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384 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
The question was whether the people were going to submit. The navigation laws, an external tax, had been acquiesced in under protest, but the new claim was dif- ferent ; the impost was to be direct and galling. The most daring of the English statesmen had hitherto shrunk from it. Walpole had declared that it was "a measure too hazardous for him to venture upon ; " " I have Old England set against me," he said, "and do you think that I will have New England likewise ?" But times and men had changed now. The new Ministers were less cautious, and openly asserted the obnoxious claim. The British Empire was the British Empire, and the House of Commons was to make laws to govern it.
Peace was declared between England and France in 1763, and in 1764 the new doctrine was broached, and the right of direct taxation asserted. In the next year the matter took shape. Mr. Grenville brought in a bill which passed the Commons by a vote of five to one : met with no opposition in the Lords ; and (March, 1765), the King approved it, and it became a law. This was the now famous " Stamp Act." By this law all instru- ments of writing used in the transaction of business in the Colonies were declared to be thenceforth null and void, unless executed on stamped paper paying a reve- nue to the Crown.
When the Virginia House of Burgesses assembled in the spring of 1765, they were met by a plain question: Were they to submit to the new law or resist it as an invasion of right? The decision must be prompt. The stamps were coming, and action must be taken at once.
The Burgesses met in the " Old Capitol " at Wil- liamsburg, and the spectacle was imposing. The Speaker sat on a dais under a red canopy supported by a gilded
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rod, and the clerk beneath with the mace lying on the table before him to indicate that the Assembly was in full session. The members, ranged in long rows, were the most eminent men of Virginia, and evidently ap- proached the great business before them with deep feel- ing. The issue was serious. On one side was submis- sion to wrong ; on the other collision with England. The old attachment, to what was called " Home," was still exceedingly strong. It had been shaken but not destroyed, aud was still a controlling sentiment. To openly resist the Crown would be to invite coercion : and that meant war, which would be deplorable. Even if the Colonies were successful, separation from the mother-land would probably follow; and not one Vir- ginian in ten thousand desired such a separation. The general sentiment was in favor of further remonstrances and memorials; but a considerable party opposed this policy as behind the times. It was said that Parliament meant to crush the liberties of the people ; that the King was their enemy ; and that to approach either King or Parliament with honeyed words and professions of attach- ment would be hypocrisy. The only course to pursue now was to speak out plainly, not in the tone of suppli- ants but in the voice of men demanding their rights and determined to have them.
In the midst of the general doubt and hesitation Pat- rick Henry, who had been elected a Burgess from Lou- isa County, rose and offered his celebrated resolutions, which he had written on a blank leaf torn from an old law-book. The resolutions were five in number, and presented in admirably clear terms the whole case against the Stamp Act. The points insisted upon were that the first Virginia settlers had brought with them
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from England all the rights and immunities of British subjects ; that two royal charters had expressly recog- nized these rights ; that the taxation of the people by themselves was the distinguishing characteristic of Brit- ish freedom ; and that " the General Assembly of this colony has the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions on the inhabitants of this colony."
On these resolutions took place an excited debate. They were opposed by the ablest men of the Burgesses as impolitic ; and Jefferson, who was present, afterwards spoke of the discussion as "most bloody." The opposi- tion only aroused the wonderful genius of Henry. He was, at this time, just twenty-nine, tall in figure but stooping, with a grim expression, small blue eyes which had a peculiar twinkle, and wore a brown wig without powder, a " peach-blossom coat," leather knee-breeches, and yarn stockings. He had ridden to Williamsburg on " a lean horse," and carried his papers in a pair of sad- dle-bags. These details have been preserved by tradi- tion, and present a familiar portrait of the great orator, - always the best portrait.
