Sectionalism in Virginia from 1776 to 1861

Preface

My interest in things pertaining to both West Virginia and Virginia is due largely to the fact that I was reared and educated in the former state and born of parents who, like all true Virginians, never forgot the latter, the state of their nativity. Quite early in my college career I began to inquire about the causes of the dismemberment of the ''Old Dominion." I then planned to write a monograph upon the "Formation of West Virginia." But a casual search into the preliminaries for this study soon convinced me that they were probably more important than the subject upon which I proposed to write. Accordingly I gave up my original plan for a more difficult undertaking, the study of sectionalism in Virginia during the ante-bellum period. As it would require volumes to present every detail of this subject, I have restricted this monograph mainly to the political differences.

Neither pains nor time have been spared to obtain accurate and exhaustive information. In addition to the suggestions and information kindly given me by scores of old men, who remember the last years of the ante-bellum period, I have tried to obtain, by travel and otherwise, a thorough knowledge of the geography of both Virginia and West Virginia. Besides, I have made research in person in the Department of Archives and History, at Charleston, W. Va., in the Virginia State Library, at Richmond, in the Library of

VI PREFACE

the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, at Madison, and in the Congressional Library. But my chief sources of information have been the legislative documents of Virginia and West Virginia and the public prints. I realize fully the treachery of such sources as the last named, but, all things considered, they are the best that are available for a study of this nature. The first eight chapters of this study were offered and accepted for my Doctor's dissertation at the University of Wisconsin in 1908. For suggestions, criticism, and the care with which he has read my manuscript I am especially indebted to Dr. Ulrich B. Phillips, of New Orleans, La. My acknowledgments and thanks are also due to Dr. F. J. Turner, of Madison, Wis. ; to Dr. W. E. Dodd, of Chicago, 111. ; to Dr. W. L. Fleming, of Baton Rouge, La., and to Mr. Virgil A. Lewis, of Charleston, W. Va. To the many others who have assisted me in various ways, I can here extend only a sweeping expression of thanks.

Charles Henry Ambler

Ashland, Va.

September 6, 1909

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Introduction i

II. Revolution, Confederation, and the Constitution, 1776-90 24

Part I. Natural Features

The surface of Virginia is divided into two unequally inclined planes and a centrally located valley. The eastern plane is subdivided into the Piedmont and the Tidewater; the western into the Alleghany Highlands, the Cumberland Plateau, and the Ohio Valley section. The area between them is commonly spoken of as the "Valley." It is subdivided into numerous smaller sections of which the Chinch, Holston, New, and Shenandoah valleys are the most important.

The Tidewater extends from the Atlantic Coast to the "fall line" on the rivers, i. e., to the line connecting the present cities of Fredericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg, and Weldon. The soil contains gravel, sand, shale, and clay. The Chesapeake and its broad arms are doorways to the sea, the Atlantic rivers being navigable for large vessels to Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Alexandria.

The Virginia Piedmont lies in a right triangle. Its base is the northern boundary of North Carolina; its perpendicular the fall line of the Atlantic rivers; and its hypotenuse the Blue Ridge mountain range. The surface varies from rolling to hilly. The soil is of decomposed rocks of the Archean age and contains gneiss, mica, granite, porphyry, and iron. It is well adapted to wheat, corn, fruits, and tobacco. The only considerable rivers of the Piedmont, the James, Potomac, and Roanoke, are too swift and shoaly to be navigable above the fall line except in short stretches, or for small boats bound down stream.

The Valley is a part of the great Appalachian range of valleys. It is not a river basin, as its name might indicate, but a depressed surface some hundred feet below the top of the Blue Ridge on one side and the Alleghanies on the other. Within this area are hilly elevations which set apart slender valleys many of which are unsurpassed for beauty of scenery and fertility of soil. The soil is of limestone formation and is well adapted to grass, fruit, and wheat. The gaps in the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge at the headwaters of the Kanawha and James respectively give openings to the east and the west. The rivers of the southern portion of the Valley flow toward the Ohio; those of the northern to the Atlantic. Thus two natural eastand-west thoroughfares join in the central part of the state.

