Volume I Part 44 (1/2)

Lord Dunmore at the same time wrote to the English Secretary of State: ”With a small body of troops and arms, I could raise such a force among _Indians, Negroes_, and other persons, as would soon reduce the refractory people of this colony to obedience.”

Yet, after all his boasting and threats, the value of the powder thus unlawfully seized was restored to the colony. Lord Dunmore, agitated with fears, as most tyrants are, left the Government House from fear of the people excited by his own conduct towards them, and went on board of the man-of-war s.h.i.+p _Tower_, at York (about 12 miles from Williamsburg, the capital of the Province), thus leaving the colony in the absolute possession of its own inhabitants, giving as a reason for his flight, his apprehension of ”falling a sacrifice to the daringness and atrociousness, the blind and unmeasurable fury of great numbers of the people;” and the a.s.surance of the very people whom he feared as to his personal safety and that of his family, and the repeated entreaties of the Legislative a.s.sembly that he would return to land, with a.s.surance of perfect safety from injury or insult, could not prevail upon Lord Dunmore to return to the Government House, or prevent him from attempting to govern the ancient Dominion of Virginia from s.h.i.+ps of war.

He seized a private printing press, with two of its printers, at the town of Norfolk, and was thus enabled to issue his proclamations and other papers against the inhabitants whom he had so grossly insulted and injured.[379]

”In October” (1775), says Bancroft, ”Dunmore repeatedly landed detachments to seize arms wherever he could find them. Thus far Virginia had not resisted the British by force. The war began in that colony with the defence of Hampton, a small village at the end of the isthmus between York and James rivers. An armed sloop had been driven on its sh.o.r.e in a very violent gale; its people took out of her six swivels and other stores, made some of her men prisoners, and then set her on fire.

Dunmore blockaded the port; they called to their a.s.sistance a company of ”s.h.i.+rtmen,” as the British called the Virginia regulars, from the hunting s.h.i.+rt which was their uniform, and another company of minute men, besides a body of militia.”

”On the 26th Dunmore sent some of the tenders close into Hampton Roads to destroy the town. The guard marched out to repel them, and the moment they came within gunshot, George Nicholas, who commanded the Virginians, fired his musket at one of the tenders; it was the first gun fired in Virginia against the British. His example was followed by his party.

r.e.t.a.r.ded by boats which had been sunk across the Channel, the British on that day vainly attempted to land. The following night the Culpepper riflemen were despatched to the aid of Hampton; and William Woodford, Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of Virginia, was sent by the Committee of Safety from Williamsburg to take the direction. The next day the British, having cut their way through the sunken boats, renewed the attack; but the riflemen poured upon them a heavy fire, killing a few and wounding more. One of the tenders was taken, with its armament and seven seamen; the rest were with difficulty towed out of the creek. The Virginians lost not a man. This was the first battle of the revolution in the ancient Dominion, and its honours belonged to the Virginians.”[380]

In consequence of this failure of Lord Dunmore to burn the town of Hampton, he proclaimed martial law and freedom to the slaves. The English Annual Register states that, ”In consequence of the repulse (at Hampton) a proclamation was issued (Nov. 7th) by the Governor, dated on board the s.h.i.+p _William_, off Norfolk, declaring, that as the civil law was at present insufficient to prevent and punish treason and traitors, martial law should take place, and be executed throughout the colony; and requiring all persons capable of bearing arms to repair to his Majesty's standard, or to be considered as traitors.” He also declared all indentured servants, negroes, and others, appertaining to rebels, who were able and willing to bear arms, and who joined his Majesty's forces, to be free.

