The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1913-04-25

teflng IN MS neat LldJ he WOulu nave
given five hundred guineas for sin.
gle vote.
Not inflated by His Triumph.
Henry, taking the triumph very SIM
ply, as was his wont, and knowing his
work for the session done, quietly
made his way homeward that very
day, striding unconcernedly down
Duke of Gloucester street, chatting
with a friend, his legs clad in buck
skin as If for the frontier, his saddle
bags and the reins of his lean nag
slung carelessly over his arm.
The assembly had adopted Henry's
declaration of rights, not his resOlu-
ton of disobedience, and had softened
a little the language he would have
used; but its action seemed seditious
enough to Fauquier, the governor, and
he promptly dissolved them.
1t did little good to send Virginians
home. however, if the object was to
check agitation The whole manner OF
their life bred thought and concert OF
action. Where men have leave to be
individual, live separately and with a
proud self-respect, and yet are much
at each others tables, often in vestry
council together, constantly coming
and going, talking and planning
throughout ali the country side, ac
customed to form their opinions in
league, and yet express each man his
own with a dash and flavor of indie
pendence; where there is the leisure
to reflect, the habit of joint efforts in
business, the spirit to be social, and
abundant opportunity to be frank
withal, if you will-you may look to
see public views form themselves very
confidently, and as easily without as.
semblies as with them.
Washington a Silent Observer.
Washington had taken no part in
the stormy scenes Of the house, but had
sat calmly apart rather, concerned and
thoughtful.
He was not easily caught by the ex-
element of a sudden agitation. He
had the soldiers steady habit of self
possession in the presence of a crisis,
and, his own way of holding things at
armslength for scrutiny-"like bish-
op at his prayers" a wag said.
He had soldiers loyalty, too, and
slOwness at rebellion. His thought, no
doubt, was with the conservatives.
whatever may have been the light that
sprang into his quiet eye when Henry's
voice rang out so like a clarion, call
ing Virginia to her standard; and he
went home, upon the dissolution, to
join and aid his neighbors in the slow
discussion which must shape affairs to
an issue.
THE Virginia Resolutions" had run
like a fame through the colonies
not as the burgesses had adopted
them, but as Henry had drawn them,
with their express threat of disobe-
dience.
Nor was that all. October. 1865,
saw delegates from nine colonies come
together in New York, at the call of
Massachusetts. to take counsel what
should be done.
Every one knew that Virginia,
North Carolina and Georgia, the only
colonies absent from the congress"
would have sent delegates, too, had
their governors not prevented them
by the dissolution of their assemblies
before they could act on the call.
Excitement in the Colony.
A deep excitement and concern had
spread everywhere throughout the set
Elements Not only did the impending
enforcement of the act engross 'the
conversation of the speculative part
of the colonists," as Washington wrote
to Francis cambridge in London; it
promised to engross also the ener-
gies of very active, and it might be
very violent, men in many quarters,
and it began to grow evident that
some part of government itself would
be brought to a standstill by its pro-
cesse.
Our courts of adjudicature, de-
clared Washington, must inevitably
be shut up; for it is impossible Cor
next of kin to it, under our present
circumstances, that the act Of parlia-
ment can be complied with &. and
if a stop be put to our judicial pro-
ceedings, I fancy the merchants of
Great Britain trading to the colonies
will not be among the last to wish for
a repeal of it."
A Bill of Rights.
The congress at New York drew
up nothing less than bill of rights
and immunities, and sent resolutions
over sea which arrested the attention
Of the world. The Virginia assembly
despatched like papers for itself; and
Richard Henry Lee, when he had as
sisted to draw its memorials, hast
aned home to form in his own Cava-
lier county a "Westmoreland assOcia-
ton" whose members flour Washing
tons among the rest) bound them
selves by a solemn covenant to exert
every faculty to prevent the execution
Of the said stamp act in any instance
whatsoever within this colony" The
ministry could not stand the pressure.