The land west of the Alleghanies slopes very irregularly to the Ohio. The Alleghany Highlands, a portion of this section, is a trough-like area lying between the Alleghany Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau. The famous ''Glades," or blue-grass country, is a part of this section. The Cumberland Plateau is the northeastern continuation of the Cumberland Mountains and paralleling the Alleghanies stretches entirely across western Virginia. It has an elevation of from one to two thousand feet, and the surface is very uneven. The Ohio Valley section is the 'hilly slope from the Cumberland Plateau to the Ohio River. The country here is of rugged hills interspersed by fertile river and creek bottoms. The soil of the bottom land is fertile and well adapted to wheat, corn, rye, oats, and buckwheat.

The trans-x\lleghany possesses untold natural resources. Both the Cumberland Plateau and the Alleghany Highlands are underlaid by two or more strata of bituminous coal and contain valuable building-stone. The Ohio Valley section has vast stores of natural gas and petroleum, and its pasture lands are unsurpassed in excellence. The rivers of this section are navigable from their falls in the Cumberland Plateau to the Ohio.

Part II. Sectional Differences In The Colony And Political Conditions On The Eve

OF THE REVOLUTION

The history of Virginia has been characterized by sectional antagonism. The natural features of her territory and the different elements in her population made such conflicts inevitable. In the early colonial days, even before population advanced into the Piedmont, the frontier settlers chafed under the rule of the older and more aristocratic planters. As population extended to the westward and became more diverse in nationality, the contrasts and conflicts between the older and newer societies became more pronounced.

For the purpose of study, the history of sectionalism in Virginia may be divided into three periods. The first period began early in colonial history and ended with Bacon's Rebellion and the reforms which followed. The second began when settlement pushed into the Piedmont and the inhabitants of that section demanded a share in the colonial government. The beginning of its end came with the Revolution and the accompanying reforms, but the end was not reached until the making of adjustments by the constitutional convention of 1829-30. The third period began when the trans-Alleghany and portions of the Valley demanded a voice in the state government. It ended with the Civil War and dismemberment.

The first phase was a petty contest between the newer plantations and counties about Williamsburg and to the east thereof and the older counties and plantations above on the James. As in subsequent contests, so in this one, the inhabitants residing between the two contending sections cast lot with the newer and more democratic sections. The crisis, Bacon's Rebellion, forced the concession of the moderate reforms demanded.

The second phase was a contest on a larger scale between the newer society of the Piedmont and that of the older and more aristocratic Tidewater. Under the changed conditions of the eighteenth century the inhabitants of the former section had need for legislation and public expenditures neither understood nor appreciated by the older settlements. The petitions from the uplands for the construction of roads and bridges, for improved navigation of the rivers, and for the erection of warehouses and a more adequate defense were accordingly passed over with little consideration and less legislation. In time the denial of these requests brought urgent demands for a greater share in the government and a democratic aversion to the rule of the tidewater aristocracy.^

The frontier took advantage of the preliminaries to the Revolution to revolt against the misrule and indifference of conservatism. The time v^as indeed propitious for a change. The aristocrats could not, or at least they would not, take an aggressive stand against the mother country to which they were attached by the ties of affection, the emolument of office, and the returns of a lucrative commercial intercourse. The old families, the Pendletons, Robinsons, Randolphs, Nicholases, Blairs, and Tylers, accordingly forfeited leadership to a new and younger generation. Henry and Washington, and later Jefferson and Madison, each closely identified with the interests of the interior and of new families, as their names indicate, assumed leadership.^ Their energies were exerted for independence and a democratic government.

The third phase of sectional strife was mainly a contest between a cismontane and a transmontane people. It was a contest between an older society with its peculiar institutions and a newer society fundamentally different from the older and inadequately represented in the law-making bodies. It was a contest between the owners of large estates and the owners of small farms; between a population largely English and one composed of various nationalities; and between a people whose economic interests and relations

^ Spotswood, Letters, II, 93-103.

^ Rives, Madison, I, 170; Randall, Jefferson, I, 195.

were with the South and a people whose interests and relations were mainly with the North. Unable to control the action of the state in 1861, as the lower Tidewater and the Piedmont had controlled the colony in 1676 and 1776, most of the trans-Alleghany withdrew from the state and formed West Virginia.

It is the purpose of this study to give an account of sectionalism in Virginia only from 1776 to 1861. But a sketch of the earlier developments is very necessary as an introduction. Accordingly an effort will be made to trace briefly the settlement of the sections and to call attention to their respective institutions and customs.

