The following year the British ministry, in answer to petitions for redress of grievances, sent to the legislature of the Old Dominion a series of propositions that _they_ termed conciliatory but which added insult to injury. Their fallacy was exposed by Mr. Jefferson in such a masterly strain of eloquent burning logic and sarcasm, that conviction was carried to a large majority of his colleagues. They were referred to a committee which reported an answer written by him and was very similar to the Declaration of Independence. This reply was immediately adopted. The ball of resistance was put in motion--the electric fluid of patriotism commenced its insulating powers in the north and south--extending from sire to son, from heart to heart, until the two streams of fire met in the centre--then rising in grandeur, formed the luminous arch of Freedom--its chord extending from Maine to Georgia--its versed sine resting on the city Penn. Under its zenith at Philadelphia, Mr. Jefferson took his seat in the Continental Congress on the 21st of June 1775. Although one of the youngest members of that venerated assembly of patriotic sages, he was hailed as one of its main pillars. Known as a man of superior intelligence, liberal sentiments, strict integrity, stern republicanism and unbending patriotism--his influence was strongly felt and judiciously exercised. From the beginning he advocated a separation from the mother country and ably met every objection urged against it. In his view, oppression, not recognised by Magna Charta, had dissolved all allegiance to the crown--that the original contract had been cancelled on the heights of Lexington by American blood. Submission was no longer a virtue--the measure of wrongs had been overflowing for years--public sentiment demanded the sundering of the Gordian knot--a voice from Heaven proclaimed in tones of thunder--"_Let my people go_."