickahominy, and procured an abundance of corn. Winter coming
on soon after, afforded an amply supply of game and wild fowl,
so that plenty was once more restored, and thought no longer entertained
of going to England.

Little souls cannot look upon the greatest exploits of nobler
creatures, without suffering a captious and jealous malignity to
detract from their merit. The very beings whom Smith had preserved
by his good conduct, now murmured against him their
absurd complaints—because he had not discovered the head of the
Chickahominy, although he had returned only to supply them with
food. His spirit could not brook reproach, however undeserved,
for any thing which was yet possible to be accomplished. He
again ascended the Chickahominy as far as was practicable in the
pinnace, and leaving it in a position which he supposed to be safe,
he advanced yet higher, with two whites and two Indians, in a
canoe. He left his men with his little boat, and taking only his
Indian guide, advanced into the forest with his gun to procure
them provision. Unfortunately, in disobedience to his orders, the
men in the pinnace went ashore, and one of them was taken by
the Indians, who learned from their prisoner whither the captain
had gone. The savages pursued him, and slew the men left with
the canoe while they slept. They next sought Smith, but found
him no easy prey; for, tying his guide to his arm as a buckler to
keep off their arrows, he defended himself so gallantly that they
dared not approach him, until, falling accidentally into a marsh, he
was at length forced by cold and fatigue to surrender. The savages
conducted him to their chief, Opechankanough, king of
Pamunkee. Smith endeavored to impress the king with a high
idea of his powers, by presenting him with a mariner's compass,
explaining its uses, and instructing him in the rudiments of astronomy,

by explaining the motion of the earth, its shape, and the
motion of the sun, moon, and planets; truths which it is difficult
to believe he could make the savage comprehend, especially as he
had but little knowledge of their language. It is more probable
that the king was pleased with the ivory case of the compass, and
the mysterious play of the needle, which he could see but not
touch, and which moved without an apparent cause. Accordingly,
we find when his men had tied Smith to a tree and were
about to slay him, the king did not attempt to prevent it by
explaining the motion of the earth around the sun, but merely held
up the compass, the sight of which seems to have been sufficient
to disarm their wrath.

For six or seven weeks Smith was led about in triumph by
these simple people, and exhibited to the tribes between the James
and Potomac rivers, during the whole of which time he was in
hourly apprehension of being put to death; but was generally
well treated, and provided with most of the luxuries which their
simple state afforded. At length he was brought before their emperor,
Powhatan, who received him with all the formal pomp and
state known to his savage court. A long consultation was held
by the council there assembled, upon the disposition to be made
of him, which terminated unfavorably. He was seized by a number
of the savages, and his head laid upon two great stones which
had been brought there for the purpose. His executioners had
already raised their clubs to dash out his brains, and thus at once
end his toil and difficulties, and cut off the only hope of the colony,
when an advocate appeared, as unexpected as would have been
the appearance of an angel sent immediately from heaven to ask
his release. This was Pocahontas, the emperor's favorite daughter,
who generously stepped forth and entreated, with tears, that
Smith might be spared. And when she found this unavailing with
the inexorable judges, she seized his head, and placed it under her
own, to protect it from the blows. This sight so moved Powhatan,
that he permitted Smith to live, intending to retain him to make
trinkets and utensils for his family and himself. But a few days
afterwards Powhatan told him they would be friends again, and
sent him back to Jamestown, with an offer of a large district of
country in exchange for two great guns and a grindstone; but the
party who were to carry these things found them so heavy, and
were so much terrified by the effect of the guns, when discharged
at a tree, that they were well satisfied to return without them,
having received a few paltry baubles and trinkets. Smith's return
again prevented a party from running off with the pinnace; which
so incensed them that they laid a plot to slay him, by a mock trial
for the death of the two men he had left in the canoe, and who
were slain by the savages; but he was too prompt for the conspirators,
whom he seized and kept close prisoners until he had
an opportunity of sending them to England for trial. The
colony was now only preserved from perishing by the kindness

of Pocahontas, who brought ample supplies every four or
five days.

Smith accompanied the Phœnix, as far as Cape Henry, in a
small open barge with fourteen men, with which

equipment he proposed to accomplish his long cherished
object of exploring the Chesapeake and its tributary waters.
It is not our purpose to follow him through his two wonderful
voyages, undertaken for this purpose, but we will merely present
an outline of his course from the pen of an able modern author,[46]
from whom we have before quoted. "Two voyages, made in an
open boat, with a few companions, over whom his superior courage,
rather than his station as a magistrate, gave him authority,
occupied him about three months of the summer, and embraced a
navigation of nearly three thousand miles. The slenderness of
his means has been contrasted with the dignity and utility of his
discoveries, and his name has been placed in the highest rank with
the distinguished men who have enlarged the bounds of geographical
knowledge, and opened the way by their investigations for
colonies and commerce. He surveyed the bay of the Chesapeake
to the Susquehannah, and left only the borders of that remote
river to remain for some years longer the fabled dwelling-place
of a giant progeny. The Patapsco was discovered and explored,
and Smith probably entered the harbor of Baltimore. The majestic
Potomac, which at its mouth is seven miles broad, especially invited
curiosity; and passing beyond the heights of Mount Vernon
and the City of Washington, he ascended to the falls above Georgetown.
Nor did he merely explore the river and inlets. He penetrated
the territories, established friendly relations with the
native tribes, and laid the foundation for future beneficial intercourse.
The map which he prepared and sent to the company in
London is still extant, and delineates correctly the great outlines
of nature. The expedition was worthy the romantic age of
American history." The map is indeed astonishingly accurate.
We cannot forbear adding the corroborating testimony of the distinguished
Robertson[47] upon this subject, which is also quoted and
approved by Marshall.[48] "He brought with him an account of
that large portion of the American continent now comprehended
in the two provinces of Virginia and Maryland, so full and exact,
that after the progress of information and research for a century
and a half, his map exhibits no inaccurate view of both countries,
and is the original upon which all subsequent descriptions have
been formed."

When Smith returned to Jamestown he found that little had
been done, and a whole summer, which was a season

of plenty, was wasted in idleness by the folly and
imbecility of the president, whose conduct was so outrageous that
the company had been at last forced to depose and imprison him.

Smith was now elected president, and his energetic conduct
speedily brought affairs into good order, and repaired

as far as possible the injuries occasioned by the misconduct
of his predecessor.

Soon after Smith's election Newport again arrived, with the
preposterous order, supposed to have been procured by his own
representations, not to return without a lump of gold, discovery
of a passage to the south sea, or one of the lost company sent out
by Sir Walter Raleigh. He also absurdly brought some costly
articles for the royal household of Powhatan, which served only to
inflate the pride, without conciliating the affection of that prince.
Some Poles and Dutchmen were also brought for the purpose of

manufacturing pitch, tar, glass, ashes, &c., which would have been
well enough if the colony had been in a condition always to defy
famine, but which it was impossible to accomplish now, when
every man's exertions were necessary to procure a sufficiency of
food. Notwithstanding Smith's remonstrances, Newport insisted
upon his trip of discovery above the falls of James River, for the
purpose of discovering a route to the south sea, although Powhatan
had assured them that the story they had heard of there being a
sea in that direction was utterly false. The party returned, as
Smith had predicted, disappointed and disheartened. Since this
project had failed, Smith having first procured a supply of provisions,
which Newport and the rest with all their vain boasting and their
costly presents had failed to do, and knowing that it was as impossible
to find a lump of gold, or one of Raleigh's company, as it
was to find the south sea on James River, set himself to work to
supply a cargo of tar, pitch, boards, ashes, and such articles
as they had it in their power to procure, although with great
difficulty and labor. So effectually did he exert himself, and so
much authority had he acquired over the delicate gentlemen under
his control, whose tender hands blistered with the use of the axe,
that in a short time he had provided a sufficient cargo for Captain
Newport, who at length departed, leaving two hundred souls in
the colony. By the return of the vessel Smith wrote to the council
a letter detailing the cause of their mishaps, assuring them that
they need not expect a sudden acquisition of wealth, and that
nothing was to be obtained but by labor. He complained of the
want of judgment and economy in the expenditure for the benefit
of the colony, which prevented them from reaping an advantage
of greater value than a hundred pounds judiciously expended
would purchase, from an actual outlay by the company of two or
three thousand. He also especially complained of the habits and
character of the men sent out, and entreated them when they sent
again, rather to send "but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners,
fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of tree-roots,
well provided, than a thousand such as they had; for unless they
could both lodge and feed them, they would perish with want before
they could be made good for any thing."

From the departure of the ship until the next arrival, the men
were only preserved from perishing by the most active and

unremitting exertions of their president, the detail of
whose conduct in his intercourse with the savages, and his management
of the ill-assorted, disorderly, turbulent spirits under his
control, is one of the most interesting stories in history, and proves
him to have been a man of extraordinary abilities.

Lord De La Ware received the appointment of governor for life
under the new charter, and an avarice which would listen to no
possibility of defeat, and which already dreamed of a flourishing
empire in America, surrounded him with stately officers, suited by
their titles and nominal charges to the dignity of an opulent kingdom.
The condition of the public mind favored colonization;
swarms of people desired to be transported; and the adventurers
with cheerful alacrity contributed free-will offerings. The widely
diffused enthusiasm soon enabled the company to dispatch a fleet
of nine vessels, containing more than five hundred emigrants.
Newport was made admiral, and was joint commissioner with Sir
Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers to administer the affairs of
the colony until the arrival of the governor. But these three individuals,
with a ceremonious punctilio characteristic of little minds,
seeking that distinction from artificial positions in society which
they cannot obtain by their own merit, could not agree in a contest
for precedence, and hence were compelled, as a compromise,
all to go in the same ship: thus exposing the colony to all the
danger of anarchy rather than that one should appear by the ship
he occupied to be a greater man than the other.

They accordingly embarked with their commission, their directions,
and much of the provision, in the Sea Venture. When near
the coast of Virginia they encountered a violent storm which destroyed
one small vessel, and drove the Sea Venture so far to sea
that she stranded on the rocks of the Bermudas. Seven ships
arrived in safety.

The president set out for the falls, a few days after West had
departed, and found that he had located himself in an exceedingly
inconvenient station, subject to inundation, and surrounded by
other intolerable inconveniences. He offered a fair proposition to
Powhatan, for the purchase of his place called Powhatan, which
he was willing to accept; but the disorderly spirits he had sent
thither, who were dreaming that the country immediately above
them was full of gold, to which they wished no one to have access
but themselves, refused the place or to ratify the contract, despising
alike his kindness and his authority. The president, with his
five men, went boldly among them, and seized the ringleaders of
the mutiny; but the whole number of a hundred and twenty
gathering in upon him, forced him to retire, but not without seizing
one of their boats, with which he took possession of the ship,
in which their provision was lodged. Fortunately for Smith, he
was sustained by the mariners, who had learned his character
from his old soldiers and their own observations of his conduct,
as well as by several of the officers, who had learned the error
of their first prejudices, deserted his adversaries, and become his
firm friends. The Indians came to Smith, whom they considered
as their friend and protector, complaining bitterly of the maltreatment
of the party at the falls, stating that they were worse than
their old enemies the Monocans, from whom it was the duty of the

party to protect them; and seeing their turbulent disobedience,
they offered their aid to chastise them. Smith remained nine
days longer trying to heal these differences, and to convince them
of the absurdity of their "gilded hopes of the South sea mines."
But finding all in vain, he set out for Jamestown. Such visionary
and disorderly persons were the first civilized inhabitants of
the present polished, intelligent, and hospitable city of Richmond.
No sooner was Smith's voyage commenced down the river, than
the savages attacked those he left behind him, and slew many,
and so frightened the rest, that they suffered the prisoners they
held in custody to escape. The terrified wretches fled for safety
to Smith, whose ship had grounded, and submitted, without stipulation,
to his mercy. He seized six or seven of the ringleaders,
and imprisoned them; the rest he placed in the savage fort Powhatan,
which from the beauty of its position, the excellence of its
houses and fortifications, and other advantages, was called Nonsuch.
He also satisfied the savages. This fair prospect was
again marred by the imbecility of West, who listened to the deceitful
tales and whining entreaties of the prisoners, and released
them, which again threw all things into disorder; the evil disposed
being the more encouraged in their mutinous conduct now,
by the possession of their provisions and stores, which had been
returned to them at the time of their previous submission. They
abandoned Non-such, and returned to their former inconvenient
station at West's fort. Smith, finding it impossible to restore tranquillity,
again set sail down the river.

In his progress an unfortunate accident occurred, which deprived
the colony of his services, and was near depriving him of life.
His powder-bag accidentally exploded while he was sleeping,
and tore the flesh from his body and thighs in a horrible manner.
The pain was so acute that he threw himself into the river to cool
the burning sensation, and was near drowning before he could be
recovered. He had yet to go nearly one hundred miles in this
situation, before he could reach a surgeon, or have any soothing
application applied to his wound.

When he returned to Jamestown, the time for the trial of Ratcliffe
and Archer was approaching, and these worthies, fearing the
result, hired an assassin to murder him in his bed, but the heart
of the wretch failed him ere he could fire the fatal shot. Failing
in this, their next hope was to save their lives, by possessing themselves
of the government; but in this they were disappointed by
Smith, who, having in vain urged all those he thought most
worthy to accept the presidency, resigned it to Mr. Percy, who
was about to sail for England, but was induced to stay under the
present embarrassing circumstances, to prevent the supreme control
of the colony from falling into the hands of the miscreants
who aspired to it.

Smith, finding himself disabled by his wound, the pain of which
almost deprived him of his reason, and seeing that there was not

sufficient surgical skill in the colony to restore him, determined to
depart for England. He well knew that, in his disabled state, the
colony was no place for him; for it had required his utmost exertion
in health to suppress faction at home, keep the Indians in awe, and,
by the most unceasing activity, supply the colony with provision.
He departed under the most mortifying circumstances; "his commission
was suppressed, he knew not why—himself and soldiers
to be rewarded, he knew not how—and a new commission granted,
they knew not to whom." After his determination was known,
the ships, which were to have departed the next day, were retained
three weeks, while the mutinous captains were perfecting some
colorable charges to send home against him. Never had the colony
sustained such a loss. His conduct and his character will be best
given in the language of those who knew him best. A writer,
who was with him in his troubles, speaking of the attempt to
usurp the government immediately before his departure, says:

"But had that unhappy blast not happened, he would quickly
have qualified the heat of those humors and factions, had the ships
but once left them and us to our fortunes; and have made the
provision from among the savages, as we neither feared Spaniard,
savage, nor famine; nor would have left Virginia nor our lawful
authority, but at as dear a price as we had bought it and paid for
it. What shall I say but thus: we left him, that in all his proceedings,
made justice his first guide, and experience his second, even
hating baseness, sloth, pride, and indignity, more than any danger,
—that never allowed more for himself, than his soldiers with him,
that upon no danger would send them where he would not lead
them himself;—that would never see us want what he either had,
or could by any means get us;—that would rather want than borrow,
or starve than not pay;—that loved action more than words,
and hated falsehood and covetousness worse than death; whose
adventures were our lives, and whose loss our deaths."

CHAPTER III.

PROGRESS OF THE COLONY—MASSACRE OF 1622—DISSOLUTION OF THE
LONDON COMPANY.

When Smith left the colony, it contained four hundred and
ninety odd persons. The harvest was newly gathered, and there

was provision for ten weeks in the stores. The savages were in
a good state of subjection, and readily yielded at a reasonable price
whatever they could spare. All things were in such a condition
that prudent management might have ensured the most brilliant
success, but the wildest confusion and anarchy prevailed. The
new president was so ill that he could not attend to business, and
twenty others endeavored to hold the reins of government. When
the savages found that Smith was gone, they speedily attacked and
broke up the establishments at Powhatan and Nansemond, driving
in the remnant of the men their butcheries left, to subsist upon the
rapidly wasting provisions of Jamestown. Ratcliffe with a vessel
and thirty men attempting to trade with Powhatan, was by his
carelessness cut off, and he himself with all his company perished
except two, who were saved by the humanity of Pocahontas.
West with a crew of thirty escaped in a ship to become pirates.[53]
The miserable company, now left without control or authority, and
composed with a few exceptions of "gentlemen, tradesmen, serving-men,
libertines, and such-like, ten times more fit to spoil a commonwealth,
than either begin one, or but help to maintain one,"
now gave free rein to all their evil dispositions. Each one sought
only to gratify his passions or preserve his own life, without regard
to the wants or sufferings of the rest. There was no union, no
concert, no harmony. Vice stalked abroad in her naked deformity,
and her handmaids, misery and famine, followed in her train. The
savages attacked and slew the whites upon every occasion, and
forming a systematic plan to starve the remainder, they would
supply no further provisions; after they had bought every disposable
article at the fort, even to most of their arms, at such a price
as they chose to exact. The corn was speedily consumed; next
followed the domestic animals, poultry, hogs, goats, sheep, and
finally the horses; all were consumed, even to their skins. The
only resource was in roots, acorns, berries, and such other unwholesome
stuff as could be found; nay, so pinching was the hunger,
that savages who had been slain and buried were disinterred to
be consumed, and even some of the whites who had perished were
used to preserve life by the rest. Of nearly five hundred that
Smith left, in six months only sixty emaciated beings remained
alive; and these were without the possibility of support for longer
than ten days.

But although it had been the will of Heaven to permit the colonists
to receive an awful chastisement for their misconduct, yet it
was not decreed by the Ruler of all human affairs that the colony
should be entirely abandoned, and so much labor and suffering be
useless to mankind, or so fine a country left in its original wild
and unimproved condition. Before Gates and his associates had
reached the mouth of James River, they were met by Lord De La
Ware, with three ships, having on board a number of new settlers,
an ample stock of provisions, and every thing requisite for defence
or cultivation. By persuasion and authority he prevailed upon
them to return to Jamestown, where they found

their fort and houses and magazines in the same
situation in which they had been left. A society with so bad a
constitution, and such a weak and disordered frame, required skilful
and tender nursing to restore it to vigor. Lord De La Ware was
fully competent to his station. He held a long consultation to
ascertain the cause of the previous difficulties, and concluded,
after listening to their mutual accusations, by a speech full of
wholesome advice, recommending the course they should pursue,
and assuring them that he should not hesitate to exercise his lawful
authority in punishing the insubordinate, dissolute, and idle.
By unwearied assiduity, by the respect due to an amiable and
beneficent character, by knowing how to mingle severity with
indulgence, and when to assume the dignity of his office, as well
as when to display the gentleness natural to his own temper, he
gradually reconciled men corrupted by anarchy to subordination
and discipline, he turned the attention of the idle and profligate to
industry, and taught the Indians again to reverence and dread the
English name. Under such an administration, the colony began
once more to assume a promising appearance,
when, unhappily for it, a complication of diseases
brought on by the climate obliged Lord De La Ware to quit the
country, the government of which he committed to Mr. Percy.
The colony at this time consisted of about two hundred men; but
the departure of the governor was a disastrous event, which produced
not only a despondency at Jamestown, but chilled the zealous
warmth of the London company, and caused a decided reaction
in the popular mind in England, which was exhibited in the
manner in which popular feeling delights to display itself—by
exhibiting the Virginia colony as a subject of derision upon the
stage.

Before the departure of Lord De La Ware, the company in
England had dispatched Sir Thomas Dale with supplies; and it
was well he arrived so soon, for the company were al-

ready fast relapsing to their former state of idleness and
improvidence, and had neglected to plant corn, which he caused
to be done immediately. The company having found all their
previous systems of government inefficient, granted to Sir Thomas
Dale more absolute authority than had been granted to any of his
predecessors,—impowering him to rule by martial law, a short
code of which, founded on the practice of the armies in the Low
Countries, (the most rigid school at that time in Europe,) they sent
out with him. This system of violent and arbitrary government
was recommended by Sir Francis Bacon, the most enlightened philosopher,
and one of the most eminent lawyers of his age. It
proves the depth of his sagacity; for it would have been absurd
to apply the refined speculative theories of civil government to a
set of mutinous, undisciplined, idle, ignorant creatures, shut up in
a fort, surrounded by hostile nations, and dependent upon their own
exertions for support. Surely, in such a case a strong government
was as necessary as in a ship at sea, and more so than in ordinary
military stations, where habitual discipline preserves order and
ensures respect to the officers.

The governor who was now intrusted with this great but necessary
power, exercised it with prudence and moderation. By the
vigor which the summary mode of military punishment gave to
his administration, he introduced into the colony more perfect order
than had ever been established there; and at the same time he
tempered its vigor with so much discretion, that no alarm seems
to have been given by this innovation.

In May, Sir Thomas Dale wrote to England full information of
the weakness of the colony, but recommending in strong terms
the importance of the place. His favorable representations were
fully confirmed by Lord De La Ware and Sir Thomas Gates. The
hopes of the company were resuscitated, and in August, Gates
arrived at Jamestown with six ships and three hundred emigrants.
The colony, which now consisted of seven hundred men, was surrendered
into the hands of Gates; and Dale, by his permission,
made a settlement with three hundred and fifty chosen men upon
a neck nearly surrounded by the river, which, in honor of Prince
Henry, he called Henrico.

Captain Argall, in a voyage to the Potomac for the purpose of
purchasing corn, fell in with an old chief named Iapazaws, to
whom Powhatan had intrusted Pocahontas, which he disclosed to
Argall, and offered to sell her to him for a copper kettle. The
bargain was made, and Pocahontas being enticed on board by the
cunning of her guardian, was carried off without once suspecting
the treachery of the old hypocrite. The authorities at Jamestown
availed themselves of the possession of this lucky prize to endeavor
to extort from Powhatan a high ransom; but the old emperor,
though he really loved his daughter, seemed to be so highly affronted
at the indignity offered him, that he preferred fighting
those who had robbed him of his daughter to purchasing her freedom.
But while this matter was in agitation, a treaty of a different
character was going forward between the young princess herself
and Mr. Rolfe, a highly respectable young gentleman of
Jamestown, who, struck by her beauty, and fascinated by her manners,
so far superior to the rest of her race, wooed and won her
affections, and obtained a promise of her hand. The news of this
amicable adjustment of all difficulties soon reached the ears of
Powhatan, and met with his cordial approbation. He sent the
uncle and two brothers of Pocahontas to witness the nuptial ceremonies
at Jamestown, which were solemnized with great pomp,
according to the rites of the English church. From this marriage
several of the most highly respected families in Virginia trace
their descent. Happy would it have been for both races, if this
amalgamation had been promoted by other instances, but this is
the only case upon record. This marriage secured the permanent

friendship of Powhatan, and all under his influence; and the
Chickahominies, his next neighbors, when they heard of it, sent
deputies, and submitted by solemn treaty to become subjects to
King James, and to submit to his governor in the colony,—to pay
tribute,—and furnish men to fight against whatever enemies should
attack the colony; only stipulating that at home they should continue
to be governed by their own laws.

