THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.
TO THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA.

In the further prosecution of this important subject we present our readers with the following letters.-[Ed. Mess.

EDITOR SOU. LIT. MESSENGER.

Dear Sir:-Every one who has looked with any care into our Virginia history must have been struck with the necessity of procuring those materials which slumber in the English State-Paper Office. This measure is indispensable in completing the ground-work of our history. There are chasms in it, that may in this way alone be supplied; vexed questions that cannot otherwise be set at rest; conflicting and obscure authorities, which, without this additional light, will never be cleared up. The few who study our history have long deplored its deficiences and the almost Turkish apathy of Virginia in regard to matters of this kind. While other States have taken steps to complete the circle of their

historical collections Virginia has slept as long and as sound as Rip Van Winkle on the Catskill mountains. Yet what State is more interested in this enterprise than "the Old Dominion," the oldest, most favored

and most extensive of the colonies?

In regard to the scheme of procuring documents from England:-taking it for granted that they ought to be obtained, the question occurs, whether it is expedient for this State to employ an agent? Mr. Brodhead, of New-York, in the November Messenger, expresses the opinion that the best way is, " for the general government to undertake the duty once for all and not for one particular State, but for the whole union," and he accordingly proposes that a special agent, commissioned by the President of the United States, should be sent out for that purpose. He argues that the repeated applications of the several States will annoy the British government and be attended with much difficulty and embarrassment to the agents.

Now, admitting this objection in its full force, it would seem to imply the necessity of the diplomatic intervention of the federal government, in procuring from the British government a general standing permission for the agents of the several States, to take copies of historical documents and yet leave open the question, whether the transcription could be more conveniently effected by one federal agent or by the agents of the several States?

Another objection suggested by Mr. Brodhead, is, that the younger and less wealthy States may not feel at liberty to incur the expenditure of an agency and yet may look with mortification at the results of their neighbors' efforts.

But since it appears that under the cautious regulations of the British government, records of colonial history alone are accessible to Americans, clearly those States which were never colonies cannot

be directly interested in the affair, and the younger, (being scions of the older States,) instead of being chagrined, would naturally be gratified at the collections made by the mother States.

Another point set forth in favor of the federal agency, is that it would save the expenses of the separate State agencies.

it

But admitting this economical advantage, would imply the ineligibility of separate State agencies? Probably the general government could supply the stationery used by the State governments at much States; yet reasons far weightier even than pecucheaper rates than those paid by the several 26 niary, exclude all idea of any such intervention on the part of the federal government.

But is the scheme of one federal agent feasible? Could such an agent competently meet the wishes of a variety of States? An agent employed to obtain historical materials for New Jersey or South Carolina, for example, must be quite conversant with the historical collections of those States already in possession; to discover what is wanting it is necessary to know what is possessed. Is there any man so minutely acquainted with the local history of 13 colonies? Mr. Tefft of Savannah suggests the plan of securing the services of Mr. Lemon, (who has charge of the State-Paper Office in London,) to superintend the investigation for Virginia as he is engaged to do for Georgia.

The position of Georgia however, in this respect, differs widely from that of Virginia. Georgia has already, by her special agent, Rev. C. W. Howard, secured 22 volumes of colonial documents; she enjoys the advantage of a well-established Historical Society, with an admirable corresponding Secretary in Mr. Tefft; and lastly, while the colonial era of Georgia comprises only 40 years,* that of Virginia extends over 170.

Our entire history includes upwards of 230 years. In the train of influences that during so long a tract of time, have been imperceptibly moulding the popular character, must be learned the genius of our people and the structure of our institutions. The memorials of the past will infuse into the breasts of Virginia youth a warmer patriotism and State-pride and a more generous longing to emulate

"Minds nourished in the wild,

Deep in the unpruned forest, midst the roar
Of cataracts, where nursing nature smiled
On infant Washington."

These recollections, will grow in consequence,
with the extension of territory planted from Virginia,
and their charms will be continually heightened
by the hoary touches of Time.
Respectfully yours,

Richmond, Dec. 4, 1844.

C. CAMPBELL.

* Edmund Burk told the venerable General Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, that he was the most extraordinary man he had ever seen or read of, for he had founded a colony and survived to see it become an independent state.

Richmond, Dec., 16, 1844.

To B. B. MINOR, Esq.

Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger.

MY DEAR SIR :-In answer to your request that I would give my impressions as to the value of the materials for Virginia history to be found in England, I have no hesitation in saying that I concur with you entirely in the opinion that valuable materials may probably be obtained from that quarter, and that measures ought to be taken by our Legislature to procure them.

can of course be made of more use by being examined and arranged, but it will still be far from being complete. After all that exists in our country, either in print or manuscript, shall be reduced to order, it will constantly be found that something more is wanting to make what we have of value.

When in Boston, last summer, I learnt from Mr. Bancroft that he was in correspondence with Robert Lemon, Esq., of the State Paper Office in England, and had obtained, or expected to obtain, from him some matter which he, (Mr. Bancroft,) wanted in writing his History of the United States. Upon my remarking to Mr. Bancroft that it would be very desirable to have some information in Virginia as to the nature of the papers in that office relating to our early history and the probable cost of copies, he politely offered to make some inquiry of Mr. Lemon on the subject, and 1688, (being some years after Bacon's rebellion, and the date of the revolution in England,) was mentioned as the period to which the inquiry should, in the first instance, extend. About a fortnight ago, I received a letter from Mr. Bancroft, forwarding the following extract from a letter which he had just received from

Mr. Lemon.

In the recess of the courts, during the past summer, after completing the second volume of my Reports, I became interested in exploring the materials for our history to be found in Virginia and in our Northern cities, and was pleased to find them so full for the period from 1607 to 1625. The Government was then exercised under the charters granted the treasurer and company of adventurers, and with a view of forwarding the settlement, those who adventured made publications as to the state of the colony almost every year in pamphlet form. We have few of these pamphlets in Virginia, but great care has been taken to col- "With respect to the Virginia papers prior to lect them in the Northern libraries, and many are to 1688, in the State Paper Office, they are not published by Mr. Peter Force in his three volumes very voluminous and I think, from the cursory of historical tracts. Some, however, of conside-glance I was able to take of them, that the cost of rable interest have not yet been published by him- copies would be between £80 and £100. But amongst others the pamphlet of Smith, published Virginia, our first and dearest child, is so much at London in 1608 and the history of Ralph Ha- the colony of history and romance, that the memomor, Secretary of the colony, printed at London rials of her rise and progress are scattered throughin 1615. Besides the various cotemporaneous pub-out various repositories. The Cottonian, Harleian lications, including the work commonly known as and Lansdown collections, the privy council, OxSmith's History, there is the manuscript journal of ford and Cambridge all contain papers relating to the company from the 28th of April 1619 to the it. If it be intended to form a general collection 7th of June 1624, (of which one copy was be- of all documents relating to Virginia, down to queathed by the will of the late John Randolph, 1688, (and a most noble work it would be,) all and another exists in the library of Congress,) and those depositories must be consulted. The exthere is other manuscript matter in the same libra-pense of such a compilation could only be estimated ry and in the General Court Office. From these by a knowledge of the extent to which the work different sources, with the aid of Stith's history and would be carried.”

the statutes at large, a tolerably correct history of This letter has strongly confirmed me in the imthe Government, laws and jurisprudence of Virgi-pression that what we want from England cannot nia might probably be prepared for the period above be obtained through individual enterprise alone. mentioned, from 1607 to 1625. There is no adequate inducement to an individual But this would be only 18 years out of 237. to incur the expense: the inducement to the State From 1626 until after the time of Bacon's rebel- ought to be deemed abundantly sufficient. It seems lion, the materials are often extremely defective. to me that the Executive should be authorized to The cotemporaneous publications are few and far take the proper steps to effect the object, and that between, and the records of the General Court the Legislature should make a suitable appropriavery imperfect. The contents of many of the tion for the purpose. record books indicate that on more than one occasion, after a fire, such documents as escaped being burnt, were copied together in books with every variety of matter in the same volume and without any regard to chronological order. This matter

VOL. XI-7

I remain,

With respect and esteem,

Yours, &c.,

CONWAY ROBINSON.

MR. EDITOR.

In your paper upon "The Colonial History of Virginia" you invite letters from members of the Legislature and others who feel an interest in the subject.

