CHAPTER XCI.
1776.
Death of Richard Bland—Genealogy of the Blands—First Assembly under new Government—Petitions against Church establishment—Memorial of Hanover Presbytery—Rev. Caleb Wallace—Petitions in favor of Established Church—Proceedings of Assembly—Alleged scheme of Dictator—Hampden Sidney—Virginia Navy.
On the 26th day of October, 1776, died Richard Bland, at Williamsburg, aged sixty-six. He was in attendance as a member of the house of delegates at its first session, and was struck with apoplexy while walking in the streets. His intellectual calibre was capacious, his education finished, his habits of application indefatigable. Thoroughly versed in the charters, laws, and history of the colony, he was styled the "Virginia Antiquary." He was a political character of the first rank, a profound logician, and as a writer perhaps unsurpassed in the colony.
His letter to the clergy, published in 1760, and his enquiry into the rights of the colonies, are monuments of his patriotism, his learning, and the vigor of his understanding. He was an ungraceful speaker. It is said that he was pronounced by Mr. Jefferson to be "the wisest man south of the James River." He resided at Jordan's Point, on the James, in Prince George. His portrait and that of his wife were mutilated by the bayonets of British soldiers during the revolutionary war.[670:A] His wife had died in 1758, aged forty-six years.
The Blands of Virginia derive their name from Bland, a place in or near Lonsdale, in Westmoreland, or Cumberland, England. William de Bland flourished in the reign of Edward the Third, and did good service in the wars which that king carried on in France, in company of John of Gaunt, Earl of Richmond. Thomas de Bland obtained a pardon from Richard the Second, for killing his antagonist in a duel, by the intercession of his friend the Duke of Guyenne and Lancaster. The coat of arms of Bland is quartered by the family of Wansford, of Kirklington, in the County of York, afterwards Lord Viscount Castle-Comer, in the kingdom of Ireland; and the family of Thistlewait, of Thistlewait, bear the arms of Bland for their paternal coat as descended from the ancient family of Bland. Edward Bland, of Burfield, died in the reign of Edward the Fourth; from him was descended Adam Bland, who lived in the reign of Edward the Sixth. John Bland was free of the "Grocers and Merchants Adventurers Company." Thomas Bland, receiver of the rents for Yorkshire in the time of Charles the First, married, secondly, Katherine, sister of Sir Richard Sandys, of Northbourne, in Kent. Giles Bland, collector of the customs for James River, owing to a quarrel with Sir William Berkley, became a partisan of Bacon, and was executed during the rebellion. Edward Bland, a merchant in Spain, (1643,) afterwards removed to Virginia, where he lived at Kimages, in Charles City County. Robert Bland was rector of Weyborough-magna, with the chapel of Sale appendant, in the County of Essex. Richard Bland, of the company of "Framework Knitters," was Lord of the manor of Preston Hall, and Lord Mayor of Preston. Theodorick Bland was some time a merchant at Luars in Spain, but came over to Virginia in the year 1654. He settled at Westover, on James River, where he died April 23d, 1671, aged forty-one, and was buried in the chancel of the church which he built, and gave, together with ten acres of land, a court-house and prison, for the county and parish. His tombstone is to be found in Westover churchyard, lying between those of two of his friends; the church has disappeared long ago. This Theodorick Bland was one of the king's council for Virginia, and was both in fortune and understanding inferior to no person of his time in the country. He married the daughter of Richard Bennet, Esq., sometime governor of the colony. Richard Bland, born at Berkley, son of this Theodorick Bland, married, first, Mary, daughter of Colonel Thomas Swan; secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel William Randolph, of Turkey Island, on James River. Mary Bland, eldest daughter of Richard Bland, gentleman, of Jordans, born 1704, married Colonel Henry Lee, of Westmoreland. Elizabeth, second daughter of said Richard Bland, married Colonel William Beverley, of Essex County. Theodorick Bland, Sr., of Cawsons, in Prince George, was clerk of that county and member of the house of burgesses. He married Frances Boiling. The children of that union were Theodorick Bland, Jr., and four daughters, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna, and Jenny. Theodorick Bland, Sr., married, secondly, a widow Yates. Theodorick Bland, Jr., was a colonel of a regiment of horse during the revolutionary war, a member of congress, and of the convention of Virginia that ratified the Constitution of the United States. Patsy, daughter of Theodorick Bland, Sr., married Colonel John Banister, of Battersea, near Petersburg, member of the convention of 1776, lieutenant-colonel of cavalry during the war of Revolution, and member of congress. Frances, another daughter of Theodorick Bland, Sr., married John Randolph, of Matoax, and these were the parents of John Randolph, of Roanoke, the orator, who was born at Cawsons, in Prince George County, the residence of Theodorick Bland, Sr. The mother of John Randolph, of Roanoke, married, secondly, St. George Tucker, judge of the court of appeals of Virginia, and subsequently district judge of the federal court.
