CHAPTER II
SELF-GOVERNMENT
With the calling of the Assembly of 1627 Virginia entered a new epoch. The people no longer looked to a commercial company for instructions and the appointment of the Governor and other officials, but to the King.
On the whole this was a fortunate change. The Company could not finance the enterprise, and it might have bled the colony to make good its own losses. The reactionary group in the Company might in time have won control, and have gone back to the original form of government.
It was this which made the people of Virginia resist all attempts to re-establish the Company. They were greatly alarmed in 1631 when word reached them that some of the former members had "continually importuned his Majesty to renew the charter," and that the King had actually given orders that a new one be drawn up. Someone, no doubt an agent for the colony, protested vigorously. The Governor and Council had "oftentimes petitioned ... against the renewing of any such corporation," he said, and he pleaded that nothing be done until they were heard from.
But though the Virginians wished to remain under the jurisdiction of the King, and not be "subjects to their fellow subjects," they wanted to place their government upon a firmer basis as a guarantee that there would be no renewal of the "illegal proceedings and barbarous tortures" of former years. On three separate occasions they tried to secure a charter guaranteeing their liberties. In 1639, George Sandys, whom they appointed agent to petition for a charter, seems to have misunderstood his instructions, for instead of doing so he attempted to revive the Company. When this news reached Virginia, the Assembly hastened to disavow his action, and to beg the King to let them remain a royal colony. Their yearly Assemblies, authorized in his instructions, insured their present happiness, they said. So they were much relieved when Charles told them that he had not the least intention of placing any corporation over them.
This satisfied the Virginians for the moment, but during the Restoration period, on learning that the King had made a series of grants in the colony to favorites, they once more petitioned for a charter. And though, after prolonged negotiations, a charter was passed under the Great Seal,[1] it was so unsatisfactory that in 1691 they made still another attempt. When this failed, the colony was forced to remain under its unwritten constitution, based on precedents, royal letters, proclamations, and instructions.
This constitution provided that the Governor be appointed by the King. Consequently he represented the authority of the Crown, and through the Crown the interests of England. If he failed to uphold the royal prerogative against the assaults of the Burgesses and the Council he was sure to incur the frowns of his royal master. If the King were bent on ruling the colony with as little interference from the Assembly as possible, it was the Governor who tried to carry out his orders. In other words, in the century long battle between the King and the representatives of the people, it was the Governor who bore the royal banner.
The Governors varied widely in character and ability. Sir John Harvey and Francis Nicholson were egocentric men, who tried to lash all who surrounded them into obedience to their will. Alexander Spotswood and Robert Dinwiddie, though not friends of representative government, were able administrators. Hugh Drysdale, William Gooch, and Lord Botetourt, because of their amiable dispositions, won lasting popularity. Culpeper and Effingham were hated as instruments in the hands of Charles II and James II in imposing the Second Stuart Despotism on the colony. Dunmore was detested for his role in the opening years of the Revolutionary War.
It is strange that Nicholson, who was in many respects one of the worst of the Governors, should have given an excellent description of the ideal colonial executive. "It is absolutely necessary ... that the Governor ... may be esteemed by the people, ... to be a lover of them and their country ... and above all distributes equal justice."[2] Had he followed his own advice his second administration would not have ended in failure.