USA > Washington DC > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 38
USA > Virginia > Eminent and representative men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the nineteenth century. With a concise historical sketch of Virginia > Part 38
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of the growth of towns, as the planters lived in great comfort, and often in own workmen; he wove into cloth the elegance, on their plantations, and felt no wool from his own sheep, and the cotton desire to exchange plantation for city life. from his own patch; he made his shoes It was by the cultivation of this plant, too, out of his own leather. He managed his various estates with that masterly skill with which a general superintends his own stithy; he built his houses with his that slavery became fixed on the colony - an institution which was most potent in shaping the history of Virginia. The army, or a statesman the interests of a slaves were cheap labor in the cultivation community committed to his charge." of the soil, and were brought to the The institution of slavery was a most colony in such numbers, that, with their potent factor in the development of Vir- natural increase, they became nearly half ginia character. That it had its evils none of the population in the eighteenth cent- will deny, but that those evils were ex- aggerated in the minds of persons unac- customed to the institution is equally true. As regards the African race, there is little to lament in comparison with the ury. Their use in different kinds of manual labor induced the whites to hold themselves aloof from it; and as it came to pass that nearly every white man owned one or more slaves, the whites great benefits which slavery, in the devoted themselves to superintending their own slaves or those of the larger planters.
The custom of entailing estates kept up the large plantations, and their owners soon developed into representatives of the ancient barons of England. To a large degree they lived independent of the world around them, producing on
southern colonies, conferred upon it. From a state of barbarism, it raised the race to a state of civilization to which no other savage people have ever attained in so short a time. Indeed, to such a high point of intelligence and civilization had the African attained in slavery, that, as a freed man, at the end of the late war he was deemed by the national govern-
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ment worthy of all the rights of American liberal. I do not mean to commend the citizenship, including the right of suffrage, superior morality of this sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it, but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is so, and those people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than those northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths, such our Gothic ancestors, such in our days were the Poles; and such will be all masters of slaves who are not slaves themselves. In such a people the haughtiness of domina- tion combines with the spirit of freedom fortifies it, and renders it invincible." which enabled him to assist in the solu- tion of great political problems. He was thus voted as superior to the American Indian, and to the inhabitants of that most ancient of kingdoms, the Celestial empire of China. It needs but a com- parison of the emancipated blacks of the south with the nations of Africa, froin whence they were taken, to estimate the great blessing which southern slavery has been to the race. The effects of slavery upon the masters was marked. The whites became accustomed to command, and while they treated and cared for the inferior race as property, the relation of master and slave brought out some of the finest qualities in the character of the owners. There were developed in them an elevated spirit, and a true courtesy to all classes, and they became noted for that independence of character and love of freedom which has always characterized rulers, whether in kingdoms or on planta- tions. That profoundly philosophical statesman, Edmund Burke, in his speech on conciliation with America, delivered March 22, 1775, remarked upon the spirit of liberty developed in the masters of slaves in these words: "In Virginia and the Carolinas, they have vast multitudes of slaves. When this is the case in any part of the world, those who are free are by far most proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege - not seeing there. that free-
The institution of slavery had a marked effect on the women of Virginia. By it they were exempt from the menial duties of life, and in their country homes they devoted themselves to the management of their households and the cultivation of their minds and manners. By reason of this the name, " Virginia matron," became a synonym of all that was refined in manners, and pure and lovely in charac- ter. It is a great mistake to suppose that the Virginia matron led an idle or useless life. While her duties were not menial, they were nevertheless ample to occupy her whole time. As a mistress of a plan- tation, she had the care of much that only a woman can attend to. To feed, to clothe, to teach, to guide, to comfort, to nurse, to provide for and to watch over a great household, and keep its complex machinery in noiseless order -those were the duties which devolved on her, dom, as in countries where it is a common and which she performed to the admira- blessing, and as broad and general as the tion of all who came in contact with Vir- air, may be united with much abject toil, ginia life. The mild climate in which with great misery, with all the exterior of they lived developed in the Virginia servitude, liberty looks amongst them women a beauty of person commensurate like something that is more noble and with their lovliness of character, and
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these two conspired to stimulate the of the court. No pay was attached to chivalrous regard in which they were held by the men. This regard was in- dicated in the courteous bearing of the men towards them. The Virginian in- deed became courteous to all, and his bearing in life came to be described in the two words, " Virginia gentleman."
But it must be confessed that slavery was a great source of weakness. The African slave was not a very intelligent laborer, but was generally a mere autom- aton, content with his situation in life, and devoid of all ambition. The exist- ence upon the same soil of two races, one vastly inferior to the other, and of the race prejudice with which the inferior was regarded, prevented that homogeniety of population which is so conducive to civil prosperity. The result was that the free states outstripped their southern neigh- bors in wealth and population, and Vir- ginia, from having occupied the first place in the Union during the eighteenth century, in a few years was relegated to the second, and then to the third, and has been continually receding from the front rank.
