Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 1.djvu/146

1800. great Virginians would gladly have gone on, but the current began to flow against them. They suggested a bill for emancipation, but could find no one to father it in the legislature, and they shrank from the storm it would excite.

President Washington, in 1796, in a letter already quoted, admitted that land in Virginia was lower in price than land of the same quality in Pennsylvania. For this inferiority he suggested, among other rea­sons, the explanation that Pennsylvania had made laws for the gradual abolition of slavery, and he de­clared nothing more certain than that Virginia must adopt similar laws at a period not remote. Had the Virginians seen a sure prospect that such a step would improve their situation, they would probably have taken it; but the slave-owners were little pleased at the results of reforms already effected, and they were in no humor for abolishing more of their old institutions. The effects of disestablishing the Church were calculated to disgust them with all reform. From early times the colony had been divided into parishes, and each parish owned a church building. The system was the counterpart of that established in New England. The church lands, glebes, and endow­ments were administered by the clergyman, wardens, and vestry. Good society in Virginia recognized no other religion than was taught in this branch of Eng­lish episcopacy. "Sure I am of one thing," was the re­mark in the Virginia legislature of an old-fashioned Federalist, with powdered hair, three-cornered hat,