crime of which he hopes he shall never be accused, if he
forgot to return his sincere acknowledgments to his
excellency governor Nelson, for the succours which he
received from him and the militia under his command, to whose
activity, emulation, and bravery, the highest praises are
due. The magnitude of the acquisition will be ample
compensation for the difficulties and dangers which they met
with so much firmness and patriotism."
Nelson's term as Governor was shortened by ill health. In November,
1781, he was compelled to resign.
But he was not permitted to rest. Attacks were made on him for certain
courses taken during his term as Governor. When he asked and was given
permission to defend himself before the State delegates, he was
triumphantly acquitted of all blame. On December 31, 1781, this action
was recorded:
"An act to indemnify THOMAS NELSON, JUNIOR, Esquire, late
governor of this commonwealth, and to legalize certain acts
of his administration. Whereas, upon examination, it appears
that previous to and during the siege of York, Thomas Nelson,
Esquire, late governor of this commonwealth, was compelled by
the peculiar circumstances of the state and army, to perform
many acts of government without the advice of the council of
state, for the purpose of procuring subsistence for the
allied army under the command of his excellency general
Washington; be it enacted that all such acts of government,
evidently productive of general good, and warranted by
necessity, be judged and held of the same validity, and the
like proceedings be had on them as if they had been executed
by and with the advice of the council, and with all the
formality prescribed by law. And be it enacted that the said
Thomas Nelson, jr., Esquire, be and he hereby is in the
fullest manner indemnified and exonerated from all penalties
and dangers which might have accrued to him from the same."
Nelson lived more than seven years after this act approving his
emergency actions. But three years were spent in comparative poverty.
Most of his property was sold to satisfy the debts incurred by paying
two regiments out of his own pocket, and by going security, with the
State, for two million dollars needed to carry on the war. Sanderson
says of these acts of generosity:
"He had spent a princely fortune in his country's service;
his horses had been taken from the plough, and sent to drag
the munitions of war; his granaries had been thrown open to a
starving soldiery, and his ample purse had been drained to
its last dollar, when the credit of Virginia could not bring
a sixpence into her treasury. Yet it was the widow of this
man who, beyond eighty years of age, blind, infirm, and poor,
had yet to learn whether republics can be grateful."
On the simple gravestone in Yorktown, erected to the memory of the
patriot, is this eloquent inscription:
Thomas Nelson,
Governor of Virginia.
He Gave All for Liberty.
Not far from the grave is another historic house that should be named
with the Nelson house. This is the Moore house, on Temple farm, then
less than a mile from Yorktown. In this house, which was built in
1713, the terms of the surrender of Cornwallis were drawn up. It was
once the summer home of the colonial governor, Alexander Spottswood.
LX
THE JOHN MARSHALL HOUSE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
WHERE THE CHIEF JUSTICE CARED FOR HIS WIFE AND ENTERTAINED HIS FRIENDS
An old book, "Richmond in By Gone Days," says that John Marshall was
noted in Richmond for his unpretending manner. "His dress was plain
even to negligence. He marketed for himself and might be seen at an
early hour returning home with a pair of fowls, or a basket of eggs in
his hand, not with ostentatious humility, but for mere convenience."
It is related by Flanders that Marshall "was one morning strolling
through the streets of Richmond, attired in a plain linen roundabout
and shorts, with his hat under his arm, from which he was eating
cherries, when he stopped in the porch of the Eagle Hotel, indulged in
some little pleasantry with the landlord, and then passed on." Just
then a man from the country, who wished a lawyer to appear for him in
court, was referred by the landlord to Marshall, as the best advocate
he could have, but the countryman declined to have anything to do with
the careless young man. In court he asked the clerk for a lawyer, and
was once more recommended to take John Marshall. Again he refused.
Just then a dignified old man in powdered wig and black coat entered.
He was at once engaged, on his appearance. After a time the
inferiority of the black-coated lawyer was so apparent that the
countryman sought Marshall, told him of the mistake he had made, said
that he had left but five dollars of the one hundred dollars he had
set aside for lawyers' fees, and asked Marshall if he would assist on
the case. The lawyer laughingly agreed.
