XXIII. 1774. Mode of voting. CHAP. lified in various modes, fome by the provincial affemblies, fome by town-meetings, and fome by the committees of correfpondence. In Rhode Island the election was ratified by the governor. The whole number who attended congrefs was fifty-fix. The inequality of representation was remedied in the manner of voting, as each colony had one fuffrage only in the decifion of every queftion; although the reprefentatives of each colony feparately declared, by the enumeration of a majority, on which fide that vote should be recorded. This regulation had fubfequently the effect of giving an appearance of unanimity to the proceedings. The precaution was alfo adopted of debating in private, with the doors carefully locked and guarded; thus the people being prevented from ever attaining a knowledge of the arguments by which any measure was combated or fuftained, the results were received as the abftracts of wifdom and union, and hailed with the veneration due to oracular edicts. Secrecy in debate. Terms of inftructions. 10th Sept. SOME of the votes or inftructions to deputies, which were read as credentials at the firft fitting of congress, were conceived in loofe and general terms, and empowered the deputies to confult and advife on proper meafures for advancing the best good of the colonies; but in general they fpecifically enjoined an attention to the redress of certain exprefs grievances, and the renewal and maintenance of the connexion and amity with Great Eritain, fo effential to the interests of both. Under these restraints, fpeculations of a different tendency could not be promulgated till the public mind was further prepared, and therefore, in all proceedings, a formal acknowledgment was made of the fupremacy of the mother-country, and the fubjection of the colonies, although, by fubfequent definitions and restrictions, the power of the one and the submis fion of the other were reduced to mere names. AFTER appointing officers, and establishing com. The congrefe mittees, they took into confideration the proceedings of 1774. of the Suf commenda of the Suffolk meeting, their refolutions, recommenda. CHA P. tions, and addrefs to the governor; of all which they XXIII. expreffed the highest approbation, and recommended them to general adoption, as the means of carrying refolutions fuch conviction to the British nation of the unwife, folk meetunjust, and ruinous policy of administration, as would ing. quickly introduce better men and wifer measures. They approved of the oppofition to the late acts of parliament, declared that in cafe of an attempt to carry them into execution by force, all, America ought to support the people of Maffachufet's Bay, and recommended a continuance of the fubfcriptions for relief of the inhabitants of Boston. They afterward Further re requested the merchants and all other perfons in the various colonies, to tranfmit no new orders for goods 22d Sept. to Great Britain, but to countermand or fufpend those already iffued; and formed refolutions for difcontinu- 27th ing, after the first of December, the importation and ufe of all goods from Great Britain and Ireland, and 30th. for the ceffation of all exports to thofe countries and to the West Indies after the tenth of September 1775; and they declared the feizure of any person, for the purpose of transporting him beyond the fea, to be tried for an offence committed in America, contrary to law; it would justify, and ought to meet with, refiftance and reprifal. tions. 14th Oct. MEANWHILE the committee, appointed for that Declaration purpose, had fubmitted to congrefs a feries of refolu- of rights. tions, forming a DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, which were adopted, and published by authority. They were prefaced by an enumeration of grievances fince the termination of the laft war, among which were cited the declaratory act, establishing the right of Great Britain to bind America in all cafes whatever; the impofition of taxes for the purpose of raifing a revenue; the establishment of a board of commiffioners; the extenfion of the admiralty jurifdiction; the alteration of the establishment of judges; the revival of the obfolete ftatute of Henry VIII.; the three K 2 XXIII. 1774. CHAP. three acts of the late feffion relative to Maffachufet's Bay, and that for establishing the government of Quebec; the diffolution of affemblies, and the difregard fhown by minifters to petitions for redress. Under thefe circumftances, the good people of the twelve colonies justly alarmed at the arbitrary proceedings of parliament and adminiftration, had appointed deputies to a general congrefs, in order to obtain fuch an establishment as would fecure their religion, laws, and liberties from fubverfion. Therefore the deputies did, in the first place (as Englifhmen, their ancestors, had ufually done in like cafes) form a declaration, for the purpose of afferting and vindicating their rights and liberties. THEY claimed their RIGHTS as founded on the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English conftitution, and their feveral charters or compacts. From thefe latitudinarian and incongruous fources, they principally affumed for themselves an abfolute title to life, liberty, and property, which