Virginia House of Burgesses

“ It appointed George Washington as Commander-in-Chief of this American Continental Army and assumed complete responsibility for the salaries and supplies of the servicemen.
On June 1, 1775 Governor Dunmore called the Virginia House of Burgesses together for the purpose of discussing some British proposals originated by Lord North. The members did not favor these, however, and proceeded to suggest the levying of a tax of five pounds per head on each imported slave as an attempt to raise revenue for payment of the recent Lord Dunmore War with the Indians. ”

“ Thus the people of Virginia were left to make a most interesting experiment in self-government. The House of Burgesses were elected on a broad franchise. Under the law of 1655 all housekeepers were given the right to vote. [42] Since it would seem that everyone must have a place in which to live, this was a near approach to manhood suffrage. Yet three years later these liberty loving people made certain that no one should be excluded, when the Assembly enacted that "all persons inhabiting in this colony that are freemen" were "to have their votes in the election of Burgesses." ”

“ He urged them to choose instead a more vigorous man from amongst their own number. But he did offer to accept the governorship directly from the House of Burgesses if the Council would concur with the Burgesses in offering it to him. He promised that if thereafter any supreme power in England succeeded in re-establishing its authority in Virginia he would immediately lay down his commission and "will live most submissively obedient to any power God shall set over me, as the experience of eight yeares have shewed I have done." ”

“ Many burgesses not only were as wealthy as councilors, they were their social equals. Quite commonly they were their brothers or nephews. As the burgesses gained the ascendancy over the council, the house became, in the words of Carl Bridenbaugh, "the tobacco gentry club". There sat the new generation of Randolphs, Harrisons, Nelsons, Robinsons, and Lees.
There developed around Robinson and his cousin, Attorney-General Peyton Randolph, a group of like-minded gentry known in Virginia politics as the "Robinson-Randolph Clique." ”

“ She might keep her assembly, by which alone could she be taxed, all prohibitions upon her trade should be repealed, and her people might toast the late king in private as much as they pleased; only no public stand against the Commonwealth would be tolerated. On these terms Virginia submitted. Sir William Berkeley resigned the governorship, sold his brick house in Jamestown, and went out to his noble plantation at Green Spring near by, there to bide his time. For the next eight years things moved along peaceably under three successive Roundhead governors, all chosen by the House of Burgesses. ”

“ In Virginia, during this period, the commons could guard their interests only by means of the House of Burgesses. All other organs of government were controlled by Berkeley and his friends. The people had no voice in the selection of vestrymen, or sheriffs, or justices of the peace, and no control over their actions. The Council was entirely submissive to the Governor's will. Its members not only held their seats at Sir William's pleasure, but were the recipients of numerous other favors that bound them closely to his interest. ”

“ The percentage of white males who voted in the 18th Century elections was quite high. True, the colonial voters elected only the burgesses, but that single choice was an important guarantee of their rights, since the House of Burgesses was the strongest political body in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson once remarked that the election process itself tended to eliminate class conflicts and extremism: the planter aristocrat with no concern for the small farmer was not apt to be elected, and the man who demagogically courted the popular vote was ostracized by the gentry. ”

“ This settlement of the Valley soon began to work profound modifications in the life of Old Virginia. Hitherto it had been purely English and predominantly Episcopal, Cavalier, and aristocratic. There was now a rapid invasion of Scotch Presbyterianism, with small farms, few slaves, and democratic ideas, made more democratic 396 by life in the backwoods. It was impossible that two societies so different in habits and ideas should coexist side by side, sending representatives to the same House of Burgesses, without a stubborn conflict. ”

“ The traditions of ability, probity and heroism established by the men of the Critical Period made possible that long and honorable career of the House of Burgesses and the important rôle it was to play in winning independence for America. ”

“ This was the kernel of the Virginia government which prevailed until the Revolution—a governor, his council, and a house of Burgesses. It was the beginning of the American constitutions.
Twelve years had elapsed since planting Jamestown, and now the settlement first assumed the character of permanency. Ninety respectable young women were sent over in 1620, ** and the following year sixty more came to be wives for the planters. The settlers "fell to building houses and planting corn," with a determination to make Virginia their home. ”

“ One has only to glance down the list of Burgesses to find many of the proudest names in colonial Virginia—Page, Harrison, Fairfax, Randolph, Burwell, Carter, Ball, Wormeley, Digges, Spotswood, Lee, Byrd, Claiborne, etc. So the aristocrat as well as the small farmer, the wealthy easterner as well as the pioneer of Orange or Albemarle, or the German of Frederick looked to the House to protect their interests.
While the leadership of the House continued to be aristocratic, the rank and file grew more democratic. The open spaces of America fostered a spirit of independence. ”

