When this news reached Jamestown there was great indignation. Harvey tried to justify the Marylanders, but this merely intensified the people's hatred of him. So he not only aids in the dismemberment of Virginia, it was said, but upholds the intruders in murdering our people. Is it right that one who is Governor of the colony should side with her enemies?
The crisis came in 1635. King Charles, ever pressed for money, tried once more to secure a tobacco contract. So he wrote Harvey directing him to call an Assembly and to ask for "the sole pre-emption of all tobacco," at a lower price and a reduced quantity. The members of the Council, especially Samuel Mathews, John Utie, and William Pierce, opposed the contract "very saucily."[23] As for the Burgesses, they hated all contracts. So they drew up an answer which was in effect a refusal. In order to give the paper the character of a petition they all signed it. This they gave to Harvey to send to the King.
But instead of forwarding it, the Governor detained it. In excuse of this arbitrary action he said he feared the King "would not take well the matter thereof, and that they should make it a popular business by subscribing a multitude of hands thereto, as thinking thereby to give it countenance."[24] The people were outraged. So our Governor takes it on himself to decide what or what not we shall say to our King. Is it not the right of all Englishmen to address their sovereign? "The wrong done by the Governor to the whole colony in detaining the foresaid letters to his Majesty did exceedingly perplex them, whereby they were made sensible of the condition of the present government," wrote Samuel Mathews.[25]
Things had now come to a head. A petition demanding a redress of grievances was drawn up, which Francis Pott, brother of Dr. John Pott, took about the country. Everywhere he found the people tired of Harvey's arbitrary conduct, tired of his injustice to individual persons. So they pressed forward eagerly to sign the petition. Harvey says that only in Accomac did they refuse.[26]
It was in April, 1635, that Pott, Captain Nicholas Martian, and William English, the sheriff of York County, addressed a gathering at the house of William Warren. This meeting has a special significance in the long struggle for American liberty, for Warren's house was on or near the site of the Moore House, at Yorktown, where the British army under Lord Cornwallis surrendered a century and a half later. The speakers were denouncing Harvey's despotic government when some friends of the Governor tried to enter. A servant kept them out, but they hung around outside and "bended themselves to hearken to the discourse among them."[27] When the speeches were concluded those present gathered around the petition and affixed their signatures.
When this was reported to Harvey, he flew into a rage. Calling the Council, he issued warrants for the arrest of Francis Pott, English, and Martian. They were brought up in irons. Pott handed over the petition and declared that if he had offended he appealed to the King. "He was sure of no justice from Sir John Harvey." When the prisoners asked why they were arrested, the Governor told them that they would be told at the gallows. So they were hustled off to prison.[28]
Harvey then called the Council together again and told them that it was necessary to try the prisoners by martial law. But the Councillors insisted on a legal trial. In the dispute which followed Harvey became violently angry. Finally, he sat down and ordered the others to sit. Looking around with a frown, he said: "I am to propound a question to you.... What do you think they deserve that have gone about to persuade the people from their obedience to his Majesty's substitute?"
Turning to George Menefie, he said, "I begin with you." Menefie answered that since he was but a young lawyer he did not dare give an opinion "upon the sudden." Here Nicholas Farrar interposed to protest against this method of proceeding. But Harvey cut him short with the command to hold his tongue until he was spoken to. Thereupon Samuel Mathews spoke up to enter his protest. But instantly, in the King's name, he was told to be silent. Mathews insisted there was no precedent for this attempt to make men incriminate themselves unless it was that by a tyrant. Here he was alluding to the passage in Shakespeare's King Richard III in which Richard asked Lord Hastings what should be done to the women who had bewitched him. Hastings replied that if they had done so they ought to die. "Talk'st thou to me of ifs," replied Richard, "thou art a traitor. Off with his head." Harvey evidently did not relish being compared to Richard, and so retorted with many "bitter languages."[29]
The Councillors were now determined to bring their dispute with the Governor to an issue. The next time he summoned them to meet, they brought with them fifty musketeers and concealed them near the house. Harvey asked them with a stern look what they thought was the reason for the petition against him. "The chief cause was the detaining of the letters to his Majesty," replied Mr. Menefie. This infuriated Harvey. Rising from his chair, he struck Menefie a resounding blow on the shoulder, saying: "I arrest you on suspicion of treason to his Majesty." But now he had gone too far. Utie and Mathews seized him, exclaiming: "And we you upon suspicion of treason to his Majesty."[30]
At this juncture Dr. Pott, who was standing near the door, held up his hand as a signal, and the musketeers came running up "with their pieces presented." "Stay here until there be use of you," Pott commanded. In the meanwhile, Mathews had forced Harvey down into a chair. "Sir, there is no harm intended against you only to acquaint you with the grievances of the inhabitants," he told him. So he poured out the recital of the wrongs done the colony and demanded that they be redressed. But the Governor, who was in no mood for making concessions, denied that any wrong had been done. After an ominous pause Mathews said: "Sir, the people's fury is up against you and to appease it is beyond our power, unless you please to go for England." Harvey replied that the King had sent him to Virginia to be Governor, and he would not leave until he ordered him to do so.