Tombstone marking grave of William Paul, brother of Commodore
John Paul Jones, in St. George’s burial ground.
(See [page 237])
DR. WALKER’S EXPLORATION.
It was Dr. Thomas Walker, of Albemarle county, a Virginian, who, with five companions, in 1750, explored the wild country, which now forms the States of Tennessee and Kentucky, and named that chain of mountains and the beautiful river that flows through the valley, Cumberland, in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, and then crossed over the country to the head waters of the Kentucky river and gave it its name, which furnished a name for that great and prosperous State.
BACON RESISTS OPPRESSION.
It was Nathaniel Bacon, of Henrico county, a Virginian, who first offered resistance to the colonial authorities in defence of the lives, liberties and property of the people and put forth a declaration of principles, which were the guiding star for those who came after him until independence was achieved, with all of its blessings and glorious fruits.
In his United States History Dr. Howison says: “In the great declaration adopted by them in 1776, just one hundred years after the movements under Bacon, we find embedded not less than five principles among the most weighty and potent that justified the overthrow of the English rule, all five of which were in active movement to produce the uprising of the Virginia people in 1676. These five principles were:
1. The right to civil and religious liberty—‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’;
2. The right to throw off a government which had ‘cut off their trade from all parts of the world’;
3. Which had ‘imposed taxes on them without their consent’;
4. Which had ‘taken away their charters, abolished their most valuable laws and altered fundamentally the powers of their government’;