equently district judge of the
federal court.

The Cherokees, instigated by the English, having made bloody incursions
on the Virginia frontier, Colonel Christian, with a body of troops,
burnt their towns, and compelled them to sue for peace.

On the 7th day of October, 1776, the general assembly of Virginia met
for the first time under the constitution adopted in the preceding July.
The house of delegates was composed of the same members as those who
constituted the convention which framed the constitution, and who held
over without an election, and thus became the house of delegates under
the constitution of their own making. The examples which probably guided
them were, that of the convention of 1660, which, after calling Charles
the Second to the throne, resolved itself into a house of commons; and
that of the convention of 1688, which, after settling the crown on
William and Mary, also resolved itself into a house of commons. The new
senate, however, was elected by the people.[673:A] Edmund Pendleton was
elected speaker of the house, and Archibald Cary speaker of the senate.

The new declaration of rights asserted that "all men are equally
entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of
conscience;" yet it appeared that the assembly intended to continue the
old church establishment. This and the circulation of petitions in
behalf of episcopacy, as established by law, alarmed the dissenters, and
they enquired what advantage then in this great point "shall we derive
from being independent of Great Britain? And is it not as bad for our
assembly to violate their own declaration of rights as for the British
parliament to break our charter?" The Baptists accordingly circulated a
counter-petition, which was signed by ten thousand persons, chiefly
freeholders. The presbytery of Hanover also presented a memorial to the
same effect, pledging themselves that nothing in their power should be
wanting to give success to the cause of the country. In the frontier
counties, containing one-fifth of the inhabitants of Virginia, the
dissenters, who constituted almost the entire population, were yet
obliged to contribute to the support of the church as established, and a
considerable portion of the inhabitants of the other parts of the colony
labored under the same disadvantages. "Certain it is," say the
memorialists, "that every argument for civil liberty gains additional
strength when applied to liberty in th