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5. Asserting Colonial Rights
he General Congress assembled at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, September 5th, 1774, and organized for business by choosing Peyton Randolph of Virginia, President, and Charles Thompson of Pennsylvania, Secretary. Delegates attended from every province except Georgia, and were in number fifty-five. They terminated their first session on the 26th of October, to meet again at the same place on the 10th of May ensuing, at which time Mr. Jefferson became a Deputy elect.
On the 20th of March, 1775, the popular Convention of Virginia assembled the second time upon invitation of the Chairman to deliberate further on the state of public affairs and the measures it demanded. To a political union with Great Britain upon the broad basis of reason and right, Jefferson was not averse; nay, he most anxiously and fervently desired it to avoid the horrors and desolations which the other alternative presented. "But, by the God that made me," said he a short time afterwards, "I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose." The distance between the terms upon which he would consent to a union and the terms that Great Britain had demanded was too great for any reasonable hope of accommodation. The only grounds upon which he would submit to a compromise were freedom from all jurisdiction of the British Parliament and the exclusive regulation by the colonies of their own internal affairs: freedom from all restraints upon navigation with respect to other nations; freedom from all necessary accountability to the common law; and, in a word, freedom from all the laws, institutions, and customs of the mother country until they should have been specifically adopted as our laws, institutions, and customs by the positive or implied assent of the people.
But would Great Britain consent to an abandonment of all her pretensions and accept the proffered conditions? The idea was preposterous. So far from it, there was little probability she would yield to the far more gracious proposals of Congress. Mr. Jefferson saw with prophetic certainty the inevitable result, and he yearned to have the same clear, strong, yet terrible perspective burst upon the tardy vision of his countrymen. He had long anticipated the awful crisis to which the current of events was fast tending, and we have now arrived to the epoch when his mind was made up to meet that crisis with all the firmness which its nature demanded. "My creed," says he, "had been formed on unsheathing the sword at Lexington." This event, it will be recollected, occurred the ensuing month of April.
The Convention proceeded to business. They adopted a resolution expressive of their unqualified approbation of the measures of Congress, declaring that they considered "this whole continent as under the highest obligations to that respectable body for the wisdom of their counsels and their unremitted endeavors to maintain and preserve inviolate the just rights and liberties of his Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects in America." They next resolved that "the warmest thanks of the convention and of all the inhabitants of this colony were due, and that this just tribute of applause be presented to the worthy delegates deputed by a former convention to represent this colony in general congress for their cheerful undertaking and faithful discharge of the very important trust reposed in them."
It would be doing injustice to Mr. Jefferson to suppose the above resolutions came from him. Not that he disapproved them; on the contrary, he regarded their adoption as an act of justice as well as gratitude. But they probably proceeded from that side of the House which now, as heretofore, was content to follow, and whose sentiments, being more in unison with the instructions given to their own deputies, were likewise more conformable to the attitude assumed by Congress. For be it understood, there was a strong inequality of sentiment in this, as in all former meetings; nor was it long in displaying itself. Soon there arose a leader from the other side of the House who responded in a note of thunder to the preceding resolutions, as follows:
"Resolved: that this colony be immediately put into a state of defense, and that -------- be a committee to prepare a plan for embodying, arming, and disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient for that purpose."
The effect of this proposition was like a bolt from heaven upon the members of the Convention. A deep and painful sensation betrayed itself portending a desperate resistance to the measure. Long and vehement was the contest that succeeded. The resolution was opposed by all the aged, including some of the warmest patriots of the Convention: Pendleton, Harrison, Bland, Nicholas, and even the sanguine and republican Wythe. Alluding to these gentlemen and their backwardness upon this occasion, Mr. Jefferson writes to a friend in 1815:
"These were honest and able men who had begun the opposition on the same grounds, but with a moderation more adapted to their age and experience. Subsequent events favored the bolder spirits of Henry, the Lees, Pages, Mason, etc., with whom I went in all points. Sensible, however, of the importance of unanimity among our constituents, although we often wished to have gone on faster, we slackened our pace that our less ardent colleagues might keep up with us; and they, on their part, differing nothing from us in principle, quickened their gait somewhat beyond that which their prudence might, of itself, have advised, and thus consolidated the phalanx which breasted the power of Britain. By this harmony of the bold with the cautious, we advanced with our constituents in undivided mass and with fewer examples of separation than perhaps existed in any other part of the union."
