Class tt2^Y 
 
OR THE RELATION OF THE ENGLISH COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 IN AMERICA TO THE GENERAL HISTORY OF 
 
 THE CIVILIZED WORLD. 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVEBED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
 
 VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 AT RICHMOND) DECEMBER 15, 1859. 
 
 BY GEORGE F. HOLMES, 
 
 M 
 
 PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 
 

ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. President, 
 
 AND Gentlemen of the Virginia Historical Society : 
 
 Without impropriety I may congratulate you on the re-union 
 of this evening. It must be gratifying to every liberal mind 
 to witness and assist in each successive repetition of these 
 annual celebrations, in which so much of the aspiring talent, 
 of the matured intelligence, of the active energy, and of the 
 acknowledged culture of the Ancient Dominion of Virginia, 
 is brought together by the attraction derived from the com- 
 mon memories of the past, and is melted into harmony by the 
 animation springing from the common hopes of the future. 
 Yoa meet for the purpose of retrieving or reviving the dim 
 and obliterated traditions of the earlier day ; of commemora- 
 ting the achievements in Council and in battle-field, — in pub- 
 lic service and in private enterprise, by which, in the short 
 space of two centuries and a half, the little company, which 
 attended Newport, and Gosnold, and Smith to the shores of 
 the Chesapeake, has expanded into the great, the intelligent, 
 the wealthy, and the well-peopled State of Virginia; and has 
 been multiplied by continual accretions from without, and by 
 vigorous internal development, into a vast and powerful con- 
 federation of free, sovereign and independent States, spread- 
 ing across the wide continent from ocean to ocean, and from 
 the reign of Northern frost to the realm of tropical heat and 
 luxuriance. 
 
 Of this great arch, Virginia is 'the key-stone ; and your 
 3 
 
22 ADDRESS. 
 
 Historical Society, in its annual assemblages, resuscitates all 
 the ideas, and sentiments, and reminiscences, which are impli- 
 cated and embodied in the life and destiny of the United 
 States. 
 
 Thus, the design of your meeting — the objects of your 
 Society — the constituents of your eminent body — the feelings 
 and the reflections which accompany you here — the diversity 
 of the regions from which so many representatives of the 
 widely diffused Virginian name have converged to this point, 
 and for this occasion ; — the remembrance of the distinguished 
 gentlemen, who have illustrated previous celebrations by their 
 instructive or brilliant addresses; and, in an especial manner, 
 the recollection that, in addressing myself to you, Mr. Presi; 
 dent, I necessarily recall to the minds of all who hear me the 
 eminent and successful labors by which you have adorned your 
 retirement, and have added the graces of literature, and the 
 prizes of history and biography, to the eminent renown pre- 
 viously won, by services rendered to your State and to your 
 whole country, at home and abroad; — all these various influ- 
 ences operate in concert to add interest to these recurring 
 assemblages, and to provoke a spontaneous expression of rever- 
 ential admiration for the lofty and generous aims implied in 
 these honorable anniversaries. 
 
 But, gentlemen, if I may appropriately felicitate you on 
 these auspicious and suggestive associations, I must the more 
 particularly, on this account, return my cordial thanks to you, 
 and especially to the Members of your Executive Committee, 
 for the honor of my appointment to deliver the customary 
 address- this evening. 
 
 Your liberality and confidence are exemplified, but my embar- 
 rassment is augmented, by the consideration that I have been 
 invited, notwithstanding my English origin, to address, a Vir- 
 ginia audience, and the Virginia Historical Society, on topics 
 necessarily connected with the History of Virginia. You will 
 
ADDRESS. 23 
 
 pardon the affection which I still entertain for the home of 
 my childhood, remembering that, in many instances, your 
 own lineage is drawn from the same abundant fountain of 
 modern freedom ; — and recollecting that the Old Dominion of 
 Virginia was the first scion transferred from that venerable 
 stock to the rich, prolific and virgin soil of the New World. 
 The tenacity of our adherence to early loves,* and friendships, 
 and obligations, and to tUe friends of our fathers before us, 
 is the surest pledge of the stability and sincerity of our ma- 
 turer attachments. 
 
 You would not ask me, then, to dwell upon the praises 
 even of Virginia, when her splendor shines by the eclipse of 
 |he more ancient glories of the Mother-land. There are pas- 
 sages in English History, and in the narrative of England's 
 connection with her Colonies, which her patriotic children, at 
 home and abroad, and the descendants of her children to the 
 latest generation, can regard only with fruitless regret, and 
 mortifying condemnation. These faults demand considera- 
 tion, but they may be more fitly exposed by others. Rather 
 permit me to select, from the copious array of topics before 
 me, one which may do honor to Virginia, as the eldest born 
 of the American sisterhood, without diminishing the fair fame 
 of England, or obscuring the services which, intentionally or 
 instructively, by deliberate policy, or by inevitable develop- 
 ment of inherent tendencies in herself, and in her offspring, 
 she has rendered to human liberty and progress. With this 
 aim, I shall attempt to combine the glories of England and of 
 Virginia in one view, and I may succeed in enlarging the 
 appreciation of both by the union. 
 
 It is a prevalent habit ^with the American people to con- 
 template American History — American Society — American 
 Institutions — the past career, the present condition, and the 
 future destinies of the separate and of the aggregate States — 
 in ' too insular' a manner, as if they were entirely estranged 
 
24 ADDRESS. 
 
 from the general order of human affairs. The Roman Poet 
 of the Augustan Age spoke of the contemporaneous inhabi- 
 tants of the British Isles as a race dissevered from the whole 
 •world — toto divisos orhe Britannos. We, on this side of the 
 Atlantic, have appropriated to ourselves in our habitual speech, 
 the sneer at our barbarous ancestors, uttered by their con- 
 querors nearly twenty centuries ago. It is a narrow and mis- 
 taken policy, though explained and excused by the hostile or 
 jealous relations in which this country has been placed during 
 critical times with regard to Great Britain and the political 
 systems of Continental Europe. But, by thus contracting 
 the field of view, we deliberately exclude the abundant illu- 
 mination which would otherwise stream in from antecedent, 
 times, and from the surrounding world. Moreover, we are 
 thus constrained to disregard the innumerable cords which 
 unite into one grand harmony 'the Federation of the Nations;' 
 and to ignore the continual play of those currents of action 
 and re-action which bind together the complicated phenomena 
 of social change, producing that august but unstable equi- 
 librium in the life of the world, which, like the great Ocean, 
 exhibits incessant movement and alternation, without ever 
 transcending the bounds that maintain its essential unity and 
 identity. By contemplating the phases of American exist- 
 ence, as if it were sustained and animated by forces distinct 
 from the general impulses of humanity, we are precluded 
 from the full comprehension even of those events which seem 
 to appertain peculiarly and exclusively to this side of the 
 Atlantic. The mission of the United States will be better 
 understood, and more worthily appreciated, if regarded as 
 constituting a main link in the chain of human evolution — as 
 presenting one of the latest and grandest acts of the porten- 
 tous tragedy of man's action in the world — than if it be 
 treated as an anomaly — as an episode — or as a brilliant and 
 
ADDRESS. 25 
 
 meteoric digression from the regular destiuies of the human 
 race. 
 
 The time, too, seems to urge upon us a recourse to these 
 broader views. The bright morning of American greatness 
 is shrouded with ominous gloom. The extended Union, which 
 has been the pride, the glory, the security and the power of 
 the American people is threatened with violent disruption. 
 A world-wide fanaticism, of no limited or transient origin — 
 . the creature of political ignorance, of religious bigotry, of sec- 
 tional jealousy and of the frenzy of innovation — has at length 
 broken out into acts of treasonable discord and fraternal blood- 
 shed, after having long fostered local and party animosities. 
 The air is darkened around us with spectral shapes of terror. 
 Before the storm bursts in its full fury, if burst it must — be- 
 fore the ruin is achieved, if the mighty fabric must be shat- 
 tered ; — it is wise to inquire by what visible and invisible 
 agencies the vast structure had been reared and cemented, and 
 to learn what were its relations to the general economy of the 
 nations in its origin, its growth, and its maturity ; — what were 
 the harmonies prevailing between its vibrations and the move- 
 ments of the rest of mankind. It would be well to recognize 
 that secret of fate — that arcanum imperii — which has im- 
 pelled and cherished the progress of our country, but which, 
 like the water of crystallization, may be beyond the reach of 
 scientific analysis, until the brilliant gem which enclosed it 
 has been crushed into fragments. It is also incumbent upon 
 us at this time to ascertain the extent to which the liberties 
 the prosperity, and the independence of the separate States 
 are implicated with their combination; — and how far in their 
 prosperity and persistent connection are involved the mainte- 
 nance of freedom in the world, the expansion of civilization, 
 and the diffusion of morals, intelligence and religion. Thus 
 may be discovered the immense and increasing services which 
 the American polity was calculated to render, and the ultimate 
 4 
 
26 ADDRESS. 
 
 tendencies of that brightening and broadening career whicli 
 lay invitingly before its path. 
 
 To minister to the formation of such ampler views, and, as 
 far as may be, to mingle instruction and gratification with the 
 occupations of the hour, I have ventured to approach a sub- 
 ject too vast for my information, my abilities, my opportuni- 
 ties, and my time. I invite you, then, to accompany me with 
 your indulgent favor while I discuss rapidly, and therefore, if 
 on no other account, imperfectly, the Virginia Colony, or the 
 relations of English Colonization in America to the contempo- 
 raneous and antecedent History of the Civilized World. 
 
