USA > Virginia > The history of Virginia, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 9
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THE commissioners appointed by James reach- ed Virginia in the early part of the year 1624. At first, the colonists, taking but little interest in the controversy between the king and the company, were disposed to remain neutral; being contented, so long as their own rights were not invaded, to look quietly on ; but when they had obtained, by means of secret friends in London, copies of the two petitions presented to the king, · in which their country and condition were falsely represented, they met in general assembly, and returned a spirited reply in defence of their own honour and good name. A petition to the king was soon after drafted, and a member of the
147
CROWN COMMISSIONERS.
1624.]
council sent to England, at the general charge of the colonists, to represent their interests. The chief prayer of the petition was, " that the go- vernors may not have absolute power, and that they might still retain the liberty of popular as- semblies, than which, nothing could more con- duce to the public satisfaction and public utility."
Differences between the commissioners and the assembly soon occurred. As the former declined to make known the authority under which they acted, and the secret instructions with which they had been charged, the governor and assem- bly thought proper to preserve an equal mystery in regard to their own proceedings. With a view to obtain the information they required, Pory, one of the commissioners, now suborned the clerk of the council, and gained from him a full know- ledge of the secret consultations of the Virginians. Indignant at this base treachery, the faithless clerk was promptly arrested and punished with the loss of his ears. After being thus baffled and exposed, the commissioners endeavoured, by alternate threats and promises, to induce the assembly to petition the crown for a revocation of the charter. In this they were equally un- successful.
The assembly, refusing to accredit men who declined to show the commission under which they acted, continued to legislate for the colony in their customary manner.
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HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1624.
The acts passed at this period show that the colonists were fully sensible of their rights as a free and independent people. One act is pecu- liarly significant ; it declares in the clearest lan- guage that taxation and representation must go together. This bold proposition is expressed in the following words: "The governor shall not lay any taxes or impositions upon the colonists, their lands, or commodities, in any other way than by the authority of the general assembly, to be levied and employed as the said assembly shall appoint."
To guard against any future surprise by the Indians, the most stringent regulations were adopted. There being but few of the inhabitants residing in towns, nearly all the colonists being scattered widely apart among the plantations, it was ordered that every house should be fortified with palisadoes, that no man should go or send abroad without a party sufficiently armed,, or work in the fields without a sentry to keep guard over the arms. The inhabitants were forbidden to go aboard ships, or elsewhere, in such numbers as to endanger the safety of their plantations. Every planter was required to be provided with a sufficient quantity of arms and ammunition, to keep a strict watch by night, and to suffer no powder to be expended in amusement or enter- tainment. Corn planting was promoted by not restricting its price, and trade with the savages
149
LONDON COMPANY DISSOLVED.
1624.]
for that necessary article of food strictly pro- hibited.
· Shortly after sending commissioners to Vir- ginia, the king had caused a quo warranto to be issued against the company. The cause came up for trial during Trinity term, in 1624. It was, doubtless, already prejudged. Before the end of the term a judgment was declared by the Lord Chief Justice Ley against the company, and its charter cancelled.
On the return of the commissioners to Eng- land, they reported favourably of the soil and climate of Virginia, but censured deeply the con- duct of the company. The dissolution of the latter was followed by no very general regret. It had been long engaged in bitter controversies, which crippled its influence, and abstracted great- ly from its ability to answer the ends for which it had been originally organized. Its fall created no immediate change in the condition of the colony.
Sir Francis Wyatt was confirmed in his office, and himself and council only authorized to go- vern within the same limits as any previous go- vernor and council resident there within the space of the five previous years.
The council nominated by the king was chosen with more than his usual wisdom; the selection being made from men of moderately liberal views in preference to violent court partisans.
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150
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1626.
The death of James, in March, 1625, put a stop to a project he had formed of framing a code of fundamental laws for the colony. He was succeeded by his son Charles I.
The prosperity of the colony steadily increased. Large numbers of immigrants sailed for the favoured country, where they took up land and settled separately on their plantations.
