Opening Remarks
The Legacy of Ideals and Institutions
The Legacy of Pocahontas

Opening Remarks  

Let me begin by thanking all of you for the wonderful hospitality you have shown to my family during our visit to England.  We are here to celebrate a truly momentous anniversary in the history of Virginia and England and it is heartening to see that our excitement in Virginia is matched by your passion here. 

I want to thank the co-chairs of the British Jamestown Committee – Lord Watson and Sir Robert Worcester.  Thank you especially, Sir Robert, for your very kind introduction.  It was good of you to acknowledge our common roots in Kansas City.  As I stand here in this wonderful and historic place, I am struck by the great difference between it and the ironworking shop that my father owned in the stockyards of Kansas City.  I grew up working in that shop with my brothers and I know my parents (who are alive and very healthy) would be very proud to see me standing here today.  In fact, their pride might even outweigh the embarrassment they often feel when they have to acknowledge that they have son who has gone into politics.

We are here to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of the sailing of courageous Englishmen in a very perilous voyage to establish what became English-speaking civilization in the New World.  The Jamestown story and its legacy are so immense that it is difficult to describe it and do it justice.  Capturing the meaning of this moment  reminds me a little of the old story about blindfolded men standing next to an elephant, each touching a part of the elephant and trying to describe the entire animal.  There are just so many facets of the Jamestown story that it is hard to know where to begin.

First, let’s be precise about why we are engaging in a commemoration of this momentous anniversary.  The American novelist, William Faulkner, has a quote that I love, “history is the attempt to create a useable past.”  We are not here to merely talk about the past.  The sailing of the individuals from the Virginia Company and the establishment of the first English-speaking settlement at Jamestown is worthy of study for many reasons.  But, the primary reason is to use the lessons – good and bad – of these 400 years to guide us to a better future.  In that spirit, the Jamestown legacy offers much that is worthy of celebrating and rededicating ourselves to as we move forward.

Recent archeological explorations of Jamestown have produced dramatic physical evidence of the life of the early Jamestown settlers and what they brought with them from England.  Even today as we celebrate this 400th anniversary of the sailing from London, more items are being found in Jamestown that add great detail to our knowledge of those early settlers.  Items from these recent archeological expeditions are now on display at the Museum of the Docklands in London.

A Legacy of Ideals and Institutions   

But, the most important things carried by those early English settlers to Jamestown were not physical items.  They were virtues, ideals, character traits and institutions, grounded in English history and law, that flowered over the years in Virginia.  The early years of the Jamestown settlement were times of great deprivation, but eventually, the settlement proved very fertile soil for the growth of powerful institutions that are particularly relevant today. 

First, Jamestown was the connection point between the cultures that became North America.  The early English settlers came into immediate contact with the Native Americans of the Powhatan Nation living throughout Eastern Virginia.  While the relationship between the Powhatan Nation and the English was not always easy, there can be little doubt that had it not been for accommodations on both sides, the settlement would not have survived. 

Jamestown was also the first place in the New World where slaves were imported – the first slaves arrived in Jamestown from Angola in 1619.  Thus, in this small community, a set of complex interactions between the European, African and Native American cultures began that continue to this day to make America a strong and diverse nation.  Without papering over the difficulties and even atrocities during America’s 400 years, Jamestown was the starting point for this great mixture of world cultures.

The settlers in Jamestown were originally led by members appointed by The Virginia Company.  But, beginning in 1619, the settlers created a legislative body, The Virginia General Assembly.  From that time the English tradition of elected popular representation has been continuous in Virginia.  In fact, we like to point out to our English friends that the Virginia legislature is the oldest continuously-elected legislative body in the world.  While Parliament began much earlier than 1619, its dissolution during the English civil war gives our Virginia legislature a claim to be the oldest continuous legislative body. 

We in England and America now take for granted the rule of law and the role of legislative bodies elected from the populace, but it is important to highlight this aspect of Jamestown because great swaths of humanity still live in circumstances where they are not allowed to freely choose their own public leaders.  Truly, Jamestown and its notion of elected democratic leadership still stands as a beacon for people around the world who long for the day when they can choose their own political leadership.

A third ideal that came from Jamestown, though not originally part of its founding principles, was the notion enshrined in the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson that each human being is created equal to all others.  This fundamental principle of American democracy is a perfect ideal and human beings in America and elsewhere have not been perfect in living it.  But, that moral and political North Star – that we are all created equal – is the fundamental principle of democratic government and it grew from the English common law traditions and values brought to Jamestown by the original settlers.  Of course, that value is as relevant today as it was 400 years ago.  Many in the world live in communities where the equality principle is still but a distant dream.  The story of Jamestown can still inspire societies to reach for that goal.

A fourth principle that grew out of the values brought from England was the radical notion, first written into law in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786, that individuals should be able to worship (or not worship) as they please.  The settlers who came to Jamestown came from a society, much like other societies of that time, that had been marked by wars and civil disturbances, based primarily upon differences in religious faith.  These sectarian clashes were in stark contrast to other English common law traditions and, over time, colonists’ awareness of this disharmony grew.  When Thomas Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786, he put in place a powerful notion – that individuals should be encouraged to worship as they please, but that the state should not seek to establish any particular belief as a ground for preferential treatment or punishment. 