In 1781, when Marshall was twenty-five years old, he walked from
Virginia to Philadelphia, to be inoculated for smallpox. "He walked at
the rate of thirty-five miles a day. On his arrival, such was his
shabby appearance, that he was refused admission into one of the
hotels; his long beard, and worn-out garments, probably suggesting the
idea that his purse was not adequate to his entertainment. And this in
the city which had seen much of the young man's heroic services during
the Revolution!"
Before the close of the war, while visiting his father, Colonel
Marshall, who was the commanding officer at Yorktown, Virginia, he met
Mary Willis Ambler, a daughter of Jacqueline Ambler, the treasurer of
Virginia. "She was just fourteen years of age at the time, and it is
stated to have been a case of love at first sight." Even when Marshall
called to see her he was not prepossessing in appearance, yet he was
well received, "notwithstanding his slouched hat, and negligent and
awkward dress," for his amiable manners, fine talents, and especially
his love for poetry, which he read to them with deep pathos, led them
to forget his dress.
The young people were married on January 3, 1783. After paying the fee
of the minister, the groom's sole remaining fortune was a guinea!
Mrs. Marshall was for many years a nervous invalid. Bishop Meade says,
"The least noise was sometimes agony to her whole frame, and his
perpetual endeavor was to keep the house and yard and out-houses from
the slightest cause of distressing her; walking himself at times about
the house and yard without shoes." The attitude of the people of
Richmond to the husband and wife is shown by the fact that "on one
occasion, when she was in her most distressing state, the town
authorities manifested their great respect for him and sympathy for
her, by having either the town clock or town bell muffled."
On his marriage John Marshall took his wife to one of the best houses
then available in the village of Richmond, a two-room frame building.
In 1789 he bought two acres of ground on Shockoe Hill, and here, in
1793, he built a nine-room brick house. One of the rooms was a large
apartment, in which he gave his famous "lawyer dinners."
When Marshall was not in Washington, he lived in this comfortable
house, which was near the home of his father-in-law. He had also a
farm a few miles from Richmond. Bishop Meade says that one morning,
between daybreak and sunrise, he met Marshall on horseback. He had a
bag of clover seed lying before him, which he was carrying to his
farm.
An English traveller who spent a week in Richmond in 1835 gave his
impression of the Richmond home:
"The house is small, and more humble in appearance than those
of the average of successful lawyers and merchants. I called
there three times upon him; there is no bell to the door.
Once I turned the handle of it and walked in unannounced; on
the other two occasions he had seen me coming, and had lifted
the latch and received me at the door, although he was at the
time suffering from severe contusions received in the stage
while travelling on the road from Fredericksburg to
Richmond."
Chief Justice Marshall frequently attended the Monumental Church. The
narrow pews troubled him, for he was quite tall. "Not finding room
enough for his whole body within the pew, he used to take his seat
nearest the door of his pew, and, throwing it open, let his legs
stretch a little into the aisle."
The death of his wife was a great grief to him. "Never can I cease to
feel the loss and to deplore it," he wrote on December 25, 1832, the
anniversary of her death. "Grief for her is too sacred ever to be
profaned on this day, which shall be, during my existence, marked by a
recollection of her virtues."
He survived Mrs. Marshall less than five years. In June, 1835, he went
to Dr. Physic in Philadelphia, seeking relief for a disability that
had been aggravated by the road accident of which the English visitor
wrote, as already quoted. There he died, July 6, 1835. On July 4 he
wrote the inscription which he wished placed above his grave:
"John Marshall, son of Thomas and Mary Marshall, was born on
the 24th of September, 1755, intermarried with Mary Willis
Ambler the 3rd of January, 1783, departed this life the ----
day of ---- 18 ---- ."
The Marshall house is now in possession of the Society for the
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, having been purchased a few
years ago from the Misses Harvie, the granddaughters of Chief Justice
Marshall. They had lived in the house until they sold it to the city
of Richmond.
