FOOTNOTES:

To counteract this impression he now followed the precedent set by Nicholson of seeking flattering addresses. "To support his cause tools were picked to make up grand juries to deliver fulsome addresses to the Governor and abuse the Council and Assembly," Joshua Gee tells us. "The same tools made addresses from the courts and even engaged every barefooted fellow to sign addresses from the counties."[42]The address from Middlesex spoke of Spotswood's wise and moderate government; that of the "justices, clergy, and principal inhabitants" of New Kent declared that his character had been traduced; that of King and Queen County that the charges against him were false. All in all, the addresses came from twenty-one of the twenty-five counties.[43]

This deluge of praise must have had its influence with the Lords of Trade and the Earl of Orkney. But more convincing was the logic of Spotswood's letters in which he answered the charges against him. He had brought down on his head the hostility of the Councillors and Burgesses through his efforts to carry out their Lordships' orders and uphold the prerogative of the King, he said. To remove him for doing his duty would render the situation hopeless for future Governors.

So, despite the arguments and pleading of William Byrd, both Orkney and the Lords of Trade gave Spotswood their support. Orkney thought that no essential complaint had been brought against him, and praised him for putting the government of Virginia upon a much improved footing.[44]The Board of Trade wrote Spotswood, in June, 1719: "You may depend upon all the countenance and support which we can give you which we think you have deserved."[45]It was rumored in Virginia, also, that the Board was considering removing from the Council some of the Governor's bitterest enemies.

Yet at the moment of triumph, Spotswood, instead of lauding it over the Councillors and forcing them to submit, seemed anxious to compromise all differences. The key to his moderation is found in his opening address to the Burgesses in November, 1720: "To consider the stake I have among you and the free choice I've made to fix it under this government, you have not surely any grounds to suspect me of injurious designs against the welfare of this colony."[46]Then he indulged in a metaphor to show that the interests of Virginia and Great Britain did not conflict. "I look upon Virginia as a rib taken from Britain's side, and believe that while they both proceed as living under the marriage contract, this Eve must thrive as long as her Adam flourishes."

In other words, Spotswood did not want to continue his differences with the planter aristocracy because he planned to become one of them. In 1716 he had acquired 3,229 acres on the Rappahannock, known as the Germanna Tract, and peopled it with German tenants. Three years later he granted 3,065 acres, the so-called Wilderness Tract, to a certain Richard Hickman, who transferred it to him. He next acquired theFork Tract, the Barrows Tract, the Mine Tract of 15,000 acres, the Lower Massaponax Tract, and the Upper Massaponax Tract. In 1729, when the new county of Spotsylvania was created, the Governor owned 25,000 acres within its borders.[47]On his Mine Tract he had invested so heavily in an iron foundry that Byrd called him the Tubal Cain of Virginia.

So, when Nathaniel Harrison approached him with proposals for a reconciliation, Spotswood was quite willing to do his part. But there were long negotiations before peace was concluded. On May 16, 1718, when the Governor made new overtures, they were greeted by stiffness and reserve. Yet the Councillors at his invitation, went from the Capitol to the Palace, and there gathered around a bowl of arrack, drinking until midnight. On the other hand, the hostile eight shunned Spotswood's celebration of the King's birthday, "got together all the turbulent and disaffected Burgesses, had an entertainment of their own in the Burgesses House, and invited all the mob to a bonfire, where they were plentifully supplied with liquors."[48]

In the end the Councillors came to terms. Smith and Berkeley were dead, while Carter, Blair, Ludwell, Lewis, Byrd, and Harrison had seen the handwriting on the wall. At a meeting in the Council Chamber of the Capitol, in April 1720, with Spotswood at the head of the table, it was agreed that all past controversies be forgotten, and that in the future there should be no other contention than who should most promote the King's service and the public benefit of the colony.[49]

For some months there was comparative quiet in Virginia. But in 1721 Spotswood became uneasy when James Blair decided to visit England. "He is continually assuring me of all the service he can do me at home," the Governor wrote to the Bishop of London, "but ... I shall be contented with his not offering to do me any disservice."[50]These fears were well-grounded, for there is reason to think that the Commissary was instrumental in having him removed from office, just how is not known. It is significant that when it was rumored that a new Governor was coming over, "it was understood that Parson Blair was likely to act as prime minister." Significant, also, is it that Hugh Drysdale, who succeeded Spotswood earlyin 1722, came to Virginia on the same vessel as Blair, and remained on the most intimate terms with him throughout his short administration.[51]

Spotswood's last act as Lieutenant Governor reflects no credit upon his character, and did disservice both to the Crown and colony. Upon hearing that he was to be removed, he made out patents for huge tracts of land in Spotsylvania County to certain persons who immediately conveyed them to him.[52]He later adopted a system of tenantry, leasing land in small parcels for two generations, a system which was copied in the huge Virginia manors developed in western Virginia late in the century. Although tenantry hastened settlement, it was inconsistent with the democratic spirit of the frontier, and was largely abolished by the Revolution.