The industrial, social, and political life of the Tidewater centered in the large estate.^ This institution had evolved from an abundance of free land, from the nature of the agriculture adopted, and from the financial failure of the promoters of the colony. About 1 61 6 financial embarrassment compelled the London Company to make land grants to individuals instead of waiting for them to be taken by associations of individuals as originally proposed. Subsequently the discovery of means of curing tobacco in large quantities and the use of indentured servants and negro slaves made tobacco-raising profitable and preserved this method of making land grants, thus giving an impetus to the growth of the individual plantation.

The spread of the plantation system was rapid. Following the favorable treaties made with the Indians

' Bruce, Ec. Hist, of Va., I, 569 ; idem, Social Life of Va., chaps, iii, iv.

In 1622 and 1623 so much land was given to tobacco-growing and the consequent extension of the plantation was so rapid that the Burgesses found it necessary to restrict excessive planting by limiting the number of plants which a landowner might grow and by restricting all trade to Jamestown.^ But attempts at restriction were futile; the plantations continued to increase in size and numbers. The fertile land along the James was soon taken, and population extended thence to the lower York peninsula, to the eastern shores of the Chesapeake, and finally to the Potomac. By the beginning of the eighteenth century this aggressive agricultural system had extended along the rivers of the Tidewater and occupied an area almost as large as the present state of Massachusetts. But the continued importation of negroes, the successful contests for Indian lands, and the good prices for tobacco made people impatient to push farther into the interior. Tobacco culture necessitated expansion, the plant requiring great fertility of soil and the finest quality growing only on new lands. Thus when Spotswood came as royal governor, he found a land craze on in the colony not unlike those of more modern times. He too caught the land fever, and in response to the popular demand organized ''The Order of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," composed of adventurers who were willing to cross the mountains. Already many land grants had been made above the fall line; now numerous others quickly followed.^

* Hening, Statutes, I, 163.

" Spotswood, Letters, II, 1-80; Va. Magazine, XIII, 7.

By 1776 the plantation had become the basis of society and industry in the Piedmont as well as in the Tidewater. Indeed portions of the former section had already become exhausted by excessive cropping. It should be observed, however, that in 1776 the large plantation did not reign supreme in the Piedmont; it was simply the basis of the industrial order. As population advanced to the Piedmont foothills and to the elevated lands between the rivers, wheat, hemp, flax, and corn had become staples and the holdings had gradually decreased in size. Although one and two-thirds times as large as the Tidewater, the Piedmont, in 1790, contained a much smaller negro slave population. Immigrants from the northern colonies, who, as will be shown later, had pushed into the Valley, came into the Piedmont from the rear. For the most part they were conscientiously opposed to slave-holding and consequently did not become tobacco-growers. On the other hand, the poorer whites of the Tidewater had been pushed, by the gradual advance of the plantation, into the less desirable lands of the Piedmont. Lack of ability and the presence of conscientious scruples prevented them from becoming large planters. These elements constituted a large and influential democratic and non-slaveholding population in the Piedmont. The Piedmont counties. Orange, Albemarle, Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, Franklin, Patrick, and Henry, were strongholds of Democracy.

The society which developed in the Tidewater and later extended to the Piedmont, in a somewhat modified form to be sure, resembled that of the mother country.^ It consisted of several strata separated by no clearly marked lines. Along the large rivers there were the great landov^ners who lived in a style of luxury and extravagance beyond the means of the other inhabitants. Immediately below them were the ''half-breeds," persons descended from the younger sons and daughters of the landed proprietors. They had all the pride and social tastes of the upper class but not its wealth. Then came the "pretenders," men of industry and enterprise but not of established families. The opportunities afforded by an abundance of practically free lands and by commercial ventures had enabled them to accumulate wealth and to gain admission to the highest social ranks. Below these classes were the ''yeomen," most of whom were very poor. The system of entail and primogeniture operated to preserve these strata intact.'^ A very large portion of the inhabitants belonged to the Anglican church, which was established by law. The industrial system afforded the planter leisure, and he naturally turned to society and politics. Incomes were not such as to create a voluptuous society, but they did afford the means for a generous hospitality. Men frequently indulged in intemperance but never forgot to practice civility. Social virtues occasionally ran to show and haughtiness ; but truth was cherished, and honor was a thing to die for.^

In theory the government of Virginia resembled

'Bruce, Ec. Hist, of Va,, II, 163. ^ Wirt, Henry, 32 ff.

