Virginia, all this time, with Maryland a thorn in her side, was
wrestling with an autocratic governor, John Harvey. This avaricious
tyrant sowed the wind until in 1635 he was like to reap the whirlwind.
Though he was the King's Governor and in good odor in England, where
rested the overpower to which Virginia must bow, yet in this year
Virginia blew upon her courage until it was glowing and laid rude hands
upon him. We read: "An Assembly to be called to receive complaints
against Sr. John Harvey, on the petition of many inhabitants, to meet
7th of May." But, before that month was come, the Council, seizing
opportunity, acted for the whole. Immediately below the entry above
quoted appears: "On the 28th of April, 1635, Sr. John Harvey thrust out
of his government, and Capt. John West acts as Governor till the King's
pleasure known."*
* Hening's "Statutes" vol. I p. 223.
So Virginia began her course as rebel against political evils! It is
of interest to note that Nicholas Martian, one of the men found active
against the Governor, was an ancestor of George Washington.
Harvey, thrust out, took first ship for England, and there also sailed
commissioners from the Virginia Assembly with a declaration of wrongs
for the King's ear. But when they came to England, they found that the
King's ear was for the Governor whom he had given to the Virginians and
whom they, with audacious disobedience, had deposed. Back should go
Sir John Harvey, still governing Virginia; back without audience the
so-called commissioners, happy to escape a merited hanging! Again to
Jamestown sailed Harvey. In silence Virginia received him, and while he
remained Governor no Assembly sat.
But having asserted his authority, the King in a few years' time was
willing to recall his unwelcome representative. So in 1639 Governor
Harvey vanishes from the scene, and in comes the well-liked Sir Francis
Wyatt as Governor for the second time. For two years he remains, and is
then superseded by Sir William Berkeley, a notable figure in Virginia
for many years to come. The population was now perhaps ten thousand,
both English born and Virginians born of English parents. A few hundred
negroes moved in the tobacco fields. More would be brought in and yet
more. And now above a million pounds of tobacco were going annually to
England.
The century was predominantly one of inner and outer religious conflict.
What went on at home in England reechoed in Virginia. The new Governor
was a dyed-in-the-wool Cavalier, utterly stubborn for King and Church.
The Assemblies likewise leaned that way, as presumably did the mass
of the people. It was ordered in 1631: "That there bee a uniformitie
throughout this colony both in substance and circumstance to the cannons
and constitutions of the church of England as neere as may bee, and
that every person yeald readie obedience unto them uppon penaltie of the
paynes and forfeitures in that case appoynted." And, indeed, the pains
and forfeitures threatened were savage enough.
Official Virginia, loyal to the Established Church, was jealous and
fearful of Papistry and looked askance at Puritanism. It frowned upon
these and upon agnosticisms, atheisms, pantheisms, religious doubts, and
alterations in judgment--upon anything, in short, that seemed to push a
finger against Church and Kingdom. Yet in this Virginia, governed by
Sir William Berkeley, a gentleman more cavalier than the Cavaliers, more
royalist than the King, more churchly than the Church, there lived not
a few Puritans and Dissidents, going on as best they might with
Established Church and fiery King's men. Certain parishes were
predominantly Puritan; certain ministers were known to have leanings
away from surplices and genuflections and to hold that Archbishop Laud
was some kin to the Pope. In 1642, to reenforce these ministers, came
three more from New England, actively averse to conformity. But Governor
and Council and the majority of the Burgesses will have none of that.
The Assembly of 1643 takes sharp action.
For the preservation of the puritie of doctrine and unitie of the
church, IT IS ENACTED that all ministers whatsoever which shall reside
in the collony are to be conformable to the orders and constitutions
of the church of England, and the laws therein established, and not
otherwise to be admitted to teach or preach publickly or privately.
And that the Gov. and Counsel do take care that all nonconformists
upon notice of them shall be compelled to depart the collony with all
conveniencie. And so in consequence out of Virginia, to New England
where Independents were welcome, or to Maryland where any Christian
might dwell, went these tainted ministers. But there stayed behind
Puritan and nonconforming minds in the bodies of many parishioners. They
must hold their tongues, indeed, and outwardly conform--but they watched
lynx-eyed for their opportunity and a more favorable fortune.
