"He would therefore propose that the town of Boston should be obliged to pay for the tea which had been destroyed in their port: that the injury was indeed offered by persons unknown and in disguise, but that the town magistracy had taken no notice of it, had never made any search for the offenders, and therefore, by a neglect of manifest duty, became accomplices in the guilt: that the fining of communities for their neglect in punishing offences committed within their limits was justified by several examples. In King Charles the Second's time, the city of London was fined when Dr. Lamb was killed by unknown persons. The city of Edinburgh was fined and otherwise punished for the affair of Captain Porteous. A part of the revenue of the town of Glasgow had been sequestered until satisfaction was made for the pulling down of Mr. Campbell's house. These examples were strong in point for such punishments. The case of Boston was far worse. It was not a single act of violence; it was a series of seditious practices of every kind, and carried on for several years.

"He was of opinion, therefore, that it would not be sufficient to punish the town of Boston by obliging her to make a pecuniary satisfaction for the injury which, by not endeavouring to prevent or punish, she has, in fact, encouraged; security must be given in future that trade may be safely carried on, property protected, laws obeyed, and duties regularly paid. Otherwise the punishment of a single illegal act is no reformation. It would be therefore proper to take away from Boston the privilege of a port until his Majesty should be satisfied in these particulars, and publicly declare in Council, on a proper certificate of the good behaviour of the town, that he was so satisfied. Until this should happen, the Custom-house officers, who were now not safe in Boston, or safe no longer than while they neglected their duty, should be removed to Salem, where they might exercise their functions."[328]

The Bill passed the first reading without discussion. At the second reading, Mr. Byng alone voted no, though there was considerable discussion. "Mr. Bollan, the agent for the Council of Massachusetts Bay, presented a petition, desiring to be heard in behalf of said Council and other inhabitants of Boston; but the House refused to receive the petition."[329]

At the third reading, the Lord Mayor of London presented a petition in behalf of several natives and inhabitants of North America then in London. "It was drawn," says the Annual Register, "with remarkable ability." The petitioners alleged that "the proceedings were repugnant to every principle of law and justice, and under such a precedent no man in America could enjoy a moment's security; for if judgment be immediately to follow on accusation against the people of America, supported by persons notoriously at enmity with them, the accused unacquainted with the charges, and from the nature of their situation utterly incapable of answering and defending themselves, every fence against false accusation will be pulled down.

"They asserted that law is executed with as much impartiality in America as in any part of his Majesty's dominions. They appealed for proof of this to the fair trial and favourable verdict in the case of Captain Preston and his soldiers.

"That in such a case the interposition of parliamentary power was full of danger and without precedent. The persons committing the injury were unknown. If discovered, the law ought first to be tried. If unknown, what rule of justice can punish the town for a civil injury committed by persons not known to them?

"That the instances of the cities of London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow were wholly dissimilar. All these towns were regularly heard in their own defence. Their magistrates were of their own choosing (which was not the case of Boston), and therefore they were more equitably responsible. But in Boston the King's Governor has the power, and had been advised by his Council to exert it; if it has been neglected, he alone is answerable."[330] In conclusion, the petitioners strongly insisted on the injustice of the Act, and its tendency to alienate the affections of America from the mother country.

The petition was received, but no particular proceedings took place upon it.

The Bill passed the House on the 25th of March, and was carried up to the Lords, where it was likewise warmly debated; but, as in the Commons, without a division. It received the Royal assent on the 31st of March.[331]

Dr. Ramsay remarks: "By the operation of the Boston Port Act, the preceding situation of its inhabitants and that of the East India Company was reversed. The former had more reason to complain of the disproportionate penalty to which they were indiscriminately subjected, than the latter of that outrage on their property, for which punishment had been inflicted. Hitherto the East India Company were the injured party; but from the passing of this Act the balance of injury was on the opposite side. If wrongs received entitled the former to reparation, the latter had a much stronger title on the same ground. For the act of seventeen or eighteen individuals, as many thousands were involved in one general calamity."[332]

Shortly after the passing of the Boston Port Bill, the second Bill was brought into Parliament, entitled "An Act for the Better Regulating of the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay." This Bill was brought in on the 28th of March, three days before the Royal assent was given to the Boston Port Bill. As the town of Boston had received no notice of the Bill which closed its port, and had therefore no opportunity to vindicate its conduct or rights; so the Province received no notice of the Bill which changed its system of government, which abrogated so much of its Charter as gave to its Legislative Assembly the choice of the Council; abolished town meetings, except for the choice of town officers, or on the special permission of the Governor, which gave to the Crown the appointment and removal of the sheriffs, and to the sheriffs the selection of the juries, which had hitherto been elected by the people. After an animated debate, led by Dunning in opposition, the Bill passed the Commons by a vote of more than three to one.

The third penal Bill brought in and passed was said to have been specially recommended by the King himself. It authorized, at the discretion of the Governor, the removal for trial to Nova Scotia or Great Britain of all magistrates, revenue officers, or soldiers indicted for murder or other capital offence. Mr. Bancroft says: "As Lord North brought forward this wholesale Bill of indemnity to the Governor and soldiers, if they should trample upon the people of Boston and be charged with murder, it was noticed that he trembled and faltered at every word; showing that he was the vassal of a stronger will than his own, and vainly struggled to wrestle down the feelings which his nature refused to disavow."[333]

Colonel Barre, who had supported the Boston Port Bill, said: "I execrate the present measure; you have had one meeting of the colonies in Congress. You may soon have another. The Americans will not abandon their principles; for if they submit they are slaves." The Bill passed the Commons by a vote of more than four to one.

The fourth Bill legalized the quartering of troops within the town of Boston.

The question now arises, What were the effects of these measures upon the colonies? We answer, the effects of these measures were the very reverse of what had been anticipated and predicted by their advocates in England, both in and out of Parliament. The general expectation in England was that they would not be resisted in America; that Boston and Massachusetts would submit; that if they should not submit, they would be isolated from the other provinces, who would not identify themselves with or countenance the extreme proceedings of Boston and of Massachusetts. These measures had been adopted by the Government and Parliament of Great Britain in the months of March and April, and were to take effect the 1st of June. In the two following months of May and June, America spoke, and twelve colonies out of thirteen (Georgia alone excepted) protested against the measures of the British Parliament, and expressed their sympathy with Boston and Massachusetts. Boston itself spoke first, and instead of submitting, as had been predicted by Lords Mansfield and others, held a town meeting as soon as they received intelligence of the passing of the Boston Port Bill, at which resolutions were passed expressing their opinion of the impolicy, injustice, inhumanity and cruelty of this Act, from which they appealed to God and to the world; also inviting other colonies to join with them in an agreement to stop all imports and exports to and from Great Britain and Ireland and the West Indies until the Act should be repealed.[334]

Mr. Bancroft, remarks:

"The merchants of Newburyport were the first who agreed to suspend all commerce with Britain and Ireland. Salem, also, the place marked out as the new seat of government, in a very full town meeting, and after unimpassioned debates, decided almost unanimously to stop trade, not with Britain only, but even with the West Indies. If in Boston a few cravens proposed to purchase a relaxation of the blockade by quailing before power, the majority were beset by no temptation so strong as that of routing at once the insignificant number of troops who had come to overawe them. But Samuel Adams, while he compared their spirit to that of Sparta or Rome, was ever inculcating patience as the characteristic of a true patriot; and the people having sent forth their cry to the continent, waited self-possessed for voices of consolation."[335]

In the meantime, according to the provisions of the Charter, the Legislature of Massachusetts, the last Wednesday in May, proceeded to nominate the twenty-eight councillors. Of these, General Gage negatived the unprecedented number of thirteen, including all the popular leaders nominated. He laid nothing before the General Assembly but the ordinary business of the province; but gave notice that the seat of government would be removed to Salem the 1st of June, in pursuance of the Act for Closing the Port of Boston.

The Legislature reassembled, according to adjournment, at Salem the 7th day of June,[336] after ten days' prorogation, and on the 9th the Council replied to the Governor's speech at the opening of the session. Their answer was respectful, but firmly and loyally expressive of their views and feelings. They declared their readiness "on all occasions cheerfully to co-operate with his Excellency" in every step tending to "restore harmony" and "extricate the province from their present embarrassments," which, in their estimation, were attributable to the conduct of his "two immediate predecessors." They at the same time affirmed that "the inhabitants of the colony claimed no more than the rights of Englishmen, without diminution or abridgment;" and that these, "as it was their indispensable duty, so would it be their constant endeavour to maintain to the utmost of their power, in perfect consistence with the truest loyalty to the Crown, the just prerogatives of which they should ever be zealous to support." To this address the Governor replied in the following bitter words: "I cannot receive this address, which contains indecent reflections on my predecessors, who have been tried and honourably acquitted by the Lords of the Privy Council, and their conduct approved by the King. I consider this address as an insult upon his Majesty and the Lords of the Privy Council, and an affront to myself."