Nathaniel Blakiston said of Spotswood: "That gentleman has real capacity and talents to manage in a high sphere, but he adheres too much to his own sentiments, and thinks himself ill-treated if everybody does not think as he does."[53]This weakness accounts in part for his inability to get along with either the Council or the Burgesses. Many of the policies which he advocated were wise, but his attempts to force them through were unwise. When the Council opposed him he tried to break their power; when the Burgesses thwarted him, he tried to bribe them into submission.

Spotswood's administration was marked by several years of great prosperity, by the expansion of the frontier, by the attempts to develop manufactures, by the regulation of the tobacco trade; but more important was the demonstration that the people would no longer permit their representatives in the Assembly to be made submissive to the Governor by the use of the patronage. The punishment which they meted out to the faithless in the Assembly of 1714 marked a notable advance along the road to liberty, and was a warning to future Governors not to attempt to rule by corruption.

FOOTNOTES:[1]CO5-1315, Doc. 26.[2]W. W. Hening,Statutes at large3: 525.[3]CO5-1318.[4]CO5-1406, Dec. 7, 1714.[5]Spotswood letters2: p. 50.[6]Virginia Magazine2: 2-15.[7]Spotswood letters2: 49.[8]CO5-1319.[9]CO5-1318.[10]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 132, 133.[11]Ibid., 167.[12]Ibid., 147, 148.[13]CO5-1318.[14]Ibid.[15]Ibid.[16]Journals of the House of Burgesses, xxxiii.[17]Ibid., 153, 165, 168.[18]W. W. Hening,Statutes at large3: 243.[19]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 122.[20]Ibid., 169.[21]CO5-1313.[22]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 170.[23]CO5-1416.[24]Executive journals of the Council3: 437.[25]CO5-1318, Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, March 20, 1718.[26]Ibid.[27]Ibid., Spotswood to Orkney, July 1, 1718.[28]Ludwell, Smith, Lewis, Bassett, Harrison, Berkeley, Carter, and Blair.[29]CO5-1364.[30]CO5-1318.[31]CO5-1318, Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, March 5, 1719.[32]Ibid., Byrd Concerning Courts.[33]Ibid., Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, Dec. 22, 1718.[34]Ibid., Spotswood to Orkney, Dec. 22, 1718.[35]CO5-1317, Memorial of the Virginia Indian Company.[36]CO5-1319, Letter of Mr. Gee, Oct. 5, 1721.[37]CO5-1318, "Advice to Freeholders."[38]CO5-1318, Answer to Lieutenant Governor Spotswood.[39]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 213.[40]CO5-1318, Spotswood to Orkney, Dec. 22, 1718.[41]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 230, 231.[42]CO5-1319, Letter of Mr. Gee.[43]CO5-1318.[44]Board of Trade journal, 1715-1718: 425, 426.[45]CO5-1365, Lords of Trade to Spotswood, June 26, 1719.[46]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 250.[47]Leonidas Dodson,Alexander Spotswood, Chap. XIII.[48]Spotswood letters2: 284.[49]Executive Journals of the Council3: 524.[50]Rawlinson manuscript.[51]CO5-1319.[52]Ludwell papers 2 (40).[53]Ibid.

[1]CO5-1315, Doc. 26.

[2]W. W. Hening,Statutes at large3: 525.

[3]CO5-1318.

[4]CO5-1406, Dec. 7, 1714.

[5]Spotswood letters2: p. 50.

[6]Virginia Magazine2: 2-15.

[7]Spotswood letters2: 49.

[8]CO5-1319.

[9]CO5-1318.

[10]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 132, 133.

[11]Ibid., 167.

[12]Ibid., 147, 148.

[13]CO5-1318.

[14]Ibid.

[15]Ibid.

[16]Journals of the House of Burgesses, xxxiii.

[17]Ibid., 153, 165, 168.

[18]W. W. Hening,Statutes at large3: 243.

[19]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 122.

[20]Ibid., 169.

[21]CO5-1313.

[22]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 170.

[23]CO5-1416.

[24]Executive journals of the Council3: 437.

[25]CO5-1318, Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, March 20, 1718.

[26]Ibid.

[27]Ibid., Spotswood to Orkney, July 1, 1718.

[28]Ludwell, Smith, Lewis, Bassett, Harrison, Berkeley, Carter, and Blair.

[29]CO5-1364.

[30]CO5-1318.

[31]CO5-1318, Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, March 5, 1719.

[32]Ibid., Byrd Concerning Courts.

[33]Ibid., Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, Dec. 22, 1718.

[34]Ibid., Spotswood to Orkney, Dec. 22, 1718.

[35]CO5-1317, Memorial of the Virginia Indian Company.

[36]CO5-1319, Letter of Mr. Gee, Oct. 5, 1721.

[37]CO5-1318, "Advice to Freeholders."

[38]CO5-1318, Answer to Lieutenant Governor Spotswood.

[39]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 213.

[40]CO5-1318, Spotswood to Orkney, Dec. 22, 1718.

[41]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 230, 231.

[42]CO5-1319, Letter of Mr. Gee.

[43]CO5-1318.

[44]Board of Trade journal, 1715-1718: 425, 426.

