Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant Part 16

Because of his work, peace would have prevailed between all confessors of the Trinity and laws curtailing religious freedom would have been annulled; had not the Tidewater clergy bestirred themselves and fanned to flame the last expiring embers of intolerance in Virginia.

He died in 1761; at the time head of what is now Princeton University, having succeeded Jonathan Edwards as president.

After Davies' efforts ended, other influences at work ultimately brought about the result.

The non-conformists through immigration, natural causes and religious teachings, grew rapidly in strength and influence and became aggressive.

Presbyterian ministers no longer thought of applying in person at the capital, Williamsburg, for license and location as required under the Act, but preached the word of G.o.d "wherever duty and conscience inspired them." This was particularly true in the remoter settlements west of the Blue Ridge.

The French-Indian war was highly favorable to the growth of religious liberty. The non-conformist frontier settlements stood as a barrier to Indian invasion and bore the brunt of the struggle. Tidewater, Virginia, felt grateful towards the Presbyterians and for that reason was inclined to give a liberal construction to the Act.

In 1755, just when the colony was feeling most heavily the burden incident to this war, the clergy of the English Church, who were paid from the public treasury, made demand for increased salaries. Though backed by the King, the demand was unpopular and the colonists were slow in complying; whereupon the clergy inst.i.tuted a test Suit, known as the Parsons' case, to recover damages.

Patrick Henry was employed to represent certain citizens in opposition to the parsons. At the time he was an unknown, ungainly and somewhat dissipated young lawyer. It was his first big case. In the beginning he was almost too embarra.s.sed to speak, but as he talked he gained confidence, until with great eloquence and pa.s.sion he a.s.sailed the clergy and finally the King; declaring that the Burgesses of Virginia were "the only authority which could give force to the laws for the government of the colony;" one of the first public utterances declaring for self-government for the colony.

When the case was submitted the jury was peremptorily instructed to find for the plaintiff; and they did so by awarding damages in the sum of one penny. It was a great victory for Henry; the beginning of his greatness and popularity.

The clergy, incensed by the verdict, inst.i.tuted proceedings for violations of the Act of Toleration. Under these persecutions and counter attacks inst.i.tuted by the non-conformists charging the conformist clergy with habits of dissipation, Toryism and of laying upon them increased burdens of taxation, the colony was greatly disturbed.

Conformist attacks were chiefly against the Baptists; the Presbyterians had grown too strong. They charged the Baptists with being followers of the German Anabaptists; and predicted horrors similar to those of Munster.

Three Baptist preachers, James Chiles, John Waller and Lewis Craig, were arrested; but were offered their release if they would discontinue preaching. They declined. As they were being carried to prison through the streets of Fredericksburg they sang: "Broad is the way that leads to death;" and while confined, preached to the people who congregated beneath the windows of the jail.

They were arraigned for "preaching the gospel contrary to law." Patrick Henry, when he heard the charge arose and said: "What do I hear read?

Did I hear an expression that these men whom Your Worships are about to try for misdemeanor are charged with preaching the Gospel of the Son of G.o.d?"

The result of these persecutions made the conformist clergy yet more unpopular; more of the people became non-conformists, until they numerically exceeded the conformists. Then the non-conformists a.s.sumed the role of aggressor; objected to the term dissenter, demanded the repeal of all acts of toleration, religious freedom for all and that the clergy of no sect be paid by general taxation.

Tory influence dominated the conformist clergy; the non-conformist preachers, advocating religious liberty, quite naturally became the first advocates of civil liberty and freedom for the colonies. Thus in the issue that brought about the Revolution, one side of the religious controversialists favored the colony, the other the king; and by the end of the struggle the conformist or English Church was practically non-existent.

Rev. Donald McDonald, going to Williamsburg in the spring of 1772 to lobby against the Bill, "To Regulate His Majesty's Protestant Subjects,"

was forced to remain indefinitely. Of necessity he gave up his church in the valley; and in order to make a living, accepted the call of a small church in Williamsburg.

Here he made the acquaintance of and was vastly aided in his fight for religious freedom by Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee and Edmund Pendleton; three of whom were members and vestrymen of the English Church. Each being members of the Upper House of a.s.sembly bore the t.i.tle of Esquire, which, though now used indiscriminately, was then a t.i.tle of great respect.

In the old Bruton Church of Williamsburg, a commemorative tablet is inscribed: "To the glory of G.o.d and in memory of the members of the committee which drafted the law establishing religious freedom in Virginia; Thomas Jefferson, vestryman of St. Ann's Parish; Edmund Pendleton, vestryman of Drysdale Parish; George Wyth, vestryman of Bruton Parish; George Mason, vestryman of Truro Parish; Thomas Ludwell Lee, vestryman of Overwharton Parish; being all members of the committee."

It was George Mason of Gunston Hall, vestryman of Truro Parish, who wrote the Virginia Bill of Rights; and it was copied by Jefferson in preparing the Declaration of Independence.

In the Virginia Bill of Rights it is declared: "That religion is the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and conviction, nor by force or violence; and therefore that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate."

Jefferson has come down as "The father of modern democracy and religious toleration." It was his bill establishing religious freedom, beginning: "Well aware that Almighty G.o.d hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment or burdens or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness * *

*" that Virginia in territory, then an empire, established perfect religious freedom.

The Bill of the Virginia General a.s.sembly, of December 17, 1785, slightly modified and pushed through by James Madison and Patrick Henry, became the First Amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States.

CHAPTER VIII.-The Awakening of Virginia.

The result of the French-Indian war destroyed the chance of France to dominate America; and gave birth to a new issue; whether America should be a British Colony or an independent sovereignty.

