USA > Virginia > A history of Virginia : from its discovery and settlement by Europeans to the present time. Vol. I > Part 25
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a Burk, ii. 278, citing ancient b Beverley, 86; Keith, 167; Burk, records.
ii. 301; Grahame, i. 133.
1684.] BEVERLEY CONVICTED AND PARDONED. 389
Finding that he could no longer delay to grant to Robert Beverley the trial to which he was en- titled, Howard, if possible, resolved to make this case a means of gathering to himself a measure of popular love. Long imprisonment and loss of hope had acted sensibly upon the spirits of the victim; and when it was intimated to him, that by an humble application to the Governor he might · obtain a pardon, he thought himself compelled to seek it. It is affecting to see, in his letter to Ef- fingham, the struggle within a soul conscious of its own rectitude, and yet depressed by the weight of irresistible power. Acknowledging his lord- ship's kindness in offering to his " sorrowful peti- tioner" the aid of counsel, he declines to receive it, and throws himself upon executive mercy.2 (May 9.) The court found him guilty of " high misde- meanours," and thereupon the Governor outstretch- ed the hand of clemency and granted him a pardon.b A more revolting triumph of oppression could not have been shown. This courageous man was not guilty of one of the offences charged upon him. He was far removed from the plant-cutters, and in no form participated in or incited their riot. He properly refused to deliver the journals of the As- sembly without their order. He opened the letters containing writs, upon the express permission of Sir Henry Chicheley. He had been a faithful friend to the government, and had upheld Sir
a Beverley's petition is given by Hening, iii. 548, 549. It is alluded to in Burk, ii. 280; Outline, in Howe, 85. b Hening, iii. 548.
390
THE FIVE NATIONS.
[CHAP. VII.
William Berkeley at the hazard of his own life.a Yet, during more than two years, he was followed by incessant persecution, seized like a common felon, imprisoned in ships of war, guarded with unwonted harshness, kept from his family, forbid- den to practise an honourable profession, and when at length brought to trial, he was convicted of high offences, asked forgiveness on his knees, and received a pardon from the Governor! Let humanity weep over such an example. When the innocent must be pardoned for sins never com- mitted, the guilty will go unquestioned, though stained with a thousand crimes.
But among all of Effingham's delinquencies, history will do him justice. He was active in pro- curing a treaty, from which Virginia certainly derived advantage during many years. The In- dians properly belonging to her soil had long since ceased to give her serious trouble. But other tribes of red men yet remained. The FIVE NATIONS had won for themselves a name which will endure with the records of America. These re- nowned savages were chiefly settled in the magni- ficent country now covered by the western part of New York; but their influence extended itself from New England to Carolina. The Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, form-
a· Letters and certificates in He- ning, iii. 567-571. These were re- ceived by Mr. H. in a very ancient manuscript, from Robert Berkeley, Hening, iii. 565, 566. Esq., of Blandford, Essex Co., Va.
b He was a lawyer by profession, and appears also, at times, to have performed the duties of a surveyor.
391
THE FIVE NATIONS.
1684.]
ed the original confederacy ; but their principle of action was to conquer neighbouring tribes, and to unite them with themselves.ª The accession of the Tuscaroras,' who dwelt on the borders of Vir- ginia and Carolina, swelled the number of the tribes to six, and made their attacks more formi- dable and their name more renowned. These na- tives were among the most intellectual and formi- dable that America has ever contained. They were eminent for physical strength and beauty ;- so eminent, that when Benjamin West first saw the statue of the Apollo Belvidere, he started back in amazement at the close resemblance to the graceful proportions of a young Mohawk warrior.c They were terrible in war. To the subtlety of the savage, they united much of the skill at combined. effort displayed by the civilized. Their courage was indomitable; their revenge never slumbered. "They advanced like foxes, attacked like lions, and retreated like birds."ª To their Indian ene- mies their very name inspired terror; and the whites found in them foes never to be despised, or neglected with safety. These dangerous red men had already extended their incursions to Virginia, and Effingham eagerly embraced an opportunity of concluding with them a treaty of peace, under
a Burk, ii. 281; Grahame, ii. 207.
c Mr. Grahame mentions this in- The map in Bancroft, iii. 241, may cident, ii. 208. be consulted with advantage.
d Charlevoix, quoted by Grahame,
b This took place in 1712. ii. 208. Holmes's Annals, i. 507.
392
TREATY AT ALBANY.
[CHAP. VII.
guarantees sufficiently solemn to insure its ob- servance.