The Cherokees, instigated by the English, having made bloody incursions on the Virginia frontier, Colonel Christian, with a body of troops, burnt their towns, and compelled them to sue for peace.
On the 7th day of October, 1776, the general assembly of Virginia met for the first time under the constitution adopted in the preceding July. The house of delegates was composed of the same members as those who constituted the convention which framed the constitution, and who held over without an election, and thus became the house of delegates under the constitution of their own making. The examples which probably guided them were, that of the convention of 1660, which, after calling Charles the Second to the throne, resolved itself into a house of commons; and that of the convention of 1688, which, after settling the crown on William and Mary, also resolved itself into a house of commons. The new senate, however, was elected by the people.[673:A] Edmund Pendleton was elected speaker of the house, and Archibald Cary speaker of the senate.
The new declaration of rights asserted that "all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience;" yet it appeared that the assembly intended to continue the old church establishment. This and the circulation of petitions in behalf of episcopacy, as established by law, alarmed the dissenters, and they enquired what advantage then in this great point "shall we derive from being independent of Great Britain? And is it not as bad for our assembly to violate their own declaration of rights as for the British parliament to break our charter?" The Baptists accordingly circulated a counter-petition, which was signed by ten thousand persons, chiefly freeholders. The presbytery of Hanover also presented a memorial to the same effect, pledging themselves that nothing in their power should be wanting to give success to the cause of the country. In the frontier counties, containing one-fifth of the inhabitants of Virginia, the dissenters, who constituted almost the entire population, were yet obliged to contribute to the support of the church as established, and a considerable portion of the inhabitants of the other parts of the colony labored under the same disadvantages. "Certain it is," say the memorialists, "that every argument for civil liberty gains additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of religion; and there is no argument in favor of establishing the Christian religion but what may be pleaded with equal propriety for establishing the tenets of Mohammed by those who believe the Alcoran; or, if this be not true, it is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith, without erecting a chair of infallibility which would lead us back to the church of Rome." Religious establishments (they contended) are injurious to the temporal interests of any community; and the more early settlement of Virginia, and her natural advantages, would have attracted hither multitudes of industrious and useful members of society, but they had either remained in their place of nativity, or preferred worse civil governments and a more barren soil, where they might enjoy the rights of conscience more fully. Nor did religion need the aid of an establishment; on the contrary, as her weapons are spiritual, Christianity would flourish in the greatest purity when left to her native excellence; and the duty which we owe our Creator can only be directed by reason and conviction.
This memorial was composed, in behalf of the presbytery, by the Rev. Caleb Wallace, of Charlotte County, a graduate of Princeton. He was in attendance upon the assembly for six or eight weeks for the furthering of this object.[674:A]
The clergy of the established church presented petitions in favor of continuing the establishment, and they were re-enforced by the Methodists as a society in communion with the Church of England. It was urged that good faith to the clergy required that they should not be deprived of their livings, which belonged to them for life, or during good behaviour; that an ecclesiastical establishment was in itself a desirable institution, it being for the benefit of the community that a body of Christian ministers should be thus supported; and that if all denominations were reduced to an equality, the contest for superiority among them would involve confusion, and probably civil commotion; and finally that a majority of the people of Virginia desired to have the church establishment maintained.