The answer of the Assembly was very courteous, but equally decided with that of the Council. They congratulated his Excellency on his safe arrival, and declared that they "honoured him in the most exalted station of the province, and confided in him to make the known Constitution and Charter the rule of his administration;" they "deprecated the removal of the Court to Salem," but expressed a hope that "the true state of the province, and the character of his Majesty's subjects in it, their loyalty to their Sovereign and their affection for the parent country,[337] as well as their invincible attachment to their just rights and liberties, would be laid before his Majesty, and that he would be the happy instrument of removing his Majesty's displeasure, and restoring harmony, which had been long interrupted by the artifices of interested and designing men."

The House of Representatives, after much private consultation among its leading members, proceeded with closed doors to the consideration and adoption, by a majority of 92 to 12, of resolutions declaring the necessity of a general meeting of all the colonies in Congress, "in order to consult together upon the present state of the colonies, and the miseries to which they are and must be reduced by the operation of certain Acts of Parliament respecting America; and to deliberate and determine upon wise and proper measures to be by them recommended to all the colonies for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, most ardently to be desired by all good men." They elected five gentlemen to represent Massachusetts to the proposed Congress.

The House also proceeded with all expedition to draw up a declaration of their sentiments, to be published as a rule for the conduct of the people of Massachusetts. "This declaration," says Dr. Andrews, "contained a repetition of grievances; the necessity they were now under of struggling against lawless power; the disregard of their petitions, though founded on the clearest and most equitable reasons; the evident intention of Great Britain to destroy the Constitution transmitted to them from their ancestors, and to erect upon its ruins a system of absolute sway, incompatible with their disposition and subversive of the rights they had uninterruptedly enjoyed during the space of more than a century and a half. Impelled by these motives, they thought it their duty to advise the inhabitants of Massachusetts to throw every obstruction in their power in the way of such evil designs, and recommended as one of the most effectual, a total disuse of all importations from Great Britain until an entire redress had been obtained of every grievance.

"Notwithstanding the secrecy with which this business was carried on," continues Dr. Andrews, "the Governor was apprized of it; and on the very day it was completed, and the report of it made to the House (and adopted), he dissolved the Assembly, which was the last that was held in that colony agreeably to the tenor of the Charter."[338]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 325: "The discontents and disorders continue to prevail in a greater or less degree through all the old colonies on the continent. The same spirit pervades the whole. Even those colonies which depended most upon the mother country for the consumption of their productions entered into similar associations with the others; and nothing was to be heard of but resolutions for the encouragement of their own manufactures, the consumption of home products, the discouragement of foreign articles, and the retrenchment of all superfluities." (English Annual Register for 1774, Vol. XVII., p. 45.)]

[Footnote 326: Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. II., pp. 185, 186. These three Bills were followed by a fourth, legalizing the quartering of the troops on the inhabitants in the town of Boston.]

[Footnote 327: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. lii, pp. 503-510. Mr. Bancroft says:

"The next day letters arrived from America, manifesting no change in the conduct of the colonies. Calumny, with its hundred tongues, exaggerated the turbulence of the people, and invented wild tales of violence. It was said at the palace, and the King believed, that there was in Boston a regular committee for tarring and feathering; and that they were next, to use the King's expression, 'to pitch and feather' Governor Hutchinson himself. The press was also employed to rouse the national pride, till the zeal of the English people for maintaining English supremacy became equal to the passions of the Ministry. Even the merchants and manufacturers were made to believe that their command of the American market depended on the enforcement of the British claim of authority."—Ib., p. 511.]

[Footnote 328: Annual Register for 1774, Vol. XVII., pp. 62, 63. "At the first introduction, the Bill was received with very general applause. The cry raised against the Americans, partly the natural effect of their own acts, and partly of the operations of Government, was so strong as nearly to overbear the most resolute and determined in the opposition. Several of those who had been the most sanguine favourers of the colonies now condemned their behaviour and applauded the measure as not only just but lenient (even Colonel Barre). He said: 'After having weighed the noble lord's proposition well, I cannot help giving it my hearty and determined approval.' Others, indeed (as Dowdeswill and Edmund Burke), stood firmly by their old ground. They contented themselves, in that stage of the business, with deprecating the Bill; predicting the most fatal consequences from it, and lamenting the spirit of the House, which drove on or was driving on to the most violent measures, by the mischiefs produced by injudicious counsels; one seeming to render the other necessary. They declared that they would enter little into a debate which they saw would be fruitless, and only spoke to clear themselves from having any share in such fatal proceedings."—Ib., pp. 164, 165.]

[Footnote 329: Annual Register for 1774, Vol. XVII., p. 65, which adds: "This vote of rejection was heavily censured. The opposition cried out at the inconsistency of the House, who but a few days ago received a petition from this very man, in this very character; and now, only because they chose to exert their power in acts of injustice and contradiction, totally refuse to receive anything from him, as not duly qualified. But what, they asserted, made this conduct the more unnecessary and outrageous was, that at that time the House of Lords were actually hearing Mr. Bollan on his petition, as a person duly qualified, at their bar. 'Thus,' said they, 'this House is at once in contradiction to the other and to itself.' As to the reasons given against his qualifications, they are equally applicable to all American agents; none of whom are appointed as the Minister now requires they should be, and thus this House cuts off communication between them and the colonies whom they are assisting by their acts."]

[Footnote 330: Annual Register for 1774, Vol. XVII., pp. 65, 66.]

[Footnote 331: Ib., p. 67.

The Bill underwent a more full and fair discussion in the House of Lords than in the House of Commons. The amiable Lord Dartmouth, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, "a man that prayed," desired lenient measures, called what passed in Boston "commotion," not open "rebellion." But Lord Mansfield said, "What passed in Boston is the last overt act of high treason, proceeding from our own lenity and want of foresight. It is, however, the luckiest event that could befall this country, for all may now be recovered. Compensation to the East India Company I regard as no object of the Bill. The sword is drawn, and you must throw away the scabbard. Pass this Act, and you will be past the Rubicon. The Americans will then know that we shall not temporize any longer; if it passes with a tolerable unanimity, Boston will submit, and all will end in victory without carnage." The Marquis of Rockingham and the Duke of Richmond warmly opposed the measure, as did Lords Camden and Shelburne, the latter of whom proved the tranquil and loyal condition in which he had left the colonies on giving up their administration.]

[Footnote 332: Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. iv., p. 379.

"The inhabitants of Boston, distinguished for politeness and hospitality no less than for industry and opulence, were sentenced, on the short notice of twenty days, to a deprivation of the means of subsistence. The rents of landholders ceased, or were greatly diminished. The immense property in stores and wharves was rendered in a great measure useless. Labourers and artificers, and many others employed in the numerous occupations created by an extensive trade, shared the general calamity. Those of the people who depended on a regular income, and those who earned their subsistence by daily labour, were equally deprived of the means of support. Animated, however, by the spirit of freedom, they endured their privations with inflexible fortitude. Their sufferings were soon mitigated by the sympathy and relieved by the charity of the other colonists. Contributions were everywhere raised for their relief. Corporate bodies, town meetings, and provincial conventions sent them letters and addresses applauding their conduct and exhorting them to perseverance. The inhabitants of Marblehead (which was to be the seaport instead of Boston) generously offered the Boston merchants the use of their harbour, wharves, warehouses, and their personal attendance, on the lading or unlading of their goods, free of all expense. The inhabitants of Salem (the newly appointed capital) concluded an address to Governor Gage in a manner that reflected great honour on their virtue and patriotism. 'By shutting up the port of Boston,' they said, 'some imagine that the course of trade might be turned hither, and to our benefit; but nature, in the formation of our harbour, forbids our becoming rivals in commerce with that convenient mart; and were it otherwise, we must be dead to every idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we indulge one thought to seize on wealth and raise our fortunes on the ruins of our suffering neighbours.'" (Holmes' Annals, etc., Vol. II., pp. 187, 188.)]

[Footnote 333: History of the United States, Vol. VI., Chap. lii., pp. 525, 526.]

[Footnote 334: Marshall's Colonial History, Chap. xiv., p. 405.

