154 SANDYS PROMOTES EMIGRATION. CHAP. does not appear that the ratification took place; yet IV. they were acknowledged to have been, "in their great1619. est part, very well and judiciously carried." The grat itude of the Virginians was expressed with cheerful alacrity; former griefs were buried in oblivion; and the representatives of the colony expressed their 66 greatest possible thanks" for the care of the company in settling the plantation.1 This was the happy dawn of legislative liberty in America. They who had been dependent on the will of a governor, claimed the privileges of Englishmen, and demanded a code based upon the English laws. They became willing to regard Virginia as their country; "they fell to building houses and planting corn," and fearlessly resolved to perpetuate the colony. The patriot party in England, now possessed of the control of the London company, engaged with earnestness in schemes to advance the population and establish the liberties of Virginia; and Sir Edwin Sandys, the new treasurer, was a man of such judgment and firmness, that no intimidations, not even threats of blood, could deter him from investigating and reforming the abuses by which the progress of the colony had been retarded. At his accession to office, after twelve years' labor, and an expenditure of eighty thousand pounds by the company, there were in the colony no more than six hundred persons, men, women, and children; and now, in one year, he provided a passage to Virginia for twelve hundred and sixty-one persons. Nor must the character of the emigration be over 1 Stith, 160, 161. Smith, ii. 39. Ancient Records, in Hening, i. 121, 122. State of Virginia, 1620, p. 7. Purchas, iv. 1775, 1776. Chalmers, 44, perversely attributes to the colonial assembly the lan guage employed by the London company. 2 Hammond; Leah and Rachel, 3. 3 Chief Root, &c., Burk, i. 323 Stith, 159. THE VIRGINIANS ACQUIRE HOMES. 155 IV. looked. "The people of Virginia had not been settled CHAP in their minds," and as, before the recent changes, they had gone there with the design of ultimately returning to England, it was necessary to multiply attachments to the soil. Few women had as yet dared to cross the Atlantic; but now the promise of prosperity induced ninety agreeable persons, young and incorrupt,' to listen to the wishes of the company, and the benevolent advice of Sandys, and to embark for the colony, where they were assured of a welcome. They were transported at the expense of the corporation, and were married to the tenants of the company, or to men who were well able to support them, and who willingly defrayed the costs of their passage, which were rigorously demanded. The adventure which had been in part a mercantile speculation, succeeded so well, that it was designed to send the next 1620 year another consignment of one hundred; but before these could be collected, the company found itself so poor, that its design could be accomplished only by a subscription. After some delays, sixty were actually 1621 despatched, maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recommended. The price rose from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco, or even more; so that all the original charges might be repaid. The debt for a wife was a debt of honor, and took precedence of any other; and the company, in conferring employments, gave a preference to the married men. Domestic ties were formed; virtuous sentiments and habits of thrift ensued; the tide of emigration swelled, 1619 within three years, fifty patents for land were granted, 1621 to 156 IV. THE VIRGINIANS ACQUIRE CIVIL FREEDOM. CHAP. and three thousand five hundred persons found their way to Virginia,1 which which was was a refuge even for Puritans.2 1620. The deliberate and formal concession of legislative May 17. liberties was an act of the deepest interest. When Sandys, after a year's service, resigned his office as treasurer, a struggle ensued on the election of his successor. The meeting was numerously attended; and, as the courts of the company were now become the schools of debate, many of the distinguished leaders of parliament were present. King James attempted to decide the struggle; and a message was communicated from him, nominating four candidates, one of whom he desired should receive the appointment. 1621. The company resisted the royal interference as an infringement of their charter; and while James exposed himself to the disgrace of an unsuccessful attempt at usurpation, the choice of the meeting fell upon the earl of Southampton, the early friend of Shakspeare. Having thus vindicated their own rights, the company proceeded to redress former wrongs, and to provide colonial liberty with its written guaranties.3 In the case of the appeal to the London company from a sentence of death pronounced by Argall, the friends of that officer had assembled, with the earl of Warwick at their head, and had voted, that trial by martial law is the noblest kind of trial, because soldiers and men of the sword were the judges. This opinion was now reversed, and the rights of the colonists to trial by jury amply sustained. Nor was it long before the freedom of the northern fisheries was equally asserted; and the early history of New England will 1 Stith, 196. State of Virginia, 1622, p. 6, &c. 2 Whitaker, in Purchas. THE VIRGINIANS ACQUIRE CIVIL FREEDOM. 157 IV. explain with what success the monopoly of a rival cor- CHAP. poration was opposed.' 24. The company had silently approved, yet never ex- 1621. pressly sanctioned, the colonial assembly which had been convened by Sir George Yeardley. It was in July, 1621, that a memorable ordinance established July for the colony a written constitution. The form of government prescribed for Virginia was analogous to the English constitution, and was, with some modifications, the model of the systems, which were afterwards introduced into the various royal provinces. Its purpose was declared to be "the greatest comfort and benefit to the people, and the prevention of injustice, grievances, and oppression." Its terms are few and simple ;—a governor, to be appointed by the company; a permanent council, likewise to be appointed by the company; a general assembly, to be convened yearly, and to consist of the members of the council, and of two burgesses to be chosen from each of the several plantations by their respective inhabitants. The assembly might exercise full legislative authority, a negative voice being reserved to the governor; but no law or ordinance would be valid, unless ratified by the company in England. With singular justice, and a liberality without example, it was further ordained, that, after the government of the colony shall have once been framed, no orders of the court in London shall in like manner ratified bind the colony, unless they be Such was the constitution which Sir Francis Wyatt, the successor of the mild but inefficient Yeardley, was Stith, 181-185. Gorges, c. xvii.—xxii. 2 Hening, i. 110, 111. THE VIRGINIANS ACQUIRE CIVIL FREEDOM. 158 CHAP. Commissioned to bear to the colony. The system IV. of representative government and trial by jury, was 1621. thus established in the new hemisphere as an acknowledged right; the colonists, ceasing to depend as servants on a commercial company, now became enfranchised citizens. Henceforward, the supreme power was held to reside in the hands of the colonial parliament, and of the king, as king of Virginia. The ordinance was the basis on which Virginia erected the superstructure of its liberties. Its influences were wide and enduring, and can be traced through all following years of the history of the colony. It constituted the plantation, in its infancy, a nursery of freemen; and succeeding generations learned to cherish institutions which were as old as the first period of the prosperity of their fathers. The privileges which were now conceded, could never be wrested from the Virginians; and, as new colonies arose at the south, their proprietaries could hope to win emigrants only by bestowing franchises as large as those enjoyed by their elder rival. The London company merits the fame of having acted as the successful friend of liberty in America. It may be doubted, whether any public act during the reign of King James was of more permanent or pervading influence; and it reflects glory on the earl of Southampton, Sir Edwin Sandys, and the patriot party of England, who, unable to establish guaranties of a liberal administration at home, were careful to connect popular freedom so intimately with the life, prosperity and state of society of Virginia, that they never could be separated. |