USA > Virginia > Virginia, a history of the people > Part 15
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For the blow that struck a sudden chill to all true Cavalier hearts has fallen. In this cold month of Janu- ary, 1649, Charles I. has gone to the block ; and the Virginia Cavaliers in fancy, like the little company at Windsor in reality, follow the black velvet coffin, cov- ered with snow-flakes, to its resting-place, and are in despair.
VII. THE SURRENDER.
THE execution of Charles I. was a very great shock to the Virginians. A shudder convulsed society, and few but extremists approved it. The proceeding in a political point of view was a blunder. The character of the King as husband and father was such as to make good men respect him, and to slay him was impolitic, since death sanctifies.
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192 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
In Virginia, as in England, men had been arrayed against each other, but the Virginia Commonwealth's- men revolted from the scene in front of Whitehall, which had reversed the Revolution and made the Res- toration possible. This sentiment was probably general, and the royalist exiles flying to America appealed strongly to the sympathies even of political enemies. They were persons of rank " among the nobility, clergy, and gentry . . . men of the first rate who wanted not money nor credit, and had fled from their native coun- try as from a place infected with the plague," reduced to " horrors and despairs at the bloody and bitter stroke of the King's assassination, at his palace of Whitehall." So the passionate old chronicle runs, - and one ship brought (September, 1649) three hundred and thirty. This crowd of refugees met everywhere, as lias been shown, with the warmest reception. Every house was " a hostelry," and they had " choice of hosts without money or its value." We have seen Sir Thomas Luns- ford and his companions " feasting and carousing " at Captain Wormley's ; and it is easy to fancy the scenes, - the discousolate Cavaliers telling their stories of bat- tle and adventure; of the fierce wrestles with Crom- well's pikemen ; the blood dropping through the White- hall scaffold, - and the groups of Virginians around them, men, women, and children listening, pale and in tears, to the woful tale. Even those who had no sym- pathy with the King's cause felt the magnetism. The exiles everywhere met with evidences of regard instead of hostility. Right or wrong, they had fought for their cause to the end ; and that has made men admire even their adversaries in all ages. There is nothing to show that any Virginia Roundhead gave an ill reception to any
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one Cavalier. The men of the opposing sides were often of the same blood ; and the Virginians of the other fac- tion received them with the welcome due to misfortune.
When the Burgesses met in October, 1649, they has- tened to give voice to the general horror and indigna- tion. The first act of the session comes direct to the point : speaks of Charles I. as "the late most excel- lent and now undoubtedly sainted King ; " and threat- ens that "what person soever shall go about to defend or maintain the late traitorous proceedings against the aforesaid King of most happy memory, shall be ad- judged an accessory post factum, to the death of the aforesaid King, and shall be proceeded against for the same, according to the known laws of England." Thus the execution of Charles was treason, and those defend- ing it should be punished with death. The same penalty was denounced against all persons who shall " by words or speeches, endeavor to insinuate any doubt, scruple, or question, of, or concerning the undoubted and inher- ent right of his Majesty that now is to the colony of Vir- ginia, and all other his Majesty's dominions." His Maj- esty that now is, was the boy who was wandering about nearly shelterless, on the Continent, afterwards Charles II. But the Virginians did not insert that word " afterwards." From the moment when the head of his father rolled on the scaffold, Charles II., King of England, and all other his Majesty's dominions, sprung suddenly into existence jure divino.
Looking back now at this action of the Virginia Bur- gesses, it is impossible not to see that the death of Charles I. caused an enormous reaction in his favor, and was an immense blow struck in support of the mo- narchic idea. The Virginians had never been bigoted
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194 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
monarchists. They had resisted the King's demand for the tobacco monopoly ; had " thrust out " his representa- tive Harvey ; and made their protest against his illegal assumptions as systematically as his hostile Parliament had done. But his tragic end suddenly buried these old animosities in the profoundest oblivion. The ruler whom they had resisted so obstinately, was now " sa- cred " and " sainted." Whosoever said he was not should be put to death. And whosoever went about maintaining that the boy at the Hague was not the real King of England and Virginia, should be punished in like manner, as a traitor.
