It simply acknowledged the receipt of the Resolutions and that of the letter which had covered them, saying, also, that they had been communicated to the Provincial Congress, by whom " they would be " considered with all the deliberation due to the im- " portance of the subject ; " that the Congress thanked the Convention of Virginia for its attention ; and that the latter was " assured that the Congress of this Col- " ony will invariably adopt and pursue every measure "which may tend to promote the union and secure " the rights and happiness of the United Colonies." *

Four days after the Resolutions of the Convention

8 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A.M., Jane "5, 1776."

* Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Jovis, 9 ho., A.M., June 6, "1776."

With this simple record of one of the coldest specimens of polite disagreement with another, on record, before him, the reader will hardly be prepared to read what Bancroft has written of the reception of the Resolutions from Virginiaand of John Jay's treatment of them. His words were these : " But early in June, the New York Congress had to pass " upon the Virginia proposition of Independence. This was the moment "that showed the firmness and the purity of Jay ; the darker the hour, "the more he stood ready to cheer; the greater the danger, the more " promptly he stepped forward to guide. He had insisted on the doubt- " ful measure of a second Petition to the King with no latent weakness of "purpose or cowardice of heart. The hope of obtaining redress had " gone ; he could, now, with perfect peace of mind, give free scope to the "earnestness of his convictions.