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ONE of the most interesting
figures in the military service of King William III. and of Queen Anne
was Lord George Hamilton Douglas, son of Duchess Anne of Hamilton and
her husband, William, Earl of Selkirk, who was created Duke of Hamilton
at her request. Lord George was born in 1666 and was bred a soldier. In
1690 he was made a Colonel and two years later was in command of the
Royal Scots Regiment. His skill and bravery in the field, in Ireland and
Flanders, commended him to King William, who awarded him the rank of
Brigadier General, and in 1696 conferred on him the old Scotch title of
Earl of Orkney. To complete his happiness, the King gave the wife of the
new peer a grant of most of the private estates in Ireland of King James
II. Queen Anne was profuse in her favors to the Earl of Orkney, who
served with distinction in her wars, under Marlborough, and helped very
materially to win such victories as Blenheim, Ramillies, and Oudenarde.
She commissioned him a Lieutenant General, made him a Privy Councillor,
a Knight of the Thistle, and he was one of the peers of Scotland who
were returned to Parliament after the Union. King George I. continued
the series of royal favors which marked the career of this favorite of
fortune. He appointed him a "Gentleman Extraordinary" of the Bedchamber,
an honorary office which gave the Earl a position at Court; Governor of
Edinburgh Castle, Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire, a Field Marshal, and
he died at London in 1737, in possession of all his faculties and honors.
Another of the honorary
offices held by this much favored individual was that of Governor of
Virginia. The Earl of Orkney never saw America and knew nothing of
Virginia except its name, and probably cared little about it except for
the emoluments his office as its Governor brought him. Such titular
honors were very numerous in the history of the royal families of
Europe, and America since its discovery has furnished a goodly share of
them. If Lord Orkney did Virginia no good, he certainly did it no harm,
and that, at all events, is more than can he said of many of those who
tried their hands at serious statesmanship by muddling and marring its
affairs. Isis possession of the office gives him a sort of left-handed
claim to recognition in a work like this, although he more properly
belongs to the story of the Scot in Europe, in which, indeed, his
achievements and honors make him a striking figure. Hardly as much can
be said of a later Governor of Virginia, whose connection with the
province was also merely titular, and who never saw it, although he
served with the army in America. That was John Campbell, fourth Earl of
Loudoun, whose rather inglorious military career in America, as
commander in chief of the forces, lasted a little over a year, and was
terminated by his sudden recall. He was appointed Governor in 1756, but
his time in America was devoted entirely to his military duties. His
transatlantic failure did not apparently affect his standing at home,
and he continued the recipient of many honors until his death, in 1782.
William Drummond, who was
Governor of "Albemarle County Colony," was as active and aggressive in
American affairs as the two Personages just named were not. Drummond,
who was a native of Perthshire, justly ranks as one of the earliest of
American patriots. He took a prominent part in 'Nathaniel Bacon's
insurrection in 1676, an insurrection that was brought about by the
insolence and pig-headedness of Sir William Berkeley, then Governor of
Virginia, to which Albemarle County (North Carolina) was subject.
Drummond, who is described by Bancroft as a "former Governor of North
Carolina," did good work in that uprising in supporting the rights of
the people, and, though he has been blamed for the part he took in the
burning of Jamestown, it might be pleaded that that act was, in the
opinion of himself and his comrades, a grins necessity of wear. When the
insurrection was crushed by circumstances which could not be foreseen,
and Drummond was led a prisoner to the presence of Berkeley, that
cowardly braggadocio said, exultingly: "You are very welcome. I am more
glad to see you than any man in Virginia. You shall be hanged in half an
hour." Glorifying in the part he had taken in the movement for
individual liberty, Drummond met his fate like the brave man that he
was, his only concern being about the future of his wife and children.
So many lives were sacrificed in furtherance of the Governor's desire
for revenge that even Charles II., who really valued no life but his
own, exclaimed when the news was brought to him: "The old fool has taken
away more lives in that naked country than I for the murder of my
father! " Drummond's wife and little ones were thrust from their home
and reduced to actual want, their necessities being relieved only by the
charitable kindness of the neighboring planters.
The most notable of the
Scottish Colonial rulers of Virginia in many ways was Alexander
Spottiswood, who served as Lieutenant Governor from 1710 to 1722. He was
a scion of a noted family—the Spottiswoods of Spottiswood in
Berwickshire, the descent of which could be traced lack to the time of
Alexander III. One of his ancestors fell at Flodden, and another at the
time of the Reformation adopted the new tenets, became one of the
leaders of the Kirk, was Superintendent (a title that did not exactly
mean Bishop, but rather something like foreman minister,) of Lothian,
and was very prominent in national and church affairs until a few years
before his death, in 1581. The Superintendent's son became Archbishop of
St. Andrews. The Archbishop's second son, Sir Robert Spottiswood,
President of the Court of Sessions and Secretary of State for Scotland,
was beheaded for his devotion to the cause of the royal family of
Stuart. One of the sons of this unfortunate statesman left Scotland to
seek his fortune, and became physician to the garrison at Tangiers.
Governor Spottiswood was the only son of this wanderer. Spottiswood
entered the army in early life, and served in Flanders under
Marlborough, with the utmost credit. He was severely wounded at
Blenheim. Among his friends in the army was the Earl of Orkney, with
whose name we opened this chapter, and when that nobleman was appointed
Governor of Virginia he secured the selection of Spottiswood as
Lieutenant. He proved a wise ruler in his executive relations, and
probably was the most popular of all the representatives of the crown
who ever administered the affairs of the province. His first act, that
of promulgating the Habeas corpus law, was in itself an opening wedge to
a term of popularity, and he availed himself of it to the utmost. He
conciliated the red men and tried to improve their condition. He
promoted education, and was enthusiastic over the fortunes of the
recently established William and Mary College. He had considerable
thought to agricultural improvement, and was especially anxious and
helpful in improving the cultivation of tobacco, at that time Virginia's
great export and principal source of wealth. He also introduced the
manufacture of iron into the province, and sought by the aid of
exploring parties to give to the world a correct conception of its
resources and extent. Under him Virginia enjoyed a period of great
prosperity, and its importance in every way was greatly augmented. Had
all the Colonial Governors been men of his stamp and brains there would
have been no Revolution, for the need would never have arisen.
