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The great day at length arrived—that day, the events of which were to fulfil
the highest hopes of the chivalrous and enterprising Governor of Virginia,
or blast them forever. The Burgesses, at the previous session, had refused to
vote the necessary supplies; and should the present representatives be governed
by the same feelings and opinions, there was forever an end of the
great tramontane expedition. Very different means and exertions had been
used this year, however, from those which preceded the former election.
Though the Governor was not formed by nature so much for a politician as a
soldier, he was compelled to learn by experience. His frank and noble nature
was coerced to adopt those measures of policy and expediency — always
found inseparable from high political station. Governor Spotswood, soon
learned, like all others who have trod the devious ways of politics, that human
nature must be dealt with, by means suited to its grovelling propensities. Not
that we would insinuate, for a moment, that any improper or criminal influences
had been used to secure the election of his friends—far from it. Dearly
as he desired the fulfilment of that long thought of, and anxiously studied enterprise,
he would have sacrificed his highest hopes and aspirations, before he
would have stooped to any thing mean or unworthy to accomplish it. But he
had taken pains to have the counties actively canvassed; and had, in several
places, suggested the most proper persons to be run by his friends, while no
means were spared to diffuse correct information among the people. After
all those means had been used, however, the Governor was well aware, that
the fate of his darling hobby rested with some half dozen grave old planters
in whose hands was the balance of power. They were friends and followers
of Mr. Bird, the celebrated traveller and journalist, who was, at the time of
which we write, a member of council. The Governor had been closeted with
him half of the previous night, and, up to the meeting of the House of Burgesses,
had received no assurances calculated to ally his anxious fears. The
neutrals were known to be under the influence of Mr. Bird; and thus, as it
were, he held the fate of the whole expedition in his hands.

It was known that the Governor was to make a speech to the Assembly,
and, consequently, the town was thronged at an early hour. Even before
daylight, crowds were pouring into the city, insomuch that long before the
first meal, the taverns were full. The back streets and lanes in and around
the city presented the appearance of a great camp-meeting. Horses were
tied to the fences in continuous lines, wherever the eye could reach, while
Gloucester street, the Palace, Capitol, and Market Greens, were filled with a
dense crowd of men. Of course, not a tithe of these could squeeze within
the walls of the Capitol; but it mattered not, it was a great public day, and
the Governor was to make a speech, and it was sufficient that they were on
the ground. As characteristic of the times, let our readers just cast their
eyes over one of these groups collected round the tail of a cart, from which
was sold eatables and drinkables. The old planter, at the right extremity of
the semi-circle, with a pewter mug in his hand, has on a hat which was perhaps
cocked in London, but it now bears indubitable marks of having passed
through perils of flood and field, it is of a foxy red color, and the loops by
which it was held in shape being all gone, the brim is rolled up on each side,
so as to give it the shovel shape in front and rear. His coat is homespun,
and of a grey color, the flaps falling almost to his heels, and containing pockets
equal to a modern pair of saddle bags. His waistcoat is made of a web
with staring figures, as large as our curtain calico, and the pockets covering
the hip bones, where it is met by his inexpressibles, made of the same

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materials as his coat, and terminating at the knee and fastened by huge
buckles; homespun stockings cover the remainder of his legs, and his shoes
are fastened with the same sort of buckles as those at the knee.

His wife stands next him, waiting for the pewter mug most patiently; on
her head is a fur hat, exactly such as the male sex wears in our day, with
less stiffening. It is kept on her head by a shawl tied over the top and under
her chin. Her dress is made of materials which bears a striking resemblance
to those of her husband's waistcoat—the same straggling large red figures.
The waist terminates just above the hips; and below, on each side, are
pockets to match those in her husband's coat tail. The other parties of the
group were dressed very much after the same general fashion, varying somewhat,
perhaps, with the taste of the wearer. At every corner and cross street,
such a group might be seen. It mattered little to those primitive tobacco
planters of the humbler sort, how eloquently the Governor might discourse
at the other end of the city—the tail of a gingerbread cart was their exchange,
tavern, and reading-room; there they received all the information
they ever acquired.

The next grade above them were seated round tables in the tavern, covered
with bottles and glasses, and there the same theme occupied their attention.
What strange ideas were then developed of that great country, which now
gives character to our land. They thought the mountains inaccessible, in the
first place; and even if crossed, that the French and the Mississippi were
both immediately beyond. We would like to stand near, with the reader,
and take down a few of their dialogues, but time presses—the Capitol bell
is ringing, and the crowd is in motion. Carriages filled with elegantly
dressed ladies are sweeping up the Capitol green in one direction, and, after
depositing their inmates, pouring out at the other in a continuous line. The
young bloods, on fine prancing steeds, are endeavoring to force their way
through the dense throng. The police officers are cracking the crowns of
the obstreperous lads, trying to force their way in; while the white teeth of a
grinning cuffee or two might be seen shining from every tree in the neighborhood,
staring with all their eyes, to see they knew not what.

