In the first colonial Congress, which met in New York 7 Oct. 1765,.Virginia was not repre sented, her legislature having adjourned before the issuing of the Massachusetts circular; but its action was approved at the next session of tbe legislature. The passing of Townshend's measures of indirect taxation by Parliament pro duced a remonstrance on the part of the Vir ginia legislature and a renewed assertion of their exclusive right of self-taxation and of trial by a jury of the vicinage. The name of Thomas Jefferson appears for the first time in connec tion with these resolutions, which were passed 16 May 1769. Lord Botetourt, the royal gov ernor, at once dissolved the assembly, but its members in their private capacity met and en tered into a non-importation agreement, which was very generally signed hy the merchants and planters of the colony. The commerce of Vir ginia with Great Britain was at this time larger than that of any other colony. In March 1773 the house of burgesses, under the zealous advo cacy of .Patrick Henry, Jefferson and R H. Lee, appointed a committee "to obtain the most clear and authentic intelligence of all such acts of the Parliament or ministry as might affect the rights of the colonies"; and the same committee were authorized to open a correspondence and communication with the other colonies. On the passing of these resolutions Lord Dunmore, the newly appointed governor, dissolved the assem bly. In the autumn of 1774 a conflict occurred between the Indians under Logan, Cornstalk and other chiefs and a Virginia force of about 1,200 men, at Port Pleasant, on the Ohio River. The Indians were defeated, but the Virginians had 60 or 70 killed and a large number wounded. The Virginia convention NNIiich met at Richmond 20 March 1775 to appoint dele gates to the new Continental Congress, took measures for enrolling companies of volunteers in each county. On 21 April Governor Dunmore ordered the powder belonging to the province to be taken from the public store at Williams burg and placed on board an armed vessel in the river. Learning this, Patrick Henry collected some companies of volunteers, marched upon at,d compelled the king's receiver to give tells tor the value of the pomier taken away. On 23 November Lord Dunmore with a British and Tory force took possession of Nor folk. He was driven from it 3 December, but, in January 1776, returned with a laxger force and bombarded it. He continued a predatory warfare along the whole Virginia coast through the ensuing summer, but was finally driven southward. The Declaration of Independence was proposed in the Continental Congress by the Virginia delegates under instructions from the convention of the colony. In the summer of 1779 the British General Matthews made a descent upon the coast, destroyed Norfollc, took Portsmouth and Gosport, destroying the vessels of war building there, and burned or took 130 merchant vessels on the James and Elizabeth rivers. In January 1781 Gen. Benedict Arnold captured and burned Richmond, then a vil lage of 1,800 inhabitants; but being pressed by the militia under General Steuben and some French frigates in the Chesapealce, he was forced to escape with a few prizes to Newport, R. I. In the spring and early summer of the same year Cornwallis and Phillips plundered the greater part of eastern Virginia, seizing and destroying property to the value of not less than $10,000,000. The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown on 19 Oct. 1781 virtually closed the war.
State History.-- Independence won, the arts of peace took the place of war's strategy. The first achievements of statesmanship in Virginia were the bill exempting dissenters from tribute to the established church, the statute for re ligious freedom (1785) and the act abolishing primogeniture. There was also prompt re sponse to the new Commonwealth's Federal obligations. To hasten the ratification of the Articles of the Confederation of the Union, Virginia ceded to the general government her vast territory northwest of the Ohio. Her statesmen realized that the Articles under which the colonies had achieved their independence were not suited to accomplish a union of. States and were the first to call a convention to re model the government. In September 1786 the convention :net at Annapolis to ((consider the subject of a national convention,° but only a minority of the States were present and it adjourned to give place to a fuller convention, which assembled in Philadelphia in May 1787 when every State but Rhode Island was repre sented. Virginia's members were George Washington, John Blair, James Madison, George Mason, James McClurg, Edmund Randolph and George Wythe. Washington was elected presi dent. In September a committee reported the document which became the Constitution of the United States. The Virginia Convention, called to ratify the compact, met in Richmond in June 1788 with Marshall, Madison, Monroe, Mason, Nicholas, Henry, Randolph, Pendleton, Lee, Washington, Wyllie, hues, Bland and Grayson in the membership.
