Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-01-26
NUMBER 35.

nest countries of British America under the
unjust scandal Of being mere hell upon
earth, another Siberia, and only fit for the
reception of malefactors and the vilest of
the people so that few, at least few large
bodies of people, have been induced will
ingly to transport themselves to such
place, and your younger sisters, the north
ern colonies, have protited thereby" (Stith's
History of Virginia, Vol l, p. 1857 But
this is not all Another historian of Vir-
ginia of our day, whose work was publish
ed at Richmond, in l846, while showing
that pride in his State which would change
every settler into cavalier" has been
compelled to make the following most rue
full confession " Gentlemen reduced to
poverty by gaming and extravaganza, too
proud to beg, too lazy to dig-brokcn trades
men, with some stigma or fraud yet cling
ing to their names--footmen, who had eX-
pended III the mother country the last shred
Of honest reputation that was ever held
rakes consumed with disease and shattered
in the service of impurity- libertines whose
race of sin was not yet run-and unruly
sparks packed off by their friends to es-
cape worse destinies at home-these were
the men who came to aid in founding ma.
ton, and to transmit to posterity their own
immaculate impress" (Howison, History
of Virginia, Vol. l, .. l69.) And this same
historian confesses that social life in Nir-
ginia, beginning III such baseness, after
more than century, had developed "an
aristocracy neither of talent, nor learning,
nor moral worth, but Of land and slave in
terest." (Ibid, Vol. 2, p. poll So much
for the testimony Of history, even when
! written and nrintpd in VIRGINIA
| know not the number of desperate per-
sons shipped to Virginia but there was
enough to leave an indelible impression on
the colony, and to give it name in the lit
erature Of the time. 1t was this colony
which suggested to Bacon the most preg-
nant words of one of his essays, which
furnished to De Foe several striking
passages in one of his romances and which
provoked Massinger to dialogue in one
of his dramas Let me glance for one mo-
ment at these illustrations
1t is in the essay on Plantations" that
Bacon thus brands the early settlement of
| Virginia /" 1t is 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 plantation, for they will ever
live like rogues." (Bacon's Essays, 49,
Surely there is nothing here out Of which to
construct cavalier"
In the narrative of Moll Flanders, the
author of Robinson Crusoe, who gives to
all his sketches this lifelke character that
they seem to be sun-pictures, exhibits this
same colony. Here is glimpse: "The
| greater part of the inhabitants were of two
sorts, lst, such as were brought over by
the masters of the ships to be sold as SER
wants I'd, such as were transported, after
having been found guilty of crimes punish
able with death. When they come here we
make no difference the planters buy them,
and they work together in the fields till
| their time is out X 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 in, that
have been burnt in the hand. Some
of the best men in the country are burnt in
the hand, ard are not ashamed to own it.
There's Major -, he was an eminent
pickpocket there's Justice B--r, he was
a shoplifter. Both of them are burnt in
the hand, and | could name you several
such as they are" fortunes and Misfor-
tune of the Famous Moll Flanders, p. 8S.)
Nothing is said here of cavaliers"
| have referred to Massinger Here is
curious bit from one of the grave comedies
of that poet dramatist
:. luke. 1t is but to Virginia
Lady Frugal. How! Virginia!
High Heaven forbid! Remember, sir, Ibeseech you
What creatures are shipped thither
AIHe. Condemned wretches,
Forfeited to the law;
For the abomination of their life,
Spewed out of their country
The City Madam. Act ", sc, !.
Thus from every quarter the testimony
accumulates. And yet we are constantly
told that Virginia was settled by caval-
iers.n
EARLY SETTLERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
The territory now occupied by South
Carolina originally constituted a part of
Virginia that it was carved into a separate
colony. Although differing in some re-
spects the population seem to have been
kindred in character. Ramsay, the histOri-
an of the State, in a work published at
Charlestown, in 1909, says that the en-
igrants were a medley of different nations
and principals" and that among them were
persons "who took refuge from the powers
of fortune and the rigor of creditors; young
iIlCAJ iNuuSCN w py loliD tACtSS,
and restless spirits, fond of rowing" To
these were added Huguenots, driven from
France by the revocation of the edict of
Nantes. (Ramsay's History Of South Car
ollna, PIP. :, 3, 81
But Graham tells US that mot trace of
the existence of an order of clergymen is
to be found in the laws of Carolina during
the first twenty years of its history
History Of United States. Vol, 2, p. So
And another historian says that "the in
habitants, far from living in friendship and
harmony among themselves, We're seditious
and ungovernable" (Hewitts History
Of South Carolina Vol |, p. lO4)
Such people were naturally insensible to
moral distinctions, so that, according to
Hewitt, pirates were treated with great
civility and friendship and, "by bribery
and corruption, they often found favor with
the provincial juries and by this means es-
capped the hands of justice" All Of which
is declared by the historian to be "cviden-
ces of the licentious spirit which prevailed
in the colony (ibid, PIP. 92 ll5,( Gra-
ham uses still stronger language, when he
| says, the Governor, proprietors deputies,
| and the principal inha hitantS Inyrp1n1