We have already mentioned a partial distribution of lands by
Sir Thomas Dale, for the purpose of encouraging individual industry;
it may be well to explain more in detail the tenure by which
lands were held by individuals. At the favored Bermudas plantation,
near the mouth of the Appomattox, either on account of
the greater merit, longer service, or some favorable circumstances
attending the expense of the emigration of the tenants, the lands
were held by a rent of two and a half barrels of corn annually to
the general stock, and one month's service, which was not to be
in time of sowing or of harvest. Those who had been brought
over at the expense of the company, had three acres of land allotted
them, and two bushels of corn from the public store, and with
this scanty allowance were required to support themselves by one
month's labor; the other eleven being required by the company.
This species of laborers had decreased in 1617 to fifty-four, including
all classes; and these were finally released entirely from their
vassalage by Sir George Yeardley, in 1617. The original bounty
to emigrants coming at their own expense, or that of others than
the company, had been one hundred acres of land; but after the
colony became better settled, it was reduced to fifty the actual
occupancy of which gave a right to as many more. The payment
of twelve pounds and ten shillings to the treasurer of the company,
entitled the adventurer to a grant of one hundred acres, the occupancy
of which also secured a right to as many more.[60]

Early in the year 1614, Sir Thomas Gates had returned to England,
leaving the colony, which then consisted of about four hundred
men, under the command of Sir Thomas Dale, who in his
turn desiring to visit England and his family, left the colony in
1616, under the protection and control of Sir Thomas Yeardley.

With Dale, Mr. Rolfe and his interesting bride, Pocahontas,
sailed. By a communication from Smith, her amiable and valuable
conduct was made known at court, and every attention was
shown her, both by the queen and many of the nobility. This excellent
princess, whose deportment was so far superior to that
which the condition of her race would authorize one to expect,
that it won for her universal admiration and esteem, was destined
never more to behold her father or her native land. She died at
Gravesend, where she was preparing to embark with her husband
and child for Virginia. Peace to her gentle spirit! Her memory
will not perish while the commonwealth of Virginia endures, or
noble and generous actions are valued by her sons.

Yeardley's administration was similar to that of his predecessors,
enforcing obedience from his own men, and the respect of the
savages. He was succeeded, in 1617, by Captain Argall, who was
a rough seaman, accustomed to the despotic sway of his own ship,
naturally tyrannical in his disposition, cruel and covetous, in short,
a person utterly unfit to be trusted with the administration of the
arbitrary government which then existed in Virginia. For although
we have considered such a government the only practicable
one which could have been then established, yet it required the
utmost firmness in the governor, tempered by mildness, prudence,
and discretion, to make it tolerable. Such had been the case under
the administration of Gates, Dale, and Yeardley, and under them
the colony had prospered more than it had ever done before; but
such was not the disposition of this new governor. Instead of
holding the severity of the laws in terrorem over them, and not
actually resorting to the extent of his power, except in cases of
extreme necessity, he sought to bring innocent actions within the
letter of the law, which indeed was not very difficult with the
bloody military code which then existed. These arbitrary exertions
of power were principally used in the gratification of his
inordinate rapacity, which, in its indiscriminate grasp, sought not
only to clutch the property of the colonists, but also trespassed
upon the profits of the company. Not satisfied with perverting
the labor of the free colonists to his own use or pleasures, he consumed
the time of the servants of the company upon his own
plantations. At length his conduct was so flagitious, in the case
of one Brewster, who was left by Lord Delaware to manage his

POCAHONTAS.

The above is copied from an engraving said to be an exact copy of an original drawing
of the "Lady Rebecca," or Pocahontas, as she is usually called. It shows her
in the fashionable English dress of the time in which she lived. The following is inscribed
around and underneath the original portrait.

"Matoaka als Rebecca Filia Potentiss Princ: Powhatani Imp: Virginiæ."

"Matoaks als Rebecka, daughter to the mighty Prince Powhatan Emperour of Attanoughkomouck
als Virginia, converted and baptized in the Christian faith, and wife to the
worff Mr. Joh Rolff." "Ætatis suæ 21 A. D. 1616."

estate, and who only sought to prevent Argall from utterly despoiling
it, that neither the colony nor company could bear his tyranny
longer, but he was deposed and Sir George Yeardley sent in his
place. Yet he contrived to escape punishment, by the mismanagement
of some and the connivance of others, and preserved all
of his ill-gotten booty.

The overbearing disposition of King James created a powerful
popular party in England, which being unable to establish a liberal
government at home, was determined to secure for free principles a
safe asylum in the colonies. The accomplishment of this determination
was accelerated by the disposition of the king to intermeddle
with this very subject. He was exceedingly jealous of the company,
in which the patriot party prevailed, and suspicious of the liberal
principles discussed in its meetings with uncontrolled freedom: he
feared it as the school of debate, and nursery of parliamentary
leaders. Upon the resignation of Sir Edwin Sandys of his office
as treasurer, the king determined to try the extent

of his influence in the election of a successor to
this first office in the company. He accordingly sent in a nomination
of four individuals, to one of whom he desired the office to be
given; but he proved unsuccessful in his attempt at dictation, and
none of his nominees were elected, but the choice fell upon the Earl
of Southampton.

The company having thus vindicated its own privileges, proceeded
next to guaranty freedom to the colonists, by a constitution
remarkably liberal for the time and circumstances. This charter
of freedom, the principles of which the Virginians never could be
brought subsequently to relinquish, has been preserved to posterity
in "Summary of the ordinance and constitution of the treasurer,
council and company in England, for a council of state, and
another council to be called the General Assembly in Virginia,
contained in a commission to Sir Francis Wyatt (the first governor
under that ordinance and constitution) and his council," dated July
24, 1621.

The council of state was to be chosen by the treasurer, council

and company in England, with the power of removal at pleasure;
their duty was to advise and assist the governor, and to constitute
a portion of the General Assembly. This General Assembly was
to be called by the governor once a year, and not oftener, unless
on very extraordinary and important occasions; it was to consist,
in addition to the council of state, of two burgesses, out of every
town, hundred, or other particular plantation, to be respectively
chosen by the inhabitants; in which council all matters were to
be decided, determined, and ordered, by the greater part of the
voices then present, reserving to the governor always a negative
voice. "And this General Assembly was to have full power, to
treat, consult, and conclude, as well of all emergent occasions concerning
the public weal of the said colony, and every part thereof,
as also to make, ordain, and enact such general laws and orders,
for the behoof of said colony, and the good government thereof,
as from time to time might seem necessary."

The General Assembly and council of state were required to
imitate and follow the policy of the form of government, laws,
customs, and manner of trial, and of the administration of justice,
used in the realm of England, as near as might be, as the company
itself was required to do, by its charter. No law or ordinance
was to continue in force or validity unless it was solemnly
ratified in a general quarterly court of the company, and returned
under seal; and it was promised that as soon as the government
of the colony should once have been well framed and settled, that
no orders of court should afterwards bind the colony, unless they
were ratified in the same manner by the General Assembly.

Opechancanough had renewed the treaty with Governor Wyatt,
and took every other means in his power to avoid suspicion. He
told a messenger, about the middle of March, that the sky should
fall ere he would violate the treaty of peace; only two days before
the fatal 22d, the English were guided in safety and kindness
through the forest by the unsuspected Indians; and a Mr. Browne,
who had been sent to live among them to learn their language,
was sent safely to his friends;—nay, so well was the dread secret
kept, that the English boats were borrowed to transport the Indians
over the river to consult on the "devilish murder that ensued;"
and even on the day itself, as well as on the evening before, they
came as usual unarmed into the settlements with deer, turkeys,
fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell, and in some places sat down
to breakfast with the English. The concert and secrecy of this
great plot is the more astonishing, when we reflect that the savages
were not living together as one nation, and did not have for most
purposes unity of action, but were dispersed in little hamlets containing
from thirty to two hundred in a company; "yet they all
had warning given them one from another in all their habitations,
though far asunder, to meet at the day and hour

appointed for the destruction of the English at
their several plantations; some directed to one place, some to
another, all to be done at the time appointed, which they did
accordingly: some entering their houses under color of trading, so
took their advantage; others drawing them abroad under fair pretences,
and the rest suddenly falling upon those that were at their
labors." They spared no age, sex, or condition, and were so sudden
in their indiscriminate slaughter that few could discern the
blow or weapon which brought them to destruction. Their familiarity
with the whites led them with fatal precision to the points
at which they were certain to be found, and that "fatal morning
fell under the bloody and barbarous hands of that perfidious and
inhuman people, three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and
children, principally by their own weapons." Not content with
this destruction, they brutally defaced and mangled the dead
bodies, as if they would perpetrate a new murder, and bore off
the several portions in fiendish triumph. Those who had treated
them with especial kindness, and conferred many benefits upon
them, who confided so much in them that to the last moment they
could not believe mischief was intended, fared no better than the
rest. The ties of love and gratitude, the sacred rights of hospitality
and reciprocal friendship, oaths, pledges, and promises, and
even the recent and solemn profession of fidelity to an all-merciful
and omnipotent God, were broken asunder or forgotten in obedience
to the command of their chief, for the execution of a great
but diabolical stroke of state policy. With one, and only one, of
all who had been cherished by the whites, did gratitude for their
kindness and fidelity to his new religion prevail over his allegiance
to his king and affection for his people. A converted Indian
who resided with a Mr. Pace, and who was treated by him as a
son, revealed the plot to him in the night of the 21st. Pace immediately
secured his house and rowed himself up to Jamestown,
where he disclosed it to the governor, by which means that place
and all the neighboring plantations, to which intelligence could be
conveyed, was saved from destruction; for the cowardly Indians
when they saw the whites upon their guard immediately retreated.
Some other places were also preserved by the undaunted courage
of the occupants, who never failed to beat off their assailants, if
they were not slain before their suspicions were excited. By these
means was Virginia preserved from total annihilation in a single
hour, by this well-conceived, well-concealed, and well-executed
plot of her weak and simple adversaries. The larger portion of
the colony was saved: for a year after the massacre it contained
two thousand five hundred persons; but the consternation produced
by it, caused the adoption of a ruinous policy. Instead of
marching at once boldly to meet the adversary, and driving him
from the country, or reducing him to subjection by a bloody retaliation,
the colonists were huddled together from their eighty plantations
into eight, the college, manufactories, and other works of
public utility were abandoned, and cultivation confined to a space
almost too limited, merely for subsistence. These crowded quarters
produced sickness, and some were so disheartened that they
sailed for England.

While these events were transpiring in the colony, an important
change in the character of their government was about to

take place in England. The company had been unsuccessful:
the fact could no longer be denied. They had transported
more than nine thousand persons, at an expense exceeding a hundred
thousand pounds; and yet, in nearly 18 years, there were only
about two thousand persons in the colony, and its annual exports
did not exceed twenty thousand pounds in value. The king took
advantage of the present unfortunate state of affairs, to push his
plans for the dissolution of the company. He carefully fomented
the dissensions which arose, and encouraged the weaker party,
which readily sought the aid of his powerful arm. He had long
disliked the democratic freedom of their discussions, and had of late
become envious of their little profits on the trade of the colonists,
which he felt every disposition to divert into his own coffers; and he
determined to make good use of the present state of despondency
in most of the company, and unpopularity with the public, to effect
his designs. Wishing, however, to gain his end by stealth, and
secret influence with their officers, rather than by open vio-
lence, he again tried his strength in the nomination of four
individuals from whom the company were to choose their treasurer.
But he was again signally defeated, and the Earl of Southampton
re-elected by a large majority, the king's candidates receiving only
eight votes in seventy.

Failing in this, it was manifest that the company was not to be
browbeaten into submission to his dictation, and he only considered
how the charter of the company might be revoked, with the least
violation to the laws of England. To effect this with plausible
decency some allegation of improper conduct was to be made, and
some proof ferreted out. The first of these objects was effected
by two long petitions by members of the royal faction in the
company, setting forth at full length every evil which had accrued
to the colony, from its earliest establishment to that hour, and
charging all upon the mismanagement of the company. For
many of these charges there was too much truth, and the faults of

the company could be easily seen after the accidents had happened;
but whether they were not necessarily incidental to the situation
of things in Virginia, or they might have been avoided by the king
or a corporation differently constituted, are questions difficult to
answer; but these petitions contained, mingled with these truths,
a great proportion of glaring falsehood as to the physical and moral
condition of the colony. They had been prepared and presented
with great secrecy; but the company contrived to obtain copies of
them, and refuted their slanders by the most irrefragable testimony,
many facts being in the cognizance of the members themselves,
and others established by the evidence of respectable persons who
had long resided in Virginia. This mass of evidence was laid
before the king, in the vain hope that he might be induced to disregard
the petitions; but part of his object was now gained, the
charges were made, the next step was to procure a semblance of
proof: for this purpose, in a few days, in answer to the prayer in
one of the petitions, he issued a commission, under the great seal,
to seven persons, to inquire into all matters respecting Virginia,
from the beginning of its settlement.

The better to enable these commissioners to conduct their investigations,
by an order of the privy council, all the records of the
company, of whatsoever nature, were seized, the deputy treasurer
was imprisoned, and on the arrival of a ship from Virginia, all the
papers on board were inspected.

The report of these commissioners has never transpired, but it
was, without doubt, such as the king wished and

expected; for by an order in council he made
known, that having taken into his princely consideration the distressed
state of Virginia, occasioned by the ill-government of the
company, he had resolved, by a new charter, to appoint a governor
and twelve assistants to reside in England; and a governor and
twelve assistants to reside in Virginia; the former to be nominated
by his majesty in council, the latter to be nominated by the governor
and assistants in England, and be appointed by the king in council;
and that all proceedings should be subject to the royal direction.
This was a return at one step to the charter of 1606. The company
was called together to consider upon this arbitrary edict,
under an alternative similar to the one given to witches upon their
trial: if they could swim with a heavy weight about their necks,
they were burned as guilty; if they sunk and drowned, they were
acquitted: the king gave the company the privilege of accepting
his proposition and resigning its charter, or of refusing and having
the charter annulled.

The commissioners early in the ensuing year arrived in the
colony. In all of this controversy between the king and the

company, the colony not supposing its chartered rights were
likely to be violated by either party, and feeling little interest in
the discussion of rights which belonged entirely to others, and which
they never supposed they were to possess; had acted with entire
neutrality, and cared little whether they were to be under the
general superintendence of the courts of the company, or a council
chosen by the king, so long as they could regulate their own affairs
by their own General Assembly.[73]

In such a mood would the commissioners have found the colony
and General Assembly, had they not procured copies of the two
slanderous petitions, in spite of all the precautions of the king, and
the secrecy of his council and commissioners. Although they felt
little interest in the controversy, they felt great interest in defending
themselves from defamation, and their country from false and
malicious representations, well calculated to disparage and depreciate
it in the estimation of those with whom they wished it to
stand fairest. In six days from their meeting they

had prepared spirited and able answers to these
petitions; declaring in their preamble, "that they, holding it a
sin against God and their own sufferings, to permit the world to
be abused with false reports, and to give to vice the reward of
virtue,—They, in the name of the whole colony of Virginia, in
their General Assembly met, many of them having been eye-witnesses
and sufferers in those times, had framed, out of their
duty to their country and love of truth, the following answer
given to the praises of Sir T. Smith's government, in the said
declaration."

They next drafted a petition to the king, which, with a
letter to the privy council and the other papers, were committed
to the care of Mr. John Pountis, a member of the council,
who was selected to go to England to represent the general
interests of the colony before his majesty and the privy
council; and whose expenses were provided for by a tax of
four pounds of the best merchantable tobacco for every male
person sixteen years of age, who had been in the country for one
year. This gentleman unfortunately died on his passage. The
letter to the privy council marks very strongly the value which
they set even at that early day upon the right of legislating for
themselves; the principal prayer in it being, "that the governors
may not have absolute power, and that they might still retain the
liberty of popular assemblies, than which, nothing could more conduce
to the public satisfaction and public utility."

Having thus given a specimen of colonial spirit, and colonial
legislation, we return to the little intrigues of James, who was
striving by every means in his power to become possessed of the
control of the colony; partly to gratify his love of arbitrary authority
and of money, and partly to gratify his royal self-complacency,
by framing a code of laws for a people with whose character and
condition he was utterly unacquainted, and who, from the specimens
recently given, appeared to be fully competent to the management
of their own affairs, without the dictation or advice of
this royal guardian; who, while he displayed the craft without
the talent of a Philip, aspired to the character of a Solon. The
recent acts of the king led to a solemn council of the company on
the state of their affairs, in which they confirmed by an overwhelming
majority the previous determination to defend their charter,
and asked for a restitution of their papers for the purpose of preparing
their defence. This request was pronounced reasonable
by the attorney-general, and complied with. While these papers
were in the hands of the company, they were transcribed, and the
copy has been fortunately preserved, and presents a faithful record
of many portions of Virginia history, which it would be otherwise
impossible to elucidate.[75]

The king had caused a quo warranto to be issued against the
company soon after the appointment of his com-

missioners to go to Virginia, and the cause was
tried in the King's Bench, in Trinity Term of 1624. A cause
which their royal master had so much at heart could not long be
doubtful with judges entirely dependent upon his will for their
places; it is even credibly reported that this important case,
whereby the rights of a powerful corporation were divested, and
the possibility of a remuneration for all of their trouble and
expense forever cut off, was decided upon a mere technical question
of special pleading![77]

In the mean time the commissioners had returned, and reported
very favorably of the soil and climate of Virginia, but censuring
deeply the conduct of the company,—recommending the government
of the original charter of 1606, and declaring that a body so
large and so democratic in its forms as the company, could never
persevere in a consistent course of policy, but must veer about as the
different factions should prevail. In this it must be admitted that
there was much truth, and all hopes of profit having for some time
expired, and the company only being kept up by the distinguished
men of its members, from patriotic motives and as an instrument
of power for thwarting the king, in which capacity its present
unpopularity rendered it of little use—it was now suffered to
expire under the judicial edict, without a groan. The expiration
of the charter brought little immediate change to the actual government
of the colony:—a large committee was formed by the
king, consisting principally of his privy council, to discharge the
functions of the extinct company; Sir Francis Wyatt was reappointed
governor, and he and his council only empowered to
govern "as fully and amply as any governor and council resident
there, at any time within the space of five years last past"—
which was the exact period of their representative government.
The king, in appointing the council in Virginia, refused to appoint
embittered partisans of the court faction, but formed the government
of men of moderation.

So leaving Virginia free, while his royal highness is graciously
pleased to gratify his own vanity in preparing a new code of laws
to regulate her affairs, we pass on to a new chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

PROGRESS OF THE COLONY FROM THE DISSOLUTION OF THE LONDON COMPANY,
TO THE BREAKING OUT OF BACON'S REBELLION IN 1675.

The dissolution of the London Company was soon followed by
the death of James, and the accession of his son,

Charles I. The king troubled himself little about
the political rights and privileges of the colony, and suffered them
to grow to the strength of established usage by his wholesome
neglect; while he was employed in obtaining a monopoly of their
tobacco. This valuable article, the use of which extended with
such unaccountable rapidity, had early attracted the avidity of
King James. The 19th article of the charter of 1609 had exempted
the company, their agents, factors, and assignees, from the payment
of all subsidies and customs in Virginia for the space of one
and twenty years, and from all taxes and impositions forever, upon
any goods imported thither, or exported thence into any of the
realms or dominions of England; except the five per cent. usual
by the ancient trade of merchants. But notwithstanding the express
words of this charter, a tax was laid by the farmers of the
customs, in the year 1620, upon the tobacco of the colony; which
was not only high of itself, but the more oppressive because it laid
the same tax upon Virginia and Spanish tobacco, when the latter
sold in the market for three times the price of the former. In the
same year the same prince was guilty of another violation of the
charter, in forcing the company to bring all of their tobacco into
England; when he found that a portion of their trade had been
diverted into Holland, and establishments made at Middleburg
and Flushing. The charters all guarantied to the colony all of
the rights, privileges, franchises, and immunities of native born
Englishmen, and this act of usurpation was the first attempt on
the part of the mother country to monopolize the trade of the
colony. The next year the king, either his avidity being unsatisfied,
or not liking the usurped and precarious tenure by which his
gains were held, inveigled the Virginia and Somer Isles company
into an arrangement, by which they were to become the sole
importers of tobacco; being bound, however, to import not less
than forty nor more than sixty thousand pounds of Spanish varinas,
and paying to the king, in addition to the sixpence duty before
paid, one-third part of all the tobacco landed in the realms.
The king, on his part, was to prohibit all other importation and all
planting in England and Ireland; and that which was already
planted was to be confiscated.

When the company petitioned parliament to prolong its existence,
in opposition to the efforts of the king, they failed—but that portion
of their petition, which asked for the exclusive monopoly of
tobacco to Virginia and the Somer Isles, was grant-

ed, and a royal proclamation issued accordingly.
Whether this exclusiveness was understood with the limitation in
the previous contract between the king and the two companies, it
is impossible to say, as the original documents are not accessible
to the writer.[80] But the probabilities are greatly against the
limitation.

Charles had not been long on the throne before he issued a

proclamation, confirming the exclusive privileges
of the Virginia and Somer Isles tobacco; and prohibiting
a violation of their monopoly, under penalty of censure by
the dread star-chamber. This was soon followed by another, in
which he carefully set forth the forfeiture of their charter by the
company, and the immediate dependence of the colony upon the
crown; concluding by a plain intimation of his intention to become
their sole factor.

