12.28.2018 SELF GOVERNMENT WITH UNION (COPYRIGHT 1962 BY The American Christian Constitution Press)

Part One  CHAIN OF CHRISTIAN UNITY, Christian Self-Government confronts forced Union

*1  ''there is but one world -stream, broad and fresh, which from the beginning bore the promise of the future. this stream had its rise  in Middle Asia and the Levant and has steadily continued its course from East to West... from Greece it passed on to the Roman Empire.  from the Romanic nations it continued its way to the North western  parts of Europe, and from Holland and England it reached at length  your continent...the course of this world-stream from Est to West can be denied by none. Abraham Kuyper

*3  Republican institutions in the hands of a virtuous and God-fearing nation are the very best in the world, but in the hands of a corrupt and irreligious people they are the very worst,  and most effective weapons of destruction. an indignant people may rise in rebellion against a cruel tyrant, but who will rise against the tyranny  of the people in possession of the ballot-box and the whole machinery of government?  here lies our great danger and it is increasing every year. destroy our churches, close our Sunday-schools, abolish the Lord's Day and our republic would become an empty shell and our people would tend to heathenism and barbarism. Christianity is the most powerful factor in our society and the pillar of our institutions.  Philip Schaff,  1888

The Spirit of American Unity

*5  'the Muse inspiring our fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire with a sense of oppression and a resolution to throw it off;  the whole world was the stage and higher characters than princes trod it and, instead of monarchs, countries and nations and the age beheld the swelling scene...

excerpts from 'Works of Daniel Webster', Boston,  1851

'at a subsequent period, but before the declaration f independence, the Bishop of St. Asaph published a discourse, in which the following remarkable passages are found:  'it is difficult for man to look into the destiny of future ages; the designs of Providence are vast and complicated and our own powers are too narrow to admit of much satisfaction to our curiosity. but when we see many great and powerful causes constantly at work, we cannot doubt of their producing proportionable effects.

'descended from ancestors of the most improved and enlightened part of the Old world, they receive, as it were by inheritance, all the improvements and discoveries of their mother country. and it happens fortunately for them to commence their flourishing state at a time when the human understanding has attained to the free use of its powers and has learned to act with vigor and certainty. they may avail themselves, not only of the experience and industry , but even of the errors and mistakes,  of former days. let it be considered for how many ages a great part of the world appears not to have thought at all;  how many more they have been busied in forming systems and conjectures, while reason has been lost in a labyrinth of words and they never seem  to have suspected on what frivolous matters they minds were employed...

'and perhaps they may make as considerable advances in the arts of civil government and the conduct of life... and perhaps, after trying some of our follies and caprices, still rejecting the rest, they may be led by reason and experiment to that old simplicity which was first pointed out by nature, and has produced those models which we still admire in arts, eloquence, and manners. the diversity of new scenes and situations, which so many growing states must necessarily pass through, may introduce changes in the fluctuating opinions and manners of men which we can form no conception of  and no only the gracious disposition of Providence, but the

*6  'visible preparation of causes, seems to indicate strong tendencies towards a general improvement.
'fellow-citizens, this 'gracious disposition of Providence',  and this 'visible preparation of causes',  at length brought on the hour for decisive action. on the 4th of July, 1776,  the Representatives of the US of America, in Congress assembled, declared that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.
'this declaration, made by most patriotic and resolute men, trusting in the justice of their cause and the protection of heaven and yet made not without deep solicitude and anxiety, has now stood for 75 years, and still stands. it was sealed in blood, it has met dangers and overcome them; it has had enemies, and conquered them; it has had detractors and abashed them all;  it has had doubting friends, but it has cleared all doubts away and now, today, raising its august form higher than the clouds, 20,000,000s of people contemplate it with hallowed love and the world beholds it and the consequences which have followed from it, with profound admiration.
this anniversary animates and gladdens and unites all American hearts. on other days of the year we may be party men, indulging in controversies more of less important to the public good; we may have likes and dislikes, and we may maintain  our political differences, often with warm and sometimes with angry feelings. but today we are Americans all and all nothing but Americans. as the great luminary over our heads , dissipating mists and fogs,  now cheers the whole hemisphere, so do the associations connected with this day disperse all cloudy and sullen weather in the minds and hearts of true Americans...

*7  'I will venture, before proceeding to the more appropriate and particular  duties of the day, to state, in a few words, what I take these American political principles in substance to be.  they consist, as i think, in the first place, in the establishment of popular governments, on the basis of representation;  for it is plain that a pure democracy, like that which existed in some of the states of Greece, in which every individual had a direct vote in the enactment of all laws,  cannot possibly exist in a country of wide extent. this representation is to be made as equal as circumstances will allow. now, this principle of popular representation,  prevailing either in all the branches of government or in some of them, has existed in these States almost from the days of the settlement at Jamestown and Plymouth;  borrowed, no doubt, from the example of the popular branch of the British legislature...
'the next fundamental principle in or system is, that the will of the majority, fairly expressed through the Means of representation, shall have the force of law; and it is quite evident that, in a country without thrones or aristocracies or privileged castes or classes, there can be no other foundation for law to stand upon. and, as the necessary result of this, the third element is, that the law is the supreme rule for the government of all...

*8  'What constitutes a state?
not high-raised battlement or labored mound,
thick wall or moated gate;
not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
not bays and broad-armed ports,
where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
nor starred and spangled courts,
where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride.
No: MEN,  high-minded MEN,
with powers as far above dull brutes endued,
in forest, brake or den,
as beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude:
men who their duties know.
but know their rights and , knowing, dare maintain,;
prevent the long-aimed blow,
and crush the tyrant while they rend the chain:
these Constitute a state;
and SOVEREIGN LAW, that state's collected will,
o'er thrones and globes elate
sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.

'and finally, another most important part of the great fabric of American liberty  is, that there shall be written constitutions, founded on the immediate authority of the people themselves and regulating and restraining all the powers conferred upon government, whether legislative, executive or judicial.

this fellow-citizens, i suppose to be a just summary of our american principles and I have on this occasion sought to express them in the plainest and in the fewest words.

'and now I proceed to add, that the strong and deep-settled conviction of all intelligent persons among us is, that, in order to support a useful and wise government upon these popular principles,  the general education of the people. and the wide diffusion of pure morality and true religion, are indispensable. individual virtue is a part of public virtue.  it is difficult to conceive how there can remain morality in the government when it shall cease to exist among the people, or how the aggregate of the political institutions, all the organs of which consist only of men, should  be wise, and beneficent  and competent to inspire confidence, if the opposite qualities belong to the individuals who constitute those organs and make up that aggregate... the above, Daniel Webster

*9  it affords edifying prospects, indeed, to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more charity, and conduct themselves, in respect to each other, with a more Christian-like spirit ,  than ever they have done in any former age or in any nation.                                 Washington

*10  Man is an intellectual being, destined to immorality. there is a spirit in him, and the breath of the Almighty hath given him understanding. then only is he tending toward his own destiny, while he seeks for knowledge and virtue, for the will of his Maker, and for just conceptions of his own duty...

the spectacle of a nation powerful and enlightened, but without Christian faith, has been presented, almost within our own day, as a warning beacon for the nations.

on the other hand, the cultivation of the religious sentiment represses licentiousness, incites to general benevolence and the practical acknowledgment of the brotherhood of man, inspires respect for law and order and gives strength to the whole social

*11  fabric, at the same time that it conducts the human soul upward to the author of its being.

now , I think it may be stated with truth,  that in no country, in proportion to its population, are there so many benevolent establishments connected with religious instruction, Bible, Missionary and Tract societies, supported by public and private contributions, as in our won. there are also institutions for the education of the blind, of idiots  of the deaf and dumb; for the reception of orphan and destitute children and the insane; for moral reform, designed for children and females respectively; and institutions for the reformation of criminals;  not to speak of those numerous establishments, in almost every county and town in the United States,  for the reception of the aged, infirm and destitute poor, many of whom have fled  to our shores to escape the poverty and wretchedness of their condition at home.

*12  'Who does not admit that this unparalleled growth in prosperity and renown is the result, under Providence, of the union of these States under a general Constitution, which guaranties to each State a republican form of government and to every man the enjoyment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, free from civil tyranny or ecclesiastical domination. the above, Daniel Webster

*16  American Unity In Foreign Relations

Christian unity:  america's relations with foreign nations as 'fee and independent' NATIONAL  states.

'our Saviour's great rule, that 'we should love our neighbor as ourselves, is such a fundamental truth for the regulating of human society, that, by that alone, one might without difficulty determine all the cases and doubts in social morality. John Locke, 'Of the Conduct of the Understanding'.

'Christianity does not impose one form of civil government on all nations. it leaves that to be adjusted by the genius, convenience and wellfare of each people...William Wollaston,  'The Religion of Nature Delineated' London -1726
'the power which one society bestows upon  any man or body of men, can never extend beyond its own limits. Alexander Hamilton, 'The Farmer Refuted' - 1775

*17  'INTERMEDDLING'

'Intermeddle:  to meddle in the affairs of others, in which one has no concern; to meddle officiously; to interpose or interfere improperly; to intermix'. Webster's Dictionary,  1847

'Whereas we all came int these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel in purity with peace...that the plantations which at present are, or hereafter shall be settled within  the limits of the Massachusetts, shall be forever under the government of the Massachusetts, and shall have peculiar jusrisdiction amongst themselves in all cases as an entire body...a confederation for amity, offence and defence, not intermeddling with the government of any of the jurisdictions...

The New England Confederation,  1643

*18  .....they will not see in us a people whose best passions have been misled and whose best qualities have been perverted from their true direction  by headlong, fanatical or designing leaders,  to the perpetration of acts from which humanity shrinks, to the commission of outrages over which the eye of reason weeps, to the profession and practice of principles which tend to shake the foundations of morality, to dissolve the social bands, to disturb the peace of mankind, to substitute confusion to order, anarchy to government....'
from 'Americanus', Alexander Hamilton - Feb.  8,1794

*19  '...as free and independent...National States
(excerpts from 'Elements of Inernational Law', Henry Wheaton)

*20  'the introduction of Christianity tended to abolish the Pagan precept:  'Thou shalt hate thine enemy',  and to substitute for tit the benevolent command:  'Love your enemies',  which could not be reconciled with perpetual hostility between the different races of men. but this milder dispensation long struggled in vain against the secular enmity of the different nations of the ancient world and that spirit of blind intolerance which darkened the ages succeeding the fall of the Roman Empire. during the Middle Ages the Christian States of Europe began to unite and to acknowledge the obligation of an international law common to all who professed the same religious faith. this law was founded mainly upon the following circumstances:
'First:  the union of the Latin Church under one spiritual head, whose authority was often invoked as the supreme arbiter between sovereigns and between nations. under the auspices of Pope Gregory  IX.,  the canon law was reduced into a code, which served as the rule to guide the decisions of the Church in public as well as private controversies.

'Second:  the revival of the study of the Roman law  and the adoption of this system of jurisprudence by nearly all the nations of Christendom, either as the basis of their municipal codes, or as subsidiary to the local legislation in each country.
'the origin of the law of nations in modern Europe may thus be traced to these 2 principal sources, - the canon law and the roman civil law.

*21 'the establishment of the system of a balance of power among the European States also contributed to form the international law recognized by them....

'whatever may be thought of the long-disputed question as to the motives of Machiavelli in writing, his work certainly reflects the image of that dark and gloomy period of European society, presenting one mass of dissimulation, crime and corruption, which called loudly for a great teacher and reformer to arise, who should stay the ravages of this moral pestilence and speak the unambiguous language of truth an justice to princes and
*22  people. such a teacher and reformer was Hugo Grotius, whose treatise on the LAWS OF PEACE AND WAR,  produced a strong impression on the public mind of Christina Europe and gradually wrought a most salutary change in the practical intercourse of nations in favor of humanity and justice. whatever defects may be justly imputed to the works of Grotius and the public jurists formed in his school, considered as scientific, expostitory treatises,  it would be difficult to name any class of writers which has contributed more to promote the progress of civilization than 'these illustrious authors - these friends of human nature - these kind instructors of human errors and frailties - these benevolent spirits who held up the torch of science to a benighted world. (Patrick Henry)

*23  'that international law, common to all civilized and Christian nations, which our ancestors brought with them from Europe and which was obligatory upon us whilst we continued to form a part of the British Empire, did not cease to be so when we declared our independence of the parent county.  its obligation was acknowledged by the Continental Congress, in the ordinances published by that illustrious assembly for the regulation of maritime captures,  and by the Court of Appeals, established for the adjudication of prize causes during the War of the Revolution. in the mean time, the United States had recognized, in their treaty of alliance with France, those principles respecting the rights of neutral commerce and navigation which subsequently became the basis of the

*24  armed neutrality of the northern powers of Europe. the American government has ever since constantly recognized and respected the same principles towards those maritime States by whom they are reciprocally recognized and respected  the same principles towards those maritime States by whom they are reciprocally recognized and respected.  as to all others,  it continues to observe the preexisting rules of the ancient law of nations, whilst it has ever shown itself ready to adopt measures for mitigating the practices of war, and rendering them more conformable to the spirit of an enlightened age...' end of excerpts from 'Elements of International Law' by Henry Wheaton. 1845

*25  Independent 'STATES'

in Congress, July 4,  1776.  a DECLARATION  by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  in General Congress assembled...
'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of  happiness -
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government.
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

*26  Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, that to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing  invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies  and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government...
nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. we have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us.

we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here...

we, therefore  the representatives of the United States of america, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good  people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare,

that these United Colonies are and, of a right ought to be, free and independent states:  that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;

and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce,
and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor'.

above,excerpts from THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,  Philadelphia,  July 4, 1776

*31  'INTERPOSITION'

Intervention:  a state of coming or being between; interposition. any interference that may affect the interest of others.  Webster's Dictionary, 1828

The Monroe Doctrine:  'it sets our compass and points the course which we are to steer through the ocean of time opening on us. (below, excerpts from James Monroe's Seventh Annual Message,  'The Monroe Doctrine' - 1823

the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the US are involved, that the American continents, by the free independent condition which they have assumed and maintain , are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers...
the citizens of the US cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic, in the wars of the European  powers in  matters relating  to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do.

it is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. with the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers.
the political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. this difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments and to

*32  the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted.
we owe it, therefore to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the US and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.

with the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfere and shall not interfere. but with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the US...

to what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote and surely none more so than the US.
Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted a an early stage of the wars which have so long agitate hat quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the government DE FACTO as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it,and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none.

*33 'we must support our rights or lose our character and with it, perhaps, our liberties.  a people who fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations. national honor is nation property of the highest value. the sentiment in the mid of every citizen is national strength...

*34  Free Men, States, and CHURCHES

Christian Unity:  'free and independent' churches

'We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here.  The Declaration of Independence. ,  July 4, 1776

'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging  the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances'.  The Constitution of the United States, amendment proposed Sept.  25, 1789 and ratified Dec.15, 1791

'Let us now consider what a Church is...I say it is a free and voluntary Society...No Man by nature is bound unto any particular Church or Sect...for if afterwards he discover any thing either erroneous in the Doctrine, or incongruous in the Worship of that society  to which he was joyn'd himself, why should it not be as free for him to go out as it was to enter?  John Locke, (1632-1704)  'A letter concerning Toleration'.

'Next to the Christian religion, says Mr. Partridge, 'of which america is the most influential advocate, the American government and Constitution is the most precious possession which the world holds, or which the future can inherit'.  this is true; true because the American system is the political expression f Christian ideas. ages of human effort, the struggles of former generations, the hopes, the disappointments, the wisdom of the past, have brought about this great result.

from a review of 'the Making of The American Nation' by the English author J. Arthur Partridge,  1866

*35  American Christianity

'the liberty enjoyed by the people of these States, of worshipping Almighty God agreeably to their consciences,is not only among the choices of their BLESSINGS,  but also of their RIGHTS. while men perform their social duties faithfully, they do all that society or the state can with propriety demand or expect; and remain responsible only to their Maker for the religion, or modes of faith, which they may prefer or profess. George Washington, Oct 1789

Conscience is the most sacred of all property; other property depending in part on positive law, the exercise of that being a natural and unalienable right...   James Madison,  1792,  Vol. I 'christian History of the Constitution.

What is the distinctive character of American Christianity in its organized social aspect and its relation to the national life,as compared with the Christianity of Europe?

'it is free church in a free state, or a self-supporting and self-governing Christianity in independent but friendly relation to the civil government.
'this relationship of church and state marks an epoch. it is a new chapter in the history of Christianity and the most important one which America has so far contributed. it lies at the base of our religious institutions and operations and they cannot be understood without it...from 'Church and State in the United States',  Philip Schaff - 1888 (through p40)

*36  'The relationship of church and state in the United States secures full liberty of religious thought, speech and action, within the limits of the public peace and order.

'it makes persecution impossible.
'religion and liberty are inseparable. religion is voluntary and cannot  and ought not to be forced.

'this is a fundamental article of the American creed, without distinction of sect or party. liberty, both civil and religious, is an American instinct.
'all natives suck it in with the mother's milk; all immigrants accept it as a happy boon, especially those who flee from oppression and persecution abroad. even those who reject the modern theory of liberty enjoy the practice and would defend it in their own interest  against any attempt to overthrow it.
'such liberty is impossible on the basis of a union of church and state, where the one of necessity restricts or controls the other . it requires a friendly separation, where each power is entirely independent in its own sphere.
'the church, as such, has nothing to do with the state except to obey its laws and to strengthen its moral foundations; the state has nothing to do with the church except to protect her in her property and liberty and the state must be equally just to all forms of belief and unbelief which do not endanger the public safety.
'the family, the church and the state are divine institutions demanding alike our obedience, in their proper sphere of jurisdiction.
'The family is the oldest institution and the source of church and state.  the patriarchs were priests and kings of their households.
Church and state are equally necessary and as inseparable as soul and body and yet as distinct as soul and body.
'the church is instituted for the religious interests and eternal welfare of man; the state for his secular interests and temporal welfare. the one looks to heaven as the final home of immortal

*37  spirits,  the other upon our mother earth. the church is the reign of love;  the state is the reign of love;  the state is the reign of justice.  the former is governed by the gospel, the latter by the law. the church exhorts and uses moral suasion;  the state commands and enforces obedience .  the church punishes by rebuke, suspension and excommunication;  the state by fines, imprisonment and death. both met on questions of public morals and both together constitute civilized  human society and ensure its prosperity.
'the root of this theory we find in the New Testament.

'in the ancient world religion and politics were blended. among the Jews religion ruled the state, which was a theocracy.  among the heathen the state ruled religion; the Roman emperor was the supreme pontiff (pontifex maximux), the gods were national and the priests were servants of the state.
'Christianity had at first no official connection with the state...

'for 300 years the Christian church kept aloof from politics , and , while obeying the civil laws and paying tribute, maintained at the same time the higher law of conscience in refusing to comply with idolatrous customs and in professing the faith in the face of death. the early  Apologists - Justin Martyr,  Tertullian, Lactantius - boldly claimed the freedom of religion as a natural right...

'the American relationship of church and state differs from all previous relationships in Europe and in the colonial period of our history and yet it rests upon them and reaps the benefit of them all.  for history is an organic unit and American history has its roots in Europe.

*38  IV. the American system differs from the system of toleration, which began in Germany with the Westphalia Treaty,  1648;  in England with the Act of Toleration,  1689,  and which now prevails over nearly all Europe; of late years, nominally at least, even in roman Catholic countries, to the very gate of the Vatican, in spite of the protest of the pope.  toleration exists where the government supports one or more churches and permits other religious communities under the name of sects  (as on the continent),  or dissenters and nonconformists  (as in England),under certain conditions. in America there are no such distinctions, but only churches or denominations on a footing of perfect equality before the law. to talk about any particular denomination as The church, or The American church, has no meaning and betrays ignorance or conceit...the American church, has no meaning and betrays ignorance and conceit. ..the American laws know no such institution as 'the church',  but only separate and independent organizations.

*39  toleration is an important step from state-churchism to free-churchism. but it is only a step. there is a very great difference between toleration and liberty. toleration is a concession, which may be withdrawn; it implies a preference for the ruling form of faith and worship and a practical disapproval of all other forms. it may be coupled with many restrictions and disabilities.

we tolerate what we dislike but cannot alter; we tolerate even a nuisance, if we must. acts of toleration are wrung from a government by force of circumstances and the power of a minority too influencial to be disregarded.
'In our country we ask no toleration for religion and its free exercise, but we claim it as an inalienable right.  'it is not toleration,  says Judge Cooley,  which is established in our system, but religious equality. freedom of religion is one of the greatest gifts  of God to man, without disinclination of race and color. he is the author and lord of conscience and no power on earth has a right to stand between God and the conscience. a violation of this divine law written in the heart is an assault upon the majesty of God and the image of God in man. granting the freedom of conscience, we must, by logical necessity, also grant the freedom of its manifestation and exercise in public worship. to concede the first and to deny the second, after the manner of despotic governments, is to imprison the conscience. to be just, the state must either support all or none of the religions of its citizens.  our government supports none, but protects all.
V.  'finally - and this we would emphasize as especially important in our time,  - the American system differs radically and fundamentally from the infidel and red-republican theory of religious freedom. the word freedom.  the word freedom is one of the most abused words in the vocabulary. true liberty is a positive force, regulated by law; false liberty is a negative force, a release from restraint. true liberty is the moral power of self-government;  the liberty of infidels and anarchists is carnal licentiousness. the American separation of church and state rests on respect for the church; the infidel separation, on indifference and hatred of the church and of religion itself.

'the infidel theory was tried and failed in the first Revolutiton of France. it began with toleration and ended with the abolition of Christianity and with the reign of terror , which in turn prepared the way for military despotism as the only means of saving

*40  society from anarchy and ruin, our infidels and anarchists would reenact this tragedy if they should ever get the power. they openly profess their hatred and contempt of our Sunday-laws, our Sabbaths, our churches and all our religious institutions and societies.  let us beware of them!  the American system grants freedom also to irreligion and infidelity,  but only within the limits of the order and safety of society. the destruction of religion would be the destruction of morality and the ruin of the state. civil liberty requires for its support religious liberty and cannot prosper without it. religious liberty is not an empty sound, but an orderly exercise of religious duties and enjoyment of all its privileges. it is freedom IN  religion, not freedom FROM  religion;  as true civil liberty is freedom IN  law and not freedom FROM law...

'Republican institutions in the hands of a virtuous and god-fearing nation are the very best in the world, but in the hands of a corrupt and irreligious people they are the very worst and the most effective weapons of destruction. an indignant people may rise in rebellion against a cruel tyrant, but who will rise against the tyranny of the people in possession of the ballot-box and the whole machinery of government? here lies our great danger, and it is increasing every  year.

'destroy our churches, close our Sunday-schools, abolish the Lord's Day and our republic would become an empty shell and our people would tend to heathenism and barbarism. Christianity it the most powerful factor in our society and the pillar of our institutions. it regulates the family; it enjoins private and public virtue;  it builds up moral character; it teaches us to love god supremely and our neighbor as ourselves; it makes good men and useful citizens; it denounces every vice; it encourages every virtue;  it promotes and serves the public welfare; it upholds peace and order. christianity is the only possible religion for the american people and with Christianity are bound up all our hopes for the future.
'this was strongly felt by Washington,  the father of his country,  'first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen' and no passage in his immortal Farewell
address is more truthful, wise and worthy of constant remembrance by every American statesman and citizen that that in which he affirms the inseparable connection of religion with morality and national prosperity.

*41  Centralization of Degrees

Colonies forsee tyranny  'of the secret, latent principle, upon  which all encroachments upon us must be founded'.

'the king had granted a commission, to review the book of common prayer...which alterations and amendments having been approved by his majesty and both houses of parlament... to the intent that every person may know the rule to which he is to conform...
from the preamble to the 'Act of uniformity' of Jan, 14, 1662

'He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution and unacknowledged by our Laws;  giving his assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.... for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once and Example and fit  instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies... we have warned them from time to Time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. we have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here.
The Declaration of independence, July  4, 1776

where is the man to be found, at this day, when we see Methodistical Bishops, Bishops of the Church of England and Bishops, Archbishops and Jesuits of the Church of Rome with indifference, who will believe, that the apprehension of episcopacy contributed, 50 years ago, as much as any other cause, to arouse the attention, not only of the inquiring mind, but of the common people, and urge them to close thinking on the constitutional authority of parliament over the colonies?  this, nevertheless, was a fact as certain as any in the history of North America.

*42  'the objection was not merely to the office of a Bishop, though even that was dreaded, as to the authority of parliament, on which it must be founded. the reasoning was this: - The Archbishops and Bishops in England can neither locate and limit dioceses in america nor ordain Bishops in any part of the dominions of great Britain, out of the realm,  by any law of the kingdom or of any of the colonies, nor by any canon law acknowledged by either. the king cannot grant his conged'elire to any people out of his realm.  there is no power or pretended power, less than parliament,  that can create Bishops in america. but if parliament  can erect dioceses and appoint Bishops, they  may introduce the whole hierarchy,  establish tythes, forbid marriages and funerals, establish religion, forbid dissenters, make schism heresy, impose penalties extending to life and limb, as well as to liberty and property.
here, sir, opens an extensive field or investigation, even for a young historian, who might be disposed to undertake so laborious an enterprize. the opinions, the principles, the spirit , the temper, the views, designs, intrigues and arbitrary exertions of power, displayed by the Church of England at that time towards the dissenters, as they were contemptuously called, tough, to speak correctly, the Churchmen were contemptuously called, tough, to speak  correctly, the Churchmen were the real Dissenters - ought to be stated at full length. the truth is, that the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians, and Anabaptists, the Methodists, or even the Quakers of Moravians were each of them as numerous as the Churchmen; several of them immensely more numerous and all of them together, more than 15 to 1.

'In Virginia the Church of England was established by law, in exclusion and without toleration of any other denomination. the British statute, called The Act of Uniformity, was acknowledged as law and carried into execution by the magistrates.  it is worthy of inquiry, whether the same law was not in force in Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia. in Pennsylvania, the Quakers, the Presbyterians, the German Lutherans, and Calvinists, the Anabaptists, the Methodists, the Dunkers, the Menonists (def - older name for Mennonites) and the Roman Catholics were so numerous and the Church of England so few, that the latter found it difficult to support their cause; and the ridiculous incurvations (def - turn from a straight line or course) and tergiversations  (def - to change repeatedly one's attitude or opinions with respect to a cause, subject, etc.) of the Proteus Dr. Smith and that other weaker proteus, Du Shee and the bigotry of Coombs, shewed their awkward struggles to preserve their cause from contempt. Dr. White, now Bishop, then young, behaved with uniform candour, moderation and decorum.
In New-York, the Church of England displayed its essential character of intolerance. the royal governors, counsellors, judges, etc.

*43 had such overbearing  influence, that they dared to grant large tracts of fertile lands to the churches of England and laid the foundation of the ample riches they still hold; while no other denomination could obtain any. even Doctor Rogers' congregation, of New York, numerous and respectable as it was, could never obtain a legal title to a spot to bury their dead.  the writings of Livingston and Smith furnish evidence enough of the spirit of those times. great exertions were made in New-York to propagate Anglican  Episcopacy in Connecticut and the famous Dr. Cutler and the more famous Dr. Johnson and his still more celebrated son, were employed with success in that service,. with such success, indeed,  that an English church and an Episcopal minister soon appeared in all the towns from New-Haven to New-York.
the efforts in New-Hampshire and Rhode-island, though they ought to be recorded,  i pass over and hasten to Massachusetts; and her I want to write a volume...Mr. East Apthorp, hot from Oxford and still more warmed by holy orders from Episcopal hands, returned to his native country and soon after arose a splendid edifice, as it was then thought, which every body immediately concluded was intended for an Episcopal Palace and i time for a Lambeth. all sensible men knew that this system could not be effected, but by act of parliament and if parliament could do this they could do all things; and what security could Americans have for life, liberty, property or religion?

pgs 41-3 are excerpts from a letter by John Adams to the Rev. Dr. Jedidiah Morse, Dec. 2, 1815

Civil Government and 'Law of Nature'

*56 ...'While I reiterate the professions of my dependence upon Heaven, as the source of all public and private blessings, I will observe, that the general prevalence of piety, philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy seems,  in the ordinary course of human affairs, particularly necessary for advancing and confirming the happiness of our country.  while all men within our territories are protected in worshiping the deity according to the dictates of their consciences, it is rationally to be expected from them in return, that they will all be emulous of evincing the sanctity of their professions by the innocence of their lives and the beneficence of their actions"  for no man ,  who is profligate in his morals, or a bad member of the civil community, can possibly be a true Christian, or a credit to his own religious society'.

*57  'The Law of Nature

'When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers  of nature  and of Nature's God entitle them...'  The Declaration of Independence   July 4, 1776

'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. John 13.34

'for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.  Romans 2.14

'the like natural inducement, hath brought Men to know that it is no less their Duty, to love others that themselves, for seeing those things which are equal, must needs all have one measure...how should I look to have any part of my desire herein satisfied, unless my self be careful to satisfie the like desire, which is undoubedly in other men, being of one and the same nature...so that if i do harm I must look to suffer, there being no reason that others should shew greater measure of love to me, than they have by me, shewed unto them; my desire therefore to be love'd of my  equals in Nature, as much as possible may be, imposeth upon me a natural Duty of bearing to them ward, fully the like Affection...of Law, no less can be said, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world'. Richard Hooker,  1554-1600,  'Ecclesiastical Polity

*58  'The law of Nature gives to no person whatever the least kind of right to seek what belongs to him to another who does not want to buy it; nor has any Nation that of selling its commodities or merchandise to a people who are unwilling to have them; every man and every nation being perfectly at liberty to buy a thing that is to be the entrance of foreign merchandise and the people who are interested in this proposition have no right to complain of it. Emerich de Vattel,  'Law of Nations',  1758


'the law of nature, was not of man's making nor is it in his power to med it, or alter its course. James Otis,  'The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved',  Boston - 1764

'No man can take another's property from him without his consent. this is the law of nature and a violation of it is the same thing,  whether it be done by one man  who is called a king or by 500 of another denomination...' Samuel Adams, January 9, 1769. Signer of The Declaration of Independence from Massachusetts.

*61  'Public or Private'

(pp 61-6 are excerpts from  'Ecclesiastical Polity', William Jones Seabury, D.D., New York - 1894)

'Those who reach truth will reach unity; for truth is ONE. but men may, and often do, gain unity without truth - which is so far from being a good hat it is a great evil...a mistaken notion of the Christian unity spoken of in the Scriptures,  which represents it as consisting in having  ONE COMMUNITY ON EARTH  to which all Christians belong or ought to belong, and to whose government all are bound to submit, has led to truth being made the secondary and not the paramount object...the principle of sacrificing truth to unity creeps in gradually. the sacrifice FIRST demanded, is in general, not a great one. men are led on step by step, from silence as to some mistake, to connivance at fallacies and thence to suppression and then to misrepresentation of truth and ultimately, to the support of known falsehood.  Richard Wahtely, 1787-1863,  'Mistaken Regard to Unity'

* 63
Proposition  1
'Human government is a condition of moral being, imposed upon man as a natural being for the regulation of his will in society...('The student is referred to Puffendorf's essay on the origin and variety of Moral Entities, being the introductory chapter to his 'Law of nature and of Nations'...Entities, according to this author , are either Natural or Moral.

Proposition 2
The will of God is the foundation of all authority in human government.

'Man as by nature an intelligent being, is capable of imposing conditions of moral being upon himself; but, as a created being, he is limited in this respect by the will of his Creator.

*64
Proposition 5
'The Church and the State are distinct communities, the governments having jurisdiction partly concurrent and partly complementary: concurrent in so far as they extend over the same territory and relate to the same persons; complementary in  respect to their administration of law.

'The theory that there is in every nation a community of individuals whose temporal interests are provided for by another department

*65  of the same government, is only sound on the supposition that the government presented by the Old Testament, we find this theory developed in practice. the Jewish people were one community ruled by one government with civil and ecclesiastical departments. but these departments were dept within their respective limits by the power of the Divine Sovereign. wherever this experiment is tried without the existence of such an acknowledged sovereign  power. the inevitable tendency is to elevate one above the other, and, in the long run, either the civil will control the ecclesiastical by virtue of its coercive power, or the ecclesiastical will take possession of the coercive powers of civil government, and so the Church will swallow up or emasculate the State. in the one case, Erastian views will prevail; in the other, the views that have become identified with the papacy.

the traces of the working of this theory are not quite undiscernable in the English system: and sometimes the parallel has been run in this respect between England and Judaea. certainly, if the practical result of the connection between Church and State in England has not been to weaken the Church and subordinate it to the power of the State, the tendency in that direction has given continual ground of watchfulness and apprehension. and among the Puritans in new England, where the Mosaic or Theocratic ideas prevailed, the strong propensity was to give the civil rulers power over the ecclesiastical in ecclesiastical matters; or, rather, it led to an arbitrary Government by the same men in matters both spiritual and temporal.
'all arguments drawn from the precedent furnished y the Jewish Dispensation are controlled by the fact that Christ established the Church in the Christian Dispensation as his Kingdom in, and not of, the world, altogether free from the domination of the State in regard to matters within its own sphere and entirely relieved from the care of such matters as exclusively belonged to the State.

