PUBLIC
OFFICE / APPOINTMENTS BUT DUTIES NOT DISCHARGED
Soon after my leaving Congress, in September,
'76, to wit, on the last day of that month, I had been appointed,
with Dr. Franklin, to go to France, as a Commissioner, to negotiate
treaties of alliance and commerce with that government. Silas Deane,
then in France, acting as agent for procuring military stores, was
joined with us in commission. But such was the state of my family
that I could not leave it, nor could I expose it to the dangers of
the sea, and of capture by the British ships, then covering the
ocean. I saw, too, that the laboring oar was really at home, where
much was to be done, of the most permanent interest,. in new
modelling our governments, and much to defend our fanes and
fire-sides from the desolations of an invading enemy, pressing on
our country in every point. I declined, therefore, and Mr. Lee was
appointed in my place. On the 15th of June, 1781, I had been
appointed, with Mr. Adams, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens, a
Minister Plenipotentiary for negotiating peace, then expected to be
effected through the mediation of the Empress of Russia, The same
reasons obliged me still to decline; and the negotiation was in
fact. never entered on. But, in the autumn of the next year, 1782,
Congress receiving assurances that a general peace would be
concluded in the winter and spring, they renewed my appointment on
the 13th of November of that year. I had, two months before that,
lost the cherished companion of my life, in whose affections,
unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years in
unchequered happiness. With the public interests, the state of my
mind concurred in recommending the change of scene proposed; and I
accepted the appointment, and left Monticello on the 19th of
December, 1782, for Philadelphia, where I arrived on the 27th. The
Minister of France, Luzerne, offered me a passage in the Romulus
frigate, which I accepted; but she was then lying a few miles below
Baltimore, blocked up in the ice. I remained, therefore, a month in
Philadelphia, looking over the papers in the office of State, in
order to possess myself of the general state of our foreign
relations, and then went to Baltimore, to await the liberation of
the frigate from the ice. After waiting there nearly a month, we
received information that a Provisional treaty of peace had been
signed by our Commissioners on the 3d of September, 1782, to become
absolute, on the conclusion of peace between France and Great
Britain. Considering my proceeding to Europe as now of no utility to
the public, I returned immediately to Philadelphia, to take the
orders of Congress, and was excused by them from further proceeding.
I, therefore, returned home, where I arrived on the i5th of May,
1783. |
Notes
for an Autobiography
6 Jan 1821 |
PUBLIC
OFFICE / DELEGATE TO ANNAPOLIS CONGRESS
On the 6th of the following month, I was
appointed by the legislature a delegate to Congress, the appointment
to take place on the 1st of Novemher ensuing, when that of the
existing delegation would expire. …
Congress had now become a very small body, and the members very
remiss in their attendance on its duties. …
The remissness of Congress, and their permanent session, began to
he a subject of uneasiness; and even some of the legislatures had
recommended to them intermissions, and periodical sessions. As the
Confederation had made no provision for a visible head of the
government, during vacations of Congress, and such a one was
necessary to superintend the executive business, to receive and
communicate with foreign ministers and nations, and to assemble
Congress on sudden and extraordinary emergencies, I proposed, early
in April, the appointment of a committee, to be called the "Committee
of the States," to consist of a member from each State, who
should remain in session during the recess of Congress: that the
functions of Congress should be divided into executive and
legislative, the latter to be reserved, and the former, by a general
resolution, to be delegated to that Committee. This proposition was
afterwards agreed to; a Committee appointed, who entered on duty on
the subsequent adjournment of Congress, quarrelled very soon, split
into two parties, abandoned their post, and left the government
without any visible head, until the next meeting in Congress. We
have since seen the same thing take place in the Directory of
France; and I believe it will forever take place in any Executive
consisting of a plurality. Our plan, best, I believe, combines
wisdom and practicability, by providing a plurality of Counsellors,
but a single Arbiter for ultimate decision.
