CHAPTER II GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA JUNE, 1779 TO JUNE, 1781 O` "Then to advise how war may best, upheld, MILTON N the retirement of Patrick Henry, its first Governor under the new order, the Assembly of Virginia had to elect a successor. Jefferson was candidate of the Reformers; his old friend John Page was nominated by the Conservatives. The candidates took no part, though their supporters canvassed vigorously. On June I, 1779, Jefferson was elected by a small majority. In reply to Page's congratulations he regretted that the zeal of their respective friends should have placed them in competition. "I was comforted, however, with the reflection, that it was their competition, not ours, and that the difference of the numbers, which decided between us, was too insignificant to give you a pain, or me a pleasure, had our dispositions towards each other been such as to admit those sensations." Twenty-three years later Page was appointed Governor and received a letter of congratulation from President Jefferson. On this occasion Page had good reason to rejoice that he was not elected. Conditions in Virginia were very bad and destined to become much worse. In May, the very last month of Patrick Henry's administration, the British had used their command of the sea to make their first big raid on Virginia. An expedition under Admiral Collier had entered Hampton Roads and seized Portsmouth. From this base plundering parties went out in various directions. One marched on Suffolk, the chief military depôt of Virginia, dispersed a force of 2,000 militiamen, and destroyed large quantities of food and ammunition. Jefferson might well, in his speech of acceptance, mingle thanks for the honour bestowed upon him with anxiety "lest my poor endeavours should fall short of the kind expectations of my country.' The second Governor of the State could with confidence promise "impartiality, assiduous attention, and sincere affection to the great American Cause." But he inherited a rapidly depreciating currency and an empty Treasury. When he took office the Governor's salary of £4,500 in paper money did not pay for the food of his household. His second year's salary was equivalent to the price of a saddle. Another inheritance was a territory exposed to the attacks of a Sea Power and without means of defence; for throughout his term of office Washington insisted that Virginia, instead of making preparations against raids, should devote her resources to the support of the main armies operating in the north and in the south. Jefferson played the part assigned to him with perfect loyalty. Fortune so contrived that the future protagonist of state rights was bound while Governor to sacrifice the security of his beloved Virginia to the necessities, real or supposed, of the Union, and in so doing to run the gauntlet of much unpopularity at home. Had he remained in office six months longer, Jefferson could have celebrated the glorious termination at Yorktown of a strategy which had involved heavy losses to his own people, losses from which one of his own properties never fully recovered. That unmerited reproaches, which cut him to the quick, were cast upon him when he retired is not at all surprising. That after his conduct had been justified they should have been revived later on by party venom with additional charges of cowardice was in the nature of things. But that they should still be popping up in the literature of our own time is a little puzzling and disheartening. Evidently the victory of Truth in history may be long delayed by the lingering prejudices of party controversy. To understand the story of Jefferson's governorship we must go back to October 17, 1777, when Burgoyne capitulated to Gates at Saratoga. It was the turning point in the war; for it enabled Franklin to conclude that alliance with the French monarchy which eventually deprived King George of his Colonies, and then by ruining the public finances of France set in train a new revolution which was to deprive the French King of his head. After Saratoga a real peace effort was made by Lord North. He offered to abandon all that the British Crown had originally fought for, if the Colonies would remain within the British Empire. But the compact with France, which stipulated that the war should continue until independence was achieved, made an accommodation impossible. After that disaster to British arms the war languished, and interest shifted gradually from the north to the south. In Europe Saratoga was thought to have ensured American independence, and so in the end it did by procuring the French Alliance. But at first French aid barely kept the Republican cause on its legs. A year after Saratoga Washington was in the depth of despondency. Prices were rising fast, as paper money depreciated, demoralising trade and spreading ruin among the people. Drastic taxation would have arrested the mischief; but the individual States refused to impose it, and Congress was powerless. Without French munitions, loans, and subsidies, the American armies could not have been maintained. In December, 1778, Washington wrote: "Our affairs are in a more distressed, ruinous, and deplorable condition than they have been since the commencement of the war. The common interests of America are mouldering and sinking into irretrievable ruin, if a remedy is not soon applied." The value of money, he declared, was sinking fifty per cent a day in Philadelphia. Clinton had succeeded Howe as British Commanderin-Chief, with Cornwallis as his second in command. Philadelphia had been abandoned by the British forces, which were now concentrated in New York. In the month of June, 1779, Spain joined in the Alliance against Great Britain. Yet George III was still obstinately bent on subjugating his rebellious subjects though France and Spain were leagued against England with the thirteen revolted Colonies, and Holland was about to join her foes. To judge from the gloom of Washington's letters and the economic exhaustion of the American States the King might still hope for success. In 1779, 140 million continental paper dollars were printed by Congress, and their exchange value fell till twenty paper dollars went to one of silver. That was bad enough, but worse followed. Early in 1780 Congress made an open confession of bankruptcy by calling in its "continentals" at the rate of one hard dollar to forty paper dollars. A few months before it had described any such measure in advance as that of "a bankrupt, faithless Republic." Multitudes of people, including many French merchants, were victims of this gigantic swindle. The new currency, of course, went the way of the old. It was a fraud that could not be repeated. Public credit was gone. After this both Congress and the States had to rely on other means than the printing of paper money. Except for the hard cash of French subsidies and loans, almost everything required for the war, from men and horses to clothing and food, had to be ‘impressed.' That meant injustice, unequal suffering, discontents, disorders, and even insurrections. The Continental Army in the spring of 1779 numbered only about 16,000. Officers and men were alike disheartened. Washington described his forces as "but little more than the skeleton of an army." In the south the English had won successes in Georgia, and in 1779 they overran South Carolina, where they found plenty of loyalists to join them. A French-American attack on Savannah was beaten off, and at the end of the year Clinton embarked from New York with 7,000 men for the purpose of conquering the Southern Colonies. After a long and brave defence Charleston capitulated in May, 1780, with a garrison of 5,000 and 400 cannon. Saratoga was avenged. All Southern Carolina seemed ready to submit. For a time loyalists flocked to the royal standard. But plunder following in the wake of victory exasperated the people, and converted some of the Tory zealots into rebel Whigs. In June Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis with 4,000 men to subdue North Carolina. Cornwallis was a dashing general, but his methods were the methods of barbarism. Resistance gathered strength. Washington despatched Baron de Kalb, a good soldier, with 2,000 regulars from the Continental army to assist Gates, the not very competent victor of Saratoga, to whom Congress had assigned the Chief Command in the South. That general soon had at his disposal, thanks to |