¢
In company with two members of his Council, he joined Colonel Dongan, Governor of New York, at Albany, and, on the 13th July, they met depu- ties from the several tribes of this Indian league. The "talk" was opened by Effingham, who, by means of an interpreter, made a speech to the natives, well chosen in ideas, and quite sufficient to give us a favourable view of his abilities. He told them that they had often provoked their white brethren of Virginia by their aggressions; brought to mind particular acts of cruelty they had com- mitted ; threatened, in dignified terms, to retaliate upon them; and finally urged them to adopt the provisions of the treaty offered. They were to call out of Maryland and Virginia all their young men who had been sent thither for war; they were to observe profound peace with the friendly Indians; they were to make no incursions upon the whites in either state; and, when they march- ed southward, they were not to approach near to the heads of the great rivers on which plantations had been made. On consenting to these terms, the chain of friendship was to be brightened, its links were to remain ever inviolate, and two hatchets were to be buried in token of peace.ª
To these proposals an orator of the Mohawk clan made a reply full of Indian figures and energy. Disclaiming, in behalf of his tribe, all
a Colden's Five Nations, i. 45-53; Treaty quoted in Burk, ii. 284.
-
393
TREATY AT ALBANY.
1684.]
hostile designs, he sternly rebuked the Oneidas, the Onondagas, and Cayugas, for their evil deeds. " You, Onondagas," he said, "our brethren, you are like deaf people that cannot hear; your senses are covered with dirt and filth ;" then, after farther exhortation to all, he said, " There are three things we must all observe : first, the covenant with Cor- laer; secondly, the covenant with Virginia and Maryland; thirdly, with Boston. We must stamp understanding into you, that you may be obedient ; and take this belt for a remembrancer."a In address- ing the governors, he enforced his terse and ex- pressive sentences by occasional presents of belts, raccoons, and beavers; and, at the close of the treaty, a hole was dug, and five axes were buried : two for Virginia and Maryland, and three for the Onondagas, Oneidas, and Cayugas. The Mo- hawks declared that no axe was necessary for them, as they had never been hostile; and the deputies of the Senecas had not yet arrived.' Thus was concluded an important treaty, afterwards fully ratified by a meeting of deputies from Virginia, and her Indians, with chiefs from the Five Nations. At this interview a Mohawk orator sang every link of the symbolic chain of love held in his hand, and concluded with a chant of peace to the sachems of the southern colonies.c
a Treaty in Colden's Five Na-
b Bancroft, ii. 422; Treaty in tions, i. 49, 50; in Burk, ii. 285; Colden, i. 52, 53; Burk, ii. 287. Bancroft, ii. 421. Corlaer was the c Burk, ii. 291. This was in 1685. Governor of New York. They call- The white deputies from Virginia ed the Governor of Virginia, Assa- rigoa.
were Colonel Byrd and the Attorney- General, Edmund Jennings.
394
DEATH OF CHARLES II.
[CHAP. VII.
After this time the natives continued to decrease in number in the counties east of the Alleghanies. The forts on the heads of rivers were disused ; and, instead of them, companies of mounted ran- gers were appointed, armed with pistols, a sword, and a" carbine, whose duty it was to scour the country in all parts infested by Indians, and repel their attacks.ª This measure was found highly useful, and it gradually gave existence to a class of men known as " Virginia Rangers," whose ser- vices were of the greatest importance in subse- quent wars.
-(1685.) In the next year Charles the Second descended to his grave, and was succeeded by his brother, the popish Duke of York. We can derive but small profit from reflection either on the life or the death of the sovereign who had passed away; and he who now came on the stage would be equally unworthy of thought, but for the errors - which arrayed England against him, and the me- rited misfortunes to which they gave birth. He was a coarse being, and might have been useful in the world had he been destined always to occupy the quarter-deck of an English man-of-war. Popery - offered a convenient creed to him, who could only repair his injury to Ann Hyde, by making her his wife and adopting her religion. He was unworthy to be the king of a noble nation, and he abdicated her throne, only to escape being hurled from it by her indignant arm.
a Act vii., in Hening, iii. 17-22 ; Holmes's Annals, i. 465.
395
WHITE SLAVES.
1685.]
