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ADDRESS.
GENTLEMEN OF THE
ALUMNI:
Our Alma Mater was
born of the habitual esteem for learning among the Scotch Irish
settlers of this Valley. It had a genial nurture in the classic
taste and training of their pastors—hereditary exemplars for their
people, not more in piety than in political virtue. Its primal dowry
was a tribute from the Father of his country to patriotism and valor,
so long and often illustrated under his own eye, from the fatal day
of Braddock's defeat till Freedom's crowning conflict on the plains
of Yorktown.
The Alumni of
Washington College may well find it a fitting duty to trace out, in
all its associations, the unwritten history of the Scotch-Irish
Settlers in the Valley of Virginia. Of this race most of the Alumni
are themselves direct descendants, and dispersed as they now are in
every part of this continent, it can be but a labor of love for each
to gather as he may, even from the four winds themselves, some
Sybilline leaves, or floating traditions, to illustrate a history
rich in story of brave men and noble deeds:
Let us, then, in a
spirit of filial love—akin to that of the pious Æneas attempt the
task of rescuing from impending oblivion, even so little of the
honored memory of our fathers before it be too late forever. Let us
as patiently, for the sake of the charity of the undertaking, wander
awhile, like Old Mortality, among the graves of the past, and with
humble but persistent effort retouch the fading tombstones of
virtue.
We propose not to
travel along the broad highways of History, but mostly on a more
rugged route, amidst remote forests and rude mountains, where only
weird tradition has her trackless haunts. We will attempt not in
this brief hour to treat such a theme in artistic style, but only to
present, as we have gathered, something of the traits and incidents
characteristic of the people and the times in the early days of our
Valley, and leave to some more epic pen to trace the moving story in
all its fair proportions and poetic contrasts—from the simple wigwam
homes, the virgin prairies, and forest-covered mountains of this new
world, far back to its origin amidst the moors and time-honored
highlands of Ancient Scotland, where—
"Splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story."
The familiar term,
"Scotch-Irish," implies not the amalgamation of distinct Scotch and
Irish families, but like" Anglo-Saxon," and "Indo-Briton," simply
that the people of one country were transplanted into the other. The
Scotch-Irish Settlers in the Valley of Virginia, are direct
descendants of the Scotch who colonized the North of Ireland during
the religious troubles of Great Britain, from the reign of Henry
VIII., and continuously to the time of William III.
Their lineage is more
distinctly traced from the date of the unsuccessful rebellion of the
Earls of Tyrconnel and Tyrone, that forfeited to the British crown
the factious province of Ulster. Thither James I. transplanted
colonies of Scotch and English during the early part of the
seventeenth century. The Rev'd Andrew Stewart, a cotemporaneous
writer, records, that "of the English not many came over, for it is
to be observed that being a great deal more tenderly bred at home in
England. and entertained in better quarters than they could find in
Ireland, they were unwilling to flock thither except to good land,
such as they had before at home, or to good cities where they might
trade; both of which, in those days, were scarce enough here.
Besides, the marshiness and fogginess of this island were still
found unwholesome to English bodies. The King, too, had a natural
love to have Ireland planted with Scots, as being, besides their
loyalty, of a middle temper between the English tender and the Irish
rude breeding, and a great deal more likely to adventure to plant
Ulster." . . . Among these colonists are mentioned the Ellises,
Leslies, Hills, Conways, Wilsons and others, "gentlemen of England
and worthy persons"—and the Forbeses, Grahams, Stuarts, Hamiltons,
Montgomerys, Alexanders, Shaws, Moores, Boyds, Barclays and Baileys,
described as "knights and gentlemen of Scotland whose posterity hold
good to this day." And here, this evening, I may well repeat this
quaint encomium in the presence of many of their lineal posterity,
still bearing with honor the same names and "holding good" to this
day— two full centuries later.
In the channel thus
opened the tide of emigration fluctuated from Scotland to Ireland
throughout the succeeding century, swollen too long and often from
the ruthless persecutions of the unflinching Covenanters by the
faithless Charles and his successors, down to the time of the
momentous revolution of 1688, which placed the Presbyterian Prince
of Orange on the throne of Great Britain.
The history of these
people while yet in Scotland, written in the blood of their
sufferings, illustrates a character which bore fruit for their
descendants in later years and other lands. Under the extraordinary
trials and intense excitement of the times exhibiting devotion to
their principles of faith and freedom to a degree readily magnified
by their enemies, and exaggerated almost to insane fanaticism. Many
of them, men of high estate of the nobility of Scotland, sacrificed
everything for the common cause, undergoing a persecution which, in
the opinion of Bishop Burnet himself, "surpassed even the merciless
rigors of the Duke of Alva." Proclaiming, in a loyal petition to a
perjured King, that "the only desire of our hearts is for the
preservation of true religion amongst us, which we hold far dearer
than our lives and fortunes," they resisted to the bitter end the
canons and liturgy prepared by the impious Charles without. the
sanction of any church ;driven from their time-honored kirk, they
still gathered in conventicles like Maybole, and Ayr, and Remfred,
and Teviotdale ;—renewing, ever and anon, with heartiest zeal, their
fealty to their fathers' "SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT,"—that Magna
Ghana of Scottish rights,—and rallying under their "brave banners,"
emblazoned at once with the ancient thistle of Scotland and the
shibboleth of their own faith in the famous golden letters, "FOR
CHRIST'S CROWN AND COVENANT,"—they awaited, undaunted, the wrath of
tyranny defied. Overborne at last by the oppressor's power, goaded
by the insolence and cruel tortures of Claveihouse, and Carstairs,
Sharpe, Dalzell, and Drummond, too many sealed their testimony with
their blood, and the survivors of the red fields of Bothwell-moor,
Airsmoss, and Pentland Hills, homeless and hopeless, sought a
resting place and refuge amid the fens and bogs of Ulster.
"Ah, days by Scotia still deplored!
When faithless king, and bigot lord,
On their own subjects drew the sword!
* * * * * *
"But FIRM in faith of Gospel truth,
Stood hoary age, and guileless youth,
Against oppressors void of ruth,
In cold blood killing wantonly.
"Their preachers silent and deposed,
Their house of prayer against them closed,
Homeless, on mountain heaths exposed!
But though in dark adversity,
Their harps were NOT on willows hung,
But tuneful still, and ever strung,
Till mountain echos round them rung
To notes of bravest melody!"
They and their
descendants, thus saved as by fire, would scarce submit patiently to
like oppression in their new-found homes in Ireland. Under the rule
of William and Mary, Queen Anne, and the Georges, their condition
here was endurable only for its contrast with their former
sufferings, —the equivocal consolation of the companions of Ulysses
"tulimus duriora." Strained constructions of the Act of
Toleration;---tithes and taxes on the wreck of their estates to
support an established church, not of their choice;— restraints in
the exercise of their cherished opinions ;—disabilities and
degradations to be endured for conscience' sake ;—peculiar dangers
from dwelling amidst such bitter and powerful enemies of their
faith, already malignantly gloating over one massacre, and muttering
threats for more,—all combined to make them an unhappy and restless
people.
It was then that like
the delusive whisperings of hope in the captive's dream, prophetic
tidings came wafting across the wide ocean, that in the far-off
forests of America, the Huguenot and Puritan had found a refuge from
persecution and "full freedom to worship God." And though the
tempest-tossed Eagle-Wing, years before had so trustingly sailed
from the same shores only to be driven back a wreck—as their fathers
feared and believed by the warning hand of Providence—they yet
remembered that the frailer Mayflower, freighted with the hopes of
others tried like themselves, had passed over the deep waters in
safety. They trusted that now the fullness of time for their
departure had come, that the measure of their afflictions in this
land was full, and a home in this new world would fulfil, for their
relief, the promise of their God, so often hopefully dwelt upon in
all their congregations:—"For thou O God hast proved us; and thou
hast tried us as silver is tried; thou broughtest us into the net,
thou layedest affliction upon our loins; thou bast caused men to
ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water, BUT
THOU BROUGHTST US OUT UNTO A WEALTHY PLACE. "
Gathering what little
of worldly gear was left from out of their troubles; many with
naught save the Bible, but which alone had so often before, in their
sorrowful history, seemed to suffice for even more than spiritual
sustenance in many a dreary day—precious as the one draught of sweet
water that cheers the patient camel through the weary wastes of the
desert —sadly but trustfully they turned away, as they well knew
forever, from the homes and the graves of their fathers and fathers'
fathers for long centuries gone. Without any known or definite
destination within that distant land to which they turned, they
hopefully embarked, and in long and wearisome voyages crossing a
wide and fathomless ocean that rolled its waves like the dark waters
of Lethe over all the crowding memories of their past, they only
knew that now their anchors dropped upon the silent shores of
another continent, within whose trackless forests they fondly hoped
to find at last that peace for body and soul elsewhere so vainly
sought. The outcasts of Eden were not more desolate—
"Some natural tears they dropt, but
wiped them soon
The world was all before them where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."
It was upon the banks
of the Delaware they landed, and some rested for a season in the
province of Penn, naturally looking for sympathy from a people who
in the old world had suffered like themselves for conscience' sake.
Others following their native instincts, passed on towards the blue
mountains whose towering peaks and waving outlines along the distant
horizon recalled the memories of their childhood's home among the
hills and heath-clad highlands of Scotland. Ascending the tops of
the Kittochtinny—the Indian term for Blue Ridge —they gazed with
charmed eye upon this lovely Valley, blooming in all its pristine
beauty before them, as on "some fairy land they'd longed to see."
