XXXVI. May. king, nor ministry, nor parliament, nor the nation, CHAP. would admit of further relaxation; but that "a perfectly united ministry would, if necessary, employ the 1775. whole force of the kingdom to reduce the rebellious and refractory provinces and colonies." The arrogance of the language in which this ultimatum was couched, should have ensured its prompt and unanimous rejection, and have nerved congress to immediate decision. But it was laid on the table of the body, which was bent on a petition to the king, and "a negotiation" with his ministers. The month of May went by, and congress had not so much as given to Massachusetts its advice that that province should institute a government of its own; it authorized no invasion of Canada, and only yielded its assent to the act of Connecticut in garrisoning Ticonderoga and Crown Point. If great measures are to be adopted, the impulse must come from without. CHAPTER XXXVII. MASSACHUSETTS ASKS FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON AS COM- XXXVII June. JUNE 1-JUNE 17, 1775. CHAP. IN obedience to the injunctions of Lord North and Lord Dartmouth, who earnestly wished that the ef1775. fort should be made to reconcile some one of the several colonial assemblies to their insidious offer, the first day of June, 1775, saw the house of burgesses of Virginia convened for the last time by a British governor. Peyton Randolph, the speaker, who had been attending as president the congress at Philadelphia, arrived at Williamsburg with an escort of independent companies of horse and foot, which eclipsed the pomp of the government, and in the eyes of the people raised the importance of the newly created continental power. The session was opened by a speech recommending accommodation on the narrow basis of the resolve which the king had accepted. But the moment chosen for the discussion was inopportune; Dunmore's menace to raise the standard of a servile insurrection, and set the slaves upon their masters, with British arms in their hands, XXXVII 1775. filled the South with horror and alarm. Besides, the CHAP retreat from Concord raised the belief that the American forces were invincible; and the spirit of resist- June. ance had grown so strong, that some of the burgesses appeared in the uniform of the recently instituted provincial troops, wearing a hunting shirt of coarse linen over their clothes, and a woodman's axe by their sides. The great civilian of Virginia came down from Albemarle with clear perceptions of the path of public duty. When parliament oppressed the colonies by the imposing of taxes, Jefferson would have been content with their repeal; when the charter and laws of Massachusetts were mutilated and set aside by the same authority, he still hoped for conciliation through the wisdom of Chatham. But after Lexington green had been stained with blood, Jefferson would no longer accept acts of repeal, unless accompanied by security against future aggression. The finances of Virginia were at this time much embarrassed; beside her paper currency afloat, she was burdened with the undischarged expenses of the Indian war of the last year. The burgesses approved the conduct of that war, and provided the means of defraying its cost; but the governor would not pass their bill, because it imposed a specific duty of five pounds on the head, about ten per cent. on the value, of every slave imported from the West Indies. The last exercise of the veto power by the king's representative in Virginia was in favor of the slave trade. The assembly, having on the fifth thanked the delegates of the colony to the first congress, prepared CHAP. to consider the proposal of the ministers. The gov XXXVII 1775. June. ernor grew uneasy, and sent them an apology for his removal of the fifteen half barrels of powder belonging to the province. "I was influenced in this," said he, in a written message, "by the best of motives," and he reminded them that he had ventured his life in the service of Virginia. But the burgesses took testimony relating to the transaction, which proved conclusively his open avowal of an intention to raise, free, and arm slaves. Meantime their consultations extended through several days, and Jefferson was selected to draft their reply. While the house was thus engaged, Dunmore received an express from Gage to acquaint him of his intention to publish a proclamation, proscribing Samuel Adams and Hancock; and fearing he might be seized and detained as a hostage, he suddenly, in the night following the seventh of June, withdrew from the capital, and went on board the "Fowey" man-of-war, at York. He thus left the Ancient Dominion in the undisputed possession of its own inhabitants, as effectually as if he had abdicated all power for the king; giving as a reason for his flight, his apprehension of "falling a sacrifice to the daringness and atrociousness, the blind and unmeasurable fury of great numbers of the people." The burgesses paid no heed to his angry words, but when they had brought their deliberations to a close, they, on the twelfth of June, addressed to him as their final answer, that "next to the possession of liberty, they should consider a reconciliation as the greatest of all human blessings, but that the resolution of the house of commons only changed the form of XXXVII 1775. oppression, without lightening its burdens; that gov- CHAP. ernment in the colonies was instituted not for the British parliament, but for the colonies themselves; June that the British parliament had no right to meddle with their constitution, or prescribe either the number, or the pecuniary appointments of their officers; that they had a right to give their money without coercion, and from time to time; that they alone were the judges, alike of the public exigencies and the ability of the people; that they contended, not merely for the mode of raising their money, but for the freedom of granting it; that the resolve to forbear levying pecuniary taxes still left unrepealed the acts restraining trade, altering the form of government of Massachusetts, changing the government of Quebec, enlarging the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, taking away the trial by jury, and keeping up standing armies; that the invasion of the colonies with large armaments by sea and land was a style of asking gifts not reconcilable to freedom; that the resolution did not propose to the colonies to lay open a free trade with all the world; that as it involved the interest of all the other colonies, they were bound in honor to share one fate with them; that the bill of Lord Chatham on the one part, and the terms of congress on the other, would have formed a basis for negotiation and a reconciliation; that leaving the final determination of the question to the general congress, they will weary the king with no more petitions, the British nation with no more appeals." "What then," they ask, “remains to be done?" and they answer: "That we com |