scene of a dreadful disaster, when seventy-two persons, including the
Governor of the State, who were attending a performance at the theatre,
perished in the flames which destroyed the building. The portico of the
church covers the tombs and charred remains of most of the victims of
the fire, and a monument bears their names.
[Illustration: THE MARSHALL HOUSE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.]
The house of Chief Justice Marshall stands on the street named in his
honor. It was built in 1795, and is as simple and unpretentious as was
its distinguished owner. Still in the possession of his descendants,
the house has not been remodelled and but few changes have been made
inside. By some mischance, in the absence of Judge Marshall, the house
was built rear side front. The handsome hall and staircase, with
their carved balusters of cherry, are at the back, opening towards
the garden, the dining-room looks out on Marshall Street, and the
entrance for visitors is by a small door on the side street. Here lived
and loved, in the simple, good old fashion, the great lawyer and his
lovely wife, Mary Willis Ambler. Their married life was a peaceful idyl
lasting forty-two years. Folded in his will was a touching tribute to
his wife, ending:
“She became at sixteen a most devoted wife. All my faults, and they
were too many, could never weaken this sentiment. It formed a part
of her existence. Her judgment was so sound and so deep that I often
relied upon it in situations of some perplexity. I do not recollect
once to have regretted the adoption of her opinion. I have sometimes
regretted its rejection.”
Both Washington and Lafayette visited the city in 1784, and were
welcomed by the citizens and legislature then in session, who expressed
their appreciation of the great services they had rendered the country.
In response to an address made upon the occasion of this visit,
Washington said: “That this growing city may enjoy the benefits which
are to be derived from liberty, independence and peace--that it may
improve such of its advantages as a bountiful nature has bestowed, and
that it may soon be ranked first in the Union for population, commerce
and wealth, is my sincere and fervent wish.” Lafayette visited Richmond
again in 1824. Houdon had made a bust of him, which Virginia gave to
France, and a copy of which she kept in the rotunda of the Capitol.
By chance, just before his visit, the nose was broken off, and there
was great concern lest he reach the city before it could be restored.
Happily, however, the nose was finished in time.
The Swan tavern, still preserved on Broad Street, was an ancient place
of entertainment kept by Major Moss, who was said to be “full of good
feeding, breeding and fellowship.” His home was the Lincoln’s Inn or
Doctors’ Commons of Richmond, for there assembled in term times the
non-resident judges and lawyers. Though of unpretending exterior, the
Swan was of highest repute for good fare, good wine and good company.
An annex to the Swan was the house where Aaron Burr was kept prisoner
during his trial for treason in 1807, the Federal Court having then no
prison under its control. Chief Justice Marshall presided at the trial,
and the Court sat in the Hall of Delegates in the Capitol.
Edgar Allan Poe spent many of his boyhood days in Richmond, with
John Allan, a rich merchant of Scotch descent who adopted him. Until
recently, the fine old residence of Mr. Allan was standing on Fifth
Street, and near by was the residence of William Wirt, who loved the
place and thus writes of it:
“I never met with such an assemblage of striking and interesting
objects as here, the town dispersed over hills of various shapes,
the river descending from west to east, and obstructed by a multitude
of small islands, clumps of trees and myriads of rocks--the same
river, at the lower end of the town, bending at right angles to the
south and winding many miles in that direction, its polished surface
caught here and there by the eye, but more frequently covered from
the view by trees, among which white sails exhibit a curious and
interesting spectacle; then again, on the opposite side, Manchester,
built on a hill, which, sloping quickly to the river, opens the whole
town to view, interspersed with flourishing poplars and surrounded
to a great distance by green plains and stately woods,--all these
objects falling at once under the eye constitute by far the most
finely varied and most animated landscape I have ever seen.”
The Valentine Museum, which was given to the city by one of its most
valued citizens, the late Mann S. Valentine, contains archæological
specimens numbering more than one hundred thousand, also an art
collection and a number of original works donated by his brother,
Edward V. Valentine, Virginia’s talented sculptor. A short walk brings
you to the studio of this artist, where, among many beautiful and
interesting figures, the chief interest centres in the model for the
recumbent statue of General Robert E. Lee, the marble of which is in
the annex to the Episcopal Church in Lexington. This statue has won
for Valentine the admiration and love of the people of the South.
[Illustration: RICHMOND IN FLAMES.]
At once the capital and the citadel of the Confederacy, Richmond was
the objective point of assault in the Civil War, and the greatest
generalship on both sides was displayed in its attack and its defence.
