men threatening that they would kill the Indians, for whom she retained much affection, ran to their cabin and informed them that the people were just coming to kill them, and that because the Indians who killed Gilmore had come with Elinipsico the day before. He utterly denied it; declared that he knew nothing of them, and trembled exceedingly. His father encouraged him not to be afraid, for that the Great Man above had sent him there to be killed and die with him. As the men advanced to the door, Cornstalk rose up and met them; they fired upon him, and seven or eight bullets went through him. So fell the great warrior, Cornstalk, whose name was bestowed upon him by the consent of the nation as their great strength and support. His son was shot dead as he sat upon the stool. The Redhawk made an attempt to go up the chimney, but was shot down. The other Indian was shamefully mangled, and I grieved to see him so long in the agonies

of death."

Point Pleasant did not flourish for many years. There was no church-its social condition was at the lowest ebb. Judging from the accounts of travelers who visited the place in its earlier days, one would suppose that Goldsmith's "Deserted Village" was a paradise in comparison. The popular superstition was that a curse had been laid upon the place to continue for one hundred years-a punishment for the fiendish murder. Patrick Henry, then governor, offered a reward for the apprehension of the murderers, but without effect.

WAR CLOUDS AGAIN HANGING OVER VIRGINIA.

In the year 1779 the British determined upon the conquest of the Southern States, and Sir Henry Clinton, aware that their resistance would very much depend upon Virginia, resolved to humble her pride and destroy her resources. Accordingly, early in May a portion of the British fleet anchored in Hampton Roads, where they compelled the surrender of Fort Nelson, and on the 11th, the British General Mathews took possession of Portsmouth. They then destroyed great quantities of military stores at Gosport and Norfolk; burned the town of Suffolk; marched far into the interior, burning private residences, barns, and scattering destruction far and wide. Their men-of-war destroyed in the meantime more than one hundred vessels, thus entirely ruining the coasting trade of the colony. The army then re-embarked and sailed away to New York, having finished, in a masterly manner, the work assigned them to do.

The triumph of the British arms in the South portended great evil to Virginia. Clinton determined to make her feel the effects of her continued resistance to a greater extent than ever before, and for that purpose sent General Leslie with a force of three thousand men to complete her

destruction. He appeared in the Chesapeake Bay in October, 1780, landed at Portsmouth and destroyed the vessels and all other property which he found along the coast.

Meantime, Thomas Jefferson, who had succeeded Patrick Henry as governor of the State, was, with the assistance of the best men in the State in the assembly, concentrating every force to oppose the invaders. At this time General Gates, who had been beaten by Cornwallis in the South, was relieved of his command, and General Greene appointed in his stead. The British, fearing that a change of officers might also change the fortunes of Cornwallis' army, ordered Leslie to withdraw from Virginia and at once form a junction with the army in South Carolina. This he did just in time to assist in driving Greene back into Virginia. The day after the Americans crossed the Dan-the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina-Greene wrote to the Governor and also to Baron Steuben informing them of his situation and asking for reinforcements.

Early in December, 1780, Governor Jefferson also received a letter from Washington, informing him that the British were preparing to send an expedition south, the objective point of which was most probably Virginia. This prediction proved correct, for on the 30th, Benedict Arnold, who had attempted the betrayal of the American army at West Point, for which he received ten thousand pounds and a brigadier-general's commission in the British army, arrived with fifty sail in the Chesapeake, and after embarking in lighter vessels, ascended the James river. When Jefferson heard of the approach of Arnold's squadron, he sent General Nelson into the interior counties to raise as large a force as possible, while Baron Steuben was dispatched to Petersburg with a force of about two hundred men. On the 4th of January, 1781, Arnold landed his force near Westover, and marched to Richmond without opposition. No sooner was the capital in possession of the traitor than her stores were plundered, her archives destroyed, and the governor forced to seek safety in rapid flight. From Richmond, Arnold sent a detachment under Colonel Simcoe to Westham, where they destroyed the only cannon foundry in Virginia.

The British, now fearing an attack from the combined forces of Steuben and Nelson, the latter of whom had succeeded in raising a considerable force, commenced their voyage down the river, destroying all property, public and private, on both sides of the river. Virginia was truly in a defenseless state. All her regular force was with General Greene, in the southern part of the State, who was disputing the passage of the Dan with Cornwallis. Her whole dependence was in her militia, of which only about two thousand were in the field, and with this force she could not hope to resist invasion.

No sooner had Arnold gone than another invasion occurred, at the head of which was General Phillips, who, with one thousand men, again ascended the James, ravaged Yorktown, City Point, Petersburg, and spread desolation and terror-ever the followers in the wake of the British army-on every side. He conceived the idea of marching to Richmond a second time, but the fortunate arrival of Lafayette with a considerable force of regulars saved the metropolis, and hastened Phillips in his descent of the river. Lafayette followed, closely watching his movements, until he reached Brandon, where he suddenly landed, and marched again in the direction of Petersburg. The French marquis, however, divined his true intention to be that of forming a junction with Cornwallis, who in the meantime had forced Greene from the banks of the Dan, and was now marching northward through Virginia. The two forces were united at Petersburg on the 20th of May, and Lafayette, whose force was now augmented to four thousand men, remained in the vicinity of Richmond, awaiting reinforcements or an opportunity to join General Greene. Meanwhile, General Wheedon collected a force of several hundred militia, and lay at Falmouth guarding the arms manufactory at that place. In addition to these forces, General Wayne was on his way to Virginia with nine hundred veterans from the frontier. The strength of the united British armies was too great for any force which Virginia could raise, and her fate now seemed to be decided.