Fullfilled their fondest dreams of that promised land of peace, as
it lay enwrapped in its primal silence, broken only by the sighing
of winds among the forest trees, the song of birds, and the sounds
of murmuring waters. The long lines of mountain peaks, fading away
in distant view, stood ranged on either side like guardian
sentinels, while clouds of purple and of gold, gathering along the
loftiest crests, hung round the blue horizon like waving banners of
welcome.
Tradition relates
that the various Indian tribes long held this Valley sacred as a
neutral hunting ground. The growth of forest trees was prevented by
annual firings at the close of the hunting season, and thus its
fertile soil by each returning summer would spread the waving grass
over all its plains, and the flowering dogwood, the redbud, azalia,
rhododendron, and laurel would crown all its hills with beauty.
Lowing herds of buffalo, the stately elk, and the graceful deer in
countless numbers found their favourite haunts among the green
pastures and beside the still waters of this beautiful vestal land.
Like the classic isle of Leuce, it was a modern Elysium, where the
forest warriors, elsewhere foes, might here in perfect truce pursue
together the pleasures of the chase. Here the wanderers found a
genial home, and within a short score of years following their first
permanent settlement in 1732, spread along the banks of the Opequon
and Cedar creek in the Northern portion of the Valley, and soon over
all the waters of the Cohongoruton, and far up its branches to the
triple forks -of the silvery Sherando. Pressing on Southward and
Westward, they settled the sources of the James and Roanoke, the
Greenbrier, and the head waters of the Holston.
The government of
Virginia with a wise policy encouraged these infant settlements by
liberal grants of choice lands, total exemption from taxation for a
term of years, and guaranty for freedom in all their forms of
religous worship. Thus was secured for the frontier a bold and hardy
and loyal people, a palisade of defence in savage warfare, and a
proper nursery for pioneers to push her empire Westward to the
inviting valley of the Mississippi.
The mountain
boundaries of this isolated land stood as obstacles alike to
visitors from abroad, and wanderers from their own folds. Settled in
clusters of families of the same faith and fatherland, strangers to
all others on this side the broad Atlantic, their social desires
were satisfied solely within the confines of their own new homes.
The luxuriant soil, and abundant game of the forests, afforded in
profusion the comforts of their simple life. The pack-horse now and
then wending a solitary way across rugged mountains and through
trackless forests to the distant cities of Newcastle or to
Williamsburg, "when they needed money to pay their quit-rents,"
[Deposition (in old chancery suit in Augusta) of Mrs. Greenlee,
daughter of Ephraim McDowell, the first permanent settler in
Rockbridge, and ancestor of Governor McDowell.] measured their
commercial intercourse with the outside world.
They could be but a
peculiar people. With all the piety, they had none of the ascetic
sanctity of the Puritan; with a jealous sense of honour, they had
something like the chivalry of the Cavaliers, yet without wealth
they escaped the enervating influences of luxu1he common sacrifices
of all their fortunes in long contests with the oppressor in their
native country left all poor alike, and a common suffering and
kindred sympathies subdued all social distinctions. Their untiring
struggles for freedom of thought and life, "bequeathed from bleeding
sire to son," had brought through succeeding generations a physical
and mental training that made them independent in spirit,
self-reliant in strength, and "hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve."
True types of their ancestral Scottish character, which ever shows
to most advantage in adversity, and has been well likened to the
sycamore of their native hills, that scorns to be biased in its
growth by sun or wind or tempest, but shoots its branches defiantly
in every direction, shows no weather-side to the storm, and is
broken before it will ever bend.
Religious observance,
if not innate, was at least their second nature. Like faithful
Abraham, they built the altar wherever they pitched the tent. The
Bible mostly furnished their library of faith and of philosophy,
enclosing Rouse's version of David's psalms for their poetry. Every
tradition extant shows how these sacred words were interwoven like
golden threads in all their daily discourse. When the captive
survivors of the Carr's Creek massacre, in this (Rockbridge) county,
reached the Shawnee towns on the banks of the Muskingum, the Indians
in cruel sport called on them to sing. Unappalled by the bloody
scenes they had already witnessed, and the fearful tortures awaiting
them, within that dark wilderness of forest where all hope of rescue
seemed forbidden, undaunted by the fiendish revellings of their
savage captors, they sang aloud with the most pious fervour from the
137th Psalm, as they oft had done in more hopeful days within the
sacred walls of old "Timber Ridge Church":
"On Babel's streams we sat and wept
when Zion we thought on,
In midst thereof we hanged our harps the willow trees among,
For then a song required they who did us captive bring,
Our spoilers called for mirth and said, a song of Zion sing."
From this very
familiarity with these sacred psalms, it may well be feared they did
not always apply them in such sanctified use as expressions for
solace in sorrow; but in the fullness of heart in other emotions,
the mouth might well speak these ready words, and naturally enough
in the confidential language of faithful love. A lineal descendant
tells how his ancestor, when a disconsolate lover because not
allowed to visit the lady of his heart from the opposition of her
parents, contrived still to interpret his love by the words of the
sweet singer of Israel—"closing the correspondence" with the stanza
from the 63d psalm :-
"Oh daughter take good heed, incline
and give good ear,
Thou must forget thy kindred all, and father's house most dear,
Thy beauty to the king shall then delightful be,
And do thou humbly worship him, because thy lord is he."
On this hint she
acted, and returned to "the king" her answers in kind:- On a
concerted day the daring lover dashed before the house on a strong
charger, and in full view of "brothers and kinsmen and all," like
another Lord Lochinvar:
"So light to the croupe the fair lady
he swung,
So light to the saddle before her he sprung,
She is won, they are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur,
They'll have fleet steeds to follow that young Lochinvar."
They had constant
controversies over doctrines and texts of the Bible. The oldest
newspaper extant in Augusta county, contains an advertisement by a
lay member of the "Stone Church," appointing a day on which he
proposed to discuss his tenets in regard to a certain text, and
inviting all who differed in opinion to meet him then and there.
When these men
commenced a controversy it was ever most stoutly and persistently
maintained; for they were seldom convinced against their will, and
if vanquished, would argue still. An old resident of Hay's Creek, in
Rockbridge county, contended all his life for his particular theory,
as to what tribe of Indians were interred in the mound on that
Creek; and on his death-bed made it his most solemn request to be
buried on the hill facing the Indian graves, that he might, as he
said, be "the first to see the truth of his theory established at
the resurrection."
The ministers of the
Gospel were true exponents of their people's characteristics. The
Rev. John Craig, a Master of Arts of the University of Edinburgh,
was for one-third of a century pastor of the "Augusta Church." He
walked five miles to service on every Sunday, and in time of the
Indian troubles carried a rifle on his shoulder. "Preaching"
commenced at 10 o'clock, A. M., and with a recess of one hour at
midday, was continued till sunset. One of his sermons, still extant,
is divided into fifty-five heads. Walking ever in the example of the
upright man of David's psalm, he "spoke truth in the heart," and was
"moved not" even in the least thing, from the straightest line of
integrity. In choosing the site for a church, the congregation
disregarded his opposition, and the "Tinkling Spring" was selected;
whereupon he declared that "none of that water should ever 'tinkle'
down his throat;" and for thirty years he kept his word,—and through
his long sermons, in the parching summer days, never once allaying
his thirst with a drop from that cool and limpid spring—
"For though he promise to his hurt
He makes his promise good."
Brave and patriotic,
after Braddock's disastrous expedition had left the Valley exposed
to the raids of the ruthless savages, and the helpless inhabitants
in utter consternation were councilling safety in flight, his
Journal, yet extant, says, "I opposed that scheme as a scandal to
our nation, falling below our brave ancestors, making ourselves a
reproach among Virginians, a dishonour to our friends at home, an
evidence of cowardice, want of faith, and noble Christian dependence
on God, as able to save and deliver from the heathen; and withal a
lasting blot forever on all our posterity." He advised the building
of forts in convenient places for refuge. His appeal and example had
its effect, "for my own flock," he adds, "required me to go before
them in the work, which I did cheerfully, though it cost me
one-third of my estate; but the people followed, and my
congregation, in less than two months, was well fortified." And they
maintained their homes most bravely through all the fiery trials of
these times. Honoured forever among all their posterity be the name
of the noble and pious old patriot! Surviving the subsequent
struggles of his adopted country for the freedom he so dearly
prized, he fell at last like fruit fully ripe, but mourned by all,
and leaving a memory to be revered, and examples of life and faith
that like all
—"the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust."
Let him be taken as
the type and ante-type of the Presbyterian preachers of the Valley,
for time will fail to tell of Brown, and Wilson, and Wad- deli, and
Scott, and Graham, and many others; men of thorough learning and
approved piety, whose names their descendants should not willingly
let die, whose appeals for patriotism will echo in this land while
its everlasting hills abide, whose lesssons of piety and faith will
be effectual for time and for eternity, whose canonized memory will
remain among their successors as a monument forever, and stand
before them like that lofty "tower which Dafid builded for an armory,
whereon there hang a thousand bucklers,— shields of mighty men."
