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diff --git a/old/30058.txt b/old/30058.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3369ab1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/30058.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5578 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783, by +Virginia State Dept. of Education + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783 + +Author: Virginia State Dept. of Education + +Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30058] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDEPENDENCE: VIRGINIA 1763-1783 *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +_The +Road +to +Independence:_ + +_Virginia +1763-1783_ + + +HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND GEOGRAPHY SERVICE +DIVISION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION +STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION +RICHMOND, VIRGINIA + + + + +_Foreword_ + + +Many of the fundamental principles of our nation's development are +rooted in the Colonial Period; therefore, this era deserves careful +attention in the public schools of Virginia. The spirit of freedom +engendered in the early days of the nation's history has remained the +hallmark of the nation. It has been maintained by commitment to +democratic traditions and values. + +In the public schools of Virginia, various courses deal with American +history, and consideration and study is given to the Colonial Period +from kindergarten through grade twelve. The publication entitled, THE +ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: VIRGINIA 1763-1783, offers teachers in the +secondary schools of Virginia a special challenge to select important +areas of emphasis for the period 1763-1783 that will provide an +improved perspective for students to see new meaning in familiar +events. The teacher should present the material in a broader context so +as to enable young Americans to comprehend the ideas, events, and +personalities of the period. It is hoped that this publication will +help to accomplish this goal. + +W. E. Campbell +State Superintendent of +Public Instruction + + + + +_Table of Contents_ + + +FOREWORD ii + +INTRODUCTION iv + +_The Road to Independence: Virginia 1763-1783_ + +PART I: + + 1763: The Aftermath of Victory 1 + The New Generation in Politics: Britain and Virginia 4 + The Political Philosophy of Virginia, 1763 7 + +PART II: + + The Road to Revolution, 1763-1775 14 + The Grenville Program, 1763-1765 14 + Western Lands Defense 15 + A New Revenue Program 16 + The Currency Act of 1764 17 + Virginia and the Stamp Act, 1764 18 + The Stamp Act Resolves, May 1765 20 + The Stamp Act Crisis, 1765-1766 24 + Repeal and the Declaratory Act, 1766 26 + British Politics and the Townshend Act, 1766-1770 28 + Virginia Politics, 1766-1768 29 + The Townshend Act in Virginia, 1767-1771 30 + The False Interlude, 1770-1773 31 + The Road to Revolution, 1773-1774 32 + The Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts 33 + +PART III: + + From Revolution to Independence 35 + The First Virginia Convention 35 + Virginia and the First Continental Congress 38 + Great Britain Stiffens 39 + War 40 + Independence 43 + +PART IV: + + The Commonwealth of Virginia 46 + Declaration of Rights 46 + Declaration of Independence 48 + The Virginia Constitution, June 29, 1776 49 + The British-Americans: The Virginia Loyalists 52 + The War at Home, 1776-1780 53 + +PART V: + + The War for Independence 55 + Virginians and the Continental Army, 1775-1779 55 + The Indian Wars 57 + George Rogers Clark and the Winning of the West 58 + The War and Eastern Virginia, 1776-1779 60 + Black Virginians in the Revolution 60 + The British Move South, 1780-1781 62 + The Invasion of Virginia, 1781 63 + Yorktown, September-October, 1781 66 + +BIBLIOGRAPHY 68 + +APPENDIX + + A Chronology of Selected Events in Virginia, 1763-1783 70 + The Declaration of Independence 75 + Suggestive Questions for Exploring Virginia's Role in the + Winning of Independence 77 + Suggested Student Activities 79 + + + + +_Introduction_ + +Virginia, the birthplace of our nation, played an important role in the +winning of American independence. Virginia, the largest and the most +influential of the 13 colonies, led the struggle for American +independence and has helped to formulate American ideals and to shape +our country's institutions. + +This publication was prepared to assist teachers in developing topics +of study relating to the American Revolution and Virginia's role in the +winning of independence and to help students develop deeper +appreciation for the rich heritage that is theirs as citizens of the +Commonwealth. The Virginia tradition was created by responsible men and +women who believed in the inherent dignity of the individual, the role +of government as a servant of the people, the value of freedom, +justice, equality, and the concept of "rule of law." These ideals and +beliefs remain the hallmark of Virginia and the nation. + +Important objectives of this publication are: + +To emphasize the study of Virginia history during the period from 1763 +to 1783 when the state exerted influential leadership and wisdom in the +winning of American independence; + +To develop a deeper understanding of the meaning of freedom and basic +principles and traditions which have nourished and sustained the +American way of life; + +To further the students' understanding of individual rights and +responsibilities in a free society; + +To further acquaint students with their heritage of freedom and the +importance of perpetuating democratic traditions; and + +To further students' understanding of the concept of self-government +and the American way of life. + +It is hoped that this publication will assist in achieving these +objectives. + +N. P. Bradner, Director +Division of Secondary Education +State Department of Education + +Mrs. Jerri Button, Supervisor +History, Government, and +Geography Service +State Department of Education + +Thomas A. Elliott, Assistant +Supervisor +History, Government, and +Geography Service +State Department of Education + +Clyde J. Haddock, Assistant +Supervisor +History, Government, and +Geography Service +State Department of Education + +James C. Page, Assistant Supervisor +History, Government, and Geography Service +State Department of Education + +Dr. D. Alan Williams, Consultant +THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: VIRGINIA 1763-1783 +Professor of History +University of Virginia + + + + +_The Road to Independence:_ + +_Virginia 1763-1783_ + + + + +Part I: + +1763: The Aftermath of Victory + + +[Sidenote: "_He has refused to assent to laws the most wholesome and +necessary for the public good...._"] + +Virginia in 1763 appeared to stand on the edge of a new era of +greatness. The Peace of Paris signed that year confirmed the total +victory of the British in North America during the long French and +Indian War (1754-1763). Virginia's natural enemies were subdued: the +French were driven from Canada, the Forks of the Ohio, the Illinois +Country, and Louisiana; the Spanish were forced to give up Florida; and +the Indians, now without any allies, were defeated or banished beyond +the Appalachians. Virginians were free to continue their remarkable +growth of the past 40 years during which they had left the Tidewater, +pushed up the James, Rappahannock, Appomattox, and Potomac river +basins, and joined thousands of Scotch-Irish and Germans pushing +southward out of Pennsylvania into the Valley of Virginia. Although +they were halted temporarily in 1755 when Braddock's disastrous defeat +in Pennsylvania and the massacre of frontier pioneer James Patton at +Draper's Meadow (Blacksburg) encouraged the Indians to resist the white +man's advance, Virginians eagerly eyed the lands in southwestern +Virginia along the Holston, Clinch, and French Lick Rivers and those +that lay beyond the mountains along the Ohio. This territory, from +which was carved the states of Kentucky and West Virginia, made +Virginia, even without considering her strong claim to all the lands +north of the Ohio, the largest of the American colonies. + +Following the end of the French and Indian war, Virginians expected to +recapture the economic prosperity that had been interrupted by the +conflict. In 1763, they were the most affluent and the most populous +white colonists. There were at least 350,000 settlers, including +140,000 slaves, in Virginia. Pennsylvania, the next largest colony, had +200,000 residents. If the past was any indication, the numbers of +Virginians surely would multiply. In 1720 there were 88,000 colonists +in Virginia, 26,000 of whom were black. The years between 1720 and 1750 +had been very fruitful ones and were to be remembered as "the Golden +Age" of Colonial Virginia. Virginia and Maryland were ideal colonies +for the British. The Chesapeake colonies produced a raw material +(tobacco) which the British sold to European customers, and they bought +vast quantities of finished products from craftsmen and manufacturers +in the mother country. These were years when the English mercantile +system worked well. There was lax enforcement of the Navigation Acts, +liberal credit from English and Scots merchants, generous land grants +from the crown, a minimum of interference in Virginia's government, and +peace within the empire. Both mother country and colony were happy with +the arrangement. With peace would come a renewal of those "good old +days." Or so Virginians thought. But it was not to be so. + +It is never possible to return to the status quo ante bellum. It would +not be possible for Great Britain to do it in 1763. The British ended +the Seven Years War (the French and Indian War 1756 became a general +world war) as the dominant country in Europe, triumphant over France in +India, the West Indies, and North America, and owners of Spanish +Florida. Yet victory had its price and its problems. The wars had to be +paid for; a policy for governing the new territories had to be +formulated; the Indian tribes beyond the Appalachians had to be +pacified and protected; and Britain had to remain "at the ready" to +defend her newly-won position of power. + +Neither France, nor Spain, was about to give in easily. The French, +particularly, were awaiting the chance to challenge the British. For +that reason, the Peace of Paris was only a truce in a series of wars +which began in the 1740's and did not end until the defeat of Napoleon +in 1814. The eager French support of the American Revolution was based +on more than the attraction of young aristocrats like Lafayette to the +republican ideals of a war for independence. French self-interest and +revenge also were heavily involved. + +The foremost task facing Britain was meeting the costs of victory. To +gain and maintain the new empire cost great sums of money which the +crown knew it could not extract from British taxpayers already +overburdened with levies on land, imports, exports, windows, carriages, +deeds, newspapers, advertisements, cards and dice, and a hundred other +items of daily use. The land tax, for instance, was 20 percent of land +value. These were taxes parliament had levied on residents in Great +Britain but not on the colonists. Many taxes had been in effect since +an earlier war in the 1740's (King George's War). With the national +debt at a staggering L146,000,000, much of it the result of defending +interests in the New World, and several million pounds owed to American +colonies as reimbursement for maintaining troops during the war, +British taxpayers, rich and poor alike, expected relief. In fact, these +war debts forced parliament to impose additional taxes in 1763, +including a much-despised excise tax on cider. It is hardly surprising +to find most Britons agreed that in the future the Americans should be +responsible for those expenses directly attributable to maintaining the +empire in America. That future costs were to be shared seemed +politically expedient and the reasonable thing to do. Every ministry +which came to power in Britain after 1763 understood this as a national +mandate it could not ignore. + +The French and Indian War produced a rather curious and very +significant by-product: the English literally rediscovered America and +Virginia. Since the late 17th Century there had been very little +personal contact between Englishmen in authority and the colony. From +1710 to 1750, the years when all was running so well, the only contact +Virginia had with English government was through her royal governor. +Most of the other royal officials in Virginia were Virginians, not +Englishmen. And, as events turned out, even the royal governors were a +thin line of communication. Governor Alexander Spotswood (1710-1722) +became a Virginia planter rather than go home to Britain; Governor Hugh +Drysdale (1722-1726) died in Williamsburg; and Governor William Gooch +(1727-1749) served in the colony for 22 years without once visiting +England. Moreover, fewer young Virginians were going to England for +their schooling, preferring to attend the College of William and Mary +or the recently opened College of New Jersey (Princeton). There were, +of course, London and Bristol tobacco merchants who knew Virginia well, +but the great increase in Virginia wealth after 1720 was partially +obscured from Englishmen because it was the Scots merchants, not the +English, who came to control much of the Chesapeake tobacco trade. + +English politicians and citizens alike had a very incomplete +understanding of the great strides made by Virginia. They still thought +of Virginians as provincials, struggling in the wilderness, or as +impoverished Scots, Irish, and Germans living in the back-country. +Hundreds of English military officers, many of whom would achieve +positions of political influence in the 1760's and 1770's, were +surprised to find Virginia and other American colonies to be +economically prosperous, socially mature, and attractive places in +which to live. Englishman after Englishman wrote about Virginians who +lived in a style befitting English country gentry and London merchants. +Over and over again they noted the near absence of poverty, even on the +frontier. Their discoveries matched English political needs. Not only +was it necessary for the Americans to assume a greater share of the +financial burdens, Englishmen now knew they could do it. + +These Englishmen also made another major discovery--the colonies were +violating the English constitution. They had grown independent of the +crown and the mother country. They paid little attention to +parliamentary laws and the Navigation Acts; they smuggled extensively +and bribed customs officials; and they traded with the enemy in +wartime. They had developed political practices which conflicted with +the constitution as the British knew it. Legislatures ignored the +king's instructions, often refused to support the war efforts until +they had forced concessions from the governors, and had taken royal and +executive prerogatives unto themselves. Worse yet, royal governors like +Robert Dinwiddie and Francis Fauquier yielded to the demands of the +House of Burgesses and accepted laws explicitly contrary to their royal +instructions. What these Englishmen discovered was the collapse of the +imperial system as set forth in the creation of the Board of Trade in +1696. In its place there had been substituted, quite unnoticed by +British officials, the House of Burgesses which thought of itself as a +miniature House of Commons.[1] + + [1] An excellent summary of the ways in which the Virginia + burgesses and their counterparts in North and South Carolina and + Georgia quietly gained the upper hand by mid-century, see Jack P. + Greene, Quest for Power (University of North Carolina Press, + 1963). + +Once the British made the discovery about these constitutional changes +they quite understandably believed such conditions could not be +ignored. Quite understandably, the Virginians were not willing to give +up rights and privileges which they believed were theirs, or the +semiautonomy they had enjoyed the previous 30 years. + + +The New Generation in Politics: Britain and Virginia + +There came to power in the 1760's an entirely new political leadership +in England. The most important change was the kingship itself. George +II, who had come to the throne in 1727, died in 1760 and was succeeded +by his grandson, George III. Unlike his grandfather and his +great-grandfather, George I (1715-1727), both of whom were essentially +Hanoverians, George III "gloried in the name of Briton" and believed it +was essential for the king to be his own "prime" minister and for the +king to be active in managing the crown's political affairs in +parliament. Unlike the first two Georges, the third George could not +achieve the political stability which Robert Walpole and the Duke of +Newcastle had imposed on parliament from 1720 to 1754. It is well known +that George had a congenital disease which pushed him into periods of +apparent insanity during his long reign (he died in 1820). Present day +medical scholars now believe that this illness was perhaps porphyria or +some type of metabolic illness, which could now be treated and +controlled by diet and medication. Such illness does not appear to have +been a major factor in his actions prior to the Revolution, the first +significant attack not occurring until 1788. Instead, the stolid and +often plodding king tended to rely upon men like the unimaginative Lord +Bute or his somewhat stodgy wife, Charlotte of Mecklenberg (for whom +two Virginia counties and the town of Charlottesville are named.) The +breakdown of the once-powerful Whig political coalition also added to +the king's problems. + +About the time George ascended the throne, the English Whigs who had +dominated English politics since 1720 fell victim to their own +excesses. Walpole and Newcastle had controlled and directed parliament +and the ministry through the "judicious" use of patronage and +government contracts and contacts. Nevertheless they had done so with a +consistent governmental program in mind and in a period of peace. By +the 1760's the Whigs had deteriorated into factions quarreling over +patronage, spoils, and contracts, not policy. They became thoroughly +corrupt and interested in power primarily for personal gain. +Consequently, the king could not find anyone whom he could trust who +could also provide leadership and hold together a coalition capable of +doing his business in the House of Commons. He tried Whigs George +Grenville (1763-1765), Lord Rockingham (1765-1766), Lord Chatham, the +former William Pitt (1766-1768), and the Duke of Grafton (1768-1770). +Finally, in 1770, he turned to Lord North and the Tories. North held on +until 1782. + +What these frequent changes suggest is that at the height of the +American crisis in the 1760's, when the real seeds of the Revolution +were being sown, the instability of the British parliamentary +government precluded a consistent and rational approach to American +problems. Lacking internal cohesion, the English government could not +meet the threat of external division. It also means that the colonists, +especially the Virginians, saw parliament as being thoroughly corrupt +and the king surrounded by what even the mild-mannered Edmund Pendleton +called "a rotten, wicked administration". Not until the eve of +independence in 1776 were Virginians to think of George as a tyrant and +despot. In fact, he was neither. He was a dedicated man of limited +abilities in an age demanding greatness if the separation of the +American colonies from the empire was to have been prevented. Perhaps +even greatness could not have prevented what some have come to believe +was inevitable. (For a sympathetic study, see King George III, by John +Brooke, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1972). + +Leadership also changed dramatically in Virginia in the 1760's. This +was partially due to changing economic conditions. Prosperity did not +return as rapidly as expected. The long war probably masked a basic +flaw in the Virginia economy which Virginians believed they had +solved--they were too reliant on tobacco. The great Virginia fortunes +of the mid-18th Century were built on extensive credit from Britain, +the efficient operation of the mercantile system, the initiative and +enterprise of Scots merchants who had succeeded in marketing in Europe +nearly all the tobacco produced by the new planters in the Piedmont and +Northern Neck, and by the prudence of the planters themselves. + +Such a favorable balance of economic factors did not exist in the +1760's. The European market could not absorb continued annual increases +in the good, cheap tobacco Virginia produced. Prices fell. With an +oversupply of tobacco in the warehouses, English and Scots merchants +limited further credit extensions and called for repayment of +long-outstanding loans. Within Virginia the centers of tobacco +production shifted from the older, worn-out Tidewater lands to the +newer, richer soils along the Fall Line, on the Piedmont, and in the +Northern Neck. A few men like George Washington switched from tobacco +to wheat, corn, barley, and rye. Most Tidewater planters did not +realize fully what was happening to them, presuming at first that they +were just in another swing of the unpredictable tobacco business cycle, +and were not caught in a situation which would be permanent. Eventually +the total debt of Virginians, most of it owned by Tidewater planters, +to Scots and English merchant houses reached L2,000,000, equalling the +total private debts of the other 12 colonies. + +One other economic factor was apparent to many Virginians--they were +living beyond their means, building fine houses, furnishing them with +exquisite taste, wearing the latest fashions, riding in expensive +carriages, and occasionally over-extending themselves at the gaming +tables and race courses. Although these personal extravagances added to +the debt structure, they would not have been so significant if they had +not been accompanied by a lack of business ability among some of the +younger Tidewater planters. The sons did not seem to have inherited the +same business acumen and hard-driving business instincts of their +fathers and grandfathers. Having grown up in a period of affluence, +they were eternally optimistic that it would continue, that their +setbacks were temporary, and their social positions were secure. Like +men everywhere when their private world begins to break down, they +tended to strike out at those closest to them--the merchants who +extended the credit, the tobacco buyers who would not pay top prices, +and the politicians in power. It was not the best of times for London +to be asking some Virginians to pay new and quite different taxes. + +Had the opposition to taxes been led mainly by those who faced bleak +economic futures or the loss of once-powerful positions and declining +family status, one could agree with those who say that the reaction of +Virginians to the Currency, Sugar, Stamp, or Tea Acts was primarily +economic. However, there were many other rising young leaders, families +which had managed their estates, and men who lived within their means, +paid attention to their debts, and resisted credit extensions until +their tobacco was harvested and cured. They also took violent exception +to crown and parliamentary solutions to imperial problems. The growing +personal indebtedness caused Virginians to rethink their economic ties +to the empire, it did not cause them to seek independence in order to +avoid paying their bills.[2] + + [2] For differing views of the debt situation see Lawrence H. + Gipson, The Coming of the Revolution (Harper and Row: New + York, 1954), 40-54, and Emory G. Evans, "Planter Indebtedness and + the Coming of the Revolution in Virginia," William and Mary + Quarterly, 3rd. series, XIX (1962), 511-33. Evans holds an + anti-debt position. + +Political leadership changed during the 18th Century from the council +to the House of Burgesses and from a few great families to a +broad-based gentry. In the early 18th Century several great families +directed Virginia politics. Mostly members of the Governor's Council, +they not only won power and wealth for themselves, they challenged the +power of the royal governors and managed to defeat or neutralize +several strong-willed governors, including Governor Francis Nicholson +(1698-1705) and Governor Alexander Spotswood. They even converted +Spotswood into a Virginia planter. The council reached its height of +power in the 1720's and then lost its influence as the great planters +passed on. Robert "King" Carter died in 1732, Commissary James Blair in +1743, William Byrd II in 1744, Thomas Lee in 1750, and Lewis Burwell in +1751. Only Thomas Lee successfully passed on his political position to +his heir, Richard Henry Lee. Unlike his father, Lee achieved his power +in the House of Burgesses. + +The day of the House of Burgesses had come. Its leader was John +Robinson, of King and Queen County, whose father and uncle had been +councilors. From the day in 1738 when he became Speaker of the House +and Treasurer of Virginia until his death in 1766, Robinson quietly and +efficiently built the power and influence of the burgesses. He took as +his watchword the promise of his predecessor as speaker, Sir John +Randolph, to the burgesses: + + The Honour of the House of Burgesses hath of late been raised + higher than can be observed in former Times; and I am persuaded you + will not suffer it to be lessened under your Management. + + I will be watchful of your Privileges, without which we should be + no more than a dead Body; and advertise you of every Incident that + may have the least tendency to destroy or diminish them...[3] + + [3] Journal of House of Burgesses, 5 August 1736. + +Robinson never flagged in his devotion to protecting and advancing the +privileges of the house. + +Robinson correctly understood the times. By the 1730's the number of +affluent families numbered well over 100 and could no longer be +effectively represented by the 12-member council. Many burgesses not +only were as wealthy as councilors, they were their social equals. +Quite commonly they were their brothers or nephews. As the burgesses +gained the ascendancy over the council, the house became, in the words +of Carl Bridenbaugh, "the tobacco gentry club". There sat the new +generation of Randolphs, Harrisons, Nelsons, Robinsons, and Lees. + +There developed around Robinson and his cousin, Attorney-General Peyton +Randolph, a group of like-minded gentry known in Virginia politics as +the "Robinson-Randolph Clique." Mostly planters and burgesses from the +James and York river basins, they included a few of their heirs who had +built substantial plantations on the Piedmont. Their principal rivals +had been northern Tidewater and Northern Neck planters led by Councilor +Thomas Lee and then by Richard Henry Lee. Although these rival gentry +groups might compete for choice lands in western Virginia and the Ohio +Valley and for royal offices and positions of influence, they did not +differ in political philosophy. Nor did they deny house leadership to +men with talent. Unlike their counterparts in the House of Commons they +did not differ on matters of English policy--political and economic +decisions were to be made in Virginia by Virginians and not by royal +governors, the Board of Trade, the crown, or the English Parliament. +Above all it was not to be made by parliament. They were the parliament +for Virginia. + +In the 1760's three new groups joined the prevailing Robinson-Randolph +leadership. The first was the generation born in the 1730's and 1740's +which would reach maturity in the 1760's and be waiting to enter the +"tobacco club" as a matter of birth. The second was a generation of men +who had achieved wealth and influence, mainly in the Piedmont, whose +fathers and brothers had not been in the first rank of planter gentry. +The third was a new element--burgesses from recently established +frontier counties who had the ambition, drive, and determination to +make good which were characteristics of the late 17th Century founders +of the great families. Rarely did these men want to overturn the +prevailing political leadership, they wanted to join it. The declining +fortunes of the Tidewater planters and the crises of the 1760's +accelerated the rise to power of all three of these new elements in the +House of Burgesses. + + +The Political Philosophy of Virginia, 1763 + +From that moment on September 2, 1774, when the Virginians appeared at +the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, and John Adams recorded +in his diary, "The gentlemen from Virginia appear to be the most +spirited and consistent of any", until Chief Justice John Marshall died +in 1835, Americans marveled at the quality, quantity, and political +brilliance of this generation of revolutionary Virginians. And we have +marveled since. It was not just the towering national figures like +Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, +James Madison, James Monroe, and John Marshall, or the great state +leaders like Peyton Randolph, Richard Bland, George Wythe, or Edmund +Pendleton who astounded contemporaries. It was the fact that they knew +of other men in Virginia as capable--Thomas Nelson, Jr., Benjamin +Harrison, Severn Eyre, Francis Lightfoot Lee, John Page, John Blair, +Jr., Robert Carter Nicholas, or Dr. Thomas Walker. + +The key to the political sagacity of these revolutionary Virginians is +found in the willingness of an elite group of planter gentry to serve +government and to serve it well and in the acceptance of their +leadership by the rest of the Virginians. It is found in the +enlightened attitudes these leaders had about their responsibilities as +officeholders to the people. It is found in the day-to-day operations +of government in the county and the General Assembly not just in the +great crises of the Stamp Act, the Coercive Acts, and Lexington and +Concord. Liberty and freedom do not spring full-blown into life only in +times of trial, they are nurtured carefully and often unknowingly over +the years. They demand, as Jefferson said, "eternal vigilance". +Certainly, liberty and freedom were not allowed to atrophy and become +weak in colonial Virginia. Instead, it was the English who had not been +vigilant and who had allowed a particularly strong concept of liberty +to grow strong in Virginians. + +How could a planter elite become the fount of republicanism.[4] First, +the common bond of land and tobacco farming gave the large and small +planters similar economic interests and a homogeneous society, at least +east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Second, the less-affluent farmer +naturally elected his more prosperous neighbors to the House of +Burgesses. The poorly run plantation was no recommendation for a public +office whose main responsibility was promoting agricultural prosperity. +Third, the hard-working small farmers lacked the time and money to +serve in public office. Virginia had a long tradition of voluntary +service in local government and only a small per diem allowance for +attending the House of Burgesses. Finally, social mobility was fairly +fluid in a fast-growing society, and the standard of living among the +lower classes had improved visibly in pre-Revolutionary Virginia. The +independent farmers and small slaveholders saw no reason to oust or +destroy the power of the larger planters. They wanted to emulate them +and they fully expected to be able to do so. + + [4] See D. Alan Williams, "The Virginia Gentry and the Democratic + Myth", Main Problems in American History, 3rd. ed. (Dorsey Press, + Homewood, Illinois, 1971), 22-36. + +The liberal humanism of the planter gentry did much to assure the +people that they had little to fear from their "betters". The gentry +served because they believed in noblesse oblige--with power and +privilege went responsibility. Honor, duty, and devotion to public and +class interest called them to office, and they took that call +seriously. They alone had the time, the financial resources, and the +education necessary for public office. As social leaders they were +expected to set an example in manners and public morals, to uphold the +church, to be generous with benevolences, to serve with enlightened +self-interest, and to be paragons of duty and dignity. With a certain +amount of condescension and considerable truth, they thought colonial +Virginia would be ill-served if they refused to lead and government was +run by those who were less qualified to hold office. They set a +standard which has remained the benchmark of Virginia political ethics. + +Though they remembered their own interests, the burgesses believed they +were bound to respect and protect those of others. This was a +fundamental part of Virginia public ethics and was one reason for the +absence of extensive political corruption. They held that sovereignty +was vested in the people, who delegated certain powers to government. +This they believed long before the Revolution. As early as 1736 Sir +John Randolph reminded the burgesses: + + We must consider ourselves chosen by all the People; sent hither to + represent them, to give their Consent in the weightiest of their + Concerns; and to bind them by Laws which may advance their Common + Good. Herein they trust you with all that they have, place the + greatest Confidence in your Wisdoms and Discretions, and testify + the highest Opinion of your virtue.[5] + + [5] Journal of House of Burgesses, 5 August 1736. + +When Randolph made these remarks, he was telling the burgesses what +they already knew and at a time when there were no pressing public +issues. It was this abiding interrelationship between electorate and +representatives which was the strength of the Virginia political +system. The gentry extolled republicanism not only because it seemed +the right and just attitude but also because it worked. + +The small farmers and slaveholders acted as a restraint upon any +tendency toward oligarchy which the gentry might have entertained. The +small farmers were in the majority and they had the right to vote. The +percentage of white males who voted in the 18th Century elections was +quite high. True, the colonial voters elected only the burgesses, but +that single choice was an important guarantee of their rights, since +the House of Burgesses was the strongest political body in Virginia. +Thomas Jefferson once remarked that the election process itself tended +to eliminate class conflicts and extremism: the planter aristocrat with +no concern for the small farmer was not apt to be elected, and the man +who demagogically courted the popular vote was ostracized by the +gentry. Therefore, the House of Burgesses became, at the same time, the +center of planter rule and of popular government.[6] + + [6] For a short well-written discussion of the election process + see Charles S. Sydnor, Gentlemen Freeholders: Political Practices + in Washington's Virginia (University of North Carolina, 1952, + reprinted in paperback as Revolutionaries in the Making: + Political Practices in Washington's Virginia.) + +The constitutional philosophy of the House of Burgesses proclaimed in +response to the Grenville revenue program in 1764 was not new. When +Patrick Henry electrified the burgesses with his Stamp Act Resolves in +May 1765, he was not setting forth a new concept of government, he was +reaffirming, in a most dramatic form, constitutional positions the +burgesses themselves well understood. The burgesses had developed their +constitutional positions during the 1750's in response to a series of +minor, isolated events--royal disallowance, the Pistole Fee +Controversy, and the Two-Penny Act. + +After trying for years to codify and reform laws long in use, the +General Assembly in 1748 completed a general revision of the laws. +Included in these revisions were several laws already in force and +approved by the crown. The assembly did not include a suspending clause +with these acts, (holding up their implementation until the crown had +an opportunity to approve them). While a suspending clause was supposed +to be attached, the assembly had not done so regularly for years and +the governors had not challenged them, nor had the crown complained. In +1752, however, the crown disallowed half-a-dozen laws, claiming the +assembly had intruded upon the king's rights and ignored the governor's +instructions. Angered, the assembly protested this "new" behavior by +the crown and asserted they could not remember when the king had vetoed +laws which were of no consequence to the crown, nor contrary to +parliamentary law, but which were of importance to Virginia. It was the +beginning of a long struggle. + +In 1752 there also occurred a second and more decisive dispute--the +Pistole Fee Controversy. One of the frequently overlooked events in +Virginia, this debate between the royal governor and the House of +Burgesses brought forth the classic constitutional defense by the house +of its right, and its right alone, to tax Virginians. The burgesses' +powers, as proclaimed by Richard Bland, became the fundamental argument +by Virginians against royal encroachment upon what they believed were +their rights. + +Shortly after his arrival in Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie +announced his intention to charge one pistole (a Spanish coin worth +about $3.50) for applying the governor's seal to all land grants. The +council, believing this was a routine fee for a service rendered, +concurred. The storm of protest which followed amazed Dinwiddie. The +burgesses accused Dinwiddie of usurping a right not his in order to +line his pockets. This was not a fee, it was a tax, and only the +burgesses could initiate a tax on Virginians. Dinwiddie denied that the +fee was solely for his personal remuneration. Instead, he maintained +his aim was to return to the tax rolls millions of acres of land +withheld by Virginians in order to prevent collection of the annual +quit-rent on the land which every Virginia landowner paid the crown. In +the heated debates which followed, both parties built their cases +around the rights and privileges each claimed was its own. The ultimate +outcome, which resulted in a compromise by the crown, satisfactory to +both Dinwiddie and the burgesses, is not as important as the +constitutional argument put forth by the burgesses. + +The house resolutions included ringing phrases which would become +familiar in the 1760's: + + The Rights of the Subject are so secured by Law, that they cannot + be deprived of the least Part of their Property, but by their own + Consent; Upon this excellent Principle is our Constitution founded + ... That the said Demand is illegal and arbitrary, contrary to the + Charters of this Colony, to his Majesty's and his Royal + Predecessor's Instructions to the several Governors, and the + Express Order of his Majesty King William of Glorious Memory ... + That whoever shall hereafter pay a Pistole ... shall be deemed a + betrayer of the Rights and Privileges of the People.[7] + + [7] Journal of House of Burgesses, 1752-1758, 143, 154-155. + +The author of these resolves was Richard Bland, a tough-minded burgess +from Prince George County, descendant of one of the colony's oldest +families. One of the earliest graduates of the College of William and +Mary to achieve a major position in the burgesses, he was one of the +most widely read. He held four beliefs common to the revolutionary +generations, beliefs he translated into major works during the Pistole +Fee Controversy, the Parsons' Cause, the Stamp Act, and the later +revenue crises: + + the eternal validity of the natural-law doctrines most cogently + stated by John Locke; + + the superiority over all other forms of government of the English + Constitution, of which an uncorrupted model or extension was the + peculiar property of the Virginians; + + the like superiority of those unique rights and liberties which + were the heritage of the free-born Englishman; and + + the conviction that the good state rests on the devotion of men of + virtue, wisdom, integrity, and justice.[8] + + [8] Clinton Rossiter, Six Characters in Search of a Republic + (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1964), chap. 5, "Richard Bland, the + Whig in America", 184. + +In addition to the house resolutions, Bland wrote a closely reasoned +essay attacking the Pistole Fee, A Modest and True State of the +Case (1753). Only a portion survives and is known as A Fragment +Against the Pistole Fee. His underlying principle, one which the +British ignored and Virginians never forget, is cogently set forth. + + The Rights of the Subjects are so secured by Law that they cannot + be deprived of the least part of their property without their own + consent. Upon this Principle of Law, the Liberty and Property of + every Person who has the felicity to live under a British + Government is founded. The question then ought not to be the + smallness of the demand but the Lawfulness of it. For if it is + against Law, the same Power which imposes one Pistole may impose a + Hundred ... + + LIBERTY & PROPERTY are like those precious Vessels whose soundness + is destroyed by the least flaw and whose use is lost by the + smallest hole. + +Virginians never deviated from this view. + +In 1818 John Adams, when asked what was the Revolution, replied, "the +Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in +the minds and hearts of the people ... This radical change in the +principles, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real +American Revolution." In Virginia, the Revolution began in the minds +and hearts of the House of Burgesses with the Pistole Fee. Its author +was Richard Bland. + +The third event was the Parsons' Cause. This event reached the people, +and in it the people found a spokesman--Patrick Henry. The Parsons' +Cause was an outgrowth of the Two-Penny Acts. Nearly all Virginia +salaries and most taxes were paid in tobacco, rather than specie (hard +money). Many officials, including the clergy, had their salaries set by +acts of the assembly at a specified number of pounds of tobacco per +year. In the case of the clergy this was a minimum of 16,000 lbs. per +year. In the 1750's a series of droughts and other natural disasters +brought crop shortages in some areas, driving tobacco prices well +beyond normal levels. In 1753 and again in 1755 the assembly allowed +taxpayers to pay taxes in either tobacco or specie at the rate of two +pennies per pound of tobacco owed. On one hand this seemed eminently +fair. The crop shortages worked a double penalty on the planter--he had +little tobacco because of the weather, but he was forced to pay his +taxes in valuable tobacco he did not have. On the other hand, the +clergy and others protested they received no relief when tobacco was in +oversupply and the price was low. More importantly, they had a contract +which had been enacted into law and approved by the king. No assembly +could repeal a law approved by the king without his approval. In 1753 +and 1755 the issue faded away. + +Then in 1758 the assembly passed another Two-Penny Act, applying +throughout the colony and to all officials and even to private debts. +Governor Francis Fauquier, although knowing that he could not put such +a law into effect until the king had given his approval, decided he +would do the politically expedient thing and signed the bill. + +Fauquier reckoned without the tenacity of the clergy led by the Rev. +John Camm, a William and Mary college professor and parish pastor. +Camm, whom Fauquier called "a Man of Abilities but a Turbulent Man who +Delights to live in a Flame", later became President of the college, +rector of Bruton Parish Church, and a member of the council. + +In 1759 he was determined to receive what he believed was his +guaranteed salary. Camm believed the law unconstitutional on two +grounds: the assembly had passed a law repealing one already approved +by the king, and Fauquier had permitted the law to go into effect +without the suspending clause period taking place. At the behest of +many Anglican clergy, Camm went to England. Presenting the parsons' +case to the Bishop of London, who in turn forwarded the case to the +Privy Council, Camm succeeded. The king declared the law +unconstitutional. + +Virginians were outraged. Unlike the Pistole Fee, which touched most +directly the larger planters and the burgesses, the Parsons' Cause +enflamed the entire populace. Camm and a number of clergymen sued in +county courts for back salary. They received little satisfaction. +Several county courts went so far as to declare the Two-Penny Act legal +despite the king's disallowance. + +Hanover County Court took a different tack. There the Rev. James Maury, +Jefferson's field school teacher and hard-pressed father of 11 +children, sued the vestry of Fredericksville Parish for his salary. The +county court upheld his right to sue for claims and called for a jury +trial to set the damages. Ironically, one of the clergymen who would +benefit from a favorable verdict for Maury was the Rev. Patrick Henry. +Presiding over the county court on December 1, 1763, was his brother, +John Henry. Defending the parish vestry was his nephew and namesake, +and the son of the justice, Patrick Henry. Hanover County was a center +of Presbyterianism and in the jury box undoubtedly sat men who already +had a dislike for Anglican clergymen whose salaries they were compelled +to pay but whose churches they did not attend. + +Young Patrick Henry, in his first prominent trial, launched immediately +into a scathing attack on the established clergy, calling them +"rapacious harpies", men who would "snatch from the hearth of their +honest parishioners his last hoe-cake, from the widow and her orphan +children their last milch cow; the last bed, nay, the last blanket from +the lyin-in woman". Having stunned his audience into silence, Henry +turned his invective upon the king. Although the constitutionality of +the law was not an issue, because the county court had already decided +it was constitutional, Henry proceeded to excoriate the king himself +for violating the English constitution. His biographer, Robert Meade, +notes: + + Henry insisted on the relationship and reciprocal duties of the + King and his subjects. Advancing the doctrine of John Locke as + popularized by Richard Bland and other colonial leaders, he + contended that government is a conditional compact, composed of + mutually dependent agreements 'of which the violation by one party + discharged the other'. He bravely argued that the disregard of the + pressing wants of the colony was 'an instance of royal misrule', + which had thus far dissolved the political compact, and left the + people at liberty to consult their own safety.[9] + + [9] Robert D. Meade, Patriot in the Making (Patrick Henry) + (Lippincott: Philadelphia, 1957), 132. + +The jury retired, and then returned with its verdict--one penny damages +for Parson Maury. Henry had lost the legal case, he had won the battle +for their minds and hearts. + +Out of the Parsons' Cause in 1763 came four important developments: the +Anglican clergy suffered an irreparable setback and loss of status; the +House of Burgesses now closely scrutinized the instructions from king +to governor; the suspending clause was seen as a direct challenge to +colonial legislative rights; and Patrick Henry burst forth as the +popular spokesman for Virginia rights, winning a seat in the 1765 +election to the House of Burgesses. In 1763 few people were willing to +accept his premise that the king had been guilty of "royal misrule". In +a dozen years they would. + +Thus, by 1763 the fundamental political principles which would bring +Virginia to independence already had been proclaimed. They were not +developed in response to British actions, but Virginia experiences. +They awaited only the specific challenges before they would be +transformed into inalienable rights. Within a few months those +challenges tumbled forth from Britain. + + + + +Part II: + +The Road to Revolution, + +1763-1775 + + +[Sidenote: "_For imposing taxes on us without our concent...._"] + +The Grenville Program, 1763-1765 + +In April 1763 George III had to abandon his chief minister and +confidant, the hated Lord Bute, and turn the government over to George +Grenville, leader of the largest Whig block in parliament and +brother-in-law of William Pitt. Grenville's strengths were his +knowledge of trade and public finance, a penchant for hard work and +administrative detail, a systematic mind, and, in an era of corruption, +integrity. His weaknesses were a cold personality and a limited +conception of broad political and constitutional issues. It was said +that Grenville lost the American colonies because he read the +dispatches from America and was well acquainted with the growing +economic maturation and apparent ability of the colonies to bear +heavier taxes. George III, who disliked Grenville immensely, the more +so because he had been forced to accept the Whigs, described him as a +man "whose opinions are seldom formed from any other motives than such +as may be expected to originate in the mind of a clerk in a counting +house." An astute observer might have told George that with the +national debt at L146,000,000 and rising, a man with the logical mind +of a counting clerk might be the answer. Still it was this logical mind +which was Grenville's undoing. As British historian Ian Christie notes, +"all the various provisions of the years 1763 to 1765 made up a +logical, interlocking system. Its one fatal flaw was that it lacked the +essential basis of colonial consent."[10] + + [10] Ian R. Christie, Crisis of Empire, Great Britain and the + American Colonies, 1754-1783 (Norton: New York, 1966), 54. The + King's comment on Grenville is cited on p. 39. + +Three overriding colonial problems faced Grenville: a new governmental +policy for the former French and Spanish North American territories; a +means to defend these territories from the avowed intentions of the +French and Spanish to reestablish control; and a means to pay the costs +of imperial government and defense. + + +Western Lands and Defense + +There was an immediate need for English government in the former +English and French lands. In October 1763 the Board of Trade proposed, +and the king in council established, a temporary program for western +lands. Under the Proclamation of 1763 a governor-general would run +Quebec (an attempt to get the French colonists to use an elected +assembly failed), the French were confirmed in their land grants, and +the Roman Catholic Church was retained. East and West Florida became +separate colonies. In the disputed lands beyond the Appalachians into +which English settlers had moved as soon as General Forbes occupied +Fort Duquesne in 1758 and where the Indians under Chief Pontiac were in +rebellion against these incursions, no English settlers were allowed +until permanent treaties could be worked out with tribes owning the +lands. + +The Grenville ministry had several aims for its western lands policy. +The Proclamation of 1763 would separate the Indians and whites while +preventing costly frontier wars. Once contained east of the mountains, +the colonials would redirect their natural expansionist tendencies +southward into the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, and northward into +Nova Scotia. Strong English colonies in former Spanish and French +territories would be powerful deterrents to future colonial wars. There +is no indication Grenville believed the Americans would be more easily +governed if contained east of the mountains. His prime aim was orderly, +controlled, peaceful, and inexpensive growth. + +The Proclamation of 1763 hurt Virginia land speculators more than +individual colonists. For the Ohio Land Company whose stockholders were +mostly Northern Neck and Maryland gentry, including the Washingtons and +Lees, it was a crushing blow to their hopes for regaining the Forks of +the Ohio and lands on the southern bank of the Ohio granted to them by +the crown in 1749. The rival Loyal Land Company led by Speaker +Robinson, Attorney-General Randolph, and the Nelsons, lost their claims +to the Greenbriar region, but with less invested, they had less to +lose. Also dashed were the hopes of many French and Indian War veterans +who had been paid in western land warrants for their service. Many +veterans ignored the proclamation, went over the mountains, squatted on +the lands, and stayed there with the concurrence of amiable Governor +Fauquier. Most Virginians were little injured by the order for they fit +into Grenville's plan for colonial growth. The general flow of Virginia +migration after 1740 was southward along the Piedmont into the +Carolinas or southwestward through the Valley of Virginia, not north +and northwest to the Forks of the Ohio. In 1768 and 1770 by the +treaties of Fort Stanwix (N.Y.) and Fort Lochaber (S.C.) the Six +Nations and Cherokee Indians gave up their claims to the Kentucky +country as far west as the Tennessee River. The Virginian occupation, +led by John Donelson and Daniel Boone, quickly moved in through the +Cumberland Gap. Not until the Quebec Act of 1774 thwarted their claims +to land north of the Ohio did Virginians react strongly against British +land policy. + +To defend the new territories and maintain the old, Grenville proposed +retaining 10,000 British troops in America, stationing them mainly in +Halifax, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the West Indies from which +they could be moved to trouble spots as needed. The British had learned +from the unpredictable response by the colonies during the French and +Indian War and the nearly disastrous Pontiac Rebellion in early 1763 +that the colonies would not, or could not, provide cooperatively for +their own defense even in the face of clear danger. There were too many +inter-colonial rivalries and there was stubborn adherence to the +English tradition that local militia was not to serve outside its own +jurisdiction or for long periods of time. Moreover, the western lands +were primarily an imperial responsibility. Thus, the decision was made +to station British troops in America.[11] + + [11] There are those who suggest the troops were sent to America + on a pretext. The ministry, knowing it could not reduce the army + to peacetime size in face of French threats, also knew there was + strong English resentment against "a standing army" in England. + The colonial condition offered an excuse for retaining the men in + arms See Bernhard Knollenberg, Origin of the American Revolution, + 1759-1766 (New York, 1960), chapters 5-9. + +In April 1765 parliament passed the Quartering Act, similar to one in +England, requiring colonies, if requested, to provide quarters in +barracks, taverns, inns, or empty private buildings. Although the act +did not apply directly to them, Virginians sided with the hard-hit New +Yorkers who bitterly denounced it as another form of taxation without +representation. So strong was the reaction in New York that her +assembly virtually shut down rather than acquiesce. Finally the New +Yorkers gave in, making the Quartering Act to New York what the Stamp +Act was to Virginia, a symbol of "oppression and slavery." What +parliament could do to one colony she could do to all. + + +A New Revenue Program + +At the heart of the Grenville program were his financial schemes. The +program had three parts: 1) to strengthen and enforce existing Acts of +Trade; 2) to ease inflation and stabilize colonial trade with a uniform +currency act; and 3) to raise additional revenue by applying stamp +taxes to the colonies. Even then Grenville expected to raise only about +one-half the expenses the new empire required. The rest would have to +come from British sources. + +To close the loopholes in the Navigation Acts and make them profitable, +Grenville submitted the American Revenue Act of 1764, popularly known +as the Sugar Act. Although the sugar trade provisions were the most +dramatic example of a redirection in the Navigation Acts, the American +Revenue Act contained radical departures from past attitudes and +practices. Heavy duties were applied to foreign goods allowed to enter +the colonies directly, including white sugar, Madeira wine, and coffee. +Many goods formerly allowed to enter the colonies directly were placed +on the list of enumerated articles which must pass through England +before being shipped to the colonies. The act, although slightly +reducing the duty on French West Indian foreign molasses, contained +strict provisions for its collection omitted from the laxly enforced +Molasses Act of 1733. The British fleet was stationed along the +American coast to assist the customs service in enforcing the act. + +Parliament created a new vice-admiralty court to sit at Halifax without +a jury as an alternative to the colonial vice-admiralty courts whose +juries were notoriously biased against the customs officers and whose +judges often were colonials engaged in illicit trade. + +In the Sugar Act, Grenville and parliament took the existing Navigation +Acts and reasserted parliamentary authority over imperial trade, +reaffirmed the 17th Century colonial philosophy that the colonies +existed to promote the welfare of the mother country and the empire, +granted trade monopolies to British merchants and manufacturers where +none existed before, and discriminated in favor of one set of colonies, +the British West Indies, and against another set, the North American +colonies. To this was added a new principle--the Navigation Acts should +not only regulate trade, they should produce revenue. Cleverly designed +within the constitutional system, the Sugar Act brought howls of +protests from New England and Middle Colony traders, smugglers and +legitimate operators alike, who had flourished under the benevolence of +"salutary neglect" for the past half-century. For many Americans the +new act with its favoritism to British and West Indian merchants, its +use of the navy as law enforcer, and the founding of a vice-admiralty +court in Nova Scotia with jurisdiction over all America was an abuse of +parliament's power. As events developed the Sugar Act was a failure. +The old act designed for regulatory purposes, cost approximately three +times as much to enforce as the revenues collected; the new act, +expected to produce annual revenues of about L100,000, averaged about +L20,000 in revenues at an annual cost of over L200,000. + + +The Currency Act of 1764 + +Virginians, only indirectly effected by the Sugar Act, were deeply +effected by the second part of the Grenville program--the Currency Act +of 1764. During the French and Indian War Virginia had printed several +paper money issues to finance the war and provide currency in the +specie-short colony. The various issues, eventually totaling over +L500,000, circulated for a fixed number of years and then were to be +redeemed upon presentation to the treasurer, Speaker John Robinson. As +the war lengthened and the number of paper money issues increased, +considerable confusion developed over the amount of money outstanding, +the rate of exchange, and its use as legal tender for personal debts as +well as public taxes. Although backed by the "good will" of the General +Assembly, this money (called "current money") was discounted when used +to pay debts contracted in pounds sterling. Although the official +exchange rate set by the assembly was L125, Virginia current money +equalled L130-L165 per L100 sterling, averaging L155-L160 in 1763 and +early 1764. The citizens were compelled by law to accept inflated +Virginia paper currency as legal tender for debts which they had +contracted in pounds sterling. The fiscal problems were most critical +in Virginia, but they also existed in most colonies outside New England +whose colonies parliament restricted under a currency act in 1751. In +response to pleas from London merchants, Grenville devised and +parliament passed the Currency Act of 1764, prohibiting the issuing of +any more paper money and commanding all money in circulation to be +called in and redeemed. + +The result in Virginia was sheer consternation, especially among the +hard-pressed Tidewater planters. In the process of calling in the money +a severe currency shortage developed and some financial hardship +occurred at the same time the Stamp Act took effect. More significant +than the economic impact was the political impact of the Currency Act +on Virginia politics and the political fortunes of key Virginians. +Among the many Virginians caught up in the Currency Act none was more +involved than Speaker John Robinson. At his death in May 1766 an audit +revealed massive shortages in his treasurer's account books resulting +from heavy loans to many Tidewater gentry and political associates. The +Robinson scandal brought about a redistribution of political leadership +in Virginia and brought into the leadership circle the Northern Neck +and Piedmont planters who formerly were excluded.[12] + + [12] For a favorable and convincing view of Virginia's motives in + passing the paper money bills, see Joseph Ernst, "Genesis of the + Currency Act of 1764, Virginia Paper Money and the Protection of + British Investments", William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., XXII, + 3-32, and "The Robinson Scandal Redivius", Virginia Magazine of + History and Biography, LXXVII, 146-173. Ernst is critical of + Robinson's political use of the funds. For a more charitable view + of Robinson's actions, see the outstanding biography by David + Mays, Edmund Pendleton 1721-1803 (Harvard Press, 1952), 2 vols. + Pendleton was the executor of the Robinson estate. + +The third facet of the Grenville revenue plan was the infamous Stamp +Act. Grenville and his aides perceived the tax bill as a routine piece +of legislation which would extend to the colonies a tax long used in +Britain. Grenville announced in March 1764 the ministry's intention to +present to the commons a stamp tax bill at the February 1765 session of +parliament. He "hoped that the power and sovereignty of parliament, +over every part of the British dominions, for the purpose of raising or +collecting any tax, would not be disputed. That if there was a single +man doubted it, he would take the sense of the House...." As another +observer put it, "Mr. Grenville strongly urg'd not only the power but +the right of parliament to tax the colonys and hop'd in Gods Name as +his Expression was that none would dare dispute their Sovereignty."[13] +The House of Commons, as quick as the Virginia House of Burgesses to +proclaim its sovereignty rose to Grenville's bait and declared in a +resolution of March 17, 1764 that "toward defending, protecting, and +securing the British colonies and Plantations in America, it may be +proper to charge certain Stamp Duties in the said Colonies and +Plantations...." In that simple phrase parliament declared its full +sovereignty over the colonies and from it never retreated. + + [13] Both quotes cited in Edmund and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act + Crisis paperback edition (Collier Books: New York, 1962), 76. + This is the standard work on the Stamp Act. + + +Virginia and the Stamp Act, 1764 + +That Grenville might have hoped that the "power and sovereignty of +Parliament ... would not be disputed" suggests the degree to which he +did not comprehend 18th Century colonial constitutional developments. +Virginia reaction was immediate, clear, unequivocal, and illustrative +of just how deeply ingrained were Virginia's constitutional positions +about the limits of parliamentary authority. In 1759 the General +Assembly had elected a joint committee to correspond regularly with its +London agent and to instruct him on matters of policy and legislation +pending in England. This committee was meeting on July 28, 1764, in +Williamsburg drafting instructions to agent Edward Montagu on the Sugar +Act when word arrived from Montagu about the commons resolution. The +Committee of Correspondence's reply was instantaneous: + + That no subjects of the King of great Britain can be justly made + subservient to Laws without either their personal Consent, + or their Consent by their representatives we take to be the most + vital Principle of the British Constitution; it cannot be denyed + that the Parliament has from Time to Time ... made such Laws as + were thought sufficient to restrain such Trade to what was judg'd + its proper Channel, neither can it be denied that, the Parliament, + out the same Plentitude of its Power, has gone a little Step + farther and imposed some Duties upon our Exports.... + + P.S. Since writing the foregoing Part ... we have received your + letter of the parliam'ts Intention to lay an Inland Duty upon us + gives us fresh Apprehension of the fatal Consequences that may + arise to Posterity from such a precedent.... We conceive that no + Man or Body of Men, however invested with power, have a Right to do + anything that is contrary to Reason and Justice, or that can tend + to the Destruction of the Constitution.[14] + + [14] Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, XII, 10, 13. + Comprising the committee were Councilors John Blair, William + Nelson, Thomas Nelson, Sr., Robert Carter, and Burgesses Peyton + Randolph, George Wyth, Robert Carter Nicholas, and Dudley Digges. + +Navigation Acts were acceptable, Stamp Acts were a "Destruction of the +Constitution." + +In May Grenville met with the colonial agents in London and possibly +suggested (his intent has been disputed) that a stamp tax might not be +imposed if the colonial legislatures came up with alternative taxes. At +least Montagu thought this is what Grenville suggested. The Virginia +committee even told Montagu in its July letter, "if a reasonable +apportionm't be laid before the Legislature of this Country, their past +Compliance with his Majesty's several Requisitions during the late +expensive War, leaves no room to doubt that they will do everything +that can be reasonably expected of them." It made no difference, for +even before the agents could receive replies from their various +colonies, Grenville had fixed upon the stamp act itself. This was +probably just as well for the Virginians, once they reflected on the +requisition scheme, came to believe that taxes imposed by the General +Assembly to offset a threatened tax by parliament were as unpalatable +and unconstitutional as a tax passed by parliament. + +On December 18, 1765, the Virginia General Assembly confirmed the +constitutional stance taken by its committee in July. Unanimously the +House of Burgesses and the council sent a polite address to the king, +an humble memorial to the House of Lords, and a firm remonstrance to +the commons. The commons' resolution of March 17 was against "British +Liberty that Laws imposing Taxes on the People ought not be made +without the Consent of Representatives chosen by themselves; who at the +same time that they are acquainted with the Circumstances of their +Constituents, sustain a Proportion of the Burthen laid upon them."