condition of the country, to do all in his power to aid in
the restoration of peace and harmony, and in no way to oppose
the policy of the State or General Government directed to
that object. It is particularly incumbent upon those charged
with the instruction of the young to set them an example of
submission to authority, and I would not consent to be the
cause of animadversion on the College."
Following the death of General Lee, which came after five years of
remarkable development under his leadership, the name of Washington
College was changed to Washington and Lee University, that it might
continue forever a memorial to its two greatest benefactors.
[Illustration: BRUTON PARISH CHURCH, WILLIAMSBURG, VA.
_Photo by H. P. Cook_
See page 288]
LXIV
BRUTON PARISH CHURCH, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
"THE COURT CHURCH OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA"
Jamestown was the capital of Virginia until 1699. Then Williamsburg
became the seat of government. Six years earlier the latter town had
taken on some importance because of the founding there of William and
Mary College, and for more than sixty years efforts had been made to
persuade the people to make their homes in the place. The records of
the Colony show that in 1632 rewards were offered to those who would
locate in what seemed a promising situation for a town.
The date of the building of the first church in Williamsburg is not
known. The first entry in the vestry book of Bruton parish was made in
April, 1674, but the parish dates from 1658. In that year Harrop and
Middle Plantation parishes were united, though the new parish was not
called Bruton for some time. The name was given because Sir James
Ludwell, who afterward left a legacy of twenty pounds to the parish,
was born in Bruton, England.
A building (that it was not the first is shown by the mention in the
records of the Old Church) was completed in 1683, and the first
service was held on January 6, 1684. The cost was "L150 sterling and
sixty thousand pounds of good sound, marketable sweet, scented
Tobacco." The minister, "Mr. Rowland Jones," was "paid annually ye
sum of sixteen thousand, six hundred and sixty pounds of Tobacco and
Caske."
The removal of the capital to Williamsburg brought so many new people
to town that the church became too small for the congregation. In 1701
the parish records show that there was talk of a new building.
On October 1, 1706, the vestry decided to levy a tax of twenty
thousand pounds of Tobacco as a beginning of the building fund. Four
years later the members of the vestry made known their hope that the
House of Burgesses would assist in the expense, which, they thought,
would be about five hundred pounds. To the Burgesses a message was
sent indicating that the vestry "do not doubt in the least but the
House of Burgesses would show their Pious and Generous Spirits by
their Liberall Donation towards soe Necessary and good a worke and
that they would assure them to the best of their Judgment they would
appropriate the same according to the true Intent thereof."
The Burgesses offered "to take Care of the wings and intervening
parts," if the vestry would build the ends of the church. They also
agreed to build the pews for the Governor, the Council, and
themselves. With their help, the building was completed and occupied
in 1715. The tower was added in 1769.
Rev. James Blair, who was minister of Bruton parish at the time of the
erection of the new building, had been instrumental in organizing
William and Mary College. The early history of that institution is
bound up with that of the church. Some of the most notable conflicts
between Church and State in the old Colony took place during the years
of Mr. Blair's activity. He died in 1743, after serving the church as
minister for thirty-three years, William and Mary College as
President for fifty years, and the Colony as Commissioner for
fifty-three years.
Among the famous names on the vestry rolls are those of Henry Tyler,
great-great-grandfather of President Tyler, who was first mentioned on
"The Seaventh day of April, 1694," and George Wythe, one of the
Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Patrick Henry, and George
Washington later worshipped with the congregation.
When Virginia was about to go to war with Great Britain, the House of
Burgesses, on May 24, 1774, ordered that "the members of the House do
attend in their places, at the hour of ten in the morning, on the
first day of June next, in order to proceed with the Speaker and the
mace, to the church," for fasting, humiliation, and prayer. During the
Revolution the members of the church were noted for their loyalty to
the Colonies.
To-day the building is about as it was during the troubled days of the
war. No change has been made in the exterior, but in 1839 the interior
was changed in many important particulars. In 1905, however, it was
restored as before. The pulpit was put in the old place. The canopy
and curtain which had long stood above the pew of Governor Spotswood,
were found and again put in position. King Edward VII gave the new
pulpit Bible, and President Roosevelt provided the lectern.
LXV
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
THE ALMA MATER OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, JAMES MONROE, AND JOHN TYLER
Three years before John Harvard left a legacy for the founding of the
college that bears his name, the first bequest for public education
made by a resident of Virginia was recorded, though this was used for
a secondary school, rather than for a college.
The project of a college, proposed in 1617 and 1618 by the London
Company, and in 1619 at the first session of the General Assembly,
languished until 1685, when Rev. James Blair came to the Colony as a
missionary and settled in Henrico County, where it had been proposed
to found the college sixty-eight years earlier. For five years he
brooded over the need of a college and in 1690 he made to a convention
at Jamestown "Severall Propositions for a free school and college, to
be humbly presented to the consideration of the next general
assembly." Later, by authority of the Assembly, Dr. Blair appealed to
the Merchants of London, "especially such as traffick with Virginia,"
and three thousand pounds were pledged.