Of the splendor of his eloquence on this his first ap- pearance before the eyes of the whole country there can be no doubt whatever. It was one of the noblest dis- plays of an oratory, which his contemporaries declared indescribable. Once aroused, passion transformed him, and he magnetized his listeners. One who had heard him often and tried to describe him, said that his power lay not so much in his matter as in his manner; in "the greatness of his emotion and passion, the matchless per- fection of the organs of expression; the intonation, pause, gesture, attitude, and indescribable play of coun- tenance." It is the description of a great actor or great
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orator, which are nearly the same; and is no doubt accurate. He ended his speech with a bitter outburst. In the midst of cries of "Treason !" he exclaimed, " Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the First, his Cromwell, and George the Third may profit by their example; if this be treason make the most of it !" In spite of all opposition the resolutions passed the Burgesses, - the last by one majority. The passionate eloquence of the young County Court lawyer had committed the great colony of Virginia to resistance.
Such was the famous scene in the Burgesses, which marked distinctly the beginning of a new era, for the Revolution may be said to date from it. It has suffered from over-coloring. For the greater glory of the great man whose wonderful eloquence shaped the action of the House, certain writers have thought it necessary to caricature his opponents. A somewhat theatrical pic- ture has been drawn of the scene and the actors. The ruffled planters, it is said, were dragged on against their will. They had come in these May days of 1765 to delay, not promote action. They were distinctly be- hind the times and bent on submission. When a plain "man of the people " rose in his place to propose action the powdered heads turned suddenly, and all eyes were fixed on him with surprise and hauteur.
The picture is imaginary. If the heads suddenly turned, the circumstance was not so astonishing. A young member who was almost unknown was taking the leadership, at the most critical of moments, in a body composed of the oldest and ablest men of the colony. The intimation that classes were divided on the question has nothing to support it. Jefferson, a zealous demo- crat, spoke of those who opposed the resolutions as
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" ciphers of aristocracy " and men unfitted for the times ; but among these opponents were Peyton Ran- dolph, afterwards President of the First Congress ; Ed- mund Pendleton, to become the head of the Committee of Safety ; George Wythe, one of the "Signers ;" Richard Bland, an eminent patriot ; and probably Wash- ington, then in the Burgesses.
But after making every allowance for Mr. Wirt's rhetoric, the triumph of Henry in this hot struggle was one of the great events of American history. He had driven his policy through the Burgesses in spite of all opposition, and some chance utterances of the moment indicate the strong antagonisms.
" I would have given five hundred guineas for a sin- gle vote !" exclaimed Peyton Randolph, as he rushed through the lobby ; and as Henry came out of the Capitol a man of the crowd slapped him on the shoulder and cried : .-
" Stick to us, old fellow, or we are gone !"
The vote that was worth five hundred guineas was that which would have defeated the fifth resolution ; and the importance of this resolution lay in the fact that it announced the determinate decision of Virginia. What it meant, if it meant anything, was that the colony was prepared to resist the Crown. England demanded her obedience, and speaking for herself she refused to obey.
Governor Fauquier dissolved the Assembly, but the mischief was done. The position taken by Virginia everywhere strengthened the hands of the party for re- sistance. In England it produced a profound sensation. " I rejoice," exclaimed Pitt, " that America has resisted! Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves would have
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been fit instruments to make slaves of all the rest. I know the valor of your troops, the force of this country ; but in such a case success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like a strong man : she would em- brace the pillars of the State and pull down the Con- stitution with her."
The importance attached to the action of Virginia is shown by the references made to it at the time. " Vir- ginia rang the alarm bell," said a writer of the North; and General Gage wrote, " Virginia gave the signal to the Continent." Massachusetts proposed a General Congress, and it met at New York in October (1765), but only nine colonies were represented and its proceed- ings were confined to protests. The invitation to take part in it reached Virginia after the dissolution of the Assembly, and no action could be taken upon it ; but at the next session of the body the proceedings were con- curred in.
The English ministry were now compelled to come to an open collision with the Americans, or rescind the Stamp Act. In March, 1766, just one year after its pas- sage, it was repealed. But the right was distinctly as- serted " to bind the colonies and people of America in all cases whatsoever." That was an open declaration of war, and necessarily led to the absolute subjection of the Americans or to revolution. They chose revolution, and it may be said to have begun when Henry forced through his resolutions, in the Burgesses, in 1765.
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IV.
THE WAR OF THE CHURCHES.
ALL things now hastened. With every passing hour the atmosphere grew hotter. A great political struggle was felt to be coming ; and the religious animosities of the time, which had been long smouldering, steadily gathered strength as the days went by.
