The Madisonian., June 10, 1913, Image 9

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(CONTINUED.
But it was one thing to protest
against measures to come and quite
another to - oppose' their execution
when enacted Into laws. - The one -was
constitutional agitation; the other, flat
rebellion little less.
It was very ominous to read the
words of the extraordinary resolutions
passed by the burgesses on the 30th
of May, 1765, after the Btamp act had
become law, and note the tone of re
strained passion that ran through
them. ' ; .
Plain Speech From the Burgesses.
They declared that from the first
the settierb of "his -majesty's colony
and domain" of Virginia had pos
sessed and enjoyed all the privileges,
franchises, and immunities at any
time enjoyed by the people of Great.
Britain itself; and that this their free
dom, had been explicitly secured to
them by their charters, "to all intents
and purposes as if they had been abid
ing and born within the realm of Eng
land;" "that the taxation of the peo
ple by themselves or by -persons
chosen by themselves to represent
them" was "a distinguishing char
rteristic of British freedom without
which the ancient constitution" of the
realm itself could not subsist; "and
that his majesty's liege people of this
most ancient colony" had "uninterrup
tedly enjoyed the right of being thus
governed by their assemblies in the
article of their 'taxes and internal
police," had never forfeited or relin
quished it. and had seen it "constantly
rpfoetmpd by the kings and people of
Great Britain." .
An Uncompromising Conclusion.
Sicken as it was in protest against
actual leg' Nation already adopted by
parliament in direct ' despite of al'i
euch privileges and immunities, this
declaration of rights seemed to lack
its conclusion. The constitutional
rights of Virginians had been - in
vaded. What then? Resolved, there
fore, "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 im
rc?e any taxation whatsoever upon
them, ether than the laws or ordi
nances cf the general assembly afore
srid," arid "that any person who shall,
by speaking or writing, assert or
maintain" te contrary "shall be
deemed an enemy of his majesty's col
ony." Such had been the un compromis
ing conclusion drawn by the m ver
of the resolutions.
What other, conclusion could any
man draw- if he deemed the color Ists
men, and proud men at that?
The Burgesses feared to speak
treason; they were content" to pro
test of their rights, and let the
issue bring conclusions to light.
It had been hot fighting to get oven
that much said. The men hitherto
accepted always as leaders in the
house had wished to hold it back from
rash and heated action, and there had
been bitter debates before even those
significant premises for a revolution
ary conclusion had been forced to
adoption. Old leaders and new, young
men and old alike, had willingly united
in the memorial of 1764; but now that
the Stamp Act was law, conservative
members shrank from - doing what
must look so like a flat defiance of
parliament. - -
Only young men would have had the
audacity to urge such action; only
very extraordinary young men would
have had the capacity to induce the
house to take it But such young men
were at hand,, their leader as veritable
a Democrat as had ever taken the
floor in that assembly.
A Leader From the Plain People."
Patrick Henry was not of the aris
tocracy of the colony. Good Scots
blood ran in his veins, quickened by
the lively strain of an old Welsh stock.
His father came of race of scholars,
and, good churchman though he was,
knew his Livy.and his Horace better
than his Bible. His mother came of
a vivacious line of easy-going wits
and talkers, which had a touch more
of . steadiness and energy might any
day have made' famous. . -
His father had served his county of
Hanover very capably and acceptably
as surveyor, colonel, magistrate, and
his uncle had been beloved as the
faithful pastor of quiet parishes. But
they had been no long time in the col
ony; they lived back from the tide
water counties where the real aristoc
racy had its strength and supremacy;
they were of that middle class of yeomen-gentlemen
who love liberty, but
do not affect rank. - ;
"A vigorous aristocracy favors the
growth of personal eminence even in
those-who are not of it, but only near
it," and these plain .men of the mid
dle counties were the more excellent
and individual in the cultivation of
their powers by reason of the contact.
