13 This
clause investing the Governor and Council with full power and authority
to hear and determine all Treasons and other offences committed within
Government, expounded (as required by the last clause) in the most
beneficial and available sense, for the advantage of his Majesty's
subjects here, is very inconsistent with the extraordinary measure
lately adopted by the British Ministry,-- a plan so contrary to the
first principles of Liberty and Justice, as would much better become
the Divan at Constantinople, than the Cabinet at London.
14 By
this charter the Subjects of Virginia are forever to remain under the
immediate protection of the British Crown, and be subject only to its
Government here. The Governor is to reside in this country. The titles
of their lands are confirmed to the inhabitants. Any vacant Lands are
from time to time to be granted for the Importation of people into the
Colony according to antient custom; and all the Lands which shall at
any time escheat, are confirmed to the Possessors upon certain moderate
terms.
The
Governor and Council have full power and authority to try all Treasons
and other offences committed here, and the Design of the Charter is
declared to be to continue to favour the subjects which then did, or
afterward should inhabit the said Country of Virginia, and for the more
liberal and ample Encouragement to plantations there, (that is, to
encourage the increase and extension of the settlements there) every
part of the charter is to be construed and take effect in the most
advantageous and available sense for the Benefit of the subjects of the
said Country of Virginia. The country of Virginia is only mentioned at
large and in general Terms in this charter, and not described or
ascertained by
any
particular limits or boundaries. It can't be confined to the country
then settled, which would be totally inconsistent with the Design of
giving encouragement "to Plantations there" and would exclude more than
nine-tenths of the present Inhabitants. It can't mean the Country at
that time purchased from or ceded by the Indians, for this would also
exclude the greatest part of the present Inhabitants. Nor can posterior
purchases of Lands from the Indians be used as arguments against the
extent of this charter, without impeaching the Crown's Right to those
Lands at the time of making the Charter. A Doctrine of a dangerous
nature, and diametrically opposite to the claims of Great Britain in
her Negotiations and Treaties with other Nations as well as the Reasons
for which the King entered into the late war, one of which was the
Incroachments made by the French upon the Territory of Virginia. If
such purchases could operate against the extent of the Virginia
Charter, they would have operated against the grant of the Northern
Neck; far the greater part of which was possessed by the Indians, when
the said grant was made, and not purchased from them for many years
after. So late as Queen Anne's Reign the Blue Ridge of Mountains
separated the possessions of the British Subjects here, from those of
the Indians. Yet in the last reign, the King and Council gave Lord
Fairfax a Judgment for the lands to the Fountain Head of Potomack
River, near fourscore miles beyond the Blue Ridge. As our settlements
were extended, and the wild game destroyed, the Indians have been found
to remove further for the convenience of Hunting. As they retired
purchase after purchase hath been made of them, and temporary Lines or
Boundaries from time to time accordingly settled between them, and the
English Inhabitants here. It is not above fifty years since the people
of Virginia settled beyond the Blue Ridge ; it is near thirty years
since they first began to settle on the West side of the Alleghany or
Appalachian Mountains and at this time there are several thousand
Families settled to the Westward of the said Mountains on the Branches
and Waters of the Ohio River. When the Colony of Virginia was settled,
the Lands first purchased of the Indians were only upon and near the
Mouths and larger parts of the Rivers, then to the Falls of the said
Rivers, then to the Blue Ridge of Mountains ; afterwards to the
Alleghany Mountains ; and lately to the River Ohio. Many of these
purchases have been made since the Charter of Charles the Second. If
the said Charter was not affected by the former purchases from the
Indians neither is it by the last, nor can it be by any purchase made
hereafter. For (not to mention the liberal and beneficial manner of
Construction which we have a right to) the plain, natural, and obvious
meaning of the charter is, to grant and confirm certain Rights,
Privileges, and Immunities to all his Majesty's subjects who then did
or ever should inhabit that tract of country in America usually called
Virginia, according to the Descriptions and Boundaries of the original
Charters, not before otherwise appropriated or disposed of by His
Majesty's Ancestors. In this situation hath it remained from the time
of this last charter, and in this manner hath Virginia been constantly
laid down ever since in all the English
taken to be meant and intended, and shall inure and take effect in the
most beneficial and available sense, to all intents and pur-
Maps, as
well those published by publick authority, as others, to wit, Bounded
on the North by Maryland and Pennsylvania, on the East by the Atlantic
Ocean, on the South by Carolina, and on the West by the great South Sea
or by the Western Limits of the British Dominions, which was never
clearly ascertained until the last Treaty of Peace in the year 1763,
fixed them by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi.
Several Acts of the British Crown and Government, as well as many laws
of this Colony (which receiving the Royal Assent are also Acts of the
British Crown and Government) have from time to time corresponded with
and confirmed these Bounds of Virginia. It will be sufficient to
mention a few instances, as there are none which contradict them. In
the fourth year of the Reign of Queen Anne, An. Dom. 1705, an act of
Assembly was made here, empowering the Governor for the time being,
with the consent of the Council, by Charter or Grant, under the seal of
the Colony to grant to any such person or persons, their heirs,
executors, administrators, or Assigns, as should at his or their own
charge, make discovery of any Town or Nation of Indians situate, or
inhabiting to the Westward of, or between the Appalatian Mountains, the
sole liberty and Right of trading to and with all and every such Town
or Towns, Nation or Nations of Indians so discovered as aforesaid for
the space of fourteen Years, then next ensuing, with such clauses or.
articles of Restraint or Prohibition, of all other persons from the
said Trade and under such Penalties and Forfeitures as shall be thought
convenient. In an additional Instruction from his late Majesty King
George the Second to Sir William Gooch, Bart., Lieut. Governor and
Commander in Chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, or to the
Commander in Chief of the said Colony for the time being, Given at the
Court of St. James the 16th Day of March 1748/9 in the 22nd Year of his
Reign reciting a petition which had been presented to his Majesty by
the Ohio Company; the said Governor is directed and required forthwith
to make the Petitioners and their Associates a Grant or Grants of two
hundred thousand Acres of Land betwixt Romanetto's and Buffaloe Creek
on the South Side of the River Alleghany, otherwise Ohio and betwixt
the two Creeks and the Yellow Creek, on the North Side of the said
River or in such other parts of the West of the Alleghany Mountains as
shall be adjudged most proper by the said Petitioners, for making
settlements thereon, within His Majesty's Colony of Virginia.