Few changes in Virginia followed the accession of James to the English throne. The illegitimate Earl of Monmouth made use of the name of his father, Charles Stuart, to incite a rebellion in the mother country. His followers were routed ; and he was himself brought to the scaffold, where the executioner acted the part of an unwilling torturer, by striking the victim again and again without severing his head from his body.ª But James, and his worthy judicial coadjutor Jeffries, turned the inferior rebels to better use, by selling them for " ten or fifteen pound apiece," to be slaves in the colony.b (Sept. 19.) Virginia was willing to re- ceive these unhappy men. They were dishonoured by no crime, save that of having attempted to over- throw a dominion already hated by the virtuous and the prudent; and on her generous soil they soon acquired independence and tranquillity.
The Assembly which convened in this year was composed of courageous and stubborn spirits. They had already re-elected Robert Beverley their clerk ; and they now proceeded to scrutinize Effingham's measures, and to censure his exactions with be- coming boldness. He found it impossible to escape their vigilance. How could he hope for peace, after having planted thorns in his pillow by numberless acts of dishonesty ? In one point, however, it is to be feared that the Assembly mistook their own powers. The King had always claimed the right to express dissent to the enactments of the provin-
a Hume's England, ii. 615, edit.
b Bancroft, ii. 251. 1832; Grimshaw, 167.
396
LETTER FROM THE KING. [CHAP. VII.
cial legislatures, and thus prevent them from be- coming laws. The constitution of the colony had never been freed from this shackle; but so rarely had it been felt, that its existence was almost forgot- ten. Lord Howard, by royal proclamation, repealed certain acts of the Assembly, which themselves repealed certain prior laws. The constitutional effect of this was, of course, to revive these prior laws, and restore them to full vigour.ª. But against this the House of Burgesses vehemently protested, and the dispute waxed so warm, that the Governor referred it to his majesty in council. Finding the Assembly inexorable, and most uncomfortably at- tentive to his own public conduct, on the 13th De- cember, Howard abruptly prorogued them.
(1686, Nov. 15.) The next year, arrived a letter from King James, which Effingham hastened to inflict upon the refractory burgesses. His majesty's ire was greatly excited by their obstinacy, and in this epistle he reprimands them like schoolboys under the eye of a lordly pedagogue. He talks of their "disaffected and unquiett dispositions," is . much shocked that his power to negative their laws should be called in question, and commands that they shall be dissolved, that the "inhabitants of that our colony" may send better men to represent their interests.' The conclusion is more remark-
a Burk, ii. 293; Bancroft, ii. 254. the King, I do not perceive that he The author of the Outline, in Howe, transcended the bounds of the exist. 85, appears to sympathize with the ing constitution. Vide Grahame, note, Assembly in regarding this as an i. 135. illegal exercise of power; but if How- b James R., Letter to Lord How- ard really acted under authority from ard, Hening, iii. 40; Burk, ii. 295.
397
DEATH OF BEVERLEY.
1687.]
able. Singling out the faithful Beverley as the source of all evil, he declares him incapable of hold- ing any office under government, and requires that he shall be prosecuted again with the full rigour of the law ;- and yet farther, he instructs the Go- vernor himself to select a clerk for the House, and on no pretence to permit any other person to exer- cise the duties of that office." English monarchs began already to find American Assemblies and their officers the most dangerous of foes to their ex- travagant pretensions.
(1687.) The succeeding year brought for ever to a close the persecutions that man could inflict upon one of his fellows. Worn down by suffering and anxiety, Robert Beverley sank into the grave ;c .. whither, it may be, the hatred of his enemies would have followed him, could they have made him longer feel the wounds that revenge would have inflicted upon him. Enough were, however, yet alive to endure the malice of the Governor. We are informed of one James Collins, who, for treason- able expressions against the King, was thrown into prison and confined in irons; of one James Howard, who was committed for merely slighting the autho- rity of a member of Council; and of Christopher Berryman, who disobeyed President Bacon's war- rant, and for this high offence was compelled to ask
a Hening, iii. 41; Burk, ii. 295; Outline, in Howe, 85.
b This letter is dated 1st August, 1686; Hening, iii. 41.
April, 1687. Robert Beverley being lately dead .- Hening, iii. 550. Mr. Burk dates his death in the pre- ceding year.
398
WILLIAM III. KING OF ENGLAND. [CHAP. VII.
pardon on his knees !ª The terrors of the old " re- gime" were once more gaining strong ground in the ancient colony.
