Nathaniel Blakiston said of Spotswood: "That gentleman has real capacity and talents to manage in a high sphere, but he adheres too much to his own sentiments, and thinks himself ill-treated if everybody does not think as he does."[53] This weakness accounts in part for his inability to get along with either the Council or the Burgesses. Many of the policies which he advocated were wise, but his attempts to force them through were unwise. When the Council opposed him he tried to break their power; when the Burgesses thwarted him, he tried to bribe them into submission. Spotswood's administration was marked by several years of great prosperity, by the expansion of the frontier, by the attempts to develop manufactures, by the regulation of the tobacco trade; but more important was the demonstration that the people would no longer permit their representatives in the Assembly to be made submissive to the Governor by the use of the patronage. The punishment which they meted out to the faithless in the Assembly of 1714 marked a notable advance along the road to liberty, and was a warning to future Governors not to attempt to rule by corruption. FOOTNOTES: [1] CO5-1315, Doc. 26. [2] W. W. Hening, _Statutes at large_ 3: 525. [3] CO5-1318. [4] CO5-1406, Dec. 7, 1714. [5] _Spotswood letters_ 2: p. 50. [6] _Virginia Magazine_ 2: 2-15. [7] _Spotswood letters_ 2: 49. [8] CO5-1319. [9] CO5-1318. [10] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1712-1726: 132, 133. [11] _Ibid._, 167. [12] _Ibid._, 147, 148. [13] CO5-1318. [14] _Ibid._ [15] _Ibid._ [16] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, xxxiii. [17] _Ibid._, 153, 165, 168. [18] W. W. Hening, _Statutes at large_ 3: 243. [19] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1712-1726: 122. [20] _Ibid._, 169. [21] CO5-1313. [22] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1712-1726: 170. [23] CO5-1416. [24] _Executive journals of the Council_ 3: 437. [25] CO5-1318, Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, March 20, 1718. [26] _Ibid._ [27] _Ibid._, Spotswood to Orkney, July 1, 1718. [28] Ludwell, Smith, Lewis, Bassett, Harrison, Berkeley, Carter, and Blair. [29] CO5-1364. [30] CO5-1318. [31] CO5-1318, Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, March 5, 1719. [32] _Ibid._, Byrd Concerning Courts. [33] _Ibid._, Spotswood to the Lords of Trade, Dec. 22, 1718. [34] _Ibid._, Spotswood to Orkney, Dec. 22, 1718. [35] CO5-1317, Memorial of the Virginia Indian Company. [36] CO5-1319, Letter of Mr. Gee, Oct. 5, 1721. [37] CO5-1318, "Advice to Freeholders." [38] CO5-1318, Answer to Lieutenant Governor Spotswood. [39] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1712-1726: 213. [40] CO5-1318, Spotswood to Orkney, Dec. 22, 1718. [41] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1712-1726: 230, 231. [42] CO5-1319, Letter of Mr. Gee. [43] CO5-1318. [44] _Board of Trade journal_, 1715-1718: 425, 426. [45] CO5-1365, Lords of Trade to Spotswood, June 26, 1719. [46] _Journals of the House of Burgesses_, 1712-1726: 250.