The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-11-13

earth, another Siberia, and only fit fol
the reception of malefactors and the
vilest of the people; so that few, al
least few large bodies of people, have
been induced willingly to transport
themselves to such q place, and our
younger sisters, the northern colonies,
have profted thereby. Stith's History
OF Virginia, Vol |, D. los But this
Is not all Another historian of Vir-
ginia of our own day, whose work was
published at Richmond in 1916, while
showing that pride in his State which
would change every settler into HcaV-
/ aher, has been compelled to make the
| following most ruefal confession: sGen-
tlenaen reduced to poverty by gaming
/ sRd extFavagance, too proud TO beg, too
l lazy to dig-brOken trademen with
some stigma of fraud yet clinging to
! their names-footmen, who had expen-
ded in the mother country the last
shred of honest reputation they ever
I held-rakes consumed with disease
and shattered in the service of i'm
punity-libertines whose race of sin,
was yet to run-and unruly sparks
packed on by their friends to es-
cape worse destinies at home-these
were the men who came to aid in found
ing nation and to transmit to posteri-
ty their own immaculate impress
Howison, History of Virginia, Vol l,
D. l69 And this same historian con-
fesses that social life in Virgins, begin
ming in such bRseness, after more than
a century had developed an aristocrA-
cy neither of talent nor learning, nor
moral worth, but of land and slave in
terest" Ibid, Vol 2, p POI Somuch
for the testimony of history, even when
written and printed in Virginia.
know not the number of desperate
persons shipped in Virginia; but there
were enough to leave an indelible i'm
preston on the colony, which suggested
10 Bacon the most pregnant words of
ore of his Essays; which furnished to
DeFoe several striking passages in one
of his romances; and which provoked |
Massinger to dialogue in one of his
dreams. Let me glance for one moment |
at these illustrations
1t is in the Essay on Plantations |
that Bacon thus brands the early set |
tIement of Virginia 1t is a shameful !
and unblessed thing to take the scum !
of people and wicked condemned men
to be the people with whom you plant; |
and not only so but it spoileth the plan
tation, for they will ever live ike
rogues." [Bacon's Essay, 3d. Surely
there is nothing here out of which to
construct a cavalier.
In the narrative of Moll Flanders,
the author of Robinson Crusoe, who
gives to all his sketches such life like
character that they seem to be sun
pictures, exhibits this same colony
Here Is a glimpse: The greater part of
the inhabitants were Of two sorts, lst,
such as were brought over by the mas
ters of the ships to be sold as servants;
ID, such as were transported, after hav-
ipg been found guilty of crimes pun
ishable with death. When they come
here we make no difference; the plans
ters buy them, and they work togeth-
er in the field till their time IS out
Hence many a Newgate-bird becomes a
great man. We have several justices of
the peace, officers of the trained bands
and magistrates Of the town they live
10, that have been burnt in the hand
Some of the best men in the
country have been burnt in the hand,
and are not ashamed q own it. There's
Mayor -, he was an eminent pick
pocket there's Justice Ba-r, he was
a shoplifter Both.of them were burn
ed in the hand, and l could name you
several such as they are Fortunes
and Misfortunes OF the Famous Moll
Flanders, p SS Nothing is said here
Of cavaliers
/ have referred to Msssinger. Here
IS curious bit from one OF the grass
wood ladies Of that poet dramatist:
"LUts. Il is but to Virginia.
LG5g F7,qa. How Frg nil3
HI gh Hea en- forbid Remember, sir, I beseech /
you,
What crsssfu 'es are shipped thither.
Allae Condemned VT tshts,
Fortlted 10 tho law
For the abOminatiOn Of their life,
ID wed out Of their own cOUntry.
Ihs CtY lisispH, act y, Sc. l.
Thus from every quarter the testi- (
nony accumulates. And yet We are {
told that Virginia was set
led by cavaliers.