United the people had to be to defend their liberties. When the wealthy landholder and the humble owner of but fifty acres, the loyalist and the former rebel alike realized that Charles was bent on reducing both Council and Assembly to impotence, their domestic quarrels seemed unimportant compared to the public danger.
Since the statehouse at Jamestown was still in ashes, the Assembly of June, 1680, crowded into the house of Mrs. Susanne Fisher. Some of the Burgesses had come on horseback from their James City or Charles City plantations, others by shallops from the Upper James, still others from the far-off Eastern Shore. A sturdy, stubborn group they were, like other Burgesses before and after them, determined to uphold the rights of the people.
They were dismayed, then, when Governor Culpeper placed before them the three bills prepared and signed by the King. What right has he or the Privy Council to introduce bills in this Assembly? they asked. And they were especially concerned over the King's demand for a perpetual revenue.
There had existed since 1661 a law for laying a duty of two shillings for every hogshead of tobacco exported from the colony. But the revenue was to be disposed of by the Assembly. It was they who decided whether it should be used to pay the Governor's salary, or to defend the colony against the Indians, or for repairing the statehouse, or for paying the salaries of the Burgesses. Now the Privy Council took it upon themselves to draw up a similar act, but differing from the old one in one all-important respect—it specified that the returns should go, not to the Assembly, but "to the King's most excellent Majesty, his heirs and successors forever."
The debate which followed was long and bitter. Every man in the Assembly, whether Burgess or Councillor, knew that the King was demanding the surrender of their birthright.[51] So they replied to the Governor: "The House do most humbly desire to be excused if they do not give their approbation to his Majesty's bill."[52] And when the matter was brought again before them by the Governor, they refused even to resume the debate.
But Culpeper knew that he would be severely blamed by Charles if he did not succeed in forcing this bill through. Returning to the attack he pointed out that the King claimed the right of disposing of all revenues. Moreover, they were in no position to defy him, for he had it in his power to ruin most of them by demanding all arrears of quit rents. We do not know how many lucrative jobs Culpeper handed out to bring the reluctant Burgesses around, but he himself tells us that he won over one influential member by the promise of a seat in the Council.[53]
In the end the King had his way. The Burgesses made two minor amendments, and then passed the bill. When it came before Charles again, he vetoed one of these amendments, and allowed the other. A quarter of a century later, when the Board of Trade asked Attorney General Simon Harcourt and Solicitor General James Montague to pass on the validity of the act, they reported that it had been put through irregularly. "It would be wise," they said, "if any part of her Majesty's revenue depends on this act, to have another in its place."[54]
Yet the act was permitted to stand, and the cause of self-government in colonial Virginia suffered its greatest reverse. No longer could the Assembly force the Governor to sign this bill or that by refusing to vote his salary. No longer did they hold a sword over the heads of the Council. It is true that they still retained in part their grip upon the purse, since the export duty together with the quit rents seldom met even the ordinary needs of the government, and were entirely inadequate in times of emergency. It is this which explains why such notable gains for liberty were made during the colonial wars. Yet from this time until the Declaration of Independence the Virginia Assembly had to fight the royal prerogative with one hand tied behind its back.[55]
Having secured the passage of the King's three laws, Culpeper rested on his laurels. He seems to have yielded to the plea of the Council not to deliver the King's rebuke to the Assembly. If he ever told the Council of his instruction to initiate bills with their advice and secure the King's approval before sending them to the House, they must have argued that it was impractical. They had no desire to have representative government in the colony made a mockery. Were the Burgesses to have the right of amending bills? they must have asked. If so, would the amended bills have to go back to England for the King's approval? Under such conditions, it might take years to enact the simplest laws. So this instruction was ignored.
Equally impractical was it to secure the King's permission before calling an Assembly. In case of a sudden emergency it might be fatal to wait until the Governor had written to Secretary Coventry, until he had taken the matter up with his Majesty, until some vessel sailed and had made the tedious voyage to Virginia. If the need were the outbreak of war with the Indians, half the colony might be scalped before the Assembly could meet to raise men and money for arms and forts. So Culpeper ignored this instruction also.