But there was a touch of rusticity,, a
neglect of polish, a rough candor of
speech .about them which set them
apart and distinguished them sharply
enough when they came into the pres
ence of the courtly andS formal gentle
men who practiced the manners of
London in the river counties. " J
. A Rustic Figure In the Home.
Patrick Henry, rat any rate, must
have seemed a very rustic figure to,
the Burgesses when he first CameJ to
m rmoK-Arr
take his seat amongst them on a May
day in 1765.
He was known, Indeed, to many.
This was the man, they must have
known, who had won so strange a ver
dict from a jutywa years ago in the
celebrated parsons'-ease at Hanover
court house, against the law and the
evidence. But his careless dress and
manner, his loose, ungainly figure, his
listless, absent bearing, must have set
many a courtly member staring.
For such men as Washington, in
deed, there can have been nothing
either strange or unattractive in the
rough exterior and unstudied ways of
the new member. Punctilious though
he was himself in every point of dress
and bearing, Washington's life had
most of it been spent with men who
looked thus, and yet were, stuff of true
courage and rich capacity within. The
manner of a man could count as no
test of quality , with him.
. His experience had covered the
whole variety of Virginian life. He
was an aristocrat by taste, not by prin
ciple. And Patrick Henry had, in
fact, come to the same growth as he
in essential quality and principle,
though by another way. Henry's life
had been wilful, capricious, a bit hap
hazard, Washington's all the while
subject to discipline; but both men
had touched and seen the whole en
ergy of the commonwealth, knew its
hope, could divine its destiny.
. There was but one Virginia, and
they were her children. It could not
take long to bring them to an under
standing and comradeship in affairs.
' A Winner in Debate.
It was characteristic of the new
member that he sboald 6tep at once
and unhesitatingly to a place of lead
ership when debate of the Stamp Act
stirred the house, and that tie should
I
r
Carpenter's Hall.
instantly sweep the majority into his
following with a charm and dash of
eloquence that came like a revelation
upon the quiet 'assembly.
He was but twenty-nine years old,
but -he had sjtent'all his life in learn
ing how the world went, and by .what
manner of speech, it was moved and
governed. He had roamed the woods
with no thought bat for sport, or a
quiet hour with a book or his fancy
in the shape of the trees. He had
kept a country store, and let gossip
and talk of affairs of colony and coun
try side take precedence of business.
Finally he had turned with a per
manent relish to the law, and had set
himself to plead causes for his neigh
bors in a way that made judges stare
and juries surrender at discretion. In
everything he had seemed to read the
passions of men. Books no less than
men; the chance company "of an old
author no less than the constant talk
of the! neighborly land he lived in,
seemed to fill him with the quick prin
ciples of the people and polity to which
he belonged, and to lend him an in
evitably every living phrase in which
to utter'tnem. ' . -; '
His- Power Over Men.
The universal sympathy and Insight
which made his' pleasantry so engag
ing to men of every stamp rendered
his power no less than terrible when
he turned to play upon their passions.
He was not conscious of any audacity
when he sprang to his feet upon the
instant he saw. the house resolved in
to committee to consider the Stamp
Act. It was of the ardor of his nature
to speak when conviction moved him
strongly, without thought of propriety
or precedence; and it was like him
to stand there absorbed, reading his
resolutions from a fly-leaf torn from
an old law-book.
It Beemed no doubt a precious piece
of audacity in the eyes of the pre
scriptive leaders of the house to hear
this almost unknown man propose his
high recital of Virginia's liberties and
his express defiance of parliament
in tones which rang no less clear and
confident upon. the clause which! de
clared "his majesty's liege people" of
the colony In no way bound to yield
obedience, than in the utterance of
the. accepted matter of his premises.
- Astounds the Old Leaders.
