alumnus of the college, Thomas Jefferson, who, in the language of Ezra Stiles, President of Yale, "poured the soul of the continent into the monumental act of Independence." In 1786, John Tyler, Sr., born in the country near Williamsburg, and another alumnus, carried through the Virginia Legislature the proposition for a convention of the States at Annapolis. In 1787, Edmund Randolph, a native of Williamsburg and an alumnus of the college, opened the proceedings of the convention at Philadelphia by submitting "the Virginia plan" of a constitution which gave direction to its proceedings.
A sketch of Williamsburg, however, would not be complete without some details of the famous Convention which met in the city on May 6, 1776. Edmund Pendleton of Caroline County was elected President, and John Tazewell of Williamsburg, Secretary. On the day after the Convention met they fixed on the 13th to go into the Committee of the Whole to consider the state of the Colony. Colonel Archibald Cary, an alumnus of William and Mary College, presided over this committee. The question of independence was introduced at once, and was debated on that and
