Part 6

In spite of Patrick Henry's strong protests against the taxes imposed upon the colonists, Parliament passed the Stamp Act in 1765 whereby the colonists were required to put stamps of differing value upon wills, deeds, mortgages, newspapers, almanacs, advertisements, college diplomas and all other legal documents. This tax was not directly levied for protection as the regular duty tax on imports had been but was levied for revenue purposes. The revenue from the sale of these stamps was to be used in paying the governmental cost in the territory acquired from the French and Indian War and for defending the colonists. Previous acts and taxes had affected a comparatively small number of colonists and usually only one or two social classes. The Stamp Act, however, affected practically every class, particularly editors, lawyers and parsons who usually exert strong influence upon any group of people. The Stamp Act was the controversial issue at the time Patrick Henry became a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. Some of the members felt that Parliament had the right to tax the colonists and others felt that it was illegal for them to do so. Patrick Henry offered five resolutions against the Stamp Act to the effect that the "General Assembly of the colony have the only sole and exclusive right and power to levy taxes." A fiery discussion then occurred over these resolutions, and, after hearing the heated arguments on both sides on May 29, 1765, Patrick Henry rose in the House and described Virginia as being tethered in chains under the rule of Parliament and the King. Then he shouted: "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I, his Cromwell, and George III...." Here he was interrupted by cries of "Treason! Treason!" Very calmly he finished the sentence by saying "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it!" Patrick Henry's brilliant oratory persuaded public opinion again, and his "Virginia Resolves" against the Stamp Act were passed by a majority of one vote. Such a small majority seems insignificant, but these Resolves were publicized throughout the colonies and played an important part in creating serious opposition to England throughout the British colonies. Soon similar resolutions were adopted in the other colonies.

The first Colonial Congress was called to meet in New York City in October 1765 to form a plan of resistance to the Stamp Act. Although delegates from nine colonies attended, Virginia was not represented because the Virginia legislature had adjourned before Massachusetts had sent its invitation circular to her. However, Virginia approved a three point program of this "Stamp Act Congress" at its next legislative session: namely, a Bill of Rights, a statement of grievances and the principle of no taxation without actual representation. The colonists believed that, since they had no actual representation in Parliament, there could be no taxation except that authorized by their individual legislatures. Therefore, the members of the Stamp Act Congress adopted petitions to the King, the House of Commons and the House of Lords asking repeal of the Stamp Act. This congress was the first significant step in the direction of unity for the British colonies in America. In addition to this orderly method of opposition, in some of the colonies mob violence, rioting and even personal molesting of the stamp officials took place.

On February 8, 1766, the Northampton County Court severely opposed the Stamp Act by stating that "the said act did not bind, affect or concern the inhabitants of this colony, inasmuch as they conceive the same to be unconstitutional, and that the said several officers may proceed to the execution of their respective offices, without incurring any penalties by means thereof."

On February 27, 1766, a group of one hundred and fifteen planters met at Leedstown in the Northern Neck to publicly oppose the Stamp Act. A series of resolves or resolutions written by Richard Henry Lee but presented by Thomas Ludwell Lee, his brother, were passed by those present. These resolves condemned the Stamp Act and defiantly acclaimed the rights which they considered essential to civil liberty. These resolves are usually referred to as the Leedstown or Westmoreland Resolves because they were presented at Leedstown which is located in Westmoreland County. In March of the same year a pamphlet, entitled "An Enquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies," was written and circulated by Richard Henry Bland which strongly opposed the Parliamentary measures and stated that the colonies were bound to England directly by the King and not by Parliament. Therefore, Bland concluded that Parliament technically had no jurisdiction over the American colonies.

Finally, on March 18, 1766, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act but at the same time passed the Declaratory Act stating that Parliament had the authority to pass laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever." In their triumph over the repeal of the Stamp Act, many of the colonists overlooked the strong, powerful wording of the Declaratory Act.

Soon after the repeal of the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts were passed in 1767. They were called the Townshend Acts because the British Chancellor of the Exchequer (a position similar to the present-day United States Secretary of the Treasury) who originated them was Charles Townshend. The acts placed a duty (an external tax) upon glass, paper, painters' colors, white lead and tea. The revenue collected from these duties was to be used for the payment of salaries of judges and other colonial officials in the attempt to make such positions less influenced by the colonial legislature. The colonists objected strongly to the Townshend Acts, again stating that the taxes so collected were for the purpose of revenue and not for protection.

