A VIRGINIA BURGESS.
Before Washington's marriage, and while he was in camp near Fort
Cumberland, making active preparations for the campaign against Fort
Duquesne, there was an election for members of the Virginia House of
Burgesses. Washington offered himself as candidate to the electors of
Frederic County, in which Winchester, where he had been for the past
three years, was the principal town. His friends were somewhat fearful
that the other candidates, who were on the ground, would have the
advantage over Washington, who was with the army, at a distance; and
they wrote, urging him to come on and look after his interests. Colonel
Bouquet, under whose orders he was, cheerfully gave him leave of
absence, but Washington replied:
"I had, before Colonel Stephen came to this place, abandoned all
thoughts of attending personally the election at Winchester, choosing
rather to leave the management of that affair to my friends, than be
absent from my regiment, when there is a probability of its being called
to duty. I am much pleased now, that I did so."
Here was a case where Washington broke his excellent rule of--"If you
want a thing done, do it yourself." If his regiment was to lie idle at
Fort Cumberland, he could easily have galloped to Winchester, and have
been back in a few days; but there was a chance that it might move, and
so he gave up at once all thought of leaving it. Glad enough he was to
have the news confirmed. To lead his men forward, and to have a hand in
the capture of Fort Duquesne, was the first thing--the election must
take care of itself. This was not a bad statement for his friends at
Winchester to make. A man who sticks to his post, and does his duty
without regard to his personal interests, is the very man for a
representative in the legislature. The people of Frederic knew
Washington thoroughly, and though they had sometimes felt his heavy
hand, they gave him a hearty vote, and he was elected a member of the
House of Burgesses.
This was in 1758, and he continued to serve as a member for the next
fifteen years. There is a story told of his first appearance in the
House. He was something more than a new member; he was the late
Commander-in-Chief of the Virginia army, the foremost man, in a military
way, in the province; he had just returned from the successful
expedition against Fort Duquesne. So the House resolved to welcome him
in a manner becoming so gallant a Virginian, and it passed a vote of
thanks for the distinguished military services he had rendered the
country. The Speaker, Mr. Robinson, rose when Washington came in to take
his seat, and made a little speech of praise and welcome, presenting the
thanks of the House. Every one applauded and waited for the tall colonel
to respond. There he stood, blushing, stammering, confused. He could
give his orders to his men easily enough, and he could even say what was
necessary, to Mrs. Martha Custis; but to address the House of Burgesses
in answer to a vote of thanks--that was another matter! Not a plain word
could he get out. It was a capital answer, and the Speaker interpreted
it to the House.
"Sit down, Mr. Washington," said he. "Your modesty equals your valor,
and that surpasses the power of any language I possess."
It was a trying ordeal for the new member, and if speech-making had been
his chief business in the House, he would have made a sorry failure. He
rarely made a speech, and never a long one, but for all that he was a
valuable member, and his re-election at every term showed that the
people understood his value. If there was any work to be done, any
important committee to be appointed, Washington could be counted on, and
his sound judgment, his mature experience, and sense of honor, made his
opinion one which every one respected. He was always on hand, punctual,
and faithful; and qualities of diligence and fidelity in such a place,
when combined with sound judgment and honor, are sure to tell in the
long run. He once gave a piece of advice to a nephew who had also been
elected to the House, and it probably was the result of his own
experience and observation.
"The only advice I will offer," he said; "if you have a mind to command
the attention of the House, is to speak seldom but on important
subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents; and,
in the former case, make yourself perfect master of the subject. Never
exceed a decent warmth, and submit your sentiments with diffidence. A
dictatorial style, though it may carry conviction, is always accompanied
with disgust."
It was in January, 1759, that Washington took his seat in the House, and
if he made it his rule "to speak seldom but on important subjects," he
had several opportunities to speak before he finally left the Virginia
Legislature for a more important gathering. The first very important
subject was the Stamp Act, in 1765. The British Government had passed an
act requiring the American colonies to place a stamp upon every
newspaper or almanac that was published, upon every marriage
certificate, every will, every deed, and upon other legal papers. These
stamps were to be sold by officers of the crown, and the money obtained
by the sale was to be used to pay British soldiers stationed in America
to enforce the laws made by Parliament.
