USA > Virginia > Historical collections of Virginia : containing a collection of the most interesting facts, traditions, biographical sketches, anecdotes, &c. relating to its history and antiquities ; together with geographical and statistical descriptions ; to which is appended, an historical and descriptive sketch of the District of Columbia. > Part 11
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The governor, finding his followers reduced to so small a num- ber that it would be madness to attempt to defend the place. at length yielded to the earnest solicitations of those about him, and deceiving his adversaries as to his real design, by exhibiting evi- dences of' a contemplated attack, he went on board a shop at mid- night, and was seen next morning riding at auchor, beyond the reach of the guns in the fort at Jamestown. Bacon. with his fol- lowers, after their week's siege, marched into the empty town the next morning, the governor and his party having carried off or
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destroyed every article of value. The possession of Jamestown, in this situation, was of no advantage to Bacon or his followers. The men who had left their homes to defend their country from the incursions of the Indians, could not remain together for the purpose of defending the capital from their hostile governor, who was quietly waiting in the river for them to depart, in order that he might again resume possession. What could be done with a town which could not be defended, and, if defended, was of no value to the possessors ; but which was all-important to the ene- my ? The answer to this question was manifest, and Bacon's proposal for its destruction was received with acclamation ; seve- ral of his followers, who owned the most valuable houses, apply- ing the firebrand with their own hands to their own property. The sight of the flames started Sir William Berkeley on a cruise to Accomac; and Bacon having overcome all opposition to the government established by the convention, dismissed the troops to their homes.
We have little account of Bacon's proceedings after this successful termination of his labors ; we presume he did not do much, as he was ill of a disease caught by sleeping exposed in the trenches before Jamestown, which in a short time terminated his exist- ence. He died at the house of a Mr. Pate, in Gloucester county. Thus died the distinguished individual, who overcame both the foreign and domestic enemies of his country, and left it enjoying the blessings of a free government. Had he lived precisely a century later, be would have been one of the distinguished heroes of the revolution, and historians would have delighted as much in eulogizing his conduct, as they have, under existing circumstances, in blackening his character. He accomplished all which it was possible for him to do. He never opposed the British government, but only foreign enemies, and domestic mal-administration, which he succeeded in defeating. He seems always to have acted by the consent and wish of the people, and never to have sought self.aggrandizement. It was manifestly impossible for him to elevate him- self to absolute power in Virginia, without the consent of the government of England, and the people of Virginia ; and the idea of resisting both of these powers was absurd For all the evils which accrued to the country after his death, and the restoration of Sir William Berkeley, he has been unjustly made responsible, while he has received no credit for his good conduct, or the beneficial acts passed by the logist dure during his ascendeney. In short, we can see no difference between his course, and that pursued in the previous expulsion of Sir John Harvey from the government, or the subsequent trent- ment of Lord Dunmore, and many other royal governors, at the commencement of the resolution. The only difference between the patriots of 1676 and 1776. was in the estab- lishment of a free government, subject to the general control of Great Britain, which was all that could be done in 1676, and the establishment of a free government independent of Great Britain, which was accomplished in 1776. The unfortunate death of Bacon, and the power of the mother country, destroyed in a great measure the benefit of the exertion of the little band of patriots of the first period, while the benefits of the latter have continued to exist. The loyal writers, after the re-establishment of Berkeley, sought to hide his pusillanimity by extolling his virtues, and blackening his adversary. in which they have been blindly followed by other writers, who have attributed the subsequent misery to the previous rebellion, instead of to the avarice, malignity, and re- venge of the governor and his party, seeking to overawe and suppress popular indigna- tion, and break the strength of the popular party, by the forcible exertion of arbitrary authority, as well as to avenge themselves for the indignities to which their own folly subjected them. On the other hand, the patriote of the revolution have only received the just reward of their merit. In the lavish praises of a grateful posterity ; and the loyal party of their day has been justly handed down to universal execration.