On the occasion of Dr. Blair's visit to England in 1691, he had an
audience with King William, at which he presented the petition for "a
charter to erect a free school and college." The king replied, "Sir, I
am glad that the Colony is upon so good a design, and will promote it
to the best of my power." Queen Mary also showed her interest in the
college.
To the endowment in lands and taxes provided by royal order, Dr. Blair
secured an appreciable addition in an ingenious manner. Learning that,
some time before his arrival, the authorities had promised forgiveness
to pirates who, before a set day, should confess their crimes and give
up a portion of their booty, and that three famous pirates had come in
after the appointed day, so that they were arrested, he visited them
in jail and offered to use his influence in their behalf, if they
would consent to give to the college a portion of their booty. They
gladly agreed; Dr. Blair's efforts were successful, and they were
given their liberty together with their treasure, minus the promised
gift to the Virginia College. Another much larger gift was secured
from the executor of an estate which held money devised indefinitely
for "pious and charitable uses." The income from this portion of the
endowment was to be used "to keep as many Indian children in meat,
drink, washing, clothes, medicine, books and education, from the first
beginning of letters till they should be ready to receive orders and
be sent abroad to convert the Indians."
In connection with the charter for "the College of William and Mary,"
which was dated February 8, 1693, authority was given to use the seal
described as follows: "On a green field a college building of silver,
with a golden sun, showing half its orb, rising above it." This is
said to be the sole instance of a college, either English or American,
which has a seal of such high origin.
Sir Christopher Wren, the designer of St. Paul's Cathedral, made the
plan for the original building, which was to be two stories and a half
high, one hundred and thirty-six feet long, and forty feet wide, and
with two wings sixty feet long and twenty-five feet wide. In 1697 it
was reported to the governor of the province that the front and north
side of the proposed rectangle had been completed at Williamsburg, and
that funds were exhausted. The walls were more than three feet thick
at the base, and contained 840,000 bricks, the product of a brickyard
nearby.
For some years subscriptions were paid slowly, and interest in the
college languished, but conditions improved when King William sent to
Governor Nicholson a proclamation urging him "Yt you call upon ye
persons yt have promised to contribute towards ye maintenance of ye
sd college, to pay in full the severall Contributions."
The first of the disasters that have visited the main building came in
1705, when the interior was burned. The college was rebuilt on the old
walls, as was the case after the fire of 1859. Thus, after much more
than two hundred years, the venerable building looks almost as it did
when the first students entered its doors. A number of other
structures have been erected since, including the Brafferton building
in 1723, the house now occupied by the president, which dates from
1732, and the chapel, begun in 1729. Interest must always centre about
the central structure, however.
During the Revolution the president was James Madison, second cousin
of the future President of the United States. The president's house
was occupied by Cornwallis in 1781. After his surrender French
officers lived there. During their occupancy the house was badly
damaged by fire, but it was repaired at the expense of the French
Army.
Three events of the years of the war are of special moment in the
history of higher education in America. On December 5, 1776, the Phi
Beta Kappa Society, the first intercollegiate fraternity in the United
States, was organized. On December 4, 1779, the college was made a
university, the first in the country, and the same year marked the
beginning of the Honor System of college government which worked such
a revolution in other colleges more than a century later. When Thomas
Jefferson, who was a student at William and Mary in 1760-62, founded
the University of Virginia, the Honor System was successfully
inaugurated in the new institution.
Other famous men who have been connected with William and Mary
included George Washington, who was chancellor in 1794; Chief Justice
John Marshall, student in 1779; Secretary of State Edmund Randolph,
student in 1766; James Monroe, student in 1775. John Tyler was also
educated there. It is a remarkable fact that the presidents who are
responsible for adding to the original territory of the country
Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and most of the western territory, were
products of William and Mary.
[Illustration: MONUMENTAL CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA.
_Photo by H. P. Cook_
See page 294]
LXVI
THE MONUMENTAL CHURCH, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
ON THE SITE OF A THEATRE WHOSE BURNING MOVED THE ENTIRE COUNTRY
"Last night the playhouse in this city was crowded with an
unusual audience. There could not have been less than 600
persons in the house. Just before the conclusion of the
play, the scenery caught fire, and in a few minutes the whole
building was wrapt in flames. It is already ascertained that
61 persons were devoured by that most terrific element. The
Editor of this paper was in the house when the
ever-to-be-remembered, deplorable accident occurred. He is
informed that the scenery took fire in the back part of the
house, by raising of a chandelier; that the boy, who was
ordered by some of the players to raise it, stated, that if
he did so, the scenery would take fire, when he was commanded
in a peremptory manner, to hoist it. The boy obeyed, and the
fire was instantly communicated to the scenery."
