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 39
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 39
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but she furnished to the continental forces their great commander, and many of their bravest and most brilliant officers, and her soldiers were found on every bat- tle field fought by regular troops. When the seat of war was transferred to the south the burden of it was carried on her broad shoulders, and the great victory at Yorktown, which virtually closed the war, was upon her soil, and within a few miles of Williamsburg, her ancient capital, where, in 1765, the first note of defiance to the king and parliament was uttered. At the close of the Revolution, Virginia adopted efficient measures to meet the exigencies of her new situation. Her refugees were invited to return, her ports were thrown open to the commerce of the world, and she was among the fore- most of the states in meeting her own obligations and her proportion of the con- tinental debt incurred during the war. The waters of the Chesapeake, her great bay, washed not only her own shores but
The constitution framed for the new state was drafted by the same master hand, and was admirably suited to the preservation of the freedom claimed for the people. It was adopted, and the state officers were elected, before con- gress declared independence. It was the those of Maryland as well, and it was her
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SKETCH OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.
efforts to regulate the commerce which | dred miles north and two hundred passed over it which led step by step to the calling of the Philadelphia convention of 1787, which framed the Federal con- stitution. Of her delegates in that con- vention, George Washington, James Madison, George Mason and Edmund Randolph were the most efficient in framing that wonderful instrument, and it was at the mandate of her convention, which adopted the instrument, that James Madison moved, on the floor of congress, and carried the first ten amendments which have been so efficient in preventing the encroachments of the Federal govern- ment upon the rights of the citizens and of the states. Her Washington was selected unanimously as the first execu- tive of the newly formed government. It was to his strong intellect and broad pa- triotism that we are indebted for the safe launching of the new ship of state, in which was carried the future of the great republic. For many years Virginia had the direction of the Federal government. Of the first five presidents, four were Virginians, who served thirty-two out of the first thirty-six years of its existence. She furnished John Marshall, the great chief-justice, who presided over the supreme court of the United States from 1801 to 1835, and during that period pro- nounced opinions upon questions of first impression arising under the Federal constitution, which fixed its meaning and gave direction to the future history of the country.
miles south along the coast, and west and northwest throughout the continent to the Pacific ocean, with all the islands within one hundred miles of her coasts. Her limits north and south were reduced afterward by royal grants, which carved out of her, Maryland, North Carolina, and parts of Pennsylvania and South Carolina. By the treaty of 1763, be- tween England and France, the Mis- sissippi river was fixed as her western boundary. She claimed in her constitu- tution of 1776 her charter limits, except as thus modified, and maintained them by force of arms. Her statesmen after. ward extended the boundaries of the United States across the continent and southward. At the beginning of the Revolution, Great Britian occupied the country west and north of the Ohio river. Under the commission of Governor Henry in January, 1778, Col. George Rogers Clarke, led an expedition which drove the English from her northwestern territory between the Ohio and the lakes. This she afterward most gener- ously ceded to the United States for the purpose of aiding in the Revolutionary war. Out of it five flourishing states have been carved. During the adminis- tration of Mr. Jefferson, as president of the United States, he effected the pur- chase of the vast territory known as Louisiana, by which the western boundary of the United States was easily extended to the Pacific ocean. During the adminis- tration of President Monroe, Spain ceded to the United States her possessions upon the gulf, known as East and West Florida. During the administration of President Tyler, the annexation of Texas was ac- complished. It is to President Monroe
The extension of the United States has been the result of Virginia's states- manship. She has been truly the mother of states, as well as of statesmen. By her second charter, granted May 23, 1609, by King James I, her territory extended from Point Comfort two hun- that the country is indebted for the first
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clear enunciation of what has since been'most important of the changes made. known as the " Monroe Doctrine," which This constitution lasted ,until 1851, by has contributed so much to the peace and which time the popular demand for an prosperity of America. By this doctrine, extension of civil rights had become too the United States have made known to strong to be disregarded. The constitu- the world that European powers will not tion adopted during that year extended be permitted to plant colonies in America, the right of suffrage to all white male nor to interfere with the American govern- citizens twenty-one years old, resident of ments which have declared their inde- the statefor two years and of their county pendence and have been acknowledged or town one year. The number of dele- by the United States; and thus we see that gates was increased from 134 to 152, and it has been through Virginians that the the senators from thirty-two to fifty, and great republic has been enabled to the governor, judges, justices and other stretch trom the Atlantic to the Pacific, county officers were elected by the people. and to prevent European powers from in- This constitution continued in force, with terference with republican principles in the new world.
