AT STAKE--LIBERTY AND A CONTINENT
When Robert Dinwiddie stepped ashore at Yorktown on November 20, 1751,
he was greeted by Secretary Thomas Nelson and two members of the
Council--Colonel William Fairfax and William Nelson. Hastening on to
Williamsburg, he was met on the road by Commissary William Dawson, John
Blair, and Philip Ludwell. When the little cavalcade reached the
outskirts of the town, they found the Mayor, Aldermen, and other
prominent citizens waiting to welcome them. At the Palace, Dinwiddie
took the oath of office. He and the members of the Council then went to
Wetherburn's tavern for dinner, where they were guests of the town. As
the cannons at the powder horn roared their approval, they lifted their
glasses to drink the "royal healths."
The inauguration of Dinwiddie brought to an end the custom of appointing
military officers as Governors or Lieutenant Governors of the colony.
Nicholson, Andros, Spotswood, Hunter, Drysdale, and Gooch had all been
soldiers. One wonders why the policy had persisted so long, for there
would seem to be little in the training of an army officer to fit him
for the duties of a colonial administrator. The habit of issuing
commands and expecting instant obedience might easily cause failure in
dealing with a liberty-loving people. Yet in practice, it seems to have
been the personal character of the Governor, rather than his training,
which determined his conduct. Nicholson and Spotswood were by nature
dictators, Drysdale and Gooch had no desire for power for power's sake.
Yet the Virginians were no doubt pleased with the appointment of a man
from civil life. Dinwiddie came from a family of Glasgow merchants, and
as a young man had been engaged in the pottery business. At the age of
twenty-eight he was made Collector of Customs in Bermuda, in which
office he won the approval of the Lords of Trade by uncovering serious
frauds in the collecting of customs in the West Indies. In 1738 he was
advanced to the important post of Surveyor General of the southern ports
of the North American continent. Additional responsibilities were
placed upon him a few years later, when he was made Inspector General of
the Customs. In 1749 he resigned this office, probably in order to
engage in trade.
The painting of Dinwiddie in the National Portrait Gallery, London,
shows a rather stout, middle-aged man. The face which looks out from
beneath a large wig, despite the placid expression, shows strength in
the lines of the mouth and the steady gaze of the eyes. Dinwiddie,
throughout his career did not willingly provoke a conflict, but when the
conflict was started he fought stubbornly. Yet when necessity dictated
he knew how to yield. The first of these qualities made him an important
factor in preserving the most important part of North America for
British civilization. The other contributed greatly to the triumph of
self-government in Virginia.
The new Lieutenant Governor's administration began auspiciously. In his
opening address to the Assembly he expressed his pleasure at being in
Virginia, where he had so many friends. He realized it would be
difficult to equal the record of his predecessor, but he hoped, with the
advice of the Council and the Burgesses, to serve the colony well. One
wonders whether he had in mind some of the former Governors of Virginia
when he pointed out that indolence, avarice, and ambition were
responsible for many public calamities.
The spirit of good will to the Governor ripened into gratitude when he
sided with the Assembly in their protest against an action of the King
in Council. This was almost unprecedented, for a Governor was supposed
to defend anything the royal government did, no matter how harmful to
the colony or unjust.
It seems that the Assembly, in 1748 and 1749, had made a laborious
revision of the laws. The completed work, in sixty-seven acts, they sent
to the King so that he could review them. But it was not anticipated
that he would either veto or sign any of them. So there was
consternation when Dinwiddie reported that the King in Council had
signed fifty-seven of the revised laws and vetoed ten. Of the latter,
two--one declaring slaves personal property and the other setting up the
General Court--were of great importance. Each House drew up an address
to the King pleading with him to reconsider his action. When Dinwiddie
promised to endorse and deliver them, Councillors and Burgesses alike
were grateful. Before dispersing they voted him a gift of L500, which
Dinwiddie, despite his instructions seems to have accepted.[1]
But the honeymoon was of short duration. Before Dinwiddie left England
he was entrusted with a new seal for Virginia. It was this, no doubt,
which gave him the idea of adding to his income by charging a pistole
for signing patents for land and affixing the seal. Had he been aware of
the storm raised by the similar attempt by Lord Effingham sixty-four
years earlier, he would have known what was in store for him. The
Council, too, seem to have been forgetful in this matter, for when the
Governor asked their opinion, they advised him to go ahead.[2]
When the Assembly met in November, 1753, Dinwiddie told them that a
large body of French regulars, accompanied by Indian allies, had marched
down from Canada into the Ohio region and had built a fort there. The
King had commanded him to lay before them a request for funds to defeat
their designs, and to purchase gifts for the friendly Indians.
