University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER VII

THE REVENUE ACT—CRISIS OF INDEPENDENCE

Congress adjourned to meet on May 10, 1775, and in the
interval the different colonies were active in enforcing the
association and preparing for defense. Undoubtedly, the most
prominent figure in America at this time was Patrick Henry,
and in March, 1775, at the second Virginia convention in Richmond,
he made that speech for "Liberty or Death," which
stamped him as among the greatest orators of all ages. On
this occasion, R. H. Lee and General Thomas Nelson also
spoke eloquently, and Jefferson was not silent. "He argued
closely, profoundly and warmly on the same side."[83]

Henry's bill was opposed by Robert Carter Nicholas, who
regarded the proposed action as premature, but was so far
from the Tory policy that after the measure was carried over
his vote, he came forward with a proposition that went beyond
Henry's for raising 10,000 regulars to be enlisted for the war.
If this measure had been successful, the military progress
would have been greatly enhanced. Short enlistments were
the bane of the Revolution.

March 28, Dunmore issued a proclamation requiring all
civil officers to do their utmost to prevent the appointments
of deputies for Virginia to the next Continental Congress.
This proclamation, however, had no other effect than to irritate
the colonists and weaken the influence of the government.

In order to counteract the effects of the American Association,
Parliament, about the same time, passed bills cutting off
the trade with foreign markets of all the colonies, except New
York, North Carolina and Georgia, whose assemblies had not
adopted the plan. All petitions and addresses from every
source—from Congress, the colonies, the merchants of England
and the city of London, were rejected. William Lee[84]
wrote from London on April 3, 1775, that the contest "must
now come to a final decision, and in my opinion, it will end in
an absolute independence of the colonists." On May 15, he
wrote:[85] "The eyes of all Europe are upon America, and the
ministers attend much to the motions in Virginia, for they
think you will fight; which they have been taught to think the
New England people will not do." Doubtless this opinion of
the New Englanders went back to the year 1768, when the
Bostonians, after a great deal of bluster and with an act of
Parliament in their favor, permitted the troops to land and be
quartered in the town. They had not resisted then, and "the
King and his friends, as they are called, think there will be no
resistance now."

But the King was mistaken. On April 19, 1775, came the
first shedding of blood at Lexington. This created no new
condition, but only intensified those which existed. The difference
was only one of degree in violence, and sturdy blows
now took the place of parliamentary acts and colonial boycotts.
Whatever the situation created by the conflict at Lexington,
the British deserve the blame or credit of it, for they were the
aggressors.

Almost contemporaneous with the affair at Lexington was
an incident in Virginia which has often been characterized as
the beginning of the Revolution in that colony. The magazine
in Williamsburg contained twenty barrels of powder and a
considerable number of guns, and Lord Dunmore became apprehensive
that its contents would be seized to arm the militia.

The people of the town and the city volunteers under Captain
James Innis,[86] usher of the grammar school at the college,
patrolled the streets, and kept a pretty strong guard. But at
length they grew a little negligent, and before daybreak, on
Thursday, April 20, Captain Henry Collins, with the assistance
of some marines and sailors, who had been concealed at
the palace, secretly carried off in his lordship's little wagon, all
the powder it would conveniently carry—about sixteen and a
half barrels—to the Magdalene armed schooner, stationed
under his command at Burwell's Ferry on James River, about
six miles from Williamsburg. It was carried down to the
Fowey man-of-war of 24 guns (commanded by Captain Montague),
who received it and sailed with it around to Yorktown.

When intelligence of this event was noised in Williamsburg,
there was great excitement, and the militia rushed to
arms and could, with difficulty, be restrained by Peyton Randolph,
the speaker, and Robert Carter Nicholas, the treasurer,
from rushing to the palace and seizing the person of the governor.
The common hall assembled, drew up an address, and
waited upon the governor in a body. Their address was presented
to him by Peyton Randolph, the recorder of the city,
and contained a hot remonstrance against his ill-advised
action. To this Dunmore returned a verbal answer, excusing
his conduct by a reported insurrection of slaves in Surry
County, and pledging his honor that, whenever the powder was
needed, it should be forthcoming. This reply, though not
satisfactory, quieted the citizens, and was regarded as a promise
to return the powder shortly.

