fore their sovereign, with that freedom of language and sentiment which became a free people, whom flattery would ill beseem, when asserting the rights of human nature; and who knew nor feared to say, that kings are the servants, not the proprietors of the people.

In these sentiments, bold as they were, his political associates united with him; they considered that which was nominally directed against the colonies of New England alone, equally an attack on the liberties and rights of every other province. They resolved that the first of June, the day on which the operation of the Boston port bill was to commence, should be set apart by the members, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer; "devoutly to implore the divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamities which threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil war; and to give them one heart and one mind, to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American rights."

Such proceedings greatly exasperated lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the province. He threatened a prosecution for high treason against Mr. Jefferson, who boldly avowed himself the author of the obnoxious pamphlet, and dissolved the house of burgesses, immediately after the publication of their resolution. Notwithstanding these arbitrary measures, the members met in their private capacities and mutually signed a spirited declaration, wherein they set forth the unjust conduct of the governor, which had left them this, the only method to point out to their countrymen, the mea

sures they deemed the best fitted to secure their rights and liberties from destruction, by the heavy hand of power. They told them, that they could no longer resist the conviction, that a determined system had been formed to reduce the inhabitants of British America to slavery, by subjecting them to taxation without their consent, by closing the port of Boston, and raising a revenue on tea. They therefore strongly recommended a close alliance with their sister colonies, the formation of committees of correspondence, and the annual meeting of a general congress; earnestly hoping that a persistance in those unconstitutional principles, would not compel them to adopt measures of a character more decisive.

The year 1775 opened in England, with attempts, at once by the friends and the enemies of the colonies, to effect a reconciliation. Perhaps the period had passed away, when success was to be expected, from the efforts of the former; but even an experiment on their plan was not allowed to be made. The house of lords received, with chilling apathy, the proposition submitted by the energy, the patriotism and the experience of the dying Chatham: and the house of commons listened without conviction. to the well digested plans of Mr. Burke, brought forward as they were, with an eloquence unequalled perhaps in the records of any age or country, and supported by that intuitive quickness of perception, that astonishing correctness of foresight, which almost gives to his political predictions, the character of prophetic inspiration.

The ministry were determined that the reconciliation. if indeed they ever sincerely wished for one, should proceed from themselves, and be made on their own terms; they offered that so long as the colonial legislatures should contribute a fair proportion for the common defence, and for the support of the civil government, no tax should be laid by parliament; but that the amount raised by these means, should be disposable by that body. This proposition, bearing indeed some semblance of conciliation, but in fact yielding no single point of that arbitrary system which Great Britain had chosen to adopt, was carried by a large majority, and sent to the governors of the several colonies, with directions to lay it before the respective legislatures. It was at least hoped, that if the scheme did not finally succeed, it might produce disunion or dis

content.

On the first of June, 1775, lord Dunmore presented to the legislature of Virginia, the resolution of the British parliament. It was referred immediately to a committee, and Mr. Jefferson was selected to frame the reply. This task he performed with so much strength of argument, enlightened patriotism, and sound political discretion, that the document has been ever considered, as a state paper of the highest order. It is found in most of the histories of that period, and for a work like this, it may be sufficient merely to give the sentence, with which he concludes a series of propositions, and an array of facts, alike unanswered and unanswerable.

"These, my lord, are our sentiments on this important subject, which we offer only as an individual part of the whole empire. Final determination we leave to the general congress now sitting, before whom we shall lay the papers your lordship has communicated to us. For ourselves, we have exhausted every mode of application, which our invention could suggest as proper and promising. We have decently remonstrated with parliament, they have added new injuries to the old; we have wearied our king with supplications, he has not deigned to answer us; we have appealed to the native honour and justice of the British nation, their efforts in our favour have hitherto been ineffectual. What then remains to be done? That we commit our injuries to the even handed justice of that Being who doth no wrong, earnestly beseeching him to illuminate the councils, and prosper the endeavours of those to whom America hath confided her hopes; that through their wise directions, we may again see reunited the blessings of liberty, prosperity, and harmony with Great Britain."

Mr. Jefferson had been elected, on the twenty-seventh of March, 1775, one of the members to represent the province of Virginia, in the general congress of the confederated colonics, already assembled at Philadelphia. When about to leave the colony, a circumstance is said to have occurred to him, and to Mr. Harrison and Mr. Lee, his fellow delegates, that conveyed a noble mark of the unbounded confidence, which their constituents reposed in their integrity and virtue. A portion of the inhabitants, who, far removed from the scenes of actual tyranny,

which were acted in New England, and pursuing uninterruptedly their ordinary pursuits, could form no idea. of the slavery impending over them, waited on their three representatives, just before their departure, and addressed them in the following terms;

"You assert that there is a fixed design to invade our rights and privileges; we own that we do not see this clearly, but since you assure us that it is so, we believe the fact. We are about to take a very dangerous step; but we confide in you, and are ready to support you in every measure you shall think proper to adopt."

On Wednesday, the twenty-first of June, 1775, Mr. Jefferson appeared and took his seat in the continental congress; and it was not long before he became conspicuous among those, most distinguished by their abilities and ardour. In a few days after his arrival, he was made a member of a committee appointed to draw up a declaration, setting forth the causes and necessity of resorting to arms; a task, which, like all the other addresses of this congress, was executed with singular ability, and in which it is more than probable, the Virginia delegate took no inconsiderable part.

In July, the resolution of the house of commons for conciliating the colonies, which had been presented to the different legislatures, and to which, as we have already related, Mr. Jefferson had framed the reply of Virginia, was laid before congress. He was immediately named, as a member of the committee to whom it was referred, and in a few days a report was presented embracing the same general views as his own, and repeat