[15] +From this position, Virginia never retreated. + + [15] William Van Schreeven and Robert Scribner, Revolutionary + Virginia: The Road to Independence, Vol. I. A. Documentary Record + (University Press of Virginia: Charlottesville, 1973), 9-14. This + volume contains the main revolutionary statements of the + assembly, conventions, and certain county and quasi-legal local + gatherings, 1763-1774. + +By the time parliament took up the Stamp Act in February 1765, the die +was already cast. Members of parliament were outraged by the +presumptuous claims of the colonial assemblies to sovereignty co-equal +with itself. Only a few members questioned the wisdom of the act. Issac +Barre won fame as a patriot member of parliament for his eloquent +defense of the colonies as he called on the Commons to "remember I this +Day told you so, that same Spirit of Freedom which actuated that people +at first, will accompany them still." Yet even Barre would not deny +parliament's right to pass the tax. The House of Commons refused even +to receive the petitions from the colonial legislatures and passed the +act into law on March 22, 1765. + +Covering over 25 pages in the statute book, the Stamp Act imposed a tax +on documents and paper products ranging from nearly all court +documents, shipping papers, and mortgages, deeds, and land patents to +cards, dice, almanacs, and newspapers, including the advertisements in +them. Charges ranged from 3d to 10s, with a few as high as L10, all to +be paid in specie. Virtually no free man in Virginia was left untouched +by the tax. Edmund Pendleton, upon hearing of its passage, lamented +"Poor America". + +The law was to become effective on November 1, 1765. + + +The Stamp Act Resolves, May 1765 + +That the May 1765 session of the Virginia General Assembly became one +of the most famous in the state's history was totally unanticipated by +all political experts. The only reason Governor Fauquier called the +session was to amend the frequently revised tobacco planting and +inspection law. The Stamp Act already had been taken care of by the +remonstrance in December. A new issue did develop when Governor +Fauquier announced that all outstanding Virginia paper currency must be +redeemed by March 1st, after which it no longer would be legal tender. +As the money poured into the treasurer's office, it rapidly became +apparent what Richard Henry Lee had suspected as early as 1763 and what +many debt-ridden Tidewater planter-burgesses personally knew--Robinson +was tens of thousands of pounds short in his accounts. The shortage, +which turned out to be L106,000, derived from the speaker-treasurer's +habit of lending his fellow planters tax funds to pay private debts to +British merchants. The speaker, whom Jefferson called "an excellent +man, liberal, friendly, and rich", had anticipated improvement in the +economic climate would bring the money in. Meanwhile he could always +rely on his own great private fortune. He failed to count on the +continued economic depression, the passage of the Currency Act, or the +living standards of his debtors. Something had to be done and quickly. + +While the tobacco revision was working its way through committees, the +speaker and his debtor-burgess friends devised a public loan office +plan to take up the debts, provide an alternative source for funds, and +relieve Robinson of his burden. Such a plan would have raised the ire +of Richard Henry Lee, but the burgess from Westmoreland was sitting out +this supposedly "short, uneventful meeting." He had made a monumental +error in political judgment, having applied to the crown to be the +Stamp Act agent in Virginia. Robinson knew this and quietly warned Lee +that he should stay home. Robinson did not anticipate the unlikely duo +which would bring down the public loan office. Leading the opposition +in the House was Patrick Henry, first-term burgess from Louisa County. +Directing his attack against favoritism and special interest +legislation, Henry, who had developed a thriving legal trade +representing creditors against debtors, knew whereof he spoke when he +exclaimed, "What, sir, is it proposed then to reclaim the spendthrift +from his dissipation and extravagance, by filling his pockets with +money?" Robinson had the votes and carried the house, but lost in the +council whose members disliked all public finance schemes. Chief +opponent was Richard Corbin, wealthy, receiver-general of royal +revenues and later Tory. In words nearly identical to Henry's, Corbin +noted, "To Tax People that are not in Debt to lend to those that are is +highly unjust, it is in Fact to tax the honest, frugal, industrious +Man, in order to encourage the idle, the profligate, the Extravagant, +and the Gamester". Council defeated the loan plan. With the tobacco +laws revised and the loan scheme defeated and only routine legislation +in committee, most burgesses left town. + +Exactly when or why Patrick Henry, George Johnston of Fairfax, and John +Fleming of Cumberland decided to offer the Stamp Act Resolves is lost +in obscurity. Our sources are principally Thomas Jefferson, then a +college student at William and Mary, Paul Carrington, a pro-Henry +burgess from Charlotte County, and an unknown French traveler who stood +with Jefferson at the house chamber doors. Jefferson and Carrington did +not record their thoughts until a half-century later, during which the +sequence of events became blurred by time. The Frenchman, who stood +with Jefferson at the house chamber doors, missed the subtleties of the +language and parliamentary procedure. One thing is clear--men who heard +Patrick Henry never forgot the impression he made on them. + +Governor Fauquier suggested that many burgesses were not satisfied with +the remonstrance against the Stamp Act in December. Although he +described the remonstrance as "very warm and indecent", he told the +Board of Trade the original version was much more inflammatory and its +language was "mollified" so that the Assembly could convey its +opposition to the Stamp Tax without giving the "least offense" to crown +and parliament. Fauquier also observed that economic uncertainties had +made Virginians "uneasy, peevish, and ready to murmur at every +Occurrence." Henry suggests that he drew up the Resolves when he found +no one else was willing to do so after hearing of the actual passage of +the Tax Act. Whatever the reason, Henry and his associates were ready +to abandon the niceties of formal address and constitutional subtleties +and to give "offense", especially in view of parliament's refusal to +hear the remonstrance. + +Only 39 of the 119 elected burgesses were sitting on May 29, 1765 when +Patrick Henry introduced and George Johnston seconded seven resolutions +for consideration by the house. The first five stated: + + Resolved, That the first Adventurers and Settlers of this his + Majesty's Colony and Dominion brought with them and transmitted to + their Posterity and all other his Majesty's Subjects since + inhabiting in this his Majesty's said Colony, all the Privileges, + Franchises and Immunities that have at any time been held, enjoyed, + and possessed by the people of Great Britain. + + Resolved, That by two royal Charters granted by King James first + the Colonists aforesaid are declared intituled to all the + Privileges, Liberties, and Immunities of Denizens and natural-born + Subjects, to all Intents and Purposes as if they had been abiding + and born within the Realm of England. + + Resolved, That the Taxation of the People by themselves or by + Persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who can only know + what Taxes the People are able to bear, and the easiest Mode of + raising them, and are equally affected by such Taxes Themselves, is + the distinguishing Characteristic of British Freedom and without + which the ancient Constitution cannot subsist. + + Resolved, That his Majesty's liege People of this most ancient + Colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the Right of being thus + governed by their own assembly in the article of the Taxes and + internal Police, and that the same hath never been forfeited or any + other way given up but hath been constantly recognized by the Kings + and People of Great Britain. + + Resolved, Therefore that the General Assembly of this Colony have + the only and sole exclusive Right and Power to lay Taxes and + Impositions upon the Inhabitants of this Colony and that every + Attempt to vest such Power in any Person or Persons whatsoever, + other than the General Assembly aforesaid, has a manifest Tendency + to destroy British as well as American Freedom. + +There were two other resolves which apparently were defeated during +debate while the house was in committee. The record is not clear. In +one sense it makes no difference. All seven were printed and circulated +in the other colonies and in London as if they were the official +actions of the Virginia House of Burgesses. They read: + + Whereas, the honorable house of Commons in England have of late + drawn into question how far the general assembly of this colony + hath power to enact laws for laying of taxes and imposing duties, + payable by the people of this, his majesty's most ancient colony: + for settling and ascertaining the same to all future times, the + house of burgesses of this present general assembly have come to + the following resolves: + + Resolved, That his majesty's liege people, the inhabitants of this + colony, are not bound to yield obedience to any law or ordinance + whatever, designed to impose any taxation whatsoever upon them, + other than the laws or ordinances of the general assembly + aforesaid, + + Resolved, That any person who shall, by speaking or writing, assert + or maintain that any person or persons, other than the general + assembly of this colony, have any right or power to impose or lay + any taxation on the people here, shall be deemed an enemy to his + majesty's colony.[16] + + [16] Ibid., 15-18; resolves 6 and 7 are cited in Meade, Henry, I, + 171. + +The first four resolves were straightforward restatements of the +remonstrance and Bland's earlier declarations against parliamentary +authority. The fifth went beyond control over taxes to exclude all +duties, even navigation duties for regulatory purposes. The sixth and +seventh were "pure Patrick Henry", reminiscent of his statements before +the Hanover jury in the Parsons' Cause, probably treasonous, certainly +incendiary and revolutionary. + +Discussion lasted all through the 29th with the opposition led by +Richard Bland, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, Speaker Robinson, and +Benjamin Harrison contending that the time was inappropriate for more +resolutions. Both house and council were already on record against the +Stamp Act which no Virginian wanted. More resolutions were unnecessary, +especially resolutions which were as inflammatory as these. Sometime +during these debates the sixth and seventh resolves were eliminated. +Probably the next day, May 30th, the first four resolves passed by +votes of 22-17 with little real objection to the substance only to the +wisdom of more resolutions. + +The fifth resolution was another story. The stumbling block was the +phrase "only and sole exclusive Right and Power to lay Taxes". +Jefferson called the debate "most bloody". Henry, in his will, called +them "violent Debates. Many threats were uttered, and much abuse cast +on me...." Some time during the debates, observers agree, Henry +exclaimed the theme of his immortal phrase: + + Tarquin and Caesar had each his Brutus, Charles the First his + Cromwell, and George the Third--'Treason' proclaimed Speaker + Robinson--may profit by their Example. If this be Treason, Make the + most of it. + +His speech may have been embellished by time. There can be no denying, +however, what Jefferson 40 years later remembered. "Torrents of sublime +eloquence from Mr. Henry, backed by the solid reasoning of Johnson, +prevailed." + +The fifth measure carried by one vote, 20-19, causing Peyton Randolph +to mutter as he pushed through the door past Jefferson, "by God, I +would have given 500 guineas for a single vote."[17] + + [17] A guinea equalled 21 shillings or L525. Later Jefferson said + 100 guineas. Jefferson's comments are found in Stan. V. Henkels, + "Jefferson's Recollections of Patrick Henry," Pennsylvania + Magazine of History and Biography, XXXIV, 385-418. + +How had these two men, Henry and Johnston brought it off. One was 29, +the other 65; one was a first-time burgess, the other a veteran member. +(Henry was not as unknown as popular myth would have it. He had been in +Williamsburg during the debates over the remonstrance and had +represented a client in an election fraud case before the house.) +First, they had benefited from the departure of two-thirds of the +burgesses; second, there was the frustration over parliament's outright +refusal to even read the remonstrance; third, there was the formation, +probably by Johnston, of a coalition of the younger generation of +planter-gentry living in the Piedmont, the ambitious backcountry +burgesses, and the Northern Neck faction led by Francis Lighfoot Lee of +Loudoun and Thomas Ludwell Lee of Stafford; fourth, there was Henry +himself, of whom Jefferson at a time when he had come to dislike Henry, +still could say "he was the best humoured man in society I almost ever +knew, and the greatest orator that ever lived. He had a consummate +knowledge of the human heart, which directing the efforts of his +eloquence enabled him to attain a degree of popularity with the people +at large never perhaps equalled."[18] + + [18] The record is sparse because no recorded votes were kept; so + the only known votes in favor of the Resolves were: Henry of + Louisa, Johnston of Fairfax, John Fleming of Cumberland, Henry + Blagrave and William Taylor of Lunenburg, Robert Munford and + Edmund Taylor of Mecklenburg, and Paul Carrington and Thomas + Reade of Charlotte. As the twists of fate would have it, all + these counties except Fairfax were named for the Hanoverians. It + is almost certain the Lee brothers voted "yes". + +With the five resolves passed, Henry departed Williamsburg. Enough +Tidewater votes were corralled by Robinson and Councilor Peter Randolph +the following day, the 31st, to rescind and expunge from the record the +fifth resolve. Much to the chagrin of Fauquier, no attempt was made to +remove the first four. + +As with the sixth and seventh resolves, this last-ditch effort made no +difference. The public printer, conservative Joseph Royle of the +Virginia Gazette, refused to publish the resolves at all. What +went into print outside the colonies were the four true resolves, plus +the three spurious ones, often made more radical in tone as they were +reprinted. The effect was electric. If this was the expression of the +Virginia House of Burgesses, long thought to be the most reasoned in +its approach to constitutional issues, then a new day had arrived. No +wonder patriots in Philadelphia, Newport, New York, and Boston shouted +with joy when they read them and responded with equally vigorous +statements, although all stopped short of the direct words of the sixth +and seventh resolves. Massachusetts, which for once had lagged behind, +called for a Stamp Act Congress to meet in New York in October. +Virginia did not attend, for Governor Fauquier would not call the +assembly into session to elect representatives. Virginians did not need +to be there. Everyone knew where they stood. The Stamp Act Congress +quickly picked up the spirit, although not the strident language of the +Henry Resolves, and declared all taxes, internal and external, should +be repealed. + +Too much should not be made of the division between the Henry-Johnston +forces and the Robinson-Randolph-Bland-Wythe group. The division was +not one of concern about the goal, but rather the means to be used to +reach the unanimously agreed-upon goal--how to retain rights Virginians +believed were theirs and which they thought they were about to lose. +What Henry had done was to imbue "with all the fire of his passion the +protest which the House of Burgesses had made in 1764 in rather tame +phraseology. In neither case was there a difference of principle; in +both, all the difference in the world in power and effect."[19] + + [19] Hamilton J. Eckenrode, Revolution in Virginia (New York, + 1916), 22. + +The effect was permanent. Said Jefferson, "By these resolutions Mr. +Henry took the lead out of the hands of those (who) had heretofore +guided the proceedings of the House, that is to say, of Pendleton, +Wythe, Bland, Randolph, Nicholas. These were honest and able men, who +had begun the opposition on the same grounds, but with a moderation +more adapted to their age and experience. Subsequent events favored the +bolder spirits of Henry, the Lees, Pages, Mason etc." And as soon as he +could join them, Jefferson. + + +The Stamp Act Crisis: 1765-1766 + +The Stamp Act brought violence, rioting, and destruction in several +colonies. Virginia met the act with rigid non-compliance, reasoned +arguments, "friendly persuasion", non-importation of British goods, and +finally, nullification of the act altogether. Virginians of all ranks +united against the Stamp Act as they were not to unite against any +British action thereafter. No one defended the act. Virginians were +aided by the complicity and courage of soft-spoken Governor Francis +Fauquier. + +Enforcing the Stamp Act depended upon having a law to enforce, a +commissioner to administer it, and stamps to attach to the documents. +Colonel George Mercer, prominent planter who had won the commissioner's +post from Richard Henry Lee, arrived in Williamsburg from London on +October 30, 1765. The law was to take effect on November 1. As Mercer's +ill-luck would have it, the Virginia General Court was in session and +hundreds of citizens were in town, many of them the leading gentry and +lawyers. Hearing that Mercer had arrived, a crowd quickly gathered and +moved on the Mercer family residence. Learning of their coming, Mercer +set out to meet them. At once they demanded to know whether or not he +would resign his post. Mercer pleaded for time and promised an answer +before the law would become effective. With that he went to what is now +Mrs. Christiana Campbell's coffee house where the governor was eating. +The crowd followed. After talking with Mercer briefly, the governor +invited him to the palace and walked unescorted with Mercer through the +assembled hundreds. Privately to the Board of Trade, Fauquier remarked +that he would have called the crowd a "mob, did I (not) know that it +was chiefly if not altogether composed of Gentlemen of property in the +Colony, some of them at the Head of their Respective counties, and +Merchants of the Country, whether English, Scotch, or Virginia." +Mercer, after talking with the governor, returned to his father's house +and discussed the situation with his brothers. The next morning he +found 2,000 Virginians assembled and awaiting his answer. Concluding it +was "an Impossibility to execute the Act" and "being obliged to submit +to Numbers", he resigned as commissioner and wrote Fauquier that he had +no stamps with which to execute the act. With that the crowd carried +him off in triumph to the coffee house. + +Virginia developed a clever legal stratagem to allow the tobacco fleet +to sail without the required stamps. Here the agreement of governor, +gentry, merchants, and ship captains was essential. Once Mercer had +resigned and stated he had no stamps for the customs office, Councilor +Peter Randolph, in his capacity of Surveyor General of His Majesty's +Customs, declared the ships could sail for England with the stamps on +the ships' manifests. Governor Fauquier then followed with sealed +certificates for each ship captain attesting to this fact and relieving +the captains of any responsibility for non-compliance. With that the +tobacco fleet sailed off to England and Scotland. + +The other Virginia institution most effected by the tax was the court +system. The General Court closed. Many county courts did likewise. At +the suggestion of Richard Henry Lee, the Westmoreland County court on +September 24, 1765 stated it would not sit again until the Stamp Act +was repealed. Northampton County court took a radically different +approach proposed by Littleton Eyre and stayed open, declaring the +Stamp Act "did not bind, affect or concern the inhabitants of this +colony, inasmuch as they conceive the same to be unconstitutional." The +neighboring Eastern Shore county of Accomac followed suit. Edmund +Pendleton advised James Madison, Sr., that justices of the peace should +serve on the county courts and the courts should stay open, for the +justices had taken an oath to uphold the law since the Stamp Act was +unconstitutional, they would not be violating their oaths if they held +court without the stamps. It was a strange restructuring of British +constitutional procedure which saw Virginia county courts and +individual justices of the peace declaring the laws of parliament +unconstitutional. Nullification of the law was at hand. + +Most county courts stayed closed to pursue Lee's tactics of applying +pressure on British merchants who needed the courts to enforce +contracts and collect debts. By closing the courts and boycotting +British imports, the Virginians put pressure on the merchants who put +pressure on the government. Asserting pressure in a more direct manner, +Lee and his fellow gentry, and any other freeholders who wanted to +attend, gathered at Leedstown, Westmoreland County, on February 27, +1766 and drew up an "association". They restated the Stamp Act Resolves +and asserted that should anyone comply with the Stamp Act the +"associators--will with the utmost Expedition convince all such +Profligates, that immediate danger and disgrace shall attend their +prostitute Purpose." Should any associator suffer as a result of his +action, the others pledged "at the utmost risk of our Lives and +Fortunes to restore such Associate to his Liberty." The next day the +associators crossed over the Rappahannock to Hobb's Hole and +"convinced" Tory merchant Archibald Ritchie to forego his announced +intention to use stamps. A similar association in Norfolk, the Sons of +Liberty, actually tarred and feathered ship captain William Smith, tied +him to a pony cart and dragged him through Norfolk streets to Market +House. Along the way by-standers, including Mayor Maximilian Calvert, +heaved rocks and rotten eggs at the hapless captain whose final +humiliation came when he was tossed into the harbor beside his +ship.[20] Small wonder ship captains did not sail to Virginia and +London merchants were quickly submitting petitions against the Stamp +Act. + + [20] The resolution of the Westmoreland and Northumberland + courts, and Leadstown Association, and the Norfolk Sons of + Liberty are found in Van Schreeven and Scribner, Revolutionary + Virginia, I, 19-26, 25-48. + + +Repeal and the Declaratory Act, 1766 + +In July 1766 for reasons unrelated to the American crisis, George III +replaced the Grenville ministry with a new ministry, headed by the +Marquis of Rockingham, which included the Duke of Newcastle, Henry +Conway, and the Duke of Grafton. Missing was the Old Whigs principal +leader, William Pitt, who preferred to pursue his independent and +mercurial ways. The Rockingham ministry, most of whose members had +disliked the Stamp Act from the beginning, drew their greatest strength +from the merchant communities. By the time parliament opened in +December, Rockingham and his supporters were in agreement--the act must +be repealed. But how? The violence and riots in Boston and Newport had +raised cries against property destruction while the extreme +constitutional position attributed to Virginia and the Stamp Act +Congress challenged the very heart of parliament's sovereignty. Pitt +hardly helped Rockingham by excoriating Grenville and exclaiming, "I +rejoice that America resisted." + +Pitt did, however, inadvertently propose the solution when he concluded +his denunciation by saying: + + ... the Stamp Act (must) be repealed absolutely, totally, and + immediately. That a reason be assigned, because it was founded on + an erroneous principle. At the same time, let the sovereign + authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as + strong terms of legislation whatsoever. That we may bind their + trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power + whatsoever, except that of taking their money out of their pockets + without their consent.[21] + + [21] Cited in Morgans, Stamp Act, 335. The discussion which + follows accepts as convincing the Morgan's contention, pgs. + 15-154, that the colonists made no distinction between internal + and external taxes in theory, only between taxes in general and + navigation acts for regulatory purposes. + +Pitt, following the resolution of the Stamp Act Congress, defined +"legislation" to mean laws governing trade for regulation and general +government, but not internal or external taxes. + +By January the clamor for repeal in financially-stricken London rose to +fever pitch, but no solution which admitted that the act was based on +"erroneous principle" would pass. Finally, a Declaratory Act was passed +embodying the ambivalent statement to the effect that parliament did +have the power to make laws binding on the colonies "in all Cases +whatsoever." Though Pitt and the colonists interpreted laws to mean +everything except taxes, others interpreted it to mean taxes; and still +others interpreted it to mean internal but not external taxes. But the +ambivalence was removed when Pitt and Isaac Barre sought to remove the +phrase "in all cases whatsoever" to prevent it being used to justify +taxes. They failed. Thus, when the Declaratory Act passed, most members +of parliament were convinced they had declared their authority to levy +taxes even though they had repealed a specific tax, the Stamp Tax. + +In that same series of debates and those which followed on repeal +itself, the idea grew in the minds of many members that the colonists +had made a distinction between "internal" and "external" taxes--the one +levied on goods and services inside the colony and the other levied +outside the colony or before the goods reached the colony. The first +might be the prerogative of the colonial assembly, the other of +parliament. Undoubtedly, many seized upon the distinction between +"internal-external" as a principle they could accept in the midst of a +serious setback and failure. If so, they were helped along by a +magnificent presentation by Benjamin Franklin, agent for Pennsylvania, +who presented the colonial case to the commons. In his astute and often +clever way, Franklin dodged the internal-external issue, knowing full +well most house members would not accept the idea of complete colonial +autonomy on tax matters, while the colonists would accept nothing less. +He hoped repeal would remove the immediate difficulty and parliament +would avoid the taxation issue in the future. His brilliant +presentation was instrumental in gaining repeal of the Stamp Act, but +the short-term solution created long-term confusion.[22] + + [22] ibid., 327-352. + +Nevertheless, repeal was achieved and a collective sigh of relief was +heard in London and in the colonies. The colonists rejoiced in their +victory. A few men like George Mason read the Declaratory Act and the +debates carefully and concluded that the act did not disavow +parliament's taxing power. Until a specific disclaimer was included, +the problem was not solved. Mason was particularly defiant and +sarcastic about the claims by London merchants that they had been able +to gain repeal only by promising good behavior from the colonies in the +future and warning the Virginians not to challenge parliament again. In +his reply Mason mockingly declared: + + The epithets of parent and child have been so long applied to Great + Britain and her colonies, that ... we rarely see anything from your + side of the water free from the authoritative style of a master to + a schoolboy: + + "We have with infinite difficulty and fatigue got you excused this + one time; pray be a good boy for the future, do what your papa and + mama bid you, and hasten to return them your most grateful + acknowledgements for condescending to let you keep what is your own + ... and if you should at any time hereafter happen to transgress, + your friends will all beg for you and be security for your good + behaviour; but if your are a naughty boy,... then everybody will + hate you, and say you are a graceless and undutiful child; your + parents and masters will be obliged to whip you severely...."[23] + + [23] Robert A. Rutland, ed., Papers of George Mason, 3 vols. + (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1970), I, 65-73. + +One other Virginian did not rest until he had challenged the notion, +much discussed in parliament by commons member Soame Jenyns, that the +colonists, like all British citizens, were "virtually" represented in +parliament. To Richard Bland nothing could be more vital to the rights +of British subjects than to be represented "directly" by those whom +they knew and whom they chose to represent them. In March 1766 he +published his magnificent defense of Virginia rights, An Inquiry +into the Rights of the British Colonies. He would not concede to +parliament the notion that the colonies and colonists were represented +"virtually" in that body just as the nine out of ten Englishmen were +who did not have the vote, or because members of commons were elected +from districts in which they did not live or own property, or because +nearly every profession and "interest", be it merchant, farmer, west +Indian planter, physicians, soldier, clergy, and even a few Americans +sat in parliament. The Inquiry was a hard-hitting defense of +"direct representation". Interlaced with citations to the ancient +charters of Virginia were terms of fury--"detestable Thought", +"Ungenerous Insinuation", "despicable Opinion", "slavery", +"oppression", terms which suggest the level to which rhetoric had risen +even for as rational a man as the moderate burgess from Prince George +County, now grown "tough as whitleather" with "something of the look of +musty old Parchments which he handleth and studieth much". The +Inquiry was widely read in Virginia and England and its +statement on "direct representation" became the standard American +defense against "virtual representation" and any half-way measure which +would have given the colonies a few seats in parliament in the manner +of Scotland or Wales. + +Still the conservative Bland, who said things in a most radical way, +was among those most happy to read Governor Fauquier's proclamation of +June 9, 1766 announcing Repeal.[24] + + [24] For the full text of Bland's Inquiry, see Van Schreeven and + Scribner, Revolutionary America, I, 27-44. + + +British Politics and the Townshend Act, 1766-1770. + +The fluid British political situation shifted again in July 1767. The +conciliatory Rockingham ministry, having brought off the Stamp Act +repeal and modification of the Sugar Act of 1764, could not sustain +itself in office. Members of both commons and lords had fought doggedly +against repeal and accepted defeat only after considerable patronage +pressures from the ministry. These ministry opponents were determined +to reassert, on the first opportunity, parliament's authority over the +colonies, believing to delay such a confrontation was a sign of +weakness. Within the Rockingham ministry personality conflicts +developed which eventually brought the ministry to a standstill. + +George III correctly perceived that his government faced an emergency. +In this crisis he turned to Pitt to lead a new ministry. In one way the +king and Pitt were alike. They were "probably the only men in the +eighteenth century to believe absolutely in (their) own slogans about +patriotism, purity, and a better system of conducting government."[25] +On the other hand they differed as to what these terms meant. The +intent was good, the timing was wrong. Pitt, for reasons still somewhat +obscure, accepted a peerage and became Lord Chatham and opened the door +to cries of corruption and sell-out by the "Great Commoner." More +significantly, Chatham was trying to lead a ministry from the House of +Lords. He could not bring it off and sank deeper into that melancholia +which left him mentally incapacitated during much of his ministry's +short life. + + [25] J. Steven Watson, THE REIGN OF GEORGE III (Oxford, 1960), 4. + +American affairs fell into the hands of the brilliant, egotistical, +unstable, and ambitious Charles Townshend, whom Pitt called in as his +chancellor of the exchequer. Townshend was one of those junior +government officials who, during the French and Indian War, had +discovered the economic richness and maturity of the colonies and their +constitutional rebelliousness. He had opposed repeal and represented +the gradual infiltration of ministry positions by men who believe the +colonists should pay for their government in a manner which +forthrightly established parliamentary supremacy. In the 1750's he had +developed a plan to bring the colonies into check. Once given the +opportunity by Chatham, he seized it with enthusiasm. That opportunity +came with the huge deficit in American defense costs for 1766 and New +York's intransigent defiance of the Mutiny Act of 1765 (the Quartering +Act.) + +The Revenue Act of 1767 (the Townshend Act) was a direct challenge to +colonial self-government and a true measure of the chancellor's +insensitivity and folly. Citing the supposed distinction between +"internal" and "external" taxes, a distinction which he, himself, did +not believe existed, Townshend proposed import duties on glass, paints, +lead, paper, and tea, of which only tea was a potential producer of any +real revenue. The funds from these import duties were assigned to pay +the salaries of colonial governors and other royal officials and were +not for defense expenditures. Had Townshend calculated a means for +arousing the ire of the colonists, he could not have chosen a better +device. It was an injustice that Townshend died suddenly before he had +to wrestle with the consequence of his actions. + +By 1769 Chatham finally realized he could not longer govern and +resigned the government to his hero-worshipping follower, the Duke of +Grafton, ostensibly over the decision of Chatham's own ministers to +dismiss General Jeffrey Amherst as titular governor of Virginia and +replace him with Norbonne Berkeley, Baron de Boutetourt.