CHAP. II. 1768. 1769. Resolutions of Burgesses of Virginia. These threatening declarations, which seem to have been particularly directed against Massachussetts Bay*, in the hope that the other provinces might be deterred from involving themselves in her dangers, made no impression on the colonists in any degree favourable to the views of the mother country. Their resolution to resist the exercise of the authority claimed by Great Britain not only remained unshaken, but manifested itself in a still more determined form. Not long after these votes of the British Parliament, the Asthe House of Sembly of Virginia was convened by Lord Bottetourt, a nobleman of the most conciliating and popular manners, who had been recently appointed Governor of that colony. A copy of the proceedings having already been received, the House took into their immediate consideration the state of the colony, Resolved, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, that the elections by several towns and districts in the province of Massachussetts Bay, of deputies to sit in the same Convention, and the meeting of such Convention in consequence thereof, were daring insults offered to His Majesty's authority, and audacious usurpations of the powers of government. * These resolutions originated in the House of Lords, and passed both Houses by immense majorities. In the debate in the House of Commons, Mr. Barré commented with great force on their being levelled particularly at Massachussetts, when the offence of resistance was common to all the colonies. He said, "Away with these partial resentful trifles, calculated to irritate, and not to quell or appease, inadequate to their purpose, and unworthy of us! Why will you endeavour to deceive yourselves and us? You know that it is not this place only which disputes your right, but every part. They tell you that you have no right from one end of the continent to the other. My sentiments of this matter you well know. Consider well what you are doing. Act openly and honestly. Tell them you will tax them, and that they must submit. Do not adopt this little, insidious, futile plan; they will despise you for it." and and passed, unanimously, several resolutions, asserting in the * An address to His Majesty was also agreed on, which states, in the style of loyalty and real attachment to the Crown, the CHAP.II. 1769. * This address manifests so clearly the then real temper of a colony which took a very active part in the contest with the mother country, that it cannot be entirely unacceptable to the reader. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty: The humble Address of his dutiful and loyal Subjects of the House of Burgesses We Your Majesty's most loyal, dutiful, and affectionate subjects, the House of Burgesses of this Your Majesty's antient colony of Virginia, now met in General Assembly,. CHAP.II. 1769. the deep conviction of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, that the complaints of the colonists were well founded. Intelligence Assembly, beg leave in the humblest manner to assure Your Majesty that your faithful subjects of this colony, ever distinguished by their loyalty and firm attachment to Your Majesty, and your royal ancestors, far from countenancing traitors, treasons, or misprisions of treasons, are ready at any time to sacrifice our lives and fortunes in defence of Your Majesty's sacred person and government. It is with the deepest concern and most heartfelt grief that Your Majesty's dutiful subjects of this colony find that their loyalty has been traduced, and that those measures, which a just regard for the British constitution (dearer to them than life) made necessary duties, have been represented as rebellious attacks upon Your Majesty's government. When we consider that by the established laws and constitution of this colony, the most ample provision is made for apprehending and punishing all those who shall dare to engage in any treasonable practices against Your Majesty, or disturb the tranquillity of Government, we cannot without horror think of the new, unusual, and, permit us with all humility to add, unconstitutional and illegal mode recommended to Your Majesty, of seizing and carrying beyond sea the inhabitants of America suspected of any crime, and trying such persons in any other manner than by the antient and long-established course of proceeding. For how truly deplorable must be the case of a wretched American, who, having incurred the displeasure of any one in power, is dragged from his native home, and his dearest domestic connections, thrown into a prison, not to await his trial before a court, jury, or judges, from a knowledge of whom he is encouraged to hope for speedy justice, but to exchange his imprisonment in his own country for fetters among strangers! Conveyed to a distant land, where no friend, no relation, will alleviate his distresses, or minister to his necessities, and where no witness can be found to testify his innocence; shunned by the reputable and honest, and consigned to the society and converse of the wretched and the abandoned, he can only pray that he may soon end his misery with his life. Truly alarmed at the fatal tendency of these pernicious counsels, and with hearts filled with anguish by such dangerous invasions of our dearest privileges, we presume to prostrate ourselves at the foot of your royal throne, beseeching Your Majesty, 1 CHAP-II. 1769. The Gover nor dissolves the Asembly. Intelligence of these proceedings having reached the Governor, he suddenly dissolved * the Assembly, the members of which then convened at a private house, and, having chosen their Speaker moderator, proceeded to form a non-importing agreement, which was signed by every person present, and a non-imporwhich, being recommended by them to the people, was sub- ment. scribed almost universally throughout the province. From the commencement of the controversy, the opinion seems to have prevailed extensively throughout the colonies, that the most effectual means of succeeding in the struggle in which they were engaged, were those which would interest the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain in their favour. Associations had therefore been set on foot in Massachussetts, as early as the beginning of May 1768, for the non-importation of goods from that country. The merchants of some of the jesty, as our king and father, to avert from your faithful and loyal subjects of America those miseries which must necessarily be the consequence of such mea sures. "After expressing our firm confidence of your royal wisdom and goodness, permit us to assure Your Majesty, that the most fervent prayers of your people of this colony are daily addressed to the Almighty, that Your Majesty's reign may be long and prosperous over Great Britain, and all your dominions; and that after death Your Majesty may taste the fullest fruition of eternal bliss, and that a descendant of your illustrious house may reign over the extended British empire until tiine shall be no more."-Vide Virginia Gazette, May 18, 1769. * The manner of dissolving this Assembly was long recollected in Virginia, The Governor, suddenly appearing, addressed them in these words: " Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their effects. You have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are dissolved accordingly." VOL. II. T trading The Members form and sign tation agree CHAP. II. 1769. trading towns in the other colonies, especially those of Philadelphia, although perfectly according with their countrymen in opposing the claims of the mother country, refused at that time to concur in a measure which they deemed too strong for the existing state of things, and it was for the moment laid aside. But in the beginning of August it was resumed in Boston; and the merchants of that place, generally, entered into an agreement not to import from Great Britain any articles whatever, except a few of the first necessity, between the 1st of January 1769 and the 1st of January 1770, and not to import tea, glass, paper, or painters' colours, until the duties imposed on those articles should be taken off. This agreement was soon afterwards adopted in the town of Salem, the city of New York, and the province of Connecticut, but was not, however, generally entered into through the colonies, until the resolutions and address of the two Houses of Parliament, which have already been mentioned, seemed to cut off the hope that petitions and memorials would alone effect the object for which they contended. The proceedings of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, which took place very soon after the intelligence of those resolutions and that address had reached America, were, by order of the House, transmitted by their Speaker to the Speakers of the several Assemblies throughout the continent. The occasion seemed, in the opinion of the neighbouring colonies, to require measures of greater energy than had heretofore been adopted; and an association, similar to that which had been formed by their elder sister, was entered into by Maryland, and North and South Carolina. The inhabitants of Charleston went so far as to break off all connection |