At length the booming sound of a cannon announces that the Governor has
set out from the palace. Immediately the crowd breaks away to the right and
left, and soon a troop of cavalry passes through, and file to the right and left
on each side of the avenue; next, the body guard, and then the state coach,
with the Governor in full dress, attended by two of the council. There was
an expression of anxiety on his countenance as he entered the Capitol, which
he could but illy conceal; he was evidently laboring under apprehensions for
the fate of his cherished enterprise; at the same time, no doubt, reflecting
upon what he should say, in order to fire the enthusiasm of his auditors.

The members rose respectfully upon his entrance, and were gracefully
saluted by him in turn. He took the seat appropriated to him for a few
moments, a profound silence obtaining the while. He rested his head upon
his hand, as if he would still its tumultuous throbbing.

The house was packed as tight as it was possible, and at least one half the
member's seats given up to the ladies, their gay feathers and brilliant colors
contrasting strangely with the grave faces and dresses of the members.

The Governor rose and stepped forward a pace or two, and commenced
slowly and under some embarrassment. He related the history of the inception
of the undertaking—said that while carrying out the benevolent views
of Mr. Boyle, with regard to the Indian scholars in the college, he had been
induced to make the effort to accomplish a double purpose, i.e. he had taken
the Indian prisoners of the proper age to school, instead of to prison—that
some of them had been taken by the tributaries from beyond the mountains,
and it was from them that he had obtained his first information of that

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glorious country. He said that he saw some of those then in the crowd, who
were willing and ready to testify, if the Burgesses desired to hear them. The
old veteran began to warm as he described the glories of the conquest, and
the beauty of that Eldorado, which his imagination constantly presented to
his mental vision. Most eloquently did he also present it to the minds of his
hearers. He gave a faithful and graphic detail of the then known geography
of the continent—passing rapidly from the Northern lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico. He declared that nearly every other colony had hitherto done more
toward the advancement of the great interests of civilization than Virginia,
and that it was peculiarly incumbent on her, the representative in America
of the intelligence, the religion, and the liberty of her father-land, to prosecute
what Smith and Raleigh had so nobly begun. When he arrived at the
military aspect of his subject, the old “war horse” was roused up, as if he
smelled the battle afar off. He fired up the ardor and enthusiasm of the most
lethargic by his historical and classic allusions, and wound up his address by
describing Virginia as holding in her hands the very key to all that rendered
the discoveries of Columbus available.

“If we are tamely to fold our hands,” said he, “and suffer this mighty
inheritance to pass from us, we may as well return at once to Old England.
If we are to be content with a sparse settlement along the seacoast, and
never make an effort to enlarge our boundaries, I have no hesitation in pronouncing
the whole scheme of British colonization in America nothing but a
splendid failure. France has already seized upon both ends of the cornucopia,
while we are penned up within the horn—too feeble or too inert to strike a
blow for our extrication. Shall it be said in after times, that the descendants
of the noble cavaliers and gentlemen who conquered and reclaimed this
country had become so degenerate as to suffer this great inheritance to pass
from us? Oh, never let it be said. Gird on your armor, Virginians, and follow
me at least to the mountain's brow. Take one glance over those hitherto
impregnable barriers, the great Apalachee, and I will show you a finer country
than that promised land which Moses beheld, but never reached. It may be
as my enemies predict, that I too must fall by the way side, but if it must be,
I trust that God will grant to me as to his servant of old, to view before I
depart, that land which my waking and sleeping fancies have so long held
before my, I trust, prophetic vision. I ardently desire to see before I die, the
western half of this great, glorious and gigantic picture. In the language of
our eloquent red brethren, I long to travel towards the setting sun, and behold
his golden rays as they reveal the beautiful savannas, and boundless prairies
and forest-crowned hills upon which the foot of an European has never yet
trod. Is there nothing in this idea to fire the ardor of my young friends
whom I see around me? Have they no desire to experience the sensations of
Columbus, when first he planted his foot upon the maiden soil? Follow me,
all ye who are desirous of new sensations—all ye who would live hereafter
in the pages of history, along side of Columbus and Americus—all ye who
would grow rich as well as famous—all ye who would carve out that which is
greater and better than a deathless name—the future scene of the grandest
enterprises yet in the womb of time and destiny. No military or scientific
eye can rest for one moment upon the map of Virginia which I hold in my
hand, without being struck with the fact, that such an achievement is immediately
within our grasp. Look at these noble rivers, forever pouring their
rich tributes into the bosom of our loved Chesapeake! shall it be said by our
children that their fathers were afraid to seize upon the fountains—the streams
and lands of which they already possessed? Does any planter purchase land,
the fountain-head of whose springs lies within his neighbors farm?—and shall
we, as a people, be less wise than any one of us would be individually? Shake
off the lethargy which oppresses you, and go with me to this great, this

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boundless country—this future seat of empires. Cast your eyes forward into a
probable futurity, and behold the rich resources which your discoveries and
conquests may pour into the lap of our loved colony. Behold the rich
meadows, and meat farm houses, and the gilded spires as they point towards
heaven. Think of the thousands and millious of happy emigrants and their
descendants from the crowded marts of the old world for whom you will
have carved out homes.

