AID FROM OTHER COLONIES; DAY OF FAST. matter by issuing a proclamation against this compact as being illegal and treasonable, but his proclamation proved futile, and the league gradually spread to all parts of the province.† Addresses and congratulations now began to pour in upon the Boston people from all sources, showing that they had the complete sympathy of their fellow colonists a fact serving to a great extent to mitigate the severity of their suffering. But something more substantial than sympathy was sent. South Carolina sent 200 barrels of rice and promised 800 more; from Wilmington, North Carolina, came £2,000 in currency; Windham and Norwich, Connecticut, together sent 549 sheep; rye, flour, peas, cattle, sheep, oil, fish and sometimes money poured in from the New England towns; from Quebec came 1,040 bushels of wheat; the backwoodsmen of the Blue Ridge region sent 137 barrels of flour; and from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the other colonies came a flood of contributions too long to enumerate.‡ The people of Salem also disabused the minds of the English ministry of *Force, American Colonies, 4th series, vol. i., p. 491. Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, p. 336. Bancroft, vol. iv., pp. 28-30. Rhode Island did not immediately send assistance, but in September money, sheep and horned cattle were sent. See Providence Town Meeting Records, vol. iv., pp. 15-20; Rhode Island Colonial Records, vol. vii., pp. 257, 283, 293; Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, series iv., vol. iv., pp. 1-278; Bates, Rhode Island and the Formation of the Union, pp. 52-53. 301 the idea that they would take advantage of the Boston Port Bill to enrich themselves at the expense of the citizens of Boston. They soon demonstrated that Parliament could not foment a collision of interests between the different colonies, sending General Gage an address in which they said: "By shutting up the port of Boston, some imagine that the course of trade might be turned hither, and for our benefit, but nature, in the formation of our harbor, forbids our becoming rivals in commerce to that convenient mart; and were it otherwise, we must be dead to every idea of justice, lost to every feeling of humanity, could we indulge one thought to seize on wealth, and raise ourselves on the ruins of our suffering neighbors." The inhabitants of Marblehead were equally generous and sympathetic, and offered to allow the merchants of Boston the use of the Marblehead wharves and warehouses during the continuance of the Boston Port Bill, also promising personally to attend to the loading and unloading of ships containing goods intended for Boston. The first of June was solemnly observed in Virginia, according to the recommendation of the House of Burgesses,* and Washington notes in his diary that upon that day he fasted rigidly and attended the church services.t In a number of other places, similar demonstrations of * Cooke, Virginia, pp. 419-420. Irving, Life of Washington, vol. i., p. 410. Edmund Randolph says "The fast was obeyed throughout Virginia with such rigor and scruples, as to interdict the tasting of food between the rising and setting sun."-M. D. Conway, Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph, p. 46. 302 TROOPS SENT TO BOSTON; POWDER SEIZED. sympathy took place, in Philadelphia a solemn silence being maintained, while the whole city exhibited signs of deep distress.* In the fall of 1774 the second and third of the coercive enactments of Parliament reached Boston. In accordance with the terms of the second act, Gage appointed a list of civil officers which gave great dissatisfaction to the citizens of that town, as the majority of the appointees were men known to be in favor of royal authority, and consequently were unpopular in the colony. In addition, a large force of soldiers was ordered into the province under an act of Parliament, directing the governor to provide quarters for them in any town he might select. In this connection, Bradford says: "Thus the charter, the palladium of their rights and privileges under the shelter of which they had formerly felt themselves safe, at least from systematic tyranny, was wantonly violated by the arbitrary will of a favorite minister. They were to be governed entirely by strangers, and those in whom they had no confidence; and foreign mercenaries were provided to stifle the murmurs occasioned by oppression, and to check the efforts of a generous patriotism, which ministerial threats has not been able to silence or prevent. The intelligent citizens who composed the committees of correspondence, and others distinguished by their activity and firmness, were openly threatened by the servile tools of despotism, and marked out as victims to appease a tyrannical administration. But, happily for their countrymen, and happily for posterity, they were not moved from their high purpose by the menaces of the corrupt or powerful. Satisfied of the justice of their cause, they resolved to attempt everything, and hazard everything, for its support." Trevelyan, American Revolution, vol. i., p. 190; Bancroft, vol. iv., pp. 19-21, 24–25. Ibid, vol. iv., p. 43 et seq.; Frothingham, Siege of Boston, p. 9. a Consequently, the people soon came to the conclusion that the issue must be settled by a resort to arms. The citizens began to drill and to acquaint themselves with military maneuvres and evolutions, young and old taking part in the military exercises; while the women and children and those incapacitated for active service applied themselves to casting bullets and making cartridges. Gage now determined to quarter the troops in Boston, and from Ireland, New York, Halifax, and Quebec other regiments were sent to the city. Upon the arrival of these reinforcements, Gage established guard on Boston Neck, under the pretence that he wished to prevent the desertion of soldiers, though his real motive undoubtedly was to intimidate the inhabitants and to prevent the passage of arms from the city into the country. All manner of rumors now began to be circulated, and the people assembled freely and frequently to learn of any new events. Gage further exasperated the people by resolving to fortify Boston Neck, sending a body of troops to Quarry Hill, on a point of land at Charlestown between Medford and Cambridge, who there seized upon a quantity of powder in a magazine and sent it to Boston. The people of the neighboring towns at once flew to arms, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the leaders were able to dissuade the provincials from immediately marching to Boston to demand the restoration of the powder, or, in case CONVENTION ASSUMES CONTROL; CONGRESS CONVENES. 