Soon after this, a rumor reached the colonies that an individual
was in treaty with the king for an exclusive contract for tobacco;
one of the conditions of which would have led to the importation
of so large an amount of Spanish tobacco, as would have driven
that of the colonists from the market. The earnest representations
of the colony on this subject caused an abandonment of the scheme;
but in return, the colony was obliged to excuse itself from a charge
of trade with the Low Countries, and promise to trade only with
England. But the king's eagerness for the possession of this
monopoly was not to be baffled thus. He made a formal proposition
to the colony for their exclusive trade, in much the same
language as one tradesman would use to another; and desired
that the General Assembly might be convened for the purpose of
considering his proposition. The answer by the

General Assembly to this proposition is preserved.
It sets forth in strong, but respectful language the injury which
had been done the planters, by the mere report of an intention to
subject their trade to a monopoly: they state the reasons for not
engaging in the production of the other staples mentioned by the
king; and dissent from his proposition as to the purchase of their
tobacco; demanding a higher price and better terms of admission,
in exchange for the exclusive monopoly which he wished.

In the mean time, the death of his father rendered it necessary
for Sir Francis Wyatt to return to Europe, to attend to his

private affairs; and the king appointed Sir George Yeardley
his successor. This was itself a sufficient guarantee of the
political privileges of the colony; as he had had the honor of calling
the first colonial assembly. But in addition to this, his powers
were, like those of his predecessor, limited to the executive authority
exercised by the governor within five years last past. These
circumstances taken in connection with the express sanction
given by Charles to the power of a legislative assembly, with regard
to his proffered contract for tobacco, sufficiently prove that
he had no design of interfering with the highly prized privilege of
self-government enjoyed by the colonists: and fully justifies the
General Assembly in putting the most favorable construction upon
the king's ambiguous words, announcing his determination to preserve
inviolate all the "former interests" of Virginia, which occur
in his letter of 1627.

Thus were those free principles established in Virginia, for
which the mother country had to struggle for some time longer.

The colony rose in the estimation of the public, and a thousand new
emigrants arrived in one year; which of course much enhanced
the price of provision.

Death now closed the career of Yeardley. The character of his
administration is exhibited in the history of the colony;

and the estimate placed upon his character by those
who were best acquainted with his conduct, and who were little
disposed to flatter undeservedly either the living or the dead, is to
be found in a eulogy written by the government of Virginia to the
privy council, announcing his death. In obedience to the king's
commission to the council, they elected Francis West governor,
the day after the burial of Yeardley. He held the commission
until the 5th of March, 1628, when, designing to sail for England,
John Pott was chosen to succeed him. Pott did not continue
long in office, for the king, when the death of Yeardley was known,
issued his commission to Sir John Harvey, who arrived some time
between October, 1628, and March, 1629.

The colony in Virginia consisted of church of England men; and
many of the first acts of their legislature relate to provision for the
church. Glebe lands were early laid off, and livings provided. The
ministers were considered not as pious and charitable individuals, but
as officers of the state, bound to promote the true faith and sound
morality, by authority of the community by which they were paid,
and to which they were held responsible for the performance of their
duty. The very first act of Assembly which was passed, required
that in every settlement in which the people met to worship God,
a house should be appropriated exclusively to that purpose, and
a place paled in to be used solely as a burying-ground; the second
act imposed a penalty of a pound of tobacco for absence from
divine service on Sunday, without sufficient excuse, and fifty
pounds for a month's absence; the third, required uniformity, as
nearly as might be, with the canons in England; the fourth, enjoined
the observance of the holy days, (adding the 22d of March,
the day of the Massacre, to the number,) dispensing with some,
"by reason of our necessities;" the fifth, punished any minister
absenting himself from his church above two months in the year,
with forfeiture of half his estate—and four months, his whole estate
and curacy; the sixth, punished disparagement of a minister; the
seventh, prohibited any man from disposing of his tobacco or
corn, until the minister's portion was first paid. This sacred duty
discharged, the Assembly next enact salutary regulations for the
state. We find at the session of 1629, the act requiring attendance
at church on the Sabbath, specially enforced, and a clause
added, forbidding profanation of that day by travelling or work;
also an act, declaring that all those who work in the ground shall
pay tithes to the minister. We find requisition of uniformity with
the canons of the English church not only repeated, in every new
commission from England, but re-enacted by the legislature of
1629-30, and in 1631-32, as well as in the several revisals of the

laws. In the acts of 1631-32, we find many acts conveying the
idea advanced of ministers being considered public officers; and
churchwardens required to take an oath, to present offences
against decency or morality, which made them in effect censors
of the public morals. In these acts, it is made the duty of ministers
to teach children the Lord's prayer, commandments, and the
articles of faith; also to attend all persons dangerously sick, to
instruct and comfort them in their distress; to keep registers of
christening, marriages, and deaths; and to preserve in themselves
strict moral conduct, as an advancement to religion and an example
to others. We find, also, frequent acts passed providing for
the payment of ministers, until the session of 1657-58, when
church and state seem to have been effectually divorced; for,
though no act of religious freedom was passed, but all were still
expected, rather than compelled, to conform to the church of England,
yet the compulsory payment of ministers was abandoned,
and all matters relating to the church were left entirely to the
control of the people.

From the review which we have given of the religious condition
of England and the colony, it must be manifest that the tender
of the oath of supremacy to Lord Baltimore, was not only a
religious but a civil duty in the council, which they could by no
means have omitted, without a violation of their own oaths, laws,
and charters. But if any further proof were necessary, to show
that it flowed from this source, and not from a disposition to religious
intolerance—it is afforded by the liberal invitation given in
the instructions to Captain Bass to the Puritans, who had settled at
New Plymouth, to desert their cold and barren soil, and come and
settle upon Delaware Bay, which was in the limits of Virginia.

Harvey met his first General Assembly in March, and its acts,
as those of several succeeding sessions, only consist of the

usual business acts of the colony. We have now approached
a period in our history, upon which the few scattered
and glimmering lights which exist, have rather served to mislead
than to guide historians. It is a period replete with charges made
by historians, of the most heinous character, against the governor,
with no evidence upon record to support them. The truth is, that
Sir John Harvey was deposed and sent home by the colony for
some improper conduct: but what that was, does not fully appear,
and historians seem to have thought it their duty to supply the
defect in the record, by abusing his administration as arbitrary and
tyrannical from the first: the charge is without evidence, and
every probability is against its truth. During the whole of his
administration, the General Assembly met and transacted their
business as usual. The fundamental laws which they had passed,
to which we have before referred, restraining the powers of the
governor, and asserting the powers of the Assembly, were passed
again as of course. There could manifestly be no oppression from
this source. The General Assembly ordered the building of forts,
made the contracts, provided the payments, provided garrisons and
soldiers for the field when necessary, and disbanded them when
the occasion for their services had ceased. The Assembly and the
soldiers were planters, and they could be little disposed to oppress
themselves, their families and friends. The only evidence which
exists against Harvey, is the fact of his being deposed, and sent
home with commissioners to complain of his conduct to the king;
but this did not occur until 1635, after the extensive grants had
been made to Lord Baltimore and others, which dismembered the
colony, and were so displeasing to the planters; and we shall see
that aid or connivance in these grants were the probable causes
of Harvey's unpopularity.

The first act of tyranny towards the colony which we find recorded
against Charles, was his grant in 1630 to Sir Robert Heath
of a large portion of the lands of the colony—commencing at the
36th degree of latitude, and including the whole southern portion
of the United States, under the name of Carolina. But as this
country was not settled until long afterwards, and the charter became
void by non-compliance with its terms, it could not be regarded
as injurious by the colony, except as an evidence of the
facility with which their chartered rights could be divested. Another
instance of a more objectionable character soon oc-

curred. Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, obtained a grant
of that portion of Virginia which is now included in the state of
Maryland, and immediately commenced a settlement upon it, notwithstanding
the value which the Virginians set upon it, and their
having actually made settlements within its limits. William
Claiborne, who had been a member of the council, and secretary
of state for Virginia, had obtained a license from the king to
"traffic in those parts of America where there was no license,"
which had been confirmed by Harvey. In pursuance of this authority
he had settled himself at Kent Island, near the city of Annapolis,
and seemed by no means inclined tamely to relinquish his
possessions. He resisted the encroachments of Maryland by force.
This was the first controversy between the whites which ever took
place on the waters of the Chesapeake. Claiborne was indicted,
and found of guilty of murder, piracy, and sedition; and to escape
punishment he fled to Virginia. When the Maryland commissioners
demanded him, Harvey refused to give him up, but sent him to
England to be tried. It is highly probable that the conduct of
Harvey in giving up instead of protecting Claiborne, incensed the
colony against him; for they clearly thought the Maryland charter
an infringement of their rights, and they were little inclined to
submit to imposition from any quarter.

The account which we have of the trial of Harvey is extremely
meager, detailing neither the accusations nor the evidence, but
only the fact. The manner of proceeding, however, as it appears
on the record, is as little like that of an enslaved people, as it is
like a "transport of popular rage and indignation." The whole

matter seems to have been conducted with calm deliberation, as a
free people acting upon the conduct of an unworthy servant. The
first entry upon the subject runs thus: "An assembly to be called
to receive complaints against Sir John Harvey, on the petition of
many inhabitants, to meet 7th of May." Could as much coolness,
deliberation, and publicity be given to action against a tyrant who
had already trodden liberty under foot? or is a transport of popular
rage so slow in action? The next entry upon this subject is
the following: "On the 28th of April, 1635, Sir John Harvey
thrust out of his government, and Capt. John West acts as governor,
till the king's pleasure known." It appears that before the
Assembly met which was to have heard complaints against Harvey,
he agreed in council to go to England to answer them; and
upon that, West was elected governor.

How long West governed is uncertain; but it appears by a
paper among the records, that Harvey was governor again in January,
1636. It appears that Charles regarded the conduct of the
colony as an unwarrantable piece of insolence, little short of treason,
and would not even hear them, lest the spectacle of so noble
an example might inflame the growing discontents in his own
kingdom, which finally rose to such a pitch, as not only to take the
same unwarrantable liberty of deposing him, but even laid violent
hands upon his sacred person. He accordingly sent the commissioners
home with their grievances untold, and Harvey was reinstated
in his power without undergoing even a trial. The conduct
of the colony appears to have been a salutary lesson to him, and
he probably feared that for the next offence they would take
justice into their own hands; for we hear no complaints of him
during his administration, which expired in November, 1639. Sir
Francis Wyatt succeeded him.

In 1634 the colony was divided into eight shires,[89] which were
to be governed as the shires in England: lieutenants were to be
appointed in the same manner as in England, and it was their
especial duty to pay attention to the war against the Indians.
Sheriffs, sergeants, and bailiffs, were also to be elected as in England.
In 1628-9 commissions were issued to hold monthly courts
in the different settlements, which was the origin of our county
court system.

At the first assembly which was held after the return of Wyatt,
several acts were passed, which, from the inattention of historians
to the circumstances of the times, have received universal reprobation,
but which, when properly considered, will be found to be
marked with great shrewdness, and dictated by the soundest
policy.

Wyatt remained governor only for one year and a few months,
when he was succeeded by Sir William Berkeley. Historians who
have not been aware of the intermediate administration of Wyatt,
and have heard no complaint of Berkeley, have delighted to deck
his character in the gayest colors, in contrast to the black character
which they have drawn of Harvey. There can be no doubt
that he was esteemed an accomplished and chivalric gentleman;
but his accession brought no increase of political freedom to Virginia,
and his commission did not differ from those of his predecessors.
On the contrary, the instructions which he brought, so
far from granting new franchises, imposed new, severe, and unwarrantable
restrictions on the liberty of trade; England claiming
that monopoly of colonial commerce, which was ultimately enforced
by the navigation act, and which was a perpetual source of
contention, until all differences were finally healed by the revolution.

Berkeley arrived in February, 1642; an assembly met in March,
and soon after passed a solemn protest against a petition which
Sir George Sandys had presented to Parliament for the restoration
of the company. This paper is drawn with great ability, and sets
forth the objections to the petition in very strong and striking
terms. They enlarge especially upon the wish and power of the
company to monopolize their trade; the advantages and happiness
secured to them by their present form of government, with its annual
assemblies and trial by jury; the fact, that a restitution of the
power of the company would be an admission of the illegality of
the king's authority, and a consequent nullification of the grants
and commissions issued by him; and the impossibility of men,
however wise, at such a distance, and unacquainted with the climate
or condition of the country, to govern the colony as well as
it could be governed by their own Grand Assembly. The king, in
reply to this, declared his purpose not to change a form of government
in which they received so much content and satisfaction.

The Indians had been driven back, and weakened by a perpetual
succession of hostilities, from the time of the great massacre,
until the year 1644. During the latter years of this period, we
have little account of their proceedings, but the rapid increase of
the settlements had driven them from the rich borders of the
rivers in the lower country, higher into the interior, and the new
grants were every day driving them still farther from the homes
of their fathers. This incessant warfare, while it weakened them
as a nation, had increased their cunning and skill in par-

tisan warfare. Opechancanough, though now so old that
he had to be carried in a litter, and so feeble that he could not
raise his eyelids without assistance, still retained sufficient strength
of mind to embody a combination of the various tribes under his
control, and make a sudden and violent attack upon many of the
frontier settlements at once. Little is known of the circumstances
attending this second great massacre. An act of Assembly of
1645, making the eighteenth day of April a holiday and day of
thanksgiving, for escape from the Indians, marks the period of the
massacre. Other evidence makes the number of their victims
three hundred.[91]
The precautions which the whites had been
taught to take by the previous massacre, in trading with them only
at particular places, in always going armed, in never admitting
them to the same familiarity, effectually prevented them, with all
their caution in approach, and violence of attack, from committing
as great slaughter as they had upon the former occasion. The
whites do not seem to have been stricken with a panic now as formerly,
but quickly sallied upon their assailants, and drove them
back so rapidly that their venerable chieftain himself had to be
deserted by his attendants, and was taken by Sir William Berkeley,
at the head of a squadron of light cavalry. He was carried
to Jamestown, and manifested, in his imprisonment, the same
haughty dignity which had always distinguished him. He preserved
a proud and disdainful silence, and such indifference to the
passing scenes, that he rarely requested his eyelids to be raised.
In this melancholy condition, he was basely shot in the back by
his sentinel, with whom recollection of former injuries overcame
all respect for helpless age, or former greatness. The only subject
which called forth any show of regret from him was a flash of angry
indignation, at being exposed in his dying hours to the idle and
curious gaze of his enemies.

So little regard was now paid to the Indian hostilities, that, on
the following June, Sir William Berkeley sailed for England, and
the council elected Richard Kemp to occupy his post until his return.
In the mean time, the warfare with the Indians continued
without remission. It appears by an act of the latter part of the
year 1644, that many of the inhabitants, probably on the frontiers,
had been collected in large bodies; but leave was then given them
to dispose of themselves "for their best advantage and convenience,
provided that in places of danger there should not be less
than ten men allowed to settle."

Sir William Berkeley again took possession of his government
in June, 1645; and in the following year a treaty of

peace was concluded with the Indians, by which
Necotowance, the successor of Opechancanough, acknowledged
that he held his kingdom of the crown of England, and agreed
that his successors should be appointed or confirmed by the king's
governor; on the other hand, the Assembly, on behalf of the colony,
undertook to protect him against rebels and all enemies whatsoever.
In this treaty, the Indians were permitted to dwell on the
north side of York River, but ceded to the whites all the country
from the falls of the James and York to the bay, forever; and any
Indian coming upon that territory was to suffer death, unless he
bore the badge of a messenger. The Indians were also to surrender
all prisoners, negroes, and arms taken. Other articles were
added, prescribing the form of intercourse. Thus were the aborigines
at length finally excluded from their father-land, leaving
no monument of their having existed, save the names of the waters
and mountains, and the barrows containing the ashes of their
ancestors.[93]

Thus the colony of Virginia acquired the management of all its
concerns; war was levied, and peace concluded, and territory acquired,
in conformity to the acts of the representatives of the people;
while the people of the mother country had just acquired
these privileges, after a long and bloody conflict with their former
sovereign. Possessed of security and quiet, abundance of land, a
free market for their staple, and, practically, all the rights of an
independent state—having England for its guardian against foreign
oppression, rather than its ruler—the colonists enjoyed all the
prosperity which a virgin soil, equal laws, and general uniformity

of condition and industry, could bestow. Their numbers increased;
the cottages were filled with children, as the ports were with ships
and emigrants. At Christmas, 1648, there were trading in Virginia,
ten ships from London, two from Bristol, twelve Hollanders, and
seven from New England. The number of the colonists was already
twenty thousand, and they, who had sustained no griefs,
were not tempted to engage in the feuds by which the mother
country was divided. They were attached to the cause of Charles,
not because they loved monarchy, but because they cherished the
liberties of which he had left them in the undisturbed pos-
session; and after his execution, though there were not
wanting some who favored republicanism, the government recognised
his son without dispute.

The loyalty of the Virginians did not escape the attention of
the royal exile: from his retreat in Breda he trans-

mitted to Berkeley a new commission, and Gharles the
Second, a fugitive from England, was still the sovereign of Virginia.

But the Parliament did not long permit its authority to be denied.
Having, by the vigorous energy and fearless enthusiasm of
republicanism, triumphed over all its enemies in Europe, it turned
its attention to the colonies; and a memorable ordinance at once
empowered the council of state to reduce the rebellious colonies to
obedience, and at the same time established it as a law that foreign
ships should not trade at any of the ports "in Barbadoes,
Antigua, Bermudas, and Virginia." Thus giving the first example
of that wholesale blockade, afterwards rendered so notorious by
the celebrated orders in council during the wars of the French
revolution. Maryland, which was not expressly included in the
ordinance, had taken care to acknowledge the new order of things;
and Massachusetts, alike unwilling to encounter the hostility of
Parliament, and jealous of the rights of independent legislation,
by its own enactment, prohibited all intercourse with Virginia till
the supremacy of the commonwealth should be established,—although
the order, when it was found to be injurious to commerce,
was promptly repealed, even while royalty still flourished at
Jamestown.

A powerful fleet, with a considerable body of land forces on
board, sent out to bring the colonies to submission, having subdued
Barbadoes and Antigua, cast anchor before Jamestown. Sir William
Berkeley and his hardy colonists had not been inactive: the
growing strength of the colony had recently been increased by the
acquisition of many veteran cavaliers from the king's army, and it
now presented no contemptible force. Several Dutch ships which
were lying in the river, and which, as trading contrary to the
prohibition of Parliament, were armed, to provide against surprise
by the commonwealth's fleets, were also pressed into service.
This show of resistance induced the commissioners of Parliament
to hesitate, before they attempted to reduce the colony to obedience

by force, and to offer them fair and honorable terms of submission.
The terms offered being such as completely satisfied the Virginians
that their freedom was to be preserved inviolate, and their
present happy constitution guarantied, while they were to suffer
nothing for past conduct, they readily acquiesced, since they gained
all by such a surrender which they could effect by the most successful
warfare. It appears that they never anticipated any thing more
than the preservation of their own liberties from wanton violation
from the new and untried power which now held the reins of
government in England, and could scarcely have been mad
enough to hope to effect any thing favorable to the king by their
resistance.

If this was a conquest, happy would it be for most colonies to
be conquered. Every privilege was secured which could possibly
be asked, and the liberties of the colony were established more
thoroughly than they had ever been; and the conquest was only
less favorable to Virginia than her declaration of independence,
by having her rights depending upon the pledged faith of another
nation, instead of having them entirely under her own control.
The correspondence between the rights now secured, and the rights

mentioned in the Declaration of Independence as violated by the
British king, is remarkable.

All matters were thus happily and amicably arranged; and, as
Sir William Berkeley was too loyal a subject to be willing to take
office under Parliament, Richard Bennett, one of the commissioners,
was elected governor. A council was also elected, with powers
to act in conformity to the instructions they should receive from the
Parliament, the known law of England, and the Acts of Assembly,
and such other powers as the Assembly should think proper from
time to time to give them. It was declared, at the same session,
that it was best that officers should be elected by the Burgesses,
"the representatives of the people;" and after discussion upon the
propriety of allowing the governor and council to be members of
the Assembly, it was determined that they might, by taking the
same oath which was taken by the Burgesses. The Assembly
thus having no written constitution as their guide, took upon themselves
the office of a convention of the people, and granted or resumed
powers as it might seem best for the good of the country.

The whites and the remnants of the neighboring Indian tribes
continued to be upon good terms, and the latter were kindly and
humanely treated by the guardian care of the Assembly. A slight
irruption of the Rappahannocks seems to have been soon terminated.
But a new scene in the history of the colony now presented
itself. The Rechahecrians, a fierce and warlike tribe, came
down from the mountains, and took up a strong position on the
falls of James River, with six or seven hundred warriors. This
excited no little uneasiness, as it had been very difficult to extirpate
the Indians who had formerly possessed the spot. The first
expedition against them failed; a new one was prepared, and
the subject Indians being called upon for aid, furnished a hundred
warriors, most of whom, with their chief, Totopotomoi, fell fighting
gallantly.

When Bennett retired from office, and the Assembly elected Edward
Digges his successor, the commissioners of

the commonwealth had little to do with controlling
the destinies of Virginia, but were engaged in settling the
affairs and adjusting the boundaries of Maryland.

The Assembly reciting the articles of agreement with the commissioners
of Parliament, which admitted that

the election of all officers of the colony appertained
to the Burgesses, the representatives of the people proceeded
to the election of a governor and council until the next
Assembly; and the choice fell upon "worthy Samuel Matthews,
an old planter, of nearly forty years standing,—a most deserving
commonwealth's man, who kept a good house, lived bravely, and
was a true lover of Virginia." But this worthy old gentleman
seems to have conceived higher ideas of his powers than the Assembly
was willing to allow. The Assembly had determined not
to dissolve itself, but only to adjourn until the first of November.
They then proceeded with their ordinary business, making, however,
one important change in the constitution,—which was, to
require that all propositions and laws presented by a committee
should be first discussed by the House of Burgesses in private,
before the admission of the governor and council. The governor
and council, on the first of April, sent a message declaring that
they thought fit then to dissolve the Assembly, and requiring the
speaker to dismiss the Burgesses. To this the Assembly returned
for answer, that the act was illegal, and without precedent, and
requested a revocation of it, as they expected speedily to finish
their business. The house then declared, that any member who
should depart should be censured, as betraying the trust reposed
in him by his country; and that the remainder should act in all
things, and to all intents and purposes, as an entire house; that
the speaker should sign nothing without the consent of a majority
of the house, and that the members should take an oath not to
disclose the acts or debates of that body. The governor replied
to the communication from the house, that he was willing that the
house should conclude its business speedily, and refer the dispute
as to the legality of his power to dissolve, to the decision of the
Lord Protector. The house unanimously decided this answer to
be unsatisfactory, expressed an earnest desire that public business
might be soon dispatched, and requested the governor and council
to declare the house undissolved, in order that a speedy period
might be put to public affairs. In reply to this, the governor and
council revoked the order of dissolution, upon their promise of a
speedy conclusion, and again referred the matter of disputed right
to the Lord Protector. The house, still unsatisfied with this answer,
appointed a committee to draw up a report in vindication
of the conduct of the Assembly, and in support of its power. In
the report, the Burgesses declare that they have in themselves full
power of election and appointment of all officers in the country,
until they should have an order to the contrary from the supreme
power in England; that the house of Burgesses, the representatives
of the people, were not dissolvable by any power yet extant
in Virginia, except their own; that the former election of governor
and council was null, and that, in future, no one should be admitted
a counsellor unless he was nominated, appointed, and confirmed
by the house of Burgesses.

