the town of Boston, as are immediate sufferers by the Boston port-bill; and a particular account of all goods so returned, stored, or sold, to be inserted in the public papers; and if any goods or merchandise shall be imported after the said first day of February, the same ought forthwith to be sent back again, without breaking any of the packages thereof.

Eleventh. That a committee be chosen in every county, city, and town, by those who are qualified to vote for representatives in the legislature, whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this association; and when it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of a majority of any such committee, that any person within the limits of their appointment has violated this association, that such majority do forthwith cause the truth of the case to be published in the Gazette; to the end, that all such foes to the rights of British America may be publicly known, and universally contemned as the enemies of American liberty; and thenceforth we respectively will break off all dealings with him or her.

Twelfth. That the committee of correspondence in the respective colonics do frequently inspect the entries of the custom houses, and inform each other from time to time of the true state thereof, and of every other material circumstance that may occur relative to this association.

Thirteenth. That all manufactures of this country be sold at reasonable prices, so that no undue advantage be taken of a future scarcity of goods.

Fourteenth. And we do further agree and resolve, that we will have no trade, commerce, dealings or intercourse whatsoever, with any colony or province, in North America, which shall not accede to, or which shall hereafter violate

this association, but will hold them as unworthy of the rights of freemen, and as inimical to the liberties of their country.

In conclusion, the association bound themselves to persevere in these voluntary privations until their grievances should be redressed.

Congress, after adopting an address to the people of Great Britain, an address to the king, and one to the people of Canada, all distinguished by uncommon elegance and force of diction, and having resolved, that it was expedient to meet again in May of the succeeding year, adjourned on the twenty-sixth of October, and Mr. Hewes returned to his home in North Carolina.

In the ensuing spring, a convention of that colony was held at Newbern, when Mr. Hewes was elected a member of the continental congress about to assemble, and the general assembly approved of this choice, and at the same time resolved to adhere strictly to the non-importation agreement, and to use what influence they possessed to induce the same observance in every individual of the province.

Mr. Hewes attended accordingly at Philadelphia when the new congress assembled in May, and continued with them until their adjournment, the last day of July.

The battle of Lexington had occurred a few weeks before the meeting of congress, and the first business that came before them was the examination of the depositions of witnesses, which at that period, or at least on that occasion, supplied the place of military reports, of the killed, wounded, and missing, as well as of the movements of the hostile forces.

The first resolution of the congress was, however, notwithstanding the excitement naturally caused by the actual commencement of war, to present another loyal and dutiful

address to the king; at the same time, now first glancing at the possibility of a separation, in a recommendation to the provincial congress of New York to prepare vigorously for defence, "as it is very uncertain whether the earnest endeavours of the congress to accommodate the unhappy differences between Great Britain and the colonies by conciliatory measures, will be successful."

The battle of Bunker's Hill, and the appointment of a commander in chief of the army, with a long list of major generals and brigadiers, in the succeeding month, placed the true nature of the contest more distinctly in the view of the people of America, and of the world. The society of friends, of which Mr. Hewes' parents had been members, as well as himself in his youth, were now straining every nerve in an effort to prevent the revolutionary and republican, and warlike doctrines of the times from gaining a reception among the quakers. The society was numerous, wealthy, and respectable, and its opposition was powerful and active. In the beginning of the year 1775, there had been a general convention of the "people called quakers" residing in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which had put forth a "testimony," denouncing the congress and all its proceedings. however, had no effect on Mr. Hewes, or if any, not that intended. He broke entirely from communion with the quakers, and became not only a promoter of war, but a man of gayety and worldly habits, even to the extent of being a frequent visiter of the ladies, and partaking, with glee and animation, of the pleasures of the dance, in which he is said, after escaping from the restraints of his quaker education, to have taken much delight.

This,

In the recess of congress, between July and September, he did not return to North Carolina, but made a visit to his

friends in New Jersey, and was at hand when the next session

was begun.

He was placed on the committee of claims, and that charged with the fitting out of the armed vessels ordered to be built or equipped for congress-the germ of the United States' navy; and thus he became in effect, and in the nature of his duties and responsibilities, the first secretary of the

navy.

In the commencement of the next year, Mr. Hewes, having attained great respect in congress by his excellent qualities and habits of close attention to business, was chosen a member of the secret committee, a post of extreme difficulty, and great responsibility, and requiring the closest application.

It is within the recollection of some of the surviving patriots of this period, that Mr. Hewes was remarkable for a devotedness to the business of this committee, as complete as ever the most industrious merchant was known to give to his counting-house.

After this time, he was generally appointed on the most important committees, such as that to concert with general Washington, a plan of operations for the ensuing campaign, the one entrusted with the difficult task of digesting a plan of confederation, another charged with the superintendence of the treasury, one raised for the purpose of inquiring into the causes of the miscarriages in Canada, and several others of less moment.

Mr. Hewes was, during this period, a most active man of business; the disbursements of the naval committee, were under his especial charge, and eight armed vessels were fitted out with the funds placed at his disposal. He was attentive also to the condition of North Carolina, then direfully distracted with civil war, and menaced also by the common

enemy; gunpowder and other munitions of war were sent by him at his own expense, but reimbursed afterwards by congress, to supply the exigencies of the republican troops in that part of the country.

He had the satisfaction of being present during all the debate on the question of declaring independence, and of voting in favour of the instant adoption of that imperishable manifesto, which has made the fourth of July a jubilee for this nation. In voting on this side, he acted in accordance with a resolution passed by the North Carolina convention, on the twenty-second of April preceding, empowering the delegates from that colony to "concur with those of the other colonies in declaring independency."

North Carolina had thus the merit of being the first one of the colonies which openly declared in favour of throwing off all connexion with Great Britain, a spirited and manly determination which entitles the leading men of that state to distinguished praise. Mr. Hewes, by his indefatigable exertions in the equipment of the naval armament, as well as by the fearless constancy with which he had advocated independence, had acquired to a very great degree, the esteem and respect of the people whom he represented. In the beginning of the year 1777, therefore, he was again chosen a delegate, with such powers as to make whatever he and his colleagues might do in congress, obligatory on every inhabitant of the state.

Mr. Hewes, however, did not accept this appointment. He left to his colleagues the tour of duty in congress, and devoted himself to his private affairs, and to the benefit of the state at home during the greater part of that year, and the whole of the next, nor did he resume his seat until the month of July, 1779. He was at this time in very ill health, his constituVOL. V.-T