"As soon as the Act was received, the Boston Committee of Correspondence, by the hand of Joseph Warren, invited eight neighbouring towns to a conference 'on the critical state of public affairs.' On the 12th, at noon, Metcalf Bowler, the Speaker of the Assembly of Rhode Island, came before them with the cheering news that, in answer to a recent circular letter from the body over which he presided, all the thirteen Governments were pledged to union. Punctually at the hour of three in the afternoon of that day, the committees from the eight villages joined them in Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American liberty, where for ten years the freemen of the town had debated the great question of justifiable resistance. Placing Samuel Adams at their head, and guided by a report prepared by Joseph Warren of Boston, Gardener of Cambridge, and others, they agreed unanimously on the injustice and cruelty of the Act by which Parliament, without competent jurisdiction, and contrary as well to natural right as to the laws of all civilized states, had, without a hearing, set apart, accused, tried and condemmed the town of Boston." (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap, i., pp. 35, 36.)]

[Footnote 335: History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap, x., pp. 38, 39.

Referring to General Gage's arrival at Boston, as Commander-in-Chief of the continent as well as successor to Hutchinson as Governor of Massachusetts, Mr. Bancroft says:

"On the 17th of May, Gage, who had remained four days with Hutchinson at Castle William, landed at Long Wharf amidst salutes from ships and batteries. Received by the Council and civil officers, he was escorted by the Boston cadets, under Hancock, to the State House, where the Council presented a loyal address, and his commission was proclaimed with three volleys of musketry and as many cheers. He then partook of a public dinner in Faneuil Hall. A hope still lingered that relief might come through his intercession. But Gage was neither fit to reconcile nor to subdue. By his mild temper and love of society, he gained the good-will of his boon companions, and escaped personal enmities; but in earnest business he inspired neither confidence nor fear. Though his disposition was far from being malignant, he was so poor in spirit and so weak of will, so dull in his perceptions and so unsettled in his opinions, that he was sure to follow the worst advice, and vacillate between smooth words of concession and merciless severity. He had promised the King that with four regiments he would play the lion, and troops beyond his requisition were hourly expected. His instructions enjoined upon him the seizure and condign punishment of Samuel Adams, Hancock, Joseph Warren, and other leading patriots; but he stood in such dread of them that he never so much as attempted their arrest."—Ib., pp. 37, 38.]

[Footnote 336: But before the prorogation, which took place the 28th of May, the Assembly desired the Governor to appoint the 1st day of June as a day of fasting and prayer; but he refused, assigning as a reason, in a letter to Lord Dartmouth, that "the request was only to give an opportunity for sedition to flow from the pulpit."]

[Footnote 337: "The people of Massachusetts were almost exclusively of English origin. Beyond any other colony they loved the land of their ancestors; but their fond attachment made them only the more sensitive to its tyranny. To subject them to taxation without their consent was robbing them of their birthright; they scorned the British Parliament as a 'Junta of the servants of the Crown rather than the representatives of England.' Not disguising to themselves their danger, but confident of victory, they were resolved to stand together as brothers for a life of liberty." (Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap. i., p. 38).]

[Footnote 338: History of the War with America, France and Spain, and Holland, commencing in 1775, and ending in 1783. By John Andrews, LL.D., in four volumes, with Maps and Charts. London: Published by his Majesty's Royal Licence and Authority, 1788. Vol. I., pp. 137, 138.

A more minute and graphic account of the close of this session of the Massachusetts Court or Legislature is as follows:

"On the appointed day the doors were closed and the subject was broached; but before any action could be taken in the premises, a loyalist member obtained leave of absence and immediately dispatched a messenger to Gage, to inform him of what was passing. The Governor, in great haste, sent the Secretary to dissolve the Court. Finding the door locked, he knocked for admission, but was answered, that 'The House was upon very important business, which when they had finished, they would let him in.' Failing to obtain an entrance, he stood upon the steps and read the proclamation in the hearing of several members and others, and after reading it in the Council Chamber, returned. The House took no notice of this message, but proceeded with their business; and, by a vote of 117 to 12, having determined that a Committee should be appointed to meet, as soon as may be, the Committees that are or shall be appointed by the several colonies on this continent to consult together upon the present state of the colonies, James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine were selected for that purpose, and funds were provided for defraying their expenses." (Barry's History of Massachusetts, Second Period, Chap. xiv., pp. 484, 485.)]



CHAPTER XIX.

1774, UNTIL THE MEETING OF THE FIRST GENERAL CONGRESS IN SEPTEMBER.

The responses to the appeals of Boston and the proposals of the Assembly of Massachusetts, for a meeting of Congress of all the colonies, were prompt and general and sympathetic beyond what had been anticipated; and in some colonies the expressions of approval and offers of co-operation and assistance preceded any knowledge of what was doing, or had been done, in Massachusetts.

In Virginia the House of Burgesses were in session when the news arrived from England announcing the passing by the British Parliament of the Boston Port Bill; and on the 26th of May the House resolved that the 1st of June, the day on which that Bill was to go into effect, should be set apart by the members as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, "devoutly to implore the Divine interposition for averting the heavy calamities which threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil war, and to give them one heart and one mind to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American rights." On the publication of this resolution, the Governor (the Earl of Dunmore) dissolved the House. But the members, before separating, entered into an association and signed an agreement, to the number of 87, in which, among other things, they declared "that an attack made on one of their sister colonies, to compel submission to arbitrary taxes, was an attack made on all British America, and threatened ruin to the civil rights of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole be applied in prevention." They therefore recommended to their Committee of Correspondence to communicate with the several Committees of the other provinces, on the expediency of appointing deputies from the different colonies, to meet annually in Congress, and to deliberate on the common interests of America. This measure had already been proposed in town meetings, both in New York and Boston. The colonies, from New Hampshire to South Carolina inclusive, adopted this measure; and where the Legislatures were not in session, elections were made by the people.[339]

While there was a general agreement of sentiment throughout the colonies in favour of a Congress or Convention of all the colonies to consult on common rights and interests, and to devise the best means of securing them, there was also a corresponding sympathy and liberality for the relief of the inhabitants of Boston, who were considered as suffering for the maintenance of rights sacred to the liberties of all the colonies, as all had resisted successfully the landing of the tea, the badge of their enslavement, though all had not been driven by the Governor, as in the case of Massachusetts, to destroy it in order to prevent its being landed. Yet even this had been done to some extent both in South Carolina and New York.

The town of Boston became an object of interest, and its inhabitants subjects of sympathy throughout the colonies of America. All the histories of those times agree "that as soon as the true character of the Boston Port Act became known in America, every colony, every city, every village, and, as it were, the inmates of every farm-house, felt it as a wound of their affections. The towns of Massachusetts abounded in kind offices. The colonies vied with each other in liberality. The record kept at Boston shows that 'the patriotic and generous people' of South Carolina were the first to minister to the sufferers, sending early in June two hundred barrels of rice, and promising eight hundred more. At Wilmington, North Carolina, the sum of two thousand pounds currency was raised in a few days; the women of the place gave liberally. Throughout all New England the towns sent rye, flour, peas, cattle, sheep, oil, fish; whatever the land or hook and line could furnish, and sometimes gifts of money. The French inhabitants of Quebec, joining with those of English origin, shipped a thousand and forty bushels of wheat. Delaware was so much in earnest that it devised plans for sending relief annually. All Maryland and all Virginia were contributing liberally and cheerfully, being resolved that the men of Boston, who were deprived of their daily labour, should not lose their daily bread, nor be compelled to change their residence for want. In Fairfax county, Washington presided at a spirited meeting, and headed a subscription paper with his own gift of fifty pounds. A special chronicle could hardly enumerate all the generous deeds. Cheered by the universal sympathy, the inhabitants of Boston 'were determined to hold out and appeal to the justice of the colonies and of the world;' trusting in God that 'these things should be overruled for the establishment of liberty, virtue and happiness in America.'"[340]

