ulative fanaticism, drove them to a restless love of change. Though quick to resent aggression, they abhorred the experiment of making the last appeal, and changing their form of government by revolution without some absolute necessity.

Virginia was, moreover, unprepared for war. Its late expedition against the Shawnee Indians had left a debt of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds; its currency was of paper; and it had no efficient system of revenue. Its soil, especially in the low country, was cultivated by negro slaves, so that the laborers in the field could not furnish recruits for an army. Except a little powder in a magazine near Williamsburg, it was destitute of warlike stores; and it had no military defences. Of all the colonies, it was the most open to attack; the magnificent Bay of the Chesapeake and the deep water of the James, the York, the Potomac, and other rivers, bared it to invasions from the sea.

1775.

Such was the state of Virginia, when on the twentieth of March its second convention assembled at Mar. 20. Richmond in the old church of St. John on the hill which overlooks the town. The proceedings of the continental congress and the conduct of the delegates of the colony were approved with perfect unanimity. On the twenty-third, the mediating interposition of the assembly of Jamaica was recognised as a proof of "their patriotic endeavors to fix the just claims of the colonists upon permanent constitutional principles; " and the convention of the Old Dominion renewed their assurances, "that it was the most ardent wish of their colony and of the whole continent of North America to see a speedy return of those halcyon days when they lived a free and happy people."

But, with all their love of peace under the government of the king, the imminence of danger drove them irresistibly to the Fairfax resolves, which Washington in January had come forward to announce, making the responsibility for them personally his own. The measure, couched in the very words to which he had set his name, was moved by Patrick Henry, with the natural consequences, "that this colony be immediately put into a posture of defence, and that a com

mittee prepare a plan for the embodying, arming, and disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient for that purpose." The resolution was opposed by Bland, Harrison, and Pendleton, three of the delegates of Virginia in congress, and by Nicholas, who had been among the most resolute in the preceding May. There was no array of party against party, but rather a conflict of feelings and opinions in every one's breast. The thought of an actual conflict in arms with England was new; conciliation was still hoped for from the sympathy of the friends of liberty in the parent country, the influence of the manufacturing interests, or the relenting of the sovereign. "Are we ready for war?" asked those who lingered on the way in the hope of reunion. "Where are our stores, our soldiers, our generals, our money? We are defenceless; yet we talk of war against one of the most formidable nations in the world. It will be time enough to resort to measures of despair when every well-founded hope has vanished."

1775. March.

Henry replied in a speech of which no exact report has come down, but all tradition agrees that he dispelled the illusive hope of reconciliation; proving with all-persuasive eloquence that, if Americans would be free, they must fight! His transfigured features glowed as he spoke, and his words fell like a doom of fate. He was supported by Richard Henry Lee, who made an estimate of the force which Britain could employ against the colonies, and, after comparing it with their means of resistance, proclaimed that the auspices were good; adding that "Thrice is he armed, who hath his quarrel just!"

The resolutions were adopted. To give them effect, a committee, consisting of Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Washington, Jefferson, and others, in a few days reported a plan for forming in every county one or more volunteer companies and troops of horse, to be in constant training and readiness. Whatever doubts had been before expressed, the plan was unanimously accepted. Nicholas would even have desired the more energetic measure of organizing an army. The convention also voted to encourage the manufacture of woollen, cotton, and linen; of

gunpowder; of salt, and iron, and steel; and recommended to the inhabitants to use colonial manufactures in preference to all others. Before dissolving their body, they elected their former delegates to the general congress in May; adding to the number Thomas Jefferson, "in case of the non-attendance of Peyton Randolph."

To intimidate the Virginians, Dunmore issued various proclamations, and circulated a rumor that he would excite an insurrection of their slaves. He also sent a body of marines in the night preceding the twenty-first of April, to carry off the gunpowder stored at Williamsburg in the colony's magazine. The party succeeded; but, as soon as it was known, drums were sent through the city to alarm the inhabitants, the independent company arrayed itself in arms, the people assembled for consultation, and at their instance the mayor and corporation peremptorily demanded of the governor that the powder should be restored.

1775.

The governor at first answered evasively; but, on hearing that the citizens had reassembled under arms, he abandoned himself to passion. "The whole country," said he, "can easily be made a solitude; and, by the living Apr. 21. God! if any insult is offered to me, or those who have obeyed my orders, I will declare freedom to the slaves, and lay the town in ashes."

The offer of freedom to the negroes came very oddly from the representative of the nation which had sold them. to their present masters, and of the king who had been displeased with Virginia for its desire to tolerate that inhuman traffic no longer; and it was but a sad resource for a commercial metropolis to keep a hold on its colony by letting loose slaves against its own colonists.

The seizure of the powder startled Virginia. "This first public insult is not to be tamely submitted to," wrote Hugh Mercer and others from Fredericksburg to Washington; and they proposed, as a body of light-horsemen, to march to Williamsburg for the honor of Virginia. Gloucester county would have the powder restored. The Henrico committee would be content with nothing less. Bedford offered a premium for the manufacture of gunpowder. The in

dependent company of Dumfries could be depended upon for any service which respected the liberties of America. The Albemarle volunteers "were ready to resent arbitrary power, or die in the attempt." "I expect the magistrates of Williamsburg, on their allegiance," such was Dunmore's message, "to stop the march of the people now on their way, before they enter this city; otherwise, it is my fixed purpose to arm all my own negroes, and receive and declare free all others that will come to me. I do enjoin the magistrates and all loyal subjects to repair to my assistance, or I shall consider the whole country in rebellion, and myself at liberty to annoy it by every possible means; and I shall not hesitate at reducing houses to ashes, and spreading devastation wherever I can reach." To the secretary of state he wrote: "With a small body of troops and arms, I could raise such a force from among Indians, negroes, and other persons, as would soon reduce the refractory people of this colony to obedience."

1775. Apr. 29.

On Saturday the twenty-ninth of April, there were at Fredericksburg upwards of six hundred well-armed men. A council of one hundred and two weighed the moderating advice received from Washington and Peyton Randolph, and they agreed to disperse; yet not till they had pledged to each other their lives and fortunes, to reassemble at a moment's warning, and by force of arms to defend the laws, the liberty, and rights of Virginia, or any sister colony, from unjust and wicked invasion. Did they forebode that the message from a sister colony was already on the wing?

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE KING WAITS TO HEAR OF THE SUCCESS OF LORD NORTH'S PROPOSITION.

APRIL-MAY, 1775.

1775.

April.

On the first day of April, the provincial congress of Massachusetts so far recognised the authority of Gage as to vote that, if he would issue writs in the usual form for the election of a general assembly, to be held on the last Wednesday in May, the towns ought to obey the precepts and elect members; otherwise, delegates should be chosen for a third provincial congress. On Sunday the second, two vessels arrived at Marblehead, with the tidings that both houses of parliament had pledged to the king their lives and fortunes for the reduction of America, that New England was prohibited from the fisheries, and that the army of Gage was to be largely re-enforced. The next morning, congress required the attendance April 3. of all absent members, and desired the towns not yet represented to send members without delay.

"If America," wrote Joseph Warren on that day, “is an humble instrument of the salvation of Britain, it will give us the sincerest joy; but if Britain must lose her liberty, she must lose it alone. America must and will be free. The contest may be severe: the end will be glorious. United and prepared as we are, we have no reason to doubt of success, if we should be compelled to the last appeal; but we mean not to make that appeal until we can be justified in doing it in the sight of God and man. Happy shall we be, if the mother .country will allow us the free enjoyment of our rights, and indulge us in the pleasing employment of aggrandizing her."