Chap. XL.} 1769. May. |
This text is part of:
[279]
The day on which Parliament was prorogued,
saw the Legislature of Virginia assembled at Williamsburgh.
Great men were there; some who were among the greatest; Washington, Patrick Henry, and for the first time, Jefferson.
Botetourt, the only Governor who had appeared in Virginia within memory, proceeded to open the session, drawn in a state coach by six white horses; he was in perfect harmony with the Council; the House of Burgesses voted him a most dutiful address; two and fifty guests were entertained at his table on the first day, and as many more on the second.1 He took care also to make ‘a judicious use’ of the permission which he had received to negotiate an extended boundary with the Cherokees.
The strife in America had begun on a demand by the Custom House officers for Writs of Assistance.
Connecticut had refused them;2 the Governor and Council, who constituted the highest court in Virginia, heard arguments on their legality, and he concurred with the Council that they were illegal.3
Between Botetourt and the Legislature all was courtesy.
But the Assembly did not forget its duty; and taking into consideration the Resolutions and Address which Hillsborough and Bedford had proposed, and which both Houses of Parliament had voted by large majorities, on the sixteenth of May, it devised a measure which became the example for the continent.
1 Botetourt to Hillsborough, 10 May, 1769.
2 Roger Sherman to Dr. W. S. Johnson, 25 June, 1768.
3 Botetourt to Secretary of State, 16 May, 1769.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1859.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.