It is worthy of inquiry, as to how information could be so rapidly circulated throughout colonies sparsely settled over a territory larger than that of Europe, and expressions of sentiment and feeling elicited from their remotest settlements? For, as Dr. Ramsay says, "in the three first months which followed the shutting up of the port of Boston, the inhabitants of the colonies, in hundreds of small circles as well as in their Provincial Assemblies and Congresses, expressed their abhorrence of the late proceedings of the British Parliament against Massachusetts; their concurrence in the proposed measure of appointing deputies for a General Congress; and their willingness to do and suffer whatever should be judged conducive to the establishment of their liberties."[341] "In order to understand," says the same author, "the mode by which this flame was spread with such rapidity over so great an extent of country, it is necessary to observe that the several colonies were divided into counties, and these again subdivided into districts, distinguished by the names of towns, townships, precincts, hundreds, or parishes. In New England, the subdivisions which are called towns were, by law, bodies corporate; had their regular meetings, and might be occasionally convened by their officers. The advantages derived from these meetings, by uniting the whole body of the people in the measures taken to oppose the Stamp Act, induced other provinces to follow the example. Accordingly, under the Association which was formed to oppose the Revenue Act of 1767, Committees were established, not only in the capital of every province, but in most of the subordinate districts. Great Britain, without designing it, had, by her two preceding attempts at American revenue, taught her colonies not only the advantage but the means of union. The system of Committees which prevailed in 1765, and also in 1767, was revived in 1774. By them there was a quick transmission of intelligence from the capital towns through the subordinate districts to the whole body of the people; a union of counsels and measures was effected, among widely disseminated inhabitants."[342]

It will be observed that the three Acts passed by Parliament in respect to Massachusetts, and the fourth, for quartering soldiers in towns, changed the Charter of the province, and multiplied the causes of difference between Great Britain and the colonies. To the causes of dissatisfaction in the colonies arising from the taxing of them assumed by Parliament (now only threepence a pound on tea), the arrangement with the East India Company and the Courts of Admiralty, depriving the colonists of the right of trial by jury, were now added the Boston Port Bill, the Regulating Act, the Act which essentially changed the chartered Constitution of Massachusetts, and the Act which transferred Government officers accused of murder, to be removed to England. Mr. Bancroft justly observes that "the Regulating Act complicated the question between America and Great Britain. The country, under the advice of Pennsylvania, might have indemnified the East India Company, might have obtained by importunity the repeal of the tax on tea, or might have borne the duty, as it had borne that on wine; but Parliament, after ten years of premeditation, had exercised the power to abrogate the laws and to change the Charter of a province without its consent; and on this arose the conflict of the American Revolution."[343]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 339: Marshall's History of the American Colonies, Chap. xiv., pp. 406, 407.

"Resolutions were passed in every colony in which Legislatures were convened, or delegates assembled in Convention, manifesting different degrees of resentment, but concurring in the same great principles. All declared that the cause of Boston was the cause of British America; that the late Acts respecting that devoted town were tyrannical and unconstitutional; that the opposition to this unministerial system of oppression ought to be universally and perseveringly maintained; that all intercourse with the parent country ought to be suspended, and domestic manufactures encouraged; and that a General Congress should be formed for the purpose of uniting and guiding the Councils and directing the efforts of North America.

"The Committees of Correspondence selected Philadelphia for the place, and the beginning of September as the time, for the meeting of this important Council."—Ib., pp. 409, 410.]

[Footnote 340: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., pp. 72-75.]

[Footnote 341: Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. v., p. 398.]

[Footnote 342: Ib., pp. 395, 396.

"It is, perhaps, impossible for human wisdom to contrive any system more subservient to these purposes than such a reciprocal exchange of intelligence by Committees of Correspondence. From want of such a communication with each other, and consequently of union among themselves, many States have lost their liberties, and more have been unsuccessful in their attempts to regain them after they were lost.

"What the eloquence and talents of Demosthenes could not effect among the States of Greece, might have been effected by the simple device of Committees of Correspondence. The few have been enabled to keep the many in subjection in every age from the want of union among the latter. Several of the provinces of Spain complained of oppression under Charles the Fifth, and in transports of rage took arms against him; but they never consulted or communicated with each other. They resisted separately, and were, therefore, separately subdued."—Ib., p. 396.]

[Footnote 343: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap. viii., p. 97.

The authority of this new Act was never acknowledged in Massachusetts. Of the 36 Legislative Councillors nominated by the Crown, one-third of them declined to accept the appointment, and nearly all who did accept were soon compelled, by the remonstrances and threats of their neighbours, to resign. So alarmed was Governor Gage, that after he had summoned the new Legislature to meet him at Salem, he countermanded his summons by proclamation; but which was considered unlawful, and the Assembly met, organized itself, and passed resolutions on grievances, and adopted other proceedings to further the opposition to the new Act and other Acts complained of.

Even the Courts could not be held. At Boston the judges took their seats, and the usual proclamations were made; when the men who had been returned as jurors, one and all, refused to take the oath. Being asked why they refused, Thomas Chase, one of the petit jury, gave as his reason, "that the Chief Justice of the Court stood impeached by the late representatives of the province." In a paper offered by the jury, the judges found their authority disputed for further reasons, that the Charter of the province had been changed with no warrant but an Act of Parliament, and that three of the judges, in violation of the Constitution, had accepted seats in the new Council. The Chief Justice and his colleagues repairing in a body to the Governor represented the impossibility of exercising their office in Boston or in any other part of the province; the army was too small for their protection; and besides, none would act as jurors. Thus the authority of the new Government, as established by Act of Parliament, perished in the presence of the Governor, the judges and the army.—Ib., pp. 111, 112.

The English historian, Dr. Andrews, remarks on this subject:

"The list of the new (Legislative) Council appointed by the Crown consisted of thirty-six members. But twelve of the number declined their commissions, and most of those who accepted were speedily obliged to resign them in order to save their property and persons from the fury of the multitude. The judges newly appointed experienced much the same treatment. All the inferior officers of the Courts of Judicature, the clerks, the juries, and all others concerned, explicitly refused to act under the new laws. In some places the populace shut up the avenues to the court-houses; and upon being required to make way for the judges and officers of the court, they declared that they knew of no court nor establishment in the province contrary to the ancient usages and forms, and would recognize none.

"The former Constitution being thus destroyed by the British Legislature, and the people refusing to acknowledge that which was substituted in its room, a dissolution of all government necessarily ensued. The resolution to oppose the designs of Great Britain produced occasionally some commotions; but no other consequences followed this defect of government. Peace and good order remained everywhere throughout the province, and the people demeaned themselves with as much regularity as if the laws still continued in their full and formal rigour." (Andrews' History of the War, Vol. I., pp. 145, 146.)]



CHAPTER XX.

THE GENERAL CONGRESS OR CONVENTION AT PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1774.

The word Congress, in relation to the United States, is synonymous with the word Parliament in Great Britain, signifying the Legislature of the nation at large; but before the revolution the word Congress was used, for the most part, as synonymous with Convention—a voluntary meeting of delegates elected by towns or counties for certain purposes. A meeting of delegates from the several towns of a county was called a Congress, or Convention of such county; a meeting of delegates of the several towns of a province was called a Provincial Congress, or Convention; and a meeting of delegates of the several County Conventions in the several provinces was called a General or Continental Congress, though they possessed no legal power, and their resolutions and addresses were the mere expressions of opinion or advice.

Such was the Continental Congress that assembled in Philadelphia the 5th of September, 1774—not a legislative or executive body possessing or assuming any legislative or executive power—a body consisting of fifty-five delegates elected by the representatives of twelve out of the thirteen provinces—Georgia, the youngest and smallest province, not having elected delegates. The sittings of this body, or Congress, as it was called, continued about eight weeks, and its proceedings were conducted with all the forms of a Legislative Assembly, but with closed doors, and under the pledge of secrecy, until dissolved by the authority of the Congress itself.

Each day's proceedings was commenced with prayer by some minister. Mr. Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, was elected President, and Mr. Charles Thompson, of Pennsylvania, was chosen Secretary.

After deciding upon the mode of conducting the business, it was resolved, after lengthened discussion, that each colony should be equal in voting—each colony having one vote, whatever might be the number of its delegates.

This Congress consisted of the assembled representatives of the American colonies, and truly expressed their grievances, opinions, and feelings. As the proceedings were with closed doors, the utterances of individuals were not reported; but in the reported results of their deliberations there is not an opinion or wish expressed which does not savour of affection to the mother country and loyalty to the British Constitution. Down to this ninth or last year of the agitation which commenced with the passing of the Stamp Act, before bloody conflicts took place between British soldiers and inhabitants of Massachusetts, there was not a resolution or petition or address adopted by any Congress, or Convention, or public meeting in the colonies, that contained a principle or sentiment which has not been professed by the loyal inhabitants of British America, and which is not recognized at this day by the British Government and enjoyed by the people in all the provinces of the Dominion of Canada.

The correctness of these remarks will appear from a summary of the proceedings of this Continental Congress, and extracts from its addresses, which will show that the colonies, without exception, were as loyal to their constitutional sovereign as they were to their constitutional rights,[344] though in royal messages and ministerial speeches in Parliament their petitions and remonstrances were called treason, and the authors of them were termed rebels and traitors. The principal acts of this Congress were a Declaration of Rights; an address to the King; an address to the people of Great Britain; a memorial to the Americans; a letter to the people of Canada. Non-importation and non-exportation agreements were adopted and signed by all the members; and Committees of Vigilance were appointed.