Debate flamed up at once, hot, even
passionate. 1 The astounding, ; moving
elouquence or the young advocate, his
tostant hold upon the house, the di
rectness with which he purposed and
executed action' in"so grave a matter,
I3tirred the pulses of his opponents
jihd his followers with an equal power,
and roused those who would have
checked him to a vehemence as great
as hid own. r;7"' r
' The old "leaders; of the house, with
-whom be now stood face to face in
ithln critical business, were the more
formidable -because of the strong rea
ison of their position. No one could
hiRtw doubt that they wished to see
ithe Old Dominionkeep and vindicate
r iriniii,ii)(ni,
.qgaw- - ..-J..,,.--.- - - ;;
her liberty, but they 'deemed it folly
to be thus intemperately beforehand
with the issue. Almost to a man they
were sprung of families who had come
to Virginia, with the . great migration
that had brought the Washlngtons, in
the evil day when so many were 'flee
ing England to be quit of the Puritan
tyranny royalists all, and touched to
the quick with the sentiment of loy
alty. - .; '-.-' v ;"- .
- 'Twas now a long long time since
Cromwell's day, indeed ? generations
had passed, and a . deep passion for
Virginia had been added to that old
reverence for the-wearer "of the" crown
in- England. - But these men - prided
themselves still upon . their ' loyalty ;
made it "appoint of honor to show
themselves no agitators, but constitu
tional statesmen.
It made them grave and deeply anx
ious to see the privileges that ' were
most dear to them thus violated and
denied, but It did not make them hasty
to quarrel with the parliament of the
realm. They had intended opposition,
but they feared to throw their cause
away by defiance.' "Twas as little wise
as dignified, to flout thus at the sover
eign power before all means had been
exhausted to win it to forbearance. '
The Speaker of the House. -
It was not the least part of the diffi
culty to face the veteran's speaker,John
Robinson, so old in affairs, so stately
in his age, so gravely courteous, and
yet. with such a threat of good man
ners against those who should make
breach of the decorous traditions of
the place. But the men chiefly to be
feared were on the floor.
There was Richard Bland, "wary,
old, experienced," with "something of
the look," a Virginian wit said, "of old
musty parchments, which he handleth
and studieth much," author of a
"treatise against the Quakers on
water-baptism;" with none of the gifts
of an orator, but a veritable antiquar
ian in law and the precedents of pub
lic business, a very formidable man in
counsel. Quiet men trusted him, and
thought his prudence very wise. -
George Wythe was no less-learned,
and no less influential. Men knew him
a man of. letters, bringing the knowl
edge of many wise books to the prac
tice of affairs, and set great store by
his sincerity, as artless as it was hu
man, and sweetened with good feeling.
The Elder Orators.
. It made Randolph and Pendleton
and Nicholas, the elder orators of the
house, seem the more redoubtable that
they should have such men as these
at their elbows to prompt and steady
them. And yet they would have been
formidable enough of themselves.
Edmund Pendleton had not; indeed,
the blood or the breeding that gave
his colleagues prestige. He had won
his way to leadership by his own
steady genius for affairs. He read
nothing but law books, knew nothing
but . business, cared for nothing but
to make practical test of his powers.
But he took all his life and purpose
with such a zest, made every stroke
with so serene a self-possession, was
so quick to see and act upon every ad
vantage in his business of debate, and
was withal so transparent, bore him
self with such a grace and charm of
manner, was so obviously right-mind
ed and upright, that it meant a great
deal to the house to hear him inter
vene in its discussions with his me
lodious voice, his cool, distinct, ef
fective elocution.
Robert Carter - Nicholas added to
like talents for business and debate a
reverent piety, a title to be loved and
trusted witnout question, which no
men ever thought to gainsay.
The Loyal Randolph.
