to them from nature, from society, and from the British constitution. The petition was unanimously concurred in by the house, and was ordered to be transmitted to Edward Montague, the agent of the colony, to be by him presented to the king.

This second session closed on the twenty-eighth of June, and the house was prorogued to the twenty-fifth of October following, but did not meet before the eleventh of July, 1771. In the interval, lord Bottetourt died, and the executive government devolved for a short period, on William Nelson, president of the council. Lord Dunmore shortly afterwards assumed the reins of government, and, by proclamation, bearing date, the twelfth of October, 1771, dissolved the late assembly, and writs were issued for a new one, which met on the tenth of February, 1772. At the time of the election of burgesses, Mr. Braxton was high sheriff of his county, and consequently ineligible to a seat in the assembly.

After the dissolution of the legislature by Dunmore, on the twenty-seventh of May, 1774, a spirited association was immediately entered into by eighty-nine of its members, which recommended, amongst other things, that the several colonies of British America, should appoint deputies to meet in general congress. The effect of this recommendation was the election, by the several counties in Virginia, of a convention, which met in Williamsburg, on the first of August, 1774. Of this convention, the first that ever met in Virginia, Carter Braxton was a member, being elected by the people of King William county. At their first meeting, they pledged themselves to make a common cause with the people of Boston in every extremity, and broke off all commercial connexion with the mother country. They appointed

seven delegates to the congress on the part of Virginia, and furnished them with a spirited letter of instructions.

The same convention again met at Richmond, on the twentieth of March, 1775, and after adopting the strongest measures for putting the country in a posture of defence, and passing resolutions for encouraging the growth of wool, flax, hemp, and cotton, the manufacture of cloths, iron, nails, and gunpowder, and making other useful regulations, they dissolved themselves, having been a week in session, and recommended to the people of the counties to elect delegates to another convention to serve for one year. Thus early did the doctrine of annual elections entwine itself around the affections of this patriotic people.

In the spring of this year, an event occurred in which Mr. Braxton bore a conspicuous part. On the twentieth of April, 1775, at night, lord Dunmore caused the powder belonging to the colony, and which was deposited in the magazine at Williamsburg, to be secretly withdrawn, and transferred to a British armed ship, then lying at Burwell's Ferry, on James' river. The pretext for this unlawful seizure was, that the governor had heard of an insurrection of the slaves in a neighbouring county, and that he had removed the powder to a place of greater security; that he assured the municipal authority of Williamsburg, that whenever it was wanted on any insurrection, it should be returned in half an hour. This conditional promise of the return of the powder, supported by the influence of Mr. Peyton Randolph, Mr. Nicholas, and others, who were well known and respected as patriots, had the effect of quieting, although it did not satisfy, the minds of the people of that ancient city. When this news spread through the country, it produced an electrical effect. The volunteer militia of several adjacent counties assembled

at Fredricksburg, to the number of six or seven hundred men. They were with difficulty restrained from marching. They elected a council, which decided on deputing Mr. Mann Page to Williamsburg, to ascertain the state of affairs. A letter from Peyton Randolph, who was then the president of congress, and known to be an ardent friend of American liberty, induced them, with reluctance, to retire to their respective homes. Before they retired, however, they published their sentiments, and their advice to their brothers in arms, concluding with a firm resolution to re-assemble at a moment's warning, and by force of arms, to defend the laws, liberties, and rights, of that and of any sister colony. This publication was despatched to the other counties, and caused the disbanding of the volunteers assembled near Mr. Pendleton's in Caroline, and of those coming down from the counties of Berkeley, Frederick, and Dunmore (now Shenandoah). But this advice was not followed, nor approved of, by the Hanover volunteers. Patrick Henry was at their head. He spoke to them, and they marched, Their object was to obtain, by making reprisals on the king's property, sufficient to indemnify the colony for the powder that had been taken away.

It is remarkable, how essentially, at this moment, the leaders of the patriots in Virginia differed from each other in their opinions of the measures proper to be pursued. The advice which Randolph gave to the volunteers at Fredricksburg, proceeded from the purest and most patriotic motives. With him agreed Nicholas, Pendleton, and other distinguished friends of American liberty. They were anxious to avoid proceeding to extremities: they endeavoured to avoid the shedding of blood. They still clung to the fond hope that a reconciliation might be effected, and all their rights VOL. V.-N

secured without a resort to force. They probably thought that by striking the first blow, they might be placed in the wrong, and that, by temperance and forbearance, they would gain more friends to the cause of their country-if they should be driven finally to independence-than by giving way to an ebullition of passion, even though it was caused by an acknowledged wrong, and by an illegal act of power. On the contrary, Mr. Henry was even then perfectly satisfied, "that we must fight;" that there was no way of avoiding it with honour; that, as the blow was in fact struck by the royal governor, it would be dastardly and disgraceful to submit to it; and that much benefit would result to the cause of freedom, by immediately resenting the insult, and obtaining redress for the injury. Posterior events proved that Henry was the true prophet, and his countrymen have uniformly applauded his zeal and admired his courage. His company consisted of about one hundred and fifty men, well armed and equipped, and with this force he had advanced on the evening of the third of May, as far as Doncastle's, within sixteen miles of Williamsburg. Lord Dunmore seemed determined to prepare for the contest, and obtained, from the Fowey man of war, a detachment of forty marines to guard his palace; the captain of that ship at the same time declaring, that in case of their being molested or attacked, he would fire on the town of York.

In this state of things, Mr. Braxton interposed his good offices, and his influence in warding off the impending blow. His efforts were crowned with success. He had adopted the moderate councils of Pendleton, Nicholas, and Randolph, and his address, suavity of manners, and connexion with colonel Corbin, the king's receiver-general, enabled him to settle the dispute without bloodshed. He, at first, endea

voured to persuade Henry to disband his men, using the same arguments that had succeeded with the volunteers of Caroline, whom he had seen a few days before with Mr. Pendleton; but finding him resolute in refusing to disband until the powder, or its value, should be returned, he proceeded to Williamsburg, where his father-in-law, colonel Corbin, kept his office. With him, the negociation succeeded. The receiver-general paid him, by a bill on Philadelphia, the whole amount of Henry's demand, with which Mr. Braxton returned to Doncastle's, where he delivered it to Henry, who gave his receipt for the money, and discharged his company.

But for this interposition, Virginia might have witnessed the blood of her sons flowing in the streets of Williamsburg, almost as soon as Massachusetts did that of her hardy mili tia, in the town of Lexington. The battle of the latter place had occurred on the nineteenth of April, and was produced by a cause similar to that which had called the Hanover volunteers to the field. Although, however, there was no battle, the patriots obtained every thing for which they flew to arms. In another point of view, it is probably fortunate for the republic, that this dispute terminated as it did. If an engagement had actually taken place, Dunmore would immediately have departed. The colony would not then have witnessed the meeting of the last house of burgesses, which took place on the succeeding first of June: they would not have witnessed the correspondence maintained between them and the governor, in which the cause of liberty was so nobly sustained by the house, and his duplicity, falsehood, and diabolical designs, were completely detected and exposed: nor would they have witnessed his disgraceful flight by night, and the base abandonment of his post. These things, which occurred in the following month, tended greatly to alienate