"Then on the 26th of October, the 'fifty-five' separated and returned to their homes, determined, as they expressed it, 'that they were themselves to stand or fall with the liberties of America.'"[345]

Among the first important acts of this Congress was the declaration of colonial rights, grievances, and policy. As this part of their proceedings contains the whole case of the colonies as stated by their own representatives, I will give it, though long, in their own words, in a note.[346] This elaborate and ably written paper does not appear to contain a sentiment of treason, nor anything which the members of the Congress had not a right to express and complain of as British subjects; while they explicitly recognized in Parliament all the authority which could be constitutionally claimed for it, and which was requisite for British supremacy over the colonies, or which had ever been exercised before 1764.

On the 1st of October, the Congress, after long consideration, unanimously resolved—

"That a loyal address to his Majesty be prepared, dutifully requesting the Royal attention to the grievances which alarm and distress his Majesty's faithful subjects in North America, and entreating his Majesty's gracious interposition to remove such grievances, and thereby to restore to Great Britain and the colonies that harmony so necessary to the happiness of the British empire, and so ardently desired by all America."

This address or petition, like all the papers emanating from this Congress, was written with consummate ability.[347] In this petition to the King, the Congress begged leave to lay their grievances before the Throne. After a particular enumeration of these, they observed that they wholly arose from a destructive system of colony administration adopted since the conclusion of the last war. They assured his Majesty that they had made such provision for defraying the charges of the administration of justice, and the support of civil government, as had been judged just, and suitable to their respective circumstances; and that for the defence, protection, and security of the colonies, their militia would be fully sufficient in time of peace; and in case of war, they were ready and willing, when constitutionally required, to exert their most strenuous efforts in granting supplies and raising forces. They said, "We ask but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not a diminution of the prerogative; nor do we solicit the grant of any new right in our favour. Your royal authority over us, and our connection with Great Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously endeavour to support and maintain."[348] They concluded their masterly and touching address in the following words:

"Permit us, then, most gracious Sovereign, in the name of all your faithful people in America, with the utmost humility, to implore you, for the honour of Almighty God, whose pure religion our enemies are undermining; for your glory, which can be advanced only by rendering your subjects happy and keeping them united; for the interest of your family, depending on an adherence to the principles that enthroned it; for the safety and welfare of your kingdom and dominions, threatened with almost unavoidable dangers and distresses, that your Majesty, as the loving Father of your whole people, connected by the same bonds of law, loyalty, faith, and blood, though dwelling in various countries, will not suffer the transcendent relation formed by these ties to be farther violated in certain expectation of efforts that, if attained, never can compensate for the calamities through which they must be gained."[349]

Their address to the people of Great Britain is equally earnest and statesmanlike. Two or three passages, as samples, must suffice. After stating the serious condition of America, and the oppressions and misrepresentations of their conduct, and their claim to be as free as their fellow-subjects in Great Britain, they say:

"Are not the proprietors of the soil of Great Britain lords of their own property? Can it be taken from them without their consent? Will they yield it to the arbitrary disposal of any men or number of men whatsoever? You know they will not.

"Why then are the proprietors of the soil of America less lords of their property than you are of yours; or why should they submit it to the disposal of your Parliament, or any other Parliament or Council in the world, not of their election? Can the intervention of the sea that divides us cause disparity of rights; or can any reason be given why English subjects who live three thousand miles distant from the royal palace should enjoy less liberty than those who are three hundred miles distant from it? Reason looks with indignation on such distinctions, and freemen can never perceive their propriety."

They conclude their address to their fellow-subjects in Great Britain in the following words:

"We believe there is yet much virtue, much justice, and much public spirit in the English nation. To that justice we now appeal. You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of independence. Be assured that these are not facts, but calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory and our greatest happiness; and we shall ever be ready to contribute all in our power to the welfare of the empire. We shall consider your enemies as our enemies, and your interest as our own.

"But if you are determined that your Ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind; if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of law, the principles of the Constitution, nor the suggestions of humanity can restrain your hands from shedding human blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell you that we will never submit to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to any Ministry or nation in the world.

"Place us in the same situation that we were at the close of the late war, and our former harmony will be restored."

The address of the members of this Congress to their constituents is a lucid exposition of the several causes which had led to the then existing state of things, and is replete with earnest but temperate argument to prove that their liberties must be destroyed, and the security of their persons and property annihilated, by submission to the pretensions of the British Ministry and Parliament. They state that the first object of the Congress was to unite the people of America, by demonstrating the sincerity and earnestness with which reconciliation had been sought with Great Britain upon terms compatible with British liberty. After expressing their confidence in the efficacy of the passive commercial resistance which had been adopted, they conclude their address thus:

"Your own salvation and that of your posterity now depend upon yourselves. You have already shown that you entertain a proper sense of the blessings you are striving to retain. Against the temporary inconveniences you may suffer from a stoppage of trade, you will weigh in the opposite balance the endless miseries you and your descendants must endure from an established arbitrary power." ...

"Motives thus cogent, arising from the emergency of your unhappy condition, must excite your utmost diligence and zeal to give all possible strength and energy to pacific measures calculated for your relief. But we think ourselves bound in duty to observe to you, that the schemes agitated against the colonies have been so conducted as to render it prudent that you should extend your views to mournful events, and be in all respects prepared for every contingency. Above all things, we earnestly entreat you, with devotion of spirit, penitence of heart, and amendment of life, to humble yourselves, and implore the favour of Almighty God; and we fervently beseech His Divine goodness to take you into His gracious protection."

The letters addressed to the other colonies not represented in the Congress require no special reference or remark.

After completing the business before them, this first General Congress in America recommended that another Congress should be held in the same place on the tenth day of the succeeding May, 1775, "unless redress of their grievances should be previously obtained," and recommending to all the colonies "to choose deputies as soon as possible, to be ready to attend at that time and place, should events make their meeting necessary."

I have presented an embodiment of the complaints, sentiments, and wishes of the American colonies in the words of their elected representatives in their first General Congress. I have done so for two reasons: First, to correct as far as I can the erroneous impression of thousands of English and Canadian readers, that during the ten years' conflict of words, before the conflict of arms, between the British Ministry and Parliament and Colonies, the colonists entertained opinions and views incompatible with subordination to the mother country, and were preparing the way for separation from it. Such an opinion is utterly erroneous. Whatever solitary individuals may have thought or wished, the petitions and resolutions adopted by the complaining colonists during these ten years of agitation breathe as pure a spirit of loyalty as they do of liberty; and in no instance did they ask for more, or as much, as the inhabitants of the provinces of the Canadian Dominion this day enjoy.

My second reason for thus quoting the very words of the declarations and petitions of the colonists is to show the injustice with which they were represented and treated by the British Ministry, Parliament, and press in England.

It was hoped by the Congress that their address to the people of England would have a happy influence in favour of the colonies upon the public mind, and tell favourably on the English elections, which took place the latter part of the year 1774; but the elections were suddenly ordered before the proceedings of the Congress could be published in England. The elections, of course, resulted adversely to the colonies; and the new Parliament was more subservient to the Ministry against the colonies than the preceding Parliament.[350]

This new Parliament met the 30th day of November, when the King was advised to inform them, among other things, "that a most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience to the laws unhappily prevailed in the province of Massachusetts, and had broken forth in fresh violences of a very criminal nature; that these proceedings had been countenanced and encouraged in his other colonies; that unwarrantable attempts had been made to obstruct the commerce of his kingdom by unlawful combinations; and that he had taken such measures and given such orders as he judged most proper and effectual for carrying into execution the laws which were passed in the last session of the late Parliament relative to the province of Massachusetts."[351]

Answers were adopted in both Houses of Parliament re-echoing the sentiments of the Royal Speech, but not without vehement debates. There was a considerable minority in both Lords and Commons that sympathised with the colonies, and condemned the Ministerial policy and the Acts of the previous Parliament complained of. In the Commons, the Minister was reminded of the great effects he had predicted from the American acts. "They were to humble that whole continent without further trouble; and the punishment of Boston was to strike so universal a panic in all the colonies that it would be totally abandoned, and instead of obtaining relief, a dread of the same fate would awe the other provinces to a most respectful submission."[352] But the address, re-echoing the Royal Speech for coercion, was adopted by a majority of two to one.