Perhaps the secret of
Governor Spottiswood's success lay in the fact that he seems to have
made up his mind to settle permanently in the country. He was not a
carpet-bagger in the modern sense, or a gentleman adventurer, as that
term was employed in the reign of good Queen Anne. He aimed to promote
the best interests of the country, to preserve the peace within its
bounds by conciliating all classes, by encouraging trade, and by
protecting to the extent of his ability life, property, and personal
liberty. He was a true patriot, and a true American citizen, and as his
home was with the people he ruled, he had no temptation to grow rich at
their expense, that he might go elsewhere and have no further interest
in the colony beyond the agreeable fancies of pleasant reminiscences.
In many respects a Lieutenant Governor of a
very different stamp was Robert Dinwiddie, who ruled over the destinies
of Virginia from 1752 to 1758. He was born near Glasgow in 1690, his
father being a merchant in that city, and his mother the daughter of one
of its magistrates. Dinwiddie has often been spoken of as the discoverer
of George Washington, as he was the first to call the "Father of his
Country" into the public service, but if he ever entertained any regard
for Washington it did not last very long. The time during which
Dinwiddie stood at the helm in Virginia was one that required the
exhibition of the most statesmanlike qualities, and these Dinwiddie does
not seem to have possessed. His mind was not of the comprehensive order;
he could not look beyond the exigencies of the hour; he was fretful and
spiteful, and more fond of exhibiting the powers than the graces of his
office. Washington Irving sums up his character in these stinging words,
which seem to be a logical arraignment of his shortcomings if we may
judge by the known facts in his career: "He set sail for England in
1758, very little regretted, excepting by his immediate hangers-on, and
leaving a character overshadowed by the imputation of avarice and
extortion in the exaction of illegal fees and of downright delinquency
in regard to large sums transmitted to him by Government to be paid over
to the province in indemnification of its extra expenses, for the
disposition of which he failed to render an account. He was evidently a
sordid, narrow-minded, and somewhat arrogant man; bustling rather than
active; prone to meddle, with matters of which he was profoundly
ignorant, and absurdly unwilling to have his ignorance enlightened." It
seems a pity for the sake of Dinwiddie's good name that he had not
remained in Glasgow and become a merchant, possibly a deacon, like his
father and a bailie like his maternal grandfather.
One of the titled Governors of Virginia who
was much more than a mere nonentity was John, fourth Earl of Dunmore.
His family was an offshoot of the ducal one of Athol. He was destined
for a military career, but was poor and unable to add much to his wealth
by the chance of war, while his wife, though a slaughter of the ancient
house of Galloway, did not bring him any very tangible accession to his
worldly goods. \When, therefore, he received the appointment, in 1770,
of Governor of Yew York, he gladly accepted it, because he saw in the
appointment a chance of increasing his personal resources. In short, he
crossed over to America simply to make as much money as he could out of
it, and without much concern as to whether or not the country was to be
benefited by his services. It was, however, a period demanding the
utmost tact and diplomacy, qualities Lord Dunmore either did not
possess, or did not deem it worth his while, when he had the chance, to
exhibit; and in these facts lie the causes for his ignoble American
career, and the poltroonery, the crime, the silliness by which it was
most distinguished. The Revolutionary movement at the time of Lord
Dunmore's arrival in America was approaching a crisis. Discontent was in
the air, uneasiness was prevalent everywhere. But the Virginians were
then loyal to the crown, and a wise Governor should have strengthened
that loyalty by every means in his power, instead of acting in a manner,
as Lord Dunmore did, to deepen the discontent, to fan the flames of
sedition and to drive the people into open revolt. Had his Lordship
really been a statesman he had the opportunity while in America of doing
yeoman service for his sovereign, but his actions while in the country
failed to exhibit any signs of his possession of that quality. He was
for self first, last, and all the time, and when Virginia was too hot to
hold him—he ran away.
While in New York Lord Dunmore was very
popular, for his term of service did not last long enough to bring any
of his ignoble qualities to the front, but he seems to have attended
strictly to his "ain" business and acquired some 50,000 acres of land in
the State. He was transferred to the much more valuable post of Virginia
in less than a year, and was heartily welcomed on his arrival in his new
sphere of usefulness. His first act bound him closely to the hearts of
the Virginians, for he indorsed cordially their remonstrances to the
Home Government against the continuation of the slave trade. This
popularity continued for two or three years, during which time he waxed
rich in land and fees and concealed his personal schemes with the utmost
craft. In 1774, when he was joined by his Countess, the Assembly
presented her with an address of welcome, and got up a grand ball in her
honor. When her daughter was born she named it Virginia in honor of a
province which had so warmly welcomed her. A year later the poor woman
was glad to take refuge on a British vessel, as she considered her life
in danger at the hands of these same Virginians. Loral Dunmore's
troubles came on him all in a heap. He had had a little war with the red
men, and had conducted it so successfully and had brought about such a
favorable peace that the Legislature gave him a sort of vote of
confidence, in which his management of affairs was spoken of as " truly
noble, wise, and spirited." his agents, however, were out trying to
annex lands, and win fees, as far West as Cincinnati, and some even
operated on the soil of Pennsylvania, inviting trouble and complaint
from that quarter. Then, when the troubles with the home country were
elsewhere approaching a crisis, he precipitated the outbreak in Virginia
by seizing the powder stored in Williamsburg, by his arrogant manner, by
his threatening to arm the negroes and the Indians against the white
residents, and by several other unwise sayings and doings. It is not to
he wondered at that Lady Dunmore was soon joined on the vessel in which
she had taken refuge by her husband, himself a fugitive, and that
Virginia quickly threw off her allegiance and ranged herself on the side
of the Revolutionists. The rest of Dunmore's American story is equally
contemptible. His wanton destruction of Norfolk cannot be defended on
grounds either of military necessity or the demands of statesmanship,
and when he finally returned to Britain, it was with anything but the
record of a hero. But his prestige does not appear to have suffered,
although it might truly be said that his foolishness and personal greed
had lost Britain a province. He continued to be elected to Parliament by
his brother peers of Scotland, and in 1787 he was sent to the Bahamas as
Captain General and Governor, and there resided, an inoffensive
figurehead, for several years before he returned home again to adorn
society until his death, in 1806.
