Ships were lost during these dark voyages, and said to have had their crews,
when discovered, massacred. To save the shipwrecked families from
this fate, many of whom were left, the colonists were allowed a
grant of land, on condition they would come as missionaries to
teach them the Christian faith. This was in 1717. The colony in
this way became a colony of great promise.
About 1720 the first vessel from England reached the colony, and
the first child born in the colony, Sarah Hovey, a daughter of
Captain Edward Hovey. The first baby was born in Virginia, on October
15, 1733, Sarah Bolles.
In 1736, about fifty colonists left the Colony of Virginia, who
had come from the colony of Maryland, to found the colony of
Georgia. For nearly a century this colony flourished, and was
a very successful one. Among its famous early citizens were the
Ways brothers, men of strong character and courage. In 1753, when
the colony of Georgia was invaded by the British and the Indians,
the two brothers put their shoulders to the wheel, their bravery
saving the colony.
In the middle of the last century, there was no longer any land
that could be bought cheaply enough to enable the colony to
remain a permanent one. The state of Virginia had a new constitution
which permitted the creation of the new counties. It also required
that the people have title to the land they occupied. This was
not possible in the present unsettled and wild condition of the
country.
On April 1, 1776, Virginia became a state, its capital being
at Richmond. But before then, a little group of men had met in
Frederick County and formed a little organization called the Society
of the Cincinnati. This had four members, who were to be the
principal founders of the state of Ohio. A few of the members
were present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Of course there were not enough signatures to constitute a state.
So this little company of gentlemen laid the cornerstone of a
future state of Ohio at Washington's headquarters, but before
it could be turned into state land, the State of Virginia was
split off, and Washington's headquarters were moved to the new
capital, at the city of Washington.
From 1781, the war against England dragged on, and at times
there were heavy setbacks. Washington and Lee were the leaders
of the army, and there were few officers whose bravery and conduct
had been more conspicuous than that of the great Lee. In the
latter years of the war, there were severe losses. There were
not enough soldiers to go around.
In 1801, Congress passed a law that slavery should be abolished
in the state of Virginia. Then Virginia, like all the other states,
was divided into counties. Virginia, of course, had four. Washington,
Westmoreland, Botetourt and Berkeley, and a new county, called
Jefferson, was formed from one part of the county of Henry
in the state of Virginia. There was already a county named Jefferson,
somewhere else, so a new county was formed, having that name.
It was the first new county in the state. It was named for
Thomas Jefferson, who had been a leader of the state in the days
of its struggle for independence. He had been ambassador to France,
and had written the Declaration of Independence.
Washington, the capital of Virginia, is on the Potomac River.
There are two railroads in the city. The Northern Railway and
the Virginia and Southern Railway.
The city is divided into three parts. The river front, or on
the Virginia side, called the Hillside. The Capitol, or the centre
of the city. There is one hotel that is open to anyone. And on
the west side is the public square, where the city hall stands,
and the old courthouse. The county courthouse, in which Jefferson
County is situated, is one block farther back. Jefferson is the
largest county in the state. It is about half as large as England.
The state library and museum are situated on Capitol Hill.
The statehouse was built by a man called William Mason. He was
a soldier of fortune, serving in the armies of France and England,
before he settled down to farm his estate in the colony of Virginia.
The Virginia State Botanical Gardens were begun in 1879, but
it was not until a few years ago that they were really properly
undertaken. Now there are about two hundred acres of well selected
land, with about a hundred plants in each bed. There are large
gardens on the hillside and in the center of the city. There are
bouquets of magnolias and other kinds of shade trees. There is
a fine park with about two hundred acres. It is used for tennis,
croquet, and other outdoor games.
The state university is at the city of Lynchburg. The college
was founded in 1824, on the land of one of the original twelve
commissioners of the county of Botetourt, named George Washington
Waddell. It has since been enlarged to about one hundred and
fifty students. The buildings were made with brick. It is in the
southern part of the state, about halfway between Roanoke and
Charlottesville. Lynchburg is the nearest town to it. The first
building of the university, the chapel, was begun in 1828, and
finished in 1834. The main hall was built in 1838. The dormitories
and the gymnasium were completed in 1890.
The state capitol at Richmond is the scene of some interesting
sights.
It was made a state capital by the act of the Virginia Legislature,
in 1779. It was one of the seats of government, until the federal
capital was chosen for Washington in 1790. It is the third largest
building in Virginia, and was built by a man named Henry Harrison.
