USA > Virginia > A history of Virginia : from its discovery and settlement by Europeans to the present time. Vol. II > Part 2
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But there was one line beyond which the boldest advocates of English authority had not yet ventured to pass. To annex duties to imports for the pur- pose of regulating commerce, and directing it into profitable channels, had long been the policy of the mother country, and habit had taught the Colonies to submit; but the scheme of levying a tax in any form, upon America, for the purpose of pouring revenue into the British treasury, had never yet been tried ; and, even when spoken of, had always been abandoned. It is true, that as early as 1696, a pamphlet had appeared in England, recommend- ing a Parliamentary tax upon one of the Colonies ; but it was immediately answered by two counter- pamphlets, in which the right contended for was
ª Sir George Calvert's Message to House of Commons, in Grahame, note, Colon. Hist. ii. 417.
country, be asserted in as strong terms as can be devised; and if it were denied, I would not suffer even a nail for a horseshoe to be manu- factured in America."-Grahame,
b This was William Pitt's opinion : " At the same time, let the sovereign authority of legislative and commer- iv. 241; Blackstone's Com. i. 76-78. cial control, always possessed by this
22
SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
[CHAP. I.
broadly denied, and the ruling powers seem tacitly to have acknowledged the injustice of the attempt.ª During Sir Robert Walpole's administration, Eng- land was beginning to totter beneath her financial burden; but when that sagacious statesman was asked to tax America, he repelled the temptation with prophetic alarm.' He declared that "it was a measure too hazardous for him to venture upon," and when afterwards, upon the failure of his cele- brated Excise Bill, Sir William Keith renewed the proposition, the baffled minister replied with em- phasis : "I have Old England set against me, and do you think that I will have New England like- wise ?"" England needed a mind as comprehensive as that of Walpole to teach her that justice and true policy must always ultimately coincide, and that it is better to bear present ills than, by using an illegal remedy, to insure final retribution.
It is not strange that the American Colonies should have shrunk with horror from the first approaches of the great taxing power to which Britain sought to subject them. They were not represented in her Parliament ; and, in the very nature of things, they could not there sustain and secure their interests. Separated by three thousand miles of water, dis- tinct in the products of their soil, their habits and feelings, and already maintaining legislative assem- blies of their own, there was every thing to prove
-
a Lord Camden's Speech in 1766, cited in Gordon's America, i. 75.
b Belsham's Great Britain, v. 134; Bisset's George III., 188, in note.
c Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole, in Belsham, v. 135.
23
INJUSTICE OF TAXATION.
1763.]
the folly of any scheme which would have sought to countenance their rights by admitting their dele- gates to the floor of the English House of Commons. And accordingly, this plan never received any general favour, either in America or in the mother country, although political visionaries were not wanting to introduce and by argument to support it.ª It would have been impossible that the Colonies should have been duly represented in the English Parliament. If neither Ireland nor Scotland has had complete justice done to her in her legislative union with England, it will be easy to see what gross mockery would have been practised upon America, by inviting her delegates to join the law- makers of Great Britain upon English soil. But it has been fortunate that a plan which would have been plausible enough to delay our independence, was yet so ungrateful to the mother country, that she never seriously contemplated its adoption. England taxed her Colonies without even the sem- blance of justice, that America might stand ac- quitted in the eyes of all the world in her exercise of the right of revolution.
Money, since its first introduction, has had an importance in human affairs, to which no other physical possession of man can lay claim. It is because money represents every thing else in the world, that men are prone to regard it as more valuable than all other things united. If land and water, houses and cattle, offices and titles, feelings and principles, can be, in a thousand varied forms,
* See Dr. Johnson's Taxation no Tyranny, Works, Am. edit. 1834, ii. 433.
·
24
INJUSTICE OF TAXATION.
[CHAP. I.
swayed, moulded, and controlled by money, it is not singular that this universal solvent should be regarded with peculiar interest. It is true that it is only valuable when used, but in order to be used it must be obtained, and hence the fierce opposition shown by all men to every restraint upon their right to obtain this key to the treasuries of earthly good. Let it not then be supposed that the Colo- nists were moved to resist British taxation by the mere vulgar "love of money," so often attributed to Anglo-Americans. They were governed by pre- cisely the same motives which control all other men, and which had long been admitted in full expansion by their British ancestors. Had they, for a moment, recognised the right of Britain to take their money by an act of Parliament, and without their consent, they would, by a slow but cer- tain process, have been converted into slaves, felling trees, clearing fields, and cultivating tobacco, corn, and cotton, for the benefit of English masters. The selfishness of the human heart would have asserted its power, and Britain would not have heaped addi- tional burdens upon her own shoulders, when she might so readily place them upon her young de- pendant.