Knowing that I am embraced by the latter part of your invitation, I desire to evince the deep interest I feel, by seconding and enforcing the appeal, which you have so properly and seasonably made.

It is only when such matters are to be considered when Education, Literature and the honor of the State, apart from party struggles and interests, claim the public attention and liberality, that I wish to be a legislator. If I could only succeed in imparting to our present legislature the convictions and aspirations of my own mind, in reference to the true honor and fame of our State, more than you have asked would be instantaneously granted. England's stores of colonial records would soon be searched and, so far as was permitted by her, made our own.

As an appropriation of money will become necessary to carry out the plan you have proposed, it will be all important to view the subject in a pecuniary light. Let us thus consider it.

terests-moral and physical. All plans for internal improvement must be prospective in their nature, requiring time for their completion and making continuous draughts upon the Treasury. An appropriation to procure materials for the History of the State can be made at once and the end speedily accomplished. The small sum that will be necessary will not in the least check the liberality of the State. Five thousand dollars would probably be sufficient to procure all that is necessary from England; and how inconsiderable is this sum in comparison with the resources of the State and the great benefits proposed to be secured. If five thousand dollars were now to be appropriated towards sending an historical agent to England, who would feel, or even know that there was less to give to Internal Improvement, Education, or any other object of deep State concern? Had I a vote and even a jealous and grumbling constituency, I would not hesitate to appropriate whatever sum might be necessary fully to carry out your proposition. But no measure would prove more acceptable to the people. They and their children have long wanted a history of the State and that can not be written without materials to be procured only from England. When these are obtained that history will be written.

I have dwelt upon this topic because nothing can be done without money, and our legislators should be so appealed to as to induce them to incur the necessary expense of the mission that is recommended to them.

A few years since, Mr. William G. Minor, a native of Virginia, but resident in Missouri, addressed an eloquent letter to the Hon. Thomas W. Gilmer, then our Governor, containing " a plea

The financial condition of Virginia is a source of unaffected congratulation. Her credit unimpeached and unimpeachable; her stocks far above par, and a surplus of one hundred thousand dollars in her treasury. It is true that various calls are now made for large and expensive undertakings. But what of this? How little would it subtract from all these, or from any of them, to give even $10,000 towards completing her records and her history. A mere drop in the ocean would even for the preservation" of our Colonial history. It this sum be, compared with the stupendous schemes of internal improvement which are now in agitation. And is not that for which we plead a first work? Who would lavish his fortune in the maintenance of a son at a costly university, and deny him the small pittance that would send him to a primary school? Who would call this improvement? It is first necessary to establish, to study, to illustrate the past before we launch forth in schemes for the future. Internal Improvement! To level the surface of the earth, to keep the barrels and bags, and wheels and hoofs from injury! All manner of attention paid to the ease and comfort of the produce of the earth! Thousands expended for these noble objects, and not a pittance to present the sons of the State with the biography of their mother! How external to the hearts and the moral wants of our people is such improvement !

'I do not mean to disparage the important ends of physical improvement, but to deprecate giving every thing to it and little or nothing to objects of paramount importance.

But it is proper to attend to both classes of in

was probably the author's intention and desire that it should be communicated in some way to the Legislature; but the Governor enclosed it to the late Mr. White, and it was published in the Messenger for February 1841. The whole letter is marked by such ability and beauty, that I would heartily commend it to your readers and to the members of the Legislature. I can not forbear to quote from it the following passages:

"It is to be fairly presumed that many records connected with the first settlement of Virginia,-her morals, population, religion, wars, trade, industry, enterprise and the rise and establishment of her political institutions, are preserved in the public offices of England, or may be found, in distinct portions, among the descendants of some of those families, whose ancestors either resided in, or visited Virginia. And there can be no

doubt but that any one empowered by the State of Virginia to visit that country on a business of this nature would be received with courtesy and every avenue of information opened."

