USA > Virginia > History of the colony and ancient dominion of Virginia > Part 51
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The council at this time consisted of President Nelson, Com- missary Camm, Ralph Wormley, Colonel G. Corbin, G. Corbin, Jr., William Byrd, and John Page. Being summoned to hold a meeting, they assembled as usual in the council chamber, but Dunmore requested their attendance at the palace. He excused his removal of the powder as owing to his fear that the volunteers might have been tempted to seize upon the magazine; he com- plained that his life had been exposed to danger in the recent disturbances, and he recommended the issuing of a proclamation. John Page, the youngest member, boldly advised the governor to give up the powder and arms, as the measure necessary to re- store public tranquillity. Dunmore, enraged, struck the table with his fist, exclaiming, "Mr. Page, I am astonished at you." The other councillors remained silent. Page, although he had been made a member of the council by Dunmore, had, neverthe- less, opposed his nomination of John Randolph as one of the board of visiters of the college, declaring "that as he had been rejected on a former occasion as not possessing the disposition and character, moral and religious, which the charter and statutes of the college required, he ought not again to be nominated, till it could be proved that he had abandoned his former principles and practices, which no one could venture to say he had." Mr.
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Page had then proposed Nathaniel Burwell in the place of the governor's nominee, and he was elected, the governor alone dis- senting. This proceeding gave great offence to Dunmore and his secretary, Foy. Foy showed his resentment so offensively, that, says Page, "I was obliged to call him to account for it, and he, like a brave and candid man, made full reparation to me and my my friend, James Innes."
In Hanover the committee of safety for the county, and the members of the Independent Company, at the call of Patrick Henry, met at New Castle on the second day of May, and were addressed by him with such effect that they resolved either to recover the powder or make a reprisal for it .*
Burkt says: "The affair of the powder was decided before the battle of Lexington was ever talked of in Virginia." But as it appears that the express from Massachusetts reached Petersburg on Sunday, the first of May, it is probable that Henry had already heard the news. Captain Meredith resigned in Henry's favor, and he was invested with the command, Meredith accepting the place of lieutenant. Having received orders from the com- mittee consonant with his own suggestions, Captain Henry marched at once toward Williamsburg. Ensign Parke Goodall, with sixteen men, was detached into King and Queen County to Laneville, (on the Matapony,) the seat of Richard Corbin, the king's deputy receiver-general, to demand the estimated value of the powder, and in case of his refusal to make him a prisoner. The detachment reached Laneville about midnight, and a guard was stationed around the house. At daybreak Mrs. Corbin assured Goodall that the king's money was never kept there, but at Williamsburg, and that Colonel Corbin was then in that town. Henry had started from Hanovertown with only his own com- pany, but the news of his march being speedily spread abroad, companies started up on all sides, and were in motion to join his standard, to the number, it was believed, of several, some say
* Wirt's Henry, 137; Burk's Hist. of Va., iv. 13. This volume is a continua- tion of Burk by Skelton Jones and Louis Hue Girardin, mainly by the latter, who enjoyed the advantage of Mr. Jefferson's assistance.
+ Vol. iii. 416.
į Lossing's Field-Book of the Revolution, ii. 584. Wirt says that the news reached Virginia before the assembling of the volunteers at Fredericksburg.
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five thousand men. The colony was governed by county com- mittees. Lady Dunmore, with her children, retired in dismay to the Fowey, lying at Yorktown. Even the patriots at Williams- burg were alarmed at the approach of this tornado; message after message was despatched, and Captain Henry was implored to desist from entering Williamsburg. The messengers were de- tained, and he marched on. The scene resembled that presented by Bacon marching against Berkley a hundred years before. Dunmore, in the mean time, issued a proclamation calling upon the people to resist Henry, and planted cannon at his palace, and ordered up a detachment of marines from the Fowey. Before daybreak on the fourth of May, Captain Montague, of that ship, landed the detachment, and addressed a note to President Nelson, saying that he had received certain information that Lord Dun- more was threatened with an attack to be made at daybreak on that morning at the palace, and requesting him to endeavor to prevent any assault upon the marines, as in case of it he should be compelled to fire upon the town of York.
