ation; many old soldiers of
Cromwell emigrated to Virginia, and, under their auspices, an
insurrection 'against the tobacco plot' was organized; and this was
followed by numerous difficulties in home legislation, by violent
controversies with royal governors; deputies continually were sent to
England to remonstrate with the king against 'intolerable grants' and
the exportation of jailbirds. Their despotic master over the sea
appropriated the lands of the colonists, while their own representatives
monopolized the profits; cruel or obstinate was the sway of Berkeley,
Spottwood, Dinwiddie, and Dunmore; and after the people had succumbed as
regards military opposition, they continued to maintain their rights by
legislative action. Under James the Second, Lord Howard repealed many of
these conservative acts and prorogued the House of Burgesses. A respite,
attested by glad acclaim, marked the accession of William and Mary, and
the recall of Howard. Andros was sent over in 1692. The skirmish with
Junonville initiated the French war and introduced upon the scene its
most hallowed name and character, when Colonel Washington appeared first
as a soldier, strove in vain against the ignorance and self-will of
Dinwiddie, and shared Braddock's defeat, to be signally preserved for
the grandest career in history.

And when the war of the Revolution gave birth to the nation, not only
was Virginia the native State of its peerless chief, but some of its
memorable scenes and heroes there found scope; Steuben and Lafayette
there carried on military operations, there the traitor Arnold was
wounded, Hamilton and Rochambeau gained historic celebrity, and there
the great drama was closed by the surrender of Cornwallis. In the
debates incident to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, there was
manifested in Virginia that jealousy of a strong central government,
which thwarted the wise advocacy and ignored the prophetic warnings of
the best statesmen, thereby confirming the fundamental error destined,
years after, to give facility to treasonable usurpation: the
Constitution was only ratified, at last, by a majority of ten. In the
war of 1812, Hampton, Craney Island, White House, and various places on
and near the Potomac, since identified with fierce encounters and forays
in the war of the rebellion, witnessed gallant deeds in behalf of the
Republic. In 1829 a convention assembled in Virginia to modify the
Constitution. Long having the most ex