King James would fain have introduced popery into Virginia, had his rule been long enough to accomplish it. Whenever an officer was to be ap- pointed, he took care that he should be one friendly to Rome; whenever he could touch the church, he sought to turn her eyes to the City of the Seven Hills. But God would not permit his designs to be consummated. The storm was already gather- ing, which at length burst upon his head ; and his own ruin, and the overthrow of his governor in the province, were nearly simultaneous. At the very time when James was driven from his throne, and compelled to fly before his son-in-law, Effing- ham left the colony never to return ; and he was immediately followed by Philip Ludwell, as the agent of the people, to lay their complaints at the feet of royalty.c
'(1689, May 23.) When the Prince of Orange was announced as King of England, the most heartfelt joy pervaded America. The late dynasty had done little, except oppress and annoy the pro- vinces, and any change would have been grateful. William did not immediately declare himself as
a Burk, ii. 297.
b Burk, ii. 299, 305. * Colonel John Scarborough had told Lord Howard, that His Majesty King James would wear out the Church of England; for that when there
were any vacant offices, he supplied them with men of different persua- sion."
" Tytler's Univ. Hist., 236; Gra- hame, i. 133; Hening, iii., List of Governors, after Preface.
399
FRANCIS NICHOLSON.
1690.]
the friend of his distant subjects. The advan- tages they derived from the revolution were nume- rous and great, but they were silent and gradual in their developement. ., The complaints against Effingham were heard, and some of the grievances set forth were removed ;ª but this unworthy man still held the office of governor-in-chief of Virginia. In his absence, Nathaniel Bacon, as President of Council, administered the government. Many abuses were corrected ; justice returned to her for- mer regular habits ; exorbitant fees were reduced ; the traces of Howard's avaricious follies were gra- dually erased, and Virginia began again to give evidence of prosperity.
(1690, Oct. 16.) In the next year, Francis Ni- cholson took his seat in Council, as lieutenant-go- vernor, under Lord Effingham. This gentleman had already spent much time in America, and his course of petty tyranny and annoyance in New York, had nearly cost him his life. He was com- pelled to abscond in great haste, to escape a popu- lar outburst, which his conduct had roused. Yet, when transferred to the southern colony, his course was more moderate, and for a season, at least, he was regarded with esteem. We are tempted to believe that he resorted to some doubtful artifices, in order to gain the good will of the people. He had certainly never been distinguished either for courage or bodily prowess; yet, in Virginia, we find him encouraging manly games, and attending
ª Order of King in Council, Sept. 9, 1689, in Burk, ii. 308, 309.
400
FRANCIS NICHOLSON.
[CHAP. VII.
at scenes of boxing, wrestling, running, and cud- gelling, which were favourite sports in the colony.ª For this, we may forgive-we may even commend him ; but it is not so easy to approve the motives which would invite a mob into his dining-room, where he was entertaining his friends, that he might be amused by their struggles for the viands before them.b
After such an exhibition, we may be surprised to find Nicholson zealously promoting a scheme for establishing a permanent college in Virginia. This had often before been spoken of and attempt- ed, but it was now to be crowned with success. James Blair was already in the colony-a learned and accomplished minister of the Established Church, holding the office of " commissary," under the Bishop of London, and exercising a general superintendence over the spiritual inte-). rests of the people. A subscription was com- menced for funds, and at its head appeared the names of the Lieutenant-Governor and several mem- bers of Council, giving large amounts to the pro- posed object. In a short time, two thousand five hundred pounds were raised : all persons seemed eager to aid ; merchants in London came forward in the cause; and so flattering did the prospect appear, that Mr. Blair was sent to England to so- licit a charter, and implore the aid of the reigning powers. William and Mary received the applica-,
a Beverley, 87; Keith, 168; Burk,
b This is related by Sir William
ii. 312; Grahame, iii. 7.
Keith, 168.
1
1691.]
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. 401
tion with distinguished favour. (1691.) The char- ter was immediately granted, in accordance with the views of the commissary, and a more substan- tial proof of royal bounty was given. The balance due upon quit-rents in the colony, amounting to nearly two thousand pounds sterling, was released for the benefit of the college; twenty thousand acres of " choice land" were set apart for its sup- port, and a revenue of one penny per pound on all tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland, to the other American plantations, swelled the funds intended for its endowment.ª
Thus rose into being the College of " William and Mary." The Middle Plantation was selected for its site, and ample edifices were soon in a course of preparation. Commissary Blair was the first President; and the institution was entitled to a re- presentative in the House of Burgesses.b They taught, first, " three things-divinity, languages, and natural philosophy ;"" a divinity shaped and moulded at every point by the liturgy and creed of the English Church ; languages, which filled the college walls with schoolboys hating Greek .