They then directed an order to the sheriff of James City county,
who was their sergeant-at-arms, that he should execute no warrant,
precept, or command, directed to him by any other power or
person than the Speaker of the House. They then ordered, that
"as the supreme power of the country of Virginia had been declared
resident in the Burgesses," the secretary of state should be
required to deliver up the public records to the speaker. An oath
was prescribed for the governor and council to take, and the same
governor was elected and most of the same council. Thus were
all difficulties adjusted, and popular sovereignty fully established.

Upon the death of Cromwell, the House of Burgesses unanimously
recognised his son Richard, and adopted an

address praying a confirmation of their former privileges,
in which address the governor was required to join, after
solemnly acknowledging, in the presence of the whole Assembly,
that the supreme power of electing officers was, by the present
laws, resident in the Grand Assembly; which was alleged to be
required for this reason, that what was their privilege now might
belong to their posterity hereafter.

Matthews died, leaving the colony of Virginia without a governor,
about the same time that the resignation of

Richard Cromwell left England without a head. In
this emergency the Assembly, reciting that the late frequent distractions
in England preventing any power from being generally
confessed; that the supreme power of the colony should be vested
in the Assembly, and that all writs should issue in its name, until
such a command and commission should come from England as
should by the Assembly be adjudged lawful. Sir William Berkeley
was then elected governor, with the express stipulation that
he should call an Assembly once in two years at least, and should
not dissolve the Assembly without its own consent. This old royalist,
probably thinking now that there was a prospect of the restoration,
accepted the office under the prescribed conditions, and
acknowledged himself to be but the servant of the Assembly.

At the restoration, Virginia enjoyed freedom of com-

merce with the whole world.

Virginia was the first state in the world composed of separate
townships, diffused over an extensive surface, where the government
was organized on the principle of universal suffrage.

All freemen, without exception, were entitled to vote. The
right of suffrage was once restricted, but it was soon after
determined to be "hard and unagreeable to reason, that
any person shall pay equal taxes and yet have no vote in the election;"
and the electoral franchise was restored to all freemen.
Servants, when the time of their bondage was completed, at once
became electors; and might be chosen burgesses. Thus Virginia
established upon her soil the supremacy of the popular branch, the
freedom of trade, the independence of religious societies, the security
from foreign taxation, and the universal elective franchise. If
in the following years she departed from either of these principles,
and yielded a reluctant consent to change, it was from the influence
of foreign authority. Virginia had herself established a
nearly independent democracy. Prosperity advanced with freedom;
dreams of new staples and infinite wealth were indulged;
while the population of Virginia at the epoch of the restoration
may have been about thirty thousand. Many of the recent emigrants
had been royalists in England, good officers in the war,
men of education, of property, and of condition. But the waters
of the Atlantic divided them from the political strifes of Europe;
their industry was employed in making the best advantage of their
plantations; the interests and liberties of Virginia, the land which
they adopted as their country, were dearer to them than the monarchical
principles which they had espoused in England; and
therefore no bitterness could exist between the partisans of the
Stuarts and the friends of republican liberty. Virginia had long
been the home of its inhabitants—"Among many other blessings,"
said their statute-book, "God Almighty hath vouchsafed increase
of children to this colony; who are now multiplied to a considerable
number;" and the huts in the wilderness were as full as the
birds' nests of the woods.

The genial climate and transparent atmosphere delighted those
who had come from the denser air of England. Every object in
nature was new and wonderful.

The hospitality of the Virginians became proverbial. Labor
was valuable; land was cheap; competence promptly followed
industry. There was no need of a scramble; abundance gushed
from the earth for all. The morasses were alive with water-fowl;
the forests were nimble with game; the woods rustled with covies
of quails and wild turkeys, while they sung with the merry notes
of the singing birds; and hogs, swarming like vermin, ran at large
in troops. It was "the best poor man's country in the world."
"If a happy peace be settled in poor England," it had been said,
"then they in Virginia shall be as happy a people as any under
heaven." But plenty encouraged indolence. No domestic manufactures
were established; every thing was imported from England.
The chief branch of industry, for the purpose of exchanges, was
tobacco planting; and the spirit of invention was enfeebled by the
uniformity of pursuit.

CHAPTER V.

BACON'S REBELLION—HOSTILE DESIGNS OF THE FRENCH.

As Virginia had provided for herself a government substantially
free, the political changes in England could have little effect
upon her repose, provided no attempt was made to interfere with
the freedom of her trade, or her local government. She seemed
content to be under the protection, rather than control, of whatever
power the people of England thought proper to place at the
head of affairs, provided that power did not seek to extend the
conceded authority. In this mood she had adhered to Charles I.
until the Parliament, by its commissioners, promised a preservation
of all her privileges; she acknowledged Cromwell upon a
similar promise, and his son Richard under the same idea; upon
his resignation she held herself aloof, thus proving how perfect
and how independent was her own local government, until the
voice of England should declare who should rule; and upon the
accession of Charles II. she gave in her allegiance to him. As in
all these British changes she remained unconcerned and unmoved,
so the last caused neither extraordinary joy nor regret. The colonists,
thus free from external sources of uneasiness, proceeded to
legislate upon internal matters; providing rewards for the encouragement
of silk and other staples; negotiating with Carolina
and Maryland for the adoption of uniform measures for the improvement
of tobacco, and diminishing its quantity; and providing
for the erection of public buildings, the improvement of Jamestown,
and other subjects of general utility.

While the colonists were proceeding in this useful occupation,
they were alarmed by the intelligence of the re-enaction

of the navigation act, odious with new prohibitions, and
armed with new penalties. The Virginians had long enjoyed a
very beneficial trade with other countries besides England, and
had early perceived its advantages, often urging the propriety of
its continuance, and contending that "freedom of trade was the
life of a commonwealth." But the object of the navigation act
was to confine its trade exclusively to England, for the encouragement
of English shipping, and the emolument of English merchants,
as well as the promotion of the king's revenue; without regard to
the gross injury done to the colony by depriving her of the benefit
of competition in her harbors. The colony remonstrated in vain,
and continued boldly her trade with all such foreigners as would
venture to encounter the risk of being taken by the English cruisers,
and encountering the penalties of the act.

It appears to have been for some time the practice to send felons
and other obnoxious persons to the colony, to expiate their offences
by serving the planters for a term of years. At the restoration
many of the veteran soldiers of Cromwell, to whom it was anticipated
the return of the ancien régime would not be particularly
palatable, were shipped to Virginia to work off their spleen in the
cultivation of tobacco. It appears that this new business was not
as agreeable to them as they had found the psalm-singing and
plundering of the royalists, under the command of their devout
leader; and they accordingly quickly organized an insurrection,
by the operation of which they were to change places with such
of their masters as were left alive by the process. But this outbreaking,
which seems to have been well planned and extensively
organized, was prevented by the compunction of one of their associates,
who disclosed the whole affair to the governor the evening
before it was to have gone into effect; and adequate means were
taken to prevent the design. Four of the conspirators

were executed. But this evil of importing jail-birds, as
they were called, increased to such an extent that it was prohibited
by the General Court, in 1670, under severe penalties.

The increase in the amount of tobacco raised by the increase of
the colony and the settlement of Maryland and

Carolina, far outstripped the increase of taste for it,
rapid as that was, and caused such a glut of the commodity that
its price fell to an amount utterly ruinous to the planter. In this
the exclusive privilege of purchase which England enjoyed, notwithstanding
the extensive contraband trade, no doubt largely
contributed; but this the planters could not prevent, and their
only remaining resource was in diminishing the amount of tobacco
raised. To effect this various schemes had been devised, but they
were all liable to be evaded, and were, if successful, too partial
in their operation to effect the object desired. Nothing could be
efficient, short of a total cessation from planting for one year, and
this was at last accomplished after long negotiations with Maryland
and Carolina.

Many other staples had been recommended from time to time to
the planters, and even encouraged by bounties and rewards, and
this year, it was thought, would give them more leisure to attend
to the subject. But it is not probable that many engaged in the

occupations proposed, which required the investment of capital,
the acquisition of skill, and the aid of time to render them profitable;
and the year's leisure only served to increase the growing
discontent, especially as towards its end Maryland began to be
suspected of bad faith.

There were other causes of discontent which probably prevailed
between different classes of society. Loud complaint was made
of the manner in which taxes were levied, entirely on persons
without regard to property, which, as there must have been a very
large class of poor free persons now existing, from the frequent
emancipation, and expiration of the terms of those who came over
as servants, besides those who were free but poor when they came
to the country, must have created considerable excitement. An
effort was made to remedy this evil by laying a tax on property,
but ineffectually; the only result being a small export duty on tobacco,
in aid of the general revenue.

While the taxes bore thus hard upon the poorer portion of the
community, they also had just reason to complain of exclusion
from the right of suffrage by an act of 1670, and from the Legislature,
to which none but freeholders could be chosen; as well as
of the enormous pay which the Burgesses appropriated to themselves,
of one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco per diem, and
one hundred for their horses and servants. The forts were also
complained of as a source of heavy expenditure, without any
benefit; their chief use, indeed, being rather injurious, as they kept
off traders who violated the navigation acts.

But these evils in domestic legislation were trivial, compared
with those produced by the criminal prodigality of Charles, who
wantonly made exorbitant grants to his favorites of large tracts
of lands, without a knowledge of localities, and consequently without
regard to the claims or even the settlements of others. To
cap the climax of royal munificence, the gay monarch, in, perhaps,
a merry mood, granted to Lords Culpeper and Arlington the whole
colony of Virginia, for thirty-one years, with privileges effectually
royal as far as the colony was concerned, only reserving some
mark of homage to himself. This might be considered at court,
perhaps, as a small bounty to a favorite, but was taken in a very
serious light by the forty thousand people thus unceremoniously
transferred. The Assembly, in its extravagance, only took from
them a great proportion of their profits; but the king was filching
their capital, their lands, and their homes, which they had inherited
from their fathers, or laboriously acquired by their own strenuous
exertion.

The Legislature sent three deputies to England, to remonstrate
with the king against these intolerable grants, to endeavor to procure
his assent to some charter which might secure them against
such impositions for the future; and if they should fail in the first
of these objects, to endeavor to buy out the rights of the patentees.
To bear the expense of these three deputies, Mr. Ludwell, Mr.

Morryson, and Mr. Smith, the enormous annual tax of fifty pounds
of tobacco was laid upon every titheable person for two years,
which, though it was for a popular object, was considered as of
itself an intolerable grievance, at which we cannot wonder when
we reflect that many who had to pay this tax did not own a foot
of land. The amount can only be accounted for, by supposing
much of it was to be used as secret service money, with such of
his majesty's minions as could only see justice through a golden
medium.

These deputies exerted themselves with remarkable success,
and procured from the king an order for a charter, precisely in
conformity to the petition which they presented, and providing
against the grievances of which they complained; especially
grants from the crown without information from the governor and
council in Virginia that such grants would be of no injury; dependence
immediately upon the crown of England, and not on
any subfeudatory; and exemption from taxation without consent
of the Grand Assembly. His majesty ordered the solicitor-general
and attorney-general to prepare a bill embodying these and the
other matters embraced in their petition, in due legal form, for his
signature; but the matter, notwithstanding the most assiduous
attention of the deputies, was so long delayed in going through
the official forms that it was finally stopped, before its completion,
in the Hanaper office, by the news of Bacon's Rebellion.

Soon after the deputies left Virginia, the difficulties of the colony
had been increased by the addition of an Indian war, which, although
not now, as formerly, a matter causing danger of destruction
to the whole colony, and requiring all its strength to repel it, was
yet a subject of great terror and annoyance to the frontier.

A standing army of five hundred men, one-fourth of which was
to consist of cavalry, was raised by the Legislature,

and every provision made for their support and regulation;
but after it was raised, and in a complete state of preparation
to march against the Indians, it was suddenly disbanded by
the governor without any apparent cause. This was followed by
earnest petitions to the governor from various quarters of the country,
to grant a commission to some person to chastise the Indians,
the petitioners offering to serve in the expedition at their own expense.
This reasonable request was refused, and the people, seeing
their country left defenceless to the inroads of a savage foe,
assembled of themselves in their primary capacity, in virtue of
their right of self-defence, to march against the enemy. They
chose for their leader Nathaniel Bacon, junior, a young gentleman
of highly respectable family and education, who, although he had
returned to Virginia but three years before, from the completion
of his studies in England, had already received the honor of a
colonel's rank in the militia, and a seat in the Legislature for Henrico,
in which county his estate lay,—exposed by its situation to
the fury of the Indians. He stood high in the colony, and was
possessed of courage, talent, and address, which fitted him well
for such an enterprise. After Bacon had been selected by this
volunteer army as their leader, his first step was to apply to the
governor for a commission, in order, if possible, to have the sanction
of the legitimate authorities for his conduct. The governor
evaded this rational and respectful request, by saying that he could
not decide upon so important a matter without his council, which
he summoned to consult, at the same time artfully hinting to Bacon
the injury which he might probably do himself by persevering
in his course. Bacon dispatched messengers to Jamestown to
receive the commission, which he did not doubt would be ultimately
granted; and as public impatience would not abide the
dilatory proceedings of the governor, and he was probably nettled
at the insinuations addressed to his selfishness, in the governor's
communication,—he proceeded on his expedition, authorized
only by the will of the people, the danger of the country,
and the anxious wish of those who trusted their lives to his
control.

Sir William Berkeley, (whose conduct, notwithstanding the
high encomiums bestowed upon him, seems to have been marked
in ordinary times only by a haughty condescension, which in his
excellency was called suayity of manners, and in those times of
difficulty, by vacillating imbecility,) after temporizing in the most
conciliating manner with Bacon until his departure, now denounced
him and his followers as mutineers and traitors, for daring to
defend their country after his excellency had refused them a commission;
and gathering together such forces as he could collect,
consisting principally of the wealthy aristocrats in the settled
country, who probably liked the mode of taxation which was
least injurious to them, and who suffered little from Indian incursions
upon the frontier, he marched to put down the rebellious
troops. He had not proceeded further than the falls of James
River, when he received intelligence of a rising in the neighborhood
of Jamestown of a more formidable nature than Bacon's,
which compelled him to retreat and take care of affairs at home.
This new ebullition of feeling was headed by Ingram and Walklate,
and was probably produced by the indignation of the common
people at the absurd conduct of the governor in first refusing a
commission to Bacon, and then marching to destroy him, while
engaged in so useful an occupation. Be this as it may, we find
them insisting upon dismantling the forts, which were intolerably
oppressive, without producing any good effect against an enemy
whose progress was by stealth, whose onset was sudden and
furious, and whose retreat was immediate. Against such an enemy
active operations in the field were required, and the vigorous
prosecution of the war in his own country. The forts, probably,
were regarded by the poor as instruments of power in the hands
of the rich; which they kept up by oppressive acts, while they
took measures to put down Bacon's operations, which constituted

the only hope which the people had for protection. The governor
was obliged to yield to the storm. The forts were ordered to be
dismantled, and the obnoxious assembly was dissolved, and writs
issued for a new election, in which, for the first time, freemen, as
distinguished from freeholders, were elected.

In the mean time, Bacon had been very successful in defeating
the Indians, destroying their towns, and taking them captive; and
was returning leisurely to Jamestown when he heard of the
revolution there. This induced him to leave his little army, and,
with a few followers, embark for Jamestown; but he was taken
on his voyage by Gardiner, who was cruising to intercept him, and
sent a prisoner to the governor. Bacon had been elected a member
for Henrico in the new legislature, and was pardoned and permitted
to take his seat upon his confessing the impropriety and
disobedience of his conduct, praying pardon of the governor, and
promising future obedience. Credible report says, that he was
induced to make this full and humiliating acknowledgment upon
a promise by the governor, not only of pardon, but of a commission:
and, indeed, without supposing it the result of a compromise,
it is difficult to account either for this act or his subsequent
conduct. The causes which induced his next step are not sufficiently
explained by the historians of the times, but it was probably
produced by the solicitations of his friends in the legislature,
who found that they could gain no redress of grievances. He
collected troops in the country, and marched to Jamestown; he
surrounded the state house with his enraged soldiers, demanding a
commission for him; which, by the earnest solicitation of the
council and assembly, was at length obtained from the governor,
together with a full act of indemnity for his present conduct, and
a letter, highly applauding his designs and his proceedings, addressed
to the king, and signed by the burgesses, the council, and
the governor.

Thus relieved from all former sources of fear, and provided
against future contingencies, Bacon again sallied forth towards the
frontier. But the governor had not long been relieved from his
presence before he dissolved the assembly, and retiring into Gloucester,
again declared Bacon a rebel, and his army traitors, and
raised the standard of opposition. Upon being informed of this,
Bacon immediately fell back by forced marches upon Gloucester,
and compelled his puissant excellency to retreat with precipitation
to Accomac. This county was at that time considered as a distinct
territory, although under the control of Virginia, and Bacon, taking
advantage of this against an unpopular governor, called a convention
for the purpose of settling the government, declaring that
the governor had abdicated. This convention met at Middle Plantation
on the 3d of August, 1676, and declared that the government
was vacant by the abdication of Sir William Berkeley, and
that, by invariable usage, the council or the people might fill the
vacancy until the king's pleasure should be known. Writs were

then issued by five[108] members of the council for a new election of
burgesses. The convention next declared Sir William Berkeley
guilty of aiding and abetting certain evil disposed persons in
fomenting and stirring up the people to civil war; and that they
would aid in discovering all such evil disposed persons, and opposing
their forces, until the king be fully informed of the state of
the case; and that they would aid Bacon and his army against the
common enemy, and in suppressing the horrid outrages and murders
daily committed by them.

Bacon having now provided a regular government for the country,
proceeded once more against the Indians, who had formed a
confederacy and gained several advantages since his retreat. He
destroyed the Pamunky, Chickahominy, and Mattaponi towns
and their corn, in retaliation of the late excesses. The Indians
retreated before him, with occasional skirmishes, until they reached
their place of general rendezvous near the falls of James River.
He there found their whole force posted on an eminence overhanging
a stream, which, from the sanguinary nature of the conflict,
has been since called Bloody Run. They were protected by
a stockade fort, which was stormed by the impetuous ardor of
Bacon and his followers, who made great slaughter among them,
encumbered as they were with their old men, women, and children.

In the mean time, Berkeley had not met with that warm reception
which he had anticipated among the loyalists of Accomac;
but, on the other hand, he had been presented with a strong and
spirited remonstrance against the objectionable acts of Parliament,
and a requisition that they should be suspended, at least so far as
regarded that portion of the country. How the matter terminated
we are not informed.

The governor was not allowed to remain undisturbed in Accomac,
until he could again succeed in raising a force which might
give trouble. Bacon's party was in possession of all the vessels
in the colony, and two of his friends, Giles Bland and William
Carver, went with their force to cut off supplies from the governor,
or, as his friends surmised, to surprise him. But if such was their
object they were defeated, for Captain Larimore, from whom one
of the vessels had been taken, gave intimation to the governor's
friends that he would betray his vessel into the hands of a party
sufficiently strong to keep possession. The proposal was acceded
to, and at midnight six and twenty men, obeying Larimore's signal,
were along side of his ship, and had possession almost before the
crew were aroused from their slumbers; the other vessels were
then easily taken. Thus, Sir William finding himself in possession
of the whole naval force of the colony, while Bacon was
absent on his expedition against the Indians, he collected together

a force of some six hundred men, consisting mostly of aristocratic
gentlemen and their servile dependents, and took possession once
more of Jamestown. As usual, his first act in returning to power,
was to disavow his acts in favor of Bacon as made under duress,
and again to declare him a rebel, and his soldiers traitors.

Bacon was on his return from his successful campaign when
this news reached him; most of his followers had dispersed, but
he hastened on with the remainder, without regard to their
fatigues in the recent campaign. He arrived before Jamestown
late in the evening, fired his artillery and sounded a defiance, and
then coolly dismounted and laid off his trenches. His men that
very night, by the aid of trees, earth, and brushwood, formed a
tolerable breastwork, and the next morning advanced to the palisadoes
of the town, and fired upon the guard, without loss. Sir
William Berkeley, well knowing that time would increase the
force of his adversary, while it diminished his own, next resolved
to try the effects of a sally; and some of his men at first behaved
with some show of courage, but the whole body soon retreated in
disorder before the well-directed fire of Bacon's men, leaving their
drum and their dead as trophies to the victors. Bacon would not
allow the victory to be followed up, as it would have placed his
men under the range of the guns of the shipping. To prevent the
use which might be made by this auxiliary, he planted several
great guns so as to bear on the ships, which served also to alarm,
though they could not annoy the town.

Now the marked difference which existed between the character
of Bacon's troops and those of the governor was exhibited,
and that, too, in a manner well calculated to exhibit the character
of Bacon's proceedings. Berkeley's troops, consisting principally
of mercenary wretches, whom he had scraped together by the
hopes of plunder, deserted every day when they found that the
governor was determined to defend the place, and that they were
likely to get more blows than booty in the contest, until at last the
governor was left with little more than twenty gentlemen, whose
sense of honor would not allow them to desert his person. Bacon's
troops, on the other hand, were daily reinforced by accessions from
the country people, who clearly considered him as an intrepid soldier,
who had delivered them from the butcheries of the savages;
and a patriot, who was now endeavoring to put down an odious
and oppressive government.