The colonies were aflame with indignation. They declared that Parliament
had no right to pass such an act; that the Ministry that proposed it was
about an unlawful business; and that it was adding insult to injury to
send over soldiers to enforce such laws. People, when they meet on the
corner of the street and discuss public matters, are usually much more
outspoken than when they meet in legislatures; but the American
colonists were wont to talk very plainly in their assemblies, and it was
no new thing for the representatives, chosen by the people, to be at
odds with the governor, who represented the British Government. So when
Patrick Henry rose up in the House of Burgesses, with his resolutions
declaring that the Stamp Act was illegal and that the colony of Virginia
had always enjoyed the right of governing itself, as far as taxation
went,--and when he made a flaming speech which threatened the King,
there was great confusion; and though his resolutions were passed, there
was but a bare majority.
There is no record of what Washington may have said or how he voted on
that occasion, but his letters show that he thought the Stamp Act a very
unwise act on the part of Great Britain, and a piece of oppression.
"That Act," he says, "could be looked upon in no other light by every
person who would view it in its proper colors." But he did not rush into
a passion over it. Instead, he studied it coolly, and before it was
repealed, wrote at some length to his wife's uncle, who was living in
London, his reasons for thinking that the British Ministry would gain
nothing by pressing the Stamp Act and other laws which bore hard on
colonial prosperity; for he held that if they would only see it, the
colonies were as necessary to England as England to the colonies.
[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY.]
It is difficult for us to-day to put ourselves in the place of
Washington and other men of his time. Washington was a Virginian, and
was one of the Legislature. He was used to making laws and providing for
the needs of the people of Virginia, but he was accustomed to look
beyond Virginia to England. There the King was, and he was one of the
subjects of the King. The King's officers came to Virginia, and when
Washington saw, as he so often did, a British man-of-war lying in the
river off Mount Vernon, his mind was thrilled with pleasure as he
thought of the power of the empire to which he belonged. He had seen the
British soldiers marching against the French, and he had himself served
under a British general. He had an ardent desire to go to England, to
see London, to see the King and his Court, and Parliament, and the
Courts of Justice, and the great merchants who made the city famous; but
as yet he had been unable to go.
He had seen but little of the other colonies. He had made a journey to
Boston, and that had given him some acquaintance with men; but wherever
he went, he found people looking eagerly toward England and asking what
the Ministry there would do about fighting the French on the Western
borders. Though he and others might never have seen England, it was the
center of the world to them. He thought of the other colonies not so
much as all parts of one great country on this side of the Atlantic, as
each separately a part of the British Empire.
After all, however, and most of all, he was a Virginian. In Virginia he
owned land. There was his home, and there his occupation. He was a
farmer, a planter of tobacco and wheat, and it was his business to sell
his products. As for the French, they were enemies of Great Britain, but
they were also very near enemies of Virginia. They were getting
possession of land in Virginia itself--land which Washington owned in
part; and when he was busily engaged in driving them out, he did not
have to stop and think of France, he needed only to think of Fort
Duquesne, a few days' march to the westward.
When, therefore he found the British Government making laws which made
him pay roundly for sending his tobacco to market, and taxing him as if
there were no Virginia Legislature to say what taxes the people could
and should pay, he began to be restless and dissatisfied. England was a
great way off; Virginia was close at hand. He was loyal to the King and
had fought under the King's officers, but if the King cared nothing for
his loyalty, and only wanted his pence, his loyalty was likely to cool.
His chief resentment, however, was against Parliament. Parliament was
making laws and laying taxes. But what was Parliament? It was a body of
law-makers in England, just as the House of Burgesses was in Virginia.
To be sure, it could pass laws about navigation which concerned all
parts of the British Empire; but, somehow, it made these laws very
profitable to England and very disadvantageous to Virginia. Parliament,
however, had no right to pass such a law as the Stamp Act. That was
making a special law for the American colonies, and taking away a right
which belonged to the colonial assemblies.