- And Peyton Randolph, with his
"knowledge, teca'per, experience, judg
ment, integrity" as of a true Roman
spirit; was a sort of prince among the
rest No man could doubt he wished
Virginia to have her liberties. J He had
gone over sea to speak for her in Din
widdle's day, though he was the king's
attorney, and had lost his office for his
. ooldness. But there were traditions of
loyalty and service in his breeding
which no man might rightly ignore.
ills tatner before him had won
knighthood and the royal favor by long
and honorable service as his majesty's
attorney in the colony.- Pride and loy
alty had gone hand in hand in the an
nals of a proud race, and had won for
the Randolphs a prestige which made
it. impossible Sir John's son should
very long be kept from the office he
had so honorably inherited. And so
Peyton Randolph was now once, again
the king's attorney. ... '
It was not as the king's officer, how.
ever, but as an- experienced parliamen
tary tactician, a ' trained debater, a
sound man of affairs, that he had set
himself to check Henry in his revolu
tionary courses.
"Accused of Treason.
Henry found himself, in truth, pas
sionately set upon. Even threats were
uttered, and abuse such as proud men
find ill to bear. They cried "Treason!
treason!" upon him when he dared de
clare the 'king would do well to look
to the fate, of Caesar and Charles I
for -profitable examples. .,.
But he was not daunted a whit. Tf
this be treason, make the most of it,"
was his defiance to them. - '- ' '
. One ally who might have stood with
him, had he known, was absent. Rich
ard Henry Lee would have brought to
his support a name as ancient and as
honorable as any of the colony, and
an eloquence - scarcely less than his
own. But, as it was, he was left al
most alone, and won his battle -with
no other aid than very plain men could
lend by vote and homely utterance."
The vote was very close, but enough.
Randolph flung out of the house, mut
tering in his heat that he "would have
given five hundred guineas for a sin
gle vote. ;..;
Not Inflated by His Triumph.
JHenry, taking the triumph very slm-
r.
--V - i. '-5 -
ir- - t
Peyton Randolph.
ply, "as "was his wont, and knowlngliis
work for the session done, quietly
made his way homeward that very
day, striding unconcernedly down
Duke of Gloucester street, chatting
with a friend, his legs clad in buck
skin as if for the frontier, his saddle
bags . and the reins, of his lean nag
slung carelessly over his arm.
" The assembly had adopted Henry's
declaration of rights, not his resolu
tion of disobedience, and had softened
a little the language he would have
used; but its action seemed seditious
enough to Fauquier, the governor, and
he promptly dissolved them.
It did little good to send Virginians
home, however, it the object was to
check agitation. The whole manner of
their life bred thought and concert of
action. Where men have leave to be
individual, live separately and with a
proud self-respect, and yet are much
at each other's tables, often in vestry
council together, constantly coming
and going, talking and x planning
throughout all the country side, ac
customed to form their opinions in
league, and yet express each man his
own with a dash and flavor of inde
pendence; where "there Is the leisure
to reflect, the habit of joint efforts in
ousiness, the spirit to be social, and
abundant opportunity to be frank
withal, If you will you may look to
see public views form themselves very
confidently, and as easily without as
semblies as with them.
Washington a Silent Observer.
Washington . had taken no part in
the stormy scenes of the house, but had
sat calmly apart rather, concerned and
thoughtful.
He was not easily caught by the ex
citement of a sudden agitation. He
had the soldier's steady habit of self
possession in the presence of a crisis,
and his own way of holding things at
arms-length for scrutiny "like a bish
op at his prayers," a wag said.
He had a soldier's loyalty, too, and
slowness at rebellion. His thought, nc
doubt, was with the conservative
whatever may have been the light -that
sprang into his quiet eye when Henry's
voice rang out so like a clarion, call
ing Virginia to her standard; and he
went home, upon the dissolution, to
join and aid his neighbors in the slow
discussion which must shape affairs to
an Issue.
"The Virginia Resolutions" had run
like a flame through the colonies
not as the burgesses had adopted
them,, but as Henry had drawn them,
with their express threat of disobe
dience.
