History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia

CHAPTER LXXVII.

Logan—Kenton—Girty—Dunmore's ambiguous Conduct—His grandson, Murray.

Logan, the Cayuga chief, assented to the treaty, but, still indignant at the murder of his family, refused to attend with the other chiefs at the camp, and sent his speech in a wampum-belt by an interpreter: "I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not? During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, 'Logan is the friend of white men.' I have even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one." Tah-gah-jute, or Logan, so named after James Logan, the secretary of Pennsylvania, was the son of Shikellamy, a celebrated Cayuga chief, who dwelt at Shamokin, on the picturesque banks of the Susquehanna. When Logan grew to man's estate, living in the vicinity of the white settlers, he appears, about the year 1767, to have found the means of his livelihood in hunting deer, dressing their skins, and selling them. When the daughter of a neighboring gentleman was just beginning to walk, her mother one day happening to say that she was sorry that she could not get a pair of shoes for her, Logan, who stood by, said nothing then, but soon after requested that the little girl might be allowed to go and spend the day at his cabin, which stood on a sequestered spot near a beautiful spring (yet known as "Logan's Spring.") The mother's heart was at the first a little disconcerted at the singular proposal; but such was her confidence in the Indian that she consented. The day wore away; the sun had gone down behind the mountains in parting splendor, and evening was folding her thoughtful wing,—and the little one had not yet returned. Just at this moment the Indian was seen descending the path with his charge, and quickly she was in her mother's arms, and pointing proudly to a beautiful pair of moccasins on her tiny feet, the product of Logan's skilful manufacture.

Not long afterwards he removed to the far West, and he was remembered by an old pioneer as "the best specimen of humanity, white or red, that he had ever seen."[591:A] In 1772 the Rev. Mr. Heckwelder, Moravian missionary, met with Logan on the Beaver River, and took him to be an Indian of extraordinary capacity. He exclaimed against the whites for the introduction of ardent spirits among his people, and regretted that they had so few gentlemen among their neighbors; and declared his intention to settle on the Ohio, where he might live forever in peace with the whites; but confessed that he himself was too fond of the firewater. In the following year Heckwelder visited Logan's settlement, below the Big Beaver, and was kindly entertained by such members of his family as were at home. About the same time another missionary, the Rev. Dr. David McClure, met with Logan at Fort Pitt. "Tah-gah-jute, or 'Short-dress,' for such was his Indian name, stood several inches more than six feet in height; he was straight as an arrow; lithe, athletic, and symmetrical in figure; firm, resolute, and commanding in feature; but the brave, open, manly countenance he possessed in his earlier years was now changed for one of martial ferocity." He spoke the English language with fluency and correctness. The victim of intemperance, pointing to his breast, he exclaimed to the missionary, "I feel bad here. Wherever I go the evil Manethoes pursue me;" and he earnestly enquired, "What shall I do?" Logan's family were massacred by a party of whites in the spring of 1774, perhaps under the pretext of retaliation for some Indian murders. But the charge against Cresap appears to have been unfounded. Logan's family being on a visit to a family of the name of Great-house, were murdered by them and their associates, under circumstances of extraordinary cowardice and brutality. The mistake is one into which Logan might, in view of some recent transactions that had happened under the command of Captain Cresap, naturally fall, and which does not at all impair the force of his speech. Mr. Jefferson meeting with a copy of it at Governor Dunmore's, in Williamsburg, transcribed it in his pocket-book, and afterwards immortalized it in his "Notes on Virginia." He gave implicit confidence to its authenticity. Doddridge is of the same opinion. Jacob, in his Life of Cresap,[592:A] insinuates that the speech was a counterfeit, and declares that Cresap was as humane as brave, and had no participation in the massacre. General George Rogers Clarke, who was well acquainted with Logan and Cresap both, vouches for the substantial truth of Mr. Jefferson's story of Logan. Devoting himself to the work of revenge, he, with others, butchered men, women, and children; knives, tomahawks, and axes were left in the breasts which had been cleft asunder; females were stripped, and outraged, too horrible to mention; brains of infants beaten out and the dead bodies left a prey to the beasts of the forest. The family of a settler on the north fork of the Holston was massacred, and a war-club was left in the house, and attached to it the following note, which had been previously, at Logan's dictation, written for him by one Robinson, a prisoner:—

Thirty scalps it was known that he took in these murderous raids, but he joined not in open battle.