Virginia had always been the most favored of the colonies and responded with the kindest feeling for the Mother Country. Long after Ma.s.sachusetts had proven a refractory daughter, Virginia, better satisfied, seemed to New England to lack independence of spirit, political skill, and to possess only a dormant sense of liberty.

The propaganda of the non-conformists, declaring for civil and religious liberty, suddenly gripped most potently the conformist or Tidewater families, who overnight, seemed to throw off their lethargy; and thenceforth exhibited such valor, high patriotism and broad statesmanship as to give them first place in the struggle for liberty and domination of America for the next two generations. History, however, shows that there was no sudden change of sentiment.

Gradual and ever-breaching causes, preceded the transition; among them the Stamp Acts, the Boston Port Bill, the enactment of laws by Parliament directing that colonists charged with treason should be transported to England for trial, and Lord Dunmore's mistaken policies while Governor of the colony. The colony as early as 1624, by its a.s.sembly had declared: "* * * that it and none other" had power to levy colonial taxes. Charles II in 1676 had conceded this by declaring that "taxes ought not to be laid on the inhabitants of the colony except by its own general a.s.sembly." This policy had never been questioned nor violated until the advisers of George III in 1764 proposed that the colonies should pay a portion of the debt incurred by the war with France; which they said was but fair as a portion of the debt accrued from aid given the colonies. The proposition, met with indignant protest and opposition.

In March, 1765, the Stamp Act was pa.s.sed by Parliament. When it came up for discussion in the Virginia House of Burgesses, the division was a close one and great excitement prevailed. Patrick Henry offered a resolution, that: "The General a.s.sembly of this Colony has the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this Colony."

His speech in favor of the resolution was frequently interrupted by cries of "Treason," "Traitor." In closing these cries caused him to exclaim: "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell and George the Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it." The resolution carried by a bare majority.

When Virginia's action was officially noticed, Pitt speaking against the Act said: "I rejoice that America has resisted! Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to have made slaves of all the rest. I know the valor of your troops, the force of this country; but in such a case success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like a strong man; she would embrace the pillars of the state and pull down the const.i.tution with her."

In March, 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed.

In 1767, because of riotous opposition in New England to a new revenue act, placing a tax on paper, gla.s.s and tea, two English regiments were sent over and quartered in Boston. In 1770 this Act was repealed except as to the duty on tea; which was not retained for the purpose of revenue but to discipline the colonists; to show them that Britain had the power to tax; as it was declared by its advocates that it should remain, "till America is prostrate at our feet."

Virginians were more exercised over the law directing that those accused of treason should be transported to the mother country for trial than by the tax on tea. The Burgesses met and pa.s.sed resolutions declaring such transportation and trial an act of tyranny.

During this excitement Lord Botetourt, the most popular of the colonial governors, died and was succeeded by Lord Dunmore, the most unpopular.

From the beginning of his administration he seems to have been obsessed with the idea of subduing what he termed "the lawless and traitorous spirit of the colonists."

In 1773, Parliament pa.s.sed a new Act insisting without equivocation upon England's right to transport her colonial subjects across the sea for trial. The direct result was the adoption of a resolution by the Virginia a.s.sembly making provision for the appointment of a Committee of Correspondence, who were directed to co-operate with the other colonies and organize for action. All opposition until then had been without concerted action between the detached colonies. This committee was composed of ten members, including Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and Edmund Pendleton.

Ma.s.sachusetts, the first to engage in overt acts of rebellion, was logically the first sufferer. Virginia was drawn into the struggle at a later period; not in revenge for oppression but in devotion to the cause of liberty and because of sympathy, and co-operated with her northern neighbors.

Boston, on May 10, 1774, received news of the pa.s.sage of the Port Bill, closing Boston Harbor. She notified the other colonies and asked their support by declaring an embargo against British commerce.

This communication was received at Williamsburg on the 29th of May.

Several days before Governor Dunmore had dissolved the Colonial a.s.sembly because it had pa.s.sed a resolution expressing sympathy for Ma.s.sachusetts. Quite a few of the members were yet in Williamsburg; and they met and drafted the call for the First Virginia Convention. This was signed by Jefferson, Henry, Lee, Washington, Randolph and twenty other members of the House of Burgesses.

Randolph was elected president of the First Convention. During the six-day session it pa.s.sed resolutions expressing sympathy with Boston and discussed means of aiding that city. The spirit of the convention is shown by what was said by Washington, a member: "I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense and march myself at their head for the relief of Boston."

After the adjournment of the First Continental Congress all the colonies prepared for war. In Virginia a committee of safety was appointed in every county and six thousand "minute men" were mustered into service.

On March 20, 1775, the Second Virginia Convention met at Richmond in St.

John's Church, because Williamsburg, patrolled by Lord Dunmore's marines, was not a safe place for patriots voicing rebellion. Edmund Pendleton was elected its president.

When Henry submitted his resolution to the convention "for embodying, arming and disciplining the militia," many voted against it; showing that a respectable number yet desired peace. These pacifists caused Henry to make his great speech: "* * * If we wish to be free we must fight. It is too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. The war is inevitable, let it come! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

His resolution, because of the opposition of Pendleton, Nicholas, Harrison and Bland, would have been defeated except for his eloquence, though he was supported by Lee and Jefferson. Its adoption, coupled with his speech of "War is inevitable, let it come!" defined Virginia's position; not only to the colonies but to the world.

After many prorogations of the House of Burgesses, it was convened on June 1, 1775, to consider "Lord North's Compromise;" a separate offer of peace to Virginia.

Peyton Randolph left the Second Continental Congress to be present at its deliberations. As he approached Williamsburg, a procession of several companies of horse and foot, equipped as though for instant service, met and escorted him to the Capitol.