Show aguno aar v tene STORY or THE arest BY THE installment 10 sensible of the importance of unan talty among our constituents said jefferson afterwards looking back ta that time when be was loung and in the first flush of his radical beenu ments although we often wished to have gone 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 ad patrick henry was received to the place he had earned and although the older leaders resumed that sway in counsel to which their tried skill and varied experience in affairs fairly en ailed them there was no longer any jealous exclusion of new men hen rys tame crept through the col onlea 93 the man who had first spoken the mind not of virginians only but of 11 just men with regard to the liberties of englishmen in america before a year was out richard bland himself parchment man and conservative that he was had written and published a pamphlet entitled an inquiry into the rights of the british colonies which said nothing less than that in all that concerned her internal affairs virginia was a als duct independent state though led with the parent state by the clos est league and amity and under the same allegiance A colony treated with injury and violence he exclaim ed Is become an alien when antiquarians and lawyers resh from poring upon old documents spoke thus there were surely signs of the times parliament a mischief breeder the government at home kept colo elal sentiment very busy even lord government with burke 0 admonish it coupled its repeal of ae stamp duties with a declaratory tt which sought to quiet controvert con trover ty by giving the lie direct to every argument urged against its authority in the colonies parliament has pow er to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever was its round assertion a resolution for england s right to do what the treasury pleased with three millions of freemen cried chatham though government would not act on that right its sue essers would without scruple and hey were soon about it tor rocking hams ministry retained office scarcely twelvemonth grenville was in bleed discredited but grafton and townshend Fown were as bad as stubborn in temper as reckless in policy more taxes for the colonists tae year 1767 saw taxes proposed and enacted on glass paper palmera pal nera colors and tea imported into the col onles with a purpose to pay fixed ta laries to the crowns officers in the colonies out of the proceeds and the contested ground was all to go over again to show their temper the new aln aisters suspended the legislative powers of the colonial assembly in new york tor refusing to make provision or troops quartered upon the colony to complete their fiscal arrangements they presently created a custom bouse and board of revenue commissioners for america it was an ominous year and set opinion forward not a little anthe col onles protests from the burgesses the house of burgesses broke at lis next session 1768 into fresh protests ard and there was no one to restrain or rebuke it fauquier Fau quler ass dead and gone to his rec konii g the reins of government were in the bands of gentle john blaar president of the council a clr every inch and with never a thought of checking bis fellow colo nests in tie expression of their just opinion the autumn brought lord bole the anew governor general who came in showy state and with genial display of courtly manners and good feeling but his arrival made little alt terence the burgesses smiled to see him come to open their session of 1769 with pageant of coach and six brave display of royal insignia and the manner of a sovereign meeting parliament and turned from him al most in contempt to denounce once more the course of the ministers argue again the rights of america declare aliey would draw the colonies together in concerted and call upon the other colonies to concur with them alike in their principle and in their purpose out with the governor botetourt Bote came hot foot to dissolve them but they only shifted their place of meeting gathered again at the private hause of clr anthony hai ind there resolved no longer to import ohp things which parliament haa axed la despite of them george maion had drawn the resolutions at request and washing on himself presented them masons thought had hastened very ar along the path of opposition under bo whip of england s policy and k quite as far w AJ the government had not only cent troops to boston and dissolved every assembly that protested but bad ad the king to press prosecutions for treason in the colonies and should there be deemed sufficient ground transport the accused to eng land to be tried by special commission hot outburst from virginia it waa this last measure that had provoked the burgesses to their hot test outburst at a time when our lordly masters in great britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the deprivation of american freedom wrote washington to mason with a sudden burst of passion it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors that no man should scruple or basi fate a moment to use arms in defence of so valuable a blessing on which all the good and evil of life depends Is clearly my opinion yet arms I 1 would beg leave to add should be the last