sired leave to enter their protests against the resolution, and, as this was refused, they gave to each other privately certificates that they had opposed it as treasonable. Two days later, congress further "declared that every person who should accept or act under any commission or authority derived from the act of parliament which violated the charter of Massachusetts, ought to be held in detestation ;" and, in their letter to Gage, they censured his conduct as tending "to involve a free people in the horrors of war."

In adopting a declaration of rights, the division which had shown itself in the committee was renewed. "Here," said Ward of Rhode Island, "no acts of parliament can bind. Giving up this point is yielding all." Against him spoke John Adams and Duane. "A right," said Lynch, "to bind us in one case may imply a right to bind us in all; but we are bound in none." The resolution of concession was arrested by the vote of five colonies against five, with Massachusetts and Rhode Island divided, but at last was carried by the influence of John Adams. Duane desired next to strike the Quebec act from the list of grievances; but of all the bad acts of parliament, Richard Henry Lee pronounced it the worst. His opinion prevailed upon a vote which Duane's reluctant adhesion made unanimous. Thus eleven acts of parliament or parts of acts, including the Quebec act and the acts specially affecting Massachusetts, were declared to be such infringements and violations of the rights of the colonies that the repeal of them was essentially necessary, in order to restore harmony between the colonies and Great Britain.

The congress had unanimously resolved from the first day of the coming December not to import any merchandise from Great Britain and Ireland. They could not agree upon an immediate non-exportation; if the redress of American grievances should be delayed beyond the tenth day of September of the following year, a resolution to export no merchandise to Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies after that date was carried, but against the voice of South Carolina. When the members proceeded to bind themselves to these measures by an association, three of the delegates of that colony refused their

names.

"The agreement to stop exports to Great Britain is

unequal," reasoned Rutledge; "New England ships little or nothing there, but sends fish, its great staple, to Portugal or Spain; South Carolina annually ships rice to England to the value of a million and a half of dollars. New England would be affected but little by the prohibition; Carolina would be ruined;" and he and two of his colleagues withdrew from the congress. Gadsden, who never counted the cost of patriotism, remained in his place, and, trusting to the generosity of his constituents, declared himself ready to sign the association. All business was interrupted for several days, when congress recalled the seceders by allowing the unconditional export of rice.

The association further adopted without opposition the memorable covenant which inaugurated the abolition of the slave-trade: "We will neither import nor purchase any slave imported after the first day of December next, after which time we will wholly discontinue the slave-trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it."

This first American congress brought forth another measure, which was without an example. It recognised the political being and authority of the people. While it refused to petition parliament, it addressed the people of the provinces from Nova Scotia to Florida, the people of Canada, the people of Great Britain, making the printing press its ambassador to the rising power.

To the British people whom they described as having been "led to greatness by the hand of liberty," and as "heirs to the rights of men," they said, in the language of Jay: "Know that we consider ourselves, and do insist that we are, and ought to be, as free as our fellow-subjects in Britain, and that no power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent. Prior to the era," of 1763, "you were content with wealth produced by our commerce. You restrained our trade in every way that could conduce to your emolument. You exercised unbounded sovereignty over the sea." Assenting to these restrictions, they demonstrated that a victory over the rights of America would not only be barren of advantage

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.”

ness.

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 busiThe 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."