some slight amendment by the convention of 1861, until the present constitution was
The constitution that was framed for framed by the convention which as- Virginia in 1776 was an experiment. The sembled on the 3d day of December, 1867. capacity of men for self-government had This body was composed mainly of emancipated negroes, and that floating population of whites which came into the state from the north after the then recent war, and were familiarly known as "car- pet-baggers."
not been clearly demonstrated, and the right of suffrage was confined to free- holders who were deemed to have per- manent interests in the state. The govern- or and most of the state officers were elected by the legislature, which was com-
By the constitution they framed the posed in its lower house of two delegates right of suffrage, as provided in the con- from each county. This constitution stitution of 1851, was extended to the lasted until the year 1830. During its ex- freedmen. The election of governor and istence Virginia may be said to have lieutenant-governor was left with the experienced her golden age. In the people, but the election of the other state meanwhile, the state had grown in popu- officers and of the judges was given to lation and wealth, and the large counties the legislature. The county courts were no longer to be held by justices, but by in the valley and to the westward de- manded more power in the legislative judges. The township system was intro- councils of the state. This was accorded duced into the counties, and a great in- them by a new constitution by which the crease of offices added to the burdens of several counties were no longer allowed an impoverished people. Happily this two representatives each, regardless of system was discarded in many of its fea- their size. The right of suffrage was not tures by a subsequent amendment. A only vested in freeholders and lease- liberal plan of public education was pro- holders, but also in housekeepers and vided, and by it the property-holders have heads of families who had paid their been heavily taxed for the maintenance taxes. These may be considered the of schools, at which the children of freed-
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men, as well as the children of their for- mer masters, have been taught, but in separate schools. These various changes in the organic law of the state have been the effect of new ideas which have taken root in the commonwealth, and which . have seriously affected its history.
The adoption of the Federal constitu- tion, whereby a majority of congress en- acted Federal laws, and under which the policy of protection to manufactories was adopted, soon gave the control of Federal affairs to a northern majority. That majority, of course, used their power for the aggrandizement of their section, while Virginia, kept as an agricultural state by reason of African slavery, soon lost her influence as the leading state in the republic, and was forced to take a secondary position and yield to the ma- terial prosperity of the more northern states. She continued to have statesmen, but they ceased to exercise that com- manding influence in the Federal govern- ment that was her wont. Her people were eminently conservative both in poli- tics and religion, and yielded but little to the many isms which pervaded other com- munities and which too often ran into fanaticism. The most aggressive of these was abolitionism.
the states of New England, South Caro- lina and Georgia, the slave trade was permitted for twenty years; and, as re- muneration for this concession to these two cotton states, congress was permitted by a bare majority, instead of a two- thirds vote as first agreed upon, to enact laws regulating navigation and com- merce, thus putting the southern agricul- tural states under the complete control of the northern majority, and enabling the northern states to grow rich at the ex- pense of the south. The Federal con- stitution also recognized the existence of slavery in the protection afforded to the masters against those who might harbor runaway slaves in the free states. This and the right to control their own domes- tic affairs reserved by the states was deemed a sufficient protection to their slave property. About the middle of the present century, however, a party sprang up in the north whose professed object was the abolition of slavery in the United States. As this party grew in strength it excited the bitterest feelings between the north and the south. On the 16th of October, 1859, John Brown of Kansas, with twenty-two confederates, seventeen white and five colored, gained possession of the United States arsenal at Harper's movement for the forcible emancipation operations by seizing several slave-hold- ers in the vicinity. Brown and his gang were soon captured, and he and six others were tried, condemned and executed for treason and murder. His attempt spread
Slavery had been fixed upon Virginia Ferry, and attempted to inaugurate a at an early period of her history. She had, almost from the first, protested of the slaves in Virginia. He commenced against any increase in the number of her slaves by direct importation, and had passed many acts intended for the prevention of the slave trade; but the sov- ereigns of England had invariably vetoed these acts, and thus her slave population alarm throughout the southern states, as had grown at an alarming rate. Upon it indicated the temper of the abolition the formation of the Federal constitution movement. When a few months later in 1787, against her earnest protest, and Mr. Lincoln was elected president of the United States by the freesoil party, the as the result of a combination between
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ton states.
