Dr. Walker’s Exploration — Bacons Rebellion, so-called — The
Fredericksburg Declaration — The Great Orator — Resolutions of Separation from Great Britain — Virginia Bill of Rights, &c.
It has been said probably by the facetious or perhaps by the
envious — for such are to be found in all communities — that
Virginians are noted for their bragging — that find them where you
may, at home surrounded by friends and companions, or abroad
among strangers and aliens — bragging is their distinguishing
characteristic. It is not probably known whether this charge has ever
been investigated and passed upon by any competent authority, but if it has been, and the charge was pronounced true — or if the truth of the charge were admitted by the parties themselves, they can plead justification, and should be readily excused upon the ground that they really have something to boast of in the patrio- tism, endurance, sacrifices and achievements of a glorious ancestry. If the people of other parts of the country have whereof to boast, Virginians have more, and those in that part of Virginia in which Fredericksburg is located may well take the lead. In this and the two succeeding chapters we propose to show what has been accomplished for this great country by the sons of Virginia, who have lived in Fredericksburg and within a radius of sixty or seventy-five miles of Fredericksburg, and show that in the extension of the borders of our infantile country, in protecting the settlers from the ravages of the brutal savages, in agitating, fostering and demanding the rights of the people, in opposing and resisting the unjust laws and oppressions, usurpations and unreasonable exactions of sordid and wicked rulers, in the separation, by solemn resolutions and declarations of this country from Great Britain, in uniting and defending the colonies and in achieving the independence of the country, in forming and administering the government, in numbering it with the family of the nations of the earth, and placing it upon the high road to prosperity and national greatness, Virginians were ever in the van, and others followed their leadership and reaped the rich fruits of their splendid achievements and their glorious victories. And this we do, not in any spirit of vanity, but that there may be grouped together and brought to public attention, in permanent form, historical facts, if known to the public, long forgotten and unappreciated, that Fredericksburg may be placed, where it rightly belongs, as the most historical spot in the most historical State in this great nation, that will soon, if it does not now, dominate the nations of the earth and fully justify her sons in recounting their deeds, if it shall be termed bragging.
It was Dr. Thomas Walker, of Albemarle county, a Virginian, who, with five companions, in 1750, explored the wild country, which now forms the States of Tennessee and Kentucky and named that chain of mountains and the beautiful river that flows through the valley, Cumberland, in honor of the Duke of Cumberland, and then crossed over the country to the head waters of the Kentucky river and gave it its name, which furnished a name for that great and prosperous State.
It was Nathaniel Bacon, of Henrico county, a Virginian, who first
offered resistance to the colonial authorities in defence of the lives, liberties and property of the people and put forth a declaration of principles, which were the guiding star for those who came after him until independence was achieved, with all of its blessings and glorious fruits. In his United States History Dr. Howison says : "In the great declaration adopted by them in 1776, just one hundred years after the movements under Bacon, we find embedded not less than five principles among the most weighty and potent that justified the overthrow of the English rule, all five of which were in active movement to produce the uprising of the Virginia people in 1676.
These five principles were : —
1. The right to civil and religious liberty — 'life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness' ; 2. The right to throw off a government which had "cut off their trade from all parts of the world' ; 3. Which had 'imposed taxes on them without their consent' ; 4. Which had 'taken away their charters, abolished their most valuable laws and altered fundamentally the powers of their government' ; 5. Which had 'excited domestic insurrections among them and had endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of their frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.' "