From May, 1862, to April, 1865, it may be said to have been in a state
of siege, holding out steadily and grandly against great odds. During
this period it is said that fifteen pitched battles and more than
twenty skirmishes were fought in the effort to capture it. When its
defenders were finally obliged to leave the city to its fate, they set
on fire the warehouses to prevent the capture of the tobacco which they
contained, burned the bridges behind them as the last soldier crossed
the river, and left the business portion smoldering in flames--a
barren trophy to the victors. It is in consequence of this that so few
of the typical old buildings remain standing, for the flames leaped
from house to house and destroyed many old landmarks. The city was
not long in rising from its ashes and taking on new life, and there
could be no greater contrast than that between the city of 1865 and
the Richmond of to-day. Nevertheless it will always be remembered
as the capital of the Lost Cause, and, as such, it will be invested
with a pathetic interest. Its suburbs, attractive as they are from
their natural beauty, derive their chief interest from having been the
scenes of the conflict. In many places there remain the earthworks
thrown up for the defence of the city, and every avenue out of the
city for miles around leads to battlefields. Many monuments mark the
love and veneration of the people for the heroes of the war. Foremost
of these is the equestrian statue of General Robert E. Lee by Mercie,
a French sculptor. It represents the great general riding slowly down
the line, mounted on “Traveller,” his well-known war-horse. It is
located in Lee Circle, one of the most beautiful parts of the city.
A monument, the corner-stone of which has already been laid, will be
erected to the memory of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate
States. His residence while occupying that office is a building
imposing in appearance, with grounds beautifully laid out, and adorned
with fountains and flowers. It is known as the “White House of the
Confederacy,” and is kept in admirable condition by a band of devoted
women, the Confederate Literary Memorial Society. The residence
occupied by General Lee and his family is in the care of the Virginia
Historical Society, and contains the extensive library of books,
manuscripts and publications of that society.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, RICHMOND.]
[Illustration: THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND.]
A favorite drive is to Hollywood, silent city of the dead, which nature
and art have united to beautify. Here sleep many of Virginia’s famous
men; among them, Monroe and Tyler, Presidents of the United States,
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, John R. Thompson, the
poet, John Randolph, caustic Master of Roanoke, and Matthew F. Maury,
“Pathfinder of the Seas.” A beautiful monument of granite, pyramidal in
form, and covered with Virginia creeper and ivy, marks the graves of
twelve hundred Confederate dead.
[Illustration: MONUMENT OVER CONFEDERATE DEAD AT HOLLYWOOD.]
The Government has lately finished a fine road, leading from Chimborazo
Park to the National Cemetery, where lie buried 6547 of the Federal
soldiers who fell in the attempts to capture the city.
Nature has done much for the city. The climate is pleasant and
healthful; trees shade and flowers beautify the residences. The
river glistens as it flows around wooded islands and rushes toward
the sea over craggy rocks. Numerous lines of travel centre in its
midst and there is a growing spirit of enterprise among its citizens.
The water-power is very fine, and besides being utilized for many
manufactories, is about to be used for the generation of electricity on
a large scale. Richmond claims the honor of being among the first, if
not the very first city, to be lighted with gas. A man named Henfrey
visited the city early in the present century, and induced some of
the prominent citizens to witness experiments made by him in which he
poured flame instead of steam from the spout of a tea-kettle. Money was
raised by subscription and a lighthouse was built. On a tower forty
feet high was a large lantern with many jets, and gas was generated
in the basement and conducted by a pipe to the burners. Not, however,
until many years after were the gas-works erected, and though Henfrey’s
light was short-lived, his tower remained a monument of the enterprise
of the citizens.
The people of Richmond are refined and hospitable. “It is the merriest
place and the most picturesque, I have seen in America,” wrote
Thackeray.
The city is filled with the echoes of the past. She cherishes tender
memories of brave men and gracious women. Rich in historic interest,
progressive in her industries and in education, Richmond easily takes
the lead in the State. Perhaps it is not too much to say that her great
mental activity to-day, and her rapid advancement of late years in
material concerns, gives her a position by no means insignificant among
the cities of America, a fitting capital of the “Mother of States and
of statesmen.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
WILLIAMSBURG
THE ANCIENT CAPITAL
BY LYON G. TYLER
Williamsburg is situated on the famous Peninsula of Virginia, between
the James and York rivers. On this Peninsula have occurred some of
the most important events in history. One thing alone entitles it to
pre-eminence in American history.
At Jamestown, seven miles distant from Williamsburg, was established
the first permanent English settlement on the North American continent.
There at Jamestown English settlers planted English institutions,
had the first jury trial, and summoned the first assembly of the
people. There, too, was the first enunciation on this continent of the
memorable principle that taxes must not be imposed except with consent
of the people in their representative assembly. All subsequent English
colonization in America had its chief inspiration in the successful
upbuilding of the settlement at Jamestown. The Peninsula is in truth
“the cradle of the Union.”