'the typical nature of the Jewish institutions is, in this p;articular, sometimes misunderstood. the
 Jewish Church was a type not of the Church of England, nor of the Church of any single nation, but of the Church Catholic. and so the Jewish State might be regarded as typical of the civil powers under the Christian Dispensation, although not of the power of any single nation, but of the civil power throughout the world. as the civil laws of the Jews were subordinate and conformed to the will of God, so should civil laws in general be conformed to the Divine will. now, if the type is to be applied to the Christian Dispensation, it must indicate the relation


*66   of mankind to the civil and ecclesiastical powers.  in the abstract,  men are amenable to these two kinds of power as different departments of the common government of the universal sovereign.

'If Christ had reestablished the civil power among men as he did the ecclesiastical power and had settled the form of government in one as he did in the other, we may suppose that He would have settled it in such a way as to bring the earth under the control of one government combining the civil and ecclesiastical power.  then Church and State would have had a scarcely distinguishable joint existence and dominion.
'this was the underlying idea in the process which produced the papacy - a universal sovereign in the State, and another universal sovereign in the Church - the Emperor and the Pope together speaking and acting the will of God in the  government of man: a grand conception, but baseless so far as the word of God is concerned, and therefore a failure. the system  was not in fact a Theocracy; for God does not govern mankind under the Christian as under the Jewish Dispensation. there was no common arbiter between the 2 universal sovereigns, except God in providence and god in eternal judgment. hence the inevitable rivalry between the two  universal sovereigns, except God in providence and God in eternal judgment. hence the inevitable  rivalry between the 2:  the triumph of the spiritual by the use of the power of the temporal; the ultimate resumption by the civil authority of powers which rightly belonged to it and the natural usurpation of other powers which did not belong to it. and in England,although the Reformation left untouched the identity and historic continuity of the Church, yet the idea of the conjoint (def - join together) existence of Church and State as one community was not wholly outgrown. hence,among some, the anxiety to find in the temporal sovereign the power which is to control the 2 departments; and hence, among others who maintain the independent power of the Church in respect to matters properly spiritual, the need of watchfulness of the tendency toward the subordination of the ecclesiastical to the civil authority.

'Opposed to such a conception and free from any difficulties which it engenders, is the theory that the State and the Church are distinct communities, possessing distinct governments, which administer distinct powers of government, each government having jurisdiction over the members of its own community in respect to such matters as pertain to it.

*67  'they are endowed by their Creator' Declaration of Independence

*68  'The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures.. John Locke (1695)

'True religion affords to Government it surest support.' George Washington

'the highest glory of the American Revolution, said John Quincy Adams, was this:  IT CONNECTED, IN ONE INDISSOLUBLE BOND, THE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY. J. Wingate Thornton, Vol. I, p. 372 'Christian history of the Constitution'

Is not government founded on grace? nor on force? not on compact?  Not on property?  Not altogether on either, has it any solid foundation?  I think it has an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God...' James Otis,  'The Rights of the British colonists,  1765

'... the first great speech of Otis was wholly based upon Locke's ideas; Samuel Adams,  on the 'Rights of the Colonists as Men and as British Subjects',  followed the same model. many of the phrases of the Declaration of Independence may be found in Locke's treatise;  there is hardly any important writer of this time does not openly refer to Locke...no better epitome of the Revolutionary theory can be found than in John Locke on civil government.  C. Edward Merriam, Vol. I, p. 51  'Christina History of the Constitution'

'The Rights of the Colonists as Christians... may be best understood by reading and carefully studying...the New Testament'.  Samuel Adams, Nov,  1772,  Vol. I,  p. 367 'Christian History of the Constitution.

*145  What is the STATE?

Here I stand.  I can do no otherwise; so help me God! Amen!'  Martin Luther,  1483-1546

'EXPERIENCE leads us to this conclusion...and so does theology. God has not created the world for the sake of the universal man, but for the sake of individual persons... Roger Bacon, 1214-1294?

'the Estate goes before the Steward; the Foundation before the House; people before their Representative and the Creator before the Creature. the Steward lives by preserving the Estate;  the House stands by reason of its foundation; the Representatives depend upon the People, as the Creature subsists by the Power of its Creator.  William Penn,  1675

'a state may be described -  a complete body of free persons, united together for their common benefit, to enjoy peaceably what is their own and to do justice to others. it is an artificial person.

...'But though this be A STATE OF LIBERTY,  yet IT IS NOT A STATE OF LICENCE'.  John Lock,  "Of Civil-Govrnment',  1689. Vod 1 p58 'Christian History of the Constitution'.




















































*301  'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. John, 13.34

'He gives them (the disciples) a bond of union, by which they should always be linked to Him and to each other in the principle of love.  the followers of great Teachers and Rabbis had their distinctive marks. here  was the distinctive Christian mark, which all men should be able to read. it is instructive that the characteristic mark  of Christianity should thus be asserted by its Founder to consist,  not in any formulary or signs, but in the love which asserts the brotherhood of man. the apologists of the first centuries delighted in appealing to the striking fact of the common love of Christians,  which was a new thing in the history of mankind; and while the Church has sometimes forgotten the characteristic, the world never has. by their love for each other, for mankind, for God , is it known or denied that men who call themselves Christians are really Christ's disciples.' W.H. Watkins

'if the Gospel and the apostles may be credited, no man can be a  Christina without Charity, and without that Faith which works , not by Force, but by Love'. John Locke

,the Rights of the Colonists as Christians...maybe best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament...a commonwealth or state is a body politic, or civil society of men, united together  to promote their mutual safety and prosperity by means of their union...no man, or body of men, consistently with their own rights as men and citizens, or members of society, can for themselves give up or take away from others'. Samuel Adams

'the ancient centralization lay prostrate. it had fallen before the principle which it had for ages overpowered. this was the liberty of the subject as well as the ruler,  who recognized  his responsibilities to his fellow-creatures and to his Creator. it was a liberty which the ruler obtained in fulfilling his duties. in fulfilling his, the subject obtained it likewise. it was the liberty to live according to the law of love proclaimed by Christ the Lord...this was the appointed work of the early Christians. they wee to prepare the union one day destined to take the place of the ancient centralization.  Samuel Eliot

....the Constitution after the achievement of independence, was but the fulfillment of the first thought.  Richard Frothingham


We., the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION of the United States of America...the united States shall guarantee to every State in this union a republican  (def - a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.  Constitution of the United States


*303  NO UNION WITHOUT SELF-GOVERNMENT
Christian America resists all schemes for binding her in a union by means of ancient centralization or 'Rule from the top down'.

...an early American writer and pioneer states, that the people saw by daily experience in the beginnings of their work, that they could not succeed in their undertaking without an agreement with one another for mutual assistance...
the first conception of an American union entertained by the founders of Ne England was to join in political bonds only those colonies  in which the people were of a similar way of thinking in theology,when, in the spirit of a theocracy, they aimed to form a Christina State in the bosom of the Church.  this was embodied in the new England Confederacy (1643-1684) its basis was not broad enough to embrace the whole of this territory or sufficiently just to include all its population.

the next tendencies to a union are seen after New Netherland was added to the dominions of the British crown, and was called New York.  in the inter-colonial correspondence that took place, growing out of the Revolution  of 1689 in the colonies and in the call of a congress, in 1690, for the safety of the whole land, there appears the conception of union as comprehensive as the colonies. union was continuously suggested during the succeeding 70 years (1690-1760) the class who urged it from an American point of view  and for objects in harmony with the free institutions that had taken root, aimed mainly at removing the obstructions.

*305  that rival communities threw in the way of progress and at providing for the common defence. it was urged, that the people who were occupying this portion  of North America were naturally linked together by material interests; sympathized instinctively with free institutions; and had before them a common destiny and hence ought to be united in a common polity. but circumstances prevented the formation of a public opinion in favor of the adoption of any of the schemes that were presented. the Plan of Union , recommended by a convention held at Albany in 1754.

ANCIENT CENTRALIZATION ATTACKS CHRISTIAN SELF-GOVERNMENT  - THE FOUNDATION OF THE AMERICAN IDEA OF UNION.

the idea of union received a great impetus when the policy was adopted by the cabinet of George III to govern and tax America. this policy involved aggression on the old right of self -government.

union was then enjoined upon the colonies by the popular leaders, as the sum of American politics; the demand of the hour, to promote social, political  and national well-being ;  the path of duty and of honor; the way pointed out by Providence to successfully resist aggression and to obtain a redress of grievances. the sentiment deepened into conviction and this ripened into faith in its practicability. it was the religion of politics. Union became a fact and had the moral force of unwritten law. under its rule and inspiration, a rare and rich public life rose into great political action, through an efficient party organization.
at length 13 United Colonies stood (1774) in the attitude of armed resistance to the measures of the ministry and, in the spirit in which the Great Charter was wrung from King john, they demanded their liberties under the British Constitution. in this situation, American society, imbued with the germinal spirit and influence of the doctrine of freedom and equality, claimed the right to hold on to what it had gained and the right of progress for the Future.
Union had been urged, up to this time, by the colonies, not merely in the spirit of allegiance to the crown, but with feelings of pride in being parts of a great empire, but their attitude was pronounced from the throne to be rebellion and the force of the nation was summoned to suppress it.  this was an assertion, based upon the past of Absolutism and Privilege,  of a right to give the local law to America. this forced the popular party  to accept the situation of revolution, and to aim at the object of separation. there was then grafted on and blended with the conception of union,the sentiment of nationality. this found proud embodiment in the Declaration of independence. when the people passed from the status of subjects, exercising powers of government under the crown as dependent colonies,

*306  to that of sovereigns in a nation composed of independent States they had a deeply rooted conviction, that one general government, or one American constitution, was a necessity. they kept in view, in their utterances, distinctly and steadily, the aim of framing a system that should protect individuals, municipalities and states in their several spheres of action, while it should provide for an efficient discharge of national offices. the first result reached in 'The Articles of Confederation' recognized the historic local self -government, but failed to adequately embody the idea of national union and this form proved incompetent to secure the blessings that had been applied in institutions, were recognized in the next great result of 'the More perfect union' of the Constitution of the United States, which was ordained as the supreme law of the land.

the Republic thus established rose, as the fulfillment of a logical sequence, from a state of society in which rank and privilege did not exist. the principles on which it was founded were brought over by the emigrants; so that the last finish in the Constitution after the achievement of independence,was but the fulfillment of the first thought. the form of government was designed for the welfare of a free people and a great nation, by providing for them just and equal laws. the ancient republics, based on the inequality of men, were, in reality, oppressive aristocracies; the republics of the Middle ages had free institutions within their walls, but outside of them the divine right of kings  or nobles remained unshaken:  the Republic of the united states was founded on the American theory announced in the Declaration of independence and this was embodied in the rules of law for the conduct of its citizens in the Constitution. this republic presents the rare and difficult system of one general government, the action of which extends over the whole nation, but which possesses certain enumerated powers and of numerous State governments, which retain and exercise all powers not delegated to the Union.

under this protection and organization, the 2 elements of the national life, embodied into institutions adapted to their respective spheres, unfolded their blessings in harmony , and, through the great modern instrumentality of representation, are extending over the continent. a narrative of the rise of this system will show how instinctively the people appreciated and valued the grandest traditionary influence in all history, Local Self- government, and that providential product, American Union.

*307 the 2 elements of local government and union wee first combined in a common polity in the New-England Confederacy. this confederacy was formed in 1643...

England long manifested great indifference to the colonization of North America,  - the bold spirit of her early navigators being in marked contrast to the stolidity of her statesmen.... at length, Chres I created, in 1634,  by a commission, a board called the 'Lords Commissioners of Foreign Plantations', consisting of certain high officers of state, any 5  of whom were empowered to make laws, constitutions,  or ordinances affecting either the Public condition or the private property of the colonists. Archbishop Laud was the ruling spirit of this board.  at that period, the king was striving to absorb all the functions of government, and was attempting to rule without a parliament.  this occasioned that great and noble uprising, the Revolution of 1640,  which for a period of frustrated the designs upon the liberties of New England.  a civil war then broke out and the fall of Hampden, in 1643, in so just a cause, gave an inspiring watchword to the future American patriots.

the Indians were told of the struggle that was going on in England. and it became a saying among them, that now or never was the time to root out the English, as they could not be assisted by their nation and all who encroached on their hunting grounds were alike to the savages. they assaulted Virginia with terrible severity;  the whole of the territory subsequently called New Jersey was conquered; they swept over New Netherland with such desolation as nearly to depopulate Manhattan and to make 1643 a year of blood. they had resolved to attack New England...

the New England colonies were increasing in importance. Plymouth obtained a patent from the Council for New England ,  but it only conferred a title  to the soil. without other authority than that assumed  in the covenant which its founders entered into on board the 'Mayflower' they established all the branches of a government. in 23 years, however, they attained to a population of only 3,000...William Bradford was their governor.
Massachusetts, first under a patent from the Council for New England, confirming a right of the soil and then under a charter from the crown conveying powers of government, had grown into a commonwealth , had just taken (1641) the settlements commenced

*308  in New Hampshire under its jurisdiction and had reached a population of 15,000. John Winthrop was the governor.
the emigrants who went out from Massachusetts and founded Connecticut, without a charter, agreed, in 1639,  upon articles of association that joined them in a body politic. they had increased to 3,000 in numbers. John Haynes was the governor.
a company direct from London, without a charter, founded the Colony of New Haven and voted that the Holy Scriptures should be the perfect rule of their commonwealth. they numbered 2,500,  but had not elected a governor.
the banishment of Roger Williams from Massachusetts resulted in the foundation of Providence and of Rhode island, on the great principles of liberty of conscience in religion and the will of the majority - the democratic principle in civil affairs. the colony was small. their leader, in 1643,  went to England, to solicit a charter.
a settlement had been commenced, under the proprietorship of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, in the province of Maine, with the Church of England as the established religion and with municipal forms,  ranks and titles like those in England, but it did not flourish.

such is a glance at the political New England of that day. it was described at that period as  containing 50 towns and villages,  30 or 40 churches, a castle, a college, prisons, fortes comfortable houses, gardens and orchards,  - all the work of the settlers and at their own charge, 'no public hand reaching out any help'....
the emigrants, thrown on their own resources, looked for security in joint effort,. it was their thought in the beginning that one day the colonies would be 'joined together in one common bod'.  a proposition for a union was suggested at a meeting of Connecticut magistrates and ministers in Boston, in 1637. the next year, articles embodying the idea were elaborately discussed...those from Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Haven signed articles of association on the 19th of may, 1643. the delegates from Plymouth, not being authorized to sign, reported the articles to their General Court, which submitted them to the towns to be acted on and in this way they were ratified by the people and form an interesting precedent in our political history. then the general

*309  Court empowered its delegates to affix the seal of that colony to the articles. thus was formed the Confederation of 'The united Colonies of New England'.  the 4 jurisdictions had a population of 24,000, living in 39 towns...


THE FIRST UNION OF AMERICAN COLONIES WAS ROOTED IN CHRISTIAN SELF-GOVERNMENT
May 19, 1643
'Articles of Conffederation betweene ye Plantations under ye Govermente of Massachusets, ye Plantations under ye Goverments of New-Plimouth, ye plantations under ye Govermente of Conightecute and ye Government of New-Haven, with ye plantations in combination therewith.

wheras we all came into these parts of America with one and ye same end and aime, namly, to advance the kingdome of our Lord Jesus Christ and to injoye ye liberties of ye Gospell in puritie with peace; and wheras in our setling (by a wise providence of God) we are further disperced upon ye sea coasts and rivers then was at first intended, so yt we cannot according to our desires, with conveniencie comunicate in one govermente and jurisdiction and whereas we live encompassed with people of several nations and strang languages. which herafter may prove injurious to us and our posteritie; and for as much as ye natives have formerly comitted sundrie insolencies and outrages upon several plantations of ye

*310  English and have of late combined them selves against us;  and seeing, by reason of those distractions in England (which they have heard of) and by which they know we are hindered from yt humble way of seeking  advice or reaping those comfurtable fruits of protection which at other times we might well expected; we therefore doe conceive it our bounded duty,  without delay,  to enter into a presente consociation amongst our selves, for mutuall help and strength in all our future concernments. that as in nation and religion, so in other respects, we be and continue one, according  to ye tenor  and true meaning of the insuing articles.
1. wherfore it is fully agreed and concluded  by and betweene ye parties or jurisdictions above namedand they joyntly and severally doe by these presents agree and conclude, that they all e and heanceforth be called by ye name of The United Colonies of New England.

2. the said United Collonies, for them selves and their posterities, doe joyntly and severally hereby enter into a firme and perpetuall league and frendship and amitie,  for offence and defence, mutuall advice and succore upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propagation ye truth of ye Gospell and for their owne mutuall saftie and wellfare.
3.  it is further agreed that the plantations which at presente are or hereafter shall be setled with ye limites of ye Massachusets shall be for ever under ye Massachusets, and shall have peculier jurisdiction among them seles in all cases, as an intire body. and yt plimoth, Conightecutt, and New-Haven shall each of them have like peculier jurisdiction and goverment within their limites and in refference to ye plantations which allready are setled, or shall herafter be erected, or shall setle within their limites, respectively;  provided yt no other jurisdiction shall hereafter be taken in, as a distincte head or member of this confederation nor shall any other plantation or juridiction in presente being and not allready in combination or under ye jurisdiction of any of these confederates joyne in one jurisdiction, without consente of ye rest, which consente to be interpreted as is expressed in ye sixte article ensewing.
4. it is by these conffederats (def - united in a league or alliance) agreed, yt the charge of all just warrs, whether offencive or defencive, upon what parte or member of this confederationsoever they fall, shall, both in men, provissions and all other disbursments, be borne by all ye parts of this confederation, in differente proportions, according to their differente abillities, in maner following: namely, yt the comissioners for each jurisdiction, from time to time, as ther shall be occasion bring a true accounte

*311  and number of all their males in every planttion or any way belonging too or under their several jurisdictions, of what qualitie or condition soever they e, from 16 yers old to 60 being inhabitants ther...
5. it is further agreed, that if these jurisdictions or any plantation under or in combynacion with them, be invaded by any enemie whomsoever, upon notice and requste of any 3 magistrats of yt jurisdiction so invaded, ye rest of ye confederats, without any further meeting or expostualtion, shall forthwith send ayde to ye confederate in danger, but in differente proportion...

6.it is also agreed yt, for ye managing and concluding of all affairs propper and concerning the whole confederation,  2 comissioners shall be chose by and out of each of these 4 juridictions; namly, 2  for ye Massachusets,  2 Plimoth,  2 for Conightecutt and 2 for New haven, being all in church fellowship with us, which shall bring full power from their several Generall courts respectively to hear, examene, waigh and detirmine all affairs of warr, or peace, leagues, aids, charges and numbers of men for warr, divisions of spoyles,  and whatsoever is gotten by conquest; receiving of more confederats or plantations into combination with any of ye confederates, and all things of like nature, which are ye proper concomitants or consequences of such a confederation, for amitie, offence and defence:  not intermedling with ye governmente of any of ye jurisdictions, which by ye 3 article is preserved entirely to them selves..

7.  it is further agreed, yt at each meeting of these 8 comissioners,whether ordinarie, or extraordinary, they all 6 of them agreeing as before, may chuse a presidente out of them selves, whose office and work shall be to take care and directe for order and a comly carrying on of all proceedings in ye present meeting; but he shall be invested withno such power or respecte, as by which he shall hinder ye propounding of progress of any bussines, or any way cast ye scailes other wise then in ye precedente article is agreed.
8.  it is also agreed, yt the commissioners for this confederation hereafter at their meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinarie, as they may have comission or opportunitie, doe indeaver to frame and establish agreements and orders in generall cases of a civill nature, wherein all ye pantations are interested, for ye preserving all o
occasions of warr or difference with others; as aboute ye free confederats equally as to their owne...

*312   the 4 colonies in this compact, as belonging to 'one nation',  formed a league for self-defence and the common welfare. its basis was that  of the equality of the parties to it or of each colony as an entire body and it was its object to secure equality of rigths to the inhabitants of all. it was specified, that the vital subject of taxation should be left to the several local jursidictions and that the commissioners should not intermeddle with their adminstrative functions;  thereby recognizing the inviolability of the local government....
this league, in many important respects, met the expectations of its founders. it combined the strength of the colonies. it regulated their relations with each other . it was used as a high court to determine questions of jurisdiction. it managed the relations with the Indians, and sometimes negotiated with  the French  and the Dutch. the spirit of subordination to the supreme power in which it dealt with matters of subordination to the supreme power in which it dealt with matters having a national bearing was illustrated in the adjustment (1650) of a threatening boundary dispute between the people  of new haven and New Netherland, which stipulated that it should be binding 'until a full determination be agreed upon in Europe, by mutual consent of the 2 states of England and Holland...

While the colonists were forming this confederation, the spectacle of progress which New England presented was so gratifying to the Long parliament, that, in 1642, it freed certain merchandise entering its ports from duties, declaring 'that the plantations in New England,  by the blessing of almighty, had good and prosperous success without any charge to this State, and are now likely to prove very happy for the propagation of the gospel in those parts, and very beneficial and commodious to this kingdom and nation'. the benefit thus recognized was the foundation for an increase of commercial advantages and for a numerous people of English sentiments and ideas. but the assumption of self-government - the re-appearance of Saxon freedom - was looked upon through the colonial age, with jealousy by the ruling classes of England, whomever lost sight of the moulding and controlling American affairs....

*313  'there was no interference by the protector with the Confederation. it was maintained in full vigor. the meetings of the commissioners were regularly held. the colonies found safety in union. their prosperity was increasing.
the restoration of the monarchy dissipated these visions of a commonwealth. on the 25th of May, 1660,  Charles II landed at Dover to ascend eh throne of his ancestors...

the king was told that the New-England Confederacy 'was a war combination, made by the 4 colonies when they had a design to throw off their dependence on England and for that purpose.

'the Confederacy, before the crown granted the charter to Connecticut, had passed through periods of serious dissension. the commissioners of one or more of the colonies had threatened to dissolve the union and some of the provisions proved so unsatisfactory that amendments were proposed...

but the Confederacy lingered, rather than lived, after the blow it received by the incorporation of New haven with Connecticut. attempts were made  to infuse into it new vigor by a renewal of the articles and in the crisis of King Philip's War it proved to be of great  usefulness, but the meetings of the commissioners became more  irregular and it disappeared when the charters of the colonies were declared to be vacated. thus the Confederacy fell with the fall of local self-government.

this combination of local government and of union was made before the colonists had attained to just conceptions of what should be the basis of such a union. they were imbued with a spirit of jealousy concerning their local governments, not merely in reference to an interference by the supreme authority, but as to each other. the fraternal spirit between them as communities was feeble. the larger colony of Massachusetts,evince an overbearing spirit towards its neighbors; Connecticut, when it got the power, assumed jurisdiction over New Haven in so autocratic a manner as to deepen in the people of the latter a sense of unprovoked  wrong and the 3 colonies had more of rebuke than of love for Rhode island. CONVICTION AS TO FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES IS A NECESSARY CONDITION TO A SUPERSTRUCTURE OF LAW  and this had not been reached.

the powers reserved to each jurisdiction proved impracticable and the provisions to promote the common welfare were crude.notwithstanding these vital defects, the service which the Confederacy rendered was never forgotten:  it was referred to in every period of the colonial age, and in seasons of peril there was a call for its revival.the embodiment of the idea of union was imperfect, but the principle of the equality of the distinct jurisdictions, the inviolability of their local governments. and

*314  the aim of providing one system of law, securing to the people of all the colonies their rights, became fundamentals of a republican polity...
'The New England Confederacy recognized the equality of the colonies that were parties to it and the inviolability of their local governments , but the provisions designed to promote the common welfare were a crude embodiment of the union element. the Confederacy rendered valuable service in peace and in war and it lasted until the local governments were overthrown by the supreme power and their functions were consolidated into a despotism. this prepared the way for revolution and of inter-colonial correspondence. a common peril occasioned a general congress.

these tendencies to union were seen 46 years (1689) after the formation of the New England Confederacy...notwithstanding all the stimulus the French cabinet had given to discovery and colonization, the French census of 1688 for the North American continent, gave a population of only 11,259. the English Government rather depressed than encouraged the colonists and they had reached a population of 200,000...
'it was determined to create a government by a general governor and council.before this conclusion had been reached, it was resolved to enforce rigidly the navigation act. Charles II was carrying out his policy at the time of his death.  (1685) his successor, James II.,  with a bold had, executed the scheme of governing the colonies which he had done much to inaugurate...

'this scheme, involving a change in the basis of the local governments of the colonies,pursued with more or less vigor during the reigns of Charles and James, caused a world of anxiety and confusion.it was the key to their political history at that period.  Despotic power, like the wolf in the fable, stood at the head-springs of the current of American liberty and charged those who were drinking below with roiling the waters the royal tactics were of  law order...the colonial agents in

*315  London were first advised that great designs were maturing against colonial liberties. at length, they were officially informed, that his majesty had concluded to unite under one government.
'all the English territories in America  from Delaware Bay to Nova Scotia'.

'in the  general consolidation...the people of Rhode Island and of Connecticut, who welcomed and recognized the authority of the royal commissioners in 1665,  fared no better than the people of Massachusetts, who refused to submit to that illegal commission.  the colonies of New Jersey and Delaware, like those of New England, were obliged to meet writs of quo warranto ( def - who protects/defends ?) against their charters.  nor did Pennsylvania, Virginia and the 2 Carolinas escape from an abitrary  interference with their internal affairs.

in all the colonies popular functions were absorbed by the crown. it appointed local magistrates and county commissioners. it assumed the minute detain of administration. it conferred on a 'governor and council'  the function of legislation and taxation. town meetings for political purposes were forbidden. the representative assemblies were either abrogated or restricted. the object avowed in official papers was
'to bring the colonies to a united and nearer dependence on the crown.

this line of proceeding was an attempt to carry out a theory, regardless of the habits and temper of the people and that theory was absolutism. this exercise of absolute power roused a spirit of opposition in all the colonies.  they did not act in concert...their aim, in their defence of their rights and liberties, was ever distinct and practicable;  for it was simply the defence of a right to mould the local polity...

at that interesting period, France was pursuing with vigor the scheme for securing dominion  in america. the designs of this power had been regarded with jealousy, from the first settlement of the colonies. henceforth, for 70  years, the endeavors to carry out these designs became the fertile source of alarm and peril to the colonies and the great spur to political and military effort.

the earliest result tending towards union which the French scheme produced took place when Charles II was a pensioner of Louis XIV.  the dominion to which France aspired  necessarily involved encroachment on the hunting-grounds of the indians. this had been resisted with great intrepidity and success by the powerful confederacy of the Five nations. some of the tribes comprising this league had assaulted the English  settlements. the war-paths of their braves extended as far south as the Carolinas, in the west to the Mississippi, and in the east to Maine. as

316  the signs indicated to them a severer struggle than ever with the French, the Five nations desired peace with the English and made this known through Governor Dongan of New York. he invited a conference of English officials at Albany to meet the chiefs of these tribes. it was held in July,  1684.  4 colonies - Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York.  - were represented...

in this conference, the North and the South met for the first time, and deliberated for the attainment of a common object. a treaty was formed, which embraced territory extending from the St. Croix to Albemarle. Governor Dongan gave the warriors the arms of the Duke of York to affix to their castles. the act was interpreted by the Indians to be a pledge,  on the part of the English King, to give them aid in their wars against  the French, but it was intended by the English to be a recognition of the sovereignty of Great Britain.
the designs of the French, evinced in building boats, collecting  materials for war and disputing the right of the English to trade at certain places, grew more alarming from year to year, while the
British Government continued to be indifferent to the issue...after the accession of William and Mary, hostilities were declared between France and England, which extended to america and thus began the first inter-colonial war. the French soon planned and invasion of Boston and New York. the colonies were left to their own exertions for their defence.
when the combination of the French and Indians was alarming,  Governor Bradstreet naturally reverted  to the old 'union and confederation', and in letters to several of the governors, suggested its revival...but though there were conferences between the new-England colonies, the confederacy was not revived...
on the 8th of Feb,  1690,  a war-party, who had come stealthily from Canada, entered the open gates of the town of Schenectady,  when it was snowing and broke the stillness of midnight with the terrible yell  and whoop of the savages. men, women and children,  for 2 hours,  were mercilessly butchered. their dwellings were burned. the whole town was sacked. the spectacle presented all the horrid features of the indian mode of warfare. a few inhabitants, escaping from the tomahawk  or scalping knife, waded in the deep snow to Albany and, running through  the place about 5 in the morning, roused the inhabitants from their beds by crying the dredful news. the intelligence flew through the colonies.  it awakened the keenest sympathy. a popular demand then rose for action against the french...It roused a spirit of patriotism. the governor of Massachusetts urged, in letters to the other colonies, the necessity for immediate action to provide for the common defence.

*317  the General Court,k in view of organizing a joint effort of the colonies, proposed to hold a congress. the call for a meeting is dated 19th  of March,  1690. it relates, that their majesties' subjects had been invaded by the French and indians;  that many of the colonists had been barbarously  murdered, and were in danger of greater mischiefs and it proposed, as a measure of prevention, that the neighboring colonies and Virginia, and conclude on suitable methods for assisting each other for the safety of the whole land. the governor of new York was desired to transmit this invitation to the southern colonies.
such was the first call for a general congress in America. it is free from narrowness. it is liberal in its spirit, simple in its terms and comprehensive in its object. it invited all the English colonies to send delegates to meet in assembly and deliberate for the common good. in view of the greatness of the power that threatened them, it was urged that their united strength would be found little enough against the common enemy. the call elicited from several colonies interesting replies...

the commissioners of 4 colonies met at New York. the delgates from massachusetts carried a commission empowering them to fix upon such methods as should be judged most suitable to provide for the general defence and security and for subduing the common enemy. the deliberations led to a unanimous result. on the 1st of may, an agreement was signed by the delegates,  in behalf of the  5 colonies, to raise a force of 855 men for the strengthening of Albany and, 'by the help of Almighty god, subduing the French and indian enemies'.  it  was agreed, that the lieutenant-governor of New York should name the commander of this force...
'I need only state, as the result of this congress, that it was resolved to attempt the reduction of Canada by 2 lines of attack,  - one to conquer Acadia and then to move  on to Quebec and the other, by the route of Lake Champlain,  to assault Montreal.... the defeat of this enterprise left the French  at liberty to pursue their schemes...
a set of officials, however, continued to represent, that the colonies, and especially New England, desired and aimed to cast of their dependence on the mother country and the question was debated in the Council for Foreign Plantations what form it was expedient to use in addressing colonies that wee ripe for rebellion... the basis of truth in this allegation was their attachment to their local self-government, and

*318  the spirit  in which the colonies, each in its own mode, opposed the designs of arbitrary power. the servile doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance never had a foot-hold in British North America. the events known as the Culpepper insurrection in Carolina and Bacon's rebellion in Virginia , were manifestations of the same spirit which effected the revolution that extended from the Potomac to the St. Croix.  whatever might have been the ultimate tendency, the whole action was but a claim for old customs and liberties. and the closest inspection of the inter-colonial correspondence,  and of the object of those who called the first American congress, will fail to discover hostility to the monarchical principle, or any desire to set up an independent nation.

THE SEEDS OF A NATION  without the 'bond of union'...

*319  When the question of forming a union occupied the public mind, the jurisdiction of the 13 colonies was determined, their constitutions were organized, the groundwork of their jurisprudence was laid, and the character of their inhabitants was established...

the homogeneity of race and the similarity of development of the New England colonies elicited remarks on them, it was said, that, as a people. the New Englanders were renowned for their love of letters and their wisdom, for their industry and their enterprising genius and for universal loyalty; that there never was a people, who, with an ungrateful soil, had done more in so short a time, and that in their governments lay the main strength of the British interest on the continent.

it was remarked that the New Englanders 'were the unmixed descendants of Englishmen'; and the numbers of other lineage were so few as not to affect society. this homogeneity is not seen in any other group of colonies.  the Dutch, French, Germans, Irish and Scotch were so numerous in other sections as to constitute a feature of the population. this fact suggested a broad and inspiring generalization.  the colonies were termed a 'great American asylum'. in it the poor from the various nations of Europe, by some means, met together. to what purpose, it was said, should they ask  one another why countrymen  they were? Alas! 2/3 of them had had no country. they had been numbered in no civil list but that of the poor. they had not owned a single foot of land. they had no harvests from the fields which they had tilled. their lives had been scenes  of sore affliction or of pinching penury. they had been assailed by hunger, want and war. and they were 'only as so many useless plants, wanting the vegetable mould and the refreshing showers'. but in this asylum they rank as citizens. they are stamped by the laws with the symbol of adoption. they acquire lands as the reward of their  industry:  this gives them the title  of freemen and to this title is affixed every benefit man can acquire.
these laws proceed from the government and the government is derived from the original genius and strong desire of the people. this is the picture every province exhibits. this is the great chain that links us all. the country for the emigrant is that which gives him land, bread, protection and consequence.

'He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced,  the new government he obeys and the new rank he holds. he becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that  great mass of arts, sciences, vigor and industry which began long since in the East. they will finish the great circle'.