The news of the removal of the powder spread in a very
short time throughout the colony, and soon more than six
hundred cavalry assembled at Fredericksburg, but before
marching to Williamsburg, they sent thither Mann Page, Jr.,
to enquire whether the gun powder had been replaced in the
magazine. He arrived in Williamsburg on the morning of
April 27, after a ride of twenty-four hours, and left in the

evening with a letter from Peyton Randolph, in behalf of the
corporation, advising against any violent proceedings. Next
day Mr. Randolph set out for the congress, and reached the
house of Edmund Pendleton in Caroline County, from which,
on Saturday, the 29th, he joined with his host in sending a
second letter of similar import to Fredericksburg. The same
advice was given by Washington in a letter to James Mercer,
with the result that, after a long and animated discussion, the
committee of 102 deputies, appointed by the troops, consented,
by a majority of one only, not to go to Williamsburg. When
Dunmore heard of this assembling of troops, he grew very
wrathy and sent word to the mayor of Williamsburg, Dr. William
Pasteur,[87] "that, if any injury was offered to himself or
the officers who acted under his directions, he would proclaim
liberty to the slaves and reduce Williamsburg to ashes."

On May 2, the council met at the palace, and discussed the
situation. John Page, the youngest member, boldly advised
the governor to give up the power and arms, as necessary to
restore the public tranquillity. Dunmore, enraged, struck the
table with his fist, exclaiming: "Mr. Page, I am astonished
at you." The other councillors, President William Nelson,
John Camm (president of the college), Ralph Wormeley,
Richard Corbin, Gawin Corbin and William Byrd remained
silent. The result of the meeting was the issuance of a proclamation
by the governor, assuring the public that he meant no
harm and promising to return the powder "as soon as the
present ferment should subside."

The same day the committee of Hanover County met at
New Castle, and, urged by Patrick Henry, authorized him to
proceed to Williamsburg with a company of troops and demand

the return of the powder. Captain Henry set out at
once, and was reinforced on the way by companies from
Charles City,[88] New Kent and King William. Ensign Parke
Goodall, with sixteen men, was detached to "Laneville," on the
Mattapony, the seat of Richard Corbin, the king's deputy-receiver-general,
to demand the estimated value of the powder;
but the king's money was kept then in Williamsburg, and
it was learned that Colonel Corbin was in that place. Captain
Henry, in the meantime, with the main body, continued his
march to Williamsburg, and the news of his approach caused
great excitement. Lady Dunmore and her children precipitately
fled to the protection of the Fowey at Yorktown, while
Lord Dunmore planted cannon at the palace, armed his negro
servants, and ordered up a detachment of marines from the
ships.

Henry, with 150 men, reached Doncastle's ordinary in
New Kent sixteen miles from Williamsburg, on the evening of
May 3, and late that night, Colonel Carter Braxton, who lived
at "Elsing Green," on the Pamunkey, arrived in town from
Henry's camp. The alternatives presented by him were the
restoration of the gunpowder or its value paid down; and,
the latter being acceded to by Dunmore, Colonel Braxton returned
with a bill of exchange for £320 from Richard Corbin,
the receiver-general, and delivered it to Henry in his camp at
sunrise of May 4. At ten o'clock of the same day, a detachment
of forty sailors and marines from the Fowey, under
Captain Stretch, arrived at the palace by way of the governor's
park.

The affair of the powder being settled, Captain Henry
wrote a letter to the treasurer, Robert Carter Nicholas, offering
to remove the treasury of the colony to a safer place or to
send a guard for its protection. But Nicholas returned the
answer that "the minds of the people of Williamsburg were

perfectly quiet, and that there was now no necessity for the
proposed guard." Indeed, more than one hundred of the citizens
of Williamsburg patrolled the streets and guarded the
treasury in the night. Upon this, Captain Henry and his men
broke up camp and returned to their respective homes.

Two days later, May 6, the governor, relieved of apprehensions,
issued a proclamation denouncing the outrages of "a
certain Patrick Henry of Hanover County, and a number of
his deluded followers," and calling upon the people to "vindicate
the constitutional authority of the government." The
reply was not long in forthcoming; for addresses and resolutions
approving his conduct poured in upon Mr. Henry from
all parts of the colony: and when, on May 11, he set out to attend
the general congress, he was honored with an escort to the
Potomac River composed of young gentlemen from Hanover,
King William and Caroline counties, and had to repeatedly
stop on the way to receive addresses of thanks and applause.

About this time Dunmore received orders from Lord North
and Lord Dartmouth, at the head of the British government,
to submit the propositions called "The Olive Branch," and he
issued, on May 12, a summons for a meeting of the assembly.
The troops from the Fowey, called by the people of Williamsburg,
in derision, "Montague's boiled crabs," were sent back
to the river, Lady Dunmore and her children returned to the
palace, and the council published an address, in which they expressed
"their detestation and abhorrence of the licentious
and ungovernable spirit that had gone forth and misled the
once happy people of this country." The council now shared
the public odium with Dunmore, and were severely criticized
in the newspapers.

