olonies. On May 6th the Assembly of Virginia
met at Williamsburg. After a declaration that all pacific measures were
useless, and that "they had no alternative left but an abject submission
to the will of those overbearing tyrants, or a total separation from the
Crown and Government of Great Britain," they passed two resolutions; the
first empowering their delegates at the convention to propose a
declaration of independence and a confederation of the colonies; the
second appointing a committee to draw up a declaration of rights and a
scheme of government for the colony. On June 12th the Declaration of
Rights was laid before the Assembly, and on the 29th a constitution was
produced.

The Assembly then proceeded to elect a governor. The choice fell on
Patrick Henry. Rightly was he, who had first foreseen independence and
bidden his countrymen look the danger of it in the face, deemed worthy
to be the first to govern the State which he had called into being. All
the colonies except Pennsylvania and Maryland followed the example of
Virginia, and when, on July 1st, the motion for independence was laid
before the Congress, the delegates of nine colonies were pledged to vote
in its favor. The delegates of Pennsylvania and Maryland were divided,
those of South Carolina unanimously opposed independence. The New York
delegates were all in favor of independence, and represented the opinion
of the colony, but could not vote, as their convention had not yet been
duly elected. When the question came forward for decision next day,
Dickinson, who had opposed it on the first day with great earnestness,
stayed away, as did one of his colleagues, and the vote of Pennsylvania
was altered. Another delegate arrived from Delaware, whose vote turned
the scale, and South Carolina, rather than stand alone, withdrew its
opposition. New York alone was unable to vote, and on July 2d, by the
decision of twelve colonies, without one adverse vote, it was resolved
"that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and
independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the
British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the
state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Seldom
was the irony of history more strikingly illustrated than when Hancock,
a rebel specially selected for proscription by the English government,
put the question to the vote, and declared the American colonies forever
in