Simon Kenton, a native of Fauquier County, a voyager of the woods, was employed by Dunmore as a spy (together with Simon Girty) during this campaign, in the course of which he traversed the country around Fort Pitt, and a large part of the present State of Ohio. His history is full of daring adventure, cruel sufferings, and extraordinary turns of fortune. He was eight times made to run the Indian gauntlet; three times bound to the stake. He was with Clarke in his expedition against Vincennes and Kaskaskia; and with Wayne in the campaign of 1794. He died in Ohio, in poverty and neglect, his once giant frame bowed down with age.[593:A] Girty, after playing for a time the spy on both sides in the revolutionary contest, became at length an adherent of the enemy, and proved, toward his countrymen, a cruel and barbarous miscreant, in whom every sentiment of humanity appears to have been extinct. Kenton and Girty are both good subjects for a novelist.

Suspicions were not wanting in the minds of many Virginians, especially the inhabitants of the west, that the frontier had been embroiled in the Indian war by Dunmore's machinations; and that his ultimate object was to secure an alliance with the savages to aid England in the expected contest with the colonies; and these suspicions were strengthened by his equivocal conduct during the campaign. He was also accused of fomenting, with the same sinister views, the boundary altercations between Pennsylvania and Virginia on the northwestern frontier. These charges and suspicions do not appear to be sustained by sufficient proof. It is probable that in these proceedings his lordship was prompted rather by motives of personal interest than of political manœuvre. His agent, Dr. Conolly, was locating large tracts of land on the borders of the Ohio.

By the Quebec Act of 1774 Great Britain, with a view of holding the colonies in check, established the Roman Catholic religion in Canada, and enlarged its bounds so as to comprise all the territory northwest of the Ohio to the head of Lake Superior and the Mississippi. This attempt to extend the jurisdiction of Canada to the Ohio was especially offensive to Virginia. Richard Henry Lee, in congress, denounced it as the worst of all the acts complained of. In Virginia, Dunmore's avarice getting the better of his loyalty, he espoused her claims to western lands, and became a partner in enormous purchases in Southern Illinois. In 1773 Thomas and Cuthbert Bullet, his agents, made surveys of lands at the falls of the Ohio; and a part of Louisville and of towns opposite to Cincinnati are yet held under his warrant.

Murray, a grandson of the Earl of Dunmore, and page to Queen Victoria, visited the United States partly, it was said, for the purpose of making enquiry relative to western lands, the title of which was derived from his grandfather. Young Murray visited some of the old seats on the James, and makes mention of them in his entertaining "Travels in the United States."

The assembly, upon the return of Dunmore to Williamsburg, gave him a vote of thanks for his good conduct of the war—a compliment which it was afterwards doubted whether he had merited. His motives in that campaign were, to say the least, somewhat mysterious. There is a curious coincidence in several points between the administration of Dunmore and that of Berkley, one hundred years before.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

DANIEL BOONE.