The county organization of the colony was based upon the shire system of Eng- land, and followed it closely. It was a microcosm of the state. The county lieutenant, its chief officer, was vested with executive power, and had command of the militia. He was selected from the upper class, known as "gentlemen." The county court exercised judicial functions, and was composed of justices of the peace, who were selected from the men of the highest character and intelli- gence in the county, and held office for life. It was a self-perpetuating body, acted; while county men, living at a dis- vacancies being filled by appointment of tance from each other, met and formed the governor upon the recommendation acquaintances, and entered into business
the office of justice, except the possibility that the incumbent might become the sheriff of the county for a limited time, which last office was filled from the justices in the order of their commissions. The office of justice, thus being a highly honorable one, was filled by the best men in the county. The influence of the in -. cumbents was very great. They resided in different parts of the county, and thus each neighborhood was supplied with an officer. They were the advisers of the people, the composers of their difficulties. as well as the judges in their petty litiga- tions. Naturally they came to be re- garded with the greatest respect, and to be looked up to as examples of purity and intelligence, to be imitated by their fellow-citizens. Thus their influence was most elevating in its tendency. To this class Virginia was chiefly indebted for the high character of her people. Indeed, most of the Virginians who were distin- guished in the Revolutionary period were, or had been, justices of the peace.
While the sheriffalty was in their hands defaults in the disposition of the revenue collected were almost unknown. The courts in which they sat had their juris- diction enlarged from time to time till it became very extensive. They also laid the county levy and passed on the claims to be paid out of it. These courts, unlike their English originals, were held at the several county seats, and during most of their history were monthly. The monthly county courts were important factors in Virginia life. At them there was always a large gathering from different parts of the county, and much business was trans-
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relations. Candidates for office elective political information was thus diffused by the people attended, and they were re- among the people, and their interest in- creased in public affairs." quired to set forth their claims in public speeches, and to debate with their op-
The distinguished lawyer and states- ponents. This contributed to the cultiva- man, Benjamin Watkins Leigh, followed tion of public speaking, and by these Mr. Barbour, and said: "The eulogium public debates the ordinary citizen was pronounced by the learned gentleman instructed in the questions of the day. froin Orange is perfectly just, in declaring In these tribunals the lawyers of Virginia were trained, and this training equipped that these tribunals are not merely good, but the best on earth." He further de- for the higher walks of professional life clared that only two charges of corrup- the great lawyers and judges that Vir- tion had been brought against Virginia ginia furnished before, during, and after justices during the existence of the office the Revolution-such men as Edmund Pendleton, Peter Lyons, St. George Tucker, Spencer Roane and John Mar- shall.
for two hundred years. Judge John Mar- shall joined in the praises of this venera- ble body of public servants, and added, "I am not in the habit of bestowing ex- travagant eulogies upon my countrymen. I would rather hear them pronounced by others; but it is a truth, that no state in the Union has hitherto enjoyed more com- plete internal quiet than this common- wealth, and I believe most firmly that this state of things is mainly to be as- cribed to the practical operation of our county courts. The magistrates who compose those courts consist in general of the best men in their respective coun- ties; they act in the spirit of peacemak- ers, and allay rather than excite the small times arise among neighbors. It is cer- tainly much owing to this, that so much harmony prevails amongst us. These courts must be preserved."
When, in the convention of 1829, it was sought to change the system, there was a united protest from a number of the ablest men in that body. The accom- plished P. P. Barbour, who afterward sat in the supreme court of the United States, said: "After a twenty-five-year acquaint- ance with the county courts of Virginia, it is my conscientious opinion that there is not, and never has been, a tribunal under the sun where more substantial practical justice is administered. The idea was suggested to me fifteen years ago by one of the most distinguished men we had disputes and differences which will some- among us, who declared it to me, as his belief, that the county courts of Virginia exerted an important political influence on her population; the monthly meeting of neighbors and of professional men caused the people to mingle and associate more than they otherwise would do, and
In front of the court, when in session, sat the clerk, always an accomplished of- ficer. He held his office by appointment produced a discussion of topics of public of the court, and during good behavior. interest in regard to the administration of The interests of the community at large were closely connected with the responsi- bilities of his office. He was the keeper of the records of the court, and of the government and the politics of the com- munity. These meetings, perpetually re- curring in all the counties of the state, constitute so many points from which muniments of title to the lands of the
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county. His fellow-countrymen sought with their sons render them a comfort- him for information on many subjects, able subsistence. These schools have and he became the legal adviser of the been founded by legacies of well-inclined ordinary citizen. The office was often gentlemen, and the management of them retained in families for generations, and hath commonly been left to the discretion the incumbents were, as a class, as admir- of the county court, or to the vestry of able as any country ever possessed. Be-
the respective parishes. In all other sides these officers there were sheriffs, places where such endowments have not coroners, constables, and surveyors, of whom I need but make mention.
