milder set of instructions for the Virginian Delegates (Peyton Randolph, R. H. Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton), who shortly afterwards proceeded to Philadelphia. There on September 5 in the Carpenters Hall they met delegates from all the Colonies except Georgia, and constituted what is known as the first Continental Congress. The Delegates were desired on behalf of Virginia to express their true allegiance to His Majesty "our lawful and rightful sovereign," and to declare that "we are determined with our lives and fortunes to support him in the legal exercise of all his just rights and prerogatives." They also approved of a constitutional connection with Great Britain, and desired “a return to that intercourse of affection and commercial connection that formerly united both countries." But grievances must be removed and American rights restored. They had acquiesced in the Navigation Acts and other British restrictions of American commerce; but these were an ample recompense for British protection. They would not acquiesce in the claim of parliament and the Crown to interfere with their revenues, jurisdictions, and internal policy. "To obtain redress of these grievances, without which the people of America can neither be safe, free, nor happy," they were willing to undergo the great inconvenience of stopping all imports from Britain after November 1, 1774, and also to cease exporting any commodity whatsoever to Britain after August 10, 1775. An earlier adoption of the non-intercourse plan would have involved the colony in too heavy a loss on its tobacco crop; but otherwise the Virginia Delegates were instructed to co-operate with the sister colonies in General Congress for the accomplishment of the common purpose. This first Congress, presided over by Peyton Randolph, adjourned in October after resolving to meet again in May. In the eyes of George the Third and his Ministers it was an illegal body. The great majority of its members agreed with the Instructions adopted by Virginia. Though they were resolved to resist British encroachments upon their rights and liberties, separation was as far from their thoughts as war from their wishes. In this very month of October, 1774, Washington said: "I am well satisfied that no such thing as independence is desired by any thinking man in all North America; on the contrary, that it is the ardent wish of the warmest advocates for liberty that peace and tranquillity on constitutional grounds will be restored, and the horrors of civil discord prevented." Dr. Edward Channing, the learned American historian, thinks there were probably "not a dozen men in all the Colonies at that time who wished for independence," and adds: "had there been [instead of General Gage] a strong, wise, and prudent man at the head of affairs at Boston, the rupture might have been postponed for many years.' The First Continental Congress adopted a mild declaration of rights; but it also passed an agreement to boycott British trade, and recommended all the Colonies to appoint local committees to enforce the non-intercourse policy, by which it was hoped parliament and the king would be brought to their senses. In this hope they were disappointed; for the new parliament elected at the end of the year, though less venal and servile than its predecessor, was yet sufficiently under the control of the king and Lord North to persist in the insensate policy of coercion. But the First Congress, if it failed to change the king's policy, achieved a striking success in organising a continental boycott. Its measures to prevent the importation and consumption of British goods were carried out with surprising promptitude in all the colonies, and in none more completely than in Virginia. The merchants of Virginia indeed, to whom non-intercourse meant ruin, were of course by interest and inclination as much opposed to economic war as those of Philadelphia, New York, and New England. But the planters, even in the tidewater counties, supported almost unanimously a measure which promised to achieve once more the bloodless victory which had attended similar resistance to the Stamp Act eight years before. Their leaders, trained in affairs, conversant in politics and law, drew from the pages of Harrington, Sidney, and Locke, notions of self-government and constitutional right which would have startled their cavalier ancestors. The Committees of Virginia were so active,1 vigilant, and intolerant towards recusants that those who hesitated between King and Congress soon had no alternative but exile or submission. A few Virginian notables like John Randolph, brother of Peyton, were to choose the former course. But when war broke out, Virginia, thanks to its planter statesmen, suffered less from disaffection to the American cause than any of the leading colonies. In all its counties the boycott was acclaimed with zeal and enforced with rigour. Committeemen rode about inspecting books and ledgers of merchants. The raising of prices was strictly forbidden. Tea had become so detestable a beverage that some enthusiasts brought their unconsumed stores to the Court House to be publicly burned, "in which reasonable request," wrote the Virginia Gazette, "they were instantly gratified." Persons dealing with recalcitrant merchants were declared "Ene 1 Cp. The Revolution in Virginia, by H. J. Eckenrode, Chapter IV. mies to American Liberty." Condemned goods were sold at auction in aid of the Boston sufferers. The names of ship captains and others who violated the non-importation agreement were published. A letter from Jefferson to Col. A. Carey of December 9, 1774, bears witness to the severity of the boycott. It asks Carey to communicate to his county committee the fact that fourteen pairs of sash windows, ordered from England before these stringent measures had been thought of, were about to arrive at one of their coast towns. As glass had been prohibited by the Continental Association, "which without the spirit of prophecy could not have been foretold when I ordered them, so I mean they shall be subject to its condemnation. To your committee therefore, if landed within their county, I submit the disposal of them.” CHAPTER VI THE REPLIES TO LORD NORTH WAR BEGINS ""Tis very true, my sov'reign King, My skill may weel be doubted; Your royal nest, beneath your wing, 1775 - BURNS' Dream (1786). HE storm which had gathered so fast in 1774 broke Tin in 1775. In January, Albemarle county elected its Committee of Safety, fifteen members, with Jefferson at the head of the poll. He was also one of his county's two representatives in the Second Virginia Convention, which met at Richmond on March 20. Richmond, less exposed than Williamsburg to the British navy, and soon to succeed it as the seat of government, was then only a village. For lack of a public hall the delegates met in the little wooden church of St. John's, which had enough pews to accommodate what was really a meeting of the House of Burgesses acting alone without Governor or Council. Though the people of Massachusetts were preparing armed resistance to Gage, war had not yet begun; and in Virginia many people believed that the commercial boy |