*320  the true source of our sufferings has been our timidity. let every order and degree among the people rouse  their attention and animate their resolution. let us study the law of nature, the spirit of the British constitution, the great examples of Greece and Rome, the conduct of our British ancestors, who have defended for us the inherent rights of mankind  against kings and priests let us impress upon our souls the ends of our own more immediate fore-fathers in exchanging their native country for a wilderness. let the pulpit delineate the noble rank man holds among the works of God. let us hear that consenting to slavery is a sacrilegious breach of trust.
let the bar proclaim the rights delivered down from the remote antiquity;
not the grants of princes or parliaments, but original rights,
coequal with prerogative and coeval  (def - of the same age) with government, inherent and essential,
established as preliminaries before  a parliament existed,
having their own foundations in the constitution, of the intellectual and moral world,
in truth, liberty, justice and benevolence.
let the colleges impress on the tender mind the beauty of liberty and virtue and the deformity and turpitude (def - vile, shameless) of slavery and vice,
and spread far and wide the ideas of right and the sensation of freedom.
no one of any feelings, born and educated in this happy country, can consider the usurpations that are mediating for all our countrymen and all their posterity without the utmost agonies of heart and many tears. John Adams

THE SCHEMES AND PLANS FOR A UNION  1696 TO 1754

*322 confronted with the common market idea of a union;  prolonged warfare with the French and indians and ever increasing taxation of their industry - the colonies are brought to realize the need for an 'American' idea of union  -UNION with SELF-GOVERNMENT.

, at the instance of Lord Somers, a board was created, entitled,  'The Lords of Trade and Plantations.  '...while the spirit and proceedings of this Board evinced a purpose to interfere in the internal affairs of the colonies, the scheme of France to extend her dominion in America was a continual menace. there were intervals of peace during the period of 70  years,  but even in these times the establishment of a new military station was the occasion of fresh alarm to the colonists. in the long wars that were waged, the French and their Indian allies hurled the arrows of death and desolation on the back settlements of Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania and even into the heart of New England. the English colonists felt equal to the work of defending themselves from the attacks of the French colonists,  but they asked that english troops might be sent over by the government to meet French troops. the colonies, however, for many years were left to their own resources for their defence. this external danger made that whole period one of anxiety, struggle,  and sorrow; of taxation that pressed heavily on industry and of a flow of precious blood that transformed the home into the house of mourning. it can now be seen however, that, in this providential school of adversity and of difficulty, statesmen and soldiers, imbued with the spirit of a new and rich political life, were trained in civil and in military affairs for the work of founding the republic.

'this common danger naturally suggested to the thoughtful the value of union to provide for the general defence. without a general constitution for warlike operations', it was said, 'we can neither plan nor execute. we have a common interest and must have a common council,  - one head and one purse. '  then, as population and wealth increased and commercial exchanges multiplied, the want was the more sensibly felt of regulations applicable to all, relative to the collection of debts, the currency, weights and measures and 'to establish an equal liberty of trade in all the plantations on the continent of America'...

*323  one of the earliest of the plans was that of the noble founder of Pennsylvania,  William Penn, proposed in 1689. it is entitled 'a brief and plain scheme whereby the English colonies may be made more useful to the crown and one another's peace and safety with an universal concurrence'...this plan recognized colonial customs, and is marked by the spirit of fraternity and patriotism and by that aim in the common good which characterized the career of William Penn'.

BOSTON, CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA AND CAROLINA...

1. that the several colonies before mentioned do meet once a year and oftener if need be during the war, and at least once in 2 years in time of peace, by their stated and appointed deputies, to debate and resolve of such measures as are most advisable for their better understanding and the public tranquility and safety.
2.  that, in order to it, 2 persons, well qualified for sense, sobriety and substance, be appointed by each province as their representatives or deputies,  which in the whole make the congress to consist of 20 persons.
3. that the king's commissioner, for that purpose specially appointed, shall have the chair and preside in the said congress.
4.  that they shall meet as near as conveniently may be to the most central colony for ease of the deputies.
5. since that may in all probability be New York, both because it is near the center of the colonies and for that it is a frontier and in the king's nomination, the governor of that colony may therefore also be the king's high commissioner during the session, after the manner of Scotland.

6. that their business shall be to hear and adjust all matters of complaint or difference between province and province. as 1st,  where persons quit their own province and go to another, that they may avoid their just debts, though they be able to pay them; 2d. where offenders fly justice or justice cannot well be had upon such offenders in the provinces that entertain them; 3d to prevent or cue injuries in point of commerce;  4th,  to consider the ways and means to support the union and safety of these provinces against the public enemies.  in which congress the quotas of men and charges will be much easier and more equally set than it is possible for any establishment made here to do; for the provinces, knowing their own condition and one another's, can debate that matter with more freedom and satisfaction and better adjust and balance their affairs in all respects for their common safety.

7. that, in time of war, the King's high commissioner shall be general or chief commander of the several quotas upon service against the common enemy, as he shall be advised, for the good and benefit of the whole.

*324  THE PREROGATIVE' SCHEME OF A UNION

Revival of the ancient centralization of all power in one super-government by disregard, invasion and ultimate destruction of all local governments.
the party of the prerogative recommended union or rather unity, during the whole period of 70 years. they regarded with alarm the growth of popular power in the colonies and as a means to check it, they continually petitioned, that the various local governments might be consolidated into one government over all the colonies or at least into two or more large and powerful governments. some recommended the establishment of a nobility. with this was connected the suggestion of taxation by parliament. this line of recommendation had so much weight with the Lords of Trade and harmonized so completely with their views an designs,  that a remodeling of the internal affairs of the colonies and unity became at length the corner-stone of their policy...

the conception of union entertained by the popular party and by the prerogative men...harmonized to a certain extent in their objects and views. they agreed in deploring the increasing evils of distinct and rival communities,  in looking forward with confidence to benefits that would flow from a common polity and in aiming at the statesman-like object of uniformity in the laws. both parties looked with pride on their connection with the mother-country and desired such a constitution as between the 2 parties in objects and views in other things were important and vital.

one party desired such a union as would recognize and protect the customs and privileges,  the capacities and powers,  the native traits of the American,  - his spirit of freedom and equality,  - the new society which had grown up naturally as the new race hewed their way into the wilderness and built up community;  the other party regarded this spectacle of a social system without an established aristocracy , or religion, or a nobility, or hereditary rulers, as dangerous ; and looked at the instrumentality of union, not merely to provide for the common defence, but to curb the rising popular power. one party sought union to establish equality of trade:  the other party sought union to enforce the mercantile system. one party aimed to preserve the principle of local self government in full vigor;  the other party aimed to abridge its powers by the process of absorption, centralization and consolidation.one party, in the conviction that reason would in time

*325  bring the colonies together, wee in favor of a voluntary union:  the other  party, who regarded force to be all in all of government, advocated a compulsory union, with the design of having it enforced by an act of parliament ...congresses and conventions were held at intervals...they were convened  under the authority of the crown. they were called to fix on the quotas of men and money which each colony  was expected to raise for the common defence and to hold treaties with the indians. they were composed of governors or prominent characters, called usually commissioners. the details relating to these congresses are voluminous and the proceedings not without interest and importance...they were not however, connected with popular movements; but they belong to the order of events that occur and leave no marked impress on the times...

the crown at length determined to contest the claims of France...over half a century before, the colonies had earnestly called the attention of the ministry  to the claims and encroachments of the French. one of their early petitions to the king termed Canada 'the unhappy fountain whence had issued all their miseries' and since the sac of Schenectady, its reduction had been a passion with them. the blood they had shed in the  battle-fields of 3 colonial wars attested their heroism and patriotism. they welcomed the decision of the crown as implying an assurance that a great burden was about to be removed and some of the colonies enthusiastically prepared to second the efforts of the government... there was not merely a public opinion in favor of the expulsion of the French, but a conviction that it was essential to the security of the colonies.

A 'UNION' CONVENTION IS CALLED TO MEET AT ALBANY

'the proposition of the crown for a convention to form a union was differently received. it was submitted and earnestly urged by governors who had been zealous for the royal prerogative...the Philadelphia Gazette'  conducted by Franklin, had a union device with the motto 'Join of Die' and the measure was urged in pamphlets. only 7  of the assemblies appointed commissioners...

*330  'THE PREROGATIVE'  (def -  exclusive right, privilege by virtue of rank)

'the art of the prerogative ...is not unnaturally compar'd to that of the Moon, either in consideration of the light borrow'd from the Senate as from the Sun.

to settle the American governments to the greatest possible advantage, it will be necessary to reduce the number of them; in some places to unite and consolidate; in others to separate and transfer...'

*331  they are neither our natural nor our determined enemies. before the Stamp-Act, we considered them in the light of as good subjects as the natives of any county in England...
arbitrary taxation is plunder authorized by law:
it is the support ad the essence of tyranny...
and let us not forget that the people of New-England were themselves,during the last war, the most forward  of all in the national cause...we regarded them as our friends and fellow-citizens and relied as much upon their fidelity as on the inhabitants of our own country.  they saw our power with pleasure for they considered it only as their protection.  they inherited our laws, our  language and our customs; they preferred our manufactures, and followed our fashions with a partiality that secured our exclusive trade with them more effectually than all the regulations and vigilance of the custom-house. had we suffered them to enrich us a little longer and to grow a little richer themselves, their men of fortune, like the West-Indians would undoubtedly have made this country the place of their education and resort. for they looked up to England with reverence and affection,as to the country of their friends and ancestors. they esteemed and they called it their home and thought of it as the Jews once thought of the land of Canaan... we certainly did wrong in taxing them:  when the stamp-act was repealed we did wrong in laying on other taxes,  which tended only to keep alive a claim that was mischievous, impracticable and useless. we acted contrary to our own principles of liberty and to the generous sentiments of our sovereign, when we desired to have their judges  dependent on the crown for their stipends as well as their continuance. it was equally unwise to wish to make the governors independent to the people for their salaries...to change the government of a people, without their consent, is the highest and most arbitrary act of sovereignty that  one nation can exercise over another. the Romans hardly ever proceeded to this extremity, even over a conquered nation, till its frequent revolts and insurrections had made them deem it incorrigible. the very idea of it, implies  a most abject and slavish dependency in the inferior state.  recollect that the americans are men of like passions with ourselves and think how deeply this treatment must affect them. they have the same veneration for their charters that we have for our Magna Charta and they ought in reason to have greater. they are the title deeds to all their assurance and stability? can they derive no force from the peaceful possession of near 200 years? and must the fundamental constitution of a powerful state be, forever, subject to as capricious alternations as you  think fit to make in the charters of a little mercantile company or the corporation of a borough? Rev. Dr. Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph.  speech in the House of Lords- 1774

BRITISH AMERICAN  - the years 1754 to 1764

*332  The Twilight Before The Reign of George III

332-8 ...excerpts from Richard Frothingham,  'The Rise of the Republic of the United States'  (1890)

'the whole expense of civil government in the British North American colonies, previous to the Revolution, did not amount  to 80,000 pounds sterling,which was paid by the produce of their taxes. the military establishments, the garrisons and the forts in the old colonies, cost the mother-country nothing'.  Lord Broughton ,  1778-1868,  from his 'Colonial Policy'...

*333   the credit of this conception is due to the illustrious Franklin. it was original and American. it was comprehensive and grand. it is not strange that the form devised to carry it out should have been imperfect.  the time had not ripened, the way had not been opened, for such a stride in political science as a worthy embodiment of this ideal would have been.  it required the discipline and the experience of the succeeding 30 years, the growth of a public opinion  for a union,the rise of a sentiment of nationality, the possessions of wisdom of a cluster of the peers of Franklin in intellect, before the conception could be embodied in a worthy form. Divine providence permitted Franklin to share in this experience, to aid informing a more perfect union of the constitution and to see his countrymen establish it as the law of the land...

*334  ...the liberty men vied with the party of the prerogative in paeans to the British Constitution and flag. this enthusiasm sustains a remark of Franklin, that the, colonists loved the nation more than they loved each other. the royal officials, however,  represented that the profession of devotion to the crown was sheer hypocrisy; that the colonies intended to cast off their dependence on the mother country...
while there was neither an aim nor even a desire for independence on the part of the colonists, yet the increase of population and wealth, the working of ideas, the quiet unfolding of Providence, elicited  much reasoning and speculation on the tendency of events. this unwonted spectacle of the progress of a free people attracted more and more the attention of men of thought and elicited a line of speculation respecting the future of America...

*335  'Dummer heard great men say that the colonists, in the course of some years, if not curbed in time, would declare themselves a free State. Kalm was told by Americans and by Englishmen, that in 30 or 50 years the colonies would be able to form a State by themselves entirely independent. Turgot, in  a public discourse, said that, when America was able to take care of itself , it would do what Carthage did. John Adams mused on what would follow the expulsion of the turbulent Gallics, and saw a great seat of empire here that would become more populous than England. Weare judged that the colonies, ripened by a very few more years must, agreeably  to nature's ordinary laws, drop off from that stock whence they originally sprung. Franklin predicted that, in less than a century the Mississippi Valley would become a populous and powerful dominion . Ludeman averred that the planets were the silent patrons of lovely America and that her independence would be a steady counterbalance to the fierce commotions of the old world. it was a tradition that the pilgrims who founded Plymouth inscribed on a rock the couplet,
'The eastern nations sink, their glory ends,
and empire rises where the sun descends.

an Italian poet, inspired by the presence of Benjamin West, sung that the spirit of venerable Rome, immortal and undecayed, was spreading towards the new world. Burnaby relates that an idea had entered into the minds of the generality of mankind, that empire was travelling westward. the language of the press was often elevating and prophetic as it portrayed what a great country,  rich in all the fountains of human felicity, would be with union and a free constitution.

'America, before which a grand future was opening, was delineated  as a tract having 1,600 miles of sea-coast, producing all the conveniences and necessaries of life and surpassed in population in Europe by only 3 powers,  -The German Empire, France and England. America, it was said, because of her trade and the great quantity of manufactures consumed in it, had become the fountain of the riches of the mother -country. it was pictured as having hundreds of thriving towns, of which Boston was as large and better built than Bristol, or, indeed, any city in England except London;  New York had abundant markets, good wharves, a large and growing commerce;  5,000 houses of brick and stone and a town house very little inferior to Guild-hall; Philadelphia was as fine a city of its size as

*336  any on the globe, had a market-place equal to any in Europe and an Academy in which the youth had made surprising progress; Charleston,  with a genteel and a refined society, was as large as Gloucester. the population of a million and a half was doubling in 25 , some said, twenty years. in verses referring to the contributions of the learned from all climes to the  cause of science, it was written,
' Mild America prevails;
the maid new paths in science tries.
new gits her daring roil supplies;
she gordian knots of art unbinds;
the Thunder's secret source she finds;
with rival power her lightnings fly,
her skill disarms the frowning sky;
for this the minted gold she claims ,
ordained the med of generous aims.

'While America had thus won laurels in the field of science, it was said of her, that she had created an asylum  for liberty. this was a passion with the race who had subdued the wilderness. it was the spring of their fidelity, intelligence and zeal. a love of it was continually expressed in their utterances. 'Liberty, are Franklin's words, 'thrives best in the woods. America best cultivates what German brought forth'.  a paper, analyzing free principles and enjoining fidelity to them, circulated in the journals, closing with Milton's words: -

'This is true liberty, when free-born men,
having to advise the public, may speak free,
which he who can  and will, deserves high praise;
who neither can nor will may hold his peace:
what can be juster in a State than this? '

'The rejection of the Albany Plan proposing a general government for all America  was not caused by a low estimate of the value of union; but was occasioned  by a state of things which precluded its adoption, or even the formation of a public opinion in its favor.  the subject was soon overlaid by events of such magnitude as to create an epoch  (def - a period of time marked by distinctive features, events.) in history...
'this was a grand historic drama, in which George III spoke the prologue, when he announced the purpose of taxing America; and Washington gave the epilogue, when he took the oath as the chief-magistrate of a free people.  the movement, viewed in its completeness, may be said to have been a single step forward, required 30 years to take and in which the British subjects of 13 colonies, formed into communities under authority derived

*337  from the crown , advanced to the position of citizens of 13 independent states, organized on the basis of the sovereignty of the people and united into a nation under a republican form of government. the uninterrupted display of political wisdom  in the progress of this work, its achievement under the banner of law and justice, the crowning triumph of the Federal Constitution with the power of self-preservation, elicited from lord Brougham the judgment that this revolution is the most important political event in the history of our species...

'It was growth. it shows the process of evolution. Washington, a type of the wonderful public virtue of his time, recognized the nature of this growth, as is evident from these memorable words in his inaugural address:
'No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency'.
'it is no more than simple justice to the founders of the republic to keep in mind, that these communities, each having a local life peculiar in some respects to itself, presented, not merely the aspect of diversity and a want of fraternity, but often that of antagonism to each other.

'Whatever Americanism there was did no appear in the form of unionism, so long as the sentiment of country or of nationality centred in the British Empire. the traditionary (def - characterized by tradition) affection for England found expression when the Peace of Paris was announced. by that peace, England retained half a continent  as the monument of her victories. she was exalted high among the nations. her power and empire seemed above all ancient and above all modern fame.

'We in America,  James Otis exclaimed,  have abundant reason to rejoice. the heathen are driven out and the Canadians conquered. the British dominion now extends from sea to sea and from the great rivers to the end of the earth. Liberty and knowledge, civil and religious, will be co-extended, improved and preserved to the latest posterity.

*338  'he reiterated the eulogy of the colonial age on the British Constitution; he claimed that every British subject in America was entitle to the essential privileges of Britons; he extolled the union between Great Britain  and her plantations and he said,

'What God in his providence has unite, let no man dare attempt to pull asunder.

'This undoubtedly expressed the feeling of Americans. the idea that the people of England and the colonies were fellow-subjects, co-equals in political rights under the British Constitution, was common in America. it pervades the utterances of the patriots.  Jefferson embodied  the sentiment as he wrote the declaration that announced the separation of the people of the colonies from the people of England:
'We might have been a free and a great people together'.


such is a glance at America when George III, began his memorable reign. it is common for British writers to lay at the door of the king and his advisers the responsibility for what occurred... but however just may be the delineations of these actors and of others. the springs of the great events that soon occurred lay deeper  than personal character. they grew out of the ideas of the age.  their roots were in the condition of society.  the king was an exponent of the feudalism that still lingered and which was absolutely irreconcilable with institutions in America that tended more and more to a realization of freedom and equality.

*339  European Control Of American Industry And Commerce By Schemes Of Dependence, Interdependence, Centralization

'The policy of Europe, therefore, has very little to boast of, either in the original establishment,  or, so far as concerns their internal government, in the subsequent prosperity of the colonies of America...Upon all of these different occasions it was, not the wisdom and policy, but the disorder and injustice of the European governments, which peopled and cultivated America...when those establishments were effectuated and had become so considerable as to attract the attention of the mother country,  the first regulations which she made with regard to them, had always in view to secure to herself the monopoly of their commerce;;  to confine their market and to enlarge her own at their expence...the maintenance of this monopoly has hitherto been the principal. or more properly, perhaps the sole end and purpose of the dominion which Great Britain assumes over the colonies...monopoly of the great commerce of America naturally seems to be an acquisition of the highest value. to the undiscerning eye of giddy ambition, it naturally presents itself, amidst the confused scramble of politics and war, as a very dazzling object to fight for .
Adam Smith 'An Inquiry  into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations' - 1775

'the British Colonists have in divers instances been restrained in their attempts to erect manufactories and forbidden to work up their own materials. hats by a particular act are not to be exported from colony to colony, under the enormous penalty of f 500 Sterling.'

'in the reign of King William III, an act passed which forbids wool and wollen, under any pretence, to be water born in the colonies,  or in any way carried from colony to colony...but who will believe that in the same glorious reign, the following very extraordinary clause is to be found in an act of parliament now in force, viz,  'that if any of the Governors in those plantations or any other person or persons in authority there, shall refuse to yield obedience to this act such refusal is hereby declared to be a forfeiture of all and every the charters granted for the government and prosperity of such colony.

'The second Charles, far from aiding or even protecting the colonists against their enemies, found means to restrain them in their trade and commerce. his parliament...obliged all the British Colonies to carry the chief of their produce, all indeed of any great value, to Britain.  soon after this, the colonies were prohibited from importing any commodities or manufactures of Europe, but from England...the enumerated commodities, which at this day can be exported from the Colonies only to great Britain, are sugar, molasses, tobacco, ginger, cotton-wool, indigo, fustick (def - wood of a large, tropical American tree) and all other dying wood, tar, pitch, turpentine, hemp, masts, yards, (def-  either 1. a long spar, supported more or less at its center, to which the head of a square sail, lateen sail or lugsail is bent' 2. yard of Ale, or both), bowspits. copper ore, beaver skins and other furs, rice...

above excerpts from the 'Boston Gazette and County Journal' of Dec 9th and 16th of the year 1765

*340  THE NAVIGATION ACT OF 1660
'for the increase of shipping and encouragement of the navigation  of this nation... be it enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty and by the Lords and Commons in this present parliament assembled and by the authority  thereof...no goods or commodities whatsoever shall be imported into or exported out of any lands, islands, plantations or territories to his Majesty... in Asia,  Africa or America, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but in such ships or vessels as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales or town of Berwick upon Teed or are of the built of and belonging to any the said lands...(Charles II, 9.13.1660

THE NAVIGATION ACT OF 1663
'...his Majesty's plantations beyond the seas are inhabited and peopled by his subjects of this his kingdom of England; for the maintaining a grater correspondence and kindness between them,  and keeping them in a firmer dependence upon it and rendering them yet more beneficial and advantageous unto it...be it enacted and it is hereby enacted...no commodity of the growth, production or manufacture of Europe shall be imported into any land, island, plantation, colony,  territory or place to his Majesty's belonging... (same, July 27,  1663)

THE NAVIGATION ACT OF 1696
'.... Great abuses are daily committed to the prejudice of the English navigation, and the loss of a great part of the plantation trade to this kingdom,  by the artifice and cunning of ill-disposed persons...for the more effectual preventing of fraud  and regulating abuses in the plantation trade in america...all ships coming into or going out of, any of the said plantations...shall be subject ...to the same rules, visitations, searches, penalties and forfeitures as to the entering...ships...the officers for collecting ...and inspecting the plantation trade...shall have the same powers...for visiting and searching of ships  and taking their entries and for seizing and securing or bringing on shore any ...goods prohibited  to be imported or exported... William III, April 10, 1696

*341 THE WOOLEN ACT - 1699
'... whereas great quantities of the like manufactures have of late been made, and are daily increasing in the kingdom of Ireland and in the English plantations in America, and are exported from thence to foreign markets, heretofore supplied from England...and for the more effectual encouragement of the woollen manufacture of this kingdom; be it further enacted...no wool, woolfells, shortlings, nortinigs, wool flocks, worsted, bay or woollen yarn, cloth, serge, bays, kerseys, says, friezes, druggets, cloth-serges, shalloons, or any other drapery stuffs or woollen manufacture  of any  of the English plantations in America, shall be loaden or laid on board in any ship or vessel, in any place or parts within any of the said English plantations, upon any pretence whatever...
William III, May 4, 1699

THE HAT ACT - 1732

'whereas...considerable quantities of hats manufactured in this kingdom have heretofore been exported to his Majesty's plantations or colonies in america, who have been wholly supplied with has from Great Britain and whereas great quantities of hats have of late years been made, and the said manufacture is daily increasing  in the British plantations  in America and is from thence exported to foreign markets, which were heretofore supplied from Great Britain... be it enacted b the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament  assembled... no hats or felts whatsoever, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be shipt, loaden or put on board any ship or vessel in any place or parts within any of the British plantations...to the intent and purpose to be exported, transported, shipped off, carried, or conveyed out of any of the said British plantations to any other of the British plantations, or t any other place whatsoever...'

THE MOLASSES ACT - 1733

''Whereas the welfare and prosperity of your Majesty's sugar colonies in America are of the greatest consequence and importance to the trade, navigation and strength of this kingdom... there shall be raised, levied,collected and paid...upon all rum or spirits of the produce or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty...the sum of 9 pence, money of Great Britain, to be paid according to the proportion and value of 5 shillings and 6 pence the ounce in silver, for every gallon thereof..and upon all molasses or syrups of such foreign produce or manufacture s aforesaid, which shall be imported or brought into any of the said colones... George II, May 17, 1733

THE IRON ACT - 1750

'Whereas the importation of bar iron from his majesty's colonies in America, into the port of London, and the importation of pig-iron from the said colonies into any port of Great Britain, and the manufacture of such bar and pig-iron (def - iron tapped from a blast furnace and cast into pigs in preparation for conversion into steel, cast iron or wrought iron)in Great Britain, will be a great advantage not

*342  only to the said colonies, but also to this kingdom...and by means thereof large sums of money,  now annually paid for iron to foreigners, will  be saved this kingdom, and a greater quantity of the wollen, and other manufactures of Great Britain, will be exported to America in exchange fro such iron so imported; be it therefore enacted... the several and respective subsidies, customs, colonies in America, into any port of Great Britain, shall cease...be it further enacted...no mill or other engine of slitting or rolling of iron or any plating-forge to work with a tilt hammer or any furnace for making steel, shall be erected ... George II, April 12, 1750

THE REVENUE ACT OF 1764

...whereas it is just and necessary that a revenue be raised in your Majesty's said dominions in America for defraying the expenses of defending, protection and securing...be it enacted...there shall be raised, levied, collected and paid unto his majesty, his heirs and successors, for and upon all white or clayed sugars of the produce or manufacture of any colony or plantation in america, not under the dominion of his Majesty...for and upon indigo and coffee of foreign  produce or manufacture...wrought silks, bengals and stuffs, mixed with silk or herba ,  of the manufacture of Persia, China, or East India and all calico painted, dyed, printed or stained there and for and upon all foreign linen cloth called cambric and French lawns which shall be imported or brought into any colony or plantation in America... and for the better preventing frauds...every person or persons loading...shall before the clearing out of the said shop or vessel, produce and deliver to the collector...an affidavit signed and sworn to before some justice of the peace in the British colonies or plantations, either by the grower, maker, or shipper of such goods...George III, April 5,  1764)

THE STAMP ACT - 1765

whereas by an Act made in the last session of Parliament, several duties were granted, continued and appropriated towards defraying the expenses of defending, protecting and securing the British colonies and plantations in America and whereas it is just and necessary that provision be made for raising  further revenue...be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all the money which shall arise by the several rates and duties...shall be paid  into the receipt of his Majesty's Exchequer, and shall be entered separate and apart from all other moneys  and shall be there reserved to be from time to time disposed of by parliament... George III, 1765

THE QUARTERING ACT  - 1765

'Whereas in and by an Act made in the present session of Parliament entitled,An Act for punishing mutiny and desertion and for the better payment of the army and their quarters; several regulations are made and enacted...but the same ma not be sufficient  for the forces that may be employed in his majesty's dominions in America; and whereas, during the

*343  continuance of the said Act there may be occasion for marching and quartering of regiments and companies of his Majesty's forces in several parts of his Majesty's dominions in America; and whereas the public houses and barracks, in his Majesty's dominions in America may not be sufficient  to supply quarters for such forces...constables, tithingmen , magistrates and other civil officers...are hereby required  to quarter and billet (def - lodging for soldiers the officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service, in the barracks provided by the colonies...it is hereby further enacted, that all such officers and soldiers so put an placed in such barracks, or in hired uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns or other building, shall, from time to time be furnished and supplied there by persons to be authorized or appointed for that purpose by the governor and council of each respective province...and that the several persons who shall so take, hire and fit up as aforesaid, such uninhabited house, outhouses , barns or other buildings...and also the said barracks with fire, candles, vinegar and salt, bedding, utensils for dressing victuals, (def - food supplies; 'living + action')and small beer and cider or rum...may be reimbursed and paid all such charges and expenses hey shall be put to therein, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the respective provinces shall pay...and such sum or sums are hereby required to be raised in such manner as the public charges for the provinces respectively are raised'.  George III May  15, 1765)

THE REVENUE ACT OF 1767 - 'THE TOWNSHEND ACTS'

'Whereas it is expedient that a revenue should be raised, in your Majesty's dominions in America, for making a more certain and adequate provision for defraying the charge of the administration of justice, and the support of civil government in such provinces where it shall be found necessary...for and upon the respective goods hereinafter mentioned, which shall be imported from Great Britain into any colony or plantation in america... the several rates and duties...on glass, red and white lead, painters colours...tea...paper...that from and after the said 20th day of November, one thousand seven hundred and sixty -seven, such writes of assistance, to authorize and empower he officers of his majesty's customs to enter and go into any house,are house, shop, cellar or other place,in the British colonies or plantations in America, to search for and seize prohibited or uncustomed goods...'

*344  ACT SUSPENDING NEW YORK ASSEMBLY - 1767

'...until provision shall have been made by the said assembly of New York for furnishing his majesty's troops within the said province, with all such necessaries as are required by the said Acts of parliament or any of them,  to be furnished for such troops it shall not be lawful for the governor, lieutenant-governor, or person presiding or acting as governor or commander-in-chief  or for the council for the time being, within the colony, plantation, or province of new York in america, to pass, to give his or their assent to, or concurrence in, the making or passing of any act of assembly...and that all acts of assembly,orders, resolutions and votes whatsoever, which shall or may be passed, assented to, or made, contrary to the tenor and meaning of this Act...are hereby declared to be null and void and of no force or effect whatsoever...' George III, July  2.1767

RESOLVES OF PARLIAMENT AND ADDRESS TO THE KING - 1769

'Resolved, by the Lord spiritual and Temporal and Commons, in Parliament assembled, that the votes, resolutions and proceeding of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts Bay, in the months of January and February, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight, respecting several late Acts of parliament... in all cases whatsoever, are  illegal, unconstitutional and derogatory of the rights of the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain...that the resolution of the said House of Representatives of the province of Massachusetts Bay, to write letters to the several houses of representative of the British colonies o the continent desiring them to join with the said House of Representatives of the province of Massachusetts Bay in petitions which do deny or draw into question, the right of Parliament to impose duties and taxes upon his Majesty's subjects in America and in pursuance of the said resolution, the writing such letters in which certain late acts of parliament, imposing duties and taxes, are stated to be infringements of the rights of his majesty's subjects of the said province, are proceedings of a most unwarrantable and dangerous nature, calculated to inflame he minds of his Majesty's subjects  in the other colonies, tending to create unlawful combination... that the declarations, resolutions, and proceedings in the town meetings at Boston, on the 14th of June, and 12th September,were illegal and unconstitutional and calculated to excite sedition and insurrections in his Majesty's province of Massachusetts Bay... that the appointment at the town meeting  on the 12th September of a convention to be held in the town of Boston on the 22nd of that month to consist of duties from the several towns and districts in the province of the Massachusetts Bay and the writing a letter by the selectmen of the town of Boston to each of the said towns and districts, for the election of such deputies to sit in the said convention and the meeting of such convention, in consequence thereof were daring insults offered to his majesty's authority and audacious usurpations of the powers of government... we conceive that nothing can be more immediately necessary, either  for the maintenance of your Majesty's authority in the said province, or for guarding your Majesty's subjects  therein from being further deluded by the arts of wicked and designing men than to proceed, in the most speedy and effectual manner, for bringing to condign punishment  the chief authors and instigators of the late disorders, we most humbly beseech your majesty that you will be graciously pleased to direct your Majesty's governor of Massachusetts Bay to take the most effectual methods for procuring the fullest information that can be obtained, touching all treasons or misprisions (def - neglect or violation of official duty by one in office) of treason committed with in his government, since the thirtieth day of December and to transmit the same, together within his government, since the thirtieth day of Dec and to transmit the same, together with the names of the persons who were most active in the commission of such offences, to one of your Majesty's principal secretaries of state, in order that your Majesty may issue a special commission for inquiring of, hearing and determining the said offences... George III,  February 9, 1769

*345  THE BOSTON PORT ACT - 1774
(the 1st 'Intolerable Act')

'whereas dangerous commotions and insurrections have been fomented and raised in the town of Boston,in the province of Massachusetts Bay in New England,  by divers ill-affected persons, to the subversion of his majesty's government and to the utter destruction of the public peace and good order of the said town;  in which commotions and insurrections certain valuable cargoes of teas, being the property of the East India Company and on board certain vessels lying within the bay or harbour of Boston, were seized and destroyed and wheres,  in the present condition of the said town and harbour the commerce of his Majesty's subjects cannot be safely carried on there, nor the customs payable to his majesty duly collected and it is therefore expedient that the officers of his Majesty's customs should be forthwith removed from the said town..nothing in this Act contained shall extend, or be construed to extend to any military or other stores for his Majesty's use, or to the ships or vessels whereon the same shall be laden... nor to any fuel of victual brought coastwise from any part of the continent of America for the necessary use and sustenance of the inhabitants of the said town of Boston...