The assembly exempted dissenters from contributions for the support of the Church of England, and repealed all penal laws against any mode of worship, leaving all denominations for the present to support their clergy by voluntary contributions, and reserving the consideration "of a general assessment for the support of religion" to a future session, so that the sense of the people on that subject might be, in the mean time, collected.[675:A] This matter was debated for a day or two in the house, and gave rise to some newspaper controversy. Religious freedom was gaining ground; but, although all penal statutes were repealed, the restrictions and penalties sanctioned by the common law remained.
In the struggle that preceded the Revolution more than two-thirds of the Virginia clergy of the established church and a portion of the lay members were loyalists. Of those clergymen who adhered to the patriotic side several were men of note, such as Jarratt, Madison, (afterwards the first bishop of Virginia,) Bracken, Muhlenburg, of the Valley of the Shenandoah, who accepted a colonel's commission, raised a regiment, and served throughout the war; and Thruston, who also became a colonel.
Congress having ordered the army to be augmented to eighty-eight battalions, to serve during the continuance of the war, a quota of fifteen battalions was assigned to Virginia; and to complete them the assembly took measures to raise seven battalions in addition to those already embodied. Attention was bestowed upon the building up of a naval force, and men were transferred from the army to the marine service. Infantry and cavalry, speedily raised and well officered, were sent to join General Washington, and measures were adopted for calling forth the resources of Virginia, and to strengthen her for the exigencies of war. Courts of admiralty were established; entails abolished, the bill for this purpose being framed by Mr. Jefferson; treason was defined, and penalties denounced against such as should maintain and defend the authority of the king or parliament, or should excite sedition in the State; importation from Great Britain was prohibited; loyalist British factors were ordered to depart from the commonwealth under a statute of twenty-seventh year of Edward the Third.
Governor Henry, owing to the state of his health, retired, with the concurrence of the assembly, to the country. An effort made at this time by David Rogers, a member of the senate, and some other malecontents in West Augusta, to erect themselves into a separate state, proved abortive. Robert C. Nicholas, resigning the office of treasurer, received the thanks of the legislature for his faithful discharge of the duties of his office. He was succeeded by George Webb. The estate of Lord Dunmore was disposed of, and the proceeds appropriated to the payment of his debts.[676:A] Jefferson, Pendleton, Wythe, Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee were appointed a committee to revise the laws. By the resignation of Mr. Mason, and the indisposition of Mr. Lee, the duty eventually devolved upon the other three.
Congress, with a view of gaining the alliance of France, appointed three commissioners to that court: Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson declined the appointment, and it was then given to Dr. Arthur Lee.
Toward the close of this session of the Virginia Assembly, when Washington was retreating through the Jerseys, and when the cause of independence seemed almost desperate, several of the members, it is said, meditated, in imitation of the Roman Republic, the appointment of a dictator. The tradition is, that such was the animosity engendered by this scheme, that they who espoused, and they who opposed it, walked on opposite sides of the street. Who they were that favored it, or where it was concocted, or how developed, does not appear. It is reported, indeed, that Patrick Henry was the person held in view as the dictator; but that he suggested the plan, or favored it, or consented to it, or was in any way privy to it, there is no evidence to prove, nor has it even been alleged. The tradition (resting on no testimony) relates, that Archibald Cary, a man of violent temper, and a life-long opponent of Henry, sent a message to the governor, (by his brother-in-law, Colonel Syme,) that on the day in which he should accept the dictatorship he should fall by his dagger; and the Colonel has been compared to Brutus—as if the example was worthy of imitation, or as if a dictator appointed by a Virginia assembly can be justly compared to Julius Cæsar at the head of his legions, usurping the government by his sword.
South Carolina invested her governor, John Rutledge, a native of Ireland, with dictatorial powers during the revolutionary war. The Virginia assembly at this session invested Governor Henry with several extraordinary powers, and recommended to congress "to invest the commander-in-chief of the American forces with more ample and extensive powers for conducting the operations of the war." Washington urged the States to clothe their executives with extraordinary powers, and he himself was invested by congress with such. The safety of the people, the supreme law, may demand, in a crisis of extreme danger, the appointment of an officer charged with extraordinary powers, (but who, nevertheless, would be as much the creature of law as any ordinary judge or deputy-sheriff,) "to take care that the Republic shall receive no detriment."