I was in France when we heard of this schism, and separation of our
Committee, and, speaking with Dr. Franklin of this singular
disposition of men to quarrel, and divide into parties, he gave his
sentiments, as usual, by way of Apologue. He mentioned the Eddystone
lighthouse, in the British channel, as being built on a rock, in the
mid-channel, totally inaccessible in winter, from the boisterous
character of that sea, in that season; that, therefore, for the two
keepers employed to keep up the lights, all provisions for the
winter were necessarily carried to them in autumn, as they could
never he visited again till the return of the milder season; that,
on the first practicable day in the spring, a boat put off to them
with fresh supplies. The boatmen met at the door one of the keepers,
and accosted him with a "How goes it, friend? Very well. How is
your companion? I do not know. Don't know? Is not he here? I can't
tell. Have not you seen him to-day? No. When did you see him? Not
since last fall. You have killed him? Not I, indeed."
They were about to lay hold of him, as having certainly murdered
his companion; but he desired them to go up stairs and examine for
themselves. They went up, and there found the other keeper. They had
quarrelled, it seems, soon after being left there, had divided into
two parties, assigned the cares below to one, and those above to the
other, and had never spoken to, or seen, one another since.
But to return to our Congress at Annapolis. The definitive treaty
of peace which had been signed at Paris on the 3d of September,
1783, and received here, could not be ratified without a House of
nine States. On the 23d of December, therefore, we addressed letters
to the several Governors, stating the receipt of the definitive
treaty; that seven States only were in attendance, while nine were
necessary to its ratification; and urging them to press on their
delegates the necessity of their immediate attendance.
Our body was little numerous, but very contentious. Day after day
was wasted on the most unimportant questions. A member, one of those
afflicted with the morbid rage of debate, of an ardent mind, prompt
imagination, and copious flow of words, who heard with impatience
any logic which was not his own, sitting near me on some occasion of
a trifling but wordy debate, asked me how I could sir in silence,
hearing so much false reasoning, which a word should refute? I
observed to him, that to refute indeed was easy, but to silence was
impossible; that in measures brought forward by myself, I took the
laboring oar, as was incumbent on me; but that in general, I was
willing to listen; that if every sound argument or objection was
used by some one or other of the numerous debaters, it war enough;
if not, I thought it sufficient to suggest the omission, without
going into a repetition of what had been already said by others:
that this Was a waste and abuse of the time and patience of the
House, which could nor be justified. And I believe, that if the
members of deliberate bodies were to observe this course generally,
they would do in a day,. what takes theta a week; and it is really
more questionable, than may at first be thought, whether Bonaparte's
dumb legislature, which said nothing, and did much, may not be
preferable to one which talks much, and does nothing. I served with
General Washington in the legislature of Virginia, before the
revolution, and, during it, with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never
heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the
main point, which was to decide the question. They laid their
shoulders to the great points., knowing that the little ones would
follow of themselves. If the present Congress errs in too much
talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to which the people send
one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question
everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour? That one hundred
and fifty lawyers should do business together, ought not to be
expected. … |
Notes
for an Autobiography
6 Jan 1821 |
PUBLIC
OFFICE / GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
On the 1st of June, 1779, I was appointed
Governor of the Commonwealth, and retired from the legislature.
Being elected, also, one of the Visitors of William and Mary
college, a self-electing body, I effected, during my residence in
Williamsburg that year, a change in the organization of that
institution, by abolishing the Grammar school, and the two
professorships of Divinity and Oriental languages, and substituting
a professorship of Law and Police, one of Anatomy, Medicine and
Chemistry, and one of Modern languages; and the charter confining us
to six professorships, we added the Law of Nature and Nations, and
the Fine Arts to the duties of the Moral professor, and Natural
History to those of the professor of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy.
Being now, as it were, identified with the Commonwealth itself, to
write my own history, during the two years of my administration,
would be to write the public history of that portion of the
revolution within this State. This has been done by others. …
|
Notes
for an Autobiography
6 Jan 1821 |
PUBLIC
OFFICE / MINISTER TO FRANCE
On the 7th of May Congress resolved that a
Minister Plenipotentiary should be appointed, in addition to Mr.
Adams and Dr. Franklin, for negotiating treaties of commerce with
foreign nations, and I was elected to that duty. I accordingly left
Annapolis on the 11th, took with me my eldest daughter, then at
Philadelphia (the two others being too young for the voyage), and
proceeded to Boston, in quest of a passage. While passing through
the different States, I made a point of informing myself of the
state of the commerce of each; went on to New Hampshire with the
same view, and returned to Boston. Thence I sailed on the 5th of
July, in the Ceres, a merchant ship of Mr. Nathaniel Tracey, bound
to Cowes. He was himself a passenger, and, after a pleasant voyage
of nineteen days, from land to land, we arrived at Cowes on the
26th. I was detained there a few days by the indisposition of my
daughter. On the 3oth, we embarked for Havre, arrived there on the
31st, left it on the 3d of August, and arrived at Paris on the 6th.