The governor, finding his followers reduced to so small a number
that it would be madness to attempt to defend the place, at
length yielded to the earnest solicitations of those about him, and
deceiving his adversaries as to his real design, by exhibiting evidences
of a contemplated attack, he went on board a ship at midnight,
and was seen next morning riding at anchor, beyond the
reach of the guns in the fort at Jamestown. Bacon, with his followers,
after their week's siege, marched into the empty town the
next morning, the governor and his party having carried off or

destroyed every article of value. The possession of Jamestown,
in this situation, was of no advantage to Bacon or his followers.
The men who had left their homes to defend their country from
the incursions of the Indians, could not remain together for the
purpose of defending the capital from their hostile governor, who
was quietly waiting in the river for them to depart, in order that
he might again resume possession. What could be done with a
town which could not be defended, and, if defended, was of no
value to the possessors; but which was all-important to the enemy?
The answer to this question was manifest, and Bacon's
proposal for its destruction was received with acclamation; several
of his followers, who owned the most valuable houses, applying
the firebrand with their own hands to their own property.
The sight of the flames started Sir William Berkeley on a cruise
to Accomac; and Bacon having overcome all opposition to the
government established by the convention, dismissed the troops to
their homes.

The death of Bacon, by leaving the republicans without a head,
revived the courage of the governor so far, that he ventured in his
ships to move about upon the bay and rivers, and attack the inhabitants

wherever he could find them defenceless, and snatch a little
plunder to gratify his needy followers; always retiring when the
opposite party appeared to oppose him. This predatory species of
warfare preventing the quiet pursuit of agricultural labors, and
destroying all the comfort and happiness of society, without producing
any beneficial result, soon grew wearisome to both parties.
Sir William Berkeley, whose cruelties, especially to his prisoners,
had gone far to keep up the enthusiasm of popular excitement,
finding that his name had ceased to strike that awe which habitual
respect for one high in authority had formerly given it, and that
his punishments excited indignation rather than terror, felt disposed
to take advantage, by milder means, of the returning pacific disposition
on the part of a people whose stubborn tempers could not
be brought into obedience by force. With this view, he treated
his prisoners with more liberality, published an act of general indemnity,
and proposed a treaty of peace to Ingram and Walklate,
the principal leaders of the opposing party since the death of Bacon.
So anxious were the people to be relieved from the present
confusion and anarchy, and the governor once more to rule with
uncurbed sway, that a treaty was speedily concluded, only stipulating,
on the part of the governor, a general oblivion, and indemnity
of past offences; and, on the part of his opponents, a surrender
of their arms, and a restoration of such property as they had taken.
Thus easily did these unfortunate men deliver themselves again
into the lion's power, after having defeated him at all points, and
inflicted deep and irremediable wounds upon his inflated vanity,
and pompous mock-dignity. The governor, when he had his enemies
in his power, instead of trying to heal the wounds of the
bleeding state by mildness and conciliation, only added to its sufferings
by a bloody retribution for all the trouble which he had
been made to endure. Fines and confiscations, for the benefit of
his excellency, became the order of the day, and an occasional
execution, as an extra treat to his vengeance. He at first attempted
to wrest the honest juries of the county to his purpose, but in vain,
—ten prisoners were acquitted in a single day. Finding that his
enemies were thus likely to escape his grasp, by the unflinching
integrity and sense of justice prevailing among the people, he
determined to avoid the use of a court constituted upon principles
of the English constitution, which he found so little subservient to
his will, and tried his next victims under martial law. He here
found a court of more congenial spirits. The commissioners of
the king give an account of some of these trials, such as they
were carried on even after their arrival, which mark well the
spirit of the times. "We also observed some of the royal party,
that sat on the bench with us at the trial, to be so forward in
impeaching, accusing, reviling, the prisoners at bar, with that inveteracy,
as if they had been the worst of witnesses, rather than
justices of the commission; both accusing and condemning at the
same time. This severe way of proceeding represented to the
assembly, they voted an address to the governor, that he would
desist from any further sanguinary punishments, for none could tell
when or where it would terminate. So the governor was prevailed
on to hold his hands, after hanging twenty-three."

A notable way which the governor adopted to replenish his purse,
after the disasters of the war, was to relieve the rebels from a trial
in one of his courts-martial, in which they were to be condemned,
upon their paying him a great portion of their estates, by way of
compromise. This method of disposing of men's estates, without
trial or conviction, was protested against by his majesty's commissioners,
as a gross violation of the laws of England, but which Sir
William's friends seem to think only a just retribution for the
losses sustained by himself and the royal party during the rebellion.
Enormous fines, payable in provision, were also found a convenient
method of providing for the king's troops which had been sent over
to subdue the colony.

His majesty's commissioners fortunately arrived in time to stay
the wrath of the vindictive old man, who would, as an eye-witness
says, "he verily believes, have hanged half the county if they
had let him alone." They urged him in vain to publish the king's
proclamation of a general pardon and indemnity; and then proceeded
to hold their commission for hearing and redressing grievances.
As the proceedings of the governor diffused a gloom, the
generality of which was co-extensive with the immense numbers
that were engaged in the rebellion, so did the proceedings of the
commissioners spread a universal joy. Crowds of persons now
came forward to present their grievances—widows and orphans to
ask for the confiscated estates of their husbands and fathers, who
had been butchered by the military tribunals of the governor;
others came in to complain of the seizing of their estates without
the form of a trial; and many, who had submitted themselves upon
the governor's proclamation of indemnity and pardon, complained
of subsequent imprisonment and confiscations of their property.

The commissioners state in their report to the king and council,
that "in the whole course of their proceedings they had avoided
receiving any complaints of public grievances, but by and under
the hand of the most credible, loyal, and sober persons of each
county with caution; that they did not do it in any mutinous manner,
and without mixture of their old leaven, but in such sort as might
become dutiful subjects, and sober, rational men to present."
When they found that all their representations to Sir William
Berkeley, to endeavor to induce him to restore the confiscated estates,
which were in the possession of himself or his most faithful
friends, were in vain, they ascertained as many of the possessors
as possible, and made them give security to take care of them
until his majesty should determine as to the restitution which they
should recommend him to make. The commissioners also devised
several matters of utility for the peace, good government, and
safety of the colony; which they recommended his majesty to

adopt. Sir William Berkeley returned in the fleet to England,
leaving Sir Herbert Jeffries, who had been sent over with the
commissioners, as governor. Upon his arrival, he found that his
cruel conduct in Virginia was looked upon with horror by most
of his former friends and the council, and was not sustained by
the king, subservient loyalty to whom had been the source and
spring of his high-handed measures. The old knight, thus finding
himself execrated in Virginia, and despised in England, soon languished
and died under the load of infamy with which he had
crushed the fair fame of his earlier years. Thus ended the life of
Sir William Berkeley—a governor, whose early character historians
have delighted to honor, and whose subsequent conduct they have
sought to excuse: but of whom we can find nothing better upon
record, than the negative merit of not opposing the legislature in
its schemes of government in the early part of his reign; but whose
latter years are disgraced by cowardly imbecility, and stained with
crime.

Although the people of Virginia had laid down their arms, they
were not subdued, but continued to manifest, through their Legislature,
the same undaunted tenacity of their rights which had ever
characterized them. This was exhibited towards the king's commissioners
in one of the boldest defences of privilege which the
records of any nation can exhibit, and shows how strongly imbued
with the spirit of freedom the people must have been, when they
could snuff the approach of tyranny at such a distance, and put
themselves on their defence against their friends, lest their enemies
might take advantage of their concessions. The king's commissioners
were empowered to call for persons and papers, for the
purpose of prosecuting more effectually their inquiries into the
grievances of the colony. In conformity with their powers they
called upon the secretary of the Legislature for its journals, but
were surprised to find, that although their proceedings were popular,
and their object was to investigate and redress grievances of
which these very men complained, that they refused to allow
them to inspect their journals, returning for answer, that it was a
dangerous precedent, which might be used in violation of their
privileges. At this time, the governor and commissioners had
complete physical power over the colony, by the entire absence of
any thing like organized opposition, and from the presence of the
king's troops; and availing themselves of this power, they did not
hesitate to wrest the journals of the Assembly from the hands of
its officer by force. Upon which the Virginia Assembly published
a bold and manly declaration, setting forth, "that his majesty's
commissioners having called for and forced from the clerk of the
Assembly, all the original journals of the Assembly, which power
they supposed his majesty would not grant them, for that they find
not the same to have been practised by any of the kings of England,
and did therefore take the same to be a violation of their
privileges, desiring withal satisfaction to be given them, that they
might be assured no such violation of their privileges should be
offered for the future." The king was so much displeased with
this declaration, that although he pardoned the members of the
Legislature, he directed the record of it to be erased, and required
the governor to propose a bill to the next General Assembly condemning
the proceeding, and declaring the right of his majesty
and his officers to call for all the public records and journals,
whenever they shall think it necessary for his royal service.

Sir Herbert Jeffries deserves the merit due to an advantageous

treaty with the Indians, and a successful opposition to the petty
intrigues of the loyalists. He died in 1678, leaving the colony in
the hands of the lieutenant-governor, Sir Henry Chickerly, during
whose administration magazines and forts were established at the
heads of the four great rivers, to overawe the savages, and a silly
act passed prohibiting the importation of tobacco from Carolina
and Maryland, for the purpose of transhipment, which practice, if
they had suffered it to continue, might have proved very profitable
to the colony, besides putting the tobacco trade more exclusively
into its own hands. In the succeeding spring, Sir Henry delivered
the government to Lord Culpeper. The first act of his lordship
was to declare full and unqualified indemnity to all for their conduct
in Bacon's rebellion, and allowing reparation to those who
should be reproached for their conduct upon that occasion. This
popular act, added to the pleasing and conciliatory manners of his
lordship, so won upon the good-natured simplicity of the Assembly,
that they passed an act which probably no force could have
extorted from them. They raised the duties and made them perpetual,
instead of annual, as before, and, what was at once surrendering
up the great bulwark of that freedom, for the safety of
which they had been so long contending, they made the duties
henceforth subject to his majesty's sole direction and disposal.

The king rewarded Culpeper's address in obtaining this acquisition
to his power, by the addition of a thousand pounds to his
salary, and one hundred and sixty pounds per annum for his rent.
The Assembly, too, as if they could not do enough for a royal govenor
who could condescend to smile upon them, granted his excellency
a regular duty proportionate to the tonnage of every vessel
trading to Virginia. Culpeper having thus obtained a considerable
increase to his revenue by his trip to Virginia, proceeded to
England, to enjoy it, leaving the colony once more with Sir Henry
Chickerly.

The discontents of the people again began to extend to a degree
which could scarcely be kept within bounds. The troops which
had been sent over to suppress Bacon's rebellion were still kept
up. There were no barracks, and the people positively refused to
receive these idle and troublesome drones into their houses, although
they were regularly billeted by the government. The low
price of tobacco, too, was a never-failing source of complaint, as
well as the commercial regulations which aided in producing it.
The colony had urged Culpeper to exert his influence at court to
procure a cessation from planting, to which they had for some time
in vain endeavored to obtain the assent of Carolina and Maryland.

To these evils another was now added, which struck another
blow at commerce. The idea had been conceived that the colony
could not prosper without towns, and to promote their growth the
planters, living principally on the shores of the magnificent Chesapeake,
and the broad navigable rivers of Virginia, were required
to bring their produce to particular spots for the purpose of being

shipped. Thus taxing the planter with unnecessary freight and
commission for the benefit of such idlers as might congregate in
the towns. These acts were enforced by heavy penalties, and as
they contributed very much to the benefit of the town's people, the
penalty for the violation was rigorously enforced. These prosecutions
drove many traders from the country, and the poor planters,
to whom it was physically impossible to convey their crops to
these paper-towns, were doomed to see their crops rotting on their
hands by this injudicious legislation, or, if they attempted to evade
the law, have them wrested from them in the shape of penalties.
These several subjects of complaint induced the people of several
counties to petition the deputy governor to call an assembly, to
endeavor to provide a remedy for the evils. At the meeting of the
Assembly, there was much debate and declamation upon the condition
of the country, but no measure of relief was adopted. By
order of the king, however, the two companies of infantry were
paid off and disbanded, which put an end to one of the subjects of
difficulty. The dissolution of the Assembly without effecting any
thing, caused the impatience of the poor and ignorant people of
several of the counties to break through all restraint, and expend
their wrath in the destruction of tobacco-plants, at a season of the
year when it was too late to sow more seed. Sir Henry Chickerly,
with commendable moderation, only took measures to stop these
misguided people, without resorting to harsh punishments; but lest
it should be drawn into a precedent, the Legislature not long afterwards
made it treason. In the mean time, Lord Culpeper arrived,
and his haughty bearing to the Council and the Burgesses
soon gave intimation to them that his lordship's feelings towards
the colony had undergone a change. He enlarged, in his speech
to the Assembly, much upon the favor of his majesty in disbanding
the troops, and spoke of permission which he had obtained to
raise the value of the current coin; he then went on to declare
that the colonists did not deserve these gracious favors, but rather
punishment for their recent turbulence; he also expressed his
majesty's great dissatisfaction at the refusal of the journals, and
desired that that portion of their proceedings should be expunged.

Before this notable prosecution was ended, Lord Culpeper forfeited
his commission, and was superseded by Lord Howard, who
took the oaths of office on the 28th of February, 1684. His first
measure was to call an assembly, which, as a popular act, induced
the colony to hope some degree of mildness in his administration;
but these hopes were soon dissipated. He pursued the unfortunate
plant-cutters with renovated vigor, and such of them as had been
excepted in a proclamation of general pardon were now executed,
and their estates, after paying officer's fees, appropriated to the
governor's own use.

The assembly met and refused to proceed with business for the
want of a clerk, as their former clerk was in prison, and they refused
to elect another. In this situation of affairs the matter seems
to have been compromised, the governor no doubt despairing of
his conviction upon the absurd charges made, and Beverly and his
friends willing to end his long imprisonment and sufferings, by asking
pardon, at the same time not giving up the papers or the principles
for which he suffered. Be this as it may, Beverly threw
himself upon the mercy of the court, declining to employ counsel or
make any defence, and was pardoned. Probably these long-continued
sufferings, with other persecutions afterwards endured, injured
the constitution of Beverly, for we find that he died prior to
April, 1687. His noble conduct induced king James, the then reigning
monarch, to deprive the Burgesses of the election of their own
clerk, ordering the governor to elect him, and requiring the assembly
to make the clerk, so elected, the usual allowance for his services.

The accession of James II. was proclaimed with the usual demonstrations
of respect in the colony, and compli-

mentary assurances of loyalty on the one side, and
gracious regard on the other, were exchanged between his subjects
and the assembly. But nothing was done to secure the freedom
of the colony, and Lord Howard took advantage of the succeeding
recess of the assembly, to enlarge the fees and perquisites of his
office, and to impose new ones without the advice or authority of
the assembly. This body, which met in November, immediately
took into consideration these arbitrary exactions, and passed spirited
resolutions in reprobation of them, and made provision for the
defence of the citizens from similar encroachments in future. To
these acts the governor applied his negative, without assigning any
reason. Lord Howard, not satisfied with thus stopping the legislation
of the colony, proceeded in effect to acts of executive legislation,
by issuing a proclamation, in obedience, he said, to the king's
instructions, repealing several acts of the legislature, which were
themselves repeals of former acts, and declaring the acts repealed
by that body to be revived, and in full force, as before the passage
of the repealing acts. This proclamation the assembly protested
against as illegal and unwarrantable, as utterly subversive of the
government, annihilating the right of the popular branch, and
bringing all to bow in humble submission to the mercy of the prerogative.
The spirited conduct of the Burgesses could not be endured
by the governor, and he prorogued them.
The governor had sent to James an account of the
conduct of this assembly. This representation produced in reply
from James, a furious, quarrelsome order, calling their conduct
mutinous, and attributing it to their "unquiet dispositions and sinister
intentions to protract the time of their sitting to the great oppression
of his subjects, from whom they received wages;" concluding
by an order for the prosecution of their clerk Beverly, to
whom he ascribes all of these evils.

In the same year, several persons were imprisoned and punished
for treasonable expressions. The council was now as servile as
the governor could wish, and he proceeded without interruption in
his system of arbitrary innovation upon the established usages of
the colony, and the liberties of its citizens.

The province of New York belonged to the king as proprietor as
well as sovereign; and, in order to strengthen this

his own estate, he sent orders for all the other colonies
to assist in building forts, and supplying garrisons for its western
frontier, alleging that these measures were equally necessary
for the protection of all. In conformity to these orders a message
was received from governor Dungan, requiring the quota of Virginia;
but the legislature refused to appropriate a man or a farthing
for purposes from which they were to derive no benefit, but
rather an injury, as the protection of the north-western frontier
would drive the Indians further south, where they might commit
their depredations upon the unprotected citizens with more impunity.

While the colony was contending against their governor, a revolution
in England had dethroned the sovereign, and placed

William and Mary upon the throne. This change, while it
placed the council, which had made many loyal professions to
James, in an awkward position, was an event producing unalloyed
joy to the people of Virginia, as they could now hope for justice to
be done to their oppressive governor.

Soon after this occurrence, the war broke out between the allied
powers and Louis XIV. of France, and the colony was ordered to
place itself in the best posture of defence.

The complaints of the Virginia legislature against their governor
at length were taken up by the privy council, and although the
charges against Howard were not tried, yet redress against his
usurpation was granted, at the same time that the principles upon
which they contended that their rights had been violated, were denied
to be correct. Howard pleading ill-health, was not deprived
of his commission for not returning to the colony; but as it was necessary
that there should be a governor upon the eve of a war,
Sir Francis Nicholson was sent over. His conduct was mild and
conciliatory, and consequently popular; among other highly beneficial
acts passed under his government, was one for the establishment
of a college, which was very liberally endowed.

He was succeeded by Sir Edmund Andros as governor-in-chief,
who is represented to have been actuated in his

administration by a sound judgment and a liberal
policy; to have been exact, diligent, and methodical in the management
of business; of a conciliatory deportment, and great generosity.
Sir Francis Nicholson was again made governor-in-chief,
in November, 1698. He was an ambitious man, who had served
in the capacity of a governor and deputy governor in several of
the colonies, and taken great pains to become popular, and to make
himself well acquainted with the situation of all the colonies,
their wants, their trade, and their capabilities, with a view to
unite them, if possible, under one government, over which he hoped
to obtain the appointment of governor-general. The pressure of
war, with the combined force of the French and Indians, which
seemed now about to fall upon the colonies, and rendered some
union necessary for the purpose of defence, seemed highly favorable
to his design.

The French, at an early day, conceived a correct idea of the
importance of the British colonies in America. The Count De
Callier, governor of Montreal, during his residence in Canada, after
a long experience, derived from observations on the spot, had formed
the bold project of separating in two the English colonies by the
capture of New York. The success of this scheme would manifestly
have destroyed that concert so necessary to harmony and
efficiency of co-operation, and left the other colonies liable to be
cut off in detail, and would effectually establish the safety of
Canada, by enabling the French to keep in check the powerful
savage confederation, composed of the Five Nations, which had
lately, by a furious irruption, laid waste the country, even to the
gates of Montreal and Quebec. This plan of Callier's was adopted
by the French government. A fleet was sent to the

bay of New York, with orders to retain possession of
it until December, when, if no further orders were received, it was
to sail for Port Royal, land its munition and stores, and return to
France. The land force were to have marched from Quebec by
the route of the Sorel River and Lake Champlain. This expedition
was defeated by a destructive inroad of the Five Nations,
which carried death and desolation over the whole country, even
to the very gates of the capital. This unforeseen occurrence rendered
it necessary to retain the whole force at home, in measures
of self-defence, and saved New York, without her having to strike
a blow in her own behalf.

The British government, daily becoming more sensible of the
importance of the North American colonies, and seeing the danger
to which they were exposed by the plan of De Callier, set on foot
a plan of general defence in the year 1695, adjusting the quotas
of each colony to the ratio of its population, and forwarding the
scale to the different governors, to recommend for the adoption of
the respective colonial assemblies. Several of the colonies rejected
this scheme, because several of those which were thought
most exposed wished to employ it as their own interest dictated.
Among the refractory was Virginia, which could not be prevailed
upon, by all the art and ingenuity of the governor, aided by
his great enthusiasm in this his favorite plan, to vote a cent to
the enterprise, to his inconceivable chagrin and mortification.
Nicholson, finding his own efforts utterly unavailing, laid the matter
before the king, and urged the propriety of forcing Virginia to
see her true interests upon this occasion. William, in reply, recommended

a new consideration of the matter by the General Assembly,
alleging, upon the authority of Nicholson's report, "that New
York was the barrier of Virginia against the Indians and French
of Canada; and as such, it was but justice she should defend
it." The assembly deemed it but due respect to his majesty to
take the subject again into consideration, but found no reason to
change their former opinion, declaring "that neither the forts then
in being, nor any others that might be built in the province of
New York, could in the least avail in the defence or security of
Virginia; for that either the French, or the northern Indians, might
invade the colony, and not come within a hundred miles of such
fort."

The failure of this great subject irritated the governor beyond
expression; and excited in his mind the most inordinate antipathy
to the assembly. He charged the conduct of the assembly to a
spirit of rebellion, and inveighed against what he called its parsimony,
in the most unmeasured terms, offering to pay the quota of
Virginia out of his own pocket, and boasting afterwards that he
had done it; but, at the same time, taking the obligation of the
gentleman to whom he gave the bills, that no use should be made
of them until the queen should remit money to pay them. This
affectation of generosity was designed to gain popularity with the
other colonies.

CHAPTER VI.

EVENTS FROM THE YEAR 1705 TO THE TERMINATION OF THE FRENCH AND
INDIAN WAR.

The first half of the eighteenth century, to the breaking out of
the French and Indian war, is extremely barren of incident in the
history of Virginia. Very little more can be given than a list of

the various colonial governors, with the dates of their appointments
and removals, and a synopsis of their characters. This
brevity arises from the fact that it was mainly a time of peace,
which usually leaves but little of striking incident to record, of
marked interest to the general reader,—although a narration of
laws, and causes which advance or retard the welfare of society,
or those things which exhibit a true portraiture of it, would arrest
the attention of the political economist, and, to some degree, of all.
Again, the annals of Virginia, during this period, are brief and
unsatisfactory; and, doubtless, much highly valuable material is,
in consequence, forever lost. Probably a thorough inspection of
documents in possession of the British government would throw
much light upon this period, and the colonial history of Virginia
generally, and settle some points which, for lack of information,
are now in controversy.

