ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

them before the recalling of the company's patent." On this they were reconciled, and began again to exert themselves in making im provements.*

Being left for fome years in a manner to themselves, they increased beyond expectation. They remained under the administration of their late governors, and other officers, who refpected their privileges because they loved the colony. The governor whom Charlés had been anxious to appoint, had no opportunity of exercising those illegal and extraordinary powers with which he had been invested, His death, in 1627, put an end to his authority, and prevented the colony's feeling its full extent. His fucceffor, John Harvey, Efq. was nominated in March, 1629, and his commiffion and instructions were precisely the fame with thofe of the former. He departed foon after for Virginia. The fpirit of his administration was an exact counterpart of what had too long prevailed in England. He was fevere in his extortions, proud in his councils, unjust and arbitrary in every department of his government. The Virginians, roused almost to madness by oppreffion, feized and fent him prifoner to England, accompanied with two deputies, to reprefent their grievances and his misconduct. His behaviour was fo thought of, that he was honoured with a new commiffion which confirmed his former powers, and he was fent back to Virginia in April, 1637. After that, his government was fo exceffively oppreffive and cruel, that the complaints of the colonifts became at length too loud to be longer neglected, and his commiffion was revoked in January, 1638-9. During his ten years administration, the Virginians were ruled rather as the valals of an eastern defpot, than as fubjects entitled to English liberties; but it is to their credit, that, having tasted the fweets of a fimple government, they oppofed with a firm fpirit, during the reign of Charles, the attempts of thofe who endeavoured to revive the patents, and to restore the corporation.

Sir William Berkeley was appointed governor the beginning of 1639. His inftructions evidenced a prodigious change in colonial policy, which must be partly afcribed to the then fate of affairs in England. He was directed to fummon all the burgeffes of the plantations, who, with the governor and council, were to constitute the Grand Affembly, with power to make acts for the government of the colony, as near as might be to the laws of England-to caufe

* Bland's Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies.

Speedy

Speedy juftice to be administered to all, according to English forms -and to forbid all trade with foreign veffels except upon neceffity, Thus were the Virginians restored to that fyftein of freedom which they had derived from the Virginia company, and which the writ of quo warranto had involved in the fame ruin with the corporation itfelf.

Civil diffenfions, however, took place, which were embittered by religious differences, and inflamed by acts made to prohibit the preaching of the doctrine of the Puritans. The difcontented party prefented a petition to the House of Commons, in the name of the Affembly, "praying for the restoration of the ancient patents and corporation government." But the governor, council and burgeffes, no fooner heard of the transaction, than they transmitted an explicit difavowal of it. They fent alfo an addrefs to King Charles, acknowledging his bounty and favour toward them, and earnestly defiring to continue under his immediate protection. In 1642, they declared in the form of an act," that they were born under mo narchy, and would never degenerate from the condition of their births, by being fubject to any other government." Nothing could be more acceptable than this act, which being presented to the King at York, drew from him an answer, in which he gave them the fullest affurances, that they should be always, immediately dependent upon the crown, and that the form of government fhould never be changed.

They remained unalterably attached to the caufe of their fovereign. But when the Commons of England had triumphed over their European opponents, their attention was turned to the plantations; and an ordinance was paffed in October, 1650, “for prohibiting trade with Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda and Antego." It recited, that" in Virginia, and other places in America, there are colonies, which were planted at the coft, and fettled by the people, and by the authority of this nation, which ought to be fubordinate to, and dependent upon England--that they ever have been, and ought to be, fubject to such laws and regulations as are, or fhall be made by the Parliament-that divers acts of rebellion have been committed by many perfons inhabiting Virginia, whereby they have fet up themselves in oppofition to this commonwealth." It there, fore declared them "notorious robbers and traitors." PERSONS IN POWER GENERALLY REASON ALIKE AGAINST THOSE WHO OP: POSE THEIR AUTHORITY, AND DISPUTE THE LEGALITY OR C &

EQUITY

EQUITY OF THEIR MEASURES, whatever might be their fentiments when in a lower ftation, and while aggrieved by fuperiors: The ordinance authorifed the Council of State to fend a fleet thither, and to grant commiffions to proper persons to enforce to obedience all fuch as flood opposed to the authority of Parliament. In confequence hereof commiffioners were appointed, and a powerful fleet and army detached to reduce all their enemies to fubmifion. They were to ufe their endeavours, by granting pardons and by other peaceful arts, to induce the colonists to obey the state of England: but if these means fhould prove ineffectual, then they were to employ every act of hoftility; to free those fervants and slaves, of masters oppofing the government, that would ferve as foldiers to fubdue them; and to caufe the acts of Parliament to be executed, and juftice to be administered in the name of the Commonwealth. After the arrival of the commiffioners with the naval and military force, the Virginians refused to fubmit, till articles of furrender had been agreed upon, by which it was ftipulated, "The plantation of Virginia, and all the inhabitants thereof, fhall enjoy fuch freedoms and privileges as belong to the free people of England. The General Affembly, as formerly, fhall convene and tranfact the affairs of the colony. The people of Virginia shall have a free trade, as the people of England, to all places, and with all nations. Virginia fhall be free from all taxes, customs, and impofitions whatsoever; and none shall be imposed on them without confent of the General Affembly; and neither forts nor caftles fhall be erected, nor garrifons maintained without their confent.*"