 It would scarcely have happened by the mere caprice of 
 fortune that most of the eminent names of the Elizabethan 
 era, still surviving during the first years of the reign of 
 James, should have been united in the Patents by which the 
 germ of the English Colonies in America was planted and 
 preserved at Jamestown. Still less could it have been an 
 accident that Lord Bacon, besides being a member of the 
 Corporation and of the Council of the London Company, 
 should have impressed his views and policy upon the organi- 
 zation of the infant settlement; and should- have written his 
 Essay on Plantations almost as a commentary upon the early 
 fortunes of Virginia. Nor will it satisfy an intelligent curi- 
 osity to ascribe to chance the remarkable convergence to the 
 shores of North America, about that time, of the brilliant 
 hopes and adventurous emprise of the brightest and most 
 chivalrous spirits of the chivalric court of Elizabeth. There 
 must have been some potent and pervasive enchantment 
 springing from the united, though impalpable, agencies of 
 the miraculous past, and of the teeming present, to concen- 
 trate, coincidently or successively, in one common purpose 
 of hazard, difficulty and expense, so many shining spirits and 
 martial heroes, and sagacious or astute statesmen, as Sir 
 Philip Sydney, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 
ADDRESS. 27 
 
 Sir Richard Grenville, Sir Francis Bacon, and his intriguing 
 cousin, the Earl of Salisbury, Capt. John Smith, Sir Thomas 
 Smith, Percy, and Lord Delaware. An explanation is re- 
 quired for this sudden convocation of gallant soldiers, and 
 grave councillors, and learned lawyers, and profound sages, 
 and prudent financiers, and calculating merchants, and cau- 
 tious capitalists, by the cradle of the nascent and infant Vir- 
 ginia. No other community has ever been illustrated at its 
 birth by such a galaxy of resplendent names. Never did 
 dreaming astrologer venture to cast such a horoscope of con- 
 junctive and auspicious stars for the nativity of potentate or 
 empire. Never did Royal Highness or Imperial Prince re- 
 ceive the honor of such an array of noble and distinguished 
 sponsors. Not only did civil prudence, and military renown, 
 and reviving philosophy, and commercial adventure, send 
 notable representatives, but Literature, with all the return- 
 ing Arts and Sciences, participated in the ceremonial of the 
 earliest English colonization ; and the Maiden Queen herself 
 hailed its budding promise by imposing upon it the name 
 "whicli her fancy had chosen to be her own. The Poet, San- 
 dys, whose brother had been the pupil of the venerable and 
 judicious Hooker ; Coke, the greatest of Black-letter lawyers, 
 and the rudest, but one of the sturdiest champioos of English 
 Liberty ; Harriott, the mathematician, and anticipator of Des 
 Cartes ; Hakluyt, the faithful conservator of commercial ex- 
 plorations and geographical discoveries; Drake, the herald, 
 and, in great measure, the founder of Britain's "Empire of 
 the Seas ; " these, and many others, of scarcely inferior re- 
 pute in their day and generation, shared in the various efforts 
 to establish an English Colony near the waters of the Chesa- 
 peake. They seemed to promise, by their arrival on the soil 
 of Virginia, or by their connection with its settlement, that 
 the various culture of England, her freedom, her society, and 
 her policy, should be transferred to a new land, and cherished 
 
28 ADDRESS. 
 
 into more vigorous and unrestrained development by the more 
 favoring clime, the more fertile soil, and the wider domain of 
 the late-won Hesperides : 
 
 Certus enim promisit Apollo 
 Antiqaam tellure nova Salamina futuram. 
 
 The immediate results of this amazing conjunction of tal- 
 ents and energies were trivial indeed. But, in the weakness 
 or failure of the first efforts, bright auguries and brilliant 
 memories were left behind, which revealed the extent and the 
 intensity of the hidden impulses that had simultaneously 
 directed the anxious hopes of the multitude to the land of 
 promise beyond the setting sun. 
 
 So far was the settlement of Virginia, or the concurrence 
 of so much hardihood and genius in its settlement, from being 
 accidental, that they may be most manifestly proved to have 
 been " the long result of time," and the natural maturity of 
 all the previous tendencies of European progress. '' Time, 
 "with his retinue of ages," hovered over the Capes of the 
 Chesapeake, asking in those years the heritage of the goodly 
 land for his English progeny. The subsequent battles, con- 
 tentions, and revolutions of Europe, evince that the fulcrum 
 on which plays the lever of the world thenceforward moved 
 by a gradual procession along the habitual line of Empire to 
 the Western Continent. The fortunes and the destinies of 
 the great monarchies were from that day bound up, more and 
 more intimately, with the progress of the American Colonies. 
 Even the retardations and the obstructions to colonization — 
 the frustration of Raleigh's sagacious enterprises, and their 
 final abandonment by him — the unavenged sacrifice of White's 
 colony at Roanoke — were indissolubly connected with great 
 national transactions, with the long maritime warfare, un- 
 heralded and unsparing, between England and Spain — be- 
 tween freedom in politics, and religion, and action, and 
 
ADDRESS. 29 
 
 thought, and despotism in all — and with the arrogant menace 
 and ruinous overthrow of Philip's ^' Invincible Armada/^ 
 
 No permanent foothold in America was secured by the Eng- 
 lish until the 10th day of June, 1610. The discoveries of John 
 and Sebastian Cabot in the reign of Henry VII.— the explora- 
 tions of the Dominus Yobiscum, the Trinity, and the Union, 
 in the reign of Henry YIII. — the arctic voyages of Frobisher 
 under Elizabeth — had only increased geographical knowledge, 
 encouraged the English fisheries at Newfoundland, and dis- 
 played the inclination of England to disregard the Papal par- 
 tition of the undiscovered lands of the Ocean between the 
 Crowns of Spain and Portugal. The intelligence and heroism 
 of Gilbert — the large sagacity, the untiring energy, and the 
 lavish, expenditures of Ealeigh — the chivalry of Grenville — 
 the gallantry and wisdom of Smith — had published the vir- 
 tues of these several commanders, and proved how arduous is 
 the task of sowing and cultivating the seeds of society. But 
 all their labors, and daring, and outlays had failed to secure 
 the establishment of the Colony for which the enthusiasm of 
 themselves and their countrymen had been so deeply excited. 
 There had been changes, and enlargements, and assignments, 
 and forfeitures of Patents. ' Charters had been modified, and 
 expanded, and divided. Large companies of wealthy, power- 
 ful, and illustrious men had combined to achieve a task too 
 onerous for the matchless energy and abilities of Raleigh. 
 Yet, after all these changes and renewed efi'orts, the English 
 tenure of Virginia continued to be transitory or precarious. 
 
 The uninterrupted and determined occupation of the Ame- 
 rican soil dates only from Sunday, the 10th of June, 1610. 
 On that day was commenced, with solemn, but resolute feel- 
 ings, the restoration of the solitary hamlet possessed by the 
 English in America, which had been abandoned with indig- 
 nant despair three days before, after a troubled occupation of 
 three tedious and eventful years. 
 
30 ADDRESS. 
 
 Gaunt with famine; reduced in numbers by desertion, dis- 
 ease, and death ; worn down with the long agony of hope 
 deferred and hopes disappointed, having experienced new 
 disasters with almost every fresh effort; oppressed even by 
 the recent tardy and tempest-tost addition to their famishing 
 community, overwhelmed with despondency, and sick of their 
 hard exile, — the colonists resolved to cease their fruitless 
 exertions, and to renounce all that the unimagined destinies 
 reserved for their enterprise and their race. They fled from 
 the scene of their trials and their afflictions, trusting them- 
 selves in crazy and rotten vessels to the mercy of those waves 
 from which most of 'them had so lately escaped. They 
 tempted the Ocean once more, with provisions barely suffi- 
 cient for a brief voyage, but with the dreary and fainting 
 expectation of obtaining the requisite supplies for their home- 
 ward journey from the fishing vessels which frequented the 
 banks of Newfoundland. 
 
 Such was the prospective issue of the Colony at James- 
 town ! Such the result of the '' The Starving Time in Vir- 
 ginia 1" The calamitous experience of the Spanish, Portu- 
 guese, and French settlements, and of the failures of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh at Roanoke, was renewed. This abandon- 
 ment of Jamestown probably suggested to Lord Bacon the 
 impressive remark : *' It is the sinfullest thing in the world 
 to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness; for, 
 besides the dishonour, it is the guiltiness of blood of many 
 commendable persons." 
 
 In the previous year, Capt. John Smith had been com- 
 pelled by a frightful accident to return to England for medi- 
 cal advice. Nearly five hundred persons received his farewell. 
 Only sixty remained when Newport, and Gates, and Somers 
 arrived from the Bermudas with one hundred and fifty re- 
 cruits. These three chiefs, preceding Lord Delaware, the 
 
ADDRESS. 31 
 
 Governor appointed under the last Charter, had been wrecked 
 in the same vessel, amid the 
 
 Breadths of tropic shade, and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise, 
 
 that adorn those Islands of Faerie, which received from one 
 of these adventurers the name of the Somer Isles, and fur- 
 nished to Shakspeare the original of ^' the still-vexed Ber- 
 moothes," peopled with the enchantments of Prospero, the 
 love and innocence of Miranda, and the ideal graces of Ariel. 
 
 Nearly a year after their departure from England, the ship- 
 wrecked manners arrived, with their commanders, at James- 
 town, in two frail vessels of their own construction. Their 
 numbers threatened only to increase the distress which their 
 scanty stores could not long alleviate. All agreed to forsake 
 the hapless country, as Lane's Colony had deserted Roanoke 
 on the arrival of Drake, a quarter of a century before. 
 Heavy, indeed, must have been the hearts of the settlers 
 during the painful months preceding and necessitating this 
 determination. These may have been occasioned or aggra- 
 vated by improvidence, insubordination and vicious conduct; 
 but the misery was not the less real, and the crisis of fate 
 was not the less portentous, because they had provoked their 
 own wretchedness. 
 