In contrast with the unpopularity of Dunmore were the
honors extended to Peyton Randolph. After his return to
Philadelphia he was again elected president by the continental
congress, but when, soon after, the news arrived that the House
of Burgesses was to meet, he resigned and set out for Virginia.
At Ruffin's Ferry, on the Pamunkey, he was met by a

detachment of cavalry from Williamsburg, all in uniform, who
formed an escort. Two miles from Williamsburg they were
joined by a company of infantry, and at Williamsburg itself,
where they arrived at sunset, they were welcomed with cheers
and the ringing of bells. "There were illuminations in the evening,
and the volunteers, with many other respectable gentlemen,
assembled at the Raleigh, spent an hour or two in
harmony and cheerfulness, and drank several patriotic
toasts."

The House of Burgesses organized on June 1, by the reelection
of Randolph as speaker, but hardly had they addressed
themselves to the business of the session, before an incident
occurred, which had no small effect in increasing the public
irritation. On Saturday night, the third of June, a few overzealous
young men broke into the magazine for the purpose of
getting arms. A cord, communicating with two spring guns,
had been so placed that the arms could not be approached without
touching it. One of the guns went off and wounded three
of the intruders—one of them a popular young man named
Beverley Dickson, quite seriously. While the conduct of the
young men was not openly approved by the people of Williamsburg,
the contrivance resorted to for the protection of
the arms was deemed wicked and malicious. Dunmore's unpopularity
was increased by the publication at this time of a
letter of his to Lord Dartmouth, representing the condition of
the colony as one of open rebellion—a statement perfectly
true, but one which the colonists were not yet prepared to
admit.

Before proceeding to consider Lord North's proposals, the
house appointed a committee to inspect the magazine and enquire
into the stores belonging there; and James Innis, captain
of the Williamsburg volunteers, was required to place and
maintain a guard for its defence. Dunmore thought it best to
repeat his reasons in a message to the house for removing the
powder, and promised that "as soon as he saw things in a state
of security, he would certainly replace it." But difficulties

thickened. Rumors spreading that the mariners and soldiers
belonging to the British ship Fowey were to be again introduced
into the town, the people assembled in the streets with
arms in their hands, and were with difficulty convinced that
the report had no foundation.

In this situation of affairs some news that now arrived
from the north proved too much for Dunmore's nerves. An
express from General Gage, at Boston, acquainted him of his
intention to publish a proclamation proscribing Samuel
Adams and John Hancock, as Dunmore had done Patrick
Henry; and fearing that he might be seized and detained as a
hostage, Dunmore suddenly, about two o'clock in the morning
of June 8, withdrew from the palace with his family, his secretary,
Captain Edward Foy, and some of his domestics; and
went on board of the Fowey man-of-war.

The people of Williamsburg were very much surprised at
this denouement, and the Council and House of Burgesses
tried to induce Dunmore to return, but in vain. They, nevertheless,
continued their work on the bills of the session, and
June 12, Thomas Jefferson, as chairman of a committee, made
a masterly report to the house in answer to Lord North's so-called
"Olive Branch." The Burgesses approved the conduct
of the late war with the Indians, and provided the means of defraying
the cost; but the governor would not pass the bill,
because it imposed a specific duty of five pounds on the head,
about ten per cent. on the value, of every slave imported from
the West Indies. The last exercise of the veto power by the
king's representative in Virginia was for the protection of the
slave trade. At length, having finished their legislation, they
entreated him to meet them at the capitol for the purpose of
giving his formal consent, as was usual, to the bills and resolves
passed by the assembly. He replied that he could not
go to the capitol, but would be glad to see them on board his
majesty's ship in York River.

The Burgesses voted this message "a high breach of the

rights and privileges of this house" and on Saturday, June 20,
they adjourned to meet on October 12.

Dr. H. J. Eckenrode notes[89] the deep-rooted attachment
of the Virginians to mere legal practices and constitutional
forms. The same men who met as a House of Burgesses, in
connection with the royal governor, met also as a revolutionary
assembly and adopted ordinances without his approval.
The legal figment was kept up till it was worn threadbare.
On October 12, 37 members of the House of Burgesses met,
but this not proving a quorum they adjourned to meet on the
first Thursday in March, 1776. On that day 32 members
came together, which was not a sufficient number to proceed
to business, and they adjourned till the first Monday in
May following. Finally, on the 6th of May, there were still
several members of the House, who met in Williamsburg, but
they neither proceeded to business nor adjourned and the clerk
wrote Finis under the record.

