The Heritage of The South / A History of the Introduction of Slavery; Its Establishment From Colonial Times and Final Effect Upon the Politics of the United States

by Jubal Anderson Early

In the war which resulted from the resistance to the acts specified, was involved a great principle of self-government, which the British government has since fully acknowledged in the treatment of all her other colonies, but it must be confessed that there was a good deal of turbulence and violence exhibited by American colonists in the first stages of the contest. Without depreciating the public spirit displayed by the people of Massachusetts during the war which ensued, there can be no question but that by violence and rashness the conflict was precipitated, and that much forbearance was show by some of the British military officials. A candid review of the history of the difficulties preceding actual hostilities must lead any honest mind to the conclusion that while the British ministers acted unconstitutionally and unwisely, as the quarrel approached its crisis, the people of Massachusetts, with whom the conflict began, exhibited a very turbulent spirit and often acted with unwarranted violence.

The settlers of Massachusetts, on account of their peculiar religious theories, had from the very beginning, been impatient of all control from the mother country and anxious to thrown it off. They had hailed the Commonwealth with joy, had been greatly chagrined at the restoration of the royal authority and had been very much embittered by the vacation of their charter and the loss of the theocratic form of government, and their ministry kept alive the fires of discontent and fanned them into a flame on all occasions. The same feeling existed throughout New England. Virginia on the contrary had been always a loyal colony and had not acknowledged the Parliament or the Commonwealth in Cromwell's time, until compelled to do so by a force sent for its conquest. Its people had hailed the restoration with delight and there was no sentiment in the colony demanding a separation from the mother country which was not engendered by actual or supposed infringement of their rights as British subjects. Though the people of that colony had little direct interest in the grievances complained of against the British government, as the articles taxed entered very little into their consumption, and no troops had been quartered among them in an offensive manner since the Parliamentary expedition, they made common cause with the people of Massachusetts, as it was a question of power which involved the rights of all the colonies. The difference was that the people of Massachusetts and New England were anxious to bring on a separation, while those of Virginia were not, unless it was necessary for the protection of the rights of all of the colonies. The statesmen of Virginia entered warmly into the dispute both by speaking and writing, and when the actual collision took place the people sprang to arms and sent to Massachusetts aid in both men and provisions.

It was the attempt to coerce the people of Massachusetts, in an unconstitutional manner, to compliance with unconstitutional laws, on the part of the British government, more than any actual grievances of their own, that aroused the people of Virginia to action, as that coercion if successfully applied to one colony, might be used for the destruction of all self-government in the others. This became the traditional policy of Virginia as a sovereign State. After the struggle began, she gave a leader to the continental army, her wisest and best statesmen to the colonial councils, her arms-bearing citizens to the ranks, and her resources to the prosecution of the war. That war which was begun in Massachusetts, long after it ceased to exist within the limits of that State, was finally, practically, ended on the soil of Virginia, after that soil had been terribly ravaged by the invading armies of Great Britain.

Motives similar to those which actuated Virginia, prompted the action of all of the other Southern colonies, and none suffered greater losses in war for the common defence than South Carolina. This statement is not made in order to claim for Virginia and the other Southern States more than their due share of credit for services in the war of the Revolution, nor to depreciate the valuable services rendered by the more northern states of the confederation.

The war was prosecuted by the colonies as a confederacy of sovereign States. The Continental Congress was in fact but a congress of commissioners or embassadors, whose acts derived their validity from the tacit adoption and sanction of the several States, and the delegates were at all times subject to recall and substitution, by the appointment of others—a power which was repeatedly exercised. The Declaration of Independence itself, was made in accordance with powers expressly delegated for that purpose to the representatives of the several appointing powers, and derived its force not from the action of Congress, but from the adoption of that action by those represented in that body.

In the case of Virginia, her independence had been declared by a convention of her own, and a State Government had been actually organized in advance of the action of Congress, and she was the first thus to assert her sovereignty. On the 15th of May, 1776, the Virginia convention resolved to adopt a bill of rights and frame a State government, and on the 29th of June following, the government was put into operation by the election of a governor and other officers—a Bill of Rights and State Constitution having been framed and adopted in the meantime.

Articles of confederation were proposed in 1777, more than a year after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, for ratification by the thirteen sovereign States. These articles required the unanimous ratification of all of the States, and as Maryland withheld her consent to this, until the 1st of March, 1781, they did not go into effect until that time. In the meanwhile the Congress had continued to exercise its permissive powers in the prosecution of the war, but it had no means of enforcing its edicts except in the voluntary compliance of the several States.

The first three articles were as follows:

Article I. The style of this confederacy shall be "The United States of America."

Art. II. "Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."