 A few hungry and half-clothed men, the relics of a large 
 emigration; in the midst of the wilderness; surrounded by 
 the forest and its savage occupants; without coherence among 
 themselves ; without the solace of woman's presence, or the 
 charm of childish pranks and prattle; cut off from their 
 country and their countrymen ; removed by hundreds of 
 desert miles from the nearest European settlers, in whom 
 they would have recognized only enemies; with the wild 
 waste of waters between them and their native land; with 
 the unexplored immensity of 'the gloomy horror of the 
 woods' towards the setting sun; without longer dream of 
 
32 ADDRESS. 
 
 advantage to themselves — without amusement — without ac- 
 ceptable occupation for either mind or hand — without social 
 order — without security — without hope of relief — without 
 prospect of happiness or even tolerable misery — without ade- 
 quate sustenance, or any imaginable encouragement — without 
 health, or strength, or anticipation of continued life ; they 
 might well repudiate the interests of their native land, not 
 yet comprehended by her sages; the demands of their 
 creed, still associated with intolerant hostilities 3 and ignore 
 everything else in the consciousness of their overpowering 
 calamities. 
 
 The seed of Empire had been sown on the soil of Virginia 
 by English enterprise, and English hands. It had put forth 
 some struggling roots, but the plant. had withered by neglect, 
 mismanagement, misconduct and misfortune. The work of 
 heroes and of sages was apparently destroyed. The hopes of 
 England, and the promise of American liberty were once 
 more afloat, returning on the current of the Powhatan, unful- 
 filled, and to prevent or delay future fulfillment. It was the 
 critical hour of modern destinies. But the will of Providence 
 was more propitious than the deliberations of men. The 
 fugitives were arrested near the mouth of the river by Lord 
 Delaware, who had at length arrived with re-inforcements and 
 abundant supplies. They returned to their recently aban- 
 doned home; and, on the morrow, the 10th of June, they 
 resumed, with prayer and thanksgiving, and earnest augury, 
 the solemn task of laying the small foundations of a mighty 
 Empire. 
 
 "It is," said they, "the arm of the Lord of Hosts, who 
 would have his people pass the Red Sea and the wilderness, 
 and then possess the land of Canaan." 
 
 " Doubt not," they proclaimed to the people of England, 
 " God will raise our State, and build his Church in this 
 excellent clime." 
 
ADDRESS. 83 
 
 Could any tbaumaturgic art have enabled Lord Delaware, 
 or his fellow-workers, to look 
 
 into the Future, far as human eye could see ; 
 
 and have presented to him, or to them, 
 
 The Vision of the World, and all the Wonder that should be ; 
 
 what energy, what enthusiasm, what exultation, what sublime 
 resolution, and what lofty endeavor, would have been inspired 
 by the magnificent revelation ! The prescience, so accorded, 
 might have extended beyond the clouds which now darken 
 our horizon, and have reached to the contemplation of a vaster 
 and still more prosperous confederation than has yet been 
 imagined, beneath skies once more serene. The Koyal Pro- 
 cession of Banquo's unborn heirs, closed by the then reign- 
 ing monarch, James I. with the two-fold balls, and treble 
 sceptre, borne by him as King of England, Scotland and 
 Ireland, could not have afi"orded a more dazzling anticipation 
 of future glory, than would have been seen issuing from the 
 settlement of the first English Colony in America, under the 
 auspices of the same King. Nor would the vision of Koman 
 triumphs and the Imperial dominion of Rome, unveiled to 
 the gaze of ^neas in the Elysian Fields, have revealed a 
 scene of brighter promise for the human flimily, than would 
 have been displayed in the boundless perspective, had any 
 magic ointment unsealed the eyes of Lord Delaware, or any 
 fond Anchises, or guiding Sibyl, pointed to Virginia, and her 
 direct or collateral posterity, saying, 
 
 hanc adspice gentem 
 Romanosque tuos. 
 
 It was only the inauguration of the grand phantasmagoria 
 which was unrolled before the admiring view of Lord 
 
34 ADDRESS. 
 
 Batburst, and immortalized by tbe oratory of Burke, wbieh 
 it inspired. 
 
 If such provision was denied to tbe actors and contempo- 
 raries of tbat significant, tbougb obscure ceremonial, tbe 
 restoration of Jamestown, we may transport ourselves in 
 imagination to the scene, with all the knowledge tbat tbe 
 acbieveraents of generations have furnished, with all tbe illus- 
 tration from anterior events tbat tbe more diligent and com- 
 prehensive study of history has supplied. Tbat point of 
 time and of space when despair was transmitted into per- 
 sistent and successful endeavor, when English colonization 
 was first assured, affords an appropriate ^' specular mount," 
 from which to discern the agencies in tbe foretime, wbich 
 received form, expression, and realization by tbat act and its 
 consequences; and to detect its results in the ensuing gen- 
 erations, in the Continent on which it was enacted, and the 
 Continent whence the impulse and the actors were derived. 
 
 The occasion may be deemed too sHgbt to be made tbe 
 symbol of such wide disturbance. The commencements of 
 great political mutations are almost invariably trivial in ap- 
 pearance, often even contemptible. ''The cloud as of the 
 bigness of a man's hand" may be tbe herald of tempests 
 wbich will involve tbe Heavens in universal tumult, and deso- 
 late extensive kingdoms. Consider the grain of mustard seed. 
 It is not tbe magnitude of the occurrence, but tbe amount of 
 antecedent preparation which it implies, and tbe cbaracter or 
 range of its effects, wbich constitutes tbe importance of any 
 historical transaction. The Virginia Colony was tbe summa- 
 tion of anterior tendencies, the germination of a new system — 
 of a new process of the ages, and as such cannot be over- 
 rated. 
 
 In tbe tombs of the pristine inbabitants of the American 
 Continent, a race extinct before tbis New World was disco- 
 vered by Columbus, relics have been found suggesting the 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 35 
 
 presence of the arts and knowledge, the culture and the 
 creeds, of all the more notable populations of antiquity, 
 Chinese and Hindoos, Egyptians and Phoenicians, Jews .and 
 Etruscans, Greeks and Celts, Thibetans, Tartars, and other 
 Mongolian races, are represented by the buried remains scat- 
 tered over the land from the mediterranean seas of the North 
 to the broad waters of the La Plata in the South. These 
 strange, and scarcely appreciated evidences of the almost in- 
 comprehensible connection of the primitive occupants of Ame^ 
 rica with the various peoples of the elder world, present an 
 anticipation and prototype of what may be observed in her 
 more recent history. All the civilized nations of the modern 
 world have contributed, in diverse modejv, their blood, tlieir 
 enterprise, their treasure, their learning, their experience; 
 their invention, their manners, and their civility, to be fused 
 into a new and all-embracing harmony beneath the Western 
 skies. They have thus produced a universal amalgam, which, 
 if the concoction proceed to perfection, may be, like the cele- 
 brated Corinthian brass, more precious than the aggregate of 
 its constituent elements. All the currents of previous, and 
 especially of modern progress, ran together in the Virginia 
 Colony, and flowed onward to her younger sister : and James- 
 town, at the moment of its renovation, marks the point, in 
 space and time, where the grand conflux of the waters took 
 
 place. 
 
 Isolated and anomalous as the phenomena of our political 
 and social organization appear in the popular conception of 
 them, no part of the continuous process of historical develop- 
 ment is more rigidly and minutely the result of the silent 
 laws of human progress, or more certainly the product of 
 numerous antecedent catenations of inter-dependent causes. 
 Even the discovery of America, at the time of its occurrence, 
 was no fortuitous, or unprepared event. In the days when 
 
36 ADDRESS. 
 
 the successful daring of Columbus broke like a revelation 
 over Europe, his magnificent conquest from the unknown was 
 a natural birth of the time, as his bold emprise and previous 
 bold conviction were the offspring of preceding circumstances 
 and conjectures, as well as of his own assiduous investigations 
 and patient inductions. 
 
 The whole life of Columbus, his studies, his aspirations, 
 his earlj career, his perseverance and pertinacity, exhibited 
 the operation of the pervading influences of the Fifteenth 
 Century upon a mind of singular genius and resolution. He 
 lived in an age of amazing maritime adventure and intense 
 commercial expectation. To recognize how largely his en- 
 terprise was due to prevalent tendencies, it is sufficient to 
 peruse the remarkable exposition by the son of the motives 
 which induced the father to attempt his hazardous exploration 
 of the unmeasured Ocean. In that memorable statement no- 
 thing is more remarkable than the letter of the Florentine 
 astronomer, Paul Toscanelli, which is declared to have been 
 one of the main causes of the undertaking. This epistle was 
 a repetition of a previous communication addressed by the 
 same scientific Italian to Fernandez Martinez, of Lisbon, who 
 was then engaged in similar inquiries. In this letter occur 
 the geographical misapprehensions and miscalculations which 
 deceived the contemporaries of Columbus and himself, but 
 which constituted, in consequence of that deception, import- 
 ant elements of his success. Here, too, are the customary 
 allusions to the distant explorations of Marco Polo, and of 
 other travellers, who, during or after the Crusades, and actu- 
 ated by impulses derived from them, had penetrated into the 
 remote and hitherto unknown regions of Eastern Asia. This 
 letter was written at Florence, on the 25th of June, 1474, 
 eighteen years before Columbus sailed from the port of Palos 
 to explore the bounds of the undefined Atlantic. 
 
