trick Henry had introduced his
resolutions into the committee of the whole at Williamsburg. On the
8th of June, it had resolved upon a circular letter concerning the
Stamp Act, addressed to all the sister colonies, and proposing that
all should send delegates to a congress to be held at New York, on the
first Tuesday of the following October, to deal with the perils and
duties of the situation. This circular letter at once started upon its
tour.

The first reception of it, however, was discouraging. From the speaker
of the New Jersey assembly came the reply that the members of that
body were "unanimously against uniting on the present occasion;" and
for several weeks thereafter, "no movement appeared in favor of the
great and wise measure of convening a congress." At last, however, the
project of Massachusetts began to feel the accelerating force of a
mighty impetus. The Virginia resolutions, being at last divulged
throughout the land, "had a marked effect on public opinion." They
were "heralded as the voice of a colony.... The fame of the resolves
spread as they were circulated in the journals.... The Virginia
action, like an alarum, roused the patriots to pass similar
resolves.[75] "On the 8th of July, "The Boston Gazette" uttered this
most significant sentence: "The people of Virginia have spoken very
sensibly, and the frozen politicians of a more northern government say
they have spoken treason."[76] On the same day, in that same town of
Boston, an aged lawyer and patriot[77] lay upon his death bed; and in
his admiration for the Virginians on account of these resolves, he
exclaimed, "They are men; they are noble spirits."[78] On the 13th of
August, the people of Providence instructed their representatives in
the legislature to vote in favor of the congress, and to procure the
passage of a series of resolutions in which were incorporated those of
Virginia.[79] On the 15th of August, from Boston, Governor Bernard
wrote home to the ministry: "Two or three months ago, I thought that
this people would submit to the Stamp Act. Murmurs were indeed
continually heard; but they seemed to be such as would die away. But
the publishing of the Virginia resolves proved an alarm bell to the
disaffected."[80] On the 23d of September, General Gage, the commander
of the British forces in America, wrote from New York to Secretary
Conway that the Virginia resolves had given "the signal for a general
outcry over the continent."[81] And