sent their real leaders, as the other colonies did; and September saw a notable gathering at Philadelphia,—a gathering from which conservatives as well as radicals hoped to see come forth some counsel of wisdom and accommodation. [Illustration: JOHN ADAMS] Every colony but Georgia sent delegates to the Congress. Not all who attended had been regularly elected by the colonial assemblies. The Virginian delegates had been elected by Virginia’s August convention, a body unknown to the law; in some of the colonies there had been no timely sessions of the assemblies at which a choice could be made, and representatives had accordingly been appointed by their committees of correspondence, or elected directly by the voters at the town and county voting places. But no one doubted any group of delegates real representatives,—at any rate, of the predominant political party in their colony. In New York and Pennsylvania the conservatives had had the upper hand, and had chosen men who were expected to speak for measures of accommodation and for obedience to law. In the other colonies, if only for the nonce, the more radical party had prevailed, and had sent representatives who were counted on to speak unequivocally for the liberties of the colonies, even at the hazard of uttering words and urging action which might seem revolutionary and defiant. It was noteworthy and significant how careful a selection had been made of delegates. No doubt the most notable group was the group of Virginians: Colonel Washington; that “masterly man,” Richard Henry Lee, as Mr. John Adams called him, as effective in Philadelphia as he had been in the House of Burgesses; Patrick Henry, whose speech was so singularly compounded of thought and fire; Edmund Pendleton, who had read nothing but law books and knew nothing but business, and yet showed such winning grace and convincing frankness withal in debate; Colonel Harrison, brusque country gentleman, without art or subterfuge, downright and emphatic; Mr. Bland, alert and formidable at sixty-four, with the steady insight of the life-long student; and Mr. Peyton Randolph, their official leader and spokesman, whom the Congress chose its president, a man full of address, and seeming to carry privilege with him as a right inherited. Samuel Adams and John Adams had come from Massachusetts, with Mr. Cushing and Mr. Paine. South Carolina had sent two members of the Stamp Act Congress of 1765, Mr. Christopher Gadsden and Mr. John Rutledge, with Mr. Edward Rutledge also, a youth of twenty-five, and plain Mr. Lynch, clad in homespun, as direct and sensible and above ceremony as Colonel Harrison. Connecticut’s chief spokesman was Roger Sherman, rough as a peasant without, but in counsel very like a statesman, and in all things a hard-headed man of affairs. New York was represented by Mr. John Jay, not yet thirty, but of the quick parts of the scholar and the principles of a man of honor. Joseph Galloway, the well-poised Speaker and leader