[45]CO5-1365, Lords of Trade to Spotswood, June 26, 1719.

[46]Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726: 250.

[47]Leonidas Dodson,Alexander Spotswood, Chap. XIII.

[48]Spotswood letters2: 284.

[49]Executive Journals of the Council3: 524.

[50]Rawlinson manuscript.

[51]CO5-1319.

[52]Ludwell papers 2 (40).

[53]Ibid.

As the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a period of bitter contention between the Governors of Virginia and the Council and Burgesses, so the second quarter was marked by peace and harmony. In England the government, under the leadership of Sir Robert Walpole, adopted a conciliatory policy toward the colonies, the famous policy of letting sleeping dogs lie. Great Britain was reaping huge profits from the trade with America, and the chief concern of the Board of Trade was to see that no laws were passed by the Assemblies to lessen them. On the other hand, the colonies were permitted to govern themselves to a degree that would not have been tolerated under the Stuarts.

Possibly it was by chance that the two Lieutenant Governors whose administrations covered this period—Hugh Drysdale and William Gooch—were admirably suited to carry out this policy. Or they may have been selected because of their winning personalities, their ability to see both sides of a question, their desire to do justice to all men, their lack of greed and ambition to dictate. We know that Drysdale was recommended to the Earl of Orkney by Walpole himself.[1]At all events, after contending for years with the implacable Nicholson and the dictatorial Spotswood, Drysdale and Gooch must have seemed gifts from Heaven to the Virginians.

Drysdale arrived in Virginia on September 25, 1722, and two days later was sworn in in the Council Chamber. He was heartily welcomed. A few months later he could report that there was "universal contentment on the change made in the government," and that his administration had the approbation of all ranks of people.[2]In marked contrast to their wordy war with Spotswood, the Burgesses showed him only respect and affection. "We must acknowledge the present calm and tranquility to be the consequences of your prudence and moderation," they toldhim.[3]When he was planning to leave for England because of ill health, they addressed the King to say that his speedy return would be a great happiness to the people of the colony.[4]

Drysdale's popularity was based more on what he did not do than what he did do. He made no attempt to undermine the judicial power of the Council, he seems not to have used the patronage to control the House of Burgesses, he did not try to make the colony less democratic by restricting the right to vote, he did not deny to the Burgesses their ancient privileges, he did not use his office for personal gain.

He was at first critical of the policy, favored by the Council, of issuing patents for huge tracts of land. His predecessor had granted some for 10,000 acres, some for 20,000 acres, some for 40,000 acres despite the order that I,000 acres should be the limit. "Thus the intention of the government to make Spotsylvania a well inhabited frontier is frustrated," he said.[5]

But the Councillors and other men of wealth persuaded him that large holdings which could be cut up into small farms and leased to tenants hastened rather than retarded settlement. "The Council are of opinion that the limiting the quantity of land to be taken up in the new counties is prejudicial and a discouragement to their speedy settlement," he wrote in July, 1724.[6]He did not stop to consider that the growth of tenantry would be a blow, not only to economic democracy, but political democracy as well, since tenants, unless they were also freeholders, had no right to vote.

Drysdale called for an election for a new Assembly who met in the Capitol on May 9, 1723. The Burgesses had hardly settled themselves in their seats when they took up two cases which concerned the rights of the people and their privileges. In Essex County grievances had been presented to the court for certification to the Assembly, charging Colonel Joseph Smith, commander of the county militia, with harsh and illegal conduct while a member of a court-martial. Colonel Smith, himself a member of the court, refused to sign this paper, so that it failed to reach the House. Thereupon the Burgesses declared him "guilty of a breach of his duty," and ordered the Speaker to reprimand him.[7]In striking contrast to Spotswood's upholding of Littlefield and Butts in a similar case, Drysdale backed the House by removing Smith from the county court.[8]

In the other case a certain William Hopkins was accused of "rude, contemptuous, and indecent" language in the House about one of the members—Mr. Matthew Kemp. When he was adjudged guilty and ordered on his knees to ask the pardon of the Burgesses and Mr. Kemp, he flatly refused. It was then ordered that he be led through the Duke of Gloucester Street, from the Capitol to the college gate and back, with a placard pinned to his breast bearing the following inscription: "For insolent behavior at the bar of the House of Burgesses, when he was there as an offender and with obstinacy and contempt disobeying their order." This prospect was too much for Hopkins, so, no doubt with inward curses, he made the apology.[9]

There was universal grief in Virginia when Drysdale died, on July 22, 1726. He was buried with elaborate ceremonies, to the booming of cannon. The Council wrote Mrs. Drysdale expressing "the just sense" of "the public loss," and giving her permission to remain for the time being in the Palace.[10]Pending the appointment of a new Lieutenant Governor, they voted to make Robert Carter President. The selection normally would have gone to Edmund Jenings, as the senior member of the Council, but he had just been suspended because of his age and because he was much "decayed in his understanding."

William Gooch, who was appointed to succeed Drysdale, took the oath of office on September 11, 1727. It must have been with apprehension that the members of the Council greeted him. It would be too much to expect that the colony would have in succession two Governors of the stamp of Drysdale. Might not the new arrival be another Spotswood, or even another Nicholson?

