164 Virginia and New York. [1774- had recommended in general terms the organisation and arming of the militia. The conditions of life in the southern colonies made it impossible for public opinion to express itself with the same promptness and uniformity as in New England, or for a majority to force its will on a minority with equal effectiveness. But in her resentment of admini- strative interference, and especially of financial interference, Virginia was not one whit behind New England. Moreover the governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, had irritated the colonists by what they regarded as his half-hearted conduct in regard to a campaign against the Indians in the summer of 1774. Virginia too had yet another grievance against the British government. Many of the best and wisest men in the colony, Henry among them, were becoming keenly alive to the social and economical evils of slavery, evils clearly seen and denounced somewhat later by Washington and Jefferson. In 1772 an address on this subject was presented to the Crown. The British government unhappily showed no desire to co-operate with the colonists in the endeavour to check the evil. In Patrick Henry, Virginia had a leader who could at once inspire and organise. As a speaker he con- stantly pressed his rhetoric to the verge of extravagance, yet never lost his grasp of concrete facts. Behind the appeal to sentiment there was always some definite incitement to action. The speech which he addressed to the Virginian Convention in March, 1775, was virtually a declaration of armed rebellion. He proposed that a force should be raised, not as a mere measure of precaution or in any hopes of securing better terms by a show of resistance, but because, in his own words, " we must fight. 1 ' Three colonies alone, New York, Georgia, and North Carolina, were exempted from the punitive measures of Lord North's government. The poverty and barbarism of North Carolina and Georgia made their adhe- sion a matter of no great moment to either side. But, if Great Britain could hold New York with its wealth, its noble harbour, its central position, and its command of the Hudson, the cause of colonial resistance would be seriously crippled. There had always been a lack of strong corporate feeling among the people of New York ; and in no colony had habits of luxury and love of wealth taken so firm a hold. The Assembly of New York refused in 1774 to be led by the action of Congress, or to acknowledge the services of the delegates there, and declined to elect delegates for the next Congress. The adjacent colonies, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, had accepted the resolutions of the Congress, and had thus put themselves outside the pale of exemption. Pennsylvania indeed might be regarded as specially guilty, since the Congress had met within her boundaries. Yet that old Quaker spirit which, coupled with meaner motives, had repeatedly held back Pennsylvania and New Jersey from military co-operation, was still at work. Thus it seemed as if, in the
