Well known today as a leader in American Independence, Thomas Jefferson’s first foray began simply by listening to a powerful speech during the Stamp Act Crisis in 1765.
Living in Williamsburg, first as a student at the College of William and Mary, then while he read law under George Wythe, Jefferson had opportunity to visit the capitol on an opportune day.
While he stood in the doorway, Jefferson heard Patrick Henry present his resolves against the Stamp Act, proclaiming:
“Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First, His Cromwell; And George the Third” — (“Treason!” cried the Speaker — “Treason, treason!” echoed from every part of the house). Henry faultered not for an instant, but rising to a loftier attitude, concluded thus – “may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it.”
Thomas Jefferson later wrote of Patrick Henry on that day: …he appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote.
A few years later, Jefferson, himself, became a burgess.
1774 DAY OF FASTING, HUMILIATION, AND PRAYER IN SUPPORT OF BOSTON
When the House of Burgesses convened in May of 1774, they learned that Britain’s punishment of Boston’s Tea Party entailed closing their ports and installing MORE troops on the tiny land mass of the town, effective June 1, 1774.
In response, Thomas Jefferson wrote a resolution calling for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer to: give us one Heart and one Mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper Means, every Injury to American Rights.
When Governor Dunmore responded by dissolving the House of Burgesses, they reassembled the next day at Raleigh Tavern as a provincial congress.
1774 VIRGINIA SUGGESTS CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
…We are further clearly of Opinion, that an Attack, made on one of our sister Colonies, to compel Submission to arbitrary Taxes, is an Attack made on all British America, and threatens Ruin to the Rights of all, unless the united Wisdom of the Whole be applied. And for this Purpose it is recommended to the Committee of Correspondence, that they communicate, with their several corresponding Committees, on the Expediency of appointing Deputies from the several Colonies of British America, to meet in general Congress, at such Place annually as shall be thought most convenient; there to deliberate on those general Measures which the united Interests of America may from Time to Time require. -Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia
Upon learning that the colonies agreed to a general Congress, the future Continental Congress, Virginia formed the First Virginia Convention to choose delegates to attend: Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton.
1774 SUMMARY VIEW OF RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA
Although Thomas Jefferson had planned to attend the First Virginia Convention, illness kept him at home.
Thus, he forwarded to Patrick Henry and Peyton Randolph copies of a petition to the king he had written to present to the Virginia Convention before proposing them to the First Continental Congress.
Jefferson recorded that the Virginia Convention did not approve his petition, because it was: too bold for the present state of things.
Without Jefferson’s permission, allies had the petition published as A Summary View of the Rights of British America, which was widely read throughout the American colonies and England.
PRECURSOR TO DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
And with that, I present a newly published book I’ve recently finished, The Making of the American Mind: The Story of our Declaration of Independence by Matthew Spalding, which says much about this seminal document.
…the Summary View proved to be Jefferson’s unintended rehearsal for a more important writing assignment he would be tasked with two years hence. –The Making of the American Mind, p20
STRONG LANGUAGE
In 1774, Jefferson was ahead of popular opinion in the American colonies, even among many of its budding revolutionaries. While similar to other colonial writings of the day in resisting Parliament’s heavy-handed laws and appealing to the King for restitution, Jefferson’s language and approach were strikingly different. Gone were the submissive tone and the deference to authority that defined the previous colonial petitions delicately questioning British policy. –The Making of the American Mind, p21
Jefferson’s description of his work was that it was: penned in the language of truth divested of those expressions of servility which would persuade his majesty that we are asking for favours and not rights.
UNIQUELY DIRECTED TO KING
Although Jefferson focused on Parliament’s violation of colonial rights, he directly addressed King George III to protect the colonies from Parliament.
While other writers directed their pleas to the king’s advisors, Jefferson expected King George to take responsibility.
Open your breast, Sire, to liberal and expanded thought…the great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader: to pursue them requires not the aid of many counsellors. –A Summary View of the Rights of British America
Perhaps most significantly, Jefferson traced the freedom of all Englishmen, in England and the colonies, to an ancient and unwritten constitution, long violated by kings and parliaments past, and which was ultimately grounded in natural justice. –The Making of the American Mind, p21
Jefferson’s proposal submitted American grievances to the king “with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights, as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.” Everyone understood the King ruled by force, but “let him remember that force cannot give right.” –The Making of the American Mind, p21
SEEKING RESTORATION TO ENGLAND WITH RIGHTS SECURED
In the end, Jefferson carefully navigated a path between radical principles and political caution, disavowing any intention to separate from Great Britain, but clearly putting the king on notice: “There are extraordinary situations which require extraordinary interposition. An exasperated people, who feel that they possess power, are not easily restrained within limits strictly regular.” Americans were willing “to sacrifice every thing which reason can ask to the restoration of that tranquility for which all must wish.” –The Making of the American Mind, p22
Jefferson’s ringing conclusion shows how close Americans were to the precipice of revolution despite their real, yet now gravely strained English loyalties. –The Making of the American Mind, p22
The god who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them. This, Sire, is our last, our determined resolution: and that you will be pleased to interpose with that efficacy which your earnest endeavors may ensure to procure redress of these our great grievances, to quiet the minds of your subjects in British America, against any apprehensions of future encroachment, to establish fraternal love and harmony through the whole empire, and that these may continue to the latest ages of time, is the fervent prayer of all British America! –A Summary View of the Rights of British America
For more photos of Thomas Jefferson’s life check my Flickr set.
