The British parliament was to have the power of revising the acts of this body, which in its turn was to have a negative on British statutes relating to the colonies. "I am as much a friend to liberty as exists," blustered Galloway, as he presented his insidious proposition, "and no man shall go further in point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now addresses you." His scheme held out a hope of a continental union, which was the long-cherished policy of New York; it was seconded by Duane and supported by Jay, but opposed by Lee of Virginia. Patrick Henry objected to intrusting the power of taxation to a council to be chosen not directly by the people, but indirectly by its representatives; and he condemned the proposal in all its aspects. "The original constitution of the colonies," said he, "was founded on the broadest and most generous base. The regulation of our trade compensates all the protection we ever experienced. We shall liberate our constituents from a corrupt house of commons, but throw them into the arms of an American legislature, that may be bribed by a nation which in the face of the world avows bribery as a part of its system of government. Before we are obliged to pay taxes as they do, let us be as free as they; let us have our trade open with all the world." "I think the plan almost perfect," said Edward Rutledge. But not one colony, unless it may have been New York, voted in its favor; no more than a bare majority would consent that it should even lie on the table; and at a later day congress struck the proposal from its record.

With this defeat, Galloway lost his mischievous importance. At the provincial elections in Pennsylvania, on the first day of October, Dickinson, his old opponent, was chosen almost unanimously a representative of the county. Mifflin, though opposed by some of the Quakers as too warm, was elected a burgess of Philadelphia by eleven hundred votes out of thirteen hundred, with Charles Thomson as his colleague. The assembly, on the very day of its organization, added Dickinson to its delegation in congress; and he took his seat in season to draw the address of that body to the king.

During the debates on the proper basis of that address, letters from Boston announced that the governor continued

seizing private military stores, suffering the soldiery "to treat both town and country as declared enemies," fortifying the town and mounting cannon at its entrance, as though he would hold its inhabitants as hostages in order to compel a compliance with the new laws. As he had eluded the meeting of the general court, they applied to congress for advice; if the congress should instruct them to quit the town, they would obey. The citizens, who collectively had been more affluent than those of any other place of equal numbers in the world, made a formal offer to abandon their homes, and throw themselves, with their wives and children, their aged and infirm, on the charity of the country people, or build huts in the woods, and never revisit their native walls until re-established in their rights and liberties. Gadsden blazed up at the thought, and he proposed that Gage should be attacked and routed before re-enforcements could arrive; but the congress was resolved to exhaust every means of redress before sanctioning an appeal to arms.

The more impetuous people were ever inclined to break the bounds set for them. About the middle of October, the brig Peggy Stewart, from London, arrived at Annapolis with two thousand three hundred and twenty pounds of tea, on which the owner of the vessel made haste to pay the duty. The people of Maryland resented this voluntary submission to the British claim, which their delegates to the general congress were engaged in contesting. For the honor of the province a committee kept watch to prevent the landing of the tea; successive public meetings drew throngs even from distant counties; till the two importers and the ship-owner jointly expressed their contrition, and offered to expiate their offence by burning the "detestable article" which had caused their misconduct. When it appeared that this would not satisfy the crowd, the owner of the brig, after a little consultation with Charles Carroll, proposed to devote that also to the flames. The offer was accepted. The penitent importers and owner went on board the vessel with hats off and lighted torches in their hands, and, in the presence of a multitude of gazers, set fire to the packages of tea, all of which, together with the Peggy Stewart, her canvas and cordage, were consumed.

Washington ardently wished to end civil discord and re

store tranquillity upon constitutional grounds, but his indignation at the wrongs of Boston could be appeased only by their redress, and his purpose to resist the execution of the regulating act was unalterable. "Permit me,' "Permit me," so he addressed a British officer then serving under Gage, "with the freedom of a friend, to express my sorrow that fortune should place you in a service that must fix curses to the latest posterity upon the contrivers, and, if success (which, by the by, is impossible) accompanies it, execrations upon all those who have been instrumental in the execution. The Massachusetts people are every day receiving fresh proofs of a systematic assertion of an arbitrary power, deeply planned to overturn the laws and constitution of their country, and to violate the most essential and valuable rights of mankind. It is not the wish of that government, or any other upon this continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence; but none of them will ever submit to the loss of those rights and privileges without which life, liberty, and property are rendered totally insecure. Is it to be wondered at that men attempt to avert the impending blow in its progress, or prepare for their defence if it cannot. be averted? Give me leave to add as my opinion, that, if the ministry are determined to push matters to extremity, more blood will be spilled on this occasion than history has ever yet furnished instances of in the annals of North America."

