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CHAP.
XLV.

On the seventeenth of July, 1775, her people assembled at Richmond in a convention, which was now, 1775. without a rival, the supreme government on her soil. Every procedure was marked by that mixture of courage and moderation which in times of revolution is the omen of success. The military preparations had nothing in view beyond defence; a proposal of volunteer companies in Williamsburg to secure the public money was discountenanced and rejected. Two regiments of regular troops in fifteen companies were called into being; sixteen regiments of minutemen were to keep themselves in readiness for actual service; for the command of the first regiment of regulars, the convention, passing over Hugh Mercer, now a resident of Virginia, elected Patrick Henry, who thus became, for a few months, in rank at least, the provincial commander-in-chief. For the relief of scrupulous consciences in the army, it was made an instruction, that dissenting clergymen might pray with the soldiers and preach to them. Delegates to serve in general congress for a year were elected; and among them once more Richard Bland. Of the same lineage with Giles Bland, who, ninety nine years before had perished as a martyr to liberty, having in his veins the blood of Powhatan and Pocahontas, trained in the college of William and Mary, and afterwards in the university of Edinburgh, he was venerable with age, public service, and a long career of vigilant, unswerving fidelity to civil liberty. Profoundly versed in the history and charters and laws of Virginia, in 1766 he had displayed the rights of the colonies with an uncompromising vigor and prophetic insight, such as Dickinson, who wrote after

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him, never could equal. His deep blue eyes are now CHAP. dimmed; his step has lost its certainty; he rises to decline the appointment; all eyes rest on him, and the 1775. convention hangs on his words: "I am an old man, almost deprived of sight; the honorable testimony of my country's approbation shall ever animate me, as far as I am able, to support the glorious cause in which America is now engaged; but advanced age renders me incapable of an active part in the weighty concerns which must be agitated in the great council of the united colonies, and I desire that some abler person may supply my place." The convention having unanimously thanked him for his fidelity, released him from further service only on account of his years. A strong party, at the head of which were Henry, Jefferson, and Carrington, turned for his successor to George Mason, a man of yet rarer virtues, now for the first time a member of a political body. He was a patriot, who renounced ambition, making no quest of fame, never appearing in public life but from a sense of duty and for a great end. "He will not refuse," said Jefferson and Henry, "if ordered by his country." But he was still suffering from an overwhelming domestic grief; as he gave his reasons for his refusal, tears ran down the presiding officer's cheeks; and the convention listened to him with the sympathy of a family circle. At the same time that Mason declined, he recommended Francis Lee, who was accordingly chosen in the room of Bland, yet only by one vote over a candidate who was noted for loyalty and dread of a democratic republic.

A spirit of moderation prevailed in the election of the committee of safety for the province; Edmund

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that "

CHAP. Pendleton, who ever desired it might be remembered that "a redress of grievances, and not a revolution of 1775. government, was his wish," was placed at its head.

To defray the charges of the late Indian war, and to provide for her defence, Virginia, following the general example, directed an emission of three hundred and fifty thousand pounds in paper currency; the smallest bill to be for one shilling and three pence. George Mason urged the continuance of the land tax and the poll tax, which would have annually sunk fifty thousand pounds; but his opposition was vain; and taxation was suspended for a year.

Having made preparations for security, both against invasions and a servile insurrection, the members of the convention once more declared before God and the world, that they did bear faith and true allegiance to his majesty George the Third, their only lawful and rightful king; and would, so long as it might be in their power, defend him and his government, as founded on the laws and well known principles of the constitution; but that they were also determined to defend their lives and properties, and maintain their just rights and privileges, even at the extremest hazards. "Rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us, assumed by the British parliament," wrote Jefferson from Monticello, "I would lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean.”

CHAPTER XLVI.

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS.

JULY-OCTOBER, 1775.

"GOD grant conciliatory measures may take place; there is not an hour to be lost; the state of affairs will not admit of the least delay:" such was the frank message sent to the ministry in July by the able Sir James Wright, of Georgia; and from a province in which "a king's governor had little or no business," he pressed for leave to return to England and explain and enforce his advice. The people met in congress; a council of safety maintained an executive supervision; local affairs were left to parochial committees; but the crown officers were not molested, and but for sympathy with South Carolina, and rumors of attempts to excite slaves to desolate the heart of the colony, Indians to lay waste the frontier, some good appearance of authority would have been kept up. When in Savannah the chief justice refused. to accept

CHAP.
XLVI.

1775.

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July

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CHAP. bail for a South Carolina recruiting officer, a crowd broke open the gaol and set the prisoner free; and on 1775. the fifth of August he beat up for men at the door of the chief justice himself and hard by the house of the governor. The militia officers were compelled to sign the association; and navigation was so effectually regulated, that a ship which arrived with two hundred and four slaves, was compelled to go away without landing them. In September two hundred and fifty barrels of powder were taken by the "liberty" people from a vessel at Tybee.

South Carolina needed more than ever a man of prudence at the head of the administration; and its new governor owed his place only to his birth. The younger son of a noble family, Lord William Campbell knew nothing of the people whom he was to govern, and he put himself under the direction of the passionate and violent among his irresponsible subordinates. The more temperate, especially Bull, the lieutenant governor, kept aloof, and had no part in his superciliousness and mistakes. The planters were disposed to loyalty from affection and every motive of interest; but he would not notice the elements for conciliation, nor listen to the advice of the considerate and best informed. The council of safety, composed of seventeen men, elected by the convention in June, proved its dislike of independence by choosing Henry Laurens for its president; but the governor wrote home, that “the people of the best sense and the greatest authority, as well as the rabble, had been gradually led into the most violent measures by a set of desperate and designing men;" and he planned the reduction of the province by arms.

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