A deep cloud rested on Virginia, which nothing but vengeance on the Indians would dispel. The Indians, not having fully accomplished their scheme, and now justly dreading a tenfold retaliation, fled far into the forest. But their land was seized upon, their open fields and villages, all planted on the pleasantest and most fertile sites, were soon in secure possession of the English. To pursue the natives to the fastnesses of the wilderness was impossible, therefore the English in their turn practised guile. They assumed an aspect of forgiveness; the savages, by degrees losing their fear, ventured forth again, and even approaching their old haunts, resettled themselves in the neighbourhood of their enemies. The aspect of peace and forbearance was, however, only vengeance deferred.
In July of the following year, the Indians were attacked by an army under commissioned officers; a similar attack was repeated the next year, and for several years, it being now a colonial principle that no peace should be concluded with the Indians.
Meantime great changes as regarded the relationships of the colony to the mother-country were taking place. The colony of Virginia had not been a lucrative enterprise for the London company; the shares at the present time were as unproductive stock of little value; the holders were numerous, and the meetings of the company in London had, instead of being mere meetings of business, become scenes of political debate, in which the supporters of liberty were arrayed against the supporters of royal prerogative. Liberal opinions here found free play. The king was displeased by this freedom of debate. Gondemar, the Spanish envoy, warned James that “these Virginian courts were only a seminary to a seditious parliament.” James, who abhorred freedom of opinion, determined to nip it in the bud, by putting an end to the hot-bed which fostered it. His first endeavour was to control the election of officers by overawing their assemblies; and failing of that, he determined to sequestrate their patent, and recover to himself the authority which he had conceded to the company. Commissioners in the interest of the king were appointed to examine into the affairs of the corporation, although former charges against them had been satisfactorily answered, the records were seized; the deputy-treasurer imprisoned, and private letters from Virginia intercepted and examined. Smith was examined, and his straightforward, honest answers exposed the bad management of the company, and showed that the withdrawal of the charter would be a boon to the colony. This surprised all; commissioners, who had been appointed to examine the affairs of the corporation and the colony itself, reported in favour of a change. The king did not hesitate; the London company was dissolved, and Virginia once more became a royal government, as under its first charter.
Whilst these things were going on in England, the Virginians were not indifferent. When the commissioners arrived in the colony, the prayer of the colonists was that the governors might not have absolute power; that the liberty of popular assemblies might not be retrenched, “for nothing,” said they, “can conduce more to public satisfaction and public utility, than the free discussion of our own affairs.” That this subject might be efficiently urged, an agent was sent for that purpose to England, a tax of four pounds weight of the best tobacco being levied on each male above the age of sixteen, and who had been a twelvemonth in the colony, to defray the expenses. But this agent unfortunately died on his voyage.
The spirit of liberty, however, had taken deep root on the Virginian soil. Intimidation and promised advantage could not induce the colony to pray for a repeal of the charter under which their first constitutional liberty had been granted. On the contrary, the assembly met, and laid down laws for itself. The governor said, “they shall not lay any taxes or impositions on the colony, its lands or commodities, other way than by the authority of the General Assembly, to be levied and employed as the said assembly shall appoint.” Virginia, the Old Dominion, as it is called, was the first to set an example of just and wise legislation as regarded the use of the public money. Others imitated the example in due time. Various governors had endeavoured by penal enactments to compel the culture of corn; now it was said, “for the encouragement of men to plant store of corn, the price shall not be stinted, but it shall be free for any man to sell it as dear as he can.” Through the whole of this disturbed period the Virginians showed themselves admirably capable of popular government, proving how truly, with the aid of free discussion, men become good legislators in their own concerns; wise legislation being the enacting of proper laws at proper times, and no criterion being so nearly infallible as the fair representation of the interests to be affected. Among the laws which were at this time framed, and which reflect the manners and spirit of the age, we may mention the following. It was enacted “that there should be a room or house set apart in every plantation for the worship of God, sequestered and set apart for that purpose only;” also a place of burial “sequestered and paled in.” Absence from public worship without allowable excuse, was punished by the fine of a pound weight of tobacco, or fifty pounds weight, if absence continued a month. Divine service was according to the canons of the English church. The 22nd of March was added to the church festivals, in commemoration of the escape from the Indian massacre. Any minister absent from his parish above two months annually forfeited half his salary. The falsely disparaging of a minister rendered the offender liable to a fine of five hundred pounds weight of tobacco, and publicly to ask pardon of the minister. Ministers’ salaries were to be paid out of the first-gathered and best tobacco and corn. Drunkenness and swearing were punishable offences. Three sufficient men were to be sworn in each parish to see that every man cultivated corn sufficient for his family. Every settler was to fence in a garden for himself of one acre, for the planting of vines, roots, herbs, and mulberry trees. Weights and measures were to be sealed. Every house was to be palisadoed for defence, and people were not to go out in such numbers as might leave their houses undefended and liable to attack. Delinquent persons of quality, not fit to undergo corporal punishment, might be imprisoned at discretion, or fined by the monthly courts. “At the beginning of July, the inhabitants of every plantation were to fall upon their neighbouring savages, as they did last year.” Every person wounded in this service was to be cured at the public expense, and if permanently lamed would have maintenance for life suitable to his quality.
The London company was at an end. “It had,” says Bancroft, “fulfilled its high destinies; it had confirmed the colonisation of Virginia, and had conceded a liberal form of government to Englishmen in America. It could accomplish no more.”
The term of five years was fixed as that of the period of representative government. Sir Thomas Wyatt was confirmed in office for that term; and the king himself was about to frame a code of fundamental laws for the colony, when death fortunately put an end to his attempt.
Charles I. succeeded his father, March 27, 1625. As regarded Virginia, he had no more interest in it than as the country producing tobacco, and from which he hoped to derive a large revenue. His first act with reference to the colony was an endeavour to obtain for himself the sole monopoly of this trade. As to its constitutions and political rights, he did not trouble himself about them, and they became established by his very indifference.
In 1626, Wyatt having returned to Europe, Sir George Yeardley was appointed his successor. The colony prospered; in 1627, one thousand emigrants arrived in the country. The following year Yeardley died, leaving behind him a memory cherished by the colony as the first governor who had convened a representative assembly.
Again, the king offered to contract for the whole crop of tobacco, desiring that an assembly might be called to consider his proposal. The assembly returned a firm negative to the royal monopolist.