ed after 1770:

The language of America is, We are not subjects of the king; with
parliament we have nothing to do.

That is the point at which the factions have been aiming; upon that
they have been shaking hands.

The empire was being held together by a king. Affection for the crown
and love for the British constitution as the best government in the
world was the hallmark of Virginia loyalty. Not until the eve of
independence did Virginians come to believe that the king, himself, had
subverted the constitution. When they did they could no longer "shake
hands". Only outside the empire could the blessings of the true
constitution be retained.

In October of 1770, the beloved governor, Lord Botetourt died. His
successor, the Earl of Dunmore, arrived in July of 1771.

The Road to Revolution, 1773-1774

Virginia tobacco planters and merchants were not alone in their
distress. From India came word of serious, even disastrous, troubles
plaguing the East India Company. The company not only controlled the
tea market, it also governed India for the British. Collapse of the
company would be a major disaster for the crown, company, country, and
colony together. To save the company the north ministry proposed, and
parliament approved, laws to improve company management, lend it money,
lower but enforce the duty on tea, and grant the company a monopoly on
tea sales in England and America.

Reaction in Virginia was quick and pointed. The Tea Act of 1773 raised
two highly volatile issues: the right to tax and the granting of a
trade monopoly on tea. In both instances the principle was most
bothersome. The tea tax was small, but as Bland had said of the Pistole
Fee, "the question then ought not to be the smallness of the demand,
but the Lawfulness of it." A small tax successfully collected would
lead to other levies. Also, a successful monopoly of the tea trade
granted to the East India Company could be followed by similar actions
to the detriment of all American traders, merchants, and consumers. The
discriminatory uses of both taxing power and the Navigation Acts became
pointedly clear in a time of economic decline in which no one was
proposing loans and special privileges for Virginia tobacco planters.
Bland had been right--"LIBERTY and PROPERTY are like those precious
Vessels whose soundness is destroyed by the least flaw and whose use is
lost by the smallest hole."

Virginia was already prepared for in