ADDRESS. 37 
 
 In a second letter, indeed, the date of wbicli I have not 
 been able to determine, Toscanelli writes to his illustrious 
 correspondent : 
 
 ''I am delighted that you have fully comprehended my 
 demonstration, and that this voyage is no longer a mere pos- 
 sibility, but is henceforward certain and real ; for its accom- 
 plishment would be an incalculable benefit, and an immense 
 glory in the estimation of all Christendom/' 
 
 Amongst other motives by which Columbus was stimulated 
 in his great undertaking, according to the same indisputable 
 authority, reference is made to the prophecy of Seneca, to the 
 conjectures of Aristotle, or the Pseudo-Aristotle, to Ptolemy, 
 Strabo, Pliny, Marinus, Averroes, Alfergani, Marco Polo, Sir 
 John Mandeville, Peter d'Ailly, and others who had visited 
 strange regions, or had speculated on the shape of the earth, 
 and on the distribution of its lands and waters. 
 
 All the nascent science, all the accumulated learning, the 
 recent and the earlier observation and experience of Europe, 
 in an age of peculiar intellectual energy, and of singular 
 activity by sea and laud, concentrated their illumination upon 
 this point. The transcendant merit of Columbus consisted in 
 his susceptibility to the spirit and tendencies of the period; 
 in his collection, collation and appreciation of the abundant 
 and luminous evidence; in his firm conviction, and in the 
 unequalled sagacity and resolution which dared to act upon 
 that conviction in the face of sneers, indifi'erence, neglect, of 
 unfathomable doubts and inconceivable dangers. The great 
 man is not he who places himself at variance with the spirit 
 of his age, but he who most thoroughly and intelligently 
 accepts it, and is thereby enabled to render himself its most 
 complete, and consequently its most potent and most novel 
 realization. 
 
 In a more elaborate and detailed review of the concatena- 
 tion of the great movements which attained their ultimate 
 5 
 
38 ADDRESS. 
 
 accomplishment in the English settlements in America, it 
 would be interesting to show how the' enthusiastic pursuit of 
 maritime discovery by the Portuguese, and the heroic, but 
 sanguinary daring of the Spanish Conquerors, gradually . 
 sprung out of the Crusades; — and how, from the Crusades, 
 concurrently with other causes which they encouraged or 
 modified, arose also the commercial changes, the commercial 
 necessities, and the commercial aspiration?, which inflamed 
 the minds of men in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, and 
 produced the notable achievements of modern industry, litera- 
 ture, science, philosophy and civilization. The grand events 
 of human history form parts of a single chain, though the 
 separate links sometimes seem so trivial that their importance 
 is overlooked till the whole series is regarded in its continuity. 
 The midnight aspect of the starry heavens presents to the 
 aninstructed gaze only dazzling perplexity and inextricable 
 confusion. In the shining hieroglyphics traced by those 
 countless orbs, the purged eye of science discerns the rule 
 of eternal law, and order, immutable, though inexplicable, 
 throughout the fathomless abysses of the sky. The moral pro- 
 cesses of humanity are even more intricate and mysterious, 
 but they, too, are obsequious to the same providential govern- 
 ance, which conjoins them into one harmonious, but incom- 
 prehensible scheme. What the poet declared in regard to 
 'the plastic powers and processes which mould the individual 
 man, is equally applicable to the genesis and evolution of 
 historical change : 
 
 Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows 
 Like harmony in music ; there is a dark 
 Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles 
 Discordant elements, makes them cling together 
 la one society. 
 
 The New World won from the Ocean — the late realization 
 of Plato's dream of Atlantis, and of the dim tradition of 
 
ADDRESS. 39 
 
 Antilia — was to become the heritage of the nations. It was 
 first to be the prize of their rivalries and contentions. The 
 elements of European culture were to be developed here, free 
 from the antiquated restrictions transmitted from the past. 
 The populations of Europe able to participate in the prospec- 
 tive fusion were to be introduced into America, and to display 
 their capacity or incompetency to achieve the task prescribed 
 by destiny. Spain, and Portugal, and France made trial of 
 their skill : but the experiment failed in their hands. The 
 winner of the race, the child of the world's promise and of 
 the world's hopes, was almost the last of the competitors to 
 enter upon the course. It was an accident, however, which 
 perhaps prevented the discovery of the New Continent under 
 the auspices of England. 
 
 The capture of Bartholomew Columbus by pirates, on his 
 mission to offer his brother's services to the English monarch; 
 the opportune conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Grenada, 
 and the sagacity, ambition, piety, or cupidity of Queen Isa- 
 bella, secured for Spain the honor of adding another Continent 
 to the habitable earth. But it is still necessary to explain the 
 long retardation of English adventure in the Western Hemis- 
 phere, which is rendered stranger by the fact that the main 
 land of North America was actually visited by Cabot, sailing 
 under the flag of Henry YIL before it had been seen by Co- 
 lumbus. This explanation will reveal much of the recondite 
 significance and opportunity of the Virginia Colony, and will 
 introduce us into the heart of the tangled policy, the great 
 antagonistic tendencies, and the social perturbations, out of 
 which arose the English settlements in America. 
 
 On the application of Don Henry of Portugal, Eugenius 
 IV., by a papal bull conceded to that crown, '■ an exclusive 
 right to all countries which the Portugese should discover 
 from Cape Non to the Continent of India.' In consequence 
 of the discoveries of Columbus, this grant was modified by the 
 
40 ADDRESS. 
 
 infamous Alexander VI. and the whole of the unknown world, 
 to the east and to the west of an imaginary line, was divided 
 unintelligently between Spain and Portugal. Both conces- 
 sions were united in the Spanish Crown, when the Duke of 
 Alva, the executioner of the Netherlands, subjugated Portu- 
 gal; and when Philip II. added, in 1580, the crowns of Por- 
 tugal and both the Indies to the almost universal empire of 
 Charles V. The date is important ; for Queen Elizabeth's 
 patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert was issued only two years 
 before, and the patent to Sir Walter Raleigh only four years 
 after this vast monopoly of the regions of colonial enterprise 
 had been eflfectuated. 
 
 France, indeed, while waging war on the Flemish frontier 
 and in Italy, had disregarded the pontificial donations in the 
 same spirit in which she had sought and received the alliance 
 of the Turks. England had also timidly manifested a dispo- 
 sition on some occasions to secure a foothold in the New 
 World. But the obligatory force of the prohibition to all 
 strangers to interfere with the inheritance of the Spanish and 
 Portuguese sovereigns, was operative in England, and was 
 effectually asserted in the reign of Edward IV. with regard to 
 the trade of the Guinea Coast. This proscription continued 
 to operate until the throne of Elizabeth was indissolubly con- 
 nected with the political success of the Reformation, and a 
 war between England and Spain had become a prospective 
 certainty. Thus the chief event of modern centuries, the dis" 
 location of temporal and ecclesiastical authority, and the change 
 of political systems and religious creeds by the Reformation 
 of Luther, was an important and even necessary preliminary 
 to the establishment of an English Colony in Virginia. The 
 nativity of our ancient metropolis was heralded and prepared 
 by memorable events : and the mighty omens which preceded 
 its foundation were fair auguries of the vast consequences to 
 humanity, in the near or the distant future, to be anticipated 
 
ADDRESS. 41 
 
 from the first English settlement — the first ofi"shoot of English 
 freedom in America. 
 
 The papal prohibition might have failed to produce such 
 unaccustomed abstinence on the part of the English during 
 the century of Portuguese and Spanish discovery, and the fol- 
 lowing century of Portuguese, Spanish and French appropria^ 
 tion, if the political and social condition of England had not 
 tended concurrently to the same result. 
 
 In the last year of the fourteenth century the throne of 
 England was usurped by Henry lY., and the crown transfer- 
 red to ' the aspiring blood of Lancaster.' Thus the century 
 of maritime discovery was in England ushered in by the 
 commencement of the long discord which desolated the land, 
 destroyed its resources, despoiled its cities, and sacrificed its 
 people. Kachel, weeping for her children, could not exchange 
 her ravaged home for distant wanderings. War with Scot- 
 land — the persecution of the Lollards — the victory of Agin- 
 court, — and the acquisition of the French Crown, occupied the 
 first quarter of the century. But the premature death of 
 Henry V. — the infancy and the idiocy of his ill-fated son — 
 the rivalries and the intrigues of the Royal Dukes and other 
 great nobles — precipitated the expulsion of the English from 
 France under the patriotic impulse communicated by the 
 heroic exaltation of Joan of Arc. The ruinous wars of the 
 Roses ensued — the long contention between the houses of 
 York and Lancaster — not terminated by the Battle of Bos- 
 worth, and scarcely concluded by the astute policy and cool 
 tyranny of Henry YII. and the princes of the Tudor line. 
 During such long continued agitations, industry and com- 
 merce, and maritime adventure, could not experience the ge- 
 nial gales which were speeding Portugal and Spain to their 
 glorious discoveries in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. 
 In England, the energies of the people and their resources 
 had been wasted, the political constitution had been widely 
 
42 ADDRESS. 
 
 shaken, and the social fabric seemed to be shivered from the 
 crown to the base. Society and government demanded recon- 
 struction and the animation of a new spirit, before the period 
 of English expansion and triumph could be inaugurated. 
 
