The History of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia Part 29

15. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally ent.i.tled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love and charity towards each other.

CHAPTER XX

_The Declaration of Separation--The Declaration of Independence--Was.h.i.+ngton Commander-in-Chief--John Paul Jones Raises the First Flag--He was First to Raise the Stars and Stripes--Fredericksburg Furnishes the Head of the Armies and Navy--The Const.i.tution of the United States, &c._

As stated in the last chapter, we continue in this references to the great deeds of the great men of Virginia that should be grouped, as we are here endeavoring to do, in the smallest possible s.p.a.ce, and preserved to perpetuate their memory and honor their descendants through all coming time. It was Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle county, a Virginian, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, that struck the shackles of servitude from the people of this country, and proclaimed the United Colonies a new-born nation, free and independent.

JEFFERSON AND THE DECLARATION.

A lineal descendant of Thomas Jefferson, three generations removed, Judge John E. Mason, thus writes on these subjects, for this publication:

"Some years before the Revolutionary war, the colony of Virginia had become restless under British dominion. There had been, here and there, open expressions of discontent, and a growing resentment, if not positive hostility, against the mother country. In fact, nowhere more than in Virginia, and especially in this section, had the spirit of independence more steadily grown; and when the time came for decision and concert of action by the colonies, public opinion here was ripe to break down the old barriers, and to resist, with force, the power of England.

"Among those who had taken a most active part in moulding public sentiment was Thomas Jefferson, who, because of his extreme views in antagonizing every element of English ideas, and its government as based upon an aristocracy, has sometimes been called the 'Great Commoner.' Whether he, more than others, who were upon the stage of action at that time, is ent.i.tled to the name, those who know his history must be the judge; but certain it is, he was in advance of many of his contemporaries in developing antagonism to ancient ideas and ancient customs, which were the pride of the British people.

"On the 6th of May, 1776, the delegates from the counties and cities of the Colony of Virginia, met in convention at its capitol in Williamsburg, Edmund Pendleton presiding. During this convention certain resolutions were reported from committee by Archibald Cary, which were unanimously adopted by the one hundred and twelve members present. The first of these resolutions--said to have been proposed by Thomas Nelson, and drawn as reported by Edmund Pendleton, but no doubt the work of both--after reciting certain grievances against the mother country, declared that the 'delegates appointed to represent the colony in the General Congress, be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence upon the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain.'

"In Congress, on the 7th day of June, 1776, the gifted Richard Henry Lee, from this section, in obedience to instructions, offered the same resolution, which had been adopted by the Virginia Convention--that Congress should 'declare that the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.' This resolution was the precursor of the formal declaration. It was offered by a Virginian, acting under instructions given by Virginians, and its answer was the Declaration of Independence.

"The debate began on this resolution on the 8th of June, but on the 10th, it having developed that five colonies north of the Potomac were not ready to vote, the final decision was then postponed until the first day of July. In the meantime a committee had been elected to draft a Declaration of Independence. Mr. Lee, the mover of the above resolution, was unexpectedly called home by the illness of his wife, and was not on the committee. The committee was not appointed by the presiding officer, but was elected by ballot by Congress, and Jefferson, having received the highest number of votes cast, was its chairman. Its work was completed by the 28th of June. The Declaration of Independence was, on that date, reported to the House by Jefferson, and was then read and ordered to lie on the table. The Virginia resolution was carried in the affirmative, in the Committee of the Whole July 1st. On the 2nd day the Declaration of Independence was taken up and debated each day until the fourth, when it was adopted. It will be observed that the Declaration was completed before Congress had adopted the Virginia resolution.

"The committee, elected to draft the Declaration of Independence, consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston. Mr. Jefferson drew the Declaration of Independence at the request of the other members of the committee. Had another been its author, we believe the Declaration would have been different in tone, while, of course, the leading principles would have been the same. Many members were conservative, while Jefferson was radical. They had in view chiefly independence and freedom; Jefferson had the same opinions, but even then contemplated a complete revolution in the existing conditions--for anything which, in the slightest degree, partook of the nature of the government of Great Britain, her customs or traditions, was odious to him. He wished an irrevocable change, so that the new would supersede the old beyond recall.