[Illustration: “OLD POWDER-HORN.”]
But the Peninsula has also its Yorktown, thirteen miles distant from
Williamsburg. This place, which once had a very great trade with
Glasgow and London, but which was never more than a village of a few
hundred inhabitants, may, nevertheless, claim to be the beginning
and ending of Colonial resistance. Towering on the river bank is the
beautiful monument, erected in 1881, which tells that there Lord
Cornwallis surrendered in 1781 the British power in America to George
Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the American armies. But another
monument might stand in close proximity, with this inscription, that
there the first meeting of the people of Virginia was held in 1635
under the leadership of Nicholas Martian, an ancestor of Washington, to
protest against the tyranny of the Governor, Sir John Harvey, who was
shortly after deposed and sent a prisoner to England in the custody of
two members of the Assembly. Nor, in referring to this neighborhood,
must I omit mention of Hampton at the extreme end of the Peninsula,
which is the oldest town in English America, which boasts the oldest
free school, and which, twice a victim to the flames of war, gave its
name to the great landlocked haven where the _Merrimac_ revolutionized
naval warfare by its victory over the Federal wooden battle-ships in
1862.
Finally, six miles from Hampton is Newport News, where the first
cotton was planted in America, and where there has suddenly sprung up
a rushing, driving city, tremulous with the hopes of the future, and
already realizing the dream of its first settlers, who relied on the
magnificent opportunities which its situation at the conjunction of
the James River with Hampton Roads afforded. The Peninsula has been
traversed by British, French, and American armies, and in our own
times is memorable as the scene of the tremendous struggle between the
opposing armies of the Northern and Southern States, under the lead
of McClellan and Johnston--a struggle sustained on both sides with
conspicuous bravery and endurance, and culminating in the battles about
Richmond in 1862.
Until 1630, the settlements of the English in Virginia were confined
to the Accomac Peninsula, on the other side of Chesapeake Bay, and
to the valley of the James. In that year the Governor and Council
determined to make a settlement in the Indian district of Chiskiack in
the neighborhood of Yorktown. Soon after one of the leading men, Dr.
John Pott, from Harop, in Yorkshire, England, observed the advantages
of a location on the ridge between Jamestown and Chiskiack, obtained a
patent for a plantation there, and called it “Harop.” The authorities
endorsed his judgment and in 1632 sent settlers thither for the
purpose of establishing a town upon the spot. This was the beginning
of Williamsburg, which was called at first the “Middle Plantation,”
because of its location midway between the York and the James.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF BRUTON PARISH CHURCH AT WILLIAMSBURG VA.]
The Middle Plantation, though for many years a small village, was from
the first a strategic point of much value. Two deep creeks, with wide
morasses, penetrate to the spot from the James and York respectively,
so that no hostile force can proceed up or down the Peninsula without
passing through the place. The first settlement was walled in with
palisades, and the corn-fields lay on the west of these. In the war
with Opechancanough in 1644, the place was commanded by Captain Robert
Higginson,[5] a soldier of credit and renown. When Bacon in 1676 drove
Sir William Berkeley from Jamestown, here at Middle Plantation, just
a hundred years before the American Revolution, the former, calling
himself “General by consent of the People,” held his famous parliament
of the leading men of the Colony, who published those papers which
sound so much like the inspiring literature of the Revolution.[6]
In preparing an oath to be administered to the people, the three
articles proposed were read by James Minge, Clerk of the House of
Burgesses: First, that they should aid General Bacon in the Indian
war; second, that they would oppose Sir William Berkeley’s endeavor to
hinder the same; third, that _they would oppose any power sent out
from England, till terms were agreed to_.
The overweening confidence of the people of Virginia in themselves was
shown in the remark of Bacon that “one Virginian was equal to four
red-coats.” Middle Plantation, however, witnessed a sad sight some
months later. The hero of the people had succumbed to disease, and
Sir William Berkeley was again in power. Among those who supported
Bacon with their counsel and sympathy, though not with arms, was
William Drummond, first Governor of North Carolina, and here at Middle
Plantation he expiated his offence on the gallows. The circumstances
surrounding the execution were unusually affecting. Tried by a drumhead
court-martial, he was condemned, stripped, the ring torn from his
finger, sentenced at one o’clock and hanged at four. Berkeley, however,
did not long exult in his power, for the British Government recalled
him to England, where he soon died.
Jamestown with all the public buildings had been destroyed during
the course of the war. The suggestion was now offered to make Middle
Plantation the capital, but was not adopted, and Jamestown was again
restored.
[Illustration: COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY.]
In 1683, a handsome brick church was erected at Middle Plantation,
and fifteen years later the “old fields” in front of the town were
selected as the site for the “Royall Colledge” of William and Mary.