It is refreshing to turn from such a
personage to recall the nobler career of George Johnstone, who was
nominated in 1763 Governor of Florida, when that colony was ceded by
Spain to Great Britain. Johnstone, who belonged to the family of
Johnstone of Westerhall, was a Captain in the Royal Navy, a hero in
every sense of the word, and a capable man of affairs, as was abundantly
proved by his course in Florida, and his career in Parliament. In 1778
he was one of the Commissioners sent out by the British Government to
try and restore peace in America, and was noted as being outspoken in
his sympathy with the American people, and in his condemnation of the
wrongs which had driven them into revolt. But events had by that time
progressed so far that peace could only be procured through independence
or annihilation, and so the commission accomplished no practical result,
but Johnstone, by a curious turn in his thoughts and sympathies, then
changed his ideas of the American people and thenceforth was among their
bitterest detractors. Gov. Johnstone's term of office is additionally
interesting in that it was the means of bringing James Macpherson, the
translator of Ossian, to the country, although only for a short time. In
Mr. Bailey Saunders's interesting monograph on that literary hero, we
read: "In October (1763) one George Johnstone was gazetted Governor of
the Western Provinces and ordered to Pensacola. Like most of the other
American Governors, Johnstone was a Scotchman. Macpherson was offered an
appointment as his secretary, and, in addition, the posts of President
of the Council and Surveyor General. It was a strange shift in the
breeze of his fortune, and of the reasons which led him to yield to it
we have no knowledge. He may have resented the treatment which he was
receiving from men of letters in London, or he may have found himself in
pecuniary or other difficulties. Certain it is, that in the early part
of the following year, he set his sails for America. He was absent about
two years, but only a portion of that time was spent at Pensacola, for
he soon quarrelled with his chief and departed on a visit to some of the
other provinces. After a tour in the West Indies he returned in 1766. As
Surveyor General, he had received a salary of £900 a year. In a day when
pensions formed a larger part of the machinery of the State than at
present, Macpherson was allowed to retain it for life on the condition,
so far as can be gathered, that he should devote himself henceforth to
political writing." America seems, however, to have made little
impression on the hero of the Ossianic controversy, if we may estimate
the extent of that impression by his silence.
A notable and lovable, and, in every way
commendable, career was that of Gabriel Johnston, who was Governor of
North Carolina from 1734 till his death, in Chowan County, in that
State, in 1752. Little is known of his early career in Scotland except
that he was born there in 1699 and that he studied medicine at St.
Andrews University, but he had a predilection for the study of languages
and never practiced. Instead, he became Professor of Oriental Languages
at St. Andrews, and taught for several years. Then he removed to London
and became a literary hack, his most notable employment being under Lord
Bolingbroke on the latter's periodical, "The Craftsman." Johnston
crossed the Atlantic in 1730, intending to settle in America, and three
years later, through the influence of the Earl of Wilmington, he was
appointed Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, and showed his
gratitude, among other ways, by naming; the town of Wilmington after his
benefactor. Johnston's life here was one of peacefulness. His
administration was in every way wise and beneficent, and, although even
in his time there were murmurs against the Home Government, he kept his
charge well in hand and thoroughly loyal to the Crown. One of his first
acts as Governor was to urge upon the Colonial Assembly the need of
making provision for a thorough school system, and in educational
matters he took a deep personal interest to the end. It was during his
administration, too, that the great influx of Scotch Highlanders took
place into North Carolina. Thousands of these people settled in the
Counties of Bladen, Cumberland, Robeson, Moore, Richmond, and Hamet,
among others, and their descendants predominate in these sections till
the present clay. At Gov. Gabriel's suggestion, his brother, John
Johnston, crossed to America from Dundee in 1736, and settled in North
Carolina. Among the rest of this man's family was a child who had been
born in Dundee three years before. This was Samuel Johnston, afterward a
noted figure in the history of the State. At the Governor's suggestion,
Samuel studied for the bar, and in a short time after he had passed was
in possession of a large practice. When he grew to manhood he knew no
other country except that in which he had been raised, and was one of
the earliest to earn the title of patriot. When the troubles with the
mother country began to take practical shape, Samuel Johnston was one of
the trusted leaders of the Americans in the State. In 1775 he was
elected Chairman of the Provincial Council, and as such, by force of
circumstances, which need not be enlarged upon here, virtually Governor
of the State. Bancroft says of him at this juncture: " On the waters of
Albemarle Sound * * * the movement for freedom, or at least a removal of
oppression] was assisted by the writings of young James Iredell, from
England, by the letters and counsels of young Joseph Hewes, and by the
calm wisdom of Samuel Johnston, a native of Dundee, in Scotland, a man
revered for his integrity, thoroughly opposed to disorder and
revolution, if revolution could be avoided without yielding to
oppression." When the die was finally cast and absolute separation from
the mother country was demanded, Johnston did not flinch, but cast in
his lot with those who demanded independence. He was a member of the
Continental Congress in 1781 and 1782, was elected Governor of his State
in 1788, served four years in the Senate of the United States, and from
1800 to 1803 was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He
closed his long, useful, and patriotic career at Edenton, North
Carolina, in 1816, and his memory is yet one of the greenest in that
beautiful State.
Besides furnishing in these later days a popular Governor General to the
Dominion of Canada, in the person of the Marquis of Lorne, the house of
Argyll has given at least two Governors to territories south of the St.
Lawrence. One of these was Lord William Campbell, youngest son of the
fourth Duke of Argyll. He served in the Royal Navy and held the rank of
Captain when, in 1766, he was appointed Governor of Nova Scotia. He
arrived at Halifax on Nov. 27 of that year, and at once assumed control
of affairs. He proved a satisfactory, if not a brilliant administrator
and enjoyed the confidence of the people. He faithfully carried their
representations to the Home Government and preserved the relations of
the colony to the mother country unimpaired. He was watchful over the
morals of the people, too, and in one of his orders he peremptorily
forbade public horse racing at Halifax on account of its tending to
"gambling, idleness, and immorality." In 1763 he married Sarah Izard,
belonging to a wealthy South Carolina family, and sister of that Ralph
Izard who became distinguished as an American patriot, as a warm friend
and unwavering supporter of Washington, and as the first representative
of South Carolina in the United States Senate. It was his union with
this lady that led, in one way or another, to his receiving the
appointment, in 1775, of Governor of South Carolina, and thither he
removed in that year. Before he left Nova Scotia he was presented with
an address of thanks from the Legislature, extolling his career as
Governor and regretting that circumstances should sever their pleasant
relations. Lord William was probably not very long at his new sphere of
duty ere he joined in that regret. The Commonwealth was really in a
state of rebellion when Lord William arrived, and the address which the
Provincial Council addressed to him on that occasion must have sounded
strange in his ears. "No lust of independence," it said, "has the least
influence upon our councils; no subjects more sincerely desire to
testify their loyalty and affection. We deplore the measures which, if
persisted in, must rend the British Empire. Trusting the event to
Providence, we prefer death to slavery." What was wanted in such a
crisis was a policy of conciliation, an exhibition of statesmanship.