'Jefferson, Notes on Va. (ed. of 1787), 261-70; Tucker, Jefferson, I, 19.

lO SECTIONALISM IN VIRGINIA, 1776-1861

that of the mother country. The Governor, Council, and Burgesses corresponded in their respective functions to the King, Lx)rds, and Commons. Like the English government, that of Virginia was based upon a representation of local units and not a representation of numbers. The theory that a member of the Burgesses represented the commonwealth and not the county which elected him was not unpopular in colonial Virginia.^ In this respect the political theory of the Tidewater was diametrically opposed to the principles of equal representation for equal numbers which became so strong in the northern colonies and in the Valley of Virginia.

The government of the Tidewater and the Piedmont was indigenous to the colony. At each step of the frontier advance it had adjusted itself to the changing needs of the plantation and to the constant necessity of a vigilant defense. Following the Indian massacre of 1622 the four boroughs along the James became judicial and military units, and the plantations were grouped into districts for similar purposes. Soon the name shire, later changed to county, was applied to these units. The official at first intrusted with the military command now became the county lieutenant and other local officials became the county court. As the counties were extended to the westward they were increased in size. The engrossment of lands, the sparseness of population, and the military regulations^^

' Grigsby, Va. Constitutional Convention of i82g~30, 50-80.

" Each county was required to provide for its own defense (Hening, Statutes, III, 284; Grigsby, Va. Constitutional Convention of 1829-SO, Z27-Z7 \ Spotswood, Letters, I, December 15, 1710, p. 36).

INTRODUCTION il

necessitated larger counties. The practice early developed of giving each county two delegates in the House of Burgesses. An early attempt to preserve political equality between the large and small communities by allowing parish representation proved unsatisfactory and was abandoned.^ ^

In many respects the plantation was a self-sufficing institution. Planters had among their slaves carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, tanners, shoemakers, spinners, and weavers.^ ^ The plantation furnished the raw material for these embryo manufactures ; the surplus only went to purchase foreign luxuries and such articles as could not be made on the estate. All the Virginia planter desired was a free market and credit. To him the patronage of manufacturing on a large scale was a secondary and incidental thing designed chiefly to supply luxuries. In this industrial system ocean commerce stood next to agriculture; it was the sole means whereby a market could be found.

The Northern Neck requires special mention. It was that long narrow peninsula bounded by the Potomac and the Rappahannock and a straight line connecting their sources. In 1661 this immense tract was granted to a proprietor. As a proprietorial government it maintained a semi-independence of the colonial government down to the Revolution, the proprietors having their own land office and enjoying special favors

^^Hening, Statutes, 1, 545; II, 357.

^^ Tucker, Jefferson, I, 9 ; Rowland, Mason, I, 99 ; Phillips, "Origin and Growth of Southern Black Belts," Am. Hist. Rev., XI, 803.

in taxation.^ ^ Besides, the area possessed great natural advantages; the fall line of its rivers was far inland; the soil was fertile ; and the low and swamp lands were comparatively less extensive than on the James and the Roanoke.

These favorable circumstances caused the eastern portion of this section to be taken at a very early date by the highest class of planters. Accordingly many Cavaliers found homes there in the Cromwell period. For generations a large and important settlement on the Potomac was spoken of as the "Cavaliers of Chotonk."^* The custom of making grants for "headrights," so prevalent in other parts of the colony, was not followed by the proprietors, who thus excluded a large number of small landowners from this area.^^ In 1776 the society of the Northern Neck was consequently older and more aristocratic than that of the Piedmont south of the James; the frontier characteristics had long since disappeared, the plantation having spent its force in large areas which were now given up to wheat-raising.^^

Antipathies naturally arose between this society and the newer and more democratic communities south of the James. The state of feeling existing between the two sections is well brought out in the last will and testament of Thomson Mason, brother of George

" Hening, Statutes, XII, iii.

'*DeBow, Review, XXX, 77.

" Bruce, Ec. Hist, of Va., I, 523.

