day of October he died.

XIV.

Seldom has a political leader CHAP.
"Who is there now,"
His eloquence could 1676.
pen and sword alike

been more honored by his friends
said they, "to plead our cause?
animate the coldest hearts; his
compelled the admiration of his foes, and it was but
their own guilt that styled him a criminal. His name
must bleed for a season; but when time shall bring to
Virginia truth crowned with freedom, and safe against
danger, posterity shall sound his praises."1

An uneducated people obeys promptly the first call
to action for freedom; it is less capable of union and
The death of Bacon left his party
perseverance.
without a head. A series of petty insurrections fol-
lowed; but in Robert Beverley the royalists found an
agent superior to any of the remaining insurgents.
The ships in the river were at his disposal, and a
continued warfare in detail restored the supremacy of
the governor.

Thomas Hansford, a native Virginian, was the first partisan leader whom Beverley surprised. Young, gay, and gallant, nursed among the forests of the Old Dominion, fond of amusement, not indifferent to pleasure, impatient of restraint, keenly sensitive to honor, fearless of death, and passionately fond of the land that had given him birth, he was a true representative of the Virginia character. Summoned before

"just, and most exemplary." In
Hening, ii. 426, in a subsequent
order from England, "all waies of
force and designe" are sanctioned.
An old poet in the Burwell Ac-
count, p. 58, writes-

"Virginia's foes, dreading their just desert,
Corrupted Death by Paracelsian art
Him to destroy."

And a royalist, in reply, p. 59, does
not hesitate to write-

"Then how can it be counted for a sin,
Though Death, nay, though myself had

bribed been,

To guide the fatal shaft? We honor all,
That lend a hand unto a traitor's fall.”

1 In the old chronicle, p. 59—
"While none shall dare his obsequies to
sing

In deserved measures, until time shall bring
Truth crowned with freedom, and from
danger free,

To sound his praises to posterity."

Nov

13.

230

XIV.

THE GRAND REBELLION IN VIRGINIA.

CHAP. the vindictive Berkeley, he disdained to shrink from the malice of destiny, and Berkeley condemned him to 1676 be hanged. Neither at his trial nor afterwards did he show any diminution of fortitude. He demanded no favor, but that "he might be shot like a soldier, and not hanged like a dog." "You die," it was answered, "not as a soldier, but as a rebel." During the short respite after sentence, his soul was filled with the prospect of immortality. Reviewing his life, he expressed penitence for every sin. What was charged on him as rebellion, he denied to have been a sin. "Take notice,” said he, as he came to the gibbet, "I die a loyal subject and a lover of my country." That country was Virginia. Hansford perished, the first native of America on the gallows, a martyr to the right of the people to govern themselves.'

Taking advantage of their naval superiority, a party of royalists entered York River, and surprised the troops that were led by Edmund Cheesman and Thomas Wilford. The latter, a younger son of a royalist knight, who had fallen in the wars for Charles I., a truly brave man, and now by his industry a successful emigrant, lost an eye in the skirmish. "Were I stark blind," said he, "the governor would afford me a guide to the gallows." When Cheesman was arraigned for trial, Berkeley de manded, "Why did you engage in Bacon's designs?" Before the prisoner could frame an answer, his wife, a young woman, stepped forward:-"My provocations —such were her words-" made my husband join in the cause for which Bacon contended; but for me, he had never done what he has done. Since what is

1 Burwell Account, 62. Cotton, 9. Hening, iii. 567

XIV.

done," she added, falling on her knees, "was done by CHAP my means, I am most guilty; let me bear the punishment; let me be hanged, but let my husband be 1676 pardoned." She spoke truth: but the governor angrily cried, "Away!" adding reproach to the purity of her nuptial bed. Proud insolence! As if woman would die for one she had dishonored!"

As the power of Berkeley increased, his passions were whetted by the opportunity of indulgence. Nothing is so merciless as offended pride; a former affront is remembered as proof of weakness; and it seeks to restore self-esteem by a flagrant exercise of recovered power. Avarice also found delight in fines and confiscations; no sentiment of clemency was tolerated. From fear that a jury would bring in verdicts of acquittal, men were hurried to death from courts martial.2 "You are very welcome," cried the 1677 exulting Berkeley, with a low bow, on meeting William Drummond, as his prisoner; "I am more glad to see you than any man in Virginia; you shall be hanged in half an hour." The patriot, avowing boldly the part he had acted, was condemned at one o'clock, and hanged at four.

His children and wife were driven from their home, to depend on the charity of the planters.3 At length it was deemed safe to resort to the civil tribunal, where the judges proceeded with the virulence of accusers. Of those who put themselves on trial, none escaped being convicted and hanged. A panic paralyzed the juries, there was in most men so much guilt or fear. What

1 Burwell Account, 64. He- ii. 370, 546, 558. Burk, i. 201, ning, ii. 375. Cotton, 9. 263, 264, 266.

2 True Account, in Burk, ii. 254. 3 Bonds, &c. pp. 87 and 111. Burwell Account, 79. Hening,

4 True Account, in Burk, ii. 255. N. B. Let the reader not be led astray by the very ridiculous error

Jan.

20.

232

XIV.

Jan.

29.

THE GRAND REBELLION IN VIRGINIA.

CHAP. though commissioners arrived with a royal proclamation, promising pardon to all but Bacon ? In defiance 1677. of remonstrances, executions continued till twentytwo had been hanged. Three others had died of cruelty in prison; three more had fled before trial; two had escaped after conviction. More blood was shed than, on the action of our present system, would be shed for political offences in a thousand years. "The old fool," said the kind-hearted Charles II., with truth, "has taken away more lives in that naked country, than I, for the murder of my father." And in a public proclamation he censured the conduct of Berkeley, as contrary to his commands and derogatory to his clemency. Nor is it certain when the carnage would have ended, had not the assembly, newly Feb. convened, voted an address "that the governor would spill no more blood." "Had we let him alone, he would have hanged half the country," said the member from Northampton to his colleague from Stafford.3

20.

The memory of those who have been wronged is always pursued by the ungenerous. England, ambitious of absolute colonial supremacy, could not render justice to the principles by which Bacon was Feb. swayed. No printing-press was allowed in Virginia.

To speak ill of Berkeley or his friends, was punished by whipping or a fine; to speak or write, or publish any thing, in favor of the rebels or the rebellion, was made a high misdemeanor; if thrice repeated, was

of Burk, ii. 200, where he narrates
"the acquittal of ten in one day."
Pure fiction, though repeated by a
late writer. Compare Burk, ii. 255

and 263.

1 Hening, ii. 428, 429.

asserts that the king highly approved of Berkeley's conduct. The proclamation must be allowed the highest possible authority to the contrary.

3 T. M.'s Account, 24. Hening

2 Ibid. 429. Oldmixon, i. 257, ii. 545-558.