Etext of The Revolutionary History of Virginia
By Edmund Randolph

INTRODUCTION TO THAT PART OF THE HISTORY,
EMBRACING the REVOLUTION

We have seen that until the era of the stamp-act, almost every 
political sentiment, every fashion in Virginia appeared to be, 
imperfect, unless it bore a resemblance to some precedent in 
England. The spirit however, which she had caught from the
charters,  the English laws, the English constitution, English
theories, at  that time, had diminished her almost idolatrous
deference to the  mother country, and taught her to begin to think
for herself.

It was no small elevation of character in Virginia, to have learnt  to
renounce the idea of parliamentary omnipotence: and from this 
stand assumed in the year 1765, she was driven into the 
contemplation of higher objects, by injuries, insults and contempt: 
which, whether real or supposed, were in the season of general 
equality, a powerful ferment, in bringing odium upon the British 
ministry.

But this first struggle against our ancient prepossessions although 
it was of some magnitude, demanded no sacrifice of feelings like 
that, which the present conjecture exacted. The remonstrances 
against the stamp act, breathed loyalty and prays for the 
continuance of the relation of subjects. In former disputes,
harmony  had been restored without difficulty; and to state rights
with  force, did not seem to verge in the smallest degree towards
an  opposition, beyond that of mere words. Now indeed, in the
opening of  the year 1774, a deeper tone broke forth. The public
mind had been  familiarized to an appeal to arms at first, as only a
possible  event, which was sincerely deprecated, and afterwards, as
a probable  one, which might be imposed by necessity. It had daily
received  fresh excitement from brooding over the causes of
discontent and  with avidity converted into matter of inflamation
truths, as well as  exaggerated rumours.

This new state of things may perhaps be said to have originated
more  peculiarly with the people than almost any other of which
history  affords an example, and which was not kindled by
palpable  oppression. It was cherished it was true by some of the
most  distinguished citizens; was opposed by no check from
executive  influence; and as far as religion was enlisted into the
service, was  fostered by most of its ministerial professors. But that
it should  have been indulged to the extent of a revolution, not to
reject even  force from the catalogue of the means of redress, will
evince to  those, who shall understand our resources the existence
of a public  sentiment pervading the colony, which was neither the
offspring of  transient caprice, nor to be alarmed by strict
calculations of  danger: a principle, too, which upheld order,
notwithstanding the  relaxation of long established authority,
emanating from the crown  and which confined the temper
growing out of public dissensions,  within limits of moderation, in
the intercourse between man and man.

The pride of Virginia had so long been a topic of discourse in the 
other colonies, that it has almost grown into a proverb. Being the 
earliest among the British settlements in North America; having
been  soon withdrawn from the humility of proprietary dependence
to the  dignity of a government immediately under the crown;
advancing  rapidly into wealth from her extensive territory, and the
luxuriant  production of her staple commodities; having the sons
of the most  opulent families, trained by education and habits
acquired in  England, and hence perhaps arrogating some
superiority over the  provinces, not so distinguished, she was
charged with manifesting a  consciousness that she had more
nearly approached the British model,  [illegible] of excellence; and
what was claimed as an attribute of  character in a government,
readily diffused itself among the  individuals who were members
of it. Hence it happened, that the few  offices to which the king or
his vicegerent could nominate,  conferred a lustre upon their
incumbents, and their connections, and  placed them in the attitude
of expecting from the rest of the  community an attention which is
the proper tribute of public merit.  But as soon as the favor of the
British court generates a suspicion,  inconsistent with the purity of
Virginian patriotism; and more  particularly when it was foreseen,
that if battles were to be  fought, they were to be fought by men,
who had no other stake or  hope than their own country, the old
standard of distinction was  abolished and a new one substituted
on the single foundation of  fitness for the rising exigency.
Although therefore many of those,  whom I shall portray as they
presented themselves to the public eye  at the present period, either
for the purpose of immediate utility  or as affording prognostics of
future splendor, (The vanity of  pedigree was now justly sunk in
the positive force of character.)  were from their fortune, birth and
station, high on the scale of the  aristocracy of the day; they were
stripped of every consideration  and attachment, which virtues,
talents and patriotism did not beget.  It is not expected that the
reader will avoid comparisons between  these men, and the heroes
and sages of the old world, whose  situation in life can be deemed
in the least degree similar, nor can  it be certainly affirmed, that
the correctness and fullness of  European annals may not shed on
the latter an effulgence of which  the American patriots are
deprived by the loss of the opportunities  of discriminating and
recording their separate eloquence and  counsel. But it will not be
deemed rash, to enter into any such  comparison, assuming which
for its basis this principle, that at  this season which tried men's
souls (to use the phrase of a  celebrated popular writer,) Virginia
produced public agents suitable  to every crisis and service.

No. 7 (a) To Patrick Henry the first place is due, as being the  first
who broke the key stone of that aristocracy. Little and feeble  as it
was, and incapable of daring to assert any privilege, clashing  with
the rights of the people at large, it was no small exertion in  him to
surprise them with the fact that a new path was opened to the 
temple of honor, besides that which led through the favor of the 
king. He was respectable in his parentage, but the patrimony of his 
ancestors and of himself was too scanty to feed ostentation or 
luxury. From education he derived those manners which belong to
the  real Virginian planter, and which were his ornament, in no
less  disdaining our abridgment of personal independence, than in 
observing every decorum, interwoven with the comfort of society. 
With his years the unbought means of popularity increased. 
Identified with the people, they clothed him with the confidence of 
a favorite son. Until his resolutions on the stamp act, he had been 
unknown, except to those with whom he had associated in the
hardy  sports of the field, and the avowed neglect of literature. Still
he  did not escape notice, as occasionally retiring within himself in 
silent reflection, and sometimes discanting with peculiar emphasis 
on the martyrs in the cause of liberty. This enthusiasm was 
nourished by his partiality for the dissenters from the established 
church. He often listened to them, while they were waging their 
steady and finally effectual war against the burthens of that 
church, and from a repetition of his sympathy with the history of 
their sufferings, he unlocks the human heart and transferred into 
civic discussions many of the bold licences, which prevailed in 
their religions. If he was not a constant hearer and admirer of that 
stupendous master of the human passions George Whitfield, he
was a  follower a devotee of some of his most powerful disciples
at least.

All these advantages he employed by a demeanor inoffensive, 
conciliating, and abounding in good humour. For a short time he 
practised the law in an humble sphere, too humble for the real 
height of his powers. He then took a seat at the bar of the general 
court, the supreme tribunal of Virginia, among a constellation of 
eminent lawyers and scholars, and was in great request even on 
questions for which he had not been prepared by much previous 
erudition. Upon the theatre of legislation, he entered regardless of 
that criticism, which was profusely bestowed on his language, 
pronunciation and gesture. Nor was he absolutely exempt from an 
irregularity in his language, a certain homespun pronunciation, and 
a degree of awkwardness in the cold commencement of his
gesture. But  the corresponding looks and emotions of those whom
he addressed,  speedily announced, that language may be some
times peculiar and  even quaint, while it is at the same time
expressive and  appropriate; that a pronunciation which might
disgust in a drawing  room, may yet find access to the hearts of a
popular assembly; and  that a gesture at first too much the effect of
indolence, may expand  itself in the progress of delivery into
forms, which would be above  the rule and compass, but strictly
within the prompting of nature.  Compared with any of his more
refined contemporaries, and rivals, he  by his imagination which
painted to the soul, eclipsed the  sparklings of art, and knowing
what chord of the heart would sound  in unison with his immediate
purpose, and with what strength or  peculiarity it ought to be
touched, he had scarcely ever languished  in a minority at the time,
up to which his character is now brought.  Contrasted with the
most renowned of British orators, the elder  William Pitt, he was
not inferior to him in the intrepidity of  metaphor. Like him he
possessed a vein of sportive ridicule, but  without arrogance or
dictatorial malignity. In Henry's exordium  there was a simplicity
and even carelessness, which to a stranger,  who had never before
heard him, promised little. A formal division  of his intended
discourse he never made: but even the first  distance, which he
took from his main ground, was not so remote as  to obscure it, or
to require any distortion of his course to reach  it. With an eye,
which possessed neither positive beauty, nor  acuteness, and which
he fixed upon the moderator of the assembly  addressed, without
straying in quest of applause, he contrived to be  the focus, to
which every person present was directed, even at the  moment of
the apparent languor of his opening. He transferred into  the breast
of others the earnestness, depicted in his own features,  which ever
forbade a doubt of sincerity. In others rhetorical  artifice, and
unmeaning expletives have been often employed as  scouts to seize
the wandering attention of the audience: in him the  absence of
trick constituted the triumph of nature. His was the only 
monotony, which I ever heard reconcileable with true eloquence;
its  chief note was melodious, but the sameness was diversified by
a  mixture of sensations, which a dramatic versatility of action and
of  countenance produced. His pauses which for their length might 
sometimes be feared to dispel the attention rivetted it the more, by 
raising the expectation of renewed brilliancy. In pure reasoning, he 
encountered many successful competitors; in the wisdom of books
many  superiors; but although he might be inconclusive, he was
never  frivolous; and arguments, which at first seemed strange,
were  afterwards discovered to be select in their kind, because
adapted to  some peculiarity in his audience. His style of oratory
was vehement,  without transporting him beyond the power of self
command or  wounding his opponents by deliberate offense: after
a debate had  ceased, he was surrounded by them on the first
occasion with  pleasantry on some of its incidents. His figures of
speech when  borrowed, were often borrowed, from the scriptures.
His prototypes  of the others were the sublime scenes and objects
of nature; and an  occurrence at the instant he never failed to
employ with all the  energy, of which it was capable. His lightning
consisted in quick  successive flashes, which rested only to alarm
the more. His ability  as a writer cannot be insisted on; nor was he
fond of a length of  details; but for grand impressions, in the
defence of liberty, the  western world has not yet been able to
exhibit a rival. His nature  had probably denied to him, under any
circumstances, the capacity of  becoming Pitt, while Pitt himself
would have been but a defective  instrument in a revolution the
essence of which was deep and  pervading in popular sentiment.

In this embryo state of the revolution, deep research into the 
ancient treasures of political learning, might well be dispensed 
with. It was enough to feel; to remember some general maxims,
coeval  with the colony, and inculcated frequently afterwards.
With  principles like these, Mr. Henry need not dread to encounter
the  usurpation, threatened by parliament; for although even his
powerful  eloquence could not create public sentiment, he could
apply the  torch of opposition so as fortunately to perceive, that in
every  vicissitude of event, he concurred with his country.

No.8. As yet Thomas Jefferson had not attained a marked grade in 
politics. Until about the age of twenty-five years he had pursued 
general science, with which he mingled the law, as a profession, 
with an eager industry, and unabated thirst. His manners could
never  be harsh, but they were reserved towards the world at large.
To his  intimate friends he shewed a peculiar sweetness of temper,
and by  them, was admired and beloved. In mathematics and
experimental  philosophy, he was a proficient, assiduously taught
by Doctor Small  of William and Mary college, whose name was
not concealed among the  literati of Europe. He panted after the
fine arts, and discovered a  taste in them, not easily satisfied with
such scanty means, as  existed in a colony, whose chief ambition
looked to the general  system of education in England, as the
ultimate point of excellence.  But it constituted a part of Mr.
Jefferson's pride to run before the  times in which he lived. Prudent
himself he did not waste his  resources in gratifications, to which
they were incompetent; but  being an admirer of elegance and
convenience, and venerated by his  contemporaries, who were
within the scope of his example, he  diffused a style of living much
more refined than that, which had  been handed down to them by
his and their ancestors. He had been  ambitious to collect a library,
not merely amassing number of books,  but distinguishing authors
of merit, and assembling them in  subordination to every art and
science; and notwithstanding losses  by fire, this library was at this
time more happily calculated, than  any other private one, to direct
to objects of utility and taste, to  present to genius the scaffolding,
upon which its future eminence  might be built, and to approve the
restless appetite which is too  apt to seize the mere gatherer of
books.

The theories of human rights, he had drawn from Locke,
Harrington,  Sidney, the English history, and Montesquieu; he had
maturely  investigated, in all their aspects, and was versed in the
republican  doctrines and effusions, which conducted the first
Charles to the  scaffold. With this fund of knowledge, he was ripe
for stronger  measures, than the public voice was conceived to
demand. But he had  not gained a sufficient ascendency to quicken
or retard the progress  of the popular current. Indefatigable and
methodical in whatever he  undertook he spoke with ease,
perspicuity and elegance. His style in  writing was more
impassioned; and although often incorrect, was too  glowing, not
to be acquitted as venial, departures from rigid rules.  Without
being an overwhelming orator, he was an impressive speaker,  who
fixed the attention. On two signal arguments before the general 
court in which Mr. Henry and himself were coadjutors, each 
characterized himself. Mr. Jefferson drew copiously from the
depths  of the law, Mr. Henry from the recesses of the human
heart.