In the Lords a similar address was passed by a large majority; but the Lords Richmond, Portland, Rockingham, Stamford, Torrington, Ponsonby, Wycombe, and Camden entered upon the journals a protest against it, which concluded in the following memorable words:

"Whatever may be the mischievous designs or the inconsiderate temerity, we wish to be known as persons who have disapproved of measures so injurious in their past effects and future tendency, and who are not in haste, without inquiry or information, to commit ourselves in declarations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of civil war."[353]

Before the adjournment of the new Parliament for the Christmas holidays, the papers containing the proceedings of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia reached England. The first impression made by them is said to have been in favour of America. The Ministry seemed staggered, and their opposers triumphed in the fulfilment of their own predictions as to the effects of Ministerial acts and policy in America. The Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, after a day's perusal of these papers, said that the petition of the Congress to the King (of which extracts have been given above) was a decent and proper one. He cheerfully undertook to present it to the King; and reported afterwards that his Majesty was pleased to receive it very graciously, and would lay it before his two Houses of Parliament. From these favourable circumstances, the friends of conciliation anticipated that the petition of the Colonial Congress would be made the basis of a change of measures and policy in regard to the colonies. But these hopes were of short duration.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 344: The royal historian, Andrews, states:

"The delegates were enjoined, by the instructions they had received from their constituents, solemnly to acknowledge the sovereignty of Great Britain over them, and their willingness to pay her the fullest obedience, as far as the constitution authorized her to demand it; they were to disclaim all notions of separating from her; and to declare it was with the deepest regret they beheld a suspension of that confidence and affection which had so long, and so happily for both, subsisted between Great Britain and her colonies.

"But they were no less carefully directed at the same time to assert the rights transmitted to them by their ancestors. These rights they would never surrender, and would maintain them at all perils. They were entitled to all the privileges of British subjects, and would not yield to the unjust pretensions of Parliament, which, in the present treatment of the colonies, had violated the principles of the constitution and given them just occasion to be dissatisfied and to rise in opposition. Parliament might depend this opposition would never cease until those Acts were wholly repealed that had been the radical cause of the present disturbances." (Andrews' History of the War with America, Spain and Holland, from 1775 to 1783, pp. 156, 157.)]

[Footnote 345: Elliott's New England History, Vol. II., Chap. xvi., p. 289.

"Washington and Lee believed the non-importation and exportation agreements would open the eyes of England; but Patrick Henry agreed with John and Samuel Adams in believing that force must decide it, and, like them, was ready to meet any emergency."—Ib.

"The New York Legislature at once repudiated the doings of the Congress; but elsewhere it met with a hearty response."—Ib., p. 290.]

[Footnote 346: "Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British Parliament, claiming a power, of right, to bind the people of America by statutes in all cases whatsoever, hath in some Acts expressly imposed taxes on them; and in others, under various pretences, but in fact for the purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies, established a Board of Commissioners with unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of Courts of Admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a county:

"And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent on the Crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in times of peace:

"And whereas it has lately been resolved in Parliament, that by force of a statute made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry VIII., colonists may be transported to England and tried there upon accusations for treasons, and misprisions and concealments of treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute such trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned:

"And whereas, in the last session of Parliament, three statutes were made—one entitled, 'An Act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town, and within the harbour of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America;' another entitled, 'An Act for the better regulating the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England;' and another Act entitled, 'An Act for the impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England;' and another statute was then made, 'for making more effectual provision for the government of the province of Quebec,' etc.—all which statutes are impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and most dangerous and destructive of American rights:

"And whereas assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate on grievances; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petitions to the Crown for redress have been repeatedly treated with contempt by his Majesty's Ministers of State; the good people of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, justly alarmed at the arbitrary proceedings of Parliament and Administration, have severally elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet and sit in General Congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such establishment as that their religion, laws, and liberties may not be subverted; whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a full and free representation of these colonies, taking into their most serious consideration the best means of attaining the ends aforesaid, do in the first place, as Englishmen, what their ancestors in like cases have usually done, for asserting and vindicating their rights and liberties, DECLARE, that the inhabitants of the English colonies in North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English Constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following rights:

"Resolved, N. C. D. 1st, That they are entitled to life, liberty, and property; and they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever a right to dispose of either without their consent.

"Resolved, N. C. D. 2nd, That our ancestors, who first settled these colonies, were, at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural-born subjects within the realm of England.

"Resolved, N. C. D. 3rd, That by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them as their local and other circumstances enabled them to exercise and enjoy.

"Resolved, 4th, That the foundation of English liberty and of all free government is a right in their people to participate in their Legislative Council; and as the English colonists are not represented, and from their local and other circumstances cannot properly be represented in the British Parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several Provincial Legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their Sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such Acts of the British Parliament as are bona fide restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their consent.

"Resolved, N. C. D. 5th, That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the course of that law.

"Resolved, 6th, That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the English statutes as existed at the time of their colonization; and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances.

"Resolved, N. C. D. 7th, That these his Majesty's colonies are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by Royal Charters, or secured by their several codes of Provincial laws.

"Resolved, N. C. D. 8th, That they have a right peaceably to assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the King; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal.

"Resolved, N. C. D. 9th, That the keeping a standing army in these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the Legislature of the colony in which such army is kept, is against law.

"Resolved, N. C. D. 10th, It is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English constitution, that the constituent branches of the Legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several colonies, by a Council appointed, during pleasure, by the Crown, is unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation.

"All and each of which the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally taken from them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own consent, by their representatives in their several Provincial Legislatures.

"In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and violations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire that harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such Acts and measures as have been adopted since the last war, which demonstrate a system formed to enslave America.

"Resolved, N. C. D., That the following Acts of Parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the colonies; and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony between Great Britain and the American colonies, viz.:

"The several Acts of 4 Geo. III. chaps. 15 and 34—5 Geo. III. chap. 25—6 Geo. III. chap. 52—7 Geo. III. chap. 41 and chap. 46—8 Geo. III. chap. 22, which imposed duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, extend the power of the Admiralty Courts beyond their ancient limits; deprive the American subject of trial by jury; authorize the judge's certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages that he might otherwise be liable to; requiring oppressive security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American rights.

"Also 12 Geo. III. chap. 24, intituled 'An Act for the better securing his Majesty's dockyards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores,' which declares a new offence in America, and deprives the American subject of a constitutional trial by a jury of the vicinage, by authorizing the trial of any person charged with the committing of any offence described in the said Act, out of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in any shire or county within the realm.

"Also the three Acts passed in the last session of Parliament, for stopping the port and blocking up the harbour of Boston, for altering the Charter and Government of Massachusetts Bay, and that which is intituled 'An Act for the better administration of justice,' etc.

"Also, the Act passed in the same session for establishing the Roman Catholic religion in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great danger (from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law, and government) of the neighbouring British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from France.

"Also, the Act passed in the same session for the better providing suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service in North America.

"Also, that the keeping a standing army in several of these colonies, in time of peace, without the consent of the Legislature of that colony in which such army is kept, is against law.

"To these grievous Acts and measures, Americans cannot submit; but in hopes their fellow-subjects in Great Britain will, on a revision of them, restore us to that state in which both countries found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present only resolved to pursue the following peaceable measures: 1. To enter into a non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement or association; 2. To prepare an address to the people of Great Britain, and a memorial to the inhabitants of British America; and 3. To prepare a loyal address to his Majesty, agreeable to resolutions already entered into." (Marshall's American Colonial History. Appendix IX., pp. 481-485.)]

[Footnote 347: See the Earl of Chatham's remarks on page 423.]

[Footnote 348: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., p. 418.]

[Footnote 349: "The Committee which brought in this admirably well-drawn and truly conciliatory address were Mr. Lee, Mr. John Adams, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Henry, Mr. Rutledge, and Mr. Dickenson. The original composition has been generally attributed to Mr. Dickenson." (Marshall's American Colonial History, Chap. xiv., p. 419, in a note.)]

[Footnote 350: "Some time before the proceedings of Congress reached England, it was justly apprehended that the non-importation agreement would be one of the measures they would adopt. The Ministry, apprehending that this event, by distressing the trading and manufacturing towns, might influence votes against the Court in the election of a new Parliament, which was, of course, to come on in the succeeding year, suddenly dissolved the Parliament and immediately ordered a new one to be chosen. It was their design to have the whole business of elections over before the inconveniences of non-importation could be felt. The nation was thus surprised into an election. Without knowing that the late American acts had driven the colonies into a firm combination to support and make common cause with the people of Massachusetts, a new Parliament was returned, which met thirty-four days after the proceedings of Congress were first published in Philadelphia, and before they were known in Great Britain. This, for the most part, consisted either of the former members, or of those who held similar sentiments." (Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. vi., p. 424.)]