This proceeding was dangerous. England was in the hands of the revolutionists, and at their head was Crom- well. That great ruler had a long arm and was not to be trifled with. From the moment that the Virginia Burgesses, speaking for Virginia, declared that Charles II. was King of England and Virginia, they were in contumacy, and the English cannon were ready to argue with them. It seemed that their action could come to nothing. No persons elsewhere on the North Ameri- can continent moved to support it or had the least idea of doing so. New England, to a man nearly, sympa- thized with the new authority in England. The Dutch and Swedes were not English, and cared little for Eng- lish affairs. Maryland shuddered for a moment, but gave assurances of fidelity to the Parliament. Thus Virginia stood alone, and spoke for herself ; and what she said was, that the execution of Charles I. was trea- son, and that the person entitled to authority in Vir- ginia was his son Charles II.
The reply of Parliament to the Virginia defiance duly came. In October, 1650, just a year after the law of
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the Burgesses, the Long Parliament passed an act pro- hibiting trade with Virginia and the West Indies ; and as many persons inhabiting Virginia had been guilty of rebellion against the English Commonwealth, such per- sons were declared to be notorious traitors, and a fleet was sent to suppress them. Every provision was made. Four Commissioners were appointed to go out and receive the surrender of Virginia ; and among these was the persistent Clayborne " the rebel," now a full- fledged Commonwealth's man, who came with one eye on Virginia and the other upon Maryland. There was nothing of extreme severity in the instructions of the Commissioners. If the recalcitrant Virginians submitted quietly they were to be treated as brethren. All who acknowledged the Commonwealth were to receive full pardon for past acts. If Virginia resisted, then war. An appeal was to be made to the friends of the Parlia- ment to rise in arms ; and the slaves and indented ser- vants of the King's adherents, on joining the forces, were to be discharged and set free from their former masters.
It was not until March, 1652, that the English ships reached the Virginia waters, when one of them, a frig- ate, sailed up to Jamestown, to demand the surrender of the colony. This did not seem to be the purpose of the Virginians. The approach of the ships was known, and the friends of the King had been notified. At Berkeley's summons they had hastened to Jamestown, and the place was put in a state of defense. Cannon were posted, muskets distributed, and some Dutch ships at the port used as forts. By the Act of Parliament prohibiting foreign trade with Virginia, these were lia- ble to capture by the English fleet, and their cargoes
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were taken on shore, and replaced by cannon. Then Berkeley and his men awaited what was to follow.
At the moment when the broadsides seemed about to begin, the captain of the frigate sent a boat ashore to demand a surrender. A long discussion took place be- tween him and the Virginians, and a curious circum- stance is said to have ended it. The English captain privately informed two members of the Council that he had on board his frigate valuable goods consigned to them. If there was no trouble these would reach their owners, if there was trouble they would not. Was this bribery, or is it true? It is impossible now to say. The only authority for it is Beverley, and he is often in- accurate. What is certain is, that the Virginians, after solemn and prolonged discussion, determined to sur- render. We have official authority for this hesitation. The Commissioners themselves reported that the " Bur- gesses of all the several plantations being called to ad- vise and assist therein, upon long and serious debate, and in sad contemplation of the great miseries and certain destruction," etc. In a word, the chief men of Virginia having considered the demand of the Parliament, agreed, much against their will, and only " to prevent the ruin . and destruction of the Plantation," to surrender to the Common wealth.
This would seem to be a plainly stated historical oc- currence ; and yet some historians cannot understand it. Even Mr. Bancroft, followed by Mr. Campbell, adopts the statement of Clarendon, and says that " no sooner had the Guinea frigate anchored in the waters of the Chesapeake, than all thoughts of resistance were laid aside." Opposed to them we have Beverley, Marshall, Robertson, and others, -above all, the English Commis
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sioners who were present. If the Virginians suddenly lost heart when the English ships anchored in the Chesa- peake, they must have regained it as suddenly, since the Commissioners reported that "having brought a fleet and force before James Cittie, in Virginia," they found "a force raised by the Governor and country to make op- position against the said fleet." 1 It seems so plain, from the record, that the Virginians meant to fight, and only gave up the intent after long and serious consultation, that one is surprised to find the contrary stated as the truth. There seems no trouble at all in understanding the transaction. The Virginians did not wish to sur- render to the Parliament, preferring to fight, but find- ing that their enemy was too powerful, they surren- dered.