A year or two before the rupture with the mother country, the Presbytery of Hanover established a seminary in Augusta, beyond the Blue Ridge. The Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, who had been a teacher of languages in the College of New Jersey, was at this time a missionary in Virginia, and the school was founded upon his recommendation. The superintendent was John Brown, and the tutor William Graham. From this seminary Washington College, at Lexington, arose. By the advice of Rev. S. S. Smith it was determined to found another seminary east of the Blue Ridge, and the funds were raised by subscription; and although it was a period of apprehension and alarm, yet the enterprise was urged with energy and success.[677:A] This work was accomplished in 1775, amid the throes of revolution, and Prince Edward Academy, the original foundation of Hampden Sidney College, was opened in January, 1776.[678:A]
Increased educational means were much needed, all communication with Great Britain being cut off; and educated youth would be wanting to fill the places of such as would soon fall victims of the war. The College of William and Mary was indeed old and tolerably well endowed; but it was near the scene of war and surrounded by noisy camps. In a short time more than a hundred students flocked to the Prince Edward Academy, and their number exceeded the means of accommodation. During the year a military company of the students was organized, Mr. John Blair Smith, Jr., a tutor, being captain. The uniform was a purple hunting-shirt. This company, upon a requisition of the governor for militia from Prince Edward during the following year, marched to Williamsburg, where, however, their services were not required. Some of them became officers in the army, and others enlisted as common soldiers.
In 1775 the convention of Virginia had directed the committee of safety to procure armed vessels, for the better defence of the colony; and the control and management were entrusted to them. The few small vessels and barges in their service were useful in restraining the tories, in protecting property, and in recapturing fugitive slaves. In May, 1776, a board of naval commissioners was appointed, consisting of Thomas Whiting, John Hutchins, Champion Travis, Thomas Newton, Jr., and George Webb. They met for the first time on the eighth of July following, at Williamsburg. About seventy vessels appear to have been in service at some time or other during the war of Revolution—including thirty ships, brigs, and brigantines, and thirty-eight smaller vessels.[678:B] Many of the vessels were built at the Chickahominy navy-yard, South Quay, Hampton, and near Norfolk. Early in April, 1776, George Mason, of the committee of safety, had charge of the building of two galleys, and of "the American Congress," this last to carry fourteen guns, four and six-pounders, and her complement of marines and seamen being ninety-six men. The look-outs were a sort of winged sentries, and were exposed to hard service. But a small part of the vessels of the Virginia navy were in actual service at any one time; and there was a deplorable want of men, some having not more than one-twentieth of their full number. The vessels usually served separately, but early in the contest Commodore Boucher commanded fifteen sail in the Potomac; and at another time Captain Richard Taylor was in command of a squadron in Hampton Roads. The Virginia-built vessels, although plain and simple in their construction, were very fast sailers. This, together with their lighter draught and familiarity with the waters, often enabled them to escape from the enemy. Of all the vessels of the Virginia navy not one remains.
James Maxwell, Esq., was superintendent of the navy-yard on the Chickahominy, and he was assisted by Captain Christopher Calvert. The former officer commanded the ship Cormorant in 1782. He was father of the late William Maxwell, Esq., Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society. The three commodores commissioned during the struggle were J. Boucher, Walter Brooke, and James Barron. Richard Barron, brother of James, was a captain during the whole war. The Barrons appear to have had a natural proclivity for the water. Lieutenant William Barron, of the continental navy, lost his life by the bursting of a gun on board of the frigate Boston, in bringing to a vessel off the coast of France, in 1778. John Adams, and his son John Quincy, then a boy, were on board of this ship on this occasion. Mr. Adams held the lieutenant in his arms while his leg was amputated. This William Barron had been a lieutenant in the Virginia naval service. Among the captains were Richard Barron, Eleazer Callender, John Calvert, John Cowper, Thomas Lilly, John Pasture, John Harris, James Markham, Richard Taylor, Edward Travis, Cely Saunders, Isaac Younghusband, and John Catesby Cocke. Of the lieutenants may be named Dale, Cunningham, Chamberlayne, Lewis, Pickett, Watkins, and Jennings. Among the surgeons are found the names of Kemp, Lyon, McClurg, Brockenbrough, Christie, Riddle, Reynolds, Sharpless, Swope, and Pell. Among the seamen were many faithful blacks, who served through the whole war. Most of the Virginia armed vessels were eventually captured at sea or destroyed in the rivers. The vessels commanded by the Barrons were the Liberty and the Patriot. The former was engaged in twenty actions, and was probably the only one that escaped the enemy.
