title: The Virginia convention of 1776. A discourse delivered before the Virginia Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa society, in the chapel of William and Mary college, in the city of Williamsburg, on the afternoon of July the 3rd, 1855.
text: '/' >- ■■■ - -. ~> <s ■V *f>, «*\ o5 -n*. 'Kt <- THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION OF 17/6. A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE VIEGINIA ALPHA OF THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY. IN THE CHAPEL OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE, IN THE CITY OF WILLIAMSBURG, ON THE AFTERNOON OF JULY THE 3rd, 1855. BY HUGH BLAIR GRIGSBY. [published by a resolution of the society] J, W. RANDOLPH, 121 MAIN STREET, RICHMOND, VA 1855. W. II. CLEMMITT, PRINTER. i3 62 Z39/& DISCOURSE Mr. President: Before I proceed to the subject which I have selected for the present occasion, I cannot refrain from expressing my grateful acknowledgments to the society in which you preside, for the honor of admission into its ranks, and my delight at its re-establishment. The PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY, insti- tuted more than two-thirds of a century ago within the walls of William and Mary by some of Virginia's noblest sons, and inter- twining itself since with the most eminent colleges of the Union, has performed an office of incalculable importance in the history of American literature. The names of John Marshall, Bushrod Washington, Spencer Roane, John Nivison, the Cabells, the Stuarts, Hardy, Page, Cocke, the Bookers, the Shorts, and others, who laid its foundations, or Avere among its earliest members, deserve to be held in lasting remembrance.* The most eminent names in war and peace, throughout the Union, have been sub- sequently inscribed upon its rolls. Its annual gatherings constitute * The names of the original members of the Phi Be lished in Williamsburg on the fifth of December, 1776, John Heath, Thomas Smith, Richard Booker, Armistead Smith, John Jones, John Stuart, Daniel Fitzhugh, Theodore Fitzhugh, John Starke, Isaac Hill, William Short, John Morrison, George Braxton, Henry Hill, John Allen, John Nivison, Hartwell Cocke, Thomas Hall, Samuel Hardy, Archibald Stuart, John Brown, D. C. Brent, Thomas Clements, Thomas W. Ballandine, Richard Booker, John Moore, Spencer Roane, William Stith, W. Stuart, J. J. Beckley, ta Kappa Society, estab- are as follows : Thomas Savage, John Page, William Cabell^ John Marshall, Bushrod Washington, Thomas Lee, Landon Cabell, W. Pierce, Richard B. Lee, William Madison, John Swann, Thomas Cocke, Paxton Bowdoin, Alexander Mason. 4 WILLIAMSBURG — ITS ASSOCIATIONS. the great literary jubilee of our country. Sir, I indulge the hope, — nay more than hope, — the firm and full belief, that its re-institution here, in the place of its birth, appealing, as it does, with irresistible power to our love of letters and to our love of country, is an omen of cheering import ; that its star shall be obscured no more ; and that, as the past generations beheld its genial light, so the genera- tions to come will hail its influence sweetly and charmingly blended with the radiance of our venerable college, now and henceforth, with becoming pride and joy. The scene before me suggested the subject to which I invite your attention. I was to speak in Williamsburg, the metropolis of the Colony, and the cradle of the young Commonwealth. I was to address a society instituted by some of the patriot fathers of the Republic. I was to speak before a college in which most of those patriot fathers were nurtured. I Avas to speak almost within the shadow of that sacred edifice in which those fathers so long wor- shipped, in which they bowed beneath the chastisements of the Ruler of Nations in fasting and prayer, at the altar of which they put forth their first and fervent supplications for the prosperity of the new Commonwealth which, under the guidance of Providence, they had been impelled to erect, and in which they invoked the aid of His countenance, who had guided their fathers over the waters, who had shielded them amid the dangers of the wilderness, and who had blessed them with prosperity and peace, to sustain them in the fearful contest in which they were engaged. And, as if the glory of that contest were inseparably connected with this ancient city in which it may be said to have begun, it was not far from hence that the last great battle of the Revolution was fought; it was here that the booming of the distant artillery was heard, as the red cross of St. George descended to the dust, and the stars of America and the lilies of France proclaimed to the distant be- holder that the sceptre of Britain was broken at last, and the inde- pendence of our beloved country established forever. I propose to treat of the Convention of Virginia, which assem- bled in the hall of the House of Burgesses in this city on the 6th day of May, 1776, and which framed the first Constitution of Vir- ginia. If we regard the circumstances under which it assembled, the character of the men who composed it, the comprehensive and invaluable results which flowed from its action — results affecting THE STATE OF THE TIMES. 