The death of Bacon, by leaving the republicans without a head. revived the courage of the governor so far, that he ventured in bi ships to move about upon the bay and rivers, and attach the inhabit-
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ants wherever he could find them defenceless, and snatch a little plunder to gratify his needy followers ; always retiring when the opposite party appeared to oppose him. This predatory species of warfare preventing the quiet pursuit of agricultural labors, and destroying all the comfort and happiness of society, without pro- ducing any beneficial result, soon grew wearisome to both parties. Sir William Berkeley, whose cruelties, especially to his prisoners, had gone far to keep up the enthusiasm of popular excitement, finding that his name had ceased to strike that awe which habitual respect for one high in authority had formerly given it, and that bis punishments excited indignation rather than terror, felt disposed to take advantage, by milder means, of the returning pacific dispo- sition on the part of a people whose stubborn tempers could not be brought into obedience by force. With this view, he treated his prisoners with more liberality, published an act of general in- demnity, and proposed a treaty of peace to Ingram and Walklate, the principal leaders of the opposing party since the death of Ba- con. So anxious were the people to be relieved from the present confusion and anarchy, and the governor once more to rule with uncurbed sway, that a treaty was speedily concluded, only stipu- lating, on the part of the governor, a general oblivion; and indem- nity of past offences ; and, on the part of his opponents, a surrender of their arms, and a restoration of such property as they had taken. Thus easily did these unfortunate men deliver themselves again into the lion's power, after having defeated him at all points, and inflicted deep and irremediable wounds upon his inflated vanity. and pompous mock-dignity. The governor, when he had his ene- mies in his power, instead of trying to heal the wounds of the bleeding state by mildness and conciliation, only added to its suf- ferings by a bloody retribution for all the trouble which he had been made to endure. Fines and confiscations. for the benefit of his excellency, became the order of the day, and an occasional execution, as an extra treat to his vengeance. He at first attempted to wrest the honest juries of the county to his purpose, but in vain. -- ten prisoners were acquitted in a single day. Finding that his enemies were thus likely to escape his grasp by the unflinching integrity and sense of justice prevailing among the people, he determined to avoid the use of a court constituted upon principles of the English constitution, which he found so little subservient to his will, and tried his next victims under martial law. He here found a court of more congenial spirits. The commissioners of the king give an account of some of these trials, such as they were carried on even after their arrival. which mark well the spirit of the times. " We also observed some of the roval party. that sat on the bench with us at the trial, to be so forward in impeaching, accusing, reviling, the prisoners at bar, with that in- veteracy, as if they had been the worst of witnesses. rather than justices of the commission ; both accusing and condemning at the same time. This severe way of proceeding represented to the
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assembly, they voted an address to the governor, that he would desist from any further sanguinary punishments, for none could tell when or where it would terminate. So the governor was prevailed on to hold his hands, after hanging twenty-three."
A notable way which the governor adopted to replenish his purse. after the disasters of the war, was to relieve the rebels from a trial in one of his courts-martial, in which they were to be condemned, upon their paying him a great portion of their estates, by way of compromise. This method of disposing of men's estates, without trial or conviction, was protested against by his majesty's commis- sioners, as a gross violation of the laws of England, but which Sir William's friends seem to think only a just retribution for the losses sustained by himself and the royal party during the rebellion. Enormous fines, payable in provision, were also found a convenient method of providing for the king's troops which had been sent over to subdue the colony.
Ilis majesty's commissioners fortunately arrived in time to stay the wrath of the vindictive old man, who would, as an eye-wit- ness says, "he verily believes, have hanged half the county if they had let him alone." They urged him in vain to publish the king's proclamation of a general pardon and indemnity ; and then pro- ceeded to hold their commission for hearing and redressing griev- ances. As the proceedings of the governor diffused a gloom, the generality of which was co-extensive with the immense numbers that were engaged in the rebellion, so did the proceedings of the commissioners spread a universal joy. Crowds of persons now came forward to present their grievances-widows and orphans to ask for the confiscated estates of their husbands and fathers, who had been butchered by the military tribunals of the governor : others came in to complain of the seizing of their estates without the form of a trial ; and many, who had submitted themselves upon the governor's proclamation of indemnity and pardon, complained of subsequent imprisonment and confiscations of their property.
The commissioners state in their report to the king and council, that " in the whole course of their proceedings they had avoided receiving any complaints of public grievances, but by and under the hand of the most credible. loval, and sober persons of each county with caution ; that they did not do it in any mutinous manner, and without mixture of their old leaven. but in such sort as might become. dutiful subjects, and sober, rational men to present. When they found that all their representations to Sir William Berkeley, to endeavor to induce him to restore the confiscated es- tates. which were in the possession of himself or his most faithful friends, were in vain, they ascertained as many of the possessors as possible, and made them give security to take care of them until his majesty should determine as to the restitution which they should recommend him to make. The commissioners also devised several matters of utility for the peace, good government. All safety of the colony ; which they recommended his majesty to
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adopt. Sir William Berkeley returned in the fleet to England, leaving Sir Herbert Jeffries, who had been sent over with the commissioners, as governor. Upon his arrival, he found that his cruel conduct in Virginia was looked upon with horror by most of his former friends and the council, and was not sustained by the king, subservient loyalty to whom had been the source and spring of his high-handed measures. The old knight, thus finding himself execrated in Virginia, and despised in England, soon lan- guished and died under the load of infamy with which .he bad crushed the fair faine of his earlier years. Thus ended the life of Sir William Berkeley -- a governor, whose early character historians have delighted to honor. and whose subsequent conduct they have sought to excuse : but of whom we can find nothing better upou record, than the negative merit of not opposing the legislature in its schemes of government in the early part of his reign ; but whose latter years are disgraced by cowardly imbecility, and stained with crime.