This was in the same contradictory spirit that characterized
the colonists everywhere who professed to be loyal to
King George and yet were in open rebellion against him.

On Monday, July 17, 1775, the third revolutionary convention
met in Williamsburg. Measures were taken for raising
two regiments of regular troops for one year and two companies
for the protection of the western frontier, for dividing
the colony into sixteen districts and for exercising the militia
as minute men, so as to be ready for service at a moment's
warning. Furthermore, it filled an imperative need, by creating
in the place of Dunmore a revolutionary executive, known
as the Committee of Safety, on August 17.

Several of the most noted leaders elected were absent as
delegates to congress, Peyton Randolph, whose health was
bad, Henry, Jefferson, Wythe and Richard Henry Lee, and so
the highest vote on the Committee of Safety was given to
Edmund Pendleton, who thereby became chosen president
thereof. He, with Richard Bland, who declined to go to Congress

because of his age, Paul Carrington, John Page, Carter
Braxton, Dudley Digges, and John Tabb, conservatives, and
George Mason, Thomas Ludwell Lee, William Cabell and
James Mercer, progressives, composed the Committee of
Safety.

The election was a conservative victory. It was due to the
absence of Richard Henry Lee and Jefferson, both of whom
were in Philadelphia, and more to the loss of Patrick Henry,
who aspired to military glory as colonel of one of the Virginia
regiments. It restored to the conservatives the power
which they had lost since 1769.

This transfer of power from progressives to conservatives
led to the postponement of hostilities with Dunmore for some
months. And after hostilities, and as late as January, 1776,
when Dunmore was a defeated fugitive, and the Committee of
Safety ruled in his stead, there was an effort made through
Richard Corbin, president of the Council—himself somewhat
of a Tory—to induce Dunmore to commission the President
of the Convention as acting governor for the adjourned meeting
of the Assembly. Dunmore refused to grant the commission,
thus frustrating the last efforts of the conservative leaders
to continue the government under the colonial constitution.
It must be remembered, however, that this conservatism was
largely influenced by the still greater conservatism of Congress,
for in October, 1775, Wythe, a conservative himself,
declared from his seat in that body that "it was from a reverence
for Congress that the convention of Virginia had neglected
to arrest Lord Dunmore."

Congress met at its second session in Philadelphia on May
10, 1775, the day agreed on. The position of honor was again
accorded to Virginia. Peyton Randolph was re-elected president,
and his colleagues occupied important positions on the
committees. Washington was made Commander-in-chief of
the New England army at Boston, and it was a few days later
that the battle of Bunker Hill was fought.

Under the influence of the conservatives from the Middle
States, in comparison with whom Edmund Pendleton was a

radical, Congress adopted on August 21, 1775, a petition to the
King drawn in almost abject terms by John Dickinson, and
during the months of waiting for an answer, Congress was
careful to avoid doing anything that might endanger the acceptance
of its petition. For this reason it put aside a plan of
confederation proposed by Franklin, and refused to make adequate
preparation for resistance. It declined to sanction the
institution of government in the colonies or authorize Washington
to attack the British in Boston. The most decided
papers of this Congress came from the Virginians. These
were Richard Henry Lee's "Address to the people of Great
Britain" and Jefferson's "Reply to the Resolutions of the
House of Commons," known as Lord North's "Olive Branch,"
and already referred to. The latter paper adopted the sentiments
recently expressed by the same gentleman for the Virginia
Assembly. Jefferson also prepared a declaration of the
causes of taking up arms, but it was too strong for Mr. Dickinson,
from Pennsylvania, and an entire new statement by
him, with the exception of the last four paragraphs and a half
of Jefferson's report, was adopted by Congress. This address
was read in every market place with thundering applause.
The commanders read it at the head of our armies. But it will
probably not be denied by any reader at this time that this
celebrated production owed most of its popularity to the part
which proceeded from the pen of Thomas Jefferson.[90] Congress
adjourned on August 1 and did not meet again till September
5.