I called immediately on Dr. Franklin, at Passy, communicated to him
our charge, and we wrote to Mr. Adams, then at the Hague, to join us
at Paris.
Mr. Adams being appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States, to London, left us in June, and in July, 1785, Dr. Franklin
returned to America, and I was appointed his successor at Paris.
Celebrated writers of France and England had already sketched good
principles on the subject of government; yet the American Revolution
seems first to have awakened the thinking part of the French nation
in general, from the sleep of despotism in which they were sunk. The
officers too, who had been to America, were mostly young men, less
shackled by habit and prejudice, and more ready to assent to the
suggestions of common sense, and feeling of common rights, than
others. They came back with new ideas and impressions. The press,
notwithstanding its shackles, began to disseminate them;
conversation assumed new freedoms; Politics became the theme of all
societies, male and female, and a very extensive and zealous party
was formed, which acquired the appellation of the Patriotic party,
who, sensible of the abusive government under which they lived,
sighed for occasions of reforming it. This party comprehended all
the honesty of the kingdom, sufficiently at leisure to think, the
men of letters, the easy Bourgeois, the young nobility, partly from
reflection, partly from mode; for these sentiments became matter of
mode, and as such, united most of the young women to the party.
|
Notes
for an Autobiography
6 Jan 1821 |
PUBLIC
REVENUE / TAXATION
Knowing your affections to this country, and
the interest you take in whatever concerns it, I therein gave you a
tableau of its state when I retired from the administration. Peace …
has been our principle, peace is our interest, and peace has saved
to the world this only plant of free and rational government now
existing in it. If it can still be preserved, we shall soon see the
final extinction of our national debt, and liberation of our
revenues for the defence and improvement of our country.
These revenues will be levied entirely on the rich, the business of
household manufacture being now so established that the farmer and
laborer clothe themselves entirely. The rich alone use imported
articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General
Government are levied. The poor man who uses nothing but what is
made in his own farm or family, or within his own country, pays not
a farthing of tax to the general government, but on his salt; and
should we go into that manufacture also, as is probable, he will pay
nothing. Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt,
and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer
will see his government supported, his children educated, and the
face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich
alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his
earnings. However, therefore, we may have been reproached for
pursuing our Quaker system, time will affix the stamp of wisdom on
it, and the happiness and prosperity of our citizens will attest its
merit. And this, I believe, is the only legitimate object of
government, and the first duty of governors. … |
Thaddeus
Kosciusko
(General)
13 Apr 1811 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / APPOINTMENTS AS PRESIDENT
Officers who have been guilty of gross abuses
of office, such as marshals packing juries . . . I shall now remove,
as my predecessor ought in justice to have done. The instances will
be few, and governed by strict rule, and not party passion. The
right of opinion shall suffer no invasion from me. Those who have
acted well have nothing to fear, however they have differed from me
in opinion: those who have done ill, however, have nothing to hope;
nor shall I fail to do justice lest it should be ascribed to that
difference of opinion. …
In the first moments of quietude which have succeeded the election,
they seem to have aroused their lying faculties beyond their
ordinary state, to re-agitate the public mind. What appointments to
office have they detailed which had never been thought of, merely to
found a text for their calumniating commentaries. However, the
steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely
moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate
early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady
conduct, will at length rally to a proper system the great body of
our country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we
shall be able I hope to do a great deal of good to the cause of
freedom and harmony. |
Elbridge
Gerry
29 Mar 1801 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / DESIRE TO REMAIN OUT OF OFFICE
You ask me if I would accept any appointment on
that side of the water? You know the circumstances which led me from
retirement, step by step, and from one nomination to another, up to
the present My object is a return to the same retirement; whenever,
therefore, I quit the present, it will not be to engage in any other
office, and most especially any one which would require a constant
residence from home. |
James
Madison
28 Aug 1789 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / HONORABLE NATURE OF
…I will not say that public life is the
line for making a fortune. But it furnishes a decent and honorable
support, and places one's children on good grounds for public favor.