This famous explorer, a native of Pennsylvania, removed at an early age to North Carolina, and remained there till his fortieth year. In the year 1769 he left his home on the sequestered Yadkin, to wander through the wilderness in quest of the country of Kentucky, and to become the archetype of the race of pioneers. In this exploration of the unknown regions of Western Virginia, he was accompanied by five companions. Reaching Red River early in June, they beheld from an eminence the beautiful region of Kentucky. A pioneer named Finley is supposed by some to have been the first explorer of the interior of Kentucky, and it is said that he visited it alone; it is difficult to determine a matter of this kind, and the first exploration has been attributed to others. According to McClung,[595:A] it was Finley's glowing picture of the country, on his return home, in 1767, that allured Boone to venture into the wilderness. Kentucky, it appears, was not inhabited by the Indians, they having not a wigwam there; but the Southern and Northwestern Indians resorted there, as on a neutral ground, to hunt, and often came into collision and engaged in conflicts, which, according to some, gave it the name of Kentucky, or "the dark and bloody ground;" but the true signification of the word is a matter of doubt. Boone and his companions encamping, began to hunt and to reconnoitre the country. Innumerable buffaloes browned on the leaves of the cane, or pastured on the herbage of the plains, or lingered on the border of the salt-lick. In December, Boone and a comrade, John Stuart, rambling in the magnificence of forests yet unscarred by the axe, were surprised by a party of Indians and captured. Boone met the catastrophe with a mien of stoical indifference. A week after the capture the party encamped in the evening in a thick cane-brake, and having built a large fire, lay down to rest. About midnight, Boone gently awaking his companion, they effected their escape, traversing the forest by the uncertain light of the stars, and by observing the mossy side of the trees. Returning to their camp they found it plundered and deserted; and the fate of its occupants could not be doubted. A brother of Boone, with another hardy adventurer, shortly after overtook the two forlorn survivors. It was not long before Stuart was slain by the savages and scalped, and the companion of Boone's brother devoured by wolves. The two brothers remained in a wilderness untrod by the white man, surrounded by perils, and far from the reach of succor. With unshaken fortitude they continued to hunt, and erected a rude cabin to shelter them from the storms of winter. When threatened by the approach of savages, they lay during the night concealed in swamps. In May, 1770, Boone's brother returned home for horses and ammunition, leaving him alone, without bread, salt, or sugar, or even a horse or a dog. Daniel Boone, in one of his solitary excursions made at this time, wandered during the whole day through a region whose native charms dispelled every gloomy thought. Just at the close of day, when the gales were lulled, not a breath of air stirring the leaves, he gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking around, with delight beheld the ample regions mapped out beneath. On one hand he saw the beautiful Ohio delineating the western boundary of Kentucky; while at a distance the mountains lifted their peaks to the clouds. All nature was still. He kindled a fire near a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on the loin of a buck killed a few hours before. As night folded her mysterious wings he heard the distant yells of savages; but, worn out with fatigue, he fell asleep, and did not awake until the morning beams were glancing through the forest glades, and the birds warbling their matin songs. No populous city, with all its excitements and attractions, could have pleased him half so much as the charms of nature in Kentucky. Rejoined by his brother, in the summer of 1770, he explored the valley of the Cumberland River. In 1771 Daniel Boone, after an absence of three years, returned to his home on the Yadkin; sold such of his possessions as he could not carry with him, and started with his family to return and settle in Kentucky. Some cows, horses, and household utensils formed his baggage. His wife and children were mounted on horseback, their neighbors regarding them as doomed to certain destruction. On the route he was re-enforced by five families, and forty armed men at Powell's Valley. In October the young men who had charge of the pack-horses and cattle in the rear, were surprised by Indians, and of seven only one escaped; six were slain, and among them Boone's oldest son. This occurred near the gap of the Cumberland Mountains, whose dark gorges, rocky cliffs, and hoary summits strike the mind of the beholder with awe. The Indians were repulsed with heavy loss; but the whites retired forty miles to the settlement on the Clinch River, where Boone with his family remained for some time. Virginia in vain demanded of the Cherokees the surrender of the offenders. One of Boone's party, in retaliation, afterwards slew an Indian at a horse-race on the frontier, in spite of the interposition of the by-standers. In 1774, at the request of Governor Dunmore, Boone, leaving his family on the banks of the Clinch, went to assist in conveying a party of surveyors to the falls of the Ohio. He was next employed in the command of three garrisons during the campaign against the Shawnees. In March of the ensuing year, at the solicitation of some gentlemen of North Carolina, Boone, at the treaty of Watauga, purchased from the Cherokees of North Carolina the lands claimed by them, lying between the Kentucky River and the Tennessee. But Kentucky being within the chartered limits of Virginia, she[597:A] declared this treaty null and void, and proclaimed her own title. The North Carolina grantees, however, received in compensation a liberal grant of lands on Green River. Boone also undertook to mark out a road from the settlements to the wilderness of Kentucky; during this work several of his men were killed by the savages. In 1775 he erected a fort at Boonsborough, near the Kentucky River, and he removed his family there, and his wife and daughter were supposed to be the first white women that ever stood upon the banks of the Kentucky River; and Boonsborough was long an outpost of civilization.

The remainder of Boone's career, full of stirring adventure, belongs rather to the early history of Kentucky. When the settlements around him began to grow too thick for his taste, he removed farther westward. This extraordinary man, who could neither read nor write, in 1792 dictated a brief account of his life to some youthful writer, whose attempt to enhance the interest of the narrative by rhetorical embellishments afforded no little satisfaction to the unsophisticated old voyager of the woods, and nothing pleased him better than to sit and listen to the reading of it. He would listen attentively, rub his hands together, smile complacently and ejaculate, "All true, every word true! not a lie in it." Solitary hunting, as it had been the charm of his earlier years, afforded him the solace of his old age; and when too old to walk through the woods, he would ride to the edge of the salt-licks and lie there in ambush for the sake of getting a shot at the deer. He was in person rough and robust; his countenance homely but kind; his manner cold, grave, taciturn; his conversation simple and unobtrusive; he never speaking of himself but when questioned. He was withal brave, humane, prudent, and modest.[598:A] He died in 1820, aged nearly ninety years.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER LXXIX.

