1715-1718.
Condition of the Colonies--South Carolina appeals to Virginia
for Succor against the Indians--Proceedings of the Council and
the Assembly--Disputes between them--Dissensions of Governor
and Burgesses--He dissolves them--Blackbeard, the Pirate--
Maynard's Engagement with him--His Death.
THE twenty-five counties of the Ancient Dominion were under a government
consisting of a governor and twelve councillors appointed by the king,
and fifty burgesses elected by the freeholders. The permanent revenue,
established at the restoration, now amounted to four thousand pounds
sterling, and this sum proving inadequate to the public expenditure,
the deficit was eked out by three hundred pounds drawn from the
quit-rents--private property of the king. Relieved from the dangers of
Indian border warfare, and blessed with the able administration of
Governor Spotswood, Virginia, under the tranquil reign of the first
George, advanced in commerce, population, wealth, and power, more
rapidly than any of her sister colonies.
A few of the principal families affected to establish an aristocracy or
oligarchy, and Spotswood, at his first arrival, discovered that it
was necessary "to have a balance on the Bench and the Board." He
subsequently warned the ministers, "that a party was so encouraged by
their success in removing former governors, that they are resolved no
one shall sit easy who doth not entirely submit to their dictates; this
is the case at present, and will continue, unless a stop is put to their
growing power, to whom not any one particular governor, but government
itself, is equally disagreeable."
At a council held at Williamsburg on the 26th day of May, 1715, the
governor presented a letter, received by express, from Governor Craven,
of South Carolina, representing the deplorable condition of that colony
from the murderous inroads of the Indians, the several tribes having
confederated together and threatened the total destruction of the
inhabitants, and requesting a supply of arms and ammunition. The council
unanimously agreed to the request, and, conceiving that Virginia was
also in imminent danger of invasion, desired the Indian Company to
take from the magazine so much ammunition as was necessary for South
Carolina, and to return the same "by the first conveniency, that so this
colony may not be unprovided for its necessary defence." It was further
ordered, that the governors of Maryland, New York, and New England, be
exhorted to send ships of war to Charleston, and that the governor of
South Carolina be invited to send hither their women and children, and
such other persons as are useless in the war. Three pieces of cannon
were sent to Christanna, and ammunition to Germanna, these being the two
frontier settlements. Colonel Nathaniel Harrison was empowered to disarm
the Nottoway Indians.
In June, upon the application of the governor of North Carolina for
preventing the inhabitants of that province from deserting it in that
time of danger, a proclamation was issued by Governor Spotswood ordering
all persons coming thence, without a passport, to be arrested and sent
back.
A letter from the governor of South Carolina, brought by Arthur
Middleton, Esq., requested assistance of men from Virginia. South
Carolina proposed, in order to pay the men, to send to Virginia slaves
to the number of the volunteers, to work on the plantations for their
benefit. The council unanimously resolved to comply with the request,
and to defray the charges incurred until the men should arrive in South
Carolina, and for this purpose the governor and council agreed to
postpone the payment of their own salaries. It was ordered that a party
of Nottoway and Meherrin Indians should be sent to the assistance of the
South Carolinians. An assembly was summoned to meet on the third of
August. The duty of five pounds on slaves imported was suspended for the
benefit of planters sending their slaves from South Carolina to Virginia
as a place of safety. The contract entered into on this occasion between
the two provinces, for the raising of forces, was styled "A treaty made
between this government and the Province of South Carolina." Early in
July, Spotswood dispatched a number of men and arms.
The king of the Saran Indians visited Williamsburg, and agreed to bring
chiefs of the Catawbas and Cherokees to treat of peace, and to aid in
cutting off the Yamasees and other enemies of South Carolina.
The assembly met on the 3d of August, 1715, being the first year of the
reign of George the First. The members of the council were Robert
Carter, James Blair, Philip Ludwell, John Smith, John Lewis, William
Cocke, Nathaniel Harrison, Mann Page, and Robert Porteus, Esquires.
