Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/403

 VIRGINIA 383 we shall not have these hundred years ; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has di- vulged them, and libels against the best govern- ment. God keep us from both." The rapa- city of the courtiers of Charles II., upon two of whom, Arlington and Culpeper, he had be- stowed a patent of the Virginia colony, and the heavy taxation encouraged for his own pur- poses by Sir William Berkeley, and his ineffi- ciency in repelling the Indians, led to great dis- content, which in 1676, on the occasion of a levy of fresh taxes, culminated in "Bacon's rebellion." (See BACON, NATHANIEL.) Berke- ley was succeeded by Lord Culpeper, and he by Lord Howard of Effingham. In 1699 an act was passed for founding Williamsburg and erecting a capitol ; and in 1700 the general assembly was in session there. In 1705 the fifth colonial revision of the code was adopted. By it slaves were declared real estate, a pro- vision which remained in force while Virginia continued a colony. In 1754 hostilities broke out with the French, who had built a line of military posts along the western slope of the Alleghanies and at the head waters of the Ohio, and in this war George Washington first entered the service of his country, command- ing the colonial troops at the battle of Fort Necessity (1754), and being placed at the head of the Virginia forces after Braddock's defeat in 1755. The assertion by parliament in 1 764 of the right to tax the colonies without their con- sent called forth an earnest petition, memorial, and remonstrance from the Virginia house of burgesses in December of that year ; and the stamp, mutiny, and quartering acts passed by parliament in 1765 led to the adoption of reso- lutions, introduced by Patrick Henry, denying the right of any foreign body to levy taxes upon the colony. In the first colonial con- gress, which met in New York, Oct. 7, 1765, Virginia was not represented, her legislature having adjourned before the issuing of the Massachusetts circular ; but its action was ap- proved at the next session of the legislature. The commerce of Virginia with Great Britain was at this time larger than that of any other colony. In March, 1773, the house of bur- gesses appointed a committee "to obtain the most clear and authentic intelligence of all such acts of the parliament or ministry as might affect the rights of the colonies ;" and the same committee were authorized to open a corre- spondence and communication with the other colonies. On the passing of these resolutions Lord Dunmore, the newly appointed governor, dissolved the assembly. In May, 1774, the burgesses protested against the act of parlia- ment closing the port of Boston, when Lord Dunmore again dissolved the house. The Vir- ginia convention which met at Richmond, March 20, 1775, to appoint delegates to the new continental congress, took measures for en- rolling companies of volunteers in each county. Lord Dunmore proclaimed martial law Nov. 7, 821 VOL. xvi. 25 and on Nov. 23 with a British and tory force took possession of Norfolk. He soon retired, and was defeated at Great Bridge by the Vir- ginia troops Dec. 9; but in January, 1776, he returned by sea with a larger force and bom- barded Norfolk. He continued a predatory warfare along the whole Virginia coast through the ensuing summer, but was finally driven southward. The declaration of independence was proposed in the continental congress by the Virginia delegates under instructions from the convention of the colony. In the spring of 1779 the British made a descent upon the coast, destroyed Norfolk, took Portsmouth and Gosport, destroying the vessels of war building there, and burned or took 130 merchant vessels on the James and Elizabeth rivers. In Janu- ary, 1781, Gen. Benedict Arnold entered and burned Richmond, then a village of 1,800 in- habitants. In the spring and early summer of the same year Corn wallis and Phillips plundered a great part of eastern Virginia. The surrender of Corn wallis at Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1781, vir- tually closed the war. Virginia had been the first to urge the organization of a confederacy of states ; and when it became evident that this confederation was inadequate for the purposes of a national government, she was again the first to call a convention of the states, in Sep- tember, 1786, to arrange for some additional compacts relative to a tariff, navigation, &c. This convention, delegates being in attendance only from five states, recommended the calling of a convention to assemble in the following May to consider the articles of confederation, and propose such changes therein as might render them adequate to the exigencies of the Union. The constitution framed by that con- vention was ratified by Virginia, June 25, 1788. The constitution of Virginia was framed in June, 1776, and in 1779 Richmond became the capital. In 1781 Virginia passed resolutions to cede, and in 1784 ceded to the United States her claims to lands N, W. of the Ohio, reserving to herself her lands S. of the Ohio, and bounty lands N. W. of that river for her revolution- ary soldiers and those employed in the expe- dition for the conquest of Kaskaskia and Vin- cennes, and stipulating that the ceded lands should be erected into republican states not exceeding certain specified dimensions. Short- ly afterward the territories now forming the state of Kentucky were detached from Vir- ginia. (See KENTUCKY, vol. ix., p. 804.) For many years after the adoption of the federal constitution, Virginia maintained a predomi- nant interest in the affairs of the nation. Of the first five presidents, four (Washington, Jef- ferson, Madison, and Monroe) were natives and residents of that state, each being reflected; and three of the later occupants of the office (Harrison, Tyler, and Taylor) have been na- tives (one, Tyler, a resident) of it. In 1859 Harper's Ferry in Virginia was the scene of the attempt to free the slaves made by John Brown and his followers. In the early part