lutions, Bland wrote a closely reasoned
essay attacking the Pistole Fee, A Modest and True State of the
Case (1753). Only a portion survives and is known as A Fragment
Against the Pistole Fee. His underlying principle, one which the
British ignored and Virginians never forget, is cogently set forth.

The Rights of the Subjects are so secured by Law that they cannot
be deprived of the least part of their property without their own
consent. Upon this Principle of Law, the Liberty and Property of
every Person who has the felicity to live under a British
Government is founded. The question then ought not to be the
smallness of the demand but the Lawfulness of it. For if it is
against Law, the same Power which imposes one Pistole may impose a
Hundred ...

LIBERTY & PROPERTY are like those precious Vessels whose soundness
is destroyed by the least flaw and whose use is lost by the
smallest hole.

Virginians never deviated from this view.

In 1818 John Adams, when asked what was the Revolution, replied, "the
Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in
the minds and hearts of the people ... This radical change in the
principles, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real
American Revolution." In Virginia, the Revolution began in the minds
and hearts of the House of Burgesses with the Pistole Fee. Its author
was Richard Bland.

The third event was the Parsons' Cause. This event reached the people,
and in it the people found a spokesman--Patrick Henry. The Parsons'
Cause was an outgrowth of the Two-Penny Acts. Nearly all Virginia
salaries and most taxes were paid in tobacco, rather than specie (hard
money). Many officials, including the clergy, had their salaries set by
acts of the assembly at a specified number of pounds of tobacco per
year. In the case of the clergy this was a minimum of 16,000 lbs. per
year. In the 1750's a series of droughts and other natural disasters
brought crop shortages in some areas, driving tobacco prices well
beyond normal levels. In 1753 and again in 1755 the assembly allowed
taxpayers to pay taxes in either tobacco or specie at the rate of two
pennies per pound of tobacco owed. On one hand this seemed eminently
fair. The crop shortages worked a double penalty on the planter--he had
little tobacco because of the weather, but he was forced to pay his
taxes in valuable tobacco he did not have. On the other hand, t