The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-05-02
They made an instant FL

| upon their new colleagues. John
Adams promptly declared them ''the
! most spirited and consistent of any"
1 and deemed Mr.. Lee particularly "a
/ mastery man" Joseph Hawley's pre-
/ diction was fulfilled. "The Virginia
1 and indeed all the Southern delegates
/ appear like men of Importance" said
! Silas Deane; 81 never met. nor scarce
I " had an idea of meeting. with men
/ of such irmness, sensibility, spirit,
/ and thorough knowledge of the inter
+ ests Of America" Mr. Lynch of South
Carolina, though he wore "the manu-
facture of this country" and was in
+ all things "plain, sensible, above cere-
+ mony,' seemed to Mr. Deane to carry
with him more force in his very ap-
/ pearance than most powdered folks
III their conversation
The high bearing and capacity of
I the southern delegates came upon the
New England men like a great sur
prise: where they had expected to see
rustic squires they found men of ele-
+ gance and learning.
But there was, in fact, no good rea-
son to wonder at the natural leader
ship of these men. Their life had
bred them more literally than others
1t required much more various ca
pacity and knowledge of the world to
administer great property and live
the life of a local magnate in the
south than sufficed to put man at
the front of trade or of legal practice
in Boston or New York or Philadel-
/ phia.
The southern colonies, besides, had
lived more in sympathy with the life
of the empire than had their northern
neighbors. Their life had depended
directly upon that of England hitherto,
and had partaken of it with a con-
slant zest They had no rival trade;
they had wanted no rival government.
The general air of the wide empire
had blown in all ordinary seasons
through their affairs, and they had cul-
tivated none of that shrewd antago-
nism toward the home government
which had so sharpened the wits and
narrowed the political interests of the
best men in New England.
Reasons for Vireinia's Primary.
They had read law because they
were men of business, without caring
too much about its niceties or mean
ing to practice it in litigation. They
had read their English history with.
out feeling that they were separate
from it. Their passion for freedom
: hny Of
as of personal pride and the spirit of
those who love old practices and the
just exemptions of an ancient cOnsti-
tuition
1t was the life they had lived, and
the conceptions Of personal dignity
and immemorial privilege that had
gone always with it, that gave them
so striking an air &C mastery. 1t was
not simply because the Massachusetts
delegates kept themselves nrudently
in the background and the rest yield
cd to her pretensions that Virginia
was accorded primacy IN the con
gress: it was also because her repre-
sentatives were mon to whom powev
naturally fell, and because she had
won so honorable a place Of leader
ship already in the common affairs Of
the continent.
Washington Not Leader.
Colonel Washington, striking and
forcible man though he was, did not
figure as a leader among the Virginian
delegates.
Peyton Randolph was elected presi-
dent Of the congress; Richard Henry
Lee and Patrick Henry stood forth as
the Virginian leaders on the floor.
IF you speak Of solid information
and sound Judgment, Colonel Washing
ton is unQucstio0ably the greatest man
on that floor" was Henry's confident
ana generous verdict; but Washington
was no politician. and did not stand in
exactly the same class with the rest.
He had headed committees and pre-.
sided over popular meetings among
his own neighD0rs in Fairfax, and had
6oen prompt to Join them in speaking
with high spirit against the course Of
he ministry in England He had been
forward in urging and pracdllously
careful in pracjicing non-imp0rtati0U.
Tie had declared Cages conduct in
Boston mere becoming a Turkish b.
shaw than an English governor"
Deeds ard Not Words.
Put he was a man of action, rather
han OF permanent. 81 viii raise one
thousand men. enlist them at my own
expense and march myself at their
head for the relief OF Boston," had
been his impetuous utterance in the
Virginia conyenrion-"the most elo-
quent speech that was ever made, Mr.
lynch declared 4 have heard he
said" reported an admiring Philadel
phian-'I have heard he said he
wished to God the liberties of Amer.
lea were 20 be determined by single
combat between himself and George!'
But his fellow Virginians understood
him better. They had chosen him for
force and sobriety; not as an orator,
but as the first soldier and one Of the
first characters Of the commonwealth;
he bo1 roo6a bo i,,,,,o-,;Ov, +J.,o,