Having launched thunderbolts against schismatics of this sort, Berkeley,
himself active and powerful, with the Council almost wholly of his
party and the House of Burgesses dominantly so, turned his attention
to "popish recusants." Of these there were few or none dwelling in
Virginia. Let them then not attempt to come from Maryland! The rulers of
the colony legislated with vigor: papists may not hold any public place;
all statutes against them shall be duly executed; popish priests by
chance or intent arriving within the bounds of Virginia shall be given
five days' warning, and, if at the end of this time they are yet upon
Virginian soil, action shall be brought against them. Berkeley sweeps
with an impatient broom.
The Kingdom is cared for not less than the Church in Virginia. Any
and all persons coming into the colony by land and by sea shall have
administered to them the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance. "Which if any
shall refuse to take," the commander of the fort at Point Comfort
shall "committ him or them to prison." Foreigners in birth and tongue,
foreigners in thought, must have found the place and time narrow indeed.
On the eve of civil war there arose on the part of some in England a
project to revive and restore the old Virginia Company by procuring from
Charles, now deep in troubles of his own, a renewal of the old letters
patent and the transference of the direct government of the colony into
the hands of a reorganized and vast corporation. Virginia, which a score
of years before had defended the Company, now protested vigorously, and,
with regard to the long view of things, it may be thought wisely. The
project died a natural death. The petition sent from Virginia shows
plainly enough the pen of Berkeley. There are a multitude of reasons
why Virginia should not pass from King to Company, among which these
are worthy of note: "We may not admit of so unnatural a distance as a
Company will interpose between his sacred majesty and us his subjects
from whose immediate protection we have received so many royal favours
and gracious blessings. For, by such admissions, we shall degenerate
from the condition of our birth, being naturalized under a monarchical
government and not a popular and tumultuary government depending
upon the greatest number of votes of persons of several humours and
dispositions."
When this paper reached England, it came to a country at civil war. The
Long Parliament was in session. Stafford had been beheaded, the Star
Chamber swept away, the Grand Remonstrance presented. On Edgehill
bloomed flowers that would soon be trampled by Rupert's cavalry. In
Virginia the Assembly took notice of these "unkind differences now
in England," and provided by tithing for the Governor's pension and
allowance, which were for the present suspended and endangered by the
troubles at home. That the forces banded against the Lord's anointed
would prove victorious must at this time have appeared preposterously
unlikely to the fiery Governor and the ultra-loyal Virginia whom he led.
The Puritans and Independents in Virginia--estimated a little earlier
at "a thousand strong" and now, for all the acts against them, probably
stronger yet--were to be found chiefly in the parishes of Isle of Wight
and Nansemond, but had representatives from the Falls to the Eastern
Shore. What these Virginians thought of the "unkind differences" does
not appear in the record, but probably there was thought enough and
secret hopes.
In 1644, the year of Marston Moor, Virginia, too, saw battle and sudden
and bloody death. That Opechancanough who had succeeded Powhatan was
now one hundred years old, hardly able to walk or to see, dwelling
harmlessly in a village upon the upper Pamunkey. All the Indians were
broken and dispersed; serious danger was not to be thought of. Then,
of a sudden, the flame leaped again. There fell from the blue sky a
massacre directed against the outlying plantations. Three hundred men,
women, and children were killed by the Indians. With fury the white men
attacked in return. They sent bodies of horse into the untouched western
forests. They chased and slew without mercy. In 1646 Opechancanough,
brought a prisoner to Jamestown, ended his long tale of years by a shot
from one of his keepers. The Indians were beaten, and, lacking such
another leader, made no more organized and general attacks. But for long
years a kind of border warfare still went on.
Even Maryland, tolerant and just as was the Calvert policy, did not
altogether escape Indian troubles. She had to contend with no such able
chief as Opechancanough, and she suffered no sweeping massacres. But
after the first idyllic year or so there set in a small, constant
friction. So fast did the Maryland colonists arrive that soon there was
pressure of population beyond those first purchased bounds. The more
thoughtful among the Indians may well have taken alarm lest their
villages and hunting-grounds might not endure these inroads. Ere long
the English in Maryland were placing "centinells" over fields where men
worked, and providing penalties for those who sold the savages firearms.