“But there are broader and more profound bearings to this subject than even
these, grateful as they are to the philanthropist and christian. We have arrived
at a crisis, not only in the affairs of the colony, but of the world. No statesman,
no man of enlarged views can cast his eyes over the boundless field
which Providence has opened up to the irrepressible energies of our race,
without being impressed with the critical position in which we are placed.

“It is needless to disguise that, from this time forward, there is to be a
contest for supremacy on this continent, between the French and the English,
between the Protestant and Catholic religions. Thus far, the race has been
equal, or nearly so; now, however, Virginia holds in her hands the pass, the
key, the gates of the mightiest empire ever conceived of by the most towering
ambition. Is she to close this entrance of the world to the far West—
to suppress the energies of our race—to stifle the great onward enterprises,
upon the threshold of which we have barely entered. Rouse ye up, Virginians,
and sleep no longer at the portals of the world. It is not merely to
explore a few insignificant water-courses, and thread an unknown mountain
pass, that I would urge you, but it is to enter upon that grand inheritance
which Providence opens to our acceptance. Beyond the mountains,
spreads out the most wonderful country ever dreamed of by the most daring
imagination. I base this opinion, not alone upon the evidence of the
Indian hostages, but upon other and irrefragable testimony within our reach.
Compare the distance from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico—examine the
mouths of the vast rivers pouring into that sea. Whence come they? Is it
consistent with the known geography of the world, and the philosophy of its
construction, to suppose that they burst suddenly from the ground? No, my
fellow-subjects, there is a vast unexplored region between us and the mouth
of the Mississippi, which it almost beggars the imagination to conceive of
So far from the poor hostages having exaggerated its wonders, I believe that
the half has not, and cannot be told—at least by them. Their poor bewildered
intellects become numbed and paralyzed, in the vain effort to grasp the outlines.
It requires the far-reaching eye of an intelligent and cultivated
mind, of a philosopher, a statesman, a philanthropist, a christian—in the
largest aceptation of the term—to comprehend these things. I trust there
are many such in this enlightened assembly. Certainly the interests of our
sovereign and country never required their presence more. Trusting that
your deliberations will redound to the honor and interests of both, as well as
to your own lasting reputation, I leave the subject with you, to make such
response as to you may seem wise and proper. The needful documents will
be furnished you in due time.”

After the Governor had retired, there was a considerable murmur of applause
and some stamping of feet and clapping of hands; more among the spectators,
however, than the Burgesses. With the common people, as distinguished
from the gentry, as we have before remarked, the proposed expedition was
extensively popular, but with the latter, especially with the elders among
them, it was not so much so.

The discussion of the response necessary to be made to the Governor's appeal,
and which was also a test of the fate of the bill for subsidies, which would
follow of course, was long and animated, and enchained the attention of the
crowded hall until a late hour of the night.

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In this debate, Bernard Moore took a leading and distinguished part. Kate
slightly hung her head, and drew down her veil when she saw him rise, and
color to his ears and clear his throat, through the awkward exordium of his
maiden speech, but it was not a long while before her veil was thrown to one
side, and her ringlets parted from her face, which now responded to her lover's
eloquence, in the brightest glow of her enthusiastic and ardent temperament.
We know not if the young Burgess caught back any of his own fire, so beautifully
reflected; but he might have done so, and probably did. Certainly it
was a fair mirror in which to view the effects of his first effort. Her fine
eye sparkled most brilliantly, while the young orator descanted upon the glorious
achievement before them, and when he turned round and addressed himself
to the younger members, in particular, with a power and eloquence which
was natural to him; Kate's eye roamed over the face of each one thus appealed
to, with an anxious, enquiring solicitude for the fate of her father's
darling project.

