casion that might in his opinion require it, to convene the several delegates of the colony, at such time and place as he might judge proper.
They then appointed as deputies to congress on the part of this colony, Messrs. Peyton Randolph, Richard H. Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, and furnished them with the following firm and spirited letter of instructions.
" Instructions for the deputies appointed to meet in general congress, on the part of the colony of Virginia.
" The unhappy disputes between Great Britain and her American colonies, which began about the third year of the reign of his present majesty, and since con- tinually increasing, have proceeded to lengths so dan- gerous and alarming, as to excite just apprehensions in the minds of his majesty^s faithful subjects of the colony, that they are in danger of being deprived of their na- tural, ancient, constitutional, and chartered rights, have compelled them to take the same into their most se- rious consideration; and, being deprived of their usual and accustomed mode of making known their griev- ances, have appointed us their representatives, to con- sider what is proper to be done in this dangerous crisis of American affairs. It being our opinion that the united wisdom of North America should be collected in a general congress of all the colonies, we have appoint- ed the honourable Peyton Randolph, esq. Richard Hen- ry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton, esquires, deputies to represent this colony in the said congress, to be held at Philadelphia on the first Monday in September next. And that they may be the better
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