Gov. Nicholson continued in office until 1705, when he was superseded
by Edward Nott, who survived his appointment but a
few months. The death of Nott devolved the government on Edmund
Jennings, the president, and the council. A commission,
meanwhile, had issued, appointing Brigadier Gen. Hunter lieutenant-governor,
under the Earl of Orkney; but he having been
taken on his passage by the French, Col. Alexander Spotswood
was appointed his successor. His administration commenced in
1710. He was an accomplished and enterprising man; and had
his suggestions to the British ministry been fully and promptly
executed, they would have proved highly useful to the interests of
Britain in America, at a time when France was endeavoring to
wrest from her the trade and riches of the new world. Early in
his administration, Spotswood, at the head of a troop of horse,
effected a passage over the Blue Ridge, which had previously been
considered an impenetrable barrier to the ambition of the whites,
and discovered the beautiful valley which lies beyond. In commemoration
of this event, he received from the king the honor of
knighthood, and was presented with a miniature golden horseshoe,
on which was inscribed the motto, "Sic jurat transcendere
montes"—"Thus he swears to cross the mountains."

In 1723, Spotswood was succeeded by Sir Hugh Drysdale. In
1739, when hostilities were commenced against Spain, and soon
after against France, Spotswood was again called into service,
and honored with the command of the colonial troops; but he did
not live to enjoy the returning smiles of royal favor. Drysdale
was succeeded in office by Gooch, a brigadier-general on the British
establishment, who passed acts of the Assembly for the first
time in 1727. During his administration, he commanded the colonial
troops in the unsuccessful expedition against Carthagena. In
1743, died the Rev. James Blair, the first president of William and
Mary. He was an eminent and learned divine, to whose exertions
the institution owed much of its prosperity. His death occasioned
a vacancy in the council, which was filled by William

Fairfax, son of the proprietor of the Northern Neck. Col. Wm.
Byrd, also a member of the council, died about this period. He
was a wealthy gentleman, of extensive acquirements, and one of
the commissioners who had been appointed to run the dividing line
between Virginia and North Carolina. His journal of the survey,
which has descended to our times, is "marked by a spirit of unaffected
humor, that does equal honor to his heart and understanding."

In April, 1745, Gov. Gooch made an address to the grand jury
of the General Court, in opposition to the Presbyterians, Methodists,
and other denominations of Christians, who had at this time
become numerous in Virginia. It illustrates the state of religious
intolerance at that time, and, singular as it may seem to us of the
present day, it met with the approval of the most gifted minds in
the colony, "among whom were some that afterwards became distinguished
champions of an unqualified freedom in every thing that
related to the human mind."[115]

In the year 1746, the public buildings in Williamsburg were
burnt; and the subject was shortly after agitated of removing the
seat of government to some more central part of the colony. In
the session of 1748, the assembly appointed the following named
gentlemen a committee to revise the colonial laws:—Peyton Randolph,
Philip Ludwell, Beverly Whiting, Carter Burwell, and Benjamin
Waller. Gooch, who had been governor of Virginia for
upwards of 20 years, sailed for England in 1749, "amidst the blessings
and tears of the people, among whom he had lived as a
wise and beneficent father." The government now devolved on
Robinson, the president of the council. At his death a few days
after, Thomas Lee, who had succeeded him in the presidency, was
advanced to the chair of government.

In the year 1752, Governor Dinwiddie arrived in Virginia. Since
the failure of De Callier's design upon New York, in 1692, the
French in Canada and Louisiana, acting in concert, continued to
extend their forts and strengthen their power by alliances with the
Indians: thus at once endeavoring to unite their possessions, to
monopolize the Indian trade, and to limit the British settlements.
Gov. Dinwiddie, viewing with just alarm the encroachments of
the French, in Oct., 1753, dispatched George Washington, then
but 21 years of age, on a mission to the French commandant of
a fort on a branch of French Creek, about 15 miles south of
Lake Erie.

The intentions of the French being now understood, the Governor
of Virginia acted with energy to resist their encroachments.
The journal of Washington was also published. It was reprinted
in London, and considered by the government as unfolding the
hostile views of the French, and the first proof of their intentions.
A regiment was raised in Virginia, under the command of Colonel
Joshua Fry, for the purpose of erecting a fort at the forks of the
Ohio. Washington was appointed second in command, with the
rank of lieutenant-colonel. A small party of Captain Trent's
company was hastily sent forward to commence the fort, but were
interrupted by the arrival of Captain Contrecœur, with a thousand
French and Indians, who drove away the English, and erected
Fort Duquesne. This was the first act of open hostility. The news
reached Colonel Washington while he was posted at Will's creek
(at which place Fort Cumberland was afterwards erected) with
three companies, waiting the arrival of Colonel Fry with the

remainder of the regiment and the artillery. He wrote immediately
for reinforcements, and pushed forward with his companies
towards the Monongahela, as fast as the process of cutting a new
road through the wilderness would permit. His intention was to
reach the mouth of Redstone, there to wait for the arrival of the
artillery and reinforcements under Colonel Fry, and then drop
down the Monongahela by water, to the Forks. He had designed
to descend the Yough'ogheny, but after an examination of the
falls, abandoned the design.

From thence Washington proceeded to Williamsburg, and communicated
the events of the campaign to Governor Dinwiddie.

As soon as the House of Burgesses assembled, they passed a
vote of thanks to Col. Washington and his officers, for their bravery
and gallant conduct. Thus ended the first campaign of Washington.
"Although as yet a mere youth, with small experience,
unskilled in war, and relying on his own resources, he had behaved
with the prudence, address, courage, and firmness of a veteran
commander. Rigid in discipline, but sharing the hardships, and
solicitous for the welfare of his soldiers, he had secured their obedience
and won their esteem, amidst privations, sufferings, and
perils, that have seldom been surpassed."

Gov. Dinwiddie resolved to prosecute the war, but being wholly
ignorant of military affairs, his preliminary measures, in undertaking
to organize an army, were injudicious. In August, he wrote
to Washington, who was at Winchester, to fill up the companies
of his regiment by enlistment, and lead them without delay to
Wills' creek, where Col. Innes, with some troops from the Carolinas
and New York, were building Fort Cumberland. From
thence, it was the governor's project that the united forces should
immediately cross the Alleganies and drive the French from Fort
Duquesne, or build another fort beyond the mountains. Washington,
astonished at the absurdity of the scheme, contemplated at a
season when the mountains would be covered with snow, and the
army enfeebled and destitute of supplies, made such a strong remonstrance
that the project was abandoned.

The governor was opposed by the assembly, who would not yield
to all his demands, and he never ceased to complain of their "republican
way of thinking." He had lately prorogued them, to
punish their obstinacy, and wrote to the ministry that he was satisfied
the French would never be effectually opposed unless the
colonies were compelled, independently of assemblies, to contribute
to the common cause. When the Burgesses again met, they contributed
£20,000 for the public service, which was soon increased
to £30,000 by specie sent from England.

In possession of funds, the governor now enlarged the army to
ten companies of 100 men each, and placed them upon the establishment
of independent companies, by which the highest officers
in the Virginia regiment, among whom was Washington, would be

captains. He thereupon resigned his commission and retired from
the service.

Early in the ensuing spring, (1755,) Major-Gen. Edward Braddock
arrived in the country with the 44th and 48th regiments of
royal troops, under Sir Peter Halkett and Col. Dunbar. The people
seemed elated with joy, and in their imagination the intruding
French seemed about to be driven back like a torrent upon the
frontiers of Canada. Col. Washington, who now was to take an
active part in the fearful scenes to be enacted, accepted the appointment
of aid-de-camp to Gen. Braddock. At Wills' Creek,
(Fort Cumberland,) the royal forces were joined by about 1000
Virginians, but the army was detained for want of horses, wagons,
and forage. By the energy of Dr. Franklin, then postmaster-general
of the provinces, the deficiency was supplied. The army moved
at length on the 8th and 9th of June, but soon found themselves
so encumbered with baggage and wagons, that it was determined,
at the suggestion of Washington, to divide the force,
pushing forward a small, but chosen band, with such artillery and
light stores as were necessary, leaving the heavy artillery, baggage,
&c., to follow by slow and easy marches.

After the defeat of Braddock, Col. Dunbar, who succeeded to the
command, marched his troops to Philadelphia. The whole frontier,
even to the Blue Ridge, was now harassed and horror-stricken
by the bloody incursions of the French Indians. Col. Washington,
in his capacity as adjutant-general of militia, circulated
orders for them to assemble in their respective districts for exercise
and review. Volunteer companies were organized, and the
martial spirit of the people revived. Addresses were made to
them from the pulpit, in one of which, the eloquent Samuel Davies
of Hanover, after complimenting the bravery shown by the Virginia
troops, added the following encomium, which seems almost

prophetic. "As a remarkable instance of this, I may point out to
the public that heroic youth, Col. Washington, whom I cannot but
hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner for
some important service to his country."

In consequence of the desperate state of affairs, Gov. Dinwiddie
convened the Assembly on the 4th of August. They voted £40,000
for the public service, and enlarged their regiment to sixteen
companies. Money was also granted to Col. Washington and the
other officers and privates, "for their gallant behavior and losses,"
in the late disastrous battle. To Col. Washington was given the
command of all the forces raised and to be raised in Virginia,
with the unusual privilege of selecting his own field-officers. He
now applied himself with his wonted energy to the discharge of
the high responsibility conferred upon him. Lieut. Col. Adam Stephens,
and Major Andrew Lewis, were the field officers next in
rank. Washington's head quarters were at Winchester. After
putting affairs in train, he performed a tour of inspection among
the mountains, visiting all the outposts in the frontier, from Fort
Cumberland to Fort Dinwiddie, on Jackson's river. He then started
for Williamsburg, to confer with the governor on the plan of
operations, when he was overtaken below Fredericksburg by an
express, announcing a new irruption of the savages upon the back
settlements. He hastened back, mustered a force, and gave a
timely and effectual check to the invaders, but not such as to quiet
the fears of the settlers, many of whom, with their families, fled
into the lower country, and increased the general terror.

The defects of the militia system were such as to put the patience
of Col. Washington to a severe trial. He represented in
strong language, to the government of the colony, these defects,
and their fatal consequences, and at last prevailed. A new law
was passed providing a remedy, but too late in the year for him to
undertake offensive operations.

In April of the ensuing year, (1756,) when the Assembly again
met at Williamsburg, Col. Washington hastened thither to mature
a plan for defence during the summer. Had the several colonies
united, the intruding French might have been driven from the
Ohio; but local jealousies prevented a union, and Virginia saw
that the most strenuous exertions were necessary to defend their
long line of frontier. The Assembly determined to augment the
army to 1500 men. A bill was passed for drafting militia to supply
the deficiency of recruits. Col. Washington returned to Winchester.
But a few men were stationed there, most of the regiment
being scattered at different posts for the better protection of
the frontiers. The enemy, encouraged by the successes of the preceding
year, were continually on the alert, and accounts were
daily received of fresh massacres by them. Scouting parties, and
even forts were attacked, and some of the bravest troops killed.
Serious apprehensions were felt for the safety of Winchester. The
number of troops was wholly insufficient for the protection of the

settlers. Col. Washington, deeply affected by the scenes he witnessed,
addressed a letter to the governor, in which he said:

These agonizing sensations were heightened by base calumnies
against the army, and indirectly against the commander-in-chief,
which seemed for a while to gain public credence.

The campaign being solely a defensive one, no opportunities
were allowed for obtaining laurels. The scenes of the past year
were re-enacted, the savages continued their murderous incursions,
there was the same tardiness in enlistments, the same troubles with
the militia, and to increase the difficulties, the governor, tenacious
of his authority, intrusted insufficient power to Col. Washington.
"Totally unskilled in military affairs, and residing 200 miles from
the scene of action, he yet undertook to regulate the principal
operations; sending expresses back and forth, and issuing vague,
contradictory orders, seldom adapted to circumstances—frequently
impracticable. The summer and autumn were passed in skirmishes
with the Indians, repairing the old forts, and building new ones.
By the advice of Col. Washington, a large fort was begun at
Winchester, as a depository for the military stores, and a rallying
point for the settlers and troops, should they be driven from the
frontiers. It was called Fort Loudoun, in honor of the Earl of
Loudoun, who had now succeeded Gen. Shirley in the American
command." Traces of this fortification remain to the present day.

As the year drew to a close, Col. Washington drew up a paper

of the military affairs of the province, which he transmitted to
Lord Loudoun. It contained a history of the war and valuable
suggestions for future operations. It was courteously received.
In March, (1757,) Washington attended a meeting, at Philadelphia,
of several governors and principal officers, summoned by Lord
Loudoun, to consult upon a comprehensive plan for the next campaign.
It was decided that the principal efforts should be made
on the lakes and Canada border, while the southern and middle
colonies were left on the defensive. Col. Washington strenuously
recommended an expedition against Fort Duquesne. Had his
views been adopted it would have saved the expense of another
campaign, and secured the borders from the savage incursions.
From this conference Washington returned to Winchester, where
he had spent the two preceding years. His routine of duties was
the same. The Indians still continued their hostilities.

The assembly, prorogued to the 27th of October, (1757,) was dissolved
on the 9th of November, and writs were issued for a new
assembly to meet on the 22d of the same month. A day of
fasting and prayer was appointed.

While the Assembly were deliberating upon measures of defence,
the French general, Montcalm, took the posts of Oswego
and Ontario, and his savage allies continued their murderous inroads
upon the frontiers. Col. Armstrong, at the head of about
300 provincials, attacked one of their towns situated about 25
miles above Fort Duquesne, killed 40 Indians, and rescued eleven
prisoners.

Dinwiddie sailed for England in January, 1758, much to the
satisfaction of the people of Virginia. Originally a petty clerk of
customs in the West Indies, he had brought himself under the
notice of government by the detection of an enormous system of
fraud on the part of his principal, and was thereupon immediately
rewarded by the appointment of governor of Virginia. In this
situation, charges were brought against him of extorting illegal
fees, and appropriating the public funds to his private purposes.
His public course was vacillating, his deportment arrogant, and he
was wholly devoid of those qualities becoming his station, and
particularly requisite at the perilous time he was intrusted with
such high powers. Lord Loudoun had been commissioned as
his successor, but his military duties at the north prevented him
from entering upon the duties of his office. His place was filled,
temporarily, by John Blair, president of the council, until the arrival,
on the 7th of June, of Gov. Francis Fauquier.

Mr. Pitt having acceded to the British ministry in the spring of
this year, (1758,) he resolved to prosecute the war with energy in
America. Gen. Forbes was appointed to the command of an expedition
against Fort Duquesne. To further his plans, he wrote
a circular letter to several of the colonies to incite them to action,
and offering certain supplies at the expense of the king. The
Virginia Assembly augmented their force to 2000 men. They

were divided into two regiments: the first under Col. Washington,
who still continued commander-in-chief of all the Virginia
troops; the second under Col. Byrd. Early in July, Washington
marched from Winchester with the principal part of the Virginia
troops, to Fort Cumberland. Six companies of the 1st regiment
proceeded by another route, and joined Col. Boquet at Raystown,
the general place of rendezvous for the 6000 troops destined for
the conquest of Duquesne. While at Fort Cumberland, Col.
Washington learned that Gen. Forbes thought of constructing a
new road to Duquesne, instead of following the one made by
Braddock. He made the most strenuous objection against the
plan, "when," as he said, there was "scarce time left to tread the
beaten track, universally confessed to be the best passage through
the mountains." His efforts were in vain. Col. Boquet was ordered
by Gen. Forbes, who was absent, to send forward parties to
work upon the new road. "Six weeks had been thus spent, when
Gen. Forbes arrived at Raystown, about the middle of September.
Forty-five miles only had been gained by the advanced party, then
constructing a fort at Loyal Hanna, the main army being still at
Raystown, and the larger part of the Virginia troops at Fort Cumberland.
At that moment the whole army might have been before
the walls of Fort Duquesne, if they had marched as advised by
Washington. An easy victory would have ensued; for it was
ascertained that the French at that time, including Indians, numbered
not more than 800 men."

From Loyal Hanna, Colonel Boquet rashly detached Major
Grant, a British officer, with a force of 800 men, to reconnoitre in
the vicinity of Fort Duquesne.

The dilatory and unwise method of carrying on the expedition
alarmed the Virginia Assembly for the fate of the expedition, and
they resolved to recall their troops and place them upon the protection
of their own frontier. But subsequent information occasioned
them to revoke these resolves.

On General Forbes' arrival at Raystown he called a council of
war, and, at his desire, Col. Washington drew up a line of march.
Washington, at his own request, was placed in the advance, with
a division of 1000 men. "The month of November had set in
before General Forbes, with the artillery and main body of the
army, arrived at Loyal Hanna. More than 50 miles, through
pathless and rugged wilds, still intervened between the army and
Fort Duquesne. A council of war was held, and it was decided
to be unadvisable, if not impracticable, to prosecute the campaign
any further till the next season, and that a winter encampment
among the mountains, or a retreat to the frontier settlements, was
the only alternative that remained. Thus far all the anticipations
of Washington had been realized." A mere accident reversed this
decision. Three prisoners were taken, who gave such representations
of the weak state of the garrison that it was determined to
push on.

On the 25th of November, 1758, the army took peaceable possession
of Fort Duquesne, or rather the place where it stood, for
the enemy had burnt and abandoned it the day before, and gone
down the Ohio in boats. This fortress, after being repaired and
garrisoned, was named Fort Pitt, now the site of the flourishing
city of Pittsburg, which place was then considered within the

jurisdiction of Virginia. The remains of Major Grant's men
were buried by Gen. Forbes in one common tomb, the whole army
assisting at the solemn ceremony.

Gen. Forbes returned to Philadelphia, where he died in a few
weeks, and Washington soon directed his course to Williamsburg,
as a member of the General Assembly from Frederick county.
The capture of Duquesne restored quiet and general joy throughout
the colony. The war was soon prosecuted at the North with
vigor. In the succeeding summer of 1759, Niagara and Crown
Point fell into the possession of the British crown, and on the 18th
of September, Quebec surrendered to the brave and gallant Wolfe.
The treaty of Fontainbleau, in November, 1762, put an end to the
war.

CHAPTER VII.

FROM THE TERMINATION OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR TO THE SURRENDER
OF CORNWALLIS.

"Questions touching the power of the British Parliament to interfere
with the concerns of the colonies had arisen more than once

before the war, and during its continuance the delicate question
arose, of the proportions which the several colonies should pay for
the common defence. The British ministry proposed that deputies
should meet and determine the amount necessary, and draw on
the British treasury, which in turn should be reimbursed by an
equal tax on all the colonies, to be laid by Parliament; but the
colonies were afraid to let the lion put his paw in their pockets,
even to take back his own; and this being no time to raise difficulties,
the colonial legislatures were left to their own discretion in
voting supplies, which they did with a liberality so disproportioned
to their ability, as to excite the praise, and in some instances to
induce a reimbursement on the part of the mother country. Virginia
had always resisted any interference on the part of Parliament,
especially in the navigation acts, and asserted as early as
1624, that she only had the undoubted right `to lay taxes and impositions,
and none other,' and afterwards refused to let any member
of the council of Governor Berkeley, in the height of his popularity,
assist them in determining the amount of the public levy.
Again in 1676, even stronger language was used and acquiesced
in by the king, to whom it was immediately addressed.

"The slight taxes imposed for the regulation of commerce, and
the support of a post-office, were borne by the colonies without a
murmur, being considered only a fair compensation for a benefit
received. In March, 1764, the ministers declared it `expedient to
raise a revenue on stamps in America, to be paid into the king's
exchequer.' The discussion of this was postponed until the next
year in Parliament, but commenced immediately in America, and
the proposition was met by every form of respectful petition and
indignant remonstrance; which were, however, equally unavailing,
and the stamp act passed in 1765. The passage of this act excited
universal and indignant hostility throughout the colonies, which
was displayed in the forms of mourning and the cessation of business;
the courts refused to sanction the act by sitting, and the bar
by using the stamps. In the succeeding Virginia legislature,
Patrick Henry introduced and carried, among others, the following
resolution:—

"After the passage of Henry's resolutions, the governor dissolved
the Assembly; but the people re-elected the friends, and excluded
the opposers of the resolutions. The spirited conduct of Virginia
fired the ardor of the other colonies; they passed similar resolutions,
and a general Congress was proposed. The deputies of nine
states met in New York on the 1st of October; they drafted a
declaration of rights, a petition to the king, commons, and lords.

The stamp act was repealed, and Virginia sent an address of
thanks to the king and parliament."

Francis Fauquier, Lieut. Governor of Virginia, died in 1767, and
the government devolved on John Blair, until the arrival of Lord
Bottetourt, the following year.

"The joy of the colonies at the repeal of the stamp act was
short-lived. British ministers imagined that they could cheat the
colonies out of their opposition to taxation without representation,
by laying an import duty instead of a direct tax; and accordingly,
a duty was laid upon glass, tea, paper, and painter's colors; but
this was equally against the spirit of the British constitution, and
met with a warmer and more indignant resistance on the part of
the colonies, who now began to believe they had little hope from
the justice of parliament. The legislature of Virginia passed very
spirited resolutions, which it ordered to be sent only to the king;
upon the passage of which the governor dissolved it; and the
members immediately met and entered unanimously into a nonimportation
agreement.