 This process of renovation was fortunately reserved for the 
 sixteenth century — the era of Spanish and Portuguese con- 
 quest, occupation and colonization — though it was only inef- 
 fectually and transitorily accomplished even then. The con- 
 quests of Cortez and Pizarro, and Albuquerque were achieved — 
 the mines of Mexico and Peru, and ^ the wealth of Ormuz 
 and of Ind ' had been won — the Araucana of Ercilla y Zu- 
 niga, and the Lusiad of Camoens had been written — before 
 England dreamt of oceanic or trans-oceanic empire. The 
 accession of the youthful, splendid, accomplished and ambi. 
 tious monarch, Henry VIII., might have promised an early 
 completion of the tendency to political and social reorganiza. 
 tion, and to external development. But, instead of wisely 
 prosecuting the silent offices of peace, he preferred to blaze 
 among the illustrious sovereigns of that memorable time; — to 
 outshine Francis of France on the Field of the Cloth of Gold ; 
 and to rival Francis, and Charles V., and Leo X., and Soley- 
 man, the Magnificent, on the troubled arena of European pol- 
 itics. His futile intervention in the controversies of the Con- 
 tinent; his endeavor to balance the scales between Francis 
 and Charles; his adoption and assertion of the Reformation 
 on matrimonial grounds; his dissolution of the monasteries, 
 and appropriation of their revenues for financial and political 
 considerations; his fluctuating and capricious regulation of 
 the creed of his subjects by fire, gibbet and prison; exacer- 
 bated the social agitation, and diverted his attention, and the 
 enterprise of his people, from any efi"cctual attempt to partici- 
 pate in the new treasures of the Eastern and Western worlds. 
 The religious oscillations, with the attendant persecutions of 
 the reigns of Edward VI. — the bloody Mary — and Elizabeth, 
 
ADDRESS. 43 
 
 prolonged the retardation of England's commercial import- 
 ance. It was further delayed by the solicitude with which 
 Henry VII. coveted a Spanish alliance for his dubious line ; 
 by the marriage of Henry VIII. with the aunt of Charles Y. ; 
 by the union of Philip II., the son of Charles, with Queen 
 Mary, on whose death the Spanish potentate promptly ten- 
 dered his hand to Queen Elizabeth, without experiencing an 
 equally prompt repulse. 
 
 Thus the domestic relations of the Tudor family to the sov- 
 ereigns of Spain, — the aspirations of the founders of the line 
 for continental influence — and the internal condition of their 
 country, social, political and religious, — all concurred in clos- 
 ing for more than a century the portals of America to Eng- 
 lish adventurers. But a wonderful change was gradually 
 introduced by the stirring incidents and novel interests of the 
 reign of Elizabeth. In heart, she remained of the old religion 
 of her father, accepting the most controverted tenets of the 
 rejected creed, but regarding her own ecclesiastical supremacy 
 as the most important article of the true faith. 
 
 The throne of Elizabeth was insecure. It was not con- 
 firmed till the execution of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of 
 Scots, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, thirty years 
 after her accession. The legitimacy of Elizabeth had been 
 solemnly denied by her tyrannical father. This denial had 
 been corroborated by Act of Parliament — by the sign-manual 
 of her half-brother, Edward YI.— and by the formal legiti- 
 matization of her elder half-sister. Queen Mary. This decis- 
 ion would, perhaps, be sustained by the strict rules of law and 
 morals. Mary of Scotland was apparently the true lineal 
 inheritor of the English Crown ; and her claims, if they had 
 been sustained by her native kingdom, would have been 
 pressed by her ambitious kinsmen, the Guises, and might have 
 been maintained by the arms of France, as they were asserted 
 by the intrigues and the navies of Spain. Elizabeth was thus 
 
44 ADDRESS. 
 
 compelled by her position to espouse the Protestant cause, to 
 identify herself with the Protestant movement, and to become 
 the champion of Protestantism against that communion, which 
 repudiated her title to the throne, and in concert with one or 
 other of the great Catholic powers, endeavored by intrigue, 
 violence, and commination, to subvert her authority, to 
 alienate her subjects, to provoke rebellion, to invite her assas- 
 sination, or to crush her by open hostilities. Thus was she 
 thrown upon her people for support, and nobly did they 
 respond to her confidence. Thus was she obliged to con- 
 ciliate their good will, and to cherish their resources, by the 
 diligent cultivation of their national sentiments and institu- 
 tions, of their energies, their capacities, their industry, and 
 their commerce. All this she did with unwavering firmness 
 and wonderful sagacity. Much of the success may have been 
 due to the political intelligence of her prudent ministers, but 
 the spirit, the equability, and the grandeur of her rule, may 
 be safely ascribed to her own regal mind and capacious intel- 
 lect. The necessities which imposed upon her the task of 
 nursing at home the sources of present security and independ- 
 ence, urged her to seek, foster, and create new elements of 
 power abroad. Hence, she encouraged the Protestant revolu- 
 tion throughout Europe — fanning the flame in Germany, and 
 sending her troops and commanders to uphold it by arms in 
 ' the distracted realm of Scotland, in the revolted provinces of 
 the Netherlands, and amongst the Huguenots in the wars of 
 the League in France. Hence, she appeared as the ally of 
 John Knox and the Regent Murray; of William of Orange 
 and his son, Maurice ; of Conde, Coligny, and Henry of 
 Navarre. Hence, too, she readily connived at, authorized, or 
 participated in, the semi-piratical enterprises of her courtiers 
 and captains against the marine and the possessions of the 
 overwhelmiug despotism of Spain. 
 
 In these military and naval schools were formed the daring 
 
ADDRESS. 45 
 
 and versatile adventurers, who humbled the pride of Philip, 
 and crippled the power of the Spanish Crown— who carried 
 the English flag into all seas, and introduced the seeds of 
 English freedom and polity into Virginia. 
 
 In defending her throne, and asserting the independence 
 of her kingdom, the truly national policy of Elizabeth extin- 
 guished forever the pretensions of the Austrian rulers of 
 Spain to universal empire. The same measures which 
 achieved this protection of the civil and religious liberties 
 of Europe, simultaneously developed with amazing rapidity 
 the intelligence, cultivation, and prosperity of the English. 
 We can scarcely appreciate the immensity and the variety of 
 the impulses then communicated to England, to free institu- 
 tions and to civilization, without patiently contemplating the 
 host of stars, of all degrees of brilliancy and of all magni- 
 tudes, which, in isolated and unapproached splendor, or clus- 
 tered together in gUttering constellations, illumined with their 
 blended radiance the skies of the Elizabethan age. On the 
 muster roll of the Immortals were inscribed, during that half 
 century, English names, which still stir the blood like the 
 sound of a clarion, echoing with ever-augmented reverbera- 
 tions over the earth, and marking the rise and fall of states; 
 the revolutions of religion, polity, science, and philosophy; 
 the bloom of literature ; the conquests of commerce, and the 
 triumphs of the land and of the sea. This roll of glory is too 
 voluminous for present exhibition; but, long as it is, each 
 separate name is the symbol of achievements, which alone 
 merited the assiduous labors of an age. 
 
 The circumstances of the time co-operated with the delibe- 
 rate efforts of Elizabeth. The destruction of the old feudal 
 barons in the Wars of the Roses, (St. Alban's, and Towton, 
 and Barnet, and Tewkesbury,) and by the more fatal exac- 
 tions of Henry VII. — the perturbations of landed wealth 
 consequent on the dissolution of the monasteries — and the 
 
46 ADDRESS. 
 
 gradual abrogation of serfdom, bj no act of legislature or 
 monarch, but by the changes of private interest — these sweep- 
 ing mutations had entirely revolutionized the constitution of 
 society, and altered the character of all social arrangements. 
 A new nobility had sprung up. An industrious middle class 
 had arisen, and been aided in the rapid accumulation of 
 wealth and influence by the long civil strife and commercial 
 disturbances in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Neth- 
 erlands. The occupations of the people were altered. Lands 
 were enclosed for pasturage. Commerce and manufactures 
 started into life. Towns were enlarged and built. The re- 
 sources of the nation were multiplied, and capital was contin- 
 ually re-duplicated. But large bodies of the people were 
 reduced by the sudden revulsion to pauperism and mendi- 
 cancy. The ancient nobility and gentry, who had derived 
 their social and political preponderance from their territorial 
 possessions, found themselves outstripped in wealth and power 
 by those who fattened on the rising riches of industry, specu- 
 lation, and trade. The sentiment put by Shakespeare in the 
 mouth of Hamlet, was familiar in that day to the experience 
 and regrets of ^' the good old gentlemen of England ; '^ and 
 is commemorated in such contemporaneous ballads as ^'Time's 
 Alteration, and " The Old and Young Courtier." ^' The age 
 is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near 
 the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe." 
 
