The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1868-08-14
ORANGE COURT HOUSE. VA FRIDAY:MoRNING AUGUST

the point at issue; an observation which
| also applies to that other statement that
the ''infiuence of the Cavaliers" social
ly was ''perceptible but never eXclu-
sive.o We are not aware that anybody
ever declared the influence of the Cav
alters ercl,tSiue in the proper meaning of
that term--for everybody knows that
the Scotch, Irish, and other dissenters,
and German and other settlers, were
good citizens, true patriots. and brave
| lighters. But they did not on that ac-
count constitute the controlling elc-
ment in society, or originate first the
political and then the armed resistance
to England.
Who mainly settled, controlled, and
directed the action of Virginia? is the
extremely plain question:; and Mr..
Rives is as explicit thereupon as Mr.
Bancroft is cloudy. mo tact,' says
MIR. Rives, 'sis better established than
that the early English emigrants to
Virginia, for the first half century of her
history, with here and there an eXcep-
ton only serving to prove the general
and church. 1t could not hut be so, for
the stringent laws of the colony from
the beginning with regard to church
conformity rendeied it altogether an
uninviting abode to persons ofother sem
timents; while the subversion of throne
and cliiirchin England during the civil
wars which soon followed, furnished q
new and superadded motive for the
Cavaliers to seek an asylum in land
where principles and predictions
were unproscribed. Down to the peri
cd of the Revolution, then, the great
mass of the emigration from England
to Virginia must have been, as unques-
tionaSle historical proofs show that it
was, of the Cavalier strain.
After the Restoration there came
in few, and but few, OF the Oliverian
soldiers"
Thus, sin their origin" the Virginians
seem to have had somewhat more than
q merely sperceptible influence of the
Cavalier" as Mr.. Bancroft says. The
fact is that the country was settled by
..gentlemen adventurers" for the most
part-men fired by the glowing pictures
of the New World, and burning to eX-
plore its wonders. The lists show thus:
In the first one hundred settlers, we find
seventy -eight "classedn inCapt. Smiths
history; and of this seventy-eight. fifty
four are styled gentlemen" At that
time the word meant something-iittle
as it may convey to-day. 1t significd
q person of gentle birth, of education,
family traditions, and hereditary spirit
of leadership. 1t may be an offensive
statement to some persons in the pre-
sent age of the world, but ut that time
i: was supposed that birth, breeding. ed
ucation, and s'character" gave their pos
SCISSORS something like natural right
to control ignorance, weakness, and
vice. For ourselves, we can look with
a philosophic eye back to the days of
those brave ''gentlemen adventurers,'
| aud not count it very great shame and
offence in them to have been born OF
gentle blood, or even to have been of
noble origin. We can shake hands COR
daily with the ghost of ''Lieutenant
Percy''-that valorous young brother OF
the Earl of Northumberland; and eau
love and admire him, as Smith the COM
moner seems to have done, III spite of
his taint of nobility.
The successive bands of "adventur-
ers" continued to resemble the first
Virginia became the ''home of poor gem
tlemen" and the younger sons of titled
families. The rich tide-water region
was "taken up" and settledin great es-
tates by this class of people. Then the
dCitil VI ~ Aeti lGo l. oCuU dGtOSS titC OCCdu
| thousands offugiiive Cavaliers, and Vir-
ginia became what it remains to-day
and will remain for century, at least,
to come-not Exclusively" but power
fully and immutably Cavalier. The
meaning of the term map be disguised
and disputed, as may be the term "Pu-
ritan." But the world does not doubt
at all on the matter, nor does Mr.. BAN
! croft. 1he Puritans, or Roundheads,
| or Cromwellians, or independents were
dissenters, anti-royalists, and anti
'class" persons. The Cavaliers, or
royalists, or sons of Belial, were Epis-
copalans. and strong upholders of 'sde-
grees in state" One was brave, stern,
practical, and bigoted; the other was
brave, gay, impulslve, and ready to die
Tor s'the point of honor" But this / S a
subject which it would require volume
to treat, and if we had the space this is
not the splace or timer
From his observations on tie ssorig-
i'm of the Virginians, Mr.. Bancroft
passes to the question, Who aroused
"the spirit that now prevailed?" that is
to say, What class of people spurred
Virginia on to revolution "Not the
Cavaliers" says the observation-disclosures
Cavaliers who never counted for much
in Virginia. The revolution came from
the heart of Virg,nia and the nagnaniinity
Of her o,en people" So be it. We shall
then be authorised to assert that the
Cavaliers chiefly constituted the mag
naniinity in question, and that til nigh
ty heart from which flowed the blood OF
revolution was "Cavalier." Mr.. Rives
adopts the narrowest and most incon-
testable meaning of the term, and says:
"Many of the leading and most distin-
guished patriots OF the Revolution were
the descendants OF men who had sealed
with their blood, on the field of battle,
their loyalty to Charles J.. in his con-
test with the Long Parliament. Wash
ington's grandfather was the first cousin
of the Colonel Henry Washington who,
in l643, so gallantly led forlorn hope
for the king at the taking OF BRISTOL
The paternal ancestor of George Mason
raised a corps for the service of the king,
which he led in person against the
troopers OF Cromwell. The Cavalier
blood OF the noble Falkland, who Offer
ed up his life on the plains ofNewbury,
a costly sacrifice to a romantic senti-
ment OF loyalty and honor, flowed in the
veins of a Virginia patriot, archibald
Cary. The Lees, the Blands. the Car
ters, the Randolphs, the Digges, the
Byrds, and others among the foremost
patriots of the day were of well-known
Cavalier descent"
Thus Mr.. Rives. He employs the
term Cavalier it will be seel, in its
most restricted significance. Taking it
in the broader sense in which it seems
to be viewed by Mr.. Bancroft, and de-
filming "Cavaliern to mean a Church of
England man, not dissenter, an indi-
vdual of gentle rather than obscure
origin, it will be found that the leaders
of opinion in Virginia were almost ex-
clusivelyCavaliers. WashingtJn's claim
to that title has been shown. Patrick