"The British ministers perceived their error, and determined to
pause in their violence; to effect this object the governors were
directed to inform the colonies, that his majesty's ministers did not
intend to raise a revenue in America, and the duties objected to
should be speedily repealed. These assurances, made to Virginia
by Lord Bottetourt, a governor whom they highly respected, served,
with his own good conduct, for a time to allay her suspicions of
the ministry; but the course they pursued towards Massachusetts
was more than sufficient to rekindle her jealousy. She passed a
protest, declaring that partial remedies could not heal the present
disorders, and renewed their non-importation agreement. In 1771
Bottetourt died, and Virginia erected a statue to his memory, which
still stands in the town of Williamsburg. Wm. Nelson, then
president of the council, occupied the chair of government until
the arrival of Lord Dunmore, in 1772. The delay of Lord Dunmore
in New York for some months after his appointment to the
gubernatorial chair of Virginia, excited the prejudices of the colony,
which his sending a man of some military distinction as a
clerk, and raising a salary and fees for him out of the colony, were
by no means calculated to dissipate. The first legislature that
met compelled the governor to dispense with the emoluments of
his secretary, Capt. Foy; and the next, after thanking him for his
activity in apprehending some counterfeiters of the colony paper,
strongly reproved him for dispensing with the usual forms and
ceremonies with which the law has guarded the liberty of the
citizen. The same legislature, having provided for the soundness
and security of the currency, the punishment of the guilty, and
required the governor to respect the law, turned their eyes to their
sister colonies, and appointed a committee of correspondence[123] to

inquire into the various violations of their constitutional rights by
the British ministry. While Virginia was employed in animating
her sister states to resistance, her governor was employed in the
ignoble occupation of fomenting jealousies and feuds between the
province, which it should have been his duty to protect from such
a calamity, and Pennsylvania, by raising difficult questions of
boundary, and exciting the inhabitants of the disputed territory to
forswear allegiance to the latter province; hoping thus, by affording
a more immediately exciting question, to draw off the attention
of these two important provinces from the encroachments of
Great Britain. This scheme, as contemptible as it was iniquitous,
wholly failed, through the good sense and magnanimity of the
Virginia council. Lord North, full of his feeble and futile schemes
of cheating the colonies out of their rights, took off the obnoxious
duties with the exception of three pence per pound on tea; and,
with the ridiculous idea that he might fix the principle upon the
colonies by a precedent, which should strip it of all that was
odious, offered a draw-back equal to the import duty. This induced
the importation of tea into Boston harbor, which, being
thrown overboard by some of the citizens, called down upon their
city all the rigor of the celebrated Boston port bill. A draft of
this bill reached the Virginia legislature while in session; an animated
protest, and a dissolution of the assembly by the governor,
of course followed. On the following day the members convened
in the Raleigh tavern, and, in an able and manly paper, expressed
to their constituents and their government those sentiments and
opinions which they had not been allowed to express in a legislative
form. This meeting recommended a cessation of trade with
the East India Company, a Congress of deputies from all the colonies,
`declaring their opinion, that an attack upon one of the
colonies was an attack upon all British America,' and a convention
of the people of Virginia. The sentiments of the people accorded
with those of their late delegates; they elected members who met
in convention at Williamsburg, on the 1st of August, 1774. This
convention went into a detailed view of their rights and grievances,
discussed measures of redress for the latter, and declared their
determination never to relinquish the former; they appointed deputies
to attend a general Congress, and they instructed them how
to proceed. The Congress met in Philadelphia, on the 4th of September,
1774. While Virginia was engaged in her efforts for the
general good, she was not without her peculiar troubles at home.
The Indians had been for some time waging a horrid war upon the
frontiers, when the indignation of the people at length compelled
the reluctant governor to take up arms, and march to suppress the
very savages he was thought to have encouraged and excited to
hostility by his intrigues.

"Lord Dunmore marched the army in two divisions: the one under
Col. Andrew Lewis he sent to the junction of the Great Kanawha
with the Ohio, while he himself marched to a higher point
on the latter river, with pretended purpose of destroying the Indian
towns and joining Lewis at Point Pleasant; but it was believed
with the real[124] object of sending the whole Indian force to
annihilate Lewis' detachment, and thereby weaken the power and
break down the spirit of Virginia. If such was his object he was
signally defeated through the gallantry of the detachment, which
met and defeated the superior numbers of the enemy at Point
Pleasant, after an exceeding hard-fought day, and the loss of nearly
all its officers. The day after the victory, an express arrived from
Dunmore with orders for the detachment to join him at a distance
of 80 miles, through an enemy's country, without any conceivable
object but the destruction of the corps. As these orders were
given without a knowledge of the victory, Col. Lewis was proceeding
to the destruction of the Shawanese villages, when he
was informed the governor had made peace.

The affairs between Britain and her American colonies were
now verging to a crisis. The hostile attitude of the latter, soon
occasioned orders to be issued to their governors to remove the
military stores out of their reach. Accordingly, on the 19th of
April, 1775, Dunmore secretly removed the gunpowder from the

magazine at Williamsburg, to the Magdalen man-of-war, anchored
off Yorktown. Thereupon, the volunteers of Williamsburg immediately
flew to arms, and could with difficulty be restrained from
seizing the person of the governor. The people of the town sent
a deputation to Dunmore, who remonstrated with him for this act,
especially at a time when they feared an insurrection of the slaves.
His reply "was everywhere considered as a mean and scandalous
evasion." Fearful of the consequences of his conduct, he established
a guard of negroes at his palace. Exasperated to the highest
degree, he openly swore, "by the living God," that if any injury
was offered to himself, or the officers who had acted under his
direction in the affair of the gunpowder, he would proclaim freedom
to the slaves, and reduce Williamsburg to ashes. These
savage threats wrought the indignation of the people to the highest
pitch, which spread like electricity throughout the colony.
Over six hundred people of the upper country armed themselves,
assembled at Fredericksburg, and offered their services to defend,
if necessary, Williamsburg from the threatened attack of Dunmore.
Thousands also, in all parts of Virginia, stood ready, at a moment's
warning, to lend their aid. In the mean time, those ardent patriots,
Peyton Randolph and Edmund Pendleton, transmitted their advice
to the Fredericksburg meeting to abstain, for the present, from
hostilities, until Congress should decide on a general plan of resistance.

The volunteers of Hanover, however, determined to recover the
powder, or perish in the attempt. With Patrick Henry at their
head, they marched from Hanover town to Doncastle's ordinary,
within 16 miles of the capitol, their numbers swelled by accessions
of volunteers from King William and New Kent. They here
disbanded, (May 4th,) and returned to their homes, Patrick Henry
having received ample compensation for the powder from Richard
Corbin, the king's receiver-general. Two days after the above,
Dunmore issued a proclamation against "a certain Patrick Henry,
of the county of Hanover, and a number of deluded followers," and
forbade all persons to countenance him, or others concerned in like
combinations. On the 11th, Henry left Virginia to attend the
Continental Congress, of which he was a member.

By this time, every county in Virginia was fairly aroused to the
dangers that beset them. County committees were formed, who

anticipated measures of defence, by arming and raising minutemen,
and taking all practicable means to make an effectual resistance.
The people sympathized with the sufferings of the Bostonians,
and the citizens of Williamsburg assembled, and unanimously
resolved to subscribe money for their aid. The news of
the battle of Lexington reached Virginia about this time.

The proclamation of Dunmore had scarce made its appearance,
when some persons privately entered the magazine and carried
away a great number of arms and military equipments. New
causes of irritation between the governor and the people were continually
arising.

When Patrick Henry marched down to make reprisals for the
gunpowder, Dunmore dispatched a messenger to the Fowey man-of-war,
anchored off Yorktown, for aid. A detachment of 40 marines
and sailors was sent to Williamsburg, where they remained
about 10 days. Previous to their landing at Yorktown, Capt. Montague
sent a letter from on board the Fowey to Col. Thomas Nelson,
threatening to fire upon the town if the troops were molested
or attacked,—a message which still further increased the indignation
of the people.

On the 1st of June the governor convened the Assembly, and
addressed them in a speech. With this commenced a political
correspondence between him and the House of Burgesses, which
was, on the part of the latter, a clear and forcible defence of the
rights of the colonies. On the 8th of June, the governor, with his
family, fled on board the Fowey, off Yorktown, from ill-grounded
apprehensions of his safety at Williamsburg. Several communications
passed between him and the Assembly, relative to public
business generally, the late disturbances respecting the removal
of the gunpowder, and the governor's proclamation and course of
conduct.

Dunmore "refused, upon invitation of the Assembly, to return
to his palace or to sign bills of the utmost importance to the colony,
and refused to perform this branch of duty, unless the Assembly
would come and hold their meetings under the guns of his ship at
Yorktown. In this emergency, the governor was declared to have
abdicated, and the president of the council appointed to act in his
place. His lordship, on the termination of the intercourse between
himself and the Assembly, which was towards the close of June,
sailed down the river." Thus ended the royal government in Virginia.

The Assembly now dissolved, and, pursuant to agreement, the
delegates, on the 17th of July, met in convention at Richmond, to
organize a provincial form of government and a plan of defence.
The following illustrious characters composed the committee of
safety:—Edmund Pendleton, George Mason, John Page, Richard
Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges,
James Mercer, Carter Braxton, William Cabell, and John Tabb.
The convention made arrangements to raise troops for defence,

and the general committee met at Hanover Town, in Hanover
county, on business connected with the military establishment,
and then adjourned to Williamsburg about the last of September.

Previously, the committee of safety recommended to the district
committees to direct the contractors in each district to provide,
among other things, a stand of colors, bearing on one side
the name of the district, on the other, "Virginia for Constitutional
Liberty."

In October, by Dunmore's orders, a party of men, under cover of
their men-of-war, landed at Norfolk, and forcibly carried on board
their vessels the press and types of a newspaper imbued with the
patriotic principles of the day. Shortly after, Dunmore marched
to Kempsville, in Princess Anne, destroyed some fire-arms deposited
there, and took prisoner Capt. Matthews, of the minute-men. About
this time an attack was made on Hampton, by some vessels commanded
by Capt. Squires, who had threatened to burn the town.
The enemy were beaten off with loss, while not a single Virginian
was killed.

In the mean time, numbers of armed people from the upper
country were arriving at Williamsburg. Dunmore, hearing that
the 2d Virginia Regiment and the Culpeper Battalion had been
ordered to Norfolk, directed the Kingfisher and three large tenders
to move up to Burwell's Ferry, to prevent their crossing the James.
These vessels, on their arrival, finding an American skipper at the
landing, commenced firing upon her, and in a peremptory tone ordered
her to come alongside the Kingfisher. Some Virginian
riflemen, on the bank, directed her master not to obey the order.
Upon this the man-of-war commenced a brisk fire upon the vessel,
but without effect. Twice the Kingfisher sent a large boat full
of men to take possession, and twice they were beaten off by the
unerring aim of the riflemen. Foiled in this attempt, the enemy
the next day attempted to land a boat filled with armed men at
Jamestown. They were again repulsed by some rifle sentinels on
the shore. In this month (November) Dunmore, with a superior
force, surprised about 200 militia of Princess Anne, on their march
to join the troops. Their colonel, with several others, was made
prisoner.

Under date of November 7th, Dunmore issued his proclamation,
in which he proclaimed martial law, declared all capable of bearing
arms who did not resort to his majesty's standard traitors, and
offered freedom to all slaves "appertaining to rebels" who would
join his majesty's troops. On this Dunmore had staked his best
hopes. Had he had a formidable force at hand to execute his threats,
some apprehensions might have been excited. But as it was, it
only harmonized public opinion, increased public irritation, and
engendered a burning detestation of the means to which their late
governor unblushingly stooped to awe them into submission. His
lordship set up his standard in Norfolk and Princess Anne, issued
orders to the militia captains to raise a body of troops to oppose

the colonial army, prescribed, and, in some cases, extorted an oath
of allegiance. A multitude of motley partisans flocking to his
standard, he designed to destroy the provisions collected at Suffolk
for the Virginia troops. To prevent this, Col. Woodford, on
the 20th of November, detached 215 light troops, under Col. Scott
and Major Marshall, to that place, and on the 25th arrived there
with the main body of the Virginia troops.

The only avenue from Suffolk to Norfolk—to which place he
was destined—by which Col. Woodford could march, was by the
Great Bridge, about 12 miles from the latter. The enemy were
posted there in a stockade fort, on his arrival with the Virginian
troops. Woodford constructed a breastwork within cannon-shot
of the fort.

On the 9th of December, Capt. Fordyce, at the head of a party
of British grenadiers, in attempting to storm the breastwork, was
repulsed by a most destructive and bloody fire. After this, Dunmore,
with most of his followers, took refuge on board his vessels.
The Virginians marched into Norfolk, and annoyed the enemy by
firing into their vessels. In retaliation, Dunmore cannonaded the
town, and on the night of the 1st of January, 1776, landed a party,
who, under cover of their cannon, set fire to the houses on the
river which had sheltered the provincials. The committee of
safety ordered Col. Robert Howe to destroy the remainder of the
town, to prevent the British from making it a permanent post.
Norfolk, then the most populous town in Virginia, contained near
6,000 inhabitants.

Colonels Woodford and Stevens assisted Col. Howe in the command
at Norfolk. Besides the two regiments already raised, the
Convention resolved to raise seven more. Six of these were placed
on the continental establishment, to whose officers Congress granted

commissions, in order, beginning with Col. Henry, of the 1st, and
ending with Col. Buckner, of the 6th Regiment.[127]

Col. Patrick Henry resigned his commission, much to the regret
of the regiment, and was thereupon chosen a member of the Convention
from Hanover.

The General Convention of Virginia met at the capital, May
6th, 1776, and appointed Edmund Pendleton, President, and John
Tazewell, Clerk. Since the flight of Dunmore, the House of Burgesses
had met twice, pursuant to adjournment, but on neither
occasion was there a quorum. They now met on the same day
with the Convention, but "did neither proceed to business, nor
adjourn as a House of Burgesses." Considering their meeting as
illegal, not in conformity with a summons from a governor, they
unanimously dissolved themselves. "Thus was the tottering fabric
of the royal government utterly demolished in Virginia; to substitute
in its stead a structure of more elegant and more solid form,
was now the task of the Convention."

On the 15th of this month, the convention, after appealing to
"the Searcher of hearts" for the sincerity of their former declarations
in favor of peace and union with the mother country, adopted
unanimously the following resolution:

The convention appointed a committee to prepare a Declaration
of Rights, and a Plan of Government, for the colony. The former
was adopted on the 12th of June. On the 29th a constitution
was unanimously adopted; "the first which was framed with a
view to a permanent separation from Great Britain since those of
South Carolina and New Hampshire, which alone preceded it,
were to continue only until a reconciliation could be effected between
the mother country and the colonies. This plan of government
was proposed by the celebrated George Mason,[128] and had
been adopted in committee before the arrival of one which Mr.
Jefferson, then in Congress, had prepared. They however accepted
Mr. Jefferson's preamble, which is nearly the same as the
recital of wrongs in the Declaration of Independence."[129]

The following appointments were made under the constitution:

Patrick Henry, Esq., governor. John Page, Dudley Digges,
John Tayloe, John Blair, Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, Bartholomew
Dandridge, Charles Carter of Shirley, and Benjamin Harrison
of Brandon, counsellors of state. Thomas Whiting, John
Hutchings, Champion Travis, Thomas Newton, jun., and George
Webb, Esquires, commissioners of admiralty. Thomas Everard
and James Cocke, Esquires, commissioners for settling accounts.
Edmund Randolph, Esq., attorney-general.

On the 5th of July the convention adjourned. Though the session
was brief, it was an important one. Among other acts besides
the formation of a government, they passed an ordinance for erecting
salt works in the colony: for establishing a board of commissioners
to superintend and direct the naval affairs of the colony:
for raising six troops of horse: for arranging the counties into
districts for electing senators, &c. They also resolved to expunge
from the litany such parts as related to the king and royal family,
and substituted, in the morning and evening service, such forms of
expression as were better suited to the new state of affairs.

The Declaration of Independence, so strongly recommended by
the Virginia convention, was passed in Congress on the 4th of
July, 1776; and, agreeably to an order of the privy council, it was
proclaimed on the 25th of the same month at the capitol, the
court-house, and the palace at Williamsburg, amidst the acclamations
of the people, and the firing of cannon and musketry.

The energetic measures that had been adopted by the Virginia
troops in precluding the flotilla of Dunmore from obtaining supplies,
had at last obliged them to burn the intrenchments they had
erected near the ruins of Norfolk, and seek a refuge on board their
ships, where disease and hunger pursued them. The presence of
his lordship in the lower country had given countenance to the
disaffected, who were there numerous. A vigorous course was
ordered to be pursued towards them. Col. Woodford, stationed
at Kemps' Landing, (now Kempsville, Princess Anne,) humanely
executed these orders, which were intrusted to him by the committee
of safety, through Maj. Gen. Chas. Lee.

Dunmore, with his fleet, left Hampton Roads about the 1st of
June, landed and erected fortifications on Gwynn's island, within
the limits of what is now Matthew's county. On the 9th of July
he was attacked by the Virginians, under Brig. Gen. Andrew
Lewis, and forced to abandon the island. Shortly after, Dunmore
dispatched the miserable remnant of his followers to Florida and
the West Indies, and sailing himself to the north, forever left the
shores of Virginia.

The nefarious plot of Connelly was only part of an extensive
scheme of operations, which the British had meditated in seeking
an alliance with the savages. By their instigation the Indians
were harassing the frontiers of the southern states to such a degree
that a combination was formed to destroy their settlements

on the borders. Col. Christian, on the part of this state, marched
with a body of Virginia troops into the Cherokee country, burnt
four of their towns, and compelled them to sue for peace.

On the 7th of October, 1776, the Assembly of Virginia met for
the first time; Edmund Pendleton was chosen Speaker of the
House of Delegates, and Archibald Carey of the Senate. One of
the earliest of their labors was the repeal of all acts of Parliament
against dissenters, which was the first direct blow struck at the
established church in the state.

In the session of this fall, the Assembly appointed Thomas Jefferson,
Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Mason, and
Thomas Ludwell Lee, Esquires, a committee to revise the State
laws, and prepare a code more suitable to the new state of affairs:
the execution of the work devolved on the three first.

Although the seat of the war was for so long a period transferred
from Virginia, her soil was doomed soon to be again trod by
the foot of the invader. Previous, however, to giving an abstract
of the military operations which occurred here in the last few
years of the revolutionary struggle, we shall glance at a few matters
too important to be omitted in even this brief sketch of her
history.

While the events above alluded to were transpiring at the
north, Virginia was exerting every nerve, in furnishing additional
men and means, for the common cause, and adopting energetic
measures against the disaffected within her own bosom. Among
them were many British merchants, settled in the towns, in whose
hands was much of the trade. These were compelled to leave the
state, or be taken in custody. An oath of allegiance to the commonwealth,
was also required of all free-born male inhabitants

over 16 years of age. At this time, a taste for elegant literature
and profound research prevailed throughout Virginia. The learned
Dr. Small, of William and Mary College, had chiefly contributed
to the diffusion of that taste before the war, through the encouragement
of Gov. Fauquier, "the ablest character who had then
ever filled the chair of government in Virginia." A literary and
scientific society was instituted, amid the excitement of revolutionary
scenes, of which Mr. John Page[130] was president, and Prof.
James Madison[131] one of the secretaries. They held a meeting in
the capitol, and several valuable philosophical papers were read.
The calls of war, unfortunately, prevented a ripe development of
the association.

A loan-office was opened at Williamsburg, to effect two resolutions
of Congress for the obtaining a loan of continental money
for the use of the United States. Another loan-office was established
by the state, for borrowing, on the part of the commonwealth,
one million of dollars, to supersede the necessity of emitting more
paper money.

On the accession of Sir Henry Clinton, in the place of Sir William
Howe, to the chief command, the war was carried on with
greater energy. The reduction of the south seemed an object less
difficult, and of as much value as the north; hence the plan of
conquest was somewhat altered. Georgia was threatened with
subjection by an expedition under Lieut. Col. Campbell, while Sir
Henry Clinton prepared, in person, to invade South Carolina.

The central position of Virginia had hitherto, in a measure,
saved her from the incursions of the enemy. Sir Henry Clinton
saw that the resistance of the southern states would depend much
upon Virginia, and he was determined to humble her pride and
destroy her resources. For this purpose an expedition was
planned, and early in May, 1779, their squadron, under Sir George
Collier, anchored in Hampton Roads. Fort Nelson, just below
Portsmouth, was abandoned to them, and on the 11th, the British
general, Matthews, took possession of Portsmouth. The enemy
destroyed large quantities of naval and military stores at Gosport
and Norfolk; burnt Suffolk, and many private houses, and destroyed
upwards of 100 vessels. The army shortly embarked for New
York with their plunder.

"This destruction of private property, which ought to be held
sacred by civilized nations at war, called for the interference of
the Assembly. A resolve was passed in that body, requiring the
governor to remonstrate against this cruel mode of carrying on the
war. The fall of Charleston, and the success of the British arms
in the south, under Lord Cornwallis, portended much evil to Virginia.
Her reduction was determined on by the commander-in-chief,
and a plan, apparently big with success, was laid for that
purpose. As soon as Clinton was informed of the defeat of the
southern army by Lord Cornwallis, he dispatched Brigadier-General
Leslie, with a force of about three thousand men, against
Virginia. The co-operation of this detachment with the army
under Cornwallis, who was expected to enter Virginia on the south,
appeared fully adequate to the object in view.

"Leslie arrived in the Chesapeake bay in October, 1780, and
landing at Portsmouth, took possession of such vessels and other
property as could be found on the coast. The defeat of Major
Ferguson, who had been ordered to manœuvre through the northern
parts of South Carolina, and was expected to join Cornwallis
at Charlotte, caused the latter to alter his plans, and prevented his
junction with Leslie. Some time elapsed before Leslie could obtain
information of the situation of Cornwallis, and the circum

stances that occurred to prevent the important junction with that
officer. Meanwhile the governor of Virginia was earnestly employed
in preparing to oppose the invaders. Thomas Jefferson,
successor of Patrick Henry, was then governor of the state, and
the assembly, composed of men selected for their wisdom and
patriotism, was in session. At this crisis, General Greene, who
had been appointed to succeed Gates in the command of the southern
army, arrived in Richmond, on his way to the south. As much
reliance had been placed on the supplies to be received from Virginia,
Greene was not a little embarrassed to find her in such a
weak and exposed situation. After making such arrangements as
he deemed necessary, he continued his journey to the south, leaving
Baron Steuben to direct the defence of the state. General
Gates had removed his head-quarters to Charlotte, and there he
surrendered into the hands of Greene the command of the southern
army. In the mean time, General Leslie, leaving the shores of
Virginia, sailed for Charleston, where he found orders requiring
him to repair with his army to Camden. On the 19th of December
he began his march, with about fifteen hundred men, to effect
a junction with the army under Cornwallis. This he accomplished
without difficulty. On the 11th of January, Cornwallis advanced
towards North Carolina. Wishing to disperse the force under
General Morgan, who had been manœuvring in the western parts
of the state, he dispatched Colonel Tarleton in pursuit of him.
The splendid victory of the Cowpens checked the ardor of the
pursuers, and revived the drooping spirits of the Americans. The
southern army was, however, unable to face their enemy in the
field; and the movements of Cornwallis indicating a design to
bring Greene to action, compelled the latter to retreat towards
Virginia. This he safely accomplished, notwithstanding the vigorous
pursuit of the British general, who had destroyed his baggage
in order to effect his movements with more celerity. The van of
the British army arrived just after the rear of the American had
passed the Dan, which forms the dividing line between the two
states. The next day General Greene wrote to Mr. Jefferson,
governor of Virginia, and to Baron Steuben, giving information of
his situation, and requesting reinforcements.

