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and the House of Burgesses was immediately dissolved after their daring publication. Notwithstanding these measures, the members met in their private capacities, and mutually signed a spirited publication, setting forth the unjust conduct of the Governour, who had left them this, their only method, to point out to their countrymen the measures they deemed the best calculated to secure their liberties from destruction by the arbitrary hand of power. They told them that they could no longer resist the conviction, that a determined system had been formed to reduce the inhabitants of British America to slavery, by subjecting them to taxation without their consent, by closing the port of Boston, and raising a revenue on tea. They therefore strongly recommended a closer alliance with the sister colonies, the formation of committees of correspondence, and the annual meeting of a General Congress; and earnestly hoping that a persistance in these principles would not compel them to adopt measures of a more decisive character.

The pamphlet having found its way to England, it was taken up by the opposition, and, with a few interpolations by the celebrated Edmund Burke, passed through several editions. It procured for its author considerable reputation, and likewise the dangerous honour of having his name placed on a list of proscriptions in a bill of attainder, which was commenced in one of the houses of parliament, but was speedily suppressed. In the same bill the names of Hancock, the two Adamses, Peyton Randolph, and Patrick Henry, were inserted.

We are now rapidly approaching the most important

event in the life of Mr. Jefferson, and in the history of

his country.

The year 1775 opened, in England, with strenuous attempts by the friends, and apparent ones by the enemies of the colonies, to effect a reconciliation. The certain intelligence which had been received of the transactions of Congress, and the astonishing concord which prevailed in America, made the ministers loath to embrace extreme counsels, and inclined to relax somewhat of their rigour, and to leave an opening for accommodation. Lord North even intimated to the American merchants then in London, that if they presented petitions, they should meet attention. But in the midst of these glimmerings of peace, the news arrived of the schism of New York; an event of great moment in itself, and promising consequences still more important. The minister felt his pride revive: he would no longer hear of petitions or accommodation. Things turned anew to civil war and strife. All the papers relating to the affairs of America, were laid before the two houses. The great Chatham, perceiving the obstinacy of the ministers in their resolution to persist in the course of measures they had adopted, and fearing that it might result in the most disastrous effects, pronounced a long and most extremely eloquent discourse in favour of the colonies, and was heard with solemn and rapt attention.

After having repulsed with a sort of disdain the petitions of the colonies, and those presented in their favour by the islands of the West Indies, and even by England herself; and after having rejected all the counsels of the party in opposition, the ministers unveiled

their schemes, and announced in the presence of the two houses the measures they intended to pursue, in order to reduce the colonies to subjection.

They pronounced that the province of Massachusetts was found in a state of rebellion; and it was proposed that in the address of the king it should be declared that rebellion existed in the province of Massachusetts, and that it was supported and fomented by illegal combinations and criminal compacts with the other colonies, to the great detriment of many subjects of his majesty. This proposition of the ministers was put to vote, and carried by a majority of two thirds of the house.

Lord North then proposed a new bill, the object of which was to restrict the commerce of New England to Great Britain, Ireland, and the West India islands, and prohibit, at the same time, the fishery of Newfoundland. This bill was also approved by a great majority. The opposition protested; the ministers scarcely deigned to perceive it.

But the counsels of the ministers ended not here. Wishing to blend with rigour a certain clemency, and also to prevent new occasions of insurrection in the colonies, they brought forward the project of a law, purporting that when in any province or colony, the Governour, Council, Assembly, or General Court, should propose to make provisions according to their respective conditions, circumstances and faculties, for contributing their proportion to the common defence; such proportion to be raised under the authorities of the General Court or Assembly in each province or colony, and disposable by Parliament; and should engage to

make provision also for the support of the civil government, and the administration of justice in such province or colony; it would be proper, if such proposal should be approved by the King in his Parliament, and for so long as such provision should be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province or colony, to impose any duties, taxes, or assessments, except only such as might be thought necessary for the regulation of commerce. This likewise received the usual large majority in its favour, with directions to lay it before the respective provincial legislatures. It was at least hoped that if the scheme did not finally succeed, it might produce disunion or discontent.

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Accordingly, on the first of June, 1775, this resolution was presented by Lord Dunmore, the Governour, to the legislature of Virginia; and Mr. Jefferson was selected by the committee, to whom it was referred, to frame the reply. This was done with so much force of argument, enlarged patriotism, and sound political discretion, that it will ever be considered as a document of the highest order. It concludes in these words:

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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 shall 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 honour and justice of the British nation: their efforts in our favour have hitherto been ineffectual. What, then, remains to be done? That we commit our injuries to the even-handed justice of that Being who doth no wrong, earnestly beseeching him to illuminate the councils, and prosper the endeavours of those to whom America hath confided her hopes; that, through their wise directions, we may again see reunited the blessings of liberty, prosperity, and harmony with Great Britain."

When this address had been passed, Mr. Jefferson immediately proceeded to Congress, which was then in session, and gave them the first notice they had of it. It was highly approved of by them. He had been elected on the twenty-seventh of March, 1775, one of the members to represent Virginia in the General Congress already assembled at Philadelphia, but had de-layed his departure until now at the request of Mr. Randolph, who was fearful the draughting of the address alluded to would, in his absence, have fallen into feebler hands. An elegant biographer asserts: "When about to leave the colony, a circumstance is stated to have occurred to him, and to Mr. Harrison and Mr. Lee, his fellow delegates, that conveyed a noble mark of the unbounded confidence which their constituents reposed in their integrity and virtue. A portion of the inhabitants, who, far removed from the scenes of actual tyranny which were acted in New England, and pursuing uninterruptedly their ordinary pursuits, could form no idea of the slavery impending over them, waited on their three representatives, just before their departure, and addressed them in the following terms:

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