5 the destinies not only of this Commonwealth, and of the other States of the Union, but the world at large, its importance cannot be too highly enhanced. Indeed, such is the grandeur of the sub- ject, that I might well shrink from undertaking it, and I truly wish it had been assigned to some one of those who are now before me, and whose genius and skill would invest it with that drapery which would so richly become it. But, confident in the goodness of my cause, and in full reliance on the magnanimity of this audience, I proceed to discuss it. It is proper to recall the state of the times when the Convention assembled in this city. For more than ten years previously, the Colony had been full of anxiety and excitement. The financial embarrassments of England had become pressing, and her states- men, having exhausted the resources of domestic taxation, felt constrained to look abroad for new subjects of revenue. Hence the series of measures which led to the Revolution. It ought not to be disguised, that the Colonies, especially Virginia, were at- tached to the parent country. Fears were indeed expressed at the British Court as early as the days of Charles the Second, that the New England Colonies were anxious to assume a republican form of government;* but full reliance was always placed on the fidelity of Virginia. The northern Colonies, occupying a sterile soil, were compelled, in self-defence, to engage in commerce and manufac- tures, and totally disregarded from the earliest period the naviga- tion laws of Great Britain,! and traded wherever they pleased. But Virginia, whose inhabitants were engaged in cultivating a genial soil, and whose productions were readily sought by the ships of England, had few inducements to embark in a contraband trade, and never made any progress in forming a commercial marine of her own. Her connexion with England was consequently more intimate than that which existed between the New England Colo- nies and the parent country. Our population was also more nearly * Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, Vol. II., 59. Anno 1671. t See Sir William Berkeley's answers to the inquiries of the lords commis- sioners of foreign plantations, Heniug, Vol. II., 511, and the Virginia Histori- cal Register, Vol. III., 11. I cannot refer to the Register without bearing my testimony to the value of its contents, which are almost indispensable to a correct knowledge of our history. The precious letters and documents which it contains are worth all the leaves of the Sybils. No young Virginian should rest satisfied until he obtains a set of its six small volumes neatly bound, which may be had of the editor at the historical rooms in Richmond. b THE STATE OF THE TIMES. assimilated in manners and customs to that of England; for, with the exception of a few persons from Ireland, and from France during- the troubles which ensued upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes, our emigrants were mainly from England and Scotland, and cultivated ample freehold estates of their own. Moreover, the established religion of England was also the established religion of the Colony; and, although perhaps, at no time did it embrace a majority of the whole people, it was heartily sustained by those who held the reins of colonial authority.* It was the pride of the Virginia planters to contemplate the power and glory of the mother country. They were descended from a common stock; they spoke a common language; they professed the same form of public worship; they enjoyed nearly all the benefits of a free gov- ernment in the Colony, and were protected by the flag of Britain abroad. Some of the most intelligent statesmen of the Colony regarded Virginia as occupying the same relation toward the British Crown as was borne by Scotland before the union of that country with England, and holding the king as the common bond;t a doc- trine which would seem to be sustained by the arms of the Colony on which were quartered those of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with the motto, En dot Virginia quartam. Nor was the pride of Virginia offended by the connexion. She believed that she gave an ample equivalent for the protection of the British flag in the profits derived from her commerce ; for she thought that Great Britain might well protect that trade which she arrogated exclu- sively to herself. But when questions of a local nature were con- cerned, Virginia practically repudiated the interference of the British parliament. For one hundred and sixty-seven years she had levied her own taxes ; and it was her boast that the poorest man in her dominion could not be required to pay a tax which had not been laid with his own consent given by his immediate repre- sentative. When the British ministry sought to disregard this principle, it is the glory of Virginia that she led the van in sus- taining the common rights of the colonies. Her opposition carried with it a peculiar influence, and it was as decided as it Avas pecu- liar. t Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Wythe held this opinion. Jefferson's Works, Vol. I., 6. THE DECLARATION OF JULY, 1775. 