During the Commonwealth, Virginia not only enjoyed the utmost political liberty, but unlimited freedom of commerce also, while her own internal state was that of peace and prosperity. “Tobacco, the great staple product of the country, was the medium of exchange. Theft was hardly known, and the spirit and administration of the criminal law was mild and merciful; the cultivation of land was carried on very successfully; and as regarded commerce, the navigation laws were a mere dead letter. Virginia even traded with the Dutch during the period when the Protector and Holland were desperately contesting the sovereignty of the seas. The Virginians were the early advocates of free trade, and invited the Dutch and all foreigners to trade with them on the payment of no higher duty than that which was levied on such English vessels as were bound for a foreign port.” Proposals of peace were discussed between New Netherlands, the Dutch colony on the North American shore, and Virginia. During this period, also, considerable advance was made in religious liberty, although the Quakers were banished from the colony.
At the period of the Restoration, Virginia possessed, among the privileges which she had won for herself, freedom of commerce with the whole world, and the universal elective franchise. The population amounted now to 30,000, and it was esteemed an honour to be a born Virginian. Numbers of the emigrants of late years had been, as we have seen, royalist officers, men of family and education, and these, though they still retained their loyalty, offered no impediment to the free exercise of independent principles in Virginia, and finally the newly-adopted country superseded the old, and the interests and liberties of Virginia became to them dearer even than the monarchical principles of which they had been the supporters in England, and for their adherence to which they had been exiles.
“God Almighty,” says their statute-book of this time, “hath vouchsafed myriads of children to this colony.” Young Virginians were growing up throughout the length and breadth of the land. Virginia was becoming the home of patriots.
“Labour,” adds Bancroft, summing up the advantages and prosperity of the colony, “was valuable; land was cheap; competence promptly followed industry. There was no need of a scramble; abundance gushed from the earth for all. It was the best poor man’s country in the world. Yet, as the shadow-side of this bright picture, it must be conceded that plenty encouraged indolence; everything was imported from England. The chief branch of industry, for the purpose of exchanges, was tobacco planting, and the spirit of invention was enfeebled by the uniformity of pursuit.”
CHAPTER V.
COLONISATION OF MARYLAND.
The second charter granted to the London company embraced an extent of country 200 miles north of old Point Comfort, thus including the whole of the present state of Maryland. The country round the head of the Chesapeake was early explored, and a commercial relationship established with the natives whom Smith had been the first to visit. The hope of a good trade in furs continued to animate adventurers into these remote parts, and in 1631, William Clayborne, a man of a resolute and enterprising spirit, who was destined to exercise a long-continued and disturbing influence on the colony, obtained a royal license to trade with the Indians, and to form a settlement on Kent Island.
Clayborne had been in the first instance sent out by the London company as a surveyor to make a map of the country, and afterwards was appointed by King James a member of the council, which appointment was confirmed by Charles I. From 1627 to 1629 he was employed by the governor of Virginia to explore the source of the Bay of Chesapeake with the adjacent country, from the 34th to the 41st degree of latitude. By this means he became familiar with the resources of the country and the opportunities which it afforded for traffic; and in consequence of these representations a company was formed in England for trading with the natives, the royal license being granted in Clayborne’s name.
By virtue of this royal license, which was confirmed by the colonial commission, Clayborne established a trading settlement on the island of Kent, in the very heart of Maryland, and another near the mouth of Susquehannah. Virginia anticipated that, as commander of the Bay of Chesapeake and possessor of the soil on both banks of the Potomac, she should secure immense commercial prosperity without the interference of a rival. But while she was thus anticipating a brilliant future, the territory on which her hopes were founded was snatched from her, and a new government erected on her very threshold.
It has been the happy fortune of North America, that her states, severally founded by men of various religious opinions, origin, and purposes, have ever been the asylums of the persecuted. Men of truth and high principle, suffering at home from the narrowness of state policy and the bigotry of creeds, fled hither, and here, according as their views approximated more nearly or more remotely with the broad spirit of Christianity, succeeded in establishing that freedom of action and opinion after which they had vainly sighed in the old countries.
Among the enlightened men of the age who suffered from the spirit of religious animosity at that time prevailing in England, was Sir George Calvert, a graduate of Oxford, a man whose mind had been enlarged by travel, a member of Parliament for York, his native county, and who was even advanced by his sovereign to the honour of secretary-of-state. All historians are agreed in commending his knowledge of business, his industry, and his uprightness of character. Disgusted and distressed by the divisions and contentions of the protestant church, he conscientiously adopted the catholic faith, and on the open avowal of his conversion resigned the emoluments of office. King James, who was at that time on the throne, and who was never bitter against Catholics, retained him, however, in the Privy Council, and advanced him to the dignity of the Irish peerage under the title of Lord Baltimore.