vention assembled at Richmond in July, 1775, to command all the troops of the State. This may have been a wise, politic step to give enthusiasm to the moment. In any other point of view it was of little consequence. Whatever else Patrick Henry was, he

was not a soldier.

Governor Dunmore, now fearing for his own safety, took up his residence on a British war vessel in York River, and the House of Burgesses, deeming this conduct insulting, declined to hold any further communication with him, and thus ended the reign of kings in Virginia.

Among the delegates to the new convention, assembled at Williamsburg in May, 1776, was James Madison, Jr., now full of the warlike spirit of his countrymen, and eager to engage in the conflict in a field more extensive than had been presented by the safety committee of Orange County. It was his good fortune and pleasure to be present in this convention, and to give his aid in its bold, patriotic acts, among which was the positive command to the Virginia representatives in the Congress to propose to that body that the time and necessity had come "to declare the United Colonies free and independent States absolved from all allegiance to or dependence on the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain, and that they give the assent of this colony to such declaration, and to whatever measures may be thought proper and necessary by the Congress for forming foreign alliances, and a confederation of the colonies."

Among the safety committees in Virginia at the outset of the war, perhaps that of Orange County was the most advanced in its spirit and nerve, and this

favorable exhibit it made, no doubt, from the character of its scribe.

Mr. Madison could readily trace much of his disposition in this direction to the lessons he had taken at Princeton.

In the following short address written by Mr. Madison and signed by all the members of the committee, may be seen something of the sentiments which impelled him at that time:

"MAY 9, 1775.

“GENTLEMEN,—-We, the committee for the county of Orange, having been fully informed of your seasonable and spirited proceedings in procuring a compensation for the powder fraudulently taken from the country magazine by command of Lord Dunmore, and which it evidently appears his lordship, notwithstanding his assurances, had no intention to restore, entreat you to accept their cordial thanks for this testimony of your zeal for the honor and interest of your country. We take this opportunity also to give it as our opinion that the blow struck in the Massachusetts government is a hostile attack on this and every other Colony, and a sufficient warrant to use violence and reprisal in all cases in which it may be expedient for our security and welfare."

Still, Mr. Madison did not then, in all probability, entertain views favorable to a final separation from Britain. This interesting subject of the growth of the sentiment of independence has been discussed already in the previous volumes of this work. In 1828, Jared Sparks wrote to Mr. Madison, and was answered as follows, on this very question, in a letter dated January 5, 1828:

"You wish me to say whether I believe, that at the beginning of the Revolution, or at the assembling of the first Congress, the leaders of that day were resolved on independence?' I readily express my entire belief that they were not, though I must admit that my means of information were more limited than may have been the case with others still living to answer the inquiry. .

"My first entrance on public life was in May, 1776, when I became a member of the convention in Virginia which instructed her delegates in Congress to propose the Declaration of Independence. Previous to that date, I was not in sufficient communication with any under the denomination of leaders to learn their sentiments or views on that cardinal subject.

"I can only say, therefore, that so far as ever came to my knowledge, no one of them ever avowed, or was understood to entertain, a pursuit of independence, at the assembling of the first Congress or for a considerable period thereafter. It has always been my impression that a re-establishment of the colonial relations to the parent country, as they were previous to the coutroversy, was the real object of every class of the people, till despair of obtaining it, and the exasperating effects of the war and the manner of conducting it, prepared the minds of all for the event declared on the 4th of July, 1776, as preferable, with all its difficulties and perils, to the alternative of submission to a claim of power at once external, unlimited, irresponsible, and under every temptation to abuse from interest, ambition, and revenge. If there were individuals who aimed at independence, their views must have been confined to their own bosoms, or to a very confidential circle."

The most important work before the Virginia Convention at this time was the preparation of a declaration of rights, and the adoption of a form of government for the State. To the committee appointed for this work, Mr. Madison was subsequently added.

The Declaration of Rights was mainly prepared by George Mason, but the article on religious freedom took its real breadth and value from the action of Mr. Madison. Mason had merely proposed that religious liberty should be tolerated. Then Virginia had a State Church, and any religious views averse to this were simply to be tolerated. Mr. Madison offered a substitute for this article declaring the same degree of freedom in religious matters to all individuals and societies without distinction. This proposition prevailed, and

was the first step in the series of events which in time stripped the corrupt and vicious Church of England of its power in Virginia, and placed it on a level with other theories and systems appealing to the intelligence, judgment, or superstition of men for their support.

At that period in the history of this country religious liberty was not a term meant to give an evil license to the passions or vicious inclinations of men. The actions of the early patriots in reference to this matter had not the least bearing in the world towards the much-harped and pernicious liberalism of more modern times. It simply meant freedom from improper legal and other restraints, a right to all men to choose for themselves the way of truth and life.

Under the same committee a form of government for the State was devised. This work occupied several weeks, and its very decided republican features were largely attributable to Patrick Henry, who seemed to look with doubt upon the ability and inclinations of many of his fellow-members. But altogether the result was more republican in its character than even Mr. Henry had hoped for; and so satisfactory did it prove to be that it stood mainly untouched for over half a century, and would have remained satisfactory to the old school of "gentlemen" forever. The Constitution provided that a governor should be elected annually by the joint vote of the Senate and House of Delegates, and that after serving three years, if reelected so often, he should then be ineligible for four years. The governor was to have a privy council, composed of eight members, as his advisers, and was not able to perform an executive act without their con

sent. Mr. Henry was chosen the first governor, and by annual re-election served the three years, as provided in the Constitution.

Mr. Madison did not appear conspicuous in the work of the Convention, as he afterwards said, owing to his "youth and inexperience."

The Legislature then held two sessions annually, and the first session, which took the place of the Convention, which itself had more than filled the place of the old House of Burgesses, met at Williamsburg on the 7th of October, 1776, and here it was that Madison and Jefferson first met.

The members of the Convention now met in the capacity of Delegates in the Legislature. Mr. Jefferson had returned from the Congress to take a part in the affairs of the State where he thought his services were then most needed. The friendship now formed between him and Mr. Madison continued without the least disturbance to the end of his life.

Years after their first meeting Mr. Jefferson made this record of his young friend's start in public life:

"Mr. Madison came into the House in 1776, a new member and young; which circumstances, concurring with his extreme modesty, prevented his venturing himself in debate before his removal to the council of state in November, 1777. From thence he went to Congress, then consisting of few members. Trained in these successive schools, he acquired a habit of self-possession which placed at ready command the rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind, and of his extensive information, and rendered him the first of every assembly afterwards of which he became a member. Never wandering from his subject into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in language pure, classical, and copious, soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the eminent station which he held in the great national convention of 1787; and in that of