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CHAPTER devolved on the council. Those offices being considered as vacant, that authority was assumed by the council, 1775. and under this system the government went on till the adoption of a Constitution five years afterward. In place of the various committees of correspondence, safety, and inspection, hitherto existing in the several towns, a single executive committee was authorized, to combine all those powers.

The democratic charter governments of Rhode Island and Connecticut, as they placed the management of affairs in officers chosen directly by the people, required no change. Under the administration of the firm and energetic Trumbull, Connecticut took a foremost stand. Nor was Rhode Island wanting, though the extent of her coast exposed her greatly to maritime depredations, and made it necessary to raise a regiment, in addition to those before Boston, for local defense.

Wentworth, governor of New Hampshire, having lost all control over that province, shut himself up in the fort at Portsmouth, whereupon his house was pillaged July by a mob. He prorogued the Assembly, now in session for the last time, and presently retired to Boston for safety, leaving the political control of the province in the hands of the Provincial Congress and the local committees.

June 25.

About the time that Washington passed through New York on his way to Boston, Governor Tryon returned from England; and the same escort of honor which the Provincial Congress ordered for the continental commander-in-chief was ordered also for the royal governor. In spite of the efforts of the Congress to prevent it, the city corporation presented to Tryon a loyal address.

Immediately after the seizure of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, Allen and Arnold had written to Congress.

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arging an advance upon Canada, where there were only CHAPTER two British regiments, about eight hundred strong. This seemed, at first, too much like taking the offensive; the 1775. New York Provincial Congress had expressly disclaimed any intention to make war on Canada. Soon, however, a different policy prevailed. To the four regiments which the Congress of New York had undertaken to raise, a fifth was added of Green Mountain Boys. Including these regiments, one of which was commanded by M'Dougall, and another by James Clinton, brother of George Clinton, five thousand men were voted by the Continental Congress, nominally for the defense of New York, but really for the invasion of Canada. A separate northern military department was established, the command of which was given to Schuyler. Wooster, with his troops at Harlem, was ordered to Albany.

Sears was presently sent at midnight to remove the Aug 23. guns on the battery at the southern point of the city of New York. Some shots fired at a boat from the Asia, a ship of war which lay in the harbor, were answered with a broadside, which killed three of Sears's party. Among those engaged in this affair was Alexander Hamilton. A native of Nevis, in the West Indies, a youth of eighteen, for a year or two past a student in King's College, he had made himself quite conspicuous among the patriots by some able essays in the newspapers, and a few months after, through the interest of M'Dougall, notwithstanding his extreme youth, was appointed captain of a company of artillery.

Having issued $112,000 in bills of credit, to be redeemed by taxes in two years, the New York Congress adjourned for a month, leaving the management of affairs Sept with a Committee of Safety. An unsuccessful attempt was made by that committee to disarm the people of Long

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CHAPTER and Staten Islands, many of whom refused to sign the Association. These recusants were encouraged by Try. 1775, on, who presently became so obnoxious that he found it necessary to retire on board the Asia.

Oct. 3.

fly 28.

The Provincial Congress of New Jersey made additional provisions for organizing the militia, and appointed Philemon Dickinson and William Livingston generals to command it. They also proceeded, at the request of the Continental Congress, to enlist two regular battalions. The command of one was given to Maxwell, that of the other to Alexander, a leading person in the colony, a member of the council, known by courtesy as Lord Stirling, in consequence of a claim he had set up to a vacant Scotch peerage. To pay the expenses thus incurred, £30,000 were issued in provincial bills.

The Maryland Convention, having reassembled, drew up an Association to be signed by all the freemen, appointed committees of safety and correspondence, issued. paper money, organized the militia, and collected military stores.

An attempt to break into the colonial magazine of arms at Williamsburg, in which a person was wounded June 8 by a spring-gun, which the governor had caused to be

July 17.

secretly placed there, occasioned quite a tumult, and Dunmore took refuge in a ship of war in the river. The Burgesses, in session to consider Lord North's conciliatory proposition, after vainly entreating the governor's return, declined to continue any official intercourse with him, and adjourned by their own authority, having first protested their true allegiance to the king and earnest attachment to the British connection.

The royal government thus at an end, delegates from the several counties met at Richmond, organized themselves into a Convention, and passed ordinances for em

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bodying the militia as minute men, for enlisting two CHAPTER regular regiments, of which Henry and Woodford were chosen colonels, and for issuing treasury notes on the 1775. credit of certain taxes imposed by the same ordinance, to be appropriated partly for the expenses now incurred, and partly to discharge unsettled accounts growing out of the late Indian war. Independent companies were also authorized for the defense of the frontiers. the other provinces, a Committee of Safety, appointed by the Convention, assumed the executive authority.

As in

Governor Martin, of North Carolina, alarmed at the progress of the Association in that province, had first fortified his house at Newbern, and then retired to the fort at the mouth of Cape Fear River. When a body of July 17. militia approached the fort, he abandoned that also, and took refuge on board a ship of war in the river. The associators followed up their advantage with energy. They disarmed their opponents, and confined as prisoners on their plantations those whose influence was most dreaded. The Continental Congress, to sustain their cause in North Carolina, where Tories were so numerous, voted to furnish support for a thousand men. On the strength of this engagement, a new Convention met at Hillsborough and voted two regiments, of which Howe and Moore were Aug. 20. appointed colonels. A proclamation forbidding their meeting, which Martin issued from on shipboard, was denounced by the Convention as "a scandalous, malicious, and scurrilous libel, tending to disunite the good people of the province," and they ordered it to be burned by the common hangman. A third regiment was presently au- Sept. thorized, of which Francis Nash was appointed colonel.

The Provincial Congress of South Carolina, at a second session, adopted an Association, drawn up by Henry Laurens, their president. They appointed a Committee June.

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CHAPTER of Safety, issued $600,000 of paper money, and voted to raise two regiments, of which Gadsden and Moultrie 1775. were chosen colonels. Lieutenant-governor Bull was utterly powerless to prevent or interrupt these proceedings. While the Convention was still in session, Lord William Campbell, who had acquired by marriage large possessions in the province, arrived at Charleston with a commission as governor. Received with courtesy, he July. presently summoned an Assembly; but that body declined to proceed to business, and soon adjourned on its own authority. The Committee of Safety pursued with energy measures for putting the province in a state of defense. A good deal of resistance was made to the Association, especially in the back counties. Persuasion failing, force was used; and by the energy and activity of William Henry Drayton, in an armed progress through the back settlements, the disaffected were compelled to stipulate neutrality. Drayton was a nephew of Lieutenant-gov ernor Bull, a young lawyer, whose charges to the grand juries on colonial rights, during a temporary occupation. some ten months before, by his uncle's favor, of a seat on the bench, had contributed not a little to stir up the spirit of opposition. A vessel was fitted out by the Committee of Safety, which seized an English powder ship off St. Augustine and brought her into Charleston. Moultrie was presently sent to take possession of the fort in Charles

ton harbor. No resistance was made. The small garriSept. 16. son, in expectation of the visit, had already retired on

board the ships of war in the harbor. Lord Campbell, the governor, accused of secret negotiations with the Cherokees and the disaffected in the back counties, was soon obliged to seek the same shelter. A regiment of artillery was voted; and measures were taken for fortifying the harbor, from which the British ships were soon expelled

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