Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1858-04-20
BANCROFT'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED
STATES

SIA Ed.
The seventh volume of Bnncroft's History Of the
United States is shortly to be Issued aud the Boston
Post" publishes extracts from advanced sheets
which have been exhibited to the editor. This new
volume contains history of the events of the year
IVA, when the British shut up the port Of Boston
and tried to starve its inhabitants into submisson.-
Mr. Bancroft shows how the people of that town
we're sustained by the contributions and sympathies
of every part of the country He thus speaks Of the
spirt that filed Virginia and Washington
s.On the affairs of Massachusetts the temper of the
Virginans ran exceedingly high. AN innate spirit O:
freedom such were the words of Washington, tells
me that the measures which the Administration ara
most violently pursuing, are opposed to every prlnc
nj. ot natural justce.' He was certain that ii was
neither the wish nor the interest Of any government
on the continent separately collectively TO set up
independence but he rejected Indignantly the claim
of parliament, and saw no 'reason to expect anything
from their Justice. The crisis. he said, s arrived
when we muet assert our rights, or submit to every
imposition that can be heaped upon us, till custom
and uss shall make us tame and abject slaves From
the frat he was convinced that there was not amy
thing to be expected from petiiioning.' Ought we
not hen he exclaimed, '!o put our virtue and forti.
tude 10 the severest test Thus Washington rea.
soned privately with his friends. In the Convention,
Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry were heard
with such delight that the one was compared to
Cicero, the other to Demosthenes. But Washington,
who nsver WAS able to zee distress without drsre
TO assuags IT, made the most effective speech when he
uttered the wish to raise thousand men, subsist
them at his expense and march at their head for
the relief Of Boston."
Delaware was so much in earnest, that It devised
plans for aending relief annually. All Maryland and
all Virginia were contributing literally and cheerful
ly being resolved that the men of Boston, who were
deprived of their daily labor, should not lose theiT
daily bread, nor be compelled TO change their resi-
dencs for want. In Fairfax county, Washington pre-
aided at spirited meeting and headed subscription
paper with his own gift Of FIFTY pounds. A,specia
chronicle could hardly enumers'e all the generous
deeds, Beyond the Blue Ridge the hardy emigrantc
ON the banks of the Shenandoah, many of them Ger
mana, met at Woodstock, and wirh Muhlenburg. ther
a CLERGYMAN, coon TO be military chief, devoted
themselves to the cause of liberty. Higher up the
Valley of Virginia where the plough already WED
with the rife and the hardy hunters not always rang
ing the hills with their dogs for game had aso begun
70 til the SOIL the summer of that year rpened The
whestfelds of the poneerI, not for themselves alone
When the sheaves had been harvested, and the corr
threshed and ground in country rs yet poorly pro
vided with barns mills, the backswoodsmen of An
gu.s county, without any pass through the mountains
That could be called road, noiselesaly and modesy
delivered at Frederick, hundred and thirty seven
barrels of -four their remittances TO the poor o
Rpsfon.