Early in 1776 an armed tender, commanded by the tory Goodrich, was captured off Bowler's wharf, in the Rappahannock. Shortly afterwards the Barrons captured, near the capes, the British transport-ship Oxford, from Glasgow, having on board two hundred and seventeen Scotch Highlanders, who were shaping their course to join Governor Dunmore, whom they supposed to be in Virginia. This ship was destroyed by Arnold in 1781.
Early in July, 1776, Captain Richard Barron captured a sloop, from the West Indies, laden with pine apples, limes, etc., and shortly after the Fanny, an English vessel, laden with supplies for Boston. She had on board numerous presents to the officers in that city. Captain Richard Taylor captured several merchantmen in the Rappahannock. One of them, the Speedwell, was armed, and sent to the West Indies for powder and supplies. In September several large vessels, laden with tobacco, were despatched to the same islands for the like purpose.[680:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[670:A] The name of Bland ought to be given to a county.
[673:A] I am indebted to Mr. Grigsby for this statement. His opinions on this point are given fully in a review of Randall's Life of Jefferson, in the Richmond Enquirer of January 15th, 1858.
[674:A] In a letter addressed to Rev. James Caldwell, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, April 8th, 1777, he wrote: "I do not know that we have sinned against the King of England, but we have sinned against the King of Heaven; and he is now using Great Britain as the rod of his anger: by them he is executing just judgment against us, and calling us to repentance and humiliation. I also hope He is bringing about great things for His church." He also adds: "An American ought to seek an emancipation from the British King, ministry, and parliament, at the risk of all his earthly possessions of whatever name; nor is it the fear of danger that has prevented my preaching this doctrine in the army at headquarters." "I meddle very little with matters of civil concern, only to countenance the recruiting business, as far as I have it in my power, and sometimes I have a fight with the prejudices—I would rather say the perverseness—of such as are inclining to toryism among us; but we have reason to rejoice that we have few such cattle with us." (Hist. Mag., i. 354.)
[675:A] Burk's Hist. of Va., iv. 182.
[676:A] A number of his books came into Mr. Madison's possession. I remember seeing in Southampton County a Shakespeare with Dunmore's arms. A gentleman in Petersburg has a black-letter Coke, which once belonged to Dunmore, and afterwards to Patrick Henry; it has his lordship's arms, and the orator's autograph.
[677:A] The site selected for it was at the head of Hudson's Branch, in Prince Edward County, on a hundred acres of land given for that use by Mr. Peter Johnston. The trustees appointed were Rev. Messrs. Richard Sankey, of Buffaloe, John Todd, of Louisa, Samuel Leake, of Albemarle, and Caleb Wallace, of Cub Creek, together with Messrs. Peter Johnston, Colonel Paul Carrington, Colonel John Nash, Jr., Rev. David Rice, and Colonel James Madison, Jr.
[678:A] Foote's Sketches of Va., 393.
[678:B] Among the ships and brigs are found the names of Oxford, Virginia, Loyalist, Pocahontas, Washington, Oliver Cromwell, Marquis La Fayette, Raleigh, Jefferson, Gloucester, Northampton, Sally Norton, Hampton, Liberty, Wilkes, American Fabius. Among the smaller were the Speedwell, Lewis, Nicholson, Harrison, Mayflower, Patriot, Congress, Accomac, Henry, Norfolk, Revenge, Manly, Caswell, Protector, Washington, Page, Lewis, York, and Richmond.
[680:A] Va. Navy of the Revolution, by Dr. Wm. P. Palmer, Secretary of Va. Hist. Society. (S. Lit. Messenger, 1857.)
