The Assembly, for the benefit of the college, taxed raw and tanned hides,
dressed buckskin, skins of doe and elk, muskrat and raccoon. The
construction of the new seat of learning was begun at Williamsburg. When it
was completed and opened to students, it was named William and Mary. Its
name and record shine fair in old Virginia. Colonial worthies in goodly
number were educated at William and Mary, as were later revolutionary
soldiers and statesmen, and men of name and fame in the United States.
Three American Presidents -- Jefferson, Monroe, and Tyler -- were trained
there, as well as Marshall, the Chief Justice, four signers of the
Declaration of Independence, and many another man of mark.
The seventeenth century is about to pass. France and England are at war.
The colonial air vibrates with the struggle. There is to be a brief lull
after 1697, but the conflict will soon be resumed. The more northerly
colonies, the nearer to New France, feel the stronger pulsation, but
Virginia, too, is shaken. England and France alike play for the support of
the red man. All the western side of America lies open to incursion from
that pressed-back Indian sea of unknown extent and volume. Up and down, the
people, who have had no part in making that European war, are sensitive to
the menace of its dangers. In Virginia they build blockhouses and they keep
rangers on guard far up the great rivers.
All the world is changing, and the changes are fraught with significance
for America.
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