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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 Ticon

deroga 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 he'd St. John's, but was obliged to retire by a superio force

CHAPTER from Montreal. Arnold, with his vessels, returned to Crown Point.

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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.

May 10.

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 he was admitted, but without a vote. Having resolved

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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 functions 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 thema 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

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CHAPTER gan already to be freely entertained-a notion, as yet, very unpalatable in the middle and southern colonies.

1775.

May 22

It was resolved that no provisions ought to be fur nished to the British army or navy, that no bills of exchange drawn by British officers ought to be negotiated, and that no colonial ships ought to be employed in the transportation of British troops.

Besides a committee on the petition to the king, committees were appointed to prepare an address to the people of Great Britain, an address to the people of Ireland, a letter to the Assembly of Jamaica, and an appeal to the "oppressed inhabitants of Canada." A proclamation was also issued for a day of solemn fasting and prayer. It was resolved that no obedience was due to the late act of Parliament for subverting the charter of Massachusetts; and the Congress of that province, in answer to their application, were advised to organize a government in as near conformity to the charter as circumstances would admit. A rumor spreading that a British regiment had been ordered from Ireland to New York, in answer to an application on that subject from the city committee, Congress advised that the troops be allowed to land and to occupy the barracks, but not to fortify the town, nor to intercept the communication with the country.

A Provincial Congress for New York, assembled on the suggestion of the city committee, appointed Nathaniel Woodhull as president. The members did not vote individually. A certain number of votes were allowed to each county, in proportion to its assumed wealth and population. They forwarded to Philadelphia a scheme to furnish funds for defending the colonies by the issue of a continental currency, substantially the same with that presently adopted They also took measures for

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enlisting four regiments for the defense of the province, CHAPTER and for erecting fortifications, recommended by Congress, at the head of York Island and in the Highlands of the 1775. Hudson. Meanwhile, at the suggestion of Congress, they invited Wooster, with his Connecticut regiment, to assist in defending the city against the expected British troops. Wooster marched accordingly, and encamped at Harlem, whence he sent troops to Long Island to guard against British cruisers and foraging parties, and to cut off supplies of provisions sent to Boston. The Continental Congress were very anxious for the defense of Ticonderoga; and the New York Provincial Congress agreed to furnish provisions for Colonel Hinman, who had marched thither with his Connecticut regiment. There was in the province a large and powerful party warmly attached to the British connection-a party not without its representatives even in the Provincial Congress, of which the tone, in consequence, was comparatively moderate. Gouverneur Morris, a leading member, a young lawyer, a shoot of that Morris family so conspicuous in the colonial history of New York and New Jersey, and the originator of the project for continental paper money, saw in prospect, should a separation from the mother country take place, only "the domination of a riotous mob." A great deal of time was accordingly spent on a plan for conciliation. This plan, agreed to by the majority, in spite of the strenuous opposition of M'Dougall, Sears, and other "Sons of Literty," required a repeal of all the obnoxious acts of Parliament, but acknowledged the right of the mother country to regulate trade, and the duty of the colonies to contribute to the common charges by grants to be made by the colonial Assemblies, or by a general Congress specially called for that purpose.