The Burgesses were fully aware of the danger. For the French to build a
chain of forts on the Monongahela and the Ohio to connect with those on
the Mississippi would make a barrier to further expansion of the English
colonies to the west. It would also constitute an ever present threat to
their frontier, since in future wars the way would be open to forays of
hostile Indians. Such men as Joshua Fry, Edmund Pendleton, John
Robinson, and Benjamin Harrison may have realized that the fate of
Virginia and of all English North America hung in the balance.
But for the moment the Burgesses were more interested in preserving
their liberty than their safety. They began by considering the
complaints of several counties against the pistole fee. Dinwiddie
accused the Reverend William Stith, President of the College of William
and Mary, of inciting the people against the fee. Stith was his personal
enemy, he thought, because he had opposed his appointment as Commissary
of the clergy.[3] So he wrote to the Bishop of London suggesting that if
he would advise Stith "to be peaceable and quiet and teach the doctrine
of love," it would make him more easy in his government.[4] If it was
Stith who aroused the people against the pistole fee, he made a good
job of it. Henrico County protested, Chesterfield protested, Albemarle
protested, Cumberland, Amelia, Dinwiddie Counties protested.
[Illustration: Governor Dinwiddie. Portrait in the National Portrait
Gallery of London. Reproduced by permission.]
[Illustration: The General Court in the Old Capitol at Williamsburg.
Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.]
The Burgesses were deeply concerned. In an address to the Lieutenant
Governor they declared that their duty in the discharge of the trust
reposed in them by the people required them to ask him by what authority
he demanded the fee. He replied that he had acted on his own authority,
with the advice of the Council. And he intimated that the taking of the
fee was a thing that did not concern them.
The Burgesses were indignant. In an address of historic significance
they told Dinwiddie "in the strongest terms" that it was their undoubted
right to enquire into the grievances of the people. To question it was
to threaten the liberties of his Majesty's subjects and the constitution
of the government. "The rights of the subject are so secured by law that
they cannot be deprived of the least part of their property but by their
own consent. Upon this excellent principle is our constitution founded,
and ever since this colony has had the happiness of being under the
immediate protection of the Crown the royal declarations have been:
'That no man's life, member, freehold, or goods be taken away or harmed
but by established and known laws.'"[5]
Well would it have been if the King and his advisers had pondered well
this declaration when it came before them, for it gave in unmistakable
language the principle in defense of which the American Revolution was
fought. And it would have been well for Dinwiddie had he bowed to the
wishes of the Burgesses at a time when their cooperation was needed to
save the British colonies from French aggression.
But in the meanwhile he had placed the matter before the Board of Trade,
and the Board had asked the opinion of Attorney General Sir Dudley
Ryder.[6] When Dinwiddie received word that Sir Dudley thought the
assent of the Assembly unnecessary, he was resolved not to yield. The
fee relates solely to the disposal of the King's lands, he told the
Burgesses, which is a matter of favor from the Crown.
The Governor's plea that the fee was necessary in order to bring
thousands of occupied, but unpatented acres, under the rent roll seems
to have been an afterthought. "On my arrival I found in the Secretary's
office a list of lands taken up near 1,000,000 acres, which, most of
them, should have been patented," he wrote the Board of Trade, "which is
an annual loss to the quit rents."[7] But he did not explain how the
charging of a pistole fee would have been an incentive to the holders of
these lands to have them patented.