Lord William tried an opposite policy and appears to have been utterly
destitute of the necessary qualities to guide a statesman in a storm.
His supercilious contempt for the claims and opinions of the Carolinians
helped only to embitter them still more. HeI-ic held out no hope of
relief or remedy in connection with the wrongs which had driven them to
take the stand they did. In place of trying to adjust these wrongs, to
soften the people's thoughts, to induce them to reason with him, he
contented himself with indulging in threats. "I warn you," he foolishly
said to the Legislature, "of the danger you are in; the violent measures
adopted cannot fail of drawing down inevitable ruin on this flourishing
colony." His value as a statesman in a crisis may be judged from the
fact that he was unable to grasp the meaning of the American troubles or
the extent of the feeling in the hearts of the people. "Three regiments,
a proper detachment of artillery, with a couple of good frigates, some
small craft, and a bombketch would do the whole business here and go a
great way to reduce Georgia and North Carolina to a sense of their duty.
Charleston is the fountain head from whence all violence flows; stop
that, and the rebellion in this part of the continent will soon be at an
end." It was not long after writing this rigmarole that Lord William had
to take refuge on a small British warship, "The Tamer," and to leave the
affairs of his province to be managed by its people. After a vain
attempt to overawe the Colonists by a show of resistance from the water,
he passed from American view, to reappear again about a year later in an
unsuccessful naval attack on Charleston Harbor, and in that engagement
he was mortally wounded. Like most of his race, he was a brave man, but
he really had little administrative ability. In the loyal quietness of
Nova Scotia he did well enough, but when he became a prominent figure in
"the time that tried men's souls," he was a distressing failure. At the
moment he assumed its government, South Carolina, says Bancroft, "needed
more than ever a man of prudence at the head of the administration, and
its new Governor owed his place only to his birth."
New Jersey in the Colonial (lays was a
favorite settling place for Scotch refugees, and, naturally, for Scotch
Governors. Many of the Presbyterian exiles sought the liberty of
conscience which was denied them at home in its then wild but fruitful
territories, and among the early "proprietors" we find the names of many
Scotch noblemen and official dignitaries, and it was after one of them,
an Earl of Perth, that the once great rival of New York, Perth Amboy,
was named. The Quakers, too, began to see in it a place where their
doctrines could be lived up to without molestation, and one of the most
famous of their number, Robert Barclay of Ury, was appointed Governor of
East Jersey in 1682. Barclay, author of the still classic "Apology for
the Quakers," never visited his territory; but, nevertheless, his
influence in it was great, and while Quaker influence predominated—a
period of about twenty years—the colony enjoyed wonderful prosperity.
Barclay appointed as his deputy Gavin Laurie, a native of Edinburgh, a
plan of peace, who devoted himself to developing the resources of his
charge, and the comfort and well-being of its people. He was a good
ruler, and as much may be said of Alexander Skene, another Quaker
Governor, a native of Aberdeen.
Lord Neil Campbell, son of the ninth Earl of
Argyll, visited New Jersey as its Governor in 1687, having previously
bought, or secured in some way, the lands of Sir George Mackenzie—the "Bluidy
Mackenzie" of the Covenanters. Lord :Neil, however, staved little longer
than to see some of the land over which he was thus nominally ruler, and
does not appear to have meddled with its affairs in any way. His deputy,
Andrew Hamilton, made up in practical work for his lordship's qualities
of nonentity. Hamilton was born at Edinburgh about 1627, and for a time
was a merchant in that city. He was sent to New Jersey as agent for the
Scotch "proprietors," and on Lord Neil Campbell's departure became
acting Governor. He was an aggressive sort of personage, and his
official career was rather a stormy one, but he did good service to the
young country. He was the first to organize a postal service in the
Colonies, having obtained a patent for a postal scheme from the Crown in
1694. Gov. Andrew Hamilton died at Burlington, New Jersey, in 1703. His
son John, who died at Perth Amboy in 1746, was also for a time acting
Governor of New Jersey, and his grandson, James, was the first
native-born Governor of Pennsylvania.
Another Governor of Pennsylvania of Scotch
descent was Thomas McKean, who entered public life as a Deputy Attorney
General in 1756, and retired in i8og, having in the intervening years
held almost every office in the gift of the people, in State
Legislature, in Congress, in the field as a soldier, on the bench as
Chief Justice of Pennsylvania for twenty years, and as Governor of the
State for nine years. He enjoyed a rare record for a career of
usefulness, in the course of which he exhibited the highest qualities of
an orator, a jurist, and an executive. He was proud of his descent from
Scotch forbears, and showed his pride publicly in 1792, when he joined
the ranks of the Philadelphia St. Andrew's Society.
The most notable of the Scotch Governors of
Pennsylvania, however, was Sir William Keith, who was born at Peterhead
in 1680, and was the son of Sir William Keith. He was Governor from 1717
till 1726, but left behind him a record for vanity, intrigue and
misgovernment, all of which, however, occupies so large a space in the
early history of Pennsylvania as not to need recital here. Keith was a
man of the world. He lived for self and his life was a failure, for he
died in London in 1749, while a prisoner for debt, in the Old Bailey.
New York hart its full quota of Scottish
Governors. The first of them in point of time, and in many was the most
distinguished, was Major Gen. Robert Hunter, grandson of Patrick Hunter,
of Hunterston, Ayrshire, the head of an ancient family. Robert Hunter
was born at Hunterston and commenced life as a soldier. In 1707 he was
commissioned Governor of Virginia and started out to take possession of
his political prize, but on the voyage the ship in which he was a
passenger was captured by a French vessel, and the budding Governor was
carried to Paris, a prisoner of war. He never saw Virginia, and his
appointment to the high office of its chief Executive has been doubted,
but his commission is still extant and carefully preserved among the
curiosities of the Historical Society of Virginia.