Before we tale leave of the transaction which has been tormod. in complaisance !- the royal governor, Bacon's rebellion, it may not be amiss to cast a hurried glance a' the laws passed by the legislature which met under his influence ; which must go far with posterity in determining, whether the name of rebels or patriots would be most consistent with the character of their acts. They strike first at the most important and pressing subject, and the one which had been most neglected-the Indian war. They provide efficient means for conducting it, and for regulating the army. The next act prescribed regulations for Indian trading, the abuse of which was thought to have been very mischievous. They next pray his majesty's governor and conned, that the lan.is which had been set apart at the last peace exclusively for the Indians, and which had been or might be subsequently deserted by them might not be granted away to in. dividuals, but might be used for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the war. The fourth act looks very little like an encouragement of rebellion-reciting that tumaks, riots, and unlawful assemblies, had recently been frequent ; they make it the duty of every officer, civil and military, in the country to aid in suppressing them, and the duty of all citizens to assist such officers under penalty of punishment for refusal ; and the governor is specially requested to assemble a force at the public charge with all possible expedition, to suppress such tumults, and inflict condign punishment apon the offenders. which, says the act, " will conduce to the great saicty and peace of this country, and enable us the better to defend ourselves against the barbarous and common energy." "This single act sheds more light upon the history of the times, and exhibits more plancha the history of the views of the principal actors, than any, or perhaps all, other doen- ments; we see in it the reason why no private persons took advantage of the another state of affairs to disturb the public peace, and that there was no tumult or armed force. except the regular army, raised by the assembly and put under Bacon's connoand : and no rebellious assembly, except the miscreant crew raised by Berkeley in opposition te the government established by the people.
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Having thus provided for safety from foes without and for pence within, the assembly next proceeded to the investigation of abuses by civil officers. Under this head they made several provisions for the prevention of abuses, which have been found so well devised, that they have continued in use to the present day. They next provide against the long continuance of vestries in office ; for the election of burgesses by freemen as well as freeholders; and against false returns of burgesses. Their eighth act provided against abuses committed by the justices in laying county levies ; and requires, that a number of discreet men, chosen by the people, equal in number to the justices appointed by the governor, should act with the justices in laying the county levy. They next empowered the county courts in select their own collectors of couragelevies and over : add prohibit any member of the council from sitting on the county court bench. Fassung some acts of less general importance, but which were wise and useful, we come that act of general pardon and indemnity for all crimes committed between the 1st of March and 25th of June, passed "out of a hearty and pious desire to put an end to all suits
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and controversies, that by occasion of the late fatal distractions have arisen," " and to bury all seeds of future discord and remembrance of any thing whereby the codiact .. might be obnoxious to any pains or penalties whatsoever."
Their last act deprives Edward Hill and John Smith for ever of the right to hold way office of trust, judicature, or profit, because it was notoriously manifest that they been the greatest instruments in raising, promoting, and stirring up the late diffi a ..... and misunderstanding that had arisen between the honorable governor and his 1: 1 .1; 's good and boyal subjects. The actsof this Assembly were signed by Berkeley in : dar form, but were subsequently all declared void, though many of them were re-ep.cted by the Legislature, which, under the influence and control of Berkeley, declared them youd.
Although the people of Virginia had laid down their arms. they were not subdued, but continued to manifest, through their Legisla- ture. the same undaunted tenacity of their rights which had ever characterized them. This was exhibited towards the king's com- inissioners in one of the boldest defences of privilege which the records of any nation can exhibit, and shows how strongly imbued with the spirit of freedom the people must have been, when they could snuff the approach of tyranny at such a distance, and put themselves on their defence against their friends, lest their ene- mies might take advantage of their concessions. The king's com- missioners were empowered to call for persons and papers, for the purpose of prosecuting more effectually their inquiries into the grievances of the colony. In conformity with their powers they called upon the secretary of the Legislature for its journals, but were surprised to find, that although their proccedings were popu- lar, and their object was to investigate and redress grievances of which these very men complained, that they refused to allow them to inspect their journals, returning for ansiver. that it was a dangerous precedent, which might be used in violation of their privileges. At this time, the governor and commissioners had complete physical power over the colony, by the entire absence of any thing like organized opposition, and from the presence of the king's troops ; and availing themselves of this power, they did not hesitate to wrest the journals of the Assembly from the hands of its officer by force. Upon which the Virginia Assembly published a bold and manly declaration, setting forth. " that his majesty's commissioners having called for and forced from the clerk of the Assembly, all the original journals of the Assembly, which power they supposed his majesty would not grant them, for that they find not the same to have been practised by any of the kings of Eng- land, and did therefore take the same to be a violation of their privileges, desiring withal satisfaction to be given them, that they might be assured no such violation of their privileges should be offered for the future." The king was so much displeased with this declaration, that although he pardoned the members of the. Legislature, he directed the record of it to be erased, and required the governor to propose a bill to the next General Assembly con- demning the proceeding, aud declaring the right of his majesty and his officers to call for all the public records and jourtas. whenever they shall think it necessary for his royal servier.
