“ was in being the first publication which carried the claim of our rights their whole length, and asserted that there was no rightful link of connection between us and England but that of being under the same king . . . ”

In his autobiography, written many years later, in 1821, Jefferson wrote: The next event which excited our sympathies for Massachusets was the Boston port bill, by which that port was to be shut up on the 1 ^st. of June 1774. this arrived while we were in session in the spring of that year . . . I prepared a draught of instructions to be given to the delegates whom we should send to the Congress, and which I meant to propose at our meeting . . . I sat [ sic -- Ed. ] out for W ^ms.bg some days before that appointed for our meeting, but was taken ill of a dysentary on the road, & unable to proceed. I sent on therefore to W ^ms.bg two copies of my draught, the one under cover to Peyton Randolph, who I knew would be in the chair of the convention, the other to Patrick Henry. whether m ( ^~ r) Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too lazy to read it (for he was the laziest man in reading I ever knew) I never learnt. but he communicated it to nobody. Peyton Randolph informed the Convention he had recieved such a paper from a member prevented by sickness from offering it in his place, and he laid it on the table for perusal. it was read generally by the members, approved by many, but throught [ sic -- Ed. ] too bold for the present state of things; but they printed it in pamphlet form under the title of ‘A Summary view of the rights of British America’. it found it’s way to England, was taken up by the opposition, interpolated a little by m ( ^~ r) Burke so as to make it answer opposition purposes, and in that form run rapidly thro’ several editions. this information I had from Parson Hurt, who happened at the time to be in London, whither he had gone to recieve clerical orders. and I was informed afterwards by Peyton Randolph that it had procured me the honor of having my name inscribed in a long list of proscriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced in one of the houses of parliament, but suppressed in embryo by the hasty step of events which warned them to be a little cautious . . .

On October 15, 1804, Meriwether Jones wrote from Richmond to Jefferson: “Some time in the month of June last, I defended you in the Enquirer against a charge, that shortly before the declaration of Independence, you had drafted & signed an humble and adulatory address to the King of England. In the defence alluded to, I mentioned, that at that crisis of American affairs, you were always considered foremost of your cotemporaries; and in support of my assertion, I instanced a string of Resolutions of which you were the author, and which were forwarded to the moderator of the convention at Williamsburg in 1774. These Resolutions, Mr. Edm ^d. Randolph informed me, were considered a day or two in advance of the spirit of the times; but that himself, & some other young patriots were so captivated with their point and elegance, that they procured their publication by subscription: he told me too, that he had a copy of the Resolutions which were at my command. Upon this information, I promised the readers of the Enquirer, to prove, by shewing them the resolutions in question, that you foresaw very early in the progress of our revolution, that independence & liberty were inseparable. After my promise to the Public, M ^r. Edm ^d. Randolph & myself made several unsuccessful searches for these resolutions: and as I feel some solicitude to redeem my word which still stands pledged, I have taken the liberty to ask of you a copy of them.--I am of opinion that their publication at this epoch will be of service, by proving a political consistency of character, and by calling the public feeling to a period which should be brought to their recollection as frequently as possible . . .”

Jefferson replied from Washington on October 19: “ I recieved last night your favor of the 15 ^th. I have but a single copy of the pamphlet you ask for, and that is bound up in a volume of pamphlets of the same year and making one of the long suite of volumes of the same nature. I mention this to impress you with the value I set on the volume as part of the history of the times, ”