A description of the
old covenanters of Scotland, in "Burnett's Own Times," will, in many
particulars, singularly illustrate the life of the Scotch-Irish
settlers of this Valley, and show an unadulterated descent, and most
tenacious maintenance of the customs of their ancestors. Bishop
Burnett can scarcely be accused of partiality, and amidst all his
charges of affectation, fanaticism and enthusiasm, we may well
believe he gives a faithful picture of the old covenanting
congregations of his day, by its strong family likeness to the early
Presbyterian congregations of this Valley. Of the covenanting
ministers ejected by the Glasgow Act, he writes, "they were a grave
and solemn sort of people. Their spirits were eager, and their
tempers sour. But they had an appearance that created respect. They
used to visit their parishes much; were full of the Scripture, were
ready at extempore prayer, and had brought the people to such a
degree of knowledge, that cottagers and servants would have prayed
extempore. Their ministers brought their people about them on Sunday
nights, where the sermon was talked over; and every one, women as
well as men, were desired to speak their own experience; and by
these means they had a comprehension of matters of religion greater
than I have seen among people of that sort anywhere. The preachers
went all in one tract, of raising observations on points of doctrine
out-of their text, and proving these by reasons, and then of
applying those, and showing the use that was to be made of such a
point of doctrine, both for instruction and terror, for exhortation
and comfort, for trial of themselves upon it, and for furnishing
them with proper directions and helps. And this was so methodical
that the people grew to follow a sermon quite through every branch
of it. As they lived in great familiarity with their people, and
used to pray and talk oft with them in private, so it can hardly be
imagined to what a degree they were loved and reverenced by them.
They kept scandalous persons under a severe discipline: for breach
of Sabbath, for an oath, or the least disorder in drunkenness,
persons were cited before the church session, that consisted of ten
or twelve of the chief of the parish, who, with the minister, had
this care upon them,—and were solemnly reproved for it."
The unexplored
records, of the courts held for Augusta county, at Staunton, and the
church-warden's book for Augusta parish, furnish materials, scanty
as they are, that illustrate the lives and characters of this
peculiar people. For the purposes of history these records are
necessarily insufficient, but give here and there in the technical
and curt recitals of court proceedings some incidental
cotemporaneous facts which can be confirmed, explained and expanded
from other sources; while around them all the mellow light of
tradition still falls to impart to these quaint old papers something
of the sanctity aud value of the illuminated manuscripts of the
middle ages.
The court of Orange
county had jurisdiction, and its Clerk's office was for a whole
decade the depository of the title deeds, and such other papers
pertaining to this territory as indispensable necessity required to
be recorded. In the year 1738 all Virginia West of the Blue Ridge,
was laid off into two counties, called Frederick and Augusta, in
honour of the Prince of Wales, and the Princess Augusta. Frederick
embraced the Northeastern portion of the Valley, while Augusta
extended throughout the West "to the utmost limits of Virginia." The
inhabitants were exempted from "all public levies for ten years;"
but in 1742, "at the humble suit of the inhabitants of Augusta," an
act passed "appointing James Patton, John Christian, and John
Buchanan to levy a tax on each. Tithable, to pay for destroying
wolves, relieving the poor, building bridges, and clearing roads"
within said county.
The church-warden's
book for the Parish of Augusta, commences early in the year 1746. It
was doubtless difficult, if not impossible, at that date for the
freeholders to find "twelve able and discreet men of the county"
from choice "conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the
church of England" to serve as their vestry. It is not surprising,
therefore, that probably all of the vestry elect were "dissenters,"
and certainly some of the number who continued as vestrymen for the
succeeding quarter of a century, were all the time ruling elders in
the Presbyterian churches of Augusta.
In that day of little
sectarian excitement between Protestant denominations, it was not so
unusual in any part of Virginia to find dissenters take with the
oath of secular office a declaration of conformity to the doctrine
of the established church, and yet retain their connection with
dissenting denominations. The first twelve vestrymen elected by the
freeholders of the county in 1745 were all, perhaps, descendants,
and some bore the family names of conspicuous Presbyterian
covenanters of Scotland; and for over twenty years no notice by the
vestry or the Assembly is taken of the fact of their being
non-conformists. The usual oaths of conlbrmity were meantime taken,
but the vestrymen remaining zealous dissenters. But on the 21st of
November, 1767, the following appears on the vestry book: "Ordered,
that a minute be taken that the following vestrymen hath subscribed
a declaration in Vestry, to be conformable to the doctrine and
discipline of the Church of England, according to law, viz: Col.
John Buchanan, Mr. Geo. MatthewAgl2e,and Mr. James Lockhart, Mr.
John Buchanan, Mr. John Archer, Mr. John Mr. Wm. Fleming, and enter
their disJ sent against Mr. Israel dristian's signing the
proceedings of this Vestry, as he refused signing the declaration in
Vestry." The oceedings were signed by all as before, but on the
"21st November, 1 —it is ozdered.d that Mr. Thomas Madison be chosen
vestryman in room of Capt. Israel Christian, and Capt. Peter Hog in
room of Maj. Robt. Breckenridge, the said Breckenridge and Christian
having refused .swbsribing to the doctrine and discipline of the
Church of England." (Signed) WM. PRESTON, ["Maj. Breckenridge" was
ancestor of the Breckenridges of Kentucky, and "Wrn. Preston"
ancestor of William C. Preston, of South Carolina. Geo Matthews was
afterwards Governor and United States Senator of Georgia, and Wm.
Fleming an acting Governor of Virginia.] Clerk of Vestry.
In November, 1769,
the Assembly pas n Act "dissolving the Vestry of the Parish of
Augusta," because "it is represented that a majority of the Vestry
are dissenters, &c.,' and ordering "an election of twelve new
vestrymen." But this Act seems to have been totally disregarded by
the "freeholders," the same vestrymen continuing in office long
after. The office of vestryman was in effect not a religious one,
but simply to discharge the duties of a magistrate of police, of
overseers of the poor, to lay the county levies, and to collect
fines for "swearing," "drunkenness," and other "foibles," which
official duties from the frequency of their "returns," must have
occupied no little of their surplus time. The Vestry was finally
dissolved during the revolutionary war.
The first court for
Augusta county was held at Staunton on the 9th of December, 1745.
The magistrates and officers were appointed by the Crown of England,
through the Governor of the colony. The court when once organized
went to work with a will, and, true to Scotch-Irish instincts, seem
to have executed with a special vengeance the Act of Good Queen
Anne, "for the effectual suppression of vice, and punishment of
wicked blasphemers and dissolute person." This Act seems to have
been construed by them as cumulative of the divine decalogue, the
"presentments" being made mostly in the order of the offences
therein denounced. And the court meted out to unfortunate offenders
the full measure of the law, in all its bearings. Some extracts,
taken at random through a series of years from the records, will
illustrate at once the character of the courts, and of the people.
"May 17th, 1746.—The
grand-jury, by James Trimble, foreman, made the following
'presentment,'" (among others similar:)
"Robert Harper, for
being drunk, and swearing 3 prophane oaths."
"Co!. Thomas Chew, (a
lawyer,) and John Abraham, (deputy sheriff,) as common swearers."
"James -,id,
disturber of the common peace of the neighbours and carrying lies;
also as a common lyer."
"Valentine Sevier,
[Father of Gen'l John Sevier, Governor of Tennessee, and of the
revolutionary "State of Frankland."] for swearing 6 prophane oaths."
"John Bramham,
(deputy Sheriff,) for prophanely desiring God to damn Capt. George
Robinson and his company."
"Edward Bogle, for
dam the court, and swearing four oaths in their presence," was "put
in the stocks for two hours, and fined 20 shillings."
"November 28th,
1750.—The Grand Jury presented (among others) Samuel Hutts, for
preach of the Sabbath in singing prophane songs."
"James Frame, for a
breach of the Sabbath in unnecessarily travelling ten miles."
"Jacob Coger, for
breach of the peace by driving hogs over the Blue Ridge on the
Sabbath day."
Very many
presentments were for "being drunk," and the fines, therefor,
averaged about 5 shillings—such appearing to have been about the
market price for the privilege. Where the opportunity for the
expensive luxury was afforded may be inferred from the following
orders of court, establishing rates for ordinary-keepers in 1746,
1747, and 1748:
"Ordered, that the
several and respective Ordinary-keepers in this county do sell and
entertain according to the under-mentioned Rates, and that they
presume not to take or demand more of any person whatever
The court, after
arranging such a bill of fare as the foregoing, could but be lenient
on occasion to such as were unwarily led into temptation, and we
find the following entry in point:
"May 17th, 1753.—Order'd,
that ye piesentm't ag'st Patrick Shirkey for being drunk be
dismissed—the court being of opinion that it was inadvertently done,
he being an honest fellow."
Whatever else might
be said of this county court, it cannot be alleged they were anywise
wanting in the virtue of loyalty, as the following and other like
entries on their records will show:
"Feby: 10th,
1746.—The Court being informed that James McClune hath spoke
treasonable words, it is ordered that the sheriff bring him be- fore
the Court to answer for the same."
May 17th, 1749.—Jacob
Castle being accused by the oath of Adam Barman for threntening to
goe over to and be aiding and assisting to the French against his
Majesty's forces, as appears by precept under the hand of John
Buchanan and George Robinson, gentlemen, it's ordered that the
sheriff take the said Castle into custody."
"Nov. 27th, 1751.—The
Grand Jury present Owen Crawford for drinking a health to King James
'(the Pretender)' and refusing to drink a- health to King George."
