USA > Virginia > Virginia, a history of the people > Part 13
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162 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
father, and the Virginia revolution of 1676 was nearly an exact repetition of the English revolution of 1640.
Such was the central political idea and attitude to- ward England of the Virginians at the beginning of the reign of Charles I. Kingsmen and churchmen, they had a profound respect for Church and King; but their own rights also must be respected. On that point the passionate jealousy never slept, and from this rooted sentiment resulted, as the years went on, the long an- tagonism, the incessant protests, and the steady develop- ment of republican ideas, which a century and a half aft- erwards culminated in the American Revolution. Out of that rose the Republic; but the ponderous corner- stone had been laid five generations before.
II.
THE THRUSTING OUT OF SIR JOHN HARVEY.
FOR many years now, Virginia is full of commotion. Events and personages crowd each other, pushing to the front and demanding attention, but few deserve it. A great writer has said that the history of a prince is not an account of all that he has performed, but of all that is worthy of being transmitted to posterity. It is not desirable to study a mere jumble of unimportant events. The mind becomes submerged in these minute details, and all historic perspective is lost. The pic- ture which should have its foreground and background becomes a flat canvas - a mere conglomeration of discordant trifles, which thrust themselves upon the at- tention and fatally weary it. A bookful of events is not a history, any more than a wagon-load of building
THE . THRUSTING OUT OF SIR JOHN HARVEY. 163
material is a house. The work of building remains, with such art as the artisan possesses, and it is certain that there is a proper position for each part of the ma- terial.
What we stumble over in the dusty Virginia. records, and find neither profitable nor entertaining, are the old local and temporary antagonisms : the wrangles about tobacco monopolies ; the jarring discussions as to land- patents ; the announcement that this or that honorable is appointed to this or that office, and dies in this or that year. It is not exciting, and does not expand the mind. The trivial details have no interest. A multi- tude of small events rise like rockets, explode, and dis- appear, leaving no traces. The figures of governors come and go in long procession ; they play their parts, and make their exits, and are forgotten. What they perform is unimportant and may as well remain unre- corded. Life is too short to read all that. Only the personages and events rising to prominence are worthy of notice.
One such specially prominent event of the time ar- rests attention, but, before coming to it, another of lesser importance will be glanced at. About 1625, for the exact date is lost, and the occurrence is "veiled in singular obscurity "- Governor Francis Wyat fought a battle with the Indians. The only authority is the historian Burk, who quotes his " Ancient MSS."- three folio volumes of historical papers collected by the Earl of Southampton, and purchased by Colonel Byrd of Westover. What may be seen through the "obscurity " is briefly this : Opitchapan, brother of Pow- hatan (we hear nothing of Opechancanough), marched on the Virginians, or they marched on him, and a com-
164 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
bat followed. The Indian force was " eight hundred bowmen," and Wyat commanded the Virginians in per- son. The fight took place on the York or Pamunkey, and sixteen Virginians were killed; but the Indians were routed and pursued into the woods; whereupon Governor Wyat went back to Jamestown. This is all that we know of that old transaction. The Virginians thought their history unimportant, - they think so still, - and rarely printed anything. But for the Earl of Southampton, who interested himself in so trifling a subject as the history of Virginia, and the master of Westover, who thought his descendants might like to know something of it, the "singular obscurity " veiling Wyat's battle would be black darkness.
The procession of rulers now begins and goes on its way. Francis Wyat sails for England, and mild George Yeardley resumes authority. When he dies, as he soon does (1627), lie is followed by Francis West, brother of Lord Delaware, who gives way in turn (1628) to his Excellency John Pott, who is either a doctor of laws or of medicine. His rule is brief and uneventful, but his name will live. He was tried for cattle-stealing after his term had expired (1630), and fought his foes to the last. He attempted to prove one of the wit- nesses against him " an hypocrite, by a story of Gus- man of Alfrach, the rogue," says the chronicle. But , the court was deaf to his oratory and literary illustra- ' tions. In the words of an amiable historian, "we note with surprise and pain " that the thirteen jurors found him guilty; and the question of his punishment was referred to his majesty in England. What resulted we are not informed, but "Dr. Pott " takes his place in history.