[Illustration: WESTOVER ON THE JAMES, VIRGINIA
_Photo by H. P. Cook_
See page 278]
LXI
FIVE OLD HOUSES OF TIDEWATER, VIRGINIA
SABINE HALL, WESTOVER, SHIRLEY, BRANDON, AND CARTER'S GROVE
The five houses mentioned briefly in this chapter are noteworthy, not
only because of their beauty, but because the stories of those who
lived in them show how the leading families of old Virginia
intermarried until the various relationships became a puzzle that
delights the genealogist.
On the Rappahannock, in Richmond County, Virginia, Landon Carter, son
of Robert ("King") Carter, the ancestor of the Carter family of
Virginia, built Sabine Hall in 1730. He was a great lover of the works
of Horace, and it was quite natural that he should adopt for his
mansion the name of the Roman poet's Sabine Farm.
Until his death in 1778 he was a recognized leader in both Church and
State. Robert A. Lancaster quotes an unnamed writer who says that he
was "a high-minded public servant and a finished scholar, indulging a
taste for science and a love for letters," and was considered "one of
the most notable of the pre-Revolutionary statesmen of the Colony,"
and was "looked up to by the younger generation as a Nestor among his
compatriots." He was a friend of Washington, and received many letters
from him, some of which have been preserved.
Landon Carter's second wife was Maria Byrd, of Westover. Her portrait,
as well as those of the other two wives, the husband and "King"
Carter, are hanging to-day on the walls of Sabine Hall. The estate of
four thousand acres descended to his son by his third marriage with
Elizabeth Beale, Robert Wormeley Carter, who was a member of the
Virginia Assembly. The property is still in the possession of the
descendants of the original owner.
Westover, where Landon Carter courted Maria Byrd, is on the James in
Charles City County, not far south of Sabine Hall. The mansion was
built in the same year as Sabine Hall, 1730, by William Byrd, II,
whose father came from England about 1674.
William Byrd, of Westover, was famous as a literary man and as a
statesman. At one time he was President of His Majesty's Council. But
perhaps his greatest fame came to him because he was the father of
Evelyn Byrd, who was a reigning belle. When, at the age of eighteen,
she was presented at Court, it was reported that the king of England
complimented her by saying he was glad Virginia could produce such
"beautiful Byrds."
Evelyn's brother, William Byrd, III, was the heir of the estate. He
married Elizabeth Hill Carter, of Shirley, a neighboring estate. He
was a member of the Virginia Council and attained distinction by his
service as a colonel in the French and Indian War.
During the siege of Yorktown some of the French officers made frequent
visits to Westover. One of them, Marquis de Chastellux, said that
this was the most beautiful place in America.
Two armies have halted at Westover. In April, 1781, Cornwallis passed
that way, and, during the Civil War McClellan's army camped on the
grounds. A war-time picture shows something of the havoc wrought by
the soldiers.
When Elizabeth Hill Carter, of Shirley, came to Westover, she gave up
one beautiful home for another. Her father's Charles City County
mansion was probably built late in the seventeenth century, though the
exact date is not known. One of the estate's claims to distinction is
that it has never been offered for sale. Colonel Edward Hill, the
builder, Colonel Edward Hill, II, his son, and Colonel Edward Hill,
III, his grandson, were leaders in the life of the county. At the
death of Colonel Hill, III, his sister, Elizabeth Hill, became heir to
the estate. She married John Carter, of Corotoman, son of Robert
("King") Carter, who was Secretary of the Colony. It was his daughter
who married William Byrd, III, of Westover. Her brother, Charles
Carter, who was a patriot of prominence, was the father-in-law of
Light Horse Harry Lee, and the grandfather of General Robert E. Lee.
Carter's Grove, another seat of the Carter family, is also on the
James, in Charles City County, not far from Shirley. The builder was
Carter Burwell, and the house dates from 1751. The work was done by
slaves, under the direction of a foreman who received L140 for his
work. In the construction of the house 25,000 feet of lumber, 40,000
shingles, 15,000 laths, and 460,000 bricks were used. The total cost
was only L500.
Carter Burwell was the son of Elizabeth, daughter of Robert ("King")
Carter, who married Colonel Nathaniel Burwell.