Henry, with one hundred and fifty men, halted at Doncastle's Ordinary, (sixteen miles from Williamsburg,) where Goodall had been ordered to rejoin him. In the meanwhile the authorities of the town were concerting measures to prevent the threatened col- lision. Dunmore denounced Henry as a rebel and the author of all the disturbances, and poured out a tirade of profane threats and abuse. Nevertheless, at his instance, Carter Braxton, son- in-law to Colonel Corbin, repaired to Henry's headquarters on the third, and interposed his efforts to prevent matters from coming to extremities. Finding that Henry would not disband without receiving the powder or its equivalent, he returned to Williamsburg, and procured from Colonel Corbin, the deputy receiver-general, a bill of exchange for the amount demanded, and delivering it to Henry at sunrise of Wednesday the fourth, succeeded in warding off the impending blow .* In this pacific
* The following is a copy of the receipt :-
"DONCASTLE'S ORDINARY, New Kent, May 4th, 1775.
" Received from the Hon. Richard Corbin, Esq., his majesty's receiver-general, £330, as a compensation for the gunpowder lately taken out of the public maga- zine by the governor's order, which money I promise to convey to the Virginia
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course Mr. Braxton coincided with the moderate councils of the leading men at Williamsburg.
Yorktown and Williamsburg being in commotion at the landing of the marines, and an attack upon the public treasury being apprehended, Henry wrote to Nicholas, the treasurer, offering the services of his force to remove the public treasury to any place in the colony which might be deemed a safer place of deposite than Williamsburg. The treasurer replied that he did not appre- hend any necessity for such a guard, and that the people of Wil- liamsburg "were perfectly quiet;" which, however, could hardly have been the case, because at that time more than a hundred citizens patroled the streets and guarded the treasury .*
Henry, having attained the object of his march, returned with his volunteers to Hanover. The committee presented their thanks to the party for their good conduct, and also to the numerous volunteers who were marching to lend their co-operation.
Parke Goodall was a member of the convention of 1788, and afterwards kept a tavern called the "Indian Queen," in the City of Richmond. t
The contest between Henry and Dunmore concerning the powder, is like that between Colonel Hutchinson and Lord Newark on a similar occasion in 1642, at Nottingham, as related by Mrs. Hutchinson in her charming memoirs of her husband-t the most beautiful monument ever erected by female affection.
Two days after Henry had received compensation for the powder, Dunmore issued a proclamation denouncing "a certain
delegates at the general congress, to be, under their direction, laid out in gun- powder for the colony's use, and to be stored as they shall direct, until the next colony convention or general assembly, unless it shall be necessary in the mean time to use the same in the defence of the colony. It is agreed that in case the next convention shall determine that any part of the said money ought to be returned to his majesty's said receiver-general, that the same shall be done accordingly.
"PATRICK HENRY, JR.
"Test : SAMUEL MEREDITH, PARKE GOODALL."
* Burk, iv. 15.
Richmond in By-gone Days, by Samuel Mordecai, 173.
į Page 102.
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Patrick Henry, Jr., of Hanover," and a number of deluded fol- lowers, charging them with having unlawfully taken up arms, and by letters excited the people in divers parts of the country to join them in these outrageous and rebellious practices, extort- ing £330 from the king's receiver-general, and forbidding all persons to aid or abet "the said Patrick Henry, Jr.," or his con- federates. The members of the council, with the exception of John Page, sided with the governor, and advised the issuing of the proclamation, and afterwards published an address, in which they expressed their "detestation and abhorrence for that licen- tious and ungovernable spirit that had gone forth and misled the once happy people of this country." The council now shared the public odium with Dunmore. There was a rumor that he in- tended to have Henry arrested on his way to the congress at Philadelphia; and it is also said that the governor denounced Henry as a coward for not having accompanied Randolph and Pendleton. Dunmore, writing to the ministry, described Henry as "a man of desperate circumstances, one who had been very active in encouraging disobedience and exciting a spirit of revolt among the people for many years past."* So in Massachusetts Samuel Adams, the model patriot of New England, was denounced by the British governor there. Henry set out for the congress May the eleventh, and was escorted in triumph by his admiring countrymen as far as Hooe's Ferry, on the Potomac, and was repeatedly stopped on the way to receive addresses full of thanks and applause.