The colony was laid off into parishes in order to accommodate the affairs of the established church. These were man- aged through vestries, which laid levies for the purchase of glebes, the building and repairing of churches, and the sup- port of the ministers and of the poor. The members of the vestries were also men selected from the best class in the community by the parishes, and were generally prominent members of the church. This county organization was a practical training of the people in local self-government, and this principle, so important in our form of government, was one to which Virginians have been ever attached.
In a new country with a sparse popula- tion the advantages of education were of necessity very limited. The children were taught by their parents, or not at all. But as the country filled up, and the people became prosperous, they became more anxious to educate their children, and schools were multiplied. The his- torian, Beverly, in describing the state of the colony in 1720, says: "There are large tracts of land, houses and other things, granted to form schools for the education of children in many parts of the country; and some of these are so large that of themselves they are a handsome maintenance to a master, but the addi- tional allowances which gentlemen give
been already made, the people join and build schools for their children, where they learn upon easy terms." These last being often situated in worn out fields, acquired the name of "old-field schools." They furnished the education, of the average Virginian, male and female, in colonial days. That education, which has been facetiously styled the three " R's," " read- ing, writing and arithmetic," was very general. This is proved by the ancient records, preserved in some of the coun- ties, which show that of those who came for marriage licenses, the number who could not write their names was small.
As early as 1660 the assembly moved for a college in which the higher branches of education were to be taught. But the scheme only took practical shape when, in 1692, the English sovereigns, William and Mary, endowed the college which has ever since borne their names. The in- fluence of this institution for good upon the colony and the state of Virginia has been incalculable. When its halls were opened the necessity of sending Virginian youths to England to acquire the higher education no longer existed, and most of the leaders of thought in the colony thereafter had the advantage of early training in the capital of the colony. This intensified the peculiar characteris- tics of Virginia society. The college trained and gave to the world, during the Revolutionary period, a host of statesmen whose names are indelibly impressed on
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the page of American history. Had it |journey. If there happen to be a churl, numbered among its alumni only that either out of covetousness, or ill nature, won't comply with this generous custom, he has the mark of infamy set upon him, and is abhorred by all." Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall, it would have laid America under lasting obligation. But beside these towering figures, we recognize, on her roll, Benjamin Harrison, Carter Brax- ton, Thomas Nelson, and George Wythe, all signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence; Peyton Randolph, president of the first continental congress, James Monroe, president of the United States, and a host of others whose names are interwoven with the history of their coun- try. Nor must it be forgotten that by charging the college with the examination and commission of land surveyors, it was made a part of governmental machinery; and that, in giving his first commission to George Washington, it was instrumental in training the father of his country for the great part he bore in the affairs of America.
One characteristic of Virginians should not be overlooked in any account of them; it is the hospitality for which they are proverbial. The historian Beverly, writ- ing of the colony in 1705, says: "The in- habitants are very courteous to travelers, who need no other recommendation but their being human creatures. A stranger has no more to do, but to enquire upon the road where any good gentleman or housekeeper lives, and there he may de- pend upon being received with hospitality. This good nature is so general among their people, that the gentry, when they go abroad, order their principal servant to entertain all visitors with everything the plantation affords. And the poor planters, who have but one bed, will very often sit up, or lie upon a form or couch all night, to make room for a weary traveler to repose himself after his |one colony should be considered an attack
Such in brief were the influences which formed the Virginia of the Revolutionary period, and constituted her the leader in that memorable struggle. Her popula- tion consisting then of about 400,000, nearly half of which were slaves, but her 200,000 white men were equal in intelli- gence and patriotism to any community of which history has made record, and among them were found a galaxy of great and pure men, which has never been surpassed by any other state at any one period. In all the measures which entered into that important movement Virginia was undoubtedly the leader. On the 29th of May, 1765, her house of bur- gesses adopted the famous resolutions of Patrick Henry, which claimed for the general assembly the exclusive right and power to lay taxes and imposts upon the in- habitants of the colony and denounced the stamp act, which had just been passed by parliament, as "illegal, unconstitutional and unjust, and having a manifest tend- dency to destroy British as well as Amer- ican liberty." The publication of these resolutions stirred the colonies to a resist- ance which caused the repeal of the ob- noxious act, and they are recognized as the beginning of the American revolution. When afterward, in 1768, parliament sin- gled out Massachusetts for punishment, because of her circular letter maintaining the rights of the colonies and asking for the repeal of certain oppressive acts of parliament, Virginia led the way, in 1769, in inducing the other colonies to stand by her, and in declaring that an attack upon