alarm became more intense, and led to her households had not members in the the secession from the Union of the cot- field, and very few indeed were not called upon to mourn loved ones, who died on the battle field, or in the hospital. Her fairest fields were trampled by the foot of the invader, and many of her people were driven wanderers from their homes. For four years the fiery hail of war beat upon her bosom, until the southern cause, so bravely upheld by her people, sank from sheer exhaustion. The last scene in the bloody drama was enacted on her soil at Appomattox.
On the 13th of February, 1861, a con- vention met in Richmond, composed of the ablest men in Virginia, elected for the purpose of deciding what course the state should take in the then critical con- dition of affairs. The body was decidedly opposed to the secession of the state from the Federal union, but upon the failure of the peace conference held at Wash- ington, the subsequent attack upon Fort Sumter, and the call by President Lin- coln for Virginia troops to aid in the sub- jugation of seceded states, the convention
But the heroism of her people was not exhibited in war alone; it was shown in the bravery with which they met and over- passed the ordinance of secession, and came the unprecedented trials which fol- Virginia threw in her lot with her south- lowed the conflict. During the struggle, ern sisters, with a full knowledge that she about one-third of her territory was vio-
would have to bear the brunt of the civil lently torn from her by Federal power, and organized into the new state of West Virginia. Her fields were devastated by the contending armies, and when peace came it found her people bankrupt, and vast armies which engaged in this, the having to face the problem of a large number of slaves invested, by the require- ments of the Federal government, with the full rights of citizenship. But her people set themselves bravely to the work of restoring their fallen fortunes. New and more profitable products were sought by her farmers. New industries stimu- lated the growth of her cities, while her mountains were forced to yield to the miner's pick mineral wealth hitherto war upon which the states had entered. Richmond became the capital of the south- ern confederacy, and Virginia the great battle field on which mostly contended the greatest of civil wars. If any one had supposed that Virginia had lost her su- premacy in the councils of the Union by reason of the degeneracy of her people, her record in the war between the states would have surely undeceived him. She furnished to the southern army its great- est generals in her Lee, her Johnston, and her Jackson, and a number of division commanders, of but little less military genius. Her soldiery were not only un- unknown. The struggle to save her surpassed in that terrific struggle, but they honor in the settlement of the large have never been surpassed by any of debt which was due by the state at the which history has given us record. Her end of the war, has greatly controlled population submitted cheerfully to every her state politics. Happily the state has now come to a settlement with her credit- hardship which was necessary for the sup- port of the army in the field. In meeting ors. Like her sister states of the south, she found at the close of the war that the these sacrifices none were braver or more cheerful than her women. Few if any of exercise of political power by the freed-
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men and their leaders, the carpet-baggers, | meant the deterioration, if not the de- struction, of the Anglo-Saxon civilization which had hitherto been her glory. The supremacy of the white race, therefore, which constitutes a large majority of her population, has been the controlling ob- ject in her politics. It has become cus- tomary to speak of the remarkable recuperation of the southern people since the Civil war, as indicating a new south, but this is far from being accurate. As of her sister southern states, so it may be said of Virginia, that her condition to-day does not indicate a new people, but the capacity of the vigorous race that live within her borders to adapt themselves to the new order of things, thrust upon them as the results of the war.
