USA > Washington DC > Washington DC > A new and comprehensive gazetteer of Virginia, and the District of Columbia > Part 80
USA > Virginia > A new and comprehensive gazetteer of Virginia, and the District of Columbia > Part 80
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9thly. That no charge should be required from the country on account of the expence incurred in the present fleet :"1.
IOthly. That this agreement should be tendered to all persons, and that such as should refuse to subscribe to it, should have a years time to remove . themselves and effects from Virginia, and in the meantime enjoy equal jus- - tice.
The remaining articles were of less importance. This was followed by' a supplemental treaty, for the benefit of the governor and council, and such soldiers as had served against the commonwealth in England ; allowing them the most favorable terms.
. If this was a conquest,-happy would it be" for most colonies to be con- quered ; every privilege was secured which could possibly be asked, and the liberties of the colony were established more thoroughly than they had'
he probably found in his ancient records. . The authority upon which we rest is the act of indemnity itself (IIening, p. 367.) issued by the Parliamentary commissioners, -that act recites that having brought a fleet and force before James Cittie in Vir- ginia, to reduce that colony under the obedience of the commonwealth of England, and finding force raised by the governor and country to make opposition against the said fleet, whereby assured danger appearing of the ruin and destruction of the plantation, for prevention whereof the Burgesses of all the several plantations being called to advise and assist therein, upon long and serious debate, [during which: we must suppose the hostile attitude was continued, ] and in sad contemplation of the great miseries and certain destruction, which were so nearly hovering over this whole. country," &c .- We suppose there might have been also some little danger to the commonwealth's men and ships.
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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 Wil- liam Berkeley was too loyal a subject to be willing to take office under Parliament,-Richard Bennett, one of the commissioners was elected gover- nor. 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 Assem- bly 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 writ- ten constitution as their guide, took upon themselves the office of a con- vention 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 Rappahan- nocks, seems to have been soon terminated. But a new scene in the his- tory 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 ex- cited no little uneasiness, as it had been very difficult to extirpate the In- dians 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 March 31, 1655. his successor. The commissioners of the commonwealth had little to do with controling 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 commission- March 13, 1658. ers 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."t 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
*Burk, vol. 2. 104 -- 106.
tBancroft, v. I. p. 243-quoting II. M. Hist. Coll. v. IX. p. 119.
#Hening, v. I. 497.
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ordinary business ; making however one important change in the consti- tution, 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 ex- pected speedily to finish their business: The house then declared than any member who should depart should be censured as betraying the trust re- posed 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 counnunication from the house, that he was willing that the house would conclude its business speedily; and refer the dispute as to the legality of his power to dissolve, to the de- cision of the Lord Protector. The House unanimously decided this answer to be unsatisfactory ; expressed an earnest desire that public busi- ness might be soon despatched, 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 councillor 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, re- Mar., 1659. cognized bis son Richard and adopted an address praying a confirmation of their former privileges, in which address the governor was required to join, after solemnly acknowleding 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
* Hening, v. I. p. 512.
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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
March, 1660. left England without a head. In this emergency the As- sembly 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 Eng- land as should by the Assembly be adjudged lawful .* Sir William Berke- ley was then elected governor, with the express stipulation that he should eall 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.
During the suspension of the royal government in England, Virginia attained unlimited liberty of commerce, which they regulated by indepen -. dent laws. The ordinance of 1650 was rendered void by the act of capitu- lation ; the navigation act of Cromwell was not designed for her oppres- sion, and was not enforced within her borders. Only one confiscation ap- pears to have taken place, and that was entirely by the authority of the Grand Assembly. The war between England and Holland necessarily interrupted the intercourse of the Dutch with the English colonies; but if after the treaty of peace the trade was considered contraband, the English restrictions were entirely disregarded. Commissioners were sent to Eng- 1655. Jand to undeceive Cromwell with regard to the course Virginia had taken with reference to the boundary of Maryland, with regard to which he had been misinformed ; and to present a remonstrance demand- ing unlimited freedom of trade; which it appears was not refused, for some months before the Protector's death, the Virginians invited the "Dutch and all foreigners " to trade with them on payment of no higher duty, than that which was levied on such English vessels, as were bound for a foreign port. Proposals of peace and commerce between New-Netherlands and Vir- ginia were discussed without scruple by the respective colonial governments; and at last a special statute of Virginia extended to every christian nation, in amity with England, a promise of liberty of trade and equal justice. t.
At the restoration, Virginia enjoyed freedom of commerce with the 1660.
whole world.