a Beverley, 88; Keith, 168, 169; tax on sundry skins, to wit: raw- Campbell, 88, 89 ; Burk, ii. 312- hides, buck-skins, doe-skins, otter- 314; Frost's Pict. Hist. U. S., i. 125; skins, wildcat-skins, minx-skins, fox- Hawks's Eccl. Hist. Va., 73-75. skins, raccoon-skins, muskrat-skins, and elk-skins .- Acts iii. and iv., Hening, iii. 122, 123. These wild animals paid a severe tax to the cause of education.
b Appendix, in Burk, ii. 15; Be- verley, 230; Outline, in Howe, 325. In the Assembly of 1693, two acts were passed; one establishing the college at Middle Plantation, and the other imposing for its support a
c Beverley, 88.
VOL. I.
26
402
ANDROS IN VIRGINIA.
[CHAP. VII.
and Latin grammars ; and natural philosophy, which was but just learning to believe that the earth revolved round the sun, rather than the sun round the earth.ª But the College of William and Mary has long been the cherished child of Virgi- nia. She yields in antiquity to none of her sisters, except Harvard University, in Massachusetts; and it would be difficult to find an institution of learn- ing from which have issued so many men who might lay claim to renown, for eminent ability united with ardent patriotism.
Francis Nicholson received from the Assembly a present of three hundred pounds, in token of their love. Before he would accept it, he obtained a dis- pensation from the King; it being an established rule that the Governor should take nothing from the legislature of the province. When all obsta- cles were removed, he bestowed one-half of the amount upon the college, in addition to the sum he had already subscribed.b
In 1692, Sir Edmund Andros arrived, with the complete title of Governor-in-Chief. Nicholson was transferred to Maryland, where he admi- nistered affairs during several succeeding years. Andros was not a stranger in America. He had tor- mented New York; and had weighed, like an incu- bus, upon the happiness of New England. Con- necticut had snatched her charter almost from his hand, to commit it to a more faithful guardian; and Massachusetts had seized and imprisoned him, in
a In 1686, Sir Isaac Newton published his "Principia," demonstrating the law of gravitation. b Burk, ii. 314; Beverley, 88.
1692.]
A GOOD GOVERNOR. 403
an outburst of generous anger at his tyranny. It is strange that such a man should have been again selected by an English king to represent him in the colonies; and it is still more strange, that on arrival and during his stay, he should have carried himself as became a zealous, wise, and moderate officer. Whether experience had taught him wis- dom, or advancing years had calmed the heat of youth, or he found no pretext for the exercise of arbitrary power, we know not; but all authorities agree in declaring, that his administration was a season of unwonted prosperity in Virginia. His manners were conciliatory, rather than forbidding; he was active in promoting schemes of useful la- bour; he encouraged manufactures, incited the planters to the cultivation of cotton, and gave his assent to an act establishing the first fulling-mills ever known in the settlement. He carried his love of order into the public departments; and, finding the documents and papers in the several offices mingled together in frightful confusion, torn, soil- ed, and eaten of moths, he commenced a reform, and urged it with much vigour and success.ª His efforts were unhappily retarded by a fire, which destroyed much that had been done; but he expe- rienced. no abatement in his zeal, and in a short time the state-house again began to rise from its ashes. In these salutary labours, years rolled silently but prosperously away. Laws were re- vised, education was fostered, the people were quiet and contented. History, whose unhappy fate it is
a Beverley, 91; Burk, ii. 317, in note.
404
SIR FRANCIS NICHOLSON. [CHAP. VII.
to dwell chiefly on the wars, the hatred, and the misfortunes of men, finds little to record of Andros in Virginia, except her approval of his conduct, and her surprise at his happy change of character.ª
(Dec. 9.) In 1698, Sir Francis Nicholson was again transferred from Maryland to Virginia, and the dignity of Governor-in-Chief was bestowed upon him. An unfavourable change in his tem- per towards the colony was soon exhibited. That he possessed great pliancy of manners, may be in- ferred from what has already been said of him. He now no longer wore the smooth brow and compla- cent smile that had won so many hearts during his previous government. Ambition had crept into his soul, and gradually possessed all of its active facul- ties .. We have strong reason to believe that he had formed the design of effecting a union of all the American colonies under one head, and of obtain- ing for himself the high office of Governor-General.b His local knowledge, his restless talents, his popu- lar arts, all combined to fit him for success in this scheme; but the watchfulness of his colonial charge entirely defeated him.
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