Part 9

The corner-stone was laid in 1785, and on October 19, 1789, eight years to the day after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, the Legislature convened in it.

The Capitol is full of memories of bygone days. Here were debated and adopted the famous resolutions of 1798-99, drafted by James Madison as the true interpretation of the Federal compact. Here sat the convention of 1829-30, of which Marshall, Madison, Monroe and John Randolph of Roanoke were members, the convention of 1851, which enlarged the right of suffrage and, ten years later, the body which adopted the Act of Secession. Here, in 1862, met the congress of the Confederate States of America, which sat until April, 1865, when it adjourned--“Not _sine die_ indeed, yet never to meet again.”

In the rotunda of the Capitol is the most valuable marble in America, Houdon’s statue of Washington, modelled from life. Virginia had voted this statue to him May 15, 1784, and Madison penned the inscription which appears on the pedestal:

“The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia have caused this statue to be erected as a monument of affection and gratitude to George Washington, who uniting to the endowments of the hero, the virtues of the patriot, and exercising both in establishing the liberties of his country, has rendered his name dear to his fellow citizens, and given to the world an immortal example of true glory.”

Mr. Jefferson, being then in Paris, engaged Houdon to come to Virginia to make the statue, saying of him: “He is without rivalship, the first statuary of his age, as proof of which he receives orders from every other country for things intended to be capital.”

It is a tradition that Houdon spent several days at Mount Vernon before he selected the attitude for the statue. One day Washington was summoned to inspect a pair of horses offered for sale. He asked their price, and was told “a thousand dollars.” At once he drew himself up, with an expression of indignation at the price, and Houdon, watching him, exclaimed, “Ah, I ’ave him, I ’ave him!” and immediately set to work to make the pose immortal.

In the Capitol grounds stands Crawford’s famous equestrian statue of the great hero.

[Illustration: WASHINGTON MONUMENT AND CAPITOL, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.]

Thomas Crawford, father of F. Marion Crawford, the distinguished novelist of our day, had received an order from the State of Virginia to make this statue of Washington and also to make effigies of Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry to stand at its base. He had just completed his work when he was afflicted with a mortal disease, and when an order came to add the figures of Mason, Marshall, Nelson and Lewis he was unable to fill it, and the monument was subsequently completed by Randolph Rogers. The statue was unveiled February 22, 1858, the one hundred and twenty-sixth anniversary of Washington’s birth, and a proud day it was in the history of Richmond. Henry A. Wise, Governor of the State, presided and delivered an eloquent address. Senator R. M. T. Hunter was the orator of the occasion, and John R. Thompson and James Barron Hope, who were then the “rose and expectancy of the State,” recited poems prepared by them. It is considered one of the best equestrian statues in the world.

A fine marble statue of Henry Clay, executed by Joel T. Hart and erected by the efforts of some patriotic ladies, stands near by. Contemporaries of Mr. Clay pronounced it lifelike. Virginia claims Mr. Clay for a son, as he was born in Hanover County, and did not move to Kentucky until he reached manhood.

[Illustration: HENRY CLAY.]

On the Capitol grounds is an old building known as the Bell House which, though erected many years previous, is chiefly interesting for its association with the Civil War. The bell had been purchased in 1790, when the Directors of Public Buildings were authorized to “fit up a sufficient bell for the use of the Capitol.” Tradition says the bell rang an alarm at the time of the “Nat Turner” insurrection, but it is consecrated to the trying times of 1861 to 1865 as is no other object connected with the Civil War. When its well-known peal rang out three quick taps and an interval, soldiers and citizens, old men and young, rushed with common impulse to the rendezvous, with hearts and hands ready for the defence of the city.

There is also on the grounds a statue of the great soldier, Thomas J. Jackson, executed by Foley, the celebrated English sculptor, and presented to Virginia by some of his English admirers. Old soldiers say of this, that it is the best likeness extant of their great leader. “Look! there is Jackson, standing like a stone wall,” is inscribed on the pedestal.

One of the most interesting sites in the city is that now occupied by the Monumental Church, on Broad Street, on what was formerly known as Academy Square. Here a certain Chevalier Quesnay de Beaurepaire erected a large wooden building for an academy of fine arts. He was full of enthusiasm, and visited Paris to present his plan to the French Academy, which body gave their approval, but his scheme failed and the building was turned into a theatre. Here assembled in 1788 a brilliant coterie of statesmen--Marshall, Madison, Mason, Monroe, Randolph, Henry, Lee, Wythe, Pendleton and others, who met to discuss and finally ratify the Constitution of the United States as framed in Philadelphia.

