CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA.

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under the rule of the latter, and formed combinations to CHAP. resist the authority of New York. Allen was the leader of "the Green Mountain Boys," an association formed 1775 for this purpose.

These Green Mountain Boys, numbering about two hundred and seventy, with Allen at their head, were already on their way to Ticonderoga. Within a few miles. of the head of Lake Champlain, Arnold overtook them. By virtue of his commission as colonel, he ordered Allen to surrender the command into his hands. Allen refused, nor would his men march under any other leader. It was finally arranged that Arnold should go as a volunteer, retaining the rank of colonel without the command. The following night the party reached Shoreham, a point on the lake opposite Ticonderoga. At dawn of day, as they May had but few boats, only eighty-three men with Arnold and Allen had crossed over.

They could delay no longer, lest they should be discovered, and Allen proposed to move on at once to the fort. Guided by a boy of the neighborhood, a brisk run up the hill soon brought them to the entrance. They secured the two sentinels, one of whom they compelled to show the way to the quarters of Captain Delaplace, the commandant. The vigorous knocks of Allen at his door soon roused him. When he appeared, half-awake and half-dressed, Allen flourished his sword, and called upon him to surrender the fort. The commandant stammered out, "By whose authority do you act?" "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," thundered Allen. This was a demonstration not to be resisted. The cheers of Allen's men had already roused the garrison, all of whom were taken prisoners.

Two days later Seth Warner, Allen's lieutenant, with a detachment, took Crown Point. Arnold then obtained boats, pushed on, and captured St. John's in the Sorel Altogether, sixty prisoners were taken, and what was far

10.

XXVII.

CHAP more important, two hundred cannons and a large supply of gunpowder.

1775.

Two days after the affair at Lexington, Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, sent a company of marines, who, in April the night, entered the capital, Williamsburg, and carried 20. off from the public arsenal about twenty barrels of powder,

May

2.

and conveyed them on board an armed schooner lying in James river. When the inhabitants learned the fact the next morning, they were greatly exasperated. Numbers flew to arms with the intention of recovering the powder. By the persuasions of the leading citizens, and of the council, they were restrained from acts of violence.

The Council, however, addressed a remonstrance to the governor, who promised, verbally, to restore the powder when it should be needed. The people deemed his answer unsatisfactory. When intelligence came of the conflict at Concord, it flashed upon their minds that the seizure of the powder and munitions of war in the colonies was concerted by the royal governors, in accordance with instructions from the ministry.

Patrick Henry invited the independent companies of the county of Hanover to meet him at a certain place on the second of May. They, seven hundred strong, obeyed the call. He made known why they were called together; spoke of the fight at Concord, and the occasion of it. Then, at their head, he marched towards Williamsburg, determined either to have the powder returned, or its value in money. On their way a messenger from the frightened governor met them, and tendered the money for the full value of the powder. The money was afterward sent to Congress.

The companies now disbanded, with the understanding that when called upon, they were to be ready to march at a minute's warning. Thus did Virginia emulate Massachusetts.

THE PEOPLE RISE IN OPPOSITION.

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Dunmore, in the mean while, fled with his family on CHAP. board a man-of-war, and thence issued one of his harmless. proclamations, in which he declared "a certain Patrick 1775. Henry and his associates to be in rebellion."

A few days before he had said, "The whole country can easily be made a solitude;" and he threatened to declare freedom to the slaves, arm them, and lay Williamsburg in ashes!

As the news from Lexington and Concord reached the various portions of the colonies the people rose in opposition. The whigs were indignant at the outrage, and the royalists censured Gage for his rash and harsh measures.

In New York, the Sons of Liberty, with Robert Sears, the sturdy mechanic, at their head, seized eighty thousand pounds of flour, which was on board of sloops ready to be taken to Boston for the king's troops; they shut up the custom-house, and forbade vessels to leave the harbor for any colony or port which acknowledged British authority; they secured the arms and ammunition belonging to the city, while the volunteers turned out and paraded the streets. The General Committee was dilatory; another was chosen to act with more energy. An association was formed whose members pledged themselves, "under all ties of religion, honor, and love of country, to submit to committees and to Congress, to withhold supplies from the British troops, and, at the risk of lives and fortunes, to repel every attempt at enforcing taxation by Parlia

ment."

Similar was the spirit manifested in the Jerseys. In Philadelphia, thousands of the citizens assembled and resolved, "To associate for the purpose of defending with arms, their lives, their property, and liberty." Thomas Mifflin, the warlike young Quaker, urged them in his speech, "not to be bold in declarations and cold in action." Military companies were formed in the neighboring coun

CHAP. ties, as well as in the city, who armed themselves and daily practised their exercises.

XXVII.

1775.

May.

In Maryland, Eden, the royalist governor, in order to conciliate, gave up to the people the arms and ammunition of the province.

In Charleston, the people at once distributed the twelve hundred stand of arms which they seized in the royal arsenal, while the Provincial Congress, with Henry Laurens, a Huguenot by descent, as their president, declared themselves "ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to secure freedom and safety." The officers of the militia threw up their commissions from the governor, and declared themselves ready to submit to the authority of Congress. Regiments of infantry and rangers were immediately raised.

Georgia, which had hitherto been lukewarm, now took decided ground. The people broke into the royal magazine, from which they took all the powder, five hundred pounds. The committee wrote words of encouragement and commendation to the people of Massachusetts, and sent them rice and specie.

In North Carolina, as the news passed from place to place, it awakened the spirit of resistance to tyranny. The highlands along her western frontier were settled by Presbyterians of Scotch-Irish descent, "who were said to possess the impulsiveness of the Irishman with the dogged resolution of the Covenanter." A county convention was in session when the courier arrived. Fired with indignation, the delegates resolved to throw off "the authority of the king and Parliament." Ephraim Brevard, “trained in the college at Princeton," and afterward a martyr in the cause, embodied their sentiments in resolutions, which declared: "All laws and commissions, confirmed by or derived from the authority of the king and Parliament to be annulled and vacated." To maintain their rights, they also determined to form nine military companies, and to

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

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frame laws for the internal government of the country. CHAP This was the famous Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

Such was the spirit that pervaded the minds of the entire people. Throughout the land free principles had laid the train-the spark was applied at Lexington.

1775.

10.

On the tenth of May the second Continental Congress May commenced its session at Philadelphia. They organized without changing the officers of the year before. In a few days, however, Peyton Randolph resigned the presidency to return to Virginia and preside over the Assembly, which had been called by the governor.

Thomas Jefferson was sent to supply his place as a delegate, and John Hancock was elected president. Harrison, of Virginia, in conducting him to the chair, said : "We will show Britain how much we value her proscriptions." For it was well known that Hancock and Samuel Adams were deemed rebels too great to be pardoned.

Dr. Franklin had returned only a few days before from England, where he had been for some years in the capacity of agent for some of the colonies. There his enlightened statesmanship and far-seeing judgment had won the respect of liberal-minded Englishmen. He was at once chosen a delegate. Also, in addition to the members of the first Congress, appeared George Clinton and Robert R. Livingston, from New York.

The members were encouraged, for the measures of the first Congress had been approved by the assemblies of all the colonies.

The first General Congress met to protest and petition; the second to assume authority and take decisive measures. Then the door was open for reconciliation with the mother country, now it was almost closed. The face of affairs was changed; blood had been wantonly shed,