mentioned in the Declaration of Independence as violated by the British king, is remarkable.

All matters were thus happily and amicably arranged; and, as Sir William Berkeley was too loyal a subject to be willing to take office under Parliament, Richard Bennett, one of the commissioners, was elected governor. A council was also elected, with powers to act in conformity to the instructions they should receive from the Parliament, the known law of England, and the Acts of Assembly, and such other powers as the Assembly should think proper from time to time to give them. It was declared, at the same session, that it was best that officers should be elected by the Burgesses, "the representatives of the people ;" and after discussion upon the propriety of allowing the governor and council to be members of the Assembly, it was determined that they might, by taking the same oath which was taken by the Burgesses. The Assembly thus having no written constitution as their guide, took upon themselves the office of a convention of the people, and granted or resumed powers as it might seem best for the good of the country. The whites and the remnants of the neighboring Indian tribes continued to be upon good terms, and the latter were kindly and humanely treated by the guardian care of the Assembly. A slight irruption of the Rappahannocks seems to have been soon terminated. But a new scene in the history of the colony now presented itself. The Rechahecrians, a fierce and warlike tribe, came down from the mountains, and took up a strong position on the falls of James River, with six or seven hundred warriors. This excited no little uneasiness, as it had been very difficult to extirpate the Indians who had formerly possessed the spot. The first expedition against them failed; a new one was prepared, and the subject Indians being called upon for aid, furnished a hundred warriors, most of whom, with their chief, Totopotomoi, fell fighting gallantly.

When Bennett retired from office, and the Assembly elected Edward Digges his successor, the commissioners of March 31, 1655. the commonwealth had little to do with controlling the destinies of Virginia, but were engaged in settling the affairs and adjusting the boundaries of Maryland.

The Assembly reciting the articles of agreement with the commissioners of Parliament, which admitted that March 13, 1658. the election of all officers of the colony appertained to the Burgesses, the representatives of the people proceeded to the election of a governor and council until the next Assembly; and the choice fell upon "worthy Samuel Matthews, an old planter, of nearly forty years standing,-a most deserving commonwealth's man, who kept a good house, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Virginia." But this worthy old gentleman seems to have conceived higher ideas of his powers than the Assembly was willing to allow. The Assembly had determined not to dissolve itself, but only to adjourn until the first of November.

They then proceeded with their ordinary business, making, however, one important change in the constitution,-which was, to require that all propositions and laws presented by a committee should be first discussed by the House of Burgesses in private, before the admission of the governor and council. The governor and council, on the first of April, sent a message declaring that they thought fit then to dissolve the Assembly, and requiring the speaker to dismiss the Burgesses. To this the Assembly returned for answer, that the act was illegal, and without precedent, and requested a revocation of it, as they expected speedily to finish their business. The house then declared, that any member who should depart should be censured, as betraying the trust reposed in him by his country; and that the remainder should act in all things, and to all intents and purposes, as an entire house; that the speaker should sign nothing without the consent of a majority of the house, and that the members should take an oath not to disclose the acts or debates of that body. The governor replied to the communication from the house, that he was willing that the house should conclude its business speedily, and refer the dispute as to the legality of his power to dissolve, to the decision of the Lord Protector. The house unanimously decided this answer to be unsatisfactory, expressed an earnest desire that public business might be soon dispatched, and requested the governor and council to declare the house undissolved, in order that a speedy period might be put to public affairs. In reply to this, the governor and council revoked the order of dissolution, upon their promise of a speedy conclusion, and again referred the matter of disputed right to the Lord Protector. The house, still unsatisfied with this answer, appointed a committee to draw up a report in vindication of the conduct of the Assembly, and in support of its power. In the report, the Burgesses declare that they have in themselves full power of election and appointment of all officers in the country, until they should have an order to the contrary from the supreme power in England; that the house of Burgesses, the representatives of the people, were not dissolvable by any power yet extant in Virginia, except their own; that the former election of governor and council was null, and that, in future, no one should be admitted a counsellor unless he was nominated, appointed, and confirmed by the house of Burgesses.