The " Articles at the Surrender of the Country" is a remarkable paper. The parties treat as between crowned heads. Virginia was to obey the Common- wealth, but this submission was to " be acknowledged a voluntary act, not forced nor constrained by a conquest upon the country." The people were " to enjoy such freedoms and privileges as belong to the freeborn peo- ple of England ; " the Grand Assembly was to continue ; there was to be a " total indemnity for all acts, words, or writings, done or spoken against the Parliament of England "; the colony was to have free trade with all nations, in spite of the Navigation Act; the Virginia Assembly alone was to have the right to tax Virginia ; and all persons refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the English Commonwealth should have a year to
1 The report of the Commissioners and other documents relating to the surrender, are preserved in Hening's Statutes at Large, and set all doubt at rest.
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dispose of their property and depart out of the colony. The strangest article of all was that in reference to the hated Prayer-Book. The Virginians were to go on using it for the space of one year, only provided, that " those things which relate to Kingship be not used publicly." As to the "total remission and indemnity," to be ex- tended to everybody, Sir William Berkeley and his ad- visers were expressly included in it. Neither he nor his Council were to be obliged to swear fealty to the Commonwealth for a year ; nor be "censured for pray- ing for, or speaking well of, the King in their private houses ; " and were to be allowed to sell their property and go whither they pleased. Then this grand finale comes, signed by Bennett, Clayborne, and Curtis, the Parliamentary Commissioners : " We have granted an act of indemnity and oblivion to all the inhabitants of this Colony, from all words, actions, or writings, that have been spoken, acted, or writ against the Parliament, or Commonwealth of England, or any other person, from the beginning of the world to this day."
Some of these articles were not ratified by the Long Parliament, which was dissolved soon afterwards ; nota- bly that engaging that no taxes or impositions should be laid on Virginia without the consent of the Assem- bly. Otherwise they remained the terms on which the surrender was made, and were respected. If any per- sons fancied that the Virginia royalists would be pro- scribed, and their leader, Sir William Berkeley, be- headed like Charles I., for his armed resistance to Parliament, they were agreeably, or disagreeably dis- appointed. Since the scene in front of Whitehall, be- heading was out of fashion, and there was to be no con- fiscation of property, or any vengeance whatever, since
VIRGINIA UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH. 199
there was little to avenge. A general amnesty covered all. A single ceremony sufficed to blot out all the mis- deeds of the past, - an oath of allegiance to the Parlia- ment. As to that there was to be no discussion. Those refusing to take it were to go away and stay away from Virginia.
VIII.
VIRGINIA UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH.
THUS in the short hours of a March day Virginia passed from the King under the Commonwealth. By the scratch of a pen in the fingers of a few men in black coats, this ancient dominion of royalty had become the new dominion of the Parliament.
There was no sudden convulsion of society, or even the least confusion. The old went and the new came as mildly and peacefully as one hour succeeds another on a May morning. The haughty Cavalier Berkeley, in his silk and lace, goes away to Greenspring, and the short- haired people, called by their enemies " Roundheads " for that reason, are the masters. Berkeley afterwards spoke bitterly of these scenes at Jamestown. He burst forth in his address to the Burgesses, speaking of the Parliamentarians, with, " they sent a small power to force my submission, which, finding me defenseless, was quietly (God pardon me ! ) effected." And one of his followers growled out that the Parliament ships had "reduced the colony under the power (but never to the obedience) of the Usurper." But there was absolutely nothing for the fiery old Cavalier to do but to submit. He sold his " house in James Cittie, the westernmost of the three brick houses I there built," and went away to
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his Greenspring manor, and on one pretext or another remained in Virginia. Every poor friend of the King found his house and purse open ; the days were spent, no doubt, in lamenting the hard times and in drinking confusion to Noll and his traitorous crew ; and all through the times of the Commonwealth, the bitter Cav- alier was permitted to remain undisturbed.
