XXX. gress. The Connecticut Legislature, then in session, CHAPTER passed a series of resolutions pointedly condemning the late acts of Parliament, and recommending the assembly 1774. of a Continental Congress. The old Committee of Cor- May 24. respondence at New York was composed principally of "Sons of Liberty" of the middle class, headed by M'Dougall, Sears, Willett, and Lamb, upon whose discretion the more wealthy citizens did not entirely rely. News arriving of the Boston Port Bill, at a public meet- May 15 ing held on the occasion the old committee was dissolved, and a new one elected, composed of fifty-one members, in which many of the principal citizens took part. This committee, however, was not quite ready to come into the non-importation plan. In a letter to Boston May 23. they proposed instead "a congress of deputies from the colonies," and in another letter a few days after, they requested the Boston committee to fix the time and place of meeting. A similar view was taken in Philadelphia, and similar suggestions were made by a committee appointed at May 26 a public meeting in that city. Their letter suggested, also, the policy of paying the East India Company for their tea, if the difficulty could be got over in that way. The inhabitants of Annapolis, more ardent, wished to adopt the non-importation agreement at once, and simi- May %. lar resolutions were passed at a public meeting in Baltimore county, and other counties in Maryland. The Virginia House of Burgesses, in session when news of the Boston Port Bill arrived, appointed the first of June, the day on which the bill was to go into operation, to be observed as a fast. This suggestion, taken up and carried out in Philadelphia and many other places, gave a sensible exhibition of the public feeling. Dunmore dissolv- May 26 ed the Assembly; but most of the members met the CHAPTER next day and signed a declaration that an attack upon XXX. one colony was an attack upon all, threatening ruin to 1774. the rights of all unless repelled by the "united wisdom of the whole;" and the committee of correspondence was advised to communicate with the other colonies on the expediency of a general Congress. Letters arriving from Boston, Philadelphia, and Annapolis, some twentyMay 30. five of the nearest delegates were called together by letter from the speaker. Some were for adopting the nonimportation agreement at once; but it was finally resolved to refer the matter to a convention of all the late burgesses, to meet at Williamsburgh on the first of August. May 26. Shortly after Gage's arrival, he met the General Court. at Boston for the annual election of counselors. That business over, he adjourned the court to Salem. He had gone to the extent of his charter authority in rejecting thirteen of the twenty-eight elected counselors, but those who remained did not at all suit his purpose. On June 7. the reopening of the court, in reply to his address delivered at Boston, they reflected so severely on his two immediate predecessors that he refused to hear the reply read through. The representatives passed resolutions advising the citizens of Boston to be firm and patient, and the people of the other towns to assist their distressed brethren of the metropolis. They recommended an entire abstinence from the use of British goods, and of all articles subject to parliamentary duty. They also requested the governor to appoint a fast; and when he refused, appointed one themselves. In compliance with suggestions made, as we have seen, from various quarters, they adopted a resolution that "a meeting of committees from the several colonies on this continent is highly expedient and necessary, to consult upon the XXX. present state of the country, and the miseries to which CHAPTER we are and must be reduced by the operation of certain acts of Parliament; and to deliberate and determine on 1774 wise and proper measures to be recommended to all the colonies for the recovery and re-establishment of our just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and America, which is most ardently desired by all good men." The first of September was designated as the time, and Philadelphia as the place of meeting. Thomas Cushing, the speaker, James Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, were chosen delegates. A treasurer was appointed, and the towns were called upon to pay in their respective shares of the sum of £500, voted to the delegates in payment of their expenses, to be assessed on the inhabitants according to the last apportionment of provincial taxes. Hardly was this business completed, when Gage, informed of what was going on, sent the provincial sec- June 17. retary to dissolve the court. Finding the doors shut, and being denied admittance, the secretary read on the steps the governor's proclamation. So ended the last session of the last provincial General Court of Massachusetts. The non-importation and non-consumption agreement recommended by the General Court had been adopted at a public meeting in Boston in the form of "a solemn June 8 league and covenant," to commence on the first of October next. Gage attempted in vain to prevent the other towns from joining in it. Public meetings continued to be held by different towns and counties through the colonies, by all of which the resolution was avowed to support Massachusetts in the pending quarrel. Boston was wholly dependent upon commerce, and the XXX. CHAPTER shutting up of the port deprived the greater part of the inhabitants of their accustomed means of livelihood. In 1774. a spirit of generous sympathy, the use of the wharves in Salem and Marblehead was freely tendered to the Boston merchants, and contributions were taken up throughout the colonies for the relief of the poorer inhabitants. By arrivals from Ireland, New York, Halifax, and Quebec, seven regiments were soon collected in Massachusetts, one of which was stationed at Salem, now the seat of government, one at the castle in Boston harbor, and the other five in the town. The townspeople recommenced their former system of annoyance; desertions were promoted, and every means was employed to make the situation of the troops as uncomfortable as possible. The people in the country hastened to replenish their stock of ammunition, and devoted their leisure to military exercises. 'une 1. On Hutchinson's departure for England, a compli mentary address, signed by many merchants and law. yers, had been presented to him; but all who signed it soon became stigmatized as "Addressers," and many found it expedient to recant. An attempt was even made at Boston by the partisans of the mother country, and those to whom the present aspect of affairs seemed July 5. alarming, to break up the Committee of Correspondence; but it failed entirely; and the public meeting which the malcontents had called passed a vote of entire confidence in that committee. Two days before action on that subject by the Massachusetts General Court, the Assembly of Rhode Island June 15. had appointed delegates to a general Congress. The June 3. Assembly of Connecticut had already authorized a simJuly 13. ilar appointment, which was presently made by the Committee of Correspondence. The New Hampshire XXX. July 23. Legislature, at a late session, in spite of Wentworth's CHAPTER attempts to prevent it, had appointed a Committee of Correspondence, in consequence of which he had dis- 1774. solved them. A meeting of the committee, held at June 8. Portsmouth, to appoint delegates to Congress, was dispersed by Governor Wentworth and the sheriff; but the business was completed by a convention of delegates which met at Exeter. Similar conventions, for the same July 21. purpose, were held in Maryland and New Jersey. The June 25. Assembly of New York, at a session early in the year, had appointed a Committee of Correspondence; but as that committee declined to assume the nomination of delegates to Congress, that business was undertaken by the city committee of fifty-one, in conjunction with a committee of mechanics. Some difficulty occurred in respect to this nomination between those who preferred the energetic M'Dougall and the warm John Morin Scott, and the more moderate friends of John Jay, a rising young lawyer of Huguenot descent, a son-in-law of William Livingston. The dispute was finally settled by opening a poll, at which the mayor and aldermen presided, and all who paid taxes were allowed to vote. Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, James Duane, and John Jay, the delegates thus chosen, were July 28 adopted by the city of Albany, and by some towns in Westchester and Dutchess. The counties of Orange, Kings, and Suffolk sent separate delegates; the rest of the province was unrepresented. Upon Governor Penn's refusal to call a special session of the Assembly, the inhabitants of Philadelphia met in town meeting, and ap- June 18 pointed a committee for the city and county. Upon their invitation, a "committee for the province of Pennsylvania," composed of delegates elected in the several counties, assembled at Philadelphia. They passed res- July |