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They then directed an order to the sheriff of James City county, who was their sergeant-at-arms, that he should execute no warrant, precept, or command, directed to him by any other power or person than the Speaker of the House. They then ordered, that as the supreme power of the country of Virginia had been declared resident in the Burgesses," the secretary of state should be required to deliver up the public records to the speaker. An oath was prescribed for the governor and council to take, and the same governor was elected and most of the same council. Thus were all difficulties adjusted, and popular sovereignty fully established.

Upon the death of Cromwell, the House of Burgesses unanimously recognised his son Richard, and adopted an March, 1659. address praying a confirmation of their former privileges, in which address the governor was required to join, after solemnly acknowledging, in the presence of the whole Assembly, that the supreme power of electing officers was, by the present laws, resident in the Grand Assembly; which was alleged to be required for this reason, that what was their privilege now might belong to their posterity hereafter.

Matthews died, leaving the colony of Virginia without a goverMarch, 1660. nor, about the same time that the resignation of Richard Cromwell left England without a head. In this emergency the Assembly, reciting that the late frequent distractions in England preventing any power from being generally confessed; that the supreme power of the colony should be vested in the Assembly, and that all writs should issue in its name, until such a command and commission should come from England as should by the Assembly be adjudged lawful. Sir William Berkeley was then elected governor, with the express stipulation that he should call an Assembly once in two years at least, and should not dissolve the Assembly without its own consent. This old royalist, probably thinking now that there was a prospect of the restoration, accepted the office under the prescribed conditions, and acknowledged himself to be but the servant of the Assembly.

During the suspension of the royal government in England, Virginia attained unlimited liberty of commerce, which they regulated by independent laws. The ordinance of 1650 was rendered void by the act of capitulation; the navigation act of Cromwell was not designed for her oppression, and was not enforced within her borders. Only one confiscation appears to have taken place, and that was entirely by the authority of the Grand Assembly. The war between England and Holland necessarily interrupted the intercourse of the Dutch with the English colonies; but, if after the treaty of peace the trade was considered contraband, the English restrictions were entirely disregarded. Commissioners were sent to England to undeceive Cromwell with regard to the 1655. course Virginia had taken with reference to the boundary of Maryland, with regard to which he had been misinformed; and to present a remonstrance demanding unlimited freedom of trade; which, it appears, was not refused, for some months before the Protector's death, the Virginians invited the "Dutch and all foreigners" to trade with them on payment of no higher duty than that which was levied on such English vessels as were bound for a foreign port. Proposals of peace and commerce between NewNetherland and Virginia were discussed without scruple by the respective colonial gov. ernments; and at last a special statute of Virginia extended to every Christian nation, in amity with England, a promise of liberty of trade and equal justice.

At the restoration, Virginia enjoyed freedom of com1660. merce with the whole world. Virginia was the first state in the world composed of separate townships, diffused over an extensive surface, where the government was organized on the principle of universal suffrage. All freemen, without exception, were entitled to vote. The right of suffrage was once restricted, but it was soon after determined to be "hard and unagreeable to reason, that any person shall pay equal taxes and yet have no vote in the election" and the electoral franchise was restored to all freemen.

1655.

1656.

Servants, when the time of their bondage was completed, at once became electors; and might be chosen burgesses. Thus Virginia established upon her soil the supremacy of the popular branch, the freedom of trade, the independence of religious societies, the security from foreign taxation, and the universal elective franchise. If in the following years she departed from either of these principles, and yielded a reluctant consent to change, it was from the influence of foreign authority. Virginia had herself established a nearly independent democracy. Prosperity advanced with freedom; dreams of new staples and infinite wealth were indulged; while the population of Virginia at the epoch of the restoration may have been about thirty thousand. Many of the recent emigrants had been royalists in England, good officers in the war, men of education, of property, and of condition. But the waters of the Atlantic divided them from the political strifes of Europe; their industry was employed in making the best advantage of their plantations; the interests and liberties of Virginia, the land which they adopted as their country, were dearer to them than the monarchical principles which they had espoused in England; and therefore no bitterness could exist between the partisans of the Stuarts and the friends of republican liberty. Virginia had long been the home of its inhabitants-" Among many other blessings," said their statute-book, "God Almighty hath vouchsafed increase of children to this colony; who are now multiplied to a considerable number;" and the huts in the wilderness were as full as the birds' nests of the woods.