The passion for becoming owners of large tracts of land, combined with the advantages which the numerous rivers afforded for the ship- ment of tobacco from private wharves, encou- raged a straggling system of settlement, which so effectually prevented the growth of towns, that eighty years after this period, or so late as 1703, there was not congregated together, in any one place in Virginia, a sufficient number of inhabit- ants to entitle the collection of houses to any higher rank than that of a small village.
Although Virginia had become a royal pro- vince, her rights and privileges were not interfered with by Charles. The latter was too intent upon monopolizing the trade in tobacco exported from the colony to inquire into the origin of its local legislation.
In 1626, Wyatt was succeeded as governor by Sir George Yeardley. No appointment could have been more satisfactory to the Virginians, as it relieved them from all fear that their form of government would undergo any radical change.
151
LORD BALTIMORE.
1628.]
Charles had, doubtless, no design to take from the colonists their cherished privilege of self-go- vernment, and in the commission of the newly- appointed governor, expressly declared his wish to benefit, encourage, and perfect the colony, and to continue its prosperity by the same means that were formerly thought best suited to effect that purpose.
The colonial assembly was thus tacitly acknow- ledged ; and as Yeardley had the honour of its first introduction, his reappointment was regard- ed as a happy omen.
The death of Yeardley, in 1628, led to the ap- pointment of Sir John Harvey. During the in- terim, Francis West was elected by the council to occupy the office vacated by the decease of Yeardley, until his successor should arrive.
It was at this period that Lord Baltimore visited Virginia. His intention was to have set- tled in the colony, but having become by con- viction a Roman Catholic, he was received with the utmost coldness by the people, who required him, as a preliminary to his becoming a recog- nised citizen of the colony, to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy. His religious scru- ples prevented him from complying with this demand, and, pained at the religious intolerance of which he had been made a striking example, he resolved upon seeking a settlement elsewhere.
With this view he explored the Chesapeake
152
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.
[1635
Bay, and finding it as yet altogether uninhabited by the English, none of whose settlements ex- tended beyond the south side of the Potomac River, he projected the plan of a new colony, to be founded under his own auspices, and entirely independent of Virginia. On his return to Eng- land, he succeeded in obtaining from Charles I. a grant of the province of Maryland, bounded to the south, on the western shore, by the Po- tomac River; and on the eastern shore, by an east line from Point Lookout. Lord Baltimore dying before his project was fully perfected, his son obtained, in 1633, a confirmation of the patent, and went over in person to plant his new colony.
On the unexpected return of West to England, John Pott was chosen Governor of Virginia, whose term of administration came to an end, in the autumn of 1629, by the arrival from Eng-' land of Sir John Harvey.
The administration of Harvey has been va- riously characterized. By some historians he is regarded as having acted in a rapacious and tyrannical manner. His deposition from office in 1635, and his shipment to England, accompa- nied by commissioners empowered to lay their complaints before the king, gave a plausible colouring to the charge. On the other hand, his apologists point out the circumscribed power of the governor, and ask how it was possible for
153
DISCONTENTS.
1639.]
tyranny to have been exercised under a preroga- tive so limited ?
There is very little doubt that the period dur- ing which Harvey was governor was one of great party heat and excitement.
A grant issued in 1630 to Sir Robert Heath, for the territory of South Carolina, was well calculated to produce an unpleasant state of feeling in Virginia, which the subsequent grant of Maryland to Lord Baltimore by no means tended to allay. The Virginians felt that the boundaries of their province had been unjustly circumscribed, and they charged Harvey with having rendered assistance in obtaining the ob- noxious patents.
That the colonists must have felt themselves seriously aggrieved before they ventured upon an act, than which nothing was more likely to draw upon them the displeasure of the king, cannot be doubted for a moment. Charles was indeed indignant. He refused to hear the com- missioners, sent them directly home, and rein- stated Harvey in his former office without insti- tuting any inquiry into his previous conduct.
In 1639, Harvey was succeeded by Sir Francis Wyatt. The latter remained in office only two years, when he surrendered his authority into the hands of Sir William Berkeley.