 A rapid social fermentation was then in progress, changing 
 the pursuits of men, and throwing whole classes of the Eng- 
 lish people out of the ancient routine of life and employment. 
 These classes were peculiarly the laboring population, the 
 idlers by profession, and the gentry and nobility of reduced 
 or unsettled fortunes. Thus were simultaneously supplied 
 and animated the hands to execute, and the intelligence to 
 contrive and direct novel and arduous adventures. The diffi- 
 culty and uncertainty of support at home actuated the rank 
 
ADDRESS. 47 
 
 and file of these adventurers. The prospect of sudden gain 
 and eminent renown inspired their leaders. Hence, when 
 undeclared or proclaimed hostilities with Spain exposed the 
 Spanish galleons, and colonies, and coasts to the private or 
 public warfare of the English marine, and threw open to 
 English assault or occupation the colonial regions of the 
 world, united under one sceptre bj Philip's acquisition of 
 Portugal, the moral and material instruments were already 
 prepared to take advantage of this conjuncture. In availing 
 themselves of the tempting opportunities of that great crisis, 
 the English rovers, the Drakes, and Hawkinses, and Fro- 
 bishers, and Raleighs, and Grenvilles, and Lanes, easily be- 
 guiled themselves in regard to the complicated motives by 
 which their enterprises were impelled. Selfish aims were the 
 instruments by which the beneficent designs of Providence 
 were accomplished. The desire of private emolument was 
 combined with and dignified by higher and more generous 
 purposes. Every success obtained at the expense of the 
 grasping despotism of Spain was an efi'ectual blow struck for 
 the security of the English throne — for the assertion and 
 propagation of the Protestant religion — for the defence and 
 enfranchisement of the nations — and for the privilege of un- 
 trammelled thought and action, and of expanding intelligence. 
 Happy is the age when personal interests are thus identified 
 with the processes of national grandeur, and with the advanc- 
 ing destinies of humanity ! Fortunate, indeed, were the days 
 of ''Good Queen Bess,'' when this union took place for the 
 exaltation of " Merrie England," and the difi'usion of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race ! With instinctive and prophetic felicity 
 did the maiden queen bestow her own highly-prized appella- 
 tion of Virginia on the favored land where the English first 
 obtained seizin of America ! At that moment of time, on 
 that distant spot, and by that act of occupation, marked for- 
 ever by the restoration of Jamestown, all the lines of English 
 
48 ADDRESS. 
 
 progress, all the currents of English freedom, all the promises 
 of English greatness, all the tendencies of augmenting civili- 
 zation, were represented, concorporated, and assured. 
 
 In estimating the social agitation during the reigns of 
 Elizabeth and her successor, which has been indicated as one 
 of the main incentives to colonial adventure, and as one of 
 the chief agencies in commercial expansion, reference must 
 be made to the financial condition of those times. Influences, 
 apparently humble in their nature, and obscure in their ac- 
 tion, but which are universal in their play, are more perma- 
 nently and more potently operative than impulses of more 
 splendid aspect. It was during these years, the close of the 
 16th and the commencement of the 17th century, that the 
 prices of all productions, and of the agents of production, 
 were rapidly rising in consequence of the augmentation of the 
 precious metals by the copious supplies from the American 
 mines. Nearly a century elapsed after the discovery of the 
 Western World, before the gold and silver of Mexico and 
 Peru occasioned any general derangement in values, or in the 
 relations of society. Towards the conclusion of that period 
 the financial disturbance generated large and rapid fortunes — 
 embarrassed monarchs and governments, altering their rela- 
 tions to their subjects — disorganized the public exchequer — 
 aggravated the necessities of the poor — heightened the cu- 
 pidity of the rich — diminished the comparative ease of the 
 ancient gentry — increased the luxury and ostentation of 
 wealth — and inflamed the speculations of daring adventurers. 
 To this cause must in part be attributed the contemporaneous 
 celebrity of the Rosicrucians, the continued encouragement 
 given to the pursuits of alchemy, in which Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert sufi"crcd himself to be involved — the impatient avidity 
 with which gold was demanded from all newly-discovered 
 lands — the perseverance with which strange routes to the 
 East Indies were explored — by Archangel — by the North 
 
ADDRESS. 49 
 
 "West passage — through Muscovy, Persia, Egypt — along the 
 shores of North America — and in the interior of North Caro- 
 lina and Virginia. To the same impulse we must also par- 
 tially ascribe the restless activity with which the English 
 endeavored to multiply alliances with strange nations, and the 
 establishment of great mercantile associations — the Russia — 
 the Turkey — the East India — the Virginia — the London — 
 and the Plymouth Companies. 
 
 The religious dissensions in England have not been enu- 
 merated among the direct influences determining English 
 colonization in America. The general movement communi- 
 cated by the Reformation, and the spirit impressed by it on 
 the whole series of colonial transactions, are sufficiently evi- 
 dent, and have been frequently alluded to. These discords 
 tended to multiply the colonies after one had been estab- 
 lished ; they increased emigration from abroad, and aug- 
 mented the colonial population; they determined the location 
 of different bodies of exiles; and they exasperated into a 
 passionate enthusiasm the attachment of the colonists to civil 
 and religious liberty ; but they did not, in any considerable 
 degree, encourage the original fervor of colonization. The 
 chief influence of a religious character, which excited the 
 early English efforts, was derived from no sectarian quarrels 
 at home, but from the pervading spirit of the Reformation, as 
 embodied in the national resistance to the spiritual and politi- 
 cal domination of Spain. The main significance of the occu- 
 pation of the North American shores by the English must, 
 therefore, be sought from the early Virginia colony, and not 
 from the sectional or sectarian import of the later Puritan set- 
 tlements in New England, the Catholic province of Maryland,, 
 the Huguenot emigrants in South Carolina, or the Quaker 
 establishments in Pennsylvania. Each of these Plantations, 
 and of the States which have issued from them, possesses its 
 6 
 
50 ADDRESS. 
 
 own merits and its own distinctive claims to respectful con- 
 sideration. They have their own honor, as they had their 
 several missions, which I would rather enhance than tarnish. 
 Each has co-operated, in its own mode, and in its own good 
 time, in preparing, effectuating and evolving the system of the 
 American Confederation. But the inauguration of the mighty 
 drama was due, not to them, nor to the influences which dis- 
 tinguished them from each other, but to the leader of the 
 forlorn hope of English colonization in America — the first 
 English settlement at Jamestown. The virtue of the plant is 
 in the seed. The circulation proceeds from the root to all the 
 umbrageous and fruit-bearing branches. The historical sig- 
 nificance of the American Union must, consequently, be re- 
 ferred to the Virginia colony. This conclusion is corroborated 
 by observing how the spirit and progress of the Old Dominion, 
 the character of the Revolution, and the genius of the United 
 States, have all been affected by the fact that Virginia was 
 founded by the gallant gentlemen of England, and was re- 
 plenished with her best blood, instead of proceeding from 
 religious sectaries, and perpetuating in her veins the venom 
 of theological discord and polemical rancor. 
 
 The large and solemn purport of the Virginia Colony, and 
 its efficacy in promoting the liberty, intelligence and civiliza- 
 tion of humanity, arose from that very procrastination of 
 English maritime adventure, which, at first view, provokes 
 both surprise and regret. Had England engaged in colonial 
 conquests concurrently with Portugal, or Spain, or France, 
 she would have transplanted to these Hesperian shores the 
 crumbling institutions of an expiring social system, the ascend- 
 ancy of the Roman Catholic creed, and the despotic rule of 
 the Tudor line. In consequence of the delay, the first fruits 
 of the approaching regeneration of England were naturalized 
 here; while the superannuated trunk, from which the vigorous 
 
ADDRESS. 51 
 
 offshoot had been taken, was left in its native soil to undergo 
 the painful process of decay and regeneration. The vanguard 
 of English intelligence and freedom erected the standard of 
 liberty and hope on the bays of Roanoke and the banks of the 
 Powhatan. Not merely were the learning, and science, and 
 literature, and practical wisdom, and active energy of the 
 brilliant age of Elizabeth domiciliated here by the opportune 
 establishment of the Virginia Colony, but the glowing promise' 
 of the future, in that glorious dawn of English splendor, so 
 soon to be involved in tumult and clouds at home, was con- 
 veyed with loftier auspices, and ampler ulterior capabilities of 
 realization, to the infant offspring of England beyond the At- 
 lantic flood. In that day, Pandora's box had been delivered 
 into the hands of Albion. It had been opened with the im- 
 patience characteristic of nations, as of individuals. The 
 liberated troop of evils and discords flew abroad over the 
 land, and incited long and acrimonious dissension, and civil 
 war. The undying hope of humanity that remained behind, 
 floated over the waters with the adventurers of the Virginia 
 Company, rested on the foundation-stone of resurgent James- 
 town, and may still cheer the ominous apprehensions of the 
 present generation. 
 
 The age of Elizabeth was gilded with the genial light of 
 the elder time. The illumination of former days shed a softer 
 glory over the reign of the Maiden Queen than had belonged 
 to those feudal centuries whence the light had been transmit- 
 ted, or had shone upon any former period since the dreamy 
 infancy of ancient Greece. Trie lingering sunset of chivalry 
 clothed the court and camp of Elizabeth with a gentler efflu- 
 ence than attended its meridian; and, as it sunk in the distant 
 West, the long line of undulating glory, which stretched across 
 the Atlantic from England to America, marked the pathway 
 of empire reaching westward to its resting-place. It was an 
 
52 ADDRESS. 
 
 exhilarating omen that the colonization of Virginia was un- 
 dertaken and achieved, while 
 
 Life's morning radiance had not left the hills, 
 Iler dew was on the flowers. 
 
 The influences of childhood, unnoted as they may be, ac- 
 company us through life, and unconsciously mould the charac- 
 ter and shape the destiny. It must be, as it has been, a 
 cherished recollection of Virginians, and an active incentive 
 to patriotic achievement, that the colony whence they have 
 sprung was founded by a race of heroes, who united to their 
 martial prowess and practical prudence, the courtly graces of 
 knighthood, the noble sentiments of chivalry, and the early 
 bloom of literary and scientific culture. It is a proud reflec- 
 tion, that Virginia might appropriately assume as her crest 
 the Red Crosse Knight of Spenser's Faerie Queene, to indi- 
 cate the time, the mode, the circumstances, and the signifi- 
 cance of her original establishment. For the same reason, 
 she might herself be fitly blazoned under the symbol of Una 
 and her lamb : 
 
 The lovely ladie rode him faire beside. 
 
