Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/215

 political power of the people; and had been expressly elected to take care of the republic. The means of ac- complishing this object, were left to themselves, without limitation or restriction on the part of the people. Hitherto, while any hope of a restoration of the original government on just terms, could be entertained, the convention had been satisfied with temporary expedi- ents; the first convention however, had exercised the power of the people in their highest capacity, by adopt- ing a species of constitution and organizing a govern- ment under it; thus they erected an executive, under the name of a committee of safety, which the people recognised as flowing directly from themselves. Before the meeting of the convention of 1776 however, it was seen and well understood on every hand, that the con- test could not be maintained by the people, without the aid of regular government; and that the political malady of which they complained, could be extirpated in no other way than by applying the knife to the root. The newspapers of the preceding year, contain frequent suggestions of this kind; the impression had now be- come universal; and the papers present specimens of explicit instructions from the people to their delegates to this effect.* Thus instructed in the sentiments of

��* The following are the instructions from the free-holders of James city to their delegates : —

" To Robert C. Nicholas and William Norvell, esquires. " Gentlemen,

" In vain do we congratulate ourselves on the impotency of the minister to divide us, if our union amounts to nothing more than an union in one com- mon lethargy. War hath been brought into our houses, heightened by terrors and cruelties which the justest cause wants even palliatives for ; but faint advances towards peace, insidiously urged, have caught the ear of the credulous, and grouhdless hopes of accommodation deluded the timid, so that the free military system remains untouched in most essential points. As if

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