[26] Actually, +Chatham's policies in Europe and America had been repudiated and +"hardliners" were regaining power. Grafton managed to hold on and to do +nothing until February 1770 when the Whig majority completely fell +apart and the king turned to Lord North and the Tories to run the +country. + + [26] Ibid. (From 1710 to 1768 the governor for Virginia did not + reside in the colony, choosing instead to accept a fixed salary + and agreeing to send in his stead a lieutenant-governor who + actually exercised all the power. This system ended with Amherst + and his lieutenant-governor, Francis Fauquier, who died in March + 1768.) + +One result of this political infighting and personality conflict was +support for the king. Amidst the factionalism, corruption, and greed, +independent members of parliament saw the crown as the only means for +creative, effective leadership. For that reason George, after 1770, not +only had a minister he could work with, he had a more tractable +parliament aided by the complete disintegration of the Whigs and a +hardening attitude toward the Americans whose actions bordered on +disloyalty, if not treason. + + +Virginia Politics, 1766-1768 + +Political leadership in Virginia also underwent a change after 1766. +Unlike Britain, the changes in Virginia broadened political leadership +to include the new elements which emerged during the Stamp Act debates, +the Lee-Henry group. It also brought into power those who were less +likely to be satisfied with political addresses and constitutional +niceties should parliament pass into law the powers it claimed in the +Declaratory Act. + +In May 1766 Speaker-Treasurer John Robinson died. His death coincided +with the murder by his son-in-law, Colonel John Chiswell, of Robert +Routledge of Cumberland County in a tavern fight. Although his +father-in-law and his Randolph relatives managed to gain his release +from jail pending trial, Chiswell believed he was going to be convicted +if the case came to trial and chose suicide to jail. Both events shook +the Robinson-Randolph leadership and the gentry everywhere. Robinson's +death brought into the open the extent of his financial problems and +persons to whom he had loaned money. + +In 1766 Virginians were treated to another new phenomenon--an open and +free press. From 1732 when William Parks set up the Virginia Gazette +until 1766 there had been only one paper in the colony. Besides the +paper relied heavily upon the government, both royal and assembly, for +printing contracts, the Gazette tended to print only news which would +not offend. After 1766 there were three Virginia Gazettes, being +published simultaneously in Williamsburg by William Hunter, William +Rind, and Alexander Purdie. In aggressively seeking subscribers and +advertisers in lieu of government printing contracts the two new papers +gave extensive coverage to the Robinson scandals, the Chiswell murder +case, and the running debates between the various candidates for +Robinson's offices. From 1766 on Virginians had a public forum for +political debates in the letters-to-the-editor columns on British +policies and actions. + +The immediate result of Robinson's death was the division of his two +offices. After vigorous campaigning previously unknown in Virginia, +Peyton Randolph won out as speaker over the Lee candidate, Richard +Bland. Robert Carter Nicholas, who had conducted the first newspaper +campaign in Virginia, was elected treasurer. John Randolph replaced his +brother as attorney-general. Major changes came in the house committees +where Lee, Henry, and friends were placed on the powerful Committee on +Elections and Privileges. The death of Robinson did not result in an +overthrow of the Tidewater leadership. Virginia leadership has seldom +changed in a dramatic fashion. Instead, the prevailing groups have +tended to expand just enough to include those who gained political +power, but not those who have demagogically courted it. + +Lee, with his great planter family tradition, was merely admitted to a +house leadership at a time when most members were sharing his +passionate dislike of the British. Henry won his spurs not before the +crowd but on the floor of the House of Burgesses. At a time when the +British were falling into greater factionalism, the Virginians were +healing breaches. The willingness of Richard Bland, a cousin of Peyton +Randolph, to run for the speakership with Lee-Henry backing is one +example of this truth. + + +The Townshend Act in Virginia, 1767-1771 + +Reaction to the Townshend Act was greatest in the northern colonies +which it most directly affected. Reaction was sharpest in +Massachusetts. There the legislature passed and distributed a circular +letter in February 1768 urging all colonies to join in a petition to +the king against the intent of the act--to make the governor and other +officials financially independent from the legislatures over which they +presided. The situation in Massachusetts, as it had in the latter +stages of the Stamp Act Crisis, quickly degenerated into violence, and +General Gage had to send British troops to restore order in Boston. + +The Virginia General Assembly was in session when the circular letter +arrived in April 1768. The house formed a committee headed by Bland to +draw up another petition to the king, memorial to the lords, and +remonstrance to the commons. Moderate in tone, but forceful in defense +of Virginian's rights, the 1767 Remonstrance protested parliament's +passage of the tax package and perhaps most forcefully denounced +parliament's action in closing the New York legislature for opposing +the Mutiny Act. The council concurred in these addresses. Before the +assembly could move on to bolder actions, the meeting was prorogued by +President John Blair. The assembly did not meet again until May 1769. +In the interim Lord Botetourt arrived to replace Fauquier who had died +in March 1768. + +By the time the burgesses reassembled other colonies had formed +non-importation agreements and were boycotting British goods. On May 16 +the House of Burgesses adopted resolutions reasserting its exclusive +right to levy taxes in Virginia and condemning recent parliamentary +proposals to transport colonists accused of treason to England for +trial. George Washington introduced a non-importation plan devised by +Richard Henry Lee and George Mason. Before the house could act +Botetourt dissolved the assembly. This time most of the house moved up +the street to the Raleigh Tavern where 89 of them signed a +non-importation association on May 18, 1769. Lee, Mason, and Washington +proposed a ban on tobacco exports as well, but lost. The association +called for a ban on British imports, a reduced standard of living to +lessen dependence of British credit, and the purchase of goods produced +in America. Hopefully, the British merchants again would bring pressure +on parliament. + +The association, which was voluntary and lacked enforcement procedures, +was only partially successful in Virginia. A second association was +announced in May 1770 following repeal of all the Townshend duties +except the tea duty. By late summer the boycott had collapsed although +the association was not dissolved until 1771. + +Neither in Virginia nor the other colonies did the Townshend protests +arouse the passions or unanimity of support generated by the Stamp Act. +The lack of strong reaction may have been the result of a number of +factors. The Townshend duties applied to goods which were less widely +used than those affected by the Stamp Act. The Virginia economy was +still struggling to recover its forward momentum, and the merchants who +had to bear the greatest burden in the boycott were reluctant to +protest too strongly. In addition, the colonists had a feeling the +duties would be repealed. Most importantly, the imposition of a duty to +pay for the governor's salary was no issue in Virginia where the +assembly had given the governor a permanent salary in 1682. + +In 1770 the duties, except for the Tea Tax, were repealed. George +Mason, Thomas Nelson, Jr., and Thomas Jefferson lamented the retention +of the Tea Tax as a symbol of British oppression and supported the +half-hearted "association". Most Virginians agreed with Robert Carter +Nicholas' plea: + + Let things but return to their old channel, and all will be well; + We shall once more be a happy people. + + +The False Interlude, 1770-1773 + +The Chesapeake tobacco economy rebounded sharply upward in the early +1770's. The recovery from the recession of the 1760's soothed many +ruffled feelings and Virginians were "once more a happy people." +Unfortunately it was a false prosperity. The old economic problems +reappeared in 1773. Overproduction of tobacco, overextension of credit +by British merchants, speculation in lands and tobacco, and inflated +prices caused the tobacco economy to collapse. The crisis first +appeared when several leading Glasgow merchants failed. They were +unable to pay their own creditors and unable to call in money from +Virginia. Several large London firms followed the Scots into +bankruptcy, and a general retrenchment of tobacco credit followed +throughout 1773 and into 1774. + +The calm produced by repeal of the duties also was false. There were +many Englishmen who understood the problem. Said Edmund Burk, the most +creditable opponent of the various tax schemes and the most cogent +defender of colonial liberty in parliament: + + The Americans have made a discovery, or think they have made one, + that we mean to oppress them. We have made a discovery, or think we + have made one, that they intend to rise in rebellion against us... + we know not how to advance; they know not how to retreat.... + +Lord North put his finger squarely on the issue as it remained +unresolved after 1770: + + The language of America is, We are not subjects of the king; with + parliament we have nothing to do. + + That is the point at which the factions have been aiming; upon that + they have been shaking hands. + +The empire was being held together by a king. Affection for the crown +and love for the British constitution as the best government in the +world was the hallmark of Virginia loyalty. Not until the eve of +independence did Virginians come to believe that the king, himself, had +subverted the constitution. When they did they could no longer "shake +hands". Only outside the empire could the blessings of the true +constitution be retained. + +In October of 1770, the beloved governor, Lord Botetourt died. His +successor, the Earl of Dunmore, arrived in July of 1771. + + +The Road to Revolution, 1773-1774 + +Virginia tobacco planters and merchants were not alone in their +distress. From India came word of serious, even disastrous, troubles +plaguing the East India Company. The company not only controlled the +tea market, it also governed India for the British. Collapse of the +company would be a major disaster for the crown, company, country, and +colony together. To save the company the north ministry proposed, and +parliament approved, laws to improve company management, lend it money, +lower but enforce the duty on tea, and grant the company a monopoly on +tea sales in England and America. + +Reaction in Virginia was quick and pointed. The Tea Act of 1773 raised +two highly volatile issues: the right to tax and the granting of a +trade monopoly on tea. In both instances the principle was most +bothersome. The tea tax was small, but as Bland had said of the Pistole +Fee, "the question then ought not to be the smallness of the demand, +but the Lawfulness of it." A small tax successfully collected would +lead to other levies. Also, a successful monopoly of the tea trade +granted to the East India Company could be followed by similar actions +to the detriment of all American traders, merchants, and consumers. The +discriminatory uses of both taxing power and the Navigation Acts became +pointedly clear in a time of economic decline in which no one was +proposing loans and special privileges for Virginia tobacco planters. +Bland had been right--"LIBERTY and PROPERTY are like those precious +Vessels whose soundness is destroyed by the least flaw and whose use is +lost by the smallest hole." + +Virginia was already prepared for intercolonial action. In June 1772 +the British ship, Gaspee, ran aground while on customs duty in +Narragansett Sound. Rhode Islanders burned the ship to the water line, +injuring the captain in the process. When the guilty colonists, who +were well-known members of the Providence community, were not +apprehended, a royal proclamation was issued decreeing trial in England +for any of the culprits caught and granting use of troops to help +apprehend them. A royal commission was dispatched to Rhode Island. Such +a commission, if once the precedent was established, could be used +against all the colonies. + +For a long time Richard Henry Lee had been advocating an intercolonial +committee of correspondence. Now the time had come to act and for all +the colonies to be more alert to these "transgressions" and "intrusions +upon justice." On March 12, 1773 the House of Burgesses, on a motion by +Dabney Carr, burgess from Albemarle County and brother-in-law to +Jefferson, established a Committee of Correspondence composed of Bland, +Richard Henry Lee, Henry, Jefferson, Robert Carter Nicholas, Benjamin +Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Dudley Digges, Carr, and Archibald Cary to +inquire into the Gaspee affair. More importantly, the resolution called +upon all the other assemblies to "appoint some person or persons of +their respective bodies to communicate from time to time, with the said +committee."[27] Said an unknown "Gentleman of Distinction" (probably a +Lee) in the Virginia Gazette the following day, "... we are +endeavoring to bring our Sister Colonies into the strictest Union with +us; that we may resent, in one Body, any Steps that may be taken by +Administration to deprive any one of us the least Particle of our +Rights and Liberties." Within months every colony had a committee of +correspondence. And within months the "Administration" would deprive +Boston of its rights and liberties. + + [27] For the resolution see, Van Schreeven and Scribner, + Revolutionary Virginia, I, 89-92. Also note that this committee + consists of men who ware on opposite sides of the fence in the + Stamp Act debate in 1765. + + +The Boston Tea Party and the Intolerable Acts + +Reaction to the Tea Act was nearly unanimous. The tax should not be +paid and a boycott on tea imposed. A boycott developed in Virginia. +Merchants exhausted their stocks and refused to replenish them. Most +Virginians ceased drinking tea. No one, however, was prepared to resort +to violence, so there was little sympathy among Virginians for the +destruction of tea in Boston harbor by a "tribe of Indians" on December +16, 1774. Old colonial friends in England including Burke, Chatham, +Rose Fuller, and even Isaac Barre were also shocked. + +Parliament saw the issue as order, government by law, protection of +private property, and even treason. The long history of riotous actions +by Bostonians was recalled. The commons decided that the time had come +to stand firm. Repeal of the Stamp Act and Townshend Duties had not +brought respect for and acceptance of authority. Mason's "dutiful +child" now was to be "whipped". Boston must be brought into line for +her obstreperousness. The response of parliament was slow, measured, +and calculated. The Coercive Acts (the English name, not the colonial) +took two months to pass. By these acts: 1) the port of Boston was +closed until the destroyed tea was paid for; 2) the Massachusetts +government was radically restructured, the governor's powers enhanced, +and the town meetings abolished; 3) trials of English officials accused +of felonies could be moved to England; and 4) a new Quartering Act +applicable to all colonies went into effect. + +At the same time, and unconnected with the Coercive Act, parliament +rendered its final solution to the western land problems by passing the +Quebec Act of 1774. Most of the provisions of the Proclamation of 1763 +respecting government were made permanent. All the land north of the +Ohio was to be in a province governed from Quebec. Lost was the hope of +many Virginia land company speculators and those in other colonies as +well. Not only was the land now in the hands of their former French +enemies in Quebec, but the land would be distributed from London and +fall into the hands of Englishmen, not colonials. Coming as it did just +after Governor Dunmore and Colonel Andrew Lewis and his land-hungry +valley frontiersmen had driven the Shawnees north of the Ohio in the +bloody battle of Point Pleasant (1774) (also called Dunmore's War), the +Quebec Act was seen in Virginia as one more act of an oppressive +government, one more act in which the Americans had suffered at the +expense of another part of the empire. That the act was a reasonable +solution to a knotty problem was overlooked. + +When the Virginians talked about the Coercive Acts, they called them +the Intolerable Acts and included not just the four Massachusetts laws +but the Quebec Act as well. + +Word of the Boston Port Bill and the intent of the other Intolerable +Acts reached Virginia just as the assembly prepared to meet on May 5, +1774. Public indignation built rapidly even among small planters and +farmers who knew little of the constitutional grievances. They could +not understand the "mailed fist" stance implicit in the acts. With the +necessary legislation out of the way, the house on May 24, 1774 +appealed to the public at large to send aid to their blockaded +fellow-colonists in Boston. They then declared June 1st, the day the +Boston port was to be closed, "a day of Public Fasting, Prayer, and +Humiliation." A sense of inter-colonial camaraderie was building. Any +reservations Virginians had about the propriety of the Tea Party was +lost in the furious reaction to the Intolerable Acts. Governor Dunmore +on May 26 dissolved the assembly for its action. He could not prevent +the day of fasting and prayer from occurring on June 1st. Nor could he +halt the determined burgesses. + +On May 27th the burgesses reassembled informally in Raleigh Tavern, +elected Speaker Randolph to be their moderator, and formed an +association which was signed by 89 burgesses. At the urging of Richard +Henry Lee, the most ardent exponent of intercolonial action, the +burgesses issued a call for the other colonies to join in a Continental +Congress. They then agreed to reassemble in Williamsburg on August 1st +to elect and instruct delegates to the congress and to formulate plans +for a non-importation, non-exportation agreement to bring total +pressure on British merchants. + +It would be a year before Lexington and Concord and two years before +the Declaration of Independence, but the revolution in Virginia had +already begun in the true meaning of John Adams' words "the Revolution +was in the minds and hearts of the people." After May 17 the center of +Virginia government moved from the General Assembly to the Virginia +Conventions. The assembly would meet briefly in June 1775, but the real +"mind and heart" of Virginia would be in the convention. + + + + +Part III: + +From Revolution to Independence + +The First Virginia Convention + + +[Sidenote: "_He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies +without the consent of our legislatures...._"] + +By the time members of the convention gathered in Williamsburg on +August 1 popular opinion for stern action against the Coercive Acts was +unequivocal. From Spotsylvania, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Prince William, +Frederick, Dunmore (now Shenandoah), Westmoreland, Prince George, +Essex, Middlesex--in all, 31 towns and counties, came outspoken +resolutions against parliamentary usurpation of Virginia rights. +Liberally sprinkled throughout the resolves were sentiments like, "it +is the fixed Intention of the Said Ministry to reduce the Colonies to a +State of Slavery", "we owe no Obedience to any Act of the British +Parliament", "we will oppose any such Acts with our Lives and +Fortunes", "the present Odious Measures", or "ministerial Hirelings, +and Professed Enemies of American Freedom". The targets were parliament +and the king's ministers. As yet, few Virginians were willing to +believe that they would not receive justice from the king, choosing to +believe instead that the king was as much a victim of parliament's +"corruption" as were the colonists. + +The unifying theme in the resolves were calls for "non-importation, +non-exportation, and non-consumption". Halt the importation of all +goods from Britain, export no tobacco or supplies to Britain and the +West Indies, and consume no European goods, luxuries, and above all no +tea. Knowing economic coercion had brought repeal of the Stamp Tax and +the Townshend Duties, they were certain coercion would work against the +Intolerable Acts.[28] + + [28] Copies of the extant county and town resolves with the names + of many of the signers can be found in Van Schreeven and + Scribner, Revolutionary Virginia, I, 168. There are known, but + unrecorded, resolves from at least nine more of the 65 Virginia + jurisdictions. + +The outpouring of delegates to the non-legal convention, well over 100 +of the 153 delegates eligible to serve, so gratified the usually +laconic George Washington that he noted, "We never before had so full a +Meeting of delegates at any one Time." With enthusiasm the +representatives, most of whom had sat as burgesses in May, elected +Peyton Randolph as moderator and issued a call for a Continental +Congress of all the colonies to meet in Philadelphia in the fall. + +Much more difficult to achieve were tactics and strategies for applying +economic coercion. While the delegates agreed non-importation should be +instituted, they could not easily agree upon what English and European +goods should be excluded as luxuries. All did agree that no slaves +should be imported. Here the convention went beyond a mere desire to +place economic pressure on British slave traders; their objective was +to halt the trade altogether. The major stumbling block to action was +non-exportation of tobacco and non-collection of debts. While most +exponents of non-exportation and non-collection wanted to break the +business links to Britain and to hasten resolution of the +constitutional impasse, there were some Virginians who undoubtedly +believed that these measures would bring them relief from their +creditors. The majority of the delegates, however, including many of +the radicals and those most deeply in debt, held it was improper to +refuse to send to England tobacco promised to merchants and creditors. +Such a tactic was a violation of private contract and personal honor. +Radical Thomson Mason put it succinctly, "Common honesty requires that +you pay your debts." + +Eventually a series of compromises was worked out. All importations +from Britain and the West Indies would cease on November 1, 1774; all +slave importations would cease the same day; no tea would be drunk; and +colonists would wear American-manufactured clothes and support American +industries. If these measures did not bring relief and redress of +grievances, all exports would cease on August 10, 1775. To assure +compliance and enforcement of these agreements 107 delegates signed the +Virginia Association binding themselves together in common action. The +convention elected and instructed Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, +Washington, Henry, Bland, Harrison, and Pendleton "to represent this +Colony in general Congress". They then departed to establish committees +and associations in every county and town in Virginia. Determination to +aid Massachusetts and a conviction that if one colony suffered, all +suffered, permeated the convention resolutions. John Adams confided in +his diary on August 23, "... saw the Virginia Paper. The Spirit of the +People is prodigious. Their Resolutions are really grand." + +Two publications issued during the summer of 1774 confirm the degree to +which Virginians were moving away from Britain toward an autonomous +commonwealth status with the king the only link binding the colonies to +the mother country. The first was a series of letters published in the +Virginia Gazette (Rind) during June and July signed by a +"British American", who later identified himself as Thomson Mason, the +outspoken brother of George Mason. The second were notes and +resolutions by Thomas Jefferson, later published and distributed widely +throughout the colonies under the title, A Summary View of the +Rights of British America.[29] + + [29] Both are published in Van Schreeven and Scribner, + Revolutionary Virginia, I, 169-203 and 240-256. + +Thomson Mason's letters, often ignored in favor of Jefferson's +Summary View, are especially intriguing because they start with +a favorite Virginia assumption--The British constitution was "the +wisest system of legislation that ever did, or perhaps ever will, +exist". It provided a balance in government between the crown, the +nobility, and the commons, or as Mason suggests, it blended the three +forms of government, "monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy (each) +possessed of their distinct powers, checked, tempered, and improved +each other.... The honour of the monarchy tempered the Impetuousity of +democracy, the moderation of aristocracy checked the ardent aspiring +honour of monarchy, and the virtue of democracy restrained the one, +impelled the other, and invigorated both. In short, no constitution +ever bid so fair for perpetual duration as that of England, and none +ever half so well deserved it, since political liberty was its sole +aim, and the general good of mankind the principal object of its +attention." + +What went wrong according to Mason, was not that a hapless king +ascended the throne, but a corrupt aristocracy had perverted parliament +and parliamentary powers to its own end. Therefore, the colonies owed +no obedience to the laws of parliament at all; in fact, to no law +passed by that body since 1607. The people of Virginia should be +prepared to defend themselves and ready to "unsheath the sword" to show +the English aristocracy they were determined to protect the "few Rights +which still remain" and to regain "the many privileges you have already +lost." With great courage Mason signed his name to the last letter, in +which he undoubtedly had written treasonous remarks. It is a measure of +the times that no Virginian rose to shout "Treason!" in 1774. + +Jefferson's more famous Summary View moved to nearly the same +conclusion with perhaps even more emotion and rhetoric. Intended to +arouse the convention, from which he was absent, the Summary +View is one of Jefferson's few impassioned pleas, written with +fervor in what Dumas Malone, his distinguished biographer, calls "the +white heat of indignation against the coercive acts."[30] Filled with +errors he would undoubtedly have corrected if he had not fallen sick, +Jefferson directed himself toward moral and philosophical arguments. +The essential question was "What was the political relation between us +and England?". The answer was a voluntary compact entered into between +the king and his people when they voluntarily left England for America, +a compact which they had never renounced, but which parliament had +broken and the king had not protected. He denied the authority of +parliament even to make laws for trade and navigation and asserted +England was now attempting to take for its own benefits the fruits of a +society wrested from the wilderness by the American colonists. These +colonists, having arrived without assistance, voluntarily formed a +government based on their own natural rights and were entitled to +defend those rights and that government against the repeated incursions +of parliament. Then Jefferson touched upon a very telling point in +understanding the radical shift of the colonists in their allegiance +from 1763 to 1775. He noted that while parliament had passed laws +previously which had threatened liberty, these transgressions had been +few and far between. More recently, however, + + [30] Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian (Little, Brown: + Boston, 1948), 182. His excellent discussion of the Summary View + is on pages 181-190. + +Scarcely have our minds been able to emerge from the astonishment into +which one stroke of parliamentary thunder had involved us, before +another more heavy, and more alarming, is fallen on us. Single acts of +tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a +series of oppressions, begun at a distinguishable (an identifiable +point in time) period, and pursued, unalterably through every change of +ministers, too plainly prove a deliberate and systematical plan for +reducing us to slavery. + +To Jefferson in 1774 the source of this conspiracy to reduce the +colonies to slavery was parliament; by 1776 he would identify the king +as being involved as well. + +Too rash, and too radical, for the August convention or even for the +Continental Congress in October 1774, the Summary View would earn for +Jefferson an intercolonial reputation as a brilliant writer and a +foremost patriot. It was this reputation which resulted in his +appointment to the committee in June 1776 which drew up a declaration +of independence. + + +Virginia and the First Continental Congress + +On August 30, Washington, Henry, and Pendleton set out from Mount +Vernon for Philadelphia. There they met their fellow Virginians and +delegates from every colony except Georgia whose governor had prevented +the legislature from sending delegates. The Massachusetts men, +conscious that many colonists considered them radical, impulsive, and +even crude, determined to operate behind the scenes, deferring to the +Virginians whom Adams called "the most spirited and consistent of any +delegation". They were successful, for Caesar Rodney of Delaware was +soon complaining that "the Bostonians who have been condemned by many +for their violence are moderate men when compared to Virginia, South +Carolina, and Rhode Island". The union of New England and the southern +colonies quickly produced the election of Peyton Randolph as speaker of +the convention and alarmed the more conservative members like Joseph +Galloway of Pennsylvania. + +Try as they might the members of this first congress made slow headway. +They knew little of each other and often spent time defending their own +reputations rather than finding common grounds for action. While bound +together by parliament's invasion of their rights, they could not move +forward in unison with a specific plan to protect those rights. So +limited were their visions by their own provincial experiences that +they had to be asked directly by Patrick Henry, "Where are your +Landmarks; your Boundaries of Colonies. The Distinctions between +Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders, are no +more. I am not a Virginian, but an American!" George Washington in his +more plain way did the same thing by talking about "us" instead of +"you". + +Then unfounded rumors circulated that Boston had been bombarded by +General Thomas Gage. Complacency ended. Congress acted with dispatch to +approve the Suffolk Resolves from Massachusetts. In direct, defiant +terms these Resolves restated the rights of the Americans in tones +familiar to Virginians: + + "If a boundless Extend of Continent, swarming with Millions, will + tamely submit to live, move and have their Being at the Arbitrary + Will of a licentious Minister, they basely yield to voluntary + Slavery, and future Generations shall load their Memories with + incessant Execrations--On the other Hand, if we arrest the Hand + which would ransack our Pockets.... Posterity will acknowledge the + Virtue which preserved them free and happy...." + +Slavery, freedom, happiness, virtue, liberty were the clarion calls to +which the colonials acted and reacted. + +When the First Congress had completed its tedious work on October 26, it +had adopted much of the Virginia Convention proposals: non-importation +of British and West Indian products would begin on December 1; +non-exportation, if necessary, would begin on September 1, 1776; and a +Continental Association patterned after the Virginia Association was +urged for every town and county in the colonies to assure enforcement of +the embargoes. Congress prepared an address to the British people and a +mild memorial to the American people setting forth the history of +"Parliamentary subjugation". The delegates turned aside as premature +Richard Henry Lee's call for an independent militia in each colony. + +The very conservative nature of the whole revolutionary movement can be +seen in congress' plea to the British people--"Place us in the same +situation we were at the close of the last war, and our former harmony +will be restored." They wanted a restoration of rights they thought +they long had held and now had lost. To do so, however, involved a +concession of parliamentary authority which few in England were willing +to do. + + +Great Britain Stiffens + +Economic coercion through non-importation, non-exportation, and +non-consumption was the main weapon of the colonials. It had worked +before, it was not to work in 1774. There was a growing resentment in +Britain against the colonials' intransigence. Repeal of the Stamp Act +and the Townshend duties had brought no respect from the colonists and +no suggestions about how to relieve the financial pressures on British +taxpayers. Whereas parliament had listened to the pleas from distressed +London tobacco merchants and traders in 1766 and 1770, members of both +houses were increasingly of the opinion that the earlier repeals were a +mistake. The basic issue of constitutional supremacy had been avoided. +Now it must be faced. Even before the Continental Congress had met, +King George remarked to Lord North, "The die is cast, the Colonies must +either submit or triumph; I do not wish to come to severer measures but +we must not retreat." There is no evidence that British public opinion +differed with him. + +Most Englishmen, the king and most members of the commons among them, +considered the raising of independent militia companies in New England +and the enforcement of non-importation by the Virginia Associations to +be acts of rebellion. When they learned about the Continental +Association in late 1774, they were convinced sterner measures were +called for. At its January 1775 session parliament defeated a late-hour +plan of union offered by Chatham. This plan would have conferred +limited dominion status on the American colonies, reasserted the +fundamental power of the crown, and repealed all the colonial acts +passed by parliament after 1763. A similar plan had been offered by +Galloway to the First Continental Congress. Both failed. Lord North, +while sympathetic to plans for easing tensions, offered a plan of +reconciliation by which the colonists would grant annual amounts for +imperial expenses in lieu of taxes, but he could find no solution which +at the same time did not diminish the authority of parliament or force +the colonists to accept some vague annual levy determined in Britain. + +Believing New England was in a state of rebellion and that the +embargoes were acts of treason, parliament in March 1775 passed the +Restraining Act. New England commerce was restricted to Great Britain, +Ireland, and the West Indies, excluded from the Newfoundland fisheries, +and barred from coastal trading with other colonies until they ended +their associations and complied with the Boston Port Act. When further +testimony demonstrated that Virginia, South Carolina, New Jersey, +Pennsylvania, and Maryland were equally guilty of forming +non-importation associations, they were added to the Restraining Act +list. + +Simultaneously, parliament passed North's plan for reconciliation which +embodied the proposal for removing all parliamentary taxes if the +colonial legislatures would provide alternative sources of revenue. + + +War + +As parliament debated, events in America took matters out of the realm +of abstract theory and put them into the context of practical +revolution. + +For Virginia the crucial decisions had been made by the Second Virginia +Convention meeting on March 20, 1775 at St. John's Church, Richmond, +far from Governor Dunmore's eyes in Williamsburg. Originally called to +hear reports from the delegates to the First Continental Congress, to +elect delegates to the Second Congress, and to review the operations of +the association, the convention soon found itself embroiled in a call +by Patrick Henry for sanctioning a Virginia colonial militia +independent of the existing militia which was deemed too reliant on the +governor. To Henry the situation was obvious. Time was fleeting. +Increasing numbers of troops were in New England; a fleet was bound for +New York; war was inevitable; Virginia must be protected. Rather +ingeniously he argued that a well-armed Virginia militia would +eliminate the need for a standing army of British regulars in the +colonies. "A well regulated Militia, composed of gentlemen and yeoman +is the only Security of a free Government." To Bland, Robert Carter +Nicholas, and Edmund Pendleton it was too soon for an armed militia. +Such an action would be a direct affront to the king. More to the +point, they were concerned that the colony was yet too unprepared to +meet the full force of British arms which would certainly be brought +down upon Virginia for such an act of rebellion. Time was necessary to +prepare for this warlike act. + +Henry would hear none of it. On March 23 in perhaps his greatest +speech, he swept up the reluctant delegates with his fervent cry: + + Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace,--but there is no peace. The war is + actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring + to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in + the field! Why stand we here idle? Is life so dear, or peace so + sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery: Forbid + it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for + me, Give me Liberty or Give me Death.