Credentials of the Delegates from Virginia

v3:1878

"Saturday, August 12, 1775.

"Richard Bland, Esq˙, returned this Convention his most grateful acknowledgments for the great honour they had pleased a third time to confer on him, by appointing him one of the Deputies to represent this Colony in General Congress, and said that this fresh instance of their approbation was sufficient for an old man, almost deprived of sight, whose greatest ambition had ever been to receive the plaudit of his Country, whenever he should retire from the publick stage of life: That the honourable testimony he lately received of this approbation, joined with his present appointment, should ever animate him, as far as he was able, to support the glorious cause in which America is now engaged, but that his advanced age rendered him incapable of taking an active part in those weighty and important concerns which must necessarily be agitated in the great Council of the United Colonies; and therefore begging leave to decline the honour they had been pleased to confer on him, and desiring that some person, more fit and able, might supply his place.

"Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of this Convention are justly due to the said Richard Bland, Esq˙, one of the worthy Deputies who represented tins Colony in the late Continental Congress, for his faithful discharge of that important trust, and this body are only induced to dispense with his future services of the like nature, on account of his advanced age.