CHAP. of New Plymouth were invited to abandon the cold VI and sterile clime of New England, and plant themselves in the milder regions on the Delaware Bay;' a plain indication that Puritans were not then molested in Virginia. Mar. 2 It was probably in the autumn of 1629 that Harvey arrived in Virginia. Till October, the name of Pott 1630 appears as governor; Harvey met his first assembly 24. of burgesses in the following March. He had for several years been a member of the council; and as, at a former day, he had been a willing instrument in the hands of the faction to which Virginia ascribed its earliest griefs, and continued to bear a deep-rooted hostility, his appointment could not but be unpopular. 1630 The colony had esteemed it a special favor from King 1635. James, that, upon the substitution of the royal author to ity for the corporate supremacy, the government had been intrusted to impartial agents; and, after the death of Yeardley, two successive chief magistrates had been elected in Virginia. The appointment of Harvey implied a change of power among political parties; it gave authority to a man whose connections in England were precisely those which the colony regarded with the utmost aversion. As his first appearance in America, in 1623, had been with no friendly designs, so now he was the support of those who desired large grants of land and unreasonable concessions of separate jurisdictions; and he preferred the interests of himself, his partisans and patrons, to the welfare and quiet of the colony. The extravagant language, which exhibited him as a tyrant, without specifying his crimes, was the natural hyperbole of po3 Hening, i. 4, and 147. 1 Burk, ii. 32. SIR JOHN HARVEY'S ADMINISTRATION. 199 Vi. to fitical excitement; and when historians, receiving the CHAP account, and interpreting tyranny to mean arbitrary taxation, drew the inference that he convened no as- 1630 semblies, trifled with the rights of property, and levied 1635 taxes according to his caprice, they were betrayed into extravagant errors. Such a procedure would have been impossible. He had no soldiers at his command; no obsequious officers to enforce his will; and the Virginians would never have made themselves the instruments of their own oppression. The party opposed to Harvey was deficient neither in capacity nor in colonial influence; and while arbitrary power was rapidly advancing to triumph in England, the Virginians, during the whole period, enjoyed the benefit of independent colonial legislation; through the agency of their representatives, they levied and appropriated all taxes, secured the free industry of their citizens,3 guarded the forts with their own soldiers, at their own 1 As an opposite statement has received the sanction, not of Oldmixon, Chalmers, and Robertson only, but of Marshall and of Story (see Story's Commentaries, i. 28, "without the slightest effort to convene a colonial assembly"), I deem it necessary to state, that many of the statutes of Virginia under Harvey still exist, and that, though many others are lost, the first volume of Hening's Statutes at Large proves, beyond a question, that assemblies were convened, at least, as often as follows: Considering how imperfect are the early records, it is surprising that so considerable a list can be established. The instructions to Sir William Berkeley do not first order assemblies; but speak of them as of a thing established. At an adjourned session of Berkeley's first legislature, the assembly declares "its meeting exceeding customary limits, in this place used." Hening, i. 236. This is a plain ibid. 153-177. declaration, that assemblies were ibid. 178-202. the custom and use of Virginia ibid. 202-209. at the time of Berkeley's arrival. ibid. 209–222. If any doubts remain, it would be easy to multiply arguments and references. Burk, ii. App. xlix. li. 2 Hening, i. 171, Act 38. 1630, March, Hening, i. 147-153. 1630, April, ibid. 257. 1633, August, 1634, ibid. 223. 1635, ibid. 223. 1636, ibid. 229. 1637, ibid. 227. 3 Ibid. 172, Act 40. CHAP. charge, and gave to their statutes the greatest possi to VI. ble publicity. When the defects and inconveniences 1630 of infant legislation were remedied by a revised code, 1635. which was published with the approbation of the governor and council,3 all the privileges which the assembly had ever claimed, were carefully confirmed. Indeed, they seem never to have been questioned. 