“ By the time the burgesses reassembled other colonies had formed non-importation agreements and were boycotting British goods. On May 16 the House of Burgesses adopted resolutions reasserting its exclusive right to levy taxes in Virginia and condemning recent parliamentary proposals to transport colonists accused of treason to England for trial. George Washington introduced a non-importation plan devised by Richard Henry Lee and George Mason. Before the house could act Botetourt dissolved the assembly. ”

“ Your Majesty’s ancient Colony and Dominion of Virginia hath at all Times and upon every Occasion been entirely devoted to your Majesty’s sacred Person and Government, and we cannot forego this Opportunity of renewing those Assurances of the truest Loyalty and warmest Affection, which we have so often, with the greatest Sincerity, given to the Best of Kings, whose Wisdom and Goodness we esteem the surest Pledges of the Happiness of all his people. ”

“ Though they remembered their own interests, the burgesses believed they were bound to respect and protect those of others. This was a fundamental part of Virginia public ethics and was one reason for the absence of extensive political corruption. They held that sovereignty was vested in the people, who delegated certain powers to government. This they believed long before the Revolution. As early as 1736 Sir John Randolph reminded the burgesses:
We must consider ourselves chosen by all the People; sent hither to represent them, to give their Consent in the weightiest of their Concerns ”

“ Counsell & Company in England for being constrained by the intemperature of the weather and the falling sick of diverse of the Burgesses to breake up so abruptly—before they had so much as putt their lawes to the ingrossing. This they wholly comited to [454] the fidelity of their speaker, who therin [455] (his conscience telles him) hath done the parte [456] of an honest man, otherwise he would be easily founde [457] out by the Burgesses themselves, who wth all expedition are to have so many bookes of the same lawes as there be both Incorporations and Plantations in the Colony. ”

“ Why he was now called forth by the Assembly to take once more the most important office in Virginia, cannot be certainly determined. It seems strange that the Burgesses in one act should assert their own sovereignty in the most emphatic terms, and in the next elect as their Governor this ardent servant of the Crown. If it had been their only aim to choose a leader of executive ability, they did not lack men of power and experience whose love of popular government was unquestioned. ”

“ Had he been a man of ability and firmness he could have rendered the people services of great value. He might have put an end to the reign of terror inaugurated by Berkeley, prevented the unending law suits, confiscations and compositions, reorganized the county courts and assured to the people a fair election of Burgesses. He seems to have wished to rule justly and well, but he was too weak to quell the strife between the rival factions and bring quiet to the distracted colony. ”

“ At all times the Governor was respected because back of him was the awe-inspiring figure of the monarch. If the Councillors or the Burgesses defied him, he might report their "disobedience" to the King with serious consequences. On more than one occasion the King ordered the Governor to rebuke the Burgesses for their "presumption" in disregarding his wishes.
The Burgesses seem not to have hung their heads at these reprimands, and it was only when the King tried to abridge their privileges that they were deeply concerned. ”

“ It was a priceless acquisition: every dictate of prudence, of policy, of patriotism demanded that it should be sacredly kept: it was immediately thrown away by an act of fatuity which was the climax of the bad reign of John-the-good. John issued a patent creating his beloved Philip Duke of Burgundy, and ceding the duchy to him and to his heirs forever. Thus was founded in the person of Philip-the-bold, the famous second House of Burgundy.
We left a page or two ago, Margaret of Flanders duchess dowager of Burgundy, widowed and childless. ”

“ But considering he had bene at so great chardge and paines to augmente this Colony, and had adventured his owne person in the action, and since that time had brought home a good [20] quantity of fishe, to relieve the Colony by waye of trade, and above all, because the Comission for authorising the General Assembly admitteth of two Burgesses out of every plantation wthout restrainte or exception. Upon all these considerations, the Assembly was contented to admitt of him and his Lieutenant (as members of their body and Burgesses) into their society. ”

“ As late as 1654, however, we find in the Assembly, burgesses who, only a few years before, had been working for different planters, under indenture or by the custom of the country. The explanation of this fact is to be sought either in their superior ability and energy after securing a release, or in their thrifty habits during the continuation of their service. [101]
It was not impossible for an active and industrious man bound by indenture or by the custom of the country to accumulate a good estate in the course of his employment ”

“ We repeatedly urge those families to stick, not to come off their creeks until they’ve laid by their corn and harvested their oats; and they are denied the simple means of defending their lives. Whether the Burgesses or the royal governor be at fault the fact remains that the settlers pay in blood and anguish.”
“If there is any powder at Williamsburg or Norfolk that I can lay hands to, it shall go over the mountains. ”

“ 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 the cases in which the area of the grant exceeded five hundred acres, the size of the dwelling-house was to be enlarged in proportion. This order was a fair sample of many received from the authorities in England who had charge of the affairs of the Colony, showing either the most complete ignorance of the conditions surrounding the Virginians, or indifference to the obstacles standing in the way of the enforcement of their commands. To have compelled every planter to substitute brick for wood in the construction of his residence would have been an imposition of the most tyrannical nature. ”