Virginia has afforded abundant oppor- tunity to her sons for the acquirement of higher education. The several christian denominations have their high schools, colleges and seminaries, while the univer- sity of Virginia, the conception of Thomas Jefferson, and the child of his old age, has crowned the educational system of the state. Within her walls were first realized three great educational ideas: separate schools for each branch of learning, the elective system for the stu- dents, and a college government based upon their sense of honor. Under the able professors that have filled her chairs she may be said to have given direction to southern education. Her halls have been filled with students from every southern state, and her graduates have given tone to the communities in which they have lived. Many have become
teachers upon the university methods, and they have made their calling one of the most honorable in the land. In legis- lative halls, in medicine, at the bar, on the bench, in the pulpit, indeed in all the cultured callings of life, her graduates have done her honor, and have con- trolled the destinies of their states.
It is a remarkable fact that throughout the south, the west, the northwest, and as far north as New York, one meets with many Virginians born within the state, and many more whose parents emigrated from her borders; and these invariably show Virginian traits, and many of them are the foremost men in their communi- ties.
In 1790, when the first census was taken under the Federal constitution, Virginia had a population of 747,610. In 1860 this had increased to 1,596,318. During the next decade the state of West Virginia was carved out of her territory, reducing her population by more than 400,000, but by the census of 1890 she had more than regained her loss, and her population was 1,655,980. After all the divisions of her territory, she still has an area of 42,450 square miles. Let us cherish the hope that this may never again be reduced. When she first entered the Union she had but twelve sister states. Since then thirty- one new states have been added, and the republic has stretched across the conti- nent, and acquired the large territory of Alaska, reaching to Behring straits. The dream of Raleigh has been more than realized. The English nation planted at Jamestown in 1607 now possess the land.
PERSONAL SKETCHES.
ARTHUR L. ADAMSON,
banker, was born in Stockton, Durham county, England, May 29, 1856. He was educated in his native country and came to America in July, 1873, locating first in Wakefield, Kansas. In October of the same year he came eastward to Lunen- berg county, Va., and engaged in farming. A year later he removed to Nottoway county, Va., where he farmed for another year. In 1875 he removed to Chester- field county, where he farmed until 1882. He located in that year at Manchester, where he engaged in the real estate busi- ness with John P. Sampson as a partner, the firm name being Sampson & Adam- son. This connection existed until 1888, since when Mr. Adamson has conducted the real estate business by himself. He has also done an insurance business in REV. GEORGE DODD ARMSTRONG connection with his real estate affairs. In April, 1889, he organized the Me- chanics & Merchants' Bank of Manchester, of which he has since been president. Its capital stock when organized was $25,- 000, which was increased to $50,000 in April, 1891. The bank has been very prosperous, thus far. During the first year of its existence it paid six per cent dividend, and during the second year eight per cent, and beside this in the two years it added $3,000 to its surplus. Mr. Adamson is president of the Leader Publishing company of Manchester, is a director in the Manchester Tobacco com- pany, the Manchester Transparent Ice |Slavery, the Theology of Christian Ex-
company, the West Manchester Land company, the Mason Park Land com- pany, the Manchester Land company and the Richmond & Manchester Land com- pany. He is a trustee of the Virginia Building & Loan company and of the Building, Loan & Trust company of Manchester. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of the Ma- sonic order, of the Royal Arcanum and of the American Legion of Honor. Mr. Adamson was married, in 18So, to Miss Sarah Barningham of Manchester, Eng- land, and they have two sons and two daughters. He has made several visits to his native land, having crossed the Atlantic seven times. The marriage ceremonies took place in Manchester, England.
