the minds of men from the royal government, and to prepare them fully for the events which followed.

Immediately after the dissolution of the assembly, in May, 1774, new writs were issued, and another house of burgesses was chosen. Of that house Mr. Braxton was elected a member. It was prorogued from time to time, but at length, by the advice of his council, lord Dunmore convened them on the first of June, 1775. This was the last, and perhaps the most important, house of burgesses that had ever assembled under the royal government. In that eventful session, Mr. Braxton appears to have been a very active and useful member. He served not only on three of the regular committees, but frequently on those special committees, to whom were referred the subjects of dispute between the governor and the legislature.

It was in the night, between the seventh and eighth of June, that the governor fled from his palace, and went on board the Fowey. The repeated and earnest solicitations of his council, and of the house of burgesses, could not prevail on him to return: he would not even come back for the purpose of giving his assent to a number of bills which had been passed, and to which he had no objection. The assembly very properly refused to attend him on board the Fowey. They continued their session till the fifteenth, when they adjourned to October, but never again met. The governor, in a short time, commenced a disgraceful and predatory war on the colony.

The government being thus dissolved by the abdication of the governor, all the powers thereof, as well legislative as executive, devolved necessarily on the general convention, which met at Richmond, on the seventeenth of July, 1755, and sat until the twenty-sixth of August. Of this body Mr.

Braxton was a member. The great importance of this convention is apparent, not only from the fact that the ravages of war were now brought home to them by Dunmore, but from the nature of the ordinances passed by them. The former convention acted only by resolution; this proceeded to legislation. They passed an ordinance for raising and embodying a sufficient force for the defence and protection of the colony two regiments of regulars were ordered to be raised, and several companies, for the western frontiers; and the colony was divided into sixteen districts, in each of which was to be organized a battalion of militia, of five hundred men each, called minute-men: another ordinance provided rules for the better government of the forces; another, for arms and ammunition to be procured; another provided for the appointment of a committee of safety; and another for the appointment of county committees. The committee of safety was a regularly organized body, and was vested with all the functions necessary to protect and ensure the safety of the state. It held the whole executive authority of the colony during the recess of the convention, and particularly had the control of the military forces. Its members were all distinguished for their zeal in the defence of their country's rights: they were Edmund Pendleton, president, George Mason, John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Paul Carrington, Dudly Digges, William Cabell, Carter Braxton, James Mercer, and John Tabb. During the time that Mr. Braxton remained on that committee, he was an attentive, active, and efficient member.

The convention again met on the first of December, 1775, at Richmond, but immediately adjourned to Williamsburg. On the fifteenth of that month, they proceeded to elect a delegate to congress in the place of Peyton Randolph, who

died in Philadelphia, on the twenty-second of October, whilst he was presiding over that body. Mr. Braxton was appointed his successor, and he soon after took his seat in the great national council, where he affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence, as one of the delegates from Virginia.

On the twentieth of June, 1776, the convention resolved, that the delegates to be appointed to represent the colony in general congress, should consist of five in number, and that any three of them should be sufficient. In consequence of this resolution, the names of Mr. Harrison and Mr. Braxton were omitted, and the other five gentlemen were reelected, from the eleventh of August following. On this subject, Mr. Girardin, the continuator of Burk's History of Virginia, makes the following remarks: "This reduction of the number of delegates to five, was predicated on two ostensible motives :-economy, and a wish to obtain the aid of the supernumeraries in the arduous business of internal government. As to Mr. Braxton, his Address on Government was not universally relished; and his popularity had been, in some degree, impaired by persons whose political indiscretions, though beyond his control, fatally re-acted against him." Mr. Girardin appears to be generally an accurate historian, but in this instance, he has fallen into error; and it is probable that what he calls the ostensible, were the real motives for reducing the number of delegates. The Address on Government by Mr. Braxton, of which he makes mention, has not descended to our times: if it contained any thing opposed to the independence and freedom of his country, it would afford a proof of a most deplorable dereliction of principle. But if such had been the features of an address published by him, would it not have alienated the affections of his fellow citizens from him? Would he not

have been abandoned, not only by his own county, but by the representatives of Virginia? Would they not have spurned him from their presence, as an apostate and deceiver? That such was not the fact, the records of his subsequent life abundantly show. Who the persons were, whose political indiscretions fatally re-acted on the popularity of Mr. Braxton, does not appear; and as those indiscretions were beyond his control, it would seem extremely unjust that they should affect him at all. If they did affect him, the delusion on the minds of the convention must have been temporary.

The first general assembly under the republican constitution, assembled in Williamsburg on the seventh of October, 1776. The members of the house of delegates, the most numerous branch of that assembly, were the same persons, with very few exceptions, who had composed the preceding convention. Mr. Braxton himself was one of the exceptions. When the convention met in May, 1776, William Aylett, and Richard S. Taylor, were the members from the county of King William. On the twenty-second of May, Mr. Aylett having accepted a military commission, his seat was declared to be vacated, and the president was directed to issue a warrant of election to supply the vacancy. Under that warrant, Mr. Braxton was elected by the people, and took his seat in the succeeding house of delegates. This body was the convention under a new name; for no election had been made by the people, of delegates, between the formation of the constitution and this meeting of the general assembly.

The journal of that body affords strong proof that Mr. Braxton had not fallen under the displeasure of the convention, or, at least, that their displeasure, if it existed, must have been of very short continuance.

"Saturday, October 12th, 1776."

"Resolved, unanimously, that the thanks of this house. are justly due to Thomas Jefferson and Carter Braxton, Esquires, for the diligence, ability, and integrity, with which they executed the important trust reposed in them as two of the delegates for this county in the general congress.

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"The speaker accordingly delivered the thanks of the house to the said Thomas Jefferson and Carter Braxton, in their places, who expressed the great pleasure they received from this distinguished testimony of their country's approbation of their sevices."

The first session of the legislature of Virginia was most interesting and important ; and it is obvious, from an inspection of the journals, that Mr. Braxton was one of the most active members of the house. He was on the committee of religion, of which he was chairman; on the committee of propositions and grievances, of which, although he was not first named, he made most of the reports during the session, and consequently must have acted as chairman; and on the committee of trade. Besides these, he was a member of many other special committees of the greatest importance, and sometimes took the chair of the committee of the whole.

Mr. Braxton continued to receive, during the remainder of his life, and under every change of fortune, which finally became most afflictive and trying, strong and unerring proofs of the confidence of the people, and of the legislature of his state. He was a member of the house of delegates in the years 1777, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1785, and 1785. In the last year, his name stands recorded as one of the supporters of the act for establishing religious freedom; an act bearing the character of a constitutional provision; an act, penned