"When, in framing that great doc.u.ment, he wrote these words: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,' * * * it doubtless did not require a prophet to tell what his future course would be, or the principles, considered radical then, for which he would stand, or the wonderful influence 'these truths' would have in forming const.i.tutions and shaping legislation, State and national, provided the British were beaten on the field of battle.

"It is worthy of note that the Declaration of Independence, as it came from his hands, suffered little change, except in two instances. He inserted in the original draft what might be called an emanc.i.p.ation proclamation--a clause condemning as piratical warfare against human nature itself, the enslaving of Africans--the slave trade being then sanctioned by North and South--the former being carriers and the latter princ.i.p.ally buyers--a business which Virginia would, years before, have prohibited had she not been met, in every effort, by royal vetoes. The other change was made by striking out some animadversions upon the English people. This was done by those who yet hoped for reconciliation, or something, they knew not what, which might avert the desperate struggle.

"To those who believe in freedom of thought and action; in the sovereignty of the people; in the equality of all men before the law, based upon const.i.tutional rights, restrictions and limitations, made by the wisdom of the greatest men this world has ever produced; in opening the door to promotion to all men whose talents, integrity and general high characters ent.i.tle them to such honors, the Declaration of Independence must forever commend itself; and it seems to the writer that upon the strict adherence to the principles, therein enunciated, rests the very life of the government of the United States.

"There are many other great things which came from the brain of Jefferson besides the Declaration of Independence, though the Declaration may have been the basis of all. The principles of the Declaration having been once established, these followed as a natural sequence. In a limited s.p.a.ce only a few can be simply noted. After he retired from Congress, in 1776, to become a member of the Virginia Legislature, he presented, in the session of that year, a bill for the revisal of the laws of the State, which was soon pa.s.sed, and Jefferson, Pendleton, Wythe, George Mason and Thomas L.

Lee were appointed a committee for revision.

"This committee of distinguished men met in Fredericksburg on the 13th day of February, 1777. Here various propositions were submitted and discussed--Mason, Wythe and Jefferson almost always agreeing and voting together, and Pendleton, of all, being the most unwilling to depart from the old conditions, except, to the astonishment of the committee, he proposed a new system, that all common law and equity jurisprudence, which had received the sanction of ages, should be abrogated--a new inst.i.tute, after the model of Justinian or Bracton, should be reported, thus giving us what is called, in this day, a code law, which would have been set afloat, without a precedent to guide it, and to construe which, would have taken our courts from that time to this.

"After this committee had agreed on measures and propositions, and the general outline of the system to be pursued, Mason and Lee, having given the other members the benefit of their advice, retired from further partic.i.p.ation in its labors, because they were not lawyers, and left the work to be done by the other three members, who then divided it, and completed the arduous task in 1779.

"There were four measures proposed by Jefferson before the full committee, then sitting in Fredericksburg, which were his especial pride, and these were the repeal of the laws of entail, the abolition of primogeniture, the establishment of a system of public education, and the act for the establishment of religious freedom. These four bills, he himself afterwards said, he 'considered as forming a system by which every fibre would be eradicated of ancient, or future, aristocracy, and a foundation laid for a government truly republican.'

"To use his own language again, 'the repeal of the laws of entail would prevent the acc.u.mulation and perpetuation of wealth in select families and preserve the soil of the country from being more and more absorbed in mortmain.'

"Not only was the abolition of the laws of entail resisted by some of the best talent in Virginia, but when Jefferson proposed to abolish also the law of primogeniture--a relic of feudalism--there was strong opposition from the same sources--men who had risked fortunes and lives in the struggle for independence, but who were unwilling to join Jefferson in his attack upon inst.i.tutions whose very age commanded veneration. One of the chief opponents of Jefferson was Edmund Pendleton, his friend, whose candor, great ability and benevolence in all these struggles won his admiration.

"It was Pendleton, who, when he found the old law could not prevail, suggested that the Hebrew principle be adopted, by which the eldest son should inherit double the amount of real estate which would descend to the heirs of the ancestor. The reply of Jefferson was characteristic and terse--'I observed,' he says, 'that if the eldest son could eat twice as much and do double work, it might be a natural evidence of his right to a double portion; but being on a par, in his powers and wants, with his brothers and sisters, he should be on a par also in the part.i.tion of the patrimony.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Old Planters' Hotel. The stone in front was used as a "stand" for slaves when hired or sold at public "outcry." (See page 165)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Opera House. It occupies the ground of the bank and other buildings burnt at the bombardment, December 11, 1862. (See page 269)]

"The statute of descents in Virginia was drawn by him--a statute which has justice and 'natural right' in every line, and so clear and perspicuous is it, that in all these years only one serious question has been raised regarding it, calling for a decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

"Jefferson gave an impetus to public education which is felt at this time.

He proposed to the General a.s.sembly of Virginia three bills: the first, establis.h.i.+ng elementary free schools for all children; the second, for colleges; and the third, for the highest grade of sciences. Only the first of these was pa.s.sed by the a.s.sembly, and before this was done it was so amended that it could not be operative unless the county courts so decided. Now, as the justices who presided over these courts, while among the most honorable and talented men in Virginia, were generally of a cla.s.s who did not care to bear the taxes necessarily entailed upon them by the adoption of the system, no free schools were established in any county within the Commonwealth under this act, with possibly the exception of one county.

"It was a fact that our ancestors, especially when under the English system of government, did not favor education at public expense, and the royal Governors, as a rule, threw the weight of their influence against it. But after the Revolutionary war had closed, and the government of the States was made a government by the people, Virginians, like Jefferson, proceeded on the theory that to have a good government, the people--the sovereigns--must be educated, so that they would take, not only a deeper interest in the affairs of State, but would do so with intelligence--the more knowledge disseminated the better would be the government, and the less danger there would be of its falling into the hands of a favored and exclusive cla.s.s.

"The principle of free education, however, so earnestly forced to the front by Jefferson, eventually bore fruit, though the ripening was slow.

It was gradually adopted by the people of Virginia, until now a system, backed by a sound public sentiment, is established in every county and city in the State, and the doors of the colleges are open to those who have not been favored with fortune. It may be safely predicted that when the State shall have fully recovered from the wreck and havoc of the Civil war, that a complete and thorough system will be established, such as that which was first proposed by Jefferson, and the people of the State will rejoice to see it done.

"No more important measure was proposed to the committee which met in Fredericksburg, on the 13th of January, 1777, than that of Jefferson's for the establishment of religious freedom, just as it now appears, with slight modifications in the preamble, in the statute books to-day. The fact that this act was written in Fredericksburg, we have never heard questioned; and the people of this city have the same right to claim that this 'second declaration' had its birth here, that the people of Philadelphia have to claim that city as the birth-place of the first. It was, however, a long time before its advocates were able to secure its pa.s.sage by the Legislature. Having been written in 1777, it did not become the law of the land until 1785.

"In making his fight for religious freedom, the courage, the persistence and the power of this statesman shone in all their splendor. We consider this as his most difficult task, but it is his crowning glory. He had arrayed against him the advocates of a long cherished policy, sustained by law; one around which tradition had woven a peculiar sanct.i.ty, and he who would lift his hand against it was deemed guilty of sacrilege. There, too, were the clergy, strong in resistance, backed, as they were, by a wealthy and powerful cla.s.s, Jefferson himself belonging to a family whose members, though loyal in exacting faithful obedience to changes in existing conditions, loved this church and wors.h.i.+pped in its sacred, but State protected walls; yet, in spite of all of this, believing that freedom of conscience was one of the 'inalienable and natural rights,' with a boldness, which all must commend; with a persistence, which all must admire, he headed the forces which took the last citadels of monarchial inst.i.tutions and leveled them to the ground, thus forever separating church and State and eliminating the combination of political policy and religion, so that henceforth no man could be 'compelled to frequent or support any religious wors.h.i.+p, place or ministry, but all men shall be free to profess, and by argument maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or effect their civil capacity.'

"In justice to those who were adherents to the established church, it must be said that some supported Jefferson, and after the change came, none were more devoted in maintaining the statute, and all others of kindred import; many being in positions charged with their proper enforcement, gave them sound judicial interpretation in exact conformity to all theories of the newly formed government.

