6005. NORTH (Lord), Proposition of.—[continued].
On the receipt of Lord
North's Proposition, in May or June, 1775,
Lord Dunmore called the Assembly. Peyton
Randolph, the President of Congress, and
Speaker of the House of Burgesses, left the
former body and came home to hold the Assembly,
leaving in Congress the other delegates
who were the ancient leaders of our
House. He, therefore, asked me to prepare the
answer to Lord North's Proposition, which I
did. Mr. Nicholas, whose mind had as yet
acquired no tone for that contest, combatted
the answer from alpha to omega, and succeeded
in diluting it in one or two small instances.
It was firmly supported, however, in
Committee of the Whole, by Peyton Randolph,
who had brought with him the spirit of the
body over which he had presided, and it was
carried, with very little alteration, by strong
majorities. I was the bearer of it myself to
Congress, by whom, as it was the first answer
given to the Proposition by any Legislature,
it was received with peculiar satisfaction.—
To William Wirt. Washington ed. vi, 487.
Ford ed., ix, 475.
(M.
1815)