THE MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNMENT ACT - 1774
(the 2nd 'Intolerable Act')
...the appointment of the respective governors had been vested in the general courts or assemblies of the said colonies hath, by repeated experience, been found to be extremely ill-adapted to the plan of government established in the province of the Massachusetts Bay,  by the said letters patent herein  before mentioned and has been so far from contributing to the attainment of the good ends and purposes thereby intended , and to the promoting of the internal welfare, peace and good government of the said province or to the maintenance of the just subordination to, and conformity with, the laws of Great Britain...be it therefore enacted...the councilor court of assistants of the said province for the time being, shall be composed of such of the inhabitants or proprietors of lands within the same as shall be thereunto nominated and appointed by his Majesty, his heirs and successors,from time to time, by warrant under his or their signet or sign manual and with the advice of the privy Council... it is hereby further enacted, that the said assistants or councillors, so to be appointed as aforesaid, shall hold their offices respectively, for

*346  and during the pleasure of his Majesty...it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty's governor for the time being of the said province, or in his absence, for the lieutenant-governor, to nominate and appoint, under the seal of the province, from time to time, and also to remove, without the consent of the council ,  all judges of the inferior courts of common pleas. , commissioners of oyer and terminer,  the attorney general, provosts, marshals, justices of the peace and other officers...to nominate and appoint the sheriffs without the consent of the council and to remove such sheriffs with such consent and not otherwise. and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that upon every vacancy of the offices of chief justice and judges of the Superior 'court of the said province, from and after the said first day of July, one thousand seen hundred and seventy-four, the governor for the time being, or in his absence, the lieutenant-governor, without the consent of the Council, shall have full power and authority to nominate and appoint the persons to succeed to the said offices, who shall hold their commissions during the pleasure of his Majesty...and whereas, by several acts of the General Court, which have been from time to time enacted and passed within the said province the freeholders and inhabitants of the several townships, districts and precincts, qualified, as is therein expressed, are authorized to assemble together, annually, or occasionally, upon notice given,in such manner as the said acts direct, for the choice of selectmen, constables and other officers and for the making and agreeing upon such necessary rules, orders and by-laws,  for the directing, managing and ordering, the prudential affairs of such townships, districts, and precincts and for other purposes; and whereas a great abuse has been made of the power of calling such meetings and the inhabitants have, contrary to the design of their institution, been misled to treat upon matters of the most general concern, and to pass many dangerous and unwarrantable resolves;  for remedy whereof, be it enacted, that from and after the said first day of August, one thousand seven hundred and seventy four, no meeting shall be called by the selectmen, or at the request of any number of freeholders of any township, district or precinct. without the leave of the governor...except the annual meeting in the months of March or May, for the choice of selectmen, constables and other officers...and also, except any meeting for the election of a representative or representatives in the general court; and that no other matter shall be treated of at such meetings, except the election of their aforesaid officers or representatives, nor at any other meeting, except the business expressed in the leave given by representatives, nor at any other meeting except the business expressed in the leave given by the governor...be it further enacted...the jurors to serve at the superior courts of judicature. courts of assize, general gaol delivery, general sessions of the peace, the inferior court of common pleas,  in the several counties within the said province,  shall not be elected, nominated or appointed, by the freeholders and inhabitants of the several towns within the said respective counties...shall be summoned and returned by the sheriffs of the respective counties within  the said province, shall be summoned and returned by the sheriffs of the respective counties within the said province and all writs of venire facias, or other process or warrants to be issued for the return of jurors to serve at the said courts, shall be directed  to the sheriffs of the said counties respectively, any law, custom or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. George III, May 20. 1774

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE ACT - 1774
(The 3rd 'Intolerable Act')
 'Whereas in his Majesty's province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, an attempt has lately been made to throw off the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain over the said province and an actual and avowed resistance by open force, to the execution of certain Acts of parliament, has been suffered to take place, uncontrolled and unpunished, in defiance of his Majesty's authority, and to the utter subversion of all lawful government and whereas, in the present disordered state of the said province it is of the utmost importance to the

*347  general welfare thereof and to the re-establishment of lawful authority throughout the same, that neither the magistrates acting in support of the laws, nor any of his majesty's subjects aiding and assisting them therein or in the suppression of riots and tumults raised in opposition to the execution of the laws and statutes of this realm, should be discouraged from the proper discharge of their duty by an apprehension that in case of their being questioned for any acts done therein, they may be liable to be brought to trial for the same before persons who do not acknowledge the validity of the laws, in the execution thereof, or the authority of the magistrate in the support of whom such acts had been done...if any inquisition or indictment shall be found or if any appeal shall be sued or preferred against any person for murder or other capital offence, in the province of Massachusetts Gay and it shall appear by information given upon oath to the  governor, or, in his absence, to the lieutenant -governor of the said province, that the fact was committed by the person against whom such inquisition or indictment shall be found,  or against whom such appeal shall be sued or preferred as aforesaid, either in the execution of his duty as a magistrate fro the suppression of riots or in the support  of the laws of revenue, or in acting in his duty as an officer of revenue, or in acting under the direction and order of any magistrate for the suppression of riots,  or for the carrying into effect the laws of revenue, or in aiding and assisting in any of the cases aforesaid, and if it shall also appear to the satisfaction of the said governor, or lieutenant-governor respectively, that an indifferent trial cannot be had within the said province; in that case it shall and may be lawful for the governor or lieutenant-governor to direct, with the advice and consent of the council, that the inquisition, indictment or appeal shall be tried in some other of his Majesty's colonies, or in  Great Britain...

QUARTERING ACT OF 1774
(The 4th 'Intolerable Act')

'the persons who now are, or may be hereafter, authorized by law, in any of the provinces within his Majesty's dominions in North America...are hereby respectively authorized, empowered and directed, on the requisition of the officer


REVENUE FROM AMERICA

'Civil tyranny is usually small in its beginning, like 't drop of a bucket,' till at length,like a mighty torrent, or the raging waves of the sea, it bears down all before it  and deluges whole countries and empires... Jonathan Mayhew, Boston, Boston -1749

*351  THE ART OF TAXING

'Arbitrary taxation is plunder authorized by law: it is the support and the essence of tyranny'.  Jonathan Shipley,  Bishop of St. Asaph.  from a speech delivered in the House of Lords on the bill to alter the charter and government of Massachusetts,  1774

'The art of taxation is by far the most nice game in the political world ...that further and more DIRECT  taxes, INTERNAL and EXTERNAL, are required...... The ADMINISTRATION has sagely proposed, that imposts on American commerce, inwards and outwards, with an excise stamp and land taxes, should be he present objects of parliamentary taxation...'
Boston Gazette, Mon,  December 23, 1765

During a century and a half, from their first emigration, the colonists were left to tax themselves. if there were any exceptions to this general rule, they were too inconsiderable to be worthy of notice. Great Britain, however, restrained and regulated their trade. she named the ports and nations to which only their merchandise might be carried,  and with whom only they might trade. she obligated them to carry to her all their raw materials which might be wrought up for her emolument (def - profit, salary or fees from office or employment.) and their other productions which she needed or which might increase her wealth. she prohibited their manufacturing any articles among themselves, which might injure her manufactures or commerce, and their procuring manufactures from any other part of the globe, or  even the products of European countries, which were her rivals, until they were first brought into her ports. notwithstanding the numerous oppressions which the colonists had experienced, under the British government, and though all disrelished and many, from the pressures which they felt, complained of the restrictions on their  manufactures and commerce, yet they were generally disposed to submit to them. it was generally acknowledged that the parent country might exercise a sovereign dominion over the whole empire, and that while it was guarded by contract and exercised for the general emolument, it was sage and might not be resisted. some warm defenders of American liberty conceded, that the supreme legislature represents the whole society, the dominions as well as the realm and that this was implied in the idea of a supreme power. but the right of taxing the colonies without their consent, was universally reprobated, as inconsistent with their natural charter and constitutional rights. ancient usage was pleaded against it as well as the general principles of liberty.

*352  'During a period of more than a century, from 1660 to 1764,  the parliament of Great Britain had passed nearly 30 acts of restraining and regulating the trade of the colonies in such a manner as was judged most conducive to mutual advantage and especially to her own particular welfare. in all these acts, the contributions of the colonies to the strength and aggrandizement of the British empire were established solely on the  system of commerce. not a single revenue act had been passed. until this year they all stood upon a commercial footing and were designed as regulations of trade and not sources of a national revenue.
'while Great Britain adhered to this system of colonization, her American colonies increased and flourished beyond all parallel. in the same proportion as the colonies increased, the commerce, opulence, strength and glory of Great Britain increased.

'Her whole export trade to the colonies in 1763, exceded half of all her exports, to other countries, 60 years before, and , antecedently to the independence of the American states, equalled her whole export trade at the aforementioned period.
'In the year 1604 the amount of the whole export trade of
Great
Britain to America and all other countries, was no more than 6,509,000 pounds sterling;  but in 1763, he exports to her American colonies only , amounted to 3,730,900 pounds and so prodigious was the increase of the colonies, that, in about 10 or 12 years after this period, the tonnage of their shipping, the number of their seamen and the amount of their trade was doubled. in the year 1772,  the export trade of Great Britain, to them only, was 6,022,132 pounds sterling and the annual increase during the 4 succeeding years was very rapid. in the short term of about 70  years the colonies added not less to the export trade of their parent country than the whole of that to which she had grown by the increasing improvements of 1700 years.
'as it is evident, from the preceding history, that the settlement and protection of the colonies was not at the expense of Great Britain, so it is equally evident, that this increase of their trade was not at the expense or diminution of the general trade of the kingdom, for this increased during the same period from 6 to 16 millions.
'the filial submission of the colonies to the sovereignty of the parent country,  for so long a period, while it was exercised in superintending their general concerns and in harmonizing the commercial interests of the empire, gave a clear demonstration, that, without parliamentary taxation,  they might have been dept in proper subordination and subserviency to her government and interests. no subjects in the kingdom wee more strongly attached to the royal house of Hanover and to those

revolutional principles which placed it on the throne of the British empire,  than the colonists. they gloried in the British constitution, in their relation to Great Britain and rejoiced in her growing commerce, strength and glory. had that line of colonization been pursued the benefit of which  had been experienced for many ages, the colonies with great cheerfulness would have poured all the profits of their increasing labours and commerce into the lap of their parent.

'for several years the British ministry had conceived the idea of a new plan of colonization and of altering both the civil and ecclesiastical constitution of the colonies. immediately after the pacification of Paris, new scenes were presented. the numbers and resources which the colonies had exhibit during the war, the show of wealth and plenty which had been made, at the entertainments given to some of the British generals and officers, in several of their capitals, the gold, silver and jewels appearing in the dress of the colonists, on these and other occasions, begat in their fellow subjects of Great Britain, the idea that they were wealthy and powerful. it was said, that their taxes were light; that the whole expense of the civil establishment, in all the colonies in north America, was little more than 70,000 pounds sterling: that their ecclesiastical constitution was no less economical:  that tithes were not know among them:  that their clergy were numerous; and that they were generally maintained by moderate stipends, or by the voluntary contributions of the people, etc.  the nations debt of Great Britain amounted to the enormous sum of a 148 millions.  the annual interest of it only was nearly 5 millions and the inhabitants of that country already groaned under the grievous load of taxes. while the British minister, in these partial views,was digesting plans for the diminution of this amazing debt and for easing the inhabitants of Great Britain, colonies by parliamentary taxation...'

'No sooner was the ministry established than Grenville, as the head of  the treasury, proceeded to redeem the promise mad to the house of commons of an American revenue. on the morning of the 22nd day of September, 3 lords of the treasury, George Grenville, Lord north and one hundred who completed the number requisite for the transaction of business, held a board in Downing Street and, without hesitancy or discussion ,  they adopted a minute directing Jenkinson to 'write to the commissioners of the stamp duties to prepare the draft of a bill to be presented to parliament for extending the stamp duties to the colonies.  the next day Jenkinson accordingly wrote to them 'to transmit to him the draft of an act for imposing proper stamp duties upon his majesty's subjects in america and the West Indies.

*354  'Who was the author of the American stamp-tax? at a later day Jenkinson assured the house of commons that, 'if the stamp act was a good measure, the merit of it was not due to
Grenville; if it was a ad one,  good measure, the merit of it was not due to Grenville; if it was a bad one, the ill policy did not belong to him' but he never confessed to the house where the blame or the merit could rest more justly. in his late old age he delighted  to converse freely, with the son he loved best, on  every topic connected with his log career, save only on the one subject of the contest with America; on that he maintained an inflexible and total silence. but, with America; on that he maintained an inflexible and total silence. but,  though Jenkinson proposed the American tax while private secretary to Bute and brought it with him into the treasury  for adoption by Bute's successor,he was but a subordinate, without power of direction or a seat  in council.  nor does the responsibility for the measure attach to Bute, for the ministry which had forced him  into absolute retirement would not have listened to his advice in the smallest matter; nor to the king, for they boasted of being free from sycophancy  to the court. Hunter, one of the lords of the treasury, who ordered the minute, was but a cipher (def - something of no value or importance) and Lord North, who supported the stamp act, at a later day told the house of commons that he took the propriety of passing it very much upon the authority of Grenville.
'From the days of King William there was a steady line of precedents of opinion that America should, like Ireland, provide in whole or at least in part, for the support of its military establishment. it was one of the first subjects of consideration on the organization of the board of trade. it again employed the attention of the servants of Queen Anne.it was still more seriously considered in the days of George I. ; and when in the reign of George II.,  the duke of Cumberland was at the head of American military affairs, it was laid down  as a necessity that a revenue sufficient for the purpose must be provided. the ministry of Bute resolved to raise such a revenue , for which Charles Townshend pledged the government. parliament wished it; so did the king. almost all sorts and conditions of men repeatedly made it known that they desired it.
'for half a century or more the king had sent executive orders or requisitions. but upon these each colonial legislature claimed a right of freely deliberating and, as there were nearly 20 different governments, it was held that they never would come to a common result. the need of some central power was asserted. to give the military chief a dictatorial authority  to require subsistence for the army was suggested by the board of trade in 1696, in the days of King William and Locke, was more deliberately considered in 1721 was favored by Cumberland and was one of the arbitrary proposals put aside by Pitt. to obtain the revenue through a congress of the colonies was at one time the plan of Halifax;  but,if the congress was of governors, their decision would be only consultatory and have no more weight than royal instructions; and, if the congress was a representative body, it would claim and exercise the right of free discussion.

*355  'to support a demand for a revenue by stringent coercive measures was beyond the power of the prerogative, under the system established at the revolution. once when New York failed go make appropriations for the civil service, a bill was prepared to be laid before parliament, giving the usual revenue, and this bill, having  received the approbation of the great Whig lawyers, Northey and Raymond, was the precedent which  overcame Grenville's scruples about taxing the colonies without first allowing them representatives.  it was settled that there must be a military establishment in America of 20  regiments;  that, after the first year, its expenses must be defrayed  by America; that the several American colonies themselves, with  their various charters, never would agree to vote such a revenue and that parliament must do it.

'it remained to consider what  tax parliament should impose and here all agreed that the first object of taxation was foreign and intercolonial commerce. but that resource, under the navigation acts, would not produce enough. a poll-tax was common in America; but, applied by parliament, would fall unequally upon colonies holding slaves. the difficulty in collecting quit-rents proved that a land-tax would meet with formidable obstacles.an excise was thought of, but held in reserve. an issue of exchequer ills, to be kept in circulation as the currency of the continent, wold have conflicted with the policy of acts of parliament against the use of paper money in the colonies. nearly everybody who reasoned on the subject decided for a stamp-tax, as certain of collection and in america where lawsuits were frequent, as likely to be very productive. a stamp act had been proposed by Sir Robert Walpole; it had been thought of by Pelham; it had been almost resolved upon in 1755; it had been pressed upon Pitt; it was a part of the system adopted in the ministry of Bute. Knox,  the agent of Georgia, defended it as least liable to objection. the agent of Massachusetts,  through his brother, Israel Mauduit,  who had Jenkinson for his fast friend and often saw Grenville, favored raising money in that way, because it would occasion less expense of officers, and would include the West India islands and speaking for his constituents, he made a merit of cheerful 'submission' to the ministerial policy.
'one man in Grenville's office, and one man only, did indeed give him sound advice: Richard Jackson, his secretary  for the exchequer,advised him to lay the project aside and formally decline to take any part in  preparing or supporting it.
'In this way George Grenville,in Sept.  1763, was led to adopt the measure which was 'devolved upon him',  brought it into form and consented that it should be 'christened by his name'.  he doubted the propriety of taxing colonies with out allowing them representatives,  but he loved power and placed his hopes on the favor of parliament, which at that day contemplated the increased debt of England with terror, knew not that

*356  the resources of the country were increasing in a still greater proportion and insisted on throwing a part of the public burdens upon America...Taxing America by parliament was to be the close of a system of colonial 'measures', founded, ass Grenville believed ,  'on the true principles of policy, of commerce and of finance.  he, said those who paid him court, is not like some of his predecessors, ignorant of the importance of  the colonies; nor, like others, impotently neglectful of their concerns; nor diverted by meaner pursuits from attending to them; England is now happy  in a minister who sees that the greatest wealth and maritime  power of Great Britain depend on the use of its colonies and who will make it his highest object to form 'a well-digested, consistent,wise  and salutary plan of colonization and government.
'the extent of the American illicit trade was very great; it was thought that, of a million and a half pounds of tea consumed annually in the colonies, not more than one tenth part was sent from England. Grenville  held that the contraband was stolen from the commerce and from the manufactures of Great Britain, against the principles of colonization and only minister to insist on enforcing the laws which usage and corruption had invalidated and this brought him in conflict with the spirit which Otis had aroused in Boston, and which equally prevailed among the descendants of the Dutch of New York.  the island of Manhattan lies convenient to the sea. sheltered by other islands from the ocean; having safe anchorage in deep water for many miles along its shores, inviting the commerce of continents, of the near tropical islands of the world...between its wharfs and the British harbors its packets run to and fro, swiftly and regularly like the weaver's shuttle, weaving the band that joins nations together in friendship.its imports of foreign produce are in value equal twice-told to all that was imported into the whole island of Great Britain in  1763...

'the governors were to make the suppression of the forbidden trade with foreign nations the constant and immediate object of their care. all officers, both civil and military and naval,in America and the West Indies,  were to give their co-operation...forthwith orders were directed to the commander- in -chief in  America that the troops under his command should give their assistance to the officers of the revenue for the effectual suppression of contraband trade...

'Vague rumors prevailed of new commercial and fiscal regulations, to be made by act of parliament  and yet American refused to believe that the British legislature would willfully overthrow their liberty. no remonstrance was prepared against the impending measures, of which the extent was kept secret...'

*361  TOWN,  PROVINCE, & ASSEMBLY, ASSERT THEIR RIGHTS

Massachusetts Sounds The Trumpet

'before it was known that the bill had passed, the alarm was given in Boston,  at its town-meeting in May 1764,  by Samuel Adams, a native throughout a long life, imparted consistence to his public conduct. his well resembled well-tempered steel, which may ply, but will not bread. bred as a Calvinist of the strictest sect, his riper judgment confirmed  him in his creed. on church government he adhered to the Congregational forms, as most friendly to civil and religious liberty; was a member of the church; and the austere purity of his life witnessed the sincerity of his profession. evening and morning his house was a house of prayer; and no one more revered the Christian sabbath. he was a tender husband, an affectionate parent and could vividly enjoy conversation with friends, but the walls of his modest mansion never witnessed anything inconsistent with the discipline of the man whose desire for his birthplace ws that 'Boston might become a Christian Sparta'.

'On his motion and in his words, Boston, while it sill set forth its acknowledged dependence upon Great Britain,  and the ready submission of its merchants to all just and necessary regulations of trade, asserted it rights and privileges...the legislature of Massachusetts was then in session. the Boston instructions, drawn by Samuel Adams, formed the corner-stone of its policy.

the above excerpts from George Bancroft,  'History of the United States', New York - 1886

*362  BOSTON FORESEEING THE DESIGNS OF THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND FOR HIGHER TAXES AND EXTENDED CONTROLS OVER HER TRADE AND LOCAL-GOVERNMENT,  ACCORDINGLY instructs HER REPRESENTATIVES IN THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF MASSACHUSETTS.

'the City of Boston, at their Annual Meeting in May,  1764, made Choice of Richard Dana, Joseph Green, Nathaniel Bethune, John Ruddock,  Esq'rs; and Mr. Samuel Adams, to prepare INSTRUCTIONS  for their REPRESENTATIVES.

'The following Instructions were reported by said Committee, and unanimously Voted.

'To Royal Tyler, James Otis, Thomas Cushing and Oxenbridge Thacher, Esq'rs.

Gentlemen: your being chosen by the freeholders and inhabitants of the town of Boston, to represent them in the General Assembly the ensuing year, affords you the strongest testimony of that confidence which they place in your integrity and capacity. by this choice they  have delegated to you the power of acting in their public concerns in general, as your own Prudence shall direct you; always reserving to themselves the constitutional right of expressing their mind and giving you such instruction upon particular matters, as they at any time shall judge proper. we therefore your constituents take this opportunity to declare our just Expectations from you,

THAT you constantly use your power and influence in maintaining the invaluable rights and privileges of the province, of which this town is so great a part:  as well those rights which are derived to us by the royal Charter, as those which being prior  to and independent on it. we hold essentially as free-born subjects of Great-Britain;

'THAT you will endeavour, as far as you shall be able, to preserve that independence in the house of representatives, which characterizes a free people and the want of which may in a great measure prevent the happy effects of a free government: Cultivating as you shall have opportunity,  that harmony and union there, which is ever desirable to good men, when founded in principles of virtue and public spirit; and guarding against any undue weight which may tend to disadjust that  critical balance upon which our happy constitution and the blessings of it do depend. and for this purpose, we particularly recommend it to you to use your endeavours to have a law passed, whereby the fears of

pp 362-4 are excerpts from George Bancroft,  'History of the United States',  new York - 1886

*363  such gentlemen as shall accept of posts of profit from the Crown,  or the Governor, while they are members of the house, shall be vacated agreeable to an act of the British parliament,  'till their constituents  shall have the opportunity of re-electing them, if they please or of returning others to their room.
'being members of the legislative body, you will have a special regard and endeavour to have such laws made, if any are still wanting as shall be best adapted to secure them,  and we particularly desire you carefully to look  into the laws of exile,  that if the virtue of the people is endangered by the multiplicity of oaths therein enjoined  or their trade and business is unreasonably impeded or embarrassed thereby, the grievance may be redressed.

'as the preservation of morals, as well as property and right, so much depends upon the impartial distribution of justice, agreeable to good and wholesome law:  and as the judges of the land do depend upon the free grants of the general assembly for support; it is incumbent upon you at all times to give your voice for their honourable maintenance so long as they, having in their minds an indifference to all other affairs, shall devote themselves wholly to the duties of their own department and the further study of the law, by which their customs, precedents, proceedings and determinations are adjusted and limited.
'you will join in any proposals which may be made for the better cultivating the lands and improving the husbandry of the province:  and as you represent a town which lives by its trade, we expect in a very particular manner, that you make it the object of your attention, to support our commerce in all its just rights, to vindicate it from all unreasonable impositions and promote, its prosperity - our trade has for a long time laboured under great discouragements; and it is with the deepest concern that we see such further difficulties coming upon it, as will reduce it to the lowest ebb, if not totally obstruct and ruin it. we cannot help expressing our surprise that when so early notice was given b the agent, of the intentions of the ministry,  to burthen us with new taxes, so little regard was had to this most interesting matter, that the court was not even call'd together to consult about it 'till the latter end of the year; the consequence of which was, that instructions could not be sent to the agent, tho' solicited by him,  'till the evil had got beyond an easy remedy.
'there is now no room for further delay: we therefore expect  that you will use your earliest endeavours in the General Assembly,  that such methods may be taken as will effectually prevent these proceedings

*364  against us. by a proper representation, we apprehend it may easily  be made to appear that such  severeties will prove detrimental to Great Britain itself:; upon which account we have reason to hope that an application, even for a repeal of the act, should it be already pass'd, will be successful. it is the trade of the colonies, that renders them  beneficial  to the mother country:  our trade, as it is now and always has  been conducted, centers in Great Britain  and in return for her manufactures , affords her more ready cash, beyond any comparison, than can possibly be expected by the most sanguine promoters of these extraordinary  methods. we are in short ...yielding large supplies to the revenues of the mother country, while we are labouring for  very moderate subsistence  for ourselves. but if our trade is to be curtail'd in its most profitable branches and burdens beyond all possible bearing laid upon that which is suffer'd to remain, we shall be so far from being able to take off the manufactures  of
Great Britain, that it will be scarce possible for us to earn our bread.

'but what still heightens our appreciations is, that these unexpected proceedings may be preparatory to new taxations upon us:  for if our trade be taxed, why not our lands?  why not the produce of our lands and every thing we possess or make use of ? this we apprehend annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves - it strikes at our British privileges, which as we have never forfeited them,  we hod in common with  our fellow subjects who are natives of Britain: if taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a  legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduc'd from  the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves?

'we therefore earnestly recommend it to you to use your utmost endeavors, to obtain in the general assembly, all necessary instruction and advice to our agent at this most critical juncture; that while he is setting forth the unshaken loyalty of this province and this town - its unrival'd exertion in supporting his Majesty's government and rights in this part of his dominions -tis acknowledg'd dependence upon and subordination to Great Britain; and the ready submission of it merchants to all just and necessary regulations of trade; he may be able in the  most humble and pressing manner to remonstrate for us all those rights and privileges which justly belong to us either by charter or birth.

'As his Majesty's other northern American colonies are embark'd with us in this most important bottom, we further desire you to use your endeavors, that their weight may be added to that of this province;  that by the united application of all who are aggrieved, All may happily obtain redress.

*365  LOCAL GOVERNMENTS CONSTITUTE AN EVER PRESENT THREAT TO SCHEMES OF CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT

'the General Court met 6 days after these instructions were adoped . James Otis was one of the members from Boston and had long been the pioneer of its patriots. he had repeatedly been chosen a representative since the delivery of the speech on writs of assistance, had increased his popularity by a pamphlet which vindicated thee natural rights and constitutional liberties of the people and was then at the height of his powers and influence. in pursuance of the instructions of the town , he prepared a memorial on the proposed Stamp  Act and the Sugar Act,in which he contended that the authority of parliament was circumscribed by certain bounds; that acts which went beyond these bounds were those of power without right and consequently void and that as British subjects the people had the right to make the local laws and to tax themselves.  this paper was ordered  to be sent to the  agent in London, with an  elaborate letter, instructing him to remonstrate against the proposed Stamp Act and to urge a repeal of the Sugar Act. a committee was then appointed to acquaint the other governments with these  instructions and in the name and behalf of the House to 'desire the several assemblies on this continent to join with them in the same measures'. thus the first effect of the Declaratory Resolves was a proposition brought before all the american assemblies for joint action.

the Boston Instructions, widely circulated in the journals, were soon followed by the inspiring pamphlet of Otis, entitled the 'Rights of the British Colonies asserted and proved'. in this he argued, that, in theory, , civil government is of God and the original possessors of power were the whole people,  but that, in fact, authority was embodied in the British Constitution; and that by this the colonies enjoyed the right, in their subordinate  local legislatures, of governing and taxing themselves. he cited Locke on the ends of government. he held that there could be no prescription old enough to supersede the law of nature  and the grant of God Almighty, who had given all men a right to be free;  that nothing but life and liberty were hereditable; that, in solving practically the grand political problem, the first and simple principle must be equality and the power of the whole. these views of the Whigs were met by their opponents, by averring, that,  however excellent 'the power  of the people  may seem in theory, it had always proved mischievous in fact';  that in every age and country  it had been impossible to combine the passions of the multitude  so as to produce order;  that the source of all the evils was the local governments, which gave too much power to the people and too little to the crown; that the remedy was 'a  general reformation of the colonies'  by an act of parliament; that if this were not done in the present reign, it might be attempted by a king with the spirit of James II.;and 'his single order, with a regiment of dragoons, would dissolve all the charters in his dominions.
excerpts from George Bancroft,  'History of the United States', New York -1886


*366  Massachusetts' Legislative Assembly takes a Stand Against Arbitrary Taxation

James Otis prepares the statement in the form of a letter to Jasper Mauduit, agent for the colony of  Massachusetts in London.

'the General Court met six days after these instructions were adopted.  James Otis was one of the members from Boston and had long been the pioneer of its patriots. he had repeatedly been chosen a representative since the delivery of the speech on writs of assistance. had increased  his popularity by a pamphlet  which vindicated  the natural rights and constitutional liberties of the people and was then at the height of his prepared a memorial on the proposed Stamp Act and the Sugar Act, in which he contended that the authority of parliament was circumscribed  by certain bounds; that acts which went beyond these bounds were those of power without right and consequently void and that as British subjects THE PEOPLE HAD THE RIGHT TO MAKE THE LOCAL LAWS AND TO TAX THEMSELVES. this paper was ordered to be sent to the agent in London, with an elaborate letter, instructing him to remonstrate against the proposed Stamp Act and to urge a repeal of the Sugar Act. a committee was then appointed to acquaint the other governments with these instructions and the name and behalf of the House to 'desire the several assemblies on this continent to join with them in the same measures'.  thus the first effect of the Declaratory Resolves was a proposition brought before all the American assemblies for joint action.

'The Boston Instructions, widely circulated in the journals, were soon followed by the inspiring pamphlet of Otis, entitled the 'Right of the British Colonies asserted and proved.' in this he argued, that  in theory , civil government is of God and the original possessors of power were the whole people, but that, in fact authority was embodied in the British Constitution and that b this the colonies enjoyed the right, in their subordinate local legislatures, of governing and taxing themselves. he cited Locke on the ends of government. he held that there could be no prescription old enough to supersede the law of nature and the grant of God Almighty, who had given all men a right to be free; that nothing but life and liberty were hereditable;  that, in solving practically the grand political problem, the first and simple principle must be equality and the power  of the whole. these views of the Whigs were met by t
by the laws of nature and of nations, the voice of universal reason, and of God, when a nation takes possession of a desert, uncultivated and uninhabited country, or purchases of Savages, as was the case with far the greatest part of the British settlements;  the colonists transplanting themselves and their posterity, tho' separated from the principle establishment,  or mother country, naturally become part of the state with its ancient possessions and intitled to all the essential rights  of the mother country...it is presumed, that upon these principles , the colonists have been by their several charters declared natural subjects and entrusted with the power of making THEIR OWN LOCAL LAWS , not repugnant to the laws of England and with  THE POWER OF TAXING THEMSELVES...

'the several acts of parliament and charters declaratory of the rights and liberties of the colonies are but in affirmance of the common law and law of nature in this point..'when a nation takes possession of a distant country and settles a colony there, that country though separated from the principal establishment or mother country,  naturally becomes apart of the state, equally with its ancient possessions. whenever the political laws , or treaties make no distinction between them, every thing said of the territory of a nation, ought also to extend to its colonies'. D'Vattel.
...this doctrine is agreeable to the law of nature and nations and to the divine dictates of natural and revealed religion...
'should the parliament of Great-Britain follow the example of some other foreign states and vote the King absolute and despotic; would such an act of parliament make him so? would any minister in his senses advise a Prince to accept of such an offer of power?  it would be unsafe to accept of such a donation, because the parliament or donors would grant more than was ever in their power lawfully to give. the law of nature never invested them with a power of surrendering their own liberty and the people certainly never intrusted any body of men with a power to surrender theirs in exchange  for slavery...(p366-7  have excerpts from George Bancroft, History of the United States,  New York - 1886)

*367  without the American trade, would Britain, as a commercial state,  make any great figure at this day in Europe?  her trade in woolen and other manufactures, is said to be lessening in all parts of the world, but America, where it is increasing and capable of infinite increase,  from a concurrence of every circumstance in its favour...the computation has been made and that within bounds, and it can be demonstrated, that if North-America is only driven to the fatal necessity of manufacturing a suit of the most ordinary linnen or woollen for each inhabitant annually, which ma be soon done, when necessity the mother of invention shall operate, Great-Britain & Ireland will loose 2 millions pr annum, besides a diminution of the revenue to nearly  the same amount...

'if the spirit of commerce was attended to, perhaps duties would be every where decreased, if not annihilated and prohibitions multiplied.  every branch of trade that hurts a community, should be prohibited fro the same reason that a private gentleman would break off commerce with a sharper or an extorsive (def - serving or tending to extort) usurer.  'Tis  to no purpose to higgle (def - to bargain, especially in a petty way) with such people, you are sure to loose by them.  'Tis exactly so with the a nation, if the balance is against them, and they can possibly subsist without the commodity, as they generally can in such cases, a prohibition is the only remedy;  for a duty in such case, is like a composition with a thief,  that for 5 shillings in the pound returned, he shall robe you at pleasure;  when if the thing is examined to the bottom, you are at 5 shillings in the pound, that you thus wisely compound for.
'to apply this to trade, I believe every duty that was ever imposed on commerce, or in the nature of things can be, will be found to be divided between the state imposing the duty and the  country exported from...
'the only test of a useful commodity is the gain upon the whole to the state; such should be free; the only test of a pernicious trade is the loss upon the whole, or to the community, this should be prohibited... the art of underselling or rather for finding means to undersell, is the grand secret of thrift among commercial states, as well as among individuals of the same state...

'we have every thing good and great to hope from our gracious Sovereign , his Ministry and his Parliament ;  and trust that when the services and sufferings of the British American colonies are fully known to the mother  country and  the nature and importance of the plantation trade more perfectly understood at home, that the most effectual measures will be taken for perpetuating  the British empire in all parts of the world. an empire built upon the principles of justice, moderation and equity, the only principles that can make a state flourishing and enable it to elude the machinations of its secret and inveterate enemies.

*369  Supreme power in  a state, is JUS DICERE only:  JUS DARE, strictly speaking, belongs alone to God. parliaments are in all cases to declare what is for the good of the whole,  but it is not the Declaration of parliament that makes it so:  there must be  in every instance, a higher authority, viz.  GOD'. James Otis, 'The Rights of the British Colonies' 1764  (quoted below)

'the origin of government has in all ages no less perplexed the heads of lawyers and politicians, than the origin of evil has embarrassed divines and philosophers: and 'tis probable the world may receive a satisfactory solution on both those points of enquiry at the same time.

the various opinions on the origin of government have been reduced to 4.  1. that dominion is founded in Grace.  2. on force or mere power.
3. on compact.  4. on property.
the first of these opinions is so absurd and the world has paid so very dear for embracing it, especially under the administration of the roman pontiffs, that mankind seem at this day to be in a great measure cured of their madness in this particular;  and the notion is pretty generally exploded, and hiss'd off the stage.