When Mr. Jefferson first attracted notice, Christianity was directly 
denied in Virginia only by a few. He was an adept however in the 
ensnaring subtleties of deism; and gave it, among the rising 
generation, a philosophical patronage; which repudiates as 
falsehoods things unsusceptible of strict demonstration. It is 
believed, that while such tenets as are in contempt of the gospel, 
inevitably terminate in espousing the fullest latitude in religious 
freedom, Mr. Jefferson's love of liberty, would itself have
produced  the same effects. But his opinions against restraints on
conscience  ingratiated him with the enemies of the establishment,
who did not  stop to inquire, how far those opinions might border
on scepticism  or infidelity. Parties in religion and politics rarely
scan with  nicety the peculiar private opinions of their adherents.

When he entered upon the practice of the law, he chose a
residence,  and travelled to a distance, which enabled him to
display his great  literary endowments, and to establish
advantageous connections among  those classes of men who were
daily rising in weight.

No. 9. In official rank and ostensible importance, Peyton Randolph 
stood foremost in the band of patriots. He held a post of the 
highest popular celebrity under the royal dominion, being speaker
of  the house of burgesses. But his diffidence prevented him from 
affecting any personal preeminence over those, who were hailed
for  their bustling activity. He enjoyed without intrigue that portion
of  general esteem, to which he thought himself entitled (and more
he  did not wish). What he did enjoy was permanent. He had in
early  life, been chosen into that branch of the legislature for the 
college of William and Mary, and was afterwards the constant
member  for the city of Williamsburg, the place of his nativity:
although a  servant of the crown, as attorney general, he was so
firmly planted  in the affections of his countrymen, that the general
assembly  deputed him to defend them before the king in council,
against the  arbitrary exaction of a pistole, as a fee for every patent
for land  granted by Governor Dinwiddie. We have seen, with what
manly  fidelity he executed the mission; with what asperity he was
treated  by that governor, how his office under the crown, was
wrested from  him, and reluctantly restored, under the impulse of
public feelings.

When France was circumvesting our western frontier, he in the 
crudeness of military skill, engaged a company of men of opulence 
and ease, in a warlike expedition, patriotic in its cause, and  useful
in its example, but ineffectual in its result. On the great  American
question he halted not for a moment; although it was  intimated to
him, that the governor would exercise his prerogative,  in refusing
to receive him as speaker, when he should be presented  to him
according to ancient usage; at this time a rejection of this  sort,
might have been a painful diminution of his annual income.  Every
measure, deemed conducive to American success he advocated 
with zeal. His uniformity added force to the soundness of his 
character; and the amiableness of his demeanor with the steadiness 
of his friendship, recommended the suggestions of his judgment 
however little illuminated by eloquence.

In the quarter of Virginia included in the proprietorship of the 
northern neck, Richard Henry Lee had gained the palm of a species
of  oratory, rare among a people, backward in refinement. He had
attuned  his voice with so much care, that one unmusical cadence
could  scarcely be pardoned by his ear. He was reported to have
formed  before a mirror his gesture, which was not unsuitable even
to a  court. His speech was diffusive, without the hackneyed
formulas; and  he charmed wheresoever he opened his lips. In
political reading he  was conversant, and on the popular topics,
dispersed through the  debates of parliament his recollection was
rapid and correct: Malice  had hastily involved him in censure for
a supposed inconsistency of  conduct upon the stamp-act; but the
vigor and perseverance of his  patriotism extorted from his
enemies a confession, that he deserved  the general confidence,
which was afterwards conceded to him.

No. 10. The then treasurer of Virginia was Robert Carter Nicholas, 
whose popularity, though less effulgent, gave light and heat to the 
American cause. He was bred in the bosom of piety, and his
youthful  reading, impressed upon his mind a predelection for the
established  church, though he selected the law as his profession.
The propriety  and purity of his life, were often quoted, to
stimulate the old, and  to invite the young to emulation; and in an
avocation thickly beset  with seductions, he knew them only as he
repelled them with the  quickness of instinct. In speaking of him, I
should distrust the  warping of personal affection, if all Virginia
were not in some  measure, my witness; and I should unwilling
incur the supposition of  a tacit insinuation against the bar in
general, by laying so great  stress on his virtue, were it not, that in
the hour of temptation  the best men find a refuge and succour in
asking themselves how some  individual spotless in morality and
sincere in Christianity would  act on a similar occasion. By nature
he was of a complacent temper;  in all his actions he was
benevolent and liberal. But he appeared to  many who did not
thoroughly understand him, to be haughty and  austere; because
they could not appreciate the preference of gravity  for levity,
when in conversation the sacredness of religion was  involved in
ridicule or language forgot its chastity. When upon the  death of
Mr. John Robinson, who had been speaker of the house of 
burgesses and the treasurer of Virginia, it was intimated to Mr. 
Nicholas, that the governor was about to consign the care of the 
public money to a person not unexceptionable, merely because no 
successor better qualified could be procured; that magistrate was 
confounded by the unusual address, but wholesome lecture, which
Mr.  Nicholas delivered to him: "I am told sir, that the treasury is 
likely to be conferred on a man, in whose hands it would not be 
safe, and that the reason assigned for such an appointment is, that 
an adequate candidate is not within your knowledge. Of myself I 
shall say no more, than that if you deem me equal to the public 
expectation, I will abandon my profession, superior as it is in 
emolution." The dignity of truth and virtue subdued with awe the 
royal vicegerent. For many years the official accounts of Mr. 
Nicholas had been scrutinized without the detection or existence
of  the most minute deficiency.

He was slow in the adoption of expedients, howsoever dazzling
with  their novelty, or forced into an undue magnitude by the arts
of  enthusiasm. But he lingered not behind the most strenuous in 
proposing and pushing measures commensurate with the times.

No. 11. Edmund Pendleton held a high station, as counsel, refuting 
by his success every symptom of aristocratic depression even in
the  sons of a cottage, where virtue and talents concur. At the bar,
his  influence was justly great. In the legislature, he, for many
years,  had assisted with his habits of business every burgess, who
was a  stranger to parliamentary forms or unacquainted with
debate. With a  pen, which scattered no classical decorations, and
with an  education, which debarred him from thorough
grammatical accuracy, he  performed the most substantial service,
by the perspicuity and  comprehensiveness of his numerous
resolutions, reports and laws.  Labour was his delight, although
vivacity and pleasantry were never  suppressed in their due place.
His amiableness bordered on  familiarity without detracting from
personal dignity. He lived at  home with the unadulterated
simplicity of a republican: from abroad  he imported into his
family no fondness for shew. He was not rich  because from his
own purse he had reared into respectability a body  of collateral
relations, without much regard to the admonitions of a  narrow
revenue.

If in his public conduct he was ever questionable, it was supposed 
to be in prescribing no bounds to his gratitude for his primary 
patron, Mr. Robinson, the former speaker and treasurer, whose
death,  as we have seen, discovered a chasm in the public coffers.
It is  true that Mr. Pendleton's exertions sheltered his memory from
much  obloquy, but it is no less true, that he was active and
fortunate as  one of his administrators in replacing the deficit.

Mr. Pendleton was master of the principles of opposition to the 
ministry, and his heart followed with warmth, what his head thus 
suggested.

No. 12. That George Washington has been postponed to this period
of  our patriotic catalogue is owing solely to the circumstance, that
at  the beginning of the year 1774, to which these sketches of
character  are as yet limited, some others were more prominent. It
could not  have been then truly foretold that ever those germs of
his solid  worth, which afterwards overspread our land with
illustrious fruit,  would elevate him very far above many of the
friends of the  revolution. But take him, as he even then was.

From various causes the biography of Virginia must be mutilated
or  confused in its earliest lives at least, until public records 
succeeded to oral tradition. The unlettered state of our society in 
general, at the beginning of the last century, the inaptitude of 
individuals for the observation of character; the feeble hold which 
is taken by the memory, of transactions not striking; the imperfect 
talent of combination and inductions; the dispersion of the 
inhabitants of a new country; and ignorance of the names of those 
who could testify; and the advanced age, at which any Virginian
born  as late as the year 1732, could probably deserve a large page
even  in colonial story; deprive us of those prognostics, which
when  referred to manhood almost create a rule for a kind of
prophecy.  Hence even Washington is a partial prey to the
corrosion of time.

His youth had developed no flattering symptom of what the world 
calls genius; but he had been conspicuous for firmness, for a 
judgment which discriminated the materials gathered by others of
a  quicker and more fertile invention, and for a prudence which no 
frivolousness had ever chequered. He possessed a fund of
qualities,  which had no specific direction to any particular calling,
but were  instruments for any crisis.

By nature, by his attention to agriculture, in exposure of himself 
in the chase, and his occupation of a surveyor of land, he was 
remarkably robust and athletic. It had been the lot of Washington, 
at the age of nineteen years, as the sequel of his history when 
resumed will shew, to have been at the most vigorous era of his 
life, the only man, whose total fitness pointed him out for a 
mission, which first introduced him to public notice. When France 
had made some progress in the completeness of a scheme to
surround  the British colonies by a line of posts from the lakes to
the river  Ohio, the governor of Virginia had resolved to
remonstrate against  the encroachments, and to demand the
removal of them. The very  journey through a wilderness without a
track opened by civilized  man, and infested by Indians not
friendly to the English, was truly  formidable from its dangers and
fatigues. But the grandeur of the  enterprise animated Washington
to commence it on the very day of  receiving his commission and
instructions. Among the lovers of ease,  and those, who, in the lap
of luxury regarded the territory, as  doomed to a perpetual savage
rudeness, Washington was mentioned as  an adventurer,
meritorious indeed, but below competition or envy. In  the hands
of Washington the expedition did not droop; in the hands  of any
other it would probably have perished. With what applause he 
fulfilled his errand of defiance is recorded by his country; and in 
the journal, which, on short notice, he composed, and the 
publication of which, his modesty induced him to desire to be 
withheld he evidenced a perspicuity and skill in composition,
which  diffused a reverence for his powers of varied utility. It was 
impossible to peruse it without emotions like these: the quickness 
of his movements, the patience with which he encountered the 
inclemencies of the weather; the military acuteness with which he 
surveyed the lands in the fork of the Monongahela and Ohio,
where  Pittsburg has been since erected, and compared that site
with  Loggs-loar; his accuracy in the computation of distances; his 
success in the acquirement of the intelligence to be procured; his 
management in obtaining secret interviews with the half king, and 
extracting from him all that he knew, his discernment in 
ascertaining when to yield, and when to resist importunities; his 
escape from French snares; his treasuring up the imprudent 
discoveries, made by the French officers; his conciliation of 
respect from those, who were hostile to his business; his
observance  of all attention towards even savage princes, whose
favor might be  beneficial to his country; and the anxiety which
pervaded his whole  journey, to do his duty in everything; all these
traits when brought  together, gave reason for the anticipation that
no trial could  exhaust such a fund of qualities; but that they would
supply every  call.

Being a member of the house of burgesses after his return from the 
Ohio, the speaker was charged to express to him the thanks of that 
body. That officer by the august solemnity of his manners would 
probably have embarrased most men, in their attempt to reply to
the  compliments with which he covered Mr. Washington; for
while they  soothed, they awed him. When the address from the
chair was  concluded he could not articulate without difficulty.
This being  perceived by Mr. Robinson, he did honor to himself,
and relieved Mr.  Washington, by crying out at the instant, "Sit
down Mr. Washington.  Your modesty is equal to your merit, in
the description of which  words must fall short." Of a regiment,
raised for the defence of the  frontiers, the command had been
given to a Mr. Fry, and Mr.  Washington had been appointed
lieutenant colonel. Upon the death of  Fry, Mr. Washington
succeeded to the command, and was unfortunate at  the Great
Meadows; but it is remarkable, that in no adversity had  his honor
as a soldier or a man been ever stained.

He was himself a pattern of subordination; for when orders of the 
most preposterous and destructive nature were given to him; he 
remonstrated indeed, but began to execute them, as far as it was in 
his power.

A new arrangement of rank which humiliated the provincial
officers  of the highest grade to the command of the lowest
commissioned  officer of the crown, rendered his continuance in
the regiment too  harsh to be endured. He retired to Mount Vernon,
which his brother  by the paternal side, passing by his own full
blood, had bequeathed  to him. His economy, without which virtue
itself is always in  hazard, afforded nutriment to his character.

But he did not long indulge himself in the occupation of his farm. 
General Braddock, who had been sent by the Duke of Cumberland
the  commander in chief, to head the forces, employed against the
Indians  and French, invited him into his family as a volunteer
aid-de-camp.  The fate of that brave but rash general who had been
taught a  system, impliant to all reasoning, which could
accommodate itself to  local circumstances and exceptions, might
have been averted, if  Washington's advice had been received. As it
was, he in his  debilitated state could accomplish nothing more
than by his valor  and to lead from the field of slaughter into
security the remains of  the British army.

Washington now was no longer forbidden by any rule of honor to 
accept the command of a new regiment raised by Virginia. In his 
intercourse with Braddock, and his first and second military 
officers, he continued to add to the inferences from the whole of 
the former conduct, instances of vigilance, courage, 
comprehensiveness of purpose, and delicacy of feeling, and in the 
enthusiastic language of a presbyterian minister, he was
announced,  as a hero, born to be the future saviour of his country.

