by new acts of oppression. They say that the object seems to have been to deceive the world into the belief that the only dispute was about the mode of levying taxes, and that Parliament having conceded this point to the colonies, they ought now to be satisfied; whereas it was about " a claim which would leave them without any thing they could call property;" and that a further object was "to lull into fatal security their fellow-subjects" in Great Britain, until America was reduced to submission. Referring them to some special acts and avowals of the ministry, as proofs of its settled hostility, they ask "if the world can think them unreasonable," or "can hesitate to believe that nothing but their own exertions can defeat the ministerial sentence of death or abject submission." Congress, two days afterwards, prepared a second address to the inhabitants of Great Britain, in a tone highly indignant and expostulatory, without being offensive. The second petition to the king, passed on the same day, was, however, in a yet more suppliant style than that of the preceding year*. The fact that Congress adopted a paper so little in harmony with their feelings is attributed by Mr. Jefferson to their high respect for Mr. Dickinson, who drew this petition as well as the first†. *These two petitions have been frequently confounded. The circumstance is thus explained in his memoirs :-" Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to Mr. Dickinson, and of their great desire not to go too fast for any respectable part of our body, in permitting him to draw their second petition to the king according to his own ideas, and passing it with scarcely any amendment. The disgust against its humility was general; and Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was the only circumstance which reconciled them to it. The vote being passed, although further observation on it was out of order, he could not refrain from rising and expressing his satisfaction, and concluded by saying, there is but one word, Mr. President, in the paper, which I disapprove, and that is the word Congress ;'"'— ou which Ben Harrison rose and said, "there is but one word in the paper, Mr. President, of which I approve, and that is the word ' Congress. Let us now turn to the Convention of Virginia. The delegates assembled at Richmond on the 17th* of July, as they had agreed to do on the 24th of June, when they separated as members of the House of Burgesses. Being now convinced that conciliation was hopeless, they proceeded to adopt the most energetic measures for the public defence. They decided on raising a regular force of between two and three thousand men, and on arming and training about eight thousand militia. They resorted to every practicable expedient for procuring gunpowder, saltpetre, sulphur, and other military stores, and they appointed a general committee of safety, consisting of eleven persons, who constituted the executive power of the temporary government. Amidst this busy preparation for resistance, two of their acts deserve notice, less for their intrinsic importance than because they afford evidence of the lofty spirit which actuated these virtuous patriots, and which showed that neither their resentment for injuries received, nor the pressure of their necessities, could be permitted to warp their delicate sense of right. pure and The occasion of the first of these acts was as follows:Some volunteer companies in Williamsburg had informed the Convention that they" had resolved to secure all the public money in the hands of the Receiver-General and other collectors for his majesty," and they desired the opinion of the Convention on the measure. Whereupon, that body passed a resolution that "the proceedings of these companies, though they arose from the best motives, could not be approved," and that they be required to desist from their purpose. In the other case, the Convention having ascertained Gerardin, p. 57. In the Life of Patrick Henry it is stated to be the 24th of July. I have aimed at accuracy in dates, as error in these is sometimes sufficient to transpose cause and effect, that the quantity of powder taken from the public magazine by Lord Dunmore was less than had been at first supposed, and consequently that the sum which Mr. Henry had exacted of the Receiver-General exceeded its value, resolved, that of the 3301. so received, only 1127. 10s. should be retained, and the residue should be returned to the ReceiverGeneral. On the 11th of August, Mr. Jefferson was again elected a member of Congress for one year. His colleagues were Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, George Wythe, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, elected in the place of Richard Bland. Washington, Henry, and Pendleton had resigned before the Convention met, and Bland immediately after his re-election. The result of this ballot shows how much Mr. Jefferson had risen in public estimation. He was the third on the list, and was only three votes behind Mr. Lee, and four behind Mr. Randolph. The Convention adjourned in September, and assembled at Richmond, for the third time this year, on the 1st of December. After a few days it again transferred its sittings to Williamsburg. The place of President having become vacant by the recent death of Peyton Randolph, while in Congress, Edmund Pendleton was elected to that office, which he held until the 5th of July following, when, by the adoption of the Constitution, the functions of the Convention ceased. Although it must have occurred to every reflecting mind that the time would come when the British provinces on this continent would attain a point of population which would be inconsistent with a state of colonial dependence, yet that period was regarded by all as very distant. Nor did those who were most likely to wish a separation, dream that the time was already come when the colonies were sufficiently strong to resist the mighty power of the mother country, even if the people could be brought to desire it. Convinced of this fact, the efforts of the colonists, for the present, aimed solely to prevent the further extension of British power over them, both on account of its present inconveniences, and for fear of its impeding or frustrating their future independence. While this intermediate period was passing, they were content that their accustomed connexion with Great Britain should continue, and they considered themselves compensated for the restrictions on their foreign commerce by the powerful protection afforded by the British navy; and under the belief that they were neither strong enough to assert their independence against the power of the parent state, nor to maintain it afterwards, they, so far from wishing to widen the breach between the two countries, exerted themselves to bring about a reconciliation on the terms that they thought not derogatory to a free people. Such were Mr. Jefferson's sentiments. Though few of his countrymen seem to have taken such liberal views of the claims of the colonies, or to have formed with more jealousy and distrust a standard of the power to which they could safely submit, yet he appears to have sincerely wished to preserve the former connexions between England and America, upon what he conceived to be its proper principles. Some of his correspondence, lately published, affords satisfactory evidence of this fact. Thus, in a letter to his former tutor and friend, Dr. Small, then residing in Scotland, his native country, on the subjects of the public discontents, and immediately after the battle of Bunker Hill, he says: "When I saw Lord Chatham's bill, I entertained high hope that a reconciliation could have been brought about. The difference between his terms and those offered by Con gress, might have been accommodated, if entered on, by both parties, with a disposition to accommodate. But the dignity of Parliament, it seems, can brook no opposition." And in a letter, dated August 25th, of the same year, to John Randolph, who was then Attorney-General, and who, taking 'sides with the government, was about to leave Virginia for England, he says:-"There may be people to whose tempers contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a continuance of confusion, but to me it is, of all states but one, the most horrid. My first wish is for a restoration of our just rights; my second, a return of the happy period when, consistently with duty, I may withdraw myself from the public stage, and pass the rest of my days in domestic ease and tranquillity, banishing every desire of hearing what passes in the world. Perhaps, (for the latter adds considerably to the former wish,) looking with fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help hoping you may contribute towards expediting this good work." He further remarks, "I would rather be in dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation upon earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those, too, who, rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us, assumed by the British Parliament, and which late experience has shown they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean." And in a subsequent letter to the same gentleman, dated November 29th, 1775, after intimating that the colonies were on the eve of separation, he remarks: "Believe me, dear sir, there is not in the British empire, a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do; but, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connexion on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think, I speak the sentiments of America. We want neither inducement nor power to declare and |