into any union or confederation of these colonies, which may necessarily lead to a separation from the mother country, we instruct you immediately to call the convention of this province, and repair thereto with such proposition and resolve, and lay the same before the said convention for their consideration; and this convention will not hold this province bound by such majority in Congress, until the representative body of the province in convention assent thereto.
The resolutions of the Virginia delegates, embracing the three propositions of independence, foreign alliances and confederation, were debated June 8, 1776. A report of these debates is given by Mr. Jefferson in the Madison papers, Vol. i, p. 9, et seq.
Messrs. Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge, Dickenson and others, although personally favorable to the measures proposed, argued for delay. The middle colonies, they argued, "were not yet ripe for bidding adieu to Great Britain, but they were fast ripening;" "some of them had expressly forbidden their delegates to consent to such a declaration;" "that if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these delegates must retire, and possibly their colonies might secede from the Union.
The other side was argued by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe and others, who urged prompt action, and argued: "There are only two colonies, Maryland and Pennsylvania, whose delegates are absolutely tied up, and that these had by their instructions, only reserved the right of confirming or rejecting the measure;" "that the backwardness of these two colonies might be ascribed partly to the influence of proprietary power and connections, and partly to their having not yet been attacked by the enemy;" "that the conduct of some colonies, from the beginning of this contest, had given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to keep in the rear of this Confederacy, that their particular prospect might be better even in the worst event."
