The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-31

! hath cotton a lot Or portion In III,
New World by the plantation Of vir
giria. and the Summer Islands. Ant
/. certain it is with the Kingdoms o
earth. as it. is in the Kingdom Q
Heaven, sometimes a grain OF mus
tard seed proves a great tree. VIII
can tell?"
Who could indeed tell In 1919
Who today, three hundred years tPNare'
from. can tell? At the very least
where Bruce, Tyler, Henry. Stanart
and, Brown have traced the story OF
| yirginia's development from tht
mustard seed of Bacon's quaint
phrase. it would be worse than pre-
sumptuous for me to follow the ger
mination of that great idea ir
America. In this presence such an at
tempt would be as unnecessary as j.
! would be presunlptuous. But be-
icause there is a certain faith IL
lAmerica that proclaims Massachu'
sets is god and Winthrop In his
prophet, and because the dcvotees OF
that faith salaam to a sun hat rises
in exclusion just east of Cape Coo
and sets in jealous cloud-trappings
behind Beacon Hill, may I not be per.
mitted to point out some of the fruits
Oh d tree t1dt WdS pCdAiiS "a AN
Mayfower sent forth its blossoms OF
%genealogy on its trellis of pride?
Virginia The First.
Virginia had representative govern
ment before Massachusetts, was
founded: Virginia's system of repre-
sentative government was we'll estab-
lished before Massachusetts charter
gave her citizens any real voice In
her affairs. Virginia, not Massa
chusetts, carried the standard of ad-
vanced free government on this con
tinent until another standard, largely
of Virginia's fashioning n dyed in
her blood, was borne by her sons for
the nation.
speaking of Massachusetts-and l pro-
test admiration, rather than ill-wil,
for surely admiration is due historians
who could close the mouth of the
Chesapeake Bay with Plymouth rock
lest men be deceived, It is well to
remember that from the very first
session OF the burgesses in 1919, Vir-
ginians maintained hat IL those over
seas were to claim a voice in Vir-
ginia affairs. Virginia must pass upon
the acts of the London Com
pany relating to the colony.
The session tea party, in. short.
was of the brew of Virginia. 1919.
Until the later years of Governor
Berkeley. suffrage in Virginia was al
most universal for free men-and
this Mt a time when in England, none
whose annual rental did not equal
forty shillings could vote for tho
knights OF the shire. At n time, in
the seventeenth century, Virginia, 1t
seems. permitted balloting in writing
and had a law thatlbears a remarkable
similarity to our twentieth-century
"absent-voters' act. Burgesses from
the beginning were paid for their at
tendance-so that no mans poverty
might Keep him from Office. For the
period OF the commonwealth Virginia
was virtually as independent a state
as she was after 1881. Her laws. in
the view of mary, were only those
in force in 1907, those specifically ap-
piled to Virginia by parliament and
those of N~irginia's own making: and
over this view. as Hartwell. Chiffon
and Blair attest, a long. long war was
waged. If Bacon's Rebellion was fol-
lowed by a period of retregression in
popular government in Virginia. we
must not forget that injustice forced
rising and that by 1891. as the
petition of that year shows plainly,
the Virginia burgesses were de-
handing their old rights and more.
1t is not, however. upon the strug-
gle with the mother country that we
-Sh6ilH reflect in a year that has wit
n esssd@ the contamination for man.
kinds veal of the joint labors of
mother and of daughter. Rather is
1t upon the contribution made to the
world by Virginia in the three hundred
years OF representative government
- ~Ls -
ton has been. in the main, political
and spiritual. let us not forgotten 1t
is written in the journal of the first
burgesses-that Virginia has con-
tributed no little to the appearing of
that great sister of free church and of
free state-free education. One OF the
petitions of the burgesses of 1919 was
for workmen to aid in the building
of a college, and though that ideal
was deferred by the massacre of 1922.
it was not lost. In 1886 Benjamin
Synls left a part otlhis estate for edu-
cation in Virginia and thereby laid
the foundations tor the Syms-Eaton
school Of Hampton. That. it will be
remembered, was before Massachu-
setts authorized or John Harvard
estate to the school that has been for
nearly three centuries the rightful
pride of New England.
Cause OF Human Liberty.
Acts OF which this Is typical will be
found in the journals of the burgesses
SO admirably edited by McIlwaine and
in the statutes FOR the preservation
of which Virginia still owes a monu-
ment TO Hening. But from those
acts we must turn, to the laws that
proclaim. oft-times in letters of blood,
Virginia's conservation to the cause
of human liberty. In justice to those
great forbears of ours. rather than
in pride that we are their sons, we
must proclaim this great truth this