The family of a beloved father will stand with the public on the
most favorable ground of competition. Had General Washington left
children, what would have been denied to them?
Perhaps I ought to apologize for the frankness of this
communication. It proceeds from an ardent zeal to see this
government (the idol of my soul) continue in good hands, and from a
sincere desire to see you whatever you wish to be. |
William
Wirt
10 Jan 1808 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / PRESIDENCY
I have many acknowledgments to make for the
friendly anxiety you are pleased to express in your letter of
January 12, for my undertaking the office to which I have been
elected. The idea that I would accept the office of President, but
not that of Vice-President of the United States, had not its origin
with me. I never thought of questioning the free exercise of the
right of my fellow citizens, to marshal those whom they call into
their service according to their fitness, nor ever presumed that
they were not the best judges of these. Had I indulged a wish in
what manner they should dispose of me, it would precisely have
coincided with what they have done. Neither the splendor, nor the
power, nor the difficulties, nor the fame or defamation, as may
happen, attached to the first magistracy, have any attractions for
me. The helm of a free government is always arduous, and never was
ours more so, than at a moment when two friendly people are like to
be committed in war by the ill temper of their administrations. I am
so much attached to my domestic situation, that I would not have
wished to leave it at all. However, if I am to be called from it,
the shortest absences and most tranquil station suit me best.
|
James
Sullivan
9 Feb 1797 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / SECRETARY OF STATE
Behold me, my dear friend, elected Secretary of
State, instead of returning to the far more agreeable position which
placed me in the daily participation of your friendship. I found the
appointment in the newspapers the day of my arrival in Virginia. I
had indeed been asked while in France, whether I would accept of any
appointment at home, and I had answered that, not meaning to remain
long where I was, I meant it to be the last office I should ever act
in. Unfortunately this letter had not arrived at the time of
arranging the new Government. I expressed freely to the President my
desire to return. He left me free, but still showing his own desire.
This, and the concern of others, more general than I had a right to
expect, induced, after three months parleying, to sacrifice my own
inclinations. I have been here, then, ten days harnessed in new
gear. |
Marquis
de Lafayette
2 Apr 1790 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / SECRETARY OF STATE
I have received at this place the honor of your
letters of October the 13th and November the 30th, and am truly
flattered by your nomination of me to the very dignified office of
Secretary of State; for which, permit me here to return you my
humble thanks. Could any circumstance seduce me to overlook the
disproportion between its duties and my talents, it would be the
encouragement of your choice. But when I contemplate the extent of
that office, embracing as it does the principal mass of domestic
administration, together with the foreign I cannot be insensible of
my inequality to it; and I should enter on it with gloomy
forebodings from the criticisms and censures of a public, just
indeed in their intentions, but sometimes misinformed and misled,
and always too respectable to be neglected. I cannot but foresee the
possibility that this may end disagreeably for me, who, having no
motive to public service but the public satisfaction, would
certainly retire the moment that satisfaction should appear to
languish. On the other hand, I feel a degree of familiarity with the
duties of my present office, as far at least as I am capable of
understanding its duties. The ground I have already passed over,
enables me to see my way into that which is before me. The change of
government too, taking place in a country where it is exercised,
seems to open a possibility of procuring from the new rulers, some
new advantages in commerce, which may be agreeable to our
countrymen. So that as far as my fears, my hopes, or my inclinations
might enter into this question, I confess they would not lead me to
prefer a change.