In the meantime the royal governor after the adjournment
of the House of Burgesses made his way to Norfolk. Later
in the month the Magdalene sailed for York with Lady Dunmore
and the rest of the governor's family, bound for England.
They were convoyed across the bay by the Fowey man-of-war.
The Fowey itself was shortly afterwards relieved by
the Mercury and Mars, and sailed with Capt. Edward Foy, the
governor's secretary, on board to Boston. The governor took

up his residence on board the William, a merchant ship, and
remained inactive for several months for lack of troops. This
was the opportunity of the Revolutionary Committee of
Safety, who should have arrested him, and we have noticed Mr.
Wythe's explanation of the failure to do so. Acquiring a little
strength he finally resorted to hostile measures which compelled
the unwilling committee to attack him. This led to his
proclamation of November 7, declaring the colony in rebellion
and setting the example followed by Lincoln in 1862, of proclaiming
freedom to the slaves. He was finally driven from the
State in July, 1776, but not before he had inflicted considerable
loss by harassing visits to the plantations on the rivers. In the
course of these hostilities Norfolk was destroyed.

Similar influences impelled Congress to action. A copy of
its petition to the King was handed to Lord Dartmouth, August
21, and the response from his majesty two days later was
a proclamation declaring the colonists as rebels. Intelligence
of the fate of this second petition reached Philadelphia,
October 31, and the city newspapers of the next day contained
the King's proclamation. They also had the statement
that ten thousand Hanoverians were about to join the
British forces in America, and on this day an express from
Washington told of the burning of Falmouth in Maine by the
British commander.

This was too much, and Congress authorized Washington,
who had closely besieged the British army in Boston, to attack,
and he acted by seizing Dorchester Heights and compelling
Howe to evacuate the city, in March, 1776. The South afterwards
became the centre of interest. Dunmore was ravaging
Virginia, and there was the menace of Sir Peter Parker's
expedition against Charleston. The battle of Moore's Creek
Bridge had been fought, and there the Tories had been routed
by Richard Caswell, February 27. In this state of things the
fire of resistance declined in the North and flamed up in the
South.

Much has been written about the time of the birth of the

independence idea, and Massachusetts writers quote Hutchinson,
the Tory governor, claiming that Samuel Adams was the
first man to declare for it in any public meeting. But against
this it must be remembered that the Tory governor was speaking
of Massachusetts only, and moreover his horror of rebellion
disposed him to put a construction on words that did not
necessarily mean independence. Where and when did Samuel
Adams make such a declaration? All his State papers in Massachusetts
breathe of nothing but loyalty to the crown, and
none even of his private letters come out explicitly for independence
till the publication in January, 1776, of Tom Paine's
famous pamphlet "Common Sense."

The same remark is true of his cousin and fellow patriot
John Adams, whose statement in his autobiography written
30 years later, that he talked openly in Congress for independence
during the latter part of 1775 seems contradicted by a
letter written by him as late as February 17, 1776, which has
the following: "Reconciliation if practicable and peace if
attainable you very well know will be agreeable to my inclinations,
but I see no prospect, no probability, no possibility."

As a matter of fact there is evidence that others preceded
both in entertaining the idea. Among the earliest was William
Lee, brother of Dr. Arthur Lee, who in his letter from
London, April 3, 1775, already quoted, predicted "absolute
independence." After the news of the fate of the second petition
to the King, several anonymous articles appeared in the
newspapers in favor of independence, and there were written
also some private letters suggesting it by prominent, but not
leading men. Doubtless among the very first to entertain ideas
of independence was George Washington. In a letter to Mr.
Reed, of Pennsylvania, dated February 10, 1776, he said:
"With respect to myself, I have never entertained an idea of
an accommodation, since I heard of the measures which were
adopted in consequence of the Bunker Hill fight." Nevertheless,
there is no evidence that Washington, even after the
King's proclamation in August, 1775, went about urging independence.

Samuel Adams had a talent for intrigue, and in
that spirit which politicians have of throwing flowers to their
rivals in public favor, he was called by Jefferson "the Palinurus
of the Revolution." It is stated that he was one of the
caucus in Congress who met and shaped its policy, but as this
work was one in secret, the value of his individual labors cannot
be given its due weight. Certain it is, that he was not
prominent as a speaker or writer, and if he was really responsible
for the lukewarmness and vacillation of Congress at this
time it is not much to his credit.

The truth is "independence" before Paine's great paper
was an academic thought. It had in several cases some air of
movement but it did not stir the mass of the people appreciably.
It remained for Paine to breathe into it the breath of
life and make it a vital impelling force. It was not till then
that the idea of independence as it took shape in the Declaration
of Independence was really and truly born.

The changed state of affairs, at that time and subsequently,
made its appeal felt more keenly in the South than in the
North. So evident was this that Samuel Adams, in a letter[91]
of April 30, 1776, commented upon the reported necessity of
"allaying the heat of the South by the coolness and moderation
of the North." In this spirit Congress laid on the table an
address[92] made by a Committee threatening Great Britain with
Independence, and some weeks later Col. Landon Carter
wrote[93] in his Diary of a report in Virginia that "Independence
was thrice proposed in the Congress and each time
thrown out by a vast majority, and that more than nine-tenths
of the people to the northward are violently against it."