 These allusions to the most attractive portion of Spenser's 
 enchanting poem suggest a brief notice of the special religious 
 function of the Enghsh Colonies of America in the general 
 history of the world. The First Book of the Faerie Queene, 
 to which reference is made, represents the machinations of 
 Duessa, or the Papacy against Fidessa, or the Reformed 
 Church ; and illustrates the final triumph of Una, or Holi- 
 ness. In England, and throughout Europe, the ideal antici- 
 pations of Spenser were frustrated or impaired by long con- 
 tinued religious discords,, and by foreign and domestic wars 
 
ADDRESS. 5^^ 
 
 propagated by religion, or waged in its name. The contem- 
 plated issue has scarcely been attained even yet. If the for- 
 tunes of religion, or the prospects of toleration, had been 
 abandoned entirely to the perils of this long and embittered 
 strife, they might still be endangered, or uncertain. The 
 result was definitely and efifectually attained, so far as it was 
 attained, only by the favoring necessities and accidents which 
 encompassed the Eoglish settlements in America. There 
 alone did Protestantism become dominant without a rival or 
 domestic adversary. Thence alone could proceed the com- 
 plete and unembarrassed manifestation of Protestant tenden- 
 cies in spiritual, political and social afi'airs. It was by their 
 example, and countenance, and aid, and provocation, that the 
 Catholic dominion of Spain and France on this Continent was 
 first restricted — then diminished; and, at last, nearly oblite- 
 rated. Moreover, the English establishments in America, 
 with the commerce and wealth and naval superiority engen- 
 dered by them, gave the Protestant party in Europe an equi- 
 ponderance with the Catholic, and ultimately a decided 
 political predominance. This balance of the two great forces 
 of modern history was not merely the generating cause of the 
 principal wars in Europe down to the French Revolution, but 
 it was the mainspring of the movements of the modern world, 
 and the chief impulse to the rapid development of the ener- 
 gies and resources of modern civilization. The principal 
 stages of this progress are marked in the historical geography 
 of America by the subjugation of Jamaica — the re-occupation 
 of Nova Scotia, and seizure of the adjacent islands — the con- 
 quest of Canada — the reduction of the Northwest by Virginia; 
 the purchase of Louisiana — the acquisition of Florida, and the 
 independence of the Spanish Provinces in North and South 
 America. These territorial changes were nearly all concur- 
 rent with, and consequent upon, the" great wars in Europe. 
 But * peace hath her victories as well as war.' These losses 
 
54 ADDRESS. 
 
 of the Catholic powers represented larger acquisitions of wealth 
 and influence, gained at their expense by the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, in the aggrandisement of their commerce, manufactures, 
 industry, activity, prosperity and intelligence. 
 
 This long struggle was atttended with universal benefit to 
 humanity. Had Catholicism ruled with supreme dominion 
 over the earth, coincidently with the universal empire of Spain, 
 or France, or Austria, intelligence must have become stagnant 
 or retrograde — enterprise must have been arrested — progress 
 been paralyzed and freedom extinguished. From this fate the 
 world was preserved by the sturdy maintenance of Protestant- 
 ism — by the sudden augmentation of English prestige and 
 power — by the various blows inflicted by England on Spain — 
 and by Marlborough's victories over the armies of Louis XIV. 
 Blenheim, and Ramilies, and Oudenarde, and Malplaquet se- 
 cured the fortunes of Protestantism and liberal institutions 
 when they were still trembling in the balance. The energies, 
 and resources, and policy which triumphed on these splendid 
 battle-fields had been largely due to the maritime ascendancy 
 of England, created in the first instance, and expanded after- 
 wards by its colonial possessions in America. 
 
 As the long series of dependent eflUcts is involved in the 
 ultimate cause; as both blossom and fruit are potentially, if 
 not actually, contained in the nascent germ ; no injustice is 
 done to later co-agents, no exaggeration of the truth produced, 
 by regarding the Virginia Colony as the seminal principle 
 whence proceeded the renovated order of the ages, and the 
 new progeny commissioned by Heaven. 
 
 Magnus ab integro sseclorum nascitur ordo. 
 Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna; 
 Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto. 
 
 When I regard the aspects and the evolutions of the Past; 
 the abundant achicveuicnt of the Present, embodied in this 
 
APPENDIX. 55 
 
 great Confederacy; — when I contemplate the uncertain but 
 still exhilarating promises of the Future, I cannot deem my- 
 self beguiled by the attractions of a most attractive subject 
 into any undue estimation of the significance of the first suc- 
 cessful attempt at English colonization in America. I have 
 only clothed with words the revelations of accomplished his- 
 tory, while indulging, from the scene of Jamestown, these 
 
 Sweet meditations, the still overflow 
 Of present happiness, while future years 
 Lacked not anticipations, tender dreams, 
 No few of which have since been realized; 
 And some remain, hopes for our future life. 
 
 The definite establishment of the Virginia Colony furnished 
 the elevated point of view whence the eye swept round the 
 wide horizon of modern history. The longer and the more 
 diligently the progress of humanity- is contemplated from this 
 lone watch-tower of time, the grander and the more impressive 
 appears the prospect, and the more crowded becomes the phan- 
 tasmagoria with the portentous shapes of struggling creeds, 
 embattled systems, warring monarchs, rising and declining 
 empires, while, in the far distance, continues to arise from the 
 dust, and din, and confusion of the spectral turmoil, like the 
 immortal spirit ascending from the grave, the enlarging and 
 glorified divinity of America. 
 
 The rapid and inadequate survey of the antecedent and con- 
 temporaneous events and tendencies which received their ful- 
 fillment, immediate or prospective, in the American Colonies 
 of England, has necessarily left the modes of operation unde- 
 tailed, and numerous phenomena altogether unnoticed. Yet 
 all the living movements of Europe have been seen to con- 
 tribute, voluntarily or involuntarily, the choice rewards of 
 their effort as gems to sparkle in the coronet of the infant 
 Virginia. The chart of modern civilization clearly reveals the 
 confluence of all the main channels of progress in the Vir- 
 
56 APPENDIX. 
 
 ginia Colony. If the point of -convergence appear trivial or 
 obscure, this can only be occasioned by the infirmity of the 
 human mind, which disables it from appreciating consequences 
 in their inception — from anticipating results before 'the dust 
 groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together' — or 
 from interpreting 
 
 those blind motions of the Spring 
 That show the year is turned. 
 
 If the prophetic "vision and the faculty divine" be wisely 
 denied to man, history furnishes the necromantic art which 
 can evoke from the shades the actors and the actions of the 
 past, and elicit from them oracles refused to the contempora- 
 neous generations. There are certain vases which appear dull 
 and opaque in the ordinary light of day, but over whose sur- 
 face spread images, grotesque, or beautiful, or suggestive, 
 when illuminated from within. Similar to these are the inci- 
 dents, and forms, and fashions of past centuries. They pre- 
 serve impressions which are only rendered legible by the inner 
 light supplied by a later time. If 
 
 the meanest flower that blows can give 
 
 Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears, 
 
 is it not reasonable to suppose that historical transactions, of 
 humble original pretensions, but growing within our know- 
 ledge by a secret life into mighty forms, may have possessed 
 from the beginning a fullness of meaning and predestined 
 vitality, unsuspected at the period of their occurrence, and 
 not fathomable till the issues of time approximate to their 
 perfection ? 
 
 Did these views require further corroboration than the seal 
 of reality, which is impressed upon them, that evidence would 
 be abundantly supplied by the sequel to the inquiry which 
 has been hazarded. Every great mutation in the subsequent 
 
ADDRESS. 67 
 
 phases of Europe has been connected, by a reciprocating 
 movement, with the fortunes of the American Colonies; and 
 the reaction of America upon Europe has increased with the 
 years till the machinery of the world is set in motion, and its 
 population employed and supported mainly by the products 
 of the Southern States. The investigation into the details of 
 this extensive change is wider even than that which has been 
 so imperfectly prosecuted. It demands other occasions and 
 other expositors. But, to justify the statement advanced, it 
 may be noted that the growth and population of Virginia and 
 her sister colonies were favored by the convulsions of Ger- 
 many and the whole continent during the Thirty Years* 
 War — by the jealousies of Spain and France — and by the 
 domestic transmutation of the latter country untJer the guid- 
 ance of Richelieu — that the English Navigation Acts, which 
 so powerfully affected the mercantile growth of England and 
 the internal development of the American Colonies, and which 
 invited and inaugurated the American Revolution, were passed 
 during the ascendancy of Cromwell and under the Restoration 
 of Charles II., in a spirit of hostility against the Dutch — that 
 the Great Rebellion in England, the discords under Charles II. 
 and James II. — the Revolution of 1688 — the Dutch wars, 
 and the vast schemes of Louis XCV.— the perils of the Han- 
 overian succession, and the repeated menaces of Jacobite in- 
 surrection — withdrew scrutiny from the English colonies, and 
 favored the uninterrupted development of the native energy 
 of self-government. During the great wars of the eighteenth 
 century, American interests were continually involved, and 
 became the predominant consideration in the Seven Years' 
 War, so far as France and England were concerned. The 
 treaties of Utrecht, Aix-la-Chapelle and Paris gave increasing 
 prominence to American affairs. By the terms of the last 
 peace, France was excluded from the Western continent. 
 Out of the war preceding this peace, grew the claim of Eng- 
 
58 ADDRESS. 
 
 land to American revenue, or, at least, to the right of taxing 
 America. Both demands were repudiated by the Colonies. 
 From this resistance sprang the American Revolution and 
 American independence — kindled and sustained by the in- 
 crease of population, energy, wealth, and territory, resulting 
 from the long European wars of the century. The contro- 
 versies, which kindled and accompanied the war of American 
 Independence, were co-ordinate with the memorable struggle 
 of the Kockingbam party in England for the maintenance of 
 the English franchises. Burke, and his allies, avowed that 
 English freedom was staked on the event of the American 
 Revolution. '^ We are convinced," says Burke, in the bold 
 address to the king; "we are convinced, beyond a doubt, 
 that a system of dependence, which leaves no security to 
 the people for any part of their freedom in their own hands, 
 cannot be established in any inferior member of the British 
 Empire, without consequentially destroying the freedom of 
 that very body, in favor of whose boundless pretensions 
 such a scheme is adopted." * * * a W^hat, gracious 
 sovereign, is the empire of America to us, or the empire of 
 the world, if we lose our own liberties? We deprecate this 
 last of evils. We deprecate the effect of the doctrines, which 
 must support and countenance the government over conquered 
 Englishmen." 
 