It was the custom of the King to enroll in the council of state in 
Virginia, men with fortunes, which classed them in the aristocracy 
of the colony. The proprietor of the Northern Neck, Lord Fairfax, 
had been importunate for the promotion of Colo. Washington to a
seat  at that board; and he would have been gratified long before, if
four  of his tenants and one of his own name, had not been already
in the  same corps. That this honor awaited him, Colo. Washington
well knew,  but the probability, that the event was not far distant
could not  abate his sympathy with his country's wrongs; and he
promptly  associated his name, with every patriotic stress and idea.

No. 13. Richard Bland, who was a general scholar, was noted, as
an  antiquary in colonial learning. He had enlightened the people,
by a  pamphlet overflowing with historical facts, which reinforced
the  opposition to the ministry. He attacked with boldness every 
assumption of power, and had combated a very ancient usage of
the  secretary of Virginia, to appoint the clerks of the county
courts.  This was an earnest of his sincerity in his present career.

No. 14. Another favorite of the day was Benjamin Harrison, with 
strong sense, and a temper not disposed to compromise with 
ministerial power, he scrupled not to utter any truth. During a long 
service in the house of burgesses, his frankness, though sometimes 
tinctured with bitterness was the source of considerable
attachment.

No. 15. George Wythe is said to have been indebted to his mother, 
for the literary distinction which he attained. But it is more 
probable, that she was by chance capable of assisting him in the 
rudiments of the Latin tongue, and that he became a scholar by the 
indispensable progress of his own industry in his closet. Preceptors 
lay the corner stone; but the edifice can be finished only by the 
pupil himself, under the auspices of good taste. Mr. Wythe not
only  laboured through an apprenticeship, but almost through a life
in the  dead languages. In his pleadings at the bar, it was a foible to 
intersperse such frequent citations from the classics. But he argued 
ably and profoundly. The temptations of the law never raised a
doubt  on his purity; and though long habituated to the patronage
and  friendship of royal governors; in every conflict with them he 
adhered to his country. He acted upon the maxim, that genuine
riches  consisted in having few wants. A natural instability he held
with a  tight rein. On an alarm of hostility from the last British
governor,  he sallied forth with his hunting shirt and musket, at an
age, when  his patriotism would have sustained no shock, had he
remained at  home. But his character, rather than his actions
rendered him a  valuable resource to the infant revolution. Upon
the death of Peyton  Randolph he was called, as the most beloved
citizen to represent the  city of Williamsburg.

No. 16. John Blair was born of Scotch parents, educated in Great 
Britain, connected in Scotland by marriage, and chief adviser of
his  father, who as president of the royal council had been thrice 
temporary governor. He was himself the clerk of that council,
under  the gift of the governor during pleasure. If the habits of
monarchy  could have disqualified him for the part of a republican,
he must  have been alienated from the cause of democracy. But
without parade  he was steadfast and alert in it. He lived without
suspicion in  those precarious days, of having betrayed a syllable
of what passed  at the council board. On the other hand he
vindicated the rights of  man, not with declamations or in a
visionary sense, but in one  coinciding with practical happiness.
His suavity of manners, which  is often a veil for hyprocrisy, was
with him an affusion of nature.  He was an adept in classical
learning, mathematics, divinity,  various branches of natural
philosophy, belles lettres and the law.  A discerning foreigner once
observed of him that his only fault was,  that he was such pure
gold, that a little alloy was necessary to the  finishing of him, as a
perfect practical man.

No. 17. Thomas L. Lee, who had been tutored for no department of 
public speaking, was by accident banished from the lists of the 
softer oratory. A friend of his was assailed in the house of 
burgesses, and he rose in his defence: but Lee's sensibility checked 
his utterance and extinguished his courage ever again to use on any 
other occasion there to be counted. But when the formality of a 
public body did not agitate him, he was a real orator. He
enraptured  with his grace every private society. In the subordinate
committees  he struck the point with a promptness, which excited
a wonder how he  could ever be destitute of confidence in himself.
By fair reasoning  out of the house, he satisfied political sceptics,
and fortified the  wavering.

Among the numbers who in their small circles, were propagating
with  activity the American doctrines, was George Mason in the
shade of  retirement. He extended their grasp upon the opinions
and affections  of those, with whom he conversed. How he learned
his indifference  for distinction, endowed as he was with ability to
mount in any  line; or whence he contracted his hatred for pomp,
with a fortune,  competent to any expense, and a disposition not
averse from  hospitality, can be solved, only from that
philosophical spirit,  which despised the adulterated means of
cultivating happiness. He  was behind none of the sons of Virginia,
in knowledge of her history  and interest. At a glance he saw to the
bottom of every proposition,  which affected her. His elocution
was manly sometimes, but not  wantonly sarcastic.

No. 18. About this time Charles Lee was greatly admired in
Virginia.  He was an officer in the British Army, having brought
with him a  reputation for literature and arms. His disgust with the
British  government, which had pretermitted him in promotion,
had given birth  to various productions from his pen, much to the
annoyance of the  ministry. When he came hither, this crime of
neglect had not been  expiated, and he arraigned the radical vices
of the English  Constitution, the exercise of its power, and the
jeopardy of  colonial liberty. Without any restraint from
controversial replies,  he satiated his revenge in a new and more
fatal shape. With the  rough exterior of a veteran soldier, he was
domesticated in most of  the principal families, whom wit and pith
of remark could entertain.  Eccentric and anomalous, he was
agreeable every where. He well  played the part of a republican,
though born under a monarchy, and  educated in an army. And
without a particle of religion he simulated  an attachment to it. It
was believed however that from a sternness  of principle, he would
perform with fidelity, every requisition of  duty, or promise in his
profession; and that his rancour against the  ministry was
unextinguishable.

No. 19. It has been stated, that Mr. John Mercer was the first in 
Virginia who distinctly elucidated upon paper, the principles
which  justified the opposition to the stamp act. He shewed them
in  manuscript to his friends. They spread rapidly so as to produce
a  ground work for and uniformity of popular sentiment.

This selection of characters does not exhaust that store of 
faculties, which contributed their proportion to the impending 
scenes. From these it may be calculated, how deeply rooted in 
Virginia must have been the American cause. Of some others who
lived  to enforce and adorn the revolution, a sketch may be
exhibited in a  future page.

Many circumstances existed favorable to the propogating of a 
contagion of free opinion; although every class of men cannot be 
supposed to have been aided by extensive literary views

---1. The system of slavery howsoever baneful to virtue, begat a 
pride, which nourished a quick and acute sense of the rights of 
freemen

---2. Whether there was any peculiar facility in the mutual 
intercourse of the people, or a greater frequency of occasion for 
public numerous assemblies, the Virginians seem to catch the full 
spirit of the theories which at the fountain head, were known only 
to men of studious retirement

---3. The hospitality and even convivial circles, which were the 
natural offspring of the ease of living:---perhaps a certain fluency 
of speech, which marked the character of Virginians, pushed into 
motion many adventurous doctrines, which in a different situation
of  affairs, might have lain dormant much longer and might have
been  limited to a much narrowed sphere.

---4. Nor ought it to be forgotten, that even if the fancied  division
into something like ranks, not actually coalescing with  each other,
had been really formed, the opinions of every  denomination or
cast would have diffused themselves on every side by  means of
the professions of priest, lawyer and physician, who  visited the
houses of the ostentatious as well as the cottages of  the planters

---5. The season too for courting the possessors of the right of 
suffrage often returned; and of course afforded opportunities, for 
unreserved interchange of ideas between candidates and electors,
and  among electors themselves.

---6. Obvious as it was that the dissenters, as they were called, 
would be animated with a zeal inferior to that of no partizan of 
general liberty, it was yet impracticable for the mother country or 
the colony to incorporate religion into the controversy, farther 
than as public fasting and prayer might always in the hands of the 
latter make an impression against power, branded with the charge
of  oppression; and as the Church of England might have been
assured,  that the established church as such, could not hope in a
revolution  for a better boon, than to retain the status quo of
ancient  privilege, if the church and the dissenters could have been
brought  to such an issue, that the establishment was in danger, the
band of  union might not have been totally free from fracture. But
the two  sects were contrasted by some striking circumstances. The 
Presbyterian clergy were indefatigable. Not depending upon the
dead  letter of written sermons, they understood the mechanism of 
haranguing, and had often been whetted in disputes on religious 
liberty so nearly allied to civil.

20. Those of the Church of England were planted on glebes, with 
comfortable houses, decent salaries, some perquisites, and a
species  of rank which was not wholly destitute of unction. To
him, who  acquitted himself of parochial functions, those comforts
were  secure, whether he ever converted a deist, or softened the
pangs of  a sinner. He never asked himself whether he was felt by
his  audience. To this charge of lukewarmness there were some
shining  exceptions, and there were even a few, who did not
hesitate to  confront the consequences of a revolution, which
boded no stability  to them. The dissenters on the other hand, were
fed and clothed,  only as they merited the gratitude of their
congregations. A change  or modification of the ancient regime
carried no terrors to their  imagination.

21. Notwithstanding these advantages of solid character and 
religious votaries on the side of the people, although in so 
favorable a soil the spirit of freedom was not obstructed by a weed, 
which their frown did not eradicate, and every thwarting
movement of  government heaped fresh odium on its head, the
British partizans  administered some cautions, which put to the test
the principles  then inflaming the colony. Her feelings were
wounded by an  insinuation that a revolution was coveted only by
those, whose  desperate fortunes might be disencumbered by an
abolition of debts.  But this was contradicted by a loyalty without
being immoveable, and  by the certainty of a general pecuniary
ability which could not be  [too obscure to be read] by a delay of
collection for the risque of  an untried order of things.

22. It was however clearly foreseen, that sooner or later the sword 
of America must be drawn, even to obtain a reconciliation, not 
destructive in its sacrifices; but it could not without difficulty  be
conceived, how subjects could repel their sovereigns in war, and 
yet restrict their triumphs to the literal restoration of their  ancient
relations.[] Deprived too of an intercourse with England,  the chief
market for her supplies and for the sale of her raw  materials, and
the sole nursery of her credit;---with a dearth of  manufactures,
occasioned by British prohibitions and regulations;  relying on
British bottoms for her navigation;---estranged from the  thought
of a compact with foreign nations, as a substitute for the 
inevitable stoppage of commerce with Great Britain---without 
military stores,---without discipline in the militia, to whom no war 
was known, except that waged with the savages in the woods, and
even  that confined to the western frontier;--without a man, who
had  inspired an absolute confidence in him, as a military leader
upon a  large or scientific scale;---with a conviction, that the
merciless  tomahawk would be uplifted against her;---and with the
anticipation,  that a more dangerous, because a domestic enemy
might butcher their  masters and their families, instigated by
promises of  emancipation;---Virginia, had she been languid or
fluctuating, could  not have been unmoved by the menaces of a
government, than extolled  as the most formidable in Europe. But
from her nerve, which  contemned consequences, she was ready to
launch into an ocean  unexplored, provided with no chart of actual
experience, and resting  upon general maxims of liberty. Her latest
partiality for great  Britain did not exaggerate as too grievous the
price of liberty, nor  spread a gloom, too thick to be dissipated by
men, resolved to be  free.

These obstacles being overcome, others from the patronage or 
personal weight of the chief executive magistrate, were 
insignificant.

23. It has been stated, that the governor at this time was John,  Earl
of Dunmore, a native and peer of Scotland, who once sat in the 
British house of Lords. Among the manifold errors of the British 
government in their policy towards Virginia, was that of not 
discerning that soon without a cessation or relaxation of their 
principles, a degree of complacency at least, might have effected 
much on the public mind, by the choice of such a governor, as 
Botetourt had been, in suavity and frankness of manner, in
exemplary  virtue, and a warm patronage of learning and religion.
But Dunmore  generally preferring the crooked path, possessed not
the genius to  conceive, nor temper to seek the plain and direct
way, which nature  opens to the human heart, through those cheap
courtesies, which were  in the power of the vicegerent, the
fountain of honor to be  bestowed. On his translation from the
government of New York to that  of Virginia, he was accompanied
by Edward Foy, as his confidential  inmate, counsellor and private
secretary. This gentleman exacted for  his civil talents the homage
due to his military merit as a captain  of artillery at the battle of
Minden in Germany. The consequence was  that the
imperviousness of the army officers was added to the  arrogace of
a pedant and cynick.

The only two offices of value, to which Dunmore could
permanently  appoint were the clerkships of the council and of the
house of  burgesses. In the appointment to every other of moment,
he was  controulable by the advice of the council, or was the mere
organ of  recommendation to the pleasure of his royal master. For
the clergy  of the Church of England, he had no other allurement,
than the  employment of his interest with the bishop of London (to
whose  diocese Virginia belonged), for a single commissaryship
with an  annual salary of an hundred pounds sterling: a vacancy
occurring not  much oftener than once in the usual term of life, and
generally  conferred on some minister whose mind, activity and
persuasiveness  were small, while his affectation of dignity, was
every thing.