The Burgesses were by this time thoroughly aroused. The Governor said it
was only "some hotheaded young men" who had stirred up all the trouble,
but when it was resolved that his answer was unsatisfactory, there was
not one dissenting voice. The demand for the fee, they insisted, was
illegal and arbitrary, contrary to the charters of the colony, to King
William's express order, and tending to the subversion of laws and
constitution. They were determined to place the matter before the King
in a "dutiful and loyal address."[8]
At the close of the session, after the Governor's speech proroguing
them, the Burgesses refused to budge from their seats until they had
passed still another resolution which breathed the spirit of revolution:
"That whoever shall hereafter pay a pistole as a fee to the Governor for
the use of the seal to patents for land shall be deemed a betrayer of
the rights and privileges of the people." This Dinwiddie thought tended
to "sowing sedition and rebellion among the people."[9]
In the meanwhile, the Burgesses had drawn up the address to the King and
appointed Attorney General Peyton Randolph their agent to take it to
England. To defray his expenses and pay him for his services, they voted
him L2,500 out of the funds in the hands of the Treasurer. When this
came before the Council, they rejected it. The Treasurer then declared
that he would pay the money without their consent, but he refrained when
the Governor told him it would not be allowed in his accounts.
"I am sorry to find them very much in a republican way of thinking,"
Dinwiddie wrote to the Earl of Halifax, "and indeed they do not act in a
proper constitutional way, but making encroachments on the prerogative
of the Crown, which some former Governor submitted too much to them, and
I fear without a very particular instruction it will be difficult to
bring them in order."[10]
When Randolph asked Dinwiddie for permission to go to England, he met
with a prompt refusal. "You have not acted agreeable to your duty and
your office," he told him. When Randolph insisted upon going, the
Governor assumed that he had vacated his office and appointed George
Wythe Attorney General in his place.[11]
Soon after Randolph's arrival in England articles began to appear in the
gazettes intended to arouse sentiment against the pistole fee, which
Dinwiddie wrongly attributed to him. The fee was no less than a tax
levied on the people without their consent, they said. Foreign
Protestants and others were leaving the colony rather than pay it. To
this Dinwiddie replied that any thinking man could distinguish between a
fee and a tax. And he denied flatly that one person had left Virginia to
avoid the pistole fee.[12] But he was sorry that the affair had made so
much noise in the English coffee houses.
The Board of Trade considered the pistole dispute most inopportune. At a
time when the French were challenging the right of Great Britain to the
vast trans-Allegheny region, it was unfortunate that the Governor should
have aroused the bitter resentment of the Assembly. "It is necessary
that harmony and mutual confidence be established between the Governors
and people in all the colonies," they wrote, "but especially in
Virginia, on the frontier of which the French are carrying on their
encroachments."[13]
But they could not desert Dinwiddie entirely since the issue involved
the royal prerogative. The King rejected the address of the Burgesses,
and the Board confirmed the Governor's right to the fee. But they hedged
it about with several restrictions. There must be no fee for grants of
less than one hundred acres, or for lands granted for importing
settlers, or for lands west of the mountains. They reproved Dinwiddie
for proposing that the fee be established by act of Assembly, in
violation of the King's rights. The making out of surveys for land and
neglecting to pass patents was clearly "in the Governor's power to
prevent." "We expect you to do your duty ... even though no pecuniary
advantage should arise from it." And they recommended that he reinstate
Randolph as Attorney General. "This may quiet the minds of the people
and stop this unjust clamor."[14]
Dinwiddie was far from happy about this report. The proposal to
establish the fee by act of Assembly had come from the Council, not from
him, he wrote in reply. As for not taking a fee for patents west of the
mountains, he wanted to know which mountains. He had taken no fee for
lands beyond the Alleghenies. The suggestion to reinstate the Attorney
General was especially displeasing. However, when Randolph arrived at
Williamsburg with many letters of recommendation from men of influence
in England, denying that he had written the attacks on the Governor in
the press, and promising "to conduct himself more regularly in future
and with more regard to his Majesty's service," he reinstated him.[15]
One wonders just how many pistoles Dinwiddie pocketed for the use of the
seal in the six and a half years of his administration. A few months
after he had left Virginia for good there were no less than 1,360
applications for patents waiting to be sealed. Governor Fauquier,
Dinwiddie's successor, stated that this was costing the Crown L1,000 a
year in quit rents. It would seem to indicate that Dinwiddie, ignoring
the positive orders of the Board of Trade, had appeased the people by
permitting 1,000,000 acres of occupied land to remain unpatented. Thus
the Governor's victory was a hollow one, and the Burgesses, without
acquiescing in the decision of the Board, were content to let the matter
drop so long as the fee was not collected.