^® Hening, Statutes, VII, 292 ; William and Mary College Quarterly, XI, 245; DeBow, Review, XXVI, 616; Va. Hist. Mag., XI, 230 ; Howe, Hist. Coll., 354.

Mason and an old resident of the Northern Neck. He expressly directed that neither of his two sons be permitted to reside south of the James or below Williamsburg before they had attained the age of twenty-one, ''lest they should imbibe more exalted notions of their own importance than I could wish any child of mine to possess. "^^

The Valley was settled largely by Scotch-Irish and Germans.^ ^ The latter constituted so large an element of the population that it was found necessary to translate the laws into their language.^^ German and Scotch-Irish pioneers began to pour into the Valley about 1726^^ and soon extended settlement along the Shenandoah and the South Branch of the Potomac. The arrival of these foreign nationalities on the frontier at a period before the society and institutions of the coast had reached the Blue Ridge constitutes an important epoch in Virginia's history. The westward advance of her peculiar institutions was thereby interrupted, and a new society, naturally hostile to things Virginian, was planted.

Settlement moved into the Valley in communities. A band of congenial families came and occupied one of the many canoe-shaped valleys ; necessity for defense made isolated settlement impossible. Each of the

" Rowland, Mason, II, 77.

" Langmeister, Leben im Valley in 1752; Schuricht, German Element in Va.; Foote, Sketches of Va., 99-^05; Wayland, "The Germans in the Valley of Virginia," Va. Mag., IX, X.

"* Shepherd, Statutes at Large, I, 339-

"*Kuhn, German and Swiss Settlements in Pa., chap. ii.

larger geographic settlements of the Valley had its ''Irish corner" and ''German settlement."

The society which developed there was quite unlike that east of the Blue Ridge. Here communities became self-sufficing instead of devoting themselves to the production of the staples. The small villages which sprang up in the midst of the community settlement contained wagon-makers, shoemakers, saddlers, gimsmiths, harness-makers, tanners, etc. Strasburg, Zapp, Hamburg, Hinkle, Chrisman, and Amsterdam were centers of these small communities. Around these villages there were many small farmers. The fertile soil and abundant pastures soon created a surplus of farm products and live stock; a market was then sought. Inadequate means of communication made it necessary for the farmer to feed his hay and grain and to sell only those products which could walk to market.-^ To this commercial activity the inhabitants of the small communities soon learned to look for means of subsistence. Accordingly all interests co-operated in the efforts made to secure good markets and means of access to them. The homogeneity of interests between the smaller sections soon brought co-operation on a large scale.

The industrial life of the Valley centered in the small farm. In 1730 Colonel Carter tried to operate, by the use of slave labor, a tract of sixty-three thousand acres located on the west bank of the Shenandoah. Writing of his failure Kercheval later said: "This

'^Richmond Enquirer, February 2^, 1820; Niles Register, IX, 152.

fine body of land is now subdivided into many most valuable farms. "^^ The German settler desired little more land than he, with the aid of a large family, could cultivate. His skill in agriculture enabled him to preserve its productivity and in some instances to enhance it.

In practice local government in the Valley conformed to that east of the Blue Ridge. The political theories, however, differed very widely from those entertained in the east. The Germans and Scotch- Irish brought to the Valley the sacred traditions of years of religious wars, which taught hatred to an established church, antipathy to a government by the privileged, and a love for civic and personal liberty. To the Scotch-Irish, the political leaders, civil liberty meant freedom of person, the right of fee-simple possession, and an open door to civic honors. They believed that free lands made free peoples who had a perfect right to form free governments.

Home life in the Valley was plain and simple. ^^ A shabby log hut with numerous children about the door and the absence of sen- ants and slaves were not signs of a lack of comfort and happiness. The wife and children did the spinning and weaving for the family, and little attention was paid to society. Religion held a prominent place in the daily life. Those churches especially noted for piety, the Presbyterian, Baptist, Quaker, and Mennonite, flourished there. It was only with reluctance that these dissenters gave of their means to support an established church.