Moore felt and spoke as if his own fate hung upon the success of the measure
before them. He had somehow or other, brought himself to consider his
own suit as connected with the expedition. He had so long, jestingly with
Carter, put it upon this footing, that he really began to think that there was
some sort of mysterious link between the two dissimilar affairs. No one
would have laughed more heartily at this than the Governor, could he have
divined the secret thoughts of the young Burgess, but they were confined entirely
to his own breast. And Kate, could she have penetrated those secret
thoughts, and felt that Bernard, while he appealed so feelingly to his fellow
representatives, was, at the same time, pleading his suit to her; what would
have been her feelings on the already exciting subject. But she was far too
disinterested for that, and too entirely absorbed in her father's interest in the
great scheme. She believed that his assistance was none the less effective on
that account. When he had concluded, there was a breathless silence for
many minutes—there was a “counting of noses”—and the Governor's friends
trembled for the result. The opposition, it is true, had already spent its force,
and no one seemed disposed again to take the floor in answer to Moore! But
then there was one member absent, who had been calculated upon certainly
to vote for, if not advocate the measure—namely, Henry Lee—he was most
unaccountably absent. The Governor's friends, as soon as it was discovered,
had sent messenger after messenger for him, but no where was he to be found.

The Governor was sitting in the General Court-room, surrounded by some
of his old friends, and members of his Council, and most anxiously canvassing
the probable state of the vote, when Moore hastily entered, and whispered
to him the disappearance of Lee. “Damn him,” said the old veteran, striking
his hand upon the table and speaking in an under tone, through his clenched
teeth, “If I had supposed that he could have deserted me at such a moment
as this, I might have saved a deal of expensive politeness. Send for him again
Moore!”

General Clayton, who was sitting near, and hearing Lee's name pronounced,
and suspecting the cause of the Governor's excitement, came up to the latter
and told him, that Lee had left town some time before, he believed, in pursuit
of some young man who had swindled him. The Governor and Moore
exchanged glances of mutual understanding and indignation; and the former,
exclaimed, rising, and with some vehemence, as he strode about the room,
“Go back, Bernard, and let the issue be tried—if it is destined to be disastrous
as at former trials, by Heaven, I will march without them and their aid; keep
up your spirits, my lad, I will as surely lead you over the mountains as the
sun shines, and that before the world is a month older.”

Moore did go back to his place, very much disheartened however, by the
untimely desertion of Lee, for he knew that the vote would be a very close

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one, and a single aye might be of immense importance. Some stupid proser
was concluding as he returned. He walked round among his friends and
communicated the disheartening news. Several of the young men had determined
to speak against time, until Lee could be found; but the plan was now
useless, and they suffered the question to be taken. Respiration almost seemed
suspended during the short and exciting period. The audience rose to their feet,
and crowded round the Clerk's table so much, that the officers had to be called
in to preserve order. The votes were at length counted, and the Speaker
announced that there was a tie. So that had Lee been at his post, the victory
would have been gained by one vote. His absence was, however, not long
a subject of regret, for the speaker gave the casting vote in favor of the
measure. There was an instantaneous rush from all parts of the house for
the green in front of the Capitol; and when the eager throng without caught
the bright glow upon the faces of those who rushed out, and, even before the
result could be embodied in words—a loud and deafening shout of applause
made the welkin ring again—the boys and the soldiers about town, and all the
other idlers took up the peal and echoed it again with interest. All that day,
nothing but songs of the mountains were heard, and every popular ballad that
could be at all tortured into any thing having the slightest allusion to the subject
was sung. It was a great day, also, at the Barracks and the Taverns.
Such victories, from time immemorial, require to be moistened with plentiful
libations, as if Bacchus alone presided over the contest. Partizans of the same
school drink in congratulation; the victors offer the wine cup to the vanquished,
at once as a pledge of still enduring good will, at the same time, as a fitting
opportunity to meet again on the middle ground of the social board.

There was one, in that thronged assembly, however, who, though feeling as
deep an interest as any one in the vote just taken, quietly stole away, without
manifest exultation and really feeling the heart's heaviest oppression in the
midst of her friends' rejoicing.

Ellen Evylin sought her father's carriage alone, while every one else of
the Governor's party mingled in the scene of mutual congratulation. She
threw herself back in the carriage, and thought how Frank Lee would have
rejoiced to be present. These regrets were far from being selfish; she knew
that he would have pressed forward with the young chivalry of Virginia,
towards the high prize which was then firing the imaginations of all the youth
of the colony. She knew that it was an enterprise exactly suited to his
temperament and impetuous impulses; and she could not but regret that his
already disastrously spent energies had not been reserved for an occasion so
well calculated to develope them with advantage to himself and benefit to his
fellow creatures. She had so long interwoven every thought and feeling of her
own with his, that it was impossible for her to mingle in any such exciting
scenes as she had passed through, without placing him in her imagination
as one of the actors. This total absorption of the mind and affections towards
one beloved object for any great length of time, bears a striking resemblance,
and has not a little affinity to that one featured mania, so much better understood
since that time.