The alien and sedition laws, which Congre.ss passed during the Adams administration, were aimed at troublesome French emissaries and authorized the punishment of all such aliens as the President should judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States. Vir ginia statesmen, led by Jefferson, regarded these enactments as a dangerous invasion of the lib erty of the citizens of the States, for in their strict interpretation of the Constitution each party to the Federal compact had °an equal right to judge for itself as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.° The
famous °Resolutions of '98-'99? written by Jefferson, were the first fortnal expression of the principle of states-rights and the policy of a strict and narrow construing of the Consti tution. For many years after the adoption of the Federal Constitution Virginia maintained a predominant influence in the affairs of the na tion; of the first five Presidents, four were natives and residents of that State, and each of them was re-elected for a second term; and since that period four other native,s of the State, one of them at the titne of his incum bency a resident of it, have filled that high office.
In the convention which met in Richmond in 1829 to revise the State constitution sat many distinguished statesmen, among them Madison, Monroe, John Marshall and John Randolph of Roanoke. The Constitution enacted by the Convention of 1829-30 was revised in 1850, the 1850 Constitution in 1882 and that in 1901-02. The successive changes register, in a tneasure, the development of the State in a matenal way, and, much more truthfully, the evolution of its spirit and ideals.
At the time of the secession of the Southern States at the close of 1860 and beginning of 1861, a majority of the people of Virginia were strongly attached to the Union, but they also sympathized with the seceding States. At an extra session the legislature passed a bill (23 Jan. 1861) appropnating $1,000,000 for the defense of the State and issued a call for a cotivention, the members of which were to be elected 4 Feb. 1861. The number of delegate.s elected to the State Convention was 152, of whom the greater part were ((conditional* Union men, a few in favor of immediate secession, and about as many unconditional Unionists. The convention met at Richmond 13 February and on 10 March the conunittee on Federal re lations submitted several reports. The majority report, composed of 14 resoltitions, avowed the doctrine of State rights, condemned all interference with slavery as dangerous, asserted the right of secession and defined the circum stances under which Virginia would be justified in exercising tlrat right, viz., the failure to procure such guaranties from the Northern States as she demanded, the adoption of a war like policy by the general government or the attempt to exact payment of duties from the seceded States, or to reinforce or recapture the forts. *The inarity resolutions were dis cussed and adopted as far as the 13th, when the capture of Fort Sumter by the Southern forces and the consequent proclamation of the President calling for troops, led to the passing on 17 April af an ordinance of secession by a vote of 88 yeas to 55 nays. Twelve of those voting nay were not long after expelled from the convention. The people of the State had by a majority of 52,857 required that the action of the convention should be submitted to their decision and a vote on the ordinance of seces sion vras accordingly ordered to talce place on the fourth Thursday of May. The State gov ernment, however, proceeded as if the ordinance had already been ratified by the people. The Federal flags were reinoved, troops to the num ber of 10,000 were called out by the governor, and loans effected for their arnung and equip ment; and on 25 April the convention passed an act for the adoption of the constitution of the provisional government of the Confederate States of America. The State convention on 29 April appointed delegates to the Confederate congress and invited that congress to make Ricond the seat of government of the South ern Confederacy; an invitation whidi was ac cepted soon afterward. The popular vote was taken as provided in die ordinance 23 May and resulted 1 11 a majority of 94,000 in favor of the secession ordinance. Eastern Virginia voted ahnost unanimously for it, while the western counties were as unanimous. against it. The convention of western Virginia, representing about 40 cotuaies, met at Wheeling on 11 June, passed a declaration of independence from the action of the State convention, declared vacant the offices held by all State officers acting in hostility to the Federal government, and took measures for the establishment of a provisional government Virginia was die centre of the war aone in the East and became the scene of some of the most imrtant battles of the Civil War (q.v.), among tm being the two battles of Bull Run, W. heater, Fredericksburg, Chan cellorsville, the Peninsular campaign and the battles of the Wilderness campaign. Virginia troops throughout the conflict played a valuable part. The military operations in Virginia were distinguished by desperate fighting and this is particularly true of the warfare north of the Rappahannock. Richmond was the strategic capital of the Confederacy. The Federal forces came to occupy the greater part of the State; and the customary effects of war were seen in the desolation of the country Every section was invaded and at the time of .the surrender at Appomattox Court House (9 April 1865), the Confederate army and civilians were threatened with famine. General Lee, commander-in-chief of the military forces of the Confederate States, and ((Stonewall* Jackson and J. E,. Johnston, commanders of Confederate armies, were all Virnians.