VI. CHAP. and a complete declaration of popular sovereignty was solemnly made. This was followed by an unu1658. sual exercise of power. The governor and council had ordered the dissolution of the assembly; the burgesses now decreed the former election of governor and council to be void. Having thus exercised, not merely the right of election, but the more extraordinary right of removal, they re-elected Matthews, "who by us," they add, "shall be invested with all the just rights and privileges belonging to the governor and captain-general of Virginia." The governor submitted, and acknowledged the validity of his ejection by taking the new oath, which had just been prescribed. The council was organized anew; and the spirit of popular liberty established all its claims.1 1658. The death of Cromwell made no change in the constitution of the colony. The message of the gov1659. ernor duly announced the event to the legislature. Mar. It has pleased some English historians to ascribe to Virginia a precipitate attachment to Charles II. On the present occasion, the burgesses deliberated in private, and unanimously resolved, that Richard Cromwell should be acknowledged.3 But it was a more interesting question, whether the change of protector in England would endanger liberty in Virginia. The letter from the council had left the government to be administered according to former usage. The assembly declared itself satisfied with 1 Hening, v. i. p. 504, 505. 2 See the names of the mem bers, in Hening, v. i. p. 506, 507. 3 Hening, v. i. p. 511. Mar. 1659. VIRGINIA DURING THE PROTECTORATE. 245 VI. the language.' But that there might be no reason CHAP. to question the existing usage, the governor was summoned to come to the house; where he appeared 1659. in person, deliberately acknowledged the supreme power of electing officers to be, by the present laws, resident in the assembly, and pledged himself to join in addressing the new protector for special confirmation of all existing privileges. The reason for this extraordinary proceeding is assigned; "that what was their privilege now, might be the privilege of their posterity." The frame of the Virginia government was deemed worthy of being transmitted to remote generations. Mar. On the death of Matthews, the Virginians were 1660. without a chief magistrate, just at the time when the resignation of Richard had left England without a government. The burgesses, who were immediately convened, resolving to become the arbiters of the fate of the colony, enacted, "that the supreme power of the government of this country shall be resident in the assembly; and all writs shall issue in its name, until there shall arrive from England a commission, which the assembly itself shall adjudge to be lawful." This being done, Sir William Berkeley was elected governor; and, acknowledging the validity of the acts of the burgesses, whom, it was expressly agreed, he could in no event dissolve, he accepted the office to which he had been chosen, and recognized, without a scruple, the authority to which he owed his elevation. "I am," said he, "but a 1 Hening, v. i. p. 511. 2 Ibid, p. 511, 512. 3 Ibid, p. 530, Act 1. Mar. 1660. 4 Ibid, p. 530,531, and 5. VI. CHAP. servant of the assembly." Virginia did not lay claim to absolute independence; but anxiously awaited the 1660. settlement of affairs in England.2 The legislation of the colony had taken its character from the condition of the people, who were essentially agricultural in their pursuits; and it is the interest of society in that state to discountenance contracting debts. Severe laws for the benefit of the creditor are the fruits of commercial society; Virginia possessed not one considerable town, and her statutes favored the independence of the planter, rather than the security of trade. The representatives of colonial landholders voted "the total ejection of mercenary attornies." By a special act, emigrants were safe against suits, designed to enforce engagements that had been made in Europe; and colonial obligations might be easily satisfied by a surrender of property. Already large landed proprietors were frequent; and plantations of two thousand acres were not unknown.6 During the suspension of the royal government in England, Virginia attained unlimited liberty of commerce, which she regulated by independent laws. The ordinance of 1650 was rendered void by the act of capitulation; the navigation act of Cromwell was not designed for her oppression, and was not enforced within her borders. If an occasional confiscation took place, it was done by the authority of 1 Smith's History of New-York, 349. 419. 482. 495, and preface, P. 18. p. 27. 2 See the note of Hening, in v. i. p. 526-529. 3 Hening, v. i. p. 275. 302. 313. 4 Mid, p. 256, 257. 5 Ibid, p. 294. 6 Virginia's Cure, p. 2 and 8. VIRGINIA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 247 VI. Mar. the colonial assembly.' The war between England CHAP. and Holland necessarily interrupted the intercourse of the Dutch with the English colonies; but if, after the treaty of peace, the trade was considered contraband, the English restrictions were entirely disregarded." A remonstrance, addressed to Cromwell, demanded 1656. an unlimited liberty; and we may suppose, that it was not refused, for, some months before Cromwell's 1658. death, the Virginians "invited the Dutch and all foreigners" to trade with them, on payment of no higher duty, than that which was levied on such English vessels, as were bound for a foreign port.3 Proposals of peace and commerce between NewNetherlands and Virginia were discussed without scruple by the respective colonial governments; and at last a special statute of Virginia extended to every 1660. Christian nation, in amity with England, a promise of liberty to trade and equal justice. At the restoration, Virginia enjoyed freedom of commerce with the whole world. Religious liberty advanced under the influence of independent domestic legislation. Conformity to the church of England had, in the reign of Charles, been enforced by measures of disfranchisement and exile.5 Under the commonwealth, all things re- 1658. specting parishes and parishioners were referred to their own ordering. Unhappily, the extravagance of a few wild fanatics, who, under the name of qua 1 Hening, v. i. p. 382, 383. 2 Thurloe, v. v. p. 80; Hazard, v. i. p. 599-602. 3 Hening, v. i. p. 469. 4 Smith, p. 27; Hen. v. i. p. 450. Mar. 1. CHAP. kers, were charged with avowing doctrines, than VI. which none are more offensive to the society of Friends, gave such umbrage, that Virginia was still excited to an act of intolerance. All quakers were banished; and they, who should obstinately persist in returning, were ordered to be prosecuted as felons.' Virginia was the first state in the world, composed of separate townships, diffused over an extensive surface, where the government was organized on the principle of universal suffrage. All freemen without 1655. exception were entitled to vote. An attempt was once made to limit the right to house-keepers; but the public voice reproved the restriction; the very 1656. next year, it was decided to be "hard and unagreea ble to reason, that any person shall pay equal taxes and yet have no votes in elections ;" and the electoral franchise was restored to all freemen.3 Servants, when the time of their bondage was completed, at once became electors; and might be chosen burgesses.1 Thus Virginia established upon her soil the supremacy of the popular branch, the freedom of trade, the independence of religious societies, the security from foreign taxation, and the universal elective franchise. If, in following years, she departed from either of these principles, and yielded a reluctant consent to change, it was from the influence of foreign authority. Virginia had herself 1 Hening, v. i. p. 532, 533, Act 6. 1660. 2 Ibid, preface, p. 19, 20 and p. 412, Act 7. March, 1655. 3 Hening, v. i. p. 403, Act 16. March, 1656. 4 Virginia's Cure, printed in 1662, p. 18. |