CHAPTER XI
PEACE AND PROSPERITY
As the first quarter of the eighteenth century was a period of bitter contention between the Governors of Virginia and the Council and Burgesses, so the second quarter was marked by peace and harmony. In England the government, under the leadership of Sir Robert Walpole, adopted a conciliatory policy toward the colonies, the famous policy of letting sleeping dogs lie. Great Britain was reaping huge profits from the trade with America, and the chief concern of the Board of Trade was to see that no laws were passed by the Assemblies to lessen them. On the other hand, the colonies were permitted to govern themselves to a degree that would not have been tolerated under the Stuarts.
Possibly it was by chance that the two Lieutenant Governors whose administrations covered this period—Hugh Drysdale and William Gooch—were admirably suited to carry out this policy. Or they may have been selected because of their winning personalities, their ability to see both sides of a question, their desire to do justice to all men, their lack of greed and ambition to dictate. We know that Drysdale was recommended to the Earl of Orkney by Walpole himself.[1] At all events, after contending for years with the implacable Nicholson and the dictatorial Spotswood, Drysdale and Gooch must have seemed gifts from Heaven to the Virginians.
Drysdale arrived in Virginia on September 25, 1722, and two days later was sworn in in the Council Chamber. He was heartily welcomed. A few months later he could report that there was "universal contentment on the change made in the government," and that his administration had the approbation of all ranks of people.[2] In marked contrast to their wordy war with Spotswood, the Burgesses showed him only respect and affection. "We must acknowledge the present calm and tranquility to be the consequences of your prudence and moderation," they told him.[3] When he was planning to leave for England because of ill health, they addressed the King to say that his speedy return would be a great happiness to the people of the colony.[4]
Drysdale's popularity was based more on what he did not do than what he did do. He made no attempt to undermine the judicial power of the Council, he seems not to have used the patronage to control the House of Burgesses, he did not try to make the colony less democratic by restricting the right to vote, he did not deny to the Burgesses their ancient privileges, he did not use his office for personal gain.
He was at first critical of the policy, favored by the Council, of issuing patents for huge tracts of land. His predecessor had granted some for 10,000 acres, some for 20,000 acres, some for 40,000 acres despite the order that I,000 acres should be the limit. "Thus the intention of the government to make Spotsylvania a well inhabited frontier is frustrated," he said.[5]
But the Councillors and other men of wealth persuaded him that large holdings which could be cut up into small farms and leased to tenants hastened rather than retarded settlement. "The Council are of opinion that the limiting the quantity of land to be taken up in the new counties is prejudicial and a discouragement to their speedy settlement," he wrote in July, 1724.[6] He did not stop to consider that the growth of tenantry would be a blow, not only to economic democracy, but political democracy as well, since tenants, unless they were also freeholders, had no right to vote.
Drysdale called for an election for a new Assembly who met in the Capitol on May 9, 1723. The Burgesses had hardly settled themselves in their seats when they took up two cases which concerned the rights of the people and their privileges. In Essex County grievances had been presented to the court for certification to the Assembly, charging Colonel Joseph Smith, commander of the county militia, with harsh and illegal conduct while a member of a court-martial. Colonel Smith, himself a member of the court, refused to sign this paper, so that it failed to reach the House. Thereupon the Burgesses declared him "guilty of a breach of his duty," and ordered the Speaker to reprimand him.[7] In striking contrast to Spotswood's upholding of Littlefield and Butts in a similar case, Drysdale backed the House by removing Smith from the county court.[8]
In the other case a certain William Hopkins was accused of "rude, contemptuous, and indecent" language in the House about one of the members—Mr. Matthew Kemp. When he was adjudged guilty and ordered on his knees to ask the pardon of the Burgesses and Mr. Kemp, he flatly refused. It was then ordered that he be led through the Duke of Gloucester Street, from the Capitol to the college gate and back, with a placard pinned to his breast bearing the following inscription: "For insolent behavior at the bar of the House of Burgesses, when he was there as an offender and with obstinacy and contempt disobeying their order." This prospect was too much for Hopkins, so, no doubt with inward curses, he made the apology.[9]
There was universal grief in Virginia when Drysdale died, on July 22, 1726. He was buried with elaborate ceremonies, to the booming of cannon. The Council wrote Mrs. Drysdale expressing "the just sense" of "the public loss," and giving her permission to remain for the time being in the Palace.[10] Pending the appointment of a new Lieutenant Governor, they voted to make Robert Carter President. The selection normally would have gone to Edmund Jenings, as the senior member of the Council, but he had just been suspended because of his age and because he was much "decayed in his understanding."