just and proper means, every injury to
American rights; and that the minds of his majesty and his parliament
may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to
remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger, from a
continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin."[96] Two days
afterward, the governor, Lord Dunmore, having summoned the House to
the council chamber, made to them this little speech:--

"Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have
in my hand a paper published by order of your House,
conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon his majesty
and the Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it
necessary for me to dissolve you, and you are dissolved
accordingly."[97]

At ten o'clock on the following day, May 27, the members of the late
House met by agreement at the Raleigh Tavern, and there promptly
passed a nobly-worded resolution, deploring the policy pursued by
Parliament and suggesting the establishment of an annual congress of
all the colonies, "to deliberate on those general measures which the
united interests of America may from time to time require."[98]

During the anxious days and nights immediately preceding the
dissolution of the House, its prominent members held many private
conferences with respect to the course to be pursued by Virginia. In
all these conferences, as we are told, "Patrick Henry was the
leader;"[99] and a very able man, George Mason, who was just then a
visitor at Williamsburg, and was admitted to the consultations of the
chiefs, wrote at the time concerning him: "He is by far the most
powerful speaker I ever heard.... But his eloquence is the smallest
part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the first man upon this
continent, as well in abilities as public virtues."[100]

In response to a recommendation made by leading members of the recent
House of Burgesses, a convention of delegates from the several
counties of Virginia assembled at Williamsburg, on August 1, 1774, to
deal with the needs of the hour, and especially to appoint deputies to
the proposed congress at Philadelphia. The spirit in which this
convention transacted its business is sufficiently shown in the
opening paragraphs of the letter of instructions which it gave to the
deputies whom it sent to the congress:--

"The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her American
colonies, which began about the third year of