*371  to those who lay the foundation of government in force and meer brutal power, it is objected; that, their system destroys all distinction between right and wrong ;  that it overturns all morality and leaves it to every man to do what is right in his own eyes;  that it leads directly to scepticism and ends in atheism. when a man's will and pleasure is his only rule and guide, what safety can there be either for him or against him, but in the point of a sword?
on the other hand the gentlemen in favor of the original compact have been often told that their system is chimerical (def - imaginary) and unsupported by reason or experience. questions like the following have been frequently asked them, and may be again.

when and where was the original compact for introducing government into any society or for creating a society, made?  who were present and parties to such compact?  how acted for infants and women or who appointed guardians for them?  had these guardians power to bind both infants and women during life and their posterity after them? is is in nature or reason that a guardian should by his won act perpetuate his power over his ward and bind him and his posterity in chains?
is not every man born as free by nature as his father? has he not the same natural right to think and act and contract for himself? is it possible for a man to have a natural right to make a slave of himself or of his posterity?  can a father supersede the laws of nature?  what man is or ever was born free, if every man is not? what will there be to distinguish the next generation of men from their forefathers, that they should not have the same right to make original compacts as their ancestors had? if every man has such right, may there not be as many original compacts as there are men and women born or to be born?
are not women born as free as men? would it not be infamous to assert that the ladies are slaves by nature?  if every man consulted and must accede to the original compact before they can with any kind of justice be said to be bound by it, will not the compact be ever forming and never finished,  ever making but never done? can it with propriety be called a compact original or derivative, that is ever in treaty but never concluded/?
when it has been said that each man is bound as soon as he accedes and that the consent may be either express or tacit, it

*372  has been asked,  'What is a tacit consent or compact? does it not appear plain that those who refuse their assent can not be bound? if one is at liberty  to accede or not, is he not also at liberty to recede on the discovery of some intolerable fraud and abuse that has been palm'd upon him by the rest of the high contracting parties?  will not natural equity in several special cases rescind the original compacts of great men as effectually as those of little men are rendered null and void in the ordinary course of a court of chancery? (def -office of public records)

there are other questions which have been started and a resolution of them demanded, which may perhaps be deemed indecent by those who hold the prerogatives (def- an exclusive right, privilege exercised in virtue of rank, office) of an earthly monarch and even the power of a plantation government ,  so sacred as to think it little less than blasphemy to enquire into their origin and foundation: while the government of the supreme ruler of the universe is every day discussed with less ceremony and decency than the administration of  a petty German prince. I hope the reader will consider that i am at present only mentioning sch questions as have been put by high-flyers and others in church and state, who would exclude all compact between a Sovereign and his people, without offering my own w sentiments upon them; this however I presume I may be allowed hereafter to do without offence.
those who want a full answer to them may consult Mr. Locke's discourses on government, M. De Battel's law of nature and nations and their own consciences...

with regard to the fourth opinion, that dominion  is founded in property, what is it but playing with words? dominion in one sense of the term is synonymous with property, so one cannot be called the foundation or case of another.

Property cannot be the foundation of dominion as synonimous with government;  for on the supposition that property has a precarious existence antecedent to government and tho' it is also admitted that the security of property is one end of government ,  but that of little estimation even in the view of a miser when life and liberty of locomotion and further accumulation are placed in competition, it must be a very absurd way of speaking to assert that one end of government is the foundation of government. it the ends of government are to be considered as its foundation, it

*373  cannot with truth or propriety be said that government is founded on any one of those ends and therefore government is not founded on property or is it security alone, but at least on something else in conjunction....
'Tis also certain that property in fact generally confers power, tho' the possessor of it  may not have much more wit than a mole or a musquash:  and this is too often the cause, that riches are sought after, without the least concern about the right application of them. but is the fault in the riches, or the  general law of nature, or the unworthy possessor? it will never follow from all this, that government is rightfully founded on property, alone, What shall we say then?
'What shall we say then?  is not government founded on grace?  No. Nor on force? No. Nor on compact? Nor property? not altogether on either.  has it any solid foundation? any chief corner stone, but what accident, chance or confusion may lay one moment and destroy the next?  I think it has an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of GOD, the author of nature, whose laws never vary.
'the same omniscient, omnipotent, infinitely good and gracious Creator of the universe, who has been pleased to make it necessary that what we call matter should gravitate, for the celestial bodies to roll round their axes, dance  their orbits and perform their various revolutions in that beautiful order a concert, which we all admire, has made it equally necessary that from Adam and Eve to these degenerate days, the different sexes should sweetly attract each other, form societies of single families, of which larger bodies and communities are as naturally, mechanically and necessarily combined, as the dew of heaven and the soft distilling rain is collected by the all enliv'ning heat of the sun.
'Government is therefore most evidently founded on the necessities of our nature. it is by no means an arbitrary thing, depending merely on compact or human will for its existence.

'we come into  the world forlorn and helpless and if left alone and to ourselves at any one period of our lives we should soon die in

*374  want, despair or destraction. So kind is that hand, tho' little known or regarded, which feeds the rich and the poor, the blind and the naked and provides for the safety of infants by the principle of parental love, and for that of men by Government!...

*389  'We all think ourselves happy under Great Britain.  we love, esteem and reverence our mother country and adore our King. and could the choice of independency be offered the colonies, or subjection to Great-Britain upon any terms above absolute slavery, I am convinced they would accept the latter. the ministry, in all future generations may rely on it, that British America will never prove undutiful, till driven to it, as the last fatal resort against ministerial oppression, which will make the wisest mad, and the weakest strong...
pp 370-389  excerpts from James Otis,  'The Rights of the British Colonies', Boston - 1764

* 392f  The Assemblies Re-Echo James Otis' Speech

*398  Virginia Marshals resistance
Massachusetts entreats resistance
New York  points to independence 1760-65

*399 Accumulated Burden Of The Acts Of Tyranny

this is the moment when the power of the British oligarchy, under the revolution of 1688,  was at its culminating point. the ministry esteemed the supreme power of parliament established firmly and forever. the colonists could not export the chief products of their industry - neither sugar, nor tobacco, nor cotton, nor indigo, nor ginger; nor fustic, nor other dyeing woods; nor molasses nor rice, with some exceptions;  nor beaver, nor peltry  of any kind; nor copper ore, nor pitch, nor tar, nor turpentine, nor masts, nor yards, nor bowsprits, nor coffee, nor pimento, nor coconuts, nor whale-fins, nor raw silk, nor hides, nor skins, nor pot and pearl ashes - to any place but Great Britain, not even Ireland. no foreign ship might enter a colonial harbor, salt might be imported from any place into New England, New York, Pennsylvania,  and Quebec; wines might be imported from the madieras and the Azores, but were to pay a duty in American ports for the British exchequer;  and victuals, horses, and servants might be brought from Ireland, in all other respects, Great Britain was not only the sole market for the products of America,  but the only storehouse for its supplies.

lest the colonies should multiply their flocks of sheep and weave heir own cloth, they might not use a ship, nor a boat, nor a carriage, nor even a pack-horse, to carry wool, or any manufacture of which wool forms a part, across the line of one province to another.  they could not land wool from the nearest islands, nor ferry it across a river, nor even ship it to England. a British sailor, finding himself in want of clothes in their harbors, might not buy there more than 40 shillings worth of woollens.

*410  Whenever the Legislators endeavour to take away  and destroy the property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience,  and are left the the common refuge, which God hath provided for all Men, against force and Violence. whenever therefore the Legislative shall transgress this fundamental Rule of society ; and either by Ambition, Fear, Folly or corruption, endeavour to grasp  themselves, or put into the Hands of any other an  absolute Power over the Lives, Liberties and Estates of the People;  by this breach of Trust they forfeit the Power, the People had put into their Hands, for quite contrary ends and it devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty...But 'twill be said, this Hypothesis lays a ferment for frequent Rebellion. to which I answer, First, No more than any other Hypothesis. for when the People,  who have a Right to resume their original Liberty...But 'twill be said, this Hypothesis lays a ferment for frequent Rebellion.  to which I answer, First, No more than any other Hypothesis.  for when the people are made  miserable and find  themselves exposed to the ill usage of arbitrary  Power,  cry up their Governors, as much as you will, for Sons of Jupiter, let them be Sacred and Divine, descended, or authorized from Heaven; give them out for whom or what you please, the same will happen. the People generally ill treated and contrary  to right, will be ready upon any Occasion to ease themselves of a Burden,  that fits heavy upon them.'
John Locke 'Of the Dissolution of Government', from 'OF CIVIL-GOVERNMENT'   see pp 115-25, Vol. I 'Christian History of the Constitution'.

*412 Americans Act in UNION

'the gospel promises liberty and permits resistance. '  Jonathan Mayhew


*413  STAMP ACT CONGRESS   
 The Boston Gazette and Country Journal


Monday, November 18,  1765...the governors of Georgia and North-Carolina ...refused to give their assemblies an opportunity to join in the late general congress at New-York...Lieut. Gov Colden who prorogued his assembly while the congress was siting and thereby as far as in him lay prevented the colony of N. York from joining in the measures for relief...Lieut. Gov. Farquier of Virginia, who not content with an abrupt dissolution of one assembly, prorogued the new one till November and thence to the ides of March Anno Domini  1766. by which strange conduct Virginia has been not only prevented meeting at N.York,  but are cut off from all possibility of adopting the petitions there agreed on...'
the summons for the congress had gone forth from Massachusetts when the resolves of Virginia were published to the world. 'They have spoken treason',  said the royalists.  'It is treason', retorted others, 'for the deputies of the people to assert their rights , or to give then away?' 'Oh! those Virginians',  cried Oxenbridge Thacher, from his death-bed, where, overplied by public exertions, he was wasting away with a hectic, 'those Virginians, are men; they are noble spirits . I long to speak in court against tyranny words that shall be read after my death'.  'why, said one of his friends, 'are not our rights and liberties as boldly asserted by every government in America as by Virginia?' 'Behold, cried another,  a whole continent awakened, alarmed, restless and disaffected'.  everywhere, from north to south, through the press, in letters, or as they met in private for counsel or in groups in the street, the SONS OF LIBERTY. told their griefs to one another and planned retaliation or redress...

'If we are Englishmen,  said one, on what footing is our property?  'the great Mr. Locke',  said another,  'lay it down that no man has a right to that which another may take from him;  and a third, proud of his respect for the law. sheltered himself under the words of the famed Coke.

'the lord may tax his villein, high or low,  but it is against the franchise of the land for freemen to be taxed but by their own consent in parliament.  'If the people of America are to be taxed by the representatives of the people in England, their malady',  said Hopkins, of Rhode Island, is an increasing evil, that must always grow greater by time'.  'when the parliament once begins, '  such was the discourse at Boston,  'there is no drawing a line'.  'And it is only the first step',  repeated the new York owners of large estates'; 'a land-tax for all America will be thought of next'.

'*414  'it is plain' said even the calmest, 'Englishman do not regard Americans as brothers, and equals, but as subordinates, bound to submit to oppression at their pleasure'.  'A bill was even prepared,  'thus men warned each other against new dangers, 'that authorized quartering  British soldiers upon American private families'.  'and is not our property seized,' they further exclaimed,  'by men who cry , 'give, give and never say 'enough',  and thrown into a prerogative court to be forfeited without  a jury?'
'there is not silver enough in the colonies to pay for the stamps', computed patriot financiers,  'and the trade by which we could get more in prohibited'.  'and yet,  declared the merchants of New York,  'we have a natural right to every freedom of trade of the English'.  'To tax us, and bind our commerce and restrain manufactures, 'reasoned even the most patient, 'is to bid us  make brick without straw'.  'The northern colonies will  be absolutely restricted from using any articles of clothing of their own fabric', predicted our colony to another.
'and men laughed as they added:  'Catching a mouse within his majesty's colonies with a trap of our own making well be deemed, in the ministerial cant, an infamous, atrocious, and nefarious crime'.  'A colonist', murmured a Boston man, who had dipped into Grenville's pamphlet,  'cannot make a horseshoe or a hobnail but some iron-monger (def -monger: a person  involved in something petty or contemptible) of Britain  bawl that he is robbed by the 'American republican'.  'they are even stupid enough ', it was said in Rhode Island,  'to judge it criminal for us to become our own manufacturers'.
'we will eat no lamb, promised the multitude, seeking to retaliate; 'We will  have homespun markets of linens and woolens',  passed from mouth to mouth,  till it found its way across the Atlantic, and alarmed the king in council;  'the ladies of the first fortune shall set the example of wearing homespun'.  'It will be accounted a virtue in them to wear a garment of their own spinning'. 'A little attention to manufactures will make us ample amends for the distresses of the present day and render us a great, rich and happy people'.
'when the churchmen of New York preached loyalty to the king as the Lord's anointed,  'The people, retorted William Livingston,  are the Lord's anointed.  though named 'mob' and 'rabble', the people are the darling of Providence'.  was the Bible quoted as demanding deference to all in authority?  'This, it was insisted, is to add dullness to impiety', for

*415  'tyranny is no government'. from the pulpit, Mayhew, of Boston, taught:  'The gospel promises liberty and permits resistance'...
'Power is a sad thing,  wrote the Presbyterians of Philadelphia:  'our mother should remember we are children and not slaves'.  'when all Israel saw that the king harkened not unto them',  responded the Calvinists of the North,  'the people answered the king, saying:  'what portion have we in David?  what inheritance in the son of Jesse? to your tents , O Israel! now see to thine own house, David!'  'Who cares',  reasoned the more hardy,  'whether George or Louis is the  sovereign, if both are alike? 'the beast of burden',  continued others,  'asks not whose pack it carries',  "I would bear allegiance to King George, said one who called himself a lover of truth,  'But not be a slave to his British subjects'...
thus opinion was echoed from mind to mind, as the sun's rays beam from many clouds, all differing in tints, but every one taking it s hue from  the  same fire.  in the midst of the gloom, light broke forth from the excitement of a whole people.  associations were formed in Virginia, as well as in New England, to resist the stamp act by all lawful means.  hope began to rise that American rights and liberties might safely be trusted 'to the  watchfulness of a united continent'...

'but there was no present  relief for America unless union could be perfected. Union was the hope of Otis - union that 'should knit and work into the very blood and bones of the original system every region, as fast as settled'.  yet how comprehensive and how daring the idea! the traditions of the board of trade branded it as 'mutinous'. Massachusetts had proceeded timidly, naming for its delegates to the proposed congress the Patriot Otis, with 2 others who were 'friends of government'.

'Virginia was ready to convince the world that her people were firm and unanimous in the cause of liberty, but its newly elected assembly was not suffered by Fauquier to come together, New Jersey received the circular letter of Massachusetts on the 20th of June, the last day of the session of the legislature. the speaker, a friend to the British government, at first inclined to urge sending delegates to the proposed congress; but, on some 'advice' from the governor, changed his mind, and the house, in the hurry preceding the adjournment, rather from uncertainty than the want of good-will, unanimously declined the invitation. the assembly of New Hampshire  seemed to approve, but did not adopt it.  'Nothing  will be done in consequence of this intended  congress', wrote
*416   'but, far away toward the lands of the sun, the assembly of South Carolina was in session and, on the 25th of July, debated the circular from Massachusetts.

...'the letter from the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay laid before them on Friday last, and a debate arising  thereon....
'Ordered that the same letter be referred to a committee of the following  gentlemen: Capt. Gadsden,  Mr. Wright, Mr. Wragg, Mr. Parsons, Mr. Pickney,....and then the House adjourned till tomorrow morning 10 o'clock.

'Capt. Gadsden reported from the Committee appointed to consider the letter sent from the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the province of Massachusetts Bay to the Speaker of this house and to report their opinion thereupon  of the Expediency  and utility of the measure therein proposed, and the best means to effect the relief therein mentioned. that they are of Opinion the measure therein proposed is prudent and necessary and therefore recommend  to the House to send a committee to meet the committees from the House of Representatives or Burgesses of the Several British Colonies on this Continent at New York the 1st Tuesday in Oct.  next.  that the said committee be ordered to consult there those other committees on the present circumstances of the Colonies.  and the difficulties which they are and must be reduced to by the operation of the Acts of parliament for levying Duties and Taxes on the Colonies ,  and the difficulties which  they are and must be reduced to by  the operation of the Acts  of parliament for levying  Duties and Taxes on the Colonies and to consider a General, united, dutiful, loyal  and humble representation of their condition to his Majesty and the Parliament, and to implore relief. that the result of their Consultation shall at their return be immediately  laid before the House to be continued or not as the House may think proper, and the said report being delivered in at the Clerk's Table and read.

'The question was severally put that the House do agree to the first, second and third paragraph  of the said Report.  it was resolved in the Affirmative.
Many objections were made to the legality, the expediency, and most of all to the efficiency of the proposed measure;  and many eloquent words were uttered, especially by the youthful John Rutledge,  when the subject, on the deliberate resolve of a small majority, was referred to a committee,  of which Christopher Gadsden was chairman. he was a man of deep  and clear convictions; thoroughly sincere;  of an unbending will and a sturdy, impetuous integrity,  which drove those about him, like a mountain torrent dashing on an over-shot wheel,  though sometimes clogging with back-water from  its own violence... after 2 legislatures had held back, south Carolina, by 'his achievement',  pronounced for union.  'Our state,  he used to say, 'was the first, though at the extreme end and one of the weakest as well internally as externally, to listen to the call of our northern brethren in their distresses. Massachusetts sounded the trumpet  but to Carolina is it owing that it was attended to.  had it not been for South Carolina, no congress would then have happened. she was all alive, and felt at every pore'.  and when we count up those who, above others.

*417  contributed to the great result of union, we are to name the inspired 'madman'  James Otis, and the unwavering lover of his country Christopher Gadsden. Otis now seemed to himself to hear the prophetic song of the 'Sibyls' chanting the spring-time of a 'new empire.' ...enlightened by discussions, towns and legislatures made their declaration of rights, following one another like a chime of bells.
'In Georgia, the great majority of the representatives at the instance of their speaker, against the will of the governor, came together on the second of Sept. and, though they doubted their power, at  such a voluntary meeting, to elect delegates to the congress, they sent an express messenger to New York to promise their adhesion to its results:  'for ',  said they,  'no people, as individuals, can more warmly espouse the common cause than do the people of this province.

'farther north, on the ninth, the assembly of Pennsylvania, disregarding the wishes of Galloway, its speaker, accepted the plan for a congress by a majority of one, at the same time, it recognized the indispensable duty to grant requisite, aids cheerfully and liberally, but only in a constitutional way,  through its own assembly.
'Next in time, the assembly of Rhode island not only joined the union, but unanimously directed all the officers of the colony to proceed in their duties as usual, without regard to the  stamp act, and engaged to indemnify and save them harmless.
'in the same month, Delaware, by the spontaneous act of the representatives of each of its counties; Connecticut,  with the calm approval of its assembly; Maryland, with the consent of every branch of its legislature -successively elected delegates to the general American congress.  in Massachusetts, Boston, under the guidance of Samuel Adams, arraigned the stamp act and its courts of admiralty as contrary  to the British constitution,  to the charter of the province, to the common rights of mankind,  and built 'warmest expectations'  on the union of the colonies in Congress.'

*413 to here excerpts from George Bancroft,  'History of the United States', New York - 1886

'we here insert the instruction  of the freeholders and inhabitants of Boston to their Representatives to the Continental Congress, passed Sept,  23, 1765
'To the Honorable James Otis, Esq.  Thomas Cushing, Esq and Mr. Thomas Gray.

'Gentlemen:  at a time when British American subjects are every where loudly complaining of arbitrary and unconstitutional innovations, the town

*418  of Boston cannot any longer remain silent, without just imputations of inexcusable neglect.  we therefore, the freeholders and other inhabitants,  being legally assembled at Faneuil-Hall, to consider what steps are necessary for us to take at this alarming crisis,  think it proper to communicate  to you our united sentiments and to give you our instruction thereupon.

'it fills us with great concern to find, that  measures have been adopted by the British ministry and acts of parliament made which press hard upon our invaluable rights and liberties  and tend greatly to distress the trade of the province, by which we have heretofore been able to contribute so large a share towards the enriching the mother country. but we are more particularly alarmed and astonished at the act called the STAMP - ACT,  by which a very grievous and we apprehend unconstitutional tax is to be laid upon the colonies.
'by the royal charter granted to our ancestors, the power of making laws for our internal government and of levying taxes,  is vested in the general assembly and by the same charter the inhabitants of this province are entitled to all the rights and privileges of natural free born subjects of Great-Britain.  the most essential rights of British subjects  are  those of being represented in the same body which exercises the power of levying taxes upon them and of having their property tried by juries. these are the very pillars of the British constitution, founded in the common rights of mankind. - it is certain what we were in no sense represented in the parliament of Great Britain, when this act of taxation was made  and it is also certain that this law admits of our properties being tried, in controversies arising from internal concerns, by courts of admiralty,  without a jury. it follows, that at once it annihilates the most valuable privileges  of our charter, deprives us  of the most essential rights of
Britons,  and greatly weakens  the best security of our lives, liberties and estates; which may hereafter be at the disposal of judges,  who may be strangers to us, and perhaps malicious, mercenary, corrupt and oppressive.
'but admitting we had no complaints of this nature, we should have reason to except against the inequality of these taxes:  - it is well known that the people of this province have not only settled this country, but enlarged and defended the British dominion  in America with a vast expense of treasure  and blood. they have exerted themselves in the most distinguished services for their king, by which they have often been reduced to the  greatest distress;  and in the late war more especially, by their surprising exertions, they have brought upon themselves  a debt almost insupportable:  and  we were well assured that if these expensive services,  for which very little if any advantage hath ever accrued to themselves,  together  with the necessary charges of supporting and defending his majesty's government here, had been duly estimated, he monies designed to be drawn  from us by this act would have appeared greatly beyond our proportion.

*419  'we look upon it as a peculiar hardship, that when the representative body of this province had prepared and sent forward a decent remonstrance  against these proceedings, while they were depending in the house of commons,  IT FAILED OF ADMITTANCE THERE.  and this we esteem the  most extraordinary, inasmuch as, being unrepresented, it was the only method whereby they could make known their objections to measures, in the event of which their constituents were to be so deeply interested.
'Moreover this act, if carried into execution, will become a further grievance to us, as it will  afford a precedent for the parliament to tax us. in all future time and in all such ways and measures as they shall judge meet, without our consent.
'we therefore think it our indispensable duty, in justice to ourselves and posterity, as it is our undoubted privilege, in the most open and unreserved, by decent and respectful terms,  to declare  our greatest dissatisfaction with the law; and we think it incumbent on you by no means to join in any public measures for countenancing and assisting in the execution of the same;  but to use your best endeavors in the general assembly, to have the inherent unalienable rights of the people of this province, asserted and vindicated, and left upon the public records,  that posterity may never have reason to charge the present times with the guilt of tamely giving them away.

'it affords us the greatest satisfaction to hear that the congress proposed  by the house of representatives of this province, is consented to by the representatives of most of the other colonies on the continent. we have the warmest expectations from the united councils of that very respectable committee: and we may with the strictest propriety enjoin Mr. Otis, a member of the same, being also one of the representatives of this town, to contribute the utmost of his ability, in having the rights of the colonies stated in the clearest view and laid before the parliament and in preparing a humble petition to the King, our Sovereign and Rather, under whose gracious care and protection we have the strongest reason to hope, that the rights of the colonies in general and the particular charter-rights of this province, will be confirmed and perpetuated.
above excerpts from Jedediah Morse 'Annals of the American Revolution,  Hartford - 1824

'on the 21st day of Sept ,  '
The Constitutional Courant', a paper defending that principle, made its appearance, and 'JOIN OR DIE'  was its motto. 'Join or Die' was echoed from one end of the continent to the other.


*420  'the cry was the harbinger of an American congress...the members of this first union of the American people were elected by representatives of each separate colony and, notwithstanding great differences in the respective population and extent of territory of the several colonies, they recognized each other as equals 'without the least claim of pre-eminence one over the other.

'the congress entered directly on the consideration  of the safest work on which to rest the collective American liberties. should they build on  charters or natural justice, on precedents and fact or abstract truth, on special privileges or universal reason? Otis was instructed by Boston  to support not only the liberty of the colonies, but chartered rights and to support not only the liberty of the colonies, but chartered rights and  Johnson, of Connecticut,  submitted a paper, which pleaded charters from from the crown. but Robert R. Livingston, of New York, 'the goodness of whose heart set him above prejudices and equally comprehended all mankind',  would not place the hope of America on that foundation and Gadsden, of South Carolina, spoke against it with irresistible impetuosity.  'A confirmation of our essential and common rights as Englishmen',  thus he himself reports his sentiments,  'may be pleaded from charters safely enough; but any further dependence upon them may be fatal. we should stand upon the broad common ground of those natural rights that we feel and know as men and as descendants of Englishmen.  I wish the charters may not ensnare us at last by drawing different colonies to act differently in this great cause. whenever that is the case ,  all will be over with the whole. there ought to be no New England man, no New-Yorker, known on the continent, but all of us Americans.
'these views prevailed and  in proceedings of congress, the argument for American liberty from royal grants was avoided. this is a first great step towards independence. Drummer had pleaded for colony charters;  Livingston, Gadsden and the congress of 1765 provided for American self-existence and union, by claiming rights that preceded charters and would survive their ruin...

'and who would that union extend? what nations would be included in the name of Americans? even while congress were deliberating,  the prairies of Illinois,  the great eastern valley  of the Mississippi,  with all its solitudes in which futurity would summon the eager millions of so many tongues to build happy homes, passed from the sway of France into temporary custody of England...

'the conduct of America was regulated by the congress at New York, in which no colony was better represented than south Carolina. her delegation gave a chief to 2 of the 3 great committees, and in all that was done well her mind visibly appeared. the difficult task of defining the rights and 'setting forth the liberty' which America 'ought to enjoy' led

*421  the assembly to debate for 2 weeks 'on liberty, privileges and prerogative'.  in these debates,  'not one appeared to be complete a master of every subject, or threw so much light on every question, as James Otis, of Boston.
'it was proposed to 'insist upon a repeal of all acts laying duties on trade as well as the stamp act.' 'If we do not make an explicit acknowledgment of the power of Britain to regulate our trade', said the too gentle Livingston,  'she will never give up the point of internal taxation'. but he was combated with great heat, till the congress, by the hand of Rutledge, of South Carolina, erased from the declaration of rights the unguarded concession and the restrictions on American commerce, though practically acquiesced in, were enumerated grievances.

'still, Gadsden and Lynch were not satisfied. with vigorous dialectics they proceeded, from a denial of the power of parliament in America,  to deny the propriety of approaching either house with a petition.  'the house of commons', reasoned Gadsden, refused to receive the addresses of the colonies when the matter was pending; besides, we neither hold our rights from nor from the lords. ' but , yielding to the majority, Gadsden suppressed his opposition;  'for, said he, 'union is most certainly all in all.
'the carefully considered documents, in which the congress embodied the demands of America, dwell mainly on the right of trial by jury in opposition to the extension of the admiralty jurisdiction, and the right to freedom from taxation except through the respective colonial legislatures.  these were promulgated in the declaratory resolutions, with the further assertion that the people of the colonies not only are not, but, from their local circumstances, never can be, represented in the house of commons in Great Britain; that taxes never have been, and never can be, constitutionally imposed on the colonies but their respective legislatures;  that all supplies to the crown are free gifts and that for the people of Great Britain to grant the property of the colonists was neither reasonable nor consistent with the principles or spirit of the British constitution.  the same immunities were claimed, in the address to the king, as 'inherent rights and liberties', of which the security was necessary to the 'most effectual connection of America  with the British empire'.  they formed the theme of the memorial to the house of lords, mingled with complaints of the 'late restrictions on trade'.

'the congress purposely employed a different style in the address to the house of commons, insisting chiefly on the disadvantages the new measure might occasion, as well to the mother country as to the colonies. they disclaimed for America the 'impracticable' idea of representation in any by American legislatures. acknowledging 'all due subordination to the

*422  parliament of Great Britain', and extolling the 'English constitution as the most perfect form of government',  the source of 'all their civil and religious liberties', they argued that, in reason and sound policy, there exists a material distinction between the exercise of a parliamentary jurisdiction in general acts of legislation for the amendment of the common law or the regulation of trade through the whole empire and the exercise of that jurisdiction by imposing taxes on the colonies; from which they, therefore, entreated to be relieved.
'while the congress were still weighing each word and phrase which they were to adopt, a ship laden with stamps arrived.  at once all the vessels in the harbor lowered their colors. the following night papers were posted up at the doors of every public office and at the corners of  the streets, in the name of the country, threatening the first man that should either distribute or make use of the stamped paper.' Assure yourselves' thus the stamp distributors were warned,, 'the spirit of Brutus and Cassius is yet alive'.  the people declared: 'We will not submit to the stamp act upon any account or in any instance'.  'in this, we will not more submit to parliament than to the divan at Constantinople'.  'we will ward it off till we can  get France or Spain to protect us'.  from mouth to mouth flew the words of John Adams:  'You have rights antecedent to earthly government; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the great legislator of the universe.' in the midst of this intense excitement, the congress brought its deliberations to a close. Ruggles, of Massachusetts, full of scruples and timidities, and Ogden of New Jersey, who insisted that it was better fro each province to petition separately for itself, pretended that the resistance to the stamp act through all America was treason, argued strenuously in favor of the supreme authority of parliament , and, cavilling  to the last at particular expressions, refused to sign the papers prepared by the congress. 'Union,' said Dyer, of Connecticut, 'is so necessary, disunion so fatal, in these matters, that, as we cannot agree upon any alteration, they ought to be signed as they are, by those who are authorized to do so'.

'on the morning of the 25th, the anniversary of the accession of George III., the anniversary of the accession of George III.,  the congress assembled for the last time; and the  delegate of 6 colonies, being empowered  to do so -namely, all the delegates from Massachusetts, except Ruggles; all from New Jersey, except Ogden; all those of Rhode Island; all of Pennsylvania but Dickinson, who, though absent, adhered; all of Delaware and all of Maryland; with the virtual assent of New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, South Carolina and Georgia - set their hands to the papers, by which the colonies became, as they expressed it,  'A bundle of sticks, which could neither be bent nor broken.

the above excerpts from George Bancroft,  'History of the United States',  New York - 1886

*423 THE STAMP-ACT CONGRESS:  A UNION OF ACTION

'Newport, Oct.  7:  we hear, by Letters from New York, that the Boston Commissioners, after their Arrival there, waited upon Lieut. Gov. Colden and acquainted him with their Business in New York. he received  them very coldly and told them, that the Meeting of the Commissioners was unconstitutional, unprecedented and unlawful and that he would give them no kind of Countenance or Encouragement. -from Boston  Gazette,  Oct. 14, 1765

New York, Oct.  14: on Monday last the Commissioners from the several Colonies, appointed for holding the general Congress, being all arrived assembled and entered upon Business'.  -the most important that ever came under Consideration in America; and made Choice of the Hon. Timothy Ruggles for their President, and Mr. John Cotton for their Secretary. '

Massachusetts - James Otis, Oliver Partridge, Timothy Ruggles
Rhode Island -Metcalf Bowler, Henry Ward
Connecticut - Eliphalet Dyer,  David Rowland,  William S. Johnson
New York - Robert R. LIvingston,  John Cruger,  Philip Livingston,  William Bayard, Leonard Lispenard

Pennsylvania - John Dickinson, John Morton, George Bryan
Delaware -Thomas M'Kean, Caesar Rodney
Maryland - William Murdock, Edward Tilghman, Thomas Ringgold
South Carolina - Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden,  John Rutledge

New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia,  'were not represented in this congress.  but their assemblies wrote that they would agree to whatever was done by the congress.

'SATURDAY,  OCTOBER 19TH,  1765,  A.M.

the congress met according to adjournment and resumed, etc., as yesterday and upon deliberation, agreed to the following declarations of the rights and grievances of the colonists in America, which were ordered to be inserted...
1st. that his majesty's subjects in these colonies, owe the same allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, that is owing from his subjects born within the realm and all due subordination to that august body, the parliament of Great Britain.
2d.  that his majesty's liege subjects in these colonies are entitled to all the inherent rights and privileges of  his natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain.
3d.  that it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and the undoubted rights  of Englishmen, that no taxes should be imposed on them,  but with their own consent,  given personally, or by their representatives.
4th. That the people of these colonies are not, and from their local circumstances, cannot be represented in the house of commons in Great Britain.
5th that the only representatives of the people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein, by themselves; and that no taxes ever have been or can be constitutionally imposed on the,m, but by their  respective legislatures.
6th that all supplies to the crown, being free gifts of the people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British  constitution, for the people of Great Britain to grant to his majesty the property of the colonists.
7th  that trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every British subject in these colonies.

8th.  that the late act of parliament, entitled, an act for granting and applying certain stamp duties. and other duties in the British colonies and plantations in America, etc., by imposing taxes on the inhabitants of these  colonies and the said act and several other acts, by extending the jurisdiction of the courts of admiralty beyond its ancient limits, have a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonists.
9th  that the duties imposed by several late acts of parliament, from their peculiar circumstances of these colonies, will be extremely burthensome and grievous and from the scarcity of specie, the payment of them absolutely impracticable.
10th  that as the profits of the trade of these colonies ultimately centre in Great Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are obliged to take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all supplies granted there to the crown.




