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cious than all Greece, Italy, and Great Britain, than CHAP. any region for which it had ever been proposed to establish republican liberty, a constitution was to be 1776. framed.

It has been discussed, whether the spirit that now prevailed was derived from cavaliers, and whether it sprung from the inhabitants on tide water, or was due to those of the uplands; the answer is plain: the movement in Virginia proceeded from the heart of Virginia herself, and represented the magnanimity of her own people. It did not spring, it could not spring from sentiments generated by the by-gone loyalty to the Stuarts. The Ancient Dominion had with entire unanimity approved the revolution of 1688; with equal unanimity, had, even more readily than the English, accepted the house of Hanover, and had been one of the most loyal parts of the empire of the Georges; the revolution was due to a keen sentiment of wrong and outrage, and was joined in with a oneness of spirit, which asked no questions about ancestry, or traditional affinities, or religious creed, or nearness to the sea or to the mountains. The story of the war commemorates the courage of the highlanders; among the "inexorable families," Dunmore especially reported from the low country the family of the Lees and the whole family of Cary of Hampton, of whom even the sisters, married to a Fairfax and a Nicholas, cheered on their connections to unrelenting opposition. Virginia rose with as much unanimity as Connecticut or Massachusetts, and with a more commanding resolution.

The purpose for which the convention was assembled, appears from the words of the county of Buck

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CHAP. ingham to Charles Patterson and John Cabell, its delegates: "We instruct you to cause a total and final 1776. separation from Great Britain to take place as soon as possible; and a constitution to be established, with a full representation, and free and frequent elections. As America is the last country of the world which has contended for her liberty, so she may be the most free and happy; taking advantage of her situation and strength, and having the experience of all before to profit by. The supreme Being hath left it in our power to choose what government we please for our civil and religious happiness: good government and the prosperity of mankind can alone be in the divine intention; we pray, therefore, that under the superintending providence of the Ruler of the universe, a government may be established in America, the most free, happy, and permanent that human wisdom can contrive and the perfection of man maintain."

The county of Augusta represented the necessity of making the confederacy of the United Colonies, most perfect, independent, and lasting; and of framing an equal, free, and liberal government, that might bear the test of all future ages. A petition was also sent from the inhabitants of Transylvania, declaring that they were anxious to concur with their brethren of the United Colonies in every measure for the recovery of their rights and liberties.

The inhabitants on the rivers Watauga and Holstein set forth, that "they were deeply impressed with a sense of the distresses of their American brethren, and would, when called upon, with their lives and fortunes, lend them every assistance in their power; that they begged to be considered as a part of the

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colony, and would readily embrace every opportu- CHAP. nity of obeying any commands from the convention."

May.

To that body were chosen more than one hundred 1776. and thirty of the ablest and most weighty men of Virginia. Among them were no rash enthusiasts for liberty; no lovers of revolution for the sake of change; no ambitious demagogues hoping for advancement by the overthrow of existing institutions; they were the choice of the freeholders of Virginia, and the majority were men of independent fortune or even opulence. It was afterwards remembered that of this grave assembly the members were for the most part men of large stature and robust frames, and that a very great proportion of them lived to exceeding old age. They were now to decide whether Virginia demanded independence, and if so, they were to establish a commonwealth; and in making this decision they moved like a pillar of fire in front of the whole country.

When the delegates had assembled and appointed a clerk, Richard Bland recommended Edmund Pendleton to be chosen president, and was seconded by Archibald Cary; while Thomas Johnson of Louisa, and Bartholomew Dandridge proposed Thomas Ludwell Lee. For a moment there was something like an array of parties, but it instantly subsided; Virginia showed her greatness by her moderation, and gave to the world new evidence that the revolution sprung from necessity, by placing in the chair Pendleton, the most cautious and conservative among the patriots.

The convention, after having been employed for some days on current business, resolved itself into à committee of the whole on the state of the colony;

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CHAP. and on the fifteenth Archibald Cary reported resolutions which had been drafted by Pendleton, offered 1776. by Nelson, and enforced by Henry. They were then twice read at the clerk's table, and, one hundred and twelve members being present, were unanimously agreed to. The preamble enumerated their chief grievances, among others, that the king's representative in the colony was training and employing slaves against their masters; and they say: "We have no alternative left but an abject submission or a total separation;" therefore they went on to decree, "that their delegates in congress be instructed to propose to that body to declare the United Colonies free and independent states, absolved from all allegiance or dependence upon the crown or parliament of Great Britain; and that they give the assent of this colony to such declaration, and to measures for forming foreign alliances, and a confederation of the colonies: provided that the power of forming government for, and the regulation of the internal concerns of, each colony be left to the respective colonial legislatures."

This resolution was received out of doors with chimes of bells and the noise of artillery; and the British flag, which had thus far kept its place on the state-house, was struck, to be raised no more.

In the following days a committee of thirty two was appointed to prepare a declaration of rights and a plan of government. Among the members were Archibald Cary, Patrick Henry, the aged Richard Bland, Edmund Randolph, son of the attorney general, who was then a refugee in England, Nicholas, James Madison, the youthful delegate from Orange county; but the man of most influence at this great

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moment was George Mason, the successor of Washing- CHAP. ton in the representation of Fairfax county. He was a devoted member of the church of England; and by 1776. his own account of himself, which is still preserved, "though not born within the verge of the British isle, he had been an Englishman in his principles, a zealous assertor of the act of settlement, firmly attached to the royal family upon the throne, well affected to the king personally and to his government, in defence of which he would have shed the last drop of his blood; one who adored the wisdom and happiness of the British constitution, and preferred it to any that then existed or had ever existed." For ten years he claimed nothing for his countrymen beyond the liberty and privileges of Englishmen, in the same degree as if they had still continued among their brethren in Great Britain; but he said: "The ancient poets, in their elegant manner of expression, have made a kind of Being of necessity, and tell us that the gods themselves are obliged to yield to her;" and he left the private life that he loved, to assist in the rescue of his country from the excesses of arbitrary power to which a seeming fatality had driven the British ministers. He was a good speaker and an able debater; the more eloquent now for being touched with sorrow; but his great strength lay in his sincerity, which made him wise and bold, modest and unchanging, while it overawed his hearers. He was severe, but his severity was humane, with no tinge of bitterness, though he had a scorn for every thing mean, and cowardly, and low; and he always spoke out his convictions with frank directness. He had been truly loyal; on renouncing his king, he could stand justified to his