7 1765, holding its sessions in this city, against the stamp act, was the first great blow which British supremacy received on this side of the Atlantic. The historian of America, as he records them on his pages, will delight to exhibit them as the first great act of the drama of the Revolution. Nor was this measure adopted until the usual modes of appeal had been pressed, and pressed in vain. Indeed so far "from true was it, that independence was generally sought in the beginning of the troubles, that, to pass over proofs, the Convention of August, 1774, had met and adjourned; the Con- vention of March, of July, and of December, 1775, had also met and adjourned, without the expression of a single opinion in favor of independence. On the contrary, at the close of the Convention of July, 1775, the body published a "Declaration" to the people, which concluded with the following explicit statement of their views. "Lest our views and designs should be misrepresented or misunderstood, we, again and for all, publicly and solemnly declare, before God and the world, that we do bear faith and true allegiance to his majesty, George the Third, our only lawful and rightful king; that we will, so long as it may be in our power, defend him and his government, as founded on the laws and well known principles of the Constitution; that we will, to the utmost of our pow r er, pre- serve peace and order throughout the country ; and endeavor by every honorable means to promote a restoration of that friendship and amity which so long and happily subsisted between our fellow subjects in Great Britain and the inhabitants of America; that as, on the one hand, we are determined to defend our lives and pro- perties, and maintain our just rights and privileges at every, even the extremest hazard, so, on the other, it is our fixed and unaltera- ble resolution to disband such forces as may be raised in this Colony whenever our dangers are removed, and America is restored to that former state of tranquility and happiness, the interruption of which is so much deplored by us and every friend to either country."* * Journal Convention, July, 1775, page 28. Mr. Jefferson in a letter to John Randolph, who had gone over with Dunmore, dated August 25, 1775, declares: " I am sincerely one of those (who wish for a connexion with England,) and would rather be in dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any . nation upon earth, or than on no nation." Works, Vol. I., 151. See also the letter of George Mason to Col. Mercer; Virginia Historical Register, Vol. II., 30 ; and Pendleton's sketch of his own life, in the archives of the Historical Society. 8 THE QUESTION OF INDEPENDENCE. Although no ulterior object beyond the peace of the Colony was sought prior to the time of the assembling of the Convention in May, 1776, the people, in self-defence, had taken the government into their own hands; for a year had past since Dunmore, the royal governor, had withdrawn from this city; and the subject of inde- pendence had been discussed in private circles and in letters. The conviction was felt by our leading statesmen, that Great Britain intended to subdue the colonists at every hazard by force of arms, and, as it was plain that no foreign aid could be expected so long as the colonies were connected with the mother country, it was thought expedient to dissolve that connexion. Hence Richard Henry Lee, then in Philadelphia, wrote to Patrick Henry when he was about to take his seat in the Convention, exhorting him to pro- pose a separation.* It should be observed that the battle of the Great Bridge had been fought more than four months before, and the military resources of the Colony had been drawn into requisi- tion. And on the first day of the January previous, Dunmore had applied the torch to the borough of Norfolk, the great seaport of the South, and reduced it to ashes. Still, when the election of the members of the Convention was held, there had been no formal declaration by the people, as has been shown by Mr. Jefferson, of a desire to separate from England, and to establish an independent system of their own. Nor should it be forgotten, that the various non-importation enactments, which could only be defended as mea- sures of peace, and which were wholly unwise, and even destruc- tive, if reference were had to a war with England, remained in full force. Such was the state of things when the Convention assembled in the hall of the House of Burgesses in this city, on the sixth day of May, 1776-t * I first saw this patriotic letter in December last, among the Henry papers at Red Hill, the seat of John Henry, Esq., the youngest son of Patrick Henry, where the great orator lived and died, and where his remains now repose. f As it is common to confound the House of Burgesses with the Conventions, the former of which bodies was elected by writs issued by the royal governor, and the latter by the act of the people themselves, it is proper to state than on the day of the meeting of the Convention, " forty-five members of the House MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 9 The crowd which filled the Capitol evinced the intensity of the