History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia Part 42

[489:B] Was.h.i.+ngton's Writings, ii. 125; Va. Hist. Reg.

[490:A] Father of the late Judge Archibald Stewart, of Augusta County, and grandfather of the Honorable A. H. H. Stewart, Secretary of the Interior under President Taylor.

[492:A] Lyman C. Draper, in Va. Hist. Register, 61; Howe's Hist.

Collections of Va., 352.

[492:B] Was.h.i.+ngton's Writings, ii. 125, 135.

[495:A] Huguenot Family, 348, 351.

[495:B] Burk's Hist. of Va., iii. 402.

[496:A] Bancroft, iv. 223.

[496:B] Sparks' Writings of Was.h.i.+ngton, ii. 262.

[496:C] Was.h.i.+ngton's Writings, ii. 217, in note.

[497:A] Bancroft, iv. 236.

[499:A] Davies' Sermons, iii. 68.

[499:B] These eloquent words may have been suggested by those of Davies.

CHAPTER LXIV.

1758-1762.

Earl of Loudoun--General Forbes--Pamunkey Indians--Fauquier, Governor--Forbes' Expedition against Fort Du Quesne--Its Capture--Burnaby's Account of Virginia--Was.h.i.+ngton, member of a.s.sembly--His Marriage--Speaker Robinson's Compliment--Stobo-- Germans on the Shenandoah--Miscellaneous.

THE Earl of Loudoun had been commissioned to fill Dinwiddie's place, but his military avocations prevented him from entering on the duties of the gubernatorial office, and it is believed that he never visited the colony of Virginia. Pitt, now minister, had resolved on a vigorous prosecution of the war in America, and it was quickly felt in every part of the British empire that there was a man at the helm. The department of the Middle and Southern Colonies was entrusted to General Forbes, and he was ordered to undertake an expedition against Fort Du Quesne.

Was.h.i.+ngton rejoined the army. Forbes having deferred the campaign too late, the French and Indians renewed their merciless warfare. In the County of Augusta sixty persons were murdered. The Virginia troops were augmented to two thousand men, divided into two regiments: one under Was.h.i.+ngton, who was still commander-in-chief; the other, the new regiment, under Colonel William Byrd, of Westover. The strength of Colonel Byrd's regiment at Fort c.u.mberland (August 3d, 1758,) was eight hundred and fifty-nine.[500:A]

As late as 1758 there were some descendants of the Pamunkey Indians still residing on their original seat. The Rev. Andrew Burnaby makes mention of them in his Travels. A few words of their language were found surviving as late as 1844.

Francis Fauquier, appointed governor, now reached Virginia. Late in June, 1758, the Virginia troops left Winchester, and early in July halted at Fort c.u.mberland.[501:A] At Was.h.i.+ngton's suggestion the light Indian dress, hunting-s.h.i.+rt and blanket, were adopted by the army.

Contrary to his advice, Forbes, instead of marching immediately upon the Ohio, by Braddock's road, undertook to construct another from Raystown, in Pennsylvania. The general, it was supposed, was influenced by the Pennsylvanians to open for them a more direct avenue of intercourse with the west. The new road caused great delay. In disregard of Was.h.i.+ngton's advice, Major Grant had been detached from the Loyal Hanna, with eight hundred men, to reconnoitre the country about Fort Du Quesne.

Presumptuous temerity involved the detachment in a surprise and defeat similar to Braddock's; Grant and Major Andrew Lewis were made prisoners.

Of the eight Virginia officers present five were slain, a sixth wounded, and a seventh captured. Captain Thomas Bullit, and fifty Virginians, defended the baggage with great resolution, and contributed to save the remnant of the detachment. He was the only officer who escaped unhurt.

Of one hundred and sixty-two Virginians, sixty-two were killed, and two wounded. Grant's total loss was two hundred and seventy-three killed, and forty-two wounded.

When the main army was set in motion Was.h.i.+ngton requested to be put in advance, and Forbes, profiting by Braddock's fatal error, complied with his wish. Was.h.i.+ngton was called to headquarters, attended the councils of war, and, in compliance with the general's desire, drew up a line of march and order of battle. Forbes' army consisted of twelve hundred Highlanders, three hundred and fifty Royal Americans, twenty-seven hundred provincials from Pennsylvania, sixteen hundred from Virginia, two or three hundred from Maryland, and two companies from North Carolina, making in all, including the wagoners, between six and seven thousand men. This army was five months in reaching the Ohio. The main body left Raystown on the 8th of October, 1758, and reached the camp at Loyal Hanna early in November. The troops were worn out with fatigue and exposure; winter had set in, and more than fifty miles of rugged country yet intervened between them and Fort Du Quesne. A council of war declared it unadvisable to proceed further in that campaign. Just at this conjuncture, three prisoners were brought in, and they gave such a report of the feeble state of the garrison at the fort, that it was determined to push forward at once. Was.h.i.+ngton, with his provincials, opened the way. The French, reduced to five hundred men, and deserted by the Indians, set fire to the fort, and retired down the Ohio. Forbes took possession of the post on the next day, (November 25th, 1758.) The works were repaired, and the fort was now named Fort Pitt. An important city, called after the same ill.u.s.trious statesman, has been reared near the spot. General Forbes, whose health had been declining during the campaign, died shortly afterwards at Philadelphia. He was a native of Scotland, and was educated as a physician; was an estimable and brave man, and of fine military talents.

Burnaby, who visited Virginia about this time, in describing Williamsburg, mentions the governor's palace as the only tolerably good public building. The streets being unpaved are dusty, the soil being sandy. The miniature capital had the rare advantage of being free from mosquitoes; and it was, all things considered, a pleasant place of residence. During the session of the a.s.sembly and of the general court, it was crowded with the gentry of the country. On these occasions there were b.a.l.l.s, and other amus.e.m.e.nts; but as soon as the public business was dispatched the visitors returned to their homes, and Williamsburg appeared to be deserted. Lightning-rods were now generally used in Virginia, and proved efficacious. At Spotswood's iron mines, on the banks of the Rappahannock, there were smelted, annually, upwards of six hundred tons of metal. Coal mines had been opened with good success on the James River near the falls. Not a tenth of the land in Virginia was cultivated; yet, besides tobacco, she produced considerable quant.i.ties of fruit, cattle, and grain. The bacon was held to be superior in flavor to any in the world; but the mutton and beef inferior to that of Great Britain. The horses were fleet and beautiful; and the breed was improved by frequent importations from England. Delicious fruits abounded, and in the early spring the eye of the traveller was charmed with the appearance of the orchards in full blossom. There were fifty-two counties and seventy-seven parishes, and on the pages of the statute-book forty-four towns; but one-half of these had not more than five houses, and the other half, for the most part, were inconsiderable villages. The exports of tobacco were between fifty and sixty thousand hogsheads, each weighing eight hundred or a thousand pounds. Their other exports were, to the Madeiras and the West Indies, cider, pork, lumber, and grain; to Great Britain, bar-iron, indigo, and a little ginseng. The only domestic manufacture of any consequence was Virginia cloth, which was commonly worn. There were between sixty and seventy clergymen, "men in general of sober and exemplary lives." Burnaby describes the Virginians as indolent, easy, good-natured, fond of society, and much given to convivial pleasures. They were devoid of enterprise and incapable of enduring fatigue. Their authority over their slaves rendered them vain, imperious, and dest.i.tute of refinement. Negroes and Indians they looked upon as scarcely of the human species; so that in case of violence, or even murder committed upon them, it was almost impossible to bring them to justice. Such was Burnaby's report on this subject. During the reign of James the Second, John Page, in a religious work composed by him, thought it necessary to combat, in an elaborate argument, the opinion that a master had the power of life and death over his slave.

Was.h.i.+ngton, after furnis.h.i.+ng a detachment from his regiment as a garrison for Fort Pitt, then considered as within the jurisdiction of Virginia, marched back to Winchester. Thence he proceeded to Williamsburg to take his seat in the a.s.sembly, having been elected by the County of Frederick. He resigned his military commission in December, after having been engaged in the service for more than five years. His health had been impaired, and domestic affairs demanded his attention. On the 6th day of January, 1759, he was married to Martha, widow of John Parke Custis, and daughter of John Dandridge, a lady in whom were united wealth, beauty, and an amiable temper.

By an order of the a.s.sembly, Speaker Robinson was directed to return their thanks to Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, on behalf of the colony, for the distinguished military services which he had rendered to the country. As soon as he took his seat in the house, the speaker performed this duty in such glowing terms as quite overwhelmed him. Was.h.i.+ngton rose to express his acknowledgments for the honor, but was so disconcerted as to be unable to articulate a word distinctly. He blushed and faltered for a moment, when the speaker relieved him from his embarra.s.sment by saying, "Sit down, Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, your modesty equals your valor, and that surpa.s.ses the power of any language that I possess."