From this point Cornwallis sent out detachments to ravage the various parts of the State which had not before been visited by the ruthless Briton, and in two months property to the value of fifteen million dollars had been destroyed.

Colonel Tarleton, at the head of one of these raiding parties, advanced to Charlottesville, where he hoped to capture a republican legislature, the assembly being in session there at the time. That body, however, received information of his approach, and all of the members, except seven who were made prisoners, saved themselves by flight. Governor Jefferson made his escape by riding into the mountains on horseback. Lafayette, although unable to meet the British in the open field, watched their every movement with sleepless vigilance. Acting under orders from Sir Henry Clinton, then at New York, Cornwallis descended the James and halted at Green Springs, within eight miles of the site of Jamestown. Lafayette followed closely upon his rear. From the above place Cornwallis moved to Portsmouth, where he would have fortified himself had not Clinton ordered him to re-embark and take post at Yorktown, which he did on the 1st of August. The position thus taken was situated on the York peninsula on the southern bank of York river, a few miles from its mouth.

A few days later Lafayette, with the entire available force of Virginia, took post a few miles north of the British position, and from here sent messengers with dispatches to Washington, requesting him to hasten to Virginia and assist in the overthrow of the entire British force. A powerful French fleet was daily expected in the Chesapeake, and the American commander saw that Cornwallis, with his retreat cut off by land and sea, would be compelled to surrender, and thus the fatal blow to the British arms would be struck. On the 30th of August the expected fleet, with four thousand men on board, arrived and anchored at the mouth of York river; and on the 2d of September Count de Barras, commanding the French fleet at Newport, sailed into the Chesapeake with eight men-of-war and a number of transports. Three days later Admiral Graves, with a large fleet of ships-ofthe-line, appeared in the bay. A naval battle ensued, in which the ships of the English were so roughly handled by the French flotilla that Graves was compelled to withdraw from the bay and sail away to New York.

On the 14th General Washington arrived at the head-quarters of Lafayette, and on the next day visited the flag-ship of Count de Grasse, where the plan of the siege was arranged. On the 25th the Army of the North, which had been preceded by the commander-in-chief, arrived, and on the 6th of October the combined forces of America and France opened fire on the walls of the now beleaguered army, and on the night of the 14th carried the outer works by storm. Early in the morning of the 16th the English made a sortie, but were hurled back into their intrenchments. The next day Cornwallis proposed a surrender; on the 18th the terms of capitulation were signed; and on the 19th Major-General O'Hara, who appeared instead of Cornwallis, who feigned illness, marched the whole force out into the open field, where in the presence of the united forces of France and America, 7,247 English soldiers laid down their arms and became prisoners of war. Thus ended the war in Virginia, and here, on her soil, the power of the Briton in America was forever broken.

Had Virginia done her part in that mighty struggle? Let history answer. She had been the first to adopt an independent constitution; she was the first to recommend the Declaration of Independence; she had sent her noble son to become the first ainong the leaders of the armies of the nation; her officers and soldiers which she kept in the field for eight long and weary years, whether in the shock of battle, or marching half-clad, half-starved, and barefooted amid the snows of the North, or through the pestilential swamps of the South, had ever evinced unsurpassed bravery and fortitude. She had furnished the voice of Henry, the pen of Jefferson, the sword of Washington, and that was enough. What other American State can show such a record?

VIRGINIA AFTER THE REVOLUTION.

The most important act in the history of the State in the year 1781, was the cession of her immense territory north-west of the Ohio to the general government. The feeble colony of 1607, now grown to a powerful State, stands on the banks of the Ohio and cedes to the general govment her vast empire beyond. To this liberal act she was induced by her desire to accelerate the general ratification of the Articles of the Confederation of the Union.

The war was now past, and it was seen by the ablest statesmen of the nation that the Articles of Confederation, under which the colonies had achieved their independence, were not suited to bind together a union of States whose territory extended over half a continent, and whose desire was to be held together by bonds of union which could never be severed; and now, for the first time, the subject of a federal or national constitutution began to be thought of. This plan of remodeling the government originated in Virginia.

After Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the army to the Continental Congress, he retired to his home at Mount Vernon, and it was here, in the year 1785, during the visit of several distinguished statesmen, that the proposition was first made. They then prepared and issued a call for a convention to meet at Annapolis, in Maryland, the following year, "to consider the subject of a national constitution." In September, 1786, the convention met, but only five States were represented. This being a minority of the States, the body, after passing a resolution urging the several legislatures to appoint delegates to a national convention, to meet at Philadelphia on the second Monday in May, adjourned.

In compliance with that resolution, the convention met at the appointed place and time, every State being represented except Rhode Island. To that convention Virginia sent as her representatives, George Washington, John Blair, James Madison, Jr., George Mason, James McClurg, Edmund Randolph and George Wythe, the first of whom was elected president of the convention.

From the day of meeting to the 29th, a discussion was kept up in relation to the revision of the articles of confederation, when, on the latter day, Edmund Randolph moved to set aside the articles and prepare a new constitution. The motion prevailed. A committee was appointed, which reported early in September. Their report was the Constitution of the United States. Copies of the new instrument were sent to the several legislatures for ratification or rejection.

The Virginia convention called to ratify the Federal compact met in the city of Richmond in June, 1788, and was composed of men whose