University of Virginia Library

LXVIII.

LXVIII. PEYTON RANDOLPH.

LXVIII. President of
The Virginia Convention of August, 1774,
The Virginia Convention of March, 1775,
The Virginia Convention of July, 1775.

Never since the foundation of Virginia had there been
greater need of wisdom and courage in her people than was
necessary in the critical juncture now at hand, and not in
vain did the occasion summon the indignant Colonists to high
and patriotic duties.

Standing face to face with a great crisis which they
intrepidly resolved to meet, they pledged their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honor to the conflict, and shoulder
to shoulder moved on to the momentous issue of "liberty
or death."

Peyton Randolph, first President of the American
Congress, was born in Virginia in 1723, and died in Philadelphia,
October 22, 1775. He was the second son of Sir
John Randolph, and after graduating at the College of William
and Mary, went to England and studied law. On
his return in 1748 he was appointed King's Attorney-General
for the Colony, was chosen a member of the House of Burgesses,
and was chairman of a committee to revise the laws
of the Colony. In 1764 he drew up the address of the
Burgesses to the King, against the passage of the Stamp Act.
In 1765, after that Act became a law, Randolph, with other
proprietors of large estates, opposed Patrick Henry's celebrated
five resolutions, being loath to cast the die of Revolution.
In the same year Virginia forwarded to England

petitions similar to those adopted by the Congress,
(held in the City of New York, October, 1765) with an
address to the King, written by Randolph. In 1766 Randolph
was made Speaker of the House of Burgesses, resigning,
about the same time, his office of Attorney-General. In the
measures of opposition to the English government he now
took a conspicuous part. He was a member of the committee
of vigilance, appointed to obtain the most accurate intelligence
of all Acts of Parliament affecting the rights of the Colonies,
and authorized to open a correspondence with the other
Colonies. In August, 1774, he presided in the Convention at
Williamsburg, and was one of the delegates elected to the
Continental Congress. On the assembling of that body in
Philadelphia, in September, he was unanimously elected its
President, but in consequence of ill-health, held the post only
five or six weeks. In March, 1775, he presided over the second
Convention of Virginia, at Richmond, was elected again as a
delegate to Congress, and when that body met at Philadelphia
on May 10, 1775, was re-elected President; but nearer duties
recalling him to Virginia, he was succeeded by John Hancock.
The Convention which met in Richmond, July 17,
1775, elected Peyton Randolph its President, making him
thus for the third time the Moderator of the revolutionary
proceedings in Virginia. But his valuable services were
destined to be of short duration. He died suddenly, of apoplexy,
in Philadelphia, October 22, 1775, but his remains
were interred beneath the pavement of the famous "Old
Chapel" of William and Mary College, at Williamsburg,
Virginia.

Of all Peyton Randolph's public services, none, perhaps,
were more valuable than those he rendered in the three
historic Revolutionary Conventions over which he presided
in his native state. He was one of the most distinguished
lawyers and patriots of his time and country, and, though
not remarkable for eloquence, he derived great weight from
the solid powers of his understanding, and the no less solid
virtues of his heart. Besides being an eminent lawyer, he
was a well-informed and practical statesman, and his thorough

THE CRADLE OF LIBERTY.

"Apollo Room," Old Ralegh Tavern, Williamsburg, Va.

acquaintance with all forms of parliamentary proceeding made
him a tower of strength in those days of anarchy and confusion.

On the morning of May 25, 1774, when Lord Dunmore
dissolved for the last time the Virginia House of Burgesses,
the indignant members repaired immediately to the Ralegh
Tavern, about one hundred paces from the Capitol, and with
Peyton Randolph, their late Speaker, in the chair, held a solemn
Council. They voted that the late attack on Massachusetts
was an attack on all the Colonies, which should be opposed
by the united wisdom of all. They advised an annual
Continental Congress, and they named Peyton Randolph, with
others, a Committee of Correspondence, to invite a general
concurrence in this design. On the following Sunday afternoon,
May 29, 1774, letters from Boston reached Williamsburg,
of such an exciting and important nature, that the next
morning, at ten o'clock, the Burgesses met, having called to
their aid Washington, who was in Williamsburg at the time.
Being but twenty-five in number they felt unwilling to
assume the responsibility of definite measures of resistance,
but summoned a Convention of delegates to be elected by the
several counties, to meet at the Capitol on the first day of the
ensuing August. It was in this Convention that Washington
uttered the wish to raise one thousand men, subsist them at
his own expense, and march at their head to the relief of
Boston. It is also a point of historic interest to note, that
the people of Boston endorsed "the plan proposed by our
noble, patriotic, sister Colony of Virginia."

Among the great causes of colonial dissatisfaction with
the mother country, we may briefly mention the Navigation
Act of 1651, the Sugar Act of 1764, the Stamp Act of 1765;
but the spark which fired the smouldering continental
discontent was the duty on Tea, which, resisted, led to the
Boston Port Bill, in 1774, and this—to war.

The Act which shut up the harbor of Boston was
speedily followed by another, entitled, "An Act for the better
regulating the government of Massachusetts," and this
unveiled intention of interfering with Home Rule was too
much for struggling freedom.