This story the editor of the Richmond (Virginia) _American Standard_
told in the columns of his paper on Friday, December 27, 1811. He
added the fact that among those who perished were the Governor of the
State, as well as many of the leaders in the business and social life
of the city.
By order of the city council the remains of the victims were buried on
the site of the burned building, which was bought for the purpose. At
the same time it was ordered that "no person or persons should be
permitted for and during the time of four months ... to exhibit any
public show or spectacle ... within the city."
By ordinance it was also decreed that a monument should be erected on
the site. Later it was suggested that there should be built there, by
public subscription, "an edifice to be set apart and consecrated for
the worship of God," and that this should be the monument.
Accordingly, on August 1, 1812, the corner stone of the Monumental
Church was laid, the lot having been purchased by the city for $5,000.
The building was consecrated as a Protestant Episcopal church in May,
1814. In April, 1815, the subscribers to the fund for the building,
who had organized under the title, "The Association for building a
Church on Shockoe Hill," were notified that one-half of their
subscription money would be returned to them on application at the
Bank of Virginia.
In the middle of the front or main porch of the church a white marble
monument was erected to the memory of the victims of the fire.
To the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal church, which
assembled in Philadelphia on May 18, 1814, report was made that "a
magnificent church has sprung up in Richmond from the ashes of the
Theatre; it has the patronage and support of men of the greatest
talents and highest rank in Virginia."
Among the communicants of the Monumental Church have been numbered
many of the most prominent men in the Virginia capital, and men famous
in the early history of the country were attendants from time to time.
In February, 1824, General Lafayette worshipped in the building.
LXVII
MONTPELIER, ORANGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
THE LIFELONG HOME OF JAMES MADISON
James Madison was born at the residence of his mother's parents, at
Port Conway, Prince George County, Virginia, but before long he was
taken to his father's house, Montpelier, which was the first brick
house built in Orange County. And Montpelier continued to be his home
to the day of his death. Much of his life was spent in Washington, but
his heart was always turning to the old Virginia plantation where he
had spent his boyhood, and he took advantage of every possible
opportunity to go there for a longer or shorter visit.
The distance to Shadwell, where Thomas Jefferson lived as a boy, was
only thirty miles, but these two who were to have such a large place
in the early history of America, did not meet until Madison was
seventeen years old. Then lost time was made up. For many years the
road between Montpelier and the home of Jefferson became quite
familiar to the friends.
In the years before he went to college Madison roamed at will over the
twenty-five hundred acres of the Montpelier estate. He walked and
rode, he hunted and fished, he learned to take delight in the quiet
scenery of that beautiful Blue Ridge country. His tutor, who lived on
the estate, was his companion on his expeditions.
It was probably due to this outdoor life that his health was so much
better in Virginia than it was at the College of New Jersey (Princeton
College). Soon after he graduated in 1771 he returned to Montpelier,
somewhat broken by reason of overwork and lack of exercise. To a
college friend in Philadelphia he wrote rather pessimistically:
"I am too tired and infirm now to look for extraordinary
things in this world, for I think my sensations for many
months have intimated to me not to expect a long or a healthy
life, though it may be better for me after some time; but I
hardly dare expect it, and therefore have little spirit or
elasticity to set about anything that is difficult in
acquiring and useless in possessing after one has exchanged
time for eternity."
He was right in thinking that he was not to have a healthy life, but
he was wrong in thinking it was to be neither long nor eventful. For
more than sixty years after he wrote the letter from which quotation
has been made, he was energetic and devoted in the service of his
country. In May, 1776, he entered the Virginia Convention, thus
beginning the career that led him to eight years in the White House.
And after he retired from the Presidency much of his time and thought
was given to the affairs of the nation. During all these years the
thought of his Virginia home gave him new strength in the midst of his
tasks.
That home meant more to him than ever when, in September, 1794, he
entered the doors of Montpelier with his bride, Dorothy Todd, the
young Philadelphia widow whom he had married at Harewood, Virginia.
The estate was still the property of Mr. Madison's father, and both
his father and mother continued to live there. Before long the house
was enlarged. The rooms so long occupied by the old people were made a
part of the new mansion.
The two families lived together in perfect harmony. The father lived
to see his son President of the United States, and the mother was
ninety-eight when she died. William O. Stoddard, in his "Life of James
Madison," says that "she kept up the old-fashioned ways of
housekeeping; waited upon by her servants who grew old and faded away
with her. She divided her time between her Bible and her knitting, all
undisturbed by the modern hours, the changed customs, or the elegant
hospitality of the mansion house itself. She was a central point in
the life of her distinguished son, and the object of his most devoted
care to the end of her days."