These gentlemen were all characters of weight in the Colony, insomuch that in all proceedings of a popular bearing, it was essential to conciliate them. Their opposition, therefore, at this stage of their progress was a source of real anguish to the more ardent chiefs of the reform party. Their repugnance to the military proposition was as unfeigned as firm. They had never dreamed of carrying their resistance into more serious forms than those of petition, remonstrance and passive non-intercourse. With expectations yet warm and unclouded of a final reconciliation with the parent government, they shrunk with horror from any attitude which might endanger that result. Most of them were zealous Churchmen, ardently attached to the established religion of Great Britain, and dreaded a disruption from her on that account as from the anchor of their salvation. They directed the whole weight of their influence and exerted all the powers of their eloquence to defeat the measure; but their resistance was overborne by the impetuosity of that torrent which poured from the lips of the more resolute champions of freedom.
The resolution was moved by Mr. Henry and supported by him, by Mr. Jefferson, and the whole of that host which had achieved so much in council. They put their united resources into action and bore off the palm against the wisdom and pertinacity of the opposing corps. The proposition was carried, and no sooner was the vote declared than the opposing members, one and all, went over to the majority and lent their names to supply the blank in the resolution. They "quickened their gait somewhat beyond that which their prudence had of itself advised," and advanced boldly to a line with their colleagues. Mr. Jefferson was appointed on the committee to prepare the plan called for by the resolution. The committee met immediately and reported to the same Convention a plan for embodying, arming, and disciplining the militia, which was likewise adopted.
This was a revolutionary movement. In addition to the local advantages which it secured, it operated as a direct appeal to the sister Colonies and to Congress. But it was even more important as recognizing a fundamental principle. In the preamble to the resolution which bears the broad stamp of Mr. Jefferson's sentiments, it is declared "that a well-regulated militia composed of gentlemen and yeomen is the natural strength and only security of a free government; and that a standing army of mercenary soldiers is subversive of the quiet, dangerous to the liberties, and burthensome to the properties of the people."
Having disposed of this subject and transacted some other business of minor importance, the Convention proceeded to the election of Deputies to the ensuing Congress. They re-appointed the same persons; and foreseeing the probability that Peyton Randolph would be called off to attend a meeting of the House of Burgesses, they made choice of Mr. Jefferson to supply the vacancy. Lastly, having provided for a re-election of delegates to the next Convention, they adjoined.
e have now reached that precise date, May 1775, at which Mr. Jefferson announced that creed which he declared to Congress one year after and they so undauntedly promulgated to the world. "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time," was first; "the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them," was last. The "hand of force" had been upraised; the sword had been drawn at Lexington, and blood had been spilt. From that moment all hope, not to say desire, of a peaceable accommodation was extinguished.
The following letter, written at this time, exhibits the state of his own and of the public mind on the intelligence of the first hostilities. It is one of the earliest examples of his published correspondence and was addressed to his college friend, William Small.
"May 7, 1775. . .