He was a shipowner. He used to be a member of Congress from Virginia.
The Virginia Museum at Richmond is the oldest museum in the
United States. It was started about 1771, the year after the Declaration
of Independence, by men who belonged to the Society of the Cincinnati.
This society is a society of officers and men who had been present
at the Declaration of Independence. It is a most exclusive society.
They meet each year at Cincinnati, Ohio, and in this club, there
are some three hundred members. The society began the museum as
a memorial to the men who had been at Lexington and Concord, and
the first exhibit they put there was a copy of the Declaration
of Independence.
The museum is under the direction of Colonel Mason A. Henry,
whose chief delight is in antiquities. There are two large building
in the city, one on each side of the old Capitol. The Capitol was
used as the house of representatives for several years, after the
Revolution, and was occupied by Congress for many years, and
is now occupied by the state capitol. It was used by Congress
during the time that they moved their headquarters to the city
of Washington, and when Jefferson was President, he decided he
wanted to return to the state of Virginia, so he moved the capitol
back to Virginia.
It was built in 1788, and is two stories high, of brick, in the
Ionic order. It has been recently redecorated, and now looks very
nice. In the centre of the building is a statue of George Washington.
There is a beautiful statue in the rotunda of John Marshall,
the chief justice of the United States. The statue of Thomas
Jefferson is in the senate room. It was originally in another
part of the building, but was put in the senate room, in 1816.
On top of the capitol is the dome. It was built at a cost of
$1,500,000, with forty-eight columns of granite, weighing about
six tons each. The columns were made in Connecticut, and brought
by ocean freight. Each column was eight feet wide, sixteen feet
high and forty-eight feet long.
The capitol is used for state courts. This has been a long and
very interesting story. In early times, the people did not have
very much law. One case might last for years. Even in Virginia
the law was very hard to get. Lawyers were a very scarce commodity.
And when it was given, it was so expensive it was not practicable
for ordinary people to have it. It was only to the very wealthy,
or to the very wealthy who made their home in the state, that
it could be used.
Many years after the Revolution, Congress passed the Judiciary
Act, which provided that when there was no special court, or when
all the judges were needed for state business, the judges could
sit as a court for small causes. This was a great relief to people.
They could get justice without paying their lawyers.
When people became rich enough to build fine buildings in a
city, or to furnish them with grounds of their own, the need
for justice lessened, and there were fewer cases to be heard.
Finally, there were no more buildings in Virginia with courts
in them. There was no courts in Virginia.
When Washington became President, he found Virginia a country
where it was perfectly lawful for one man to take all the land
that he wanted. He had to have some law to say that he must not
do that, so he called on his friend George Mason to make him
a law that would tell him that he could not take this land from
one person and give it to another. He and Mason were at first
very angry with each other. But Washington said that he would
do no more than was necessary for the public good, and that the
Constitution was the best that could be devised. But Mason refused
to let him put that law in. Mason said that no man had a right
to take the land of another without paying for it. Washington
and Mason, however, eventually became friends. Mason agreed to
have Washington make a law which would give Mason his rights.
It was not hard to make a law that would stop one man from taking
all the land that he wanted.
After Mason made his law, Washington also made a law which would
stop one person from taking all the land that belonged to another,
without having to buy it. This law was called the law of descent
and distribution.
There was also a need to make laws about roads, and Washington
made one of the first road laws. It was a law about a road to
Newport News. Washington wrote to the Governor of Virginia, saying:
“That road is one of great necessity for the trade, commerce,
and welfare of this country, and the expense attending it has
prevented the owners of a great many pieces of land from improving
them, in consequence of which, the poor people have suffered much
in their way of life.”
Washington also made a law about the sale of public lands, which
at that time were being sold at low rates. He said that these
lands belonged to the United States, and he wanted them to be
sold at the rate of fifty cents an acre. But the people who bought
them were not allowed to pay the fair price, because there was
so much trouble to get the money from the government. The law
on this was in effect until 1850.
The last important law Washington made was one which created
the office of district judge. There were forty-eight of these,
and they were called district judges. They were appointed by
the President and confirmed by the senate. At first, they could
not be removed except by impeachment. But eventually, these
district judges, who had been appointed in Virginia, were
replaced by men appointed in other states. The Virginia law which
made these district judges was passed in 1785.