Those who had been most truly imbued with the spirit of the English Constitution, at once denied the right of Britain to tax America, and placed their protest not merely upon the broad ground of natural justice, but upon the more contracted basis of constitutional law. They held that the raising of money was not strictly a part of legislative
25
ARGUMENTS FOR POWER.
1763.]
power; Parliament might make laws for the realm, might define treason, constitute new crimes and new penalties for crime, regulate commerce, and even attaint the blood of the subject, but it was for the people themselves, by their representatives, to grant money for the use of the Crown. Money was a free gift, always asked by his Majesty of the House of Commons, and never granted except by a bill first introduced into that jealous body ;ª there- fore the attempt of England to draw revenue from America, without her consent, was open robbery. It was the act of the strong man, who wrests trea- sure from the weak, and seeks to silence conscience by pleading his own necessities. So apparent was the force of this argument, that many sought to evade it by pretending that the American Colonies, though not actually, were yet in theory, represented on the floors of the Houses of Parliament. They compared their condition to that of Birmingham, Manchester, and other large towns in England, which, though without members in the House of Commons, were, in interest, represented in that body,-thus striving to forget that the difference between the two cases was "as wide as the Atlantic Ocean," and that no interests similar to those of the Colonies had any constitutional supporters in the general representation of Britain.b These sage
a Lord Chatham, in Grahame, iv. their house, and are first bestowed by 241. Even Sir William Blackstone them."-Commen. i. 124, and post, impliedly gives countenance to this 229.
doctrine. " It is the ancient indis- b See Dr. Johnson's Taxation no putable privilege of the House of Tyranny, Works, ii. 432; and read Commons that all grants of subsidies Grahame, iv. 199. or parliamentary aids do begin in
26
ARGUMENTS FOR POWER.
[CHAP. I.
n
reasoners held, that though America did not ex- pressly assent to taxation, her assent might be fairly implied ; but they were not long able to hug this delusion to their bosoms. Her voice of dissent was heard first in petitions, remonstrances, and arguments, and then in the call to battle, and the sound of human conflict.
But English Ministers had resolved that the fatal line should be passed ; and, while we may wonder at their blindness, we have no reason to regret their decision. The time had arrived when America was to be free. Her independence indeed could not have been long delayed. She had grown like a young giant, and her dependence on her parent had already subjected her to so many galling re- straints, that she was ever ready to disclaim it. England herself furnished the spark which pro- duced the explosion. How much longer she might have retained her dominion by prudence and jus- tice, we cannot say ; but the moment her own hand applied the torch, a train was fired, which had, during many years, been increasing in inflammable power. The Stamp Act, with the subsequent measures, constituted nothing more than a breach, through which a mighty torrent immediately poured, and swept away for ever the barriers that had so long confined it.
As we approach the time when the mother country was preparing, by her unnatural conduct, to array her children in arms against her, we turn to Virginia, and find a man upon her soil destined to act a brilliant part in the coming struggle. In
27
PATRICK HENRY.
1763.]
viewing his character, it is difficult to reject the belief in a special providence, which now brought him forward to the crisis. Patrick Henry was born in the County of Hanover, in the year 1736. His father was Col. John Henry, a native of Aberdeen, in Scotland,a and though respectable in birth, he pretended not to belong to the aristocracy of Vir- ginia. The son, who now claims our attention, has since become one whom the world would be ashamed not to know. He had no blood to give him adventitious honour-no wealth to purchase esteem-no courted connexions to reflect upon him the smiles of society, but he had a soul which more than compensated for all external defects. He was one of nature's noblemen. If the name of Demos- thenes be destined to live for ever, the name of Henry cannot die ; for, as an orator, the Virginian may not yield to the Greek, and as a man, he will be preferred by all able to discriminate.b
He had not enjoyed the advantage of systematic education, but his mind sought for knowledge with a thirst so keen, that it could not be disappointed. Few persons who marked the outward aspect of the awkward and apparently indolent young man, who for several years seemed fitted for no business that he undertook, would have suspected the work that was going on within. He read with avidity all history to which he could gain access, and con- verted its truths into food for the vast digestive
a Burk, iii. 300; Wirt's Life of P. Henry, ii. edit. 1839.
b Henry, the forest-born Demosthenes, Whose thunders shook the Philip of the seas.