 The remembrance of mortifying disasters, and of the recent 
 loss of their vast American possessions, inflamed the jealousy 
 of the French, and stimulated equally the secret encourage- 
 ment and the open assistance extended by France to the 
 American patriots in their revolt against English exaction. 
 The companions of La Fayette, and Rochambeau, and D'Es- 
 taing, zealously conveyed to France the opinions and the 
 policy which they had aided in rendering triumphant on this 
 side of the Atlantic. Their new enthusiasm for liberty helped 
 to precipitate the French Revolution. Thus, even from this 
 
ADDRESS. 59 
 
 hasty sketch, it appears that the progress of America had a 
 direct effect on the fortunes of Europe, and that every stage 
 in the destinies of Europe was closely implicated with the 
 growth, development, prosperity and influence of the English 
 colonies. 
 
 To secure unity of view, all these great changes, antecedent 
 or subsequent to the first efforts of English colonization, have 
 been regarded from the central position afforded by the resto. 
 ration of Jamestown. To this point converged all previous 
 tendencies, and from it radiated those diverse potencies which 
 encouraged or absorbed the more recent currents of human 
 progress. The Virginia Colony thus reflects the summation 
 or anticipation of modern advancement. It is the magic 
 mirror which revives the Past, explains the Present, and re- 
 veals the hopes, if not the promises, of the Future. 
 
 But the end is not yet. The movement originally commu- 
 nicated to the heavenly bodies not only rolled them at the 
 first along their mighty orbits, but attended and attends them 
 throughout the millennial periods of their existence, deter- 
 mining their habitual relations to each other, and all the 
 modifications of the material universe. Complicated and in- 
 calculable as may be the varied coiTsequehces of the original 
 impulse, the dependence of the effects is evident and unmis- 
 takable. Similarly, any movement impressed upon the social 
 masses of the world, which in their oscillating revolutions 
 effectuate the historical progress of humanity, operates through 
 all time in regulating and generating the subsequent evolu- 
 tions of the race. No mechanical power is inactive in the 
 cosmical system — no force is squandered in the moral uni- 
 verse. The magnitude of the influence to be expected from 
 any novel phenomenon in the political progress of the world 
 may be estimated from the amount of previous preparation, 
 and will be evinced by the concentration of forces involved in 
 
60 ADDRESS. 
 
 its production and accomplished development. From the uni- 
 versality of this law it may be confidently proclaimed that 
 Virginia, and the later stars of the American constellation, 
 announced a nobler and loftier destiny than was ever vouch- 
 safed to any other community. 
 
 All the main lines of earlier progress constitute the heralds 
 and the servitors of Virginia. Her nativity was the signal 
 for the multiplication of similar settlements on the coasts 
 secured to England by her establishment. The conjoined de- 
 velopment and confederation of all of these — aided immensely 
 by the special and direct action and generosity of Virginia 
 herself — have created a vast republic, transcending in re- 
 sources and capabilities the universal empires of an earlier 
 time. Since the settlement of the First Colony, the influence 
 of these commonwealths on the ancient monarchies of Europe 
 has been immediate — powerful — and ever-expanding. In our 
 own days, Virginia and her progeny have assumed, in their 
 union and by their union, the position of one of the chief 
 powers of the earth. This has been done in the infancy of 
 the nation. But larger than all past accomplishment is the 
 promise of prospective and rapid grandeur. While thus grow- 
 ing in strength, and resotirces, and population, and power; 
 and, by the very process of increase, a home has been reared 
 in the West for the free ; an asylum oflfered for the oppressed 
 of all nations, climes, tongues, and creeds; and the wealth, 
 and invention, and intelligence, and culture of the whole 
 world have been naturalized and multiplied here. ''If they 
 do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the 
 dry?" 
 
 By the long series of great events which has generated the 
 results around us — by the golden promise of the dawn — by 
 the dazzling performance of the early day — are we not invited 
 to indulge fair auguries of the meridian splendor ? In the 
 
ADDRESS. 61 
 
 midst of the doubts and alarms, which for the time encircle 
 us with almost impenetrable mists, are we not still compelled 
 to recognize "an increasing purpose;" 
 
 And through thick veils to apprehend 
 A labor working to an end. 
 
 The destiny of Rome seems to be renewed in the only other 
 republic that ever approximated to the power, enterprise, and 
 extent of the Koman dominion. It is apparently designed by 
 Providence that the United States should attract, absorb, in- 
 corporate, and consubstantiate, as Kome did in antiquity, all 
 the improvable races of mankind- — all the tendencies of hu- 
 man progress — all the mature elements of modern civiliza- 
 tion — and should sublimate the all-embracing concretion into 
 the fairest fruit of time. All this, though the task of centu- 
 ries, and the conjoint achievement of the federated States, of 
 both European and American advancement, and of all terres- 
 trial and celestial influences, will be regarded in long-distant 
 years, when present passions have expired and present sys- 
 tems have vanished, as the abundant fruitage of the Virginia 
 Colony. 
 
 But to realize these bright auguries, the scheme of destiny 
 must not be thwarted by the jealousies and reckless improvi- 
 dence of men. Nations have their fates in their own hands, 
 as well as individuals, and they may make or mar their for- 
 tunes. The tables of the Divine law may be dashed into 
 fragments, in consequence of the fury of a stiff-necked and 
 rebellious people, and a golden calf, the abomination of Egypt, 
 set up for worship in their stead, by the very children of the 
 promise. The populations to whom the triumphant career is 
 announced by the whole tenor of the past, may dissipate the 
 vision in the clouds by the tempests of civil discord, evoked 
 from the dark caverns of the human heart, where they are 
 with difficulty kept in subjection. But, if lofty destinies are 
 7 
 
62 ADDRESS. 
 
 rejected, and nations are torn asunder, and populations are 
 extirpated, and societies are extinguished by foreign war, or 
 domestic dissension, or moral decay, the purpose of Provi- 
 dence moves on to its sure accomplishment, waiting only for a 
 more propitious time, and seeking or creating more docile and 
 intelligent instruments. 
 
 It is a mighty and unfathomable destiny which has been 
 entrusted to the American people; and with the solemnity, 
 and caution, and patience, and unfailing resolution, which 
 such a destiny demands, they should strive for its accomplish- 
 ment — discarding alike the dictates of anger, the suggestions 
 of prejudice, and the temptations of pecuniary interest. But 
 whatever issue impends — whether our sun at its appointed 
 meridian shall look down in splendor, through the unclouded 
 blue on a happy and united continent, smiling in plenteous- 
 ness, and crowned with virtue ; or shall conceal his face in 
 angry gloom from a divided, and shattered, and warring 
 people— the past is secured beyond the reach of casualty. 
 The Virginia Colony furnished the exemplar and initiation of 
 the English colonial system — she led the procession of modern 
 freedom — she laid the foundation stone of the great edifice 
 into which were aggregated the numerous members of the 
 American republic — she opened the oceans to the commerce 
 of England, and to the mercantile enterprise of the world. 
 She inaugurated, too, the struggle which preserved the liber- 
 ties of England and conquered those of America; and she 
 taught a lesson to the world, which future ages will yet 
 realize, even if the glory of completing what she so well 
 began, should be forfeited by her and her companions in trial 
 and in fame. 
 
 In closing this tribute to the services conferred by Vir- 
 ginia upon humanity, in consequence of the indissoluble con- 
 nection of American with European history, may I be per- 
 mitted to link once more the distinctions of the daughter 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 63 
 
 with the honors of the mother-land, by returning again to 
 the heights which overlook the submerged site of Jamestown, 
 and by applying to the Virginia Colony, in its infancy and in 
 its progress, in the present and prospective promise of the 
 Old Dominion, the eulogy and prayer pronounced over his 
 native country by the laureate of England : 
 
 Of old sat Freedom on the heights, 
 The thunders breaking at her feet; 
 
 Above her shook the starry lights- 
 She heard the torrents meet. 
 
 "Within her place she did rejoice, 
 Self gathered in her prophet-mind; 
 
 But fragments of her mighty voice 
 Came rolling on the "wind. 
 
 Then stept she down through town and field 
 
 To mingle with the human race, 
 And part by part to men revealed 
 
 The fullness of her face— 
 
 Her open eyes desire the truth. 
 
 The wisdom of a thousand years 
 Is in them. May perpetual youth 
 
 Keep dry their light from tears; 
 
 That her fair form may stand and shine. 
 
 Make bright our days and light our dreams, 
 
 Turning to scorn with lips divine 
 The falsehood of extremes ! 
 
/ . ^ 
 
 THE 
 
 i^irgittia pisiorical |leprter: 
 
 V^ CONDUCTED BY THE 
 
 v^ 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 
 VIRGINIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 VOL. II— PART I. 
 
 RICHMOND: 
 
 OHAS. H. WYNNE, PRINTER, 94 MAIN STREET. 
 1860. 
 

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