*432  NON-IMPORTATION

A Union of Action

'We can with pleasure assure our readers, that the merchants of Philadelphia in imitation of the noble example of those of New York, have agreed that they will not import any goods from Great Britain, until the Stamp Act... that unconstitutional law shall be repealed:  it is hoped this example  will be followed by  the merchants of this and the other American Governments'.
Boston Gazette, Nov.  25, 1765
'the patriotic Conduct of the Gentlemen in Trade at New York, from the Beginning of our Troubles, more especially  in their late Agreement to countermand any Orders fro Spring Goods from Britain and not to forward others, but conditioned, that the Stamp Act is repealed, cannot be too much admired . May the Merchants and Traders of the Massachusetts Bay, proceed in the prosecution of so judicious a Plan, and thus evince to the World that they are as disinterested  and wise as their Neighbours.  - a beginning being made, that Spirit will ketch from Town to Town, and province to Province, than which nothing can more contribute to a speedy Redress of our Grievances...what but that the Eyes of the People of Britain, which have been blinded with Ministerial Dust, will be hereby opened? when they will clearly perceive, that they are as dependent  upon us for taking off the chief part of their Manufactures, as we are upon them for a protection and that those who have aim'd in an unconstitutional Way to raise a Revenue upon the Destruction of Trade, have  been as lost to the true Interest of the Mother Country, as they have been injurious to that of the Colonies: and therefore ought to  be equally abhorred and despised by them both.
Boston Gazette, Nov 25, 1765

on the 31st of October, Colden and all the  royal governors took oath to carry the stamp act punctually into effect. in Connecticut,  which in its assembly had already voted American taxation by a British parliament to be 'unprecedented and unconstitutional', Dyer, of the council, entreated Fitch not to take an oath,  which was contrary to that of council, entreated Fitch not to take an oath, which was contrary to that of council, entreated Fitch not to take an oath, which was contrary to that of the governor to maintain the rights of the colony. but Fitch had urged the assembly to prosecute for riot the 500 that coerced Ingersoll at Wetherfield,  had said that the act must go down, that 40 regulars could guard the stamp papers;  that the American conduct would bring from home violent measures and the loss of charters, and he resolved to comply; on which Pitkin, Trumbull, and Dyer rose with indignation and left the room. the governor of Rhode Island stood alone among the governors in his refusal to take the oath to support the Stamp Act

*433  'but , either quietly of themselves, or at the instance of the people. amid shouts and the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon, or as in Virginia, with  rage changing into courtesy on the prompt submission of the  stamp-master, or, as at Charleston, with the upraising  of the flag of liberty surmounted by a branch of laurel, everywhere the officers resigned. there remained not one person duly commissioned to distribute stamps.
'something more was needed to incline England to relent; and the  merchants of New York, coming together on the last day of October, unanimously bound themselves to
send no new orders for goods or merchandise;
countermand all former orders and not even to receive goods on commission, ,
unless the stamp act was repealed.
a city, which was the chosen home of navigation, renounced all commerce; a people, who as yet had no manufactures, gave up every comfort from abroad, rather than continue trade at the peril of freedom.  a committee of intercolonial correspondence was raised, and Isaac Sears, with Lamb, Mott, Wiley and Robinson, sent expresses to invite the people of the neighboring governments to join  in the league.,  justly confident they would follow the example of New York.

the above excerpts from George Bancroft,  'History of the United States', New York - 1886

RESOLUTIONS ENTERED INTO BY THE MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK,  TRADING TO GREAT BRITAIN,  Oct.  31,  1765
I. that in all orders they send to Great Britain, for goods of any nature, kind  or quality whatsoever,  they will direct their correspondents not to ship them, unless the stamp-act be repealed. it is, nevertheless, agreed, that all such merchants as are owners of and have vessels already gone, or now cleared out for Great Britain, shall be at liberty to bring back in them, on their own account, crates and casks of earthen ware, grindstones, pipes and such other bulky articles as owners usually fill up their vessels with.
II. it is further unanimously agreed,that all orders already sent home, shall be countermanded b the very first conveyance, and the goods thereby ordered not to be sent, unless upon the condition mentioned in the foregoing resolution.
III. It is further unanimously agreed, that no merchant will vend any goods sent on commission from Great Britain, that shall be shipped from thence after the first day of January next, unless upon the condition mentioned in the first resolution.

*434 IV.  it is further unanimously agreed, that the foregoing resolution shall be binding, until the same shall be abrogated at a general meeting, to be held for that purpose.

Friday, the first morning of November - the day on which the stamp act was to take effect - broke upon a people unanimously resolved on nullifying it. from New Hampshire to the far South the day was introduced by the tolling of muffled bells; minute-guns were fired, and pennants hoisted at half-staff; or a eulogy was pronounced on liberty and its knell sounded and then again the note changed as if she were restored to life and, while pleasure shone on every countenance,men shouted confusion to her enemies. children, hardly able to speak, caught up the general chorus and went along the streets merrily carolling, 'Liberty, property and no stamps'. 
'the publishers of newspapers which appeared on Friday bore the brunt in braving the penalties of the act. honor, then, to the ingenious Benjamin Mecom, the  bold-hearted editor at New haven, who on that morning ,  without apology or concealment, issued the Connecticut Gazette,  'filled with patriotic appeals; for, said he,  'the press is the test of truth, the bulwark of public safety, the guardian of freedom and the people ought to sacrifice it.
'Nor let the true lovers of their country pass unheeded the grave of Timothy Green,  one of an illustrious family of printers, himself publisher of the 'New London Gazette', which had always modestly and fearlessly defended his country's rights; for , on the same day, his journal came forth without stamps and gave  to the world a paper from the incomparable Stephen Johnson, of Lyme.

'the hearts of Americans,  so it ran,  'are cut to the quick by the act;  we have reason to fear very interesting and terrible consequences, though by no means equal to tyranny or slavery.  but what an enraged, despairing people will do, when they come to see and feel their ruin, time only can reveal.' 'The liberty of free inquiry is one of the first and most fundamental of a free people. they may publish their grievances;  they have an undoubted right to be heard and relieved. the American governments or inhabitants may associate for the mutual defence of their birth right  liberties. it is the joy of thousands that there  is union and concurrence in a general congress. we trust they will lay a foundation for  another  congress. shut not your eyes to your danger, O my countrymen!  do nothing to destroy or betray the rights of your posterity; do nothing to

*435  sully  or shade the memory of your noble ancestors. let all the; governments and all the inhabitants in them unitedly resolve to a man, with an immovable stability, to sacrifice their lives and fortunes before they will part with their invaluable freedom. it will give you a happy peace in your won breasts, and secure you the most endeared affection,  thanks, and blessing of your posterity; it will gain you the esteem of all true patriots and friends of liberty through  the whole realm; yea and as far as your case is know, it will gain you the esteem and the admiration of the whole world.

'The conduct and the language of the 'Gazette' animated the patriots within its sphere; and he who would single out the region where at that time patriotism burned with the purest flame can find none surpassing the county of New London...
'Everywhere the fixed purpose prevailed that 'the unconstitutional' stamp act should not go into effect. nothing less than its absolute repeal would give contentment, much as England was loved. the greatest unanimity happily existed and all were bent on cherishing it forever. here was something new in the affairs of men. never had the people of provinces extending over so vast a continent and so widely sundered from one another, been thus cordially bound together in one spirit and one resolve.  in all their tumults, they deprecated the necessity of declaring independence;  but they yet more earnestly abhorred and rejected unconditional submission. still satisfied with the revolution of 1688 and its theory of security to liberty and property, they repel the name of 'republican' as a slander on their loyalty; but they spurned, 'passive obedience'.
the above excerpts from George Bancroft,  'History of the United States', New York - 1886

*440  RESISTANCE TO THE 'TOWNSHEND  ACTS'  The  Stamp-Act with a new Name

Not until it became evident that there was no other way of maintaining their freedom, did any of the Colonies think of measures tending to united action. one of the first to anticipate this necessity was Jonathan Mayhew, the patriotic pastor of the West Church in Boston, who, writing to he friend Otis one Lord's day morning in June  1766, said,: 'You have heard of the communion of churches; while i was thinking of this in my bed, the great use and importance  of a communion of colonies appeared to me in a strong light. would it not be decorous for our assembly to send circulars to all the rest, expressing a desire to cement union among ourselves?  a good foundation for this has been laid by the Congress at New York; never losing sight of it may be the means of perpetuation our liberties'...

*441 'I would govern the Americans,  said he, as subject of Great Britain: I would restrain their trade and their manufactures as subordinate to the mother country.  these our children, must not make themselves our allies in time of war and our allies in peace.'

'with such purposes the resolute and reckless chancellor pushed his way into favor with Parliament ignoring the scruples of his associates and defying the opposition of his enemies, until he succeeded in carrying the famous Townshend revenue bill through bot Houses,  and obtained the royal assent. these acts levied a duty on glass, paper, painters' colors and ta; established a board of customs at Boston for collecting the whole American revenue;  and legalized writs  of assistance. the revenue was to be at the disposition of the King, and was to be chiefly employed in the support of officers of the Crown, to secure their independence of the local legislatures.

'The die is thrown! cried the patriots of Boston when they received the news of the passage of Townsend's bill;  'the Rubicon is passed....we will form an immediate and universal combination to eat nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing, imported from Great Britain ...our strength consists in union;  let us above all be of one heart and one mind; let us call on our sister Colonies to join with us in asserting our rights...
'Experience shews, that, next to acts of government, which restrain men from liberty of conscience,  (which, it can never be supposed, was intended, by any compact whatever, to be submitted to the supreme authority,) acts affecting property (which must always one submitted to the supreme authority, of publick use and benefit, or the ends of government cannot be answered, ) have a tendency to disturb the minds of the people...Henry Cromwell, in a letter to Thurlow, made this very sensible observation, when Oliver was projecting taxes on the people of Ireland;

'Errors in raising money are the compendious ways to raise a general discontent, for whereas other things are but the concernments of some, this is of all; wherefore, I  hope God, in His mercy, will not lead us into temptation.
'The first step was a town meeting in Boston,  Oct. 28th,1767.  it was unanimously resolved , 'by all prudent and legal measures, to encourage the produce and manufactures of the province; to lessen the use of superfluities;  to refrain from purchasing a great umber of articles particularly specified, some not being of necessary use, and others being to be procure of the manufacture of America, though, perhaps, at a higher price than such as were

*442  imported;  to adhere to former agreements respecting funerals, and to purchase no new clothes for mourning'.  committees were appointed to take the subscriptions of the inhabitants to an engagement to conform to these resolves; the representatives were instructed to use their endeavours that the plan of the  town might be adopted  by the general assembly and application was made to the governor,  that the assembly might be convened at the time to which it then stood prorogued (def - to discontinue a session of the British Parliament) .
'the new duties took place the 20th of Nov. the governor did not approve of the repeated applications of the town of Boston,  that the assembly should meet at such time as they pointed out. he knew the special reason of the application was an expectation of some advantage from the assembly sitting before the duties took place. he had also written to the secretary of state,  that it would not sit until the middle of Jan,  and, upon the whole, refused to comply with the desire of the town; though he then flattered himself, that there was more appearance of tranquility than there had been for some time before, and wished to gratify the people, as far as regularly he might be allowed to do it. 'It happened that none of the dutied articles were imported before the assembly met, Dec.  20th,  1767.  the commissioners of the customs had arrived in Boston, Nov.  5th,  1767 and had held their boards there. the governor left the assembly to go on with the ordinary business of the province. a month passed without any mention, in the journal of the house, or in any other way, of the controversy concerning the authority of parliament; and the governor was so much pleased with their moderation,  that he made a favourable mention of it, in a letter to the secretary of state. he was obliged, soon after, to transmit a very different account.
'between the passage of Townshend's acts in the summer of 1767 and their taking effect in Nov,  the colonists had ample time to study and organize opposition, stimulated by the arrival  (Nov. 5. 1767) of Burch and Hutton,  2 of the 5 commissioners of customs who had been sent over to enforce them. at first the people expressed their resentment, in which, as usual, those of
Boston took the lead, by renewing heir non-importation agreements. in the meantime efforts had been made to introduce domestic manufacturers.  these practical measures in Massachusetts were supplemented by one of the ablest discussions of colonial rights which had not  yet appeared .  in the early winter of 1767-8 John Dickenson published in a Philadelphia newspaper a series of essays entitled 'The Farmer's Letters', which soon attracted notice both in America and England.  their  influence among all classes was widespread and profound'.
pp 440-2 excerpts from Justin Winsor 'The Memorial History of Boston, Boston - 1881

*443  FARMER'S LETTER TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE BRITISH COLONIES
By John Dickenson, Philadelphia, 1767 (pp443-7

My Dear Countrymen,

certain duties are hereby imposed on paper and glass, imported into these colonies...some persons may think this act of no consequence, because the duties are so small. a fatal error. that is the very circumstance most alarming to me. for I am convinced,  that the authors of this law would never have obtained an act to raise so trifling a sum as it must console ourselves with the smallness of the duties, is to walk deliberately into the snare that is set for us...in short, if they have a right to levy a tax of one penny upon us, they have a right to levy a million upon us: for where does their right stop? at any given number of pence, shillings or pounds?....'there is nothing which we can call our own' or, to use the words of Mr. Locke - 'what property have we in that, which another may, bey right, take, when he please, to himself?'

My Dear Countrymen,

some states have lost their liberty, by particular accidents:  but this calamity is generally owing to the decay of virtue. a people is travelling  fast to destruction, when individuals consider their interests as distinct from those of the public. such notions are fatal to their country and to themselves. yet how many are there, so weak and sordid as to think  perform all the offices of life, if they earnestly endeavour to increase their own wealth, power and credit, without the least regard for the society, under the protection of which they live; who if they earnestly endeavour to increase their own wealth, power and credit, without the least regard for the society, under the protection of which they live; who if they can make an immediate profit to themselves, by lending their assistance to those whose projects plainly tend to the injury of their country, rejoice in their dexterity and believe themselves intitled to the character of able politicians. Miserable men! of whom it is hard to say, whether they ought to be most the objects of pity or of contempt. but whose opinions are certainly as detestable, as their practices are destructive.

*444  'though I always reflected, with a high pleasure , on the integrity and understanding of my countrymen, which, joined with a pure and humble devotion to the great and gracious Author of every blessing they enjoy, will, I hope, insure to them and their posterity, all temporal and eternal happiness; yet when I  consider, that in every age and country there have been bad men, my heart, at this threatening period. is so full of apprehension, as not to permit me to believe, but that there may be some on this continent, against whom you ought to be upon your guard - men, who either hold, or expect to hold certain advantages, by setting examples of servility  to their countrymen - men, who trained to the employment or self taught by a natural versatility of genius, serve as decoys for drawing the innocent and unwary into snares. it is not to be doubted, but that such men will diligently bestir themselves on this and every like occasion, to spread the infection of their meanness as far as they can. on the plans they  have adopted, this is their course. this is the method to recommend themselves to their patrons.
from them we shall learn, how pleasant and profitable a thing it is ,  to be for our submissive behaviour well spoken of at St. James's , or St. Stephen's; at Guildhall, or the Royal Exchange.  specious fallacies will be drest up with all the arts of delusion, to persuade one colon to distinguish herself from another , by unbecoming condescensions, which will serve the ambitious purposes of great men at home and therefore will be thought by them to intitle their assistants in obtaining them to considerable rewards.
'Our fears will be excited. our hopes will be awakened.  - It will be insinuated to us, with a plausible affectation of wisdom and concern, how prudent it is to please the powerful - how dangerous to provoke them - and then comes in the perpetual incantation that freezes up every generous purpose of the soul in cold, inactive expectation - 'that if there is any request to be made, compliance will obtain a favorable attention.'
'Our vigilance and our union, are success and safety.  our negligence and our division, are distress and death. they are worse - they are shame and slavery. let us  equally shun the benumbing stillness of overweening sloth,  and the feverish activity of that ill informed Zeal, which busies itself in maintaining little, mean and narrow opinions. let us, with a truly wise generosity and charity,  banish and discourage all illiberal distinctions, which may arise from differences in situation, forms of government, or modes of religion. let us consider ourselves as men - freemen - Christian freemen - separated from the rest of the world
and firmly bound together by the same rights, interests and dangers. let these keep our attention inflexibly fixed on the great objects, which we must continually regard, in order to preserve those rights, to promote those interests, and to avert those dangers.

*445  'let these truths be indelibly impressed on our minds - that we cannot be happy, without being free - that we cannot be free, without being secure in our property - that we cannot be secure in our property, if without our consent, others may, as by right,take it away - that taxes imposed on us by parliament, do thus take it away - that duties laid for the sole purpose of rising money, are taxes -  that attempts to lay such duties should be instantly and firmly  opposed - that this opposition can never e effectual. unless it is the united effort of these provinces - that therefore benevolence of temper towards each other and unanimity of counsels, are essential to the welfare of the whole - and lastly, that for this reason, every man amongst us, who in any manner would incourage either dissention, diffidence. or indifference, between these colonies, is an enemy to himself and to his country.

'the belief of these truths, i verily think, my countrymen, is indispensibly necessary to your happiness.  -I beseech you, therefore,  'teach them diligently unto your children and talk of them when you sit in your houses and when you walk by the way,  and when you lie down and when you rise up.
'What have these colonies to ask, while they continue free/  or what have they to dread, but insidious attempts to subvert their freedom?  their prosperity does not depend on ministerial favours doled out to particular provinces. they form one political body, of which each colony is a member. their happiness is founded on their constitution, and  is to be promoted, by preserving that constitution in unabated vigour through our every part.  - a spot, a speck of decay, how ever small the limb on which it appears, and however  remote it may seem from the vitals, should be alarming.  we have all the rights requisite for our prosperity.  - the legal authority of Great-Britain may indeed lay hard restrictions upon us; but, like the spear of Telephus, it will cure as well as wound. - her unkindness will instruct and compel us, after some time, to discover, in our industry and frugality, surprising remedies - if our rights continue unviolated: - for as long as the products of our labour and the rewards of our care, can properly be called our own, so long it will be  worth our while to be industrious and frugal.  but if when we plow - sow - reap - gather  - and thresh  for others, whose pleasure is to be the sole limitation how much  they shall leave,  why should we repeat the unprofitable toil?  - horses and oxen are content with that portion of the fruits of their work, which their owners assign them,in order to keep them strong enough to raise successive crops;  but even these beasts will not submit to draw for their masters, until they are subdued by whips and goads.

'Le us take care of our rights , and we therein take care of our prosperity.  'slavery is ever preceded by sleep'.  individuals may be

*446  dependent on ministers, if they please. states should scorn it; - and if you by those, to whom if you are not respectable. you will be contemptible. but - if we have already forgotten the reasons that urged us, with unexampled unanimity, to exert ourselves 2 years ago - if our zeal for the public good is worn out before the homespun clothes, which it caused us to have made - if our resolutions are so faint, as by our present conduct to condemn our own late successful example -  if we are not affected by any reverence for the memory of our ancestors, who transmitted to us that freedom in which they had been blest - if we are not animated by any regard for posterity, to whom, by the most sacred obligations, we are bound to deliver down the invaluable inheritance - then  indeed, any minister - or any tool of a minister - or any creature of a tool of a minister - or any lower instrument of administration, if lower there be, is a personage whom it may be dangerous to offend.

'I shall be extremely sorry, if any man mistakes my meaning in any thing I  have said. officers employed by the crown, are, while according to the laws they conduct themselves, intitled to legal obedience and sincere respect. these it is a duty to render them and these no good or prudent person will withhold. but when these officers, through rashness or design, desire to in large their authority beyond its due limits, and expect improper concessions to be made to them, from regard for the employments they bear, their attempts should be considered as equal injuries to the  crown and people and should be courageously  and constantly opposed. to suffer our ideas to be confounded by names on such occasions, would certainly be an inexcusable weakness and probably an irremediable error...

*448 MASSACHUSETTS BECOMES A TEST CASTE IN LONDON'S DETERMINATION TO CENTRALIZE AND DESTROY ALL AMERICAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT  pp.448-50  excerpt from Justin Winsor  'The Memorial History ofBoston' - 1881

'a former Governor of New England, Sir Edmonds Andros, told the people that they must not think their Privileges would follow them to the ends of the earth. and the maxim is as true at this day as it was then. when your Forefathers were driven out of  their native land,  the Privileges were not sent along with them to American,  but tarried behind at Westminster.  for what can be plainer, than that those that stay at home have a right to command the property of those that go abroad? or, which comes to the same,  that those who go abroad have no property at all? and as this right remains indisputable among them, so they want no means to vindicate it. they can pour in upon you torrents of British eloquence, and send you orators of various kinds to display it,  - governors, quada costas, custom house officers, judges of admiralty, stamp men, etc, etc, etc, and what cogent arguments such gentlemen can make use of you know pretty well already. or if these should fail, perhaps, as French fashions are all the taste at present,  that genteel mode of DRAGOONING,  which has been so successfully employed in France for the conversion of protestants, may be introduced here, to convince you...' 'AMERICANUS', from 'The Boston Gazette and Country Journal', Mon,  Oct 21, 1765
the year 1768 was one of the most momentous of the Revolutionary period. hitherto the colonists, in defence of their property, had denied the supremacy of Parliament as based on usurpation, but now, in defence  of their privileges, they denied the prerogative of the king, the source of their political existence. this grew out of the Massachusetts Circular Letter. the  General Court came together Dec.  30,  1767.
'John Hancock, James Otis and Joseph Hawley were prominent members, but though James Otis was still active, Samuel Adams was the master spirit.  never was his  practical sagacity more  serviceable to the cause;  never did his genius for politics shine brighter. his fruitful pen is apparent in the remarkable series of state papers called forth by the Townshend Acts, comprising the letter of the House to their London agent (Jan. 12, 1768), the Petition to the king  (Jan 20) and the Circular Letter to the assemblies of the several colonies (Feb.11)
'If the Townshend Acts were to be successfully resisted, union of sentiment and action among all  the colonies was essential. this was the object of the circular letter.

'it was an arraignment  of Parliament in the ministry in respect to the revenue acts and the system by which the British government proposed to  make civil officers, including the judges, the instruments for its

*449  enforcement and it solicited an interchange of opinions on these subjects.  (abstracts of these papers convey no adequate idea of their strength.  they must be read in their completeness and so read, in connection with Lord Mansfield's speech in the House of Lords, one sees the arguments of each party stated at their best.)

'Governor Bernard watched the proceedings of the House with the deepest interest, nor was he long in doubt as to the nature of the circular letter,  for 2 days after its adoption  copy of it was offered, in case he desired it. this letter was preceded (besides the documents already mentioned) by letters to the Marquis of Rockingham, General Conway, Lord Camden and to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury...
'they present the whole case of the colonies, their rights, their grievances, their remonstrances and their petitions. they proceeded mainly from the pen of Samuel Adams, who, when he had shaken himself clear from profuse professions of loyalty and disclaimers of 'the most distant thought of independence',  rose to the annunciation of the loftiest principles of statesmanship, in the declaration that 'the supreme legislative,in any free country, derives its power from the constitution, by the fundamental rules of which it is bounded and circumscribed' - 'that it is the  glory of the British Constitution that it hath its foundation in the law of God and nature; '  - 'that the necessity of rights and property is the  great end of government' - 'that the colonists  are natural born subjects by the spirit of the law of nature and nations'  and 'that the laws of God and nature were tot made for politicians to alter'.  nor does he confine himself to the enunciation of abstract principles, but states the rights of the  colonists of Massachusetts on historical grounds and shows the  oppressive and impolitic nature of the  acts complained of...
'when the circular letter was laid before the ministry, April  15,  1768,  it cause great excitement in parliamentary circles  and led to the gravest mistake which was made by the government during the entire Revolutionary period. other measures, perhaps without exception,  had a show of necessity; nor, as the British Constitution was then interpreted by the highest authority, were they clearly unconstitutional.  but when the Earl of Hillsborough, speaking for the king, June  21,  1768,  required the Massachusetts House of Representatives to rescind their circular letter of pain of immediate dissolution, there was a violation of the constitution right of the House to express their opposition to measures deemed  injurious to their constituents, and to communicate their sentiments to other colonies, whose interests were similarly affected. equally unwise was Hillsborough's  letter to the colonial assemblies, requiring them to disregard the Massachusetts circular. responses to the circular letter, when they  expressed the sentiments of the assemblies rather than those of the royal governors were in full sympathy with Massachusetts.

*450  'the representatives, says Bernard,  have been much elated, within these 3 or 4 days, by some letters they have received in answer to the circular letter',  and Hutchinson thought that 'the  strength which would be derived from this union confirmed many who would otherwise have been wavering'.

'But when Governor Bernard (June  21, 1768) communicated to the House instructions from the king to rescind the circular letter, and recommended immediate action as of important consequences to the province, no doubt it caused anxiety. under a similar pressure New York had receded.  the house apprehended the gravity of the situation and took  7 or 87 days  for consideration and even then desired to consult their constituents. but when Bernard informed them that further delay  would be considered as a refusal. they voted,  92-17, not to rescind, and

'the number  92,  Hutchinson says,  'was suspicious and 17 of ill omen, for many months after, not only in Massachusetts Bay, but in most of the colonies.

'they doubtless were influenced by Otis, who spoke with great power, and, according to Bernard, unsparingly  denounced the ministry and 'passed an encominum on Oliver Cromwell'.  Massachusetts deliberately disobeyed the king's command and defied his power...

'Parliament came together Nov 8, 1768. both Houses were swift to condemn the late proceedings of the General Court of Massachusetts and of the town of Boston. on Dec  15 these acts were made the basis of  8 resolutions, introduced by the Earl of Hillsborough, and an address to the king, moved by the Duke of Bedford, to obtain information respecting the actors in the riotous proceedings since December  10, 1767,  with a view, if deemed advisable, of ordering their transportation to England for trial. these were passed y the House of Commons (Jan.  26,1769),  after a debate in which the whole subject of American affairs was discussed...

Parliament rose May  9, and 4 days later the Earl of Hillsborough reported to the several colonies the resolutions of the government on the circular letter. Lord Hillsborough's  letter gave little comfort to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, whose firmness was commended by Pennsylvania and Virginia and the threat of transportation of the Bostonians to England for trial under a statute of Henry VIII, called forth from the latter colony vigorous resolutions and an address to the king,  may 16, 1769...'

*451  Messengers (?)Edes and Gill ,
You are desired to insert the following advertisement, (def - advert= + )
    The committee of the True born Sons of LIBERTY,  throughout this Province, being met at THEIR OWN  apartment, in Hanover Square, near the Tree of Liberty judge it of the utmost importance to the Good Cause to declare PUBLICKLY,  their deepest Abhorrence and Detestation of 2 abusive and threatening letters, lately sent to the Sheriff of this County,  and his Deputy; as tending to the Destruction of that Liberty, which her True-born Sons are determined at All Hazards to defend and maintain: that they hold the Author or Authors in thorough Contempt; and think themselves most grossly injur'd, in the villainous Use made of  that venerable  Name of Liberty in said Letters: and , that they heartily join in the Resolution of the  good People of this Town, in Town Meeting lately assembled. to assist the Civil Magistrate and support all Civil Officers, in the Execution of their Truth, according to the Laws and usage of this land.   (from Boston Gazetter Dec.  23, 1765

*452  MASSACHUSETTS RESISTS TOWNSHEND ACTS: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENDS A LETTER TO THEIR AGENT IN LONDON

Sir,
'Since the last sitting of the General Court, divers acts of Parliament, relating to the colonies, have arrived here and as the people of this province had no share in the framing those laws, in which they are so deeply interested, the House of Representative, who are constitutionally entrusted by them, as the guardians of their rights and liberties, have thought it  their indispensable duty, carefully to peruse them and have so done, to point out such matters in them, as appear to be grievous tot heir constituents and to seek redress.
'the fundamental rules of the constitution are the grand security of all British subjects;  and it is a security which they are all equally entitled to,  in all parts of his Majesty's extended  dominions. the supreme legislative,  in every free state, derives its power from the Constitution.

'When we mention the rights of the subjects in America  and the interest we have in the British constitution, in common with all other British subjects, we cannot justly be suspected of the most distant thought of an independency on Great Britain. some, we know, have imagined this of independency on Great Britain. some, we know, have imagined this of the colonists,and others may, perhaps, have industriously propagated it, to raise groundless and unreasonable jealousies of them; but it is so far from the truth,  that we apprehend the colonies would refuse it if offered  to them and would even deem it the greatest misfortune to be obliged to accept it. they are far from being insensible of their happiness, in being connected with the mother country, and of the mutual benefits derived from it to both. it is, therefore, the indispensable duty of all, to cultivate and establish a mutual harmony and to promote the intercourse of good offices between them and while both have the free enjoyment of the rights of our happy constitution, there will be no grounds of envy and discontent in the one, nor of jealousy and mistrust in the other.

*453  'It is the glory of the British constitution, that it hath its foundation in the law of God and nature. it is an essential,natural right, that a man shall enjoy and have the sole disposal of his own property. this right is adopted into the constitution. this natural and constitutional right is so familiar to the American subjects, that it would be difficult, if possible, to convince them, that any necessity can render ti just, equitable  and reasonable, in the nature of things, that the parliament should impose duties, subsidies, talliages (def -  = tallage, to impose (arbitrary) tax) and taxes upon them, internal or external, for the sole purpose of raising a revenue. the reason is obvious;  because, they cannot be represented and therefore, their consent cannot be constitutionally had in Parliament.

'When the Parliament , soon after the repeal of the stamp act,  thought proper to pass another act, declaring the authority, power and right of parliament, to make laws that should be binding on the colonies,  in all cases, whatever,it is probable that acts for levying taxes on the colonies,  external and internal, were included; for the act made the last year, imposing duties on paper, glass,  Etc,  as well as the sugar and the stamp act, are, to all intents and purposes, in form, as well as in substance, as much revenue acts, as those for the land tax, customs and excises in England.

'necessity of establishing a revenue in America, is expressly mentioned in the preambles; they were originated in the honorable House of Commons,as all other money and revenue bills are and the property of he colonies, with the same form ceremony and expressions of loyalty and duty, is thereby given and granted to his Majesty, as they usually of this kind, may be  safely, if decently made, if they are of a dangerous tendency in point of commerce, policy and the true and real interest of the whole empire. it may, and if it can, it ought to be made to appear, that such acts are grievous to the subject, burthensome to trade, ruinous to the nation and tending on the  whole to injure the revenue of the Crown. and surely, if such mighty inconveniences, perils and mischiefs,can be pointed out with decency and perspicuity, there will be the highest reason not only to hope for, but fully to expect redress.
'it is observable, that though many have disregard life and contemned liberty, yet there are few men who do not agree that property is a valuable acquisition, which ought to be held sacred.  many have fought and bled,  and died for this, who have been insensible to all other obligations.  those who ridicule the ideas of right and justice, faith and truth among men, will put a high value upon money. property is admitted to have an existence, even in the savage state of nature. the bow, the arrow, and the tomahawk;  the hunting and the fishing ground, are species of property, as important to an American savage, as pearls, rubies, and diamonds are to the Mogu. or a nabob in the East,  or the lands, tenements, heredaments (def - a very wealthy, powerful or influential person)

*454 'No man can take another's property from him without his consent. this is the law of nature and a violation of it is the same thing, whether it be done by one man who is called a king, or by  500 of another denomination...' Samuel Adams, from Boston Gazette, Jan. 9, 1769

*455 (continues 453) messuages, (def - messuage - Law.. a dwelling house with its adjacent buildings and the lands appropriated to the use of the household)gold and silver of the Europeans. and if property is necessary for the support of savage life, it is by no means less so in civil society. the Utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods are as visionary and impracticable, as those which vest all property in the Crown, are arbitrary, despotic and in our government unconstitutional.  now, what property can the colonists be conceived to have, if their money may be granted away by others, without their consent? this most certainly is the present case; for they were in no sense represented in parliament, when this act for raising a revenue in america was made.

'the stamp act was grievously complained of by all the colonies and is there any real difference between this act and the stamp act? they were both designed to raise a revenue in america and in the  same manner,  viz. by duties...imposed by the stamp act, might have been eluded by a total disuse of the stamped paper and so may the payment of these duties,  by the total disuse of the articles on which they are laid;  but in neither case, without difficulty.

'therefore, the subjects here, are reduced to the hard alternative, either of being obliged totally to disuse articles of the greatest necessity, in common life or to pay a tax without their consent.

'the security of right and property, is the great end of government. surely, then, such measures as tend to render right and property precarious, tend to destroy both property and government; for these must stand and fall together. it would be difficult, if possible, to show, that the  present plan of taxing the  colonies is more favorable to them, than that put in use here, before the  revolution. it seems, by the event,  that our ancestors were, in one respect, not in so melancholy a situation, as we , the Crown, without the intervention of Parliament, demolished charters, and levied taxes on the colonies at pleasure. Governor Andorss, in the time of James II. declared, that wherever an Englishmen sets his foot, all he hath is the King's  and Dudley declared , at the Council Board, and even on the  sacred seat of justice, that the privilege of englishmen, not to be taxed without their consent, and the laws of England, would not follow them to the ends of the earth, it was, also , in those days,declared in Council, that the King's subjects in  New England did not differ much from slaves and that the only difference  was  that they were not bought and sold. but there was, even in those times an excellent Attorney General, Sir William Jones, who was  of another mind, and told King James, that he could no more grant a commission to levy money on his subjects in Jamaica, though a conquered island, without their consent, by an Assembly,  than  they could discharge themselves from their allegiance to the English Crown.
'but the misfortune of the colonists at present is, that they are taxed by Parliament, without their consent. this, while the Parliament continues

*456  to tax us, will ever render our case, in one respect, more deplorable and remediless, under the best of Kings, than that of our ancestors was, under the worst. they found relief by the interposition of Parliament. but by the intervention of that very power , we are taxed, and can appeal for relief, from their final decision, to no power on earth;  for there is no power on earth above them.