They were not long kept in doubt. Gooch proved to be one of the most popular Governors in the history of the colony. Sincerely interested in the welfare of the people, conciliatory in his dealings with both the Council and the Burgesses, he brought internal peace and contentment. The story was told of him that one day when in the company of several gentlemen, he happened to pass a Negro slave. When the Negro lifted his hat, Gooch lifted his in return.

"What, Governor Gooch, do you lift your hat to a slave?" one of his companions asked.

"I would be deeply humiliated to be surpassed in courtesy by a slave," was the reply.

Throughout Gooch's administration there was practically no friction between the Governor and the Assembly. The public affairs were carried on in perfect harmony and good understanding, he reported in 1734. The address of the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, Sir John Randolph, to Gooch is one of the most remarkable in Virginia history. "You have shew'd how easy it is to give universal satisfaction to the people under your government.... You have not been intoxicated with the power committed to you by his Majesty, but have used it like a faithful trustee for the public good.... You never propose matters without supposing your opinion subject to the examination of others, nor strive to make other men's reason blindly and implicitly obedient to yours.... You have extirpated all factions among us ... and plainly proved that none can arise, or be lasting, but from the countenance and encouragement of a Governor."[11]

Both the Council and the Burgesses expressed their gratitude to Gooch by gifts of money, the former voting him £300 to cover the expense of his voyage to Virginia, and the latter giving him £500. Although his instructions forbade his acceptance, he pocketed the money. "I thought it would not become me to refuse this extraordinary instance of their regard," he wrote the Lords of Trade. There was a precedent for his acceptance, for Nicholson had had £300 when that sum was worth £600 in the present currency. And though the Board censured him, they did not make him refund the money.[12]

It was typical of Gooch that he was willing to yield in matters of which he did not fully approve in order to carry points which he had very much at heart. He had not been long in the colony when he came to the conclusion that it would greatly benefit the planters if the tobacco inspection act of 1713 could be revived. But he was well aware that the people had not forgotten the use Spotswood had made of it to gain control of the House of Burgesses, or his veto of the bill to prohibit Burgesses from holding places of profit in the government. So, in returnfor the passage of a new tobacco law, he assented to an act to keep officeholders out of the House. "The Burgesses were for this bill," he wrote the Lords of Trade, "and my desire to keep them in good humor while matters of greater moment were under their deliberation, prevailed with me to assent to it."[13]

But he thought that the act had nothing in its favor, except that it was an imitation of the laws of England made for securing the freedom of Parliament. "In my humble opinion this country is yet too young for so refined a regulation. Places of profit are indeed but few, but men of capacity for the discharge of them do not much more abound; therefore either the government must be ill served, or the House of Burgesses meanly fitted if men of capacity and integrity must be shut out either of the one or the other."[14]

Gooch either did not understand the importance of this bill, or deliberately concealed it from the British Government. Had he known of the use of the power of appointment by former Governors to gain control of the House of Burgesses, he could not have dismissed the measure so lightly. Nor could he have realized what a major victory it was for liberty. Henceforth no Berkeley could bribe the Burgesses into submission and so rule the colony like a despot; no Nicholson could hand out commissions as sheriffs, or collectors, or officers in the militia in exchange for votes in the House; no Spotswood could create tobacco agents' jobs to tempt the people's representatives.

Though Gooch was solicitous for the welfare of the poor planter, he was not in favor of manhood suffrage. So he affixed his signature to a bill limiting the right to vote to freeholders owning 100 acres of unoccupied land or twenty-five acres with a house.[15]Had he had his way the limitation would have been greater. "Yet as the former laws had allowed any kind of a freehold to give that right, and all attempts made heretofore to exclude the mob of the populace ... had proved vain, it is much better to have that point fixed on some certain basis, than to leave all persons indefinitely at liberty to have a vote. ... After such a beginning it may be hoped a further regulation will follow to remove from the House such members as havelittle recommended them to the people's choice besides the art of stirring up discontents."[16]

Though Gooch thus frankly avowed his dislike of democracy, he promoted its growth by encouraging the westward expansion of settlement, not only in the Piedmont, but in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1736 he wrote the Lords of Trade: "Great numbers, as well of his Majesty's natural born subjects as foreigners, ... have removed into this colony on the west side of our mountains." This he pointed out would be a protection to the older parts of the colony by heading off any attempt of the French at penetration.

Perhaps it had not occurred to Gooch that expansion would divide the colony into two parts—the democratic up-country, and the aristocratic tidewater. Spotsylvania, Brunswick, Goochland, Amelia, Caroline, and other counties in the Piedmont were filling up with small farmers from the east, Frederick with poor Germans and Swiss. It is true that some well-to-do planters established "quarters" managed by overseers above the Fall Line, and later invaded parts of the Valley, but even as late as the French and Indian War frontier conditions persisted in the regions on either side of the Blue Ridge. The influence of the west grew steadily as each new county sent its two representatives to the House of Burgesses. Whereas in 1727 when there were 65 members of the House, only 10 were from the west, in 1752, when the members numbered 104, 46 were from the western or southwestern counties. The time was not distant when the up-country members would count a majority. A bewigged Carter, or Harrison, or Wormeley, in his broadcloth suit with silver buttons, may have been resentful when a roughly clad delegate from Albemarle or Frederick took a seat beside him, but he dared not show it.

