CHAPTER XI

THE VIRGINIA COLONEL AND THE COMING CONFLICT

The Stamp Act and Patrick Henry

From 1763, when the torment began, to 1774, only one year before Washington took command of the Continental army, he was as staunch a loyalist as could be found in England. Not once in all this time, however, did he underrate the mischievous influence of any of England's injudicious efforts. As early as 1763, when the English Board of Trade ordered that colonial paper money, a small quantity of which had been issued during the French and Indian war, should be no longer a legal tender, he expressed the fear that the order "would set the whole country in flames, and when the Stamp Act was passed he wrote that there were many cogent reasons why it would prove ineffectual. He was also one of the first to predict that import duties, for revenue, would induce frugality in America and injure British manufactures.

Irving aptly says it was ominous that the first burst of opposition (by a representative body) to the Stamp Act should take place in Virginia, for this colony had been marked above all others for its sympathy for the mother country. The act was passed by Parliament in March, 1765; two months later, in the House of Burgesses, of which Washington was a member, Patrick Henry presented the famous resolutions declaring that Virginia's General Assembly had the exclusive right and power to tax the inhabitants of the colony, and that whoever maintained the contrary was Virginia's enemy; it was at the close of his speech supporting these resolutions that Henry drew the startling parallels which have been repeated countless millions of

times on school-room platforms. The resolutions, slightly changed in form but with all of their original spirit, were passed, the frightened Lieutenant-Governor dissolved the Assembly and ordered a new election, and Virginia jumped ahead a century within twenty-four hours.

The stamped paper, when it arrived, was treated with that peculiar quality of deference that is usually accorded to smallpox. Nobody wanted it, and those who had it kept it out of sight. As no legal papers were valid unless written upon it, the courts closed their doors, to the delight of all sinners except lawyers. The day on which the act went into operation was observed throughout the country as a day of mourning, the only festivities being the hanging or burning in effigy of the promoters of the act. Three months of this sort of thing convinced Parliament of its mistake, so it could not have been so remarkably stupid a body after all. The act was repealed in the fourth month of its operation, to the great delight of all America, and of Washington, who had feared that its enforcement "would have been more direful than is generally apprehended, both to the mother country and her colonies.'

George Washington, John Habberton, p. 66.

The Grand Sachem's Prophecy

In the year 1772, Col. Washington, accompanied by Dr. Craik and a considerable party of hunters, woodsmen and others, proceeded to Kanawha, with a view to explore the country, and make surveys of extensive and valuable tracts of land. At that time the Kanawha was several hundred miles remote from the frontier settlements, and only accessible by Indian paths, which wound through the passes of the mountains.

One day, when resting in the camp from the fatigues attendant on so arduous an enterprise, a party of Indians were discovered approaching, led by a trader. They halted at a short distance, and the interpreter advancing,

declared that he was conducting a party, which consisted of a grand sachem and some attendant warriors; that the chief was a very great man among the northwestern tribes, and the same who commanded the Indians on the fall of Braddock, sixteen years before; that hearing of the visit of Col. Washington to the western country, this chief set out on a mission, the object of which himself would make known.

The colonel received the ambassador with courtesy, and having put matters in the camp in the best possible order for the reception of such distinguished visitors, which so short a notice would allow, the strangers were introduced. Among the colonists were some fine, tall, and manly figures, but as soon as the sachem approached, he in a moment pointed out the hero of the Monongahela amid the group, although sixteen years had elapsed since he had seen him, and then only in the tumult of the battle. The Indian was of lofty stature, and of a dignified and imposing appearance.

The council fire was kindled, when the grand sachem addressed our Washington to the following effect :—

"I am a chief, and the ruler over many tribes. My influence extends to the waters of the Great Lakes, and to the far Blue Mountains. I have travelled a long and a weary path, that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day that the white man's blood mixed with the streams of our forest, that I first beheld this chief. I called to my young men and said, ‘Mark yon tall and daring warrior; he is not of the red-coat tribe; he hath an Indian's wisdom, and his warriors fight as well; himself alone is exposed. Quick, let your aim be certain, and he dies.' Our rifles were levelled-rifles which but for him knew not how to miss. 'Twas all in vain; a power mightier far than we shielded him from harm. He cannot die in battle. I am old, and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers in the land of the shades;

but ere I go, there is a something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy. Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man and guides his destinies. He will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn hail him as the founder of a mighty empire.

Entertaining Anecdotes of Washington (Boston, 1833), P. 49.

"Our Lordly Masters in Great Britain"

Washington

was growing exceedingly impatient of English misrule, and saw clearly to what it was leading. "At a time," he says, "when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. But the manner of doing it to answer the purpose effectually is the point in question. That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to use arms in defense of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion. Yet arms, I would beg leave to add, should be the last resort. We have already, it is said, proved the inefficacy of addresses to the throne, and remonstrances to Parliament. How far, then, their attention to our rights and privileges is to be awakened or alarmed by starving their trade and manufactures remains to be tried."

He took the lead in forming an association in Virginia, and he kept scrupulously to his agreement; for when he sent his orders to London, he was very careful to instruct his correspondents to send him none of the goods unless the Act of Parliament had meantime been repealed. As the times grew more exciting, Washington watched events steadily. He took no step backward, but he moved forward deliberately and with firmness. He did not allow himself to be carried away by the passions of the time. It was all very well, some said, to stop buying from England, but let us stop selling also. They need our tobacco. Suppose