resource addresses to the throne and remon Bt rances to parliament had failed it remained to try starving their trades and manufactures to see it that at last would arrest their attention no doubt even that would prove of avail but it was at least peaceable and worth the trial washington on his feet the next month accordingly he got unhesitatingly to his feet in the arl vate meeting of the burgesses at mr hays and moved george masons resolutions nor did ho forget to subscribe his quota to the fund which was to defray the expenses of the association there formed the next evening he attended the queens birth night at the palace with the same naturalness of demean or and frankness of dealing towards the governor as before botetourt Bote was not all show and gallantry but was a genuine man at bottom he had come to virginia thinking the colonists a pleasure loving people who could be taken by display and cajoled by hospitality ho bad been told they were such in london A manly governor but he knew his mistake almost as soon as he had made it and was prompt even while he upheld prerogative to do what he could to deal with them in a liberal and manly spirit he had acquiesced very heartily at the outset of his administration in a decision of the council that writs ot as sl stance could not legally be issued in virginia for the process had been tried there too he made such representations with regard to the state of the colony to the ministers at home as were both just and wise was as in reply that the ministers were willing to make every necessary con cession pledged his word in virginia that there should be a substantial change of policy and died the soon er october because the gov would not after all redeem his promises A doubtful compliment your governor Is becoming very popular as we are told here wrote arthur lee to his brother from lon don and I 1 have the worst proof of it in the increased orders for fineries fin eries from the ladles virginians did not find it easy to break an immemorial habit in order to starve the english trades and manufactures and it was more than once necessary to urge and renew the non importation agreements alike among the burgesses and merchants at williamsburg and by means of local associations throughout the colony but washington was punctilious to observe to the letter the agreements he had himself proposed again and again be bade his mercantile agents in london assist him to guard against any inadvertent breach of them not to send him the articles parliament bad picked out tor taxation in the colonies lite still continued to go it Is true with something of the old sumptuousness at mount vernon it was in june 1768 that colonel washington ordered a new chariot made in the newest taste handsome genteel and light to be made of tho best seasoned wood and by a cele berated workman which was to cos him fittings and all for all he grew uneasy lest the col onies disagreement with england should come at last to a conflict of arms he pushed his private interests with no abatement of thoroughness or celt possession as it there ivere no tear but that things would long enough stand as they were washington acquires lands he had not run surveyors lines tor lord fairfax or assisted to drive the french from the ohio without seeing what fair lands lay upon the western alvera awaiting the owner and though there was still doubt bow titles were to bo established in that wilder ness he took care through the good offices of an old comrade in arms at leist le to be quietly beforehand with other claimants in setting up such titles as might be where the land ia i and roost accessible A balent management was what be advised snugly carried on under the guise of bunting other game lest there should be a premature rush thither that would set rival interests a clashing A strange mixture ot the shrewdness of the speculator and the honesty ot the gentleman claims pushed with privacy but without trick cry or chicane ran through hla letters ta captain crawford and drew as canny replies from the ered soldier continues his outdoor sports business gave way often to sport and pleasure too as of old when poll bics tics fell dull between sessions now it was the hunt then a gunning party in tho woods and again a day or two aboard his schooner dropping down the river and drawing the seine for upon the bar at cedar point even politics was mixed with diver ston lie must needs give a ball at alexandria on the evening of his elec alon to the house which was to meet lord botetourt Bote no less than on other like occasions of whatever hind the business of the assembly was likely to be goes to philadelphia races he did abt lose his passion for fine horseflesh either at the thickest of the plot in 1770 he was with governor eden of north carolina at the jockey club races in philadelphia no doubt relieved by the news that 11 but the tea tax had been repealed the next year it was the races in annapolis that claimed him and in 1773 jacky custas held him again at philadelphia on the same errand it was wholesome to be thus calmly in pursuit of diversion in the intervals of trying business it bespoke a hearty life and a fine balance in the man there was one matter to which washington felt it