But it is not for an individual to choose his post. You are to
marshal us as may best be for the public good; and it is only in the
case of its being indifferent to you, that I would avail myself of
the option you have so kindly offered in your letter. If you think
it better to transfer me to another post, my inclination must be no
obstacle; nor shall it be, if there is any desire to suppress the
office I now hold, or to reduce its grade. In either of these cases,
be so good only as to signify to me by another line your ultimate
wish, and I shall conform to it cordially. If it should be to remain
at New York, my chief comfort will be to work under your eye, my
only shelter the authority of your name, and the wisdom of measures
to be dictated by you and implicitly executed by me. Whatever you
may be pleased to decide, I do not see that the matters which have
called me hither, will permit me to shorten the stay I originally
asked; that is to say, to set out on my journey northward till the
month of March. |
George
Washington
15 Dec 1789 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / SECRETARY OF STATE
On my way home, I passed some days at
Eppington, in Chesterfield, the residence of my friend and
connection, Mr. Eppes; and, while there, I received a letter from
the President, General Washington, by express, covering an
appointment to be Secretary of State. I received it with real
regret. My wish had been to return to Paris, where I had left my
household establishment, as if there myself, and to see the end of
the Revolution, which I then thought would be certainly and happily
closed in less than a year. I then meant to return home, to withdraw
from political life, into which I bad been impressed by the
circumstances of the times, to sink into the bosom of my family and
friends, and devote myself to studies more congenial to my mind. In
my answer of December 15th, I expressed these dispositions candidly
to the President, and my preference of a return to Paris; but
assured him, that if it was believed I could be more useful in the
administration of the government, I would sacrifice my own
inclinations without hesitation, and repair to that destination;
this I left to his decision. I arrived at Monticello on the 23d of
December, where I received a second letter from the President,
expressing his continued wish that I should take my station there,
but leaving me still at liberty to continue in my former office, if
I could not reconcile myself to that now proposed. This silenced my
reluctance, and I accepted the new appointment.
In the interval of my stay at home, my eldest daughter had been
happily married to the eldest son of the Tuckahoe branch of
Randolphs, a young gentleman of genius, science, and honorable mind,
who afterwards filled a dignified station in the General Government,
and the most dignified in his own State. I left Monticello on the
first of March, 1790, for New York. At Philadelphia I called on the
venerable and beloved Franklin. |
Notes
for an Autobiography
6 Jan 1821 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / VICE PRESIDENCY
Yours of December the 19th is safely received.
I never entertained a doubt of the event of the election. I knew
that the eastern troops were trained in the schools of their town
meetings to sacrifice little differences of opinion to the solid
advantages of operating in phalanx, and that the more free and moral
agency of the other States would fully supply their deficiency. I
had no expectation, indeed, that the vote would have approached so
near an equality. It is difficult to obtain full credit to
declarations of disinclination to honors, and most so with those who
still remain in the world. But never was there a more solid
unwillingness, founded on rigorous calculation, formed in the mind
of any man, short of peremptory refusal. No arguments, therefore,
were necessary to reconcile me to a relinquishment of the first
office, or acceptance of the second. No motive could have induced me
to undertake the first, but that of putting our vessel upon her
republican tack, and preventing her being driven too far to leeward
of her true principles. And the second is the only office in the
world about which I cannot decide in my own mind, whether I had
rather have it or not have it. Pride does not enter into the
estimate. For I think with the Romans of old, that the general of
today should be a common soldier to-morrow, if necessary. But as to
Mr. Adams, particularly, I could have no feelings which would revolt
at being placed in a secondary station to him. I am his junior in
life, I was his junior in Congress, his junior in the diplomatic
line, and lately his junior in our civil government. I had written
him the enclosed letter before the receipt of yours. I had intended
it for some time, but had put it off, from time to time, from the
discouragement of despair to make him believe me sincere. As the
information by the last post does not make it necessary to change
anything in the letter, I enclose it open for your perusal, as well
that you may be possessed of the true state of dispositions between
us, as that if there be any circumstance which might render its
delivery ineligible, you may return it to me. If Mr. Adams could be
induced to administer the government on its true principles,
quitting his bias for an English constitution, it would be worthy
consideration whether it would not for the public good, to come to a
good understanding with him as to his future elections. He is the
only sure barrier against Hamilton's getting in. … |
James
Madison
1 Jan 1797 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
When the famous Resolutions of 1765, against
the Stamp-act, were proposed, I was yet a student of law in
Williamsburg. I attended the debate, however, at the door of the
lobby of the House of Burgesses, and heard the splendid display of
Mr. Henry's talents as a popular orator. They were great indeed;
such as I have never heard from any other man. He appeared to me to
speak as Homer wrote. Mr. Johnson, a lawyer, and member from the
Northern Neck, seconded the resolutions, and by him the learning and
the logic of the case were chiefly maintained. My recollections of
these transactions may be seen page 6o of the life of Patrick Henry,
by Wirt, to whom I furnished them.