Fauquier, on his part, handled this hot potato with care. "Being
extremely desirous to keep peace and harmony in this country," he wrote
the Lords of Trade, "and that his Majesty's revenue should not suffer
... I have made a declaration in Council that I would be willing to
acquiesce in anything that should be thought reasonable to procure both
these advantages. This affair has formerly raised a great flame in this
country which is not yet quite subsided, and ... I am endeavoring to
quench it entirely that the Assemblies may the easier be prevailed upon
to give what is necessary."[16]
In the meanwhile the storm of war had broken over the colonies. A
terrible war it was. It lacked the wholesale devastation of the atomic
bomb and the hydrogen bomb, but it was marked by infinite cruelties.
Dinwiddie described it vividly. "Think you see the infant torn from the
unavailing struggles of the distracted mother, the daughters ravished
before the eyes of their wretched parents, and then, with cruelty and
insult, butchered and scalped. Suppose the horrid scene completed, and
the whole family, man, wife, and children murdered and scalped by these
relentless savages, and then torn in pieces."[17]
To Dinwiddie goes the credit of warning the British government that the
French were trying to confine the English to the region east of the
Alleghenies. In December, 1752, he wrote the Board of Trade that they
had built a string of forts from Canada to the mouth of the Mississippi,
that they had 5,000 soldiers at New Orleans, and 1,600 elsewhere in
America. When he heard that a force of French and Indians had built a
fort on the Allegheny River, and were preparing to descend on the Ohio,
he sent young George Washington to warn them to leave. This proving
ineffectual, he came to the Assembly for funds to finance an expedition
to drive them out.
This was the first of a series of appeals for money which gave the
Assembly a golden opportunity to weaken the power of the Governor and
the royal prerogative. Yet it was an opportunity full of danger. If they
clogged their grants with such conditions that Dinwiddie would not
accept them, they ran the risk of having the colony overrun by the
enemy. At times the Governor was in despair. "The French could have cut
off every one of our men and marched down to Hampton without the least
danger," he wrote in July, 1754.
When the Assembly met in February, 1754, Dinwiddie told them that
Washington had seen a large body of the enemy on the upper Allegheny.
Give me men and supplies to oppose them, he pleaded. The safety of
Virginia depends on you at this critical juncture.[18] In reply to this
appeal they did vote L10,000 but Dinwiddie was far from happy about it
because the bill named a committee of the two Houses to supervise its
expenditure. "This bill takes from me the undoubted right I have of
directing the application of the money," he complained. But since funds
could be had on no other terms he gave his assent. "I assure you it was
contrary to my inclination, but necessity has no law," he wrote James
Abercrombie.[19]
So men were raised and equipped and sent out to the junction of the
Allegheny and the Monongahela. Here, under the command of George
Washington, they were fortifying themselves when they were attacked by
the French and Indians and forced to retire. Again Dinwiddie pleaded for
a grant large enough to meet the emergency. When the Assembly responded
by voting L20,000, he was delighted until he discovered a rider to pay
Peyton Randolph the L2,500 they had promised him for representing them
in England in the pistole affair. This was too much for Dinwiddie to
swallow, so he vetoed the bill.[20]
In his perplexity the Governor now made a radical suggestion to the
Board of Trade. "I think it impossible to conduct any expedition in
these parts with a dependence on the Assemblies for supplies, without a
British act of Parliament to lay a poll tax on the whole subjects of
these provinces, to bring them to a sense of their duty to the King, to
awaken them from their insolence, to take care of their lives and
fortunes."[21]
It is easy to imagine the storm of indignation this would have raised in
Virginia had the people known of it. Why, no such thing had been done in
the century and a half of the colony's existence. Charles I had not
dared tax the colonists without their consent; Charles II, though he
obtained a revenue in Virginia by threatening the Assembly, had not
acted without their consent. Over and over the people had sought
guarantees that they should enjoy the inherent right of all Englishmen
of being taxed only by their own representatives.
