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1775.]

ADDRESSES BY CONGRESS.

145

Measures were also taken for training and arming the militia, comprehending all the men in the colonies between sixteen and fifty years of age1-one-fourth of whom, in each colony, to be selected as minute-men with various recommendations to the colonial assemblies or conventions on the subject of national defence.

2

On the twentieth of July a letter was received from the convention of Georgia, informing Congress that that colony had acceded to the General Association, and had appointed delegates to Congress; thus making the number thirteen.

Some days later they adopted an address to the Assembly of Jamaica, which had sent a deputation to the Crown in behalf of the North American colonies. The islanders are thanked for their approbation of the course pursued by those colonies, and for their friendly mediation. Congress excused themselves for including Jamaica in their non-exportation agreement, which they considered as indispensable to its efficacy.

On the twenty-fifth of July a further issue of bills to the amount of one million of dollars was ordered. A post-office for all the colonies was organized, and Benjamin Franklin was unanimously appointed Postmastergeneral.

On the twenty-seventh a hospital was established for the army, and placed under regulations.

On the twenty-eighth an address to the people of Ireland was adopted by Congress.

After a detailed exhibition of their wrongs, they justify themselves for suspending trade with Ireland as well as Great Britain. The address contains this remarkable

1

1 I. Journals of Congress, page 170.

2 So called, because they were to hold themselves ready for military duty at a minute's warning.

VOL. I. 10

146

LORD NORTH'S PROPOSITIONS REJECTED. [CHAP. II.

prediction: "We already anticipate the golden period when liberty, with all the gentle arts of peace and humanity, shall establish her mild dominion in this western world, and erect eternal monuments to the memory of those virtuous patriots and martyrs who shall have fought, and bled, and suffered in her cause.' They express lively gratitude for the friendly disposition the Irish people have always manifested; and they touch on every topic likely to cherish the same feeling.

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The conciliatory propositions, as they were called by Lord North, having been referred to the consideration of Congress by the Assemblies of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the same were considered on the thirty-first of July; were peremptorily rejected; and were pronounced both unsatisfactory and insidious. Congress insisted that the monopoly of their trade was all that Great Britain ought to require, and that a further direct contribution would impose on them a double burden. That the British Parliament had no right to interfere with the provision which the colonies choose to make for the support of civil government, or the administration of justice; and that, if the right of laying taxes was expressly renounced, instead of being only suspended, it would be insufficient unless it were accompanied with the repeal of other obnoxious acts of Parliament. The minister is reminded of his own declaration that "he would never treat with America till he had brought her to his feet," and that his subsequent conduct proves that nothing but their own exertions "can defeat the ministerial sentence of death or abject submission.

Congress adjourned from the first of August to the fifth of September. On that day there was a further adjournment to the thirteenth of September, when they met, and three delegates from Georgia attended.

1775.]

REPRISALS AT SEA ORDERED.

147

On the thirtieth of September a committee' was appointed to proceed to Cambridge in Massachusetts, the head-quarters of the army, where General Washington had been since the beginning of July, to confer with him, the Governors of Connecticut and Rhode Island, the Council of Massachusetts and President of the New Hampshire Convention, on the most effectual method of continuing, supporting, and regulating a continental army; and full instructions were prepared for the committee.

In November Congress, having considered petitions from the Island of Bermuda representing the distress to which they were exposed by the non-exportation agreement, decíded in Committee of the Whole, that, as the inhabitants appeared friendly to the cause of America, they ought to be supplied with such produce as was necessary for their subsistence yearly which amount is specified in exchange for salt, arms, ammunition, `saltpetre, &c. and which was to be distributed among the middle and southern colonies and that they should be supplied with other necessaries whenever the quantity required was ascertained.2

On a representation from General Washington, that vessels regularly cleared out at the custom-houses had been seized, while on their voyages, by the British ships-of-war, Congress decided on reprisals at sea against all public ships and transports; and they determined the several shares of the captors of such vessels. A day or two subsequently they adopted rules and regulations for the navy of the united colonies.

Amid their multifarious duties of superintending all military operations, making disbursement of money, and

1 The committee consisted of Messrs. Lynch, Franklin and Harrison. -I. Journals of Congress.

2

* I. Journals of Congress, page 280.

148

SHIPS-OF-WAR FITTED OUT.

[CHAP. II. corresponding with the new functionaries of all the colonies, they found time to notice a royal proclamation issued by the British government in August, which excited their sensibility by its charging them with being rebels, and with disregarding their allegiance. They, therefore, after vindicating their course, formally declared that any punishments inflicted by their enemies for adhering to the cause of the colonies should be retaliated on those who are in their power.

On the thirteenth of December thirteen ships-of-war were ordered to be fitted out-five of thirty-two guns, five of twenty-eight guns, and three of twenty-four guns.

The common danger which threatened the liberties of America did not prevent a bitter contest on the frontiers of Pennsylvania between inhabitants of that colony and of Connecticut, who set up conflicting claims to lands in the vicinity under their several charters. The dispute had proceeded so far as to cause bloodshed, and it having been brought to the notice of Congress by the deputies from those colonies, Congress earnestly recommended to the parties to suspend their controversy until the present difficulties with Great Britain were settled, when they could be fairly litigated. They further recommended that the property of which persons had been dispossessed by either party should be restored to the original holders.

They also resolved that if General Washington and his council of war should think that a successful attack could be made on the troops in Boston, he might make it in any manner he thought expedient, though the town and the property in it should be destroyed.

Let us now revert to the progress of the dispute in the separate provinces.

As Massachusetts had been, from the occurrences

1775.] MEASURES IN THE SEVERAL PROVINCES.

149

already mentioned, first brought into open collision with Great Britain, and had most experienced the resentment of her ministers, the purpose of separation seems to have been first regarded as probable in the New England provinces. The sympathies of their people were strongly excited by the attack of the regulars at Lexington; and men taking up arms, hastened to the aid of Boston from all the adjoining provinces.

The first open act of hostility in New Hampshire was in December, 1774, after intelligence was received that the exportation, of gunpowder and military stores from England to the colonies was prohibited; and that troops were daily expected from Boston to take possession of Fort William and Mary, at the entrance of Portsmouth harbor. A party of the colonists secretly possessed themselves of the fort, and carried off one hundred barrels of powder. The next day fifteen of the lightest cannon, and all the small arms and ammunition were removed. Major John Sullivan and Captain John Langdon were the leaders in this affair.' They both were conspicuous in the subsequent history of the Revolution.

After Lord North's conciliatory propositions arrived, Governor Wentworth summoned the Legislature to act on them. The Assembly asked time for consideration. Some collision having then taken place between that body and the Governor concerning three expelled members, and the people exhibiting signs of violence, he adjourned the Assembly, and retired to the fort; after which his house was attacked and pillaged. From the fort he again adjourned the Assembly to the twenty-eighth of September, and then to April, 1776, which was his last act. He left New Hampshire for Boston in August, 1775.

1

' II. Belknap's History of the Revolution in New Hampshire, p. 376.

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