Volume I Part 45 (1/2)
When the Earl of Shelburne read Mr. Jefferson's report, he said: ”In my life I was never more pleased with a State paper than with the a.s.sembly of Virginia's discussion of Lord North's proposition. It is masterly.
But what I fear is, that the evil is irretrievable.”
”At Versailles, the French Minister, Vergennes, was equally attracted by the wisdom and dignity of the doc.u.ment. He particularly noticed the insinuation that a compromise might be effected on the basis of the modification of the Navigation Acts; and saw so many ways opened of settling every difficulty, that it was long before he could persuade himself that the infatuation of the British Ministry was so blind as to neglect them all.” (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap, x.x.xvii., pp. 386-388.)]
[Footnote 378: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap.
xxv., p. 276.
”The offer of freedom to the negroes came very oddly from the representative of the nation which had sold them to their present masters, and of the King who had been displeased with the colony for its desire to tolerate that inhuman traffic no longer; and it was but a sad resource for a commercial metropolis, to keep a hold on its colony by letting loose slaves against its own colonists.”--_Ib._, p. 276.
”Dunmore's menace to raise the standard of a servile insurrection and set the slaves upon their masters, with British arms in their hands, filled the South with horror and alarm. Besides, the retreat of the British troops from Concord raised the belief that the American forces were invincible; and the spirit of resistance had grown so strong, that some of the Burgesses appeared in the uniform of the recently inst.i.tuted provincial troops, wearing a hunting s.h.i.+rt of coa.r.s.e linen over their clothes, and a woodman's axe by their sides.”--_Ib._, pp. 384, 385.]
[Footnote 379: ”Meantime, Dunmore, driven from the land of Virginia, maintained command of the water by means of a flotilla composed of the _Mercury_, of 24 guns; the _Kingfisher_, of 16; the _Otter_, of 14, with other s.h.i.+ps and light vessels, and tenders which he had engaged in the King's service. At Norfolk, a town of about 6,000 inhabitants, a newspaper was published by John Holt. About noon on the last day of September (1775), Dunmore, finding fault with its favouring (according to him) 'sedition and rebellion,' sent on sh.o.r.e a small party, who, meeting with no resistance, seized and brought off two printers and all the materials of the printing office, so that he could publish from his s.h.i.+p a Gazette on the side of the King. The outrage, as we shall see, produced retaliation.” (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol.
VIII., Chap. lv., pp. 220, 221.)]
[Footnote 380: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VIII., Chap. lv., pp. 221, 222.
The English Annual Register of 1776 states as follows the policy of Lord Dunmore, culminating in the successful defence of Hampton and the repulse of his s.h.i.+ps:
”Whether Lord Dunmore expected that any extraordinary advantages might be derived from an insurrection of the slaves, or that he imagined there was a much greater number of people in the colony who were satisfied with the present system of government than really was the case (_a mistake, and an unfortunate one, which, like an epidemical distemper, seems to have spread through all our official departments in America_)--upon whatever grounds he proceeded, he determined, though he relinquished his government, not to abandon his hopes, nor entirely to lose sight of the country which he had governed. He, accordingly, being joined by those friends of government who had rendered themselves too obnoxious to the people to continue with safety in the country, as well as by a number of runaway negroes, and supported by the frigates of war which were upon the station, endeavoured to establish such a marine force as would enable him, by means of the n.o.ble rivers, which render the most valuable parts of that rich country accessible by water, to be always at hand and ready to profit by any favourable occasion that offered.
”Upon this or some similar system he by degrees equipped and armed a number of vessels of different kinds and sizes, _in one of which he constantly resided, never setting his foot on sh.o.r.e but in a hostile manner_. The force thus put together was, however, _calculated only for depredation_, and never became equal to any essential service. The former, indeed, was in part a matter of necessity; for as the people on sh.o.r.e would not supply those on board with provisions or necessaries, they must either starve or provide them by force.... These proceedings occasioned the sending of some detachments of the new-raised forces of the colonists to protect their coasts, and from these ensued a small, mischievous, predatory war, incapable of affording honour or benefit, and in which, at length, every drop of water and every necessary was purchased at the price or risk of blood.
”During this state of hostility, Lord Dunmore procured a few soldiers from different parts, with whose a.s.sistance an attempt (Oct. 25th) was made to burn a post town in an important situation called Hampton. It seems the inhabitants had some previous suspicion of the design, for they had sunk boats in the entrance of the harbour and thrown such other obstacles in the way as rendered the approach of the s.h.i.+ps, and consequently a landing, impracticable on the day when the attack was commenced. The s.h.i.+ps cut a pa.s.sage through the boats in the night, and began to cannonade the town furiously in the morning; but at this critical period the townspeople were relieved from their apprehensions and danger by the arrival of a detachment of rifle and minute men from Williamsburg, who had marched all night to their a.s.sistance. These, joined with the inhabitants, attacked the s.h.i.+ps so vigorously with their small arms that they were obliged precipitately to quit their station, with the loss of some men and of a tender, which was taken.” (Annual Register, Vol. XIX., Fourth Edition, pp. 26, 27.)]