* Bancroft, vii. 335.
CHAPTER LXXXII.
1775.
Mecklenburg Declaration.
THAT there was a Declaration of Independence made at Charlotte, by citizens of the County of Mecklenburg, North Carolina, on the 20th of May, 1775, is the commonly received opinion in that State, and has been often stated in print .* The closer scrutiny to which this declaration has been of late years subjectedt appears to invalidate its authenticity. The patriotism, intelligence, and courage of the Scotch-Irish inhabitants of Mecklenburg-the Alexanders, Brevard, Polk, Balch, and others, are universally acknowledged; and that they "acted" independ- ence as early as May, 1775, is admitted. But that they then made an absolute declaration of independence, (supposing them competent to do so,) does not appear to be substantiated by suffi- cient evidence. The original manuscript, it is alleged, was pre- served by the secretary of the convention till the year 1800, when it was destroyed, with his dwelling-house, by fire.} It is said, however, that he had previously taken care to give copies of it to two or three persons; and mention is made of one of these tran- scripts as early as 1793. But they do not appear to have been any further multiplied. That a declaration of independence, made more than a year before that of July, 1776, should have been preserved by the secretary so long, and yet have remained unpublished and so little known, is extraordinary. It is remark- able, too, that such a paper should appear without date of time on the face of it. The meeting reported to have been held at Charlotte, on the twentieth of May, is styled "the convention;"
* Its authenticity was admitted in the former edition of this work.
7 Especially by Mr. Grigsby, in his Discourse on the Virginia Convention of '76, p. 20.
Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, 205.
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but that of the thirty-first of the same kind, was simply a meet- ing of the committee of the county, and was so called at the time. It is asserted that the immediate exciting cause of the resolutions, or alleged declaration of the twentieth, was, that on that day a messenger arrived in hot haste with intelligence of the battle of Lexington. But it appears* that this intelligence reached Savannah, in Georgia, on the tenth; and it would appear hardly probable that it should have reached Charlotte ten days later.
Upon comparing one of the manuscript copies with the one published in Martin's History of North Carolina, there appears to be a remarkable difference between them. To explain this, it has, indeed, been conjectured, that Martin's copy contains the reso- lutions as at first draughted by Dr. Brevard, the author of them, and that the other contains them in their amended form. But the Martin copy, instead of being a rough draught, appears to be more formal and complete than the other. The Martin copy expresses the resolution in the present tense; the other in the imperfect, bearing upon its face the appearance of having been made up at a subsequent time by an effort of recollection.
The document styled a declaration, whatever may have been its origin, or terms, remained long in obscurity, public attention having been first drawn to it, in 1819, by the Raleigh Register, at the instance of Colonel Thomas Polk. But a declaration, to effect its object, must be published far and wide.
The Mecklenburg committee met at Charlotte on the thirtieth of May, and passed a series of resolutions, (making no reference whatever to a previous declaration of independence;) suspending the former civil constitution, and organizing a provisional repub- lican government. The eighteenth resolution is in these words : "That these resolves be in full force and virtue, until instruc- tions from the provincial congress regulating the jurisprudence of the province shall provide otherwise, or the legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretentions with respect to America:" thus explicitly recognizing the right of eminent domain as belonging to Great Britain. It is not to be
* Bancroft, vii. 337.
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credited that the Mecklenburg patriots made an absolute declara- tion of independence on the twentieth, and in ten days there- after acknowledged the sovereignty of Great Britain. These admirable resolutions of the thirtieth were published in the Mer- cury, a North Carolina newspaper, (and others,) and a copy of it was transmitted by Governor Tryon to the British minister, and denounced as the boldest of all, "most traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws and constitution, and setting up a system of rule and regulation subversive of his majesty's govern- ment." The alleged declaration of the twentieth, brief and abso- lute, was published in no newspaper, and was not denounced by the governor; while the resolutions of the thirty-first, recognizing the sovereignty of Great Britain, were so published and denounced. Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, was, nevertheless, then unques- tionably in a condition of actual self-government and virtual independence; and the names of Brevard, the master-spirit of the Charlotte Convention, (afterwards a patriot-martyr,) and of his compatriots, stand on the page of history in characters of recorded honor which need no adventitious lustre .*
* Grigsby's Convention of Va. of '76; Martin's Hist. of N. C., ii. 372 ; Foote's Sketches of N. C. ; Hawks' Lecture, in Revolut. Hist. of N. C. President Swain, in a lecture before the Historical Society of the University of North Carolina, referring to this subject, evidently considers the resolutions of the thirtieth of May as the Mecklenburg Declaration. (Revolut. Hist. of N. C, 101.) Mr. Ban- croft takes the same view.