During the earlier years of Berkeley's adminis- tration, many new and judicious laws were made
154
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1644
by the Virginians, which tended to perfect their system of government. Condemnations to ser- vice were abolished, the courts of justice made more conformable to those of England, religion was provided for, the land titles adjusted, and the boundary difficulties with Maryland amicably arranged.
The contending factions by which England was at this time torn did not in any serious degree affect Virginia. There, all was peace, concert, and harmony. The Indians, against whom in- roads were made almost annually, having heard of the troubles in the mother country, were in- stigated by the now very aged Opechancanough to cut off, by a second massacre, three hundred of the colonists. The loss fell severest upon the plantations to the south of James River, and on the heads of the other rivers, but chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Pamunkey, where the au- thority of Opechancanough was most implicitly recognised.
Opechancanough had been in his earlier years a man of large stature and of commanding ap- pearance. He has been called, by Smith and other historians, the brother of Powhattan ; but the tradition of the Indians was different. They spoke of him as a prince of a foreign nation, who came to them a great way from the south-west ; · and from accounts subsequently given to the settlers, he was supposed to have sprung from
155
OPECHANCANOUGH.
1644.]
the Spanish Indians on the frontiers of Mexico. One thing is certain, whether a native or a foreign prince, from the first settlement of James- town until his own death, he continued either secretly or openly the bitter foe to the English.
No sooner did the tidings of this massacre reach Berkeley, than he commenced against the savages retaliatory measures of the severest kind. Their villages were burned to the ground, their crops destroyed, and they themselves, hunt- ed incessantly among the recesses of the forest, were shot down without mercy wherever they could be found. The aged Opechancanough was the especial object of pursuit. He had now grown so decrepit, that, being unable to walk alone, he was carried by his men wherever he was compelled to flee before his relentless pur-
suers. His once stalwart person was now gaunt and emaciated. His sinews slackened, and his eyelids had become so heavy that he could not see but as they were lifted up by his servants. In this low condition he was surprised in his hiding-place by a party of horse, and conducted a prisoner to Jamestown. He was received by the governor with all respect and tenderness, but he did not survive his capture more than two weeks; one of the soldiers by whom he was taken prisoner having basely shot him through the back, in revenge for the injuries which the colonists had suffered.
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HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1644.
He bore up with stoical bravery to the last moment of his life, and did not exhibit the least dejection at his captivity. Hearing one day the sound of numerous footsteps about him, he caused his eyelids to be lifted, and finding that a crowd of persons had been admitted to see him, he called indignantly for the governor, and told him with great scorn, that if it had been his fortune to have taken Sir William Berkeley prisoner, he would not meanly have exposed him as a show to the people., The mortified chieftain had for- gotten the exultation with which, at an earlier day, he had paraded Virginia's noblest champion, Captain John Smith, through all the Indian vil- lages from the Pamunkey to the Potomac.
1644.
HER PROSPERITY. 157
CHAPTER XIII.
Berkeley sails for England-Treaty of peace with the Indians -Prosperity of Virginia-Her loyalty-Hospitality extended to fugitive Cavaliers-Charles II. proclaimed-Action of the English Parliament-Virginia acknowledges the common- wealth-Berkeley resigns-Richard Bennett elected governor -- Indian incursion-Edward Diggs elected governor-Samuel Matthews chosen governor-His controversy with the bur- gesses-Declares the dissolution of the assembly-The as- sembly deposes the governor and council-Re-elects Matthews -His submission-Richard Cromwell-Acknowledged pro- tector of England-The Virginia assembly defines its privi- leges-Restoration of Charles II .- Berkeley sails for England -The laws of Virginia revised.
THE prosperity of the province of Virginia suffered no material check from the last Indian outbreak. The savages themselves were alarmed at their own temerity, and, to avoid the wrath they had provoked, fled immediately from the scene of massacre. The settlers most exposed upon the frontiers banded together for self-de- fence during a brief period ; but even then com- panies of ten men were considered sufficient to insure protection against any force which the savages could bring against them.