his bounded duty as a soldier and a man of honor to devote hla time and energies whether politics pressed or not A grant of two hundred thousand acres of ohp western lands had been promised by the government of the colony to those who enlisted tor the war against the french and indians in 1754 but noth ing had ever been done to fulfill the promise and washington undertook to act as agent for his comrades in the business selects farms for fellow soldiers in the autumn of 1770 accordingly he turned away for a space from the deepening trouble in the east to george mason plunge one more into the western ways and search out proper tracts tor the grant along the reaches of the ohio a two months journey for he did not stop till he had gone close three hundred miles beyond fort patt and when he was home again no one in the government who could lend a hand in the matter got any peace from the stirring thorough man until the business was put finally into shape there wasa tidy profit in the grant tor himself for his own share was large and he providently bought besides tho chaes of others who unwilling to spend or operate cooperate co in the matter but there were month upon months of weary unrequited service tor his comrades too given with hearty diligence and without gruda ing buys great meadows their portions were as well placed as his own they were to find when it came to the survey he came ot from the business very rich in western lands buying the great meadows among tha rest for me morys sake but richer still in the gratitude and admiration of the men tor whom ho had labored meanwhile events darkened oal bously A new administration bad been formed in england under lord north and had begun its government by e pealing all the taxes of 1769 except that on tea but it was parliaments right to tax them that the colonists were fighting not the taxes them delves and one tax was as hateful as a hundred the year had been marked in elala tw fashion moreover by a broil between townsmen and troops in tho alreeta of boston in which anna had been used and men slain and in the heated imaginations ot the colonists the affair bad taken on the ugly as hect of a massacre the year 1771 went quietly enough or virginians botetourt Bote was dead and that good merchant of york wll ham nelson president of the council eat in the place 0 authority throughout the year although the whole country refused the taxed tea the attention ot the ministers as it happened was fixed chiefly upon masad chu where trade centered at a growing port and opposition bad a local habitation quiet in virginia in virginia there was no place tt send troops to unless the whole coun try were occupied and so long al sir nelson was acting governor colonel washington could go without preoccupation to the races and gentlemen everywhere follow their own devices in the quiet counties there was rioting rebellion even in north carolina so uneasily did af fairs go there but governor tryon was a soldier as well as a despot and did not need to trouble his neighbors about that an unpopular governor it was not until the first months of 1772 that virginians began to read plain signs of change in the face 0 their new governor john murray earl of dunmore a dark and distant man who seemed to the virginians to come like a satrap to his province who brought a soldier with him for secretary and confidential adviser set up a fixed etiquette to be observed by all who would approach him abruptly and without courtesy displayed in all things an arbitrary tern per and took more interest it presently appeared in acquiring tracts 0 western land than in conducting the government of the colony the year of bis coming was marked by the secret destruction of the revenue schooner gaspe in rhode island and by many significant flaws of tern per here and there throughout the col onles and 1775 saw affairs at last come to a crisis dunmore and the burgesses dunmore had summoned the bur gesses to meet him upon his first corn ing but had liked their proud temper as little as they liked his and was careful not to call them together again till march 1773 though he bad prom ased to convene them earlier there was instant trouble in view of the affair of the gaspe parliament had again resolved upon the trial of malcontents in england and the burgesses were hot at seeing the sentiments of tae colonies so flouted conservative men would still have waited to try events but cheit fellow members of quicker pulse diligent to disappoint them leadership tell to those who were bold enough to take it and patrick henry richard henry lee dabney carr and thomas jefferson radicals all drew together a self constituted committee of guidance evening after evening they met in a private room at the raleigh with now and again one or two other like spirits called into counsel to consult what should be done elchard henry lee proposed that the colonies should be invited to join virginia in appointing committees of correspondence through which to do vise steady concert of action and that virginias committee to be appointed at once should be instructed to look into the character of the new court of trial lately established in rhode island an understanding with new england dabney carr was |