BYRON'S AGE OF BRONZE.
28
CLERGY AND TOBACCO.
[CHAP. I.
powers of his intellect. No man can speak well without ideas, and ideas without knowledge would imply a contradiction. Patrick Henry was not learned, but even when yet young he was wise. When, after reading Coke upon Littleton, and the Virginia Laws, he applied for a license to practise as a barrister, he astonished the accomplished Judge who examined him, by the vigorous opera- tions of a mind which knew law by intuition.ª And three years after he came to the bar, his wonderful powers developed themselves upon an occasion which in itself was important, and which in its re- mote bearing, is inseparably connected with the history of Virginia.
The Episcopal Church was established by law, and its ministers, by a statute enacted in 1696, were authorized to receive sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco as a salary attached to their office. This statute was substantially re-enacted in 1748, and had been regularly sanctioned by the Crown.
The price of tobacco had long been stationary at two pence per pound; but this commodity, like every other article of trade, was liable to change according to the law of supply and demand. A short crop in 1755, caused the price to advance, and the Assembly passed an act, declaring that all per- sons bound to pay in tobacco, might discharge their dues by paying in money, at the rate of two pence per pound. This act was to operate during ten
b Burk says the rise was caused by an extravagant speculator named
a Wirt's P. Henry, 22. Dickenson, iii. 302; but Mr. Wirt gives no sanction to this statement. P. Henry, 24.
29
CLERGY SUIT.
1763.]
months, and did not contain the usual clause sus- pending its effect until it should receive the King's assent.ª The law was at this time quietly endured, but in 1758, acting on the belief that the crop was again to fall short, the Assembly re-enacted the statute of 1755, and as before, they annexed no suspending clause which would have rendered ne- cessary the sanction of the Crown. The clergy now took fire. It is undoubtedly true that the effect of this law was to deprive each of them of about two hundred and sixty pounds sterling per annum, for tobacco was now worth six pence per pound instead of two pence as before. But they suffered in common with all other creditors, and their loss was occasioned by the double medium of exchange, then existing in Virginia.
Immediately a hot controversy commenced. Rev. John Camm, of William and Mary College, wrote a strong pamphlet, in which the " two penny act" was denounced with keen sarcasm, and assailed by plausible argument. Richard Bland and Landon Carter replied, and so important became the dis- pute, that His Majesty in Council took up the ques- tion, and at once cut the Gordian knot by declaring the act of 1758 null and void.' Whereupon, in various counties throughout Virginia, suits were brought by clergymen against their respective pa- rish collectors to enforce the law of 1748. In the County of Hanover, the Rev. James Maury had
a See Hening, vii. 240, 241 ; Wirt's b Wirt's P. Henry, 25 ; Hawks, P. Henry, 24; Grahame, iv. 95, 96; 122; Grahame, iv. 96. Hawks' Eccles. Hist. Va., 118, 119.
30
CLERGY SUIT.
[CHAP. I.
brought a suit against his vestry, and skilful law- yers had been retained on either side. The action was founded on the statute of 1748, which gives the tobacco in specie. To this the defendants pleaded specially the statute of 1758, and the plain- tiff demurred to the plea. He objected to the law of 1758, first, because it had not received the royal sanction when enacted; and secondly, because it had been expressly declared void by the King in Council. When this demurrer came up before the County Court for November, 1763, it was argued by Peter Lyons,a for the plaintiff, and by John Lewis for the defendants, and the Court, notwith- standing that popular feeling ran strongly against the clergy, sustained the demurrer, and thus de- cided that the law of 1748 must take full effect.
