WEBVTT NOTE 68. Support from Virginia 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.480 Volume 3, Chapter 68, Support from Virginia 2 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:11.720 The well-disciplined citizens of Massachusetts held themselves in check and refused to be 3 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:19.760 provoked into attack, and their angry leader Sam Adams wrote, See what indignities we suffer 4 00:00:19.760 --> 00:00:22.820 rather than precipitate a crisis. 5 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:29.480 It took no uncommon astuteness to see that the colonies and Great Britain were on collision 6 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:31.240 and Course. 7 00:00:31.240 --> 00:00:38.200 In late March, before the Virginia Convention, an enlarged House of Burgesses meeting illegally 8 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:44.800 at Richmond without authorization of the governor, the golden-tongued Patrick Henry made his 9 00:00:44.800 --> 00:00:47.240 most famous speech. 10 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:51.900 In it he prophetically warned, The war has actually begun. 11 00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:56.760 The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding 12 00:00:56.760 --> 00:00:58.540 arms. 13 00:00:58.540 --> 00:01:04.580 The major issue at the Virginia Convention and the occasion for Henry's speech was his 14 00:01:04.580 --> 00:01:10.620 resolution to strengthen and arm the Virginia militia for the clash that Patrick Henry was 15 00:01:10.620 --> 00:01:18.220 sure was fast approaching. Henry openly welcomed the imminent revolutionary clash. Let it come! 16 00:01:18.220 --> 00:01:27.420 I repeat, sir, let it come! Henry dramatically concluded, His life so dear or peace so sweet 17 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:34.020 as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know 18 00:01:34.020 --> 00:01:41.020 not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. 19 00:01:41.020 --> 00:01:47.980 Henry's resolution was ably supported by the radical theoretician Richard Henry Lee and 20 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:53.620 the military-minded George Washington. But the resolution to strengthen the militia met 21 00:01:53.620 --> 00:02:00.460 stiff conservative opposition, led by three delegates to the Continental Congress, Edmund 22 00:02:00.460 --> 00:02:07.460 Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison and Richard Bland. As a result, the Henry Resolution won only 23 00:02:07.460 --> 00:02:14.140 by a slim vote. Indeed, the delegates refused to call up any sizable number of armed men 24 00:02:14.140 --> 00:02:19.620 and to seize the reins of government openly, and they appointed a conservative committee, 25 00:02:19.620 --> 00:02:25.620 Dominated by Pendleton and Harrison to oversee the military preparations. 26 00:02:25.620 --> 00:02:31.860 Nevertheless, the Virginia militia was formed in companies independent of officers appointed 27 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:37.900 by the governor. Patrick Henry's militia resolution was modeled on preceding county 28 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:44.440 committee resolutions in Virginia, especially one of Fairfax County, where George Washington 29 00:02:44.440 --> 00:02:51.400 Washington had led the adoption of this proposal in January. Washington's resolves, in turn, 30 00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:57.880 had been strictly patterned upon the Maryland Convention of November, which, in addition 31 00:02:57.880 --> 00:03:04.600 to approving the acts of the Continental Congress, urged the formation of a large-scale militia 32 00:03:04.600 --> 00:03:10.600 in Maryland with officers to be elected and with funds for the citizen-soldiery to be 33 00:03:10.600 --> 00:03:40.600 The Theory of Money 34 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:54.600 and Signed Loyalty Pledges to Great Britain. Indeed, Governor Josiah Martin urged General Gage to send him weapons and ammunition to arm the North Carolina Tories. 35 00:03:54.600 --> 00:04:04.600 The Tory sentiment in the back country has led historians to believe that the North Carolina regulators, in anger against the seaboard planters, 36 00:04:04.600 --> 00:04:10.960 had suppressed them, and who were now rebels against Britain, had reacted by joining the 37 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:12.960 Tory cause. 38 00:04:12.960 --> 00:04:16.720 A pretty theory, but at odds with the facts. 39 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:22.800 The most recent and most careful historian of the regulator movement estimates that of 40 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:32.920 323 regulators whose later choice is known, 289, joined the revolution while only 34, 41 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:37.200 slightly over ten percent became Tories. 42 00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:43.680 Armed clashes between the popular and governmental troops began to occur in mid-April in the 43 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:50.680 South, shortly before news of Lexington and Concord arrived. By mid-April, news had arrived 44 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:57.520 of Britain's decision to crack down on New England rather than conciliate. Accordingly, 45 00:04:57.520 --> 00:05:02.400 Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, had twenty kegs of powder in the Virginia Provincial 46 00:05:02.400 --> 00:05:24.400 The Williamsburg Mass has threatened to rise up and recapture the powder. Virginia seethed with indignation, and the committees of Gloucester, Henrico, Dumfries, and Albemarle counties called for restoration of the gunpowder. 47 00:05:24.400 --> 00:05:37.400 Lord Dunmore refused to give up the powder, summoned all people loyal to Britain to rally to him, and threatened to free all the slaves of Virginia and burn Williamsburg to the ground. 48 00:05:37.400 --> 00:05:44.400 Six hundred well-armed Virginians met at Fredericksburg on April 29 to press their demands. 49 00:05:44.400 --> 00:06:08.280 The Redoubtable Patrick Henry, however, refused to be cowed, as had even Richard Henry Lee, 50 00:06:08.280 --> 00:06:14.360 and himself led a militia company from Hanover County, which managed to seize at least the 51 00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:24.240 Lord Dunmore declared Patrick Henry an outlaw, which more than ever made him a hero of the 52 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:30.600 enraged people of Virginia. The night after Dunmore's raid on the powder, South Carolina 53 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:35.240 rebels, joined in a secret committee of the South Carolina Provincial Congress headed 54 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:42.160 by William Henry Drayton, staged a raid on the government armory and carried off arms 55 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:49.360 and Ammunition. By the time of Lexington and Concord, much of the South, and especially 56 00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:51.800 Virginia, was at fever pitch.