[Footnote 381: English Annual Register, Vol. XIX.]
[Footnote 382: British Annual Register, Vol. XIX., p. 31.
Mr. Bancroft's account of this barbarous conflagration is as follows:
”New Year's day, 1776, was the saddest day that ever broke on the women and children then in Norfolk; warned of their danger by the commander of the squadron, there was for them no refuge. The _Kingfisher_ was stationed at the upper end of Norfolk; a little below her, the _Otter_; Belew, in the _Liverpool_, anch.o.r.ed near the middle of the town; and next him lay the _Dunmore_; the rest of the fleet was moored in the harbour. Between three and four in the afternoon, the _Liverpool_ opened its fire upon the borough; the other s.h.i.+ps immediately followed the example, and a severe cannonade was begun from about sixty pieces of cannon. Dunmore then himself, as night was coming on, ordered out several boats to burn warehouses on the wharves; and hailed to Belew to set fire to a large brig which lay in the dock. All the vessels of the fleet, to show their zeal, sent great numbers of boats on sh.o.r.e to a.s.sist in spreading the flames along the river; and as the buildings were chiefly of pine wood, the conflagration, favoured by the wind, spread with amazing rapidity, and soon became general. Women and children, mothers with little ones in their arms, were seen by the glare running through the shower of cannon b.a.l.l.s to get out of their range.
Two or three persons were hit; and the scene became one of extreme horror and confusion. Several times the British attempted to land, and once to bring cannon into the street; but they were driven back by the spirit and conduct of the Americans. The cannonade did not abate till ten at night; after a short pause it was renewed, but with less fury, and was kept up till two the next morning. The flames, which had made their way from street to street, raged for three days; till four-fifths, or, as some computed, nine-tenths of the houses were reduced to ashes and heaps of ruins.” (History of the United States, Vol. VIII., Chap.
lvi., pp. 230, 231.)]
[Footnote 383: History of the United States, Vol. VIII., Chap. lvi., p.
231.
The English Annual Register observes: ”Such was the fate of the unfortunate town of Norfolk, the most considerable for commerce in the colony, and so growing and flouris.h.i.+ng before these unhappy troubles, that in the two years from 1773 to 1775, the rents of the houses increased from 8,000 to 10,000 a year. However just the cause, or urgent the necessity, which induced this measure, it was undoubtedly a grievous and odious task to a Governor to be himself the princ.i.p.al actor in burning and destroying the best town in his government.
”Nor was the situation of other Governors in America much more eligible than that of Lord Dunmore. In South Carolina, Lord William Campbell, having as they said, entered into a negotiation with the Indians for coming in to the support of the Government in that province, and having also succeeded in exciting a number of those back settlers whom we have heretofore seen distinguished in the Carolinas, under the t.i.tle of Regulators, to espouse the same cause, the discovery of these measures, before they were ripe for execution, occasioned such a ferment among the people, that he thought it necessary to retire from Charleston on board a s.h.i.+p of war in the river, from whence he returned no more to the seat of his government.
”Similar measures were pursued in North Carolina (with the difference that Governor Martin was more active and vigorous in his proceedings), but attended with as little success. The Provincial Congress, Committees, and Governor were in a continual state of the most violent warfare. Upon a number of charges, particularly of fomenting a civil war, and exciting an insurrection among the negroes, he was declared an enemy to America in general, and to that colony in particular, and all persons were forbidden from holding any communication with him. These declarations he answered with a proclamation of uncommon length, which the Provincial Congress resolved to be a false, scandalous, scurrilous and seditious libel, and ordered it to be burned by the hands of the common hangman.
”As the Governor expected, by means of the back settlers, as well as of the Scotch inhabitants and Highland emigrants, who were numerous in the province, to be able to raise a considerable force, he took pains to fortify and arm his palace at Newburn, that it might answer the double purpose of a garrison and a magazine. Before this could be effected, the moving of some cannon excited such a commotion among the people that he found it necessary to abandon the palace and retire on board a sloop-of-war in Cape Fear river. The people upon this occasion discovered powder, shot, ball, and various military stores and implements which had been buried in the palace garden and yard. This served to inflame them exceedingly, every man considering it as if it had been a plot against himself in particular.
”The Provincial Congress published an address to the inhabitants of the British empire, of the same nature with those we have formerly seen to the people of Great Britain and Ireland, containing the same professions of loyalty and affection, and declaring the same earnest desire of a reconciliation.” (English Annual Register, Vol. XIX., pp. 31-33.)]