Dinwiddie's suggestion undoubtedly reflected the changed attitude of the
British government. He would hardly have dared make it if he had thought
it would shock the British Ministry. On the other hand, the violent
reaction of the people of the colony to the pistole fee should have made
it clear to him that they would resist taxation by Parliament fiercely.
In other words, his action was revealing of how far apart Britain and
her colonies had grown, and prophetic of the clash that was to come.
But now Dinwiddie was cheered by word that the King had promised
L20,000 and 2,000 stand of arms from the royal stores to aid in the war.
With this evidence that Great Britain was willing to do her part, he
again appealed to the Assembly. He was overjoyed when they granted
L20,000. "I parted with the Assembly on good terms. I shall try to keep
them in good humor," he wrote the Board. When he heard that two
regiments of British regulars were on their way to Virginia, he
confidently expected that the French would soon be driven from the Ohio
region. All Virginia was elated when the troops arrived at Alexandria in
their brilliant red coats. The Assembly voted an additional L22,000.
Then came disaster. General Braddock, who commanded the British, knew
nothing about Indian fighting, and scorned the advice of those who did.
"These savages may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to your raw American
militia, but upon the King's regular and disciplined troops, sir, it is
impossible that they should make any impression," he told Benjamin
Franklin. So his advanced regiment, as it was filing through the woods,
was attacked and cut to pieces. The Virginia contingent fought bravely,
but could not stem the tide. Braddock himself was killed. Colonel
Dunbar, in command of the other regiment, though his men had taken no
part in the battle and still outnumbered the enemy, marched them off to
Philadelphia, and left the Virginia frontier open.
The dismay of the people when the news of this unexpected defeat reached
them was tempered by their pride in the heroism of the Virginia troops,
"who purchased with their lives immortal glory to their country and
themselves on the banks of the Monongahela." So when Dinwiddie asked for
more funds, the Assembly voted L40,000.[22] To raise this sum they
levied heavy taxes on the people and placed a five per cent duty on
imports. In times of peace no Governor would have consented to an import
duty on British goods, for it would have brought immediate protests from
the merchants. But Dinwiddie signed the bill and praised the Assembly
for its "unanimity" and "martial spirit."[23]
When they met again in October, 1755, they forgot for the moment the
Indian terror and spent their time on a project to emit L200,000 in
paper and set up a loan office. To this the Governor would not assent,
and after a session of only twelve days, he dissolved them to take his
chances on a new election. The Board of Trade praised him. "Their
availing themselves of this time of danger and distress to establish a
paper currency, so destructive of credit, justifies your dissolving
them."[24]
Dinwiddie was now so out of patience that he suggested once more that
Parliament pass the Assembly by and itself levy a tax on the people of
the colonies. He recommended a poll tax of twelve pence for two years,
and a permanent tax of two shillings on every one hundred acres of land.
"I know our people will be inflamed if they hear of my making this
proposal, as they are averse to all taxes," he wrote the Board of
Trade.[25] One wonders what the Americans would have done had the
British Government followed this suggestion. It might have alienated
their affection at the very moment when it was most needed. It would
probably have been as impossible to collect the taxes as it was to
enforce the Stamp Act a decade later. Fortunately, the Board of Trade
decided that this was not the proper time to start a controversy with
the colonies over this vital matter.
The new House of Burgesses who met in March, 1756, while showing a
willingness to support the war, were just as independent, just as
jealous of their privileges as former ones. When some of their members
were absent from their seats while attending the General Court, they
sent their mace-bearer within the bar to bring them back. This Dinwiddie
resented as an indignity to the court. The orderly administration of
justice was just as important as the enacting of laws, he told the
House.