The delegates of Massachusetts were greatly embarrassed
by the lack of enthusiasm for independence at home. On
March 26, 1776, Elbridge Gerry, one of the delegates, wrote[94]

to the President of the Massachusetts Provincial Assembly:
"I sincerely wish you would originate instructions, expressed
as a court in favor of independency. I am certain it would
turn many doubtful minds and produce a reversal of the contrary
instructions adopted by some assemblies." Writing still
later, May 1, to the same gentleman, he used this language:[95]
"Virginia is always to be depended upon, and so fine a spirit
prevails among them, that unless you send some of your cool
patriots among them, they may be for declaring independency
before Congress is ready." The apprehension expressed in
this paragraph was, as we shall see, verified by the event, as
Virginia declared for independence more than six weeks before
Congress acted. In a letter of May 28th, Gerry enclosed
papers containing the Virginia and North Carolina instructions
and said: "Their conventions have unanimously declared
for independency and have in this respect exceeded
their sister colonies in a most noble and decisive measure. I
hope it will be forthwith communicated to your honorable
assembly and hope to see my native colony following this
laudable example."[96] James Warren in reply,[97] 12th of June,
acknowledged the receipt of this letter, and the enclosed
papers. "I have endeavored," he adds, "to use to the best
purpose the intelligence you gave me, and to animate your
native colony to follow the laudable example of the South.
Their spirit is in your taste, and I can in imagination see you
enjoy it."

Notwithstanding the urgings of Gerry and Warren, the
Council branch of the Legislature, which held its session in
May, at Watertown, negatived a resolution of the House of
Representatives looking to independence. The House then
proceeded separately on the question, and on the 10th of May,
it voted this curious resolution that "the towns ought to call
meetings to determine whether, if Congress should declare the

colonies independent of Great Britain, the inhabitants would
solemnly engage with their lives and fortunes to support them
in the measure." This looks as if the House was trying to
shirk the question and to throw the responsibility on the towns.
And the towns, by repeating the "ifs," seemed in their resolutions
to hand the question over to their representatives in
the ensuing Provincial Congress. Boston thought reconciliation
"dangerous and absurd," but professed her willingness
"to wait, most patiently to wait, till the wisdom of Congress
shall dictate the necessity of making a declaration of independence."
A new House of Representatives convened on the 2d
of June, but it was not till July 3, that they took final action
on independence. On that day they addressed a letter[98] to
their representatives in the Continental Congress advising
them of the result of the vote in the majority of the towns,
which were in favor of independence, if Congress deemed it
advisable. They gave no direct instructions of their own, but
submitted their letter "to be made use of as you shall think
proper." On June 21, Joseph Hawley wrote[99] from Watertown:
"General Washington: the most important matters are
soon to be decided by arms. Unhappy it is for Massachusetts,
and I fear the whole continent, that at this season we have a
large and numerous assembly. More than one-half of the
members are new members. Their decisions are most afflictingly
slow, when everything calls for the utmost ardor and
dispatch. The Lord have mercy upon us!" Compare the
timidity of action of Boston and Massachusetts with the
bold declaration of Cumberland County and the Virginia
Convention.

The only Northern colony that made any expression of its
sentiments previous to the Virginia convention, in May, 1776,
was Rhode Island. There the assembly, on May 4, suppressed
all recognition of King George but declined to give a direct
answer to the query of representative Stephen Hopkins "concerning

dependence, or independence." By a secret commission,
dated May 4, 1776, the delegates were given a power to
vote for any measure calculated to "secure their rights," and
independence was not named. Frothingham says[100] "that it
roused no enthusiasm and made no mark."

The spirit of John Adams outran the cautiousness of his
constituency, and May 10, 1776, a resolution proposed by
him was adopted by Congress recommending to all the colonies,
"where no government sufficient to the exigencies of
their affairs have been hitherto established, to form such
government as might conduce to their happiness in particular,
and that of America in general." In his preamble to this
resolution adopted May 15, the very day on which Virginia
decided on her own motion to assume an independent government,
it was asserted that "it is necessary that every
kind of authority under the Crown of Great Britain should
be totally suppressed." Though this was a step in advance,
it was not a formal separation, and in view of the former
protestations of Congress in favor of reconciliation did not
carry with it the idea of separation from the British Empire.