'The original contract between the King and the first planters here, was a royal promise in behalf of the nation, and which till very lately, it was never questioned but the King had a power to make; namely, that if the adventurers would, at their own cost and charge and at the hazard of their lives and everything dear to them, purchase a new world, subdue a wilderness and thereby  enlarge the King's dominions, they and their posterity should enjoy such rights and privileges as in their charters are expressed; which are, in general, all the rights, liberties and privileges expressed; which are, in general,  all the rights, liberties and privileges expressed;  which are, in general, all the rights, liberties and privileges of his Majesty's natural born subjects within the realm. the principal privilege implied and in some of their charters expressed, is a freedom from all taxes, but such as they shall consent to in person, or by representatives of their own free choice and election. the late King James broke the original contract of the settlement and government of these colonies; but it proved happy for our ancestors in the end, that he had also  broken the original compact with his 3 kingdoms. this left them some gleam of hope;  this very thing, finally, was the cause of deliverance to the nation and the colonies,  nearly at the same time; it was the parliament,  the supreme legislative and constitutional check on the supreme executive that in time operated effects worthy of itself; the nation and her colonies have since been happy and our princes patriot Kings. the law and reason teaches, that the King can do no wrong and that neither King nor Parliament are otherwise inclined than to justice, equity and truth. but the law does not presume that the King may not be deceived, nor that the parliament may not be misinformed. if, therefore, any thing is wrong, it must be imputed to such causes. how far such causes have taken place and operated  against the colonies, is humbly submitted to the revision and reconsideration of all.
'by the common law, the colonists are adjudged to be natural born subjects.  so they are declared by royal charter and they are so, by the spirit of the law of nature and nations. no jurist, who has the  least regard to his reputation  in the public of letters, will deny that they are entitled to all the essential rights, liberties, privileges and immunities, of his Majesty's natural subjects, born within the realm. the children of his majesty's natural born subjects, born passing and repassing the seas, have, by sundry acts of Parliament, from Edward the third to this time, been declared natural born subjects and even foreigners, residing a certain time in the colonies, are, by acts of Parliament,  entitled to all the rights and privileges of natural born subjects. and it is remarkable, that the Act of 13 Geo. I. Chap.  7, presupposes that the colonists are natural born subjects and that they are entitled  to all the privileges of such; as appears by the preamble, which we shall now recite.

*457  'Whereas the increase of people is the means of advancing wealth and strength of any nation or country and whereas many foreigners and strangers, from the lenity

'which plainly shows it to be the sense of the nation, that the colonies wee entitled to and did actually enjoy, the advantages and privileges of natural born subjects. but it it could be admitted as clearly consistent with the constitution, for the parliament of Great Britain to tax the property of the colonies, we presume it can be made to appear to be utterly inconsistent with the rules of equity that they should, at least at present.  it must be considered, that by acts of Parliament, the colonies are prohibited from importing commodities  of growth or manufacture of Europe,  except from
great Britain, saving a few articles. this gives the advantage to Great Britain of raising the price of her commodities and is equal to a tax.  it is too obvious to be doubted, that by the extraordinary demands from the colonies of the manufactures of Britain, occasioned by this policy, she reaps an advantage of  at least 20% in the price of them, beyond what the colonies might purchase them for at foreign markets. the loss,therefore, to the colonists, is equal to the gain which is made in Britain.

'this in reality is a tax, though not a direct one and admitting that they take annually from Great Britain, manufactures to the value of 2,000,000 sterling, as is generally supposed, they then pay an annual tax of 400,000 pounds, besides the taxes which are directly paid on those manufactures in England. the same reasoning will hold good with respect to the many enumerated articles of their produce, which the colonies are restrained, by act of Parliament, from sending to any foreign port. by this restraint, the market is glutted and consequently the produce sold, is cheaper;  which is an advantage to Great Britain and an equal loss to, or tax upon, the colonists. is it reasonable, then, that the colonies should be taxed on the British commodities here? especially when it is considered, that the most of them settled a wilderness, and, till bey lately, defended their settlements without a farthing's expense  to the nation. they bore their full proportion of the charges of securing and maintaining his Majesty's rights in America, in every war from their first settlement, without any consideration; for the grants of parliament in the last war were compensations for an overplus of expense on their part. many of them and this province in particular, have always maintained their own frontiers at their own expense and have also frequently defended his Majesty's garrison at Annapolis, when it must other wise have been unavoidably lost. the nation, in the late war, acquired  lands equal in value to all the expense she had been at in America,

*458  from its settlement; while the trade of the colonies has been only 'secured and restricted',  it has not been enlarged,  though new avenues of beneficial commerce have been opened to the mother country.
'The colonies  have reaped no share in the lands which they helped to conquer, while millions of acres of those very lands have been granted and still are granting, to people who, in all probability, will never see, if they settle them.
'the appropriation of the monies, to arise by these duties, is an objection of great weight. it is, in the first place, to be applied for the payment of the  necessary charges of the administration of justice and the support of civil government. in such colonies where it shall be judged necessary. this House apprehends i would be grievous and of dangerous tendency, if the Crown should not only appoint Governors over the several colonies, but allow them such stipends as it shall judge proper,  at the expense of the people and without their consent. such a power, under a corrupt administration, it is to be feared, would introduce an absolute government in America; at best, it would leave the people in a state of utter uncertainty of their security, which is far from being a state of civil liberty. the Judges in the several colonies do not hold their commissions during good behavior. if then they are to have salaries independent of the people, how easy will it be for a corrupt Governor to have a set of Judges to his mind, to deprive a bench of justice of its glory and the people of their security. if the Judges of England have independent livings, it must be remembered, that the  tenure of their commission is during good behavior which is a safeguard for the people. and besides, they are near the  throne, the  fountain of right and justice; whereas American Judges, as well as Governors, are at a distance from it.

moreover, it is worth particular notice, that in all disputes between power and liberty in America,  there is danger that the greatest credit  will always be given to the officers of the Crown, who are the men  in power.  this we have sometimes found by experience and it is much to be feared, that the nation will fall into some dangerous mistake, if she has not already, by too great attention to the representations of particular persons and a disregard to others.

but the residue of these monies is to be applied by Parliament, from time to time, for defending, protecting and securing the  colonies. if the government at home is apprehensive that the  colonists will be backward in defending themselves and securing his majesty's territories in America, it must have been egregiously misinformed. we need look back no farther than the last war, for evidence of a contrary disposition.

they always discovered the most cheerful compliance with his Majesty's requisitions of men and money for this purpose.  they were then treated

*459  as free British subjects and never failed to grant aid to his Majesty of their own free accord, to the extent of their ability and even beyond it, of which the parliament were then so sensible, that they made them grants, from year to year, by way of compensation for extra services.  it is not at all to be doubted, but if they are still considered upon the footing of subjects, they will always discover the same disposition to exert themselves for his Majesty's service and their own defense; which renders  a standing army in the colonies a needless expense. or, if it be admitted that thee  may be some necessity for them in the conquered province of Canada, where the exercise of the Romish religion, so destructive to civil society,  is allowed, surely there can be no need of them in the  bowels of the  old colonies and even in cities, where there is not the least danger of a foreign enemy and where the inhabitants are as strongly attached to his majesty's person, family and government, as in Great Britain itself. there is an English affection in the colonists towards the mother country, which will forever keep them connected with her, to every valuable purpose, unless it shall be erased by repeated unkind usage of her part. as Englishmen, as well as British subjects, they have an aversion to an unnecessary standing army, which they look upon as dangerous to their civil liberties and considering the examples of ancient times, it seems a little surprising, that a mother state should trust large bodies
mercenary troops in her colonies, at so great distance from her,  lest, in process of time, when the spirits of the people shall be depressed by the military power, another Caesar should arise and usurp the authority of his master.
the act enabling his Majesty to appoint Commissioners of the Customs to reside in America, has also been read in the House.. it declares an intention to facilitate the trade of America, of which we cannot have any great hopes, from the tenor of the commission. in general, innovations are dangerous;  the unnecessary increase of Crown officers is most certainly so. these gentlemen are authorized to appoint as many as they shall think proper, without limitation. this will probably be attended with undesirable effects. an host of pensioners, by the arts they may use, may in time become as dangerous to the liberties of the people as an army of soldiers; for there is a way of subduing a people by art, as well as by arms. we are happy and safe under his present majesty's mild and gracious administration;  but the time may come, when the united body of pensioners and soldiers may ruin the liberties of America.  the trade of the  colonies, we apprehend, may be as easily carried on, and the acts of trade as duly enforced, without this commission; and, if so. it must be a very needless expense, at the time when the nation and her colonies are groaning under debts contracted in the late war and how far distant another may be, God only knows.
there is another act, which, this House apprehends, must be alarming to all the colonies; which is the act for suspending the legislative power.

*460  of the Assembly of New York on a certain condition. a legislative body without the free exercise of the powers of legislative power,  while their very existence  is suspended upon their acting in conformity to the will of another body.  such a restriction throughout the colonies, would be a short and easy method of annihilating the legislative powers in America  and by consequence of depriving the people  of a fundamental right of the constitution namely,  that every man shall be represent in the body which legislates for him.
it may not be amiss to consider the tendency of a suspension of colony legislation for a non compliance with acts of  Parliament, requiring a provincial assembly to give and grant away their own and their constituents money for the support of a standing army. we cannot but think it hard enough to have our property granted away without our consent, without being ordered to deal it out ourselves, as in the case of the mutiny act.it must be sufficiently humiliating to part with our property in either  of those ways, much more in both; whereby, as loyal subjects as any under his Majesty's government, and as true lovers of their country as any people whatever, are deprived of the honor and merit of voluntarily contributing to the serviced of both. what is the  plain language of such a suspension? we can discover no more nor less in it than this:  if the American assemblies refuse to grant as much of their own and their constituents money, as shall from time to time be enjoined and prescribed by the Parliament, besides what the parliament directly taxes them,  they shall no longer have any legislative authority ;  but if they comply with what is prescribed, they may still be allowed to legislate under their charter restrictions. does not political death and annihilation stare us in the face as strongly on one supposition as the other? Equally, in case of compliance as of non compliance.
but let us suppose, for a moment, a series of events taking place, the most favorable in the opinion of those who are so fond of these  new regulations; that all difficulties and scruples of conscience were removed and that very Representative in America should acknowledge a just and equitable right in the Commons of great Britain, to make an unlimited grant of his and his constituents property; that they have a clear right to invest the Crown with all the lands in the colonies, as effectually as if they had been forfeited. would it be possible for them to conciliate their constituents to such measures? would not the  attempt suddenly cut asunder all confidence and communication between the representative body and the people? what ,  then, would be the consequence? could anything be reasonably expected but discontent, despair and rage, against their representatives, on the side of the people and on the part of the government, the rigorous exertion of civil and military power?  the confusion and misery, after such  fatal crisis, cannot be conceived, much less described.

*461  'and thus have they mixed together and confounded 2 things ,  that are in themselves most different, the Church and the Commonwealth'.  John Locke

'AN ATTEMPT TO LAND A BISHOP IN AMERICA'

'as our Ancestors came over to this Country that they might not only enjoy their civil but their religious rights, and particularly desired to be free from the prelates, who in those ties cruelly persecuted all who differed in sentiment from the established Church; we cannot see without concern the various attempts, which have been made and are now making, to establish an American Episcopate. our Episcopal Brethren of the Colonies do enjoy and rightfully ought ever to enjoy, the free exercise of their religion, we cannot help fearing that they who are so  warmly contending for such an establishment, have views altogether inconsistent with the universal and peaceful enjoyment of our Christian privileges and doing or attempting to do any thing which has ever the remotest tendency to endanger this enjoyment, is justly looked upon a great grievance and also an infringement of our rights, which is not barely to exercise, but peaceably and securely to enjoy, that liberty wherewith CHRIST  has made us free. and we are further of opinion, that no power on earth can justly give either temporal or spiritual jurisdiction within this province. except the  Great & General Court. we think therefor that every design for establishing the jurisdiction of a Bishop  in this Province, is a design both  against our Civil and Religious rights:  and we are well informed, that the more candid and judicious of our Brethren of the Church of England in this and the other Colonies, both Clergy and Laity,  conceive of the establishing an American Episcopate both unnecessary and unreasonable.
Samuel Adams, 'The Rights of the Colonists, a List of Violations of Rights and a Letter of Correspondence'  Boston - 1772

the present regulations and proceedings ,  with respect to the  colonies, we apprehend to be opposite to every principle of good and productive of uneasiness and discontent among the people an yet the colonies, by the mutiny act, are ordered and directed to provide certain enumerated articles and the pains and penalties in case of none compliance, are evident,  in the precedent of New York. it also appears, that revenue officers are multiplying in the colonies, with vast powers. the Board of Commissioners, lately appointed to reside here, have ample discretionary powers given them,  to make what appointments they please and to pay the appointees what sums they please.

the establishment of a Protest Episcopate in America is also very zealously contended for and it is very alarming to a people, whose fathers from the hardships they suffered, under such an establishment, were obliged to fly their native country into a wilderness, in order peaceably to enjoy their privileges, civil and religious. their being threatened with the loss of both at once, must throw them into a disagreeable situation.  e hope in god such an establishment will never take place in America and  we desire you would strenuously oppose it. the revenue raised in America, for ought we can tell, may be constitutionally  applied towards the support of prelacy, as of soldiers and pensioners. if the property of the subject is taken from him, without his consent, it is immaterial whether it be done by one man, or 500; or whether it be applied for the support of ecclesiastic or military power, or both. it may be well worth the consideration of the best politician in Great Britain or America, what the  natural tendency is of a vigorous pursuit of these measures. we are not insensible that some eminent men, on both sides the water, are less friendly to American charters and assemblies, than could be wished. it seems to be growing fashionable to treat the, in common conversation, as well as in popular publications, with contempt.

but if we look back a few reigns , we shall find that even the august assembly the Parliament was in every respect the object of a courtier's reproach.it was even  an aphorism with King James the First,  that the Lords and Commons were 2 very bad copartners with a Monarch;  and he and his successors broke the copartnership as fast as possible, it is certainly unnatural for a British politician to expect, that ever the supreme executive of the nation can long exist, after the supreme legislature shall be depressed and destroyed, which may God forbid.
if the supreme executive cannot exist long in Britain, without the support of the supreme legislative, it should seem very reasonable in so remote dominions, a free legislative, within their charter limitations, as well as an

*463  entirely free representative of the supreme executive of his Majesty, in the persons of Governors, Judges, Justices and other executive officers;  otherwise strange effects are to be apprehended for the laws of God and nature are invariable, a politician may apply or misapply these to a multiplicity of purposes, good and bad; but these laws were never made for politicians to alter...'

the above from 'The Boston Gazette' of April 4,  1768

 MASSACHUSETTS' CIRCULAR LETTER TO THE SPEAKERS OF THE OTHER LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES IN AMERICA.

February 11, 1768 The Circular That Massachusetts Would Not Rescind

'...the House have humbly represented to the ministry their own sentiments.. that it is an essential ,unalterable right in nature, engrafted into the British  constitution as a fundamental law, and ever held sacred and irrevocable  by the subjects within the realm that WHAT A MAN HAS HONESTLY ACQUIRED IS ABSOLUTELY HIS OWN,  WHICH HE MAY FREELY GIVE, BUT CANNOT BE TAKEN FROM HIM WITHOUT HIS CONSENT;  that the American subjects may , therefore, exclusive of an consideration of charter rights, with a decent firmness adapted to the character of fee men and subjects, assert this natural and constitutional right. it is, moreover, their humble opinion, which they express with the greatest deference to the wisdom of the parliament,  that the acts made there, imposing duties on the people of this province with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, re infringements of their natural and constitutional rights ; because, as they are not represented in the British Parliament, his Majesty's Commons in Britain, by those acts, grant their property without their consent ...they have also submitted to consideration,whether any people can be said to enjoy any degree of freedom, if the crown, in  addition  to its undoubted authority of constituting a governor, should appoint him such a stipend as it may judge proper, without the consent of the people and at their expence and whether, while the judges of the land and other civil officers, hold not their commissions during good behavior, their having salaries appointed for them by the crown, independent of the people, hath not a tendency to subvert the principles of equity and endanger the happiness and security of the subject.

they take notice of the hardships of the act for preventing mutiny and desertion...which requires the governor and council to provide for the king's marching troops and the people to pay the expenses and also the commission of the gentlemen appointed commissioners of the customs, to reside in America, which authorizes them to make as many appointments as they think fit and to pay the appointees what sum they please, of whose mal-conduct they are not accountable; from whence it may happen that officers of the crown may be multiplied to such a degree as to become dangerous to the liberty of the people.

above excerpts from J. Wingate Thornton 'The*467 pulpit of the American Revolution: or,  The political sermons of the period of  1776,  Boston (1860)

*464  MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SENDS A PETITION TO THE KING
'most gracious sovereign

'Your Majesty's faithful Subjects the Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay, with the warmest Sentiments of Loyalty Duty and Affection, beg Leave to approach the Throne & to lay at your Majesty's feet their humble Supplications, in Behalf of your distressed Subjects the people of the province.
'Our Ancestors, the first settlers of this Country having with the Royal Consent, of the Nation & at their own great Expense migrated from the mother kingdom,  took the possession of this Land, at that time a Wilderness, the Right whereof had purchased for a valuable Consideration of the Council established at Plymouth, to whom it had been granted by your Majesty's Royal Predecessor King James the first.
'from the Principles of Loyalty to their Sovereign, which will ever warm the Breast of a true Subject, tho remote they ever acknowledged their Allegiance to the English Crown, &k your Majesty will allow us with all humility to say that they & their posterity even to this time have afforded frequent & signal Proofs of their Zeal for the Honor & Service of their Prince & their firm Attachment to the parent Country.
'with Toil & Fatigue, perhaps not to be conceived by their Brethren & Fellow Subjects at home, & with the constant peril of their Lives, from a numerous, savage & warlike Race of Men, they began their Settlement & God prospered them.
'...
'...it is with the deepest Concern that your humble Suppliants would represent to your majesty, that your Parliament, the Rectitude of whose Intentions is never to be questioned,  has thought proper to pass divers Acts imposing Taxes on your Majesty's Subjects in America with the sole & express purpose of raising a Revenue...if these acts of parliament shall remain in force and your Majesty's commons in Great Britain shall continue to exercise the power of granting the property of their fellow subjects in this province, your People must then regret their unhappy fate in having only the name left of free Subjects. with all humility we conceive that a Representation of your Majesty's Subjects of this Province in the Parliament considering their local Circumstances is utterly impracticable. your Majesty has heretofore been graciously pleased to order your requisitions to be laid before Representatives of your People in the General assembly who have never failed to afford the necessary Aid to the extent of their Ability & some times beyond...we most humbly beseech your Majesty to take our present unhappy Circumstances under your royal Consideration...

the above from the Samuel Adams papers, Lennox Library

*466  VIRGINIA PROTESTS AGAINST PARLIAMENT'S LAW FOR TRANSPORTING BOSTONIANS TO ENGLAND FOR TRIAL

'Resolves of the House of Burgesses,
passed the 16th of May, 1769

'RESOLVED, nemine contradicente, (def - with no one contradicting)
That the sole right of imposing taxes on the inhabitants of this His Majesty's colony and Dominion of Virginia is now and ever hath been legally and constitutionally vested in the House of Burgesses, lawfully convened, according to the ancient and established practice, and the consent of the Council of His Majesty the King of Great Britain, or his Governor for the time being.
'RESOLVED , nemine contradicente,  that it is the undoubted privilege of the inhabitants  of the colony to petition their Sovereign for redress of grievances; and that it is lawful and expedient to procure the concurrences of His Majesty's other colonies, in dutiful addresses, praying the royal interposition in favor of the violated rights of America.

'RESOLVED, nemene contradicente,  that all trials for treason, misprison of treason, or for any felony or crime whatsoever committed and done in this His Majesty's said colony and dominion , by any person or persons residing therein, ought of right to be had, and conducted in and before his Majesty's  courts, held within his said colony, according to the fixed and known course of proceeding;  and  that the seizing any person or persons residing  in the colony,  suspected of any crime whatsoever committed therein, and sending such person or persons to places beyond the sea to be tried, is highly derogatory of the rights of British subjects, as thereby the inestimable privilege of being tried by a jury from the vicinage, (def - a number of places lying near to each other taken collectively) as well as the liberty of summoning and producing witnesses on such trial, will be taken away from the party accused.

RESOLVED,  nemene conradicente,  that an humble, dutiful and loyal address be presented to His majesty, to assure him of our inviolable attachments to to his sacred person and government and to beseech his royal interposition, as the father of all his people, however remote from the seat of his empire, to quiet the minds of his loyal subjects of this colony, and to avert from them those dangers and miseries which will ensue, from the seizing and carrying beyond sea any person residing  in
America , suspected of any crime whatsoever, to be tried in any other manner than by the ancient and long established course of proceeding.

'the following order is likewise in their journal of that date:

'Ordered, that the speaker of this House do transmit, without delay to the speakers of the several houses of assembly on this continent, a copy of the resolutions now agreed to by this house, requesting their concurrence therein'.

the above excerpts from Richard Frothingham,  'the Rise of the Republic of the United States.

*467  'this action did not meet the approval of Lord Botetourt, the governor of Virginia, and he dissolved the House of Burgesses. this, however,  did not prevent the delegates from meeting at the Apollo, in the Raleigh tavern, and, as citizens entering into a non-importation agreement  which  bore the names of Henry, Randolph, Jefferson and Washington and became an example to all  the colonies. during  the remainder of the year 1769 the progress of the Revolution was confined chiefly to Massachusetts, and there it assumed the form of an altercation between the House of Representatives and the governor in respect  to the presence of the king's forces...

SENTIMENT OF UNITY AND A UNION OF ACTION BY NON-IMPORTATION OF BRITISH  GOODS BRINGS ABOUT REPEAL OF THE 'TOWNSHEND ACTS

DUTY ON TEA IS NOT REMOVED

 'the Townshend act, though drawn conformably to the colonial distinctions between internal and external taxes, produced the  same dissatisfaction  as the Stamp act had done. there was no real difference. if parliament could lay external taxes, it could lay internal taxes. non-importation agreements in the several colonies followed in  1769 and so long as they were observed, even without great strictness, were disastrous to British merchants, the value of whose exports to the American colonies between Christmas in  1767 an Christmas in  1769 fell off nearly L700,000 sterling. though the agreement was not observed equally in all the colonies, nor in entire good faith in any,  -Massachusetts and Rhode island, particularly, suffered some discredit in this respect, as compared with New York and Philadelphia,  - the general result seriously alarmed British merchants, who petitioned parliament for the repeal of the Townshend act. these petitions were considered in the House of Commons March  5, 1770 and Lord North, in accordance with Earl Hillsborough's circular letter, proposed to take off all the duties laid by the Townshend Act of 1767, except that on tea, which he would preserve as a sort of declaratory act, especially since the conduct of the Americans had been such as to prevent an entire compliance with their wishes...

'the Townshend duties, except those on tea, were repealed in April;  but this did not satisfy the colonists, and dissensions arose among the merchants of the several colonies in regard to the non-importation agreement. those of New York became dissatisfied with Boston and Newport merchants, who had agreed to import non-dutiable articles, even before eh news of the repealing act and in October,  1770, all sections fell into the same plan, but no teas were to be imported'.

the above excerpts from Justin Winsor 'the Memorial History of Boston'  1881

*468  WITH  REPEAL OF THE 'TOWNSHEND ACTS' THE COLONIES ARE LULLED INTO A
false security.

'when designs are formed to raise the very foundation of a free government,  those few who are to erect their grandeur and fortunes upon the general ruin, will employ every art to sooth the devoted people into a state of indolence, inattention and security, which is forever the fore-runner of slavery. they are alarmed at nothing so much, as attempts to awaken the people  to jealousy and watchfulness'.  Samuel Adams, from the 'Boston Gazette of  Dec. 9, 1771

'Every free state should incessantly watch and instantly take alarm on any addition being made to the power exercised over them.  John Dickinson,  'Farmer's Letter to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, Philadelphia , 1767

the non-importation agreement... now came to an end and the quantity of tea imported from England was so small, that the tax was virtually a nullity. there was a lull in political affairs:  the community became apathetic and this continued through the year  1771... it was now said that the people of the colonies were weary of their altercations with the mother country and that a little discreet conduct on both sides would perfectly  establish the warm affection felt towards Great Britain. but 2 good observers, Hutchinson and Samuel Adams, looked beneath this deceitful surface and formed a different judgment. their measure of each other,  at this time, is at least curious. Hutchinson doubted whether there was a greater incendiary in the king's dominions than Adams and Adams wrote of Hutchinson,  'It has been his principle from a boy, that mankind are to be  governed by the discerning few and it has ever since been his ambition to be the hero of the few...
'Hutchinson saw what he called 'the spread of leveling principles',the grown importance of 'the commonality', and  the tendency with which the people held on to the right of making their local or municipal law... as he saw also such union sentiment as was as common as the day in the press and was embodied in Quincy's instructions, he wrote that 'something must be done,or the colonies will be riveting their principles of independence on parliament ,  until it will be too late to break them off...'I dare not trust to pen and ink my thought upon some provisions which might be made by parliament for preventing an unwarrantable combination between the colonies. ever since the congress in New York, a correspondence has been kept up by demagogues in each colony'...

Samuel Adams saw this deadly warfare waged on the 2 primordial  ideas of our country's life,  -local government and the union , -as clearly as though he had before him the letter-book of Hutchinson, or knew the secret counsels of the ministry; and he felt that there was no peace...

*469  PEACE, PEACE ; WHEN THERE IS NO PEACE.' Jeremiah,  6.14

no free people, as the Pennsylvania Farmer has observed, ever existed, or ever can exist without, to use a common but strong expression, keeping the purse-strings in their hands: But the parliament's  laying taxes on the  Colonies for the express purpose of raising a revenue, takes the purse stings out of their hands and consequently it is 'repugnant to, and subversive of (the end of) our constitution' -Liberty. Mr. Locke says, that the security of property is the end for which men enter into society...Mr. Hooker in his ecclesiastical polity, as quoted by Mr. Locke, affirms that 'Laws they are not, which the public approbation hath not made so. this seems to be the language of nature and common sense; for if the public are bound to yield obedience to the laws, to which they cannot give  their approbation,  they are slaves  to those who make such laws and enforce them: but the acts of parliament imposing duties, with the express purpose of raising a revenue in the colonies, have received every mark of the public disapprobation in every colony and yet they are enforced in all, in some with the utmost rigour...it is certainly more concordant with the  great law of nature and reason, which the most powerful nation may not violate and cannot alter, to suppose that the Colonies are separate independent and free, than to suppose that they must be one with Great Britain  and slaves. and slaves they must be...if great Britain may make all laws whatsoever binding upon them, especially laws whatsoever  binding upon them, especially laws  to take from them what portions of their property she pleases, without and against their consent'.

the above excerpts from the 'Boston Gazette' of Jan.  20,  1772. written by Samuel Adams under the name of 'Candidus'.

the writer of the history of Massachusetts Bay tells us, that 'our ancestors apprehended the acts of trade to be an invasion of the rights, liberties, and properties of the subjects of his Majesty in the colony,  they not being represented in parliament; and according to the usual sayings of the learned in the law, the laws of England  were bounded within the  4 seas, and did not reach America. however , they made provision by an act of the colony, that they, i.e. the acts of trade should be strictly attended from time to time' - the passing of this law of the  colony and thus making it an act of their own legislature, he says, 'plainly shows

*470  the wrong sense they had of the relation they stood in to England'  - and he adds ,  that 'tho' their posterity have as  high notions of English Liberties as they had, yet they are sensible that they are Colonists and therefore subject to the control of the parent state'.  as I am not disposed to yield an implicit assent to any authority what ever, i should have been glad if this historian, since he thought proper to pronounce upon so important a matter, had shown us what was the political relation our ancestors stood in to England and how far, if at all, their posterity are subject to the control of the parent state  - if he had vouchsafed to have done this, when he published his history, he would have rendered the greatest service both, to Great-Britain and America, and eased the minds of multitudes who have been unsatisfied in points of such interesting importance.

'Mr. Locke, in his treatise on government discovers the  weakness of this position. that every man is born a subject to his Prince  and therefore is under the perpetual tie of subjection and allegiance; and he shows  that express consent alone, makes any one a member of any commonwealth. (def - the idea of the common welfare, the common good), any more than it would make a man subject to another , in whose family he found it convenient to abide for some time, tho' while he continued under it, he were obliged to comply with the laws and submit to the  government he found there. every man was born naturally fee; nothing can make a man a subject of any commonwealth, but his actually entering into it by positive engagement and express promise and compact.

'if the sentiments of this great man are well grounded, our historian before  he asserted so peremptorily that the ancestor of this country as colonists were subject to the controul of the parent state, should have first made it appear that by positive engagement or express promise of contract, they had thus bound themselves.
'every man being born free, says another distinguished writer, the son of a citizen , arrived at the years of discretion, may examine whether it be convenient for him to loin in the society for which he was destined by birth if he finds that it will be no advantage for him to remain in it, he is at liberty to leave it, preserving as much as his new engagements will allow him, the love and gratitude he woes it.  (Mr. Battel, law of nature and nations) he further says, 'there are cases in which a citizen has an absolute right to renounce his country and abandon it for ever';  which is widely different form the sentiment of the historian , that allegiance is not local, but perpetual and unalienable'; and among other cases in which a citizen has this absolute right, he mentions that, when 

*471  'the sovereign or the greater part of the nation will permit the exercise o only one religion in the state; which was the case when our ancestors forsook their native country.  they were denied the rights of conscience.  they left it however with the consent of the nation:  it is allowed by this historian that they departed the kingdom with the leave of their prince. they removed at their own expence and not the nation's, into a country claimed and possessed by independent princes, whose right to the lordship and dominion thereof has been acknowledged by English kings and they fairly purchased the lands of  the rightful owners  and settled them at their own and not the nation's expence.
it is incumbent then upon this historian to show. by what rule of equity or right, unless they expressly consented to it, they became subject to the controul of the parent state.  - the obligation they had been under to submit to the government of the nation, by virtue of their enjoyment of lands which were under this jurisdiction, according to Mr. Locke, began and ended with the enjoyment. that was but a tacit consent to the government;  and when by donation, sale or otherwise,  they quitted the possession of those lands, they were at liberty, unless it can be made to appear they were otherwise bound by positive engagement or express contract, to incorporate into any other commonwealth, or begin a new one in vacuis locis, in any part of the world they could find free and unpossessed.  - they entered into a compace, (def- out of date for compass- to contrive, plot ,scheme), it is true, with the King of England and upon certain conditions become his voluntary subjects, not his slaves. but did they enter into an express promise to be subject to the controul of the parent state? What is there to show that they were any way bound to obey  the acts of the British parliament, but those verify acts themselves?  is there any thing but the mere ipse dixit` ('he himself - the master - said it) of an historian, who for ought any one can tell, design'd to make a sacrifice to the ruling powers of Great Britain, to show that the parent state might exercise eh least controul over them as Colonists, any more than  the English parliament could exercise controul over the dominions which the Kings formerly held in France, or than it can now over the inhabitants of the moon, if there be any?

'by the charter of this province, the legislative power is in the Governor, who is appointed by the King, the Counsel and House of Representatives. the legislative of any commonwelath must be the supreme power. but if any edict or instruction of any body else,in what form soever conceiv'd or by what power soever backed, can have eh force and obligation of a law in the province which has not its sanction  from that legislative, it cannot be the supreme power. its laws however salutary, are liable at any time to be abrogate at the pleasure of a superior power. no body can have a power to make laws over a free people. but by their own consent, and by authority receiv'd from them:  it follows then, either that the people of this province have consented and given authority  to the parent state to make laws over them, or that

*472  'she has no such authority. no one I believe will pretend that the parent state receives any authority from the people of this province to make laws for them, or that they have ever consented she should. if the people of this province are a part of the  body politick of Great Britain, they have as such a right to be consulted in the making of all acts of the British parliament of what nature soever.

'if they are a separate body politick and are free, they have a right equal to that of the people of Great Britain to make laws for themselves, and are no more than they, subject to the controul of any legislature not their own. 'The lawful power of making laws to command whole politick societies of men, belongs so properly unto the same intire societies, that for any prince or potentate of what kind soever upon earth to exercise the same of himself, and not by express commission immediately and personally received from God, or else from authority deriv'd at the first from their consent, upon whose persons they impose laws, is no better than mere tyranny. law therefore they are not which publick approbation hath not made so.
'this was the reason given by our ancestors why they should not be bound by the acts of parliament, because not being represented in parliament,  the publick approbation of the province had not made them laws. and this is the reason why their posterity do not hold themselves rightly oblig'd to submit to the revenue acts now in being, because they never consented to go them. the  former, under their circumstances, thought it prudent to adopt the acts of trade, by passing a law of their own and thus formally consenting that they should be observ'd.  but the latter I presume will never think it expedient to copy after their example.
'the historian tells his readers that 'They (the people of this province humbly hope for all that tenderness and indulgence from a British parliament, which the Roman senate, while Rome remain'd free, shewed to Roman colonies' - why the conduct of Rome towards her colonies rather than that of Greece, is difficult to conjecture, unless it was because as  has been observed, the  latter was more generous and a better mother to her colonies that the former. be that as it may, the colonists have a right to expect from the parent state all possible tenderness;  not only as they have greatly contributed to her wealth and grandeur:  and we are willing to render to he respect and certain expressions of honor and reverence as the Grecian colonies did to the city from whence they deriv'd their origin, as Grotius says, so long as the colonies were well treated. by our compact with our King, wherein is contain'd the rule of his government and the measure of our submission, we have all the liberties and immunities of Englishmen, to all intents, purposes and constructions whatever and no King of Great Britain, were he inclin'd, could have a right either with or without his parliament, to deprive us of those liberties -they are originally from God and nature , recognized

*473  in the Charter,  and entail'd  to us and our posterity:  it is our duty therefore to contend for them whenever attempts are made to violate them.
'He also says  that 'the people of Ireland were under the same mistake' with our ancestors; that is in thinking themselves exempt from the controul of English acts of parliament. but nothing drops from his pen to shew that this was a mistake, excepting that 'particular persons in Ireland did penance for advancing and adhering to those principles'.  the  same mighty force of reasoning is used to prove that this colony was mistaken, viz.  'They suffer'd the loss of the charter'. such arguments may serve to evince the power of  the parent sate, but neither its wisdom nor justice appears from them. the sense of the nation however was very different after the revolution.  the House of Commons voted the judgment against the Charter a Grievance; and a bill was brought in and passed that house for restoring the Charters, among  which that of this province was expressly mentioned; not withstanding the mistake above  mention'd  was one great article of charge against it. but the parliament was prorogu'd sooner than was expected, by reason of the King's going to Ireland.