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THE THRUSTING OUT OF SIR JOHN HARVEY. 165
In the year 1629, comes Sir John Harvey, who is worth more attention. He was heartily execrated by the Virginians, whom he fleeced like so many sheep ; and what followed is the most significant event in the history of Virginia during the first half of the century. The portrait of Governor Harvey is accurately drawn in the words of one of the historians : he was " extor- tionate, unjust, and arbitrary ; issued proclamations in derogation of the legislative powers of the Assembly ; disbursed the Colonial revenues without check or respon- sibility ; and multiplied penalties and exactments and appropriated fines to his own use." Of his personal deportment Beverley says "he was so haughty and furi- ous to the Council and the best gentlemen of the coun- try, that his tyranny grew at last insupportable."
The picture is sufficiently black to explain the sudden collision which now took place; but historians groping about in the obscurity have guessed at other causes. The discussion rests with them on the question, What were Harvey's real political tendencies? In the fa- mous Maryland imbroglio, soon to be noticed, was he the friend of Baltimore, or of Clayborne? The mys- tery seems no mystery.
Sir John Harvey not only insulted everybody and put the public revenues into his own pocket, which was exasperating, but he put his hands into the pockets of the Virginia planters individually. He was mastered by the greed of gold. He granted lands to all comers, for a consideration ; and many of these grants covered tracts belonging to individual planters. It was not to be expected that people like the Virginians would submit to that. They did not; on the contrary they rose in revolution.
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Scarcely more than a line is given to what followed, in the old archives ; a chance-discovered leaf is all that records it. All we know is this : An Assembly was called -it is not said by whom -to " hear complaints against the Governor," and this was to meet in May (1635). But swift action preceded it. Toward the end of April the Virginians grew weary of their miniature Charles I. The Council met, and this is the brief record of what ensued : -
" On the 28th of April, 1635, Sr. John Harvey thrust out of his government, and Capt. John West acts as Governor till the King's pleasure known."
As to the manner in which Sir John received the notification of this action, in his executive mansion at Jamestown, we have no information. Probably with scowls and improper expressions, together with threats of certain consequences which would fall on the traitors who thus insolently defied the King by " thrusting out " his representative. He would go to England and make formal complaint to his majesty ; and in this the As- sembly, which promptly met, acquiesced. They would also send their own representatives with the evidence of his Honor's wrong-doings.
Both Governor and witnesses went, and Harvey laid the case before Charles I. The King did not hesitate for a moment. To "thrust out " his representative was regarded, as Sir John had predicted, in the light of open rebellion. Only one crime could be greater : to thrust his own royal self from the throne of England, which followed a few years afterwards. The King even re- fused to admit the Virginia commissioners to an audi- ence. He dismissed the whole inquiry, and ordered Sir John Harvey to go back and resume his post of Governor.
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THE PURITANS.
This is the fullest statement now possible of the fa- mous old occurrence -" the thrusting out of Sir John Harvey." It was a miniature deposition of royalty, and foretold what was coming on English soil. The only difference lay in the fact that there was a power too strong for the Virginians. They were obliged to take back their hard ruler, and make the best of a bad business. But still the incident had its results. The times were plainly growing dangerous in all parts of his majesty's dominions, and Harvey was soon removed. Sir Francis Wyat, who had returned to Virginia, was made Governor, and ruled for two years, when one of the most conspicuous figures of Virginia history ap- peared upon the stage.
This was Sir William Berkeley. His appearance was another proof that the unsettled Plantation period was finally at an end. The procession of rulers stops, and for more than thirty years this one figure stands in the foreground of Virginia history.
III.
THE PURITANS.
LET us look at these people who have just deposed Sir John Harvey. They and the country are changing outwardly, but remain essentially the same. The old commanders of hundreds are replaced now by lieuten- ants of shires ; the commissioners, by justices of the peace, who hold monthly courts; and at Jamestown, four times yearly, sits the great General Court, consist- ing of the Governor and the Council, to hear appeals.