Dunmore flattered himself that the devotion of the people to the 
mother country, would supply the defect of patronage; but he
forgot  that a high sense of personal independence was universal.
A  governor, who could withstand a popular current must possess
more  than ordinary qualifications. But of those which shed a beam
of  false lustre, and certainly of those of an exalted kind, Dunmore
was  wholly destitute. In stature he was low; and though muscular
and  healthful he bore on his head hoary symptoms of probably a
greater  age, than he had reached. To external accomplishment he
pretended  not; and his manners and sentiments did not surpass
substantial  barbarism; a barbarism, which was not palliated by a
particle of  native genius, nor regulated by one ingredient of
religion. His  propensities were coarse and depraved.

But it must be confessed, that probably no British Vicegerent, not 
Botetourt himself, had he been on earth, could have gained ten 
revolters from their country's cause. 

The History of the Revolution

No. 24. The facts, which at the beginning of this year, were
preying  upon the recollection and patience of the thinking part of
the  colony, were principally these: that their submission to the 
mutilation of their rights under the charter of 1609, by grants of 
land from the king to Lord Baltimore, the Culpeper family, and
other  favorites; the victories, which the avarice of some of the
royal  governors in a summary mode of extorting money, had
gained from the  approbation of the crown; and the parliamentary
declaration of a  right to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever,
were swelling  into a gigantic map of precedent, which at a future
day might be  turned to the destruction of their liberties. The duty
also on tea  too paltry to justify incurring the hazard of general
discontent,  bespoke a raging appetite for Colonial revenue. Every
day  intelligence arrived from England of authorized contempts of 
American prowess and courage, and of a callousness to American 
remonstrances. The British officers on board of the vessels 
stationed on our coast, echoed the insulting expressions which had 
been imported, and drew from the people a counter vehemence;
which  amounted to a pledge against yielding or shrinking.
Aspersions on a  nation, are not divided, as responsibility is among
a multitude of  individuals, each assuming to himself only his
fraction; but rather  resemble in their effect the ancient mode of
battle, in which every  man made the common cause his own
peculiar case. Virginia read with  composure the denunciation
against the colonies, acquired hourly a  more precise and
determined sense of colonial rights, and wafted  incense across the
Atlantic to that phalanx of orators in  parliament, who, besides, our
gratitude and admiration, had some  reward in using the
complaints of America as banners under which  they attacked the
ministry. The veil of sanctity had been roughly  torn from the king
and his most conspicuous servants, and the  corruption of
parliament had been probed by the letters of Junius,  whose
concealment seemed to be a lucky refuge from an impotent 
prosecution to those who by office were bound to seem to labour
for  a discovery of their author.

In times of general sensibility, almost every public event is 
tortured into an affinity with the predominant passions. The law, 
which established the fees of the ministerial officers, attending  the
courts, and the costs of litigation had been originally  temporary,
and constantly renewed before the day limited for its  expiration.
But from the dissolution of the general assembly, the  usual
opportunity of prolonging it beyond the stated termination of  its
existence had passed away, and a suspension which from this 
cause took place in the proceedings of the courts on the 12th day
of  April 1774, proclaimed a derangement in the machine of
government  which was immediately converted into the misrule of
the king. But  notwithstanding this relaxation of law, order was
maintained, and  licentiousness discouraged by general morality.
Independent  companies had separated themselves from the militia
at large, were  clothed in uniforms, and yet professed obedience to
the militia  laws. George Washington had accepted the command
of many of them.  The old who had seen service in the Indian war
of 1755 roused the  young to resist the ministry; and the sons, who
had committed  themselves by strong military declarations reacted
on their fathers  with new opinions, new demands and new
prospects; and yet this  military ardor thus unrestrained interfered
not with a forbearance  towards those who repined at the loss of
the government of England.  It left the point, to which the general
temper was insensibly  advancing, the severance of the colonies
from the parent state, as  an evil which either need not be
apprehended, or might be arrested  at any moment. It caused the
people to overlook the harm of  combustible materials, which were
at hand, and which a single spark  might at any time kindle into an
explosion.

No. 25. In May, the general Assembly met, and in reply to a speech 
of empty professions from the governor, they avowed their loyalty
to  the king, and their good will to Dunmore. They say that the
fatherly  attention of their most gracious sovereign to the
happiness of his  subjects, in making the good of his people the
first object of his  thoughts cannot but impress their minds with the
liveliest sense of  duty and gratitude. They proceed thus: "It will
ever afford us much  pleasure to observe an increase of your
lordship's domestic  felicity, and with the greatest cordiality we
embrace the first  opportunity to congratulate your lordship on the
arrival of the  amiable and most respectable lady Dunmore, with so
many branches of  your noble family; an event, which we consider
as having brought  with it the surest pledges of our mutual
happiness." To aim at a  reform of the mere etiquette of public
language is perhaps little  less than knight-errantry; but to infect
with the compliments of  ordinary discourse, the genuine dignity
of a legislature, ill  accords with that sincerity of principle, upon
which they then  claimed the merit of acting. They expected
nothing good from  Dunmore. They had seen reason to fear much
mischief from him.

This address was received by him as the harbinger of success to his 
stratagems; and anxious to hold at his disposal a military force he 
worked a dispute of boundary between Virginia and Pennsylvania
into  a topic of great irritation. In a message to the house of
burgesses,  he informs them, "that a considerable body of his
majesty's subjects  had settled in Virginia, contiguous to the
western boundary of  Pennsylvania: that he had appointed militia
officers to defend them  on any emergency and magistrates to
preserve order: that the  governor of Pennsylvania pretended a
claim to that country: that he  (Dunmore) had taken steps to
enforce the authority of Virginia in  that district: and that he
submits to the house; as the governor of  Pennsylvania meant to
obstruct by every possible means, the  government of this colony
in the disputed district, whether  provisions be not necessary to
render the legal power of the  officers and magistrates there
effectual."

On the day following the message, inflamatory letters from John 
Conolly, a man of intrigue and hardihood of enterprize, and
devoted  to Dunmore, were communicated by him to the house, as
fuel to the  fury, projected against the province of Pennsylvania,
and as an  alarm from Indian hostility. Cautious as the house were,
they could  not wholly shun the snare spread for them. They were
no less averse  to the very semblance of submission to usurpation,
than to a  precipitate quarrel with a sister colony. While therefore
they  express their regret at such a dissention, they declare it to be 
their duty to protect the people of Virginia from oppression, let it 
arise from what quarter it might, but that to inflict the punishment 
of imprisonment or death on the officers of either government on 
account of an unsettled line was to deviate from the plain and 
simple plan of accomodation, observed in former contests of this 
nature. They then request the governor to fix a temporary boundary 
line, until the king should act, and to exert his powers under the 
laws against invasions and insurrections, which they did not doubt, 
would for the present be sufficient to repel the attacks of the 
Indians, who had perfidiously commenced hostilities.

The prudence and calmness of these sentiments, and the reluctance
to  organize a corps of regular soldiers, were answered by an
affected  acquiescence, while Dunmore lamented the difference of
opinion upon  the inadequacy of the militia.

To charge him with a scheme for embroiling Virginia with 
Pennsylvania and thus to paralyze the energy of both, in the 
threatened rupture with Great Britain, might perhaps be unjust.
The  outrages from the governor of Pennsylvania could not pass
without  animadversion, and he is protected from the fulness of
censure, by  the assent of the house of burgesses to the
employment of some  force. But he unnecessarily appointed
officers, whose functions  would clash with those of the officers of
Pennsylvania, when in a  few months an appeal to the king would
have adjusted the  controversy. It would therefore be excessively
harsh, to suspect a  man, who laboured to subjugate the colony,
and whose bitterness  towards Virginia encreased every day. The
proclamations of Penn and  Dunmore are strictly parallel in
disregarding every consideration of  peace, and notwithstanding
the exasperation of these individuals  regardless of the fatherly
care chief magistrates should exercise  over the people committed
to their superintendence, the conduct of  the Virginia assembly on
this occasion was a striking instance of  the happiness springing
from the wisdom of a legislature, not  divested by executive
influence from pursuing its dictates and the  interest of their
constituents.

No. 26. Amidst the agitations of the time, the Assembly were not 
unmindful of agriculture, and were desirous of increasing the 
facilities of the farmer, in a speedy preparation of his crops of 
wheat for market. That baneful weed, tobacco, which had stained
our  country with all the pollutions and cruelties of slavery, had 
exhausted the fertility of our soil, had swallowed up in its large 
plantations vast territories, which if distributed into portions,  were
best adapted to favour population, was yet the only commodity, 
which could command money for the planter at a short notice, and
the  only one from which the dexterity of the British Merchant
could  extract such various emolutions, and was therefore with him
a choice  subject of trade. But it had become obvious, that the staff
of life  was entitled to legislative stimulus; and a reward of one
hundred  pounds was voted to John Hobday for the invention of a
machine which  pressed out the wheat with ribbed cylinders, put
into circular  motion by horses. In nothing was the tardiness of
Virginia in  improving machinery more visible, than in the long
dormant state of  this important, though in its first stage, certainly
crude  combination of mechanical power. It might be too great a
refinement  to connect as cause and effect, the cessation of that
spirit, which  coveted tobacco, as the greatest blessing of our state,
with the  most promising effort which had been ever made in the
legislature  for a complete toleration of protestant dissenters. Let it
be some  apology for Virginia, that this indulgence had not in
practice been  long before conceded in England, and that for more
than a century  and a half, the depositaries of public authority had
revered the  church of England, as the safeguard of tranquility,
which in the  mother country had been once radically disturbed by
the  extravagances of her enemies. The history of the English
revolution  in 1688 had not universally imparted its entire essence
here,  counteracted as it was by the established clergy, most of
whom  delighted rather in the lethargy of fixed salaries, than in the 
trouble of thought, learning and research, which a vigorous 
dissenting minister no longer depressed, might occasion. The law, 
however, which was on its passage, was defeated by the
dissolution  of the Assembly, in consequence of the fast, now to be
mentioned.

No. 27. The town of Boston in Massachusetts, being esteemed the 
focus of rebellion, was the peculiar victim of ministerial vengence. 
A statute had been enacted, annihilating her ports, after the first 
day of June 1774, abolishing her mart of foreign commerce, and 
stirring up the neighbouring towns to share in her plunder, by the 
exclusive possession of privileges, which Boston had enjoyed, and 
which were now to be transferred to her rivals. Men, mad in the 
career of power seldom delay, to consult the human heart. They 
overlook the sympathies, which act upon nations, sincerely sisters 
for general purposes, and which cannot be torpid, although the 
distance of place and an exemption from instantaneous suffering
may  for a moment deceive with the expectation of at least an 
indifference on their part.

Mr. Jefferson, and Charles Lee, may be said to have originated a 
fast, to electrify the people from the pulpit. Such is the 
constitution of things, that an act of public devotion, will receive 
no opposition from those, who believe in its effect to appease 
offended heaven, and is registered in the cabinet of the politician, 
as an allowable trick of political warfare. Those gentlemen,
knowing  that Robert Carter Nicholas the chairman of the
committee of  religion, was no less zealous than themselves
against the attempt to  starve thousands of the American people
into a subservience to the  ministry, easily persuaded him to put
forth the strength of his  character, on an occasion, which he
thought to be pious, and to move  for a fast, to be observed on the
first day of June, which few,  besides himself could so well
delineate, as a hopeful appeal to the  deity and over which his
reputation as a religionist spread  popularity.

The style, in which the fast was recommended was too bold to be 
neglected by the governor, as an effusion, which would evaporate
on  paper. It was a cement among the colonies unconnected as they
were  in situation, and dissimilar as they were in manners, habits,
ideas  of religion and government from the states abounding in
slaves. It  brought home to the bosom of each colony the
apprehensions of every  other; and if in the hour of reflection, the
ministry could have  foreseen the approach of a closer union
among the colonies, these  resolutions might have been well
interpreted into the seed of a  revolution. The governor therefore
resorted to his power of  dissolving the assembly: a power which
hindered the circulation of  offensive matter under the legislative
seal, but inoculated the  whole colony with the poison, against
which it was directed.

No. 28. The burgesses immediately after the dissolution assembled 
with Peyton Randolph at their head, made the cause of Boston
their  own; protested with indignation against the taxation of
America in  the British parliament, and the baseness of tampering
with one  section of the colony, to sever itself from the general
sentiment,  for the sake of the sports of another. A congress of
deputies from  each province had been discussed in town meetings
in New York and  Boston, and was now consigned to the
committee of correspondence for  execution. A convention was
also voted to be holden in the latter  part of the summer.

The fast was obeyed throughout Virginia with such rigour and 
scruples, as to interdict the tasting of food between the rising and 
setting sun. With the remembrance of the king, horror was 
associated; and in churches as well as in the circles of social 
conversation, he seemed to stalk like the Arch enemy of mankind.