But in the first test of strength the newcomers lost because the east still dominated the Council. In 1749, after the burning of the Capitol in Williamsburg, the western Burgesses proposed that the seat of government be moved to a site on the Pamunkey, in Hanover County, which would save them many miles of travel in attending meetings of the Assembly. The feeling on each side ran high. Mr. John Blair, a member of the Council, in conversation with one of the Burgesses, pointed to the Speaker, saying: "There goes the man who is at the bottomof this hellish scheme." The House was deeply offended, and was appeased only when Blair apologized. After much hesitation the bill for the removal was passed by a vote of forty to thirty-eight, but it was promptly rejected by the Council.[17]So the Capitol was rebuilt on the old foundations, but with the proviso that this would not fix the seat of government permanently in Williamsburg. It did, however, fix it there until the Revolution, when, in response to the wishes of an overwhelming majority of the people, it was moved to Richmond.

During most of Gooch's administration the two Houses worked in harmony. But occasionally there was friction. At the close of the session of 1728 the Burgesses passed a resolution to pay their own salaries out of the fund raised by the duty on liquors in order to lessen the hated poll tax. But the Council refused to concur. The Burgesses then voted that they be paid from funds in the hands of the Treasurer. Again the Council demurred. They argued that the salaries of the Burgesses was the concern of the counties. "It would be an unequal distribution of the public money to allow the same share of it to a county which has a thousand tithables as one that has three thousand."[18]This reasoning was based on the assumption that a Burgess represented only the interests of the county which elected him and not those of the colony as a whole, an assumption contradicted by the whole history of the House. Yet the Burgesses, though with some bitterness, were forced to yield for the time being.

Gooch was much concerned over the dispute, for he was convinced that it was not ended. He was right. At the very next session a bill was passed to pay the Burgesses out of the money in the Treasurer's hands, provided this should not reduce the fund below £1,500.[19]The Council consented, under Gooch's urging, because the bill allowed the Burgesses only ten shillings a day instead of thirteen as formerly, and nothing when not actually in attendance, but "at home about their private affairs or perhaps in pursuit of their pleasures." Gooch wrote the Lords of Trade congratulating himself on having reduced salaries, but this does not obscure the fact that the act was a victory for the House.[20]

In fact, the House of Burgesses, like the House of Commons, was becoming the dominating body, and the Council, like the House of Lords, was growing weaker. With the multiplying of the number of wealthy planters through the use of slave labor, the twelve men who made up the Council ceased to be the sole representatives of their interests. Many aristocrats were honored to have a seat in the Lower House. One has only to glance down the list of Burgesses to find many of the proudest names in colonial Virginia—Page, Harrison, Fairfax, Randolph, Burwell, Carter, Ball, Wormeley, Digges, Spotswood, Lee, Byrd, Claiborne, etc. So the aristocrat as well as the small farmer, the wealthy easterner as well as the pioneer of Orange or Albemarle, or the German of Frederick looked to the House to protect their interests.

While the leadership of the House continued to be aristocratic, the rank and file grew more democratic. The open spaces of America fostered a spirit of independence. When men had gone into a wilderness, cleared openings in the forest, built their simple houses, laid out crops, fought the Indians, they became impatient of control by a group of eastern aristocrats, or by a government three thousand miles away in which they had no voice.

Nor was democracy confined to the west, for the small farmer class of the east persisted despite the importation of thousands of slaves. It is true that many, finding it difficult to compete with slave labor, sold their little holdings, packed up their few household goods, and set out for the West or for one of the northern colonies. But others kept their heads above water by producing only the highest grades of tobacco, for which the blacks at first were not suited. "I must beg you to remember that the common people make the best," Gooch wrote in 1731.

But this reprieve was only temporary, for in time the wealthy planter taught the Africans to produce even the high priced Orinoco. Then the poor planter had to join the class of slaveholders by making a few purchases, or sink into abject poverty. That thousands did buy slaves we know from an examination of the tax lists. In 1716, in Lancaster County, of some 200 slave-owners, 165 had from one to four only. The only large owner was the wealthy Robert Carter who had 126.[21]

The replacing of the Virginia yeomanry, the men who cultivated their holdings with their own hands, by small slaveholders was in many ways a development to be deplored, but it saved the small farmer class from extinction, and democracy from a fatal blow. Without it all the eastern part of the colony and part of the Piedmont would have become a land of wealthy proprietors and their slaves, and ignorant, degraded, poverty-stricken whites.

The small slaveholders were fiercely jealous of their rights, both social and political. From the proud aristocrat they demanded courtesy and respect. And these the aristocrat thought it wise to accord them, for he knew that they constituted an overwhelming majority of the voters. Nor were there anywhere, in the northern colonies or in the West, more ardent upholders of self-government. In the long struggle for liberty it was usually the aristocrats who led the way, but they would have been powerless had they not had the loyal support of the small eastern farmer as well as the western frontiersman.