"Dear Sir,-- Within this week we have received the unhappy news of an action of considerable magnitude between the King's troops and our brethren of Boston in which it is said five hundred of the former, with the Earl of Percy, are slain. That such an action has occurred is undoubted, though perhaps the circumstances may not have reached us with truth. This accident has cut off our last hope of reconciliation, and a frenzy of revenge seems to have seized all ranks of people. It is a lamentable circumstance that the only mediatory power acknowledged by both parties, instead of leading to a reconciliation of his divided people, should pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the flames, as we find him constantly doing in every speech and public declaration. This may, perhaps, be intended to intimidate into acquiescence, but the effect has been most unfortunately otherwise. A little knowledge of human nature and attention to its ordinary workings might have foreseen that the spirits of the people here were in a state in which they were more likely to be provoked than frightened by haughty deportment. And to fill up the measure of irritation, a proscription of individuals has been substituted in the room of just trial. Can it be believed that a grateful people will suffer those to be consigned to execution whose sole crime has been the developing and asserting their rights? Had the Parliament possessed the power of reflection, they would have avoided a measure as impotent as it was inflammatory. When I saw Lord Chatham's bill, I entertained high hope that a reconciliation could have been brought about. The difference between his terms and those offered by our Congress might have been accommodated if entered on by both parties with a disposition to accommodate. But the dignity of Parliament, it seems, can brook no opposition to its power. Strange, that a set of men who have made sale of their virtue to the Minister should yet talk of retaining dignity! But I am getting into politics, though I sat down only to ask your acceptance of the wine and express my constant wishes for your happiness." (ME 4:26)According to expectation, the General Assembly of Virginia was summoned by Governor Dunmore to meet on the 1st day of June, 1775, and Peyton Randolph was obliged to leave the chair of Congress to attend as speaker to that assembly. Thus was created the anticipated vacancy in the congressional delegation which Mr. Jefferson had been elected to fill. But he did not take his seat in that memorable body until some weeks after. A more imperious duty required his attention at home just at that moment.
Lord Dunmore had paraded the Legislature before him, declaring that His Majesty, in the plenitude of his royal condescension, had extended the "olive branch" to his discontented subjects in America, and opened the door of reconciliation upon such terms as demanded their grateful consideration and prompt acceptance. The olive branch proved to be the famous "Conciliatory Proposition" of Lord North, than which a more insidious overture or a more awkward attempt at diplomacy never disgraced the annals of ministerial intrigue. He immediately laid this proposal before the Legislature. Happily, Mr. Jefferson was a member, and he was entreated to delay his departure for Congress until this exciting subject should be disposed of. The speaker, Mr. Randolph, knowing that the same proposition had been addressed to the governors of all the colonies and anxious that the answer of the Virginia Assembly should harmonize with the sentiments and wishes of the body he had recently left, persuaded Mr. Jefferson to remain at his post. "He feared," says the latter, "the Mr. Nicholas, whose mind was not yet up to the mark of the times, would undertake the answer, and therefore pressed me to prepare an answer." (Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:14)
The import of this celebrated proposition was, that should any colony propose to contribute its proportion towards providing for the common defense, such proportion to be disposable by Parliament, and to defray the amount of its own civil list -- such colony, the proposal being approved by the parent government, should be exempted from all parliamentary taxes except those for the regulation of commerce, the net proceeds of which should be passed to its separate credit. It was perceived at once that an official proposition from the British court, so specious in its terms and at the same time so mischievous in its designs, required a fundamental evisceration and reply. Therefore, a committee of twelve of the strongest members was raised to devise the appropriate response, and to Mr. Jefferson, who was one of the committee, was assigned with one accord the exclusive preparation of the instrument. The admirable address with which he baffled the diplomacy of the British minister and the designs of his vaunted "Proposition," has been the theme of the historian and the statesman from that day on. The original draught was so strong that even the committee were in doubt; and although they consented to report it, they attacked it with severity in the House. But with the aid of Randolph, says Mr. Jefferson, "I... carried it through the House with long and doubtful scruples from Mr. Nicholas and James Mercer, and a dash of cold water on it here and there, enfeebling it somewhat, but finally with unanimity, or a vote approaching it." (ME 1:14)
In this paper, the author did not scruple to intimate to the minister that his proposition was perfectly understood on this side of the water: that its real object was to produce a division among the Colonies, some of which, it was supposed, would accept it and forsake the rest; or in failure of that, to afford a pretext to the people of England for justifying the Government in the adoption of the most coercive measures. He declared moreover that having examined it in the most favorable point of view, he was still compelled with pain and disappointment to conclude that it only changed the form of oppression without lightening its burden, and that therefore it must be met by a firm and unqualified rejection. He said that the proposal then made to them involved the interests of all the Colonies, and should have been addressed to them in their collective capacity. They were represented in a general Congress composed of Deputies from all the States whose union, he trusted, had been so strongly cemented that no partial application could produce the slightest departure from the common cause. They considered themselves as bound in honor as well as interest to share one general fate with their sister colonies, and should hold themselves as base deserters of the Union to which they had acceded were they to agree to any measure of a separate accommodation. This celebrated paper concludes with a religious exclamation, the want of which in some of the documents drawn by Mr. Jefferson has afforded a theme of unjust animadversion upon his views of the Divine superintendence.