Captain Stobo, a hostage in the hands of the French, was detained for years at Quebec, enduring frequently the hards.h.i.+ps of actual imprisonment, and for a time being under condemnation of death. At length he was released from this apprehension and from close confinement, and in May, 1759, in company of several others, effected his escape. Eluding the enemy by prudence and gallantry, he and his a.s.sociates made their way to Louisburg. Here Stobo was gladly welcomed, and he joined General Wolfe, to whom his information proved serviceable; and he appears to have been present at the capture of Quebec. Shortly afterwards he returned to Virginia, (November, 1759.) The a.s.sembly granted him a thousand pounds, requested the governor to promote him, and presented their thanks to him for his fidelity, fort.i.tude, and courage, by Mr. R. C. Nicholas, Mr. Richard Bland, and Mr. George Was.h.i.+ngton. Stobo returned to England, where his memoirs were published.

In 1760 he was made a captain in Amherst's Regiment, then serving in America; and he held that position in 1765.

Van Braam, who had been kept prisoner at Montreal, was not released until the surrender of that city to the British in the ensuing year. He returned to Williamsburg shortly afterwards. In 1770 he obtained his share of the Virginia bounty lands; and in 1777 was made major in the Royal Americans, then in the West Indies.

During this year (1759) Rev. Andrew Burnaby visited Mount Vernon, of which he remarks: "This place is the property of Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, and truly deserving of its owner. The house is most beautifully situated upon a very high hill on the banks of the Potomac, and commands a n.o.ble prospect of water, of cliffs, of woods, and plantations. The river is near two miles broad though two hundred from the mouth; and divides the dominions of Virginia from Maryland."

Burnaby, in his Travels, describes the condition of the Germans on the Shenandoah as follows: "I could not but reflect with pleasure on the situation of these people, and think, if there is such a thing as happiness in this life, that they enjoy it. Far from the bustle of the world, they live in the most delightful climate and richest soil imaginable; they are everywhere surrounded with beautiful prospects and sylvan scenes, lofty mountains, transparent streams, falls of water, rich valleys, and majestic woods; the whole, interspersed with an infinite variety of flowering shrubs, const.i.tute the landscape surrounding them; they are subject to few diseases; are generally robust, and live in perfect liberty; they are ignorant of want, and acquainted with but few vices; their inexperience of the elegancies of life precludes any regret that they possess not the means of enjoying them; but they possess what many princes would give their dominions for--health, content, and tranquillity of mind."

In the year 1761 died the Rev. Thomas Dawson, President of the College of William and Mary; he was succeeded by the Rev. William Yates. During the same year died the Rev. Samuel Davies.[505:A] He accepted the presidency of the College of New Jersey in 1759, and died on the 4th of February, 1761. In this year was incorporated the town of Staunton, in Augusta County, and in the following year Romney, in the County of Hamps.h.i.+re.

During the tragic scenes of the French and Indian war, the persecutions of the dissenting Presbyterians, whose aid was so necessary in defending the frontiers, were essentially lessened. They were indebted to the confusion and dangers of the times for a freedom in matters of religion which was denied them in a period of tranquillity. Their ministers now enjoyed the privilege of preaching where they pleased, and were no longer restrained by the Virginia intolerant construction of the toleration act. The Baptists began to multiply their number in Virginia, and their new enthusiasm became the object of persecution. But events were about to turn the tide of popular prejudice, and direct it against the clergy of the established church, and to give to the dissenters a stronger foothold and a higher vantage ground. Those ministers of the establishment who had been vainly endeavoring to repress the progress of dissent by ridicule, detraction, and insult, some of them combining with and leading on a mob of "lewd fellows of the baser sort" in these persecuting indignities, now began to find it necessary to defend themselves against the rising storm of public indignation.

FOOTNOTES:

[500:A] The officers were Lieutenant-Colonel George Mercer, Major William Peachy, Captains S. Munford, Thomas c.o.c.ke, Hanc.o.c.k Eustace, John Field, John Posey, Thomas Fleming, John Roote, and Samuel Meredith.

[501:A] See in Bland Papers, i. 9, Robert Munford's letter, dated at the Camp near Fort c.u.mberland. He was father of the translator of Homer, and grandfather to George W. Munford, Esq., Secretary of the Commonwealth.

[505:A] John Rodgers Davies, his third son, was at Princeton College at the same time with Mr. Madison, and leaving it, at the commencement of the revolutionary war, became an officer in the army, and as such enjoyed the esteem of Was.h.i.+ngton. He is said to have been engaged in the auditor's office at Richmond. He removed to Suss.e.x County, and died there.

CHAPTER LXV.

1763.

The Parsons' Cause--Patrick Henry's Speech.