Nor was that alL October, 1765,
saw delegates from nine colonies come
together in New York, at-the call of
Massachusetts, to take counsel what
should be done.
Every . one knew that Virginia,
North Carolina and Georgia, the only
"olonies absent from the "congress,"
would . have .sent delegates, too, had
their governors not prevented then:
by the dissolution of their assemblies
before they could act on the calL
Excitement in the Colony.
A deep excitement and concern had
spread everywhere throughout the set
tlements. Not only did the impending
enforcement of the act engross "the
conversation of the speculative part
of the colonists," as Washington wrote
. to Francis Dandridge in London ; it
promised to engross also the ener
gies of very active, and . It might be
very violent, men in many quarters,
and it began to grow evident that
some part of government itself, would
be brought-to a standstill by its prc-
cesse. ;
' "Our courts of adjudicature,' de
clared Washington, "must inevitably
be shut up; 'for it is impossible (or
next of kin to it) tinder our present
circumstances, that the act of parlia
ment can be complied with . . . and
if a stop be put to our Judicial pro
ceedings, I fancy the merchants of
Great Britain trading to the colonies
will not be among the last to wish for
a repeal of If . -1 : : '
; A Bill cf Right:-.:
The congress at New York drew
up nothing less than a bill of rights
and immunities, and sent resolutions
over sea which arretted the attention
of the world. The Virginia assembly
despatched like papers for Itself ; and
Richard Henry Lee, when he had as
sisted to draw its - memorials, hast
ened home to form In his own Cava
lier county a "Westmoreland associa
tion," whose membei-s (four Washing
tons among the resi:) bound them
selves by a solemn covenant to "exert
every faculty- to prevent the execution
of the said stamp act 1A any Instance
whatsoever within tills colony."- The
ministry could not stand the pressure.
They gave way to lord Rockingham,
and the act wns reptsaled. ' ,
Washington Takes It Calmly. .
Meanwhile Washington, his calm
mm
s Tv""-' n
. w :;-.v.-; ""n
A A
temper ..unshaken, was slowly coming
to a clear vision of affairs in all their
significance. Fox hunting did not
cease. He was much in the saddle
and at table with the Fairfaxes, whom
nothing, could shake from their alle
giance, and who looked with sad fore
bodings upon the temper the colony
was in. . - ' - - ' - "
. It was proper ,tbey should speak so
If they demed tt Jwrt, and Washington
had no intolerable for what ' they
urged. But TJedrg Mason the neigh
bor whom he most trusted, was of a
very different mind, and strengthened
and confirmed him in other counsels.
Mason was six years his. senior; a
man, too, cast by ' nature to under
stand men and events, how they must
go and how be f raided. They con
ferred constantly, " at -every turn of
their intimate life, In thjeo. field or in
the library, mounted, or; afoot In the
forests, and, came very deliberately
and soberly to their statesman's view.
Randolph and Pendleton and Wythe
and Bland had themselves turned,
after' the first hesitation, to act with
afdent men like Lee in framing the
memorials to king, lords and commons
which were to go from the burgesses
alon with the resolutions of the
stamp act congress inNew York; and
Washington, who had never hesitated.
but had only gone slowly and with his
eyes open, with that self poise men
had found so striking In him from the
first, came steadily with the rest to
the at last common purpose of reso
lute opposition.
Repeal of the Act.
The repeal of the act came to all
like a great deliverance. .
Governor Fauauier had deemed it
his duty to dissolve the assembly
upon the passage of Henry's resolu
tions, but he had acted without pas
sion In the matter, and had kept the
respect of the men he dealt with. He
was not a man, indeed,' to take public
business very seriously, having been
bred a man of fashion and a courtier
rather than a master of affairs. He
loved gay . company and the deep ex
citement of the gaming table, not the
round of official routine. Affable, gen
erous. elegant, a scholar and real lover
of letters, he vastly preferred the
talk of vivacious women and accom
plished men to the business of thfe
general court, and was a man to be
liked rather than consulted.