[Footnote 351: Ramsay's Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. vi., pp. 424, 425.]

[Footnote 352: Ib., p. 425.]

[Footnote 353: Ib., p. 425.]



CHAPTER XXI.

THE RE-ASSEMBLING OF PARLIAMENT—LETTERS FROM COLONIAL GOVERNORS, REVENUE AND MILITARY OFFICERS, AGAINST THE COLONISTS OPPOSED TO THE MINISTERIAL POLICY—THE MINISTRY, SUPPORTED BY PARLIAMENT, DETERMINE UPON CONTINUING AND STRENGTHENING THE COERCIVE POLICY AGAINST THE COLONIES.

On the re-assembling of Parliament in January, 1775, a number of papers were produced from governors, and revenue and military officers in America, which contained various statements adverse to the proceedings and members of the Congress, and the opposition to the coercive Acts of Parliament.

Ministers and their supporters were pleased with these papers, which abetted their policy, lauded and caressed their authors, and decided to concede nothing, and continue and strengthen the policy of coercion.

On the 20th of January, the first day of the re-assembling of the Lords, Lord Dartmouth laid the papers received from America before the House. The Earl of Chatham, after an absence of two years, appeared again in the House with restored health, and with all his former energy and eloquence. He moved:

"That a humble address be presented to his Majesty, most humbly to advise and beseech him that, in order to open the way toward a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften animosities there, and above all for preventing, in the meantime, any sudden catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under daily irritation of an army before their eyes, posted in their town, it may graciously please his Majesty that immediate orders may be despatched to General Gage for removing his Majesty's forces from the town of Boston as soon as the rigours of the season and other circumstances indispensable to the safety and accommodation of said troops may render the same practicable."

Lord Chatham advocated his motion in a very pathetic speech, and was supported by speeches by the Marquis of Rockingham, Lords Shelburne and Camden, and petitions from merchants and manufacturers throughout the kingdom, and most prominently by those of London and Bristol. But the motion was negatived by a majority of 63 to 13.

In the course of his speech Lord Chatham said:

"Resistance to your acts was as necessary as it was just; and your imperious doctrine of the omnipotence of Parliament and the necessity of submission will be found equally impotent to convince or to enslave.

"The means of enforcing the thraldom are as weak in practice as they are unjust in principle. General Gage and the troops under his command are penned up, pining in inglorious inactivity. You may call them an army of safety and of guard, but they are in truth an army of impotence; and to make the folly equal to the disgrace, they are an army of irritation.

"But this tameness, however contemptible, cannot be censured; for the first drop of blood shed in civil and unnatural war will make a wound that years, perhaps ages, may not heal.... The indiscriminate hand of vengeance has lumped together innocent and guilty; with all the formalities of hostility, has blocked up the town of Boston, and reduced to beggary and famine thirty thousand inhabitants....

"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 avow that in all my reading—and I have read Thucydides, and have studied the master-states of the world—for solidity of reason, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion under a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the General Congress of Philadelphia. The histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing equal to it, and all attempts to impose servitude upon such a mighty continental nation must be vain. We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract while we can, not when we must. These violent Acts must be repealed; you will repeal them; I pledge myself for it, I stake my reputation upon it, that you will in the end repeal them. Avoid, then, this humiliating necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted station, make the first advance towards concord, peace, and happiness; for that is your true dignity. Concession comes with better grace from superior power, and establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude. Be the first to spare; throw down the weapons in your hand.

"Every motive of justice and policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America by a removal of your troops from Boston, by a repeal of your Acts of Parliament, and by demonstrating amiable dispositions towards your colonies.... If the Ministers persevere in thus misadvising and misleading the King, I will not say that the King is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone; I will not say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his Crown, but I will affirm that, the American jewel out of it, they will make the Crown not worth his wearing."[354]

The Earl of Suffolk, with whining vehemence, assured the House that, in spite of Lord Chatham's prophecy, the Government was resolved to repeal not one of the Acts, but to use all possible means to bring the Americans to obedience; and after declaiming violently against their conduct, boasted as "having been one of the first to advise coercive measures."

Ex-Lord Chancellor Camden excelled every other speaker, except Lord Chatham, in the discussion; he declared in the course of his speech:

"This I will say, not only as a statesman, politician, and philosopher, but as a common lawyer: My lords, you have no right to tax America; the natural rights of man, and the immutable laws of nature, are all with that people. King, Lords, and Commons are fine-sounding names, but King, Lords, and Commons may become tyrants as well as others. It is as lawful to resist the tyranny of many as of one. Somebody once asked the great Selden in what book you might find the law for resisting tyranny. 'It has always been the custom of England,' answered Selden, 'and the custom of England is the law of the land.'"

After several other speeches and much recrimination, and a characteristic reply from Lord Chatham, his motion was rejected by a majority of sixty-eight to eighteen; but the Duke of Cumberland, the King's own brother, was one of the minority. The King triumphed in what he called "the very handsome majority," and said he was sure "nothing could be more calculated to bring the Americans to submission." The King's prediction of "submission" was followed by more united and energetic resistance in the colonies.

But Lord Chatham, persevering in his efforts of conciliation, notwithstanding the large majority against him, brought in, the 1st of February, a Bill entitled "A Provisional Act for Settling the Troubles in America, and for Asserting the Supreme Legislative Authority and Superintending Power of Great Britain over the Colonies." The Bill, however, was not allowed to be read the first time, or even to lie on the table, but was rejected by a majority of sixty-four to thirty-two—a contempt of the colonists and a discourtesy to the noble mover of the Bill without example in the House of Lords.

In the meantime, petitions were presented to the Commons from various towns in England, Scotland, and Ireland, by manufacturers and merchants connected with the colonial trade. On the 23rd of January, Alderman Hayley presented a petition from the merchants of the City of London trading to America, stating at great length the nature and extent of the trade, direct and indirect, between Great Britain and America, and the immense injury to it by the recent Acts of Parliament, and praying for relief; but this petition was conveyed to the "Committee of Oblivion," as were petitions from the merchants of Glasgow, Liverpool, Norwich and other towns, on American affairs. These petitions, together with their advocates in both Houses of Parliament, showed that the oppressive policy and abuse of the Americans were the acts of the Ministry of the day, and not properly of the English people.

On the 26th of January, Sir George Saville offered to present a petition from Dr. Franklin, Mr. Bollan, and Mr. Lee, stating that they had been authorized by the American Continental Congress to present a petition from the Congress to the King, which his Majesty had referred to that House, and that they were able to throw great light upon the subject; they therefore prayed to be heard at the bar in support of the petition. After a violent debate the petition was rejected by a majority of 218 to 68.[355]

Lord North on the 2nd of February, moved that the House resolve itself into Committee on an address to his Majesty, thanking him for having communicated to the House the several papers relating to the present state of the British colonies, and from which "we find that a part of his Majesty's subjects in the province of Massachusetts Bay have proceeded so far as to resist the authority of the Supreme Legislature; that a rebellion at this time actually exists within the said province; and we see, with the utmost concern, that they have been countenanced and encouraged by unlawful combinations and engagements entered into by his Majesty's subjects in several other colonies, to the injury and oppression of many of their innocent fellow-subjects resident within the kingdom of Great Britain and the rest of his Majesty's dominions. This conduct on their part appears to us the more inexcusable when we consider with how much temper his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament have acted in support of the laws and constitution of Great Britain; to declare that we can never so far desert the trust reposed in us as to relinquish any part of the sovereign authority over all his Majesty's dominions which by law is invested in his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament, and that the conduct of many persons, in several of the colonies, during the late disturbances, is alone sufficient to convince us how necessary this power is for the protection of the lives and fortunes of all his Majesty's subjects; that we ever have been and always shall be ready to pay attention and regard to any real grievances of any of his Majesty's subjects, which shall, in a dutiful and constitutional manner, be laid before us; and whenever any of the colonies shall make proper application to us, we shall be ready to afford them every just and reasonable indulgence; but that, at the same time, we consider it our indispensable duty humbly to beseech his Majesty to take the most effectual measures to enforce due obedience to the laws and authority of the Supreme Legislature; and that we beg leave, in the most solemn manner, to assure his Majesty that it is our fixed resolution, at the hazard of our lives and properties, to stand by his Majesty against all rebellious attempts, in the maintenance of the just rights of his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament."[356]

I have given Lord North's proposed address to the King at length, in order that the reader may understand fully the policy of the Government at that eventful moment, and the statements on which that policy was founded.

In relation to this address several things may be observed: 1. There is not the slightest recognition in it that the American colonists have any constitutional rights whatever; they are claimed as the absolute property of King and Parliament, irrespective of local Charters or Legislatures. 2. It is alleged that Parliament always had been and would be "ready to pay attention to any real grievances of any of his Majesty's subjects which shall, in a dutiful and constitutional manner, be laid before us," when "we shall be ready to afford them every just and reasonable indulgence." Yet every one of the hundreds of petitions which had been sent from the colonies to England for the previous ten years, complaining of grievances, was rejected, under one pretext or another, as not having been adopted or transmitted in "a dutiful and constitutional manner." If a Legislative Assembly proceeded to prepare a petition of grievances to the King, the King's Governor immediately dissolved the Assembly; and when its members afterwards met in their private capacity and embodied their complaints, their proceedings were pronounced unlawful and seditious. When township, county, and provincial conventions met and expressed their complaints and grievances in resolutions and petitions, their proceedings were denounced by the Royal representatives as unlawful and rebellious; and when elected representatives from all the provinces (but Georgia) assembled in Philadelphia to express the complaints and wishes of all the provinces, their meeting was declared unlawful, and their petition to the King a collection of fictitious statements and rebellious sentiments, though more loyal sentiments to the King, and more full recognition of his constitutional prerogatives were never expressed in any document presented to his Majesty. When that petition of the Continental congregation was presented to the Earl of Dartmouth, the head of the Colonial Department, he said it was a decent and proper document, and he would have pleasure in laying it before the King, who referred it to the House of Commons; yet Lord North himself and a majority of his colleagues, backed by a majority of the House of Commons, rejected that petition, refused to consider its statements and prayers, but instead thereof proposed an address which declared one of the colonies in a state of rebellion, abetted by many in other colonies, advised military force against the colonies, and assured the King that they would stand by his Majesty "at the hazard of their lives and properties, against all rebellious attempts" to maintain the assumed rights of his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament over the colonies. Yet not one of them ever afterwards risked a hair of his head in the war which they advised to maintain such rights. 3. It was also as insulting and provoking to the colonists as it was unjust, impolitic, and untrue, to assert that a rebellion "existed in one province of America, and was encouraged by many persons in other colonies;" when not an act of rebellion existed in any colony, but dissatisfaction, meetings to express sentiments and adopt petitions founded upon their declining and agreeing not to buy or drink tea, or buy or wear clothes of English manufacture, until English justice should be done to them—all which they had a right as British subjects to do, and for doing which those were responsible who compelled them to such self-denying acts in the maintenance of constitutional rights which are now recognised as such, at this day, throughout all the colonies of the British empire.

It is not surprising that Lord North's motion and statements were severely canvassed in the House of Commons. Mr. Dunning, in reply to Lord North, "insisted that America was not in rebellion, and that every appearance of riot, disorder, tumult, and sedition the noble lord had so carefully recounted arose not from disobedience, treason, or rebellion, but was created by the conduct of those whose views were to establish despotism." The Attorney-General (Thurlow) argued strongly against Mr. Dunning's position that the Americans were not in rebellion, and affirmed the contrary. General Grant said "he had served in America, knew the Americans well, and was certain they would not fight; they would never dare to fight an English army; they did not possess any of the qualifications necessary to make good soldiers; and that a very slight force would be more than sufficient for their complete reduction. He repeated many of their commonplace expressions, ridiculed their enthusiasm in religion, and drew a disagreeable picture of their manners and ways of living."

Mr. Fox entered fully into the question; pointed out the injustice, the inexpediency, the folly of the motion; prophesied defeat on one side of the water, and ruin and punishment on the other. He said, among other things, "The reason why the colonies objected to taxes by Parliament for revenue was, that such revenue, in the hands of Government, took out of the hands of the people that were to be governed that control which every Englishman thinks he ought to have over the Government to which his rights and interests are entrusted." He moved an amendment to omit all the motion but the three first lines, and to substitute: "But deploring that the information which they (the papers) had afforded served only to convince the House that the measures taken by his Majesty's servants tended rather to widen than to heal the unhappy differences which had so long subsisted between Great Britain and America, and praying a speedy alteration of the same."

A long debate ensued; after which the House divided on Mr. Fox's amendment, which was lost by a majority of 304 to 105. Lord North's motion was then adopted by a majority of 296 to 106.

Thus was war virtually proclaimed by the British Ministry of the day and the Parliament (not by the people) of Great Britain against the colonies.

On the 6th of February the report of Lord North's address was made to the House, when Lord John Cavendish moved to recommit the proposed address agreed to in the Committee. He strongly recommended the reconsideration of a measure which he deemed fraught with much mischief. He commented on the proposed address; thought it improper to assert that rebellion exists; mentioned the insecurity created by the Act changing the Government of Massachusetts Bay; said the inhabitants knew not for a moment under what Government they lived.

A long discussion ensued. On the side of absolute prerogative, and of subduing the colonies to it by military force, spoke Mr. Grenville, Captain Harvey, Sir William Mayne, Mr. Stanley, Mr. Adam, Mr. Scott, the Solicitor-General (Wedderburn, who grossly insulted Dr. Franklin before the Privy Council), Mr. Mackworth, and Mr. Sawbridge. For the recommitting the address, and in favour of a conciliatory policy towards the colonies, spoke, besides Lord John Cavendish, the mover, Mr. Lumley, the Lord Mayor of London, Rt. Hon. T. Townshend, Mr. Jolyffe, Lord Truham, Governor Johnstone, Mr. Burke, and Colonel Barre.

A conference was held between the Lords and Commons, and the address was made the joint address of both Houses of Parliament and presented to the King the 9th of February; to which the King replied as follows:

"My Lords and Gentlemen,—I thank you for this very dutiful address, and for the affectionate and solemn assurances you give me of your support in maintaining the just rights of my crown and of the two Houses of Parliament; and you may depend on my taking the most speedy and effectual measures for enforcing due obedience to the laws and authority of the Supreme Legislature. When any of my colonies shall make a proper and dutiful application, I shall be ready to concur with you in affording them every just and reasonable indulgence; and it is my ardent wish that this disposition on our part may have a happy effect on the temper and conduct of my subjects in America."

The "disposition" of "indulgence," shown by Parliament was simply the enforcement of its declaratory Act of absolute power to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, and "the proper and dutiful application of any colony" was simply a renunciation of all they had claimed as their constitutional rights—a penitent prayer of forgiveness for having avowed and maintained those rights, and of submitting all their rights and interests to the absolute and merciful consideration of the King and his Parliament, and that in the presence of the parliamentary enactments and royal institutions of the previous ten years. During those years, the Parliament, with royal consent, had passed acts to tax the colonies without representation, ignoring their own representative Legislatures; had imposed duties on goods imported to be enforced by Courts which deprived the colonists of the privilege of trial by jury; had made by Act of Parliament, without trial, the city of Boston not only responsible for tea destroyed by seventeen individuals, but blocked up its port not only until the money was paid, but until the city authorities should give guarantee satisfactory to the King that the tea and other revenue Acts should be enforced—a proceeding unprecedented and unparalleled in the annals of British history. Even in more arbitrary times, when the cities of London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh were made responsible for property lawlessly destroyed within their limit, it was only until after trial in each case, in which those cities had an opportunity of defence, and in neither case was the trade of the city prohibited and destroyed. But the British Ministry and Parliament proceeded still further by superseding the most essential provisions of the Charter of the Province of Massachusetts, and changing its whole constitution of government—a high-handed act of arbitrary government which had not been attempted by either Charles the First or Charles the Second in regard to the same colony; for when charges were brought, in 1632, against the Massachusetts authorities, for having violated the Charter, Charles the First appointed a commission, gave the accused a trial, which resulted in their acquittal and promised support by the King; and when they were accused again in 1634, the King did not forthwith cancel their Charter, but issued a second commission, which, however, never reported, in consequence of the commencement of the civil war in England, which resulted in the death of the King. Then, in the restoration, when charges were preferred, by parties without as well as within the province, against the Government of Massachusetts, King Charles the Second appointed a commission to examine into the complaints, and at length tested their acts by trial in the highest courts of law, and by whose decision their first Charter was cancelled for repeated and even habitual violations of it. But without a trial, or even commission of inquiry, the King and Parliament changed the constitution of the province as well as extinguished the trade of its metropolis.