For Mr. and Mrs. Madison, real life at Montpelier began in 1817, after
the close of the stirring period in the White House. They did not have
much opportunity to be alone, for guests delighted to come to them,
and they liked to have others with them, yet they managed to secure a
wonderful amount of joy out of the years spent "within a squirrel's
jump of heaven," to use Dolly Madison's expressive phrase.
Among the guests were intimate friends like Jefferson, who was almost
a member of the family. Lafayette, too, found his way to the estate,
while Harriet Martineau told in her "Recollections" of her pleasant
sojourn there. Frequently strangers who were on the way to the
Virginia Hot Springs took the five-mile detour merely to reach
Montpelier, and they were always made welcome.
The dining-room was large, but there were sometimes so many guests
that the table had to be set out of doors. Mr. Madison wrote in 1820
of one such occasion: "Yesterday we had ninety persons to dine with us
at our table, fixed on the lawn, under a large arbor.... Half a dozen
only staid all night."
After a visit to her parents that was broken into by the presence of
guests, a daughter of the house complained to her husband that she had
not been able to pass one sociable moment with her father. His reply
was sympathetic: "Nobody can ever have felt so severely as myself the
prostration of family society from the circumstances you mention....
But there is no remedy. The present manners and ways of our country
are laws we cannot repeal. They are altering by degrees, and you will
live to see the hospitality of the country reduced to the visiting
hours of the day, and the family left to tranquillity in the evening."
When the steward saw that Madison would not curb these guests, he
began to cut down on the fodder for the horses, but when the
hospitable host learned of this he gave orders that there should be no
further attempts of this sort. He realized that he was living beyond
his income, but he saw no help for it. He longed for more time in his
library or for riding or walking about the estate.
The time came when walks had to be taken on the veranda; health was
failing rapidly. He was not able to oversee the farm as he had long
been accustomed to do, but depended on others. In 1835 Mrs. Madison
wrote to her daughter: "My days are devoted to nursing and comforting
my sick patient, who walks only from the bed in which he breakfasts to
another." Still later she wrote: "I never leave my husband more than a
few minutes at a time, and have not left the enclosure around our
house for the last eight months."
When the owner of Montpelier died, on June 28, 1836, he was buried in
the cemetery on the estate. Mrs. Madison spent a few lonely years in
the old home, but the property was finally sold to satisfy the debts
of her wayward son, Payne Todd. She was sometimes in actual want
before she died, but Congress provided for her relief by buying for
twenty-five thousand dollars the Madison letters and other papers.
She lived until July 12, 1849, and her body was finally laid by the
side of that of her husband.
William Dupont, the present owner of Montpelier, has enlarged the
house by the addition of a second story to the wings. So the house
that was built in 1760 by James Madison, Sr., and was enlarged by
James Madison, Jr., has entered on a new era of hospitality.
LXVIII
OAK HILL, LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA
THE HOME OF JAMES MONROE'S OLD AGE
James Monroe, at twenty-eight, wrote from New York to Thomas
Jefferson, with whom he had studied law:
"I shall leave this about the 1st of October for
Virginia--Fredericksburg. Believe me, I have not relinquished
the prospect of being your neighbor. The house for which I
have requested a plan may possibly be erected near
Monticello; to fix there, and to have yourself in particular,
with what friends we may collect around, for society is my
chief object; or rather, the only one which promises to me,
with the connection I have formed, real and substantial
pleasure; if, indeed, by the name of pleasure it may be
called."
The "connection" of which the future President wrote was his marriage
to Miss Eliza Kortwright of New York. Of this he had spoken in an
earlier letter to Jefferson:
"You will be surprised to hear that I have formed the most
interesting connection in human life with a young lady in
this town, as you know my plan was to visit you before I
settled myself, but having formed an attachment to this
young lady ... I have found that I must relinquish all other
objects not connected with her."
Monroe was not permitted to practice law long. As United States
Senator, diplomat, Governor, Cabinet officer, and President, his time
was so fully occupied that no one but a man of his fine physique and
endurance could have stood the strain. Once, during the War of 1812,
according to his friend, Judge E. R. Watson, when the burden of three
of the departments of the government rested on him--State, Treasury,
and War--he did not undress himself for ten days and nights, and was
in the saddle the greater part of the time.
After some years he bought an estate in Loudoun County, Virginia, to
which he retired for a brief rest whenever this was possible. For a
time the old dormer-windowed house on the property satisfied him, but
during his presidential term he built Oak Hill, the house for which
Jefferson had prepared the plans. It is said that the nails used in
its construction were manufactured on the Jefferson estate.
The house--which was named Oak Hill because of the oaks on the lawn,
planted by the owner himself, one for each State of the Union--has
been described by Major R. W. N. Noland as follows: