Centreville, Virginia

“ From the terraced banks of the Rappahannock, sixty miles north of Richmond, to the shining reaches of the James, where the capital of the Confederacy stands high on her seven hills, the lowlands of Virginia are clad with luxuriant vegetation. The roads and railways run through endless avenues of stately trees; the shadows of the giant oaks lie far across the rivers, and ridge and ravine are mantled with the unbroken foliage of the primeval forest. ”

“ Say to Governor Jefferson that I believe it to be General Cornwallis' intention to advance into Virginia in an attempt to over-run and subjugate that state. Say to him, that I hope, with the assistance of Sumter's and Marion's rangers, without further reënforcements, to relieve the Southern States, and afterwards, if I am needed, I will gladly come to the help of Virginia. I would not have him think that I have deserted that noble commonwealth whose aid, more than that of any of the others, has enabled me to do what so far it has been possible to accomplish in this department. ”

“ To defend the new territories and maintain the old, Grenville proposed retaining 10,000 British troops in America, stationing them mainly in Halifax, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and the West Indies from which they could be moved to trouble spots as needed. The British had learned from the unpredictable response by the colonies during the French and Indian War and the nearly disastrous Pontiac Rebellion in early 1763 that the colonies would not, or could not, provide cooperatively for their own defense even in the face of clear danger. ”

“ The Grenville ministry had several aims for its western lands policy. The Proclamation of 1763 would separate the Indians and whites while preventing costly frontier wars. Once contained east of the mountains, the colonials would redirect their natural expansionist tendencies southward into the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, and northward into Nova Scotia. Strong English colonies in former Spanish and French territories would be powerful deterrents to future colonial wars. ”

“ The key to the political sagacity of these revolutionary Virginians is found in the willingness of an elite group of planter gentry to serve government and to serve it well and in the acceptance of their leadership by the rest of the Virginians. It is found in the enlightened attitudes these leaders had about their responsibilities as officeholders to the people. ”

“ A fair proportion only of those who were imported into Virginia as laborers acquired handsome estates and became prominent and influential citizens. Many Assemblies, after 1632, contained burgesses who had begun their career in the Colony by binding themselves out for a set period of time. In the early sessions of the legislature, the members who had at one time been servants or apprentices had been brought in as employees of the Company, and, through the grants of land which they received on the expiration of their terms, had acquired immediate importance in the community. ”

“ In a petition drawn by the First Assembly which met in Virginia, for presentation to the Company in England, it was urged that steps should be taken to dispatch workingmen to the Colony who should be competent to erect the projected college building, an indication that there were few mechanics among its population at this time. ”

“ Clarksville has therefore never been ceded to the United States, and if it is not an independent community, the eminent domain must still rest in the State of Virginia.
Some philosophers say that the character of a people is determined by climate and soil. There is a notion in this region that the underlying limestone and the consequent succulent Blue-Grass produce a race of large men, frank in manner, brave in war, inclined to oratory and ornamental conversation, women of uncommon beauty, and the finest horses in the Union. ”

“ In the bleakest period of winter, under leaden skies and with sombre landscapes, the country which they had reached would have been delightful to them, but clothed in the verdure of the Virginian May, when the greenness of the foliage and the tints of the wild flowers have their deepest and softest coloring, it was quite natural that visions of an earthly Paradise should have arisen before their eyes, accustomed for so long a time to the heaving plains of the Atlantic. ”

“ The people called for self-government, and Sandys believed that only through self-government could a colony really prosper. Governor Yeardley was accordingly instructed to issue writs for the election of a General Assembly in Virginia, and on the 30th of July, 1619, the first legislative body of Englishmen in America was called together in the wooden church at Jamestown. ”

“ Now in oldest Virginia the colonial assembly, when instituted in 1619, the earliest legislature of civilized men in the western hemisphere, was patterned after the old English county court, and it was natural that its units should be conceived as hundreds and in some instances called so. Moreover, there are indications that at times the hundred was regarded as a military division, and also as the smallest area for the administration of justice, as in the law passed in 1624 providing that Charles City and Elizabeth City should hold monthly courts. ”

“ Augusta County was settled by Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania, (descendants of the Covenanters,) a race respectable for intelligence, energy, morality, and piety.
In compliance with the petition of John Caldwell and others, the synod of Philadelphia (1738) addressed a letter to Governor Gooch, soliciting his favor in behalf of such persons as should remove to Western Virginia, in allowing them "the free enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties;" and the governor gave a favorable answer. ”

“ Some writers divide Old Virginia society into four classes,—the great planters, the small planters, the white servants and freedmen, and the negro slaves. The division is sound, provided we remember that between 204 the two upper classes no hard and fast line can be drawn. Already in England the classes of rural gentry and yeomen shaded into one another; in Virginia both alike became land-holders and slave-owners, they mingled together in society, and their families intermarried. A typical instance is that of the parents of Thomas Jefferson. ”

“ From the busy streets of London, from the strife in Parliament and the Privy Council, we must turn once more to the American wilderness and observe what progress had been made in Virginia during the seventeen years of its government by a great joint-stock company. But for a correct appreciation of the situation we must qualify and limit this period of seventeen years. The terrible experience of the first three years left the colony at the point of death, and it was not until the administration of Sir Thomas Dale that any considerable expansion beyond Jamestown began. ”

“ The colony at Jamestown was the first swarm which, issuing from the central hive in England, established a permanent home abroad. Since the 13th of May, 1607, how many swarms have gone forth from the same hive, how vast a portion of the surface of the earth has now been populated by the same race! The same practical aspirations which in the present century have led to the formation of so many English commonwealths in the Australasian seas, influenced men of the same manly and self-reliant stock to remove to Virginia. ”

“ Look proudly to heaven for a death-bed of fame."
Sir Richard Grenville was, next to his kinsman, Sir Walter Raleigh, the principal person concerned in the first settlement of Virginia.
In 1602, the forty-third and last year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, deviating from the usual oblique route by the Canaries and the West Indies, made a direct voyage in a small bark across the Atlantic, and in seven weeks reached Massachusetts Bay. It was on this occasion that Englishmen, for the first time, landed on the soil of New [29] England. ”

“ When the Union forces began to cheer during the surrendering of Confederate arms, Grant immediately ordered the cheers to cease with the remark: "The war is over; the rebels are our countrymen again." Thus, Virginia, where the first blood of the War between the States was shed, was also the scene where the final negotiations for the conclusion of the war were made.
From April 3 to April 10, 1865, Danville was the capital of the Confederacy. As the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond took place, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, and his cabinet moved to Danville. ”

“ One of the most convincing pieces of evidence that the population of Virginia, during the existence of the Company, contained no element that would cause it really to resemble a penal colony in character, is furnished by the report of the census of 1624-25, in which the ages of the servants are given. There were ten persons engaged in cultivating the public lands at Hog Island, and their average age was only twenty. ”

“ In July, 1638, Charles the First addressed a letter to Lord Baltimore, referring to his former letters to "Our Governor and Council of Virginia, and to others, our officers and subjects in these parts, (in which) we signified our pleasure that William Clayborne, David Morehead, and other planters in the island near Virginia, which they have nominated Kentish Island, should in no sort be interrupted by you or any other in your right, but [197] rather be encouraged to proceed in so good a work." ”

“ With the influx of the Cavaliers and with the reputation of the prosperity of the Virginia Colony, the number of middle class and upper class residents increased considerably during the Eighteenth Century until such residents soon made up a majority of the inhabitants. By 1700, the population of Virginia was approximately 70,000 including about 5,500 Negroes. ”

“ Thus, in Virginia, the most Anglican, oldest, and most loyal of the colonies, a spirit of freedom and independence infused itself into the minds of the planters. The ocean that separated them from England lessened the terror of a distant sceptre. The supremacy of law being less firmly established, especially in the frontier, a wild spirit of justice had arisen which was apt to decline into contempt of authority. Added to this, the colony contained malecontent Cromwellian soldiers reduced to bondage, perhaps some of them men of heroic soul, victims of civil war, ripe for revolt. ”

“ When the statute of 1680 became a law, there was a general impression that one of the towns to be established under its terms would be selected as the metropolis of Virginia, and in consequence many persons who would have otherwise felt differently and probably acted accordingly, were indisposed to build residences at Jamestown. The expressed wish of the King that the members of the Council and other citizens of prominence and influence should set an example to the population at large by establishing homes at that place, failed to have a general effect. ”

“ Cities and towns make up the next political level of government organization in Virginia as described in Article VIII of the constitution. A city is defined in the constitution as an incorporated community which has within defined boundaries a population of five thousand or more; a town is an incorporated community which has within defined boundaries a population of less than five thousand. In determining such population, the last census of the United States or an enumeration made by authority of the General Assembly must be used as the basis. ”

“ And beauty is there, rarer than that of the fair landscape to be glimpsed through doors and windows, for the fairest, loveliest woman in Virginia fills this happy home with her sweet pervading presence, and casts over it a rare and nameless charm—a spell which brings to all its inmates, from master to slave, from visiting friend to chance guest, a sense of assured comfort and cheerful content—Does not your heart tell you, oh, heart of my heart, that such home might be ours! ”

“ Virginia was well known to be essentially an agricultural community. In seeking a new home there, the English agricultural laborer expected to change his skies but not his employment. On the other hand, to the English mechanic who was able to support his family by following his trade, the advantages offered by the Colony were comparatively small unless he wished to adopt agricultural pursuits. There were mechanics in the mother country, however, who were either discontented with the degree of success which they had won, or who were swayed by a restless disposition or tempted by liberal offers. ”

“ Virginia did not develop any cities or even towns during the period 1625-1660. Indeed, the towns, such as Jamestown and Henrico, that had earlier been established, declined in population or were totally abandoned. The immigrants who were funneled into the colony through Jamestown were soon attracted to the ever widening frontier. During the first twenty years colonists had lived in organized farming communities, separated from other such settlements, but strictly supervised by local "plantation commanders." ”

“ Supposing I was necessarily with the army at Burkesville, he addressed a letter to me there informing me that, as governor of the Commonwealth of the State of Virginia, he had temporarily removed the State capital from Richmond to Danville, and asking if he would be permitted to perform the functions of his office there without molestation by the Federal authorities. ”