Daniel McCarty, Esq., of Westmoreland, was elected speaker of the house
of burgesses. The governor announced in his speech that the object of
the session was to secure Virginia against the murders, massacres, and
tortures of Indian invasion, and to succor South Carolina in her
distress, and he made known his desire to treat with the Indian chiefs
who were expected, at the head of a body of men, on the frontiers. The
burgesses expressed their hope that as the people of Virginia were so
unable to afford supplies, the king would supply the deficiency out of
his quit-rents, and requested further information as to the treaty made
with South Carolina, and the aid required. A bill was introduced in the
house for amending an act for preventing frauds in tobacco payments, and
improving the staple. The burgesses requested the governor's assistance
in arresting Richard Littlepage and Thomas Butts, who defied their
authority. It appears that these gentlemen, being justices of the peace,
sitting in the court of claims, in which the people presented their
grievances, had refused to certify some such as being false and
seditious. The governor refused to aid in enforcing the warrant. The
house sent up a bill making a small appropriation for the succor of
South Carolina, but clogged with the repeal of parts of the tobacco act,
and the council rejected it, "the tacking things of a different nature
to a money bill" being "an encroachment on the privileges of the
council."
A controversy next ensued between the council and the house as to the
power of redressing the grievances of the people. A dispute also
occurred between the governor and the burgesses relative to the removal
of the court of James City County from Jamestown to Williamsburg. The
governor said: "After five years' residence upon the borders of James
City County, I think it hard I may not be allowed to be as good a judge
as Mr. Marable's rabble, of a proper place for the court-house."
The burgesses declared their sympathy with the suffering Carolinians,
but insisted upon the extreme poverty of the people of Virginia, and so
excused themselves for clogging the appropriation bill with the repeal
of parts of the tobacco act, their object being by one act to relieve
Virginia and succor Carolina. Governor Spotswood, in his reply,
remarked: "When you speak of poverty and engagements, you argue as if
you knew the state of your own country no better than you do that of
others, for as I, that have had the honor to preside for some years past
over this government, do positively deny that any public engagements
have drawn any more wealth out of this colony than what many a single
person in it has on his own account expended in the time, so I do assert
that there is scarce a country of its figure in the Christian world less
burdened with public taxes. If yourselves sincerely believe that it is
reduced to the last degree of poverty, I wonder the more that you should
reject propositions for lessening the charges of assemblies; that you
should expel gentlemen out of your house for only offering to serve
their counties upon their own expense, and that while each day of your
sitting is so costly to your country, you should spend time so
fruitlessly, for now, after a session of twenty-five days, three bills
only have come from your house, and even some of these framed as if you
did not expect they should pass into acts."
On the seventh day of September the council sent to the burgesses a
review of some of their resolutions reflecting upon them, and the
governor, and the preceding assembly. This review is able and severe. On
this day the governor dissolved the assembly, after a speech no less
able, and still more severe. After animadverting upon the proceedings of
the house at length, and paying a high tribute to the merit of the
council, the governor concludes thus:--[394:A]
"But to be plain with you, the true interest of your country
is not what you have troubled your heads about. All your
proceedings have been calculated to answer the notions of the
ignorant populace, and if you can excuse yourselves to them,
you matter not how you stand before God, your prince, and all
judicious men, or before any others to whom you think you owe
not your elections. The new short method you have fallen upon
to clear your conduct by your own resolves, will prove the
censure to be just, for I appeal to all rational men who shall
read the assembly journals, as well of the last session as of
this, whether some of your resolves of your house of the
second instant are not as wide from truth and fair reasoning
as others are from good manners. In fine, I cannot but
attribute these miscarriages to the people's mistaken choice
of a set of representatives, whom Heaven has not generally
endowed with the ordinary qualifications requisite to
legislators, for I observe that the grand ruling party in your
house has not furnished chairmen for two of your standing
committees[395:A] who can spell English or write common sense,
as the grievances under their own handwriting will manifest.