public excitement. The most influential men from the neighboring counties, not then in office, had sought the city, and repaired early to the place of meeting. Mothers and daughters were to be seen in the hall and in the gallery, watching with deep interest a scene which was to affect their own peace and happiness, and the peace and happiness of those who were dear to them. They were anxious to behold the beginnings of that plan of government which was to be sustained by the wisdom and valor of their husbands, brothers, and sons, and in the maintenance of which they were ere long to be called upon to bestow, as a tribute to the treasury of their bleeding country, the jewels which in a happier hour had sparkled in the bridal wreath, or had reflected the purity of the bosoms which bounded beneath them. We may readily imagine the feelings with which the members themselves took their seats in that ancient hall. Many of them had sat in the House of Burgesses for a long series of years, and had often heard with pride the words of the British king spoken by his representative. Thirty years before, that hall had resounded with the congratulations of the Burgesses, when the victory of Culloden had sealed the fate of the Stuarts, and fixed firmly on the British throne that Hanoverian dynasty which they were soon to shake- off.* And seventeen years before, some of the members then present had raised the voice of thanksgiving when Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham had crushed the power of France, whose aid they were shortly to invoke. How different was the prospect before them ! The sceptre of British rule was now to be broken, and forever. Yet there were emotions of a tender kind which agitated their bosoms. When last they assembled in full session in that hall, the manly form of Peyton Randolph had filled the chair. His elegant person, his imposing address, the high place which he held in his profession and in the public esteem, the ability and dignity with which he had filled, for the past ten years, the chair of of Burgesses met at the Capitol in this city ; but thinking that the people could not be legally represented under the ancient constitution, which had been subverted by the king, lords, and commons, they unanimously dissolved them- selves accordingly." See the Virginia Gazette of that date in the library of Virginia. * The House of Burgesses called the first county created after the battle of Culloden, in honor of the Duke of Cumberland. 10 PEYTON RANDOLPH. the House of Burgesses, were freshly remembered ; while the tem- pered zeal with which he engaged in the contest in which the country was now embarked, and which concentred on himself the confidence of all parties, his honored and patriotic career in the General Congress in which he was unanimously called to preside, the wisdom and firmness which he displayed in the Conventions of March and July, 1775, in both of which he presided, the resolution with which he persisted in the public service in spite of feeble health, and which elicited from the Convention of July a mark of acknowledgment as rare as it was delicate and becoming,* all heightened and softened by the recollection of his sudden death a short time before in a distant city, while engaged in the service of his country; falling, too, at a crisis when his peculiar caste of character and admirable talents were so much needed by his com- patriots, appealed with overpowering force to every heart. Although averse from precipitate action even in a good cause, and not indis- posed to discountenance the strong measures which were urged by younger statesmen, he yet enjoyed the unlimited confidence of the two great parties, which had for some years past been gradually assuming a distinct form, and had always been elected to the promi- nent offices which he held by an almost unanimous vote. His career had been a remarkable one. As early as 1748, ere he had attained his twenty-fifth year, he was appointed Attorney General, and performed faithfully the duties of the office until 1766, when he succeeded on the death of Speaker Robinson to the chair of the House of Burgesses, of which he had long been a member, and was successively elected to that high station until the body was superseded by the Conventions of the people. Of the first Virginia Convention which was held in August, 1774, in this city, he was unanimously elected President.! He was at the head of the Committee of Correspondence. His name stood first on the roll of delegates appointed by that body to the General Congress, * Journal Convention, July, 1775, page 18. The Convention invites him by a resolution to retire from the chair, that he might recruit himself for the labors of the approaching Congress, of which he was President. 1 1 regret that I cannot put my finger upon the list of the members of the Convention of August, 1774, A list of the twenty-five members of the Honse of Burgesses who met in this city and convoked the Convention, may be found in Purviance's, "Baltimore during the Revolution," page 135, and a sketch of the doings of the Convention itself may also be seen in the same work, pa?e 169. J r 6 JOHN RANDOLPH. 