no fovereign power could difpofe of without their confent. Their ancestors, they faid, poffeffed, and had not forfeited by emigration, all the rights, liberties, and immunities of Englishmen, and their descendants were therefore entitled to them, fo far as circumftances would admit. The foundation of all free government being a right to participate in a legiflative council, and the circumftances of America rendering it impoffible for them to be represented in the British parliament, they claimed a right to free legiflation in all cafes of taxation and internal polity, fubject only to the king's negative they were willing, however, to confent to the operation of British acts of parliament, bona fide restricted to the regulation of commerce, but excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external. · The refpective colonies were entitled to the common law of England, and to the benefit of all ftatutes which existed at the time of their colonization, and particularly to the ineftimable privilege of a trial by their peers, XXIII. 1774. peers, and in their own vicinage. They were alfo CHA P. entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted by their charters, and fecured by the provincial laws. They had a right to affemble to confider of their grievances; and all profecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments, on that account, were illegal, as was the keeping a standing army in any of the colonies in time of peace, without confent of the people. And finally, the exercife of legislative power in feveral colonies, by a council appointed during pleasure by the crown, was declared unconftitutional, dangerous, and deftructive to the freedom of American legilation. Thefe rights, they afferted, could not be legally taken from them, altered, or abridged, by any power whatever, without their own confent, by their representatives in their feveral provincial legislatures. Then recapitulating their grievances, to which they could no longer fubmit, they declared their adoption of the present measures to be founded on the hope that their fellow-fubjects in Great Britain would reftore the Americans to that ftate in which both countries had found happiness and profperity. fumption THEIR first propofition was an affociation or agree. Non-conment against importation or confumption of any affociation, articles of British commerce, and against the exportation of their own produce to Great Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies, except rice to Europe. A committee was to be chofen in each colony, to fuperintend the execution of the agreement, and the committees of correfpondence were directed frequently to infpect the entries of the cuftom-houfes, for the purpofe of informing against fuch merchants as violated the affociation, with whom the congrefs, for themselves and their conftituents (who were bound by their fignature) agreed to have no commerce or intercourfe, but to confider them unworthy the rights of freemen, and inimical to the liberties of their country. The agree ment was to continue in force till the repeal of all the acts of parliament which conftituted their grievances; XXIII. CHAP. but fome of the articles would in their effect be perpetual, particularly that for encouraging the growth of wool, and one for abolishing the flave-trade. 1774. gift Oct. Addrefs to of Great Britain. ANOTHER of their measures was to addrefs the the people people of Great Britain; thofe of their own colonies, and of Canada feparately. In each of thefe productions great artifice was used in directing appeals to feeling and prejudice, and in citing fuch circumftances as were calculated, through hope or fear, to gain adherents to their caufe. The people of Great Britain were reminded of the ftruggles maintained by their ancestors in the caufe of liberty, and told that the project of minifters in endeavouring to enflave the Americans, derived from the fame ftock, tended only to the more easy introduction of flavery at home. They claimed a participation of Britifh rights, and flattered the national pride, by affecting to make the freedom of Englishmen the model and fcope of their wishes. They recapitulated their fervices in the former war, and proceedings of parliament fince that time, extenuating the plunder of the tea fhips, which they defcribed as a perfonal, not a public affair, the remedy of which ought to have been fought by the fufferers in the courts of law, without an appeal to parliament. They endeavoured to excite national indignation againft the late acts, and directed the fevereft invectives against the new fyftem in Quebec, as being intended to overthrow the liberties of the British colonies by a vast influx of Catholics, fwelled by emigrations from Europe. "We cannot fupprefs our aftonishment," they fay," that a British parliament fhould ever confent to establish a religion which has deluged your ifland in blood, and difperfed impiety, bigotry, perfecution, murder, and rebellion, through every part of thẻ world." Declaring that the view of minifters in endeavouring to tax America at pleafure, was merely to draw fuch immenfe fums into the royal coffers as would render the king independent of parliament, and that a fuccefsful conteft would be attended with по |