A Royalist Governor.
Washington, always admitted to the
intimacy of official circles at Will
amsburg, very likely relished the gal
lant Fauquier better than 'the too offi
clous Dinwiddle. It was, unhappily.
no portent to see a man still devoted
to dissipation at sixty-two, even
though he were governor of one of his
majesty's colonies and a trusted ser
vant of the crown; and Fauquier's
gifts as a man of wit and of Instructed
tastes made his companionship no less
acceptable to Washington than to the
other men of discernment who fre
quented the ballrooms and receptions.
ate formal dinners, and played quiet
games of cards during the brief season
at -the little capital.
. It did not seriously disturb life there
that the governor upheld the power
of parliament to tax, while the bur
gesses strenuously opposed it Wash
ington, for one, did not hesitate on
that account to be seen often in
friendly talk with the governor, or to
accept frequent invitations to the
"palace." He was of the temper
which has so distinguished the nobler
sort of Englishmen In politics; he
might regard, opposition as a public
duty, but he never made it a ground
of personal feeling or private spite.
A Man of Influence.
In a sense, indeed, he had long been
regarded as belonging to official cir
cles in the colony, more intimately
than any other man who did not hold
office. He has been put forward by
the Fairfaxes in his youth; men in
the council and at the head of affairs,
had been his sponsors and friends
from the first; he had been always,
like his brother before him, a member
of one of the chief groups in the col
ony for influence and a confidential
connection withj the public business.
MRS. PRESCOTT had just heard of
the illness of a dear friend. She was
about to leave town that morning for
an extended trip. ; There was no time to
call.' rTurhing to the telephone, she got
the florist and -ordered a choice selection
of Toses sent with her card to the address
bthe invalid. : ;i .
rT. i Without the telephone she would hive, be en
unable to do this little act of kindness. I
TELEGRAPH COMPANY
V5"' ' INCORPORATED
It' was even understood that, he was
himself destined for the council, when
it should be possible to put him in it'
without seeming to give too . great : a
preponderance to the Fairfax interest
already so much regarded in its make
up.
, The first flurry of differing views
and conflicting purposes among . the
Virginian leaders had passed off. The
judgment of high-spirited men every
where sustained Henry- gave him un
mistakable authentication as a leader;
put all public men in the way of un
derstanding their constituents. Some
were bold and 'some were timid, but
all were anlmated-by the same hope
and purpose and few were yet intem
prate 1 ' ' ' ! '
Henry' an Accepted Leader.
"Sensible of the importance of unan
imity among our constituents," said
Jefferson afterwards, looking back to
that time when he was young and in
the first flush of his radical senti
ments, "although we often wished to
have gone faster,' we' slackened our
pace, that our less ardent colleagues
might. keep up. with us; and .they, on
their part, differing nothing, from us
in principle, quickened their gait
somewhat beyond that which their
prudence might of , itself have ad
vised." , ... .,,
Patrick Henry was received to the
place, he had earned ; and although the
older leaders resumed that sway In
.counsel to which their tried skill and
varied experience in affairs fairly en
titled them, there was no longer any
Jealous exclusion of new men. Hen
ry's fame crept through the colonies
as the man who had first spoken the
mind not of Virginians only, but of
all just men, with regard to the liber
ties of Englishmen in America.
Before a year was out Richard
Bland himself, parchment man and
conservative that he was, had written
and published a pamphlet entitled "An
Inquiry into the Rights of the British
Colonies," which said nothing less
than that in all that concerned her
George Mason.
internal affairs Virginia was "a dis
tinct, independent state," though "uni
ted with the parent state by the clos
est league and amity, and under the
same allegiance." A colony "treated
with injury and violence," he exclaim
ed, "is become an alien."
When antiquarians and lawyers,
fresh from poring upon old documents,
spoke thus, there were surely signs of
the times.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
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