The course of the Southern colonies was far more decided
than that of the colonies of the North. On the 23rd of
March, 1776, South Carolina, without directly alluding to
independence, empowered her delegates to concur in any measure
which might be deemed essential to the welfare of
America. About the same time the Provincial Congress of
Georgia, in choosing a new set of delegates to Philadelphia,
authorized them to "join in any measure which they might
think calculated for the common good." North Carolina,
largely settled by Virginia emigrants, went a great step
further, and her Provincial Congress on April 12, 1776, empowered
her delegates to "concur with the delegates in the
other colonies in declaring independency and forming foreign
alliances, reserving to the colony the sole and exclusive right

of forming a constitution and laws for it." But her delegates
were not instructed to propose independence, and none
of them ever arose from their seats in Congress to put the
ball in motion.

That unapproachable honor was reserved for Virginia,
and there was no delay beyond what the date fixed for the
meeting of her convention entailed. But long before this
time the sentiments of her people for independence were
plainly expressed. On this question, the evidence which has
come down to us bears summing up.

"Common Sense" appeared first in a Philadelphia paper,
January 9, 1776. In the notice of a new edition proposed on
January 25, it was stated that "several hundred are already
bespoke, one thousand for Virginia."[101] On January 31, Washington
praised "its sound doctrine and unanswerable reasoning."[102] On February 24, 1776, Dr. Walter Jones, the representative
in the convention from Richmond County and afterwards
a prominent member of Congress, reported[103] it a "most
incomparable performance." On March 29, Col. Landon Carter
reported[104] Richard Henry Lee "as a prodigious admirer,
if not partly a writer in it." On April 2, John Lee wrote[105]
from Essex County: "Independence is now the topic here,
and I think I am not mistaken when I say, it will (if not
already) be very soon a Favorite Child."

John Page wrote,[106] on April 12, to R. H. Lee, from Williamsburg,
the seat of government, that "almost every man
here, except the Treasurer (Robert Carter Nicholas) is willing
to declare for Independence." A week before John Page's
letter, Major-General Charles Lee in a letter to Washington
had declared the Provincial Congress of New York as "angels
of decision" compared with the Committee of Safety at Williamsburg.

This letter of John Page, who was Vice-president
of the Committee of Safety, shows what a revolution had
occurred in that center of conservatism. On April 20, William
Aylett, of King William County, reported[107] to R. H.
Lee: "The people of this county almost unanimously cry
aloud for Independence," and the same day Richard Henry
Lee, then attending Congress in Philadelphia, wrote[108] to Patrick
Henry to propose a separation in the Virginia convention
which was to meet in May. "Virginia," he writes, "has hitherto
taken the lead in great affairs, and many now look at
her with anxious expectation, hoping that the spirit, wisdom
and energy of her councils will arouse America from the
fatal lethargy into which the feebleness, folly and interested
views of the Proprietary governments, with the aid of Tory
machinations, have thrown her most unhappily."

On April 5, the committee of Cumberland county, appointed
a sub-committee, of which Carter Henry Harrison[109] was the
chairman, to draw up instructions for the delegates in convention
to be chosen for that county on court day, April 22.
Accordingly, on that day the people of Cumberland adopted
resolutions drafted by Mr. Harrison, in which this imposing
language was used: "We therefore, your constituents, instruct
you positively to declare for an independency; that you solemnly
abjure any allegiance to his Brittanick Majesty and
bid him good night forever, that you promote in our convention
an instruction to our delegates now sitting in Continental
Congress to do the same," etc. This is as far as we know
the first positive order in the United States given for independence
by any official body, and on the next day (April 23),
Charlotte county instructed[110] its delegates to use their best
endeavors that "the delegates which are sent to the General

Congress be instructed immediately to cast off the British
yoke." The rest of the counties followed in resolutions very
similar, and in this spirit and with such aims the new convention
was chosen, and on the 6th of May, met in Williamsburg
according to order. Just four days later Gen. Charles Lee
wrote that the languor of Congress frightened him.

On May 15 a paper was adopted which directed the Virginia
delegates in Congress to propose to that respectable
body to declare the United Colonies "free and independent
States absolved from all allegiance to or dependence upon
the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain." By the same
paper, a committee was appointed to prepare a declaration
of rights and plan of government for the colony. The author
was Edmund Pendleton,[111] President of the convention. It
was proposed by Thomas Nelson, and championed before the
convention by Patrick Henry. "As a Pillar of Fire which, notwithstanding
the darkness of the prospect, would conduct
to the promised land he inflamed, and was followed by the convention."[112] In this way did Virginia solve the last political
problem of the preliminary stages of the Revolution, and in
consequence the greatest joy prevailed in Williamsburg. The
troops were drawn out and paraded before Brigadier-General
Andrew Lewis, in Waller's Grove, at the east end of the
town, near the theatre. Then publicly toasts were drunk,
and each of them was accompanied by a discharge of artillery.
The British flag, which floated from the capitol, was
immediately struck and a continental hoisted in its room.
And all this time the "Liberty Bell of Virginia," which still
hangs in the old church steeple—the most remarkable relic
doing duty in the United States—was making merry with its
musical peals.