Threatening hands were raised in every quarter against the Established Church, and the attacks of hier combined enemies, the non-conformists of all de- scriptions, began in earnest. They were to overthrow the Establishment at last, and destroy it, root and brauch, but as yet it was too strong for them; and the civil authorities, acting in its supposed interests, re- sorted to persecution. This was directed chiefly at the Baptists, who had recently become a strong communion. The first church was formally established in 1760, but soon there were numbers of others in Spotsylvania, Orange, Louisa, and Fluvanna. A passionate impulse swayed the preachers of the Baptist faith. The prop- aganda went on without rest. They saw visions which spurred them to call others to repentance, and the true form of baptism. James Read, in North Carolina, had a mysterious call by night. In his sleep he was heard crying "Virginia! Virginia !" and obeying the heavenly voice he set out and reached Orange, where great crowds flocked to listen to him. Soon the Establishment took alarm. The clergy denounced the new sect, calling them followers of the German Anabaptists, and pre- dicting a repetition of the horrors of Munster. But
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this the Baptists indignantly denied, asserting that they were preachers of the true Gospel only ; if they disturbed the lethargy of the Establishment it was not their fault. Persecution followed. In June, 1768, three preachers of the new church, John Waller, Lewis Craig, and James Childs, were arrested by the sheriff of Spotsylvania. They were offered their liberty if they would promise to discontinue preaching ; but that had no more effect in their case than in the case of John Bunyan. They gloried in their martyrdom. As they went to prison through the streets of Fredericksburg, they raised the resounding hymn, "Broad is the road that leads to death." Through the windows of the jail they preached to great throngs of people. When this had gone on for more than a month they were released ; they had reso- lutely persisted in making no promises to discontinue their efforts. Their persecutors were even ashamed. When they were arraigned for " preaching the Gospel contrary to law," Patrick Henry, who had ridden fifty miles to witness the trial, suddenly rose and exclaimed :
" May it please your worships, what did I hear read ? Did I hear an expression that these men whom your worships are about to try for misdemeanor are charged with preaching the Gospel of the Son of God ?"
The solemn voice is said to have deeply moved all who heard it. The State prosecutor " turned pale with agitation," and the court were near dismissing the ac- cused. Elsewhere the persecution went on ; in Ches- terfield, Middlesex, Caroline, and other counties. Men were imprisoned for their faith ; it was a reproduction of the monstrous proceedings in the Mother Country. But the result was what might have been foreseen by any but the judicially blind. The Baptists only grew
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stronger. In 1774 the Separates had fifty-four Churches, and the Regulars were steadily increasing also. One and all, these and other Dissenters, were actuated, says one of their advocates, by two strong principles - love of freedom and "hatred of the Church Establishment." They were "resolved never to relax their efforts until it was utterly destroyed," and they lived to see the wish fulfilled.
In this bitter antagonism to the Establishment the Methodists had no part; they were "a society within the Church," and advocated only a more evangelical spirit in worship. But the Quakers and Presbyterians cooperated with the Baptist Dissenters and were unrest- ing in their hostility to the union of Church and State. The noble memorial from the Presbytery of Hanover, which may yet be seen on the yellow old sheet in the Virginia Archives, sums up the whole case with admi- rable eloquence and force. It is trenchant and severe, but that was natural. It is the great protest of Dissent in all the years.
It may as well be added here that the long wrestle went on into the Revolution and after its close, and non-conformity grew lusty with the rich food fed to it. The Act of Religious Freedom did not satisfy the non- conformists. They took fire at the very terms " Dis- senter " and " Toleration." Why were they dissenters from the Episcopal Church any more than the Epis- copalians were dissenters from them ? Why were they to be " tolerated ?" The truth is, a great legacy of hatred had been bequeathed to the new generation who remembered the persecutions to which their fathers had been subjected. They were relentless in their hos- tility. An earnest advocate of their views in our own
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day writes : "The patriots of Virginia were not con- tent with victory half won. They knew that their principles were sound and they followed them out to their extreme results. While life lingered in any sev- ered limb of the Establishment they did not feel safe. They renewed their attacks until they had not merely hewn down the tree, but had torn it up by the roots, and had destroyed the last germ from which it might be re- produced."