The genial climate and transparent atmosphere delighted those who had come from the denser air of England. Every object in nature was new and wonderful.

The hospitality of the Virginians became proverbial. Labor was valuable; land was cheap; competence promptly followed industry. There was no need of a scramble; abundance gushed from the earth for all. The morasses were alive with water-fowl; the forests were nimble with game; the woods rustled with covies of quails and wild turkeys, while they sung with the merry notes of the singing birds; and hogs, swarming like vermin, ran at large in troops. It was "the best poor man's country in the world." "If a happy peace be settled in poor England," it had been said, "then they in Virginia shall be as happy a people as any under heaven." But plenty encouraged indolence. No domestic manufactures were established; every thing was imported from England. The chief branch of industry, for the purpose of exchanges, was tobacco planting; and the spirit of invention was enfeebled by the uniformity of pursuit.

CHAPTER V.

BACON'S REBELLION-HOSTILE DESIGNS OF THE FRENCH.

Indifference to change in England.-Navigation Act.-Convicts.-Conspiracy detected. -Discontents.-Cessation from tobacco planting for one year.-Royal grants.— Virginia's remonstrance.-Success of deputies.-Indian hostilities.-Army raised and disbanded by governor.-People petition for an army-elect Bacon commander -he marches without commission and defeats Indians-pursued by governor, who retreats on hearing of rising at Jamestown-Governor makes concessions.-Bacon prisoner-is pardoned.-People force commission from governor.-Bacon marches to meet Indians-hears he is declared a rebel by Berkeley-marches to meet him-he flees to Accomac.-Convention called and free government established.-Bacon defeats the Indians.-Berkeley obtains possession of the shipping, and occupies Jamestown-is besieged by Bacon, and driven out.-Jamestown burnt-Death of Baconcharacter of his enterprise.-Predatory warfare-treaty between governor and his opponents. Cruelty of Berkeley.-King's commissioners.-Departure of Berkeley, and his death-Acts of Assembly passed during Bacon's influence.--Conduct of king's commissioners.—Culpeper governor.--Discontents.-Conduct of BeverlyHoward governor-General conduct of Virginia and progress of affairs.-Plan of Callier for dividing the British colonies.

As Virginia had provided for herself a government substantially free, the political changes in England could have little effect upon her repose, provided no attempt was made to interfere with the freedom of her trade, or her local government. She seemed content to be under the protection, rather than control, of whatever power the people of England thought proper to place at the head of affairs, provided that power did not seek to extend the conceded authority. In this mood she had adhered to Charles I. until the Parliament, by its commissioners, promised a preservation of all her privileges; she acknowledged Cromwell upon a similar promise, and his son Richard under the same idea; upon his resignation she held herself aloof, thus proving how perfect and how independent was her own local government, until the voice of England should declare who should rule; and upon the accession of Charles II. she gave in her allegiance to him. As in all these British changes she remained unconcerned and unmoved, so the last caused neither extraordinary joy nor regret. The colonists, thus free from external sources of uneasiness, proceeded to legislate upon internal matters; providing rewards for the encouragement of silk and other staples; negotiating with Carolina and Maryland for the adoption of uniform measures for the improvement of tobacco, and diminishing its quantity; and providing for the erection of public buildings, the improvement of Jamestown, and other subjects of general utility.

While the colonists were proceeding in this useful occupation,

they were alarmed by the intelligence of the re-enaction 1663. of the navigation act, odious with new prohibitions, and armed with new penalties. The Virginians had long enjoyed a very beneficial trade with other countries besides England, and had early perceived its advantages, often urging the propriety of