Gen. Hunter's real American experience
commenced in June, 1710, when he entered upon his duties as Governor of
New York. He accepted the appointment with the primal view of adding to
his fortune, but he had a conscience that prevented him from seeking to
increase his wealth by means which were in direct variance to the
welfare of the community among whom his lot was cast. After being about
a year in his office he saw that the development of the colony could
only be hastened by adding to its population by means of immigration,
and, having conceived a scheme about the manufacture of naval stores by
which he might enrich himself, he proceeded to develop the resources of
the country and increase his own wealth by the introduction of some
3,000 German laborers from the Palatinate. These people were settled on
the banks of the Hudson River, mainly on lands belonging to the
Livingstons, and were to produce tar and turpentine. Their passage money
was to be repaid out of their earnings, and on the same terms they were
to be supplied at first with the necessaries of life. As might be
expected, the scheme was a failure. The immigrants were virtually
contract slaves and were soon so dissatisfied with their lot that they
refused to work, and, when he washed his hands of the affair and left
the immigrants to shift for themselves, the Governor was crippled
financially very seriously. His greatest claim to remembrance is his
establishing of a complete Court of Chancery in the colony, and,
although he doubtless saw in such a court a rich harvest of fees and
opportunities for patronage, the good accomplished by a tribunal of that
description, especially in a developing colony, where new and intricate
questions were daily demanding decisions—decisions which were for all
time to rank as precedents—should not be ignored. In many ways Gov.
Hunter was a model ruler. In questions of religion he was extremely
tolerant, and he believed in every man being permitted to worship as he
thought best. He indulged in no wildcat schemes and encouraged no
extravagant outlay of public money. He understood the art of managing
men and was on equally good terms with all the parties in the colony.
Very popular he was not, and never could he, for he represented a
sovereign power in the person of the King, while all round him in New
York was developing the theory that the source of all power, even the
power to name Governors and Judges, should be the people concerned.
Still he preserved intact the supremacy of his royal master and
maintained peace or harmony in the colony, although he foresaw very
clearly that a struggle between the two was certain sooner or later.
"The Colonies are infants at their mother's breast," he wrote to Lord
Bolingbroke, then British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, "but
such as will wean themselves when they become of age."
When Gov. Hunter retired from the Colony, in
1719, the Assembly gave him an address in which they lauded his
administration of affairs and expressed the Opinion that he had
"governed well and wisely, like a prudent magistrate; like an
affectionate parent." This praise seems to have been thoroughly well
deserved, and even American writers acknowledge that his official record
was not only an able, but a clean one. He was possessed of more than
ordinary talent, was a warm friend of such men as Addison, St. John,
Steele, Shaftesbury, and especially of Dean Swift, who appears to have
entertained for him as undoubted sentiments of respect and friendship as
he entertained for any man. "Hunter," wrote John Forster, in his
unfinished life of the great Dean of St. Patrick's, "was among the most
scholarly and entertaining of his (Swift's) correspondents; some of
Swift's own best letters were written to this friend, and the judgment
he had formed of him may be taken from the fact that when all the world
was giving to himself the authorship of Shaftesbury's anonymously
printed 'Letter on Enthusiasm,' Swift believed Hunter to have written
it." Gov. Hunter
married the widow of an old companion in arms in the Marlborough
campaigns, Lord John Hay, son of the second Marcquis of Tweeddale, and
Colonel of the Scots Greys. She was the daughter and heiress of Sir
Thomas Orby, a Lincolnshire Baronet, and brought him considerable
wealth. He, however, continued in official harness to the last and died
at Jamaica in 1734, while holding the post of Governor of that island,
one of the plums of the then colonial service.
Gov. Hunter's successor in New York was also
a Scotsman—William Burnet. This amiable man was the son of the famous
Bishop Burnet, and grandson of Robert Burnet of Crimond, one of the
Scotch Lords of Session. William Burnet was educated at Cambridge and
admitted to the practice of the law. He appears to have been fairly
successful, but lost all his means in the South Sea bubble, and, finding
himself ruined, looked around so that he might use his great family
influence to secure for him a colonial appointment. his success was
quick, and in September, 1720, he found himself in New York as its
Governor. His administration was as able and as honest as that of his
predecessor, and he made himself immensely popular by his prohibition of
trade between the Indians of New York and the merchants in Canada, and
he even built a fort at his personal expense to help in protecting the
trade of the colony over which he ruled. The Home Government, however,
refused to indorse Burnet's course in this instance, but that only added
to his personal popularity. He lost it all, however, by the policy he
adopted toward the Court of Chancery. Briefly stated, he wanted to make
that body independent of public sentiment and above public interference,
while Colonial sentiment was that all Judges and all courts should be
subject to the control of the people, either directly or through their
elected representatives. Things reached such a pass that the Assembly
threatened to declare all acts and decrees of the Court of Chancery as
null and void, and reduced all its fees as a preliminary step in that
direction. The crisis between the Governor and the people was ended,
greatly to the former's relief, in 1728, when he was transferred to the
Governorship of Massachusetts. He had not much time to make a name for
himself there, for he died at Boston in 1729.
Another Scotsman, John Montgomerie, was
sworn in as Burnet's successor in the New York Governorship on April 15,
1728. He was a scion of the noble house of Eglinton, being the son of
Francis Montgomerie of Giffen, who was a son of Alexander, sixth Earl of
Eglinton. John Montgomerie was an officer in the Guards and was a member
of Parliament from 1710 to 1722. He occupied a high position in society
and married a daughter of the Earl of Hyndford; but his habits were
erratic, his tastes extravagant, and he became inextricably involved in
debt. His ancestral estate had to be sold and he was glad to accept a
minor post at the Court of George I.—the "wee, wee, German lairdie." It
was in the hope of benefiting his fortunes that he secured the
appointment as the royal representative in New York, but his usefulness
was gone. His service as Governor was not marked by any matter of
importance. He seemed to he in weak health from the day he landed, and
he died July 31, 1731.
If, however, Gov. Montgomerie occupies but a
small share in the historical annals of the colony, Gov. Colden, the
last of the Scottish Governors, or British Governors, whose executive
rights were recognized by the people, had a very important position in
public affairs for the fifteen years preceding the Revolution.
Cadwallader Colden was born at Dunse in 1688. His father, the Rev.