1775.

In the beginning of 1775 the people of Virginia were in a state of anxious suspense, expecting an outbreak of civil war. Dunmore remained in gloomy solicitude in his palace, tenacious of authority, but fearful of resisting the popular will. Intelligence was now continually received of commotions among the people; resolutions, essays, and speeches added new fuel to the excitement.

The second Virginia convention assembled at Richmond, on Monday, the twentieth day of March. St. John's Church, in which the sessions were held, stands on Richmond Hill, commanding a panorama of Richmond, (then a few straggling houses,) hills, and fields, and woods, and the James, with its rocks and islands, flashing rapids and murmuring falls, and poetic mists. The convention approved of the proceedings of congress, and of the conduct of the Virginia delegates. Resolutions were adopted thanking the assembly of Jamaica[599:A] for their petition and memorial to the king in behalf of the colonies; and expressing Virginia's ardent wish for "a speedy return of those halcyon days when they lived a free and happy people." The too abject tone of these resolutions aroused the patriotic indignation of Patrick Henry, and he introduced resolutions for putting the colony immediately into a state of defence against the encroachments of Great Britain, and for embodying, arming, and disciplining a force of well-regulated militia for that purpose. They were supported by Henry, the mover, Jefferson, the Lees, Pages, Mason, and others; but many of the members recoiled with horror from this startling measure; and it was strenuously resisted by Bland, Harrison, Pendleton, Nicholas, and Wythe, who held such a step premature, until the result of the last petition to the king should be more fully known. They still flattered themselves with the hope that the breach might yet be repaired in some way, either by the influence of the opposition in England, of the manufacturing interests, or the relenting of the king. They urged that Virginia was unmilitary, unprovided for war, weak, and defenceless, and insisted that desperate measures should not be resorted to, until hope herself had fled. Henry replied: "What has there been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify hope? Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? These are the implements of subjugation sent over to rivet upon us the chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? We have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer? Shall we resort to entreaty and supplication? We have petitioned—we have remonstrated—we have supplicated; and we have been spurned from the foot of the throne. In vain may we indulge the fond hope of reconciliation. There is no longer room for hope. If we wish to be free we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, is all that is left us!

"They tell me that we are weak; but shall we gather strength by irresolution? We are not weak. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. We shall not fight alone. A just God presides over the destinies of nations, and will raise up friends for us. The battle is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. The war is inevitable—and let it come! let it come!

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."

Henry's voice, calm in his exordium, rose gradually to a higher and yet higher pitch, until the very walls of the church seemed to rock and tremble, as if conscious of the tremendous vibrations. The listeners, forgetful of order and of themselves, leaned forward in their seats, magnetized by the voice and look of the speaker, whose pale face and glaring eye assumed an appearance of preternatural emotion. His last exclamation, "Give me liberty, or give me death," sounded like the shout of the warrior in the tempest of battle.[601:A] When Mr. Henry sat down every eye remained still fixed on him, entranced and spell-bound.[601:B]

Richard Henry Lee supported Mr. Henry in a masterly review of the resources of the colonies and their means of resistance, exhorting the convention to remember that "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, and that he is thrice armed whose cause is just." "But," says Wirt, "his melody was lost amid the agitations of that ocean which the master-spirit of the storm had lifted up on high." It would, however, be a wide mistake to believe that a melodious voice was Mr. Lee's highest qualification as a speaker. Plain, solid, common sense was the distinguishing characteristic of his mind as it was of Mr. Henry's.

The overweening caution of those who opposed Henry's resolutions perhaps served the purpose of the breaks in a train of railroad cars—while they endeavored to retard the movement, they made it eventually safer. The resolutions were carried, and a committee was appointed to prepare a plan of defence.[601:C]

In conformity with a plan reported by the committee, the convention unanimously determined on the establishment of a well-regulated militia, by forming in every county one or more volunteer companies and troops of horse, to be in constant training and ready to act at a moment's warning, and hence called "minute-men." Mr. Nicholas, hitherto an extreme conservative, now proposed to raise an army of ten thousand regulars; the proposition evinced his enthusiasm in the cause; but the kind of force which he recommended still displayed his distrust in means of defence resting immediately on the body of the people. Measures were adopted by the convention to promote the raising of wool, cotton, flax, and hemp, and to encourage domestic manufactures of gunpowder, salt, iron, and steel; and the members agreed to make use of home-made fabrics, and recommended the practice to the people. The former delegates to congress were re-elected, with the substitution of Mr. Jefferson in lieu of Peyton Randolph, in case of his non-attendance. Mr. Randolph, being speaker of the house of burgesses, did not attend that congress, and Mr. Jefferson accordingly took his place.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER LXXX.

JEFFERSON.

Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, in the County of Albemarle, on the 2d day of April, 1743.[603:A] According to family tradition his paternal ancestors, among the early settlers of Virginia, came from near Mount Snowden, in Wales, and one of them was a member of the first house of burgesses that met in 1619. The grandfather of Thomas lived at Osborne's, in Chesterfield. Peter, (father of Thomas,) a land surveyor, settled at Shadwell, where he had taken up a tract of land, including Monticello. Shadwell was called after the parish in London in which his wife was born. He was born in February, 1708, and married, in 1738, Jane, daughter of Isham Randolph, of Dungeness, in Goochland. "The Randolphs," says Mr. Jefferson, "trace their pedigree far back in England and Scotland, to which let every one ascribe the faith and merit he chooses." Peter Jefferson's early education had been neglected, but being a man of strong parts he read much, and so improved himself that he was chosen,[604:A] with Joshua Fry, professor of mathematics in William and Mary College, to continue the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, and was afterwards employed, with Mr. Fry, to make a map of the colony. This was the first regular map of Virginia ever made, that of Captain Smith, although remarkably well delineated, considering the circumstances under which it was made, being, of necessity, in large part conjectural.

Peter Jefferson was one of the first persons who settled in Goochland, since known as Albemarle, about the year 1737. That county was formed in 1744 out of a part of Goochland, which had been carved out of Henrico in 1727.

Thomas Jefferson's earliest recollection was of his being handed up and carried on a pillow on horseback by a servant when his father was removing, in 1745, from Shadwell to Tuckahoe. Peter Jefferson was a man of extraordinary physical strength; he could "head up," that is raise up from their sides to an upright position, at once, two hogsheads of tobacco weighing near a thousand pounds each. He was a favorite with the Indians, and they often made his house a stopping-place, and in this way Thomas imbibed an uncommon interest in that people.

Peter Jefferson dying in 1757, left a widow (who survived till 1776) with six daughters and two sons, of whom Thomas, then fourteen years of age, was the elder. He inherited the lands on which he was born, and where he lived. When five years of age, he was placed at school at Tuckahoe, and when nine, upon the return of the family to Shadwell, at a Latin school, where he continued until his father's death. His teacher, the Rev. William Douglas, a native of Scotland, taught him the rudiments of Latin, Greek, and French. At his father's death he was put under the care of the Rev. James Maury, of Huguenot descent, a good classical scholar and thorough teacher, with whom he continued for two years at the parsonage, fourteen miles from Shadwell.[605:A] The student found recreation without in hunting on Peter's Mountain, within doors in playing on the violin. In the spring of 1760 he went to William and Mary College, and remained there for two years. Dr. William Small, a Scotchman, was then professor of mathematics there: a man of engaging manners, large views, and profound science. He shortly afterwards filled, for a time, the chair of ethics, rhetoric, and belles lettres. He formed a strong attachment to young Jefferson, and made him the daily companion of his leisure hours, and it was his conversation that first gave him a bent toward scientific pursuits. Small returned, in 1762, to Europe. Before his departure he had procured for Jefferson, from George Wythe, a reception as a student of law under his direction, and had also introduced him to the acquaintance of Governor Fauquier. At his table Jefferson met Dr. Small and Mr. Wythe, and from their conversation derived no little instruction. It was in 1765 that, while a law-student, he heard the "bloody debate" on Henry's resolutions. In May of the following year he made a northern trip, in a one-horse chair, by way of Annapolis, where he found the people rejoicing at the repeal of the stamp act. At Philadelphia he was inoculated for the small-pox by Dr. Shippen. At New York Mr. Jefferson became acquainted with Elbridge Gerry.