22 Kercheval, Hist, of the Valley, 68. ^ Cutler, Cutler, 94.

Both spiritually and commercially the Valley and the Northern Neck were more intimately connected with the North than with the South. Live stock and furs found their chief market in Baltimore and Philadelphia, whence came practically all articles of foreign manufacture.^"* Preachers and teachers from Yale and Princeton had been important factors in shaping the intellectual ideas and social customs. Their pious energies had early turned to the establishment of institutions of learning. In this work Samuel Davies, later president of Princeton, was a pioneer. In the west Princeton became an active rival to William and Mary. In 1747 John Todd, of the Princeton class of that year, founded a classical academy in Louisa County. In the same year a secondary school, which later became Washington and Lee University, was founded in Augusta by John Brown, a Princeton graduate. In 1776 Prince Edward Academy, now Hampden- Sidney College, w^as founded by Stanhope Smith, of the Princeton class of 1769. Many other educational institutions were founded by teachers and preachers from Princeton and Yale.-^

During the years immediately preceding the Revolution the Valley and the Piedmont formulated an effective opposition to the political rule of the Tidewater, and sectional parties shaped themselves on both

^Debates, Va. Constitutional Conventi'^n of 1829-30, 452.

'^William and Mary College Quarterly, VI, 186; Washington and Lee Hist. Papers, No. 5, p. 54 ; Report of Com. of Ed. 1895-96, I, 270.

local and national issues. ^^ The first stage in the breach between the east and the west came in the years immediately following the protest against the Stamp Act. It was then that the corruption and inefficiency of the former section became apparent, and the west found a leader in the person of Patrick Henry.

Many forces operated at this time to bring the eastern leaders into discredit and to precipitate their political downfall. The indifference, credulity, and aversion to detail on their part permitted corruption and barred the way to reform. Dissenters used tellingly the well-founded charges of corruption against the clergy of the established church. Governor Fauquier's genial manners and democratic practices had won the hearts of many, who following his example gave themselves up to gaming and racing. When the governor made his annual visits to favorite planters "dice rattled, cards appeared, and money in immense sums was lost and won."-' Writing in 1848 Howison believed that the contagion of Fauquier's influence had not then disappeared from Virginia.-^

The west led a revolt against these conditions. The occasion came when John Robinson and his associates tried to conceal a deficit in the treasury. Robinson was one of the most opulent of the landed aristocracy; for twenty-five years he had been Speaker of the Burgesses; and he had made large loans on private

^ Grigsby, Constitutional Convention of 1788, in "Va. Hist. Coll.," IX, 49.

2^ Howison, Hist, of Va., II, 47-58. ^Wirt, Henry (ed. 1838), 37.

account to his personal and political friends. "This prolific business had continued so long that Robinson had finally become a defaulter to an enormous amount; and in order to avert the shame and ruin of an exposure, he and his particular friends .... invented a device to be called a public loan office. "^^ From this office it was proposed to loan money on landed security, by which means Robinson hoped to transfer his private loans to the public, to hide his defalcation, and to save himself from ruin and exposure. ^^

It was under these conditions that Henry became a member of the Burgesses and the leader of the discontented interior. He was eminently fitted for this new duty. He prided himself upon being one of the common people; in dress, manners, and education he was the popular ideal; his family was inteniiarried with some of the most prominent new families of the interior; already he had championed the popular side in the parsons' cause and in efforts to defeat the election of corrupt Burgesses. A thorough democrat himself, he taught his constituency that government was instituted solely for the benefit of the governed; that the people were the foundation of political power; and that offices and honors were created for them. His ability as a popular leader finds explanation only in the character of the interior of which he was the spokesman. '"^^

^Va. Gazette, May 17, 1765; Journal, House of Burgesses (ed. Kennedy 1766-69), x-xxi ; Wirt, Henry, 69-75.

" For a different statement see Tyler, Henry, 52.

The public loan office was pushed as a measure wise and beneficial, and received the support of many honorable and nonsuspecting Burgesses. It was on the point of passage when Henry, ignorant of its true purpose, arose to condemn the scheme on general principles. *'He laid open with so much energy the spirit of favoritism, upon which the proposition was founded, and the abuses to which it would lead that it was crushed in its birth. "^^ On the final vote he carried with him all the delegates from the interior counties. The following year Robinson died and his deficit became public. It was not until then that the real significance of Henry's victory became apparent. His popularity at once increased, and the cake of custom was soon broken by the repeated blows which he administered to the aristocracy.