Alexander Colden, was minister of Dunse, and Cadwallader was educated at
Edinburgh University, with the view of entering the ministry. His own
inclination, however, led him to study medicine, and he appears to have
practiced that profession in London. In 1710 he crossed the sea to
Philadelphia. His stay there was comparatively short, for we find him
again in London in 1715, when he moved in the highest intellectual and
literary circles. In 1716 he returned to Scotland and married a Kelso
girl, the daughter of a minister, and soon after left his native land
again for America. After practicing; medicine for a time in
Philadelphia, he visited New York and from the friendship of Gov.
Hunter, who invited him to settle in the territory under his
jurisdiction. This he agreed to, mainly because Hunter backed up his
professions of friendship by the more tangible offer of the position of
Surveyor General of the Colony. Two years later Colden had so fortified
his position with the ruling powers that he obtained a grant of 2,000
acres of land in Orange County and there built a country home for
himself and founded a village, to which he gave the name of Coldenham,
which it still retains. His influence was increased after he was
appointed, in 1722, a member of His Majesty's Provincial Council, when
Gov. Burnet had commenced his rule, and he became that personage's most
trusted counsellor. After Burnet went to Boston, Colden retired to.
Coldenham, and there interested himself in those literary and scientific
pursuits which gave him a prominent position in contemporary learned
circles. He had a wide correspondence with scientists on both sides of
the Atlantic, and to a suggestion in one of his letters was due the
formation of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. As a
member of Council, however, Colden still continued to be active in the
politics of the province, and, as usual, came in for a full share of
popular and official criticism and abuse. In 1760, as senior member of
Council, he was called upon to administer the Government on the sudden
death of Gov. De Lancey. Thereafter, with a few interruptions, he served
as Lieutenant Governor until June 25, 1775, when the progress of the
Revolution laid him on the shelf by wiping out the royal office. Had
Colden thrown in his lot with the Revolutionists, he might have attained
a high place in the affections of the leaders of the successful side,
but he remained steadfast in his loyalty and to the official oaths he
had taken to be faithful to the Home Government, and while his
sympathies were always with the people and his views were decidedly
against unwarranted State interference and against taxation without
representation, he was too old to renounce his allegiance, too near the
end of his pilgrimage to change his flag. Besides, he was of the opinion
that all the evils which led to the Revolution could be amended by
united and firm representation to the sovereign and his immediate
advisers, and that, therefore, open rebellion was needless. So when the
crash finally came, and his proclamations, promises, explanations,
diplomacy, and entreaties proved unavailing, the old Governor retired to
a farm near Flushing, L. I., and died of a broken heart a few months
later, in September, 1776, when in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
After the bitterness of the contemporary struggle had passed away, the
public services and brilliant talents of this most accomplished of all
New York's royal Governors was more apparent than at the time when he
was an actor in the drama of history, and his loyal devotion to the
duties of his high office became fully acknowledged on all sides.
"Posterity," wrote Dr. O'Callaghan in his "Documentary History of the
State of New York," in summing up the life work of Colden, "will not
fail to accord justice to the character and memory of a man to whom this
country is most deeply indebted for much of its science and for many of
its most important institutions, and of whom the State of New York may
well be proud." And H. G. Verplanck said: "For the great variety and
extent of his learning, his unwearied research, his talents, and the
public sphere in which he lived, Cadwallader Colden may justly be placed
in a high rank among the most distinguished men of his time." The
grandson of Governor Colden was Mayor of Yew York from 1818 to 1821, and
in that office had an enviable record.
For a brief period, in 1780, James Robertson
was the nominal Governor of New York. He was born in Scotland in 1710,
and was a soldier by profession. His record in America, while he held
office under his commission as Governor, is not, it must be confessed, a
creditable one, and we may dismiss him with the statement that his
office as Governor was merely a titular one, and he never assumed
legislative functions. He was a soldier pure and simple, and, had the
Revolutionists been defeated, might have swayed executive power. But the
crisis was virtually passed when he came upon the scene, and we need not
follow his doings further than to say that he returned to Britain in
safety from the conflict and died in England in 1788.
After the Revolution, the history of the
United States presents us with several instances of Scotsmen holding the
office of Governor in one of the confederated Commonwealths. Among the
earliest of these was Edward Telfair, who was for several years (1786,
1790-3) Governor of Georgia. He was born in the Stewartry of
Kirkcudbright, in 1735, and educated at the Kirkcudbright Grammar
School. He left Scotland in 1758, to become agent in America for a
commercial house, and, after residing in Virginia and North Carolina,
removed, in 1766, to Savannah, Ga., where he engaged in business. When
the Revolutionary troubles commenced, he heartily espoused the American
side, and became known locally as an ardent advocate of liberty. He was
elected in 1778 a delegate to the Continental Congress, and served in
that capacity also from 1780 to 1783. In the latter year he was
appointed a Commissioner to treat with the Cherokees, then, as before,
and long after, a troublesome problem in Georgia. Telfair was regarded
as the foremost citizen of his adopted State, and his death, at
Savannah, in 1807, was deeply mourned, not only in that Commonwealth,
but by all throughout the country who had taken any part in the struggle
which gave the Stars and Stripes a place among the flags of the nations.
His son, Thomas, who graduated at Princeton in 1805; gave promise of a
brilliant career. He was a member of the House of Representatives from
1813 to 1817, and but for his untimely death, in 1818, would doubtless
have attained higher honors in his State and in the nation.
A good example of the later Governors is
found in W. E. Smith, who in 1877 and in 1879 was elected to the
Executive Chair of Wisconsin by large popular votes. Mr. Smith was taken
to America when a boy, and his earlier years were spent in the States of
New York and Michigan. Finally, he settled at Fox Lake, Wis., where he
engaged in business and acquired considerable means. In 1851 he served
his first term as a member of the State Legislature, and was Speaker of
that body in 1871. On retiring from public life, Governor Smith devoted
himself to religious and philanthropic enterprises. He was a member of
the Baptist Church, and took a keen interest in its progress, and in all
movements for the relief of misery or for improving the moral tone of
the community in which he was recognized as a leader. Governor Beveridge
of Illinois, Governor Moonlight of Kansas, and Governor Ross of New
Mexico, are among the other Governors the Scottish race has furnished to
American Commonwealths.