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
1775.
Congress-Dunmore offers the Olive Branch-New Commotions-Dunmore re- tires-Courts closed - Correspondence between Dunmore and Assembly- Washington, Commander-in-chief-Proceedings at Williamsburg-Proceedings in Congress-Washington at Cambridge-Lady Dunmore.
THE second congress assembled on the 10th day of May, 1775, in the State House, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Pey- ton Randolph was again elected president, but finding it necessary to return to Virginia to perform the duties of speaker, was suc- ceeded by the well-tried patriot, John Hancock. Many of the leading members, including Washington, still hoped for reconcilia- tion with the mother country, and few as yet avowed themselves in favor of independence. But while the congress were pacific in theory, they were revolutionary in action. A second petition to the king was adopted; but, at the same time, a federal union was organized, and the executive power vested in a council of twelve. Measures were taken for enlisting troops, erecting forts, providing military stores, and issuing a paper currency. Massa- chusetts was advised to form an internal government for herself. Washington was chairman of the military committees, and the regulations of the army and defensive measures were mostly de- vised by him.
Shortly after the affair of the gunpowder, the public agitations were again quieted upon the reception of Lord North's concilia- tory proposition, commonly called the "Olive Branch;" and Dun- more convened the burgesses, and Lady Dunmore and her family returned (to the great satisfaction of the people) from the Fowey, where they had taken refuge during these disturbances, to the palace. The assembly meeting on the first day of June, the governor presented Lord North's proposition. The council's answer was satisfactory; but before the burgesses could reply, a
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new explosion occurred. Upon Henry's recent approach toward Williamsburg some of the inhabitants, to the great offence of the graver citizens, had taken possession of a few of the guns re- maining in the magazine. On the night of June the fifth a num- ber of persons having assembled there to furnish themselves with arms, some of them were wounded by spring-guns placed there by order of the governor. Besides this, some barrels of powder were found buried in the magazine, to be used, it was suspected, as a mine when occasion should offer. Early on the next morn- ing Lord Dunmore, with his family, escaped from Williamsburg to return no more, and took shelter on board of the Fowey, leaving behind him a message to the house, ascribing his depar- ture to apprehensions of personal danger, and declaring his will- ingness to co-operate with the assembly in the public business. That body, by a deputation, requested him to return to the palace, assuring him that they would unite in whatever measures might be necessary for the protection of him and his family. Dunmore in reply complained of the inimical spirit of the bur- gesses toward him, of the countenance which they had given to the disorderly proceedings of the people, of his majesty's maga- zine having been broken open and rifled in the presence of mem- bers of the house; he further said that while some endeavors had been made by the committee of the house to prevail upon the people to restore the arms, no steps had been taken to bring the offenders to justice; that a body of men had assembled at Wil- liamsburg for the purpose of attacking the king's troops, and that guards had been mounted under false pretences. He exhorted them to return to their constitutional duty; to open the courts of justice; to disband the independent companies; and to put an end to the persecutions of his majesty's loyal subjects.
The governor at the same time communicated papers contain- ing terms upon which a reconciliation might take place-placing his return upon the condition of their acceptance of the "Olive Branch." The assembly in their reply, composed by Mr. Jeffer- son, declared that next to the preservation of liberty, a recon- ciliation would be the greatest of all human blessings; but that they could not consent to the proposed terms. Leaving the determination of these disputes to the wisdom of congress, for
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themselves they avowed that they had exhausted every means for obtaining redress; they had remonstrated to parliament, and parliament had only added new oppressions to the old; they had wearied the king with petitions which he had not deigned to answer; they had appealed to the native honor and justice of the British nation, but their efforts in favor of the colonies had as yet proved ineffectual. Nothing remained but to commit their cause to the even-handed justice of Him who doeth no wrong, "earn- estly beseeching him to illuminate the counsels and prosper the endeavors of those to whom America hath confided her hopes, that through their wise direction we may again see re-united the blessings of liberty and property, and the most permanent har- mony with Great Britain."