In May, 1769, a meeting of the General Assembly was called by the
Governor, Lord Botetourt. I had then become a member; and to that
meeting became known the joint resolutions and address of the Lords
and Commons, of 1768-9, on the proceedings in Massachusetts.
Counter-resolutions, and an address to the King by the House of
Burgesses, were agreed to with little opposition, and a spirit
manifestly displayed itself of considering the cause of
Massachusetts as a common one. The Governor dissolved us: but we met
the next day in the Apollo of the Raleigh tavern, formed ourselves
into a voluntary Convention, drew up articles of association against
the use of any merchandise imported from Great Britain, signed and
recommended them to the people, repaired to our several counties,
and were re-elected without any other exception than of the very few
who had declined assent to our proceedings.
Nothing of particular excitement occurring for a considerable time,
our countrymen seemed to fall into a state of insensibility to our
situation; the duty on tea, not yet repealed, and the declaratory
act of a right in the British Parliament to bind us by their laws in
all cases whatsoever, still suspended over us. But a court of
inquiry held in Rhode Island in 1762, with a power to send persons
to England to be tried for offences committed here, was considered,
at our session of the spring of 1773, as demanding attention. Not
thinking our old and leading members up to the point of forwardness
and zeal which the times required, Mr. Henry, Richard Henry Lee,
Francis L. Lee, Mr. Carr and myself agreed to meet in the evening,
in a private room of the Raleigh, to consult on the state of things.
There may have been a member or two more whom I do not recollect. We
were all sensible that the most urgent of all measures was that of
coming to an understanding with all the other colonies, to consider
the British claims as a Common Cause to all, and to produce a unity
of action: and, for this purpose, that a committee of correspondence
in each colony would be the best instrument for inter-communication:
and that their first measure would probably be, to propose a meeting
of deputies from every colony, at some central place, who should be
charged with the direction of the measures which should be taken by
all.
…The origination of these committees of correspondence between
the colonies has been since claimed for Massachusetts . The Boston
port bill, by which that port was to be shut up on the 1st of June,
1774, arrived while we were in session in the spring of that year.
The lead in the House, on these subjects, being no longer left to
the old members, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Fr. L. Lee, three or four
other members, whom I do not recollect, and myself, agreeing that we
must boldly take an equivocal stand in the line with Massachusetts,
determined to meet and con-suit on the proper measures, in the
council-chamber, for the benefit of the library in that room. We
were under conviction of the necessity of arousing our people from
the lethargy into which they had fallen, as to passing events; and
thought that the appointment of a day of general fasting and prayer
would be roost likely to call up and alarm their attention. No
example of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our
distresses in the war of '55, since which a new generation had grown
up. With the help, therefore, of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over
for the revolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of that
day, preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat
modernizing their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on
which the port-bill was to commence, for a day of fasting,
humiliation, and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from us the
evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness in support of our
rights, and to turn the hearts of the King and Parliament to
moderation and justice.
The Governor dissolved us, as usual. We retired to the Apollo, as
before, agreed to an association, and instructed the committee of
correspondence to propose to the corresponding committees of the
other colonies, to appoint deputies to meet in Congress at such
place, annually, as should be convenient, to direct, from
time to time, the measures required by the general interest: and we
declared that an attack on any one colony, should be considered as
an attack on the whole. This was in May. We further recommended to
the several counties to elect deputies to meet at Williamsburg, the
1st of August ensuing, to consider the state of the colony, and
particularly to appoint delegates to a general Congress, should that
measure be acceded to by the committees of correspondence generally.
It was acceded to; Philadelphia was appointed for the place, and the
5th of September for the time of meeting. We returned home, and in
our several counties invited the clergy to meet assemblies of the
people on the 1st of June, to perform the ceremonies of the day, and
to address to them discourses suited to the occasion. The people met
generally, with anxiety and alarm in their countenances, and the
effect; of the day, through the whole colony, was like a shock of
electricity, arousing every man, and placing him erect and solidly
on his centre. They chose, universally, delegates for the
convention. Being elected one for my own county, I prepared a
draught of instructions to be given to the delegates whom we should
send to the Congress, which I meant to propose at our meeting.