Turning to the history of Canada, we find
that one of its earliest rulers was Samuel Veitch, who was Governor of
Nova Scotia, and had in many respects the career of a typical Scot
abroad. He was born at Edinburgh in 1668, and was the son of a noted
Presbyterian minister. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he
passed over to Holland and entered the College of Utrecht. A]-though a
clerical career had been proposed for him, his inclinations were for the
army, and he attached himself to the Court of William of Orange, and
accompanied that Prince to England in 1688. Veitch afterward served with
much distinction with the army in Flanders, rose to the rank of Colonel,
and returned to England after the peace of Ryswick, in 1697. He next
attempted to become a money-maker, and took a deep interest in the
Darien scheme, one of the causes of much ill-feeling against the
administration of King William in Scotland. He was one of the
Councillors of the Darien Colony of Caledonia. He proceeded to Darien in
1698, and when the colony was wiped out by the Spaniards he made his way
to the North, and settled at Albany, where he engaged in trading with
the Indians, and seems to have been fairly successful, for in 1700 he
married Margaret, slaughter of Robert Livingston. For several years his
most notable employment was connected with schemes to forcibly wrest
Canada from the hands of the French. In 1710, in the course of
hostilities, he was appointed Governor of Nova Scotia, and held the
office for three years. His duties, however, were military rather than
civil, and it seems a pity, for the sake of his personal comfort and
fortunes, that he ever saw the province. In 1713 he was removed from his
office, was soon after reappointed to it, and again was removed without
ceremony. Then he went to Boston and petitioned the crown for a place or
a pension, but without meeting with any success; nor were his petitions
to the Department of State any more fortunate. He went to England to
push his claims in person, but failed to receive either recognition or
recompense for his services and losses, and he (lied in London in 1732,
a sadly disappointed and broken man. He possessed great ability, was
active and conscientious in all the duties which fell to hint, but he
was of a stern and unyielding disposition, strong in his prejudices and
utterly unfitted by a want of suavity in his manner for making himself
popular either with the people or the Court.
James Murray, fifth son of the fourth Lord
Elibank, who from 1763 to 1767 was Governor General of Canada, occupies
a prominent place in the military and political history of the Dominion.
Beginning life as a soldier, he early saw service on the Continent of
Europe. He took part in Wolfe's expedition to Quebec. He commanded a
brigade at the battle on the Plains of Abraham, and after Quebec had
fallen and Wolfe had "died victorious" the command of the city and its
forces devolved upon him. He at once put the place in order to meet any
attack which might be made upon it. All through the Winter of 1759-60 he
continued his preparations, and early in Spring found his charge
invested by a French force of 12,000 men, under De Levis, one of the
most brilliant of French Generals, while his own available force was
barely 3,000. He offered De Levis battle, and in the "second engagement
of Quebec," as it has been called, although he lost his guns and did not
break the investing lines, he only suffered a loss of 300 men, while the
enemy owned up to 1800. This sally, brilliant as it was, severely
crippled his resources, and he had a hard, ceaseless, and
ever-perplexing struggle to keep the enemy out of Quebec. In spite of
the great odds against him, he maintained his position with brilliant
success. But the struggle was a terrible one until the strain was
relieved when the news came that aid had landed in Canada from Great
Britain, and the French forces retreated from before the city. Had
Quebec fallen into the hands of the French that Winter the British would
have lost Canada, for the time at least. When all danger was past,
Murray went to Montreal and there joined Lord Amherst, and with the
capitulation soon after of that city the French struggle for the
retention of Canada ceased, and it became "one of the fairest gems in
the British crown," as some one has truthfully described it.
As Governor General, to which post he was
almost immediately appointed, General Murray made a brilliant record.
Mr. Henry J. Morgan, in his "Sketches of Celebrated Canadians," says:
"During his administration the form of government and the laws to be
observed in the new colony were promulgated; the many evils that arose
therefrom caused much dissatisfaction among the French people, and
Governor Murray did all in his power to alleviate the discontented
feeling, but with only partial success. Nevertheless, he won the good
will and esteem of the whole French race in Canada, and lost that of a
part of his countrymen because he would not conform to their prejudices
against the poor natives and those of French origin." On leaving Canada,
he served in the army with his accustomed brilliancy in other parts of
the world, and refused on one occasion a bribe of one million pounds
sterling to surrender Minorca. He died in 1794 and was buried in
Westminster Abbey, where rest the remains of so many brilliant Scotsmen
whose abilities made them famous in all walks of life.
Another military Governor of Canada who won
a brilliant record for his administrative qualities was General Peter
Hunter, a brother of the celebrated founder of the Hunterian Museum at
Glasgow. He was descended from the same family as Governor Hunter of New
York, and was born at Long Calderwood, Lanarkshire, in 1746. Choosing
the military *profession, he soon rose steadily and acquitted himself
with credit in many hard fought campaigns. When appointed Governor of
Upper Canada and Commander in Chief of the Forces, in 1799, he had
attained the rank of Lieutenant General, and his appointment is an
evidence of the confidence felt in his military and administrative
qualities by the British authorities, for the time was one of the most
critical in the history of Canada, and the services of a diplomat were
needed as much as those of a soldier. Governor Hunter's course in Canada
fully justified the confidence of the appointing power. He ruled wisely
and well, instituted many improvements in all branches of the
Government, and was equally watchful over the contemporary prosperity
and the opportunities for future development of the country. But, while
constantly reforming the details of government and formulating laws and
orders which were designed to benefit the country then and thereafter,
and which seem to have been understood and appreciated by the people,
Governor Hunter kept a close watch on the defenses and the military
resources of his province, and it was while on a tour of inspection of
the outposts of Canada that he died, at Quebec, in 1805. His career was
in every way an honorable one to himself and his country, and the words
on the memorial erected in the English Cathedral at Quebec by his
brother, Dr. John Hunter, the famous anatomist, are as truthful as they
are fitting: "His life was spent in the service of his King and country.
Of the various stations, both civil and military, which he filled, he
discharged the duties with spotless integrity, unwearied zeal, and
successful abilities."
A volume might he written about the
incidents in the career of Sir James H. Craig, the last of the family of
Craig of Dalnair, near Edinburgh, who became Governor of Canada in 1807.