The immemorial hostility thus pursued the Episco- pacy to the end. The dislike of the Episcopal clergy had terminated in dislike of the Episcopal tenets, which Samuel Davies had thought so admirable. In demand- ing their incontestable rights, which it was a shame to have so long withheld from them, the opponents of the Establishment demanded them with outcries against the Episcopacy, which were neither discriminating nor just. The vestries had been largely responsible for that ill- living in the clergy. Few good men would come to preach in Virginia ,when their places in the parishes depended upon the whim of the " parson's masters ;" when they were scanned with critical eyes, to be dis- missed at a moment's warning. The Church, too, had now come to be hated by its old adversaries. It was treated without mercy when it was disabled and power- less. It is not a pleasant spectacle, looking back to those old times. One fancies, while reading the story, some poor animal with legs broken, dragging its bleed- ing body along, pursued by relentless enemies, who worry it with sharp teeth in the very death agony. The law for exempting Dissenters overthrew the Es- tablishment ; that was just. But this was not enough. When the Church, on its petition (1784), was made a
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body corporate to manage its own affairs, new excite- ment arose. It was in vain to point out that other communions were at full liberty to become corpora- tions. The Presbytery of Hanover were implacable, and protested against the law. They would have noth- ing to do with it. They cried with comic alarm that the old Establishment, which was deadest of the dead, was coming to life again ; and the law was repealed.
Lastly the Bill for Religious Freedom, the darling project of Jefferson, consolidated the policy of non-in- tervention in matters of faith into a compact system. There was no longer any Establishment or shadow of such a thing ; at the end of the century it was dead in all its parts. But even that was not enough. We have set forth its persecuting spirit ; let us see how it was persecuted in turn. The modern principle that the spoils belong to the victors was applied to it. The old hostility was not dead, it had only gone to sleep ; and now it woke and struck a last blow. The glebe lands of the Church were directed to be sold (1802). It was not to keep its parsonages, the donations made to it, or the vessels used in Baptism and the Holy Communion. The question came before the Court of Appeals, of which Edmund Pendleton was now president. He was bitterly opposed to the sale of the Church property, which he considered a great wrong. But just before the decision, while he was writing his opinion, he sud- denly expired. His vote would have prevented it; and doubtless his sudden death was regarded by zealots as the intervention of Providence.
The Court decided against the Church. It is true the law forbade the sale of the Church edifices and the property in them ; but this provision protected neither.
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The parishes were obliterated and the clergy scattered. Thus all fell into the hands of persons who had small respect for religious things. The Church buildings were put to profane uses. " A reckless sensualist," says Dr. Hawks, " administered the morning dram to his guests from the silver cup " used in the Holy Com- munion. Another " converted a marble baptismal font into a watering-trough for horses."
What to say of these things ? There is nothing to say. It was simply a phase of this poor human nature which all the years reproduce. It was not, however, a misfortune to the Church thus to fall before its enemies. It had persecuted and reaped the harvest ; it was perse- cuted in turn, and its day of adversity was better for it than its day of prosperity. Its adversaries overthrew it utterly, tearing up, as they supposed, its very roots ; and throughi all the long years of the first quarter of the new century " the dust lay an inch thick " on the un- used Prayer Books. The old church buildings were closed or had fallen into the hands of vandals. The ancient tombstones were defaced, the holy vessels pro- faned ; ministers and people were dispersed, and wor- shiped only in private ; and when Bishop Meade ap- plied to Chief Justice Marshall for a subscription he gave it, but said that it was useless to attempt to revive so dead a thing as the Episcopal Church.