Owen found it good
for his own "health" to leave the county before the trial could be
held, and the presentment was dismissed subsequently "on motion of
the King's Attorney,"
"March 17th,
1756.—Francis Farguson being brought before the court by warrant
under the hand of Robert McClanahan, gent., for damning Robert
Dinwiddie, Esqr.," (then Governor of the Colony,) "for a Scotch
peddling puppy"—was found guilty but "excused on apologizing and
giving security to keep the peace."
The Court, moreover,
seems to have had as loyal an appreciation of its own dignity, as
would appear from more than one order akin to the following
concerning one of its "female subjects," who must herself have been
a lineal des'endant of the famous Janet Geddes, of Gray Friar's
memory:-
11 May 17th,
1754.—Anne, wife of , having come into court, and abused William
Wilson., Gent., one of the Justices for this County, by calling him
a rogue, and that on his coming off the bench 'she would give it to
him with the Devil'—it's dred that the sheriff take her to the
ducking stool."
This imposing Court
had jurisdiction over a territory comprising all the counties of
Western Virginia, (except Frederick,) and also what now constitutes
adjoining States; its jail was filled with offenders from as far as
the city of Pittsburg, now in Pennsylvania. The court usually met at
7 o'clock in the morning and sat till night. As curiosity may well
exist to know something of the state in which these dignitaries of
the British Crown were accustomed to sit, it may fortunately be
gratified by the following extract from one of its Grand Jury
presenments:
At a court con'd and
held for Augusta county, May 21st, 1748." The grand jury made the
following presentment:
We have viewed and
Examined this Court-house and prison, and find the court-house to be
thirty-eight feet three inches long, and eighteen feet three inches
wide in the clear, built with logs hewed on both sides, not laid
close, some of the cracks between the logs quite open, four or five
inches wide and four or five feet long, and some stopped with chunks
and clay, but not one quite close: two small holes cut for windows,
but no glass nor shutters to them; the inside not finished nor
fitting for his Majesty's Judicature to sit. The Jury Rooms too
small and not furnished with tables, benches, &c., fitting for a
grand and petty jury to sit; and no part of it finished as it ought
to be, excepting only the roof, which was lately repaired.
The prison to be
twenty-two feet three inches long, and seventeen feet three inches
wide, from out-side to outside, built with square logs near one foot
thick, holes at ye corners and elsewhere two or three inches wide,
and so poorly dove-tailed at the corners, that it would be a very
easy matter to pull it all down. The chymney that was formerly built
in a very poor manner, now part of it is down, so that there is an
open way to the roof which a man might easily break with his foot or
hands.
"For which reasons we
present them."
"WM. CHRISTIAN,
foreman."
Although George Wythe,
the Pendletons and others "qualified and took their places at the
bar," as lawyers, some as early as 1747, they do not appear to have
been regular practitioners; and the people seem to have been at more
inconvenience for lawyers then than is now the case at the Staunton
bar, as would appear from the following order of court:
"August 28th,
1751.—On petition of Andrew Bird, &c., that James Portens in his
lifetime brought suit for him against Peter_&IaL and that said
Scholl bath imployed Gabriel Jones and Johnarvie, Gents., the only
attornies that attend this bar, and praying -that one of said
attornies be assigned him. Ordered that John Harvie, Gent., be
assigned," &c.
An order of court was
entered as early as February 12th, 1746, which does not appear from
the records to have ever been rescinded, and the court at the
present day might find it profitable, as a source of revenue at
least, and of' consternation to the bar, to enforce. It is to be
hoped the necessity for such an order is no greater now than it
should have been then with their only two attorneys.
"February 12th,
1746.—Ordered that any attorney interrupting another at. the bar, or
speaking when he is not employed, forfeit five shilligs."
Gabriel Jones was the
first, and for years the only lawyer residing in the county. He
lived near the present town of Port Republic, (in Rockingham
county,) and the road he travelled to court was opened, in 1746, by
an order for "laying off a road from the clerk's office" (long kept
at Port Republic) "to the court-house," and is still known as "the
lawyer's road." ha influence with the court was naturally great, and
he was justly regarded as indispensable. It is a current tradition
that the late Judge Holmes, when a young man, mischievous and witty,
once as opposing counsel provoked Mr. Jones into such a furious
passion that he became very profane. The court consulted long as to
what should be done; to punish "Squire Jones" was out of the
question, but the dignity of the bench and the majesty of the law
had to be preserved, and finally the presiding justice pronounced as
the decision of the court, "That if Mr. Holmes did not quit worrying
Mr. Jones, and making him swear so profanely, then Mr. Holmes should
be sent to jail."
The county levies, as
laid by the courts, are also suggestive of historic incidents:
On the 20th November,
1746, the levy was laid on 961 tithables, at "34 pounds of tobacco,
or 2 shillings and I penny per poll." In 1747 the levy was on 1670;
in 1750 on 2122; in 1752 on 2317 tithables.
The usual subjects of
county expense were "premiums on wolves' heads,"—" salary of the
deputy attorney of the king,"—(Gabriel Jones)— "Burgesses'
wages,"—(James Patton)—and the following as a standing item, via:
"To Robert McClenahan to find small beer; candles; to keep the
court-house in order; to find stabledge for Justices', attornies',
and officers' horses, 1600 pounds of tobacco."
In a levy made
November 19th, 1755, are the following items:
To John Harrison for
burying some Robbers by him killed; and for expenses to Dr. Lynn for
dressing the wounds of one of them, 640 pounds. "To John Harrison
for going for a coroner, and other expenses about the above
mentioned Robbers, 310 pounds of tobacco." Making about $10 in money
for the complete job—and no further notice appears on the records
concerning this killing of "some Robbers." But at a court held
previously, viz: February 19th, 1751, is this entry, "The petition
of John and Reuben Harrison, praying a reward for killing two
persons under the command of Utes Perkins, who were endeavouring to
rob them, was read and ordered to be certified."
From these, and other
frequent entries concerning "Utes Perkins and his followers," it is
obvious, that during several years about that date there was an
organized band of robbers within the then limits of Augusta county.
It is not known that any tradition is extant concerning the matter.
In 1744 an Act of Assembly was passed, "to punish horse-stealing,
and receivers of stolen cattle and horses," and recites in one
section that "the crime of horse-stealing is of late years much
increased, especially in the frontier counties of this colony," &c.,
&c. This has reference doubtless to Augusta, and it is probable that
"Perkins and his company" were principally horse thieves, as entries
show that they generally appeared with horses in possession.
The sheriffs' returns
upon unsatisfied executions were likewise illustrative of the times.
Discarding such classic technicalities of the profession as "Nulla
bona," and "non est inventus," and the like, they adopted a more
practical and pointed style. A few specimens must suffice:
But these record
books disclose for the history of this people a page of far more
serious import. Brief cotemporaneous entries on many a leaf indicate
the date of the dreaded Indian incursions into this valley—and mark
the places of the bloody massacres remembered long with mourning
among their descendants to the third and fourth generation. Names of
men, and captains of companies, in numbers that will surprise their
posterity of to-day, appear on these pages, through the long period
of thirty years, with short intervals of uncertain peace, as
actively engaged in aggressive and defensive war with their wily and
relentless forest foes.
Stretched along the
frontiers, separated by mountains and by miles of forests from the
seat of their colonial government, whence only succor could be
claimed; poorly provided with means of defense, they were left in
their own unaided strength exposed to all the troubles engendered by
the long and bitter contest between the French and English nations
for supremecy in the West. But they bore the brunt most bravely, and
stood, withal, a sure rock of defense to dash back the merciless
wave of savage warfare from the hearth-stones of the East.
"Expeditions,"
composed of hundreds of men, appear from these records to have "gone
out as rangers on the frontiers," at periods of which history makes
no other mention than in the few unnoticed acts of the assembly,
which acknowledge and encourage such services. Companies of
"Rangers,' "Independents," and "Volunteers," under such captains as
the Lewis", McClenahans, Cunniughams, Prestons, Dickinsons, Dunlaps,
Alexander, and others, armed with their own rifles, and equipped at
their own expense, penetrated the dark forest in all directions, to
punish and disperse the marauding parties of savages, who, for real
or fancied wrongs, in times otherwise of peace, with scalping-knife
and torch fell upon defenceless families to murder and destroy, and
again disappear as stealthily as the panther and wolf to their
distant lairs.
Thinly settled as was
Augusta in 1754, a company, under Captain Lewis, was sent to join
the youthful Washington in his first battle at the Great Meadows. In
Braddock's ill-starred defeat, in 1755, the "backwoods riflemen" of
Augusta, under the eye of Washington, were most effective in staying
the sad fortunes of that fatal day. In 1757, at the call of the
Government, a most formidable force marched from the county to
invade the distant country of the Shawnese, and had already reached
the Ohio, when, to their great chagrin, they were recalled by the
colonial governor, and had to retrace their perilous route for
hundreds of miles through a deep snow and a mountain
wilderness—their provisions exhausted, and dependent for food only
on the game and the wild nuts of the forest, and finally on the
flesh of their pack-horses and the leather of their rude saddles;
but the skill and intrepidity of their able commander, Andrew
Lewis,* led them to their homes at last, but worn-out with fatigue
and starvation. And again, in 1758, a battalion of these hardy
riflemen, under their favorite leader, marched to the distant banks
of the Ohio, and, hearing the- firing at the battle of "Grant's
bill," they pressed on contrary to orders, and reached the field in
time to save the defeated Highlanders from inevitable slaughter. In
1760, in Colonel Bouquet's successful expedition to the Muskingum
towns, and all throughout Pontiac's long war, and afterwards against
the Cherokees of the South, company after company went from Augusta.