[31] + + [31] As with Henry's other great speeches no correct text + remains. There seems little doubt that the exact words in the + speech were lost and that as time went on, they were improved. + But the debate over the exact text should not obscure the basic + fact that Henry's oratory stirred men's hearts with phrases in a + manner no other Virginian, perhaps no other American, has ever + done. + +Backed by Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, Jr., and Richard Henry Lee, who were +determined that Virginia should not be as timid as the Continental +Congress had been, Henry carried the day by a close vote. A committee of +12 was elected and included Henry, Lee, Washington, Andrew Lewis of +Botetourt and Adam Stephens of Berkeley, fresh from victories over the +Indians in Dunmore's War just a few weeks earlier, William Christian of +Fincastle and Isaac Zane of Frederick, both experienced Indian fighters, +Jefferson, Nicholas, Benjamin Harrison, Pendleton, and Lemuel Riddick of +Nansemond. + +The committee was a consensus of all opinions. It was a mark of the +Virginia legislatures, both the burgesses and the conventions, that once +a decision was made, opposition ceased and the delegates went forward +together. One has to be careful not to talk too much about conservatives +and radicals. They were all patriots together. The process by which +Virginians moved in unison to revolt was summarized by Jefferson: + + Sensible however of the importance of unanimity among our + constituents, altho' we (Jefferson, Henry, Lees, Pages, Masons, etc.) + often wished to have gone faster, we slackened our pace, that our + less ardent colleagues might keep up with us; and they, (Pendleton, + Bland, Wythe, Randolph, etc.) quickened their gait somewhat beyond + that which their prudence might of itself have advised, and thus + consolidated the phalanx which breasted the power of Britain. By this + harmony of the bold with the cautious, we advanced with our + constituents in undivided mass, and with fewer examples of separation + (Tories) than perhaps existed in any other part of the Union.[32] + + [32] "Jefferson's Recollections," 400-401. + +The committee quickly went to work and authorized formations of at least +one infantry company and one cavalry troop in each county. Supplies would +be furnished as quickly as possible. Each company would commence drilling +at once. + +Throughout the spring of 1775 Virginia was alive with signs of rebellion. +County committees and associations coaxed, cajoled, and frequently +coerced reluctant colonists, particularly the Scots merchants, to comply +with non-importation, non-consumption agreements. Militia troops drilled, +often in disorderly fashion with little hint of being a threat to British +redcoats. Fashionable gentry took to wearing the plain clothes of +frontiersmen, and shirts emblazoned with the words "Liberty or Death" +were everywhere. County courts had ceased operations, nearly all their +justices were now members of the extra-legal committees which ruled +Virginia. + +On April 19, 1775, General Thomas Gage, learning that the Massachusetts +independent militia had armed itself, marched on known caches of arms and +powder at Lexington and Concord. The colonial militia under Captain John +Parker, warned by Paul Revere and William Dawes, drove the British +regulars from the two villages and harrassed them all the way back to +Boston. The next night, in a totally unrelated incident, Governor Dunmore +of Virginia, for the same reasons, seized the gunpowder in the magazine +at Williamsburg. Fighting in Virginia was narrowly averted when the +governor paid for the powder. In Massachusetts fighting continued and the +British were soon penned up in Boston, surrounded by 13,000 ill-armed but +determined New Englanders. In both places the situation was clear +enough--the colonists were armed and prepared to fight to defend their +rights. + +Small wonder then that Lord Dunmore worried over the gunpowder in the +Williamsburg magazine. On the night of April 20-21 marines from the +H.M.S. Magdalene stealthily carried away the powder. Dunmore +coyly suggested he had ordered the powder removed for safekeeping to +prevent a rumored slave insurrection. Although his lame excuse fooled +no one, quiet returned to Williamsburg after a brief flurry of +excitement and marches to the Governor's Palace by the Williamsburg +independent company. + +The Powder Magazine Raid might have come to nothing if word of the +Lexington-Concord attacks had not arrived. This news first reached +Virginia by rider on April 29. Gage's raid on the Lexington-Concord +magazines and Dunmore's seizure of the Williamsburg powder seemed too +coincidental for Patrick Henry and 300 militiamen from Hanover and +surrounding counties. Henry, who always fancied himself a general, led +his men from Newcastle on May 2 toward Williamsburg. Dunmore sent Lady +Dunmore and their children to the H.M.S. Fowey at Yorktown and +garrisoned the palace in anticipation of attack. Fighting was averted +when Henry's troops reached Richard Corbin's house in King and Queen +County and demanded that Corbin's wife pay for the powder from her +husband's funds. Corbin, the receiver-general of royal customs, was away. +Upon hearing about the demand he sent a secured note for L300 which Henry +finally accepted for the powder. With that the militiamen returned to +Hanover. + +Conditions were peaceful enough for Dunmore to call the General Assembly +into session on June 1 to consider Lord North's plan of reconciliation. +The House of Burgesses ignored the plan and concentrated on routine +business. On June 5 the house appointed a committee to examine the powder +magazine, because, they said with tongue-in-cheek, they had heard it had +been burglarized. Dunmore vacillated, first agreeing, then disagreeing to +allow the burgesses in. Finally he gave them the key. Then in +consternation, for he feared seizure by the colonials, he took refuge on +the Fowey. Despite pleas from the assembly, Dunmore, who was still +a reasonably popular man, refused to return. + +On June 24, 1775, the assembly adjourned. For all intents and purposes, +although the assembly met briefly in 1776, the history of the Virginia +General Assembly ended with this meeting. Thenceforward, government in +Virginia came from the Virginian Conventions. The membership of these +conventions was comprised mostly of the members of the old House of +Burgesses. + +At the same time the Virginia Assembly came to an end the Continental +Congress was moving to aid Boston and to defend the New Englanders from +further armed attack. On June 15, congress unanimously elected George +Washington to take command of the new Continental Army created "for the +Defense of American Liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion +thereof." The army of 15,000 formed to defend Boston and New York would +be supported by the congress with payments from all the colonies. Eight +rifle companies, including two led by Captain Daniel Morgan of Frederick +County and Captain Hugh Stephenson of Berkeley County were ordered to +Boston. + +To rally popular support, congress proclaimed "A Declaration of the +Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms." Written by Jefferson and John +Dickinson of Pennsylvania, this declaration laid bare a long succession +of "oppressions and tyrannies" by parliament and the king's "errant +ministers" who had misled the king into presuming his colonists were +disloyal. Although professing continued loyalty to George III, the +delegates reiterated their intentions to defend themselves as "free men +rather than to live as Slaves", for: + + Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal Resources are + great, and, if necessary, foreign Assistance is undoubtedly + attainable. + +Nevertheless, the Congress made clear that it did not desire disunion and +independence, it merely wanted justice for the Americans. To that end +they passed the "Olive Branch Petition", a plea to the king to find some +way toward reconciliation. + +It is unlikely Congress expected anything more to come from the "Olive +Branch Petition" in England than had come from Lord North's plan of +reconciliation in the colonies. Nothing did. The king refused it. He had +already declared the colonists to be rebels. Parliament rejected it, +applying instead its own brand of economic coercion by passing the +Prohibitory Act in December 1775. Effective January 1, 1776, all American +ports were closed to trade and all American ships on the high seas were +subject to seizure and confiscation as enemy ships. By proclaiming the +colonists to be enemies in rebellion, parliament and the king, in effect, +declared war on the colonies. + +To assure itself of manpower, Britain negotiated treaties with +Hesse-Cassel and Brunswick for 13,000 Hessians to fight with the British +armies in America. From the beginning it was obvious many Englishmen had +no stomach for fighting their fellow Englishmen overseas. Conversely it +was obvious the colonial Englishmen were prepared to fight in defense of +their rights and liberties as Englishmen. After the passage of the +Prohibitory Act and the hiring of the Hessian mercenaries no doubt +remained that this was to be a full war in which the colonies would, in +the king's words, "either submit or triumph." The king felt that he would +violate his coronation oath if he failed to defend the supremacy of +parliament. He felt that the act of settlement establishing the +protestant succession in the House of Hanover to the exclusion of the +Catholic Stuarts made parliament supreme and that he was bound by his +coronation oath to uphold this supremacy and that he could not honorably +agree to the colonists' position. A colonial declaration was inevitable. + + +Independence + +On July 17, 1775, delegates to the Virginia Convention reassembled in +Richmond. Those who were reluctant in March now knew that forceful +measures must be taken to defend Virginia through creating an interim +government. Dunmore could not manage the colony from shipboard, and the +royal council was defunct without him. From Philadelphia came word of the +formation of the Continental Army with Washington as its commander; from +Boston the news was of the staggering casualties inflicted on the British +redcoats by the New Englanders before they abandoned Breed's Hill in the +battle known as Bunker Hill; from New York rumors spread of the impending +invasion by the British navy; and for good news there were the victories +of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold at Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point. + +The July Convention elected an 11-man Committee of Safety to govern the +colony. This committee, which had greater powers than any other executive +body in the history of Virginia, could set its own meeting times, appoint +all military officers, distribute arms and munitions, call up the militia +and independent minute-men companies, direct military strategy, commit +men to the defense of other colonies and to assure the colony of its +general safety. Unlike many colonies whose interim governments fell into +the hands of men previously excluded from high office, the Virginia +Committee of Safety comprised men of the first rank, respected leaders +from throughout the colony: Pendleton, Mason, Bland, John Page, Thomas +Ludwell Lee, Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges, William Cabell, Carter +Braxton, James Mercer, and James Tabb. Pendleton was the chairman. This +committee met in almost continuous session during the crises of 1775. + +The convention established a Virginia army of three regiments commanded +by Thomas Nelson, Jr., William Woodford, and Patrick Henry, with Henry +designated as commander. The choice of the great orator for a field +command post turned out to be a mistake which even his most loyal +supporters subsequently admitted. The error was later rectified, but not +without creating considerable hard feelings. + +Throughout the late summer and early fall Dunmore, in command of several +ships and British regulars brought up from St. Augustine, blockaded the +Chesapeake, raided several plantations, and built bases at Gosport, at +the shipyard of Andrew Sprowle used by the Royal Navy near Portsmouth, +and in Norfolk. There he was joined by a number of Loyalists, mostly +Scots, and 300 former slaves whom Dunmore made into a military company he +dubbed "his Loyal Ethiopians". On October 25-27, 1775, Dunmore sent five +ships to burn Hampton. Reinforcements were sent from Williamsburg. Except +for a severe salt shortage resulting from the blockade and the irritation +of seeing former slaves in British uniform with the mocking motto +"Liberty for Slaves" replacing the colonial slogan "Liberty or Death", +most Virginians saw Dunmore as a nuisance rather than a serious threat. + +Then on November 7,1775, Dunmore, exercising one last gasp of royal +power, declared Virginia to be in rebellion, imposed martial law, and +announced that all slaves belonging to rebels were emancipated. This +action cost Dunmore his creditability and destroyed his reputation among +the colonists. Until this time the Virginians had been very respectful of +both Lord and Lady Dunmore, whom they assumed were following orders which +could not be ignored. Now with this personal act Dunmore had shown +himself to favor a determined policy against the colonists. + +Deciding to wait no longer, the Committee of Safety which had been +criticized for its inaction, dispatched Woodford with an army independent +of Henry's command to drive Dunmore from Gosport. Dunmore removed himself +to Norfolk. In December 1775 Woodford's men, supported by some North +Carolinians, faced Dunmore's army of redcoats, loyalists, and former +slaves at Great Bridge, the long land causeway and bridge through the +swampland and over the Elizabeth River near Norfolk. There on December 9 +Woodford's men repulsed a frontal attack by Dunmore's regulars and drove +them from Great Bridge. After losing the Battle of Great Bridge, Dunmore +knew he could not defend Norfolk. He abandoned the town to Woodford on +December 14, but returned with his ships on January 1, 1776 to shell and +burn the port. Woodford's men then completed the destruction of the one +center of Torism in the colony by burning the city to the ground. + +Dunmore resumed harassing colonial trade for several more months. +However, his loyalist supporters dwindled away and he received no +reenforcements of British regulars. Most of his black troops had been +abandoned to the colonists after Great Bridge. Those who remained with +him were later sent into slavery in the West Indies. Finally, on July +8-9, 1776, Colonel Andrew Lewis' land-based artillery badly damaged +Dunmore's fleet at the Battle of Gwynn's Island, in Gloucester County, +now Mathews County. With this Dunmore and his ships left Virginia, the +Governor going to New York where he took an army command under General +Howe. Not until 1779 did a British fleet return in force to the +Chesapeake. + +On May 6, 1776, the Virginia Convention had reconvened, this time in +Williamsburg, for there was no need to fear Dunmore. Nor was there any +doubt about the overwhelming Virginian sentiment for independence. The +winter's war, the king's stubbornness, Parliament's Prohibitory Act, +Dunmore's martial law, and Thomas Paine's stirring rhetoric in his +incomparable Common Sense had all swung public opinion toward +independence. Paine's Common Sense touched Virginians through the +printed word in much the same manner as Henry's fiery oratory reached +their hearts. + +Immediately upon sitting, the Convention received three resolutions for +independence. Leading the resolutionists was Edmund Pendleton, President +of the Convention, formerly among the more cautious of patriots. For once +Henry wavered slightly and let others take the lead. + +On May 15 the convention instructed Richard Henry Lee as a delegate to +the Continental Congress to introduce a resolution for independence +stating: + + the Congress should declare that these United colonies are and of + right ought to be free and independent states, that they are absolved + from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political + connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought + to be, totally dissolved.... + +This Virginia resolution was a declaration of independence. Read the +following day to cheering troops in Williamsburg, the resolution prompted +the troops to hoist the Continental Union flag and to drink toasts to +"the American Independent States", "the Grand Congress", and to "General +Washington". + +At the same time the convention appointed a committee led by George Mason +to draw up a constitution and a declaration of rights for the people of +the new Commonwealth of Virginia. Mason's famous Declaration of Rights +was adopted on June 12, 1776, and the Constitution of Virginia was +adopted on June 28, 1776. + +Virginia was a free and independent state. It would be seven long years, +however, before Great Britain accepted this as fact. + + + + +Part IV: + +The Commonwealth of Virginia + +Declaration of Rights + + +[Sidenote: "_We hold these truths to be self-evident...._"] + +The two greatest documents of the Revolution came from the pens of +Virginians George Mason and Thomas Jefferson. Political scientist Clinton +Rossiter notes, "The declaration of rights in 1776 remain America's most +notable contribution to universal political thought. Through these +eloquent statements the rights-of-man political theory became political +reality."[33] + + [33] Clinton, Rossiter, Seedtime of the Republic (Harcourt, + Brace: New York, 1953), 401. + +As Richard Henry Lee rode north to Philadelphia with the Virginia +resolution for independence, George Mason of Fairfax, sat down with his +committee and drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Presented to +the Convention on May 27, 1776, the Declaration was adopted on June 12, +1776. It reads, in part: + + A Declaration of Rights, made by the Representatives of the good + People of Virginia, assembled in full and free Convention, which + rights do pertain to them and their posterity as the basis and + foundation of government. + + I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have + certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of + society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their + posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means + of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining + happiness and safety. + + II. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the + People; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all + times amenable to them. + + III. That Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common + benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or + community;--of all the various modes and forms of government, that is + best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness + and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of + maladministration;--and that, whenever any Government shall be found + inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community + hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, + alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive + to the public weal.[34] + + [34] Rutland, Mason, I, 287-289. + +In 16 articles the Declaration goes on to: prohibit hereditary offices; +separate the legislative, executive, and judicial branches; assure that +elections shall be free; prevent suspending law or executing laws without +consent of the representatives of the people; guarantee due process in +criminal prosecutions; prevent excessive bail and cruel and unusual +punishments; eliminate general warrants for search and seizure; provide +jury trials in property disputes; assert "that the freedom of the press +is one of the great bulwarks of liberty and can never be restrained but +by despotic governments"; provide for a well-regulated militia and warn +against standing armies in peacetime; declare that no government can +exist within the state independent of the government of Virginia; and +grant to all men equally "the free exercise of religion, according to the +dictates of conscience." (While this article granted free expression of +religion, it did not end the establishment of the former Church of +England as the official state church in Virginia. Full separation of +church and state did not occur until the General Assembly passed +Jefferson's famous Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786.) + +The most intriguing article is XV, which is not a declaration of a right +as much as it is a reminder that citizens who do not exercise their +rights soon lose them. + + XV. That no free government, or the blessing 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. + +Nowhere is the break with England more clear than in the proclamation +that "all men are by nature equally free and independent". No longer were +Virginians claiming rights which were theirs as Englishmen; they now were +claiming rights which were theirs as human beings. These were natural +rights which belong to all persons everywhere and no one, either in the +past or the future could alienate, eliminate, or diminish those rights. + +A second vital observation is the Declaration's firm adherence to the +doctrine of popular sovereignty--the power of the government is derived +from the people and can be exercised only with their consent or the +consent of their elected representatives. + +A third observation, among many which can be made, is that for the first +time a sovereign state prevented itself and its own legislature from +infringing on the basic liberties of its peoples. The possible assault on +popular rights by an elected legislature had been made all too vivid by +parliament in the 1760's and 1770's. + +Edmund Randolph said one aim of the Declaration was to erect "a perpetual +standard". John Adams had warned "we all look up to Virginia for +example". Neither Randolph nor Adams could have been disappointed. +Mason's Declaration of Rights was utilized by Jefferson as he drafted the +Declaration of Independence, written into the bills of rights of numerous +other states, and finally in 1791 was incorporated into the Federal +Constitution as the Bill of Rights. + + +Declaration of Independence + +In Philadelphia, Lee introduced the Virginia independence resolution on +June 7, 1776. On that day only seven colonies were prepared to vote +"aye". Therefore, congress put off a full vote until July 1, hoping by +that date for all states to have received instructions from home. In the +meantime congress appointed John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman +of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Thomas Jefferson to +draft a declaration. For nearly two weeks Jefferson, with the advice of +Adams and Franklin, wrote and rewrote the draft, seeking just the right +phrase, the right concept. On June 28 the committee laid its draft before +the chamber. On July 4 the Congress completed its revisions. The changes +were few when one considers the normal way legislative bodies amend and +rewrite the very best of prose. Still the changes were too many for the +red-haired delegate from Albemarle County, Virginia, who possessed an +ample store of pride in his own words. Jefferson thought his version had +been manhandled; Lee went further and said it had been "mangled". + +The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is timeless. There in +clear and unmistakable language is a rationale for revolution, not just +1776, but all revolutions. + + When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one + people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with + another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate + and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God + entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires + that they should declare the causes which impel them to the + separation. + + We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created + equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain + unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the + pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are + instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of + the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes + destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or + to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation + on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them + shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. + Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established + should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly + all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, + while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing + the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of + abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a + design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it + is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new + Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient + sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which + constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The + history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated + injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the + establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove + this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. + +The last thread which held the colonies to Britain was the king and to +cut that thread Jefferson and the Congress charged him with all the acts +of parliament and the ministries. As Dumas Malone remarks: + + The charges in the Declaration were directed, not against the British + people or the British Parliament, but against the King. There was a + definite purpose in this. Jefferson, and the great body of the + Patriots with him, had already repudiated the authority of + Parliament.... Now ... the onus must be put on George III himself. + Such a personification of grievances was unwarranted on strict + historical grounds. This was the language of political controversy, + not that of dispassionate scholarship.[35] + + [35] Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, 224. + +Parliament, in fact, is not mentioned at all. Jefferson would not even +acknowledge its existence, referring to it instead as "others" who have +joined with the king in these "repeated injuries and usurpations." But +before we worry too much about the king and sympathize with those who +believe "poor George" has suffered unnecessary abuse, let us remember +that we now know the king, while neither vindictive nor a tyrant, was an +adherent to the policies proposed by his ministers which brought disunion +to the empire. + +On July 4, 1776, by a vote of 12-0, with New York abstaining, the +colonies voted independence. On July 8 the Declaration was read publicly. +On July 15 New York voted "yes". And on August 2 most delegates signed +the formal Declaration itself. (The last signer did not put his signature +on it until 1781.) + +Just as George Washington misjudged himself and history when he remarked, +"Remember, Mr. Henry, what I now tell you: from the day I enter upon the +command of the American armies, I date my fall, and the ruin of my +reputation," so Jefferson thought little of his composition. He was much +more interested in and concerned about the Virginia Constitution. At +first he was not identified as the author of the Declaration, for the +names of all those who signed were not revealed until January 1777. He +was wrong, of course, as the judgment of time has confirmed. The +Declaration is the greatest political statement written by an American. +To the citizens of the United States it was, and has remained, the most +popular and beloved of all their public documents. + + +The Virginia Constitution, June 29, 1776 + +One mark of the revolutionary generation's greatness is seen in this +series of simultaneous events taking place in June 1776. One Virginian, +George Washington, was assembling an army to defend the new nation; two +Virginians, Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson, were leading the +congress to independence; and a third group, George Mason and the +Virginia Convention were constructing a new government for Virginia. Just +as Virginia was the first colony to declare independence, she was also +the first state to draft a new form of government. + +The convention had charged Mason and his committee with writing "such a +plan as will most likely maintain peace and order in this colony, and +secure substantial and equal liberty to the people". Within two weeks +Mason had completed his task. It was not, however, a work of haste, for +Mason had contemplated for a long time the proper form of government. To +Mason and most Virginians the constitution must: 1) give life to the +liberties set forth in the Declaration of Rights; 2) prevent those +tyrannies of government which had undermined the once ideal English +constitution; and 3) preserve those elements which had been the strengths +of the old colonial government. The Constitution of 1776 achieved these +ends. + +Virginia was made a commonwealth. As Robert Rutland tells us, "Mason's +choice of the word 'commonwealth' was no happenstance. Mason knew +passages of John Locke's Second Treatise on Government verbatim. +None struck Mason more forcefully than Locke's notion that a commonwealth +was a form of government wherein the legislature was supreme." There was +a consensus within the convention that there should be a separation of +powers between executive, legislative, and judicial functions, but no +equality of powers. The legislative function was to be supreme. + +The residual power in the Constitution of 1776 is vested in the people +and exercised through the General Assembly. Within the General Assembly +the House of Delegates was to be supreme. The Assembly had two houses: +The House of Delegates, replacing the House of Burgesses, had two members +from each county and one from each town; and the Senate, replacing the +old royally-appointed council, had 24 members chosen from 24 districts +throughout the state. A peculiarity of this constitution was the use of +12 electors, chosen by the voters in each district, to actually choose +the senator from that district. All legislation originated in the House +of Delegates, the Senate being allowed to amend all laws except +appropriation bills, which it had to accept or reject completely. + +Mindful of royal authority and disdainful of executive power, the +constitution emasculated the power of the governor, leaving him a "mere +phantom". Elected annually by the combined vote of the General Assembly +for a maximum of three consecutive terms, the governor had no veto power +and virtually no power of executive action. He could not act between +legislative sessions without approval of an eight-man Council of State. +This council was elected by the assembly "to assist in the administration +of government". In truth, the council restrained the executive. + +The virtual semi-autonomy of the county courts and the justices of the +peace remained. A system of state courts was provided for, its judges +also elected by the assembly. Property qualifications for voters and for +office holders continued in force. No clergymen were permitted to hold +state office.[36] + + [36] Rutland, Mason, I, 295-310. + +The constitution, then retained what had worked well in the past--the +General Assembly and the county court system; granted to the House of +Delegates the written powers it had claimed as the colonial House of +Burgesses; eliminated the royally elected council, but retained the idea +of an upper house composed of men of property; and totally restrained the +governor. Thus, if one definition of a commonwealth is a government in +which the legislature is supreme, then Virginia in 1776 was certainly a +commonwealth. This constitution became a model for many other state +governments, although most states benefited from the unfortunate +experiences of governors Henry (1776-1779) and Jefferson (1779-1781) and +gave their executives greater administrative latitude. + +Jefferson had hastened back from Philadelphia to try to influence the +writing of the constitution. He arrived too late to have much effect +beyond appending to the constitution a preamble paraphrasing the +Declaration of Independence. But many of his ideas were too +"democratical". He feared the constitution did not have the force of true +law, for it had been written by a convention not elected for that purpose +by the people. Nor had the people voted directly on the constitution. +Jefferson was even more concerned about the remaining vestiges of +feudalism, aristocracy, and privilege. He succeeded in eliminating +primogeniture (the eldest child has greater inheritance rights than the +younger children) and entails (a person could place restrictions on the +use of his property in perpetuity). Both primogeniture and entail smacked +of inequality and alienation of rights by one generation against the +next. Although his Statute on Religious Freedom was not passed until +1786, each session after 1776 saw Jefferson successfully whittle down the +privileges of the once-established Anglican Church. From 1776 until 1778 +Jefferson, Wythe, and Pendleton labored on a revision of the state law +code, but only a part of their code was adopted. A revised criminal code +was not fully enacted until the 1790's. Jefferson made little headway on +his plans for public education. + +There is no evidence that Virginians were concerned that the convention +had written a constitution without their direct approval. The +Constitution of 1776 remained in effect until 1830. Virginians developed +great pride concerning the work of this revolutionary convention. Here a +group of the richest and best men in the colony had initiated revolution, +articulated a philosophy for revolution, and established a frame of +government which were to be widely imitated throughout the country and +adopted in part in France. + +Out of this transformation of the English constitution into a government +for the Commonwealth of Virginia men like Jefferson, Henry, Mason, and +even the more conservative Bland and Pendleton had produced a truly +radical doctrine of popular sovereignty, an appeal to a higher law--the +law of nature and Nature's God, the replacement of virtual representation +with direct representation, and the substitution of a balance of +interests within the Virginia society for the old English theory of a +balanced government comprising crown, nobility, and commons in restraint +of each other. + +In the words of historian Bailyn, they had worked "a substantial +alteration in the order of society as it was known" in 1775. They had +unloosened a "contagion of liberty" which could not be restrained.