And the climax of this struggle was not distant. Walpole resigned in 1752, and his successors were not inclined to let the colonies become semi-independent little republics. Had their attention not been diverted by European wars, they would probably have come to grips with the colonial governments sooner than they did.

At the moment, however, the chief differences between Virginia and the mother country seemed to be economic rather than constitutional. The planters had long protested against the Navigation Acts, but they had in time adjusted themselves to them. To the merchants of England they were tied by the bonds of mutual interest, for they were dependent upon them for transporting and disposing of their tobacco, and for bringing them manufactured goods in return.

But there developed various points of difference. And it became a bitter grievance to the planters that when these differences were placed before the British government, the decision always favored the merchants. In fact, so great was the influence of certain traders that at times their recommendations to important posts in the colonies were decisive. Among the best known of these men was Micajah Perry, whose opinion the Board of Trade frequently sought on matters affecting commerce. It was rumored that it was he who persuaded the Auditor General to appoint Philip Ludwell Auditor of Virginia. And when the British government turned down therecommendation of a Governor in filling a vacancy in the Council in favor of one by the merchants, it was deeply resented in the colony. "Your Lordships cannot but be sensible that little regard is likely to be paid a Governor who shall be supposed to have no interest at your Lordships' Board," Gooch wrote in 1747.

The people were even more resentful at the insistence of the merchants in blocking any measure by the Assembly, no matter how beneficial, if they thought it would lessen their profits. Many of them had invested in the Royal African Company, and the slave trade to Virginia was booming. It was stated that black workers were coming in at the rate of 1,500 or 1,600 a year, and at every landing place scores were sold to the highest bidders. In 1730, out of a total population of 114,000, no less than 30,000 were Negroes.[22]With profits piling up, the merchants wanted no interference with this trade, however inhuman it was, and however harmful to the economic and social structure of the colony.

Many thoughtful men in the colony viewed the situation with alarm, not only because the importation of so many blacks was drying up the stream of white immigrants from England, but because it was driving out of the colony poor men who did not want to compete with slave labor. And the planters had reason to dread slave insurrections. Some of the Africans were docile enough, but a few resented their bonds fiercely. In 1710 a conspiracy was discovered in Surry and James City Counties, in which the Negroes planned to rise, kill all who opposed them, and escape out of the colony. Several were tried in the General Court, convicted and executed.[23]

There was much satisfaction when the Assembly, in the revenue act of 1723, tried to stem the tide by placing a duty on the importation of slaves. But when the act came before the Lords of Trade, the merchants opposed it vigorously. John Gary, who had lived in Virginia, and later went to England to enter the tobacco trade, when summoned before the Board, argued against it. It would ruin the poor planters, he said, because it would run up the cost of slaves, and they would not be able to buy enough to cultivate their plantations.[24]This argument, as we have seen, was not entirely misleading, butit ignored the predicament of the thousands who could afford not even one, no matter how cheap, and so sank into great poverty, became "poor white trash." Yet the Board sided with Cary and his fellow merchants, and in January, 1724, advised the King to veto the act.

The Assembly, greatly disappointed, five years later made another attempt, placing a duty of forty shillings a head on the importation of slaves. Gooch gave them his full support. The merchants would not be injured by the law, he argued, since the purchasers had to pay the tax.[25]But the importers did not see it that way, and at their urging the King disallowed the act.

How bitterly these vetoes were resented in Virginia is shown by a statement of Thomas Jefferson in his "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," written in 1774. "The abolition of slavery is the great object of desire in those colonies, where it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant state. But previously to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa. Yet our repeated attempts to effect this, by prohibitions, and by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, having been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's negative: thus preferring the immediate advantages of a few British corsairs to the lasting interests of the American States, and the rights of human nature deeply wounded by this infamous practice. Nay, the single interposition of an interested individual against a law was scarcely ever known to fail of success, though, in the opposite scale, were placed the interests of a wholecountry."[26]

The merchants opposed, not only the duty on slaves, but any other duty which they thought might lessen imports. The Assembly repeatedly passed laws to place duties on rum, brandy, wine, cider, beer, and ale, not because they thought they would debauch the people, but to raise revenue to meet the needs of the government without resorting to the hated poll tax. They finally persuaded the merchants that light duties on liquors would do them no harm. And perhaps the King was persuaded to give his assent by the urgings of Gooch. "The revenue arising from the duty on liquors is the best expedient to raise money for defraying the contingent charges of the government and the chief support of the College of William and Mary," hewrote. "By it most of the public debts are paid and the people eased of an intolerable poll tax, which many of the poorer sort would be unable to pay."