IN the year 1763 occurred the famous "Parsons' Cause," in which the genius of Patrick Henry first shone forth. The emoluments of the clergy of the established church for a long time had consisted of sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco, contributed by each parish. The tobacco crop of 1755 failing, in consequence of a drought, and the exigencies of the colony being greatly augmented by the French and Indian war, the a.s.sembly pa.s.sed an act, to endure for ten months, authorizing all debts due in tobacco to be paid either in kind or in money, at the rate of sixteen s.h.i.+llings and eight pence for every hundred pounds of tobacco.

This was equivalent to two pence per pound, and hence the act was styled by the clergy the "Two Penny Act." As the price of tobacco now rose to six pence per pound, the reduction amounted to sixty-six and two-thirds per cent. At two pence the salary of a minister clergy was about one hundred and thirty-three pounds; at six pence, about four hundred pounds. Yet the act must have operated in relief of the indebted clergy equally with other debtors, and many of the ministers were in debt. It was by no means the intention of the a.s.sembly to abridge the maintenance of the clergy, or to bear harder upon them than upon all other public creditors; and as they, under the new act, in fact, received in general a larger salary than they had received in any year since it was first regulated by law, they, above all men, ought to have been content with it in a year of so much distress.[507:A] The taxes were enormous, and fell most heavily upon planters of limited means; and the tobacco-crop was greatly fallen off. The Rev. James Maury, in whose behalf the suit was afterwards brought, had himself at the time expressly approved of the Two Penny Act, and said: "In my own case, who am ent.i.tled to upwards of seventeen thousand weight of tobacco per annum, the difference amounts to a considerable sum. However, each individual must expect to share in the misfortunes of the community to which he belongs."[508:A]

The law was universal in its operation, embracing private debts, public, county, and parish levies, and the fees of all civil officers. Its effect upon the clergy was to reduce their salary to a moderate amount in money, far less, indeed, than the sixteen thousand pounds which they were ordinarily ent.i.tled to, yet still rather more than what they had usually received. The act did not contain the usual clause, by which acts altering previous acts approved by the crown were suspended until they should receive the royal sanction, since it might require the entire ten months, the term of its operation, to learn the determination of the crown. The king had a few years before expressly refused to allow the a.s.sembly to dispense with the suspending clause in any such act. The regal authority was thus apparently abnegated; necessity discarding forms, and the safety of the people being the supreme law. Up to the time of the Revolution the king freely exercised his authority in vetoing acts of the a.s.sembly when they had been approved by large majorities of the house of burgesses and of the council. The practice was to print all the acts at the close of each session, and when an act was negatived by the king, that fact was written against the act with a pen.[508:B]

No open resistance was offered to the Two Penny Act; but the greater number of clergy pet.i.tioned the house of burgesses to grant them a more liberal provision for their maintenance. Their pet.i.tion set forth: "That the salary appointed by law for the clergy is so scanty that it is with difficulty they support themselves and families, and can by no means make any provision for their widows and children, who are generally left to the charity of their friends; that the small encouragement given to clergymen is a reason why so few come into this colony from the two universities; and that so many, who are a disgrace to the ministry, find opportunities to fill the parishes; that the raising the salary would prove of great service to the colony, as a decent subsistence would be a great encouragement to the youth to take orders, for want of which few gentlemen have hitherto thought it worth their while to bring up their children in the study of divinity; that they generally spent many years of their lives at great expense in study, when their patrimony is pretty well exhausted; and when in holy orders they cannot follow any secular employment for the advancement of their fortunes, and may on that account expect a more liberal provision."[509:A] Another relief act, similar to that of 1755, fixing the value of tobacco at eighteen s.h.i.+llings a hundred, was pa.s.sed in 1758[509:B] upon a mere antic.i.p.ation of another scanty crop.[509:C] Burk[509:D] attributes the rise in the price of tobacco to the arts of an extravagant speculator; but he cites no authority for the statement, and the acts themselves expressly attribute the scarcity, in 1755, to "drought," and in 1757 to "unseasonableness of the weather."[509:E] The crop did fall short, and the price rose extremely high; and contention ensued between the planters and the clergy. The Rev. John Camm, rector of York Hampton Parish, a.s.sailed the "Two Penny Act" in a pamphlet of that t.i.tle, which was replied to severally by Colonel Richard Bland and Colonel Landon Carter. An acrimonious controversy took place in the _Virginia Gazette_; but the cause of the clergy became at length so unpopular, that a printer could not be found in Virginia willing to publish Camm's rejoinder to Bland and Carter, styled the "Colonels Dismounted," and he was obliged to resort to Maryland for that purpose. The colonels retorted, and this angry dispute threw the colony into great excitement.

