gathered a great crowd,
breathlessly listening. It listened to the reading of the Botetourt
Resolutions, offered by the President of the Supreme Court of Virginia,
and now delivered in a solemn and a ringing voice. The season was
December and the year, 1860.

* * * * *

_The people of Botetourt County, in general meeting assembled,
believe it to be the duty of all the citizens of the Commonwealth,
in the present alarming condition of our country, to give some
expression of their opinion upon the threatening aspect of public
affairs....

In the controversies with the mother country, growing out of the
effort of the latter to tax the Colonies without their consent, it
was Virginia who, by the resolution against the Stamp Act, gave the
example of the first authoritative resistance by a legislative body
to the British Government, and so imparted the first impulse to the
Revolution.

Virginia declared her Independence before any of the Colonies, and
gave the first written Constitution to mankind.

By her instructions her representatives in the General Congress
introduced a resolution to declare the Colonies independent States,
and the Declaration itself was written by one of her sons.

She furnished to the Confederate States the father of his country,
under whose guidance Independence was achieved, and the rights and
liberties of each State, it was hoped, perpetually established.

She stood undismayed through the long night of the Revolution,
breasting the storm of war and pouring out the blood of her sons
like water on every battlefield, from the ramparts of Quebec to the
sands of Georgia._

A cheer broke from the throng. "That she did--that she did! 'Old Virginia
never tire.'"

_By her unaided efforts the Northwestern Territory was conquered,
whereby the Mississippi, instead of the Ohio River, was recognized
as the boundary of the United States by the treaty of peace.

To secure harmony, and as an evidence of her estimate of the value
of the Union of the States, she ceded to all for their common
benefit this magnificent region--an empire in itself.

When the Articles of Confederation were shown to be inadequate to
secure peace and tranquillity at home and respect abroad, Virginia
first moved to bring about a more perfect Union.

At her instance th