Across the James, in Prince George County, is Brandon, whose builder
was Nathaniel Harrison. The house dates from early in the eighteenth
century. His son, also Nathaniel Harrison, married, as his second
wife, Lucy the daughter of Robert ("King") Carter of Corotoman.
Benjamin Harrison, the son by the first wife, Mary Digges, married
Evelyn Taylor Byrd, of Westover. When she went to Brandon she took
with her the Byrd portraits, which are to-day one of the attractions
of the mansion.
Brandon has always been in the possession of descendants of the
original owner.
[Illustration: GUNSTON HALL ON THE POTOMAC, VIRGINIA
_Photo by H. P. Cook_
See page 281]
LXII
GUNSTON HALL, VIRGINIA
THE HOME OF GEORGE MASON, "THE PEN OF THE REVOLUTION IN VIRGINIA"
Four miles from Mt. Vernon, on the Potomac, is the well-preserved
mansion, Gunston Hall, built in 1758 by George Mason, the
great-grandson of George Mason, who fled to America after the Battle
of Worcester, where he was in arms against the king of England. The
first mention of the name of this George Mason occurs in the Virginia
patent of land which he secured in March, 1655.
George Washington and George Mason were not only near neighbors, but
they were warm friends. Frequently Washington drove to Gunston Hall
for a talk with Mason; or sometimes he floated down the stream in his
four-oared gig, manned by his own slaves. Sometimes the men roamed
together through the woods or the fields; on one of these walks they
sought to define the boundaries between their estates.
Gifts of various kinds passed back and forth between the two manors;
one day in 1785, when Mason was driven from Mt. Vernon in Washington's
carriage, he sent back by the driver some young shoots of the Persian
jessamine and Guelder rose.
A few days later a hogshead of cider was broached at Gunston Hall, and
a liberal sample was sent to Washington. A note dated "9th November,
1785," addressed to Washington, begins, "The bearer waits on you with
a side of venison (the first we have killed this season), which I beg
your acceptance of."
At one time both Washington and Mason were members of the vestry of
Truro parish. Washington's list of the vestrymen shows that his friend
was elected by two hundred and eighty-two votes, while he himself
received but fifty-one votes.
Mason was as often at Mt. Vernon as Washington was at Gunston Hall.
After a visit made on Christmas Day, 1783, one of the other guests,
Miss Lewis, of Fredericksburg, wrote:
"Among the most notable of the callers was Mr. George Mason,
of Gunston Hall, who was on his way home from Alexandria, and
who brought a charming granddaughter with him.... He is said
to be one of the greatest statesmen and wisest men in
Virginia. We had heard much of him and were delighted to look
in his face, hear him speak, and take his hand, which he
offered in a courtly manner. He is slight in figure, but
not tall, and has a grand head and clear gray eyes."
To the home of George Mason other men of note delighted to come. In
the guest room Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee, as well as Washington,
slept more than once. Patrick Henry, too, was a welcome visitor at
Gunston Hall. George Mason had as high an opinion of the orator as
Patrick Henry had of the statesman. "He is by far the most powerful
speaker I ever heard," Mason once said of Henry; "every word he says
not only engages but commands the attention; and your passions are no
longer your own when he addresses them. But his eloquence is the
smallest part of his merit. He is in my opinion the first man upon
this continent, as well in abilities as public virtues, and had he
lived in Rome about the time of the first Punic War, when the Roman
people had arrived at their meridian glory and their virtue not
tarnished, Mr. Henry's talents must have put him at the head of that
glorious commonwealth."
The orator returned the compliment by calling Mason one of the two
greatest statesmen he ever knew.
George Mason's statesmanlike vision was seen in 1766, when he warned
the British public of the results that would follow coercion. "Three
millions of people driven to desperation are not an object of
contempt," he wrote. Again he proved a good prophet when he wrote to
George Washington, on April 2, 1776, after the General took possession
of Boston:
"I congratulate you most heartily upon this glorious and
important event--an event which will render George
Washington's name immortal in the annals of America, endear
his memory to the latest posterity, and entitle him to those
thanks which heaven appointed as the reward of public
virtue."