At last the clergy appealed to the king in council. By an act of a.s.sembly pa.s.sed as early as the year 1662, a salary of eighty pounds per annum was settled upon every minister, "to be paid in the valuable commodities of the country--if in tobacco, at twelve s.h.i.+llings the hundred; if in corn, at ten s.h.i.+llings the barrel." In 1696 the salary of the clergy was fixed at sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco, worth at that time about eighty pounds. This continued to be the amount of their stipends until 1731, when, the value of tobacco being raised, they increased to about one hundred or one hundred and twenty pounds, exclusive of their glebes and other perquisites. In Virginia, besides the salaries of the clergy, the people had to bear parochial, county, and public levies, and fees of clerks, sheriffs, surveyors, and other officers, all of which were payable in tobacco, the paper currency of the colony having banished gold and silver from the colony.[510:A] The consequence of this state of things was that a failure in the crop involved the people in general distress; for by law if the salaries of the clergy and the fees of officers were not paid in tobacco by the tenth day of April, the property of delinquents was liable to be distrained, and if not replevied within five days, to be sold at auction. Were they to be exposed to cruel imposition and exactions; to have their estates seized and sacrificed, "for not complying with laws which Providence had made it impossible to comply with? Common sense, as well as common humanity, will tell you that they are not, and that it is impossible any instruction to a governor can be construed so contrary to the first principles of justice and equity, as to prevent his a.s.sent to a law for relieving a colony in a case of such general distress and calamity."[510:B] Sherlock, Bishop of London, in his letter to the lords of trade and plantations, denounced the act of 1758, as binding the king's hands, and manifestly tending to draw the people of the plantations from their allegiance to the king. It was replied, on the other hand, that if the Virginians could ever entertain the thought of withdrawing from their dependency on England, nothing could be more apt to bring about such a result than the denying them the right to protect themselves from distress and calamity in so trying an emergency. In the year when this relief act was pa.s.sed, many thousands of the colonists did not make one pound of tobacco, and if all of it raised in the colony had been divided among the t.i.thables, "they would not have had two hundred pounds a man to pay the taxes, for the support of the war, their levies and other public dues, and to provide a scanty subsistence for themselves and families;" and "the general a.s.sembly were obliged to issue money from the public funds to keep the people from starving." The act had been denounced as treasonable; but were the legislature to sit with folded arms, silent and inactive, amid the miseries of the people?

"This would have been treason indeed,--treason against the state,--against the clemency of the royal majesty." Many landlords and civil officers were members of the a.s.sembly in 1758, and their fees and rents were payable in tobacco; nevertheless, they cheerfully promoted the enactment of a measure by which they were to suffer great losses.

The royal prerogative in the hands of a benign sovereign could only be exerted for "the good of the people, and not for their destruction."

"When, therefore, the governor and council (to whom this power is in part delegated) find, from the uncertainty and variableness of human affairs, that any accident happens which general instructions can by no means provide for, or which, by a rigid construction of them, would destroy a people so far distant from the royal presence, before they can apply to the throne for relief, it is their duty as good magistrates to exercise this power as the exigency of the state requires; and though they should deviate from the strict letter of an instruction, or, perhaps in a small degree from the fixed rule of the const.i.tution, yet such a deviation cannot possibly be treason, when it is intended to produce the most salutary end--the preservation of the people."

The Rev. Andrew Burnaby, who pa.s.sed some months in Virginia about the time of this dispute, travelling through the colony and conversing freely with all ranks of people, expresses himself on the subject in the following manner: "Upon the whole, however, as on the one hand I disapprove of the proceedings of the a.s.sembly in this affair, so on the other I cannot approve of the steps which were taken by the clergy; that violence of temper, that disrespectful behavior toward the governor, that unworthy treatment of their commissary, and, to mention nothing else, that confusion of proceeding in the convention,[512:A] of which some, though not the majority, as has been invidiously represented, were guilty; these things were surely unbecoming the sacred character they are invested with, and the moderation of those persons who ought in all things to imitate the conduct of their Divine Master. If instead of flying out in invectives against the legislature, of accusing the governor of having given up the cause of religion by pa.s.sing the bill, when, in fact, had he rejected it, he would never have been able to have got any supplies during the course of the war, though ever so much wanted; if instead of charging the commissary[512:B] with want of zeal, for having exhorted them to moderate measures, they had followed the prudent counsels of that excellent man, and had acted with more temper and moderation, they might, I am persuaded, in a very short time have obtained any redress they could reasonably have desired. The people in general were extremely well affected toward the clergy."[512:C]

The following paper exhibits the view maintained by Richard Henry Lee on this mooted topic:--