to the English nation, but increase their public debt, pensioners, and place-men, diminish their commerce, and lead to the overthrow of their liberties by violence and corruption. Nor did the descendant of Huguenots fail to make for them an appeal as Protestants to Protestant Scotland and England. Finally they said: "To your justice we appeal. You have been told that we are impatient of government and desirous of independency. These are calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory and our greatest happiness. But if you are determined that your ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind; if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of law, the principles of the constitution, or the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding human blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell you that we will never submit to be hewers of wood or drawers of water for any ministry or nation in the world."

A second congress was appointed for May of the next year, at which all the colonies of North America, including Nova Scotia and Canada, were invited to appear by their deputies. The ultimate decision of America was then imbodied in a petition to the king, written by Dickinson, and imbued in every line with a desire for conciliation. In the list of grievances, congress enumerated the statutes, and those only, which had been enacted since the year 1763 for the very purpose of changing the constitution or the administration of the colonies. They justified their discontent by historic tradition, and by the ideas of right. "So far from promoting innovations," said they truly, "we have only opposed them; and can be charged with no offence, unless it be one to receive injuries and be sensible of them.". Acquiescing in the restrictions on their ships and industry, they professed a readiness on the part of the colonial legislatures to make suitable provision for the administration of justice, the support of civil government, and for defence, protection, and security in time of peace; in case of war, they pledged the colonies to "most strenuous efforts in granting supplies and raising forces." But the privilege of thus expressing their affectionate attachment they would "never resign to any body of men upon earth." "We ask,"

they continued, "but for peace, liberty, and safety. We wish not a diminution of the prerogative, nor the grant of any new right. Your royal authority over us, and our connection with Great Britain, we shall always support and maintain;” and they besought of the king, "as the loving father of his whole people, his interposition for their relief and a gracious answer to their petition."

From complacency toward Rockingham, they passed over the declaratory act in silence; and they expressed their assent to the power of regulating commerce. But the best evidence of their sincerity is found in the measure which they recommended. Had independence been their object, they would have strained every nerve to increase their exports and fill the country in return with the manufactures and munitions which they required. The suspension of trade was the most disinterested manner of expressing to the mother country how deeply they felt their wrongs, and how earnestly they desired a peaceful restoration of reciprocal confidence. While Britain found another market for her surplus manufactures and India goods, the American merchant sacrificed nearly his whole business. The exchequer might perhaps suffer some diminution in the revenue from tobacco, but the planters of Maryland and Virginia gave up the entire exchangeable produce of their estates. The cessation of the export of provisions to the West Indies, of flaxseed to Ireland, injured the northern provinces very deeply; and yet it would touch only the British merchants who had debts to collect in the West Indies or Ireland, or the English owners of West Indian or Irish estates. Every refusal to import was made by the colonist at the cost of personal comfort; every omission to export was a waste of his resources. Moreover, no means existed of enforcing the agreement; so that the truest patriots would suffer most. And yet the people so yearned for a bloodless restoration of the old relations with Britain that they cheerfully entered on the experiment, in the hope that the extreme self-denial of the country would distress British commerce enough to bring the government to reflection.

But, since the efforts to avert civil war might fail, John Adams was anxious to see New England provided with "cash

and gunpowder." Ward of Rhode Island foretold that America was to light all the nations of the earth to freedom. "Were I to suffer as a rebel in the cause of American liberty, should I not be translated immediately to heaven as Enoch was of old?" wrote Hewes of North Carolina. Samuel Adams urged his friends to study the art of war, and organize resistance. "I would advise," said he, "persisting in our struggle, though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand to survive and retain his liberty. One such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy more happiness than a thousand slaves; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath so nobly preserved." "Delightful as peace is," said Dickinson, "it will come more grateful by being unexpected." Washington foresaw that the measures of congress would not prove effectual. When Patrick Henry read the words of Hawley, "After all, we must fight," he raised his hand, and called God to witness as he cried out: "I am of that man's mind."

CHAPTER V.

HOW BRITAIN BEGAN CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION, AND HOW VIRGINIA NULLIFIED THE QUEBEC ACT.

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 1774.

THE Congress of 1774 contained statesmen of the highest order of wisdom. For eloquence, Patrick Henry was unrivalled; next to him in debate stood the elder Rutledge, of South Carolina; "but, if you speak of solid information and sound judgment," said Patrick Henry, "Washington is unquestionably the greatest man of them all."

While the delegates of the twelve colonies were in session in Philadelphia, ninety of the members just elected to the Massachusetts assembly appeared on Wednesday, the fifth of October, at the court-house in Salem. After waiting two days for the governor, they passed judgment on his unconstitutional proclamation against their meeting; and, resolving themselves into a provincial congress, they adjourned to Concord. There, on the eleventh, the members, about two hundred and sixty in number, elected John Hancock their president. On the fourteenth, they sent a message to the governor, that for want of a general assembly they had convened in congress; and they remonstrated against his hostile preparations. A committee from Worcester county made to him similar representations.

To the provincial congress, which had again adjourned from Concord to Cambridge, Gage made answer by recriminations. They were surrounded by difficulties. A committee, appointed on the twenty-fourth of October to consider the proper time to provide a stock of powder, ordnance, and ordnance stores, reported on the same day that the proper time was come. Upon the debate for raising money to prepare

for the crisis, one member proposed to appropriate a thousand pounds, another two thousand; a committee reported a sum of less than ninety thousand dollars as a preparation against a most wealthy and warlike empire. They elected three general officers by ballot. A committee of safety, Hancock and Warren being of the number, was invested with power to alarm and muster the militia of the province, of whom one fourth were to hold themselves ready to march at a minute's notice.

In Connecticut, which, from its compactness, numbers, and wealth, was second only to Massachusetts in military resources, the legislature of 1774 provided for effectively organizing the militia, prohibited the importation of slaves, and ordered the several towns to provide double the usual quantity of powder, ball, and flints. They directed the issue of fifteen thousand pounds in bills of credit of the colony, and made a small increase of the taxes. This was the first issue of paper money in the colonies preparatory to war.

The congress of Massachusetts, in like manner, directed the people of the province to perfect themselves in military skill, and each town to provide a full stock of arms and ammunition. Having voted to pay no more money to the royal collector, they chose a receiver-general of their own, and instituted a system of provincial taxation. They appointed executive committees of safety, of correspondence, and of supplies. As the continental congress would not sanction their resuming the charter from Charles I., they adhered as nearly as possible to that granted by William and Mary; and summoned the councillors, duly elected under that charter, to give attendance on the fourth Wednesday of November, to which time they adjourned. To their next meeting they referred the consideration of the propriety of sending agents to Canada.

The troubles with the thirteen colonies led the court of Great Britain to its first step in the emancipation of Catholics; and, with no higher object in view than to strengthen the authority of the king in America, the Quebec act of 1774 began that series of concessions which at last opened the British parliament and the high offices of administration to "papists."

In the belief that the loyalty of its possessions had been promoted by a dread of the French settlements on their north