A letter of Rev. Hugh Jones, who preached in Bruton Church, says that Spotswood cut the name of George I. upon a rock at the summit of the highest peak which the party climbed, and named it Mount George, whereupon some of the gentlemen called the next one Mount Alexander, in honour of the governor. “For this expedition,” says Mr. Jones, “they were obliged to provide a great quantity of horseshoes, things seldom used in the lower parts of the country, where there are few stones. Upon which account the governor upon their return presented each of his companions with a golden horseshoe, some of which I have seen, studded with valuable stones, resembling the heads of nails, with this inscription ... Sic juvat transcendere montes.[330] This he instituted to encourage gentlemen to venture backwards and make discoveries and new settlements, any gentleman being entitled to wear this golden shoe that can prove his having drank [sic] his Majesty’s health upon Mount George.”[331] In later times this incident was called instituting the order of Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.
Spotswood’s view of the situation.
Spotswood’s letters to the Lords of Trade, in which he mentions this expedition to the mountains, are testimony to the soundness of his military foresight. In recent years, he says, the French have built fortresses in such positions “that the Brittish Plantations are in a manner Surrounded by their Commerce w’th the numerous Nations of Indians seated on both sides of the Lakes; they may not only Engross the whole Skin Trade, but may, when they please, Send out such Bodys of Indians on the back of these Plantations as may greatly distress his Maj’ty’s Subjects here, And should they multiply their settlem’ts along these Lakes, so as to joyn their Dominions of Canada to their new Colony of Louisiana, they might even possess themselves of any of these Plantations they pleased. Nature, ’tis true, has formed a Barrier for us by that long Chain of Mountains w’ch run from the back of South Carolina as far as New York, and w’ch are only passable in some few places, but even that Natural Defence may prove rather destructive to us, if they are not possessed by us before they are known to them. To prevent the dangers w’ch Threaten his Maj’ty’s Dominions here from the growing power of these Neighbours, nothing seems to me of more consequence than that now while the Nations are at peace, and while the French are yet uncapable of possessing all that vast Tract w’ch lies on the back of these Plantations, we should attempt to make some Settlements on ye Lakes, and at the same time possess our selves of those passes of the great Mountains, w’ch are necessary to preserve a Communication w’th such Settlements.”[332]
He goes on to say that the purpose of his late expedition across the Blue Ridge was to ascertain whether Lake Erie, occupying as it did a central position in the French line of communication between Canada and Louisiana, was easily accessible from Virginia. Information gathered from Indians led him to believe that it was thus accessible.[333] He therefore proposed that an English settlement should be made on the south shore of Lake Erie, whereby the English power might be thrust like a wedge into the centre of the French position; and he offered to take a suitable body of men across the mountains and reconnoitre the country for the purpose of finding a site. As for the expense of such an enterprise, the king need not be concerned about it; for there was enough surplus from quitrents in the colonial treasury to defray it. One cannot read such a letter without admiring the writer’s honest frankness, his clear insight, his prudence, and his courage.
Spotswood’s last years.
But with all Spotswood’s virtues and talents, and in spite of his popularity, he fell upon the same rock upon which Andros and Nicholson had been wrecked: he quarrelled with Dr. Blair, who tells us that “he was so wedded to his own notions that there was no quarter for them that went not with him.”[334] With a change of name, perhaps the same might have been said of the worthy doctor. The quarrel seems to have originated in the question as to the right of appointing pastors, and it ended, as Blair’s contests always ended, in the overthrow of his antagonist. Nobody could stand up against that doughty Scotch parson.[335] Spotswood was removed from his governorship in 1722, but continued to live in the Virginia which he loved. As postmaster-general for the American colonies, he had by 1738 got the mail running regularly from New England as far south as James River. It took a week to carry the mail from Philadelphia to Williamsburg; for points further south the post-rider started at irregular intervals, whenever enough mail had accumulated to make it worth while. In 1740 Spotswood received a major-general’s commission, and was about to sail in Admiral Vernon’s expedition against Cartagena,[336] when he suddenly died. He was buried on his estate of Temple Farm, near Yorktown. In later days the surrender of Lord Cornwallis was negotiated in the house which had sheltered the last years of this noble governor.[337]
Gooch and Dinwiddie.
Spotswood was succeeded by Hugh Drysdale, who died in 1726, and next came William Gooch, another military Scotchman, quiet, modest, and shrewd, who managed things for twenty-two years, from 1727 to 1749, with marked ability and success. After an interval, Gooch was followed by Robert Dinwiddie, still another Scotchman, who came in 1751 and staid until 1758, and whose administration is the last one that calls for mention in the present narrative.
The Scotch-Irish.
The period of Gooch’s government was remarkable for the development of the westward movement prefigured in Spotswood’s expedition across the Blue Ridge. This development occurred in a way that even far-seeing men could not have predicted. It introduced into Virginia a new set of people, new forms of religion, new habits of life. It affected all the colonies south of Pennsylvania most profoundly, and did more than anything else to determine the character of all the states afterward founded west of the Alleghanies and south of the latitude of middle Illinois. Until recent years, little has been written about the coming of the so-called Scotch-Irish to America, and yet it is an event of scarcely less importance than the exodus of English Puritans to New England and that of English Cavaliers to Virginia. It is impossible to understand the drift which American history, social and political, has taken since the time of Andrew Jackson, without studying the early life of the Scotch-Irish population of the Alleghany regions, the pioneers of the American backwoods. I do not mean to be understood as saying that the whole of that population at the time of our Revolutionary War was Scotch-Irish, for there was a considerable German element in it, besides an infusion of English moving inward from the coast. But the Scotch-Irish element was more numerous and far more important than all the others. A detailed account of it belongs especially with the history of Pennsylvania, since that colony was the principal centre of its distribution throughout the south and west; but a brief mention of its coming is indispensable in any sketch of Old Virginia and Her Neighbours.[338]