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Sir Herbert Jeffries deserves the merit due to an advantageous
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treaty with the Indians, and a successful opposition to the petty intrigues of the loyalists. He died in 1678, leaving the colony in the hands of the lieutenant-governor, Sir Henry Chickerly, during whose administration magazines and forts were established at the heads of the four great rivers, to overawe the savages, and a silly act passed prohibiting the importation of tobacco from Carolina and Maryland, for the purpose of transhipment, which practice, it they had suffered it to continue, might have proved very protitable to the colony, besides putting the tobacco trade more exclusively into its own hands. In the succeeding spring, Sir Henry delivered the government to Lord Culpeper. The first act of his lordship was to declare full and unqualified indemnity to all for their con- duct in Bacon's rebellion, and allowing reparation to those who should be reproached for their conduct upon that occasion. This popular act, added to the pleasing and conciliatory manners of his lordship, so won upon the good-natured simplicity of the Assem- bly. that they passed au act which probably no force could have extorted from them. They raised the duties and made them per- petual. instead of annual, as before, and, what was at once sur- rendering up the great bulwark of that freedom, for the safety of which they had been so long contending, they made the duties henceforth subject to his majesty's sole direction and disposal.
The king rewarded Culpeper's address in obtaining this acquisi- tion to his power, by the addition of a thousand pounds to his salary, and one hundred and sixty pounds per annum for his rent. The Assembly, too, as if they could not do enough for a royal gov- enor who could condescend to smile upon them, granted his excel- leney a regular duty proportionate to the tonnage of every vessel trading to Virginia. Culpeper having thus obtained a consider- able increase to his revenue by his trip to Virginia, proceeded to England, to enjoy it, leaving the colony once more with Sir Henry Chickerly.
The discontents of the people again began to extend to a degree which could scarcely be kept within bounds. The troops which had been sent over to suppress Bacon's rebellion were still kept up. There were no barracks. and the people positively refused to receive these idle and troublesome drones into their houses, al- though they were regularly billeted by the government. The low price of tobacco, too, was a never-failing source of complaint, as well as the commercial regulations which aided in producing it. The colony had urged Culpeper to exert his influence at court to procure a cessation from planting, to which they had for some time in vain endeavored to obtain the a. sent of Carolina and Maryland.
To these evils another was now added, which struck another blow at commerce. The idea had been conceived that the colony could not prosper without towns and to promote their growth the planters, living principally on the shores of the magnificent Chesa- peake, and the broad navigable rivers of Virginia, were required to bring their produce to particular spots for the purpose of being
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shipped. Thus taxing the planter with unnecessary freight and commission for the benefit of such idlers as might congregate in the towns. These acts were euforced by heavy penalties, and as they contributed very much to the benefit of the town's people. the penalty for the violation was rigorously enforced. These pro ... cutions drove many traders from the country, and the poor plant- ers, to whom it was physically impossible to convey their crops to these paper-towns, were doomed to see their crops rotting on their hands by this injudicious legislation, or, if they attempted to evade the law, have them wrested from them in the shape of penal ies. These several subjects of complaint induced the people of several counties to petition the deputy governor to call an assembly. to endeavor to provide a remedy for the evils. At the meeting of the Assembly, there was much debate and declamation upon the con- dition of the country, but no measure of relief was adopted. By order of the king, however, the two companies of infantry were paid off and disbanded, which put an end to one of the subjects of difficulty. The dissolution of the Assembly without offooting aby thing, caused the impatience of the poor and ignorant people o. several of the counties to break through all restraint, and expand their wrath in the destruction of tobacco-plants, at a scason of the year when it was too late to sow more seed. Sir Henry Chickerly, with commendable moderation, only took measures to stop these misguided people. without resorting to harsh punishments ; but lest it should be drawn into a precedent, the Legislature not long after- wards made it treason. In the mean time, Lord Culpeper ar- rived, and his haughty bearing to the Council and the Burgesses soon gave intimation to them that his lordship's feelings toward. the colony had undergone a change. He enlarged, in his speech to the Assembly, much upon the favor of his majesty in disband- ing the troops, and spoke of permission which he had obtained to raise the value of the current coin ; he then went on to declare that the colonists did not deserve these gracious favors, but rather punishment for their recent turbulence; he also expressed his majesty's great dissatisfaction at the refusal of the journals. and desired that that portion of their proceedings should be expunged
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