The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1913-07-01

4ACI0 Was Ou0 mdtI6T W WuLCn
Washington felt it his bounded duty
as soldier and a man of honor to
devote his time and energies. whether
politics pressed or not. A grant of
two hundred thousand acres of the
western lands had been promised by
the government of til colony to those
who enlisted for the war against the
French and Indians in 1854; but moth
ing had ever been done to fulfill the
promise, and Washington undertook
to act as agent for his comrades in
the business.
Selects Farms for Fellow Soldiers.
In the autumn of ITO, accordingly,
he turned away for space from the
deepening trouble in the east to
plunge once more into the western
ways and search out proper tracts for
the grant along the reaches Of the
Ohio.
Twas a two months journey, for
he did not stop till he had gone close
three hundred miles beyond Fort Pitt.
And when he was home again no one
in the government who could lend a
hand in the matter got any peace
from the stirring, thorough man until
the business was put finally into
shape
There was a tidy profit in the grant
for himself; for his own share was
large, and he providently bought, be-
sides, the shares of others who were
unwilling to spend or cooperate in the
matter. But there were months upon
months OF weary, unrequited service
for his comrades, too, given with
hearty diligence and without grudg
ing.
Buys Great Meadows.
Their portions were as we'll placed
as his own, they were to find, when
it came to the survey. He came off
from the business very rich in west
ern lands-buying the Great Meadows,
among the rest, for memory's sake
but richer still in the gratitude and
admiration of the men for whom he
had 1abored
Meanwhile events darkened omi-
nously.
A new administration lad been
formed in England under Lord North.
and had begun its government by re-
pealing all the taxes of 1859 except
that OH tea But it was parliament's
right to tax them that the colonists
were fighting, not the taxes them
selves, and one tax was as hateful as
hundred.
The Boston Affair.
The year had been marked in SIMS
ter fashion, moreover, by a broil be-
tween townsTnen and troops in tho
streets of Boston, in which arms had
been used and men slain, and in the
heated imaginations of the colonists
the affair had taken on the ugly as
pect Of massacre.
The year 1771 went quietly enough
for Virginians. Botetourt was dead
and that good merchant of York, Will
liam Nelson, president of the council
sat in the place of authority through
out the year. Although the whole
country refused the taxed tea, the at
tention of the ministers, as it hap
pened, was fixed chiefly upon Massa-
chusetts, where trade conferred at a
growing port and opposition had a
local habitation.
Quiet in Virginia.
In Virginia there was no place to
send troops to, unless the whole coup-
try were occupied, and SO long as
Mr.. Nelson was acting governor,
Colonel Washington could go without
preoccupation to the races, and gentle
men everywhere follow their own de-
vices in the quiet counties.
There was rioting-rebellion, even
in North Carolina, so uneasily did af-
fairs go there; but Governor Tryon
was soldier as well as despot, and
did not need to trouble his neighbors
about that.
An Unpopular Governor.
It was not until the first months of
1772 that VirCiaians began to read
plain signs of change in the face Of
their new governor, John Murray, earl
Of Dunmore-a dark and distant man,
who seemed to the VirSinians to come
like a satrap to his province, who
brought a soldier with him for secre-
tary and confidential adviser, set up
fixed etiquette to be observed by ali
who would approach him, spoke
abruptly and without courtesy, dis
played in all things an arbitrary tenn
per, and took more interest, it pres
emily appeared, in acquiring tracts of
western land than in conducting the
government of the colony.
The year of his coming was marked
by the secret destruction of the reve-
nue. schooner Gaspe in Rhode Island,
and by many significant flaws of tenn
per here and there throughout the col
onies; and 1775 saw affairs at last
come to a crisis
Dunmore and the Burgesses.
Dunmore had summoned the bur
gesses to meet him upon his first COM
ing, but mad liked their proud temper
as little as they liked his, and was
careful not to call them together again
till March, 1918, though he had prom
/ ised to convene them earlier.
There was instant trouble.
In view Of the affair of the Gaspe,