Jefferson, now twenty-four years old, entered upon the practice of the law in the general court, and continued in it until the Revolution closed the courts of justice. He was not fitted for the office of advocate, owing to a defective voice, and he never spoke more than a few sentences at a time.[606:A] In 1769 he became a member of the assembly, and so continued, patriotic, active, and ardent, until the meetings were suspended by the war. He made an unsuccessful effort in that body for the emancipation of the slaves in Virginia. January the 1st, 1772, he married Martha, widow of Bathurst Skelton, and youngest daughter of John Wayles, born in Lancaster, England, a lawyer, who lived at "The Forest," in Charles City County. She was then twenty-three years old.[606:B] In 1773 Mr. Jefferson contributed to the formation of committees of correspondence between the colonial legislatures. In the year following he was elected member of the convention which met in August. Unable to attend, owing to sickness, he communicated his views in the form of written instructions, for the Virginia delegates in Congress.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER LXXXI.

1775.

On the twenty-eighth of March Dunmore issued a proclamation, by command, as he said, of the king, for the prevention of the appointment of deputies from Virginia to the congress which was to assemble in May. And in compliance with instructions received from England, the governor ordered Captain Collins, with a party of marines and sailors from the Magdalen, lying at Burwell's Ferry, to remove the powder from the magazine at Williamsburg, and it was carried on board of that vessel secretly, between three and four o'clock A.M., of Thursday, April the twentieth, the day following the collision at Lexington and Concord. It had been rumored some days before in Williamsburg that Lord Dunmore had taken the locks off from most of the guns in the magazine, and that he intended to remove the powder. The people of the town were alarmed, and the volunteers for several nights kept guard over the magazine; at length growing negligent, and disbelieving the report, on Thursday night the guard was discharged at an early hour. Thus Collins with his party, who had been secreted in the palace, seized the powder without opposition. Dunmore, anticipating the resentment of the people, armed his servants and some Shawnee hostages, and muskets were laid on the floor, loaded and primed, and the captains of the ships of war lying at York were ordered to have in readiness an armed force for the defence of the palace. As soon as these proceedings became known, the Williamsburg volunteers flew to arms, and were with difficulty restrained by Peyton Randolph and Robert C. Nicholas from assaulting the palace and seizing the governor. The authorities of the town, in accordance with a resolution of a meeting of the people, solicited the governor to restore the powder immediately, urging among other reasons which demanded it, the apprehension of a servile war, instigated by "wicked and designing men." Dunmore, in his reply, pretended that he had removed the powder from the magazine as being an insecure place in case of such an insurrection;[608:A] declared that it should be returned as soon as it should appear that the precaution was unnecessary; that in case of an insurrection he would, upon his honor, return it in half an hour; but he expressed his surprise that the people were under arms, and said that he should not deem it prudent to put powder into their hands under such circumstances. The reply was considered evasive and false. When he had first heard that the people were in arms, he swore, "by the living God," that if any violence should be offered to him, or to the officers who had acted under his directions, he would proclaim freedom to the slaves, and lay the town in ashes. Some of the citizens, in consequence of this threat, sent their wives and children into the country.

The citizens of Williamsburg resolved unanimously to continue their contributions for the relief of the inhabitants of Boston. Intelligence of these occurrences at the capital soon spread through the country. More than six hundred volunteers met at Fredericksburg by the twenty-seventh of April, and were ready to march to Williamsburg. Gloucester and Henrico demanded the restitution of the powder, the Gloucester men threatening, in case of refusal, to seize the governor. Bedford offered a premium for the manufacture of gunpowder; the independent company of Dumfries and the Albemarle volunteers were ready for action. Dunmore renewed his threats, and was confident, as he wrote to Lord Dartmouth, the English minister, that "with a small re-enforcement of troops and arms he could raise such a body of Indians, negroes, and others as would reduce the refractory people of this colony to obedience."[608:B]

Three citizens, deputed by the troops assembled at Fredericksburg, repaired to Williamsburg for the purpose of ascertaining the real state of affairs, and to offer military assistance if desired. Peyton Randolph, in behalf of the corporation, in replying to the committee, stated that: "Besides what has been said in his public answer, the governor has given private assurances to several gentlemen that the powder shall be returned to the magazine, though he has not condescended to fix the day for its return. So far as we can judge, from a comparison of all circumstances, the governor considers his honor at stake; he thinks that he acted for the best, and will not be compelled to what, we have abundant reason to believe, he would cheerfully do, if left to himself." "If we then may be permitted to advise, it is our opinion and most earnest request, that matters may be quieted for the present at least; we are firmly persuaded that perfect tranquillity will be speedily restored. By pursuing this course we foresee no hazard, or even inconvenience that can ensue. Whereas we are apprehensive, and this we think upon good grounds, that violent measures may produce effects which God only knows the consequence of."[609:A]

Upon this reply being reported to the volunteers at Fredericksburg, styled "The friends of constitutional liberty in America," they declared that it was dictated by fear, and resolved to march at all events to Williamsburg, under command of Captain Hugh Mercer, who was eager to redress the indignity which Virginia had suffered at the hands of the governor.

