It was at this moment that Tom Paine's _Common Sense_ made its appearance. Although this pamphlet was bombastic, radical, and filled with absurdities, it fell in with the trend of the day, and so tended to crystallize thought in favor of independence. More than 100,000 copies were sold, and it was estimated that every third person in the colonies read it. "Where, some say, is the King of America? I'll tell you friend. He reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of England. A government of our own is our natural right. Ye who oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do: ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny." Reluctantly the leaders of thought in Virginia came to the conclusion that the British government was forcing them into independence. Jefferson wrote John Randolph in November, 1775, that he loved the union with Great Britain, "but by the God that made me I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose, and in this I think I speak the sentiments of America." Yet the Virginia convention, in August, 1775, had declared: "We again and for all, publickly and solemnly declare, before God and the world, that we do bear faith and true allegiance to his Majesty George the Third, our only lawful and rightful King."[57] But before the meeting of the convention of May 6, 1776, sentiment had changed. Jefferson said that nine out of every ten persons were now for independence.[58] In February, Benjamin Harrison had hinted strongly that the time was ripe for separation. In January Washington had written Joseph Reed that "a few more such flaming arguments" as Falmouth and Norfolk would not leave many to oppose a separation. On April 12 John Page predicted that independence would be voted in the approaching convention; two days later Carter Braxton expressed the opinion that independence was not only desirable but inevitable; Pendleton, though greatly disturbed at the prospect of separation, thought that no other course was possible. There was great excitement in Williamsburg when the delegates arrived to take their seats in the Hall of Burgesses for the opening of the convention. The crowds which filled the gallery must have pointed out each distinguished member as he entered--the aged Richard Bland; George Mason, his black hair now showing a touch of gray; Patrick Henry, in the plain garb he always wore; Richard Henry Lee, who had been called from Congress by the illness of his wife; James Madison, a small delicate young man, widely known as a scholar and political thinker; Edmund Pendleton, six feet in height, lithe, and handsome; Robert Carter Nicholas, Henry Lee, Edmund Randolph.[59]