”The measure for emanc.i.p.ating the negroes,” continues the Annual Register, ”excited less surprise, and probably had less effect, from its being so long threatened and apprehended, than if it had been more immediate and unexpected. It was, however, received with the greatest horror in all the colonies, and has been severely condemned elsewhere, as tending to loosen the bands of society, to destroy domestic security, and encourage the most barbarous of mankind to the commission of the most horrible crimes and the most inhuman cruelties; that it was confounding the innocent with the guilty, and exposing those who were the best of friends to the Government, to the same loss of property, danger, and destruction with the most incorrigible rebels.”[381]

It will be observed in Lord Dunmore's proclamation, as also in the English Register, and I may add in General Stedman's History of the American War, and in other histories of those times, the terms ”rebels,”

”treason,” and ”traitors” are applied to those who, at that time, as in all previous years, disclaimed all desire of separation from England, and only claimed those const.i.tutional rights of Englishmen to which they were as lawfully ent.i.tled as the King was to his Crown, and very much more so than Lord Dunmore was ent.i.tled to the authority which he was then exercising; for he had been invested with authority to rule according to the Const.i.tution of the colony, but he had set aside the Legislature of the colony, which had as much right to its opinions and the expression of them as he had to his; he had abandoned the legal seat of government, and taken up his residence on board a man-of-war, and employed his time and strength in issuing proclamations against people to whom he had been sent to govern as the representative of a _const.i.tutional_ sovereign, and made raids upon their coasts, and burned their towns. In truth, Lord Dunmore and his abettors were the real ”rebels” and ”traitors,” who were committing ”treason” against the const.i.tutional rights and liberties of their fellow-subjects, while the objects of their hostility were the real loyalists to the Const.i.tution, which gave to the humblest subject his rights as well as to the Sovereign his prerogatives.

Lord Dunmore, from his s.h.i.+p of war, had no right to rule the rich and most extensive colony in America. He had abandoned his appointed seat of government, and he became the ravager of the coasts and the destroyer of the seaport towns of the ancient dominion. This state of things could not long continue. Lord Dunmore could not subsist his fleet without provisions; and the people would not sell their provisions to those who were seeking to rob them of their liberties and to plunder their property. The English Annual Register observes:

”In the meantime, the people in the fleet were distressed for provisions and necessaries of every sort, and were cut off from every kind of succour from the sh.o.r.e. This occasioned constant bickering between the armed s.h.i.+ps and boats, and the forces that were stationed on the coast, particularly at Norfolk. At length, upon the arrival of the _Liverpool_ man-of-war from England, a flag was sent on sh.o.r.e to put the question ”whether they would supply his Majesty's s.h.i.+ps with provisions?” which being answered in the negative, and the s.h.i.+ps in the harbour being continually annoyed by the fire of the rebels from that part of the town which lay next the water, it was determined to dislodge them by destroying it. Previous notice being accordingly given to the inhabitants that they might remove from danger, the first day of the New Year (1776) was signalized by the attack, when a violent cannonade from the _Liverpool_ frigate, two sloops of war, and the Governor's armed s.h.i.+p the _Dunmore_, seconded by parties of sailors and marines, who landed and set fire to the nearest houses, _soon produced the desired effect, and the whole town was reduced to ashes_.”[382]

Mr. Bancroft eloquently observes: ”In this manner the Royal Governor burned and laid waste the best town in the oldest and most loyal colony of England, to which Elizabeth had given a name, and Raleigh devoted his fortune, and Shakspeare and Bacon and Herbert foretokened greatness; a colony where the people themselves had established the Church of England, and where many were still proud of their ancestors, and in the day of the British Commonwealth had been faithful to the line of kings.”[383]

When Was.h.i.+ngton learned the fate of the rich emporium of his own ”country,” for so he called Virginia, his breast heaved with waves of anger and grief. ”I hope,” said he, ”this and the threatened devastation of other places will unite the whole country in one indissoluble band against a Government which seems lost to every sense of virtue and those feelings which distinguish a civilized people from the most barbarous savages.”

