It was the attempt to coerce the people of Massachusetts, in an unconstitutional manner, to compliance with unconstitutional laws, on the part of the British government, more than any actual grievances of their own, that aroused the people of Virginia to action, as that coercion if successfully applied to one colony, might be used for the destruction of all self-government in the others. This became the traditional policy of Virginia as a sovereign State. After the struggle began, she gave a leader to the continental army, her wisest and best statesmen to the colonial councils, her arms-bearing citizens to the ranks, and her resources to the prosecution of the war. That war which was begun in Massachusetts, long after it ceased to exist within the limits of that State, was finally, practically, ended on the soil of Virginia, after that soil had been terribly ravaged by the invading armies of Great Britain. Motives similar to those which actuated Virginia, prompted the action of all of the other Southern colonies, and none suffered greater losses in war for the common defence than South Carolina. This statement is not made in order to claim for Virginia and the other Southern States more than their due share of credit for services in the war of the Revolution, nor to depreciate the valuable services rendered by the more northern states of the confederation. The war was prosecuted by the colonies as a confederacy of sovereign States. The Continental Congress was in fact but a congress of commissioners or embassadors, whose acts derived their validity from the tacit adoption and sanction of the several States, and the delegates were at all times subject to recall and substitution, by the appointment of others--a power which was repeatedly exercised. The Declaration of Independence itself, was made in accordance with powers expressly delegated for that purpose to the representatives of the several appointing powers, and derived its force not from the action of Congress, but from the adoption of that action by those represented in that body. In the case of Virginia, her independence had been declared by a convention of her own, and a State Government had been actually organized in advance of the action of Congress, and she was the first thus to assert her sovereignty. On the 15th of May, 1776, the Virginia convention resolved to adopt a bill of rights and frame a State government, and on the 29th of June following, the government was put into operation by the election of a governor and other officers--a Bill of Rights and State Constitution having been framed and adopted in the meantime.