This decision reflects honour upon the firmness and integrity of the Court. If the whole question be regarded in an aspect merely legal, there can be no doubt that the clergy were right, and as they are said to have triumphed decidedly in the war of pamphlets which had previously been waged,b so they seemed now about to prevail in the judicial combat. The question of law having been disposed of, nothing remained but to call a jury and submit to them the question of damages to which the mi- nisters were entitled because of the obstruction of their legal rights. At this stage, Mr. Lewis with-
* Afterwards Judge Lyons of the pamphlets, ascribes victory to the Virginia Court of Appeals ; Wirt's clergy ; P. Henry, 25, and see Dr. Hawks, 118. P. Henry, 21-26.
b Mr. Wirt, upon a review of the
31
CLERGY SUIT.
1763.]
drew from the case, telling his clients that he had done all that he could, and that they must be de- feated.
But there was a deeper question than that of mere law affecting the case of the clergy. Already in Virginia, the evils of an establishment had been felt and acknowledged by a large body of the peo- ple. The Episcopal rectors had not been so re- markable for their holy lives as to commend their church to the more serious inhabitants, and the vicious and disorderly openly denounced her. A very large number of those who were then pro- perly called "Dissenters," had gathered in the Colony, and embracing in their ranks men of pure lives, of keen intellects, and of accurate knowledge, they powerfully affected public opinion.ª Any tax, whether in money or in tobacco, for the support of one sect while others were restrained, was justly odious. No law could remove this foul blot from the record. Neither the patents of a King, nor the statutes of a Colonial Assembly, could make it just to compel men to contribute to the support of a re- ligious denomination from whose teachings they dissented, and upon whose ministry they never at- tended. This was the fatal point in the case of the church, and so strongly did it address itself to the common sense of mankind, that the clergy suits were in universal odium, and were generally stig- matized as the actions of "the parsons against the people."b
a See Semple's History of Virginia
b Wirt's P. Henry, 29, edit. 1839. Baptists, 2-7; Hawks, 121, 122.
32
HENRY'S ELOQUENCE.
[CHAP. I.
Under these circumstances, the case came before a jury of the County Court of Hanover, on the 1st day of December, 1763. Unable to retain Mr. Lewis, and almost in despair as to their cause, the defendants employed Patrick Henry to represent them in the question of damages. His own father was the presiding Justice, and his uncle was one of the very clergymen who were now urging their claims at law. The court-house was crowded to excess. Mr. Lyons, in behalf of the plaintiffs, opened the case, and, certain of success, he con- tented himself by a statement of the previous steps before the court, and concluded his speech to the jury by a brilliant eulogy upon the merits of the clergy. When he had concluded, Mr. Henry rose and commenced his address. He was awkward and embarrassed; his words faltered; the clergy smiled, nodded, and exchanged glances of compas- sionate triumph; the people trembled for their champion ; his father hung his head in shame and sorrow. But gradually a mighty change came over the speaker ; his form became erect and grace- ful; his eye kindled into fire; his voice grew in . thrilling emphasis, and from his lips poured forth words which bound every soul in the assembly as with a magician's spell. A dead silence prevailed, and bending forward from seats and windows and each place where they stood, the people listened in awe and astonishment to the voice of the great spirit of eloquence who had descended among them. His power was such that he made "their blood to run cold in their veins, and their hair to
33
HENRY'S ELOQUENCE.
1763.]
rise on end." His father sat a listener, and tears of indescribable feeling ran down his cheeks as he marked the triumph of his son. With resistless sway the orator pleaded before the jury the injus- tice of the plaintiffs' claims. He denounced the act of the King in declaring void the law of 1758, and with prophetic force he urged that the compact between people and sovereign might be dissolved by royal oppression. He painted in glaring colours the conduct of the clergy, and at length, at one withering burst of invective, the ministers present, unable longer to endure, rose and fled from the house in total discomfiture !a For one hour Mr. Henry held his hearers in chains, and when the case was submitted to the jury, they returned al- most immediately to the bar with a verdict of one penny damages. A motion for a new trial was made, but was promptly overruled by a unanimous vote.b It seemed as though men were already look- ing into the future. Justice asserted her right, al- though law was openly disregarded.
After this decision the clergy abandoned all their suits, and never again urged their claims. Patrick
a " Abiit-excessit-evasit-eru- iii. It is amusing to note in Dr. pit !" Cicero in Catal. Delphin. Class. iv. 1303. The effect of Henry's elo- quence was more striking because more immediate than that produced by the great Roman orator. In no other point will it be pretended that the clergy of Virginia were like the seditious Cataline.