Thus the loyal churchmen of Virginia received the same treatment from Lord Dunmore as did the republican Congregationalists of Ma.s.sachusetts from General Gage. The loyal Presbyterians of the two Carolinas experienced similar treatment from Governors Campbell and Martin, as stated by the English Annual Register, in the preceding note. The three Southern Governors each fled from their seats of government and betook themselves to s.h.i.+ps of war; while Gage was shut up in Boston until his recall to England.

The Southern colonies, with those of New England, shared the same fate of misrepresentation, abuse, and invasion of their rights as British subjects; the flames of discontent were spread through all the colonies by a set of incompetent and reckless Governors, the favourites and tools of perhaps the worst Administration and the most corrupt that ever ruled Great Britain. All the colonies might adopt the language of the last address of the a.s.sembly of Virginia: ”We have exhausted every mode of application which our inventions could suggest, as proper and promising.

We have decently remonstrated with Parliament; they have added new injuries to the old. We have wearied the King with our supplications; he has not deigned to answer them. We have appealed to the native honour and justice of the British nation; their efforts in our favour have been hitherto ineffectual.” At the meeting of Parliament, October 26th, 1775, the King was advised to utter in the Royal speech the usual denunciation against the colonies, but the minority in Parliament (led by Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, General Conway, and Lord John Cavendish) discussed and denied the statements in the Royal speech, and exhibited the results of the Ministerial warfare against the colonies at the close of the year 1775, the year before the Declaration of Independence. ”In this contest,” says the Annual Register of 1776, ”the speech was taken to pieces, and every part of it most severely scrutinized. The Ministers were charged with having brought their Sovereign into the most disgraceful and unhappy situation of any monarch now living. Their conduct had already wrested the sceptre of America out of his hands.

One-half of the empire was lost, and the other thrown into a state of anarchy and confusion. After having spread corruption like a deluge through the land, until all public virtue was lost, and the people were inebriated with vice and profligacy, they were then taught in the paroxysms of their infatuation and madness to cry out for havoc and war.

History could not show an instance of such an empire ruined in such a manner. They had lost a greater extent of dominion in the first campaign of a ruinous civil war, which was intentionally produced by their own acts, than the most celebrated conquerors had ever acquired in so short a s.p.a.ce of time.

”The speech was said to be composed of a mixture of a.s.sumed and false facts, with some general undefined and undisputed axioms, which n.o.body would attempt to controvert. Of the former, that of charging the colonies with aiming at independence was severely reprehended, as being totally unfounded, being directly contrary to the whole tenor of their conduct, to their most express declarations both by word and writing, and to what every person of any intelligence knew of their general temper and disposition.[384] But what they never intended, we may drive them to. They will, undoubtedly, prefer independence to slavery. They will never continue their connection with this country unless they can be connected with its privileges. The continuance of hostility, with the determined refusal of security for these privileges, will infallibly bring on separation.

”The charge of their making professions of duty and proposals of reconciliation only for the insidious purpose of amusing and deceiving, was equally reprobated. It was insisted that, on the contrary, these had from the beginning told them honestly, openly and bravely, without disguise or reserve, and declared to all the world, that they never would submit to be arbitrarily taxed by any body of men whatsoever in which they were not represented. They did not whisper behind the door, nor mince the matter; they told fairly what they would do, and have done, if they were unhappily urged to the last extremity. And that though the Ministers affected not to believe them, it was evident from the armament which they sent out that they did; for however incompetent that armament has been to the end, n.o.body could admit a doubt that it was intended to oppose men in arms, and to compel by force, the incompetence for its purposes proceeding merely from that blind ignorance and total misconception of American affairs which had operated upon the Ministers in every part of their conduct.

”The shameful accusation,” they said, ”was only to cover that wretched conduct, and, if possible, to hide or excuse the disgrace and failure that had attended all their measures. Was any other part of their policy more commendable or more successful? Did the cruel and sanguinary laws of the preceding session answer any of the purposes for which they were proposed? Had they in any degree fulfilled the triumphant predictions, had they kept in countenance the overbearing vaunts of the Minister?