303 of refusal, to attack the garrison.* The action of the colonists, however, had one good result; this was inducing several of the gentlemen recently appointed councillors by Gage under the act of Parliament to resign their seats and to promise to take no part in the execution of the obnoxious measures of the ministry. It was now rumored that the troops and fleet were firing on Boston, and in a few hours, it is said, 30,000 armed men set out for the city; but when they learned that the rumor was without foundation, they quietly dispersed.‡ Thus the governor and the royal troops were virtually blockaded in Boston, and the royal administration of governmental affairs in the colony was assumed by the popular convention. Juries refused to serve under a system which was declared to be a violation of the Massachusetts charter, and the judges frequently made matters worse by attempting to decide cases without the aid of juries. This but served to aggravate the people, who asserted "that they knew no court independent of the ancient laws of their country, and none other would they acknowledge." In September the people of the county of Suffolk, in which Boston was located, in absolute defiance of the act of Par * Frothingham, Siege of Boston, p. 13; Lossing, Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. i., pp. 513-514. Bancroft, vol. iv., p. 55 et seq.; Van Tyne, Loyalists in the Revolution, p. 35 et seq. Hildreth, vol. iii., p. 41; Lossing, Field-Book of the Revolution, vol. i., p. 514; Livingston, Life of Putnam, p. 181 et seq. liament and the proclamation of Gage forbidding public assemblies, elected delegates to consider the proper measures to be adopted in the present conditions. They passed resolutions declaring themselves constitutionally exempt from all the measures passed by the late Parliament, that in fact, there was no constituted government in the province, and that such persons who acted in an official capacity under the new regulations were enemies to the country. They sent a copy of their resolutions to the governor, and, on receiving a reply, sent copies of all the papers to the Continental Congress then just beginning its session. at Philadelphia. * On September 5, 1774, the first Continental Congress assembled at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, 55 delegates being present from 12 of the colonies,† Georgia being the only one Bancroft, vol. iii., pp. 59-60; Fisher, Struggle for American Independence, vol. i., pp. 229-230; Hosmer, Samuel Adams, p. 317 et seq. For a review of the Regulating Acts see Frothingham, Rise of the Republic, pp. 344-358. See also Frothingham, Siege of Boston, pp. 11-12; Fiske, American Revolution, vol. i., p. 108 et seq. The delegates from the colonies were as follows: Rhode Island.. Stephen Hopkins, Samuel Ward. Maryland...... Samuel Chase, Matthew Tilghman, William Paca, Thomas Johnson, Robert Goldsborough. Connecticut.... Roger Sherman, Silas Deane, Eli phalet Dyer. New Hampshire Nathaniel Folsom, John Sullivan. sey, Stephen Crane, John De- 304 CONTINENTAL CONGRESS ORGANIZES. not represented.* The majority of these delegates had been elected by the authority of the state legislatures, but in some cases a different system had been followed. The elections were made by a committee chosen in the several counties for that particular purpose, while in New York the people assembled in places where opposition to the claims of Parliament prevailed, and elected deputies who were then received into Congress.t Pennsylvania... Samuel Rhoades, Edward Biddle, The powers with which the representatives of these various colonies had been invested were also of various extent and expressed in very dissimilar manner.* * Peyton Randolph of Virginia was elected president and Charles Thomson of Philadelphia secretary. The question now arose as to the methods to be adopted by the Congress in its proceedings - how the members should vote, etc.,- and it was finally determined that each colony should have only one vote, re Joseph Galloway, George Ross, gardless of the number of delegates it might have sent to the Congress. Thomas Mifflin, Charles Humph ries, John Morton. Delaware...... Cæsar Rodney, George Read, Thereupon the delegates proceeded to Thomas McKean. South Carolina. Christopher Gadsden, John Rut- Virginia....... George Washington, Edmund business.‡ Mr. Wirt says: "The most eminent men of the various colonies were now, for the first time, brought together. Richard Bland, Richard Henry They were known to each other by fame; but they were personally stran Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Pat- North Carolina. William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, New York..... John Jay, Philip Livingston, Si- Wisner. The North Carolina delegates did not arrive until September 14. * However, at a meeting of the inhabitants at Savannah, August 10, 1774, it was resolved "that we concur with out sister colonies in every constitutional measure to obtain redress of American grievances, and will by every lawful means in our power, maintain those inestimable blessings for which we are indebted to God and the Constitution of our country · a Constitution founded upon reason and justice, and the indelible rights of mankind." A committee was also appointed to receive subscriptions for the suffering poor in Boston. See White, Historical Collections of Georgia, pp. 45-46. See Jones, New York in the Revolution, vol. i., pp. 34-35, 449-467; Flick, Loyalism in New York, p. 23 et seq.; Onderdonk, Revolutionary Incidents of Long Island, pp. 16, 22-28, 39-40; Van Tyne, Loyalists in the Revolution, pp. 88-89; Pellew, John Jay, pp. 30-35. * See the various certificates in Journals of the American Congress, vol. i., pp. 2-7. See also Fisher, Struggle for American Independence, vol. i., chap. xix. Evidently by a viva voce vote. See John Adams, Works, vol. ii., p. 360. George T. Curtis, Constitutional History of the United States, vol. i., p. 9; Bancroft, vol. iii., pp. 62-64. Henry scouted the idea that there were sectional distinctions or individual interests. "All America is thrown into one mess. Where are your landmarks- your boundaries of colonies? They are all thrown down. The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers and New Englanders, are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American." Irving, Life of Washington, vol. i., p. 424. See also Tyler, Life of Patrick Henry, p. 99; Henry, Life of Patrick Henry, vol. i., pp. 221-222. |