This convention, entered into with arms in their hands, they fup-1 pofed had fecured the ancient limits of their country; its free trade; its exemption from taxation but by their own Assembly, and exclufion of military force from among them. Yet in every of these points was this convention violated by fubfequent kings and parliaments, and other infi actions of their conftitution, equally dangerous, committed. The General Affembly, which was compofed of the council of state and burgeffes, fitting together and deciding by plurality of voices, was fplit into two houfes, by which the council obtained a feparate negative on their laws. Appeals from their fupreme court, which had been fixed by law in their General Assembly, were arbitranly removed to England, to be there heard before the king and

Bland's Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies.

council.

council. Instead of four hundred miles on the fea coaft, they were reduced, in the space of thirty years, to about one hundred miles. Their trade with foreigners was totally fuppreffed, and, when carried to Great-Britain, was there loaded with impofts. It is unneceffary, however, to glean up the feveral inftances of injury, as scattered through American and British hiftory; and the more efpecially, as, by paffing on to the acceffion of the prefent king, we fhall find fpecimens of them all, aggravated, multiplied, and crowded within a a fmall compass of time, fo as to evince a fixed design of confidering the rights of the people, whether natural, conventional, or chartered, as mere nullities. The colonies were taxed internally; their effential interest facrificed to individuals in Great-Britain; their legiflatures fufpended; charters annulled; trials by juries taken away; their perfons fubjected to transportation across the Atlantic, and to trial before foreign judicatories; their fupplications for redrefs thought beneath answer; themselves published as cowards in the councils of their mother country and courts of Europe; armed troops fent among them to enforce fubmiffion to these violences; and actual hoftilities commenced against them. No alternative was prefented but refistance or unconditional fubmiffion. Between these there could be no hesitation. They clofed in the appeal to arms. They declared themselves Independent States. They confederated together in one great republic; thus fecuring to every State the benefit of an union of their whole force. They fought-they conquered-and obtained an honourable and glorious peace.

KENTUCKY.

Though the war which took place between England and France in the year 1755, terminated fo glorioufly to Great-Britain, and fecurely for the then colonies, ftill we remained ignorant of the whole of the fine country lying between the high hills, which rife from Great Sand river, approximate to the Allegany mountain, and extending down the Ohio to its confluence with the Miffiffippi, and back to thofe ridges of nountains which traverse America in a south-west-bywest direction, until they are loft in the flat lands of Weft-Florida. However, certain men, called Long Hunters, from Virginia and North-Carolina, by penetrating thefe mountains, which ramify into a country two hundred miles over from eaft to weft, called the wildernefs, were fafcinated with the beauty and luxuriance of the country on the western fide.

A grant

A grant had been fold by the Six Nations of Indians to fome British commiffioners at fort Stanwix, in 1768, which comprehended this country, and which afforded the Americans a pretext for a right to fettle it; but thofe Indian natives who were not concerned in the grant, became diffatisfied with the profpect of a fettlement which might become fo dangerous a thorn in their fide, and committed fome maffacres upon the first explorers of the country. However, after the expedition of Lord Dunmore, in 1774, and the battle at the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, between the army of Colonel Lewis and the confederated tribes of Indians, they were in fome measure quiet. The Affembly of Virginia began now to encourage the peopling that district of country called Kentucky, from the name of a river which runs nearly through the middle of it. This encouragement confifted in offering four hundred acres of land, to every person who engaged to build a cabin, clear a piece of land, and produce a crop of Indian corn. This was called a fettlement right. Some hundreds of these settlements were made; but, in the mean time, Mr. Richard Henderfon, of North-Carolina, a man of confiderable abilities, and more enterprife, had obtained a grant from the Cherokee tribe of Indians for this fame tract of country; and though it was contrary to the Jaws of the land for any private citizen to make purchates of the Indians, ftill Mr. Henderson perfevered in his intention of establishing a colony of his own. He actually took poffeffion of the country, with many of his followers, where he remained pretty quiet, making very little improvement, Virginia being at that time entirely occupied with the war, which had commenced between Great-Britain and the confederated States. Most of the young men from the back settlements of Virginia and Pennsylvania, who would have migrated to this country, having engaged in the war, formed that body of men, called Rifle-men; which not only checked the growth of the fettlement, but fo dried up the fources of emigration, that it was near being annihilated by the fury of the favages.

The legality of Mr. Henderson's claim was investigated by the State of Virginia in 1781; and though, according to existing laws, there could be no fort of equity in it, he having acted in contempt of the State, the legiflature, to avoid feuds or disturbances, for Mr. Henderson had confiderable influence, agreed, as an indemnification for the expenfe and trouble he had been at, that he should be allowed. a tract of country twelve miles fquare, lying in the forks of the Ohio and Green rivers: a tract of his own chufing.

Virginia

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »