These resolutions were warmly supported by Mr. Nelson, whose property was exposed to the utmost danger in case of an open rupture with the royal authorities. The measure proposed was carried into effect, and from that time opposition to the pretensions of the crown assumed a bold front in Virginia. This convention assembled again in July, and divided the colony into sixteen military districts, the eastern district to raise forthwith a regiment of six hundred and eighty men, rank and file, and each of the others to raise a battalion of five hundred, to be at once armed and held in readiness to march at any moment. The convention also directed the raising of two regiments of regulars of one thousand and twenty privates, and appointed Patrick Henry to command the first and Mr. Nelson to command the second. Thus Virginia assumed a determined and systematic attitude of defence at an early period. On the 11th of August this convention met again and elected Mr. Nelson a delegate to the Continental Congress, in which he took his seat on the 13th of September following. Possessed of a strong mind and sound judgment, he became a useful member of committees, but seldom took part in debate. By the following letter from him to Governor Page, it seems he was one of those who agitated the question of independence as early as the 22nd of January, 1776. “I wish I knew the sentiments of our people upon the grand points of confederation and foreign alliance, or, in other words, of independence—for we cannot expect to form a connexion with any foreign power as long as we have a womanish hankering after Great Britain—and, to be sure, there is not in nature a greater absurdity than to suppose we can have any affection for a people who are carrying on the most savage war against us.” On the 13th of February, he writes to the same gentleman again, as follows: “Independence, confederation and foreign alliance are as formidable to some members of Congress, I fear a majority, as an apparition to a weak enervated woman. Would you think we have some among us who still expect honourable proposals from the administration! By heavens—I am an infidel in politics, for I do not believe were you to bid a thousand pounds per scruple for honour at the court of Great Britain, that you would get as many as would amount to an ounce. We are now carrying on a war and no war. They seize our property wherever they find it, either by land or sea, and we hesitate to retaliate because we have a few friends in England who have ships. Away with such squeamishness, say I.”