[103] [In 1781, the depredations of the enemy, and the public and private losses which they occasioned, produced the ordinary effect of complaint against those who had charge of the public defence, and especially against Mr. Jefferson (the Governor of Virginia). A popular clamor was excited against him, and, under the impulses of the moment, Mr. George Nicholas, a member from Albermarle, moved his impeachment. The charges were, 1. That he had not, as soon as advised by General Washington of the meditated invasion, put the country in a state of preparation and defence; 2. That during the invasion, he did not use the means of resistance which were at his command; 3. That he too much consulted his personal safety, when Arnold first entered Richmond, by which others were dispirited and discouraged; 4. That he ignominiously fled from Monticello to the neighboring mountain on Tarleton's approach to Charlottesville; and 5. That he abandoned the office of Governor as soon as it became one of difficulty and danger. Mr. Jefferson has been long since acquitted of these charges by the almost unanimous voice of his countrymen.--ED.] [104] [The battle of Yorktown.] [105] [The title of Virginia to the Northwestern territory was controverted, as early as 1779, by some of the other States, upon the ground that all lands, the title of which had originally been in the crown and had never been alienated, were the common property of the Confederation, by right of conquest--the revolution having transferred the title from the British sovereign to the Confederation. This view was resisted by Virginia in an able remonstrance to Congress in October, 1779. The question, however, never came to an issue; for Virginia, moved by a patriotic impulse, and ready to sacrifice her individual interest to the general good, made a voluntary cession of the whole territory to the Confederation.]