But at no time did young Maryland suffer the Indian woes that had vexed
young Virginia.
Nor did Maryland escape the clash of interests which beset the
beginnings of representative assemblies in all proprietary provinces.
The second, like the first, Lord Baltimore, was a believer in kings and
aristocracies, in a natural division of human society into masters and
men. His effort was to plant intact in Maryland a feudal order. He would
be Palatine, the King his suzerain. In Maryland the great planters, in
effect his barons, should live upon estates, manorial in size and with
manorial rights. The laboring men--the impecunious adventurers whom
these greater adventurers brought out--would form a tenantry, the
Lord Proprietary's men's men. It is true that, according to charter,
provision was made for an Assembly. Here were to sit "freemen of the
province," that is to say, all white males who were not in the position
of indentured servants. But with the Proprietary, and not with the
Assembly, would rest primarily the lawmaking power. The Lord Proprietary
would propose legislation, and the freemen of the country would debate,
in a measure advise, represent, act as consultants, and finally confirm.
Baltimore was prepared to be a benevolent lord, wise, fatherly.
In 1635 met the first Assembly, Leonard Calvert and his Council
sitting with the burgesses, and this gathering of freemen proceeded to
inaugurate legislation. There was passed a string of enactments which
presumably dealt with immediate wants at St. Mary's, and which, the
Assembly recognized, must have the Lord Proprietary's assent. A copy was
therefore sent by the first ship to leave. So long were the voyages and
so slow the procedure in England that it was 1637 before Baltimore's
veto upon the Assembly's laws reached Maryland. It would seem that
he did not disapprove so much of the laws themselves as of the bold
initiative of the Assembly, for he at once sent over twelve bills of
his own drafting. Leonard Calvert was instructed to bring all freemen
together in Assembly and present for their acceptance the substituted
legislation.
Early in 1638 this Maryland Assembly met. The Governor put before it for
adoption the Proprietary's laws. The vote was taken. Governor and some
others were for, the remainder of the Assembly unanimously against, the
proposed legislation. There followed a year or two of struggle over this
question, but in the end the Proprietary in effect acknowledged defeat.
The colonists, through their Assembly, might thereafter propose laws
to meet their exigencies, and Governor Calvert, acting for his brother,
should approve or veto according to need.
When civil war between King and Parliament broke out in England,
sentiment in Maryland as in Virginia inclined toward the King. But
that Puritan, Non-conformist, and republican element that was in
both colonies might be expected to gain if, at home in England, the
Parliamentary party gained. A Royal Governor or a Lord Proprietary's
Governor might alike be perplexed by the political turmoil in the mother
country. Leonard Calvert felt the need of first-hand consultation with
his brother. Leaving Giles Brent in his place, he sailed for England,
talked there with Baltimore himself, perplexed and filled with
foreboding, and returned to Maryland not greatly wiser than when he
went.
Maryland was soon convulsed by disorders which in many ways reflected
the unsettled conditions in England. A London ship, commanded by Richard
Ingle, a Puritan and a staunch upholder of the cause of Parliament,
arrived before St. Mary's, where he gave great offense by his blatant
remarks about the King and Rupert, "that Prince Rogue." Though he was
promptly arrested on the charge of treason, he managed to escape and
soon left the loyal colony far astern.
In the meantime Leonard Calvert had come back to Maryland, where he
found confusion and a growing heat and faction and side-taking of a
bitter sort. To add to the turmoil, William Claiborne, among whose
dominant traits was an inability to recognize defeat, was making
attempts upon Kent Island. Calvert was not long at St. Mary's ere Ingle
sailed in again with letters-of-marque from the Long Parliament. Ingle
and his men landed and quickly found out the Protestant moiety of
the colonists. There followed an actual insurrection, the Marylanders
joining with Ingle and much aided by Claiborne, who now retook Kent
Island. The insurgents then captured St. Mary's and forced the
Governor to flee to Virginia. For two years Ingle ruled and plundered,
sequestrating goods of the Proprietary's adherents, and deporting in
irons Jesuit priests. At the end of this time Calvert reappeared, and
behind him a troop gathered in Virginia. Now it was Ingle's turn to
flee. Regaining his ship, he made sail for England, and Maryland settled
down again to the ancient order. The Governor then reduced Kent Island.