Edmund Pendleton

On June 12, the convention of Virginia adopted unanimously
a Declaration of Rights, and on June 29, unanimously, a
State constitution by which it was declared that the government
of this country, as formerly exercised under the Crown
of Great Britain, is "totally dissolved." The Declaration of
Rights was the work of George Mason, and the body of the
Virginia constitution was substantially his, though the beautiful
preamble proceeded from the pen of Thomas Jefferson.
These celebrated papers were copied and adopted substantially
as their own by most of the other colonies. Immediately
after the approval of the plan of government the convention
elected Patrick Henry first governor, adopted a State seal
prepared by George Wythe, and passed an ordinance requiring
all magistrates and other officers to swear allegiance to
the "Commonwealth of Virginia."

The constitution of Virginia has been called the first written
charter of government ever adopted by a free and independent
people. Up to the meeting of the Virginia convention,
in May, 1776, Congress had kept open the door of reconciliation,
and in this spirit it had at different dates during
the year 1775 advised Massachusetts, New Hampshire, South
Carolina, and Virginia, in which the functions of the old
royal government were suspended, to form new governments,
if they deemed it necessary, "during the continuances of the
present disputes between Great Britain and the colonies."
Virginia at that time did not deem it necessary to make a
written constitution which was to be temporary only, for
she had her popular convention, which met from time to
time, and in August, 1775, she had created a Committee of
Safety, which had general executive control and was empowered
to issue all commissions without any recognition
of King George.

Richard Henry Lee, had been associated with John Adams
in preparing the preamble adopted in Congress on May 15,
and now on June 7, he rose from his seat, and in obedience to
the instructions of Virginia, proposed the celebrated resolutions:

(1) For independence; (2) For forming foreign alliances;
and (3) For establishing a plan of confederation. His
main supporters were John Adams, of Massachusetts, and
George Wythe, of Virginia—two of the really great men in
Congress. But it appearing in the course of the debates that
the delegations of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware
and South Carolina were not yet ready, it was thought
prudent to postpone the final decision. And that this might
occasion as little delay as possible, a committee, with Thomas
Jefferson at the head, was appointed June 11, 1776, to prepare
a Declaration of Independence. The adoption of these
great measures on July 2, and July 4, respectively, consummated
the work which Virginia had begun. Far above and
beyond all other writers Jefferson deserves the name of the
"Penman of the Revolution," for his was not a work confined,
like Samuel Adams,' to a province, but into his "Declaration
of Independence" he poured the soul of a continent. An eminent
critic[113] has pronounced this paper "as the most commanding
and the most pathetic utterance in any age, in any language,
of national grievances and of national purposes," and
the editor[114] of the latest edition of the writings of Thomas Jefferson
does not shrink from calling it "the paper which is
probably the best known that ever came from the pen of an
individual."

In so great a drama as I have attempted briefly to unfold
there were many actors. On June 3, 1776, John Adams again
declared what so many had said before: "We all look up to
Virginia for examples." Among the Virginia exemplars of
this period were Richard Bland, Peyton Randolph, Edmund
Pendleton, George Wythe, Robert Carter Nicholas, Dr. Arthur
Lee, Richard Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, George Mason,
Thomas Nelson, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson;
but undoubtedly the hero of the period was Patrick Henry.
His was the unquestionable merit of having prepared resistance

by his speech in the Parsons' cause and of having led
the country in the Stamp Act, and during all the period succeeding
he had been always a leading spirit and often the soul
of action. He consolidated the opposition against the act
of Parliament for trying Americans in England, put life into
the counsels of Congress at Philadelphia in 1774, and championed
with his eloquent tongue the intercolonial committees
of correspondence and the resolutions of the Virginia convention
for independence. His was the one voice that never was
silent from the beginning to the end.[115] John Adams uttered
the contemporary sentiments of the people of Massachusetts
when he pointed him out, in 1776, as the "author of the first
Virginia resolutions against the Stamp Act, who will have the
glory with posterity of BEGINNING AND CONCLUDING THIS GREAT
REVOLUTION."