No. 29. The counties and corporations elected with alacrity 
representatives or delegates as they were called, to that 
convention. Their powers were to take under their consideration
the  present critical and alarming situation of the continent of
North  America. Thomas Jefferson, who was one of those elected,
was  prevented by indisposition from attending. But he forwarded
by  express for the consideration of its members a series of 
resolutions. I distinctly recollect the applause bestowed on the 
most of them, when they were read to a large company at the
house of  Peyton Randolph, to whom they were addressed. Of all,
the  approbation was not equal. From the celebrated letters of the 
Pennsylvania Farmer (John Dickinson) we had been instructed to
bow  to the external taxation of parliament, as resulting from our 
migration, and a necessary dependence on the mother country. But 
this composition of Mr. Jefferson, shook this conceded principle, 
although it had been confirmed by a still more celebrated
pamphlet,  written by Daniel Dulany of Maryland, and cited by
Lord Chatham, as  a text book of American rights. The young
ascended with Mr.  Jefferson to the source of those rights; the old
required time for  consideration, before they could tread this lofty
ground, which, if  it had not been abandoned, at least had not been
fully occupied,  throughout America. From what cause it
happened, that the  resolutions were not printed by the order of the
convention does not  appear; but as they were not adopted several
of the author's  admirers subscribed to their publication. When the
time of writing  is remembered, a range of inquiry not then very
frequent, and  marching far beyond the politicks of the day, will
surely be allowed  to them. Mr. Jefferson was, however,
disappointed in a seat at the  first session of congress. His presence
at the convention would  probably have multiplied the suffrages in
his favor, but the seven,  who were nominated to that new
assembly, had the advantage of being  better known, of possessing
more exclusive connections, and of being  older servants of the
public. The successful candidates were Peyton  Randolph. Richard
Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry,  Richard Bland,
Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, in the order  in which
they are here named. Some of the tickets on the ballot,  assigned
reasons for the choice, expressed in them. These were, that 
Randolph should preside in congress; that Lee and Henry should 
display the different kinds of eloquence, for which they were 
renowned, that Washington should command the army, if an army
should  be raised; that Bland should open the treasures of ancient
colonial  learning; that Harrison should utter plain truths, and that 
Pendleton should be the penman for business. Perhaps characters
were  never better discriminated.

No. 30. In defining the objects of the congress the convention of 
Virginia did not soar so high, as the electing bodies of some of the 
other states. Virginia kept out of sight a truth, which time never 
fails to bring to light, that when subjects question a power 
asserted by a mother country their measures will be elevated in 
their progress farther than was at first expected. Virginia 
instructed her deputies, so to touch our commercial connection, as 
to "procure redress for the most injured province of Massachusetts 
bay, to secure British America from the ravage and ruin of
arbitrary  taxes, and, speedily obtain that harmony and union, so
beneficial to  the whole empire, and so ardently desired by all
British America."

Until congress should act, and their proceedings should be
divulged,  the people deemed it unadvisable to make any
movement collectively;  but the opposition to the ministry retained
its fire. Vigilance was  alone necessary in the mean time with
respect to their enemies.  After those proceedings were disclosed,
an opportunity did not  present itself for a revision of them in a
convention, until that  which met at Richmond in March 1775. But
the mouths of all were  filled with eulogium on the patriotic,
enlightened and manly conduct  of congress.

No. 31. In the enthusiasm of the day, this body was supposed to be 
honored by a comparison of it with some of the August Assemblies
of  antiquity. So natural is it to court for modern times a lustre 
reflected through the medium of antiquity. But America desires no 
other tribute of applause for this illustrious body, than that their 
agency corresponded with the character of their constituents, 
ambitious to shine in the annals of Liberty.

No. 32. But before the posture given to our affairs by congress, had 
undergone a discussion in the convention, Dunmore had been
gratified  in his vehement lust for embodying a large army of
expert riflemen  and woodsmen from the militia of the Western
frontiers. He had  collected under cover of the standing law,
providing against Indian  hostilities, a brave yeomanry, which if
not convertible under his  authority to other purposes, unsuspected
and unjustifiable, might at  least be more immediately within the
sphere of his influence, from  those blandishments, which a
commander in chief can liberally  disperse. If they could be
detached from the rest of their  countrymen, the most hardy and
most experienced in war of the sons  of Virginia, would be cast
into the scale of Great Britain: if he  miscarried, as he in fact did,
the necessity of chastising the  Indians would always be a veil over
his original views. His conduct  of this little army was mysterious
to a degree of folly. Instead of  prostrating, as he might, all the
Indian enemy by a concentrated  application of his strength, he
divided it into two parts; one of  which he confided to Colo.
Andrew Lewis, to be led to the mouth of  Kanawha River, and with
the other, far superior, he moved to a point  on the Ohio river,
distant more than seventy miles, making  seasonable cooperation
impracticable. Lewis, notwithstanding the  bravery of himself, his
officers and men, at Point Pleasant, the  place of his destination,
was defeated by the Shawanese, Delawares,  Mingoes, Tawas, and
mortally wounded. His surviving compatriots,  eager to avenge the
death of their friends, were on the wing for the  destruction of the
Shawanese Villages when tidings of peace, on the  condition of the
cessation of the Indian lands on the eastern side  of the Ohio,
surrendering their prisoners, and delivering hostages  of
performance, gave Dunmore by a false eclat, a feather for his 
vanity.

No. 33. The dissolution of the assembly in the preceding year, had 
demonstrated, that it was no security against the repetition of the 
same offences to the governor. He had therefore intermitted to call 
one, careless, whether anarchy had ensued or not from the 
derangement of our police. In March 1775, the indications were 
stronger still, and a convention was holden in the town of
Richmond.  Among the members were Peyton Randolph, Thomas
Jefferson, Edmund  Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, George
Washington, Patrick Henry,  Robert Carter Nicholas, Richard
Bland and Richard Henry Lee, who  have been already drawn to
the size of character which they had then  unfolded. To shew in
what numbers Virginia might feel an assurance,  others were
associated with them, whose respectability, virtue, and  good sense
made and fixed proselytes, by conviction inculcated in  private,
when they were averse to address their compatriots in  public.
Among these were John Harvie, Thomas Lewis, Henry Tazewell, 
John Nicholas, Paul Carrington, Archibald Cary, William Fleming, 
John Banister, William Fitzhugh, Charles Carter, Francis Peyton, 
Meriwether Smith, Thomas Marshall, James Mercer, Joseph Jones, 
Thomas Walker, Edmund Berkeley, Lemuel Riddick, Willis
Riddick,  Burwell Bassett, Thomas Newton, William Robinson,
Henry Lee, Thomas  Blackburn, Edwin Gray, James Taylor, Mann
Page of Spotsylvania,  Dudley Digges, Thomas Nelson junior of
York, Champion Travis and  Joseph Hutchings. All of them had at
stake, fortunes, which were  affluent or competent, and families,
which were dear to them:  neither of these blessings would they
have jeopardized upon a  political speculation, in which their souls
were not deeply engaged.  If some misguided historian should at a
future day, revive the  exploded calumny of evil motives which
agitated this convention, let  these names be adduced as
monuments of absolute refutation.

The first resolution of the convention, was unanimously, "entirely 
and cordially to approve the proceedings and resolutions of the 
continental congress; to consider the whole continent as under the 
highest obligation to them for the wisdom of their counsels and 
their unremitted endeavours to maintain and preserve inviolate the 
just rights and liberties of his majesty's dutiful and loyal  subjects
in America. In correspondence with this resolution a second  was
passed for the warmest thanks to the delegates from Virginia for 
their cheerful undertaking and faithful discharge of the very 
important trust reposed in them." We here perceive Virginia 
concerned in branding with injustice, cruelty and oppression the 
late acts of parliament involving Massachusetts-bay; in annulling
an  obedience to them, as the attempts of a wicked administration
to  enslave America; in countenancing that province in the support
of  all officers who should refuse to carry into execution the orders
of  courts, holden by judges who were appointed, with any other
tenure,  than that which the charter and laws directed; in approving
the  payment of the public revenue of that province into the hands
of the  provincial treasurer, until government should be placed
upon a  constitutional foundation, or it should be otherwise
ordered by the  provincial congress; in exhorting the people of
Massachusetts to act  upon the defensive merely, as long as such
conduct might be  vindicated by reason, and the principle of
self-preservation, and no  longer; and in applauding the
assumption of various powers in the  present crisis. In a word,
Virginia pledged herself to Massachusetts  for upholding her in all
measures, which she might think expedient.

No. 34. The most conspicuous acts of congress, which the
convention  thus recognized, were a letter to general Gage, the
British  commander in Boston, requiring him to discontinue the
fortifications  there. 2. A declaration of American rights, which is
a copious  summary of them. 3. An Association against
exportation, consumption,  and importation under certain
limitations. 4. An address to the  people of Great Britain. 5. A
memorial to the inhabitants of the  British colonies. 6. A letter to
the colonies of St. John, Nova  Scotia, Georgia, East and West
Florida. &. An address to the  inhabitants of Quebec, and 8. an
address to the king.

With these acts, this history has no farther concern, than as 
enunciations of these doctrines, to which the conviction of
Virginia  had arrived, and as an earnest of measures, which might
flow from  them. Now when passion no longer taints the original
question, it  probably will not be doubted by any, that an internal
taxation of  the colonies by the authority of parliament was a
violation of their  rights. In the association nothing was done, but
innocently and  without bloodshed to do, as a nation, what every
individual had a  right to do as an individual british subject. As the
ministry would  have hastened the pace of military vengeance, if
the pulse of the  British people had beaten as strongly as their own
pride, and their  hunger for items of revenue, the address to that
people was a just  retort of the example of divide et impera, and
may be also ranked  with the evidences of our anxiety to continue
brethren of the same  government. The address to the king, whose
personal character and  situation effaced every hope of rousing
him to think or act in  contradiction to his advisers, was a
deference to the American  people, who could not relinquish the
slightest prospect of returning  harmony. And this line of conduct
rescued congress from the  imputation, to which the letter to the
island of St. John, West  Florida and Quebec might give birth, of a
wish to convulse and  dismember the British Empire. True perhaps
it is, that Virginia now  was resolved to follow, whithersoever
these doctrines, and these  measures should lead, and that had she
been asked, what she had in  reserve, upon the final failure of all
overtures of reconciliation,  a consistent answer could have been
only, that it would have been  better not to have stirred at all, than
to be reduced to slavery,  aggravated by the disgrace of pompous
and hollow professions.

Accordingly a resolution was passed for immediately putting the 
colony into a posture of defence, and for preparing a plan of 
embodying and disciplining such a number of men as might be 
sufficient for that purpose. Henry moved and Richard Henry Lee 
seconded it. The fangs of European criticism might be challenged
to  spread themselves against the eloquence of that awful day. It
was a  proud one to a Virginian, feeling and acting with his
country.  Demosthenes invigorated the timid, and Cicero charmed
the backward.  The multitude many of whom had travelled to the
convention from a  distance could not suppress their emotion.
Henry was his pure self.  Those, who had toiled in the artifices of
scholastic rhetoric, were  involuntarily driven into an inquiry
within themselves, whether  rules and forms and nicieties of
elocution would not have choked his  native fire. It blazed so as to
warm the coldest heart. In the  sacred place of meeting, the church,
the imagination had no  difficulty, to conceive, when he launched
forth in solemn tones,  various causes of scruple against
oppressors, that the British king  was lying prostrate from the
thunder of heaven. Henry was thought in  his attitudes to resemble
Saint Paul, while preaching at Athens, and  to speak as man was
never known to speak before. After every  illusion had vanished, a
prodigy yet remained. It was Patrick Henry  born in obscurity,
poor, and without the advantages of literature,  rousing the genius
of his country, and binding a band of patriots  together to hurl
defiance at the tyranny of so formidable a nation  as Great Britain.
This enchantment was spontaneous obedience to the  workings of
the soul. When he uttered what commanded respect for  himself,
he solicited no admiring look from those, who surrounded  him. If
he had, he must have been abashed by meeting every eye fixed 
upon him. He paused, but he paused full of some rising eruption of 
eloquence. When he sat down, his sounds vibrated so loudly if not
in  the ears at least in the memory of his audience, that no other 
member, not even his friend who was to second him was yet 
adventurous enough, to interfere with that voice, which had so 
recently subdued and captivated. After a few minutes Richard
Henry  Lee fanned and refreshed with a gale of pleasure; but the
vessel of  the revolution was still under the impulse of the tempest,
which  Henry had created. Artificial oratory fell in copious streams
from  the mouth of Lee, and rules of persuasion accomplished
every thing,  which rules could effect. If elegance had been
personified, the  person of Lee would have been chosen. But Henry
trampled upon rules,  and yet triumphed, at this time perhaps
beyond his own expectation.  Jefferson was not silent. He argued
closely, profoundly and warmly  on the same side. The post in the
Revolutionary debate, belonging to  him, was that at which the
theories of republicanism were deposited.  Washington was
prominent, though silent. His looks bespoke a mind  absorbed in
meditation on his country's fate; but a positive concert  between
him and Henry could not more effectually have exhibited him  to
view, than when Henry with indignation ridiculed the idea of 
peace "when there was no peace" and enlarged on the duty of 
preparing for war.