was born in Mendham, N. J., September 15, 1813, and graduated from Princetown in 1832, and from the Union Theological seminary in Prince Edward county, Va., in 1837. In 1838 he was made professor of general and agricultural chemistry and geology in Washington college, now Washington and Lee university, at Lexington, Va. He re- ceived the degree of D. D. from William and Mary college in 1858 and that of LL. D. from Washington and Lee university in 1886. The books of which he is the author are the Doctrine of of Baptism, the Christian Doctrine of
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PERSONAL SKETCHES - STATE OF VIRGINIA.
perience, the Sacraments of the New |Trenton., N. J., afterward from 1824 to Testament, the Books of Nature and Revelation Collated. In 1851 he became pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Norfolk, and in 1891, after a pastorate of forty years, resigned his charge, and is
1834 pastor of the old First Presbyterian church in Richmond. He was lost in the wreck of the Atlantic, in Long Island Sound, in 1846; Jane, deceased wife of Rev. Albert Pearson (deceased); Sarah now pastor-emeritus of that church. Dr. N., deceased wife of Hugh FitzRandolph, Armstrong has been twice married, the deceased; Amzi, a lawyer, who at the first time, in 1841, when Miss M. H. time of his death was a member of the governor's council of New Jersey; Anna, deceased wife of Rev. J. Silliman (de- ceased) ; Mary, deceased wife of Flem- Porter became his wife. She was the daughter of Edwin Porter, of Louisburg, and became the mother of four children, only one of whom survived-Grace, wife ing James (deceased); Frances W., of Capt. Thomas L. Dornin, sheriff of deceased wife of Edwin James (de- Norfolk county. Mrs. Armstrong died of ceased): Rebecca, died in infancy; Rev. yellow fever in 1855, and in 1857 Mr. George D. of Norfolk, and Joanna (de- Armstrong was married to his present ceased). The mother of this family died in 1826. Dr. Armstrong's grandfather, Francis Armstrong, was born in the north of Ireland about the year 1746, and
wife, Miss Lucretia N., a daughter of Charles Reid, of Norfolk, who has borne him one daughter, Lucretia R., wife of
Robert DeJarnett of Norfolk. Amzi came to America when a child with his Armstrong, the doctor's father, was born parents. The family first settled in New
York, afterward removing to New Jersey.
in Florida, Orange county, N. Y., Dec- ember 1, 1771, and received his education at Yale and Princeton colleges. Some- RICHARD HENRY BAKER. time afterward he became principal of the The distinguished Baker family are of English ancestry and of ancient residence in the Old Dominion, one of the American founders of the family being knighted by King Charles in the sixteenth century. Richard H. Baker was born in Nansemond county, Virginia, in 1826. His early edu- cational training was at the Norfolk academy, and afterwards at the Episcopal high school, near Alexandria, Virginia. Bloomfield academy, instituted by the Presbyterian church for the preparation of young men for the ministry, which position he held for nine years with high credit to himself and to the great profit of the patrons and attendants of the institution. A stroke of paralysis com- pelled him to retire from this charge, and he died about the year 1827. Prior to his taking charge of this academy he had After the completion of his studies at this been pastor of the Presbyterian church admirable school, he took the full course of Mendham, N. J., for twenty years. He at the university of Virginia, graduating was married, in 1795, to Miss Mary, with the degree of B. L., in 1850, and daughter of Aaron Dodd of Bloomfield, from 1870 to 1875, was a member of the N. J., the issue of which union was ten board of visitors of that institution. He children, nine of whom lived to maturity. commenced to practice law in Norfolk, as Their names were Rev. Dr. William J., soon as he graduated; in 1879, he took his first pastor of a Presbyterian church in son as a law partner, and the firm of
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PERSONAL SKETCHES - STATE OF VIRGINIA.
Baker & Baker exists to-day. During the administration of President Fillmore, he was judge-advocate of the naval courts at Norfolk. Upon the secession of Vir- ginia, 1861, he went immediately into the military service of the state, but was soon after elected to the legislature of Virginia from the city of Norfolk, and was contin- uously re-elected, without opposition, to the close of the war, his services in the house being considered too valuable to permit him to withdraw from the office.
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