XIV. assessed and collected them, and superintended their CHAP. disbursement; so that military, judicial, legislative, and executive powers were often deposited in the hands of men, who, as owners of large estates, masters of many indented servants, and lords of slaves, already began to exhibit the first indications of an established aristocracy. Thus, at the period of the restoration, two elements 1660 were contending for the mastery in the political life of Virginia; on the one hand, there was in the Old Dominion a people; on the other, a rising aristocracy. The present decision of the contest would depend on the side to which the sovereign of the country would incline. During the few years of the interruption of monarchy in England, that sovereign had been the people of Virginia; and its mild and beneficent legislation, careless of theory, and unconscious of obeying impulses which were controlling the common advancement of humanity, had begun to loosen the cords of religious bigotry, to confirm equality of franchises, to foster colonial industry by freedom of traffic with the world. The restoration of monarchy changed the course of events, took from the people of Virginia the power which was not to be recovered for more than a century, and gave to the forming aristocracy a powerful ally in the royal government and its officers. The early history of Virginia not only illustrates the humane and ameliorating influences of popular freedom, but also presents a picture of the confusion, discontent, and carnage, which are the natural consequences of selfish legislation and a retrograde movement in the cause of popular liberty. The emigrant royalists had hitherto not acted as a political party, but took advantage of peace to estab 196 XIV. ELECTION OF A ROYALIST ASSEMBLY CHAP. lish their fortunes. Their numbers were constantly increasing; their character and education procured 1660. them respect and influence; yet no collisions ensued. If one assembly had, what Massachusetts never did, submitted to Richard Cromwell-if another had elected Berkeley as governor-the power of the people still preserved its vigor, and controlled legislative action. But on the tidings of the restoration of Charles II., the fires of loyalty blazed up, perhaps the more vehemently for their long inactivity. Virginia shared the passionate joy of England. In the mother-country, the spirit of popular liberty, contending at once with ancient institutions which it could not overthrow, had been productive of much calamity, and had overwhelmed the tenets of popular enfranchisement in disgust and abhorrence. In Virginia, where no such ancient abuses existed, the same spirit had been productive only of benefits. Yet to the colony England still seemed a home; and the spirit of English loyalty pervaded the plantations along the Chesapeake. With the people it was a generous enthusiasm; to many of the leading men loyalty opened a career for ambition; and with general consent, Sir William Berkeley, no longer acting as governor, elected by the people, but assuming such powers as his royal commission bestowed, issued writs for an assembly in the name of the king. The sovereignty over itself, which Virginia had exercised so well, had come to an end. The excitement of the moment favored the friends of royalty; and the first assembly which was elected 1661. after the restoration, was composed of landholders and Cavaliers; men in whose breasts the passions of colo XIV. nial life had not wholly mastered the attachment to CHAP English usages. Of the assembly of 1654, not more than two members were elected at the restoration; 1661 of the assembly of March, 1660, of which an adjourned meeting was held in October, the last assembly elected during the interruption, only eight were reelected to the first assembly of Charles II., and, of these eight, not more than five retained their places.1 New men came upon the theatre of legislation, bring- Mar. ing with them new principles. The restoration was, for Virginia, a political revolution. The "first session "2 of the royalist assembly was in March, 1661. One of its earliest acts-disfranchising a magistrate "for factious and schismatical demeanors," 3-marks its political character; but, as democratic institutions had tranquilly and naturally been introduced, so the changes which were now to take place, proceeded from the instinct of selfishness, the hatred to popular power, the blind respect for English precedents, and not from any settled theory of ment, or well-developed principles of conduct. govern The apprehensions of Virginia were awakened by the establishment of the colonial monopoly in the navigation act; and the assembly, alarmed at this open violation of the natural and prescriptive "freedoms" of the colony, appointed Sir William Berkeley its agent, to present the grievances of Virginia and procure their redress. Here, again, the influence of royalist legis 1 Hening, i. 386, 387, and 526- 1660, was still the last republican 530; ii. 197, &c. 250. 2 That this was the "first session," appears from comparing Hening, ii. 147, with Hening, ii. 31. Burk, ii. 120, seems to have been confused by the old mode of reckoning. The assembly of October 11, assembly. Berkeley had been di- 3 Hening, ii. 39. The victim 12. Mar. 12. 198 NAVIGATION ACT OPPRESSIVE. CHAP. lation is perceptible; no distrust of the royal power XIV. was excited; freedom of trade was the object to 1661. which desires were directed, and Virginia reposed 21. confidently in the favor of its monarch. Far different had been the course of the New England states, where the perpetual dread of royal interference persevered in soliciting charters, till they were obtained. Virginia, unhappy in her confidence, lost irrevocably the opportunity of obtaining a liberal patent. The Ancient Dominion was equally unfortunate in the selection of its agent. Sir William Berkeley did not, even after years of experience, understand the principles of the act against which he was deputed to expostulate. We have seen that he obtained for himself and partners a portion of the territory of Virginia; for the colony he did not secure one franchise. It merits remark that, even at the hands of Charles II., the democratic colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut received greater favor than Virginia. The king employed the loyalty of Virginia to its injury. For more than a year the navigation act, which had July been communicated to the Dutch merchants of New Belgium, was virtually evaded in Virginia;1 mariners of New England, lading their vessels with tobacco, did but touch at a New England harbor on the Sound, and immediately sail for the wharves of New Amsterdam. But this remedy was partial and transient. By the very nature of foreign commerce, the act of navigation could easily be executed in Virginia, because the colony had few ships of its own, and no foreign vessel dared to enter its ports; and the unequal legislation pressed upon its interests with intense se 1 Stuyvesant, July 15, 1662. Albany Records, xviii. 197, and 157, 158. XIV verity. The number of the purchasers of its tobacco CHAP was diminished; and the English merchants, sure of their market, grew careless about the quality of the 1661. article which they supplied. To the colonist as consumer, the price of foreign goods was enhanced; to the colonist as producer, the opportunity of a market was narrowed. Virginia long attempted to devise a remedy against the commercial oppression of England. It was the strong, exercising tyranny over the weak; there could be no remedy but independence. Yet the planters vainly flattered themselves that, by producing an artificial scarcity of tobacco, they might alleviate their distress; and it was repeatedly proposed to Carolina and Maryland, to omit for a year the culture of their staple. These negotiations always remained fruitless; yet the pertinacity with which they were pursued, proves the extremity of suffering occasioned by the acts of navigation.1 The burden laid upon the intercolonial traffic was 1672 the more intolerable to the Virginians, because it produced no revenue. It was established exclusively to favor the monopoly of the English merchant; and its avails were all abandoned as a good income to the officers to stimulate their vigilance. Thus, at the very season when the rising aristocracy of Virginia was seeking, by the aid of royal influence, to confirm its supremacy, the policy of the English government oppressed colonial industry so severely as to excite the hostility of the united province. The party which separated itself from the people, and united with the king in the desire of gaining a 1 Hening, ii. 190, 200, 209, 221, 224, 228, 229, 232, 251, 252, |