meantime, were in a tempest of rage.  I have heard, from men who saw those times, that, if the British commodore had put his threat in execution—­if, in so doing, as would have been inevitable, he had taken another human life, or shed another drop of American blood, not only would war have followed, but something worse than war, which, even at this distance of time, we tremble to contemplate.  The blood of innocent Englishmen would have been shed everywhere as a propitiation to the manes of our murdered countrymen.  Under these circumstances Tazewell dictated the celebrated letter of the mayor of Norfolk, which was admired over the whole country, not only for its spirit, but for the admirable tact with which it put the British commodore in the wrong.  That letter, which was written on the Fourth of July, begins with this paragraph: 

“Sir, I have received your menacing letter of yesterday.  The day on which this answer is written ought of itself to prove to the subjects of your sovereign that the American people are not to be intimidated by menace; or induced to adopt any measures except by a sense of their perfect propriety.  Seduced by the false show of security, they may be sometimes surprised and slaughtered, while unprepared to resist a supposed friend.  That delusive security is now passed forever.  The late occurrence has taught us to confide our safety no longer to anything than to our own force.  We do not seek hostility, nor shall we avoid it.  We are prepared for the worst you may attempt, and will do whatever shall be judged proper to repel force, whensoever your efforts shall render any act of ours necessary.  Thus much for the threats in your letter.”

Of this letter Tazewell was appointed to be the bearer, and, attended by a friend whose son is now a leading member of our bar,[7] delivered it to Commodore Douglas on board the Bellona frigate in the presence of the captains of the fleet.  An account of the scene is fortunately preserved by his own pen in a letter to the Mayor; and it is plain to see that the British captains, among whom was Sir Thomas Hardy, to whom Lord Nelson addressed in his dying moments that affectionate request, surprised and overwhelmed by the address and ability of Tazewell, recanted all their threats; and in their letter of the 5th breathed nothing but amity and peace.  Whoever will read the letter of Commodore Douglas of the 3d of July, and his letter of the 5th, will see the most amusing instance of backing out in the annals of diplomacy.  The federal government now took the case in hand, and the committee of safety in an eloquent address resigned the authority with which they had been invested by the people.