Claiborne, again defeated, retired to Virginia, whence he sailed for
England.
In 1647 Leonard Calvert died. Until the Proprietary's will should be
known, Thomas Greene acted as Governor. Over in England, Lord Baltimore
stood at the parting of the ways. The King's cause had a hopeless look.
Roundhead and Parliament were making way in a mighty tide. Baltimore was
marked for a royalist and a Catholic. If the tide rose farther, he might
lose Maryland. A sagacious mind, he proceeded to do all that he could,
short of denying his every belief, to placate his enemies. He appointed
as Governor of Maryland William Stone, a Puritan, and into the Council,
numbering five members, he put three Puritans. On the other hand the
interests of his Maryland Catholics must not be endangered. He required
of the new Governor not to molest any person "professing to believe
in Jesus Christ, and in particular any Roman Catholic." In this way he
thought that, right and left, he might provide against persecution.
Under these complex influences the Maryland Assembly passed in 1649 an
Act concerning Religion. It reveals, upon the one hand, Christendom's
mercilessness toward the freethinker--in which mercilessness, whether
through conviction or policy, Baltimore acquiesced--and, on the other
hand, that aspiration toward friendship within the Christian fold which
is even yet hardly more than a pious wish, and which in the seventeenth
century could have been felt by very few. To Baltimore and the Assembly
of Maryland belongs, not the glory of inaugurating an era of wide
toleration for men and women of all beliefs or disbeliefs, whether
Christian or not, but the real though lesser glory of establishing
entire toleration among the divisions within the Christian circle
itself. According to the Act,*
"Whatsoever person or persons within this Province and the Islands
thereunto belonging, shall from henceforth blaspheme God, that is curse
him, or deny our Saviour Jesus Christ to bee the sonne of God, or
shall deny the holy Trinity,... or the Godhead of any of the said three
persons of the Trinity, or the unity of the Godhead, or shall use or
utter any reproachful speeches, words or language concerning the
said Holy Trinity, or any of the said three persons thereof, shall be
punished with death and confiscation or forfeiture of all his or her
lands and goods to the Lord Proprietary and his heires.... Whatsoever
person or persons shall from henceforth use or utter any reproachfull
words, or speeches, concerning the blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of
our Saviour, or the holy Apostles or Evangelists, or any of them, shall
in such case for the first offence forfeit to the said Lord Proprietary
and his heires the sum of five pound sterling.... Whatsoever person
shall henceforth upon any occasion... declare, call, or denominate any
person or persons whatsoever inhabiting, residing, traffiqueing, trading
or comerceing within this Province, or within any of the Ports, Harbors,
Creeks or Havens to the same belonging, an heritick, Scismatick,
Idolator, puritan, Independant, Presbiterian, popish priest, Jesuite,
Jesuited papist, Lutheran, Calvenist, Anabaptist, Brownist, Antinomian,
Barrowist, Roundhead, Separtist, or any other name or term in a
reproachful manner relating to matter of Religion, shall for every such
Offence forfeit... the sum of tenne shillings sterling....
"Whereas the inforceing of the conscience in matters of Religion
hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous Consequence in those
commonwealths where it hath been practised,... be it therefore also
by the Lord Proprietary with the advice and consent of this Assembly,
ordeyned and enacted... that no person or persons whatsoever within this
Province...professing to beleive in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth
bee any waies troubled, molested or discountenanced for or in respect
of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof... nor anyway
compelled to the beleif or exercise of any other Religion against his or
her consent, soe as they be not unfaithfull to the Lord Proprietary or
molest or conspire against the civill Government..."
* "Archives of Maryland, Proceedings and Acts of the General
Assembly", vol. I, pp. 244-247.