The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-12-12
WHY WAS THE VIRGINIA COLONY
CALLED THE OLD DoMINIoNl"
BY Rev. R. R. Howison, Ii. D.


COPIED from the "Chicago Inter
Ocean'D which purports to answer
the above question. But the article,
short as it IS, docs so abound in his
torical errors and mistakes, and these
are, in their very nature, so delud .
i1g, and so injurious to the cause o I
important truth, that every Vlrglnian
ought to desire that they should be
corrected.
The article states that it was be
fore young Charles Stuart became
King and while he was "hidiDg in
France" and when "the Crom
welllau government threatened to
send a feet to reduce the Virginia
colony to submission" that the Vir
ginia authorities dispatched mes
sage to Charles inviting him to come
over and be King of Virginia"
These statements involve ansch-
ronsms and incongruities OF the
most glariDg character. Who can
believe that Virginia. with Sir VIM
Berkeley then ruling her as Governor,
invited young Charles to be King,
while his father, Charles First. was
vet living, and was the lawful Klngf
1t is true that the Virginia Colony
remained loyal to the Stuart Kings
during all the civil wars in Eogland,
and even after the execution OF
Charles l., in January l649, and the
establishment of the protectorate of
Oliver Cromwell.
. But the young Charles was not
"hidipg in France" when Virginia
invited him 10 come over, and be
King. His father was dead. and be
had assumed the title of King, and
had established his slender and pow
erty-stricken court in thes small city
OF Breds, in the Netherlands. The
Virginia Colony (then prevalently
moved by Sir William Berkeley aud
bis admlrerO did send the invitation
10 Charles and his court TO come
over. They never came, although
many families of the royslIst type
did then come to this colony, and
the dowsger Queen, mother Henri
eta Maria, is said to have made
some preparations to obtain aid
from France for carrying out a
plan to transport large body OF
retainers to Virginia, aud to con-
tlnue the English monarchy in the
New World. But the reason why
this was not done, was not that as
signed in that article from the Chi
cago Inter Ocean viz, that "Charles
was on the point Of starving when
the collapse of the Commonwealth
and of the Cromwellisn regime took
place, which sent him to the English
throne" The very contrary OF this
is the truth. The Commonwealth
under Cromwell was so mighty and
we'll ordered, and so potent by sea
and land, from l649 for series OF
years, that neither Henrietta Maria
in France, nor Charles, in Breda,
could obtain feet and armament
that would have dared to sail for
Virginia. The statement Of the ar
ticle that the threat of the Common
wealth to send q feet to reduce the
Virginia Colony to submission was
part of the causes which induced the
Colonial rulers to invite Charles to
come as King, carries its own retu-
tation on its face. When Oil
YER Cromwell threatened, few
earthly powers would have dared to
resist.
He did send feet to Virginia in
the close Of 1851, and in March, 1862
Virginia made formal cspitulation
on terms honorable alike to the cour'
age Of the colony aud the
wise clemency Of Cromwell
And under her three Republican
eovernors-Richard Bennett from
1868; Edward Digges from 1856, and
Samuel Matthews from 1868, Virginia
enjoyed a prosperity and happiness
never before known.
The statement Of the article that
"Charles never forgot the devotion
of the Colony "(that is her invitation
to him TO come over and be king is
q very ambiguous and deluding his
torical suggestion Never was there
a king more ungrsteful, unfsithful
and cruel to subjects who had shown
themselves true and loyal in his
greatest adversely than was
Charles the Second to Virginia, after
his restoration to the throne OF
England He upheld Berkeley in
his unjust and most bar
bsrous policy. he encouraged
the British Parliament to pass the
iniquitous Navigation Acts" which
bore 30 oppressively on Virginia,
and finally he deliberately and dis.
honestly granted away the whole OF
the real domains of Virginia to two
Of his obssquious favorites, Culpeper
and Arlington.
1t is true that when, in bis wretch
ed little court circle at Bteda, he re-
ceiyed the invitation Of Virginia, he
showed some meretricious gratitude,
which manifested itself in an alb
surdity perhaps as great as any he
ever committed. He directed q new
royal seal to be prepared with the in
scription "En dat Virginia quintam'
and claiming that the five sovereign
ties of which he was King were
England, France, Scotland, Ireland
aud Virginia. See Professor Holmes
U. s. p. Al. Students U. s. p 81.
1t is true that Virgins, even be.
fore the Revolution, had gained the
title of "The Old Dominion" But
she did not gain it from any Of the
sources generally assigned for it.
She gained it from sill that had oc-
Cured before the restoration of
Charles the Second. 1t is not true
that her people prior to that event
had again invited Charles to the
throne, and that they fuug abroad
- fhox, Lac II