Mason was of a retiring disposition, and he would have preferred to
remain at home. But he was forced into the councils of the Virginia
Convention, and during his service there he prepared the marvellous
Bill of Rights which was later made a part of the Constitution of that
State and was the model for similar documents in many other States. He
was also the author of the Constitution of Virginia, and the designer
of the State seal. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia, where he proved himself "the champion of the State and
the author of the doctrine of State Rights." Because the Constitution
as finally drafted by the convention contained so many provisions that
he felt were dangerous, he refused to sign the document, "declaring
that he would sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the
Constitution" whose provisions he could not approve.
After the Constitutional Convention for more than four years the
statesman lived quietly at Gunston Hall. When he died in October,
1792, he asked to be buried by the side of his first wife, whose death
in 1773 had been a grievous blow to him. Over her tomb he had
inscribed:
"Once She was all that cheers and sweetens Life;
The tender Mother, Daughter, Friend and Wife:
Once She was all that makes Mankind adore;
Now view the Marble, and be vain no more."
No monument was ever raised over his own grave. A grandson planned to
set a stone inscribed to "The Author of the Bill of Rights and the
Constitution of Virginia," but he was unable to do as he wished.
Gunston Hall still stands, though it has passed through many hands
since the death of him whom George Esten Cooke called "one of the most
remarkable men, not only of his Country, and of his epoch, but of all
Countries and all time."
[Illustration: WASHINGTON COLLEGE BUILDING, LEXINGTON, VA.
_Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_
See page 285]
LXIII
THE WASHINGTON COLLEGE BUILDING, LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA
HOW GEORGE WASHINGTON SOLVED A DELICATE PROBLEM
Even before the treaty of peace with Great Britain was signed, George
Washington was making plans for the development of the West. He was
especially impressed with the possibilities of the Potomac and James
rivers, if improved by canals, as a means of communication with the
Ohio. Companies were organized to the work. In both enterprises he was
a stockholder. On August 13, 1785, he wrote to Edmund Randolph:
"The great object for the accomplishment of which I wish to
see the inland navigation of the River Potomack and James
improved and extended is to connect the western territory
with the Atlantic states.... I have already subscribed five
shares to the Potomack navigation; and enclosed I give you a
power to put my name down for five shares to that of James
River."
In 1785 Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, wrote to Washington that
the General Assembly of the State had voted to give him one hundred
shares in the James River Company, "it being their wish, in
particular, that those great works of improvement, which, both as
springing from the liberty which he has been so instrumental in
establishing, and as encouraged by his patronage, will be durable
monuments of his glory, may be made monuments also of the gratitude of
his country."
Washington replied that he could not accept money for his services to
his country. Then he added: "But if it should please the General
Assembly to permit me to turn the destination of the fund vested in
me, from my private emolument, to objects of a public nature, it will
be my study in selecting these to prove the sincerity of my gratitude
for the honor conferred on me, by preferring such as may appear most
subservient to the enlightened and patriotic views of the
legislature."
Of course the legislature granted the desired permission, indicating
that the gifts might be made either during Washington's life, or by
bequest.
Some years passed before Washington fixed on a proper recipient for
the canal shares. In 1798, however, he gave them to the trustees of
Liberty Academy, at Lexington, Virginia, which had been incorporated
in 1782. In recognition of the gift the trustees asked the legislature
to change the name of the school to Washington Academy. In 1813 the
name was once more changed to Washington College.
This, the first large gift received by the institution, is still
yielding an income of three thousand dollars. During many times of
crisis the income provided in this way has been of signal use to the
institution, notably in 1824, when the Washington College building was
begun. This structure is two hundred and fifty feet long, is built of
brick, and each of its three porticoes is supported by white colonial
columns.
For more than seventy-five years after Washington turned over the
canal shares, the institution's sole endowment amounted to only about
one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The seventy thousand dollars
added to the canal shares came from sources that were influenced by
Washington's confidence in the institution.
The beginning of the larger life of the college was the election of
General Robert E. Lee as president. The keynote of his five years of
service was sounded in the letter which he wrote to the trustees on
receiving notification of his election. He feared that, in view of his
military history, he might cause harm to the college. He was never
greater than when he said: