1773.

SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT.

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A fast day proposed by the Assembly.

dressed the Governor to appoint a day for a general fast, on account of the calamity which had befallen the province. The answer to this insulting demand was, of course, a refusal; and the Governor, alarmed at the spirit thus manifested, adjourned the Assembly until the 7th of June, when they were to meet at Salem, in pursuance of the decree of the Imperial Parliament. The House on re-assembling voted a sarcastic address to the Governor, affecting to congratulate him on his appointment, and expressing a hope that his administration would present a happy contrast to that of his predecessor. They voted five hundred pounds towards the expenses of a General Congress; and were preparing a manifesto condemning, in the most unmeasured terms, the conduct of the English Government, and almost inculcating the duty of rebellion, when the Governor anticipated them by a hasty dissolution. And thus closed the last provincial Parliament which met under the auspices of the British Crown.

The dismissal of the Assembly, as might have been expected, increased the agitation. Public Final dismissal opinion, no longer allowed a vent through of the Assembly. the constitutional channel, broke out in the town meetings and committees of correspondence. Resolutions were passed, pledging the people to renounce all commercial dealings with Great Britain, and all intercourse with their fellow-countrymen, who should act otherwise. And this compact, in imitation of the stern confessors of liberty from whom they sprung, the people of New England called a 'solemn league and covenant.' But the measure upon which all their energies were concentrated, and to which they exhorted the other states, was the consideration of a plan of united action by means of a general representative Congress.

Before the recent attempt on the part of the English Government to revive and enforce the obnoxious

152

MILITARY PREPARATIONS.

CH. XVIII.

policy of taxation, the friends of British connection far exceeded the independent party in wealth, if not in numbers, even in Massachusetts; but in all the other North American colonies, they were decidedly preponderant. And up to the moment when the first collision of arms took place, there was a considerable minority reluctant to go extreme lengths in opposition to the mother-country, and decidedly averse to separation. A frank, unhesitating and unqualified change of policy, might, at this eleventh hour, for the time at least, have preserved the colonies and averted the peril and humiliation of the rupture which ensued. But the pride and obstinacy of the King, supported as they unhappily were, in this instance, by the domineering character of the English people, determined, at its commencement, the character and result of this quarrel. An arrogant contempt for the American people pervaded English society. The colonists were regarded as degenerate from the great parent race. Their pretensions to an equality of civil privileges were considered presumptuous. Their personal courage even was disparaged. And, it is certain, that the agents and parasites of the Crown were too prone to flatter this insolent spirit of depreciation. To the last it was believed, that the empty bluster of the provincials would subside before the unshaken will of the Central Government; and even when this opinion was dissipated by the events of Lexington and Ticonderoga, no doubt existed of the ultimate suppression of the revolt.

General contempt for the colonies.

Exasperation of the state of Massachusetts.

When the acts of the Imperial Parliament for the alteration of the Charter of Massachusetts, for transferring political offenders in that colony to the English tribunals, and for quartering troops upon the inhabitants, were promulgated through the province, it was no longer possible to maintain even the semblance of submis

1773.

COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

153

sion to the authority of the Crown; and General Gage, finding his remonstrances vain, and his proclamations unheeded, no longer hesitated to make open preparations for military defence. He drew together all the troops at his disposal, and fortified a narrow isthmus, called Boston neck, by which alone the town was accessible on the land side.

These hostile demonstrations were answered with alacrity by the insurgents. Armed con- Armed federacies were formed by the country confederacies. people, as well as by the inhabitants of Boston, but they cautiously refrained from open violence until a fitting opportunity offered.

The time arrived for appointing the Council according to the new law; but of the mem- Inability to bers nominated by the Governor, though form a Council. amounting only to thirty-six, there were found only twenty-four friends of British connection who were willing to incur the odium of taking the necessary oaths. The Council, therefore, could not be constituted. In these circumstances, the Governor recalled the writs for the new Assembly which was to meet in October; but the members already elected voted the proclamation illegal, and in default of the Governor's appearance to inaugurate the Assembly with the usual formalities, they declared themselves a provincial Congress, and proceeded forthwith to exercise, not only the functions of a legislative body, but to assume the powers of the Executive Government. They formed a Committee of Safety, which organised a militia force, appointed the officers, received reports, and directed the sheriffs and collectors of taxes to retain the proceeds of the public taxes, subject to their orders. General Gage issued a proclamation, denouncing this Assembly and their acts as seditious and treasonable. The proclamation was treated with contempt, and the orders of the Convention were implicitly obeyed.

154

Congress at
Philadelphia.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE

CH. XVIII.

While the popular cause was thus prosperous at Boston, the great Congress of the states assembled at Philadelphia. All the North American colonies sent delegates, with the exception of Georgia, which, though foremost in co-operating with the New England party, was, from some unexplained cause, unrepresented on this momentous occasion. The most distinguished citizens of their respective states were sent on this eventful mission. The two Adamses, whose patriotic ardour was tempered by prudence and skill, appeared on behalf of Massachusetts. Patrick Henry and Washington, were the representatives of Virginia; the one celebrated as the greatest orator of America, the other already noted for his superior wisdom, virtue, and authority. Dickinson, the author of the famous 'Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania,' which produced so great an effect in America, on the question of British taxation, was chosen as the delegate of his province. Peyton, Randolph, Quincey, Jefferson, and others, whose names were soon to become famous, are found among the fifty-six members of the first Congress. There were a few merchants and men of large landed property among the number, but the greater proportion consisted of lawyers. Some of them had from the first taken a decided part against the measures of the Home Government; but few of the violent democratic opponents of British connection were sent to Philadelphia; the great majority were men of moderate views, determined, indeed, on the redress of certain grievances, but desirous of maintaining the connection with the mother-country. Several of the delegates, indeed, brought express instructions from their constituents on this point.

The Congress conducted their deliberations with closed doors; but there could have been little question as to the course they were bound to pursue. A

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GENERAL CONGRESS.

155

consultative body armed with no direct powers, they could do no more than ratify by their authority the proceedings of the provincial assemblies. They also drew up their Declaration of Rights, enumerating and reviewing, according to the precedents of State papers of this class, the grievances of which they complained, and asserting the well-known claims of civil liberty, the rights, namely, of representative institutions, of self-taxation, of free discussion, of local trial by jury. The statement of these several rights and privileges was pointed by reference to the recent acts of the British Government. The perseverance in attempts at taxation, the prohibition of public meetings to discuss grievances, the violation of charters by altering the constitution of the Legislative Council, the change of venue in criminal indictments, were all acts of oppression and wrong, to which they plainly declared that the people of America would not submit.

These topics were varied in three other papers of a similar character, addressed respectively Papers of to the colonies, to the King, and to the Congress. people of Great Britain. These papers were highly creditable to the literary ability and good sense of their authors. Precise in statement, measured in language, well reasoned, and dignified in style, they were calculated to make an impression upon those who dissented most widely from their conclusions."

how

* I cannot quite concur, ever, in the eulogium pronounced upon the papers of Congress by Lord Chatham. When your lordships look at the papers transmitted to us from America; when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation-and it has been my

favourite study-I have read Thucydides, I have studied and admired the master states of the world-that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress of Philadelphia.'-Speech in the Lords, 20th January, 1775.