XXXI. fense of Philadelphia, and in a short time assumed the CHAPTER whole executive authority. Franklin, Wilson, and Willing were added to the congressional delegation; Gal- 1775. loway, at his own earnest request, was excused from serving. Governor Penn laid Lord North's conciliatory proposition before the Assembly, but it did not meet with much favor. The Delaware Assembly had already approved the doings of the late Continental Congress, and had ap- March 16. pointed delegates to the new one, in which they were presently imitated by the Assembly of Maryland. April 24. The Virginia Convention, which met at Richmond to March 20. appoint delegates to the new Continental Congress, had been persuaded, by the energy and eloquence of Patrick Henry, to take measures for enrolling a company of volunteers in each county. Before news arrived of the battle of Lexington, Governor Dunmore had ordered the April 21. powder belonging to the province to be taken from the public store at Williamsburg, and placed on board an armed vessel in the river. This proceeding caused a great excitement, increased by news of the Lexington fight. Having collected some companies of the new volunteers, Henry marched toward Williamsburg, and compelled the king's receiver to give bills for the value of the powder taken away. Dunmore sent his family on May 4. board a ship in the river, fortified his palace, and issued a proclamation declaring Henry and his coadjutors guilty of rebellion; but their conduct was sustained and approved by numerous county conventions. In spite of all Martin's efforts to prevent it, a Provincial Congress met in North Carolina simultaneously April 5. with the Assembly, and, for the most part, composed of the same members. Both bodies concurred in approving the proceedings of the late Continental Congress, and in CHAPTER appointing delegates to the new one. News arriving of XXXI. the battle of Lexington, an Association was entered into 1775. by the friends of colonial rights, pledging the associators to defend those rights by force, if necessary. The citi zens of Mechlenburg county carried their zeal so far as May 21. to resolve, at a public meeting, to throw off the British connection, and they framed a formal Declaration of Independence. But this feeling was by no means general. There were many who refused to sign the Association, or to take the oath of neutrality tendered instead. Counter combinations were also entered into for sustaining the royal authority. The fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on the northern frontier of New England and New York, the possession of which had cost such severe struggles during the late war, were held by very slender garrisons. Apart from their importance as military positions, especially as Canada did not unite with the other colonies, their cannon and military stores offered a very tempting prize. The controversy between the inhabitants of Vermont and the authorities of New York had reached a high pitch. The New York Assembly, at its late sesMarch 31. sion, which proved, indeed, to be its last, had passed an act offering rewards for the apprehension of those who had been most active in opposing their jurisdiction, and declaring such as did not surrender within a certain time guilty of felony, and liable to suffer death. The April 11. Green Mountain Boys retorted by holding a Convention, which totally renounced the authority of New York. Previous to the battle of Lexington, the expediency of seizing Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been suggested to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, a board of thirteen members, which exercised the general executive direction of affairs. Their attention was now XXXI. recalled to the subject by Benedict Arnold, a New Haven CHAPTER trader and shipmaster, who commanded a company of volunteers in the camp before Boston. Arnold received 1775. a commission as colonel, with authority to raise men in Vermont to attempt the surprise of those fortresses. The attention of Connecticut had been called to the same subject, and, about the time of Arnold's departure, some persons deputed for that purpose had induced Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, the two most active leaders among the Green Mountain Boys, to raise a force for the same enterprise. Arnold, as yet without men, joined Allen's party and claimed the command, but, being refused, agreed to serve as a volunteer. Allen approached Ticonderoga with eighty men, penetrated undiscovered into the center of the fort, surprised the commanding officer in his bed, and summoned him to surrender "in the name May 10. of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" Crown Point was taken by Warner with equal ease. The total garrisons of both posts were only sixty men. Upward of two hundred pieces of artillery, and a large and precious supply of powder, of which there was a great scarcity in the camp before Boston, fell into the hands of the captors. Arnold was presently joined by some fifty recruits, who had seized a schooner, and taken several prisoners and some pieces of cannon at Skenesborough, a new settlement (now Whitehall, at the head of Lake Champlain), founded by Colonel Skene, a British officer, who had gone to England to solicit an appointment as governor of Ticonderoga. In this captured vessel Arnold proceeded down the lake, entered the Sorel, surprised the post of St. John's, where the navigation May 16. terminates, captured an armed vessel there, and carried off some valuable stores. Allen proposed to hold St. John's, but was obliged to retire by a superior force CHAPTER from Montreal. Arnold, with his vessels, returned to Crown Point. XXXI. 1775. Meanwhile the Provincial Congress of New HampMay 17. shire appointed a treasurer, issued bills of credit, and voted to raise three regiments, the troops in the camp before Boston to constitute two. Nathaniel Folsom was appointed brigadier; Stark, Read, and Poor were commissioned as colonels. May 15. The New Jersey Assembly, called together by Governor Franklin to consider Lord North's conciliatory proposition, declined to approve it, or to take any decisive step in the matter, except with the consent and approbation of the Continental Congress, already met. No sooner May 23. had the Assembly adjourned than a Provincial Congress was organized, and an Association agreed to for the defense of colonial rights, similar to that of New York. Measures were taken for organizing the militia, and £10,000 were issued in bills of credit for the payment of expenses. But the Congress declined to raise regular troops till some general plan should first be agreed upon. To the Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia all eyes were now eagerly turned. The Eastern delegates were escorted into the city by a cavalcade. Randolph was again elected president, and Charles Thompson secretary. But Randolph being soon called home to attend as speaker of the Virginia Assembly, a session which Dunmore had summoned to take Lord North's conciliatory proposition into consideration, his seat in the Congress was filled by Thomas Jefferson, provisionally appointed for that purpose, and his place as president by May 24. John Hancock. The parish of St. John's, in Georgia, including the district about the River Midway, had chosen March 25. Lyman Hall as their special representative, and as such May 10. he was admitted, but without a vote. Having resolved XXXI. itself into a Committee of the Whole, to take into con- CHAPTER sideration the state of the colonies, a full account of the recent events in Massachusetts was laid before the Con- 1775. gress. To this same committee was also referred a letter May 11. from the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, asking advice as to the form of government to be adopted there, and requesting the Continental Congress to assume the control and direction of the forces assembled before Boston. The former Congress had claimed no political power, though the signature of the American Association had made a near approach to it. The present Congress, called upon by the public voice of the colonies, entered at once on the exercise of a comprehensive authority, in which supreme executive, legislative, and, in some cases, judicial function were united-an authority without any formal sanction or fixed limits, except the ready obedience of a large majority in most of the colonies. If this majority was any where doubtful-and, now that war approached, of those hitherto active in the colonial cause some began to shrink-the supporters of the Congress more than made up for lack of numbers by superior intelligence, activity, and zeal. The Committee of the Whole reported, and Congress May 26. resolved, that hostilities had been commenced by Great Britain. They denied any intention of throwing off their allegiance, and expressed an anxious desire for peace; but voted, at the same time, that the colonies ought to be put in a posture of defense against the attempt to compel them by force to submit to the scheme of parliamentary taxation. It was deemed useless to memorialize Parliament any further; but by the influence of Dickinson, against the strenuous efforts of John Adams and his colleagues, another petition to the king was voted. In New England the idea of independence be |