The generous and noble minded Thomas Nelson, who now for the
first  time, took a more than common part in a great discussion,
convulsed  the moderate by an ardent exclamation, in which he
called God to  witness, that if any British troops should be landed
within the  county, of which he was the lieutenant, he would wait
for no orders,  and would obey none, which should forbid him to
summon his militia  and repel the invaders at the water edge. His
temper though it was  sanguine, and had been manifested in less
scenes of opposition,  seemed to be more than ordinarily excited.
His example told those,  who were happy in ease and wealth, that
to shrink was to be  dishonoured.

No. 35. The convention instructed the committee of
correspondence,  to procure authentic information whether the
house of  representatives of New York had deserted the union with
the other  colonies, what the real sense of the people of that
province was, to  ascertain the names of the individuals, who
might have concurred in  the votes, derogating from that union. In
the progress of a  revolution we must be satisfied, if the simple
charities of human  nature are preserved. But courtesy or delicacy
towards individuals  or bodies, suspected, will never shelter them
from an intrusive  scrutiny.

Provision was made for the collection of supplies for the relief of 
Boston, and the administration of justice was interrupted.
Volunteer  companies of infantry and troops of horse were
recommended to be  raised and to be in constant training and
readiness for action on  any emergency. Money also was
recommended to be raised for  ammunition.

Although adulation from public bodies for some expedient of
policy,  is supposed not to tarnish the individuals, who compose
them, we  ought not to palliate our surprize, that a convention
possessing  such a force of character as this did, should pollute
itself by an  unfelt eulogium on Dunmore. It was no secret that his
late  expedition against the Indians was suggested by the belief,
that he  could intimidate them, and by intimidating them, direct
their  tomahawk against the frontiers most open to their ravages;
and yet  it was resolved unanimously, that the most cordial thanks
of the  people of this colony, are a tribute justly due to our
WORTHY  governor Lord Dunmore for his truly noble, wise and
spirited conduct  on the late expedition against our Indian
Enemy:---a conduct which  at once evinces his excellency's
attention to the true interest of  this colony, and a zeal in the
executive department, which no  dangers can divert, or difficulties
hinder from achieving the most  important services to the people,
who have the HAPPINESS to live  under his administration.
Perhaps this glaring sacrifice of  sincerity would not have been
made, had it not been for the wretched  practice of presuming the
commander in chief, even in the teeth of  every rule of
presumption, to be the efficient cause of success  obtained by his
officers and soldiers. On them undoubtedly thanks  could not be
misspent. Foy sneered. Dunmore clutched with avidity  this atom
of mischievous popularity, which he would apply, if  possible, to
the annoyance of Virginia. No man can say, that  complimentary
acts of public bodies, howsoever neutral, they may  seem to be,
may not be wrested with evil, unless they certainly  steer to some
good.

No 36. Contemporaneously with the arrangements for defence
were  adopted resolutions for encouraging manufactures, which
had they  been excuted with spirit and perseverance, would have
established  independence on a rock, unmoveable to British
capitals. In the plan  proposed, are a frank confession of the
inability of Virginia to  furnish to herself articles of the first
necessity, and magnanimity  in encountering on the principle of
liberty the most painful  privations. It inculcates too an useful and
instructive truth, that  when a people, devoted to liberty once
entertain an apprehension for  its safety, they overleap the
calculations of what in ordinary life,  would be called prudence.

Woolen, cotton and linen manufactures, were to be promoted in as 
many different branches as possible. Except in some small
instances,  in which poor industrious families spun and wove their
own clothing,  the foreign merchant annually supplied those
manufacturers for the  slaves, and their masters. Flax, hemp and
cotton were to be  cultivated not only for the use of each family,
but for the  accommodation of others on moderate terms. Cotton
had been hitherto  made in quantities not much exceeding a scanty
domestic consumption,  and flax and hemp were not frequent or
very abundant below the heads  of our great rivers.

Saltworks were to be established. We had depended for salt on 
importation from abroad. The art of making it, simple as it is, was 
then a mystery in chemistry; and the great waters adjoining the sea, 
which were alone adapted to its production in the eastern quarter
of  Virginia might be visited in all their recesses by any British 
cockboat. The salt springs in the west were too remote for the
wants  of the lower country.

Salt petre was to be collected and refined, as well as sulphur; and 
elementary ingredients of gunpowder had been always bought
more  cheaply than they could be made. Gunpowder was to be
made. The  compounding of which had been practised only by the
riflemen of the  upper country, and had not become an article of
merchandize, to be  capable of a competition with that which was
imported.

Nails, wire and other necessary articles of iron were to be 
manufactured. Many of these had been prohibited by parliament;
and a  slitting mill or tilt hammer had never been erected; even
hoes and  axes were imported. Steel was to be made upon an
extensive scale.  The process, though not difficult, was unknown in
use.

Different kinds of paper were to be made. Only one experiment
had  been made in Virginia and that was abortive.

Woolcombs, cotton and woolcards, hemp and flax heckles were to
be  made.

Fulling mills, and mills for breaking, swingling and softening
hemp  and flax were to be erected. Grindstones, although the rough 
material was daily before our eyes, had been neglected to be made. 
Malt liquors made in Virginia were to be substituted for foreign, 
and hops and barley were to be encouraged.

Had these recommendations been observed, as closely as they
might  have been, without inconvenience to the planter, farmer and 
mechanic, this country, the climate and soil of which promised to 
industry an ample profit, would not have been behind any state in 
improvement, or dependent on any nation for its manufactures.

How Virginia had fallen into this dearth of things so easily 
attainable is to be solved by the peculiarities of her situation  from
an ancient date. As soon as that noxious weed, tobacco, had 
obtained the currency of fashion in Europe, and the introduction of 
slavery had sheltered the white population from the labor and 
exposure incidental to its cultivation; it was seen, that the raw 
materials of manufacture could be invested, with greater profit, in 
purchasing what she wanted from England, where labour was
cheap; the  arts subdivided; capitals existed for every valuable
business; and  science and experience had astonished with new
facilities and  improvements;---than in the application of her
manual force to the  tedious progress of manufactures. They must
be nurtured from the  lowest state of infancy; without funds at
double expence, and  without the collateral aids, which each
manufacture requires from  many others. Besides the woolen,
cotton and linen fabrics of England  had become the standards of
taste and necessity in Virginia. To  similar sources and to the
tumult of war may be traced the tardiness  in seizing the first
moments of self-government for the exercise of  self denial.
Nature had been too propitious to Virginia to generate  the noble
art of living upon little. Comfort sprang up, was  luxuriant, but was
also an opiate to the activity of native  invention, little short of the
effect of possessing mines of gold  and silver.

No. 37. What course of reflection these facts and others like them, 
known to exist elsewhere in the colonies excited in the minds of 
many, eminent for learning and philanthropy, but novices in the 
feelings of the new world, threatened with chains and mounting to 
some high but dubious destiny is exemplified in a letter of the 
celebrated historian, doctor Robertson, written in October 1775. 
Speaking of the colonies he says, that "the ministry have been 
trifling for two years, when they should have been serious, until 
they have rendered a very simple piece of business extremely 
perplexed. They have permitted colonies, disjoined by nature and 
situation, to consolidate themselves into a regular systematical 
confederacy, and when a few regiments stationed in each capital, 
would have rendered it impossible for them to take arms, they
have  suffered them quietly to levy and train forces, as if they had
not  known and seen, against whom they prepared." "This (that is
the  liberty to buy and sell, where and with whom they pleased)
they will  one day attain, but not just now, if there be any degree of 
political wisdom or vigour remaining. At the same time, one
cannot  but regret, that prosperous and growing states should be
checked in  their career." Be it right or wrong, the convention was
struck, with  R. H. Lee's quotation from scripture, that the race was
not to the  swift, nor the battle to the strong, and believed that
those were  doubly armed, whose cause was just. May the cause of
liberty be ever  conducted with prudence, but never benumbed by
too frigid estimates  of difficulty or danger.  No. 38. One of the last
acts of the convention was dictated by a  proclamation of the
governor. He was as humble a proficient in the  season as in the
wisdom of doing things. That proclamation in  declaring that the
king had given orders, that all vacant land  should be put up in lots
at public sale, that the purchasers should  hold them, subject to a
reservation of one halfpenny sterling per  acre, by way of annual
quitrent, etc., augmented the preexisting  inflammation. It was an
innovation on the established usage of  granting land within the
colony, announced, that revenue was to be  hunted for in disregard
of charters and ancient habits, and to be  embraced in its minutest
shapes. To attack this new head of the  hydra of precedent, a
committee was appointed of Patrick Henry,  Richard Bland,
Thomas Jefferson, Robert Carter Nicholas and Edmund 
Pendleton, to inquire whether his majesty may of right advance the 
terms of granting lands in this colony, and to make report to the 
next general assembly or convention. But this affair was lost in the 
subsequent events, and at any other time would probably have died 
away with those numerous thoughtless acquiescences with which
our  history is strewed, in exercises of doubtful prerogative.

No. 39. It being apprehended, that Peyton Randolph, who with his 
former colleagues had been elected to the succeeding congress
holden  in Philadelphia in May 1775, might be detained by
sickness or his  duties as the speaker of the house of burgesses,
Thomas Jefferson  was named, as his eventual successor.

The convention then considered the delegation of its members as
at  an end, and recommended to the people to choose delegates to 
represent them for one year. In civil commotions it has always
been  the artifice of parties, to invent for their opponents names to 
which odium or ridicule is attached. The Branchi of Florence, the 
Guelphs and Ghibellines of France; and the whigs and tories of 
England were the offspring of this species of stratagem. The
enemies  to parliamentary taxation and the ministry stigmatized
those who  favored either, as tories, and assumed to themselves the
appellation  of whigs. The origin of these distinctions, Hume in his
history of  England described. (History of England, Vol. VIII,
Chapter 68, page  126).

Mr. Jefferson in his notes on Virginia, page 285, remarks, that a 
tory has been properly defined to be a traitor in thought, but not  in
deed. In some cases it may have been the harsh language of the 
most violent and intemperate; but it cannot be admitted, that 
thinking men, who valued freewill as a gift of heaven, were thus 
indiscriminate in their severity. What multitudes could now be 
cited, who confounded by the new order of things, suddenly
flashing  upon their minds, and still entangled by the habits of
many years,  were branded as tories, though spotless as to treason
even in  thought; who could not comprehend what was to be the
issue of  provoking the fury of the British nation, and were yet
innocent even  as to wishes of harm to their country; who believed
in a chance of  reconciliation, if excesses were spared; who might
not feel  sufficient irritation at the distant danger of an abstract 
principle. It is the glory of our country, that the influence of a 
contrary sentiment, while it might diminish cordiality, left without 
molestation, very many men, to adorn and profit the republic.

No. 40. In April 1775, Dunmore eager to acquit himself with some 
noise towards his royal master, and misconceiving action, whether 
well or ill directed to be synonymous with duty, adopted a
measure,  which in any aspect could not promote his interest, as a
scheme to  deprive the city of Williamsburg of ammunition and
arms must  inevitably precipitate a general tumult. There was a
paltry magazine  in that city, the then metropolis, which had served
as a receptable  for a few military stores of government, and for
the gunpowder of  the merchants there, who from caution retained
but small quantities  for the course of retail. These were, by
Dunmore's order, secretly,  in the night, conveyed on board of a
vessel of war; thus adopting a  policy in one sense grovelling, and
in another not far removed from  assassination, as it was believed
at the time, and more strongly  suspected from what happened
afterwards, that he designed, by  disarming the people, to weaken
the means of opposing an  insurrection of the slaves, whom he
purposed to invite to his  standard, and for a protection against
whom in part the magazine was  at first built. The citizens ran to
arms, as soon as the rapine was  detected, and would have
assaulted the governor in his residence,  had they not been
dissuaded by the calmer counsels of Peyton  Randolph and Robert
Carter Nicholas. The violence projected was,  however, rather
suspended, than extinguished. It was suspended to  afford to the
governor an opportunity of promising to replace the  gunpowder,
in conformity with an address from the corporation. But  instead of
the candor and frankness incumbent on official stations,  he
replied with evasion and falsehood. Public office, if it cannot 
gratify with pleasant things, ought at least not to sap confidence 
by the desertion of truth. Dunmore says, that "hearing of an 
insurrection in a neighboring county, he had removed the
gunpowder  from the magazine, where he did not think it secure, to
a place of  perfect security, and that upon his word and honor,
whenever it was  wanted in any insurrection, it should be delivered
in half an hour:  that he was surprised to hear that the people were
under arms on  this occasion, and that he should not think it
prudent to put powder  into their hands in such a situation." The
impetuosity of a  multitude, once arrested, does not instantly return
to its former  extravagance, although their demands may not be
completely  satisfied; and now, after some farther effervescence, it
gradually  subsides into perfect tranquillity.

