CHAPTER XII.

VIRGINIA.-THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT.

AROYAL government was now established in Virginia. To the

colonists themselves the change of authorities was scarcely perceptible. The new administration consisted of a governor and twelve councilors appointed by the crown. The General Assembly of the colony was left undisturbed, and all the rights and privileges of the colonists remained as before. The king's hostility had been directed against the London Company, and not against the State of Virginia; now that the former was destroyed the latter was left unmolested. Governor Wyatt was continued in office; and in making up the new council the king wisely took pains to select the known friends of the colony rather than certain untried partisans of his own court. The Virginians found in the change of government as much cause of gratitude as of grief.

King James of England died in 1625. His son, Charles I., a young, inexperienced and stubborn prince, succeeded to the throne. The new king paid but little attention to the affairs of his American colony, until the commerce in tobacco attracted his notice. Seeing in this product a source of revenue for the crown, he attempted to gain a monopoly of the trade, but the colonial authorities outwitted him and defeated the project. It is worthy of special note that while conferring with the colony on this subject the king recognized the Virginia assembly as a rightfully constituted power. The reply which was finally returned to the king's proposal was signed not only by the governor and council, but by thirty-one of the burgesses.

In 1626 Governor Wyatt retired from office, and Yeardley, the old friend and benefactor of the colonists, was reappointed. The young State was never more prosperous than under this administration, which was terminated by the governor's death, in November of 1627. During the preceding summer a thousand new immigrants had come to swell the population of the growing province.

The council of Virginia had a right, in case of an emergency, to elect a governor. Such an emergency was now present, and Francis

West was chosen by the councilors; but as soon as the death of Yeardley

was known in England, King Charles commissioned John Harvey to assume the government. He arrived in the autumn of 1629, and from this time until 1635, the colony was distracted with the presence of a most unpopular chief magistrate. He seems to have been disliked on general principles, but the greatest source of dissatisfaction was his partiality to certain speculators and land monopolists who at this time infested Virginia, to the annoyance and injury of the poorer people. There were many old land grants covering districts of territory which were now occupied by actual settlers, and between the holders of the lands and the holders of the titles violent altercations arose. In these disputes the governor became a partisan of the speculators against the people, until the outraged assembly of 1635 passed a resolution that Sir John Harvey be thrust out of office, and Captain West be appointed in his place "until the king's pleasure may be known in this matter." A majority of the councilors sided with the burgesses, and Harvey was obliged to go to England to stand his trial.

King Charles treated the whole affair with contempt. The commissioners appointed by the council of Virginia to conduct Harvey's impeachment were refused a hearing, and he was restored to the governorship of the unwilling colony. He continued in power until the year 1639, when he was superseded by Wyatt, who ruled until the spring of 1642.

And now came the English Revolution. The exactions and tyranny of Charles at last drove his subjects into open rebellion. In January of 1642, the king and his friends left London, and repairing to Nottingham, collected an army of royalists. The capital and southern part of the country remained in the power of Parliament. The High Church party and the adherents of monarchy took sides with the king, while the republicans and dissenters made up the opposing forces. The country was plunged into the horrors of civil war. After a few years of conflict the royal army was routed and dispersed; the king escaped to Scotland, and the leading royalists fled to foreign lands. On the demand of Parliament Charles was given up and brought to trial. The cause was heard, a sentence of death was passed, and on the 30th of January, 1649, the unhappy monarch was beheaded.

Monarchy was now abolished. Oliver Cromwell, the general of the Parliamentary army, was made Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England. By him the destinies of the nation were controlled until his death, in 1658, when he was succeeded by his son Richard. But the latter, lacking his father's abilities and courage, became alarmed at the dangers that gathered around him, and resigned. For a few months the

country was in anarchy, until General Monk, who commanded the English army of the North, came down from Scotland and declared a restoration of the monarchy. The exiled son of Charles I. was called home and proclaimed king, the people acquiesced, Parliament sanctioned the measure, and on the 18th of May, 1660, Charles II. was placed on the throne of England.

These were times full of trouble. Virginia shared in some degree the distractions of the mother-country, yet the evil done to the new State by the conflict in England was less than might have been expected. In the first year of the civil war Sir William Berkeley became governor of the colony, and, with the exception of a brief visit to England in 1645, remained in office for ten years. His administration, notwithstanding the commotions abroad, was noted as a time of rapid growth and development. The laws were greatly improved and made conformable to the English statutes. The old controversies about the lands were satisfactorily settled. Cruel punishments were abolished and the taxes equalized. The general assembly was regularly convened to bear its part in the government, and Virginia was in all essential particulars a free as well as a prosperous State. So rapid was the progress that in 1646 there were twenty thousand people in the colony.

