Give Me Liberty: The Struggle for Self-Government in Virginia

by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker

But while the Assembly was sitting, the Indians were making a series of murderous raids in the Valley of Virginia. Washington, who was left in command of the Virginia forces after Dunbar withdrew, wrote Dinwiddie in April, 1756, to describe the plight of the people. "I see their situation, know their danger, and participate in their sufferings, without having it in my power to give them further relief than uncertain promises.... The supplicating tears of the women, and moving petitions from the men melt me into such deadly sorrow that I solemnly declare ... I could offer myself a willing sacrifice to the butchering enemy provided that would contribute to the people's ease."[27]

Nor were the Burgesses deaf to the sufferings of these poor people. Although the burden of taxation was very heavy, they voted £60,000 for the erection of forts and the sending of the militia into the Valley. Part of this sum they provided for by the emission of treasury notes. "In the situation I was obliged to give my assent or disband our forces and leave our frontier unguarded and exposed to the incursions of a merciless foe," Dinwiddie wrote the Board of Trade. But he assured them that the merchants would not be losers since the notes bore interest at five per cent, and would be redeemed in 1760. Virginia had voted in all £150,000 for the war, he pointed out, which was much more than any other colony had done.[28]

At a short session in September, 1756, Dinwiddie told the Assembly of the surrender of Oswego. All realized that it was a crushing blow, since it cut off the English from the Great Lakes, made a deep impression on the Indians, and opened New York to invasion. When the Governor asked for men and money as Virginia's contribution to the Royal American Regiment, which the Earl of Loudoun, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces, was recruiting, they voted £8,000. This the Earl promised to report to the British government "in the very handsome manner" it deserved.[29]

But when they met in April, 1757, they did not permit this compliment to keep them from taking issue with Loudoun for laying an embargo on commerce in order to put an end to the sending of supplies by the colonists to the French. It was obvious to all that this would do more harm than good, they said. Wheat stored in vessels ready to set out for Great Britain was "likely to perish." And unless the planters could sell their tobacco, it would be impossible for them to pay their taxes. After all, men asked, what authority had Loudoun to give such an order? The Burgesses petitioned Dinwiddie to rescind it so far as Virginia was concerned. They were determined to vote no more supplies until he did so.[30] Dinwiddie was forced to yield, and the fleet waiting in Virginia waters cleared for Great Britain.

As one vessel after another sailed out between Cape Henry and Cape Charles, the Assembly acted quickly to support the war. They raised £6,000 to send out rangers against the Indians, £25,000 to pay arrears due officers and men of the Virginia forces, and issued £80,000 in non-interest bearing notes, renewable in seven years.[31] At once the old "heats and disputes" with the Governor were resumed. Dinwiddie was opposed to paper money, but the Burgesses, knowing that they had the whip hand, would not yield. "They took advantage of the emergency of our affairs, when without money every operation must be stopped, and the protection of the country, the lives and properties of these very people [have] been exposed to the barbarous enemy," the Governor complained. "I was obliged at last, much against my judgment, to assent."[32]

In one vital matter the Burgesses themselves had to yield. The expenditure of money appropriated during previous sessions had proved so unsatisfactory that they left all new disbursements to the Governor. They appointed three commissioners to examine such accounts as he should turn over to them, but they were merely to assist, not control him.[33]

Despite the one point of difference, Dinwiddie, in proroguing the Assembly, praised them for their "dutiful obedience to his Majesty's commands," and their compliance with what he himself had recommended. He had told them earlier in the summer that his health had been failing and that he had asked permission to resign his office and return to Great Britain. Now he said goodbye. "I shall always retain a sincere regard for the prosperity of this dominion," he said.[34] He sailed from Yorktown in January, 1758.

To Robert Dinwiddie goes a large part of the credit for saving the major part of North America for British civilization. It was he who saw the meaning of the encroachments of the French in the Ohio Valley; it was he who sounded the alarm in both Great Britain and America. And when the fateful struggle with France was under way, his appreciation of what was at stake made him subordinate other issues to it. He broke his instructions repeatedly because he thought it necessary in order to win the war.

This resulted in substantial gains for self-government in Virginia. In voting funds, not only did the Assembly specify the uses to which they should be put, but tried to supervise each disbursement. In sending the Acadians to England and forcing Dinwiddie to raise Loudoun's embargo they showed their spirit of independence. The issuing of paper money was in direct conflict with the Governor's instructions. And the British government dared not take steps to curb them so long as the French threat remained.

But there is abundant evidence that the King's Ministers were merely biding their time. The old laissez-faire policy of Sir Robert Walpole was giving way to a closer scrutiny of colonial affairs. When the Earl of Loudoun was made Governor General of Virginia, he received more than a hundred instructions. He must guard zealously the prerogative of the Crown, he must permit no riders to acts of Assembly, he must accept no gifts from the Assembly, he must not permit the issuing of paper money. The twenty-fourth instruction is especially revealing of the accepted view in Great Britain that American interests must be disregarded if they clashed with those of the mother country. The Governor was not to assent to any act putting duties on slaves to "the great discouragement" of British merchants, or duties on felons, since this was contrary to the act of Parliament for "preventing robbery, burglary, and other felonies, and for the more effectual transportation of felons."