He was born in 1750 at Gibraltar, where his father held an appointment
as Judge. Entering the army in 1763, he received his military training
in Gibraltar. He was present at the battle of Bunker Hill, and
thereafter took part in most of the American campaigns. In 1794, with
the rank of Major General, he went to the Cape of Good Hope, was
instrumental in bringing that settlement under British rule, and was
appointed its Governor. Thereafter he served for several years with
distinction in India, and, as Lieutenant General, had command of the
troops in the Mediterranean in 1805. Illness compelled him to retire
from active service, but a short interval of rest seemed to recuperate
him so much that he accepted the Governorship of Canada. His life there
was not an enviable one. His constitution was broken and he suffered
terribly from dropsy and a complication of diseases. The country was
unsettled, the French and British did not get along harmoniously
together, and Craig made a few serious errors—errors which brought upon
him much savage abuse. But he meant well, his honesty and patriotism
were unimpeachable, and he strove earnestly to benefit the country over
which he ruled. Probably had he been in perfect health, had sedition
been less ripe, had party spirit less blinded the people to his purpose,
he might have succeeded better than he did. They called him an
oppressor, and in connection with that charge, directly made, he issued
the following pathetic statement: "For what should I oppress you? Is it
from ambition? What can you give me? Is it for power? Alas, my good
friends, with life ebbing not slowly to its period under the pressure of
diseases acquired in the service of my country, I look only to pass what
it may please God to suffer to remain of it in the comfort of retirement
among my friends. I remain among you only in obedience to the commands
of my King. What power can I wish for? Is it then for wealth I would
oppress you? Inquire of those who know me whether I regard wealth. I
never did when I could enjoy it; it is now of no use to me. To the value
of your country laid at my feet I would prefer the consciousness of
having, in a single instance, contributed to your happiness and
prosperity." Such a man could not remain long misunderstood, and though
in some quarters the wrangling and criticism prevailed while he
continued at the head of affairs, (and indeed long after,) the true
sentiments of the people forced themselves to the front when it was
announced that he was about to relinquish his post and leave the
country. Addresses of regret were sent to him from all quarters, and on
the way to the vessel that was to carry him across the Atlantic a throng
took the horses from his carriage and pulled it to the wharf. In the
"History of Canada," by Robert Christie, is the following mention of
Governor Craig, which, so far as it goes, seems a truthful tribute to
some of the excellencies of his character: "Although hasty in temper, he
was, like most men who are so far from implacable, and as we have seen,
easily reconciled to those who may have incurred his displeasure.
Hospitable and princely in his style of living, he was also munificent
in his donations to public institutions, and to charitable purposes a
generous patron; and, lastly, we shall mention, though not the least of
his virtues, a friend to the poor and destitute, none of whom applying
at his door ever went away unrelieved."
In one respect, Governor Craig was far ahead
of his contemporaries. That was in connection with the land question. He
had no faith in the policy which handed over thousands of the most
fruitful acres in Canada to adventurers who applied for them, to
favorites who believed themselves entitled to such gifts, or to land
speculators who grasped what they could, and then made fortunes by
selling their gifts of territory. In 1808, as we learn from one report,
179,786 acres were "granted" in Upper Canada; in 1809, 105,624; in 1810,
104,537; and in 1811, 115,586; while in Lower Canada the
liberality of the Government was equally marked. Governor Craig
protested on every opportunity against this purposeless prodigality, and
gave the home authorities at least one very good object lesson
illustrative of its result. A new barracks and a military hospital were
needed in 1811 for Quebec, but no site was available for their
construction. The Government had by that time actually granted away
every vacant piece of ground within the walls, and the Governor could
only recommend the purchase of a site. In doing so, however, he did not
refrain from pointing out the folly of the whole principle of
miscellaneous and indiscriminate awarding of the public lands. To actual
settlers he did not begrudge an acre, but to no others would he have
given a single foot. Governor Craig died in England, in 1812, a year
after he left Canada.
Sir James Kempt, a native of Edinburgh, was
another noted soldier-Governor of Canada. he fought under Sir Ralph
Abercrombie in Egypt, under Sir James H. Craig in the Mediterranean,
under Wellington in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, and received many
royal honors from his own and the allied sovereigns. In 1820 he
succeeded Lord Dalhousie as Governor of Nova Scotia, and eight years
later followed the same nobleman in the Governorship of Canada. His
administration was an admirable one, and has been commended on all
sides. He found the country on the verge of rebellion, and he quelled,
gently and without force, all traces of discontent, so that when he
retired he left it enjoying the blessings of assured peace and carried
with him affectionate addresses from all sorts of public bodies. His
death took place at London in 1855.
A very different type of Canadian Governor
may be studied in the comparatively quiet, but none the less useful
careers of such men as Miles Macdonnel—a native of Inverness, who was
born there in 1767, was Lord Selkirk's right-hand man in the Red River
Valley Settlement, became Governor of Assiniboia. and died at Port
Fortune, on the Ottawa River, in 1828—and of the bulk, in fact, of the
Lieutenant Governors of the different Provinces and territories, before
and after Confederation. Such names, too, as Lord Dalhousie, Lord Elgin,
and Lord Lorne, are indissolubly associated with Canadian history, and
that sturdy Scotch soldier, Sir Colin Campbell, a native of Kilninver,
tried his hand at the mysteries of civil administration as Governor of
Nova Scotia before becoming Governor of Ceylon.
Taken as a whole, the Scotch Governors,
royal or otherwise, on this side of the Atlantic, were fairly creditable
to, and representative of, the Scot abroad. One or two of the royal
appointees were more mercenary in their disposition than anything
else—sort of executive Andrew Fairservices; but only one—Robertson—can
be classed as, a rascal. The faults which most of them committed were
due, in a great measure, to the system under which they were appointed,
or to the measures they were to bring about and the policy they were to
enforce, all of which were completely at variance with the conditions
under which the continent was progressing. This is illustrated in a very
significant manner, even in the brief summary contained in this chapter.
It will be observed that those Chief Magistrates who came to the United
States—to the American Colonies rather—to stay, to make their homes in
the new land, to become part and parcel of its citizenship, to throw in
their entire future with it, made good executive officers, and have left
records which are equally creditable to America and Scotland. Such men
as Spottiswood, Johnston, Hamilton, and Colden, for example, still
command the admiration of American historical writers, and now that the
bitterness of the Revolution has long been buried—let us hope brevet—the
fact that they were at one and the same time loyal to the people over
whom they ruled and to the sovereign they served is freely admitted.
Those who came after the Revolution were invariably noted for their
honesty, their superiority to mere party spirit, and for their
moderation, their wisdom and their sturdy adherence to the principles of
the Constitution and of law and order. Carpet-bag rulers have never been
much in favor in America at any part of its history, not even in the
South after the war, in the reconstruction period, and they are now
unknown in the States, and, with the exception of the direct
representative of the sovereign, in the Dominion of Canada. |