There are eight " shires " in Virginia now (1634) :
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James City, Henrico, Charles City, Elizabeth City, Warwick River, Warrosquoyake, Charles River, and Accawmacke. Over each of these is placed a " Lieu- tenant, the same as in England, to take care of the war against Indians." For no one knows when these wild people, lurking in the woods beyond the York, will be seized with another madness, to rise and butcher the white people. They are not yet gone; and re- semble " the wolves, which do haunt and frequent the plantations," which everybody is to be rewarded for putting to death (1646). Opechancanough is still alive, though he is nearly a hundred years old now, and he is a man of ability. If the lieutenants of shires do not keep watch he will some day fall suddenly on the remote, perhaps the near settlements of the colony, and put all to death.
But at present there seems to be no danger of that. The whole land is in repose. The indented servants and slaves are working on the great estates, which are strictly entailed on the eldest son, by the good old Eng- lish law ; certain artisans are busy trying experiments in making glass ; vine-growing is in progress, with a view to Virginia wine ; and the rivers are full of ships which sail tranquilly to and fro, bringing all that is needed by the peaceful little society. The country is beautiful, the climate charming, and there are no jars in the social machinery. Everybody knows his place, and there are no schools or printing to make poor people " dissatisfied." It is true that there is some difference of opinion, even upon a subject so very plain ; and a large-hearted man has endowed a free school,1 but this
1 Benjamin Sym, who, in 1634, devises two hundred acres of land on the Pocoson River, with the milk and increase of eight milch cows,
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THE PURITANS.
is a notable exception. There are a few "old field- schools," log huts in the fields or woods, and these rural academies are going to educate some of the greatest men of North America. But the only liberal education open to all is the teaching and catechizing by ministers of the Church.
These ministers have onerous duties, and are not suf- ficiently considered by the Virginians. There is a great " scarcity of pastors," and some of the " cures " extend over fifty miles ; but every Sunday they must " preach in the forenoon and catechize in the afternoon ; " and they must not " give themselves to excess in drinking, or riot, playing at dice, cards, or any unlawful game, but at all times convenient, hear or read somewhat of the Holy Scriptures, always doing the things which shall appertain to honesty " (1632). Thus the clergy are regulated by law, and the people shall also do what appertains to honesty and good behavior. Henry Cole- man shall be " excommunicated for forty days, for using scornful speeches and putting on his hat in church, when, according to an order of court, he was to acknowledge, and ask forgiveness for an offense " (1634).
As to conformity and " uniformity " in church wor- ship, that has been settled for a long time; the whole colony of Virginia is to conform " both in canons and constitution, to the Church of England, as near as may be" (1624-32). And when the hard times come in England, the last Wednesday in every month is to be
" for the maintenance of a learned honest man, to keep upon the said ground a Free School for the education and instruction of the children of the adjoining parishes of Elizabeth City, and Kiquotan from Mary's Mount, downward to the Pocoson River." There had been but one other before this, the " East India School," begun in 1621, and the first in America, but the massacre paralyzed it. This one lived.
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" set apart for a day of fasting and humiliation, and wholly dedicated to prayers and preaching " (1645), lest the Roundhead people overthrow the Church and King. They hold riot now in England, but steps have been taken, sometime since, to exclude these factionists and the hated papists from the " Kingdom of Virginia." They are not to defile the soil. The commander of the fort at Point Comfort, on the arrival of any ship, shall go on board, take a list of the passengers, " and ad- minister to them the oath of supremacy and allegiance, which if any shall refuse to take, that he commit him to imprisonment " (1632), to be dealt withi thereafter as the authorities shall determine, - most likely ordered to depart as unfit for the time and place.