[37] +Ultimately Virginians and Americans came to believe the rhetoric of the +Declaration of Rights and the Declaration of Independence when they read +the words "all men are created equal" to mean "all persons". If it is +something of an anomaly that the men who wrote these words were +slaveholders, it is no anomaly that these words came to be accepted as +"self-evident truths" when later generations applied these truths to the +rights of man, regardless of race, creed, color, religion, or national +origin. But that was a long way off. June-July 1776 was the beginning of +a great experiment, not the finished product. + + [37] Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American + Revolution, Harvard University Press, 1962, chapter 4. + + +The British-Americans: The Virginia Loyalists + +Jefferson was correct in stating that Virginians moved forward to war +with greater unity and with fewer examples of Torism than any other +colony. Robert Calhoon, historian of loyalism, notes Virginia Loyalists +consisted "of a handful of Anglican clergymen, the members of a moribund +Royal Council, and several hundred Scottish merchants, and were ... not a +very formidable coalition." This confirms the much older view of Isaac +Harrell who characterized Virginia loyalists as small in number, not more +than a few thousand, whose activities after the departure of Governor +Dunmore were limited. Only in the Norfolk area, the Hobbs Hole region of +Middlesex County, in Accomac County on the Eastern Shore, and in the +isolated frontier area along the Monongahela River, claimed jointly by +Pennsylvania and Virginia, were there enough loyalists to even suggest a +majority of the population. "Of the 2,500 claims filed with British +government for loyalist property lost during the Revolution, only 140 +were from Virginia." Most of these 140 claims were made by British +natives living in Virginia at the outbreak of the war. Only 13 were +Virginians. + +Except for the Dunmore raids in 1775-1776 and an abortive plot in 1776 by +Dr. John Connolly in the Fort Pitt region there were no loyalist military +operations in Virginia. Several hundred loyalists joined the royal army, +a small number in comparison to most colonies. Most loyalists went to +London or Glasgow. Except for William Byrd III and Attorney-General John +Randolph, most native Virginia loyalists, including Richard Corbin, John +Grymes, and Ralph Wormeley stayed quietly on their plantations.[38] +Virginia's only nobleman, aging recluse, Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, +owner of the Northern Neck, 9,000 square miles of land, remained +untouched at his hunting lodge in Frederick County. + + [38] Robert M. Calhoon. The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, + 1760-1781, (Harcourt, Brace: New York, 1973), 458; Isaac Harrell, + Loyalism in Virginia (Duke University, 1926), 62-65. + +In the early years there was a general appreciation of the difficulty +some Virginians had experienced in breaking with England and swearing +allegiance to a new nation. This switch was especially difficult for +members of the governor's council and the Anglican clergy who had taken +personal oaths of allegiance to the king, not a casual act in the 18th +Century. Most of these men and women had been respected leaders in +pre-Revolutionary Virginia, had many friends, brothers, and sons in the +patriot camp, and took no direct action to support the British. Generally +they were well treated. + +As the war moved along, however, and the colonists suffered enormous +losses in the winters of 1777 and 1778, sympathy decreased and demands +for public declaration of allegiance to the patriot cause grew. Laws were +passed providing for heavy taxation and then confiscation of loyalist +properties. The fortunes of the war can almost be read in the evolution +of loyalist laws. After the battle of Great Bridge (1775) the convention +allowed those who had borne arms against Virginia to take an oath of +allegiance to the Committee of Safety. Most Norfolk area loyalists did. +But when Dunmore persisted in raiding Virginia that spring, the +convention, in May 1776, changed the law and declared those who aided the +"enemy" subject to imprisonment and their property to seizure. In +December 1776 the new General Assembly voted that those who joined the +enemy or gave aid and comfort were to be arrested for treason. If guilty, +they would be executed. Those guilty of adherence to the authority of the +king (as opposed to those who refused to support the new government) were +subject to heavy fines and imprisonment. + +A major turning point occurred in 1777 when general patriot outcries +against those not supporting the Revolutionary cause forced the assembly +to pass a test oath. Washington and Jefferson were especially vocal on +this point. Every male over 16 was required to renounce his allegiance to +the king and to subscribe to a new oath of allegiance to Virginia. In +1778 those who refused to take the oath were subjected to double +taxation; in 1779 the tax was tripled. In 1779 legal procedures for the +sale of sequestered and confiscated property were established and sales +begun, although these sales never brought the income expected to the +financially hard pressed state. + +A similar progression from toleration to harshness faced the merchants +who had stayed in the colonies as well as those who had fled. The latter +had much of their property confiscated and their ships seized. Those who +stayed found there was no neutrality. The key issue here was debt +payment. The assembly declared that the new Virginia paper money +circulated was legal tender and must be accepted for both new and pre-war +debts. Many Virginians took advantage of this opportunity to pay their +debts in the inflated money, a move which caused many problems after the +war when attempts were made to straighten out personal British accounts. +There was no sympathy for those who protested the inequity of this +action. Revolutions and civil wars seldom bring equity. The remarkable +thing is that in Virginia the Revolution progressed with so little +internal strife.[39] + + [39] Harrell, Loyalism in Virginia, 66-96. + + +The War at Home, 1776-1780 + +From the time Dunmore left in July 1776, until the British moved into +Virginia again in 1779, Virginians fought the war for independence on the +soils of the other colonies. Their main contributions were providing the +men and material which all wars demand. When one considers the natural +reluctance of colonials to serve outside their own boundaries, +Virginians' record of men and supplies were good. + +The demands on the Virginia economy were great. With much of the natural +granary in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Long Island occupied by British +forces and the middle state ports blockaded, pleas from Washington for +Virginia meat and food supplies were constant. Munitions works at Westham +(Richmond), Fredericksburg, and Fort Chiswell and naval shipyards at +Gosport, South Quay, and Chickahominy River operated at full capacity. A +major munitions magazine opened at Point of Fork on the James River in +Fluvanna County, and small iron furnaces appeared throughout the Piedmont +and in the Valley areas. In 1779 Virginia exports of food and grain +outside the United States were halted and redirected to the needs of +Congress. Everywhere Virginians began to spin and weave their own cloth. +Simpler life styles became the order of the war. + +The plainer way of life was not just a patriotic morale-builder. It was a +necessity. The natural trade routes between the Chesapeake and Britain +were closed and the tobacco trade was ruined. To finance the war the +assembly taxed nearly everything which could be taxed. Many taxes were +those which the Virginians had rejected when imposed by parliament, +including legal papers and glass windows. The difference was the +necessity or war and the source of the tax laws--the people's own elected +representatives. + +Taxes, alone, however have never financed a major war. As in the French +and Indian War, Virginia issued paper money and floated state loans. +Between 1776-1780 the state debt reached L26,000,000 and in the following +two years nearly doubled. By 1779 loans and taxes were not enough and the +assembly levied taxes on commodities as well as currency. Taxpayers had +to make payments in grain, hemp, or tobacco rather than inflated paper +money alone. Inflation set in. By 1780 coffee, when you could get it, +sold for $20 per pound, shoes were $60 per pair, and better grades of +cloth were bringing $200 a yard. The exchange rate of Virginia money to +hard coins (specie) was 10-1 in 1778, 60-1 in early 1780, and then +spiraled upwards to 150-1 in April 1780, 350-1 in July, and was going out +of sight as Cornwallis' army ravaged the state. It never reached the +ratio of 1,000-1 as did the Continental Congress currency, but the phrase +"not worth a Continental" might equally have applied to Virginia money. +Few of those who served Virginia and the new nation, whether as officers, +footsoldiers, governors, judges, or clerks, did so without suffering +substantial financial losses. In many cases they were never reimbursed +even for actual expenses.[40] Unfortunately there were many who reaped +profits by exploiting the situation. + + [40] For a good description of the economic impact of the war on + one dedicated Virginian, read Emory Evans' Thomas Nelson of + Yorktown: Virginia Revolutionary (University Press, + Charlottesville, 1975), 65-123. + +There also were thousands who moved across the mountains to new lands in +the Valley, southwestern Virginia, and Kentucky. In fact, Virginia had to +head off an attempt by North Carolinians, headed by Richard Henderson, to +detach Kentucky from Virginia. The state had to watch attempts by other +states to claim Virginia lands in the Ohio country. To forestall these +attempts Virginia took two steps. In 1776 the Assembly divided Fincastle +County into three counties--Kentucky, Montgomery, and Washington and +established local governments there; and she agreed to ratify the new +Articles of Confederation only upon the condition that all other states +agree to give up their claims to the Ohio country and that all new states +created from those territories have the same rights and privileges as the +original states. In so doing, Virginians, under the leadership of +Jefferson, formulated a colonial policy for the western lands which +assured equality for the new states, a most important guarantee that +there would be no superior and inferior states in the new United States. +All states would be equal. + +It should be remembered that this was never a total war. Independence +simply demanded that Washington, the Continental Congress, and the states +keep an army in the field and a fleet on the seas until the British +accepted the fact that they could not defeat the Americans or until they +decided victory was not worth the cost. Whenever the call came, +Virginians poured forth in sufficient numbers and with sufficient +supplies in the crucial days of 1777-1778 and 1780-1781 to prevent +defeat. And in 1781 they were there in enough numbers to insure victory +at Yorktown. + + + + +Part V: + +The War for Independence + + +[Sidenote: "_He has abdicated government here...._"] + +Virginia's participation in the Revolutionary War military operations +developed in seven stages: (1) the initial conflict with Lord Dunmore in +the Norfolk and Chesapeake areas in 1775-1776; (2) the thousands of +Virginians who joined the Continental Army and campaigned throughout the +country; (3) the bloody Cherokee war in the southwest from 1775-1782; (4) +George Rogers Clark's audacious and spectacular victory in the Northwest; +(5) the British invasion and ravaging of Virginia throughout 1780-1781; +(6) the southern campaigns of Generals Gates and Greene in 1780 and 1781; +and (7) the final victory at Yorktown in the fall of 1781.[41] + + [41] The best general survey of the war is by John Alden, A + History of the American Revolution (Knopf: New York, 1969). The + best detailed account is by Christopher Ward, The War of the + Revolution, 2 volumes. (MacMillan: New York, 1952). Both have + been utilized in this section. + + +Virginians and the Continental Army, 1775-1779 + +The decision to make George Washington commander-in-chief of the +Continental armies was undoubtedly a political act meant to bind the +southern colonies to the war and to blunt charges that this was a New +England revolution. Seldom has a political decision borne greater +positive benefits. Washington is an enigma and he always will remain so +to his countrymen. His greatness as a man and as a commander are +difficult to fathom. The contradictions are best summarized by military +historian John Alden: + + Faults have been, and can be, found in Washington as commander. He + did not have the advantages of a good military education. He did not + know, and he never quite learned, how to discipline and to drill his + men. He was not a consistently brilliant strategist or tactician.... + (Often) he secured advantage ... by avoiding battle. Actually he was + quite willing to fight when the odds were not too heavily against + him. He retreated only when he was compelled to do so, during the + campaigns of 1776 and 1777.... On occasion he was perhaps too + venturesome. His generalship improved as the war continued. However, + his defeats in the field were more numerous than his victories; and + he had to share the laurels of his great triumph at Yorktown, with + the French. If Washington had his shortcomings as a tactician, he + nevertheless performed superbly under the most difficult conditions. + He gave dignity, steadfast loyalty, and indomitable courage to the + American cause.... Indeed Congress supplied historians with + convincing evidence of Washington's greatness. It not only appointed + him as commander in chief, but maintained him in that post year after + year, in victory and defeat, in prosperity and adversity, until the + war was won.[42] + + [42] Alden, American Revolution, 183-184. + +At first Congress was not certain Washington could command and eagerly +sought European officers for field command positions. Charles Lee and +Horatio Gates, two of the four major-generals appointed to serve under +Washington, were residents of Virginia. Both were English army officers +who had left the British army, settled in Berkeley County, and become +ardent advocates of the colonials' cause. Lee, the well-bred son of +English gentry had served under Braddock in the ill-fated Fort Duquesne +expedition of 1756, was later wounded, left the army after the war, and +became interested in western land schemes. He came to Virginia in 1775 +after a stint as a general in the Polish army. Lee was courageous, +ambitious, and vain. He could command when necessary, but had difficulty +following Washington's orders. Given credit for stopping the British +attack on Charleston, South Carolina, in June 1776, he came back north +and was captured in New Jersey in December 1776. Exchanged by the +British, he resumed command in 1778. However, his scandalous behavior at +Monmouth in June 1778 resulted in his court martial. He was finally +dismissed from the service by Congress in 1780. + +Gates was the son of an English servant. Somehow he received a regular +army commission, serving in the colonies during the French and Indian +War. He resigned as a major in 1772 and moved to Virginia. Whereas Lee +was haughty, Gates was pleasant and amiable. He also was ambitious and +constantly sought military commands whose demands exceeded his talents. +Commander of the northern army which won the great victory at Saratoga in +1777, Gates was willing to take over as commander in chief in the dark +days of 1777-1778, but his friends in Congress could not displace +Washington. Over Washington's recommendation, Congress elected him +commander of the southern armies in 1780. He left that command after the +blundering defeat at Camden, South Carolina, in August 1780. Gates +retired to Virginia where he lived to an old age, much honored as an +Englishman who loyally supported independence. + +The English generals from Virginia did not give Washington his eventual +victories, however. His command strength came from Virginians who learned +by experience, were devoted to the Revolutionary cause, and were loyal to +the general. They were with the Continental Army in its darkest days at +Morristown in the winter of 1776-1777 and Valley Forge in 1777-1778. +These included Colonel Theodorick Bland and his cavalry who fought at +Brandywine in 1777 and Charleston in 1780; General William Woodford, the +victor at Great Bridge, who commanded Virginia Continentals fighting at +Brandywine and Germantown in 1777, and Monmouth in 1778, was captured at +Charleston in 1780 and died in a New York prison that December; Colonel +William Washington and his cavalry who fought in nearly all the battles +in southern campaigns; Colonel Peter Muhlenberg, who raised the German +Regiment from the Valley and Piedmont around his Woodstock home and +commanded them with distinction at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and +Stony Point, and later led Virginia militia against Cornwallis in 1781; +and the gallant Colonel Edward Porterfield, who died with many of his +troops, called "Porterfield's Virginians" at Camden. + +There also was a distinguished group of young men like John Marshall, +James Monroe, and Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee who achieved distinction +and displayed loyalty to the national cause which they never surrendered. +The percentage of Virginians who fought in the Continental Army and who +supported the stronger national government of the Federal Constitution +was high. These were men who experienced and remembered the +embarrassments and inadequacies of a weak national government during the +Revolution. They did not want to see the experience repeated. + +Perhaps the best Virginia field general and the prototype of the +inventive, untrained American general was Daniel Morgan. A wagon master +from Frederick County, Morgan had fought in the French and Indian War. He +raised the first unit of Virginia Continentals, a company of Valley +riflemen, and took them to Boston in 1775. He and his men fought +brilliantly in the near victory of General Richard Montgomery at Quebec +on Christmas 1775. Captured along with the equally bold Benedict Arnold, +Morgan was exchanged. Developing effectively the Virginia riflemen into +mobile light infantry units and merging frontier tactics with formal +warfare, Morgan showed a real flare for commanding small units of men. +His greatest moments were at Saratoga in 1777 and later in his total +victory over Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens, South Carolina in +1781. The wagon master progressed steadily from captain to colonel, to +general, and became one of the genuine heroes of the Revolution. + +The total number of Virginians who fought in the Continental Army is +difficult to determine. Records were poor, lengthy service infrequent, +and troop strength constantly overestimated. There were possibly 25,000 +Virginians in the Continental Army at one time or another, although the +number in the field at any one time was much smaller. Another 30,000 to +35,000 might have joined the Virginia militia. In an era when European +armies went into winter quarters and did not fight at all, the unorthodox +Continental Army won some of its greatest victories in the dead of +winter, yet it too tended to suffer from winter desertions and +unauthorized leaves. Still the shriveled army always seemed to revive in +the spring as the men returned to the ranks. + +Troops, even continental units, tended to serve near home. Northern +troops were rarely found in the deep southern colonies and vice versa. +Yet Virginians, because of their proximity to all fighting zones, fought +from Quebec to Charleston, contributing heavily to the units fighting to +hold the middle states in 1777 and 1778 and the Carolinas in 1780 and +1781. + + +The Indian Wars + +The Revolution reopened the long series of Indian wars along the western +frontiers. Encouraged and financed by the same British agents who had +once acted in behalf of the former colonists, the Cherokees and Shawnees, +particularly, seized upon the unsettled conditions to strike back at the +steadily advancing waves of settlers moving southwestward along the +Clinch, Holston, French Broad, and Watauga Rivers. Throughout 1775 and +1776 Virginian, North Carolinian, and Georgian frontiersmen fought the +Cherokee in a series of bloody battles. The culminating attack by 2,000 +riflemen under Colonel William Christian destroyed the major Cherokee +villages and compelled the Cherokees to sign "humiliating" treaties with +the southern states in 1777. The determined Cherokee chieftain, Dragging +Canoe, moved westward, regrouped his warriors at Chickamauga, and +launched another series of frontier raids. North Carolina and Virginia +riflemen under Colonel Evan Shelby in 1779 and Colonel Arthur Campbell in +1781 battled the undaunted Cherokees. Finally, in 1782, the Indians +yielded their territory to the frontiersmen. Little noticed, this series +of battles involved a high percentage of the western Virginians in nearly +constant battle readiness. + + +George Rogers Clark and the Winning of the West + +In the Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois country the Revolution was a +continuation of the long series of bloody battles, ambushes, and +deceptions which the Indians and whites had been perpetrating against +each other since the settlers had pushed over the mountains in the early +1770's. The British had merely replaced the French as the European ally +of the Indians. The principal opponents were the tough, well-organized +Shawnees who had been the main targets of Dunmore and Colonel Andrew +Lewis during Dunmore's War in 1774. The Shawnees were joined by the +Miami, Delaware, and Ottawa Indians. These Ohio Indians needed little +encouragement from Lieutenant Colonel Henry Hamilton, the British +commander at Fort Detroit. Amply supplied with munitions, guns, and money +for patriot scalps received from Hamilton, known among the frontiersmen +as the "Hair Buyer", these Indians swarmed across the Ohio River in 1775, +1776, and 1777. No quarter was asked by either side; none was given. +Conditions became especially critical in 1777 when the Indians were +angered and embittered by the foolish and senseless murder of Cornstalk, +the captured chief of the Shawnees. + +Complicating any military solution to the western fighting were the old +rivalries among the states for control of the western lands. Virginia had +to establish county government in Kentucky in order to head off North +Carolinian Richard Henderson's bid for that region in 1776. +Pennsylvanians and Virginians still quarrelled over Pittsburgh and the +Upper Ohio. Aid from the Continental Congress was obstructed by the +claims of at least four states to Ohio and the jealousy of the landless +states toward the landed states. + +Then in 1777 a 23 year-old Virginian, George Rogers Clark, found the +solution. Virginia should go it alone, raise and equip a small army of +riflemen, and in a lightening move take the Indiana and Illinois region +from the British. Clark reasoned that the British were trying to hold a +vast tract of land with a few troops, a handful of Tories, and the +Indians. The British posts at Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi, and +Vincennes, on the Wabash, were former French forts manned by men with no +allegiance to Britain. Clark's enthusiasm convinced Governor Henry and +the Council of State that victory was possible if the operation was +conducted secretly. Support from George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and +George Wythe was solicited and gained. The assembly, without knowing the +purpose for the authorization, gave Clark permission to raise troops and +released the needed gunpowder. + +In June 1778 Clark with 175 riflemen, far short of his hoped-for +complement, set out from the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville). The small +number can be attributed to the fact that the men, like the assembly, had +to sign-on without knowing their destiny. A few slipped away after they +learned Clark's true plans. Those who stayed were dedicated warriors. On +July 4, after floating down the Ohio, Clark's men appeared outside +Kaskaskia. The fort surrendered without a shot being fired. As Clark +suspected, the French inhabitants welcomed the Americans. On July 6 +another former French town, Cahokia, 60 miles northward, capitulated. And +on July 14 Frenchmen from Kaskaskia persuaded their fellow countrymen at +Fort Sackville in Vincennes to surrender. On August 1 Clark occupied the +fort. + +Clark's plan had worked to perfection. But he was now faced with the same +problem which had enabled him to seize the region--he could not hold +three forts scattered over several hundred miles (Vincennes is 180 miles +east of Kaskaskia). Therefore, when Governor Hamilton moved south from +Detroit in December with his own make-shift army, Clark's men had to +abandon Vincennes and flee west to Kaskaskia. All seemed lost. + +Again the refusal of the Americans to follow European military +conventions paid off. Clark, ignoring the tradition to go into winter +quarters took Vincennes in the dead of winter with less than 130 men, +many of them French. It was the most remarkable single military feat of +the Revolution. Only men who had lived in the frontier wilderness could +have endured the march. Despite wading waist-deep through flooding rivers +and swamps in freezing February snowstorms, going days without warm food, +poorly clothed, and carrying only the minimum supply of gunpowder and +shot, Clark and his men reached Vincennes determined to fight. Learning +that he had arrived undetected by the British, Clark ordered great +bonfires lit, both to warm his frozen men and to deceive Hamilton. +Watching dancing shadows of seemingly countless men whooping and shouting +in front of the fires, Hamilton concluded he was hopelessly outnumbered. +The next morning, February 24, 1779, the bold Clark demanded Hamilton's +surrender. At first the governor refused, but a series of well placed +rifle shots took the fight out of the defenders. Then Clark ordered +several Indians, caught in the act of taking scalps into the fort, +tomahawked in full view of the fort. Hamilton agreed to surrender. Clark +sent Hamilton under heavy guard to Virginia, passing through the Kentucky +settlements his Indians had harassed. Ignoring protests from the British, +Governor Jefferson refused to exchange Hamilton, keeping him in irons in +the Williamsburg jail until November 1780 when the prisoner finally +agreed to sign a parole not to fight against the Americans or to go among +the Indians.[43] Clark was treated shamefully by the Virginia Assembly +after the war and was never fully reimbursed for his personal expenses in +the west. + + [43] For a dramatic, but not inaccurate, account of the + expedition and Clark, read John Bakeless, Background to Glory: + The Story of George Rogers Clark (Lippincott: Philadelphia, + 1957.) + +For Clark the capture of Vincennes was to be a prelude to taking Detroit. +In both 1779 and 1780 he planned marches to the center of British western +power. Neither time could he bring off a coordinated attack. The frontier +was under too heavy pressure from the Ohio Indians led by Tory Henry Bird +and the infamous renegade, Simon Girty. Instead, Clark concentrated on +Indians closer to Kentucky. In August 1780 with 1,000 riflemen he +destroyed the principal Shawnee towns of Chillocothe and Piqua, but could +not break the Shawnee strength. The invasion of eastern Virginia in 1781 +ended hopes for the Detroit project, drew men from the west, and opened +the way for the Ohio Indians to go on the offensive. Bitter fighting +continued in the west after Yorktown. Clark's troops finally broke the +Shawnees in November 1782 when they again leveled Chillocothe and Piqua. +Hostilities and the British presence in the Northwest Territory remained +a contentious issue until after the War of 1812. + + +The War and Eastern Virginia, 1776-1779 + +Initial British war strategy did not call for a direct attack on the +Chesapeake states. They were too hard to hold once conquered. There were +no towns to occupy, no natural defense positions, too many rivers to +cross, too little to be gained in comparison to New York, Philadelphia, +or Charleston. Furthermore, there was no sizeable loyalist population to +rise up and assist the British as in the Carolinas and the middle states. + +The war effort was men, material, and money. Under Governor Henry the +executive branch functioned reasonably well. There were no emergencies, +no need for quick decisions which only the executive can make, and little +sapping of morale which a long, inconclusive war can bring. Still, Henry +recognized the restrictions placed on the governor, whom he called a +"mere phantom". Fortunately for him, he left office in June 1779 before +the inherent weakness of the executive branch became apparent. Jefferson +was not to be so fortunate. From time to time in the administrations of +Henry, Jefferson, and Thomas Nelson, Jr., persons talked of making the +governor a "dictator" (in the Roman use of this word, not the modern +connotation). These were mostly speculative discussions, not serious +attempts to change the government. Only in the dire crises of Summer 1781 +was it even a remote possibility. + +The most direct threat to Virginia in these early years was on the seas. +To meet that threat Virginia established a state navy in 1776. Eventually +the Virginia navy had "72 vessels of all classes, including many ships, +brigs, and schooners; but apparently most of them were small, poorly +manned, and lightly armed; and were used largely for commerce."[44] Never +intended to meet the British fleet in combat, the Virginia navy did +succeed in establishing regular patrols, clearing the Bay of privateers, +and protecting merchantmen trading in the West Indies. + + [44] Gardner W. Allen, A Naval of the American Revolution, 2 + volumes (Boston, 1913), I, 40-41. + +By January 1779 the British army came into Piedmont Virginia in a totally +unexpected manner. Congress declared the "convention" (treaty of +surrender) by which Burgoyne had surrendered his troops at Saratoga to be +faulty and ordered some 4,000 Hessian and British soldiers imprisoned in +Albemarle County. Settled along Ivy Creek, the prisoners, mostly Germans, +lived in hastily built huts generously called "The Barracks". Several of +their chief officers, among them Baron de Riedesel and General William +Phillips, lived in comfort and close contact with their near neighbor, +Governor Jefferson. Phillips was shortly exchanged and went to New York. +The conditions under which the troops lived steadily deteriorated, +although the prisoners were so inadequately guarded that hundreds walked +away. In November 1780 Governor Jefferson concluded that the convention +troops should be moved from Virginia to get them away from invading +British troops. The British troops moved first toward Frederick, +Maryland, with the Hessians following. Again many of the prisoners +drifted off into the forests never reaching Frederick. + + +Black Virginians in the Revolution + +One particularly difficult question for the government was whether to +utilize the black population in the military. Only a few thousand of the +nearly 230,000 black residents were free men. The remainder were slaves. +There was a constant fear that arming free blacks would incite their +slave brethren to revolt. This fear was strongest in 1775-1776 when +Dunmore had encouraged slaves to flee their masters and join his troops. +Although Dunmore's black troops numbered only several hundred nearly +10,000 slaves fled Virginia during the war. Most did not better their +lot, ending up as slaves in the West Indies. Many did get to Nova Scotia +where they lived as free men in the large loyalist colony there. Others +settled in the British West African colony of Sierra Leone. + +Negro troops were present at Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, and in the +ranks of Washington's first Continentals. Quickly, however, under +pressure from southern colonies, notably South Carolina, Congress adopted +a policy of excluding blacks from further enlistment in the Continental +Army. Although most states excluded slaves from service, they did not +exclude free blacks from enlisting in the militia. Virginia allowed free +blacks to enlist after July 1775. This enticed slaves to run away and +enlist as free blacks, a practice the assembly tried to halt by requiring +all black enlistees to have certificates of freedom. Then an odd reversal +occurred after 1779 when the state began to conscript white males into +the militia. Taking advantage of the provision in the draft law allowing +draftees to send substitutes, some slave owners offered their slaves as +substitutes. This was as far as the enlistment of slaves went. James +Madison proposed in 1780 that the state purchase slaves, free them, and +make them soldiers. The legislature rejected the plan. On the other hand, +the state did buy some slaves to work in shipyards, on shipboard, and in +state-run factories.