In June, 1644, Berkeley sailed for England. During his absence, Richard Kemp was elected by the council to exercise the functions of gover- nor.
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158
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1645.
Berkeley returned to the province in June, 1645, and reassumed the duties of his office. In October of the following year, a treaty of peace was con- cluded with Necotowance, the successor of Ope- chancanough. By the terms of this treaty, the Indians were permitted to inhabit the north side of the York or Pamunkey River, while the whites obtained a cession, for ever, of all the country from the falls of the James and York to the Chesapeake Bay.
The long struggle between Charles I. and the Parliament, which ended in the decapitation of the king, and the elevation of Oliver Cromwell to the protectorate, crowded the ports of Vir- ginia with vessels and immigrants. At the close of 1648, thirty-one ships traded to the province, twelve of which were from London and Bristol, a like number from Holland, and seven from New England.
Attached to the cause of Charles from the moderation with which he had exercised his pre- rogative as regarded themselves, the Virginians were disposed to look upon the success of the parliamentary party in England as likely to affect the welfare of the province injuriously. Such fugitive Cavaliers, therefore, as sought a home among them, they welcomed with the most un- bounded hospitality. Every house was a shelter for them, and every planter a friend.
Berkeley, also a devoted loyalist, received the
159
CHARLES II. PROCLAIMED.
1652.]
fugitives with open arms. His purse and his dwelling were free to all. Charles II. was pro- claimed with enthusiasm the rightful monarch of Virginia, and every expression of dissent on the part of the few republicans who inclined to the cause of the English commonwealth was prompt- - ly rebuked.
Charles, then an exile at Breda, did not fail to evince his gratification at the loyalty displayed by Virginia. He sent Berkeley a renewal of his commission as governor, and suggested fit candi- dates for various offices in the province.
For three years after the execution of Charles I., the authority of his son was acknowledged by Virginia.
No sooner, however, were affairs tranquillized nearer home, than the English Parliament turn- ed its attention to the colonies. An ordinance was passed empowering the council of state to reduce the rebellious colonies to obedience, and closing the ports of Barbadoes, Antigua, Bermu- das, and Virginia, against foreign trading ves- sels. Maryland had already made submission, and Massachusetts, anticipating the orders of Parliament, to preserve the independence of her own legislation, had prohibited all intercourse with Virginia until the supremacy of the com- monwealth should be established.
In the early part of 1652, an English squad- ron, after reducing Antigua and Barbadoes, en-
160
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1652.
tered the waters of the Chesapeake. Active pre- parations had previously been made by the Vir- ginians for a vigorous defence ; but when terms were offered them, by which it was agreed that the act of submission should be considered a voluntary one, and not enforced by conquest ; that they should enjoy equal liberty with the free-born people of England; that they should enact their own laws by general assembly as hitherto ; and that they should be free from all taxes, customs, and impositions whatever, except such as the general assembly should consent to, there was no longer any reason or policy to per- severe in their resistance, and therefore, upon those terms, the articles of surrender were signed by the general assembly and the commissioners of the commonwealth.
By this amicable arrangement, Virginia lost nothing of h == former independence. Berkeley, a devoted loyalist, immediately resigned his office, and Richard Bennett, one of the commissioners, was elected governor. A new council was also organized, with power to act only upon such in- structions from England as should be first ratified by the general assembly. At the same session it was declared best that officers should be elect- ed by the burgesses, who were the representa- tives of the people, and the governor and council were only to be admitted in future to seats in
161
GOVERNOR MATTHEWS.
1652.]
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the assembly, by taking a similar oath to that required of the burgesses.
About this time the colony was again troubled with Indian hostilities. A number of. strange Indians, calling themselves Rechahecrians, de- scended from their homes among the mountains, to the number of six or seven hundred warriors, and took up a strong position on the falls of James River. The first expedition sent against them returned unsuccessful. A second one was organized soon after, which was accompanied by a band of tributary Indians under their chief Totopotomoi. Supported by the English, these savage allies fought with desperate bravery. They numbered one hundred men; and were nearly all of them killed, including their chief.