But in 1730 the Assembly went too far when, in the revenue bill of that year, they exempted Virginia owners from half the tax in a rather forlorn attempt to build up local shipping. The merchants were indignant. It was a very partial procedure, they thought, for the colonists to tax his Majesty's subjects at large to a higher degree than themselves. Moreover, it set up the shipping of Virginia in opposition to and in great prejudice to the navigation of Great Britain. Needless to say the act was disallowed.[27]It was now the turn of the planters to be indignant. Gooch wrote the Board: "I cannot conceal from your Lordships the resentment of the people against the merchants."[28]

The Virginians, like the peoples of the other colonies, were angered at the passage of the Molasses Act, which placed prohibitive duties on the trade between the British colonies on the American continent and the foreign West Indies. Virginia's stake in the trade to the French and Spanish islands was much less than that of New England, but it was great enough to draw a protest from Gooch. And the good Governor seems to have winked at the violations of the act. In 1734 he wrote the Lords of Trade: "As to trade, upon the strictest inquiry I can make I can find none ... but with Great Britain, the British islands in the West Indies, and the island of Madeira."[29]The Board might well have asked why it was, if this were true, that so many Spanish pieces of eight and so many pistoles and French guineas and crowns were circulating in the colony.

Even more serious than the conflict between planters and merchants over the restrictions of trade, was the quarrel over debts. The trade with Great Britain was carried on chiefly by credit, and in times when the price of tobacco was high and profits good the planters lived well and spent freely. Then it was that they made heavy purchases of silverware, handsome furniture, or even blooded horses. And only too often, when prices of tobacco fell, they could not bring themselves to curtail expenditures in proportion. In fact, when they placed their orders they could not foresee just what their year's crop wouldyield. Many of them became involved in debt. When they could not meet their obligations, the merchants demanded that their lands be forfeited. On the other hand, the planters, from time to time, tried to lessen the burden by paying their creditors in depreciated paper money.

When the merchants appealed to the Virginia courts to force payment of debts they found them usually sympathetic with the debtors. Moreover, in most cases they could not appeal to the British courts for there was a law forbidding it in cases involving less than £300. For larger suits the shoe was on the other foot, for when they were taken before the Privy Council, the advantage was all with the merchants. Residing in Great Britain, most of them in London, they could appeal in person to present their cause. Since the prosperity of the kingdom was so dependent upon its commerce, they always received a sympathetic hearing.

Typical was the suit of the executors of Micajah and Richard Perry to recover debts from the estate of Colonel William Randolph, who had had a long-standing account with them. When the Virginia courts decided in favor of the defendants, the executors of the Perrys appealed to the King. The Privy Council referred the matter to a commission of four merchants, three of whom gave it as their judgment that with compound interest and insurance charges the defendants owed £2,460. So the verdict of the Virginia court was reversed.

The Council and Burgesses protested in an address to the King. They were alarmed that this case had been decided without a legal trial by jury, they said. It had never been the practice to charge "interest upon interest" in "open running accounts." They thought it wrong that "the reports ofmerchants"who were not under oath and were inclined to favor one another, should be permitted to overrule the verdict of legal juries. If the planters were to be loaded with whatever charges their factors thought fit, it would greatly discourage trade and industry.[30]

But they were unprepared for the extreme lengths to which the merchants would go. At a meeting of the Council in October, 1731, they could hardly credit their ears when Gooch read them a letter stating that they were about to present a petition to Parliament concerning the colonies. They wanted first alaw prohibiting the Assemblies from passing any acts affecting trade and navigation, second, a law making real estate liable for debts, and third, a law permitting appeals from the Virginia General Court to the Privy Council in suits involving £100 or more.[31]

Gooch wrote at once to the Board denouncing this attempt to muzzle the Assembly. "When I considered, my Lords, how long and happily the British subjects have traded to America and acquired great riches under the ancient establishment made in these points by the Crown, set forth in the royal charters and instructions, without seeking to abridge the people of the plantations of their birthright as Englishmen, or limiting the Crown in the methods of government, I must confess I was somewhat startled."[32]

The Council also protested vigorously. It was impossible for the Assembly to avoid all legislation affecting trade, they said in a letter to the Board, since it might prohibit certain vitally necessary laws. If the merchants objected to any act of Assembly, they could lay the matter before the King. As for making the land of the planters liable for debts, it was pointed out that there was no law making the lands of the merchants liable to the demands of the colonists. Yet the factors were as often in the planters' debt as the planters in theirs. It would create uneasiness in the minds of a loyal people to find they had not equal justice. And to allow appeals to the King in cases involving as little as £100 would be a heavy burden; for the expense of the planter, who would have to make a voyage to England to defend his rights, would be as great as the sum involved.[33]

It was no doubt to anticipate any action to forbid legislation in the colony affecting trade that a clause was added to certain acts suspending their operation until the King had given his assent. During Gooch's administration the first such act appropriated £1,000 for the erection of a lighthouse of brick and stone on Cape Henry, provided Maryland appropriate a like amount and the King gave his assent. A duty of one penny a ton was to be levied on all vessels passing the light. Gooch urged the Lords of Trade to influence Lord Baltimore to recommend the matter to the Maryland Assembly. But he was treading on dangerous ground when he suggested that if the Marylanders balked, the Board secure an act of Parliament "to bind both governments to do that good to themselves and the trade of Great Britain."[34]Fortunately the Board refused to take such a drastic step, and it was only in 1772 that the lighthouse was erected.[35]

Knowing that the King had vetoed the tobacco act of 1713, Gooch took pains to prepare the minds of the Board of Trade to consider favorably the new one he was contemplating. The government was being defrauded by running tobacco into Great Britain without paying the duty there, he wrote them. It was the practice for sailors to buy "mean and trash tobacco," and sell it to agents who knew how to dispose of it. "Thus is the market for the good tobacco damped by the fraudulent importation of the bad." The remedy was to bring all the tobacco under strict inspection by sworn officers, all the bad destroyed, and the weight of every hogshead reported to the commissioners of the customs.

