ernor and the Assembly wished to have the laws read before
Bacon's men "for their satisfaction." That Bacon, who was in no humor
to be appeased, refused to permit this, is no indication that he did
not heartily approve of the laws.

We do not know who drew up Bacon's Laws. It may have been Lawrence and
Drummond, who introduced them through some ally in the House. It may
have been Bacon's neighbor, Thomas Blayton, whom Colonel Edward Hill
afterwards called "Bacon's great engine" in the Assembly. It may have
been James Minge, clerk of the Assembly, "another [of] Bacon's great
friends in forming the laws." More probably it was the committee on
grievances. But whoever drew them up, whoever introduced them, most of
the credit goes to Bacon. They were aimed at the abuses he repeatedly
denounced, they were passed in an Assembly which Bacon had incited the
people to demand and which Berkeley declared overwhelmingly pro-Bacon,
and signed under the threat of Bacon's armed forces.

Although the governor and the King both voided Bacon's Laws and the
Assembly of February 1677 repealed them, they constitute a landmark in
the development of self-government in Virginia. They broadened the
franchise by giving the right to vote to all freemen; they gave the
voters representation in the county courts in assessing taxes; they
put an end to self-perpetuating vestries; they fixed the fees of
sheriffs, collectors, and other officials; they made it illegal for
sheriffs to serve more than one year at a time; no person could hold
two of the offices of sheriff, clerk of the court, surveyor, or
escheator at the same time; members of the Council were barred from
sitting on the county courts.

It was long recognized in both England and America that liberty is
grounded on the principle that no man's money can be taken from him
without his own consent. Yet local taxes in Virginia, which often
exceeded those voted by the Assembly, were assessed by the county
courts made up of the governor's appointees. The self-perpetuating
vestries also had the right to tax, for they levied the parish
charges. Thus Bacon's Laws struck at an exceedingly dangerous abuse.
The use of fees to raise money without the consent of the voters was a
source of bitter controversy between the governors and the people for
many decades to come, a controversy which culminated in the celebrated
case of the pistole fee which got Governor Dinwiddie into so much
trouble. The restrictin