And on the 10th of October, 1774, the bloody drama was at last
closed in the utter rout of the Indian forces, in a pitched battle,
fought hand to hand, "from morn to noon, from noon to dewy eve," by
over one thousand on either side, of these hardy forest warriors, on
the ever memorable field of Point Pleasant.
The individual
distress that attended such times as these may well be yet
remembered with horror. The families and firesides of these frontier
soldiers on their long expeditions were necessarily left almost
defenceless. In the single summer of 1758 as many as sixty persons
in the county of Augusta were massacred in their homes. Their fields
were uncultivated, and whole settlements were often reduced almost
to famine, but still they fought on bravely, with a patriotic
devotion of the best years of their lifetime to their country. It
was doubtless true of many, as tradition yet tells of Charles
Lewis—that very flower of forest chivalry, who fell so untimely
while leading the van at Point Pleasant—that during the Indian wars,
for ten long years, he was not permitted to remain as much as a
month at any one time with his family and his home.
Though history has no
sufficient record of these frontier wars, it must not be inferred
they were any the less formidable. So far away in the uninhabited
forests, the car of history could scarce catch the sound of the
battles, and no earthly eye was witness, save that .of the wheeling
vulture and hungry wolf, awaiting the expected prey. They were
fought only in the direst necessity for fighting, amidst nothing but
its horrors, against savage foes, a fierce, unrelenting struggle for
very life and death, with no hope for relief or respite in the
bitter strife, until only the king of terrors should decide; fought,
too, all without the accustomed incentives of other battlefields,
nor cheered by fame's propbotic voice, nor "glory's thrill," which,
more than trumpet's blast, stirs the blood to chivalrous deeds,
elevates war awhile above its cruelties, almost "makes ambition
virtue," and inspires the soul with that true heroism to brave—
"the perilous hour,
Whatever the shape in which death may lower,
For fame is there to tell who bleeds,
And Hoson's eye marks daring deeds."
But there is no need
to dwell on the horrors of such warfare. The very term Indian—so
euphonious in itself—has become a synonym with savage. The thrilling
tales of these fearful times, told in every nursery throughout this
valley, awaken the earliest fears of our infancy, and "run moulten
still in memory's mould." There is more danger that the inflamed
imagination may do an injustice at once to the Indian and the white
warrior, and to the character of the contest itself. The Indian,
though savage, was not a wild beast, and mercy and humanity could
not be altogether disregarded; nor must the dire scenes enacted be
tried by the rules of civil warfare. Much might be told to
extenuate, if not atone for, the cruelties committed; much of
provocation to these free-born spirits of the forest; much to
inflame their native thirst for vengeance, and but too many deeds of
indiscriminate murder, like that which fired the forest-born
eloquence of Logan—the Mingo chief—to tell his wrongs to all coming
times, "in thoughts that breathe and words that burn." The untutored
Indian, in his rude forest life, devoid of all motives to soften or
conceal his passions, displays but the common weakness of man's
nature in colors the more vivid only because on simpler ground.
Nemesis, the Goddess of Vengeance, has her votaries in every age and
every clime.
Imagination may too
well supply the horrors of this savage warfare, and it would be a
more gracious task, if time permitted, to relieve the dark shades of
the picture, and farther illustrate the story with some of the many
traditions that show these warriors of nature were not to bc
despised either as friends or as foes. If savage life had vices, it
was not all devoid of virtues. Their history is full of touching
incidents of magnanimity, from the romantic tenderness of Pocahontas
in shielding the adventurous Smith from the war-clubs of Powhatan,
down to the times and the homelier tales of generous deeds towards
the settlers of this valley. If we shudder at their brutal sport in
making their captives "run the gauntlet," we can but smile withal
over the story of young Schoolcraft, who, on receiving the first
blow as he entered the "gauntlet," turned lustily to fight the
Indian who struck him, when all the others at once left the lines,
crowded round the boy, and encouraged him in the contest, until he
conquered the Indian; and forthwith he was released, to become a
privileged favorite in the tribe. At the bloody massacre on Carr's
Creek, in Rockbridge county, an Indian, while scalping Thomas
Gilmore, was knocked down by Mrs. Gilmore with an iron kettle;
another Indian ran with uplifted tomahawk to kill her, and was only
stopped by the one who lay bleeding from the blow she had given him,
calling quickly to him, "don't kill her, she is a good warrior;" and
this magnanimity in a savage saved her life.
Tradition in the
Trimble family of Augusta tells that the beautiful farm yet in their
possession was shown their ancestor by an Indian, in return for some
favor done him long before in the woods of Pennsylvania, and that
for many years afterwards, when the Indians appeared in this
neighborhood for murder and rapine, that family was always
unmolested—though visited, and a draught of fresh milk from the
dairy and a mess of hominy invariably demanded and taken, as a token
of peace. The families of Bumgarner, Croft, and some others,
obtained by treaty from the Indians, permission to settle and hunt
upon the Monongahela river; but when the war of 1774 commenced,
Governor Dunmore sent a message to warn them that if they remained
all would be killed. An Indian who happened to hear it delivered,
replied most indignantly to the messenger, "tell your king he is
damned liar; Indian no kill these men." And the families in fact
remained there unharmed throughout all the horrors of that bloody
war.
So comparatively
silent is history concerning this border warfare, that few
appreciate how formidable were the Indian warriors in battle. Their
personal daring, ferocity, and untiring thirst for revenge may be
known, but they are regarded still as ignorant savages, unskilled to
conduct campaigns, and contend in associated armies against the
trained troops of civilized life. The fallacy of this idea could be
readily shown, but it must suffice here to glance only at the
characteristics of the principal chieftains that led them in these
wars, and whose devotion to the interests of their people, wisdom in
council, skill in strategy and chivalric boldness in battle, have
left a fame and "a name to other times" that may well rival the
glory of the proudest heroes of the world.
The "great Emperor
Pontiac," the war-chief of the Ottowas—the most influential of the
Northern tribes—was the first who appeared in the hostile field
against the settlers of this valley. He was described by one writer
who knew him, as "a person of remarkable appearance, of singularly
fine countenance, and of commanding stature." Another says he
"habitually wore an air of princely grandeur;" and "the many acts of
magnanimity which illustrated his life might have made him a fit
comrade for the knights of the middle ages." Another adds, that "in
point of native talent, courage, magnanimity, and integrity, he will
compare without prejudice with the most renowned of civilized
potentates and conquerors."
He first appears in
history, in 1746, as the leader of the Indian forces that
successfully defended the French in Detroit against an attack of
hostile tribes. In the Acadian wars, in 1747, he fought with the
French, as the leader of the Indian allies, against the English, and
he was the most conspicuous chieftain in the defence of Fort
Duquesne. And on that ever memorable morning of the 9th July, 1755,
when the crystal waters of the Monongahela glittered with the sheen
of burnished arms and brilliant uniforms of the British troops,
under the brave but boastful Braddock, all unconscious that the
silent forests covered with its shadows a host of hidden foes—it was
Pontiac who devised that fatal ambuscade, and headed the allied
bands of Indians and French that rushed down on the devoted army,
"like the wolf on the fold "—left eight hundred men lifeless on that
field of blood, and drove the survivors back in utter affright to
Fort Cumberland, "the farthest flight," says Smollet, "that any army
ever made."
The war of 1763,
known in history as "Pontiac's war," was one of the most
comprehensive ever conceived in all the annals of Indian warfare,
and fell with its greatest fury on the settlements of the Valley,
and throughout the West. Pontiac visited in person most of the
Northern nations, and his influence was felt from the Mizpaca of
Nova Scotia to the Cherokees of the South. More than twenty tribes
assembled at his call in the council of Niagara, where his wonderful
natural eloquence, through winning appeals to the pride and even the
superstitions of the Indian warriors, soon enlisted all
enthusiastically in his as a common cause.
Pontiac, 'himself,
planned the entire campaign, assigning the time, the tribe, and the
war-chief to attack each one of the English posts on the extended
frontier from Canada to Carolina. It was most promptly put in
execution: nine British forts were surprised and captured in rapid
succession, the trading posts were all destroyed, and the captives
murdered. The forth which withstood the assault were beleaguered for
weary months by hostile savages without, and appalled by gaunt
famine within. Marauding parties pushed far into the panic-stricken
settlements, and committed the memorable massacres of Muddy Creek
and the Big Levels on the Greenbrier and Roanoke, in Virginia, and
in one merciless slaughter depopulated the whole Valley of Wyoming,
in Pennsylvania.
This daring and
determined war of the red men of the wilderness called forth the
utmost strength of the colonies, and the strongest support of the
mother country to conquer it. Finally, General Broadstreet's
successful foray quelled the savages of the North; and in the South,
the brave and skilful Colonel Bouquet, in command of the provincial
troops, among whom were many companies from the county of Augusta,
pushed far into the Indian country on the Muskingum and Ohio, and
compelled the savages to sue for peace. But Pontiac, scorning to
come to any terms, retired to the tribes of Illinois, and while
engaged in rallying another general movement, was assassinated by a
traitor Indian, whose whole tribe was afterwards totally
exterminated by the Ottawas, in revenge for the death of their great
chieftain. A distinguished writer says that "the memory of the great
Ottowa chief is yet held in reverence among the Indians of the West,
and whatever the fate which may await them, his name and deeds will
live in their traditionary narratives, increasing in interest as
they increase in years."
