munication; and that their first measure would probably be to propose a meeting of deputies from every Colony, at some central place, who should be charged with the direction of the measures which should be taken by all. We, therefore, drew up the resolutions which may be seen in Wirt, page 87. The consulting members proposed to me to move them, but I urged that it should be done by Mr. Carr, my friend and brother-in-law, then a new member, to whom I wished an opportunity should be given of making known to the House his great worth and talents. It was so agreed; he moved them, they were agreed to nem. con., and a committee of correspondence appointed, of whom Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman. The Governor (then Lord Dunmore) dissolved us, but the committee met next day, prepared a circular letter to the Speakers of the other Colonies, inclosing to each a copy of the resolutions, and left in charge with their chairman to forward them by expresses."

As to the origin of these intercolonial committees of correspondence some particulars may be found in the next preceding volume of this work, and in another chapter of this volume Mr. Jefferson's views are further displayed on the same subject. The interest in this and several other points of honor connected with Revolutionary matters must be very weak at this late date; and, perhaps, after all has been said and done that can well be, some doubts may still remain as to their historic accuracy. In the preceding volumes of this work some attempt was made to arrive at a just distribution of some of these small affairs, and especially as to the formulation of the American theory of no taxation by the British Parliament without representation. Mr. Jefferson lays down a good rule, in the absence of better evidence, for settling many of these not very important matters, that is, a community which was first visited by an evil had, perhaps, first laid itself liable, and was, of necessity, first to resist. Thus it happened that Massachusetts drew

British wrath upon herself long before the war stage was reached, and in that State was heard the first crash at arms. But more then a century before the Revolution, when England had proposed the regulation of American affairs in a navigation act and otherwise, the plea had been set up against her right to do so in Colonies not represented in the legislature. This was an old, old dogma, in fact, latent only because there was no occasion for its manifestation. But, however poorly or well founded it was, it served a vast purpose in the moral forces of the Revolution.

Mr. Jefferson wrote as follows concerning the position he himself assumed before the convention called to appoint delegates to the first Congress :

"Being elected for my own county, I prepared a draught of instructions to be given to the delegates whom we should send to the Congress, which I meant to propose at our meeting. In this I took the ground that, from the beginning, I had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was, that the relation between Great Britain and these Colonies was exactly the same as that of England and Scotland, after the accession of James, and until the union, and the same as her present relations with Hanover, having the same executive chief, but no other necessary political connection; and that our emigration from England to this country gave her no more rights over us, than the emigration of the Danes and Saxons gave to the present authorities of the mother country, over England. In this doctrine, however, I had never been able to get any one to agree with me but Mr. Wythe. He concurred in it from the first dawn of the question, What was the political relation between us and England? Our other patriots, Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas, Pendleton, stopped at the half-way house of John Dickinson, who admitted that England had a right to regulate our commerce, and to lay duties on it for the purpose of regulation, but not of raising revenue. But for this ground there was no foundation in compact, in any acknowledged principles of colonization, nor in reason; expatriation being a natural right, and acted on as such, by all nations, in all ages.

"I set out for Williamsburg some days before that appointed for our meeting, but was taken ill of a dysentery on the road, and was unable to proceed. I sent on, therefore, to Williamsburg, two copies of my draught, the one under cover to Peyton Randolph, who I knew would be in the chair of the convention, the other to Patrick Henry. Whether Mr. Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too lazy to read it (for he was the laziest man in reading I ever knew), I never learned; but he communicated it to nobody. Peyton Randolph informed the convention he had received such a paper from a member, prevented by sickness from offering it in his place, and he laid it on the table for perusal. It was read generally by the members, approved by many, though thought too bold for the present state of things; but they printed it in pamphlet form under the title of 'A Summary View of the Rights of British America.' It found its way to England, was taken up by the opposition, interpolated a little by Mr. Burke so as to make it answer opposition purposes, in that form ran rapidly through several editions. This information I had from Parson Hurt, who happened at the time to be in London, whither he had gone to receive clerical orders; and I was informed afterwards by Peyton Randolph, that it had procured me the honor of having my name inserted in a long list of proscriptions, enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced in one of the Houses of Parliament, but suppressed in embryo by the hasty steps of events, which warned them to be a little cautious. Montague, agent of the House of Burgesses in England, made extracts from the bill, copied the names, and sent them to Peyton Randolph. The names, I think, were about twenty, which he repeated to me, but I recollect those only of Hancock, the two Adamses, Peyton Randolph himself, Patrick Henry, and myself."

CHAPTER V.

MR. JEFFERSON IN THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS-DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE-ADAMS AND JEFFERSON.

N the 21st of June, 1775, Mr. Jefferson took his

ON

seat in the Congress at its second session. He traveled to Philadelphia in a phaeton, and had with him two extra horses. His entrance into the Congress was hailed with delight by the advanced friends of the country, as his reputation as a bold and able writer had preceded him, and his answer written on the part of the House of Burgesses to the proposition of Lord North for reconciliation, now for the first time seen by the leaders in other Colonies, further promoted the favorable impression of him; and besides his ability as a writer, he was full of patriotism and energy, and was ready for any decisive action, all of which were elements, the determined and far-seeing men of that body were overjoyed to bring into its deliberations.

Soon after Mr. Jefferson entered the Congress, he was appointed, with John Dickinson, as an additional member of the committee on the causes leading to the war on the part of America, and although the report made and adopted by the Congress was accredited to Mr. Dickinson, a few of its clauses were written by Mr. Jefferson, and those, doubtlessly, gave the report its popularity in the country at the time. Mr. Jefferson's entire draft had been rejected by Dickinson as

being too revolutionary. Mr. Jefferson also drew up the answer of the Congress to the "Conciliatory Proposition" of the British Ministry. His preparation of the reply to Lord North, from Virginia, no doubt led, mainly, to his selection for that purpose, by the other members of the Committee of the Congress, consisting of himself, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Richard Henry Lee. On the first day of August, after a short and temporizing session, the Congress adjourned, and Mr. Jefferson returned home. The Virginia Convention again elected him as a delegate to the Congress, with Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, George Wythe, and Francis Lightfoot Lee. After a short vacation the Congress again assembled, and when it was ascertained that no answer would be made to the second humble appeal to the King, the subject of independence began openly to be avowed. The most radical republicans had hardly more than dreamt of this step yet, and certainly little had been said openly concerning it. The great mass of patriots had aimed at no more than the re-establishment of the independence they had formerly enjoyed under the British government. It is apparent that even after the battle of Bunker's Hill many earnest men believed reconciliation admissible, and only wished redress of wrongs, not separation.

The following extracts from letters of Mr. Jefferson, written in the fall of 1775, to John Randolph, will show his sentiments at this time:

"I am sorry the situation of our country should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in it. I hope the returning wisdom of Great Britain will, erelong, put an end to this unnatural There may be people to whose tempers and dispositions

contest.