Once again, this powerful value, which was the only original idea incorporated in America’s founding organizational structure that had not previously been in the laws of any other nation, would have been unlikely to flourish had it not been for English cultural and legal traditions brought by the Jamestown settlers.  How powerful that idea still is in a world that continues to be torn by wars and violence motivated by a mixture of political power and religious dogma.

These Jamestown virtues – respect for cultural diversity, belief in the equality of each individual, the power of lawmakers elected from the populace and freedom of religious worship, are Jamestown’s legacies to Virginia, England and the world.  And, they are every bit as powerful in 2006 as they were during the times when they flourished in this first English-speaking community in the New World.

The Legacy of Pocahontas   

But there is one more element of Jamestown which is worthy of celebration.  And, as I conclude, I want to spend a few minutes talking about another virtue that is as profound as the virtues I have previously described, but in many ways much more intimate.  In thinking about what I would say tonight, I thought of these big virtues and it struck me that they can seem not only momentous, but a little bit abstract.  And, it struck me that Jamestown was about something more than just large abstract principles. 

I had the opportunity yesterday to tour St. George’s Parish in Gravesend with Mayor Harry Smith and Mayoress Iris Smith.  This is the small Anglican chapel where Virginia’s Pocahontas was buried as she attempted to return to Virginia with her husband, John Rolfe.  Most know the incredible story of Pocahontas.  She was a princess, the favored daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Nation.  In the early days of Jamestown, she intervened twice to save John Smith’s life.  Without Smith’s leadership, the Jamestown settlement would most likely have perished.  Later, she converted to Christianity and became engaged to a Virginia tobacco farmer, John Rolfe.  She visited England with John Rolfe and became a sensation of her time.

Pocahontas and John Rolfe made plans to return to Virginia with their young son, Thomas, and as they sailed down the Thames, Pocahontas became ill.  She was brought ashore at Gravesend, died and was buried under the chancel of St. Georges Parish to befit her celebrated status.

In St. George’s Parish, as I sat and reflected about Pocahontas and her impact on England and Virginia, I noticed the two stained-glass windows on either side of the chancel.  These windows were presented by Virginians to the parish in the 1920s to express appreciation for the parish’s role in being a respectful guardian of Pocahantas’ remains.

The first window shows Rebecca, Pocahantas’ chosen name following her conversion to Christianity.  The beautiful window contains a small rendering of Pocahontas’ conversion and baptism in Lord Delaware’s church. 

The second stained-glass window portrays the Old Testament character, Ruth.  I sat and puzzled over the significance of the Ruth window until it dawned on me that the story of Ruth offered a final important virtue worthy of celebrating as we commemorate America’s 400th anniversary.  You remember the story of Ruth from the Old Testament.  Naomi and her husband were from Bethlehem.  They moved into a foreign land, Moab, with their two sons.  Their two sons soon married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.  Within a short time, Naomi suffered grievous losses.  First, her husband died.  Then, both of her sons died.  At last, Naomi was left, living in a foreign land, with her two daughters-in-law. 

Naomi decided that she needed to return to Judea, the land of her origins.  She urged her daughters-in-law to stay in their home country and remarry.  Orpah agonized over the decision and agreed to stay in Moab while her mother-in-law returned to Judea.  But, Ruth would not be separated from her mother-in-law. 

Here we have the beautiful words that Ruth spoke to Naomi.  These words, which still have power today, come from the King James translation of the Bible.  It was King James who chartered The Virginia Company in 1606.  It was King James for whom Jamestown and the James River were named.  While James’ tenure was not smooth, who else could claim on their resume that they were responsible for the foundation of English-speaking civilization in The New World, and also responsible for the English language translation of the Bible which has given comfort and consolation to hundreds of millions of people in the last 400 years?

Ruth responded to her mother-in-law’s suggestion that she stay in Moab with words that have echoed down through the ages:

Whither thou goest I will go;
And where thou lodgest, I will lodge;  
Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God;  
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.

This, then, is the final virtue of Jamestown worth commemorating.  Just as Ruth and Naomi were from different nations, still they joined together in an unbreakable bond that would not be separated.  Our 400th commemoration of Jamestown is similarly a recognition of an unbreakable bond of friendship between the English people and all Virginians and Americans.

It has been a friendship tested by wars and numerous disagreements.  No friendship is of the highest order unless it has been tested by adversity and disagreement.  But, despite disagreements even to this day, our nations and our people have stood together time and again, relying upon our shared values and traditions, to benefit not only our own nations but the entire world.  Most often, when we stand together, we do so because of those shared values.  But, at various times throughout our histories, we have stood together, at least in part, for the simple reason that our friend asked us for help.

We live in a world of international relations where many believe there are no permanent friendships, but only momentarily advantageous alliances.  But, the final lesson of Jamestown, in the 400 years of history between our nations since that foundational experience, is that there can be permanent friendship between people and nations.  Even more than a shared past or a shared set of values and virtues, 400 years since Jamestown have demonstrated that England and America share a destiny.  And, that, my friends, in today’s world, is worthy of great celebration.

Thank you for your hospitality this evening and congratulations to all who have worked so hard to remind us of the powerful good that has come from the humble settlement built on Jamestown Island in 1607.

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