The work of Jefferson in this instanco
having attracted such wide-spread and
thoughtful attention, he was rocognized
a one of the most advaueod thinkers, bril
Ihmt writers and greatest students of the
period and his tiold uncompromising ad
vocacy of cousjitutional freedom gained
him more friends than enemies, although
there were no scarcity of the latter. Th
next stage in the evolution of the declara
tion was the issuance of Virginia's reply
to the letter which Lord North, prime
minister to t;eoivre III, had sent to the
colonies in an effort to conciliate them and
prolong the Misponse which he saw could
cnly end in contiict sooner or later. This
paper was also drawn up by Thomas Jef
ferson, and on June 1, 1773, he was com-
imsrMued by the Virginia assembly to
tivey it to the Continental Congress then
in convention at Philadelphia, where, tho
reply, bold, forceful, defiant, met with the
warmest approbation and took his place as
a leading spirit m the assemblage of pa-
1 riots. An answer was then forwarded to
Lord North from Congress and in Novem
ber came back the news that it, like all
previous appeals, had been rejected.
In January. 177G. Benjamin Franklin laid
lofore Congress a plan for a confederation
of tho colonies, but it was bitterly opposed
by John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and
was thrown aside. The people, whigs as
well as tories. now began to realize that a
time for decisive action was near at band.