. Virginia was the first state in the world, composed of separate town- ships, diffused over an extensive surface, where the government was organ-,
1655. ized 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 unagrec- 1656. able 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 estab- lished upon her soil the supremacy of the popular branch, the freedom of
* Henning, v. I. p. 530.
Ibid. v. T. p. 450. Act XVI.
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HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.
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 con- sent 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 ingnite wealth were indulged ; while the population of Virginia at the epoch of the restoration may have been about thisty thousand. Many of the recent emigrants had been royal- ists 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 there- fore no bitterness could exist between the partizans of the Stuarts and the friends of republican liberty. Virginia had long been the home of its in- habitants-" 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 bird's 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 valu- able; 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 quail and wild turkies, 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 .*
*Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. I. p. 246, 252. In taking leave of this delightful author, whose work has not yet progressed beyond the first volume, we must make an apology for borrowing in this chapter more perhaps than was fair, But our extreme haste, writing against time, whilst the press is in operation and. the printer's devil taking his copy from under our pen before the ink is dry,-must be our apology for using his copious references, and even his language when we 'find it pre-" cisely applicable to our purpose, expressed as it is with more ease and beauty than we could ever attain whatever time might be at our disposal. The use we make of his work, whilst it will be p, great benefit to our readers, cannot be an injury to him, but may be a service in mntking his work known to many who would not otherwise be aware of its merit, or perhaps its existence. We have a very high authority for a much more extensive system of quotation, in the use made by Judge: Marshall of Dr. Robertson's posthumous chapters on Virginia. Our haste must be our apology also for the use of a review of the early legislation of Virginia, from the preface of Hen- ing's Statutes at Large, which we give below. It presents a connected view of seve- ral matters of legislation which we had not time to interweave into the text ; our com- ments upon others, and our reasons for differing from the generally received opinion of their improprietv are given in the text.
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NOTE A.
See p. 585 .- From the settlement of the colony to the death of Charles I. and the com-' mencement of the commonwealth thereupon, an uniformity to the doctrines and dis- cipline of the church of England was strictly enjoined; all non-conforinists were com- pelled to leave the colony, with all convenience ; popish recusants were disabled from holding any office, and their priests not suffered to remain more than five days in the country. During the commonwealth, the affairs of the church were left to the discre- tion of the parishioners, but no sooner did the Quakers, who had fled from the perse- cutions in England, arrive on our shores than they were met by the terrors of an act " for suppressing them ;* masters of vessels were subjected to a penalty of one hundred pounds sterling for each Quaker brought into the colony ; all Quakers were imprison- ed without bail or mainprize, till they found sufficient security to depart the colony: for returning they were directed to be proceeded against as contemners of the laws and magistracy, and punished accordingly ; and if they should come in a third time they were to be prosecuted as felons. All persons were prohibited, under the penalty of one hundred pounds sterling, from entertaining them, or permitting their assen- blies in or near their houses; and no person was permitted to dispose of, or publish, any books or pamphlets containing the tenets of their religion.
It is worthy of observation that a similar principle to that which has obtained in Kentucky with respect to compensation for improvements made upon lands by one inan, the title of which appeared, from investigation, to be in another, existed in a law of Virginia, so long ago as the year 1643, And as this law has never before been published, we can only account for the coincidence, by supposing that mankind, in every age, placed in similar situations, will generally pursue the same course. The act, after reciting that many suits had been commenced, founded on controversies re- lating to land, " to the great trouble and molestation of the whole colony," goes on to declare, that if any man should settle on a tract of land, which, on a just survey, should prove to be the property of another, a valuable consideration should be allowed by the judgment of twelve men upon oath, to the first who seated it, for clearing and improving it; but if the charge should amount to more than the real owner was wil- ling to give, the person in possession was bound to keep the land, and pay the owner what it should be judged by twelve men to be worth, " before the seating thereof ;" and, of course, without regard to the improvements. An exception was made in favor of orphans ; and afterwards a further proviso, that an allowance for " building and clear- ing" should not be made to those who had " lawful warning" of a prior right. About the same period (1643) the assembly passed an act directing that all process against debtors lately arrived from England (except where the debts were contracted for goods purchased in England, or for the accommodation of planters returning to this country, ).should be suspended. This act is introduced by a lengthy preamble, assign- ing reasons which fully satisfied the minds of the legislature as to the policy and even justice of the measure. These laws had an obvious tendency to increase the popula- tion, and promote the improvement of the country; by rendering the persons of many of the inhabitants free from restraint, and by securing to every man the fruits of his labor.