Ross, a Pennsylvanian, moved in congress that Massachusetts should be left to her own discretion with respect to government, and the administration of justice as well as defence. The motion was seconded by Galloway, in the hope of insulating her. Had it been adopted, she would have revived her first charter, under the Pine Tree flag of her forefathers, and elected her governor. From the desire of conciliation the province was suffered to continue in a state of anarchy; but on the eighth of October it was resolved, though not unanimously, "that this congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late acts of parliament, and, if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, all America ought to support them in their opposition." This is the vote which hardened George III. to listen to no terms. Galloway and Duane de

sired leave to enter their protests against the resolution, and, as this was refused, they gave to each other privately certificates that they had opposed it as treasonable. Two days later, congress further "declared that every person who should accept or act under any commission or authority derived from the act of parliament which violated the charter of Massachusetts, ought to be held in detestation;" and, in their letter to Gage, they censured his conduct as tending "to involve a free people in the horrors of war."

In adopting a declaration of rights, the division which had shown itself in the committee was renewed. "Here," said Ward of Rhode Island, "no acts of parliament can bind. Giving up this point is yielding all." Against him spoke John Adams and Duane. "A right," said Lynch, “to bind us in one case may imply a right to bind us in all; but we are bound in none." The resolution of concession was arrested by the vote of five colonies against five, with Massachusetts and Rhode Island divided, but at last was carried by the influence of John Adams. Duane desired next to strike the Quebec act from the list of grievances; but of all the bad acts of parliament, Richard Henry Lee pronounced it the worst. His opinion prevailed upon a vote which Duane's reluctant adhesion made unanimous. Thus eleven acts of parliament or parts of acts, including the Quebec act and the acts specially affecting Massachusetts, were declared to be such infringements and violations of the rights of the colonies that the repeal of them was essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony between the colonies and Great Britain.

The congress had unanimously resolved from the first day of the coming December not to import any merchandise from Great Britain and Ireland. They could not agree upon an immediate non-exportation; if the redress of American grievances should be delayed beyond the tenth day of September of the following year, a resolution to export no merchandise to Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies after that date was carried, but against the voice of South Carolina. When the members proceeded to bind themselves to these measures by an association, three of the delegates of that colony refused their

names.

"The agreement to stop exports to Great Britain is

unequal," reasoned Rutledge; "New England ships little or nothing there, but sends fish, its great staple, to Portugal or Spain; South Carolina annually ships rice to England to the value of a million and a half of dollars. New England would be affected but little by the prohibition; Carolina would be ruined;" and he and two of his colleagues withdrew from the congress. Gadsden, who never counted the cost of patriotism, remained in his place, and, trusting to the generosity of his constituents, declared himself ready to sign the association. All business was interrupted for several days, when congress recalled the seceders by allowing the unconditional export of rice.

The association further adopted without opposition the memorable covenant which inaugurated the abolition of the slave-trade: "We will neither import nor purchase any slave imported after the first day of December next, after which time we will wholly discontinue the slave-trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it."

This first American congress brought forth another measure, which was without an example. It recognised the political being and authority of the people. While it refused to petition parliament, it addressed the people of the provinces from Nova Scotia to Florida, the people of Canada, the people of Great Britain, making the printing press its ambassador to the rising power.

To the British people whom they described as having been "led to greatness by the hand of liberty," and as "heirs to the rights of men," they said, in the language of Jay: "Know that we consider ourselves, and do insist that we are, and ought to be, as free as our fellow-subjects in Britain, and that no power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent. Prior to the era," of 1763, "you were content with wealth produced by our commerce. You restrained our trade in every way that could conduce to your emolument. You exercised unbounded sovereignty over the sea." Assenting to these restrictions, they demonstrated that a victory over the rights of America would not only be barren of advantage