No 41. In other parts of Virginia, Dunmore's excuse for the
removal  of the powder, was spurned at with indignation, for its
departure  from fact, and his equivocation about an insurrection,
the  interpretation of which when it might happen, he reserved to 
himself. In the county of Hanover, in which Patrick Henry lived,
the  standing committee, created by the convention and the armed 
volunteer company refused to acquiesce; and Henry at the head of
the  latter marched to extort from the King's receiver-general,
Richard  Corbin, out of the royal coffer, the value of the powder.
That  officer drew a bill of exchange on London for the amount,
being  upward of three hundred pounds sterling, which sum was
paid into the  treasury. It was Henry's ulterior intention to visit
Williamsburg  with his company of men, and in some manner or
other, to hold  Dunmore responsible for the restitution of the
powder. But when he  had advanced within fifteen miles of that
city, he was met by  Richard Carter Nicholas and Thomas Nelson,
who represented to him,  that as his object had been accomplished
in the bill of exchange, he  and his party would best consult the
peace of Virginia by returning  in peace and they prevailed upon
him to return. Of itself the money  was of no account, but the
occurence disrobed the regal government  of superstitious
reverence; and thereby forwarded a most essential  branch of the
impending revolution. Henry was proclaimed a traitor  by
Dunmore, and his personal safety was thereby incorporated with 
the American cause. It conferred upon him a degree of military 
prominence, which might be a basis for future elevation in any
line.

No. 42. Dunmore caught the glimpse of greater pliability in a new 
assembly, than in that, which had been dissolved. The joint address 
of the two houses of parliament to the king, his answer and the 
resolution of the house of commons on the 7th day of February
1775,  had been transmitted to him with rapidity, and he
summoned the  legislature for the first day of June 1775. In his
speech to them at  the commencement of the session he tells them,
"that the joint  address and answers no longer permit a doubt, that
their well  founded grievances properly represented would meet
with that  attention and regard which are justly due to them: that
the  resolution of the commons will, he trusts, have the effect of 
removing the jealousy, which has been the principal source of 
disquiet and uneasiness in the minds of the people; that he 
therefore entertains the strongest hopes, that nothing will remain, 
after a just consideration of the nature and tendency of that 
resolution, to prevent their seriously exerting themselves, to bring 
the disputes, which have unhappily raged between the mother
country  and the colonies to a good end; to which the step already
taken by  the house of commons, must be considered as a
benevolent tender, and  an auspicious advance on the part of the
parent state." He then  adds, "That it must now be manifest to all
dispassionate people,  that the parliament, the high and supreme
legislature of the empire,  far from having entertained thoughts so
inconsistent with the wisdom  and public virtue, which have
distinguished that august body, of  oppressing the people of the
colonies, or of promoting the interest  of one at expence of another
part of their fellow-subjects have only  been extending their care,
that the whole in consideration of the  enjoyment of equal rights,
privileges and advantages, should be  obliged, according to their
abilities and situations to contribute a  portion towards the
burthens, necessary for the support of the civil  government and
common defence.

The tenor of these overtures from parliament will best appear from 
the perusal of them. The answer of the house of burgesses is a
manly  repulse of the snare.

To His Excellency the Right Hon. John Earl of Dunmore,
Governor of  Virginia, &c, &c.;My Lord,

We his Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Burgesses of 
Virginia, now met in General Assembly, have taken into our 
consideration the joint Address of the two houses of Parliament,
his  Majesty's Answer, and the Resolutions of the Commons,
which your  Lordship has been pleased to lay before us. Wishing
nothing so  sincerely as the perpetual continuance of that brotherly
love which  we bear to our fellow subjects of Great Britain, and
still  continuing to hope and believe that they do not approve the
measures  which have so long oppressed their brethren in America,
we were  pleased to receive your Lordship's notification, that a
benevolent  tender has at length been made by the British House of
Commons,  towards bringing to a good end our unhappy disputes
with the Mother  Country. Next to the possession of liberty, my
Lord, we should  consider such a reconciliation as the greatest of
all human  blessings. With these dispositions we entered into
consideration of  that Resolution; we examined it minutely; we
viewed it in every  point of light in which we were able to place it,
and, with pain and  disappointment, we must ultimately declare, it
only changes the form  of oppression, without lightening its
burthen. We cannot, my Lord,  close with the terms of that
Resolution, for these reasons: Because  the British Parliament has
no right to intermeddle with the support  of Civil Government in
the Colonies. For us, not for them, has  Government been
established here. Agreeable to our ideas, provision  has been made
for such Officers as we think necessary for the  administration of
public affairs; and we cannot conceive that any  other Legislature
has a right to prescribe either the number of  pecuniary
appointments of our Officers. As a proof that the claim of 
Parliament, to interfere in the necessary provisions for support of 
Civil Government is novel, and of a late date, we take leave to 
refer to an Act of our Assembly, passed so long since as the 32d 
year of the reign of King Charles II, entitled "An act for raising a 
public revenue, and for the better support of this his Majesty's 
colony of Virginia."---This act was brought over by Lord Culpeper, 
then Governor, under the Great Seal of England, and was enacted
in  the name of the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the 
consent of the general assembly.

Because, to render perpetual our exemption from an unjust
taxation  we must saddle ourselves with a perpetual tax, adequate
to the  expectations, and subject to the disposal of parliament
alone,  whereas we have a right to give our money, as the
parliament do  theirs, without coercion, from time to time, as
public exigencies  may require. We conceive, that we alone are the
judges of the  condition, circumstances, and situation, of our
people, as the  parliament are of theirs. It is not merely the mode
of raising, but  the freedom of granting our money, for which we
have contended.  Without this, we possess no check on the royal
prerogative; and what  must be lamented by dutiful and loyal
subjects, we should be  stripped of the only means, as well of
recommending this country to  the favours of our most gracious
sovereign, as of strengthening  those bands of amity with our
fellow-subjects, which we would wish  to remain indissoluble.

Because, on our undertaking to grant money, as is proposed, the 
commons only resolve to forbear levying pecuniary taxes on us;
still  leaving unrepealed their several acts passed for the purpose of 
restraining the trade, and altering the form of government of the 
eastern colonies; extending the boundaries and changing the 
government and religion of Quebec, enlarging the jurisdiction of
the  courts of admiralty, taking from us the right of trial by jury,
and  transporting us into other countries to be tried for criminal 
offences. Standing armies too are still to be kept among us; and the 
other numerous grievances, of which ourselves, and sister
colonies,  separately, and by our representatives, in general
Congress have so  often complained, are still to continue without
redress.

Because at the very time of requiring from us grants of monies,
they  are making disposition to invade us with large armaments, by
sea and  land; which is a style of asking gifts not reconcileable to
our  freedom. They are also proceeding to a repetition of injury, by 
passing acts for restraining the commerce and fisheries of the 
provinces of New England, and for prohibiting the trade of the
other  colonies with all parts of the world, except the islands of
Great  Britain, Ireland and the West Indies. This seems to bespeak
no  intention to discontinue the exercise of this usurped power
over us  in future.

Because, on our agreeing to contribute our proportion towards the 
common defence, they do not propose to lay open to us a free trade 
with all the world; whereas to us, it appears just that those who 
bear equally the burthens of government, should equally
participate  of its benefits. Either be contented with the monopoly
of our trade,  which beings greater loss to us, and benefit to them,
than the  amount of our proportional contributions to the common
defence; or,  if the latter be preferred, relinquish the former; and
do not  propose, by holding both, to exact from us double
contributions. Yet  we would remind government, that on former
emergencies, when called  upon as a free people, however
cramped by this monopoly, in our  resources of wealth, we have
liberally contributed to the common  defence. Be assured, then,
that we shall be generous in future as in  past times, disdaining the
shackles of proportion, when called to  our free station in the
general system of the empire.

Because, the proposition now made to us involves the interest of
all  the other colonies. We are now represented in general
congress, by  members approved by this house, where our former
union, it is hoped,  will be so strongly cemented, that no partial
application can  produce the slightest departure from the common
cause. We consider  ourselves as bound in honour, as well as
interest, to share one  general fate with our sister colonies, and
should hold ourselves  base deserters of that union to which we
have acceded, were we to  agree on any measures distinct and
apart from them.

There was, indeed, a plan of accommodation offered in
parliament,  which, though not entirely equal to the terms we had a
right to ask,  yet differed but in few points from what the general
congress had  held out. Had parliament been disposed sincerely, as
we are, to  bring about a reconciliation, reasonable men had hoped,
that by  meeting us on this ground, something might have been
done. Lord  Chatham's bill, on the report, and the terms of the
congress on the  other, would have formed a basis for negotiation;
which a spirit of  accommodation, on both sides, might perhaps
have reconciled. It came  recommended, too, from one whose
successful experience in the art of  government should have
ensured to it some attention from those to  whom it was rendered.
He had shown to the world, that Great Britain,  with her colonies,
united firmly under a just and honest government,  formed a power
which might bid defiance to the most potent enemies.  With a
change of ministers, however, a total change of measures took 
place: the component parts of the empire have, from that moment, 
been falling asunder; and a total annihilation of its weight, in the 
political scale of the world, seems justly to be apprehended.

These, my Lord, are our sentiments on this important subject;
which  we offer, only, as an individual part of the whole empire.
Final  determination we leave to the general congress, now sitting,
before  whom we shall lay the papers your Lordship has
communicated to us.  To their wisdom we commit the
improvement of this important advance.  If it can be wrought into
any good we are assured they will do it.  To them, also we refer,
the discovery of that proper method of  representing our
well-founded grievances, which, your Lordship  assures us, will
meet with the attention and regard so justly due to  them. For
ourselves we have exhausted every mode of application  which our
invention could suggest as proper and promising. We have 
decently remonstrated with Parliament, they have added new
injuries  to the old. We have wearied our King with supplications;
he has not  deigned to answer us. We have appealed to the native
honour and  justice of the British nation, their efforts in our favour
have been  hitherto ineffectual. What then remains to be done?
That we commit  our injuries to the even-handed justice of that
Being who doth no  wrong; earnestly beseeching him to illuminate
the councils, and  prosper the endeavors, of those to whom
America hath confided her  hopes; that, through their wise
direction, we may again see,  reunited, the blessings of liberty and
property, and the most  permanent harmony with Great Britain.***
June 14, 1775. 

It may however at first sight be supposed, that when this answer 
speaks of a free trade with all the world, it coincides with Doctor 
Robertson's suspicion and prediction; but it is obvious from the 
context that it is hinted at only as a condition for the concessions 
required from the colonies.  It was a dexterous management of the
affections of the British  subjects on both sides of the Atlantic, to
refer to the bill of Lord  Chatham, as susceptible with a
modification of being made the ground  of reconciliation. His
name was engraven on the hearts of them all,  and in America he
was greeted, as the chief of her friends. How he  would have
extricated himself in fair argument from the  embarrassments of
his distinction between an external regulation of  trade, and
internal taxation, his eloquence alone could say, and it  is
problematical, whether if the American controversy had been 
accommodated upon that principle, his popularity or his
consistency  would not have been wrecked in the vindication of it
in practice.  While he dominated his bill, a bill of concession to
America, he  claimed for it the name of a bill asserting the rights
of the mother  country.  No. 43. But from an inquiry, instituted into
the plunder of the  gunpowder, symptoms of exasperation were
appearing, not absolutely  exempt from a pretext, that Dunmore
and his family were in danger at  least of insult. He therefore
retreated with them on board of a  frigate of war, lying at York
town about twelve miles below  Williamsburg. He was frivolous
enough to submit to the choice of the  assembly, either to forward
to him on board, the business in which  he would have participated
on shore, or to adjourn to York Town,  which on another occasion
the commander of the frigate had  threatened, (with perfect power
to execute the threat) to batter  down, if a body of marines, which
he had landed as guards to the  governor in his palace, should be
interrupted in their march  thither.  The result of this inquiry was a
voluminous farrago of bitterness  against the governor. I shall not
comment on it farther, because it  was much the child of
licentiousness, as being without a rein upon  it from cross
examination. But with it the assembly and all the  acts, which had
been matured, up to the governor's exodus, died: and  with this
abortive assembly, the regal government breathed its last,  except
for the disturbance of the peace of Virginia. Dunmore not  only
gathered troops from ships of war, and enlisted a few  malcontent
white persons, but proclaimed emancipation to the slaves. 