The planters live tranquilly on their large estates along the banks of the river ; entertain friends or stran- gers, sit as magistrates, and choose their Burgesses, - every free man voting. For they still have their " Grand Assembly." There is a hiatus in the records, and the body disappears from view from the year 1623 to the year 1628. But the provincial archives were often lost, as in the case of those recording the proceed- ings of the old first Assembly of 1619, which were only discovered by accident. From this time forward we have the records, and we may see the provincial Parliament meeting " at divine service in the roome where they sitt, at the third beatinge of the drum, an hower after sunrise, at James Citty." Those not pres- ent at prayers, are to be fined one shilling ; if they do not attend later, they are to pay two shillings and six- pence; and if they appear not at all, they are to be " fined by the whole bodie of the Assembly " (1632). They are informally, soon to be formally, recognized by
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his Majesty, the King. At the beginning of his reign, Charles I. had announced his intention of governing Virginia personally, as his father had done before him. But this decision he reconsidered. In 1628, he wished to monopolize the Virginia tobacco, and wrote to the Governor and Council proposing that arrangement, to consider which, a " General Assembly " was to be sum- moned, - but they were not included in the superscrip- tion of the missive. Nevertheless, " the Governor and Councell with the Burgesses of the severall plantations " replied to the King (March 26, 1628). They protested against the tobacco monopoly, and refused their sanc- tion, when no more is heard of it.
These collisions with the royal Governors and the King's Majesty himself produce little disturbance in the daily lives of the planters. They go about on horse- back, over the bad country roads, attending to their af- fairs, or making journeys, - except on Sundays, when " no person, or persons, shall take a voyage uppon the same, except it be to church, or for some other causes of extreme necessitie " (1643) ; or they are rowed in barges, or sail in " sloops," to and from the capital, - passing the time in gay talk, or grumbling, after the English fashion, at this or that grievance. They are chiefly solicitous about the tobacco crop, but take time to indulge in denunciation of Governor Harvey, who is granting away their lands ; at the Papists who persist in evading the laws against them; and at the Puritan peo- ple who have come to create disturbance in the colony.
These Puritans, the planters say, are as bad as the Papists, and there are too many of them in Virginia. In fact they begin to constitute a real element in the population. The first came in 1619, and the Daniel
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
Gookin, who bravely defended his house at "Mary's Mount " during the Indian massacre, was doubtless a Puritan. His son of the same name was; he was driven away from Virginia for non-conformity; went to Boston, where he became a man of distinction ; and thence to England, where he consulted with Oliver Cromwell, and no doubt gave a very bad character to the Virginians. In these years the Puritan people are struggling to gain a foothold. They will insist on in- truding themselves on the good old cavaliers of the good old cavalier colony of Virginia. Why are they not satisfied with their country of New England ? They have been notified that their presence in Vir- ginia is not desired. The pioneers of 1619 were to have been followed by a large body, but his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury had very properly induced his Majesty to issue his proclamation against them. The first comers had obstinately remained in spite of their ill welcome; and now (1642) in response to the peti- tion of these Virginia dissenters, the Puritan city of Boston sends a supply of " pastors " to Virginia. They come with letters of recommendation to the Honorable Governor, Sir William Berkeley, and are preaching in all parts of the colony to numbers of people who flock to hear them. Nevertheless they are not to be toler- ated. In the next year (1643), the Assembly will de- cree that " for the preservation of the purity of doctrine and unity of the church, all ministers whatsoever which shall reside in the colony, are to be conformable to the orders and constitutions of the Church of England and the laws therein established, and not otherwise to be admitted to teach or preach publicly or privately; and that the Governor and Council do take care that all
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non-conformists upon notice to them shall be compelled to depart out of the colony with all convenience."
This fulmination the Church of England Virginians hoped would extinguish the heresy and heretics. The law was rigidly enforced. The dissenters, or " Inde- pendents," as they styled themselves, had a large con- gregation, probably in Nansemond; and said that in Virginia " one thousand of the people were, by con- jecture, of a similar mind." If this conjecture was correct, about seven per cent. of the people sympa- thized with dissent. But the pastors had to go; their enemies were too strong for them. Some were fined, others imprisoned ; nearly all were driven out of the colony and retired to Maryland or New England ; and that was the end of dissent for the time in Vir- ginia.
Why waste time in comment? That frightful intol- erance will no doubt shock the Virginians of to-day who read of it. It is a very old story, which the writer of history has ever to repeat. That age scarcely knew the meaning of the word tolerance ; scarce anywhere did anybody practice it - Catholic Maryland was nearly its only refuge. The Virginia adherents of Monarchy and Episcopacy fought the "Independents " who came to their soil, just as the Independents of New England fought the Church of England people there. It was all wretchedly narrow and shallow, of course, and we won- der at it to-day, seeing clearly, now, that religious free- dom is the corner-stone not only of good government, but of society ; that without it the state grows gangrened and all progress stops. But the old - time Virginians would not or could not see that, - then or for long years afterwards.
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
Would the reader like to see what they decreed even in the next century, when one might have fancied that " enlightenment had come?" The new thunder was not aimed at the old Puritans now, but at themselves. "If any person brought up in the Christian religion," said the Burgesses (1705), "shall by writing, printing, teaching or advised speaking deny the being of a God or the Holy Trinity, or shall assert or maintain that there are more Gods than one, or shall deny the Christian re- ligion to be true, or the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of divine authority," such person or persons should be " disabled in law to hold any office or employment, ecclesiastical, civil, or military." And if a second time tried and convicted, the atheists, pan- theists, evolutionists, agnostics, or infidels should be out- lawed ; should not sue for their rights in any court ; or be guardians or executors ; or execute any deeds or make any wills; and should " suffer three years' imprison- ment without buil or mainprise." The friends of the development and other theories are fortunate in living in the nineteenth century. Skepticism was not in vogue in those old days of the Virginia colony, and Mr. Mill, Mr. Darwin, Mr. Spencer and their disciples would have had a hard time of it.
So the former Virginians could not bear the Puritan intruders -to return to the earlier times. They perse- cuted them without mercy, and would have them go to prison, or out of the country. These honest people thought that it was their duty to check the spread of a creed which they believed to be false; that the true faith and worship were so unspeakably important that they ought to be protected by force. That pernicious stuff deceived the first minds of the time, not only in
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THE PURITANS.
Virginia, but everywhere. But even if there had been the least semblance of truth in it, it never attained its end. Dissent only grew more embittered and struck its roots deeper, since persecution fertilizes.
But in things evil there is often the good motive stirring beneath. Disgust at this black poison of in- tolerance ought not to blind us to what it sprung from. Here, as in New England, it was the rank outgrowth as of noxious weeds from a strong soil of faith. These men at least believed. Life, which in this weary world of to-day is so vain a thing to many - a flitting gleam fading away into ever-deepening shadow - was an earn- est affair to the men of that century. They were not half believers or no believers at all, with the "sick hurry, the divided aims and the strange disease of mod- ern life" as the modern poet sings. They were very far, indeed, from that. The flying mists and primor- dial germs gave them no trouble. Languid or fierce doubt never disturbed them. They believed with all their might, these intolerant ancestors of the tolerant men of to-day who believe in nothing. The vast and wretched blunder, and all the sin and folly of forcing their faith on other people, are now plain. But look- ing at the world of this nineteenth century when Faith, the white maid, is laughed at in the market-place, one is tempted to envy the epoch when men fought for her, and committed crime for love of her.
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IV.
CLAYBORNE, "THE REBEL."
THUS these excellent narrow-minded Virginians, of the seventeenth century, followed the wont of their con- temporaries, putting those who differed with them in jail, or ordering them to go out of the country; and it was not the Puritan dissenters only who fell under their displeasure. They were even more severe on the unlucky Roman Catholics, and had already seized the occasion, a little while before, to show their rooted aver- sion for things papistical.
Sir George Calvert, Baron Baltimore, a popish recu- sant of high character, came to Virginia in 1630, with the object of looking at the country and securing a re- treat for the free exercise of his religion. He was not a bigot, just the opposite in fact, and his enterprise was not an unworthy one. Obloquy and persecution were the lot of Roman Catholics in England, and the worthy Baron came to Virginia, as the Pilgrim settlers came to Massachusetts, - to live in peace. But he found only enemies in Virginia, as in England. As soon as his ship entered the capes, a stir ran through the colony. How he succeeded in passing that watch-dog, the " Captain of the Fort," at Point Comfort, without taking the oath of supremacy, is not explained in the archives ; but he did pass by safely, without being brought to by the thunder of cannon, and arrived at Jamestown.
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