The merchant class of the large cities in the colonies and the Virginia planters in particular were so strongly affected by these acts that they formed a retaliatory organization called the Non-Importation Association. Although Lord Botetourt, the royal Governor of Virginia at this time, dissolved the Virginia Assembly, and individual members met privately at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg and agreed to enter into such a non-importation agreement. This group agreed not to import slaves, wines or goods from Great Britain unless the objectionable taxes were abolished. This agreement caused a great reduction in the number of imports from Great Britain to these colonies. Since Virginia had the largest amount of commerce trade in England at this time, this method proved effective. Acts of violence even occured in some of the colonies--for example, the Boston Massacre. Finally, on March 5, 1770, the Townshend Acts were repealed with the exception of the tax on tea: three pence per pound. This tax was retained supposedly to assert the right of Parliament to tax the colonists whenever it so desired.

In spite of this repeal, friction between colonial legislatures and royal Governors continued. Under the leadership of Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, Committees of Correspondence were appointed in 1773 whose chief objective was to keep the various colonies informed by correspondence of the events occurring within their colony which were contrary to the rights and privileges of the colonists. The Virginia General Assembly appointed a Committee of Correspondence under the leadership of Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and George Mason. The condition which caused this permanent committee to be organized at this time was the continuous threat of England to force Americans to be tried in England for offenses against the law. These committees within the various colonies became very active and persuasive. The British soon abandoned their idea of sending Americans to England to be tried. However, these committees increased rapidly in number as the grievances of the colonists increased, and they gradually created a feeling of unity in the colonies as a result of a better understanding of common problems.

The next act which is believed to have led directly to the Revolutionary War is the Tea Act. After the three pence per pound tax on tea was levied, some of the colonists bought their tea from smugglers who had purchased it from the Dutch East Indies. In 1773, in an attempt to curb this illegal trade and to help create a monopoly of the tea trade for the East India Company, Parliament passed a law allowing this company to ship tea from Asia directly to the American colonies without bringing it to English warehouses first, as had previously been the regulation. This situation resulted in the East India Company selling its tea cheaper than the other companies. In spite of this change, Parliament refused to repeal the three pence duty tax on tea which still had to be paid by the colonists.

The American colonists realized the scheme of England, and not wanting to admit the right of Parliament to tax them even under these conditions, they decided not to submit to the payment of the duty tax. When the ships from the East India Company sent cargoes of tea to Charleston, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, some of it was stored indefinitely (at Charleston), some was returned (from Philadelphia and from New York City) and the rest was dumped into the Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. The famous Boston Tea Party caused Parliament to pass the "Intolerable Acts" as punishment for the colonists of Massachusetts: (1) the Boston Port Bill closed the port of Boston to all trade until the colonists there had paid for the tea which had been destroyed and had agreed to obey the laws of Parliament and to maintain peace in the future, (2) the Massachusetts Government Act changed the charter of Massachusetts so that more governing power was in the hands of the royal officials and much less in the hands of the colonists, (3) the Administration of Justice Act provided that British officials in Massachusetts who had been charged with serious violations of colonial laws were from that time on to be sent to England for their trial and (4) an act provided that any colonial Governor was empowered from that time on to quarter British soldiers in barns or vacant buildings whenever the need arose. The first of these acts was to go into effect on June 1, 1774. Therefore, the colonists realized that something had to be done immediately if their resentment and ill feeling was to be recognized by Parliament and acted upon accordingly.

A description of the Boston Tea Party first reached Virginia from a visitor to the old Market Square in Alexandria. The Virginia House of Burgesses was in session when the Virginians learned of the "Intolerable Acts." Led by Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and Richard Henry Lee, the members of the House of Burgesses passed a resolution designating June 1, the day on which the "Intolerable Acts" were to be enforced, as a day of fasting and prayer to God to encourage Parliament to abandon its unwise punitive policy towards the people of Massachusetts. When Governor Lord Dunmore, who had succeeded upon the death of Governor Botetourt, heard of this resolution, he dissolved the House of Burgesses. Before all the members had left Williamsburg, a messenger arrived from Boston with a circular letter which pleaded with the colonies for united support and which suggested the cessation of all trading relations with Great Britain. The twenty-five Burgesses members, who were in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern when the letter arrived, discussed its contents and decided that it was too important a matter for the Committee of Correspondence to assume complete responsibility. Consequently, they asked the counties to appoint deputies to a special convention to be held on August 1, 1774 at Williamsburg for a two-fold purpose: to consider the possibility of complete cessation of trade with Great Britain and to choose delegates to a proposed Continental Congress. Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses, is believed to have been the leader of this special convention movement. The actual summons was signed by Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Henry Lee. The calling of this First Virginia Convention is most significant in American history as well as in Virginia history because it was a positive action on the part of the American colonists to assert the people's sovereignty over and against the King's authority.