11 above that of a Washington, a Harrison, a Bland, a Pendleton, and a Henry. And when the Congress assembled, he was unanimously elected its President. Although he may be said to have died early, as he was in his fifty-second year only, when in October, 1775, he was stricken with apoplexy, he had been nearly thirty years in the public service. la person he was tall and stately, of a grave de- meanor, and was more distinguished, as a lawyer, by the soundness of his learning and his accuracy of research, than by the elegance of his language or by the mere graces of delivery. Sprung from a family, whose wealth, accumulated by an industrious but unculti- vated ancestor who had emigrated to the Colony about the close of the previous century, had been wisely expended in the education of its members, who successively for a long series of years attained to the highest honors of the Colony, he superadded to his really great qualities the prestige of a name ; so, that he was one of those fortunate men, who from considerations accidental as well as in- trinsic, become honors, and whom honors become. Even the unfortunate adhesion of his brother to the royal cause — an attach- ment which led him to forsake his native country, and to spend the short and sad remnant of his life among her enemies — and which would have cast suspicion over ordinary men, tended by the force of contrast rather to elevate than depress him in the estimation of the people. Men of William and Mary! he was peculiarly your own. It was in this city that he was born. It was at the breast of your venerable parent he drew his early nurture, and it was from her lips he learned those lessons of patriotism and piety, which have encircled his name with unfading honor. before me. A few rapid years have passed since the burial of Peyton Randolph, and these boards were again displaced. In a fresh grave were slowly lowered in silence and in sadness the mortal remains of a man who was the boast of this college and the pride of Virginia, who had worthily worn the highest legal honors of the Colony, who had forsaken his country in the hour of her trial, and who had paid in a foreign land the penalty of a broken heart. John Randolph, the son of that Sir John, whose marble image has so long adorned your hall, separated in the convulsions of a great crisis from his patriot brother, then rested once more by his side. When the time arrived for calling the Convention to order, a member rose in his place and proposed John Tazewell as. its clerk. This eminent aad excellent man had been conspicuous in the preparatory movements which led to the call of the several Conventions, and had been a member of the memorable association of 1770. He studied at William and Mary, was bred to the law which he prosecuted with success, and subsequently under the con- stitution he was elected a judge of the General Court. On the assembling of the second Convention in Richmond, in March, 1775, he had been unanimously elected clerk, and filled with fidelity a station which was second only in dignity and influence to that of the speaker, and which a Wythe before and an Edmund Randolph afterwards deemed not unworthy of their ambition. He was also elected clerk of the Conventions of July and December of the same year.* When the clerk had taken his seat, the election of a presiding officer came up in course. Heretofore in the appoint- ment to public office there had been, since the beginning of the troubles, entire unanimity in the Colony. Peyton Randolph had always been elected to the chair of the House of Burgesses and of the Convention of which he was a member, by an unanimous nounced from the pulpit by the Rev, Thomas Davis, in honor of the deceased, and recommending it to the respectable audience to imitate his virtues. The oration being ended, the body was deposited in the vault, when every spectator paid the last tribute of tears to the memory of their departed and much honored friend. The remains were brought from Philadelphia by his nephew, Edmund. Randolph, in pursuance of the orders of the widow." * Judge John Tazewell died in Williamsburg, I am informed, in 1781, and was buried in the church yard of that city. No stone marks his grave — a re- mark which applies to most of the graves of our early statesmen. ELECTION OF SPEAKER, 13 vote;* and Robert Carter Nicholas, who succeeded him pro tempore in the Convention of July, 1775, Avas also elected unanimously. The election of Edmund Pendleton to the chair in the Convention of the previous December, was also unanimous. But a new feeling had been recently roused in the Colony. An incident, which created much unpleasant excitement, and which threatened at one period serious consequences to the army, had recently occurred. The great orator of the Revolution, who had been appointed by the Convention of July, 1775, to the command of the military forces of the Colony, and who was anxious to lead his countrymen to the field, had been virtually superseded by the Committee of Safety. Of this committee, Pendleton was the head, and was held responsible for its action. It was believed that if the party of which Henry, who was a memher of the House, was the