Note 321 — Chapter XVII · FROM TIDEWATER TO THE MOUNTAINS.

His feelings find temperate expression in his letters to the Lords of Trade and to the secretary of state, James Stanhope; e. g., in October, 1712: “This Unhappy State of her Maj’t’s Subjects in my Neighbourhood is ye more Affecting to me because I have very little hopes of being enabled to relieve them by our Assembly, which I have called to meet next Week.... No arguments I have used can prevail on these people to make their Militia more Serviceable;” and in July, 1715: “I cannot forbear regretting yt I must always have to do w’th ye Representatives of ye Vulgar People, and mostly with such members as are of their Stamp and Understanding, for so long as half an Acre of Land ... qualifys a man to be an Elector, the meaner sort of People will ever carry ye Elections, and the humour generally runs to choose such men as are their most familiar Companions, who very eagerly seek to be Burgesses merely for the Lucre of the Salary, and who, for fear of not being chosen again, dare in Assembly do nothing that may be disrelished out of the House by ye Common People.... However, as my general Success hitherto with this sort of Assemblys is not to be Complained of, and as I have brought them, in some particulars, to place greater Trust in me than ever they did in any Governor before, and seeing their Confidence in Me has encreased with their Knowledge of me, I have great hopes to lead even this new Assembly into measures that may be for the hon’r and safety of these parts of his Maj’t’s Dominions.... Ye Assembly of No. Carolina has already faulted their Governor for dispatching away to ye relief of his next Neighbours a small reinforcement of Men, they alledging that their own danger requir’d not to weaken themselves.... None of ye Provinces on ye Continent have yet sent any Assistance of Men to So. Carolina, except this Colony alone, and No. Carolina, and by w’t I understand from Govern’r Hunter [of New York] I am afraid they may be diverted from it, he writing me word yt their Indians are grown very turbulent and ungovernable. We are not here without our dangers, too, but yet I judg’d it best, and ye readiest way to save ourselves, to run immediately to check the first kindling Flames, and even to stretch a point to succour Carolina with Arms and ammunition; and I made such dispatch in ye first Succours of Men I sent thither yt they pass’d no more than 15 days between the Day of ye Carolina Comm’rs coming to me and ye day of my embarking 118 Men listed for their Service. I have since sent another Vessel with 40 or 50 Men more; and hope in a short time to have ye Complem’t raised w’ch this Government has engag’d to furnish.... I need not offer, for my justification, to wound his Maj’t’s Ears with particular relation of the miserys his Subjects in Carolina labour under, and of ye Inhuman butchering and horrid Tortures many of them have been exposed to.” So in Oct. 1715: “Such was the Temper and Understanding [of the House of Burgesses] that they could not be reason’d into Wholesome Laws, and such their humour and principles yt they would aim at no other Acts than what invaded ye Prerogative or thwarted the Government. So that all their considerable Bills Stopt in the Council.... On ye 8 of Aug’st ... they plainly declar’d they would do nothing ... till they had an Answer from his Maj’tie to their Address about the Quitt rents. I need not repeat to you, S’r, what I have formerly represented of the inconveniency a Governm’t without money is expos’d to, especially in any dangerous Conjuncture.... The bulk of the Ellectors of Assembly Men concists of the meaner sort of People, who ... are more easily impos’d upon by persons who are not restrain’d by any Principles of Truth or Hon’r from publishing amongst them the most false reports, and have front enough to assert for truth even the grossest Absurdities. [How well this describes the blatant demagogues who thrive and multiply in the cesspool of politics to-day, like maggots in carrion!] ... These mobish Candidates always outbid the Gent’n of sence and Principles, for they stick not to vow to their Electors that no consideration whatever shall engage them to raise money, and some of them have so little shame as publickly to declare that if, in Assembly, anything should be propos’d w’ch they judg’d might be disagreeable to their Constituents, they would oppose it, tho’ they knew in their consciences yt it would be for ye good of the Country.” Spotswood’s Official Letters, ii. 1, 2, 124, 125, 130, 132, 164.