Their audacity was shown at the same session in the matter of the
Acadian exiles. Governor Charles Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, on the advice
of his Council, had decided to distribute these unfortunates throughout
the British colonies. When the people of Virginia heard that a fleet
with over eleven hundred had arrived in their waters, they were deeply
concerned. No Governor had a right to unload on them such a number of
French Roman Catholics, they said. Their remaining in the colony at a
time when Great Britain and France were at war would be very dangerous.
So they passed a bill, to which the Governor assented, to ship the
exiles to Great Britain.[26]
But while the Assembly was sitting, the Indians were making a series of
murderous raids in the Valley of Virginia. Washington, who was left in
command of the Virginia forces after Dunbar withdrew, wrote Dinwiddie in
April, 1756, to describe the plight of the people. "I see their
situation, know their danger, and participate in their sufferings,
without having it in my power to give them further relief than uncertain
promises.... The supplicating tears of the women, and moving petitions
from the men melt me into such deadly sorrow that I solemnly declare ...
I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy
provided that would contribute to the people's ease."[27]
Nor were the Burgesses deaf to the sufferings of these poor people.
Although the burden of taxation was very heavy, they voted L60,000 for
the erection of forts and the sending of the militia into the Valley.
Part of this sum they provided for by the emission of treasury notes.
"In the situation I was obliged to give my assent or disband our forces
and leave our frontier unguarded and exposed to the incursions of a
merciless foe," Dinwiddie wrote the Board of Trade. But he assured them
that the merchants would not be losers since the notes bore interest at
five per cent, and would be redeemed in 1760. Virginia had voted in all
L150,000 for the war, he pointed out, which was much more than any other
colony had done.[28]
At a short session in September, 1756, Dinwiddie told the Assembly of
the surrender of Oswego. All realized that it was a crushing blow, since
it cut off the English from the Great Lakes, made a deep impression on
the Indians, and opened New York to invasion. When the Governor asked
for men and money as Virginia's contribution to the Royal American
Regiment, which the Earl of Loudoun, Commander-in-Chief of the British
forces, was recruiting, they voted L8,000. This the Earl promised to
report to the British government "in the very handsome manner" it
deserved.[29]
But when they met in April, 1757, they did not permit this compliment to
keep them from taking issue with Loudoun for laying an embargo on
commerce in order to put an end to the sending of supplies by the
colonists to the French. It was obvious to all that this would do more
harm than good, they said. Wheat stored in vessels ready to set out for
Great Britain was "likely to perish." And unless the planters could
sell their tobacco, it would be impossible for them to pay their taxes.
After all, men asked, what authority had Loudoun to give such an order?
The Burgesses petitioned Dinwiddie to rescind it so far as Virginia was
concerned. They were determined to vote no more supplies until he did
so.[30] Dinwiddie was forced to yield, and the fleet waiting in Virginia
waters cleared for Great Britain.
As one vessel after another sailed out between Cape Henry and Cape
Charles, the Assembly acted quickly to support the war. They raised
L6,000 to send out rangers against the Indians, L25,000 to pay arrears
due officers and men of the Virginia forces, and issued L80,000 in
non-interest bearing notes, renewable in seven years.[31] At once the
old "heats and disputes" with the Governor were resumed. Dinwiddie was
opposed to paper money, but the Burgesses, knowing that they had the
whip hand, would not yield. "They took advantage of the emergency of our
affairs, when without money every operation must be stopped, and the
protection of the country, the lives and properties of these very people
[have] been exposed to the barbarous enemy," the Governor complained. "I
was obliged at last, much against my judgment, to assent."[32]
In one vital matter the Burgesses themselves had to yield. The
expenditure of money appropriated during previous sessions had proved so
unsatisfactory that they left all new disbursements to the Governor.
They appointed three commissioners to examine such accounts as he should
turn over to them, but they were merely to assist, not control him.[33]
Despite the one point of difference, Dinwiddie, in proroguing the
Assembly, praised them for their "dutiful obedience to his Majesty's
commands," and their compliance with what he himself had recommended. He
had told them earlier in the summer that his health had been failing and
that he had asked permission to resign his office and return to Great
Britain. Now he said goodbye. "I shall always retain a sincere regard
for the prosperity of this dominion," he said.[34] He sailed from
Yorktown in January, 1758.