Nevertheless it revived. Excellent Dr. Griffith had been elected the first Virginia bishop (1786) ; James Madison the second (1790) ; and Richard Channing Moore the third (1814). It was left for the pure apos- tle, William Meade, to labor without ceasing and raise the prostrate Church from the dust. In the years pre- ceding and following his ordination as bishop (1829),
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he was unresting. He went to and fro on horseback, an itinerant apostle preaching the faith. He was a man of great ability, pure in heart and resolute of will. At his call the old worshipers came back to the ruined places, and the dismantled churches, half overgrown with brambles and ivy, were once more thronged. Life had still been in the body, an obstinate vitality which refused to be trodden out. What the Church had lost was the impure blood, and it rose purified and invigo- rated. The great and good man who had cried to it, " Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead !" gave his own impress to it from that time forward. It had once been intolerant and many of its ministers had not been exemplary people ; in the future it was to be the most tolerant of all communions, and its clergy were to be models of piety and self-sacrifice.
That is the character of the Church to-day. It is so liberal in spirit that in certain other dioceses it is scarcely recognized as an " Episcopal Church " at all. No criticism could be more welcome. It is to say that the Episcopal Church of Virginia is not cursed by a spirit of narrow sectarianism - is evangelical.
V.
THE HEART OF THE REBELLION.
To return to the Revolutionary outburst. The politi- cal agitation of the time even dwarfed the religious ran- cor, and all centered at Williamsburg, the heart of the Rebellion.
A glance at the old capital may illustrate the history of the times. It was the central stage of the revolution-
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THE HEART OF THE REBELLION.
ary drama ; of the jarring passions, the fierce collisions, of the pageants, the splendors, the anxieties, and heart- burnings of the epoch. It was built on the site of the former " Middle-Plantation," where Bacon and his men had taken the oath against England ; and consisted of Gloucester Street, the main thoroughfare, with the Old Capitol at one end and William and Mary College at the other, Palace Street debouching upon it, and a few others, as in undeveloped towns. The College has been spoken of ; the Old Capitol was a building of two stories, with a tall portico in front, and this edifice was called afterwards the " Heart of the Rebellion," a name which may be transferred to Williamsburg. Here took place some of the most striking scenes in the history of the time. The old walls reechoed the thunder of Henry's denunciations of the Stamp Act; the Council Chamber above was the scene of the dismissal of the Burgesses; and in the hall of the House took place the historic " Assembly " given in honor of Lady Dunmore and her family on the eve of the final collision.
The Governor's Palace, standing near Gloucester Street, was a building of large size surrounded by pleasure-grounds embracing more than three hundred acres, planted with lindens and other trees. In the re- ception room of the Palace hung portraits of the King and Queen, and this building also witnessed many scenes connected with public affairs. Among other incidents was its occupation by the English marines, who rifled the "Old Magazine " of its muskets and powder. The latter was a stone octagon which still stands, and is an interesting landmark. It was built by Spotswood in 1716, and is therefore more than a century and a half old. A last object of interest was the famous
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" Raleigh Tavern " on Gloucester Street, a building of wood, erected about 1700, with entrances on both fronts and a leaden bust of Sir Walter Raleigh over the main doorway. The large apartment in the Raleigh, called the " Apollo Room," was the place of meeting of the Burgesses after their dissolution by the royal Gov- ernors. Here many important measures were deter- mined upon by the leaders, and the room may be called the Faneuil Hall of Virginia. It was also a favorite place for balls ; and Jefferson, writing from College, speaks with rapture of " dancing with Belinda in the Apollo."
The town consisted of detached houses without pre- tensions to architectural beauty, but this modest hamlet was in winter the scene of much that was brilliant and attractive in Virginia society. It was the habit of the planters to come with their families to enjoy the pleas- ures of the Capital at this season, and tradition has pre- served the appearance, at such times, of the old Heart of the Rebellion. Gloucester Street was an animated spectacle of coaches-and-four containing the " nabobs " and their dames ; of maidens in silk and lace with high- heeled shoes and clocked stockings; of youths passing on spirited horses, -and all these people are engaged in attending the assemblies at the Palace, in dancing in the Apollo, in snatching the pleasure of the moment, and enjoying life under a regime which seemed made for enjoyment. The love of social intercourse had been a marked trait of the Virginians in all genera- tions, and at the middle of the century the instinct had culminated. The violins seemed to be ever playing for the divertisement of the youths and maidens; the good horses were running for the purse or cup; cocks were
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