Note (in a note) — Chapter XXIV

[377] The Secretary of State had instructed Lord Dunmore to call the Assembly together, in order to submit to them a "conciliatory proposition," as it was called, which Lord North had introduced into Parliament—a proposition calculated to divide the colonies, and then reduce each of them to servitude; but the colonies saw the snare, and every one of them rejected the insidious offer. Lord Dunmore, in obedience to his instructions, assembled for the last time the Virginia House of Burgesses in June, 1775, to deliberate and decide upon Lord North's proposition. But while the Burgesses were deliberating upon the subject submitted to them, Lord Dunmore, agitated by his own fears, left with his family the seat of government, and went on board a ship of war. The House of Burgesses, however, proceeded in their deliberations; referred the subject to a Committee, which presented a report prepared by Mr. Jefferson, and adopted by the House, as a final answer to Lord North's proposal. They said, "Next to the possession of liberty, they should consider a reconciliation as the greatest of human blessings, but that the resolution of the House of Commons only changed the form of oppression, without lightening its burdens; that government in the colonies was instituted not for the British Parliament, but for the colonies themselves; that the British Parliament had no right to meddle with their Constitution, or to 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 interests of all the other colonies, they were in honour bound 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 commit our injuries to the justice of the even-handed Being who doeth no wrong."

When the Earl of Shelburne read Mr. Jefferson's report, he said: "In my life I was never more pleased with a State paper than with the Assembly of Virginia's discussion of Lord North's proposition. It is masterly. But what I fear is, that the evil is irretrievable."

"At Versailles, the French Minister, Vergennes, was equally attracted by the wisdom and dignity of the document. He particularly noticed the insinuation that a compromise might be effected on the basis of the modification of the Navigation Acts; and saw so many ways opened of settling every difficulty, that it was long before he could persuade himself that the infatuation of the British Ministry was so blind as to neglect them all." (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap, xxxvii., pp. 386-388.)