66

'It should be the duty of every Virginian to

awaken public attention to this subject. No public works thus published-we say, we wish to bear interest attaches itself to the matter; and even now, publicly our favorable testimony to these decided in the ancestral homes of Virginia, many a priceless good qualities, and, in the name of an agonized MS. is destroyed through ignorance, or suffered to reading public, to return thanks to Messrs. Shepmoulder away from carelessness. The same fate ard & Co. awaits such of the documents of her history as are The volume opens with a poem of thirty-four preserved in the public offices of England; and if pages, entitled "Bernice, or the Curse of Minna." speedy measures are not adopted to gain them from In the space which we have allotted to ourselves, that country, they must be irretrievably lost. New- we can but barely give the frame-work of this York, Georgia and several of the States of the poem, over which the accomplished authoress has Union have, with a commendable liberality, availed spun many bright webs of feeling and beauty. The themselves of these fountains of information. Shall scene opens in that landVirginia, the mother of heroes, statesmen and patriots linger in the race? And must her youth be taught to look for examples in the annals of fickle Greece or unprincipled Rome,-forgetful that their own land is full of every virtue which can In one of the marble palaces of that bright dignify or elevate the human race? No! let us hope clime, with none to mourn her early blight, lay the that there is a spirit among her people which fondly corse of Bernice. She had

cherishes every memorial of her greatness; and that the same feeling which prompted her Legislature in 1819, to preserve her laws, will stimulate her to collect the fading materials of her thrilling and glorious history."

The application you are making cannot be confined to Virginia; for many of the States, especially North and South Carolina, are directly interested in it. I hope their attention will also be awakened; though I sincerely hope they will not be allowed to outstrip Virginia.

Not wishing to trouble you farther, I have the honor to be

WILD FLOWERS, FROM THE WEST.

BERNICE, OR THE CURSE OF MINNA, and other Poems: By Mrs. Rebecca S. Nichols. Cincinnati : Shepard & Co. We herald, with feelings of genuine pleasure, the advent of a book of poetical "Wild Flowers,” of some two hundred pages, which has recently been laid before the public by Mrs. REBECCA S. NICHOLS of Cincinnati, long and favorably known as "Ellen" of the current magazines. The volume is from the press of Shepard & Co of the "Queen City" and the mechanical execution does infinite credit to the book-craft of the West. The paper is of beautiful texture, and as white as the lovefavors of a new-made bride; and the types are large and open, carrying no fears of damaged eyes by an attentive perusal. We wish, in these days of cheap book-making-horrid abortions, thrown forth upon a tortured public from damaged types too small to read "o' nights," and printed upon paper barely one degree removed from respectable tea-paper, and yet all too good for a vast majority of the

"Where azure skies are ever seen,

Where streams are bright, and waves are free-
Land of all lands-fair Italie!"

-"Loved-'not wisely, but too well;'
She sinned!-enough-for who may tell
The shame and agony that came

Too late to save her spotted fame!"

The tempter-Lord Gerald-had crossed her his wiles. He visits the home of Bernice, unconpath, and she fell, "like a stricken flower," beneath scious of her death-and while gazing upon the beautiful wreck of his victim, Minna glides to his side. We quote from the poem:

"But to his side there glides a form,
Like some weird sister of the storm-
Her arms are folded on her breast
That heaves beneath, in its unrest.
Her hair is silvered o'er with age
And time hath left a wrinkled page
Upon the brow-yet on her cheek

The passion-spot in redness glows;
Her very presence seems to break

The spell that hushed that deep repose.
She knelt her down by Gerald's side,

And bent her stern and eager gaze
Upon his cheek, that, sought to hide

Its wanness, in his deep amaze.
Her finger pointed to the dead,
And in a low, clear voice she said:
Thy victim, Lord of Gerald, sleeps,
While the rude spoiler lives and weeps;
Not that she died in early youth-
Not that her fondness and her truth
Will slumber with her in the tomb;
No, not for these-for if the bloom
Of his unholy love had fled

No tear had fallen o'er the dead.
He weeps for what, it matters not-
It may be for his future lot,

For list, proud man! thou shalt go forth,
Nor woman's faith, nor woman's worth,
Shall e'er be known to thee again-
A blight's on all thou would'st attain.
Thou'lt wither like a nameless thing,
That's blasted by the lightning's wing!
But first, remorse shall visit thee-
A mother's curse thou can'st not flee!
And mine shall cling about thy heart

sence, in the imagination, of years, again the reader and a gay cavalcade emerges from the castle gate, meets Lord Gerald, who, under the influence of bearing Gerald and Agnes to the altar, where the Minna's curse, has become a wanderer on the earth. holy man of God performs the sacred ceremony. He is on a vessel's deck, and