"Early in December, 1780, Governor Jefferson received a letter
from General Washington, informing him that preparations were
making by the enemy at New York, for an expedition to the south,
which was probably designed against Virginia. On the 30th,
Brigadier-General Arnold, with near fifty sail of vessels, arrived in
the Chesapeake, and embarking in lighter vessels, proceeded up
James River. On receiving news of this approaching squadron,
Mr. Jefferson dispatched General Nelson to collect and arrange a
force with as much haste as possible, while Baron Steuben, with
about two hundred men, marched to Petersburg. On the 4th of
January, Arnold landed his force, consisting of about nine hundred
men, at Westover, the seat of Mr. Byrd, and marched to Richmond

without opposition. Thus was the metropolis of Virginia exposed
to the insult and depredation of a traitor; her stores and archives
plundered, and her governor compelled to seek security by immediate
flight. From Richmond, Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe was
dispatched to Westham, where he destroyed the only cannon foundry
in the state. At this place they also destroyed the military
stores, which had, on the alarm caused by Arnold's approach, been
removed from Richmond. After two days spent in pillaging public
and private property, General Arnold returned to Westover, where
on the 10th he re-embarked his men, and descended the river. On
his way he landed detachments at Mackay's mill, and at Smithfield,
where they destroyed some public stores; and on the 20th, arrived
at Portsmouth.

"Major-General Steuben, assisted by General Nelson, having
collected a considerable force, marched in pursuit of Arnold. But
the movements of the latter were too rapid to be interrupted by
the tardy advances of undisciplined militia. They were, however,
able to prevent similar incursions, and by remaining in the vicinity
of Portsmouth, they confined the enemy to their entrenchments.
On hearing of the invasion of Virginia by the traitor Arnold, and
his encampment at Portsmouth, General Washington formed a plan
to cut off his retreat. He intimated to Count Rochambeau and
Admiral D'Estouches, the importance of an immediate movement
of the French fleet to the Chesapeake; and at the same time detached
the Marquis De la Fayette, with twelve hundred men, to
Virginia. The French admiral, not entering fully into the views
of Washington, detached only a small part of his squadron, who,
from their inability to effect the desired purpose, returned to the
fleet at Rhode Island. The situation of Arnold had induced Sir
H. Clinton to detach to his aid Major-General Phillips, to whom
the command of the British forces in Virginia was committed.
The united detachments under Arnold and Phillips formed a body
of about three thousand five hundred men. Being able to act on
the offensive, General Phillips left one thousand men in Portsmouth,
and proceeded with the remainder up James River, for the purpose
of completing the destruction of the internal strength and resources
of the state. Opposite to Williamsburg he landed, and from thence
sent to Yorktown a detachment, who destroyed the naval stores in
that place. Re-embarking, they ascended the river to City Point,
where James River receives the waters of the Appamattox. At
this place Phillips landed, and directed his march to Petersburg,
which stands on the bank of the last-mentioned stream, about
twelve miles from its junction with the former.

"Virginia was at this time in a defenceless situation; all the
regular force of the state was under Greene, in South Carolina,
and her whole reliance was upon militia, of whom about two thousand
were now in the field. This force, half of which was stationed
on each side of James River, was under the command of Baron
Steuben and General Nelson. Steuben directed the southern division,

on whom the defence of Petersburg devolved, and from which
place he was compelled to retreat by the superior force of Phillips.
During his stay in Petersburg, General Phillips destroyed the warehouses,
and spread terror and devastation, the constant attendants
of British invasion, through the town. Leaving Petersburg, he
crossed the Appamattox into Chesterfield, and detaching Arnold to
Osborne's to destroy the tobacco at that place, he proceeded himself
to Chesterfield court-house, where he destroyed the barracks
and stores which had been formed there for the accommodation of
recruits designed for the southern army. The two divisions of the
army uniting again, marched into Manchester, where was renewed
the scene of pillage and devastation transacted in Petersburg and
Chesterfield. The fortunate arrival of the Marquis De la Fayette
at Richmond, with a body of regular troops, saved the metropolis
from a similar fate. From Manchester, General Phillips proceeded
down the river to Bermuda hundred, opposite City Point, where
his fleet remained during his incursion. Here he re-embarked his
troops, and fell down the river, while the marquis followed on the
north side to watch his movements. He soon learned that Phillips,
instead of returning to Portsmouth, had suddenly relanded his
army on the south side of the river, one division at Brandon, and
the other at City Point, and was on his march to Petersburg. It
immediately occurred to the marquis, that a junction with Cornwallis,
who was then approaching Virginia, was the object which
Phillips had in view, and to prevent which he determined to throw
himself, by forced marches, into Petersburg before the arrival of
that general. Phillips, however, reached that place first, and Lafayette
halting, recrossed the river, and posted himself a few
miles below Richmond. The death of General Phillips, soon after
his arrival in Petersburg, devolved the command of the army
again on General Arnold.

"Cornwallis was now on his way to Petersburg, and having
crossed the Roanoke, he detached Colonel Tarleton to secure the
fords of the Meherrin, while Colonel Simcoe, with the rangers, was
sent for the same purpose to the Nottoway. The enemy effected
his passage over these rivers without interruption, and on the 20th
of May entered Petersburg. In addition to this united force, which
seemed fully sufficient to crush every germ of opposition in Virginia,
General Leslie had again made his appearance on the coast,
with a reinforcement of two regiments and two battalions, part
of which was stationed in Portsmouth, under the command of that
officer. The Marquis De la Fayette continued near Richmond,
with a force of about four thousand men, nearly three-fourths of
whom were militia. Steuben, who was on the south side of James
River, proceeding with about six hundred levies to reinforce General
Greene, was suddenly recalled, and ordered to take a position
at the Point of Fork, where were deposited some military stores.
General Weedon was requested to collect a force near Fredericksburg,
for the purpose of protecting an important manufactory of

arms at Falmouth. In addition to these different forces, General
Wayne was on his way to Virginia, with a detachment from the
northern army of about nine hundred men. The strength of the
enemy was, however, too great for any force Virginia could bring
into the field, and her fate, as far as superior numbers and discipline
could influence it, seemed now to be decided.

"Cornwallis, after resting four days in Petersburg, proceeded
down the south side of Appamattox and James rivers, until he
came opposite Westover, where he determined to cross. Lafayette,
informed of the enemy's movement, left his encampment
below Richmond, and retreated behind the Chickahomony River,
keeping the direction towards Fredericksburg. The enemy pursued
him across that stream, anxious to bring him to battle before his
junction with Wayne. Lafayette, however, escaped the impending
blow, and hastening across the Pamunky and Mattapony, the
confluence of whose streams form York River, he endeavored to
gain the road on which Wayne was approaching. The British
commander, failing in his project of bringing the marquis to battle,
thought proper to change his course, and determined to penetrate
with his detachments the interior of the state. Lieutenant-Colonel
Simcoe was directed to attack Baron Steuben at Point of Fork, (a
point of land formed by the junction of the Rivanna and Fluvanna
rivers,) and destroy the stores at that place; while Colonel Tarleton
advanced to Charlottesville, where the General Assembly was
then convened.

"Simcoe succeeded in driving Steuben from his post, and destroying
the magazines under his protection; while Tarleton pushed on
to Charlottesville, eager to add to his numerous exploits the capture
of a corps of republican legislators. His approach, however, was
discovered by the Assembly in time for the members to make their
escape. Mr. Jefferson, the governor, on hearing of their approach,
sought an asylum in the wilds of the mountain adjacent to his
house. After destroying some military stores, which had been
deposited in Charlottesville as a place of safety, Tarleton proceeded
down the Rivanna, towards the Point of Fork, near to which
Cornwallis had arrived with the main body of the army. Uniting
with his army the different detachments, the British commander
marched to Richmond, which he entered on the 16th of June.
Meanwhile Lafayette had formed a junction with Wayne, and
was watching with a cautious eye the movements of the foe.

"After halting a few days in Richmond, Cornwallis resumed his
march towards the coast, and on the 25th of the month arrived in
Williamsburg, while the marquis, with a force of between four
and five thousand men, followed close on his rear. From that place
the British commander detached Colonel Simcoe to the Chickahomony,
for the purpose of destroying some boats and stores on
that river. Colonel Butler, with a detachment from the American
camp, was immediately sent against this party, and a severe conflict
ensued, in which each side claimed the victory. After remaining

about a week in Williamsburg, the British commander prepared
to cross the river, and selected James City island as the most
eligible place to effect a passage. In the mean time, Lafayette
and the intrepid General Wayne pressed close on his rear, with a
view to strike as soon as the enemy should be weakened by the
van having crossed the river. Under a mistaken belief that the
separation of the enemy's force had actually taken place, an attack
was made on the whole strength of the British army drawn up in
order of battle. The approach of night saved the American army,
who effected a retreat after losing, in killed, wounded and prisoners,
upwards of a hundred men. From a belief that a grand attack
was intended on New York by the combined army, Sir H.
Clinton had ordered Cornwallis to take a position near Portsmouth
or Williamsburg, on tide-water, with a view to facilitate the transportation
of his forces to New York, or such aid as might be
deemed necessary. In obedience to this command, Cornwallis
selected York and Gloucester as the most eligible situations, where
he immediately concentrated his army. The bold and discerning
mind of Washington soon formed a plan to strike his lordship while
encamped at York—a plan no less wisely devised than successfully
executed. The arrival of the French fleet in the Chesapeake, at
this juncture, contributed essentially to the completion of his designs.
Count De Grasse, on obtaining intelligence from Lafayette
of the situation of the enemy, immediately detached four ships
of the line to block up York River. Washington, fearful that
Cornwallis might attempt to retreat to the south, sent orders to Lafayette
to take effective measures to prevent his escape; and also
wrote to Mr. Jefferson, who was still governor of Virginia, urging
him to yield every aid which his situation could afford, and which
the importance of the object required. On the 14th of September,
General Washington arrived in Williamsburg, which was now the
head-quarters of Lafayette, and proceeding to Hampton, the plan
of siege was concerted with the Count De Grasse. About the 25th
of the month the troops of the north arrived, and formed a junction
with those under De la Fayette. The whole regular force thus
combined, consisted of about twelve thousand men. In addition to
these, there was a body of Virginia militia under the command of
the brave and patriotic General Nelson. The trenches were
opened by the combined forces on the 6th of October, at the distance
of six hundred yards from the enemy's works. On the 19th
the posts of York and Gloucester were surrendered to the combined
forces of America and France."

The news of the surrender of Cornwallis spread universal joy
throughout the country. The termination of the war was evidently
near,—a war for constitutional liberty. In its trying scenes, Virginia
was among the foremost. When the colonies had gone too
far to allow a hope for an honorable submission, she was the first
to adopt a perfectly independent constitution—the first to recommend
the Declaration of Independence: her great son was the first

among the leaders of the armies of the nation, and her officers and
soldiers, whether in the shock of battle, or marching half-clad, ill-fed,
and barefooted, amid the snows of the north, through pestilential
marshes, and under a burning sun at the far south, evinced a
bravery and fortitude unsurpassed.

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM THE CLOSE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION TO THE PRESENT TIME.

Although active military operations were prolonged in various
parts of the country, especially at the south, after the capture o
Cornwallis's army, it may be said that the war was effectually
extinguished in Virginia by that memorable event. Most of the
troops which had been raised for the defence of the state were in a
short time disbanded, and although the negotiations for peace between
the two countries were rather slow in their progress, yet
the conviction soon became general, that the signal defeat of the
enemy at Yorktown would lead to that happy result. The statesmen
of Virginia took an active part in the discussions which followed
the treaty of peace, growing out of the acknowledged incompetency
of the articles of confederation to bind the states together
by ties sufficiently strong. The firmest patriots were alarmed
at the symptoms of approaching dissolution, and none were
more conspicuous in their efforts to avert that catastrophe than the
great man who led the armies of the Republic, and achieved its independence.
The Convention which assembled in Richmond, in
June, 1788, to ratify the federal constitution, was composed of some
of the most illustrious men in the state. The names of Marshall,[132]
Madison,[133] Monroe,[134] Mason,[135] Nicholas,[136] Henry,[137] Randolph,[138]

Pendleton,[139] Lee,[140] Washington,[141] Wythe,[142] Innes,[143] Harrison,[144]
Bland,[145] Grayson,[146] and a host of others, shed a lustre
upon the deliberations of that august body, which has never
been surpassed in the annals of the commonwealth. "The debates
as given to the public, though no doubt imperfect, exhibit a
display of eloquence and talents, certainly at that time unequalled
in the country."[147]

Yet it may appear strange to the present generation, that such
was the diversity of opinion which prevailed, and so serious were
the apprehensions entertained by many, that too much power was
conceded to the general government by the instrument proposed
for adoption, that it was only ratified by a lean majority of ten, out
of 168 members, who voted on the final question. The opposite
political opinions which were developed on that occasion, were
strongly impressed upon the public mind, and traces of their influence
may be easily distinguished in the subsequent history of parties
in Virginia. The name of federalist, which was originally applied
to those who were in favor of adopting the Constitution,
was afterwards used to designate the party which favored that
construction of the instrument supposed to give greater efficiency
to the powers it conferred; while those, for the most part, who
were hostile to the new form of government, preferred to be distinguished
by the title of democrats, or republicans.[148] These distinctions,
were aggravated and widened by the subsequent action
of Congress, and especially by the passage of the Alien and Sedition
laws, in Mr. Adams's administration. These measures encountered
the most decided opposition in Virginia. Mr. Madison,
who was one of the ablest and most distinguished advocates of the
federal constitution, conceived that its true meaning had been
grossly perverted by the measures referred to—and having been

elected to the state legislature for the session of 1799, prepared
his celebrated report, which received the sanction of that body,
by a considerable majority. This report, ever since its adoption,
has been regarded by the state-rights, or democratic party, as a
political text-book, or authoritative exposition of the federal constitution;
yet it is affirmed by their opponents, that its reasons and
deductions have been frequently applied to cases which were not
within the contemplation of its original framer, or of many others,
who sanctioned its application to the Alien and Sedition
laws.

Passing over the minor events in the annals of the state, it may
be sufficient to observe, that she gave a constant and cordial support
to the measures of her presidents, Jefferson and Madison,
which were preliminary to the war of 1812, declared against Great
Britain. During the existence of that war, she contributed liberally
her treasure, and the services of her people, to the defence of
the country. To say nothing of the distinguished men and numerous
recruits with which she supplied the land and naval forces
of the Union, instances were not wanting of the display of heroic
valor within her own borders, in repelling the predatory and sanguinary
depredations of the enemy. Hampton, Craney Island, the
White House, and various other points on the Potomac, will long
be remembered as scenes of gallant enterprise or patient endurance
of the hardships of war. Her sons from the mountains and valleys
of her extensive western domain, marched with alacrity to
the seaboard, and submitted, without murmuring, to the toils and
perils of the camp; and hundreds paid the forfeit of their lives in
a climate which, to them, habit and nature had rendered uncongenial
and fatal.

Although the state was a cordial and zealous supporter of the
war, and perhaps suffered less than some of the more exposed of
her sister commonwealths, yet she was by no means disinclined to
peace; although, in the opinion of many, the terms upon which
that blessing was acquired were not precisely consistent with the
objects for which the war was declared. This, however, is one of
the usual contingencies upon which the mortal conflicts of nations
are waged. They fight for principle, but are obliged to make
peace from necessity; and there is no truth which is taught us by
experience more salutary, than that peace, even with its attendant
disadvantages, is more tolerable than war, which places
every thing at hazard, and is always followed by multiplied horrors.

Nothing, perhaps, occurred of sufficient consequence to be noticed
by the general annalist or historian, after the peace of 1815,
until the period which brought about the General Convention of
1829, assembled for the purpose of revising the state constitution;
a frame of government which had been established prior to the
Declaration of Independence, and which was, therefore, consecrated
in the affections of a large portion of the people by being associated

with revolutionary scenes and recollections. It is not to be
denied, however, that some of the complaints of those who were
clamorous for reform, were in themselves reasonable, even if no
serious inconvenience and mischief had been experienced in practice.
The grievance which had been most earnestly dwelt upon
in the popular discussions, was the great inequality of representation
in the state legislature. Counties of unequal size, wealth,
and population, were represented in the state councils by an equal
number of delegates; and although perhaps the interests of large
sections or divisions were fully protected in the practical operation
of government, yet the sense of local wrong was too powerful to
be resisted. The call of a convention was sanctioned by a majority
of the people, and that body assembled in Richmond in October,
1829. No set of men of more varied talents, or of riper
experience and wisdom, had been organized as a public body in
Virginia, since the meeting of the state convention which ratified
the federal constitution; and there are many conspicuous names
found in the proceedings of both those distinguished assemblies.[149]
How strikingly different were the results of the deliberations of
the two conventions! The first in the order of time contributed
essentially to cement the union of the states, by the substitution of
a solid fabric of government for a feeble confederation, which, in
the language of the day, had been aptly compared to a "rope of
sand." The labors of the latter, in the opinion of able minds, have
not only resulted in no essential good, but in much practical mischief.
Whether the opinion be or be not well-founded, it is not
necessary to decide; but it is certain that the amended constitution
has dissatisfied many, and that propositions have already been
made to the legislature to adopt preliminary measures for a third
convention.

Virginia having the most extensive territory of any of the states
of the Union, and being the largest slaveholder, has always been
peculiarly sensitive in regard to that species of property. As far
back as the first administration of Gov. Monroe, at the commencement
of the present century, a well-organized insurrection of the
slaves in the immediate vicinity of the seat of government, was
only prevented from resulting in the most frightful consequences
to the persons and property of the whites, by the timely interposition
of Providence. From the best authenticated accounts, founded
upon evidence taken at the time by the constituted authorities,
a large body of slaves, supposed to be a thousand in number, headed
by skilful leaders, and provided with the means of offensive

warfare, assembled by preconcert, in the night, about six miles
from Richmond, and resolved to attack the town before daybreak.
No suspicion having been excited, the police was feeble and inert;
the inhabitants were lulled into perfect security, and nothing, it is
believed, saved them from massacre and pillage, but a sudden and
violent storm, accompanied by heavy rains, which rendered impassable
a stream lying between the insurgents and the city. A
young negro, attached to his master and family, was seized with
compunction for his criminal designs, and swam the stream, at the
hazard of life, to give information of the plot. The whole city
was roused—troops were ordered out—the insurrection was suppressed,
and the ringleaders expiated their offence on the gallows.
The severity of the punishment inflicted upon these unhappy sufferers,
it was supposed, for a long period of time, would prevent
any similar disturbance in the state; but unhappily, in the year
1831, during the administration of Gov. Floyd, a still more alarming
insurrection occurred in the county of Southampton, which
was attended by the most tragical results. A fanatical slave by
the name of Nat Turner, with his brother, who was still more fanatical,
and who styled himself the prophet, rallied a band of desperate
followers, and, in open day, carried death and desolation
into all the surrounding neighborhoods. Whole families of men,
women, and children, were slaughtered without mercy, under circumstances
of peculiar barbarity; and the insurrection was only
suppressed by the prompt interference of the military authority.
After the fullest investigation, the conduct of these sanguinary
wretches could not be accounted for upon any of the usual motives
which govern men in a servile condition. As slaves, they
were not treated with particular unkindness or severity; and the
only plausible solution of the problem is to be found in the suggestions
of a wild superstition, excited by the unnatural and extraordinary
appearance of the sun at that particular period—a phenomenon
which was recorded at the time, and is still well recollected.

This painful and startling event made a deep impression upon
the public mind. Men began to think and reason about the evils
and insecurity of slavery; the subject of emancipation was discussed
both publicly and privately, and was prominently introduced
into the popular branch of the legislature at the ensuing session
of 1831-32. The House of Delegates contained, at that time,
many young members of shining abilities, besides others of maturer
years and more established reputation; and the debate
which sprang up, upon the abstract proposition declaring it expedient
to abolish slavery, was characterized by all the powers of
argument and all the graces of eloquence. It was a topic eminently
fitted to arouse the strongest passions of our nature, and to
enlist the long-cherished prejudices of a portion of the Virginia
people. After an animated contest, the question was settled by a
kind of compromise, in which the evils of slavery were distinctly

recognised, but that views of expediency required that further
action on the subject should be postponed. That a question so
vitally important would have been renewed with more success at
an early subsequent period, seems more than probable, if the current
opinions of the day can be relied on; but there were obvious
causes in operation which paralyzed the friends of abolition, and
have had the effect of silencing all agitation on the subject. The
abolitionists in the northern and eastern states, gradually increasing
their strength as a party, became louder in their denunciations
of slavery, and more and more reckless in the means adopted for
assailing the constitutional rights of the south. The open and
avowed security given to fugitive slaves, not only by the efforts of
private societies, but by public official acts in some of the free
states, together with the constant circulation of incendiary tracts,
calculated to endanger the safety of slave-holding communities,
have awakened a spirit of proud and determined resistance; and
it is now almost impossible to tell when the passions shall have
sufficiently cooled for a calm consideration of the subject.

If Virginia has not successfully rivalled some of the more
wealthy and populous states in the cause of general education,
and in works of internal improvement, she has at least devoted to
those important objects all the resources she could command without
impairing her credit by too great a pecuniary responsibility.
It is an honorable trait, that she has been careful to fulfil her engagements
in the most embarrassing times.