THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407310087
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: JAMESTOWN LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
With the benefit of 375 years of hindsight - and the marvel of air conditioning - the Virginia General Assembly gathered Saturday in the rustic, thatched-roof replica of the seat of its birth to declare the New World's first effort at representative democracy a success.
``The significance of what took place here 375 years ago cannot be overstated,'' Gov. George F. Allen said, recalling the July 30, 1619, session of the House of Burgesses. ``It is the people who own their government.''
There were only a few of The People on hand for Saturday's event. They peered over window sills or watched on television monitors as about 90 current and former members of the General Assembly and part of Virginia's congressional delegation honored the work done by their predecessors.
They met at Jamestown Settlement in a replica of what the settlement's first church is believed to have looked like. For this event it was wired with lights, TV cameras and air conditioning.
There were some light moments. Just after House Speaker Thomas W. Moss Jr. gaveled the session to order, the members of the Senate were to be ushered in for the joint session. But they were nowhere in sight.
``Some things never change,'' Moss declared. They arrived moments later.
Many Hampton Roads legislators were present.
``To be a part of that lineage is an awesome responsibility,'' said Norfolk Del. Howard E. Copeland, who participated in the commemorative session. ``To have but one word to say - `present' - is pregnant with meaning for me.''
Betty Boothroyd, speaker of the British House of Commons, told the assemblage that ``it is a matter of pride'' in England that government in Virginia and the United States evolved on a line on par with England's.
``There are so many ways in which we are linked, so many ways in which one country has followed another,'' she said. But the United States and Britain are no longer of the same family.
``Once there was a cousinhood,'' Boothroyd said. But immigration from many lands, ``one of your great strengths . . . so beneficial to you,'' forever changed the United States and ``we developed into two very different countries.''
Still, ``some similarities remain. We share the same language up to a point - it gets pretty fractured on this side of the pond - basically the same legal system and even the same belief that no man, not even a king or a president, is above the law.''
In these days of town meetings, city councils, state legislatures, political parties, Congress, C-SPAN, CNN, ``Nightline'' and layers upon layers of bureaucracy, it's easy to forget that all the tentacles of government of, by and for the people trace back to the first permanent settlement in Virginia.
The Virginia Colony - launched largely as a business venture by the Virginia Company of London - initially was governed by martial law.
By 1618, however, many of the early dangers had passed and some investors in London began to protest the harsh rule. They believed the ultimate success of the venture depended on enticing more and more settlers to leave England for America. But they feared few would go if they knew they would lose the political, personal and property rights they had in England.
Dissident stockholders finally won a partial victory. A new governor was named and dispatched to Virginia with orders to establish a general assembly. He brought with him the so-called Great Charter, a list of instructions on how the colony would be governed.
Each plantation in Virginia elected two representatives and they gathered in Jamestown, meeting in a church.
Their session lasted only four days, in part because it was extremely hot and muggy. One delegate collapsed during a session. But the 20 burgesses did their jobs and approved a series of proposals that launched democratic government.
That all of them were men is a fact of history that didn't go unnoticed Saturday as present-day legislators honored the service of their distant cousins.
Boothroyd, recalling the words of the Declaration of Independence, noted that ``all men may well in theory be equal. But what about all women?''
The mostly male audience laughed appreciatively and Moss said later that he looked forward to the day a woman holds his speaker's seat - but only ``after I've complete my term,'' he added with a smile.
Boothroyd might have some advice for the woman who gets that job.
Boothroyd, a member of Parliament since 1973, is the first woman elected speaker of the British House of Commons since the office was established 616 years ago.
``Women are making progress,'' Boothroyd said after the ceremonies. ``They are present in more decision-making capacities,'' in government, business and society. And while she would like to see more women involved, she noted that the ``dual role'' of women as child-bearers and homemakers is important ``and we need to elevate that, too.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
One of the guards at the reconstructed fort at Jamestown leads
members of the General Assembly to a session marking the 375th
anniversary of the body's first meeting.
ABOVE: British House of Commons Speaker Betty Boothroyd, left,
addresses General Assembly members at the anniversary session.
RIGHT: Boothroyd and Gov. George F. Allen leave the re-created,
thatched-roof church where the session was held.
by CNB