…I set out for Williamsburg some days before that appointed
for our meeting, but was taken ill of a dysentery on the road, and
was unable to proceed. I sent on, therefore, to Williamsburg, two
copies of my draught, the one under cover to Peyton Randolph, who I
knew would be in the chair of the convention, the other to Patrick
Henry. Whether Mr. Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too
lazy to read it (for he was the laziest man in reading I ever knew)
I never learned: but he communicated it to nobody. Peyton Randolph
informed the convention he had received such a paper from a member,
prevented by sickness from offering it in his place, and he laid it
on the table for perusal. It was read generally by the members,
approved by many, though thought too bold for the present state of
things; but they printed it in pamphlet form, under the title of "A
Summary View of the Rights of British America." It found its
way to England, was taken up by the opposition, interpolated a
little by Mr. Burke so as to make it answer opposition purposes, and
in that form ran rapidly through several editions. This information
I had from Parson Hurt, who happened at the time to be in London,
whither he had gone to receive clerical orders; and I was informed
afterwards by Peyton Randolph, that it had procured me the honor of
having my name inserted in a long list of proscriptions, enrolled in
a bill of attainder commenced in one of the Houses of Parliament,
but suppressed in embryo by the hasty step of events, which warned
them to be a little cautious.
The convention met on the 1st of August, renewed their association,
appointed delegates to the Congress, gave them instructions very
temperately and properly expressed, both as to style and matter; and
they repaired to Philadelphia at the time appointed. The splendid
proceedings of that Congress, at their first session, belong to
general history, are known to every one, and need not therefore be
noted here. They terminated their session on the 26th of October, to
meet again on the 10th of May ensuing. I took my seat with them on
the 21st of June. On the 24th, a committee which had been appointed
to prepare a declaration of the causes of taking up arms, brought in
their report (drawn I believe by J. Rutledge) which, not being
liked, the House recommitted it, on the 26th, and added Mr.
Dickinson and myself to the committee. On the rising of the House,
the committee having not yet met, I happened to find myself near
Governor W. Livingston, and proposed to him to draw the paper. He
excused himself and proposed that I should draw it. On my pressing
him with urgency, "we are as yet but new acquaintances, sir,"
said he, "why are you so earnest for my doing it?" "Because,"
said I, "I have been informed that you drew the Address to the
people of Great Britain, a production certainly, of the finest pen
in America." "On that," says he, "perhaps, sir,
you may not have been correctly informed." I had received the
information in Virginia from Colonel Harrison on his return from
that Congress. Lee, Livingston, and Jay had been the committee for
that draught. The first, prepared by Lee, had been disapproved and
recommitted. The second was drawn by Jay, but being presented by
Governor Livingston, had led Colonel Harrison into the error. The
next morning, walking in the hall of Congress, many members being
assembled, but the House not yet formed, I observed Mr. Jay speaking
to R. H. Lee, and leading him by the button of his coat to me. "I
understand, sir," said he to me, "that this gentleman
informed you, that Governor Livingston drew the Address to the
people of Great Britain." I assured him, at once, that I had
not received that information from Mr. Lee, and that not a word had
ever passed on the subject between Mr. Lee and myself; and after
some explanations the subject was dropped. These gentlemen had had
some sparrings in debate before, and continued ever very hostile to
each other. |
Notes
for an Autobiography
6 Jan 1821 |
PUBLIC
SERVICE / VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
In 1769, I became a member of the legislature
by the choice of the county in which I live, and so continued until
it was closed by the Revolution. I made one effort in that body for
the permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected:
and indeed, during the regal government, nothing liberal could
expect success. Our minds were circumscribed within narrow limits,
by an habitual belief that it was our duty to be subordinate to the
mother country in all matters of government, to direct all our
labors in subservience to her interests, and even to observe a
bigoted intolerance for all religions but hers. The difficulties
with our representatives were of habit and despair, not of
reflection and conviction. Experience soon proved that they could
bring their minds to rights, on the first summons of their
attention. But the King's Council, which acted as another house of
legislature, held their places at will, and were in most humble
obedience to that will: the Governor too, who had a negative on our
laws, held by the same tenure, and with still greater devotedness to
it: and, last of all, the Royal negative closed the last door to
every hope of amelioration. |
Notes
for an Autobiography
6 Jan 1821 |
|