"This act for the establishment of religious freedom is not only a monument to him, as a liberator of men, but its elegant diction, its easy and smoothly flowing style, show his genius as a writer. It is worthy of note, its preamble contains over five hundred words, yet it is but one sentence; only finished in the body of the act itself, where the first period appears; and, although he says this preamble was somewhat mutilated by others, there is nothing doubtful or uncertain as to its meaning, purpose and scope.

"To do full justice to the subject in hand would require a volume, but we must content ourselves with what has been written to show in part the wonderful and rapid changes then made in old and settled conditions, and the powerful influence this section had in moulding a government based on 'natural rights and justice,' and in shaping its destinies."

WAs.h.i.+NGTON GAINS INDEPENDENCE.

It was George Was.h.i.+ngton, a native of Westmoreland county, raised in Fredericksburg, who led the American armies in the Revolutionary war and gained American independence. He was called the "Great and Good Was.h.i.+ngton." He was truly great. He was great in the eyes of Americans; he was great in the eyes of his opposing enemies; he was great in the eyes of the world. He was an uncrowned king, because he refused to be crowned. We cannot properly appreciate his greatness, because he was so great we have no one to compare him with.

It is said a famous scholar has written a long essay in which he argued that the "traditional Was.h.i.+ngton" must give place to the new Was.h.i.+ngton.

Referring to this, Senator Lodge says: "This is true in one sense. A new idea of Was.h.i.+ngton comes up in the mind of each generation, as it learns the story of the father of this country; but in another sense, the idea of a new Was.h.i.+ngton is wrong. He cannot be discovered anew, because there never was but one Was.h.i.+ngton."

As to the esteem in which Was.h.i.+ngton is held all over the world, Senator Lodge says: "Even Englishmen, the most unsparing critics of us, have done homage to Was.h.i.+ngton from the time of Byron and Fox to the present day.

France has always revered his name. In distant lands, people who have hardly heard of the United States know the name of Was.h.i.+ngton. Nothing could better show the regard of the world for this great giver of liberty to the people than the way in which contributions came from all nations to his monument in Was.h.i.+ngton. There are stones from Greece, fragments of the Parthenon. There are stones from Brazil, Turkey, j.a.pan, Switzerland, Siam and India. In sending her tribute, China said: 'In devising plans, Was.h.i.+ngton was more decided than Ching s.h.i.+ng or Woo Kw.a.n.g; in winning a country, he was braver than Tsau Tsau or Ling Po. Wielding his four-footed falchion, he extended the frontiers, and refused to accept the royal dignity. The sentiments of the three dynasties have reappeared in him. Can any man of ancient or modern times fail to p.r.o.nounce Was.h.i.+ngton peerless?'

These comparisons, which are so strange to our ears, and which sound stranger still when used in comparison with Was.h.i.+ngton, show that his name has reached further than we can comprehend."

Speaking of the Declaration of Independence, Maury says:

"From beginning to end it was the work of Virginia. A Virginia planter (Mason) conceived it; a Virginia lawyer (Jefferson) drafted it; and a Virginia soldier (Was.h.i.+ngton) defended it and made it a living reality."

FIRST FLAG RAISED BY JOHN PAUL JONES.

It was John Paul Jones, a Fredericksburg man, who raised the first flag over our infant navy, and the first to throw our National flag--the Stars and Stripes--to the breeze of heaven. The National Portrait Gallery, volume 1, giving a short sketch of Jones's life, says: "On the organization of the infant navy of the United States, in 1775, John Paul Jones received the appointment of first of the first lieutenants in the service, in which, in his station on the flag-s.h.i.+p Alfred, he claimed the honor of being the foremost on the approach of the Commander-in-Chief, Commodore Hopkins, to raise the new American flag. This was the old device of a rattlesnake coiled on a yellow ground, with the motto, '_Don't tread on me_,' which is yet partially retained in the seal of the war-office. *

* * By the resolution of June 14, 1777, he was appointed to the Ranger, newly built at Portsmouth--a second instance of the kind--had the honor of hoisting for the first time the new flag of the Stars and Stripes."