Since I brought this up in the first place, it is only fair I share Joseph Ball's entire letter on this topic to his nephew Joseph Chinn, his agent in Virginia, and who was a Burgess at this time. Here is what he wrote:

"I am Glad the assembly have agreed to rebuild the Capitol upon the old walls; it would have been the most absurd thing Imaginable to Remove the seat of Government, because the Capitol was designedly burnt. If such people should meet with Encouragement, there would be a fine burden Intailed upon the country, to Raise a matter of a hundred thousand pounds Every fifty or sixty years, and so make slaves of yourselves, to humour such as deserve other treatment. And as you have begun well, by ordering the Capitol to be Rebuilt upon the old walls so. I hope you will remain steady, and not change your Resolutions upon a second Struggle, as I am informed will be aimed at should they that are for moving the seat of Government prevail (though I think it be great Presumption to remove the King's Courts and seat of Government, and which would not be suffered, unless they had first got the Leave of the King) they would go step by step till they got all the Ships to Enter, & clear there and Lastly you be obliged to carry all your tobacco thither; and from thence forth you will all be slaves. Have a care how you take any Extraordinary steps; for you can't see to the end of the consequences of them." (Joseph Ball Letter Book, 10 March 1748/9, p. 95.)

Note: the final vote on rebuilding the Capitol on the "old walls" was on 23 November 1748, by razor-thin margin of 40 yeas and 38 nays. (The Journal of the House of Burgesses 1742-1747, 1748-1749, p. 301)

Craig Kilby
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