The president of the United States, and those who are appointed
to be district judges, must be American citizens. There are two
sets of district judges. One set are federal judges. The other
set of district judges are for the states. The federal judges
serve for life. All the rest serve for four years.
These district judges were made for Virginia because there
were no court buildings. There was no court house in Virginia.
There were many cases to be tried. The district judge had to
do justice by holding court in the county seat. There were about
seven hundred county seats in the state. The Virginia General
Assembly thought that these county courts were too expensive,
and it passed a law that there should be one district judge for
every county seat. This was very unwise. There are three hundred
and fifty counties in Virginia. There are eight hundred and
fifty two county seats. The law made about three hundred and
fifty district judges.
This arrangement continued until 1801, when George Washington
was removed from office. The law for district judges was passed
in 1785, but he was not removed until 1801. When he was removed,
District Judge James Monroe took his place. James Monroe was
a man of great ability and of very great ability as a diplomat.
He became a very good President.
The District Court of the United States is the highest court
of the United States, and the first district court to hold sessions
was established at Charlottesville. The district judge was named
John Mercer. He was very anxious to get to work. He made many
changes. He said: “The law is a living law. It cannot be
made to suit every emergency.”
Mr. Mercer wanted to make the law suit cases heard, and so
he got rid of trials for damages. “A trial for damages is
a trial to punish,” he said. “It may not be wrong,
but it is most expensive. The law is the best way to settle
all differences.”
There was also a need for the creation of some means to help
people who had to take the case to court. But Mr. Mercer said
that no laws could be passed to make it possible to do this.
He said: “It is not in the power of the federal court to
enforce contracts.” In other words, the federal court
was only for the federal government, and it could not help
people who were trying to settle a business dispute. “If
a law were made to compel one party to abide by the terms of
his contract, the other party might break his contract and refuse
to perform it.”
Mr. Mercer realized that people could not get justice in the
courts. He decided that it would be much better for people to
be able to get justice if they were not poor. Mr. Mercer wanted
to set up some means where poor people could get justice in the
courts. He wanted to set up some means by which people could
get a lawyer to fight their case for them. He said: “To
bring the poor in the courts and to put it out of the power of
the rich to put them in the jury boxes is a wrong and unjust
way.”
He wanted the law to be simple. “The courts of justice
should be for all. The law should be such that the poor could
read it and know how to defend themselves.”
Mr. Mercer came out of the courtroom after his court was held.
He was very well satisfied with the work. He said: “The
court suits I have tried are the most interesting cases I have
ever tried.”
He also added that the people were very proud of his work. He
said: “They all come to see what I can do.”
In these district courts, there is no right to a lawyer. The
only right that the law allows for people is the right to a
jury. The first time a man has the right to have a lawyer present
to talk to him about his case is when he is going to be tried
for murder. “Murder is the only one of the common
crimes which has its own peculiar method of investigation.”
Before the right to a lawyer was given, murderers were always
hung. Mr. Mercer said that he felt like the murderer.
A trial for a murder involves a whole lot of questions. “There
is no rule or general principle which can be laid down for
the determination of such cases. They have to be tried and determined
one after another as they come up.”
The law that Mr. Mercer made concerning murder was also used
to decide other things. This was done because of the great need
for the laws that are now in the United States. In other words,
the need to decide things as they came up. For example, if there
was a case of arson in a building, the law decided whether or
not the law concerning murder should be used.
The first time that Mr. Mercer had the law on murder used was
on the twenty-second of December, 1787. He did not say anything
on this occasion. The law was not written down. There was no
trial. Afterward, there was a trial. After the trial, the jurors
decided that Mr. Mercer was not guilty of murder.
Mr. Mercer had many reasons for the act that he did. He did
not think that it would be right for judges to try a murder case
if they did not understand it. He wanted to keep the people
from being unhappy about his work. He thought that the people
would feel that he had done something about it. This feeling would
help to make up for the fact that the law was not written. He
did not want to let anyone say that his was only a partial law.
The law was not a perfect law. The law said that it should be
the highest court in the country. And yet, it did not say that
it should be the only court. The district judge did not have any
power to enforce the law. He could only help to decide questions.
And yet, he was the highest court. If you broke the law, there
would be a trial. If you were guilty, the judge could sentence
you to death. “The sentence should be death.”
The law was written with the people in mind. Mr. Mercer’s
idea was that the law should be written in plain language. He
did not want to have lawyers write it