They have now sunk into the same nothingness with the terrors of that armed force which was to have looked all America into submission. The Americans have faced the one, and they despise the injustice and iniquity of the other....

”The question of rebellion was also agitated; and it was a.s.serted that the taking up of arms in the defence of just rights did not, according to the spirit of the British Const.i.tution, come within that comprehension. It was also a.s.serted with great confidence, that notwithstanding the mischiefs which the Americans had suffered, and the great losses they had sustained, they would still readily lay down their arms, and return with the greatest good-will and emulation to their duty, if candid and unequivocal measures were taken for reinstating them in their former rights; but that this must be done speedily, before the evils had taken too wide an extent, and the animosity and irritation arising from them had gone beyond a certain pitch.

”The boasted lenity of Parliament was much lauded. It was asked whether the Boston Port Bill, by which, without trial or condemnation, a number of people were stripped of their commercial property, and even deprived of the benefit of their real estates, was an instance of it? Was it to be found in the Fishery Bill, by which large countries were cut off from the use of the elements, and deprived of the provision which nature had allotted for their sustenance? Or was taking away the Charter and all the rights of the people without trial or forfeiture the measure of lenity from which such applause was now sought? Was the indemnity held out to military power lenity? Was it lenity to free soldiers from a trial in the country where the murders with which they should stand charged, when acting in support of civil and revenue officers, were committed, and forcing their accusers to come to England at the pleasure of a governor?” ...

”The debate in the House of Lords was rendered particularly remarkable by the unexpected defection of a n.o.ble duke (Duke of Grafton) who had been for some years at the head of the Administration, had resigned of his own accord at a critical period, but who had gone with the Government ever since, and was at this time in high office. The line which he immediately took was still more alarming to the Administration than the act of defection. Besides a decisive condemnation of all their acts for some time past with respect to America, as well as of the measures now held out by the speech, he declared that he had been deceived and misled upon that subject; that by the withholding of information, and the misrepresentation of facts, he had been induced to lend his countenance to measures which he never approved; among those was that in particular of coercing America by force of arms, an idea the most distant from his mind and opinions, but which he was blindly led to give a support to from his total ignorance of the true state and disposition of the colonies, and the firm persuasion held out that matters would never come to an extremity of that nature; that an appearance of coercion was all that was required to establish a reconciliation, and that the stronger the Government appeared, and the better it was supported, the sooner all disputes would be adjusted.”

”He declared that nothing less than a total repeal of all the American laws which had been pa.s.sed since 1763 could now restore peace and happiness, or prevent the most destructive and fatal consequences--consequences which could not even be thought of without feeling the utmost degree of grief and horror; that nothing could have brought him out in the present ill state of his health but the fullest conviction of his being right--a knowledge of the critical situation of his country, and a sense of what he owed to his duty and to his conscience; that these operated so strongly upon him, that no state of indisposition, if he were even obliged to come in a litter, should prevent his attending to express his utmost disapprobation of the measures which were now being pursued, as well as of those which he understood from the lords in office it was intended still to pursue. He concluded by declaring that if his nearest relations or dearest friends were to be affected by this question or that the loss of fortune, or of every other thing which he most esteemed, was to be the certain consequence of his present conduct, yet the strong conviction and compulsion operating at once upon his mind and conscience would not permit him to hesitate upon the part which he should take.

”The address was productive of a _protest_ signed by _nineteen_ lords, in which they combat the civil war as unjust and impolitic in its principles, dangerous in its contingent and fatal in its final consequences. They censured the calling in of foreign forces to decide domestic quarrels as disgraceful and dangerous. They sum up and conclude the protest by declaring: 'We cannot, therefore, consent to an address which may deceive his Majesty and the public into a belief of the confidence of this House in the present Ministers, who have deceived Parliament, disgraced the nation, lost the colonies, and involved us in a civil war against our clearest interests, and upon the most unjustifiable grounds wantonly spilling the blood of thousands of our fellow-subjects.'”[385]