VIRGINIA CONVENTIONS OF THE REVOLUTION, The. The change from colony to conunonwealth in Virginia was made by me,ans of five conventions, called together between 1774 and 1776. These conventions are important not only as marking the transition of this ancient colony to statehood, but also be cause they greatly influenced the course of con tinental or national affairs. For example, they had to do with the summoning of the First Continental Congress, and with the appoint ment of delegates thereto so decisive as Peyton Randolph (its first president), George Wash ington and Patrick Henry. The constitutional principles formulated by these conventions, es pecially by the one in 1776, which drafted the Virginia constitution, were later built into the Federal structure.
First Convention (1 Aug. 1774).— The cir cumstances which led to the calling of the first Virginia convention were as follows: During the session of the House of Burgesses, as the popular branch of the colonial legislature was called, news arrived from Boston of the decision upbn the part of the British tninistry to close that port as a punishtnent for the destruction of the famous tea. The indigna tion felt upon every hand in Virginia headed up in a resolution, passed on Tuesday, 24 May, to appoint the first day of June as a day of fasting and prayer to God to avert this doom from Boston. As soon as this action of the legislature became known to the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, he in high dudgeon dissolved the House of Burgesses. The following Sun day afternoon, when only a score or so of the late bufgesses remained in the sleepy little capi tal of Williamsburg, a messenger arrived from Boston, bringing a circular letter, appealing to the colonies for united support, and advocating the cessation of all trade with Great Britain. The responsibility for a final answer to this appeal from Boston was too grave for the Committee of Correspondence at Williamsburg to assume alone. After consultation, it was decided the next morning at a mieeting of the 25 burgesses remaining in town, to ask the counties to appoint deputies to a convention, which should consider the question of the cessation of all trade relations with Britain, and should select delegates to the proposed Continental Congress. The time named for
this convention was 1 August, and the place Williamsburg. This summons, the original of which is in the Virginia State Library, was evidently written by Peyton Randolph, the moderator, whose name stands first in the list of signers. Then follow the names of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Henry Lee, etc. This call for a Virginia Convention has the same significance in the progress of the Vir ginia Revolution as the meeting of the Tiers Etat in the Versailles Tennis Court, 15 years later, in the French Revolution. It was in both instances an assertion of the sovereignty of the people over against the prerogative of .the Crown. Sympathy for Boston in its suffenngs had called forth in Virginia the representatives of the sovereign people, whom royal writs did not summon nor royal governors dissolve. The first Virginia Convention met in Williamsburg, on 1 Aug. 1774, and remained in session six days, Fifty-six counties and four boroughs were represented; the counties by two dele gates each and the boroug'hs by. one each. Peyton Randolph, the former speaker of the House of Burgesses, was made president Dele gates were chosen to represent Virginia in a General Congress, namely, Peyton Randolph, George Washington, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison and Edmund Pendleton. In support of Boston, it was agreed to buy no goods, ex cept medicines, from Great Britain, after 1 November; and neither to import slaves nor purchase slaves imported, after that date.. from any place whatsoever. The delegates further declared that unless American grievances were redressed by 10 Aug. 1775, they vrould stop all exports of their produce to Britain. Provision was made for future sessions of the convention should the condition of the country demand. This meeting was also the. means of making known to the public Thomas Jefferson's paper, afterward entitled ak Summary View of the Rights of British America?) a forerunner of the Declaration of Independence. For the pro ceedings of this convention, consult the files of the Virginia Gazette, 4-11 Aug. 1774.