No. 44. In July 1775 the convention passed an ordinance
appointing a  committee of safety for the more effectual carrying
into execution  the several rules and regulations, established by
that body for the  protection of the colony. They were a temporary
executive for one  year, or until the then next convention. Thus did
the colony glide  from monarchy into self-government, without a
convulsion or a single  clogg to its wheels from its novelty or from
disaffection. Thus too  were falsified all the predictions of Dean
Tucker the most  inveterate of America's enemies, that to withdraw
from the western  hemisphere the superintending sun of Great
Britain would involve it  in darkness and misery.  No. 45. The
intelligence of the bloodshed at Lexington and Bunkers  hill in the
neighborhood of Boston, had in Virginia changed the  figure of
Great Britain from an unrelenting parent into that of a  merciless
enemy, whose malice was the more severe, as her affection  had
been the more earnestly courted. George Washington had been 
unanimously elected by congress as captain general and
commander in  chief of the American Army. The convention had
organized a large  corps of militia styled minute men, who were to
be trained at  convenient seasons, and ready for service at all
times. Two  regiments of regular infantry had been also raised, the
command of  which was given to Patrick Henry, then a member of
congress sitting  in Philadelphia. Officers with military experience
were rare:  Virginia was compelled to rely principally on those
elements of  character which were indispensable in a soldier.
Henry was seconded  by men who had been active in the French
and Indian war of 1755, and  their imperfect lessons promised to
render him with his ambition and  attention an able defender of
liberty in the field, as he had been  in the forum.  No. 46. The navy
of Dunmore was supposed to consist of three vessels  of war of
twenty, sixteen and fourteen guns; and his army of two  companies
of a British regiment and about one hundred negroes. He  fed his
vanity with menaces of destruction to every town and  building on
the eastern waters, and fancied that he was evincing a  species of
Roman heroism, when he warned the inhabitants of Hampton,  a
little village near the mouth of James River, that he would burn  it
in reprisal for two schooners, which the Virginians had captured. 

No. 47. These inhabitants communicated their defenceless state to 
the committee of safety, who are represented by Burke, a late 
historian, to have canvassed the question, whether the lower
country  should not be abandoned as untenable. From what
disclosure this fact  is handed to us cannot be conjectured; as that
body sat with closed  doors and under injunctions of secrecy, and it
was not rumoured  abroad, until it appeared under the authority of
his name. I do not  with the assurance of knowledge peremptorily
contradict it. It  perhaps might have been very honestly discussed
in the scantiness of  military skill, and while raw militia alone
were to sustain the  charge of disciplined troops, and so long a line
of coasts was  accessible to the cannon of vessels of war. But
crude counsels never  confirmed by a majority of the acting rulers,
quickly renounced, and  blotted out by contrary conduct detract
from neither the patriotism  nor firmness of the committee. The
names of the members attending at  this conjuncture are at present
unknown: but of the eleven, who  constituted it, seven possessed
large estates within the district  intended to be derelict, and it may
be concluded, that if so baneful  and disgraceful an idea escaped
the mind in which it was generated,  it must have been the hasty
excrescence of a brain disturbed from  the perplexity of the
moment, but recovering itself after more  mature reflection.
Howsoever this may be, it is certain, that under  the orders of that
very committee in seven hours after the request  of aid had arrived
in Williamsburg, a company of regulars, of which  George
Nicholas, the eldest son of Robert Carter Nicholas, and a 
company of minutemen of whom George Lyne was the captain,
and one  hundred riflemen commanded by Colo. William
Woodford, were seen in  Hampton after a march of thirty six
miles. The enemy's little fleet  enfiladed the town; but from the
position, taken by the riflemen, no  man could stand at the helm, or
shew himself in the management of  the sails, without being
immediately devoted to slaughter. From the  shyness and
inactivity, which fear had caused in the sailors a part  of the fleet
was driven on shore, and the rest fled to Norfolk. Thus  was the
enemy repulsed with loss and ignomy to them, and with glory  to
the Virginians:---a glory probably not of excessive splendor in 
military records, but of immense utility in this stage of the 
revolution, which was fettered with a general sentiment, that the 
British navy was in its humblest shape invincible, and militia but 
sport for British regulars.  No. 48. Dunmore on his part made an
excursion into Princess Anne  county, to destroy some cannon. The
same spirit, which produced the  defeat at Hampton, stimulated
Colo. John Hutchings, the commander of  Norfolk county to raise
his militia, and to endeavor by an ambush to  intercept the motley
corps of the governor. Dunmore fell into the  snare, but was
extricated by a panic, which could not be accounted  for, and put
the militia to flight after the first discharge of  their musquetry,
leaving their colonel a prisoner.  No. 49. The crest of Dunmore
was now as high as that of the  Virginians, after the affair at
Hampton. Hearing that a large body  of them were in motion to
attack him, he advanced some miles to the  Great Bridge to receive
them. Woodford was detached to dislodge him;  but was impeded
by accidents, which he could not control, and by  information, that
Dunmore was hastening to Suffolk, a town on  Nansemond River
about twenty miles from Norfolk, to receive  submissions and
scatter his proclamations commanding the people to  repair to the
royal standard. He therefore sent lieutenant Colonel  Charles Scott
and Major Thomas Marshall, with 215 light troops, of  whom one
hundred and three were expert riflemen, to intercept him.  At the
same time he requested a reinforcement of at least 100 men,  with
further supplies, necessary for the equipment of the  volunteers,
who were joining him daily. Without delay his wishes  were
complied with, and Colo. Thomas Bullitt, celebrated in the  Indian
war was dispatched to aid Woodford with his experience. Scott 
and Marshall did not overtake Dunmore in his predatory retreat:
but  surprized a body of tories on their way to the great Bridge and 
disarmed many, who had renewed their allegiance to the king.  To
describe the position of small forts and redoubts and to narrate  all
the humility of the warfare of that day, satisfies none of the 
desiderata of history. The bulk of such an inert map cannot be 
enlivened by one particle of interest to those, who read now the 
tales of those ancient times. But let it not be forgotten, that at  the
great Bridge, the Virginians faced like veterans the blaze of 
danger, and drove the enemy into a post of security; the companies 
of Nicholas and Walter Taliaferro were on the point of storming
the  fort, when the enemy deserted in confusion. Bullitt was
solicitous  for an assault of the strongest entrenchment, and
strongest ground,  occupied by the enemy. He was transported into
the most decided  confidence in the heroism of his inflamed
countrymen. But the  prudence of Woodford held fast the fame
which had been recently  acquired, knowing the importance of it as
an incentive to future  exertion and a passport to future victory.
With inferior numbers did  the detachment under Woodford kill or
wound every officer and  private of Dunmore's forces, and the
injury to his own corps was  confined to a single private wounded.
I record however, with great  pleasure, the humanity of the
Virginians: They had been branded with  opprobrious name of
rebels, had been outraged as unworthy of the  rights of war, and
had fought under a conviction that the gibbett  was already
prepared for them in Dunmore's mind, should they be  conquered.
And yet did they not hesitate between a manly oblivion of 
resentment and the indulgence of ferocious passion. Their
tenderness  to the unfortunate was acknowledged by the British
themselves.  No. 50. The news of this disaster was a death blow to
the most  aspiring hopes of Dunmore, whose compunctions were
the more  tormenting as he had impressed or inveigled into his
army a body of  highland Scotch, who under his auspices, had
emigrated to America,  to establish themselves as tillers of the
earth, many of whose  families were now bereft of bread, in a
foreign land not friendly to  them, except from motives of
compassion. Dunmore had considered it  as a stroke of profound
and lucky policy to recruit the able bodied  men among this tribe
of wretches; indifferent about the probable  consequence of their
catching the feelings of citizens, whose aim  was to plant their
wives and children in a soil more promising, than  that of their
native land. Pure vengeance was the aliment of his  soul, and
blunted his understanding. He himself took refuge on board  of his
own ship, and the remains of his army in Norfolk: the  highlanders
were neglected by him as outcasts doomed to perish by  nakedness
or famine. Coals of fire must have been heaped on his  head, when
he heard, that those, whom he classed with traitors,  administered
to their necessities, and equipped them for a journey  to and
settlement in North Carolina, for which province they were 
destined, when they embarked from Scotland. Indeed in no state of 
exasperation, was the conduct of any public body marked with a 
severity or obduracy, disproportioned to the just suggestions of 
self preservation. The convention had by a special resolution 
protected the resident British merchants, factors and agents, who 
did not manifest enmity to the common cause, in the enjoyment of 
their civil rights and liberty, and discountenancing all national 
reflections; and when this extreme courtesy and tolerance had been 
grievously abused, they repealed it, but not without a licence to 
those, who had taken up arms against the country, or been inimical 
to leave it. It was reserved for the honor of an American nation to 
observe Christian like forbearance during the rage of civil war. 
No. 51. Upon the junction of Colo. Robert Howe, and his regiment 
from North Carolina, he and Woodford advanced with their whole
force  to Norfolk. As soon as they appeared, Dunmore to efface the
defeat  at Great Bridge, and to intimidate the opposition to the
supplies of  wood and water which had been refused to him, drew
up his squadron  before the town; but this measure was so far from
producing the  desired effect, that it taught the Virginians, that
even the British  navy could not be secure in all situations. The
riflemen were so  stationed, as to reach with their bullets the man,
who ventured to  appear in their ships. The naval commander
thereupon, commenced a  bombardment of the town, and landed
parties, which set fire to  several houses near the river. The
Virginian army rushed through the  smoke and fires and drove the
British to their boats. Thus the  essence of Dunmore's prowess and
talents served only to familiarize  our raw troops to danger, and to
inspire them with contempt for the  terror of the British power.
War was not longer unnerved by vain  expectations of peace. Such
too was the temper of the convention,  which met in Richmond on
the first day of December 1775, breathing  the spirit of a nation
invaded and no longer halting between the  torpor of reconciliation
and the exigencies of the crisis.  No. 52. Dunmore determined to
try the last resort of his nominal  office of governor. He
proclaimed martial law, beckened to his  standard, under the
penalty of treason, every man capable of bearing  arms, and
emancipated all slaves of a similar description. So little  were the
convention alarmed, by this scheme of domestic murder, that  they
contented themselves with a determination to repel force by  force,
and promised pardon to such slaves as should return to their  duty
in ten days. That kindness of providence which is displayed in 
antidotes for the poison of almost every climate, is most peculiarly 
exhibited in giving to the general mind of a nation roused by 
oppression, an elasticity, by which it may rise from its depression 
above almost every terror.  No. 53. Virginia committed but few
errors in the selection of men,  to whom she committed her
interests. But she was not equally  fortunate in the repudiation of a
father and his three sons, of the  name of Goodrich. They were so
original and happy in their genius of  shipbuilding that from the
construction of vessels adapted to all  the waters of this colony,
many cargoes escaped capture, and  relieved the most urgent wants
of the navy, and of the people. But  upon a doubt, whether upon
some occasion they had acted correctly,  they were suspected of
being unfaithful to the country and forced  into the condition of
enemies. Their hostility was not to be  appeased. Their faculties
were so applied, as to enable them to  intercept every vessel, which
they could discern in the shallowest  water and most intricate
navigation. It was said, that the whole  British navy had scarcely
made prizes of Virginia ownership to a  equal amount with theirs.
Fertile as revolutions generally are in  character equal to every
growing necessity, Virginia never repaired  the loss, which she
sustained in these men. They had explored every  vulnerable point,
and weakness in Virginia; and their hatred kept  pace with their
knowledge. Whether they were guilty or not, of the  first
imputations, was decided by the voice of the public, according  to
the temperament of him who judged. But a cloud may suddenly 
envelop well disposed and capable men, which they may not easily 
pierce, or which if lessened is never wholly dissipated. They may
be  forgiven, and the attainder of their reputation may be
proclaimed to  be unjust, but the suspicion infects every struggle
towards full and  delicate confidence. The cause of these men I
pretend not perfectly  to understand, or to advocate. But it is a
superfluous function of  history to warn a republic to avoid
temerity in condemning without  the highest proof, her servants,
who until the hour of darkness  shone with lustre in her service. 
The convention closed their labours for supporting the war without 
expressing in any act a leaning to independence; and yet they had 
ascended an eminence from which independence was visible in all
the  surrounding horizon. An army had been levied; the regal
government  was laid aside; Virginia had exercised the rights of a
nation, with  reference only to the power, granted by the
conventions. Still, if  the most influential members of these bodies
had in terms moved for  independence, the exceptions would have
been few to an universal  clamor against it.  No. 56. However,
Thomas Paine, an Englishman by birth, and  possessing an
imagination, which happily combined political topics,  poured
forth a style hitherto unknown on this side of the Atlantic,  for the
case, with which it insinuated itself into the hearts of the  people,
who were unlearned, or of the learned, who were not callous  to
the feelings of man. From his pen issued the pamphlet of
"Common  Sense," pregnant with the most captivating figures of
speech:---with  the abuse of the British government not before seen
in America in so  gross and palpable forms:---with proud
republican theories, which  flattered human nature:---with
contempts of British power, which had  appalled the most
sanguine calculations---and with compliments on  the docility of
patriots in all the arts of war by land and sea. It  was published
under the reputed sanction of Doctor Benjamin  Franklin, and was
a text book, from which many of the most  respectable officers in
our army warmed the coldest among their  civil friends. Under all
these advantages, the public sentiment  which a few weeks before
had shuddered at the tremendous obstacles,  with which
independence was environed, overleaped every barrier. The 
election of delegates for convention, the stated meeting of which 
was to be in May 1776, now depended in very many, if not in a 
majority of the counties, upon their candidates pledging
themselves  or being understood to be resolved, to sever, as far as
their voices  could extend, the colonies from Great Britain. But in
truth, this  pa