In 1655, Edward Diggs, who, as a member of the council, had given repeated proofs of his fidelity to Virginia and the commonwealth of England, was elected governor by the assembly.
In March, 1658, the choice of the assembly fell upon "worthy Samuel Matthews, an old planter of forty years standing, who kept a good house, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Vir- ginia."
Notwithstanding this high praise of Governor Matthews, his elevation appears to have inspired him with so exalted an idea of his prerogative as to lead him into a controversy with the assembly. The latter had extended its powers by making a
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162
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1658.
change in the constitution, under which all laws were in future to be discussed in private session, and not, as heretofore, in the presence of the governor and his council. Instead also of dis- solving the assembly, the burgesses thought fit to adjourn the session until November.
On the 1st of April, the governor and council declared by message a dissolution of the assem- bly. The answer of the latter denied the legal- ity of the act, and requested that it should be revoked. A resolution was then carried, by which such members as separated from the rest of the assembly were to incur censure as false to the trust reposed in them, and the acts of those re- maining were to be considered as the acts of the entire house. Each member was further bound, by oath, not to disclose the proceedings of the assembly.
This sturdy resistance to the dictation of the governor induced him to yield; but as he ex- pressed, at the same time, his intention to appeal to the protector, the assembly voted his answer unsatisfactory, and requested him to revoke his. order of dissolution.
Matthews consented to do so, but still asserted his determination to refer the dispute to Crom- well for his decision.
Fully conscious that such an act would be likely to jeopardize their liberties, the members of the assembly resolved on a solemn assertion
163
BOLD PROCEEDINGS.
1658.]
of their independent powers. They declared the house of burgesses incapable of dissolution by any authority in Virginia except their own. To show that they possessed the right to remove obnoxious officers, they deposed the governor and council, and then re-elected the former and a part of the latter. They further resolved, that in future no one should be admitted of the council unless he was nominated, appointed, and con- firmed by the house of burgesses.
These bold proceedings effectually alarmed Matthews. He consented to hold his office on their own terms, and acknowledged the supremacy of the assembly by taking the new oat they prescribed. . The principle of popular sove- reignty being thus unequivocally admitted, the public business was conducted in future with the utmost harmony.
When Cromwell died, in March, 1659, the bur- gesses, after deliberating privately, unanimously resolved to recognise his son Richard.
As the council in England, in the letter which officially notified to the Virginians the death of the protector, had left their government to be conducted according to former usage, the as- sembly determined to define its existing powers in the most explicit manner.
The governor was accordingly summoned to attend the house, and in the presence of the whole assembly, to solemnly acknowledge that
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164
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. [1659.
the supreme power of electing officers was by the present laws resident in the grand assembly.
The reason assigned for requiring this sub- missive avowal on the part of the governor affords a remarkable evidence of the estimation in which the Virginians held their popular sovereignty. It was, in order " that what was their privilege now, might be the privilege of their posterity."
The protectorate of Richard Cromwell was speedily brought to an end by his quiet resigna- tion of an authority which he had no ambition to wield.
About the same time, Governor Matthews died. The burgesses were immediately called together. As England was without an acknowledged head, they decreed that the supreme power of Virginia should be vested in the assembly, and that all writs should issue in its name until a commission, recognised as legal by the assembly itself, should arrive from England.
Sir William Berkeley, who had resided quietly upon his plantation during the protectorate of Cromwell, was now re-elected governor. He consented to accept the office at the hands of the assembly, acknowledged himself its servant, agreed to call an assembly once in two years at least, and not to dissolve it without its own con- sent.
But while thus tenacious of their liberties, the Virginians felt no desire to be released from their
165
1660.] BERKELEY REAPPOINTED.
allegiance to England so long as they were per- mitted to retain the power of controlling their own affairs. Notwithstanding their politic recog- nition of the English commonwealth, their loyalty to the Stuarts remained unshaken.
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