"These, my Lord, are our sentiments on this important subject which we offer only as an individual part of the whole empire. Final determination we leave to the General Congress now sitting before whom we all lay the papers your lordship has communicated to us. For ourselves, we have exhausted every mode of application which our invention could suggest as proper and promising. We have decently remonstrated with Parliament: they have added new injuries to the old; we have wearied our King with supplications: he has not deigned to answer us; we have appealed to the native honor and justice of the British nation: their efforts in our favor have hitherto been ineffectual. What then remains to be done? That we commit our injuries to the even-handed justice of that Being who doeth no wrong, earnestly beseeching Him to illuminate the councils and prosper the endeavors of those to whom America hath confided her hopes, that through their wise directions, we may again see re-united the blessings of liberty, prosperity, and harmony with Great Britain."
It may be considered fortunate that Virginia took the precedence of the other Colonies, perhaps even of Congress, in replying to this deceptive overture; and no less fortunate that the business of preparing the answer devolved on Mr. Jefferson. A less decisive and unequivocal stand at the outset would have admitted the entering wedge and perhaps ended in utter disorganization. It is not among the least of the merits of this performance that the "Union" is kept uppermost throughout and the word Congress sounded in the ears of his lordship at every step, sternly intimating that that is the door at which he must knock with all his messages of negotiation. Better evidence, however, of the high character of this production could not be given than the fact that on Mr. Jefferson's repairing to Philadelphia and conveying the first notice of it to Congress, that enlightened body were so impressed with the ground taken that they very soon adopted it, after a slight revision by the author, as the concurrent voice of the nation. This circumstance accounts for the similarity of feature in the two instruments. Viewed in a political light, the present essay, like his "Rights of British America," proves the author's mind to have been indoctrinated in the great principles of the Revolution long before he wrote the Declaration of Independence. It's effect upon Lord Dunmore may be inferred from his answer a few days after its presentation to his Excellency. It was sufficiently laconic. "Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses: It is with real concern I can discover nothing in your address that I think manifests the smallest inclination to, or will be productive of, a reconciliation with the mother country."
This was the last regal Assembly that ever met in Virginia. They adjoined on the 24th of June, 1775, and the Governor could never afterwards collect a quorum. In a paroxysm of terror, he had some days before the 24th abandoned the palace and fled for refuge on board one of the British ships of war, declaring he would never return unless they accepted the conciliatory proposition of the Prime Minister. Although his Excellency returned, the people would never afterwards receive him or reverence his authority.
As this was the last, so was it the most important Assembly that was held under the royal government. By its decisions, a long stride was taken in the advancement of the general cause. The example was electric upon the other provinces and was felt with awe in the great American Council. "The constant gratitude," says Girardin, "of the American people will, through every succeeding generation, be due to this assembly of enlightened patriots. Had they upon this occasion have accepted of any partial terms of accommodation favorable to themselves alone and in exclusion of the rights of the other colonies, or had they been less firm in repelling the aggressions of the Governor, or less able in defending their own liberties, the cause of American Independence might probably have terminated very differently from what it actually did."
The fall of the regal power in Virginia commenced the literal verification of that blasting prophecy of Wilkes in the House of Commons the February before. But the "loss of the first province of the empire" was not followed, as he hoped, "with the loss of the heads of the Ministers." In the course of one of the most vehement and overwhelming onsets against the administration, and one of the most ardent and powerful discourses upon human liberty, every tittle of which was a prophecy, that intrepid defender of the rights of man uttered the following sentences. "In the great scale of empire, you will decline, I fear, from the decision of this day, and the Americans will rise to independence, to power, to all the greatness of the most renowned States; for they build on the solid basis of general public liberty... If you persist in your resolution, all hope of reconciliation is extinct. The Americans will triumph; the whole continent of North America will be dismembered from Great Britain, and the wide arch of the raised empire fall. But I hope the just vengeance of the people will overtake the authors of these pernicious counsels, and the loss of the first province of the empire be speedily followed by the loss of the heads of those Ministers who first invented them."
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