representative, should unite upon a candidate of their own for the office of President, Pendleton, who was a candidate for re-nomina- tion, would lose the election. Under these circumstances, Richard Bland rose to address the House. His grey hairs, which were to him truly a crown of honor, his tall and manly form slightly bowed beneath the weight of years, his striking and even handsome, face, which is still to be seen in his portrait at Jordan's, mutilated though it be by the bayonet of a British vandal, his bright blue eyes, now weak with age, and protected by a green shade, his distinguished position as a leader and member of the House of Burgesses for nearly the third of a century, and his brilliant reputation as the ablest writer in the Colony, might well make an impression even on that august assembly. He proposed the name of Pendleton, and resumed his seat. Archibald Cary, of whom we shall pre- sently speak, seconded the motion. Up to this moment, although much dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Committee of Safety had been expressed privately and in print, it was not certainly known that there would be a formal contest for the chair. But all doubt was instantly dispelled when Johnson of Louisa appeared on the floor. The county from which he came, the very name which he bore, settled the question. It was the county of Louisa which * When Peyton Randolph was first nominated in 1766, to fill the vacancy in the Speaker's chair made by the death of Col. Robinson, R. H. Lee nominated Col. Richard Bland in opposition ; but his subsequent elections were unanimous. See Journal House of Burgesses, of November 6th, 1766. 14 EDMUND PENDLETON. Henry represented when be offered his resolutions against the stamp act. It was a Johnson who had resigned his seat in the House of Burgesses, that Henry might succeed him.* Of all the opponents of the party of Pendleton for the past ten years, the Johnsons were the most ardent and uncompromising. They were men of a fierce temperament, and were utterly fearless in the ex- pression of their opinions.! As a personal friend of Henry, Thomas Johnson felt acutely the indignity with which it was urged he had been treated by the Committee of Safety, and he was un- willing that Pendleton, whom he held bound for the action of the committee, and who was then at its head, should so soon receive so signal a mark of the public favor. He proposed Thomas Ludwell Lee for the chair, and was sustained by Bartholomew Dandridge. But here, as throughout a life protracted far beyond the limit of the Psalmist, and spent to its latest hour in the public service, the fortunate star of Pendleton prevailed.! He was re-elected, and escorted by Richard Bland and Archibald Cary, was led to the chair. Nor could the honor of the presiding office have been con- ferred more wisely. How far his reputation was involved in the difficulty with Henry, will be presently discussed. As a parlia- mentarian, he had no equal in the House; a superior nowhere. He had been a leading member of the House of Burgesses for five and twenty years, was familiar with all its forms, and was admirably skilled in the dispatch of its business. If his knowledge of our early charters did not equal that of Bland, it was more than respec- table, and with the British statutes bearing upon the Colony, and with the acts of Assembly, he was fully conversant. And in an intellectual point of view, as one of the most accomplished speak- ers of the House, he imparted honor to the chair. Nor were his * The Journals of the House of Burgesses for the session of 1765, spell the name Johnston, but I am inclined to believe that the name is Johnson. Mr. Wirt says that Johnston resigned to give place to Henry, while the Journal states that be vacated his seat in consequence of accepting the office of coro- ner. Journal House of Burgesses, 1765, page 99. j An incident will illustrate the character of one of the Johnsons. He had uttered an oath in debate in the House of Burgesses, which was promptly fol- lowed by an order that the offender should receive the reprimand of the Speaker, which that officer pronounced on the spot in due form. As soon as he ended, Johnson, who had risen to receive the reprimand, set up a loud whistle, which brought down the house in a roar of laughter, and converted the whole affair into a farce. % The Journal gives the result, but does not state the vote. ELECTION OP CHAPLAIN. 