Twenty-three years afterwards on a fatal December evening it was the scene of a dreadful disaster, when seventy-two persons, including the Governor of the State, who were attending a performance at the theatre, perished in the flames which destroyed the building. The portico of the church covers the tombs and charred remains of most of the victims of the fire, and a monument bears their names.

[Illustration: THE MARSHALL HOUSE, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.]

The house of Chief Justice Marshall stands on the street named in his honor. It was built in 1795, and is as simple and unpretentious as was its distinguished owner. Still in the possession of his descendants, the house has not been remodelled and but few changes have been made inside. By some mischance, in the absence of Judge Marshall, the house was built rear side front. The handsome hall and staircase, with their carved balusters of cherry, are at the back, opening towards the garden, the dining-room looks out on Marshall Street, and the entrance for visitors is by a small door on the side street. Here lived and loved, in the simple, good old fashion, the great lawyer and his lovely wife, Mary Willis Ambler. Their married life was a peaceful idyl lasting forty-two years. Folded in his will was a touching tribute to his wife, ending:

“She became at sixteen a most devoted wife. All my faults, and they were too many, could never weaken this sentiment. It formed a part of her existence. Her judgment was so sound and so deep that I often relied upon it in situations of some perplexity. I do not recollect once to have regretted the adoption of her opinion. I have sometimes regretted its rejection.”

Both Washington and Lafayette visited the city in 1784, and were welcomed by the citizens and legislature then in session, who expressed their appreciation of the great services they had rendered the country. In response to an address made upon the occasion of this visit, Washington said: “That this growing city may enjoy the benefits which are to be derived from liberty, independence and peace--that it may improve such of its advantages as a bountiful nature has bestowed, and that it may soon be ranked first in the Union for population, commerce and wealth, is my sincere and fervent wish.” Lafayette visited Richmond again in 1824. Houdon had made a bust of him, which Virginia gave to France, and a copy of which she kept in the rotunda of the Capitol. By chance, just before his visit, the nose was broken off, and there was great concern lest he reach the city before it could be restored. Happily, however, the nose was finished in time.

The Swan tavern, still preserved on Broad Street, was an ancient place of entertainment kept by Major Moss, who was said to be “full of good feeding, breeding and fellowship.” His home was the Lincoln’s Inn or Doctors’ Commons of Richmond, for there assembled in term times the non-resident judges and lawyers. Though of unpretending exterior, the Swan was of highest repute for good fare, good wine and good company. An annex to the Swan was the house where Aaron Burr was kept prisoner during his trial for treason in 1807, the Federal Court having then no prison under its control. Chief Justice Marshall presided at the trial, and the Court sat in the Hall of Delegates in the Capitol.

Edgar Allan Poe spent many of his boyhood days in Richmond, with John Allan, a rich merchant of Scotch descent who adopted him. Until recently, the fine old residence of Mr. Allan was standing on Fifth Street, and near by was the residence of William Wirt, who loved the place and thus writes of it:

“I never met with such an assemblage of striking and interesting objects as here, the town dispersed over hills of various shapes, the river descending from west to east, and obstructed by a multitude of small islands, clumps of trees and myriads of rocks--the same river, at the lower end of the town, bending at right angles to the south and winding many miles in that direction, its polished surface caught here and there by the eye, but more frequently covered from the view by trees, among which white sails exhibit a curious and interesting spectacle; then again, on the opposite side, Manchester, built on a hill, which, sloping quickly to the river, opens the whole town to view, interspersed with flourishing poplars and surrounded to a great distance by green plains and stately woods,--all these objects falling at once under the eye constitute by far the most finely varied and most animated landscape I have ever seen.”

The Valentine Museum, which was given to the city by one of its most valued citizens, the late Mann S. Valentine, contains archæological specimens numbering more than one hundred thousand, also an art collection and a number of original works donated by his brother, Edward V. Valentine, Virginia’s talented sculptor. A short walk brings you to the studio of this artist, where, among many beautiful and interesting figures, the chief interest centres in the model for the recumbent statue of General Robert E. Lee, the marble of which is in the annex to the Episcopal Church in Lexington. This statue has won for Valentine the admiration and love of the people of the South.

[Illustration: RICHMOND IN FLAMES.]

