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VIRGINIA RETAINS ITS LIBERTIES.

193

V.

Aug

26.

ment to Englishmen in America. It could accomplish CHAP no more. The members were probably willing to escape from a concern which promised no emolument, 1624 and threatened an unprofitable strife; the public acquiesced in the fall of a corporation which had of late maintained but a sickly and hopeless existence; and it was clearly perceived, that a body rent by internal factions, and opposed by the whole force of the English court, could never succeed in fostering Virginia. The fate of the London company found little sympathy; in the domestic government and franchises of the colony, it produced no immediate change. Sir Francis Wyatt, though he had been an ardent friend of the London company, was confirmed in office; and he and his council, far from being rendered absolute, were only empowered to govern "as fully and amplye as any governor and council resident there, at any time within the space of five years now last past." This term of five years was precisely the period of representative government; and the limitation could not but be interpreted as sanctioning the continuance of popular assemblies. The king, in appointing the council in Virginia, refused to nominate the imbittered partisans of the court faction, but formed the administration on the principles of accommodation. The vanity of the 1625 monarch claimed the opportunity of establishing for the colony a code of fundamental laws; but death pre- Mar vented the royal legislator from attempting the task, which would have furnished his self-complacency so grateful an occupation.

1 Hazard, i. 189. 192. Burk, ii. 11, from ancient records. VOL I.

25

27

194

CHAPTER VI.

CHAP.

VI.

Mar.

27.

RESTRICTIONS ON COLONIAL COMMERCE.

ASCENDING the throne in his twenty-fifth year, Charles I. inherited the principles and was governed 1625 by the favorite of his father. The rejoicings in consequence of his recent nuptials, the reception of his bride, and preparations for a parliament, left him little leisure for American affairs. Virginia was esteemed by the monarch as the country producing tobacco; its inhabitants were valued at court as planters, and prized according to the revenue derived from the staple of their industry. The plantation, no longer governed by a chartered company, was become a royal province and an object of favor; and, as it enforced conformity to the church of England, it could not be an object of suspicion to the clergy or the court. The king felt an earnest desire to heal old grievances, to secure the personal rights and property of the colonists, and to promote their prosperity. Franchises were neither conceded nor restricted; for it did not occur to his pride, that, at that time, there could be in an American province any thing like established privileges or vigorous political life; nor was he aware that the seeds of liberty were already germinating on the borders of the April Chesapeake. His first Virginian measure was a proclamation on tobacco; confirming to Virginia and the Somer Isles the exclusive supply of the British market,

9.

VIRGINIA RETAINS ITS FRANCHISES.

195

VI.

1625.

under penalty of the censure of the star-chamber for CHAP. disobedience. In a few days, a new proclamation ap-~~ peared, in which it was his evident design to secure May the profits that might before have been engrossed by 13. the corporation. After a careful declaration of the forfeiture of the charters, and consequently of the immediate dependence of Virginia upon himself, a declaration aimed against the claims of the London company, and not against the franchises of the colonists, the monarch proceeded to announce his fixed resolution of becoming, through his agents, the sole factor of the planters. Indifferent to their constitution, it was his principal aim to monopolize the profits of their industry; and the political rights of Virginia were established as usages by his salutary neglect.'

There is no room to suppose that Charles nourished the design of suppressing the colonial assemblies. For some months, the organization of the government was not changed; and when Wyatt, on the death of his father, obtained leave to return to Scotland, Sir George 1626 Yeardley was appointed his successor. This appointment was in itself a guaranty, that, as "the former interests of Virginia were to be kept inviolate," so the representative government, the chief political interest, would be maintained; for it was Yeardley who had had the glory of introducing the system. In the commission now issued, the monarch expressed his desire to benefit, encourage and perfect the plantation; "the same means, that were formerly thought fit for the maintenance of the colony," were continued; and the power of the governor and council was limited, as

1 Hazard, i. 202–205. Burk, ii. 14, 15.
2 Letter of the privy council, in Burk, ii. 18.
3 Hazard, i. 230–234.

Mar.

4.

VI.

CHAP. it had before been done in the commission of Wyatt, by a reference to the usages of the last five years. In that period, representative liberty had become the cus tom of Virginia. The words were interpreted as favoring the wishes of the colonists; and King Charles, intent only on increasing his revenue, confirmed, perhaps unconsciously, the existence of a popular assembly. The colony prospered; Virginia rose rapidly 1627. in public estimation; in one year, a thousand emigrants arrived; and there was an increasing demand for all the products of the soil.

Nov.

The career of Yeardley was now closed by death. Posterity will ever retain a grateful recollection of the man who first convened a representative assembly in the western hemisphere; the colonists, announcing his decease in a letter to the privy council, gave at the same time a eulogy on his virtues; the surest evidence Nov. of his fidelity to their interests. The day after his burial, Francis West was elected his successor; 2 for the council was authorized to elect the governor, "from time to time, as often as the case shall require."

14.

1628.

But if any doubts existed of the royal assent to the continuance of colonial assemblies, they were soon reJune moved by a letter of instructions, which the king ad16. dressed to the governor and council. After much

caviling, in the style of a purchaser who undervalues the wares which he wishes to buy, the monarch arrives at his main purpose, and offers to contract for the whole crop of tobacco; desiring, at the same time, that an assembly might be convened to consider his part proposal. This is the first recognition, on the of a Stuart, of a representative assembly in America.

1 Burk, ii. 22, 23.

2 Hening, i. 4.

3 Hazard i. 233.

4 Burk, ii. 19, 20. Hening, i. 129.

SIR JOHN HARVEY'S ADMINISTRATION.

197

VI.

Mar.

Hitherto, the king had, fortunately for the colony, CHAP. found no time to take order for its government. His zeal for an exclusive contract led him to observe and to sanction the existence of an elective legislature. The assembly, in its answer, firmly pro- 1629. tested against the monopoly, and rejected the con- 26. ditions which they had been summoned to approve. The independent reply of the assembly was signed by the governor, by five members of the council, and by thirty-one burgesses. The Virginians, happier than the people of England, enjoyed a faithful representative government, and, through the resident planters who composed the council, they repeatedly elected their own governor. When West designed to embark for Europe, his place was supplied by election.1

No sooner had the news of the death of Yeardley 1628. reached England, than the king proceeded to issue a commission to John Harvey. The tenor of the instrument offered no invasions of colonial freedom; but while it renewed the limitations which had previously been set to the executive authority, it permitted the council in Virginia, which had common interests with the people, to supply all vacancies occurring in their body. In this way direct oppression was rendered impossible.

3

to

1629

It was during the period which elapsed between 1628 the appointment of Harvey and his appearance in America, that Lord Baltimore visited Virginia. The zeal of religious bigotry pursued him as a Romanist ; 3 and the intolerant jealousy of Popery led to memorable results. Nor should we, in this connection, forget the hospitable plans of the southern planters; the people

1 Hening, i. 134-137. Burk, ii. 24.

2 Hazard, i. 234-239.

3 Records, in Burk, ii. 24, 25 Hening, i. 552.

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