The tobacco act of 1730 provided for warehouses to which all tobacco must be brought in hogsheads for inspection, where it would be burnt if of low grade, or stamped if good, and the owner paid in notes which circulated as money. At the time the price of tobacco was low, and the planters, especially the small farmers, were in dire need. Gooch contended that the law would stimulate trade and bring relief.

His arguments were set forth in a printed pamphlet entitledA Dialogue between Thomas Sweet-scented, William Orinoco, Planters, both Men of Good Understanding, and Justice Love-Country.

Will opened the discussion: "I am sure I have heard a great many speeches against it at the race-grounds and at the county courts.... Why, pray is it not a clear case, don't we see our tobacco burnt?.... T'was constantly buzzed about as if by this law the rich intended to ruin the poor."

Justice: "None but the worst villains could suggest such a reflection."

And so the arguments went, with Justice answering every objection.

Gooch claimed that the law in operation benefited the poor.It was the rich man with his slave labor who was responsible for most of the "trash" which the inspectors burnt. The small farmer who planted, tended, and cured his own tobacco produced the best.[36]In fact, he added, "the greatest encouragement is given to the common people to make tobacco that could be thought of, for ... they take as many notes for it as they please, i. e. notes for fifty or a hundred pounds ... [which] will be accepted as payment at any store or shop." In other words, it gave them a far more convenient currency than their bulky tobacco. More convincing to the small farmer than these arguments was the rise in the price of tobacco which followed the passage of the act. But it must have been obvious to thoughtful men that no regulation of the tobacco trade could better the condition of the poor man so long as he had to compete with slave labor. It was slavery which created a trash far more harmful than poor tobacco—poor white trash.

Gooch's success in securing the King's assent to the tobacco law was matched by his success in persuading the Assembly to assist with men and money in an expeditionagainstNew Granada on the northern coast of South America. In May, 1740, an act was passed to impress men, and in a few weeks about four hundred had been raised. A ragged, motley crowd they must have been, for no one was taken who had any lawful occupation or who had a right to vote.[37]But the officers were from the best Virginia families, among them Lawrence Washington, half-brother of George Washington. Later the Assembly voted £5,000 to cover the cost of feeding and transporting the troops as far as Jamaica, where they were to join the forces sent out from England.

Former Governor Spotswood had been appointed to lead the colonials, but when he died before the ships sailed, Governor Gooch, leaving the government in the hands of the senior Councillor, Commissary Blair, took over the command. The attack on Cartagena proved a failure. The British ships could not get near enough to shell the town. When the troops tried to storm the walls the ladders proved too short, and they were repulsed with heavy losses. Gooch himself was wounded.

Gooch was knighted in 1746, and made a major general in the British army. He seems never to have recovered fully fromhis wound, and from an illness contracted during the New Granada campaign. Complaining that he had grown old and infirm, he asked the King for permission to "go home" to recover his health. To the universal regret of the people of Virginia, he left for England in the summer of 1749. He died December 17, in London.

Gooch himself gave the key to his administration when he wrote: "The condition of affairs in this colony may be summed up in two words, peace and plenty." With many families becoming rich through the settlement of the West and the growth of the tobacco trade, with many hundreds of small farmers acquiring a degree of well-being by the purchase of a few slaves, with no immediate threat from the Indians on the frontier, with Governor and Council maintaining cordial relations, with the Governor cooperating with the Assembly and not trying to dominate it, with rapid strides being made toward the goal of self-government, the years of Gooch's administration may aptly be termed the golden era of Virginia colonial history.

Many of the addresses of various bodies to the Virginia Governors lack the ring of sincerity, because they were obtained by bribery or threats. But the Council, in 1736, seem to have spoken from their hearts when they told Gooch: "As for us, Sir, who have the honor to be the near witnesses of the prudence, moderation, and justice of your administration, we should be unjust to ourselves, as well as ungrateful to your character, if we ... did not declare that we esteem the quiet and tranquillity which this colony has enjoyed under your government as one of the greatest public blessings."

The Burgesses were even more articulate: "We are very sensible how much the colony owes to your good conduct in the government, and that all your actions are directed to a faithful discharge of your duty to his Majesty and to promote our common good. And should we distrust so just and upright a magistrate it would be discountenancing a virtuous administration, and making no difference between that and the greatest enormities, tyranny, and oppression. Or should we withhold our confidence from a person who for so many years has never once abused it, we might justly be reckoned an unworthy representative of a grateful people."

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