Washington had grown up with an intense love of law, and in this he was
like other American Englishmen. In England there were very few persons
who made the laws, the vast majority had nothing to do but to obey the
laws. Yet it is among the makers of laws that the love of law prevails;
and since in America a great many more Englishmen had to do with
government in colony and in town than in England, there were more who
passionately insisted upon the law being observed. An unlawful act was
to them an outrage. When they said that England was oppressing them,
and making them slaves, they did not mean that they wanted liberty to
do what they pleased, but that they wanted to be governed by just laws,
made by the men who had the right to make laws. And that right belonged
to the legislatures, to which they sent representatives.
So it was out of his love of law and justice that Washington and others
protested against the Stamp Act; and when the act was repealed, they
threw up their hats and hurrahed, not because they now should not have
to buy and use stamps, but because by repealing the act, Parliament had
as much as said that it was an unlawful act. However, this was an
unwilling admission on the part of Parliament, which repealed the act,
but said at once: "We can tax you if we choose to."
In fact, Parliament stupidly tried soon after to prove that it had the
right by imposing duties on tea, paper, glass, and painters' colors. But
the people in the colonies were on the alert. They had really been
governing themselves so long that now, when Parliament tried to get the
power away from them, they simply went on using their power. They did
this in two ways; the colonial governments again asserted their rights
in the case, and the people began to form associations, in which they
bound themselves not to buy goods of England until the offensive act was
repealed. This latter was one of the most interesting movements in the
breaking away of the colonies from England. It was a popular movement;
it did not depend upon what this or that colonial assembly might do; it
was perfectly lawful, and so far as it was complete it was effective.
Yet all the while the movement was doing more, and what but a very few
detected; it was binding the scattered people in the colonies together.
Washington took a great deal of interest in these associations, and
belonged to one himself. He was growing exceedingly impatient of English
misrule, and saw clearly to what it was leading. "At a time," he says,
"when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing
less than the deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary
that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain the
liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. But the manner of
doing it to answer the purpose effectually is the point in question.
That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to use arms in defense
of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion. Yet arms, I would beg
leave to add, should be the last resort. We have already, it is said,
proved the inefficacy of addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to
Parliament. How far, then, their attention to our rights and privileges
is to be awakened or alarmed by starving their trade and manufactures,
remains to be tried."
He took the lead in forming an association in Virginia, and he kept
scrupulously to his agreement; for when he sent his orders to London, he
was very careful to instruct his correspondents to send him none of the
goods unless the Act of Parliament had meantime been repealed. As the
times grew more exciting, Washington watched events steadily. He took no
step backward, but he moved forward deliberately and with firmness. He
did not allow himself to be carried away by the passions of the time. It
was all very well, some said, to stop buying from England, but let us
stop selling also. They need our tobacco. Suppose we refuse to send it
unless Parliament repeals the Act. Washington stood out against that
except as a final resource, and for the reason which he stated in a
letter:
"I am convinced, as much as I am of my own existence, that
there is no relief for us but in their distress; and I
think, at least I hope, that there is public virtue enough
left among us to deny ourselves everything but the bare
necessaries of life to accomplish this end. This we have a
right to do, and no power upon earth can compel us to do
otherwise, till it has first reduced us to the most abject
state of slavery. The stopping of our exports would, no
doubt, be a shorter method than the other to effect this
purpose; but if we owe money to Great Britain, nothing but
the last necessity can justify the non-payment of it; and,
therefore, I have great doubts upon this head, and wish to
see the other method first tried, which is legal and will
facilitate these payments."
That is, by the economy necessarily preached, the people would save
money with which to pay their debts.
Washington had been at the front both in the House of Burgesses, in his
own county, and among the people generally. He was a member of the
convention called to meet at Williamsburg; and he was appointed by that
convention one of seven delegates to attend the first Continental
Congress at Philadelphia.