This was strange, it may be said, since this man had hated the very names of Puritan and Commonwealth, with a perfect hatred ; had issued his proclamation de- bouncing the friends of the party now in power; had fully approved when they were pilloried for deriding the King ; and had risen in armed defiance of the Par- liament. The same party in England had beheaded the King and confiscated the estates of his followers. Why was Berkeley, the King's viceroy, left in peace, and none of his adherents persecuted? The true ex- planation may be indicated in a very few words. The mass of the Virginia population, and a vast preponder- ance of the wealth and influence of the colony were Cavalier, - always taking the word to mean friendly to Church and King. The Commonwealth's men now in power had little personal enmity toward their oppo- nents, as in England. There were few vengeances to wreak, or old scores to settle ; and to have attempted to outrage the great body of Cavalier planters would have been absurd. Such outrage might be dangerous. Revolutions were uncertain. The Roundheads were up to-day, but they might be down to-morrow. The King's friends might regain the ascendency. But strongest perhaps of all, was the feeling that their ad- versaries were good Virginians like themselves. They were willing to accept rule under Cromwell or the
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Parliament, but meant to maintain that the true source of authority in Virginia was the Assembly. And it would be ill in these troubled days to attempt to per- secute men who had fought with them for the same principle, - that Virginia was to be ruled by Virginians. This will explain why the revolution in Virginia was conducted in a manner so peaceful. Personal rancor and religious animosity were both wanting; the great mass of the Commonwealth's men had as little sympa- thy with the nonconformists as the King's men, and there was no wish whatever to proscribe their oppo- nents. The main thing was to reach harbor in the midst of the storm ; and grave men cast about them for anchorage, and found it. " After long and serious de- bate, and advice taken for the settling of Virginia, it was unanimously voted and concluded (April 30, 1652), that Mr. Richard Bennett, Esq., be Governor for this ensuing year."
Bennett, the relative of a London merchant, and a Roundhead, was a man of consideration who had been driven from Virginia with other dissenters, and taken refuge in Maryland, where he became the leader of the Puritans. He was one of the few prominent men who might be said to have good grounds for personal ran- cor against the King's men ; but he displayed none. Clayborne the rebel was made Secretary of State, and among the Councillors were Colonels Yeardley and Ludlow, probably relatives of the Captain Yeardley and Squire Ludlow who had so warmly welcomed the royalist refugees. The government was to be pro. visional until further advices from "the States," - England. Meanwhile all was to flow from the Assem- bly ; that fact was to be distinctly understood. "The
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right of election of all officers of this colony shall apper- tain to the Burgesses, the representatives of the people." It was the lifelong claim, to govern themselves, which the exigencies of the time had only fortified and made more emphatic.
The new order of things went on quietly, with little jar in the machinery. The first House of Burgesses under the Commonwealth (April, 1652), numbered thirty-five persons, and represented thirteen " counties." 1 They were for the most part new men, as was natural under the circumstances, but in many counties some of the old Cavalier Burgesses were returned. The pro- ceedings were harmonious, and indicated no other de- sire than to transact the public business and go about their own. A few fulminations make a small stir. " Mr. John Hammond, Burgess for the lower parish of Isle of Wight," - afterwards (1656) the author of " Leah and Rachel," or Virginia and Maryland, - is found to be " notoriously known a scandalous person, and a frequent disturber of the peace by libel and other il- legal practices ; " and the worshipful Burgesses accord-
1 Up to 1633 the Burgesses represented hundreds and plantations ; in 1634 these were erected into eight shires "to be governed as the shires in England." In 1643 the counties are formed, which is hence- forth the designation. The thirteen counties at the beginning of the ascendency of the Commonwealth (1652), it may be noted for the sat- isfaction of Virginia antiquaries, were : -
Henrico. Warwick.
Charles City.
York.
Jane's City.
Northampton.
Isle of Wight. Northumberland.
Nansemond. Gloucester.
Lower Norfolk.
Lancaster.
Elizabeth City.
Surry was added in the next year. Northampton was a new namo for the old Accomac.
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ingly, "conceive it fit he be expelled the House." Also Mr. James Pyland, Burgess from the same county, is to be " removed out of the House and committed to answer his mutinous and rebellious declarations, and blasphe- mous catechism," - which declarations and catechism re- main undiscoverable mysteries. Others were fined and imprisoned " for speaking contemptuously of the gov- ernment ;" and truculent William Hatcher, former Bur- gess from Henrico, and King's man, is summarily dealt with. For saying of Mr. Speaker Hill, Roundhead, that " the mouth of this House was a Devil," he is sentenced to acknowledge his offense on his knees before this As- sembly ; which he accordingly does. A brief commotion on the Eastern Shore against the new authority is al- luded to, but nothing more is heard of it, and all is quiet.
The truth is, to repeat, that there was little disposi- tion to persecute anybody, or arouse bitter blood. If any people were persecuted, they were the members of the legal fraternity, or, as the act calls them, the " mer- cenarie attorneys." The question as to these mercenary people had tormented the time. They had been tossed to and fro like shuttlecocks at the various Assemblies. In 1642 they are allowed to practice, but their fees are limited. In 1645 they are " expelled from office." In 1647 they are forbidden to " take any fee," - the court is "either to open the cause for a weak party or appoint some fit man out of the people to do it." In 1656 all the acts are repealed, and the attorneys are to be li- censed. But last, now (1658), since these mercenary attorneys "maintain suits in law to the great prejudice and charge of the inhabitants of this colony," they are not to "plead in any court, or give council in any cause or controversy, for any kind of reward or profit," on
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penalty of five thousand pounds of tobacco for every of- fense. The law ends with a flout at the poor mercenary attorneys. They shall swear when they appear in a cause, that they have not violated this act, " because the breakers thereof, through their subtilty, cannot easily be discerned." Thus the minds of the old Virginians seem to have been in a state of dire confusion as to how these subtle people ought to be treated.
So the new government went on its way, fairly pleas- ing all but the attorneys and those malcontents who grumble at every act of a political opponent. This class protested that Virginia was at the last gasp ; that the act of Parliament of 1651 prohibiting free trade was crushing the colony ; and yet by non-enforcement of the law, Virginia appears to have continued to trade with all the world. The old annals seem to show that Crom- well respected the terms of surrender and left the colony to manage its own affairs. The Virginia government was confessedly provisional. Its " looseness and unset- tledness " were recognized. When the Great Protec- tor died the Virginians were told that he had " come to some resolutions for supplying of that defect," which would duly have been done "if the Lord had continued life and health to his said Highness ; " and his successor Richard consoled them with the promise that the " set- tlement of that colony is not neglected."
The Virginians did not receive this tranquillizing assurance with any great enthusiasm. All they asked was to be let alone. By the wise neglect of the great ruler, who was the real King of England after the dis- solution of the Long Parliament, they were allowed to choose their own governors and govern themselves with- out English interference. Whether Cromwell meant to
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formally take Virginia into his own hands or not is un- certain. It is certain that he never did so. Richard Bennett was succeeded in March, 1655, by Edward Digges, who was succeeded in 1656 by Samuel Mat- thews, all elected by the Burgesses.1
These three Governors, who filled the whole period of the Commonwealth, were all worthy persons. The last, " Captain Samuel Matthews" (the title Captain proba- bly indicated that he liad been commander of a hun- dred), was "an old planter of nearly forty years' stand- ing, a most deserving Commonwealth's man, who kept a good house, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Virginia," - which is a good epitapli. It paints the members of a class with whom Virginians are familiar - men living on landed estates with their families and swarming dependents, keeping open house and wel- coming all comers, ruddy of face, hearty of bearing, loving good eating and drinking, managing their own affairs well, and competent to manage the affairs of the public. One fact in the past career of the worthy Com- monwealth's man ought not to be forgotten - he had persecuted the Puritans. Let us hear Mr. John Ham- mond, the author of " Leah and Rachel." " And there was in Virginia a certain people congregated into a church, calling themselves Independents, which, daily increasing, several consultations were had by the state of that Colony how to suppress and extinguish them," so they were "banished, clapt up in prison and dis- armed by one Colonel Samuel Matthews, then a Coun-
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