1635 Yet the administration of Harvey was disturbed by divisions, which grew out of other causes than infringements of the constitution. De Vries, who visited Virginia in 1632-3, had reason to praise the advanced condition of the settlement, the abundance of its products, and the liberality of its governor.5 The community would hardly have been much disturbed because fines were exacted with too relentless rigor; but the whole colony of Virginia was in a state of excitement and alarm in consequence of the dismemberment of its territory by the cession to Lord Baltimore. As in many of the earlier settlements, questions about landtitles were agitated with passion; and there was reason to apprehend the increase of extravagant grants, that would again include the soil on which plantations had already been made without the acquisition of an indisputable legal claim. In Maryland, the first occupants had refused to submit, and a skirmish had ensued, in which the blood of Europeans was shed for the first time on the waters of the Chesapeake; and Clayborne, defeated and banisned from Maryland as a murderer and an outlaw, sheltered himself in Virginia, where he had long been a member of the coun 1 Hening, 175, Acts 57 and 58. 4 Ibid. 180-202. See, partic- 5 De Vries, Korte Historiael ende Journals-a rare work, which Ebeling had never seen. 6 Beverley, 48. Bullock, 10. SIR JOHN HARVEY'S ADMINISTRATION. 201 VI. cil. There the contest was renewed; and Harvey, CHAP. far from attempting to enforce the claims of Virginia against the royal grant, sent Clayborne to England to answer for the crimes with which he was charged. The colonists were indignant that their governor should thus, as it seemed to them, betray their interests; and as the majority of the council favored their wishes, "Sir John Harvey was thrust out of his government ; and Captain John West appointed to the office, till the king's pleasure be known." An assembly was summoned in May, to receive complaints against Harvey; but he had in the mean time consented to go to England, and there meet his accusers.1 3. The commissioners appointed by the council to man- 1636 age the impeachment of Harvey, met with no favor in England, and were not even admitted to a hearing.2 Harvey immediately reäppeared to occupy his former Jan. station; and was followed by a new commission, by which his powers were still limited to such as had been exercised during the period of legislative freedom. General assemblies continued to be held; but the vacancies in the council, which had been filled in Virginia, were henceforward to be supplied by appointment in England. Harvey remained in office till 1639. The complaints which have been brought against him, will be regarded with some degree of distrust, when it is considered, that the public mind 3 1 Hening, i. 223, and 4. Old- company, furnishes a tissue of inmixon, i. 240. Oldmixon is un- ventions. Keith, 143, 144, places worthy of implicit trust. Beverley, in 1639 the occurrences of 1635. 48, is not accurate. Campbell's His book is superficial. Virginia, 60-a modest little book. Chalmers, 118, 119, is betrayed into error by following Oldmixon. Burk, ii. 41, 42. Bullock's Virginia, 10. Robertson, in his History of Virginia, after the dissolution of the 2 Burk, ii. 45. Yet Burk cor- 3 Hazard, i. 400-403. VI. CHAP. of the colony, during his administration, was controlled by a party which pursued him with implacable hostility. In April, 1642, two months only after the accession of Berkeley, a public document declares the comparative happiness of the colony under the royal government; a declaration which would hardly have been made, if Virginia had so recently and so long been smarting under intolerable oppression.1 1639. At length he was superseded, and Sir Francis Nov. Wyatt appointed in his stead. Early in the next 1640. year, he convened a general assembly. History has Jan. 1641. Aug. recorded many instances where a legislature has altered the scale of debts: in modern times, it has frequently been done by debasing the coin, or by introducing paper money. In Virginia, debts had been contracted to be paid in tobacco; and when the article rose in value, in consequence of laws restricting its culture, the legislature of Virginia did not scruple to provide a remedy, by enacting that "no man need pay more than two thirds of his debt during the stint ;" and that all creditors should take "forty pounds for a hundred." The artificial increase of the value of tobacco seemed to require a corresponding change in the tariff of debts." After two years, a commission 5 was issued to Sir 9. William Berkeley. Historians, reasoning, from the revolutions which took place in England, that there had been corresponding attempts at oppression and corresponding resistance in Virginia, have delighted 1 Hening, i. 231. 2 Rymer, xx. 484. Hazard, i. 477. Savage on Winthrop, ii. 160, 161. A note by Savage settles a question. Hening, i. 224, and 4. Campbell, 61. But Keith, and Beverly, and Chalmers, and Burk, and Marshall, were ignorant of such a governor as Wyatt, in 1639, and |