The culture of tobacco seems to have been a favorite object with the first settlers, and was the only staple commodity to which they could be induced to turn their at- tention. In order to improve its quality various laws were passed limiting the num- - ber of plants to be cultivated by each hand, and the leaves to be gathered from a plant. Other details in the process of making it, were also prescribed by the legisla- ture; and to insure a just compensation for the labor of the planter, the price at which it was to be sold was fixed by the assembly, at different times. The first idea of in- specting tobacco is contained in an act passed in 1630, before any warehouses were established. The process was very simple, and the penalty for offering unmerchant-
* It will be seen by reference to the preamble of this act, that these people were not persecuted for religions opinion, but improper conduct "Whereas there is an vnreason- able and turbulent sort of people, commonly called Quakers, who contrary to the law do dayly gather together vnto them vnlaw'll Assemblies and congregations of people teaching and publishing, lies, miracles, false visions, prophecies and doctrines, which have influence vpon the communities of men both ecclesiasticall and civil endeavouring and attempting thereby to destroy religion, lawes, comunities and all bonds of civil societie, leaveing it arbitrarie to everie vaine and vitions person whether men shall be safe, lawes established, offenders punished, and Governours tule, hereby disturbing the publique peace and just interest, to prevent and restramme which mischiefe, It is enacted, q.c."-ED. Gaz.
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able tobacco in payment equally severe. If u planter offered to pay away, or barter any bad tobacco, the commander of the plantation (an officer who united with the powers of a justice of the peace, the supreme military command of the settlement) with two or three discreet men, were directed to view it, and if found of bad quality, to cause it to be burnt; and the owner was prohibited from planting any more tobacco until authorized by the General Assembly. At the next session the law was amended so as to make it the duty of the commander to issue his order either verbally or in writing to two " sufficient men" to view the tobacco, who were, in like manner, to burn it, if of bad quality. The same law was re-enacted in the revisal of 1632. In 1633, warehouses (then called storehouses) were established, and the inspectors were to be composed of that member of the king's council, whose residence was nearest any warehouse, and the commissioners of the several plantations, as assistants.
To prevent the recurrence of a scarcity of corn, which had been severely felt in the colony, each master of a family was compelled to plant and sufficiently- tend, two acres a head, for each laboring person in his family ; and as an encouragement to cul- tivate that article, the price was not to be limited, but every planter might sell it as dear as he could. Nor does it appear that the legislature ever interfered with the exportation of corn, or restricted the price, except in times of pressing want. In the year 1630, the contents of a barrel of corn were fixed at five bushels, Winchester measure, and has so continued to the present day.
Various and severe laws were very early enacted against forestalling and ingross- ing imported articles, but their inefficacy having been experienced, they were all re- pealed and a free trade allowed.
The administration of justice, in Virginia, was originally extremely cheap, and simple in its details. Commanders of plantations held monthly courts for the trial of civil actions, not exceeding the value of one hundred pounds of tobacco, and for the punishunent of petty offences, reserving the right of appeal to the quarter court held by the governor and council, which possessed the supreme judicial power, under the different charters, and had original jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever. Commis- sioners of monthly courts succeeded to commanders of plantations, with the like juris- diction in civil cases; which was afterwards extended to five pounds sterling. The ; jurisdiction of the court was further extended to sixteen hundred pounds of tobacco, and they were to be called county instead of monthly courts; and that of a single ina- gistrate was final as far as twenty shillings sterling. In consequence of the great dis- tance of many of the counties from James City, where the quarter courts were held, jurisdiction was finally given to the county courts, in all cases of law and equity, and the trial by jury secured to those who desired it. The decision of the county court was, at first, final as far as sixteen hundred pounds of tobacco, and for all sums above that an appeal was allowed to the quarter court, and from thence to the assembly ; which afterwards had jurisdiction of appeals in all cases, of whatever amount. Be- sides the general jurisdiction of the county and quarter courts, special provision was made for certain counties and settlements where it was considered too inconvenient to the people to attend at the usual place of holding courts. The leading principle seems to liave been to carry justice to the doors of the inhabitants. Thus, the county court of Northampton, " on account of its remoteness from James City," had final juris- diction as far as three thousand two hundred pounds of tobacco; one commissioner on the South side of the river in James City county, was vested with the powers of a county court ; the inhabitants of Appamattock or Bristol parish, were also authorised to hold courts, with the right of appeal to Henrico or Charles City county courts. Two courts were permitted to be held in Northampton ; two in Isle of Wight; and two in Charles City. As the population of the county increased, and new counties were formed, these special courts were abolished,
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