The Shasta courier., 1865-05-13
First Families.

For some years the land has been sickened
with the boast of Virginians and Carolinians
that they were descended from a superior
class of beings TO those who were the pro
genltors OF the citizens of other-especially "
the Northern States. The fact is, if there is
any merit In descent, it is all due to the peo-
pie of the Northern States. for they were
originally settled by the respectable and in.
dustrious classes of the old countries, among
whom were many of the titled nobility
These are the facts of history. History also
exhibits the true character of the first fami-
lies of Virginia. Stratchey, in the preface
to his history, says:
. begin with the early patron of Virgin
la, Lord Delaware, who, after visiting the
colony. described the people there in let
ter, dated at jamestown, July 7th, 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 a shameful death. Language cannot
be stronger"
And according to the same history. " the
colony, which began with bad men, was in
creased by worse In 1919, King James
wrote to the Virginia Company commanding
them to send hundred dssolute persons to
Virginia whom the knight marshal shall de-
liver Thus by royal command was this
colony made Botany Bay" The Company
of the Virginia Plantation, says Smith in
his New England Trials. mot content with
the hundred dissolute persons supplied by
the kings order. entreated for more, until
Capt. John Smith, the hero of Virginia. was
moved to express his dsgust He testifes to
- L.. |.
came from thence, tie norable.company
have been sutors to his majesty to get vaga
bond and condemned men to 90 thither; nay
so much scorned was the name cf Virginia
some did choose to be hanged ere they would
90 thither. This was bad enough, but
the Virginia Company seem to have been in
sensible to the shame of such settlement
Its agents and orators vindicated the utility
of the colony on this account. In work en-
titled Nora Britannia. offering most excel
lent fruits by planting in Virginia" pub.
lished in London, in l609 and dedicated to
lone Of His Majesty's council, for Virgin
ia, it was openly argued thai unless ''swarms
of idle persons. in lewd and naughty practi
ces," were sent abr.ad, 1--WE must provide
shortly more prisons and corrections for their
ad conditions ~ and that it was most
profitable for our State to rid our mutitudes
of such as lie at home. Fostering the land with
pestilence and penury, and injecting one
another with vice and vllainy, worse than
the plague itself" DR.. Donne. dean of st.
Paul's, poet also. in sermon preached to
the Honorable Company of the Virginian
Plantation. 18th November, 1922" thus sets
forth the merits Of the colony % The plan
tation shall redeem many wretch from the
laws of death from the hand of the execu-
toner. 1t shall sweep your streets and wash
your doors from id.e persons. and the chill
dren of idle persons. and employ them. y
Such were the puffs by which recruits were
gained for Virginia. Had not the lords of
the Rebellion claimed superior virtues. be
cause Of their alleged superior descent. hiso-
ry would not have been searched for the fore
going facts. In view of these facts, and
their recent failure to lord it over the Nation,
it will perhaps be well for them not to boast
loudly of their ancestry. The ruling race
on this continent is certainly not the offspring
Of penal coonists, but may be looked for in
the descendants of those who sought these
shores for high and noble purpose-to found
an empire of liberty and freedom of con-
science.-CdH.