Then in 1698, the State House at Jamestown falling again a victim to
flames, Governor Francis Nicholson proposed to carry out the original
suggestion of making the Middle Plantation the seat of government. The
Legislature seconded him in this, stating in the preamble to their act
that “the Middle Plantation had been found by constant experience to
be healthy and agreeable to the constitutions of the inhabitants of
this, his Majesty’s, colony and dominion;” that “its air was serene and
temperate,” and that “its land was dry and champaign, and plentifully
stored with wholesome springs.”
Soon there rose at Middle Plantation a building in the shape of an
“H,” the first “Capitol” so called in the United States (the term
“State House” being used in the other colonies), then a palace for
the governor, a theatre, the first also in English America, for the
enacting of tragedies and comedies, an armory for the care of the
public arms and ammunition, a public prison, the first hospital for the
insane in America, and other buildings--all of brick. In honor of the
reigning monarch the name of the place was in 1699 changed to that of
Williamsburg, for which a city charter, in 1722, was obtained in the
name of King George I., and under the seal of the Colony.
Thenceforward, the history of Williamsburg became the history of
Virginia--for here until 1779 resided the Governor of the Colony, and
here were held the sessions of the Council and the House of Burgesses,
and the sessions of the Supreme Court.
[Illustration: Jacobus Blair
THE FOUNDER OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE.
]
But the life in Virginia was essentially a rural one, and Williamsburg
never attained a population of over two thousand. During great
public occasions, it assumed something of a real city character. On
such occasions, the streets of Williamsburg were crowded with the
chariots of the great planters, who rolled in great state from their
plantations, carrying their families and attended by postilions and
outriders.
In 1716, Governor Spotswood left Williamsburg on his memorable trip
to the Blue Ridge Mountains, instituting on his return the order of
“The Knights of the Horseshoe,” which has been celebrated in story and
verse. This expedition was the beginning of that march of empire to
the West which in our time has arrived at the far-distant Philippine
Islands.
In 1754, from the same city of Williamsburg, went George Washington
to demand of the French commander an explanation of his occupation
of Virginia soil on the Ohio. This was the first act in the drama of
the French and Indian War, which, by driving the French power from
this continent, laid the foundation of the future American nation.
Subsequently, in all the events that finally culminated in war with
Great Britain, Williamsburg was not only the capital of Virginia, but
in many ways the capital of the revolting colonies.
[Illustration: Benj. S. Ewell]
It was a memorable day in 1765, when Patrick Henry offered in
Williamsburg his famous resolutions against the Stamp Act. Samuel
Adams of Massachusetts led the way in 1764 in remonstrating against
the passage of the Stamp Act, and Virginia and the other colonies had
quickly followed along the same line; but protests and petitions
were unavailing. Parliament enacted the stamp bill into law, and the
alternatives presented were submission or resistance. There was a
painful silence throughout the colonies. In the North “there was no
declared purpose of action.” The usual and constitutional method of
petition and remonstrance, often resorted to in the past history of
the colonies against governmental action, had been tried. Otis advised
submission, and was elected by Boston to a seat in the Legislature.
When the Massachusetts Legislature met, Oliver, the stamp distributor,
was elected councillor. Samuel Adams advised only a meeting of the
colonies to confer on the condition of things. It was a supreme
moment, but Virginia rose to the occasion. From the Capitol at
Williamsburg rang out the clarion voice of Patrick Henry. He maintained
by resolutions that the inhabitants of Virginia inherited from the
first adventurers and settlers of that dominion equal franchises
with the people of Great Britain; that royal charters had declared
that equality; that taxation by themselves or by persons chosen by
themselves to represent them was the distinguishing characteristic
of British freedom; that the people of that most ancient Colony had
uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of being thus governed by their own
laws respecting their internal policy and taxation; that this right
had never been forfeited or in any other way given up, but had been
constantly recognized by the King and people of Great Britain; that the
General Assembly of the whole Colony had the sole right and power to
lay taxes on the inhabitants of the Colony; that any attempt to vest
such power in any other person whatever tended to destroy British as
well as American freedom; that the people of Virginia were not bound
to give obedience to any law designed to impose taxation upon them
other than the laws of their own General Assembly; and that any one who
should, either by speaking or writing, maintain the contrary should be
deemed an enemy to the Colony.
In the maintenance of these resolutions Henry, lifted out of self,
shouted those immortal words, “Tarquin and Cæsar had each his Brutus,
Charles I. his Cromwell, and George III.”--and here he was interrupted
by the cry of “Treason!”--“may profit by their example; if this be
treason, make the most of it.” “This is the way,” says Bancroft, “that
the fire began. Virginia rang the alarm bell for the continent.”