The peace which
ensued the death of Pontiac was, to the frontier settlers, one in
name only. Too many bitter memories of the bloody war, just closed,
rankled in the savage breasts to allow the fell spirit of revenge so
suddenly t9 submit at the command for peace. The beautiful "Indian
Summer," when the brilliant hues of autumnal leaves robe the
mountains as with the very banners of peace, was the leisure season
of the Indian, and the hereditary time for his annual hunting
carnival in these valleys. Such, too, was the fatal time selected
for incursions by predatory parties of Indians, year after year, and
their path was so often marked by murder and rapine, that the whites
were provoked to as fierce retaliations, until finally another
"Indian war" blazed out along all the borders of Virginia.
The Shawnese
war-chief, Cornstalk, in youth a follower of Pontiac, was the
principal leader in this later war, and may be taken as the type of
the other chieftains, only less. distinguished, but whom time will
not permit us to mention. In the sphere for which he was designed,
Cornstalk was one of Nature's masterpieces--a consistent advocate of
peace, but a thunderbolt in war, bravest in action, most sagacious
in camp, and most eloquent in council. The Shawnese, of whom
Cornstalk was emperor, "held all other men, Indians as well as
whites, in contempt as warriors in comparison with themselves, and
were assuming and imperious in the presence of all others not of
their nation." Cornstalk was their fitting type and chieftain. He is
described as "distinguished for beauty of person, for agility and
strength of frame, in manners graceful and easy, and in movement
majestic and princely."
The famous battle of
Point Pleasant, so mournfully familiar to the memory of the
descendants of those engaged in it, was the most noted pitched
battle ever fought with the Indians upon this continent. Cornstalk
commanded the Indian force, which was composed of over one thousand
picked warriors, the flower of their tribes. The time and the ground
for the battle was selected by Cornstalk with the most consummate
sagacity. He designed to cut off by surprise the army of General
Lewis, while worn- out with the fatigue of its long march through
the mountain wilderness, before the approaching reinforcement under
Colonel Christian could arrive, and before it could form a junction
with the main body of Virginians under Lord Dunmore, who was
marching leisurely along the open road of Brad- dock's expedition.
The battle was begun at early dawn, and was most fiercely fought
until the sun sank behind the western hills. An actor in the scene
says, "the long lines of the opposing armies, stretching for a mile
between the banks of the Kanawha and the Ohio, were often within
twenty feet of each other, and for a time the fight was hand to hand
with tomahawk and war-club and knife, in deadly struggle." The
towering form of Cornstalk was constantly seen passing rapidly along
the Indian links, and his clear commanding voice was distinctly
heard above the din of battle, cheering his braves with his
battle-cry, "BE STRONG!—BE STRONG!" One of his warriors appearing to
falter, the stern chief, with a blow of his own tomahawk, was seen
to cleave the coward's skull. Nothing but the obstinate bravery, and
desperate courage of Andrew Lewis, and his experienced officers and
hardy men, could have withstood this fierce onslaught; but their
unflinching valor triumphed, and the confident Indian was driven
back across the Ohio, never again to appear in battle array on the
unconquered soil of Virginia.
In the conferences
for peace which followed this battle, he extorted the highest
praises from the English officers for his remarkable eloquence.
"When Cornstalk rose to reply to Lord Dunmore," says Coknel Wilson,
(a British officer present,) "he was in no wise confused or daunted,
but spoke in a distinct and audible voice, without stammering or
repetition, and with peculiar emphasis. His very looks, while
addressing Dunmore, were truly grand, yet graceful and attractive.".
As he advanced and became excited his voice rose in swelling cadence
until he could be distinctly heard over all the camp-ground. Colonel
Wilson adds, "I have heard the first orators in Virginia—Patrick
Henry and Richard Henry Lee—but never have I heard one whose powers
of delivery surpassed those of Cornstalk."
The well known story
of his death, which occurred but a few years later, so little to the
credit of those concerned, was but characteristic of the chieftain
himself. Faithfully regarding the treaty of peace, he visited the
fort at Point Pleasant to warn the garrison of the efforts of
British agents to incite the Indians to take up arms against the
Virginians in the revolutionary war. But Cornstalk was detained as a
hostage, and his son, the young chief Ellinipsico, in filial
devotion, came to the fort to share his father's confinement. A
reckless party of soldiers, infuriated at the murder of a comrade by
a prowling Indian, alleged to have been a companion of Ellinipsico,
rushed to avenge themselves on the helpless hostages. Cornstalk
seeing their approach, and. having on that same morning expressed a
presentiment of approaching death, readily divined their object, and
after saying encouragingly to Ellinipsico, "My son, the Great Spirit
has seen fit that we should die together, and has sent you here to
that end, it is his will, lets submit, it is all for the best," he
turned, undauntedly, to meet his murderers, and baring his bosom,
received seven balls in his body and fell lifeless at their feet. He
was the last of a long line of forest warriors since the days of
Powhatan, who, on Virginia's soil, had illustrated, amidst all their
cruelties, the loftiest virtues of Nature's heroes; with him
departed the spirit and prestige of Indian power forever on this
frontier, and the long and bloody drama was fittingly closed with
the scene of his death, as he lay thus on the very field of his fame
and his greatest battle :-
"----- the lord of all
The forest heroes; trained to wars;
Quivered and plumed, and lithe and tall,
And seamed with glorious scars."
With such an eventful
close of the border hostilities the settlers of this valley might
well hope to repose calmly at last in the sun-light of peace; but
the luried flashes of these forest wars had scarce faded behind the
hills of the West, when their Eastern skies grew dark along all the
horizon with the gathering clouds of the revolutionary contest for
their country's freedom. But here the headlands of history come into
view, and in accordance with the plan of this address, to trespass
little on such well known ground, we but linger awhile where we may
yet gather some floating traditions, or less known incidents, that
further exhibit the traits of this Scotch Irish race.
Though wearied and
wasted by their long conflicts with their forest foes, and welcome
as rest might well have been, still they greeted the coming struggle
most cheerily, although against the mother country and the most
imperious power of the old world, since it became necessary to
secure the rights of conscience and of liberty, which they and their
fathers had so long and ever so unceasingly sought. To show the
spirit, still worthy of their descent, in which they ripened for the
coming revolution, we need but quote, so far as space permits, from
the "addresses" of their public meetings of the day, not published
as yet in any formal book of history. Augusta was, by this date,
sub-divided into the counties of Botetourt and Fincastle, and they
who moved in these meetings were the same men, and their immediate
descendants, who came from the heart of original Augusta—that "officena
gentium" for the West.
On the 20th of
January, 1775, months before the famous "Mecklen- burg Declaration
of Independence,"—itself the work of the Scotch-Irish of North
Carolina—the freeholders of Fincastle, through their committee,
consisting of Colonel William Christian, as chairman, Rev'd Charles
Cumings, Colonel William Preston, Captain Stephen Trigg, Major
Arthur Campbell, Majo William Ingliss, Captains Walter Crockett,
John Montgomery, James Gavock, William Campbell, Thomas Madison,
Daniel Smith, William Russell, Evan Shelby and William Edmundson,
presented an address to the Continential Congress containing these
sentiments:—
"Had it not been for
our remote situation, and the Indian War in which We were lately
engaged to chastise these cruel and savage people for the many
murders and depredations they committed amongst us, now happily
terminated, we should, before this time, have made known our
thankfulness for the very important services you have rendered your
country.
* * * * "We assure
you, and all our countrymen, that we are a people whose hearts
overflow with love and duty to our lawful Sovereign George III.,
whose illustrious House, for several successive reigns, have been
the Guardians of the civil and religions rights and liberties of
British subjects as settled at the glorious Revolution; that we are
willing to risk our live.4 in the service of His Majesty for the
support of the Protestant Religion, and the rights and liberties of
his subjects, as they have been established by Compact, Law and
Ancient Charters. We are heartily grieved at the differences which
now subsist between the parent State and the Colonies, and most
ardently wish to see harmony restored on an equitable basis, and by
the most lenient measures that can be devised by the heart of man.
Many of us and bur forefathers left our native land, considering it
as a Kingdom subjected to inordinate power, and greatly abridged of
its liberties; we crossed the Atlantic and explored this then
uncultivated wilderness, bordering on many nations of Savages, and
surrounded by Mountains almost inaccessible to any but those very
Savages, who have incessantly been committing barbarities and
depredations on us since our first seating the country. These
fatigues and dangers we patiently encountered, supported by the
pleasing hope of enjoying those rights and liberties which had been
granted to Virginians, and were denied us in our native country, and
of transmitting them inviolate to our posterity; but even to these
remote regions the hand- of unlimited and unconstitutional power
bath pursued us to strip us of that liberty and property, with which
God, nature and the rights of humanity have vested us. We are ready
and willing to contribute all in our power for the support of His
Majesty's Government, if applied to constitutionally,. and when the
grants are made to our Representatives, but cannot think of
submitting our liberty or property to the power of a venal British
Parliament, or to the will of a corrupt British Ministry. We by no
means desire to shake off our duty or allegiance to our lawful
Sovereign, but on the contrary, shall ever glory in being the loyal
subjects of a Protestant Prince, descended from such illustrious
progenitors, so long as we can enjoy the free exercise of our
Religion as Protestants, and our Liberties and Properties as British
Subjects.