The courts of justice upon Dunmore's flight had been closed, the general court refusing to transact business, under the pretext that the fees of officers could not be legally taxed without an act of assembly-the real ground being, it is said, the desire of bringing about an independent meeting of that body, and of pro- tecting debtors against suits, principally foreign.
In another correspondence with the governor, the assembly requested him to give an order for the return of the arms; but this he refused to do, alleging that they belonged to the king. They also complained of being compelled to communicate with his excellency on board of one of his majesty's armed ships, and at the distance of twelve miles from their usual place of meeting. His lordship laid the whole responsibility of these inconveniences upon the disorders that had driven him from the seat of govern- ment, and required the house to attend him on board the Fowey for the purpose of obtaining his signature to bills. Some of the burgesses were disposed to acquiesce in the proposed arrange- ment; but it was rejected upon a member's relating Æsop's fable of the sick lion and the fox. The assembly declared the gover- nor's message a high breach of the rights and privileges of the house; they advised the people of Virginia to prepare for the preservation of their property, their rights, and their liberties. It was also resolved unanimously that "we do and will bear faith and true allegiance to our most gracious sovereign George the Third, our only lawful and rightful king; and that we will at all
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times, to the utmost of our power, and at the risk of our lives and property, maintain and defend his government in this colony, as founded on the established laws and principles of the constitu- tion." They furthermore unanimously declared their earnest desire to preserve and strengthen the bands of amity with their fellow-subjects of Great Britain.
On the fourteenth day of June, George Washington, upon the nomination of Mr. Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, was unani- mously elected by the congress, commander-in-chief of the armies of the United Colonies. John Adams, of Massachusetts, the eloquent and indomitable advocate of independence, had, on a previous occasion, recommended him for the post, as "a gentleman, whose skill and experience as an officer, whose independent for- tune, great talents, and excellent universal character, would com- mand the approbation of all America, and unite the cordial exer- tions of all the colonies better than any other person in the union." Mr. Adams had discovered that the preference of the Southern members for Washington was very strong. The pay of the commander-in-chief of the continental army was fixed at the sum of five hundred dollars a month. Washington, impressed with a profound sense of the arduous responsibility of the trust, while he gratefully accepted it, declared at the same time that he did not think himself equal to it. He declined all compensation for his services, and made known his intention to keep an account of his expenses, which he should rely on congress to discharge. A fac-simile copy of his account, published in recent times, attests the fidelity with which he performed this engagement. It is remarkable that while the Southern members in general preferred him, among those, who at the first suggestion of his name by Mr. Adams, were opposed to his appointment, were several of the Virginia delegates, and Mr. Pendleton, in particular, was abso- lutely against it; but upon further conference and reflection all objection was withdrawn. Four major-generals were appointed, Ward of Massachusetts, Charles Lee, an Englishman, Schuyler, of New York, and Putnam, of Connecticut. In compliance with General Washington's request, his old comrade, Major Horatio Gates, then on his estate in Virginia, was appointed adjutant- general. Washington was likewise warmly in favor of the
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appointment of General Charles Lee; yet not without misgivings as to his violent temper.
The Shawnee hostages had disappeared at the time with the governor; and George Washington, Thomas Walker, James Wood, Andrew Lewis, John Walker, and Adam Stephen were appointed commissioners to ratify a treaty with that tribe. It was determined that Lord Dunmore had voluntarily abdicated the post of governor, and that the president of the council should discharge the duties. The abdication was, no doubt, as "volun- tary " as that of James the Second. The burgesses adjourned to the twelfth of October, and were summoned to meet in con- vention on the seventeenth of July .* It was on this occasion that Richard Henry Lee, standing on the 17th of June, 1775, with two other burgesses, in the portico of the capitol, inscribed with his pencil, on a pillar, these lines,-
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