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Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker - Virginia under the Stuarts 1607-1688

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Virginia under the Stuarts 1607-1688
Author:
Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker
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Good Press
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Books / History
Year:
2019
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Transcriber's Note

This text has a Rule 6 copyright clearance. Research has indicated the copyright on this book was not renewed.
The position of some illustrations has been changed to facilitate reading flow.
Footnotes are located at the end of each chapter.
In general, geographical references, spelling, hyphenation, and capitalization have been retained as in the original publication.
Minor typographical errorsusually periods, commas and hyphenshave been corrected without note.
Significant typographical errors have been corrected and are marked with dotted underlines. Place your mouse over the highlighted word and the original text will appear. A full list of these same corrections is also available in the section at the end of the book.

GIVE ME LIBERTY

Memoirs of the

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

held at Philadelphia
for Promoting Useful Knowledge

Volume 46

Thomas Jefferson. Portrait by Thomas Sully in the Hall of the American Philosophical Society.

GIVE ME LIBERTY

The Struggle for Self-Government
in
Virginia

THOMAS J. WERTENBAKER
Edwards Professor Emeritus of American History
Princeton University
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
INDEPENDENCE SQUARE
PHILADELPHIA
1958

Copyright 1958 by the American Philosophical Society
Library of Congress Catalog
Card Number: 58-9093
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY J. H. FURST COMPANY, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

Preface

None of the American colonies "will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights and privileges which are essential to the happiness of every free state," George Washington wrote in October, 1774. Perhaps the British officer to whom he made this statement was startled to have him speak of the colonies as free. Yet at the time the American people were the freest in the world, freer even than the people of England. It was to defend this freedom, not to gain new rights, that the colonists rebelled against Great Britain. For decades they had been governing themselves, so when the British Ministry tried to govern them from London, they would not submit.

To understand what was in the minds and hearts of George Washington, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and the other patriots, it is necessary to know how the colonies became self-governing. One must follow the political battles and hard-earned victories of their fathers, and grandfathers, and great-grandfathers in the colonial Assemblies.

This volume treats of the struggle for self-government in Virginia from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to the Declaration of Independence. The story of the gradual lessening of the King's prerogative, of the weakening of the power of the Governor, of the emergence of the Assembly as the ruling body could be paralleled in other colonies. But it is of especial importance in Virginia, where was held the first representative Assembly in the New World, and which gave so many leaders to the American Revolution.

I wish to express my appreciation to my Alma Mater, the University of Virginia, for its award of a Thomas Jefferson Research Fellowship, without which this volume would not have been written.

Thomas J. Wertenbaker.

Princeton, N. J.
April 1, 1957.

[Pg vi]
[Pg vii]

Contents

PAGE
I.	The Cornerstone of Liberty
II.	Self-government
III.	We Prefer Another Governor
IV.	Royalty Overthrown
V.	A Bacon! A Bacon!
VI.	Reconstruction and Despotism
VII.	The Glorious Revolution
VIII.	The Virginia Hitler
IX.	The Virginia House of Lords
X.	Spotswood
XI.	Peace and Prosperity
XII.	At StakeLiberty and a Continent
XIII.	The Widening Rift
XIV.	Independence
Essay on Sources
Index

[Pg viii]
[Pg ix]

Illustrations

Thomas Jefferson. Portrait by Thomas Sully in the Hall of the American Philosophical Society
The Old Capitol at Williamsburg, showing the north elevation which is a duplicate of the historic Virginia Capitol originally completed in 1705. Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.	facing page
The House of Burgesses in the Old Capitol at Williamsburg. Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.
Governor Dinwiddie. Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery of London
The General Court in the Old Capitol at Williamsburg. Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.
Lord Dunmore. From the copy in the possession of the Virginia Historical Society of the original portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds
The Governor's Palace, Williamsburg. Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.

[Pg x]
[Pg 1]

CHAPTER I
THE CORNERSTONE OF LIBERTY

Three little vesselsthe Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discoveryleft England in December, 1606, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, to found a colony on the distant shores of Virginia. Two decades earlier Sir Walter Raleigh had sent out a group of settlers to what is now North Carolina, and they had disappeared mysteriously. What had happened to them? men asked. Had they been killed by the Indians? Had they fallen victims to disease? Had they starved? Those who shared in this new venture must have wondered if a like fate awaited them in this strange new land.

But their spirits rose when they entered Chesapeake Bay. Landing parties were delighted with the "fair meddowes ... full of flowers of divers kinds and colors," the "goodly tall trees," and the streams of fresh water. It was a smiling country which seemed to bid them welcome. But when they entered the mouth of a broad river, which they called the James in honor of their King, and made their way up into the country, new doubts must have assailed them. They knew that savages lived in the dense forests which lined both banks; might not strange wild beasts live there also? Might there not be fatal diseases unknown in Europe?

Possibly they wondered what type of government Englishmen would live under here. In the charter granted the Virginia Company of London in 1606 it was promised that they should "enjoy all the liberties, franchises, and immunities" of Englishmen, "as if they had been abiding" in England. Even without this promise they would have taken it for granted that they were not surrendering the freedom derived from their ancestors. This was the view taken six decades later by Francis Moryson and Thomas Ludwell, agents for the colony. If the King planted a colony of Englishmen, they and their heirs ought by law to enjoy the "same liberties and privileges as Englishmen in England." After all, the colony would be but "an extension or dilation of the realm of England."

The men who came to Virginia had, in the mother country, participated in the government through representatives of their own choosing, so they insisted upon this right in their new home. They claimed, also, the habeas corpus, jury trial, and freedom from taxation save by their own consent. In England not even the King could take a man's money legally until it had been granted by the House of Commons. Upon this recognized principle English liberty was chiefly based; upon its acceptance in America depended the future of liberty there.

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