Hawks, the struggle between his admiration of Henry's genius and his evident disgust at his success. Prot. Epis. Church in Va., 123, 124. The Doctor could hardly be expected to approve the decision. He insists much upon the demurrer, and ex- presses the horror of a lawyer at the
b Wirt's P. Henry, 28, 29; Gra- wide field of discussion which Henry hame, iv. 99 ; Burk, 302, 303, vol. assumed.
VOL. II.
3
34
CONFLICT WITH INDIANS.
[CHAP. I.
Henry became at once dear to the people of Vir- ginia. He had already rendered them service in a cause requiring a mind of peculiar boldness and expansion ; but this was only intended for the more important purpose of bringing him forward as their champion in a contest with a stronger enemy than the Established Church.
Though civilized nations were at peace, the sa- vages of America were yet active in hostility. While they were daily diminishing in numbers, they lost nothing of their ferocity, and were in- creasing in means of annoyance by obtaining a knowledge of European arms. Around the fron- tiers of the Colonies they continued their assaults, and hoped for impunity by the withdrawal of most of the military force which had been previously supported. Three forts only were now regularly garrisoned,-Detroit, between Lakes Huron and Erie ; Niagara, between Erie and Ontario; and Pitt, on the confines of Virginia, at the junction of the two rivers forming the Ohio. The savages renewed their cruelties upon the settlers in the west, and increasing in boldness, they surrounded Fort Pitt with their warriors, and pressed the siege so closely, that its brave defenders feared a fatal result. But General Amherst had despatched Co- lonel Bouquet with a large supply of provisions and a powerful escort to relieve this important fortress. At his approach the besiegers retired, and joining their comrades in the wilderness, presented a for- midable body, ready to renew the attack when the immediate danger should be passed. Colonel Bou-
35
1763.] COLONEL BOUQUET'S STRATAGEM.
quet resolved to pursue them. He advanced to a dangerous defile, known as Turtle Greek, on the very verge of civilized settlements, and surrounded on all sides by mountains covered with forest trees. Here the Indians made an attack from their am- buscade : pouring down the sides of the eminence, they fell violently upon the English, and thought - to overwhelm them by numbers; but they were received with steady discharges of musketry, and with strokes of the bayonet, which drove them back into their fastnesses above.ª
1236196
The English remained more than a day in the defile, encompassed by enemies, cut off from aid, incessantly on the watch, and suffering from tor- turing thirst, to relieve which no water was found near their encampment. At this crisis, Bouquet's genius suggested a stratagem. Dividing his com- mand into four companies, he placed two of these in a concealed position behind a projection of the mountain, and directed the remaining two to feign a retreat. (August 6.) Deceived by this move- ment, and eager to fall upon the disabled foe, the savages came out from their concealment, and with terrific cries fell upon the rear of the retiring troops. Instantly the concealed companies attacked them in flank ; a fatal fire was poured on them, and the bayonet commenced its work; the other companies faced about and joined in the assault. The savages were routed with immense slaughter-most of them were left dead upon the field ; and the few who
a Miller, iii. 48; Bissett's George III., 182, 183 ; Grahame, iv. 107.
36
PEACE WITH THE INDIANS.
[CHAP. I.
escaped could offer no opposition to the English, who returned in triumph to Fort Pitt. Successive reverses after this time, broke the spirit of the savages, and early in the succeeding year, they sought and obtained peace from Sir William John- stone, who, by his address, had gained over them a controlling influence.ª
The wars in which England had been engaged had added heavily to her debt, and rendered her finan- cial system the prominent subject for the consider- ation of her ministers. America had borne a large part of the burden-had given up her children to the battles in which the encroachments of France had been repelled, and had contributed large sums of money for the general good. So important had been her voluntary supplies, that England had felt bound to make return, and at various times she had voted sums, amounting in all to about one mil- lion and seventy-two thousand pounds sterling, to repay her Colonies for what they had freely ad- vanced to her.b In addition to this, a debt of more than two millions and a half had been contracted by America during the war, for which she had re- ceived no indemnity from the mother country.c In the face of these facts, it seems singular that states- men should have held that the Colonies had been " protected by the arms and preserved by the care" of Britain. The war had been for her benefit rather than for their own. It was to sustain her
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