he new constitution consisted of John Page, Dudley Digges, John Tayloe,
John Blair, Benjamin Harrison of Berkley, Bartholomew Dandridge, Thomas
Nelson, Sr., and Charles Carter, of Shirley. Mr. Nelson declining the
appointment on account of infirm old age, his place was supplied by
Benjamin Harrison, of Brandon. It is a remarkable instance of the
vicissitudes of fortune, that "a certain Patrick Henry, Jr.," against
whom Governor Dunmore had so lately fulminated his angry proclamation,
now came to be the occupant of the palace at Williamsburg as governor
and commander-in-chief. Although the leaders of the conservative party
looked at the contest with Great Britain in a very different light from
that in which it was viewed by the movement and popular party, and
although the animating motives of the two were so different, yet in the
face of imminent common danger they conspired with extraordinary
unanimity in the common cause. So the mainmast of a ship of the line,
though composed of several pieces banded together, is stronger than if
made of a single spar.[651:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[644:A] Convention of '76, p. 8, in note.

[647:A] These facts were stated by Edmund Randolph in his address at the
funeral of Pendleton. (_Grigsby's Convention of '76_, p. 203.)

[647:B] Thomas Nelson, Jr.

[647:C] _S. Lit. Messenger_, 1842, p. 260.

[649:A] 1719.

[649:B] His portrait is preserved, and a copy of it is in the hall of
the Historical Society in Richmond.

[650:A] Convention of '76, p. 157.

[650:B] Ibid., 156, in note.

[650:C] Journal of Convention of 1776; Wirt's Henry, 195; Grigsby's
Convention of '76, p. 19.

[650:D] Patrick Henry in a letter to Richard Henry Lee, dated December
18th, 1777, quoted in Grigsby's Convention of 1776, p. 142, in note,
states that there was opposition; but the vote appears unanimous on the
journal. The persons who opposed it were known, but were so few they did
not think fit to divide the house, or contradict the general voice.
Ibid., 161, in note. The same persons subsequently opposed the
confederation.

[650:E] His statue is to stand on the monument in Richmond.

[651:A] Extract from Orderly Book:--

"WILLIAMSBURG, May, 14th, 1776.

"Parole--Liberty.

"The many applications for furloughs make it necessary for
Brigadier-General Lewis to mention in orders as improper in
our critical situatio