The convention at Williamsburg which began August 1, 1774 lasted for six days and representatives attended from fifty-six counties and four boroughs. Each county sent two delegates and each borough, one. Peyton Randolph was chosen as president of the convention. The convention members agreed to purchase no goods, with the exception of medicine, from Great Britain after November 1, 1774 and agreed neither to import slaves nor to buy imported slaves after November 1. Seven members were selected to represent Virginia at a Continental or General Congress: Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Edmund Pendleton, Peyton Randolph and George Washington. The convention delegates also stated that unless American grievances were diminished by August 10, 1775, all exports of Virginia products to Great Britain would be stopped. It was at this convention that a written treatise on American rights was prepared for the convention by Thomas Jefferson. This paper, later entitled "A Summary View of the Rights of British America," was published by the Virginia convention and was responsible for making Jefferson's great ability as a writer well known. This pamphlet was a forerunner of the Declaration of Independence.

While the colonists were having political and economic difficulties with Great Britain, other domestic difficulties were occurring on the frontiers. As mentioned previously, the Piedmont area of Virginia, located between the Fall Line and the Appalachian Mountains, was actually the first American frontier. People who settled there came originally for several purposes: to acquire fertile but cheap land, to enjoy new personal freedom (in many cases, the settlers were former indentured servants), to carry on fur trade with the Indians, to obtain fresh pasture land for cattle and to establish plantations. After the Piedmont area became heavily settled, the westward movement continued. The settlements in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia followed directly after the crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In the late 1760's, William Bean, a Virginian, constructed the first cabin along the Watauga River, and later, James Robertson and John Sevier pioneered in the Watauga Valley. Settlements were also made at this time along the fertile Holston River Valley in eastern Tennessee. During this period, Daniel Boone explored the Cumberland Gap area and started a settlement in the region now known as Kentucky. While he was taking a group of approximately eighty settlers to this region, he was attacked by a band of Indians. The group decided to return to North Carolina with the exception of the Boone family, and they stopped near the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

Indian uprisings were common until the soldiers of Virginia defeated them in Lord Dunmore's War. As the settlers pushed westward, more and more of the Indians' hunting grounds were being seized and used for farming. Since the Indians felt that this was most unjust treatment, they resorted to making war upon the settlers. In 1774, many frontier Indian raids occurred involving the Shawnees, Cherokees, Mingos, Delaware and Wyandots. One incident which had great repercussion was the killing of nine members of the family of John Logan, a friendly Mingo chief, by a group of white settlers. This incident caused the Indians to be extremely revengeful.

When Lord Dunmore became the new royal Governor, the settlers appealed to him for protection and asked that he send military troops at once. He decided personally to command one group of troops at the Forks of the Ohio River and he ordered Major Andrew Lewis, a pioneer's son of Augusta County whose father had founded Staunton, Virginia, to raise a force of Virginia troops and bring them to a meeting-place located at Camp Union (now known as Lewisburg, West Virginia). With approximately 1100 men, General Lewis started on his march to the Ohio River in September 1774 to fight the Indians. After nineteen days of marching, they arrived at Point Pleasant, the site at which the Kanawha River empties into the Ohio River, approximately 160 miles from their starting point. General Lewis and his troops waited four days and heard no word from Lord Dunmore although he had ordered them to this particular position. On October 10, two of Lewis' men went hunting, strictly against his orders. Two miles from camp they were attacked by the Shawnee Indians, and one of them was killed. The other escaped, rushed back to the camp and reported to General Lewis that he had observed "four acres of ground" of Indians. General Lewis then commanded his men to form two lines of battle, one to be under the leadership of his brother, Colonel Charles Lewis, and the other under the leadership of Colonel William Fleming. He himself was to be the supreme commander. The battle began immediately, and after the Indians rushed forward the first time, Charles Lewis was killed and Colonel Fleming was wounded. The Indian leader was Chief Cornstalk who was a popular and powerful Indian warrior. However, after fighting all day, the Indians finally retreated across the Ohio River, and the Virginians were considered the victors of the Battle of Point Pleasant or the Battle of Great Kanawha because they were not driven back by the Indians. Consequently, Lord Dunmore's War was fought without his presence, although it is believed that he may have been negotiating a peace treaty with the Indians simultaneously at some distant place. The winning of this war by the Virginians made the winning of the west much easier for the later settlers.