And to keep such an assembly on foot would be the discrediting
a country that has many able and worthy gentlemen in it. And
therefore I now dissolve you."
These proceedings throw light on the practical working of the colonial
government, of the vigorous and haughty spirit of Spotswood, who was not
surpassed in ability or in character by any of the colonial governors,
and of the liberty-loving but factious house of burgesses. They also
exhibit the critical condition of South Carolina, and the imminent
danger of Virginia at that period. On this last point Chalmers fell into
an error, in stating that the Indians then had ceased to be objects of
dread in Virginia.
The assembly, as has been seen, expelled two burgesses for serving
without compensation, which they stigmatized as tantamount to
bribery--thus seeming indirectly to charge bribery upon the members of
the British house of commons, who receive no per diem compensation.
After five weeks spent in fruitless altercations, Spotswood, conceiving
the assembly to be actuated by factious motives, dissolved them with
harsh and contemptuous expressions, offending the spirit of the
burgesses. He had previously wounded the pride of the council, long the
oligarchy of the Old Dominion, when "colonel, and member of his
majesty's council of Virginia," was a sort of provincial title of
nobility. Frequent anonymous letters were now transmitted to England,
inveighing against Spotswood. While the board of trade commended his
general conduct, they reproved him for the offensive language which he
had used in his speech to the burgesses, "who, though mean, ignorant
people, and did not comply with his desires, ought not to have been
irritated by sharp expressions, which may not only incense them, but
even their electors." In other points, Spotswood vindicated himself with
vigor and success, and he insisted "that some men are always
dissatisfied, like the tories, if they are not allowed to govern; men
who look upon every one not born in the country as a foreigner."
When, in 1717, the ancient laws of the colony were revised, the acts of
1663, for preventing the recovery of foreign debts, and prohibiting the
assemblage of Quakers, and that of 1676, (one of Bacon's laws,)
excluding from office all persons who had not resided for three years in
Virginia, were repealed by the king.
John Teach, a pirate, commonly called Blackbeard, in the year 1718
established his rendezvous at the mouth of Pamlico River, in North
Carolina. He surrendered himself to Governor Eden, (who was suspected of
being in collusion with him,) and took the oath of allegiance, in order
to avail himself of a proclamation of pardon offered by the king.
Wasting the fruits of sea-robbery in gambling and debauchery, Blackbeard
again embarked in piracy; and having captured and brought in a valuable
cargo, the Carolinians gave notice of it to the government of Virginia.
Spotswood and the assembly immediately proclaimed a large reward for his
apprehension, and Lieutenant Maynard, attached to a ship-of-war
stationed in the Chesapeake Bay, was sent with two small vessels and a
chosen crew in quest of him. An action ensued in Pamlico Bay on the 21st
of November, 1718. Blackbeard, it is said, had posted one of his men
with a lighted match over the powder-magazine, to prevent a capture by
blowing up his vessel, but if so, this order failed to be executed.
Blackbeard, surrounded by the slain, and bleeding from his wounds, in
the act of cocking a pistol, fell on the bloody deck and expired. His
surviving comrades surrendered, and Maynard returned with his prisoners
to James River, with Blackbeard's head hanging from the bowsprit. The
captured pirates were tried in the admiralty court at Williamsburg,
March, 1718, and thirteen of them were hung. Benjamin Franklin, then an
apprentice in a printing-office, composed a ballad on the death of
Teach, which was sung through the streets of Boston.[397:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[394:A] Extracts from Journal of the Council of Virginia, sitting as the
upper house of assembly, preserved in the office of the Secretary of the
Commonwealth, in _S. Lit. Messr._, xvii. 585.
[395:A] Privileges and Claims.
[397:A] Grahame's Col. Hist. U. S., ii. 56, citing Williamson's Hist. of
N. C. See, also, A General History of the Pyrates, published at London,
(1726,) and "Lives and Exploits of Banditti and Robbers," by C.
Macfarlane.