At once the capital and the citadel of the Confederacy, Richmond was the objective point of assault in the Civil War, and the greatest generalship on both sides was displayed in its attack and its defence. From May, 1862, to April, 1865, it may be said to have been in a state of siege, holding out steadily and grandly against great odds. During this period it is said that fifteen pitched battles and more than twenty skirmishes were fought in the effort to capture it. When its defenders were finally obliged to leave the city to its fate, they set on fire the warehouses to prevent the capture of the tobacco which they contained, burned the bridges behind them as the last soldier crossed the river, and left the business portion smoldering in flames--a barren trophy to the victors. It is in consequence of this that so few of the typical old buildings remain standing, for the flames leaped from house to house and destroyed many old landmarks. The city was not long in rising from its ashes and taking on new life, and there could be no greater contrast than that between the city of 1865 and the Richmond of to-day. Nevertheless it will always be remembered as the capital of the Lost Cause, and, as such, it will be invested with a pathetic interest. Its suburbs, attractive as they are from their natural beauty, derive their chief interest from having been the scenes of the conflict. In many places there remain the earthworks thrown up for the defence of the city, and every avenue out of the city for miles around leads to battlefields. Many monuments mark the love and veneration of the people for the heroes of the war. Foremost of these is the equestrian statue of General Robert E. Lee by Mercie, a French sculptor. It represents the great general riding slowly down the line, mounted on “Traveller,” his well-known war-horse. It is located in Lee Circle, one of the most beautiful parts of the city. A monument, the corner-stone of which has already been laid, will be erected to the memory of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States. His residence while occupying that office is a building imposing in appearance, with grounds beautifully laid out, and adorned with fountains and flowers. It is known as the “White House of the Confederacy,” and is kept in admirable condition by a band of devoted women, the Confederate Literary Memorial Society. The residence occupied by General Lee and his family is in the care of the Virginia Historical Society, and contains the extensive library of books, manuscripts and publications of that society.

[Illustration: MONUMENT TO GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, RICHMOND.]

[Illustration: THE WHITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND.]

A favorite drive is to Hollywood, silent city of the dead, which nature and art have united to beautify. Here sleep many of Virginia’s famous men; among them, Monroe and Tyler, Presidents of the United States, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, John R. Thompson, the poet, John Randolph, caustic Master of Roanoke, and Matthew F. Maury, “Pathfinder of the Seas.” A beautiful monument of granite, pyramidal in form, and covered with Virginia creeper and ivy, marks the graves of twelve hundred Confederate dead.

[Illustration: MONUMENT OVER CONFEDERATE DEAD AT HOLLYWOOD.]

The Government has lately finished a fine road, leading from Chimborazo Park to the National Cemetery, where lie buried 6547 of the Federal soldiers who fell in the attempts to capture the city.

Nature has done much for the city. The climate is pleasant and healthful; trees shade and flowers beautify the residences. The river glistens as it flows around wooded islands and rushes toward the sea over craggy rocks. Numerous lines of travel centre in its midst and there is a growing spirit of enterprise among its citizens. The water-power is very fine, and besides being utilized for many manufactories, is about to be used for the generation of electricity on a large scale. Richmond claims the honor of being among the first, if not the very first city, to be lighted with gas. A man named Henfrey visited the city early in the present century, and induced some of the prominent citizens to witness experiments made by him in which he poured flame instead of steam from the spout of a tea-kettle. Money was raised by subscription and a lighthouse was built. On a tower forty feet high was a large lantern with many jets, and gas was generated in the basement and conducted by a pipe to the burners. Not, however, until many years after were the gas-works erected, and though Henfrey’s light was short-lived, his tower remained a monument of the enterprise of the citizens.

The people of Richmond are refined and hospitable. “It is the merriest place and the most picturesque, I have seen in America,” wrote Thackeray.

The city is filled with the echoes of the past. She cherishes tender memories of brave men and gracious women. Rich in historic interest, progressive in her industries and in education, Richmond easily takes the lead in the State. Perhaps it is not too much to say that her great mental activity to-day, and her rapid advancement of late years in material concerns, gives her a position by no means insignificant among the cities of America, a fitting capital of the “Mother of States and of statesmen.”

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WILLIAMSBURG

THE ANCIENT CAPITAL

BY LYON G. TYLER

Williamsburg is situated on the famous Peninsula of Virginia, between the James and York rivers. On this Peninsula have occurred some of the most important events in history. One thing alone entitles it to pre-eminence in American history.

At Jamestown, seven miles distant from Williamsburg, was established the first permanent English settlement on the North American continent. There at Jamestown English settlers planted English institutions, had the first jury trial, and summoned the first assembly of the people. There, too, was the first enunciation on this continent of the memorable principle that taxes must not be imposed except with consent of the people in their representative assembly. All subsequent English colonization in America had its chief inspiration in the successful upbuilding of the settlement at Jamestown. The Peninsula is in truth “the cradle of the Union.”

[Illustration: “OLD POWDER-HORN.”]