But there were also drawbacks to the prosperity of Virginia. Religious intolerance came with its baleful shadow to disturb the State. The faith of the Episcopal Church was established by law, and dissenting was declared a crime. The Puritans were held in contempt by the people, who charged them with being the destroyers of the peace of England. In March of 1643 a statute was enacted by the assembly declaring that no person who disbelieved the doctrines of the English Church should be allowed to teach publicly or privately, or to preach the gospel, within the limits of Virginia. The few Puritans in the colony were excluded from their places of trust, and some were even driven from their homes. Governor Berkeley, himself a zealous churchman, was a leader in these persecutions, by which all friendly relations with New England were broken off for many years.

A worse calamity befell in a second war with the Indians. Early in 1644, the natives, having forgotten their former punishment, and believing that in the confusion of the civil war there still remained a hope of destroying the English, planned a general massacre. On the 18th of April, at a time when the authorities were somewhat off their guard, the savages fell upon the frontier settlements, and before assistance could be brought murdered three hundred people. Alarmed at their own atrocity, the warriors then fled, but were followed by the English forces and

driven into the woods and swamps. The aged Opechancanough was captured, and died a prisoner. The tribes were chastised without mercy, and were soon glad to purchase peace by the cession of large tracts of land.

The Virginians adhered with great firmness to the cause of Charles I. in his war with Parliament, and after his death proclaimed the exiled Charles II. as rightful sovereign of the country. Cromwell and the Parliament were much exasperated at this course of conduct, and measures were at once devised to bring the colony to submission. An ordinance was passed laying heavy restrictions on the commerce of such English colonies as refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Parliament. All foreign ships, especially those of Holland, were forbidden to enter the colonial harbors. In 1651 the noted statute called the Navigation Act was passed, and the trade of the colonies was still more seriously distressed. In this new law it was enacted that the foreign commerce of Virginia, now grown into importance, should be carried on wholly in English vessels, and directed exclusively to English ports.

The Virginians held out, and Cromwell determined to employ force. A war-vessel called the Guinea was sent into the Chesapeake to

compel submission, but in the last extreme the Protector showed him tes self to be just as well as wrathful. There were commissioners on board the frigate authorized to make an offer of peace, and this was gladly accepted. It was seen that the cause of the Stuarts was hopeless. The people of Virginia, although refusing to yield to threats and violence, cheerfully entered into negotiations with Cromwell's delegates, and ended by acknowledging the supreme authority of Parliament. The terms of the settlement were very favorable to popular liberty; the commercial restrictions of the two previous years were removed, and the trade of the colony was made as free as that of England. No taxes might be levied or duties collected except such as were imposed by the general assembly of the State. The freedom of an Englishman was guaranteed to every citizen, and under the control of her own laws Virginia again grew pros

perous.

No further difficulty arose during the continuance of the Commonwealth. The Protector was busied with the affairs of Europe, and had neither time nor disposition to interfere in the affairs of a remote colony. The Virginians were thus left free to conduct their government as they would. Even the important matter of choosing a governor was submitted to an election in the House of Burgesses; when so great a power had been once exercised, it was not likely to be relinquished without a struggle. Three governors were chosen in this way, and what was at first only a privilege soon became a right. Special acts of the assembly

declared that such a right existed, and that it should be transmitted to posterity.

In 1660, just at the time of the resignation of Richard Cromwell, Samuel Matthews, the last of the three elected governors, died. The burgesses were immediately convened, and an ordinance was passed declaring that the supreme authority of Virginia was resident in the colony, and would continue there until a delegate with proper credentials should arrive from the British government. Having made this declaration, the house elected as governor Sir William Berkeley, who by accepting the office acknowledged the right of the burgesses to choose. The question of recognizing Charles II. as king was debated at the same session, but prudence suggested that the colonial authorities would better await the natural course of events. For the present it was decided to remain faithful to Parliament. Most of the people, no doubt, desired the restoration, but policy forbade any open expressions of such a preference. It would be time enough when monarchy was actually restored.

In May of 1660 Charles II. became king of England. As soon as this event was known in Virginia, Governor Berkeley, forgetting the source of his own authority, and in defiance of all consistency, issued writs in the name of the king for the election of a new assembly. The friends of royalty were delighted with the prospect. The adherents of the Commonwealth were thrust out of office, and the favorites of the king established in their places. Great benefits were expected from the change, and the whole colony was alive with excitement and zeal. But the disappointment of the people was more bitter than their hopes had been extravagant. The Virginians soon found that they had exchanged a republican tyrant with good principles for a monarchial tyrant with bad ones. King Charles II. was the worst monarch of modern times, and the people of Virginia had in him and his government a special cause of grief. The commercial system of the Commonwealth, so far from being abolished, was re-enacted in a more hateful form than ever. The new statute provided that all the colonial commerce, whether exports or imports, should be carried on in English ships, the trade between the colonies was burdened with a heavy tax for the benefit of the government, and tobacco, the staple of Virginia, could be sold nowhere but in England. This odious measure gave to English merchantmen a monopoly of the carrying trade of the colonies, and by destroying competition among the buyers of tobacco robbed the Virginians to that extent of their leading product. Remonstrance was tried in vain. The cold and selfish monarch only sneered at the complaints of his American subjects, and the commercial ordinances were rigorously enforced.