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upon all. Her resolutions upon this oc- casion, and her address to the king, have received the unstinted encomium of the historian, Bancroft, who says of them: "They were calm in manner, concise, sim- ple, effective; so perfect in substance and in form, that time finds no omission to regret, no improvement to suggest." The action of Virginia, upon this occasion, may be considered as giving the first decided impulse to the American union which was afterward formed. The British min- istry continued their irritating measures, and on the 12th of March, 1773, the house of burgesses proposed committees of cor- respondence in the several colonies for the purpose of uniting them in their counsels, and in their resistance to the oppressive measures of the mother country. Virginia thus took another important step toward union. When, later on, the administration occupied Boston with an armed force, and closed her port, the Virginia house of burgesses, at their May session, 1774, ex- pressed their sympathy with the devoted city, and urged upon the colonies the meeting of an annual general congress, to deliberate on the general measures which the united interests of America might from time to time require, and at the same time proposed to break off all commercial intercourse with Great Britian until she ceased to urge the right to tax the colonies without their consent. This action led to the continental congress of 1774, to which Virginia sent, as her dele- gates, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry and so high their bearing that Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania pronounced the Bostonians mere " milksops " in compari- son, a remark which, while it was un- just to the Massachusetts delegated yet indicated the high estimate places, upon the Virginians. In March, 1775, the Virginia convention determined to arm the colony for the impending conflict, and early in May following the first armed re- sistance to the British government in the colony was made by Patrick Henry, who led volunteers from Hanover and other counties against Governor Dunmore, and forced him to pay for the gunpowder which he had secretly taken from the magazine of the colony at Williamsburg. The congress that met in 1775 appointed George Washington to be "commander- in-chief of all the continental forces raised or to be raised in defense of Amer- ican liberty," and entered upon the Rev- olutionary war in earnest. The Virginia convention which met in May, 1776, de- clared the independence of Virginia, and directed her delegates in congress to move that body to declare the united col- onies free and independent states, and to take measures for forming foreign alli- ances and a confederation of the states. Richard Henry Lee made the motion in congress on the 7th day of June, 1776, and the world renowned declaration, drawn by Thomas Jefferson, was adopted July 4, 1776. The Virginia convention, after declaring independence, entered upon the task of framing a bill of rights Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, and a written constitution for the state. Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison and The bill of rights which was framed is Edmund Pendleton. The journal of that justly regarded as the most complete congress, and contemporary correspond- statement of the political rights of man- ence, established the fact that the Virginia kind which has ever been given to the delegates controlled the proceedings of world. Magna Charter secured important that body. So great were their talents liberties and privileges to the clergy,
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barons and free men of England, but as first effort of a people to limit by a writ- to the most numerous part of the popu- ten constitution the exercise of their sov- ereign powers, placing it beyond the lation, styled " villeins or rustics," it only provided that they shall not " by any fine power of the legislature to alter its terms be bereaved of their carts, ploughs and in any particular. It was framed by a implements of husbandry." The bill of convention representing the sovereignty rights of 1689, adopted upon the accession of William and Mary, was the most com- plete statement of the principles of free government ever attempted up to that time. It was drawn by the great Lord Somers, and embodied all that was of permanent value in the petition of right of 1628, written by Sir Edward Coke. The Virginia bill of rights, first drafted by George Mason, a Virginia planter, con-
of the people, and could only be changed by a like exercise of sovereign power. It was made the supreme law of the state, and all officers of the state were made to swear obedience to it. It followed that, when an act of the legislature was deemed inconsistent with it, the courts were required to obey the constitution, and to treat the act of assembly as null and void. This has become a vital prin- tained all that was of value in these cele- ciple in all American governments.
brated papers and much more, and, as a Virginia was not only the leader in the summary of the rights of man, and of the political movements in the Revolution,
principles of free government, will ever stand without a rival. Its most important sections declare the equal right of all men by nature to freedom and independ- ence, the foundation on which rests free institutions, and their inalienable right to enjoy life, liberty, property, and happi- ness; that all power is vested in, and de- rived from, the people; the right of the majority to control; the necessity of the separation of the judicial, the executive and legislative departments of govern- ment; the freedom of elections, and of the press, and the right of conscience in the matter of religion, uncontrolled by the civil power. Upon these great prin- ciples rest the republican institutions of America.
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