But the Peninsula has also its Yorktown, thirteen miles distant from Williamsburg. This place, which once had a very great trade with Glasgow and London, but which was never more than a village of a few hundred inhabitants, may, nevertheless, claim to be the beginning and ending of Colonial resistance. Towering on the river bank is the beautiful monument, erected in 1881, which tells that there Lord Cornwallis surrendered in 1781 the British power in America to George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the American armies. But another monument might stand in close proximity, with this inscription, that there the first meeting of the people of Virginia was held in 1635 under the leadership of Nicholas Martian, an ancestor of Washington, to protest against the tyranny of the Governor, Sir John Harvey, who was shortly after deposed and sent a prisoner to England in the custody of two members of the Assembly. Nor, in referring to this neighborhood, must I omit mention of Hampton at the extreme end of the Peninsula, which is the oldest town in English America, which boasts the oldest free school, and which, twice a victim to the flames of war, gave its name to the great landlocked haven where the _Merrimac_ revolutionized naval warfare by its victory over the Federal wooden battle-ships in 1862.

Finally, six miles from Hampton is Newport News, where the first cotton was planted in America, and where there has suddenly sprung up a rushing, driving city, tremulous with the hopes of the future, and already realizing the dream of its first settlers, who relied on the magnificent opportunities which its situation at the conjunction of the James River with Hampton Roads afforded. The Peninsula has been traversed by British, French, and American armies, and in our own times is memorable as the scene of the tremendous struggle between the opposing armies of the Northern and Southern States, under the lead of McClellan and Johnston--a struggle sustained on both sides with conspicuous bravery and endurance, and culminating in the battles about Richmond in 1862.

Until 1630, the settlements of the English in Virginia were confined to the Accomac Peninsula, on the other side of Chesapeake Bay, and to the valley of the James. In that year the Governor and Council determined to make a settlement in the Indian district of Chiskiack in the neighborhood of Yorktown. Soon after one of the leading men, Dr. John Pott, from Harop, in Yorkshire, England, observed the advantages of a location on the ridge between Jamestown and Chiskiack, obtained a patent for a plantation there, and called it “Harop.” The authorities endorsed his judgment and in 1632 sent settlers thither for the purpose of establishing a town upon the spot. This was the beginning of Williamsburg, which was called at first the “Middle Plantation,” because of its location midway between the York and the James.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF BRUTON PARISH CHURCH AT WILLIAMSBURG VA.]

The Middle Plantation, though for many years a small village, was from the first a strategic point of much value. Two deep creeks, with wide morasses, penetrate to the spot from the James and York respectively, so that no hostile force can proceed up or down the Peninsula without passing through the place. The first settlement was walled in with palisades, and the corn-fields lay on the west of these. In the war with Opechancanough in 1644, the place was commanded by Captain Robert Higginson,[5] a soldier of credit and renown. When Bacon in 1676 drove Sir William Berkeley from Jamestown, here at Middle Plantation, just a hundred years before the American Revolution, the former, calling himself “General by consent of the People,” held his famous parliament of the leading men of the Colony, who published those papers which sound so much like the inspiring literature of the Revolution.[6]

In preparing an oath to be administered to the people, the three articles proposed were read by James Minge, Clerk of the House of Burgesses: First, that they should aid General Bacon in the Indian war; second, that they would oppose Sir William Berkeley’s endeavor to hinder the same; third, that _they would oppose any power sent out from England, till terms were agreed to_.

The overweening confidence of the people of Virginia in themselves was shown in the remark of Bacon that “one Virginian was equal to four red-coats.” Middle Plantation, however, witnessed a sad sight some months later. The hero of the people had succumbed to disease, and Sir William Berkeley was again in power. Among those who supported Bacon with their counsel and sympathy, though not with arms, was William Drummond, first Governor of North Carolina, and here at Middle Plantation he expiated his offence on the gallows. The circumstances surrounding the execution were unusually affecting. Tried by a drumhead court-martial, he was condemned, stripped, the ring torn from his finger, sentenced at one o’clock and hanged at four. Berkeley, however, did not long exult in his power, for the British Government recalled him to England, where he soon died.

Jamestown with all the public buildings had been destroyed during the course of the war. The suggestion was now offered to make Middle Plantation the capital, but was not adopted, and Jamestown was again restored.

[Illustration: COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY.]

In 1683, a handsome brick church was erected at Middle Plantation, and fifteen years later the “old fields” in front of the town were selected as the site for the “Royall Colledge” of William and Mary. Then in 1698, the State House at Jamestown falling again a victim to flames, Governor Francis Nicholson proposed to carry out the original suggestion of making the Middle Plantation the seat of government. The Legislature seconded him in this, stating in the preamble to their act that “the Middle Plantation had been found by constant experience to be healthy and agreeable to the constitutions of the inhabitants of this, his Majesty’s, colony and dominion;” that “its air was serene and temperate,” and that “its land was dry and champaign, and plentifully stored with wholesome springs.”