登陆注册
15511400000049

第49章 CHAPTER XV. ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD(1)

In the spring of 1689, Virginians flocked to Jamestown to hear William and Mary proclaimed Lord and Lady of Virginia. The next year there entered, as LieutenantGovernor, Francis Nicholson, an odd character in whom an immediate violence of temper went with a statesmanlike conception of things to be. Two years he governed here, then was transferred to Maryland, and then in seven years came back to the James. He had not been liked there, but while he was gone Virginia had endured in his stead Sir Edmund Andros.

That had been swapping the witch for the devil. Virginia in 1698 seems to have welcomed the returning Nicholson.

Jamestown had been hastily rebuilt, after Bacon's burning, and then by accident burned again. The word malaria was not in use, but all knew that there had always been sickness on that low spit running out from the marshes. The place might well seem haunted, so many had suffered there and died there. Poetical imagination might have evoked a piece of sad pageantry--starving times, massacres, quarrels, executions, cruel and unusual punishments, gliding Indians. A practical question, however, faced the inhabitants, and all were willing to make elsewhere a new capital city.

Seven miles back from the James, about halfway over to the blue York, stood that cluster of houses called Middle Plantation, where Bacon's men had taken his Oath. There was planned and builded Williamsburg, which was to be for nearly a hundred years the capital of Virginia. It was named for King William, and there was in the minds of some loyal colonists the notion, eventually abandoned, of running the streets in the lines of a huge W and M. The long main street was called Duke of Gloucester Street, for the short-lived son of that Anne who was soon to become Queen. At one end of this thoroughfare stood a fair brick capitol. At the other end nearly a mile away rose the brick William and Mary College. Its story is worth the telling.

The formal acquisition of knowledge had long been a problem in Virginia.

Adult colonists came with their education, much or little, gained already in the mother country. In most cases, doubtless, it was little, but in many cases it was much. Books were brought in with other household furnishing.

When there began to be native-born Virginians, these children received from parents and kindred some manner of training. Ministers were supposed to catechise and teach. Well-to-do and educated parents brought over tutors.

Promising sons were sent to England to school and university. But the lack of means to knowledge for the mass of the colony began to be painfully apparent.

In the time of Charles the First one Benjamin Symms had left his means for the founding of a free school in Elizabeth County, and his action had been solemnly approved by the Assembly. By degrees there appeared other similar free schools, though they were never many nor adequate. But the first Assembly after the Restoration had made provision for a college. Land was to have been purchased and the building completed as speedily as might be.

The intent had been good, but nothing more had been done.

There was in Virginia, sent as Commissioner of the Established Church, a Scotch ecclesiastic, Dr. James Blair. In virtue of his office he had a seat in, the Council, and his integrity and force soon made him a leader in the colony. A college in Virginia became Blair's dream. He was supported by Virginia planters with sons to educate--daughters' education being purely a domestic affair. Before long Blair had raised in promised subscriptions what was for the time a large sum. With this for a nucleus he sailed to England and there collected more. Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, helped him much. The King and Queen inclined a favorable ear, and, though he met with opposition in certain quarters, Blair at last obtained his charter. There was to be built in Virginia and to be sustained by taxation a great school, "a seminary of ministers of the gospel where youths may be piously educated in good letters and manners; a certain place of universal study, or perpetual college of divinity, philosophy, languages and other good arts and sciences." Blair sailed back to Virginia with the charter of the college, some money, a plan for the main building drawn by Christopher Wren, and for himself the office of President.

The Assembly, for the benefit of the college, taxed raw and tanned hides, dressed buckskin, skins of doe and elk, muskrat and raccoon. The construction of the new seat of learning was begun at Williamsburg. When it was completed and opened to students, it was named William and Mary. Its name and record shine fair in old Virginia. Colonial worthies in goodly number were educated at William and Mary, as were later revolutionary soldiers and statesmen, and men of name and fame in the United States.

Three American Presidents--Jefferson, Monroe, and Tyler--were trained there, as well as Marshall, the Chief Justice, four signers of the Declaration of Independence, and many another man of mark.