On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress was called by Virginia, and invitations were issued by Committees of Correspondence. The purpose of this Congress was "to deliberate and determine wise and proper measures, to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies most ardently desired by all good men." The Continental Congress began in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, on September 5, 1774 with 56 members present. Two-thirds of these were lawyers, and the membership itself consisted of representatives of both the liberal and the conservative groups although the majority appeared to be in the former group. The Virginian, Peyton Randolph, was unanimously elected President of the First Continental Congress. During the Congress, Patrick Henry expressed the need for unity when he exclaimed: "The distinctions between Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian but an American." Concerning its chief accomplishments, the Congress (1) drew up a Declaration of Rights (a series of resolutions declaring that the colonists were entitled to certain rights: life, liberty and property, the right to vote their own taxes and the right to trial by jury; that these rights had been violated by the King and by Parliament since 1673; that unjust taxes and standing armies had been imposed upon them and their local assemblies unfairly interfered with by Parliament; that their repeated petitions for a redress of their grievances had been practically ignored in England) and (2) adopted "a non-importation, non-consumption and non-exportation agreement" called the Continental Association Plan. It should be noted that complete separation from England was not demanded at this time but rather cooperation from, and peace under, English rule. The session lasted approximately seven weeks, and then on October 26, 1774, after a motion had been passed setting May 10, 1775 as the date of a second congress meeting, the session was adjourned to await a reply from the King of England.

The resolutions passed by this Congress were circulated throughout the colonies for their approval. All sections of the Virginia colony approved them, even sections as far west as the area now occupied by the State of Kentucky. Two illustrations of such approval are the Fairfax Resolutions and the Fincastle Resolutions. The freeholders of Fairfax County met in Alexandria in July 1774 and passed the so-called Fairfax Resolutions, written by George Mason. The Fairfax Resolutions or Resolves, as they are sometimes called, reflected Virginia's attitude toward taxation, Parliament and even the King. In January 1775, at Lead Mines, Fincastle County seat, the freeholders met and prepared a paper congratulating and thanking the Virginia delegates for their part in the First Continental Congress. These Fincastle Resolutions also included strong written opposition to English tyrannical power.

In November 1774, Virginia had a tea party, similar in purpose to Boston in that it was an act of defiance against Great Britain's tea tax. On November 7, the Virginians discovered that a British ship, "Virginia," which had docked in the York River at an earlier date, contained tea cargo. The Committee of Safety for York County immediately sent to the House of Burgesses (which was meeting at Williamsburg) a message in the form of a protest against accepting this tea for sale in the colony. The Committee received a reply to the effect that the matter would be discussed in the House and an answer would be forthcoming the next Monday morning. Large groups of people gathered at Yorktown where the boat had been docked and waited for the reply. The House of Burgesses failed to send the reply, and the captain of the ship declared that he had received no message. The Committee waited a while longer and then proceeded to throw the tea out of the ship's hold into the York River. By this time, the Yorktown inhabitants had been informed of the "Intolerable Acts" which had been passed to punish the inhabitants of Boston. Therefore, they filled the ship with necessary supplies and sent it to the Bostonians. This incident was another example of the methods by which the colonists were learning to unite and to help each other in their common objectives.

When the American colonists began to carry out the non-importation agreement, the British merchants were very much affected: for example, the import trade from Great Britain to the American colonies declined about 95% by 1775. The Americans had some great British leaders on their side, but they were definitely in the minority. Edmund Burke and William Pitt urged that the "Intolerable Acts" be repealed and predicted that war was approaching with the American colonies if most of the objectionable laws were not repealed at this time. Burke and Pitt were overruled, however, in Parliament. Thus, the breach between the American colonies and the mother country became wider as time passed.