a constitutional basis, or a provincial congress
should direct its application; and while they exhorted the people to
abstain from riots, they expressed their determination to resist the
measures of government to the utmost. Their resolutions concluded
thus:--"Should our enemies by any sudden manoeuvre, render it necessary
for us to ask aid of our brethren in the country, some one of the
committee of correspondence, or a select man from the town where
hostilities shall commence or be expected, or from the town adjoining,
shall despatch couriers with written messages to the select men, or
committees of correspondence in the vicinity, who shall send others to
committees more remote, until sufficient assistance be obtained: the
expense of couriers to be defrayed by the county, until otherwise
ordered by the provincial assembly." The meeting also drew up a petition
of remonstrance to the governor, respecting the fortification of
Boston-neck, in which they plainly stated that although they had
no inclination to commence hostilities, they were resolved,
notwithstanding, to resist the late acts of the British parliament at
all hazards. Gage replied, that it was his duty to preserve the peace,
and to erect such works as should protect his soldiers from surprise: at
the same time he assured them that his artillery should not be employed
unless hostile proceedings on their part rendered it necessary.

By this time the people of Virginia had taken one of the front ranks
in the march of revolution and independence. On the 1st of August,
Jefferson and other members of the convention met as appointed, to
agree as to instructions for the delegates to be sent to the approaching
congress. Jefferson had drawn up a violent paper, but falling sick, it
was presented by Peyton Randolph. The sum and substance of this paper
was, in fact, that the Virginians should claim an absolute independence
and sovereignty. The leap, however, which Jefferson proposed to take was
far too long for the mass of his fellow-citizens as yet to take; but the
document was deemed worthy of being printed, and it was published under
the title of "A summary View of the Rights of British America." The
members of this convention, however, took a leap which did not fall far
short of that which Jefferson proposed. The instructions they prepared,
at least, made it manifest unto all men, that, although they professed
loyalty to the sovereign, their aim was to undermine his th