At this juncture Peyton Randolph happened to reach the house of Edmund Pendleton, one of his colleagues, on his route to Philadelphia, where the congress was about to meet. These two eminent men sent to Fredericksburg, on Saturday, the twenty-ninth, a letter advising that further action should be deferred until the congress should adopt a plan of resistance. Mercer, who had written to Washington for advice, received a reply to the same effect. One hundred and two deputies were appointed a council to consider this advice, and after a long and animated discussion it was assented to by a majority of one vote only.[609:B]

The military, consisting of fourteen companies of light-horse, for several days were encamped in the fields near the town, armed and equipped, and they acquiesced reluctantly in the determination not to march at once to the capital. The Virginians were at the same time arming in other parts of the country to re-enforce, whenever necessary, those who had first taken up arms; troops were collected at the Bowling Green, and others on their march from Frederick, Berkley, Dunmore, and other counties, were arrested, by information that the affair of the gunpowder was about to be accommodated. The council of one hundred and two, before adjourning, adopted an address pledging themselves to re-assemble whenever necessary, and by force of arms to defend the laws, liberties, and rights of Virginia, or any sister colony, from unjust and wicked invasion. This address was read at the head of each company, and it concluded with the significant words, "God save the liberties of America!"

The council at this time consisted of President Nelson, Commissary Camm, Ralph Wormley, Colonel G. Corbin, G. Corbin, Jr., William Byrd, and John Page. Being summoned to hold a meeting, they assembled as usual in the council chamber, but Dunmore requested their attendance at the palace. He excused his removal of the powder as owing to his fear that the volunteers might have been tempted to seize upon the magazine; he complained that his life had been exposed to danger in the recent disturbances, and he recommended the issuing of a proclamation. John Page, the youngest member, boldly advised the governor to give up the powder and arms, as the measure necessary to restore public tranquillity. Dunmore, enraged, struck the table with his fist, exclaiming, "Mr. Page, I am astonished at you." The other councillors remained silent. Page, although he had been made a member of the council by Dunmore, had, nevertheless, opposed his nomination of John Randolph as one of the board of visiters of the college, declaring "that as he had been rejected on a former occasion as not possessing the disposition and character, moral and religious, which the charter and statutes of the college required, he ought not again to be nominated, till it could be proved that he had abandoned his former principles and practices, which no one could venture to say he had." Mr. Page had then proposed Nathaniel Burwell in the place of the governor's nominee, and he was elected, the governor alone dissenting. This proceeding gave great offence to Dunmore and his secretary, Foy. Foy showed his resentment so offensively, that, says Page, "I was obliged to call him to account for it, and he, like a brave and candid man, made full reparation to me and my my friend, James Innes."

In Hanover the committee of safety for the county, and the members of the Independent Company, at the call of Patrick Henry, met at New Castle on the second day of May, and were addressed by him with such effect that they resolved either to recover the powder or make a reprisal for it.[611:A]