[45] + + [45] For a fuller discussion of black Virginians in the + Revolution, see Luther P. Jackson, Virginia Negro Soldiers and + Sailors in the Revolutionary War (Norfolk, 1944), and Benjamin + Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution (University of + North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, 1961). + +The actual number of black Virginians in the service is unknown. +Historians Luther Jackson and Benjamin Quarles suggest there were several +hundred in the army and at least 140 in the small Virginia navy. Usually +these men were orderlies, drummers, and support troops. In the navy they +frequently served as river pilots. There were exceptions like freeman +John Banks of Goochland, who fought as a cavalryman under Colonel Bland +for two years, the well-known spy James Lafayette, who performed +invaluable work for Lafayette in the closing days of the war, or John de +Baptist, a sailor who served with distinction on the Dragon. + +Peace did not bring freedom for the slaves in the services. The +state-owned slaves were resold. Free men who had enlisted in the service +were entitled to and did receive enlistment and pay bounties due all +soldiers. Slaves whose masters had offered them as substitutes had a more +difficult time. Some slave owners tried to reclaim them as slaves even +though the Virginia law explicitly permitted the enlistment only of free +men. Fortunately, Governor Benjamin Harrison was enraged by this +duplicity at what he called a repudiation of the "common principles of +justice and humanity" and prevailed upon the legislature "to pass an act +giving to these unhappy creatures that liberty which they have been in +some measure instrumental in securing for us." + +Nevertheless, although white Virginians recognized the contradiction +between that liberty which they enjoyed and the slavery which existed +around them, they did not see a means whereby the ideal that all men were +created equal could become a practical reality. Unlike later generations, +however, the Revolutionary generation made no attempt to justify slavery +or to accept its extension. In 1778 Virginia became the first state to +prohibit the importation of slaves, and in 1782 passed a liberal +manumission law permitting masters to free their slaves without special +legislative act. Many took advantage of this law. Virginia also +determined that there should be no slavery in the western lands ceded to +the federal government. Jefferson saw to it that a prohibition against +slavery was written into the federal Land Ordinance of 1784 and the +Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Yet, what was earlier noted bears +repeating--the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence +were the beginning of a great governmental experiment, not the finished +product. + + +The British Move South, 1780-1781 + +The British shifted their armies southward in 1779, hoping to cut off the +lower southern states, break the morale of the rest of America, and force +a negotiated peace. Their principal hopes rested on exploiting loyalist +strength in the fiercely divided Carolinas where much of the fighting +since 1775 had been colonial against colonial, patriot against Tory. In +early 1780 General Henry Clinton sailed from New York with 8,000 troops, +outmaneuvered General Benjamin Lincoln, and captured Charleston. The +defeat was a severe blow to the Americans costing them their chief +southern seaport, several thousand Continentals and militiamen from the +Carolinas and Virginia, and Generals Lincoln and William Woodford. + +Clinton sailed back to New York, leaving his troops with Lord Cornwallis. +The most daring of the British generals, Cornwallis decided to leave +Charleston and invade the Carolinas. With excellent support from Colonel +Banastre Tarleton, Lord Rawdon, and Major Patrick Ferguson he swept all +before him. Tarleton, the best cavalry officer in either army, and +Ferguson led partisan loyalist units. Tarleton's troopers, known as the +British Tory Legion, needed no introduction to Virginians. They had +slaughtered without quarter unarmed Virginians under Colonel Abraham +Buford in May 1780 at the Waxhaws, south of Charlotte, North Carolina. +From then on he was known as "Bloody Tarleton". + +Congress elected Horatio Gates to replace Lincoln in the southern +command. Gates hurried south with several thousand Maryland, Virginia, +and North Carolina militiamen and Continental troops. Stumbling into +Cornwallis' army at Camden, South Carolina, he planned and executed a +faulty battle plan. Cornwallis executed perfectly and completely routed +Gates. For the only time in the war Virginia militiamen behaved badly, +fled the field, and were a major contributing factor to the disaster. Not +only did Gates lose 600 men, many of them battle-hardened Continentals, +he lost two outstanding officers, General Jean de Kalb, the tough German +officer, and Colonel Edward Porterfield from Virginia. Facing almost sure +defeat in the Carolinas, Congress replaced Gates with Nathaniel Greene of +Rhode Island, taking care not to embarrass the Englishman who had given +so much to Patriot cause. + +Greene turned out to be the man to baffle Cornwallis. With a constantly +underequipped and often inadequate army he managed to keep Cornwallis at +bay. He was moved by one desire--to force Cornwallis into costly battles, +but never expose his whole army to capture. Flee if necessary, but be +able to fight another day. He was inventive and unorthodox. With an army +much smaller than Cornwallis' he divided it into thirds, plus compelling +Cornwallis to divide his own army. Greene knew that Cornwallis, +victorious as he might have been, was detached from Charleston and had to +live off the land. He would fight a war of attrition and wear Cornwallis +down. His strategy worked, although not without fateful moments. He had +great faith in his command officers and gave them considerable leeway. +They rewarded him with two stunning victories--King's Mountain, North +Carolina in October 1780 and Cowpens, South Carolina in January 1781. + +King's Mountain was a unique battle for it was fought almost completely +between Americans, Major Ferguson and his South Carolina, New York, and +New Jersey Tories on the British side and North Carolina and Virginia +frontier riflemen under Colonels Isaac Shelby, fiery William Campbell, +and John Sevier for the United States. Although Ferguson's position from +the outset was nearly impossible, he refused to surrender, knowing what +was in store if he did. He was correct. The hatred which only the +Carolina civil war unleashed during the Revolution burst forth. Only the +intervention of Shelby and Campbell kept the frontiersmen from +annihilating Ferguson's Tories. As it was, the British lost 1,000 men, +700 of them captives. Ferguson was killed. + +Cowpens was a personal victory for General Daniel Morgan who felt he had +been slighted by congress. Greene gave him a full command and sent him +off to find Tarleton. He found him at Cowpens, not too far from King's +Mountain. Morgan utilized his riflemen, light infantry, and cavalry and +Continental regulars in an unconventional manner. He thoroughly whipped +Tarleton, who up until that time had been invincible. Morgan's men killed +100 British, captured 800, and seized Tarleton's entire supply train. + +The combination of King's Mountain and Cowpens completely disrupted +Cornwallis' plan and led him into the series of mistakes which ended at +Yorktown.[46] + + [46] Ward, American Revolution, II, 792. + +Even when he suffered defeat or a stalemate, as he did at Guilford +Courthouse (Greensboro, North Carolina) in March 1781, Greene made +Cornwallis pay such a heavy price that the British general could not +afford the cost of victory. Wandering aimlessly after Greene across North +Carolina and unable to live off the barren countryside, Cornwallis +retreated eastward to Wilmington. There in the spring of 1781, with only +1400 of his original 3,000 troops left, he decided to move north and join +Benedict Arnold's troops who had invaded Virginia on December 30, 1781. + + +The Invasion of Virginia, 1781 + +Three times before the British had appeared in the Chesapeake. In 1777 +Admiral Howe sent a fleet into the upper Bay to assist the grand attack +which was to take New York and Philadelphia simultaneously. He had +withdrawn without contact after Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga ruined the +scheme. + +Admiral George Collier swept into Hampton Roads in May 1779, burned the +shipyard at Gosport, captured 130 ships, occupied Portsmouth, and raided +the countryside, doing $2,000,000 damage. Before he could be challenged +by General Thomas Nelson, Jr., and the Virginia militia he was gone. One +consequence of the raid was the loss of all future loyalist support for +the British. At Collier's arrival, the numerous Norfolk-Portsmouth +loyalists came out from under cover, only to be abandoned when the +British left after a few days. They never ventured forth again. + +In October 1780 General Alexander Leslie descended upon Hampton Roads +with a substantial British force, fully intending to take Virginia out of +the war in coordination with Cornwallis' march through the Carolinas. +King's Mountain ended that plan. Needing reenforcements, Cornwallis +called Leslie southward. Again the British left the state. + +Although Virginia breathed a sigh of relief, she was in a most difficult +position at the end of 1780. Her military resources were stretched to the +limit. Governor Jefferson had tried simultaneously to meet calls for +troops from Washington to the north and Greene to the south, while never +overlooking Clark to the west. Although roundly criticized for stripping +Virginia to aid other states, Jefferson well understood the crucial +nature of Greene's campaign. The only reserves he had left were +militiamen. + +Of the estimated 55,000 to 60,000 Virginians who fought at some time +during the Revolution, as many as 35,000 were militia. Many were +short-term soldiers, fighting only three to six months at a time. Often +they were unprepared and untrained, not used to disciplined fighting, +good marksmen, but unskilled in the use of the bayonet. Often, and +unnecessarily disparaged, the militia was the backbone of the patriot +armies, appearing when needed, disbanding as soon as danger passed. In +Virginia they had been called out in 1777, in 1779, for a false rumor in +June 1780, and to meet Leslie in October 1780. In each case the enemy +disappeared. These British cat-and-mouse appearances may have lulled the +Virginians and Jefferson into a false sense of security, for the state +was unprepared for the real invasion Washington had warned was coming. + +On December 30, 1780, Benedict Arnold, seeking the glory in the British +army he thought had been denied him by the Americans, sailed into the +Chesapeake with a small, well-disciplined British army. Whatever might be +said about Arnold's political ethics, few have criticized his command +performance with small forces. He was initially aided in Virginia by +Jefferson's caution which left Nelson's militia only half-mobilized. The +only other force was a small Continental regiment under Steuben. + +Arnold sailed up the James to Westover, the estate of Tory William Byrd +III. From there he moved unopposed to Richmond, the official state +capital since April 1780. Throughout January 5 and 6 his men burned the +state buildings, destroyed the iron and powder factory at Westham, and +seized or burned all available state records. Knowing he could not hold +Richmond, Arnold returned to Portsmouth and went into winter quarters. + +Recognizing the danger Arnold posed, Washington sent Lafayette south from +New York with 1,200 New England and New Jersey Continentals. Even after +joining his troops with the Virginia militia of Nelson, Muhlenberg, and +George Weedon, he could do little more than watch Arnold. Arnold had +already sent General William Philips, the former prisoner of war in +Charlottesville, against Petersburg. Meeting little opposition from the +Virginia militia as he destroyed tobacco and supplies in the town on +April 24, Philips went into Chesterfield county, burning militia barracks +and supplies. At the same time Arnold was burning more than 20 ships in +the James below Richmond. + +Everything seemed to go wrong. The French fleet sent from Newport to +block Arnold at Portsmouth was routed by a British fleet off the Capes +and went back to Rhode Island. The British forces ravaged at will the +Virginia countryside along the James and Appomattox Rivers. Then Arnold +was joined on May 20 by Cornwallis who had marched northward from +Wilmington to meet him at Petersburg. There were now 7,200 British troops +in Virginia. Facing them was the young Marquis de Lafayette with 3,200 +soldiers, 2,000 of them inexperienced Virginia militia. Total collapse of +Virginia seemed imminent. + +Artfully, Lafayette kept his smaller army intact, moving westward along +the South Anna River, then northward over the Rapidan west of +Fredericksburg. There he was joined by General Anthony Wayne and his +Pennsylvanians. Cornwallis followed but could not draw Lafayette or +Wayne into battle. So he settled down at Elk Hill, the estate of Mrs. +Jefferson's father in Cumberland County. From there he sent Major John +Simcoe on a raid against General Steuben and the major munitions center +at Point of Fork on the James. At first Simcoe was unsuccessful; then +he tricked Steuben into withdrawing to the west, needlessly abandoning +the munitions. + +At the same time Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to leave Lafayette in +Hanover County, take his cavalry, dash to Charlottesville, break up the +assembly then meeting there, and capture Jefferson. By hard riding on +the nights of June 3 and 4 Tarleton nearly made it to Charlottesville +undetected. But he stopped at Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa County, where he +was spotted by militia Captain John Jouett, Jr. Guessing Tarleton's +mission, Jack Jouett rode madly through the night over the back roads +he knew well, and beat Tarleton's men to town. At Jouett's warning most +of the legislators fled over the Blue Ridge to Staunton, while Governor +Jefferson left Monticello southward to his summer home at Poplar +Forest, Bedford County. Seven members of the assembly, one of whom was +Daniel Boone, delegate from Kentucky County, were captured. Unable to +take them with him, Tarleton paroled them. + +This was the low point of Jefferson's public career. His term had ended +officially on June 3 and since he had not intended to stand for +reelection, he did not go to Staunton. Some disgruntled delegates +wanted him censured. Instead a formal investigation in December 1781 +ended with the senate and house presenting him with a unanimous vote of +commendation. + +The assembly elected Thomas Nelson, Jr., radical patriot, wealthy +merchant from Yorktown, and commander of the Virginia militia, to be +governor. Nelson served only five months, compelled by ill health to +resign in December. In those five months Virginia went from the depths of +despair to the glories of Yorktown. Nelson was succeeded by Benjamin +Harrison, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. + +On June 15 Cornwallis left his camp at Elk Hill, sacking the plantation +as he departed. He moved eastward toward the coast where he could better +coordinate his movements with those of Clinton in New York. Clinton was +under heavy pressure from Washington and French General Rochambeau. +Heading for Williamsburg, Cornwallis plundered the countryside as he +went. Reaching Williamsburg, he received orders from Clinton to send +3,000 men to New York. Leaving Williamsburg for his ships at Portsmouth, +he maneuvered Lafayette and Wayne into a reckless battle near Jamestown +on July 6. Beating Wayne badly, Cornwallis had Lafayette at his mercy, +but could not follow up for a complete victory. + +At this point indecision by Clinton, commander-in-chief of the British +army, caused a fatal error. He had ordered Cornwallis to send the men to +New York; then he countermanded that order and wanted them shipped to +Philadelphia; then to New York again. Finally learning that Admiral de +Grasse with a major French fleet had left France for America, he +suggested Cornwallis move across the James from Portsmouth and find a +suitable site on the peninsula for both an army and the British fleet. He +suggested Old Point Comfort. His proposal was examined by Cornwallis and +rejected as undefendable. Cornwallis settled on Yorktown with its high +bluff and good port. + + +Yorktown, September-October, 1781 + +The news that Admiral de Grasse and the French fleet had cleared France +presented Washington with an opportunity he had to exploit. Washington +and Rochambeau took counsel and concluded an assault on Clinton in New +York was not a certain success. Cornwallis was a better bet. They decided +to leave Clinton in New York believing he was about to be attacked by a +large army and move quickly southward to Virginia. Coordinating their +arrival with that of de Grasse in the Chesapeake, they would snare +Cornwallis at Yorktown. + +For once in the war a grand American plan went off without a hitch. +Washington and Rochambeau left New York on August 21, getting away +without detection by Clinton. Simultaneously Lafayette moved his troops +south of Cornwallis to block an escape into the Carolinas. On August 30 +de Grasse with his great fleet of 24 major ships, 1,700 guns, 19,000 +seamen, and 3,000 troops reached the Capes. He had disembarked his troops +before a smaller British fleet arrived to challenge him. On September 5 +the French fleet drove the English back to New York. Cornwallis was +trapped. + +Carefully Washington, Rochambeau, and de Grasse plotted the siege of +Yorktown. When the formal siege began on September 28, Washington had an +army of nearly 16,000 men including 7,800 fresh, disciplined, and +well-equipped French troops. The 8,800 Americans included 3,000 Virginia +militia commanded by Governor Nelson and veteran Generals Weedon, Robert +Lawson, and Edward Stevens. The bulk of Washington's Continentals were +from Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. Cornwallis had about 7,000 +men, many of whom had been in the field since February, 1780. + +At the beginning Cornwallis abandoned his weaker outer defenses, which +Washington immediately turned into artillery battery positions. Once the +siege began in earnest on October 6, the allied artillery pounded the +British into submission. Parallel trenches were dug close to the British +lines. On the night of October 14 a combined attack by Americans under +Colonel Alexander Hamilton and the French took the two redoubts which +were the keys to the sagging British defenses. On the 16th Cornwallis +attempted to escape across the York River to Gloucester Point and then +north to New York and Clinton. A sudden storm scattered his boats and +barges. With that Cornwallis recognized the utter hopelessness of his +position and on the 17th signalled Washington for terms of surrender. +Washington replied that only complete surrender was acceptable. +Cornwallis agreed. There was no choice. At 2 p.m. on October 19, 1781, +Cornwallis' army of 7,247 stacked arms and surrendered to the Americans +while a British regimental band played the now famous military march, +"The World Turned Upside Down." Cornwallis, pleading illness was not +present. He was later to go on to a distinguished career as +governor-general of India. + +Fighting went on spasmodically in the Carolinas and in the West for some +time. But everyone knew the war was over. The British people no longer +wanted to fight what had become a world war involving the Dutch, French, +and Spanish, as well as the Americans. When he heard the news from +Yorktown, Lord North supposedly cried out, "Oh God! It is all over." + +And it was. On March 4, 1782, the House of Commons voted for peace. +Commissioners for both sides meeting in Paris agreed on terms on November +30, 1782. The formal treaty was ratified on September 3, 1783. The United +States of America existed in law as well as in fact. + +What had begun as an attempt by Britain to balance her budget after the +victorious French and Indian War ended with an independent United States. +She also gave Florida back to the Spanish who returned Louisiana to the +French. Perhaps wiser men than George Grenville and George III might have +prevented the separation. Probably not. Thomas Paine put it so simply and +so persuasively, "An Island was not meant to rule a continent." + + + + +Bibliography + + +Abbot, William W. 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PATRIOTS IN THE MAKING. 2 Volumes, Lippincott, +Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York, New York, 1957, 1969. + +Morgan, Edmund S. THE BIRTH OF THE REPUBLIC 1763-1789. University of +Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1966. + +Morgan, Edmund S. and Helen M. THE STAMP ACT CRISIS. University of North +Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1959. + +Nelson, William H. THE AMERICAN TORY. Oxford University Press, Oxford, +England, 1961. + +Quarles, Benjamin. THE NEGRO IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. University of +North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1961. + +Rossiter, Clinton. SEEDTIME OF THE REPUBLIC: ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN +TRADITION OF POLITICAL LIBERTY. Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., New +York, New York, 1953. + +Rossiter, Clinton. SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A REPUBLIC. Harcourt, +Brace. New York, 1964. + +Rossiter, Clinton. THE FIRST AMERICAN REVOLUTION: THE AMERICAN COLONIES +ON THE EVE OF INDEPENDENCE. Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., New York, +New York, 1956. + +Rouse, Parke, Jr. VIRGINIA: THE ENGLISH HERITAGE IN AMERICA. Hastings +House Publishers, New York, New York, 1966. + +Rutland, Robert A. GEORGE MASON, RELUCTANT STATESMAN. Colonial +Williamsburg, Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia, 1961. + +Rutland, Robert A. THE PAPERS OF GEORGE MASON. 3 Volumes, University of +North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1970. + +Selby, John E. A CHRONOLOGY OF VIRGINIA AND THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, +1763-1783. Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, University +Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1975. + +Sydnor, Charles S. AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARIES IN THE MAKING, POLITICAL +PRACTICES IN WASHINGTON'S VIRGINIA. The Free Press, Macmillan Company, +New York, New York, 1965. + +Sydnor, Charles S. GENTLEMEN FREEHOLDERS: POLITICAL PRACTICES IN +WASHINGTON'S VIRGINIA. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, +North Carolina, 1952. Reprinted in paperback under title of AMERICAN +REVOLUTIONARIES IN THE MAKING: Macmillan Company, New York, New York, +1965. + +Van Every, Dale. FORTH TO THE WILDERNESS, 1754-1774. William Morrow +Company, New York, New York, 1961. + +Van Every, Dale. A COMPANY OF HEROES: THE AMERICAN FRONTIER, 1775-1783. +William Morrow Company, New York, New York, 1962. + +Van Schreeven, William J., and Scribner, Robert L. REVOLUTIONARY +VIRGINIA: THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE, VOLUME I, 1763-1774, Volume II, +1773-75, Volume III, 1775. Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, +University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1973, 1974, +1975. + +Van Schreeven, William J., and Scribner, Robert L. REVOLUTIONARY +VIRGINIA: A DOCUMENTARY RECORD, VOLUME II, 1773-1775. Virginia +Independence Bicentennial Commission, University Press of Virginia, +Charlottesville, Virginia, 1975. + +Ward, Christopher. THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 2 Volumes, Macmillan +Company, New York, New York, 1952. + +Watson, J. Steven. THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. Oxford University Press, +Oxford, England, 1960. + +Williams, D. Alan. "The Virginia Gentry and the Democratic Myth." MAIN +PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY. 3rd edition, Dorsey Press, Homewood, +Illinois, 1971. + + + + +Appendix + +A Chronology of Selected Events in Virginia + +1763-1783[47] + + [47] The chronology of selected events in Virginia 1763-1783 was + taken from William W. Abbot's publication entitled, A VIRGINIA + CHRONOLOGY 1585-1783, "To pass away the time", Williamsburg, + Virginia, 1957. Permission for use of this material has been + granted by the publisher. + + +May 10, 1763. After the news of the signing of the Peace of Paris +on February 10, 1763, came to Virginia, the Virginia regiment was +disbanded. + +May 28, 1763. The defeat of the French in America introduced new +stresses and strains in the British Empire. Differences between the +colonies and Mother Country began to appear immediately and with +increasing frequency and intensity. The Bland Report of 1763 made to the +House of Burgesses revealed one point of conflict between the two. +Virginia had in part financed her contribution to the recent war by +issuing paper money backed by taxation. The British merchants, creditors +of the colonial planters, feared inflation and were bitterly attacking +the policy of printing paper money in the colonies. Defending Virginia's +actions, the Bland Report presented the American argument for paper +money. The British merchants carried the day to their own hurt by +securing an Act of Parliament in 1764 forbidding the future issue of +paper currency in the colonies. + +October 7, 1763. Another cause for colonial resentment at war's +end was the King's proclamation closing the trans-Allegheny west to +settlement. + +December, 1763. One consequence of the Parsons' Causes was the +sudden emergence of young Patrick Henry on the political scene. When the +court of Hanover county decided in favor of Reverend James Maury, the +defendants called on Henry to plead their cause before the jury which was +to fix the amount of damages. By appealing to the anti-clerical and even +lawless instincts of the jury and by doing it with unmatched oratorical +skill, Patrick Henry won the jury to his side and made himself a popular +hero in upcountry Virginia. + +October 30, 1764. Many Burgesses arrived early for the October +December session of the General Assembly "in a flame" over the Act of +Parliament proposing a Stamp tax on the American colonists. The committee +of correspondence had been busy during the summer communicating with the +agent in London, and the Burgesses were ready to take action against the +proposed tax. + +December 17, 1764. The House of Burgesses and the Council agreed +upon an address to the Crown and upon memorials to the House of Commons +and to the House of Lords. The three petitions stressed the sufferings +such a tax would cause war-weary Virginians and also opposed the levy on +constitutional grounds. They argued that the colonial charters and long +usage gave the Virginia House of Burgesses the sole right to tax +Virginians and that the fundamental constitution of Britain protected a +man from being taxed without his consent. These arguments, elaborated and +refined, were to be the heart of the colonial contentions in the +turbulent days ahead. + +May 29, 1765. The arguments of the Virginia Assembly went +unheeded. On February 27, 1765, Parliament decreed that the stamp tax +should go into effect on November 1. The General Assembly was in session +when news of the passage of the Stamp Act came to Virginia, and on May 29 +the House went into the committee of the whole to consider what steps it +should take. Burgess Patrick Henry presented his famous resolutions which +fixed at the outset the tenor of colonial opposition to the stamp tax. +The House adopted by a close vote on the 30th five of Henry's seven +resolutions, and all seven were given wide circulation throughout the +colonies. + +October 30, 1765. On the day before the stamp tax was to go into +effect, George Mercer, the collector, arrived in Williamsburg with the +stamps. Williamsburg was filled with people in town for the meeting of +the General Court, and Governor Fauquier had to intervene to protect +Mercer from the insults of the mob. On November 1, the courts ceased to +function and all public business came to a virtual halt. + +February 8, 1766. Foreshadowing the judicial review of a later +day, the Northampton county court declared the Stamp Act unconstitutional +and consequently of no effect. + +March 13, 1766. A number of the inhabitants of the town and +environs of Norfolk assembled at the court house and formed the Sons of +Liberty. The Sons of Liberty usually appeared hereafter at the forefront +of any anti-British agitation in the colonies. + +1766. Richard Bland published his famous An Inquiry into the Rights of +the British Colonies in which he took a rather advanced +constitutional position in opposition to parliamentary taxation of the +American colonies. + +May 11, 1766. At the height of the Stamp Act crisis, the dominant +group in the House of Burgesses was shaken by a scandal involving the +long-time Speaker and Treasurer of the Colony, John Robinson, who died on +this day leaving his accounts short by some 100,000 pounds. + +June 9, 1766. Governor Fauquier announced by public proclamation +the repeal of the Stamp Act (March 18, 1766). Although repeal brought a +wave of reaction against the agitation of the past months and a strong +upsurge of loyalty to Great Britain, the leaders of Virginia, and of the +other colonies, had consciously or not moved to a new position in their +view of the proper relationship between the Colony and the Mother +Country. The failure of the rulers of Britain to appreciate and assess +properly the changed temper of the colonists lost for them the American +empire. + +November 6, 1766. The General Assembly of 1766-1768 met: November +6-December 16, 1766 and adjourned to March 12-April 11, 1767, and then +met in a final session, March 31-April 16, 1768. + +January, 1768. The Virginia Gazette began to publish John +Dickenson's letters from a "Pennsylvania Farmer." These letters did a +great deal to clarify, in the minds of many, the American position with +regard to the Parliamentary claim of the right of taxation in the +colonies. + +March 3, 1768. Governor Fauquier died. + +March 31, 1768. News of the passage of the Townshend Acts and of +the suspension of the New York legislature was already causing a wave of +indignation in Virginia when the General Assembly met in March. Having +taken under consideration the circular letter of the Massachusetts +legislature opposing the Townshend Acts and various petitions to the same +effect, the House of Burgesses prepared petitions to the Crown and to +both Houses of Parliament, and on April 14 adopted all three unanimously. +The House then sent word to the other colonial Assemblies of its action +and congratulated the Massachusetts House "for their attention to +American liberty." + +August 12, 1768. In a move to strengthen the hand of the Virginia +Governor and at the same time to conciliate the Colony, the King made +Fauquier's replacement, Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, Governor +of Virginia in the place of Jeffrey Amherst. Not since the time of +Governor Nicholson had the Governor himself come out to Virginia. + +October 26, 1768. Lord Botetourt arrived in Williamsburg. + +May 8, 1769. The Governor, Lord Botetourt, opened the first and +only session of the General Assembly of 1769 (May 8-17) with a +conciliatory speech; but, obviously unmoved, the House of Burgesses set +about with remarkable unanimity to restate their position with regard to +Parliamentary supremacy. The House also denounced the reported plan for +transporting colonists accused of treason to England for trial. On May +16, the House adopted resolutions to this effect and then on the next day +unanimously approved an address to the Crown. + +May 17, 1769. The House resolutions of the 16th caused Lord +Botetourt to dissolve the General Assembly. Dissolution blocked the +planned adoption of George Mason's proposal for forming an association +with the other colonies for the purpose of suspending the importation of +British goods. But the Burgesses got around this by meeting in their +private capacity at the house of Anthony Hays. This was a momentous step. +The meeting made Speaker Peyton Randolph the moderator and appointed a +committee to present a plan for association. + +May 18, 1769. The Burgesses adopted the report of the committee +calling for a boycott on English goods to force the repeal of the +Townshend Acts and invited the other colonies to join the association. + +November 7, 1769. The General Assembly of 1769-1771 met November +7-December 21, 1769, and adjourned to May 21-June 28, 1770; and then it +met in a final session July 11-20, 1771. + +In his speech to the Assembly on the first day of its meeting, Lord +Botetourt pacified the Virginians momentarily with information from Lord +Hillsborough that His Majesty's administration contemplated no new taxes +in America and in fact intended the repeal of the Townshend Acts. + +June 22, 1770. During the May-June session of the General +Assembly, the gentlemen of the House of Burgesses joined with a large +group of merchants to take action against the duty on tea retained when +the Townshend Acts were repealed. The Burgesses and merchants formed a +new association to replace the ineffective one of 1769. This time, +committees in each county were to take proper steps to see that the terms +of the association were abided by. + +June 27, 1770. The members of the House of Burgesses agreed +unanimously to a new petition to the King asking for his interposition to +prevent Parliament levying taxes in America. + +October 15, 1770. Lord Botetourt of necessity had often opposed +the colonists in their quarrel with the British Parliament, but he had +done so without losing their affection and respect. On October 15, 1770, +he died. William Nelson, president of the Council, then acted as Governor +until the fall of 1771 when Governor Dunmore arrived. + +October 12, 1771. John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, dissolved the +General Assembly of 1769-1771 after coming to Virginia on September 25, +1771. Dunmore, Virginia's last British Governor, was an unperceptive and +timorous man, a man who could do nothing to still the coming storm that +rent an Empire. + +February 10, 1772. The General Assembly of 1772-1774 met February +10-April 11, 1772; March 4-15, 1773; and May 5-26, 1774, when it was +dissolved. Meeting in an interlude of relative peace between Britain and +her colonies (1770-1773), the Assembly in its spring session of 1772 +proceeded in a routine fashion and the Burgesses found no occasion to try +the mettle of the new Governor. + +March 4, 1773. Governor Dunmore for the first time found reason to +complain of the General Assembly in its March meeting of 1773. He was +miffed by an implied rebuke of the House of Burgesses for his handling of +counterfeiters; but he had better reason to be disturbed by another +development. On March 12, the House revived its committee of +correspondence and extended its functions. As proposed by a +self-constituted meeting at the