"But, if no pacific
measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great Britain, and our
enemies will attempt to dragoon us out of those inestimable
privileges, which we are entitled to as subjects, and to, reduce us
to slavery, we declare that we are deliberately and resolutely
determined never to surrender them to any power upon earth but at
the expense of our lives.
"These are our real,
though unpolished sentiments, of liberty and loyalty, and in them we
are resolved to live and die." (Am. Archives, 1775.)
The Freeholders of
Augusta county assembled in Staunton on the 22nd day of February,
1775, chose MR. THOMAS LEWIS and CAPT SAM'L McDOWELL as delegates to
represent them in Colony Convention at the town of Richmond, on the
20th day of March, 1775. "Instructions" were drawn up by Rev. Alex.
Balmain, Sampson Matthews, Capt. Alexander McClenachan, Michael
Bowyer, Wm. Lewis, and Capt. George Matthews— portions of which are
as follows:
"To Mr. Thomas Lewis
and Capt. Sanel McDowell:
"The Commissioners of
Augusta county, pursuant to the trust reposed in them by the
Freeholders of the same, have chosen you to represent them in a
Colony Convention, proposed to be held in Richmond on the 20th
March, instant. They desire that you may consider the people of
Augusta county as impressed with just sentiments of loyalty, and
allegiance to his Majesty, King George, whose title to the Imperial
Crown of Great Britain rests on no other foundation than the
liberty, and whose glory is inseparable from the happiness of all
his subjects. We have also a respect for the parent state, which
respect is founded on religion, on law, and the genuine principles
of the Constitution. On these principles do we earnestly desire to
see harmony and a good understanding restored between Great Britain
and America. Many of us and our forefathers left our native land,
and explored this once savage wilderness, to enjoy the free exercise
of the rights of conscience and of human nature. These rights we are
fully resolved, with our lives and fortunes, inviolably to preserve;
nor will we surrender such inestimable blessings, the purchase of
toil and danger, to any Ministry, to any Parliament, or any body of
men upon earth, by whom we are not represented, and in whose
decisions therefore we have no voice. * * * * And as we are
determined to maintain unimpaired that liberty which is the gift of
Heaven to the subject of Britain's Empire, we will most cordially
join our countrymen in such measures, as may be deemed wise and
necessary to secure and perpetuate the ancient, just, and legal
rights of this Colony and all British America.
"As the state of this
Colony greatly demands that Manufactures should be encouraged by
every possible means, we desire that you use your endeavors that
Bounties may be proposed by the Convention for the making of Salt,
Steel, Wool-Cards, Paper and Gun-Powder; and that, in the meantime,
a supply of Ammunition be provided for the Militia of this Colony. *
* * A well regulated Militia is the natural strength and stable
security of a free government, and we therefore wish it recommended
by the Convention to the officers and men of each county in Virginia
to make themselves masters of the military exercise, published by
order of his Majesty in the year 1764.
"Placing our ultimate
trust on the Supreme Disposer of every event, without whose gracious
interposition the wisest schemes may fail of success, we desire you
to move the Convention that some day, which may appear to them most
convenient, be set apart for imploring the blessing of ALMIGHTY GOD
on such plans as human wisdom and integrity may think necessary to
adopt for preserving America, happy, virtuous and free."
The address of the
Freeholders of Botetourt, about the same date, is very similar in
sentiment and construction with the foregoing, and concludes as
follows: "In these sentiments we are determined to live and die. We
are too sensible of the inestimable privileges enjoyed by subjects
under the British Constitution, even to wish for a change, while the
free enjoyments of those blessings can be secured to us; but, on the
contrary, can justly boast of our loyalty and affection to our most
gracious Sovereigns, and of our readiness in risking our lives,
whenever it has been found necessary, for the defence of his person
and government.
it should a wicked
and tyrannical Ministry, under the sanction of a venal and corrupt
Parliament, persist in acts of injustice and violence towards us,
they only must be answerable for the consequences. Liberty is so
strongly impressed on our hearth, that we cannot think of parting
with it but with our lives. Our duty to GOD, OUR COUNTRY, OURSELVES,
AND OUR POSTERITY, all forbid it. We therefore stand prepared for
every contingency."
These addresses have
the ring of the true metal; and they display a spirit still living
in these people that proved an unadulterated descent from their
patriot ancestors of the past. The same independence in thought,
resolute maintenance of right, and loyalty to a just government; but
an ever-jealous vigilance of tyranny, bold defiance of unrighteous
power, prompt resistance of all encroachments on liberty and
conscience, and still crowning all a constancy in faith and deep
reverence for religion to shed a golden glow over all their daily
deeds.
It is believed that,
in point of time, the very first paper presented to the continental
Congress, distinctly proposing a separation from the government of
Great Britain, was one from this people of Augusta: but,
unfortunately, the paper itself cannot now be found. The very early
date of the addresses quoted, prepared by a people so remote from
the commercial and social heart of the colonies, as to be the last
to feel the practical evils of oppression, proves not merely the
promptness with which they made and met the issue, but that the
impulse with them was one on PRINCIPLE alone. And such glowing
evidence of sympathy from the distant backwoods might well send an
electric thrill through the breast of every patriot in their common
country, uniting all in a common cause, with a common pledge to each
other of their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.
From apprehensions
too well justified by bitter experience in the past, that the
treacherous Indian might forego his treaty of peace, and again fall
upon a defenceless frontier, few troops were taken from the Valley
in the early part of the Revolution: but, singly, many joined the
army; and although losing their identity as a class, became
distinguished as soldiers and officers—the Lewises, Matthews,
Campbells and others, in the highest ranks, skilled by long service
in the border wars, winning imperishable renown in their country's
history.
On the fields of the
Cowpens and Guilford some organized companies from the Valley of
Virginia were engaged, and bore the brunt of the battle like
veterans. Armed each with his own trusty rifle, and skilled in its
use from earliest boyhood; familiar with the most perilous forms of
warfare from experience with their savage foes; inspired by
patriotic zeal in their cause, and brave by very nature, even if
undisciplined, they must still have been most effective troops. Some
British prisoners asked, after the battle of Guilford, to be shown
one of the guns used by these companies, and viewing it [The
identical gun is in possession of John Brownlee, Esq., of Augusta,
whose father bore it in the battle: its weight is over ten pounds;
length of barrel three feet, eight inches; total length five feet;
*eight of ball about 20 to the pound. An entry on the records of the
county court assesses the value of the arms loot by the death of
Capt. James Tate in the battle, viz: "a rifle gun, £6, a silver
hiked sword £7 10."] with intensest interest exclaimed, that "God
and law should forbid the use of such deadly weapons." The Rev.
Samuel Houston, a private in the Rockbridge company, "admits" in his
Journal, yet extant, that he discharged his rifle "fourteen
times"—making once for every ten minutes that "the contest lasted."
The others doubtless did as much; and such riflemen were accustomed
to fire only with fatal aim. It is yet told, and well believed among
their descendants, that these men "scarcely 'lost' a single ball in
all that battle." With other light armed militia they were posted in
the front lines, and commenced the action; but a panic seized the
troops stationed as their support, and the Valley riflemen were left
standing alone. Tradition tells that Capt. Tate, who commanded the
Augusta company, mortified at the cowardice of the desertion,
feigned not to hear the order then sent his company to retreat, and
stood his ground fighting till himself and great numbers of his men
fell dead upon the field, and Tarleton's resistless cavalry out
through their thinned ranks. The British General, Cornwallis, made
special inquiry, after the battle, concerning "the rebel troops that
were stationed in the apple orchard and fought so furiously ;" and
the American commander, General Greene, afterwards said to Maj.
Alex. Stuart, of this Regiment, that there was a time in the
fortunes of that day, when, if be could only have foreseen the
unflinching bravery and fatal fire of these mountain riflemen, he
would have annihilated the army of Cornwallis.
The memorable battle of King's Mountain was 'won by men of this same
race; many of whom, like their gallant leaders—Campbell, Shelby and
Sevier—were born or reared in Augusta, tried' in her forest
conflicts, and conspicuous in the bloody battle of Point Pleasant.
The "mountain men" of North Carolina and Tennessee were of the same
stock; and it is probable that all engaged in the action were
immediate descendants of the Scotch-Irish Settlers. General Wm.