Burk[611:B] says: "The affair of the powder was decided before the battle of Lexington was ever talked of in Virginia." But as it appears that the express from Massachusetts reached Petersburg on Sunday, the first of May,[611:C] it is probable that Henry had already heard the news. Captain Meredith resigned in Henry's favor, and he was invested with the command, Meredith accepting the place of lieutenant. Having received orders from the committee consonant with his own suggestions, Captain Henry marched at once toward Williamsburg. Ensign Parke Goodall, with sixteen men, was detached into King and Queen County to Laneville, (on the Matapony,) the seat of Richard Corbin, the king's deputy receiver-general, to demand the estimated value of the powder, and in case of his refusal to make him a prisoner. The detachment reached Laneville about midnight, and a guard was stationed around the house. At daybreak Mrs. Corbin assured Goodall that the king's money was never kept there, but at Williamsburg, and that Colonel Corbin was then in that town. Henry had started from Hanovertown with only his own company, but the news of his march being speedily spread abroad, companies started up on all sides, and were in motion to join his standard, to the number, it was believed, of several, some say five thousand men. The colony was governed by county committees. Lady Dunmore, with her children, retired in dismay to the Fowey, lying at Yorktown. Even the patriots at Williamsburg were alarmed at the approach of this tornado; message after message was despatched, and Captain Henry was implored to desist from entering Williamsburg. The messengers were detained, and he marched on. The scene resembled that presented by Bacon marching against Berkley a hundred years before. Dunmore, in the mean time, issued a proclamation calling upon the people to resist Henry, and planted cannon at his palace, and ordered up a detachment of marines from the Fowey. Before daybreak on the fourth of May, Captain Montague, of that ship, landed the detachment, and addressed a note to President Nelson, saying that he had received certain information that Lord Dunmore was threatened with an attack to be made at daybreak on that morning at the palace, and requesting him to endeavor to prevent any assault upon the marines, as in case of it he should be compelled to fire upon the town of York.

Henry, with one hundred and fifty men, halted at Doncastle's Ordinary, (sixteen miles from Williamsburg,) where Goodall had been ordered to rejoin him. In the meanwhile the authorities of the town were concerting measures to prevent the threatened collision. Dunmore denounced Henry as a rebel and the author of all the disturbances, and poured out a tirade of profane threats and abuse. Nevertheless, at his instance, Carter Braxton, son-in-law to Colonel Corbin, repaired to Henry's headquarters on the third, and interposed his efforts to prevent matters from coming to extremities. Finding that Henry would not disband without receiving the powder or its equivalent, he returned to Williamsburg, and procured from Colonel Corbin, the deputy receiver-general, a bill of exchange for the amount demanded, and delivering it to Henry at sunrise of Wednesday the fourth, succeeded in warding off the impending blow.[612:A] In this pacific course Mr. Braxton coincided with the moderate councils of the leading men at Williamsburg.

Yorktown and Williamsburg being in commotion at the landing of the marines, and an attack upon the public treasury being apprehended, Henry wrote to Nicholas, the treasurer, offering the services of his force to remove the public treasury to any place in the colony which might be deemed a safer place of deposite than Williamsburg. The treasurer replied that he did not apprehend any necessity for such a guard, and that the people of Williamsburg "were perfectly quiet;" which, however, could hardly have been the case, because at that time more than a hundred citizens patroled the streets and guarded the treasury.[613:A]

Henry, having attained the object of his march, returned with his volunteers to Hanover. The committee presented their thanks to the party for their good conduct, and also to the numerous volunteers who were marching to lend their co-operation.

Parke Goodall was a member of the convention of 1788, and afterwards kept a tavern called the "Indian Queen," in the City of Richmond.[613:B]

The contest between Henry and Dunmore concerning the powder, is like that between Colonel Hutchinson and Lord Newark on a similar occasion in 1642, at Nottingham, as related by Mrs. Hutchinson in her charming memoirs of her husband—[613:C]the most beautiful monument ever erected by female affection.

Two days after Henry had received compensation for the powder, Dunmore issued a proclamation denouncing "a certain Patrick Henry, Jr., of Hanover," and a number of deluded followers, charging them with having unlawfully taken up arms, and by letters excited the people in divers parts of the country to join them in these outrageous and rebellious practices, extorting £330 from the king's receiver-general, and forbidding all persons to aid or abet "the said Patrick Henry, Jr.," or his confederates. The members of the council, with the exception of John Page, sided with the governor, and advised the issuing of the proclamation, and afterwards published an address, in which they expressed their "detestation and abhorrence for that licentious and ungovernable spirit that had gone forth and misled the once happy people of this country." The council now shared the public odium with Dunmore. There was a rumor that he intended to have Henry arrested on his way to the congress at Philadelphia; and it is also said that the governor denounced Henry as a coward for not having accompanied Randolph and Pendleton. Dunmore, writing to the ministry, described Henry as "a man of desperate circumstances, one who had been very active in encouraging disobedience and exciting a spirit of revolt among the people for many years past."[614:A] So in Massachusetts Samuel Adams, the model patriot of New England, was denounced by the British governor there. Henry set out for the congress May the eleventh, and was escorted in triumph by his admiring countrymen as far as Hooe's Ferry, on the Potomac, and was repeatedly stopped on the way to receive addresses full of thanks and applause.

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