Raleigh Tavern and headed by Richard +Henry Lee, the House instructed its new committee of correspondence to +inquire into the Gaspee affair, to keep in touch with the +legislatures of the other colonies, and to correspond with the London +agent. A key factor in the transfer of power which was to come shortly, +the plan of a committee of correspondence was quickly adopted in the +other colonies. Before proroguing the Assembly on March 15, Governor +Dunmore signed the last Acts assented to by the royal Governor of +Virginia. + +May 24, 1774. The May meeting of the Assembly was uneventful until +the news of the Boston Port Acts stirred up a hornets' nest in the House +of Burgesses. The House expressed alarm and promptly declared June 1, the +day the Acts were to go into effect, a day of fasting and prayer. Two +days later, May 26, Governor Dunmore dissolved the General Assembly of +1772-1774. One consequence of interrupting the Assembly before any +legislation had been completed was to put an end to civil actions in the +courts for the lack of a fee bill, which pleased many a debt-ridden +colonist. + +May 27, 1774. On May 25, the day after the news of the Boston Port +Acts, Richard Henry Lee had ready his proposals for calling a Continental +Congress, but when he delayed presenting them to the House so as not to +invoke dissolution, he lost the opportunity of having the House of +Burgesses act upon them. The day after Dunmore had dissolved the +Assembly, the members of the House met in the Apollo room of the Raleigh +Tavern. After denouncing the "intolerable" Acts, they instructed the +committee of correspondence to write to the other colonies and propose a +Continental Congress. + +May 30, 1774. Twenty-five Burgesses who were still in town met to +consider a packet of letters fresh from Boston. Massachusetts proposed +that all of the colonies suspend all trade with Britain. The Burgesses +agreed to send out notices to the members of the "late House" for a +meeting on August 1, 1774. During the next two months, the inhabitants in +the various counties met to elect delegates to the August Convention and +to prepare resolutions condemning the Boston Port Acts. Feeling was +running high and sympathy for Boston took the form of an outpouring of +gifts for the unfortunate city. Jefferson's Summary View published +at this time was intended as a guide for the August Convention, but it +was too advanced for the moment in its outright denial of all +Parliamentary authority in America. + +August 1, 1774. With the meeting of the August Convention, +Virginia took a big step toward revolution and began to build an +extra-legal framework which would take over the functions of government +when British authority collapsed. The Convention agreed to import no more +from Britain after November 1 and to export no more after August 10, +1775. It chose as delegates to the Continental Congress Peyton Randolph, +Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, +Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton. The Convention instructed each +county to appoint a committee of correspondence. The amazing +effectiveness with which the committees organized the counties helps to +explain Virginia's smooth transition from colony to commonwealth. + +1775. With an estimated population of 550,000, Virginia had 61 counties +on the eve of the Revolution. Ten of these were formed since the +departure of Governor Dinwiddie in 1758: Fauquier in 1759; Amherst and +Buckingham in 1761; Charlotte and Mecklenburg in 1765; Pittsylvania in +1767; Botetourt in 1770; and Berkeley, Dunmore, and Fincastle in 1772. + +March 20, 1775. Peyton Randolph, moderator of the August +Convention, called for a meeting at Richmond in March. The March +convention, dominated by members of the House of Burgesses, approved the +work of the Continental Congress, but foremost in the minds of the +delegates was the problem of defense. After Henry's "Give me liberty or +give me death" speech, the delegates made provisions for developing a +military establishment. What they in fact did was to undermine the +regular militia through the formation of "Independent Companies" in the +counties. The revolutionary government which was evolving became a little +more clearly defined when the Convention instructed each county to elect +two delegates to sit in future Conventions. + +April 20, 1775. Lord Dunmore watched the events of 1774-1775 with +helpless alarm. Particularly frightening for him was the formation of the +"Independent Companies" in the spring of 1775. On the night of April 20 +he took the precaution of having the small store of arms and ammunition +in the magazine at Williamsburg removed and placed on H.M.S. Fowey +in the York River. On the morning of the 21st, the people of Williamsburg +learned what the Governor had done during the night and were vastly +excited. An incredible wave of fury spread through the Colony and +everywhere men took up arms. All the pent up passion of the past months +was turned against the unfortunate Governor. + +April 28, 1775. At the height of the excitement over the powder +magazine affair, news came from the northward that colonials had engaged +British regulars at Concord and Lexington. + +May 3, 1775. Thoroughly frightened, Lord Dunmore made a public +proclamation on May 3 in which he attempted to justify his actions of +April 20 and to pacify the people. Beyond being pacified, the people +cheered Patrick Henry who marched upon Williamsburg with the Hanover +Independent Company and stopped short of the town only because Governor +Dunmore sent him 300 pounds to pay for the powder taken from the public +magazine. + +June 1, 1775. Fortified with Lord North's conciliatory proposals, +Dunmore made his last bid to regain control of the colony by recalling +the General Assembly to Williamsburg on June 1, 1775. The Burgesses +refused to re-open the courts as Dunmore asked; they approved the +proceedings of the Continental Congress and the colonial Conventions +without a dissenting vote; and then they allowed Jefferson to reply to +North's proposal in terms of his Summary View of the year before. + +June 8, 1775. Lord Dunmore wrote the Assembly that he considered +Williamsburg no longer safe for him and his family and that he had taken +up residence in the Fowey in the York River. When the General +Assembly refused to do business with him there and proceeded to operate +independently of the Governor, royal government in Virginia was virtually +at an end. The General Assembly adjourned itself on June 24 to October +12, 1775, and then to March 7, 1776, and finally to May 16, 1776, but a +quorum never appeared. + +July 17, 1775. The July Convention completed the transfer of power +from the royal government to the revolutionists. It sought to legalize +its control by providing for the proper election of its members. The +Convention became the successor of the colonial General Assembly. When +the rumor went about on August 16 that Dunmore was going to attack +Williamsburg, the Convention appointed a Committee of Public Safety of 11 +members. This Committee acted as the executive of the Colony until after +the adoption of the constitution in 1776. The Convention also set up the +basic structure for the defense establishment and for taxation. + +November 7, 1775. The main threat to the revolutionary regime in +1775 came from Lord Dunmore who remained at Norfolk with his small fleet +and a detachment of British regulars. Despite the "chicken stealing" +raids of the ships in the late summer and fall, the Committee of Public +Safety made no move against Dunmore until after he had declared martial +law on November 7 and it had become apparent that disaffection was +growing in Norfolk. + +December 1, 1775. The December Convention acted as the legislative +body for the government of Virginia. + +1776. Hampden-Sydney, a school for men, was founded under the auspices of +the Hanover Presbytery. + +January 1, 1776. The provincial forces skirmished with Dunmore's +at Great Bridge on December 9 and took Norfolk on December 14. The guns +of Dunmore's ships set Norfolk afire on January 1, 1776, and colonial +troops, with connivance of officers, added to the conflagration by +setting fire to the houses not hit by the ships. Lord Dunmore finally +sailed away in May, 1776. + +May 6, 1776. The revolutionary Convention met for the last time in +May and June of 1776. It proceeded to draw up a constitution for +Virginia, which it adopted on June 28. It incorporated in the +constitution George Mason's famous Bill of Rights and provided that the +legislature should dominate the new government. + +May 15, 1776. The Convention adopted Richard Henry Lee's +resolution instructing the delegates to the Continental Congress to urge +the Congress "to declare the United Colonies free and independent +States." + +June 29, 1776. The Convention chose Patrick Henry to be the first +Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. A skilled agitator, a great +orator, and a radical-turning-conservative, Henry made but an indifferent +Governor. + +July 8-9, 1776. At the battle of Gwynn's Island, Dunmore's fleet +was so severely damaged that he soon left the coast of Virginia, never to +return. + +1776. During the Revolution, nineteen counties were formed: +Monongalia, Ohio, and Yohogania in 1776; Henry, Kentucky, Montgomery, +Washington, Fluvanna, and Powhatan in 1777; Greenbrier, Rockbridge, +Rockingham, Shenandoah, and Illinois in 1778; Fayette, Jefferson, and +Lincoln in 1780; Greensville in 1781; and Campbell in 1782. + +October 7, 1776. The first session of the new legislature was +dominated by Thomas Jefferson, who replaced Henry as the leader of the +more radical elements in Virginia. Jefferson began a needed revision of +the laws. In the next two decades, the colonial codes and laws were +adapted to the needs of an independent state. In this same session, he +also secured the abolition of primogeniture and entail, humanized the +criminal code, and began his attack upon the church establishment. + +July 4, 1778. George Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia. On the +strength of this victory, the Virginia legislature created Illinois +county, thus providing the first American administrative control in the +Northwest Territory. + +February 25, 1779. The dramatic capture of Vincennes by George +Rogers Clark on this date secured the Northwest Territory from British +control. + +May 9, 1779. For the first three years of the Revolutionary War, +Virginia was spared invasion because the British were concentrating their +efforts in the northern colonies; but on May 9, 1779, Admiral Sir George +Collier anchored in Hampton Roads with a British fleet. After capturing +Portsmouth with little trouble, he sent out raiding parties and then +departed. Naval stores in large quantity and thousands of barrels of pork +were destroyed. + +June 1, 1779. Thomas Jefferson was elected Governor to replace +Patrick Henry. Weakened by a conservative shift in opinion and unable to +cope with invasion which came in 1780, Governor Jefferson left office +with a tarnished reputation, June 12, 1781. He was replaced by Thomas +Nelson who served only until November 30, 1781. Benjamin Harrison was the +last of the war Governors. + +April, 1780. The capital was moved from Williamsburg up to +Richmond. + +October, 1780. The British recaptured Portsmouth, this time +primarily for the purpose of establishing communication with General +Cornwallis in South Carolina. General Leslie remained in Portsmouth with +his 3000 men for one month. + +January 5, 1781. The third and most serious British attack upon +Virginia was carried out by General Benedict Arnold who sailed through +the Capes on December 30, 1780. Instead of stopping at Portsmouth, he +continued on up the James to capture Richmond, the new capital, on +January 5, 1781. After Arnold had set up his headquarters at Portsmouth, +two attempts to launch a sea and land attack against him failed to +materialize. Cornwallis marched into Virginia in late spring and in May +crossed the James and entered Richmond. During the summer of 1781, the +main achievement of Lafayette and the continental forces in Virginia was +to avoid destruction. + +July 25, 1781. Cornwallis, marching from Richmond, reached +Williamsburg on June 25. He remained there until July 5, when he moved +toward the James River where transports awaited to take him to the Surry +side. Before he was able to make the crossing, he was attacked by +Lafayette, at Green Spring. After successfully repelling the American +forces, he crossed the river and pushed on to Portsmouth. In August he +crossed Hampton Roads and marched to Yorktown, which he fortified. + +August 30, 1781. The stage was being set for the destruction of +Cornwallis's army when the French fleet under Admiral de Grasse sailed +through the Virginia Capes on August 30, 1781. General Washington was +hurrying with his army from New York and Lafayette was bringing up his +troops preparatory to bottling up Cornwallis on the Yorktown peninsula +where he had encamped with his army. + +September 5, 1781. One avenue of escape for Cornwallis's army was +shut off when De Grasse assured French control of the river and bay by +repulsing the British fleet commanded by Admiral Graves. + +September 28, 1781. The surrender of Cornwallis became only a +matter of time when Washington brought his army up to reenforce the +besieging forces of Lafayette. + +October 19, 1781. General Cornwallis surrendered his army at +Yorktown. With the aid of the French, General Washington had won for the +colonies their independence. The independence of America became official +with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. + +October 20, 1783. Virginia, agreeing to the terms of Congress, +ceded her claims to territory north of the Ohio, and the deed passed +March 1, 1784. Virginia was shrunken to the limits contained in the +present States of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. + + + + +Declaration of Independence + + +When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people +to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, +and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal +station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them, a +decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should +declare the causes which impel them to the separation. + +We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; +that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; +that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to +secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their +just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of +government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the +people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, +laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in +such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and +happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long +established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and +accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to +suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by +abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train +of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a +design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is +their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for +their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these +colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter +their former systems of government. The history of the present King of +Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpation, all +having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over +these states. To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world: + +He has refused to assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the +public good. + +He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing +importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be +obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to +them. + +He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large +districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of +representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and +formidable to tyrants only. + +He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, +uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, +for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. + +He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with +manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. + +He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others +to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, +have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the State +remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from +without and convulsions within. + +He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that +purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing +to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the +conditions of new appropriations of lands. + +He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent +to laws for establishing judiciary powers. + +He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their +offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. + +He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of +officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. + +He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the +consent of our legislatures. + +He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, +the civil power. + +He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to +our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to +their acts of pretended legislation: + +For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: + +For protecting them by a mock trial from punishment, for any murders +which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: + +For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world: + +For imposing taxes on us without our consent: + +For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefit of trial by jury: + +For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. + +For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, +establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its +boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for +introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies: + +For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and +altering fundamentally, the powers of our governments: + +For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested +with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. + +He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, +and waging war against us. + +He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and +destroyed the lives of our people. + +He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to +complete the work of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with +circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most +barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. + +He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, +to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their +friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. + +He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to +bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, +whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all +ages, sexes, and conditions. + +In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the +most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by +repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act +which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. + +Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have +warned them, from time to time, of attempts made by their legislature to +extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of +the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed +to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by +the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would +inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have +been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, +acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, +as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war--in peace, friends. + +We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in +General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World +for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by authority of +the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare, That +these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, Free and Independent +States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, +and that all political connection between them and the State of Great +Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as free and +independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, +contract alliances, establish commerce and to do all other acts and +things which independent States may of right do. And for the support of +this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine +Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and +our sacred honor. + + + + +Suggested Questions for Exploring Virginia's +Role in the Winning of Independence + + +Questions may serve to identify a problem or topic, and also serve as a +means to dissect and analyze the topic. The narrative section of this +publication entitled, THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: VIRGINIA, 1763-1783, +deals with selected aspects of questions contained in this +section. However, in order to expand the scope and understanding of +Virginia's role in the winning of independence, as well as to provide an +improved perspective for students to see new meaning in familiar events, +the following questions have been prepared for the classroom teacher. + + 1. How did the "Intellectual Awakening" in Europe reflect the changing +image of man in relation to economic organization, religious reforms, +political activities, and social changes? How did this intellectual +ferment influence the American Revolution and the "American Experience"? + + 2. How will a study of the following topics establish a framework for an +inquiry into the Colonial Period? + + (a) Historical forces which gave rise to exploration and which were + influencing European civilization centuries before Columbus' journey. + + (b) Various reasons for colonization and objectives and methods of + colonization for different nations. + + 3. What contributions will an analysis of the emergence of capitalism +(with its wage system, market economy, banking structure, and corporate +organization) and the impetus which capitalism provided for +colonization make to the development of insights into the nature of +European society and the Colonial Period? + + 4. How did capitalism influence the American Revolution and how was +capitalism influenced and/or changed by the American Revolution? + + 5. Was there a discrepancy between the objectives of the European +colonizers and the growth and development of the Virginia colony? In what +ways can a study of Virginia illustrate the beginnings of the "American +Experience"? + + 6. How will a study of the acceptance, rejection, or modification of +European ideas and institutions by the colonies establish a framework +for analyzing the unique nature of the "American Experience"? How +"American" were the colonies? How "American" was the Revolution? + + 7. What environmental factors influenced colonial settlements? How will a +study of these factors help to explain the differences which developed in +the thirteen colonies? (Example: economic differences) What was the +influence of environment in the colony of Virginia? How would these +differences influence the nature of the participation of the thirteen +colonies in the Revolution? + + 8. How did the Colonial Period provide a foundation for the "American +Experience" by the development of a system of free enterprise and a +constitutional democracy? + + 9. From an analysis of the "Colonial Mind", how can insights be gained +and relationships established for patterns of national character, +cultural institutions, religious thought, and educational practices? + +10. How did the first representative assembly at Jamestown reflect the +needs of a group of people for government? What factors were involved in +the formation of this representative assembly? In what ways will a study +of the formation of this government serve as a basis for comparing and +contrasting other efforts at establishing governments at a later date? + +11. What distinctive political, intellectual, and economic modes of life +began to develop in the different colonies? How will a study of the +similarities and differences help to explain the character of the +American Revolution and the "American Experience"? What was the nature of +these developments in Virginia and why? + +12. What early experiences did the colonies have which led them to +formulate the type of state constitutions which they adopted? What +foundations were being established which would be reflected in the years +ahead? What was the nature of Virginia's first state constitution? + +13. In an analysis of the art, music, architecture, literary works, and +other means of expression in the Colonial Period, how can an awareness +and perspective be developed which will allow for an involvement with a +"people and their times"? How do man's varied forms of expression reflect +"the spirit of an era"? What is the role of primary sources in developing +empathy for a period? + +14. In what ways did the "European Enlightenment" influence American +thought after 1700? What were the significant contributions of American +writers to colonial thought and political maturity? + +15. What impact did writers have on the American Revolution? + +16. How will an analysis of the factors which produced the movement for +the American Revolution illustrate the idea that historical causation is +complex and multiple? What was the nature of the movement in Virginia? + +17. What was significant about colonial cooperation in resisting British +measures? In what areas was there cohesiveness and what were the factors +which contributed to the development of this situation? What was the +nature of the movement in Virginia? + +18. By what means can the concept of liberty be studied so as to develop +an understanding of the "seeds of revolution which were inherent in the +Colonial Period" and to develop an insight into liberty as a force which +would permeate all periods of United States history? How can this theme +of liberty be integrated so as to serve to link all facets of the +"American Experience" to a common chain? What role do ideas play in a +study of history? + +19. How will a study of the ideas and institutions of the Colonial +Period, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution +establish a framework for inquiring into the natural rights philosophy, +the justification of the Revolution, and the principal components of our +modern day social, political, and economic system? How can Virginia serve +as one illustrative study of these factors? + +20. In what ways did the colonial rebellion become an avenue for +nationalism? + +21. How will a study of the American Revolution illustrate self-interest +versus concern for principle? + +22. Can the American Revolution be termed a social movement? What were +the effects on the institutions of society? + +23. How did the Founding Fathers exemplify the young nation's aspiration? + +24. In what ways can one account for the impact of the Declaration of +Independence on modern day political thought? + +25. Why is it that the state constitutions are often considered one of +the most important developments in the aftermath of the Revolution? How +did these constitutions reflect the "spirit of the American Revolution" +and the foundations of the Colonial Period? How could a case study of +Virginia during this period illustrate these developments? + +26. How can the Colonial Period serve as a foundation for developing +those threads which are inherent in a study of Virginia and United States +history? How can the following themes be used to coordinate various +aspects of the American Revolution and the "American Experience"? + + a. Nature and influence of geography + b. Economic themes + c. Intellectual themes + d. Nature and composition of society + e. Manifestation of political ideas + + + + +Suggested Student Activities + + +Student activities and other learning experiences are dependent upon the +objectives selected by the teacher, the abilities and needs of the +students, materials and resources available, and the organizational +pattern of the course. The suggested student activities in this +publication have been prepared to serve as a catalyst for developing +appropriate programs and learning experiences in exploring Virginia's +role in the winning of independence. Suggested activities include: + +... Select one word concepts, such as liberty, freedom, power, justice, +that may be derived from great documents of the period and write an essay +on what the term meant when the document was written and what it means +today. + +... Through research have students write an essay describing the +personalities of great Virginians such as Washington, Jefferson, and +others, and compare them with their contemporaries. + +... Role-play Virginians who made outstanding contributions to the +development of America. + +... Compare the American Revolution with other revolutions in the world +so as to ascertain similarities and differences. + +... Given the Proclamation of 1763, students could draw the western +boundary of Virginia on a current topographic map. What have been the +different boundaries of Virginia? Why? + +... From copies of selected estate assessments and wills from local +courthouses, a number of activities could be developed. + + A confirmation or refuting of hypotheses of what artifacts or + personal property would be found in homes and on farms during this + historical period may be suggested. Occupations can be suggested by + the list of personal property. e.g. What percent of the people were + self-sufficient on the frontier? + + Early industries and occupations can be compared with current + industries and occupations for the same area. e.g. What public + demands are reflected in continuing industries? + + Students may draw interior scenes of homes showing artifacts listed + in the inventories. e.g. Do articles listed together say something + about the use of a room? + + Scenes may be painted of homesteads, depicting personal property + listed in estate assessments and the inventory may be listed beside + the painting. e.g. What do "Folk Art" paintings and other art forms + tell us about the period? + + Religious commitment can be inferred from wills. e.g. What role did + religion play in the life of a person during this time? + + How do wills reflect the status of humans in a household. e.g. How + were males, females, indentured servants, and slaves treated in + wills? + + Photos and slides of restored rooms can be compared with selected + inventories. e.g. Are restorations in agreement with the written + records? + +... Students could assume a role and write a seven-day diary describing a +week in each season. + +... Write lyrics portraying the spirit and events of the times and put +the lyrics to music using a melody of the period. + +... Using primary sources, have students research information on various +accounts of what happened at Lexington. The research may include: + +An account of a member of the British force + +Report of the captain of the Lexington Minutemen + +Letter(s) of the British expedition leaders + +... Have student research information on Indian tribes, their location, +and their impact of life in Virginia. + +... Select a date between the period 1763-1783, and have students find +out the following about their town, city, or county. + +What was the town, city, or county like then? + +Where did the first settlers of your town come from? + +What are the most famous streets in town? Who are those named for? + +What, if any, battles were fought in or near your town? + +What is the town's most famous landmark? + +... Prepare a cross word puzzle using such words as: + + liberty + justice + freedom + equality + democracy + representative + independence + unalienable + +... Research styles of dress worn during the period 1763-1783. Contrast +functions of dress, costumes, and the like with today's living and style +of dress. + +... Have the students prepare a research paper of changes in the culture +of the country then and now and their impact on families and individuals. + +... Have students develop a colonial Almanac to include such items +as information about the tides, the weather, changes of the moon, +anniversaries of historical events, recipes, folk tales, jokes, health +hints, and advice in the form of proverbs. (A review of the most popular +Almanac of this time, Poor Richard's Almanac, may assist +students with this project.) + +... Students may prepare a film depicting an historical event which +occurred in or near the town, city, or county in which they live. + +... Have students construct a painting depicting a famous scene or event +of the Revolutionary period. + +... Students may collect artifacts of the period for display and +discussion of colonial life styles. + +... Have students develop an architectural blueprint for restoring an +18th Century home, including grounds of the gentry, planter, or +frontiersman. + +... Research the role of black churches in Virginia between 1763-1783. +This should be followed by classroom discussion. + +... Research the role of contributions of the "common" man in the making +of Colonial America. + + Students may choose to review the roles and contributions of such + groups as the farmer, shopkeeper, cabinet maker, and others. + + Have students identify the contributions of other social groups in + the making of Colonial America. + +... Compare the customs and mores of blacks in Virginia from 1763 through +1783 and 1953 through 1973. + +... Construct a bulletin board listing the colonies vertically and +significant events under specific years horizontally. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Road to Independence: Virginia +1763-1783, by Virginia State Dept. of Education + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDEPENDENCE: VIRGINIA 1763-1783 *** + +***** This file should be named 30058.txt or 30058.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/0/5/30058/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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