15 physical qualities at all inferior to his intellectual. He was fully six feet in height, and was in the vigor of life, having reached his fifty-fifth year ; his face still so comely as to have won for its pos- sessor the reputation of being the handsomest man in the Colony ; his noble form yet unbent by that fearful accident which, in less than twelve months, was to consign him to the crutch for life ; lithe and graceful in all his movements; his manners polished by an intercourse of a quarter of a century with the most refined circles of the metropolis and of the Colony; his voice clear and ringing, so that its lowest note was heard distinctly throughout the hall; and a self-possession so supreme as to sustain him in the fiercest col- lisions of debate as if in a state of repose. Of such a man it may be safely said, that in whatever view we choose to regard him, and whether we look abroad or at home, a more accomplished personage has rarely presided in a public assembly. Before taking his seat, Pendleton made his acknowledgments to the house in a few plain sentences, which have come down to us, and which, simple as they seem, eminently display his skill as a politician. The adroitness with which he regarded his election as a fresh mark of the public confidence, the scrupulous care with which he kept out of sight the subject of independence, which he well knew the party of Henry intended to bring forward, and the zeal with which he pressed the topics which in a state of flagrant war de- manded the immediate attention of the house, were as keenly felt by his opponents as they were applauded by his friends.* It is gratifying to observe, that one of the first acts of the Con- vention was the appointment of a chaplain, whose duty it was to open its sessions with prayer. And on the second day of the meeting, the chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Price, was requested to preach a suitable discourse in the Episcopal church in this city, on the Friday week following, in compliance with the resolution of the Congress, which had set apart that day as a time of fasting and prayer throughout the Colonies. Nor was the observance of so grave a religious ceremony a mere matter of form. Some of the few letters of the patriots of that day, which have come down to us, and which, if not worth all the classics, are invaluable for the pur- poses of history, show the spirit in which such days were kept. * Journal Virginia Convention, May, 1776, page 5. 16 DUTIES OF THE CONVENTION. The members not only attended in person, clad in mourning, and marching in procession to the church, preceded by the sergeant of arms bearing the ancient mace in his hand, but required their fami- lies at home to follow their example.* It would be unjust to overlook the diligence with which these eminent men performed their public duties. The house was opened first at nine in the morning, and afterwards at seven, when the chaplain read prayers. The letter of a member of the Convention, who was also a member of a previous one, affords us a glimpse of the daily routine. "The committees met at seven, and remained in session until the hour of nine, when the Convention assembled, which rarely adjourned until five in the afternoon. After dinner and a little refreshment, the committees sit again until nine or ten at night." t The writer speaks of the difficulties that beset the members: difficulties, indeed, but from which, great as they were, those noble patriots did not shrink, but with which they manfully grappled, and which, under the guidance of a kind Providence, they overcame, crowning their work with that independence which they were about to declare, and with that happy plan of government which they were now about to establish. 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. Thus it received and answered the letters of the highest military officers in the public service, and the letters of the members of Congress. Hence, from the extreme pressure of business mostly of an executive kind ; for it must be remembered that Dunmore was still on our waters, and that it was not till several days after the adjournment of the Convention, that he was driven from his retreat at Gwin's Island by the artillery of the gallant Lewis ; it was not until the fifteenth day of May, after long and solemn deliberation in committee of the whole, that two resolutions, which were in every view the most important ever presented for the consideration of a public body, were reported to the house, and unanimously adopted. As these resolves have been * A letter of George Mason, written on the occasion of a fast, and recently brought to light, enjoins it upon his household that they should attend the ser- vices in the church near Gunston Hall, and that his three sons and two daugh- ters should appear in mourning'. Mason to Cockburn, Virginia Historical Reg- ister, Vol. lit., 28. t Virginia Historical Register, Vol. II., 23. RESOLUTIONS PROPOSING INDEPENDENCE Vj rarely drawn from the journals in full, and recorded in the histories of the period, and as they constitute the first declaration of inde- pendence, I quote them at large : "Forasmuch as all the endeavors of the United Colonies by the most decent representations and petitions to the king and parliament of Great Britain, to restore peace and security to America under the British government, and a re-union with that people upon jus* and liberal terms, instead of a redress of grievances, have pro- duced, from an imperious and vindictive administration, increased insult, oppression, and a vigorous attempt to effect our total de- struction. By a late act, all these Colonies are declared to be in rebellion, and out of the protection of the British crown, our pro- perties subjected to confiscation, our people, when captivated, com- pelled to join in the murder and plunder of their relations and countrymen, and all former rapine and oppression