The seventeenth century is about to pass. France and England are at war.

The colonial air vibrates with the struggle. There is to be a brief lull after 1697, but the conflict will soon be resumed. The more northerly colonies, the nearer to New France, feel the stronger pulsation, but Virginia, too, is shaken. England and France alike play for the support of the red man. All the western side of America lies open to incursion from that pressed-back Indian sea of unknown extent and volume. Up and down, the people, who have had no part in making that European war, are sensitive to the menace of its dangers. In Virginia they build blockhouses and they keep rangers on guard far up the great rivers.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 篮球火

    篮球火

    一怒舍命为伊人!曾经校园的第一篮球倒扣王者,叶凡!落魄之后,他又有什么样的奇遇?经历?请随主人公叶凡一起走进他的世界吧!
  • 天凑巧

    天凑巧

    全称《新镌绣像小说天凑巧》,原书牌记已残。是一本拟话本小说集,清初刊本,每回演一故事,三回各以三字标题,全书不知共多少回,现存三回。
  • 尘埃下的国度

    尘埃下的国度

    不管你在哪里,地铁里亦或是餐桌上?这不重要,请你抬头看看四周,几乎所有人都将目光聚集在那一块小小的屏幕上,仿佛掌间那方寸之地囊括了整个世界,他们感受着陌生人的悲欢离合,也分享自己的喜怒哀乐,他们罔顾海洋深处的哀鸣,漠视森林边缘的颤栗,更加忽略脚底下弱者发出的歇斯底里的呐喊。他们生活在一个弱肉强食的时代,却早已忘记了弱肉强食的残酷。假如某一天,某种神秘而可怕的力量入侵人类文明,以法律为基准的秩序开始崩塌,人类又将何去何从?
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 猎狼

    猎狼

    当小绵羊入了军营,当小绵羊遇上大魔狼,当一个书生为了复仇考入特种部队……激情四溢的温馨军旅生活就此展开。人生必不可少的历练,让你体会不一样的友情!想想你的亲妈妈,想想你的好姑娘,走进军营来,还她们一个可靠的胸膛!你没当过兵,你都不知道男人是什么样的!少年,你不来一发吗?原装正版橄榄绿,你值得拥有!
  • 重生之一九九四

    重生之一九九四

    带着未来二十年的记忆,黄若辰回到了1994.七岁之躯,纵使心有天大抱负他又能做些什么呢,一切从做一个小学生开始。转机在一个小小意外之后……拜师学武?买猴票?出唱片?跟着国际炒家、金融大鳄脚步玩转金融市场?搞实业?这是一个小屁孩的成长史,也是一个一个经济帝国从无到有的过程……
  • 王俊凯之夏日之恋

    王俊凯之夏日之恋

    一次失踪,不知死不死,他生不如死,而他对说只是失踪没死。
  • 魔苏传

    魔苏传

    窥见真实的世界,勘破虚妄的命运。魔正在苏醒。
  • 灵帝传奇

    灵帝传奇

    这是一部一族从毁灭到复生的悲壮史。当绝望与死亡如枝藤蔓延,末世的帝睁开毁灭世界的瞳,那时起,九天的动荡拉开了封闭千年的帷幕。真相接踵而至,命运百转轮回,一个普通的乡村少年,两个截然不同的身份,三大国的明争暗斗,一切的一切,都在星辰的运转中悄然注定,刻下结局……权与力的王座上,一顶紫色的王冠承载着千载乱世沉浮,而王座下埋着九族的森森白骨,孤独的王闭着双眼,耳边回响着那一日戚风细语,突然意识到自己所做的一切,从一开始到最后,都只是想要,都只是奢求着那份卑微的、最后的幸福而已。
  • 约定今生

    约定今生

    面对着恋人的离去,她悲伤,她难过,虽然他们已经约定今生今世此情不变,他已答应她两年之后一定会回来娶她,但是她还是难耐心中的寂寞与哀愁,无意之中的她遇到了著名的导演-白帆,从此以后,她的人生却发生了戏剧化的变化......