In March, 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed.
In 1767, because of riotous opposition in New England to a new revenue act, placing a tax on paper, glass and tea, two English regiments were sent over and quartered in Boston. In 1770 this Act was repealed except as to [pg 139] the duty on tea; which was not retained for the purpose of revenue but to discipline the colonists; to show them that Britain had the power to tax; as it was declared by its advocates that it should remain, “till America is prostrate at our feet.”
Virginians were more exercised over the law directing that those accused of treason should be transported to the mother country for trial than by the tax on tea. The Burgesses met and passed resolutions declaring such transportation and trial an act of tyranny.
During this excitement Lord Botetourt, the most popular of the colonial governors, died and was succeeded by Lord Dunmore, the most unpopular. From the beginning of his administration he seems to have been obsessed with the idea of subduing what he termed “the lawless and traitorous spirit of the colonists.”
In 1773, Parliament passed a new Act insisting without equivocation upon England’s right to transport her colonial subjects across the sea for trial. The direct result was the adoption of a resolution by the Virginia Assembly making provision for the appointment of a Committee of Correspondence, who were directed to co-operate with the other colonies and organize for action. All opposition until then had been without concerted action between the detached colonies. This committee was composed of ten members, including Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and Edmund Pendleton.
Massachusetts, the first to engage in overt acts of rebellion, was logically the first sufferer. Virginia was drawn into the struggle at a later period; not in revenge for oppression but in devotion to the cause of liberty and because of sympathy, and co-operated with her northern neighbors.
[pg 140] Boston, on May 10, 1774, received news of the passage of the Port Bill, closing Boston Harbor. She notified the other colonies and asked their support by declaring an embargo against British commerce.
This communication was received at Williamsburg on the 29th of May. Several days before Governor Dunmore had dissolved the Colonial Assembly because it had passed a resolution expressing sympathy for Massachusetts. Quite a few of the members were yet in Williamsburg; and they met and drafted the call for the First Virginia Convention. This was signed by Jefferson, Henry, Lee, Washington, Randolph and twenty other members of the House of Burgesses.
Randolph was elected president of the First Convention. During the six-day session it passed resolutions expressing sympathy with Boston and discussed means of aiding that city. The spirit of the convention is shown by what was said by Washington, a member: “I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense and march myself at their head for the relief of Boston.”
After the adjournment of the First Continental Congress all the colonies prepared for war. In Virginia a committee of safety was appointed in every county and six thousand “minute men” were mustered into service.