of Americans declared legal and just. Fleets and armies are raised, and the aid of foreign troops engaged to assist these destructive purposes. The king's representative in this Colony hath not only withheld all the powers of government from operating for our safety, but, having retired on board an armed ship, is carrying on a piratical and savage war against us, tempting our slaves, by every artifice, to resort to him, and training and employing them against their mas- ters. In this state of extreme danger, we have no alternative left but an abject submission to the will of those overbearing t} r rants, or a total separation from the crown and government of Great Britain, uniting and exerting the strength of all America for defence, and forming alliances with foreign powers for commerce and aid in war. foreign alliances, and a confederation of the colonies, at such time and in the manner as to them shall seem best; Provided, the power of forming government for, and the regulations of the internal con- cerns of each Colony, be left to the respective colonial legislatures. "Resolved, unanimously, That a committee be appointed to prepare a Declaration of Rights, and such a plan of government as will be most likely to maintain peace and order in this Colony, and secure substantial and equal liberty to the people."* The subsequent history of the first resolution, which instructs the delegates of Virginia in Congress to propose independence, is known to all. The proposition was made in Congress in nearly the words of the resolution, by Richard Henry Lee, who was gallantly upheld by John Adams, whose eloquence and unfaltering courage, as they were the admiration of his own age, so they will be cher- ished in all time to come. The Declaration of the Fourth of July followed in due time ; and it may be recorded as a fortunate inci- dent in our history, that, in a contest sustained with equal zeal hy the chivalric men of all the colonies, she was the first to instruct her delegates to declare independence, that the declaratory resolu- tion adopted by Congress was drawn and offered by one of her rep- resentatives, and that the public appeal to the nations of the earth in the form of a declaration of independence, was drafted by another. It is becoming to observe that, when the resolution instructing the delegates in Congress to propose independence was adopted by the Convention, the result was welcomed by the people of Wil- liamsburg with every demonstration of joy. Thus, amid the ring- ing of bells and the thunder of artillery, the jocund shouts of the young and the cordial congratulations of the old, the kingdom passed away, and independence was assumed.! While this ani- mated scene was enacting without, the eye of the reflecting ob- server beheld in the Convention an eloquent remembrancer of the * Journal of the Convention 1776, page 15. In a letter to R. H. Lee, dated May 18, 1776, in the archives of the Virginia Historical Society, Geo. Mason criticises with some sharpness the wording of the preamble. t The Virginia Gazette of the 17th of May, 1776, gives an animatad account of the rejoicings. The resolution was read to the army in the presence of Gen. Andrew Lewis, who, a few days later, was to drive Dunmore ignomini- ously from our waters, the Committee of Safety, the members of the Conven- tion, and the people at large ; and a feast was spread for the soldiers in Waller's grove. At night the city was brilliantly illuminated. THE DECLARATION OF RIGHTS REPORTED. 19 past. The ancient silver mace, once the superb and princely symbol of imperial power, now the trophy of a people resolved to be free, rested on the table of the clerk. It has been seen that at the same time the Convention instructed the delegates in Congress to propose independence, it adopted a resolution appointing a committee to frame a declaration of rights, and a plan of government for the State. Accordingly a committee consisting of over thirty members most distinguished for their wis- dom and ability, Archibald Cary at their head, was appointed by the chair;* and on the twenty-seventh of May, Mr. Cary reported to the house a Declaration of Rights, "which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the clerk's table, when the same was a°;ain read, and ordered to be committed to a committee of the whole Convention." From the twenty-seventh of May to the eleventh of June, the Declaration of Rights was discussed at intervals in committee of the whole ; and on the latter day it was ordered that the declaration with the amendments be fairly transcribed, and read a third time ; and the day after, the fifteenth of June, it was passed unanimously. And on the twenty-fourth of June, Mr. Cary reported a " plan of government," which was read the first time, and ordered to be read a second time. It was passed over on the twenty-fifth, discussed on the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh, and on the twenty-eighth was reported with amendments to the house, and ordered to be read a third time ; and on the twenty- ninth or june, the first written constitution ever framed by an independent political society, was adopted by an unanimous vote. 