On June 1, 1774, the day appointed to carry the Port Bill
into operation, business was finished at Boston by twelve
o'clock noon, and the harbor shut up. The day was observed
through all the Colonies as a day of mourning. In this
feverish condition of public feeling, the Convention, summoned
to meet in Williamsburg, assembled in the old Capitol on
August 1, 1774, and Peyton Randolph was elected its President.
Here, in the "Heart of the Rebellion," as this building was
called, was first proclaimed in outline that noble chart of
human liberty—the Declaration of American Independence.
Illness detained Thomas Jefferson on the road, but he sent
for inspection a paper which foreshadowed his mighty work.
It was presented by Peyton Randolph, President of the Convention,
and printed by some of the delegates. Enumerating
the grievances which affected all the Colonies, it made a special
complaint of a wrong to Virginia.

Of these words every heart acknowledged the justice.
Moreover, the Fairfax Resolves, in which George Mason and
Washington had given their solemn judgment against the
slave trade, were brought by the Fairfax delegates before
the Convention, and in August that body came to the unanimous
vote:

In this Convention, the eloquence of Richard Henry Lee
and of Patrick Henry made such profound impression, that
the one was compared to Cicero and the other to Demosthenes,

and Washington declared, "The crisis is arrived when we
must assert our rights or submit to every imposition that can
be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us tame
and abject slaves." The great lawyer, Thomson Mason,
of Virginia, denied, through the press, the right of England
to make laws for the Colonies, and exclaimed, "I do not
wish to survive the liberty of my country one single moment,
and am determined to risk my all in supporting it." Thus
the voice of Virginia, within and without the Convention,
was for Liberty, and she sent Patrick Henry, Washington,
Richard Henry Lee, and Peyton Randolph to expound her
views in the Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia,
September 4, 1774. Peyton Randolph, late Speaker of the
Assembly of Virginia, was unanimously chosen President of
the first Continental Congress. The assemblage baptized
itself "The Congress," and its Chairman "The President."
Eleven Colonies were represented by fifty-five members, each
Colony sending as many members as it pleased, and here
Patrick Henry, Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Samuel
Adams, John Adams, Jay, and many other noble patriots
met to face the desperate resort of Revolution.

At the beginning of the second day's session, a long and
deep silence prevailed. The voice of Virginia was waited
for, and soon it was heard to break that momentous stillness.
Amid the solemn hush rose Patrick Henry to speak his
country's wrongs, and to grave as "with an iron pen and
lead in the rock forever," the glorious idea of American
union. "British oppression," he said, "has effaced the
boundaries of the several Colonies; the distinctions between
Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders
are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American!"

In 1774 the number of white inhabitants in all the thirteen
Colonies was about 2,100,000, and of blacks about 500,000.
This was the America which determined to be free. But,
before the patient patriots in Congress assembled turned to
the last resort, they determined to make one final appeal to
England. They sent an address to the King, a memorial to

the people of British America, and an address to the people of
Great Britain. Mr. Lee, Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Johnson, Mr.
Henry, and Mr. Randolph prepared the address to the King;
Mr. Lee wrote the memorial to the people of British America;
and Mr. Jay, the address to the people of Great Britain.

Lord Chatham, in speaking of these communications in
the House of Lords, said: "When your lordships look at
the papers transmitted to us from America, when you consider
their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but
respect their cause and wish to make it your own. For
myself, I must declare and avow that in all my reading and
observation—and state-craft has been my favorite study, I
have read Thucydides, and admired the master states of the
world—that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and
wisdom of conclusion under such complication of circumstances,
no nation or body of men can stand in preference to
the general Congress at Philadelphia." It is true that the
Congress of 1774 was composed of men of the highest order
of wisdom and talent, "but, if you speak of solid information
and sound judgment," said Patrick Henry, "Washington
is unquestionably the greatest man of them all."

But England would not relent, and the pressure of events
which thickened as the time rolled on, found Virginia
in 1775 embarrassed by unusual difficulties. Subjected to
the tyranny of a Governor now opposed to her every interest,
and, saving a little powder in a magazine near Williamsburg,
destitute of warlike stores, she was, with many hindrances,
quite unprepared for war. Of all the Colonies, she was most
open to attack. The Bay of the Chesapeake, the deep waters
of the Potomac, the James, the York, and other streams,
exposed her to invasion, and when day after day she saw the
English men-of-war hovering upon her coast, she knew "the
hour" had come, and she bared her bosom to the storm. To
meet the crisis, she called a convention to assemble at Richmond
in March of this year, 1775. Williamsburg was no
longer a place for revolutionary assemblages. Dunmore sat
in his palace and watched in angry silence the progress of
events, relying for his own protection on the British men-of-war

lying in the river near at hand. So the patriots convened,
March 20, 1775, in Richmond, on what is now known
as "Church Hill," in old St. John's Church, there to make
ready for the morrow. They knew their cause was just, and
they knew that whatever course might be decided on for the
defence of Virginia, the people at home were ready to lay
down their money and their lives to accomplish it. Of this
Convention Peyton Randolph was chosen President, and
here Patrick Henry delivered one of those stirring, fiery
appeals of eloquence which has in part come down to us.
He said, addressing the President:

Says William Wirt in describing this scene: "He took
his seat. No murmur of applause was heard. The effect
was too deep. After the trance of a moment, several members
started from their seats. The cry, `To arms!' seemed
to quiver on every lip and gleam from every eye,"—and the
following Resolution was immediately adopted:

Patrick Henry, Richard H. Lee, Robert C. Nicholas,
Benjamin Harrison, Lemuel Riddick, George Washington,
Adam Stevens, Andrew Lewis, William Christian, Edmund
Pendleton, Thomas Jefferson, and Isaac Zane were appointed
a committee to prepare the plan called for by the above
Resolution.

"Thus the fathers of the Revolution," says Hening,
"when they dared that hazardous enterprise, found themselves
without a government, without men, and without
money. Indeed, they had nothing to support them in the
awful contest but their own virtue and talents, and a firm
reliance on the Sovereign Disposer of all events." The
progress of the Revolution shows with what facility all difficulties
were surmounted, what rapid progress was made in
military science, and how fitly every measure was adapted to
the circumstances of the country.

Thus was Virginia fairly launched into the War of the
Revolution. Meeting at her own door the treacherous Lord
Dunmore, who, by fire, sword, and every wicked strategem,
sought her ruin, she failed not to join hands with her sister
Colonies, to work out their common redemption.

In this exciting posture of affairs the Colonial Convention
of Virginia met again in Richmond, on Monday, the 17th day
of July, 1775. Peyton Randolph was chosen President of
this Convention, whose proceedings were marked by great
decision and vigor. Their first measure was "An ordinance
for raising and embodying a sufficient force for the defence
and protection of this Colony." Two regiments of regulars,
to consist of one thousand and twenty privates, rank and file,
were to be forthwith raised and taken into the pay of the
Colony; also other military forces were provided for, and
soldiers armed, trained, and furnished with all military
accoutrements, were to be ready to march at a minute's
warning. Patrick Henry was elected Colonel of the 1st

Virginia Regiment, and made Commander of all the forces
raised and to be raised, for the defence of the Colony. On
the 15th of June, little less than a month before, Washington,
at the age of 43, had been elected by the Continental Congress,
then in session in Philadelphia, General of "The
Continental Army." This appointment was brought forward
"at the particular request of the people in New England,"
and he was elected by ballot unanimously. Upon accepting
the position he said, "As the Congress desire it, I will enter
upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess
in their service and for the support of the glorious cause.
But, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in this
room, that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerity, I do
not think myself equal to the command I am honored with."

It was in the midst of all these exciting scenes that Peyton
Randolph, the immediate subject of this sketch, died suddenly,
on the 22d October, 1775, aged 52. He left a noble
record of personal honor, usefulness, and patriotism, holding
in many a storm the rudder of the ship of state, in those dark
hours "which tried men's souls."

THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

The Convention of July, 1775, held at Richmond, Va.,
Peyton Randolph, President, "for the more effectual carrying
into execution the several rules and regulations established
by this Convention, for the protection of this Colony,"
appointed the following eleven members, on the Committee
of Safety, viz.:

• Edmund Pendleton,

• George Mason,

• John Page,

• Richard Bland,

• Thomas Ludwell Lee,

• Paul Carrington,

• Dudley Digges,

• William Cabell,

• Carter Braxton,

• James Mercer,

• John Tabb.

Again, at the Convention of December, 1775, held at
Richmond, Va., Edmund Pendleton, President, an ordinance
was passed "for revising and amending an ordinance appointing
a Committee of Safety." By this Act the following
eleven members were created:

• Dudley Digges,

• John Page,

• Paul Carrington,

• Edmund Pendleton,

• James Mercer,

• Thomas Ludwell Lee,

• William Cabell,

• Richard Bland,

• Joseph Jones,

• John Tabb,

• Thomas Walker.

These Committees constituted the executive department of
the government when the Conventions were not in session,
and were held subordinate to the Conventions by the restriction
that "said Committee shall cause all their proceedings
and transactions to be fairly entered in a book or books to be
provided at publick expense for that purpose, which shall be
laid before the next Convention, to whom the said Committee

shall be accountable for their conduct touching the premises
in every respect whatever."

Mr. Hugh Blair Grigsby says, in his "Discourse on the
Virginia Convention of 1776" (page 16), "Let it be kept in
mind that the Convention not only performed the ordinary
duties of the legislative department, but, while in session,
those of the executive also," hence, we find the delicate
machinery of government required for the anomalous condition
of the times carefully provided, and with almost supernatural
wisdom every exigency anticipated.

Edmund Pendleton had the honor of being Chairman of
the Committee of Safety during the perilous period when
Virginia was passing from the Colony to the Commonwealth;
but, his chief claim to the position of Executive is, that he was
President of the Conventions of December, 1775, and of May,
1776; the highest and most responsible office in Virginia, at
the time, in the gift of his fellow-colonists.