Campbell, the chief commander, wore upon the field the same trusty
sword his Grand-father bore in the Highlands of Scotland. The
leading incidents of the battle are characteristic of the people
themselves. When the news came that Ferguson and his formidable band
were invading their mountain homes, their intrepid spirit was
aroused to instant resistance. They awaited not to organize an equal
army, and march in solid column against their formidable foe: nor
needed they any baggage trains or camp equipage to delay and
encumber their movement. Their tried rifles ever hung ready in their
reach; their strong steeds were saddled at the word; the sound of
the invader's approach was their call to the field, and their
instinctive rallying place was the front of the foe. "All of a
sudden," says a chronicler in Ferguson's army, "a numerous, fierce
and unexpected enemy sprung up in the depths of the desert; the
scattered inhabitants of the mountains assembled without noise or
warning, daring, well mounted, and excellent horsemen." The numbers
assembled reached two thousand, but lest the enemy should evade
them, nine hundred of the best mounted pushed on—many of the
officers in the ranks as private volunteers— and soon brought
Ferguson to bay on that fatal mountain, "from which he boasted that
all the rebels from hell could not drive him." But, in a short hour
the haughty Briton arid his army were surrounded and pressed in
affright upwards to the mountain's crest; his men fell like leaves
before the leaden hail; the fiery circle closed faster around him,
and soon his own white horse came careering, riderless, down the
mountain side, and his surviving troops threw down their arms in
unconditional surrender. But now that the victory was won, the work
of this impromptu and patriot army was over. The few words of the
historian, Irving, truthfully tell the remainder of the
characteristic story: "This victorious army of mountain men, did not
follow up this signal blow. They had no plan of campaign; it was a
spontaneous rising of the sons of the soil to revenge it on its
invaders; and having effected their purpose, they returned in
triumph to their homes."
And nearer our own
homes tradition loves still to tell of another time when the "sons
of the soil" rose in patriotic ardor to avenge it on the threatening
invader. The dashing Tarleton, at the head of his "legion of
devils," mounted on the swift race-horses, pillaged from the stables
of the planters in Eastern Virginia, swept up the valley of James
river and the Rivanna, made a descent upon Charlottesville, and into
the very portals of Monticello, driving the Governor of this proud
Commonwealth, a refugee, into the forests of Albemarle, and the
Legislature in hasty flight across the mountains to Staunton—the
frontier town of the State. Flushed by his successes, it was thought
be would follow in pursuit and invade this mountain-girt valley,
never as yet profaned by the foot of a foreign foe.
—And on one quiet
Saturday evening, when the rural inhabitants were resting from the
labors of the week, and awaiting with accustomed reverence the
holier rest of the coming Sabbath, an express rider came dashing
across the mountain with the startling tidings that Tarleton was
already approaching towards Rockfish Gap. The express passed on his
way a house where religious service was holding, and one who was
then present, and yet lives in a green old age, tells with faithful
memory how the pious and patriotic pastor (Rev. Archibald Scott) at
once, in thrilling tones, invoked his people to rally all their
strength, and, with their lives in their hands, drive back the
invader. The wives and daughters he hastened to their homes to help
prepare their husbands, brothers and lovers for the defense of their
firesides and their honor. By. nightfall, the men mounted on what
horses could be had, or on foot, were all moving towards the
mountain gap, armed with their ready rifles, but some, for want of
better weapons, carrying their mowing scythes and iron-forks, saying
as they went, "we will 'turn our plough-shares into swords, and our
pruning-hooks into spears,' to meet the invader of our land."
The alarm spread with
the speed of the fiery cross along their ancestral highlands of
ancient Scotland, and by early morning the whole valley was in
motion, not as was their wont on that sacred day to gather in the
houses of prayer, but in the familiar sentiment of their fathers,
that "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God," they marched forth
with the blessings and under the command of their patriot pastors,
who, on that day, hesitated not to exchange the Bible and the pulpit
for the sword and the saddle. And soon all along that misty
mountain's top there bristled an armed host that might well have
dismayed a stouter heart than Tarleton's. We may almost be forgiven
the vanity of wishing that he had not been turned from the attempt,
well believing, from the temper which rallied such a host, that the
proud Tarleton would have met a resistance in that unconquerable
spirit—that courage never to submit or yield—which would have
immortalized our own mountain pass with a victory memorable as that
of the Swiss Morgarten, or if defeat, itself still glorious as that
which forever ha!lows the ground where—
"-------- the unconquered Spartans
still are free,
In their proud charnel of Thermopyh."
No wonder the
immortal Washington, ever remembering the ready patriotism of the
men of Augusta, who had stood by his side so valiantly on the fields
of his youthful fame, and had won laurels for themselves in an
hundred other battles, should have paid them the tribute of
recommending their favorite leader, Andrew Lewis, for the
commander-in-chief of the American armies. No wonder that in the
darkest days of the patriot cause, when the bravest despaired, be
still hopefully relied on the men of these mountains, and appointed
the last refuge and rallying-place for freedom's followers among the
fastnesses of Augusta. And no wonder that he has left the priceless
legacy to them and their children's children forever, to found in
their midst this noble Seminary of learning, a blessing to increase
in every rolling year, a memento at once of his patriotism and
wisdom to be cherished as long as his own immortal memory endures.
But if time
permitted, it might well be shown that it was not only in arms they
magnified and honored themselves and their country. When all for
which they had taken the field was won, and the bugles sang truce at
last, these unceasing worshippers at the shrine of liberty rested
not until they had secured from the government of their own adoption
all their long- sought rights of religious as well as civil liberty.
True to the sentiments inherited from the highlands of Scotland, and
the shores of Ulster, they were still most ardent, and zealous and
persistent advocates for a charter of religious freedom. The
Presbytery of Hanover, having a large constituent proportion within
this valley, moved in the matter as early as 1773, and again at
Timber-ridge Church, in Rockbridge, in 1775, and presented an able
memorial in 1776 to the General Assembly for the "removal of every
species of religious as well as civil bondage." Again, in 1777,
assembled at Timber-ridge, they earnestly "remonstrated against a
general assessment for any religious purpose," declaring that its
"consequences are so entirely subversive of religious liberty, that
if they should occur in Virginia we should be reduced to the
melancholy necessity of saying with the Apostles in like
cases—'Judge ye whether it is best to obey God or man,'—and of
acting as they acted." In 1780 another like memorial went up from
Old Tinkling Spring, in Augusta; another in May, 1784, from Bethel,
in Augusta; another in October, 1784, from Timber-ridge; and on the
10th of August, 1785, from a "General Convention at Bethel Church,"
in the midst of old Augusta, was started that famous petition to
which 10,000 signatures were attached, and was finally instrumental
in securing, on the 17th of December, 1785, the "inestimable statute
for religious freedom"— under which, in the prophetic words of the
memorialists themselves, "civil and religious liberty go hand in
hand, and our latest posterity will bless the wisdom and virtue of
their fathers."
But the plan of this
discourse concludes it where the worn channels of history so widen
to the view. The incidents illustrating the characteristics of the
settlers of this beautiful valley have been traced from the
uncertain sources of the stream, arising far back in the sequestered
retreats of tradition, until at length it has emerged on the more
open tracts of time, and rolls its deepening waters broad and clear
in the sunlight of history.
The gleanings we hnve
gathered may suffice, in some more skillful hand, to' weave for
their memory an enduring garland of glory. Enough may now have been
given to illustrate their leading traits of activity of intellect,
independence of spirit, fervency of patriotism, and perseverance of
valor, and all adorned with a deep reverence for religion almost
innate. These virtues may not have been adjusted in proportion, or
polished into perfect harmony, but they were appropriate to the
sphere of such simple life, and must command admiration for the
solid strength and bold relief in which they stand, finishing
upwards ever with the graces of piety and faith—like some old
cathedral of the ruder ages, sublime for its very boldness of
outline and massive strength of foundation, and pillar and wall,
while gracefully from every loftiest part still springs the "taper
spire that points to heaven."
For more than half a
century these people were passing through troubles, through wars and
rumors of wars; enduring cruel tortures on the heaths of Scotland,
sore distresses in the fens of Ulster; terrors by day and night;
deadly struggles with savage foes in the forests of America, and
resistance to the bitter end against the oppressions of England. Now
they might well trust that their trials were ended, and find at last
the peaceful sunset of their life radiant with the thought that
their sufferings had not been in vain, but had won for their
children that priceless blessing they so long had vainly
sought—FREEDOM! and in its holiest sense, "FREEDOM OF THOUGHT,
FREEDOM OF SOUL, salient, fathomless, and perennial spring of all
other freedom."
The three-score years
allotted to life had silvered the heads of the earliest settlers of
this now peaceful valley, and like grain fully ripe, they were fast
falling before the scythe of the relentless Reaper. But they had
honestly filled up the full measure of life, and having fought a
good fight, and finished the work given them to do, they could now
lie down in the tomb as to peaceful sleep and pleasant dreams.
Hallowed be their memories forever! The clods of the valley rest
lightly on their graves—their forms
"------ are dust,
Their good swords rust,
Their souls are with the Saints, we trust."
Well might lofty
columns of marble be reared to honor their worth, and the pen of
epic poet tell the story of their heroic lives. But at the least,
let their memory be embalmed in the hearts of their descendants, and
their examples be perpetuated in practice as faithfully as they
received and transmitted them from honored sires in other lands; and
let each and all again be invoked to strive with jealous and
persistent effort to rescue something of their history from the fast
gathering shades of oblivion, and so shall they contribute to rear
them a monument more enduring than marble or brass. Indian tradition
tells that "when a brave warrior had fallen, it became a sacred duty
for each member of the tribe as he passed to throw a handful of
earth upon the tomb; that thus they honored his memory from age to
age, till by their pious tributes that tomb became the mighty mound
upon our western plains." So let their descendants honor the memory
of the brave settlers of this valley; so let that memory grow from
age to age with increasing magnitude, till like that lofty mound
upon the level prairie, it stands out green and beautiful against
the horizon of time. |