To Robert Dinwiddie goes a large part of the credit for saving the major
part of North America for British civilization. It was he who saw the
meaning of the encroachments of the French in the Ohio Valley; it was he
who sounded the alarm in both Great Britain and America. And when the
fateful struggle with France was under way, his appreciation of what was
at stake made him subordinate other issues to it. He broke his
instructions repeatedly because he thought it necessary in order to win
the war.
This resulted in substantial gains for self-government in Virginia. In
voting funds, not only did the Assembly specify the uses to which they
should be put, but tried to supervise each disbursement. In sending the
Acadians to England and forcing Dinwiddie to raise Loudoun's embargo
they showed their spirit of independence. The issuing of paper money was
in direct conflict with the Governor's instructions. And the British
government dared not take steps to curb them so long as the French
threat remained.
But there is abundant evidence that the King's Ministers were merely
biding their time. The old laissez-faire policy of Sir Robert Walpole
was giving way to a closer scrutiny of colonial affairs. When the Earl
of Loudoun was made Governor General of Virginia, he received more than
a hundred instructions. He must guard zealously the prerogative of the
Crown, he must permit no riders to acts of Assembly, he must accept no
gifts from the Assembly, he must not permit the issuing of paper money.
The twenty-fourth instruction is especially revealing of the accepted
view in Great Britain that American interests must be disregarded if
they clashed with those of the mother country. The Governor was not to
assent to any act putting duties on slaves to "the great discouragement"
of British merchants, or duties on felons, since this was contrary to
the act of Parliament for "preventing robbery, burglary, and other
felonies, and for the more effectual transportation of felons."
It has often been said that had the French power in America not been
broken, the colonists would not have dared to rebel against Great
Britain. It would be more to the point that if the French threat had not
been removed the British government would not have dared to drive the
Americans into rebellion. So long as the war with France lasted the
colonial Assemblies were masters of the situation; when it was over the
assault on their liberty was not long delayed.
Perhaps it is not too much to say that the war called the attention of
the British Government to the colonies. They could not have overlooked
such letters as that from Dinwiddie to Pitt on June 18, 1757: "I am
convinced if alterations are not made in the present constitutions of
the colonies, and have a general mode of government under his Majesty's
immediate directions, and a coalition of the whole, it will be
impracticable to conduct his Majesty's affairs with that spirit which
the present emergency requires."[35]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 99.
[2] _Executive journals of the Council_ 5: 385.
[3] Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, Jan. 22, 1754.
[4] Jan. 22, 1754.
[5] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 143, 144.
[6] CO5-1328, pp. 85, 86.
[7] June 16, 1753.
[8] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 155.
[9] Dinwiddie to Holdernesse, Dec. 29, 1753.
[10] _Official records of Robert Dinwiddie_, ed. R. A. Brock, 1: 100,
101.
[11] Dinwiddie to the Board of Trade, Jan. 29, 1754.
[12] _Official records of Robert Dinwiddie_, ed. R. A. Brock, 1: 153.
[13] CO5-1367, pp. 94-101.
[14] _Ibid._
[15] _Official records of Robert Dinwiddie_, ed., R. A. Brock, 1: 507.
[16] Sept. 23, 1758.
[17] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 176.
[18] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 176.
[19] _Official records of Robert Dinwiddie_, ed. R. A. Brock, 1: 157.
[20] _Ibid._, 328.
[21] _Ibid._, 329.
[22] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 301.
[23] _Ibid._, 315.
[24] Board of Trade to Dinwiddie, Feb. 17, 1756.
[25] _Official records of Robert Dinwiddie_, ed. R. A. Brock, II: 341.
[26] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 351.
[27] _Writings of George Washington_, J. C. Fitzpatrick, ed. 2: 324,
325.
[28] _Official records of Robert Dinwiddie_ 2: 464.
[29] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: 413.
[30] _Ibid._, 448.
[31] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: xxviii.
[32] Dinwiddie to the Lords of Trade, Sept. 12, 1757.
[33] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1752-1758: xxviii.
[34] _Ibid._, 492.
[35] _Official records of Robert Dinwiddie_ 2: 642, 643.