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

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: and shirks of Old England, and mostl
; needy men, of desperate fortunes an
: dissolute lives, who cared nothing fo
churches or schools. Such people ne
} turally became slave masters shoul
} not lift the veil which charity woul,
kindly draw over these early settler.
if just knowledge of their characte
had not become important in illustrat
ing the origin of our troubles.
ABSURD PRETENsE THAT VIRGINIA WAS. SET
i TIED BY CAVALIERS,
4 1t is common boast of our slave
masters that they constitute modern
"ehivalry," derived from the Cavaliers
Of England and reinforced by the en-,
nobling influence of African slavery
/ This boast has been so often repeated
that 1t has obtained a certain accep-
tance among those not familiar with
our early history, and even well in
| formed persons have allowed them
selves to say that the conflict in which
we are now engaged is a continuance ot
the old war between the cavaliers and
the roundheads. So far as it is intend
A
eVer-recurring conflict between slavery
and liberty, there can be objection to
I the illustration; but if it be intended
to say that the rebels are cavaliers, or
the descendants of cavaliers, there is
j. asst ground of objection. ] know
not if the armies of the Union.
now fighting the worlds greatest
battle for human rights, may not be
called Roundheads; but / am sure that
the rebels, now fighting for slavery,
cannot be called cavalier" in any
sense. They are not so in character, as
their barbarism attests. And they are
as little so historically.
The whole pretension is q preposter-
Gus absurdity by which the country
has been already too much deceived =
1t Is not creditable to the general
intelligence that such a folly should be
allowed to play such part inquest
ionably there were settlers in Virginia,
as there were also in New England,
connected with aristocratic families
But there were so few in each colony
as not TO modify essentially the pre-
vailing population, which toek its cha
racter from the mass rather than from
any individual The origin of Virginia
is so we'll authenticated as to leave
little doubt with regard to the charac-
ter of its population, unless you reject
all the concurrent testimony of con-
temporaries, and all the concurrent
admissions of historians. Perhaps there
is nothing in our early history with re-
gard to which the authorities are so
various and so clear. From their very
abundance it is difficult to choose.
TRUE CHARACTER OF SETTLERS OF VIRGINIA.
begin with the early patron of Vir-
ginia, Lord Delaware, who, after visit
ing the colony, described the people
there in letter dated at jamestown,
July Z, 1910, as "men of distempered
bodies and infected minds, whom no
examples daily before their eyes, either
of goodness or punishment, can deter
from their habitual impieties, or terrify
from q shameful death. Strachey's
History. Perface, page 80 Language
cannot be stronger
But the colony, which began with
bad men, was increased by worse. In
1919, King James wrote to the Virginia
Company commanding them ito send a
hundred dissolute persons to Virginia,
whom the knight marshal shall deliv-
er." Stracheys history of Virginia;
Vol !, p. l68 Thus by royal COM
mand was this colony made a Botany
Bay.
The company, not content with the
hundred dissolute persons supplied
by the King order, entreated for more,
until Capt John Smith, the hero of
Virginia, was moved to express his dis
gust. He testifies to the evil when he
wrote in 1929: "Since / came from
thence, the honorable company have
been humble suitors TO his majesty TO
get vagabond and condemned men to
90 thither nay, so much scorned was
the name of Virginia, some did choose !
to be hanged ere they would g thith-
er, and were" Smiths New England
Trials, 1862 This was bad enough.
But the Virginia Company seem 10
have been insensible to the shame of
such settlement. It's agents and ora
tors vindicated the utility Of the colony
on this account In a work entitled /
sNoya Britannia, offering most excellent |
fruits by planting in Virginia., publish
ed in London in 1909, and dedicated to
one of his majesty s councilin in Virgin
ia" it is openly argued that unless
" swarms of idle persons IN lewd and |
practices were sent abroad, /
" we must provide shortly more prisons !
. nd corrections for their bad cOndi> 1
ii 1ns;p and that it was "most profitable /.
for our State 20 rid our mulriCudes OF /
such as lie at home, pestering the land |
with pestileuce and penury, and infect |
ing one another with vice and villainy, /
worse than the plague itself DR.. Don
ne, dean of st Pauis, poet slso, iE
sermon preached to the Honorable |
Company of the Virginia Plantation,
18th of November, 1922, thus sets forth !
the merits of the colony: 4he planta-
ton shall redeem many wretch from I
the laws of death; from the hands of I
the executioner. II shall sweep your I
streets and wash your doors from idle /
persons, and che children OF idie per /
sons, and employ them. Such were
the pufEs by which recruits were gained /
for Virginia.
History records the unquestionable /
result. and here the authorities multi i
DIV. Sir Jonathan Child, in his Dis
course of Trade of the Plantations" /
l69S, says %Xirginia and |
Barbadoes were first peopled by a sort
of loose vagrant people. Had it not 4
been for our plantation, they must 1
have come to be hanged or starved, or
sold for soldiers" DR. Douglass. in his
Colonial History, printed in l749, gives
the following testimony "Our planta-
tions in America, New England, ex-
cepted. have been generally settled l.
By malcontents from the administra-
tions from time to time. 2 By frau
dulent debtors as refuge from credi-
tors; and 3, by conyicts or criminals
who chose transportation rather than
death. Douglasa's History, Vol ?, D.
428 Graham, the Scotch historian,
who has written 50 eonseientioasly Of
our country, speaking oiSthe first set
tiers, says Of Virginia: A great proper
ton of these new enigrants consisted
Of prohigate and lscentious youths, sent
from Eugland by their friends, with the
hope Of changing their destinies, or for
the purpose OF screening them from the
Justice or contempt OF their country;
> with Others like these, more
likely to corrupt and prey upon an in
fant commonwealth than 20 foster IL
Graham, United States, Vol 1, p. 81
The historian OF Va, Wm Stith, whose