Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/412

388 of the person who promoted the tumult treasonable, accused the people of disaffection, etc. On their part, they were by no means deficient in recriminating; and some letters of his to England being about the same time discovered, consequences ensued similar to those which had been occasioned in the case of Hutchinson and Oliver, at Boston.

In this state of confusion, the governor thought it necessary to fortify his palace with artillery, and procure a party of marines to guard it. Lord North's conciliatory proposal arriving also about the same time, he used his utmost endeavors to cause the people to comply with it. The arguments he used were of such a description that had not matters already gone too far, it is highly probable that some attention would have been paid to them. "The view," he said, "in which the colonies ought to behold this conciliatory proposal was no more than an earnest admonition from Great Britain to relieve her wants: that the utmost condescendence had been used in the mode of application; no determinate sum having been fixed, as it was thought most worthy of British generosity to take what they thought could be conveniently spared, and likewise to leave the mode of raising it to themselves," etc. But the clamor and dissatisfaction were now so universal, that nothing else could be attended to. The governor had called an Assembly in May, for the purpose of laying this conciliatory proposal before them; but it had been little attended to. The Assembly began their session by inquiries into the state of the magazine. It had been broken into by some of the townsmen for which reason spring-guns had been placed there by the governor, which discharged themselves upon the offenders at their entrance: these circumstances, with others of a similar kind, raised such a violent uproar, that as soon as the preliminary business of the session was over, the governor retired on board a man-of-war, informing the Assembly that he durst no longer trust himself on shore. This produced a long course of disputation, which ended in a positive refusal of the governor to trust himself again in Williamsburg, even to give his assent to the bills, which could not be passed without it, and though theAssembly offered to bind themselves for his personal safety. In his turn he requested them to meet him on board the man-of-war, where he then was; but this proposal was rejected, and all further correspondence of a friendly kind was discontinued.

Lord Dunmore, thus deprived of his government, attempted, in the autumn of 1775, to reduce by force those whom he could no longer govern. Some of the most strenuous adherents to the British cause, whom their zeal had rendered obnoxious at home, now repaired to him. He was also joined by numbers of black slaves. With these, and the assistance of the British shipping, he was for some time enabled to carry on a kind of predatory war, sufficient to hurt and exasperate, but not to subdue. After some inconsiderable attempts on land, proclaiming liberty to the slaves, and setting up the royal standard, he took up his residence at Norfolk, a maritime town of some