'Our historian tells his readers by way of consolation, that 'it may serve as some excuse for our ancestors, but they were not alone in their mistaken apprehensions of the nature of their subjection' and he appears to be mighty glad that 'so sensible a gentleman ad Mr. Moinewx,  the friend of Mr. Locke, engag'd  in the cause'. but we want no excuse for any supposed mistakes of our ancestors. let us first see it prov'd that they were mistakes.'Till then we must hold ourselves obliged to them for sentiments transmitted to us so worthy of their character and so important to our security: and we shall esteem the arguments of so sensible, and it might justly be added, so learned a gentleman as Mr. Molineux, especially as they had the approbation of his friend Mr. Locke to be valid, while we see nothing to oppose them, but the  unsupported opinion of Mr. Hutchinson'.

*469-73 above excerpts from the 'Boston Gazette' of Oct. 28, 1771. Written by Samuel Adams under the name of 'Valerius Poplicola'.

'I  have observed from Baron Montesquieu, that the British constitution has liberty for its direct object; and that the constitution of this province, according to Mr. Hutchinson, is an epitome of the British constitution:  that the  right of representation in the body  that legislates, is essential to the British constitution, without which there cannot be liberty and Chronus himself acknowledges, that the American s are 'incapable of exercising this right': let him draw what conclusion he pleases. all I insist upon is, that the conclusion cannot be just, that 'the parliament's laying  duties upon trade with the express purpose of raising a revenue, is not repugnant to or subversive of our constitution.

*474  'this doctrine, tho' long exploded by the best writers on both sides of the Atlantic, he now urges and he is reduced to this necessity, in order to justify or give coloring to his frequent bold assertions, that 'no one has attempted even to infringe our liberties',  and to his ungenerous reflections upon those who declare themselves of a different mind, as 'pretended patriots', 'over-zealous',  'intemperate politicians',  'men of no property', who 'expect to find their account' in perpetually keeping up the ball of  contention. but after all that Chronus and his associates have said, or can say, the  people of America have just 'grounds still to complain' that their rights are violated...

'I cannot help observing how artfully Chronus expresses his position, that the 'parliament's laying duties upon trade with the express purpose of raising a revenue, is not repugnant to our constitution'. it has not been made a question, that i know of, whether the parliament hath a right to make laws for the regulation of the trade of the colonies.  power she undoubtedly has to enforce her acts of trade: and the strongest maritime power caeteris paribus, will always make the most advantageous treaties,  and give laws of trade to other nations, for whom there can be not pretence to the right of legislation. The mater however should be considered equitably, if it should ever be considered at all: if the  trade of the Colonies equitably, if it should ever be considered at all: if the trad of the Colonies is protected by the British navy, there may possibly be from thence inferr'd a just right in parliament of Great Britain to restrain them from carrying on their trade to the injury of the trade of Great Britain. but this being granted, it is very different from the right to make laws in all cases whatever binding upon the Colonies and especially from laying duties upon trade for the express purpose of raising a revenue. in the one case it may be the wisdom of the Colonies, under present circumstances to acquiesce in reasonable restrictions, rather than lose their whole trade by means of the depredations  (def - plunder)of a foreign power:  in the other, it is a duty they owe themselves and their posterity, by no means to acquiesce;  because it involves them in  a state of perfect slavery.

'I say perfect slavery: for, as political liberty in its perfection consists  in the people's consenting by themselves or their representatives, to all  laws which they are bound to obey,so perfect political slavery consists in their being bound to obey any laws for taxing them, to which they cannot consent. if a people can be deprived of their property b another person or nation,it is evident that such a people cannot be free. whether it be any a nation or a monarch,is not material:  the masters indeed are different, but the government is equally despotic and tho' the despotism may be mild, from principles of policy, it is not the less a despotism. whatever Chronus may have adopted from Mr. Hume, Vatel tells us plainly and without hesitation,  that 'the supreme legislative cannot change the constitution', 'that their authority does not extend so far, ' and 'that they ought to consider the fundamental laws as sacred , if the nation has not, in very express terms, give them power to change them'. and he gives a reason for it solid and weighty;  for, says he, 'the constitution of the state ought to be fixed.

*473 bottom- 474 the above excerpts from the 'Boston Gazette' of Jan. 27, 1772 Written by Samuel Adams under the name of 'Candidus'.

*475  'DO SOMETHING MORE THAN EITHER REASON OR WRITE'

'Indeed nations, in general, are not apt to think until they feel...they voluntarily fasten their chains, by adopting, a pusillanimous  (def - very small, petty + -spirited/minded) opinion, THAT THERE WILL BE TOO MUCH DANGER IN ATTEMPTING A REMEDY -or another opinion no less fatal,  - THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS A RIGHT TO TREAT THEM AS IT DOES... from these reflections i conclude, that every free state should incessantly watch and instantly take alarm on any addition being made of the power exercised over them. innumerable instances might be produced to shew, from what slight beginnings the most extensive consequences have flowed'.

John Dickinson  'FARMER'S LETTER TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE BRITISH COLONIES' No. 11 PHILADELPHIA - 1767

'It was the steady purpose of the political party who now ruled England, for 60 years 'maintained all that was bigoted and persecuted all that was liberal' to establish an imperial despotism in America; it was the object of the patriots to protect and perpetuate their republican institutions. 'Americans,'it was said precisely and truly in the press, 'though represented by their enemies to be n a state of insurrection, mean nothing more than to support those constitutional rights to which the laws of God and nature entitle them'. for this the popular leaders now sought union. as they labored in this cause, they did not expect to reap the fruition the day they sowed the seed but watched and waited for the growth of public opinion; and when this had ripened, they aimed to clothe the union sentiment with power, by the organization of committees of correspondence.

'the patriots, in the conviction that unity was their strength and glory, were urging in the press a mutual free correspondence and a union of the colonies, preparatory to another convention and congress... months passed on, how ever, and no exigency  seemed to require a town meeting. the press, under the control of the popular leaders, teemed with proofs of their intelligent judgment of passing events; so that much of their speculation reads now like fulfilled prophecy. they boldly pushed evil principles to their legitimate results and sounded the alarm of fresh aggressions on popular rights. they said, 'this country must do something more than either reason or write, or it will soon be the most miserable and ignominious of the earth'.it was urged in ringing tones, that,

the above excepts from Richard Frothingham 'Life of Joseph Warren'  - 1865  (pp475-484)

*476  after all, the only solid guaranty for the security of public liberty was a union of the colonies...

'Still, the most spirited appeals in the press failed to excite the public mind and produce unusual action the Administration had managed its side so adroitly as to have lulled the people into a false security, and the tameness seemed to be well nigh insurmountable.  'the grand design of our adversaries is,' Samuel Adams wrote, 'to  lull us into security and make us easy while the acts remain in force which would prove fatal to us'.

'after the repeal of the Stamp Act and the modifying of the Townshend act, there remained nothing to threaten seriously the pockets of the colonists. the tea duty had been retained to save the claim of parliamentary supremacy, which was not likely to be asserted in any offensive way. the Navigations Acts must soon have given way to a more liberal and equitable policy and everything out of Massachusetts - certainly out of New England - indicated that the people were becoming tired of strife and were ready for a return to more cordial relations with the mother country. this was what Samuel Adams feared and determined to prevent'. 

'An event was needed to rouse the people...in spite of the steady aggression of arbitrary power, town and country remained tranquil. however the commissioners of the customs might have irritated the commercial world,  by the use of writs of assistance, when smuggling was pronounced patriotism, no great general grievance stirred the body of the people of Massachusetts, to say nothing of the other colonies.  the statutes interdicting trade and prohibiting domestic manufacture were dead letters; customs and laws, in other countries arbitrary and oppressive, had no foothold in America; no tenth of the product of labor was exacted as a tax; no secret process, as in France, abducted idolized leaders; no attempt had been made to carry the popular champions to London Tower; there had been no arrests; each colony had met for the most part, with success, the strain on its local government; the action in the spirit of tyranny was insidious and the people, especially he yeomenry, who were unmolested in their individual and communal freedom, were enjoying a season of rare material prosperity. experience shows, that, however thoroughly vital principles may be grasped or however tenaciously they may be held, mankind do not risk the solid blessings of peace, practical liberty and good government, for the sake of a principle however sound, or to put down and abstraction however false, but are rather disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable. the state of things in the colonies illustrates the correctness of this sentence often Declaration. the policy of the ministry was judge to be fatal to popular rights; yet it needed sharper aggressions on them to stir the popular depths and justify measures that might affect life, fortune and honor...'

AMERICAN  POLITICAL ACTION

November 2, 17722

Circumvention and Reform of Centralized Government

the voluntary communicating of Towns, Counties, and Legislative assemblies, constitutes political action consistent with and springing from local Self-Government with Union  - the American idea of government.
'the system of committees of correspondence did indeed grow into a mighty tree; for it was nothing less than the beginning of the American Union. Adams himself by no means intended to confine his plan to Massachusetts, for in the following April he wrote to Richard Henry Lee of Virginia urging the establishment of similar committees in every colony . but Virginian had already acted in the matter...'  John Fiske 'The American Revolution'

intelligence now came of the final determination of the ministry as to the tenure of the judges' salaries, which made them independent as to the tenure of the judges' salaries, which made them independent  of the local and fundamental law.  'the last vessels from England' Josiah Quincy, jun., said the Boston Gazette of September 28, 1772,  'tell us the judges and the subalterns  have got salaries from Great Britain! is it possible this last movement should not move us and drive us, not to desperation, but to our duty? the blind may see, the callous feel, the spirited will act', and the words of the noble man were tot too strong, when the people's rights were to be subjected.

*479  to the will of one man. it was now proposed to consolidate the popular party by  an organization to be know as committees of correspondence, to constitute on authentic medium for an interchange of views and  for promoting concert of action. Samuel Adams had long used on the feasibility of this scheme; and the more he mused on it, the stronger grew his desire to realize it. if the towns of Massachusetts, he now wrote, would begin this work, it would, in his opinion, extend from colony to colony and, thus united, the people would be enabled from colony to colony and, thus united, the people would be enabled to resist successfully the measures of the ministry. the idea of a union of the colonies was nearly as old as their foundation; the mode of committees of correspondence had often been suggested, but the fame of a statesman consists in an embodiment, at the right time, of a great thought into a wise measure...
'the town-meeting in Fanueil Hall, on the 24th of Oct., 1772, in spite of the urgent appeals in the press, was not large, though there was a respectable attendance. this was ascribed to the busy season of the year, to difference as to points of policy in the popular ranks,  to the dexterity of the Tories in fomenting these divisions and to the opinion of some that the town was not the most appropriate organization to consider the question at issue...
'the town, the Gazette says,  'came into every full vote; there being only one hand held up against it, and that through inattention, as the person assures us, to prepare a decent and respectful message to the governor'.
'Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, and Benjamin Church were chosen to frame it; when the meeting adjourned till the afternoon. the committee, in the afternoon, reported the draft of a brief message, to be presented to the governor. it stated as the nature of the report, believed to be well grounded,  'that stipends were affixed to the offices of the judges, contrary to ancient and invariable usage';  that  it spread alarm among all considerate persons who had heard of it, in town or country; that the measure was viewed as tending to complete the system of their slavery and, as the judges held their places during pleasure, that establishment appeared bit with fatal evils. the message requested the governor to inform the town whether he had received such advice as to create the assurance in his mind that such establishment had been or was likely to be made...

'at the adjournment of the meeting  (Oct. 30),  an answer of the governor to the message of the town was read, in which he said it was not proper  for him to lay before the inhabitants any part of his correspondence as governor; and he declined to say whether he had or had not received advices relative to the public officers of the Government, but said he was ready to gratify their inhabitants, 'upon every

*480  regular application to him on business of public concernment to the town',  consistently with fidelity to the trust which His Majesty reposed in him. a committee - James Otis, Samuel Adams and Thomas Cushing - was now appointed to draft a petition for presentation to the governor. they framed a compact and admirable paper...and the petition asked that the governor would be pleased  'to allow the general assembly to meet at the time to which it stood prorogued, in order that, in that constitutional body with whom it is to inquire into grievances and redress them, the joint wisdom of the province may be employed in deliberating and determining  on a matter so important and alarming'.
'on the morning of the Second day of November, the day on which the town was to meet, the Boston Gazette' had 7 columns of matter on politics, and shone in the glory of a free press, endeavoring to kindle an influence in favor of a just cause... the meeting in the afternoon, at Faneuil Hall, was not large, though it was respectable in numbers and character; showing the at there needed a fresh impulse to rouse the public mind. the governor, in an answer, declined to allow the assembly to meet at the time to which it stood prorogued, saying that he had determined, before receiving the address of the town, to prorogue  (def - to discontinue a session of the British Parliament or similar body), saying that he had determined, before receiving the address of the town, to prorogue it to a further time;  that the reasons presented had not altered his opinion; and, if he should meet the assembly contrary to his own judgment, he should yield to the town the exercise of this part of the prerogative and should be unable to justify his conduct to the king. in the closing paragraph, he remarked, 'there would, moreover, be danger of encouraging the inhabitants of the other towns in the province to assemble, from time to time, in order to consider the necessity or expedience of a session of the general assembly, or to debate and transact other matters which the law that authorizes towns to assemble does not make the business of a town-meeting'.

'this high-toned paper was read several times; and, after considering it and voting it to be unsatisfactory, the meeting resolved,  'That they have, ever had and ought to have, a right to petition the king or his representative for the redress of such grievances as they feel, or for preventing of such as they have reason to apprehend, and to communicate they sentiments to other towns',  Hutchinson pleads, in his history, that this was waiving  the point; that he had taken no exception to the right of petition, nor to the communication of sentiment from one town to another,  but that his exception had been to the assumption by towns, as corporations, to act beyond limits defined by the law.  but he does not define the legal limit nor the illegal assumption. had towns a right to petition, and yet no right to meet for the purpose of determining by debate what their petition

*481  should contain? the truth is, that Hutchinson, in accordance with his private correspondence, denied indirectly and meant to deny, the right of the towns to hold meetings to consider political questions; and his special plea, in the court of history, is an after-thought and a subterfuge.

'Samuel Adams, after the passage of this resolve, made the motion which the Tories termed 'the source of the rebellion', and which Bancroft says 'included the whole revolution', he moved,

'that a committee of correspondence be appointed, to consist of 21 persons, to state 'the rights of the colonists and of this province in particular, as men, as Christians and as subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several towns in this province and to the world, as the sense of this town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have been, or from time to time may be made ; also requesting of each town a free communication of their sentiments on this subject.

'this motion was carried, nemine contradicente' (def - latin, 'with no one contradicting). when the names of Hancock, Cushing and Phillips, representatives and Austin and Scollay, selectmen, with others, were announced as members of this committee, they declined; not because they were opposed to the measure, but on the ground that their private business would not admit of their acceptance. the committee are recoreded in the following order: James Otis, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Church, William Dennie, William Greenleaf, Joseph Greenleaf,  Thomas Young, William Powell, Nathaniel Appleton, Oliver Wendell, John Sweetser, Josiah Quincy, John Bradford, Richard Boynton, William Mackay, Nathaniel Barber, Caleb Davis, Alexander Hill, William Molineux, Robert Pierpont.
'the committee were requested 'to report to the town as soon as may be' when the meeting adjourned...the town, on the Twentieth of November, on the warrant of the selectmen, met in Faneuil Hall, to receive the report of the committee of correspondence. it was first  read by the chairman, James Otis, and afterwards by the moderator, john Hancock. it consisted of 3 divisions, entitled first, A STATE OF THE RIGHTS OF THE COLONISTS AND OF THIS PROVINCE IN PARTICULAR,  which was the portion allotted to Adams, and makes 12 pages of the pamphlet; second, A LIST OF THE INFRINGEMENTS AND VIOLATIONS OF THOSE RIGHTS,   which was the part assigned to Warren and makes 16 pages; third, A LETTER OF CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE OTHER TOWNS,  of 6 pages and the churches portion. the 'Gazette' says the report was 'thoroughly examined and amended by the town, when it was accepted by a full vote, nemine contradicente. the town then voted that these proceedings be printed and ordered the town-clerk to sign printed copies of the same, in the name and behalf of the town, to be sent

*482  to the selectmen of each town and district in the province, and to such other gentle,men as the committee shall direct. thus this matter is left to the candid consideration of our brethren and fellow-subjects in general'. the won-meeting, bout 10 o'clock. P.M., was dissolved. 600 copies of the report which had been adopted were printed, and sent out to the towns and to prominent Whigs in other colonies.
'the first portion of this report consists mostly of a statement of abstract principles. the rights of the colonists are classified under 3 heads, entitled, 'Rights as men, as Christians and as subjects'. here are announced the right of expatriation in the face of the English maxi, 'Once a subject, always a subject'; of just and true liberty, equal and impartial in matters spiritual and temporal, when the Dissenter in the mother-country was the subject of a penal code and civil disabilities; of the equality of all before the law, so that the report says, citing Locke,
'There should be one rule of justice for rich and poor; for the favorite at court and the countryman at the plough'.
'it developed the idea at length, that consent is the true basis of law;  it affirmed that the legislature had no right to absolute, arbitrary power over the lives and fortunes of the people and could not justly assume to itself  a power to rule by extemporary, arbitrary decrees; but was bound to see justice dispensed and rightly decided 'by promulgated, standing and known laws', interpreted by a judiciary as independent as far as possible of prince or people. the statement of the basis of personal freedom is radical:

'If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up any essential, natural right, the eternal law of reason and the grand end of society would absolutely vacate such renunciation:  the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily to become a slave'.

'the argument on taxation was re-iterated with great force and it was denied that there could be any representation in parliament that would render taxation of the colonies by that body legal. it characterized Magna Charta as a constrained declaration of original, inherent, indefeasible, natural tights. it says, 'that great author, that great jurist and even that court-writer, Mr. Justice Blackstone holds that this recognition was justly obtained, sword in hand and peradventure it must be one day, sword in hand, again rescued and preserved from total oblivion'.

'the second portion of the report, which was assigned to Warren, enumerated, under 10 heads, the 'infringements and violations of

*483  rights' and began with the remark, that they 'would not fail to excite the attention of all who consider themselves interested in the happiness and freedom of mankind in general and of this continent and province in particular'. to frame an abstract of these 10 counts of this indictment of the British Administration would be to repeat the instances already related of their isolation. 3 of the counts, however, show so strikingly the grasp thee was in the public mind of great ideas, as to require comment.
'the report says that parliament

'assumed the powers of legislation, in all cases whatsoever, without obtaining the consent of the inhabitants, which is ever essentially necessary to the rightful establishment of such a legislature'

'and it affirmed, in relation to a religious establishment, that 'no power on earth can justly give either temporal or spiritual jurisdiction within this province, except the great and general court'.  it instanced, among the rankest violations of this principle, the royal instructions, interfering with the tenure of the judiciary, rendering one branch  of the legislature merely a ministerial engine and threatening an entire destruction of the liberties of the people.  'the province', it says,  'had already felt such effects from these instructions, as, we think, justly entitle us to say, that they threaten an entire destruction of our liberties and must soon, if not checked, render every branch of our government a useless burden upon the people'. this was the idea of local government on which Hutchinson so continuously dwelt.
'the report presents as an indictment,
'the extending the power of the courts of vice-admiralty to so enormous a degree, as deprives the people of the colonies, in a great measure, of their inestimable right to trials by juries;  which has ever been justly considered as the grand bulwark and security of English property'.

'It alleged that this right was also infringed in the acts for preserving His Majesty's dock-yards, and in a revival of an obsolete statute of Henry VIII.  the British statute is commented on, wherein, while the estates and properties of the people of Great Britain are expressly guarded, those of the colonists are given up to the decision of one dependent, interested judge of admiralty.  'Thus our birthrights are taken from us, and that, too, with every mark of indignity, insult, and contempt. we may be harassed and dragged from one part of the continent to another and finally be deprived of our whole property, by the arbitrary determination of one biased,  capricious judge of admiralty'.

*484  'The report says,
'The restraining as from erecting slitting-mills, for manufacturing our iron, the natural process of this country, is an infringement of that right with which God and nature have invested us, to make use of our skill and industry in procuring the necessaries and conveniences of life'.

'The acts were cited which restrained the manufacture of hats, the carrying wool even over a ferry,as oppression  and it is said were cited which restrained the manufacture of hats, the carrying wool even over a ferry, as oppression and it is said that inhabitants, 'have often been put to the expense of carrying a bag of wool near 100 miles by land', when the trouble might have been saved by passing over a river. here is a manly protest against those trammels on colonial enterprise,  which the great British economist pronounced a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind.

'Adam Smith in the 'Wealth of nations', printed in  1775, in alluding to the restrictions imposed on the colonies, says,
'She prohibits the exportation from one province to another by water and even the carriage by land, upon horseback or in a cart, of hats, of wools and woolen goods, of the produce of America'. he remarks, 'to prohibit a great people from making all they can of every part of their own produce or from enjoying their  stock and industry in the way that they judge most advantageous to themselves, is a manifest violation of the most sacred rights of mankind'.

'here, too, is a demand, not for a government to supply work to those who live under it, but for the recognition of the right of each individual  to select his field of work.. to reap its fruits and enjoy them in security. in a word, here freedom is asked for that industrial energy which has contributed so largely to the growth and glory of the country;  and it was asked at a time when arbitrary restrictions on business and labor disgraced the legislation of civilized nations!

'the last portion of the report, which was assigned to Church, was a brief but spirited 'Letter of Correspondence to the other Towns' which contained a short epitome (def - a condensed account)of the ideas of the 2 previous portions of the report, a reference to the official papers that passed between the town and the governor and invited a free communication of sentiment to Boston ...this report was the boldest and most comprehensive summary of the American cause that had appeared.  it is remarkably free from passion and, stating principals and their violation with simplicity, it calmly addressed the reason...'

*485  TOWN OF BOSTON'S  'Letter of Correspondence to the other Towns' CONCERNING THEIR RIGHTS AS MEN, AS CHRISTIANS AND AS SUBJECTS.  pp485-7top (MAKE THIS PAGE NOTE FOR EACH DIFFERENT SOURCE*****)

Gentlemen, We the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of Boston in Town Meeting duly Assembled, according to law, apprehending there is abundant to be alarmed at the plan of Despotism, which the enemies of our invaluable rights have concerted, is rapidly hastening to a completion, can no longer conceal our impatience under a constant, unremitted, uniform aim to enslave us, or confide in an Administration which threatens us with certain and inevitable destruction. but, when in addition to the repeated inroads made upon the Rights and Liberties of the Colonists and of those in this Province in particular, we reflect on the late extraordinary measure in affixing stipends or salaries from the Crown to the offices of the Judges of the Superior Court of Judicature,  making them not only entirely independent of the people whose lives and properties are so much in their power, but absolutely dependent on the Crown (which may hereafter, be worn by a Tyrant) both for their appointment and support, we cannot but be extremely alarmed by the mischievous tendency of this innovation; which in our opinion is directly contrary to the spirit of the British Constitution, pregnant with innumerable evils, and hath  a direct tendency To deprive us of every thing valuable as men, as Christians and as Subjects, entitled, by the Royal Charter, to all the Rights, liberties and privileges of native Britons. such being the critical state of this Province, we think it our duty on this truly distressing occasion, to ask you, What can withstand the attacks of mere power?  what can preserve the liberties of the Subject, when the Barriers of the Constitution are taken away?

'The Town of Boston consulting on the matter above mentioned, thought proper to make application to the Governor by a Committee; requesting his relative to the report of the Judges having their support independent of the grants of this province a Copy of which you  have herewith in paper N.
1. to which we received as answer the Paper N.
2.  the Town on further deliberation, thought it advisable to refer the matter to the Great and General assembly; and accordingly in  a second address as N.
3. they requested his Excellency that the General Court might Convene at the time to which they then stood prorogued; to which the town received the reply as in N.
4. in which we are acquainted with his intentions further to prorogue the General Assembly, which has since taken place.

'thus Gentlemen it is evident his Excellency declines giving the least satisfaction as to the matter in request. the affair being of publick concernment, the Town of Boston thought it necessary to consult with their Brethren throughout the Province and for this purpose appointed a Committee, to communicate with our fellow sufferers, respecting this recent instance of oppression, as well as the many other violations of our Rights under which we have groaned for several Years past - This Committee have briefly Recapitualated the sense we have of our invaluable Rights as men, as Christians and As Subjects and

*486  wherein we conceive those Rights to have been violated, which we are desirous may be laid before your Town, that the subject may be weighed as its importance requires and the collected wisdom of the whole people, as  far as possible, be obtained, on a deliberation of such great and lasting moment as to involve it in the fate of all our Posterity - Great pains has been taken to persuade the British Administration to think that the good People of this Province in general are quiet and undisturbed at the late measures and that any uneasiness that appears, arises from a few factious designing and disaffected men. this renders it the more necessary, that the sense of the People should be explicitly declared.
'a free communication of your sentiments to this Town, of our common danger, is earnestly solicited and will be gratefully received. if you concur with us in opinion, that our Rights are properly stated and that the several
Acts of Parliament  and Measures of Administration, pointed out by us are subversive of these Rights, you will doubtless think it of the utmost importance that we stand firm as one man, to recover and support them; and to take such measures by directing our Representatives, or otherwise, as your wisdom and fortitude shall dictate , to rescue from impending ruin our happy and glorious constitution.
'but if it should be the general voice of this Province, that the Rights as we have stated them, do not belong to us: or that the several measures of Administration in the British Court, are no violations of these Rights or that if they are thus violated or infringed, they are not worth contending for, or resolutely maintaining;  - should this be the general voice of the Province, we must be resigned to our wretched fate; but shall forever lament the extinction of that generous ardor for Civil and Religious liberty, which in the face of every danger, and even death itself, induced our fathers to forsake the bosom of their Native Country and begin a settlement on are Creation. -but we trust this cannot be the case: we are sure your wisdom, your regard to yourselves and the rising Generation, cannot suffer you to dose, or set  supinely indifferent on the brink of destruction, while the iron hand of oppression is daily tearing the choicest Fruit from the fair Tree of Liberty,  planted by our worthy Predecessors, at the expense of their treasure and abundantly water'd with their blood -

'it is an observation of an eminent Patriot, that a people long inured to hardships. loose by degrees the very notions of liberty; they look upon themselves as Creatures AT MERCY,  and that all impositions laid on by superior hands, are legal and obligatory.  - but thank Heaven this is not yet verified in AMERICA!  we have yet some share of publick virtue remaining: we are not afraid of poverty, but disdain slavery.  - the fate of nations is so Precarious and revolutions in states so often take place at an unexpected moment, when the hand of power by fraud or flattery, has secured every Avenue of retreat, and the minds of the Subject debased to its purpose, that it becomes every well wisher to his Country, while it has any remains of freedom, to keep an eagle Eye upon every innovation and stretch of power, in those that have the rule over us.
'a recent instance of this we have in the late Revolutions in Sweden, by which the Prince once subject to the laws of the State, has been able of a sudden to declare himself an absolute Monarch The Sweeds were once a free, martial and

*487  valient people: their minds are now so debaced, that they rejoice at being  subject to the caprice and arbitrary power of a Tyrant and kiss their Chains. it makes us shudder to think, the late measures of Administration may be productive of the like Catastrophe; which Heaven forbid! let us consider Brethren, we are struggling for our best Birth Rights and Inheritance; which being infringed, renders all our blessings precarious in their enjoyments and consequently trifling in their value. let us disappoint the men who are raising themselves on the ruin of this Country. let us convince every Invader of our freedom, that we will be as free as the Constitution our Fathers recognized will Justify'.

BOSTON'S COMMUNICATIONS TO THE TOWNS FALL IN THE FERTILE GROUND OF Christian INFLUENCES (excerpts from Richard Frothingham,  'The Rise of the Republic of the United States' - 1890' (pp487b-489top

the public mind, however, was so calm,  -its surface appearing even glassy to earnest souls,  - that it feared a failure of the towns to respond to the call of the metropolis would prejudice the cause which it was designed to promote...'Anxious however, as the originators of the measure were for its success, they did not follow the report into the country and speak there in public meetings in its favor. I have not seen the mention of a single address, delivered by a Boston orator to a political gathering in the other towns, during the ten years' controversy before the war; nor of a speech, delivered by a patriot from the country, at a Boston public meeting. the popular leaders relied on correspondence and the press, in the promotion of their objects.
'the report was its own orator. in a few weeks after it was sent out on its mission, the fears of the timid were dispelled and the faith of the confident was justified when the selectmen of the towns read it in their legal meetings, it reached communities which were planted under Christian influences, fixed in habits of personal independence and invigorated by the customs of freedom; whose youth were nurtured in the common schools, and whose young men were trained in civil affairs in the town-meeting. these communities were and are, all over the country, fountains of public spirit that never failed in a crisis to supply a noble conservatism on the side of law and liberty. it was instinctively felt that the report dealt with precious heirlooms which were prized and cherished. as the people mused on its thought,  - each community kindling its own fires,  - patriotism warmed; and the flow of sentiment from every quarter, to the Boston committee, had the power of an intelligent public opinion.

*488  the journals, those photographs of passing time, preserved a picture of this great scene fro the admiration of posterity. their record of the communing of the towns with the metropolis, by addresses, letters, and resolves, often elaborate, ever fresh and always soul-stirring, is an authentic manifestation of the spirit of the time. they embrace the names of the chief men of the place as the local committee, endorse the sentiment of the report, pledge to support the metropolis as the exponent of the general cause, and express a desire for union.
the 'Boston Gazette' of Dec. 289,  1772, has the following letter, lately received from Cambridge, which will give an idea of this political communion: -

'the committee appointed by the town of Cambridge to write to the committee of communications and correspondence at Boston, gladly embrace this opportunity. in the name and behalf of the said town of Cambridge and with the most sincere respect, they acknowledge the vigilance and care, discovered by the town of Boston, of the public rights and liberties; acquainting you that this town will heartily concur  in all salutary, proper and constitutional measures for the redress of those intolerable grievances which threaten, and if continued, must overthrow the happy civil constitutions of this province, if continued, must overthrow the happy civil constitutions of this province.

'it is with the greatest pleasure we now inform you, that we think the meeting was as full as it has been, for the choice of a representative, for a number of years, if not fuller; and that the people discovered a glorious spirit, like men determined to be free. we have here enclosed you a copy of the votes and proceedings of this town, at their meetings,  so far as they have gone.

we would add, may the town of Boston, the capital of this province, rejoice in perpetual prosperity! may wisdom direct her in all her consultations! may her spirited and prudent conduct render  her a terror to tyrants! may every town in this province and every colony upon the continent, be awakened to a sense of danger and unite in the glorious cause of liberty. then shall we be able effectually to disappoint the machinations of our enemies. to conclude, that this land may be purged from the sins which are a reproach to a people, and be exalted by righteousness; that God Almighty may be our God as he was the God of our fathers; and that we may be possessed of the same principles of virtue, religion, and public spirit which warmed and animated the hearts of our renowned ancestors,  - is the sincere prayer of your friends in the common cause of our country, the committee of the town of Cambridge.'

'in a month, 45 towns, out of 250 in the province, heartily endorsed the report. a week later, it was stated that the number had increased to 80.  the announcement was then made that it would be impossible to print the proceedings of all the towns and to make selections would be to show partiality;  and for this reason the journals stopped entirely the publication of them; but a card from authority, appeared in the journals, recommending that the whole of this action in behalf of the rights of America be collected in a volume, in order that posterity may know what their ancestors did in the cause of freedom; and

*489  each town, however small, was desired and expected to publish its sentiments to the world, in order that its name, with the names already printed, might be included in this catalogue of fame and handed down to future ages! so firm in the faith were this generation, that the rising in the horizon was not a rushlight, but a sun, destined to illumine the political heavens; and that future ages would hail with acclaim the early gleams of its dawn'.

DECENTRALIZATION  (from Jared Sparks 'The Life of Gouverneur Morris'  - 1832)

the marvellous success, which attended the experiment of erecting a new fabric and the union of feeling and effort, which contributed to its strength and durability, can only be accounted for by the fact, that the sense of wrong was universally felt, that the burden of oppression rested heavily upon all and that common suffering and danger kindled a spirit of united resolution, which, from whatever motive it might first originate, rose speedily to the lofty tone of self denial and patriotism. but however we may explain causes, the results will not be the less extraordinary and the formation of the American Republics must ever be a theme of wonder to those, who judge of social organizations by the annals of past experience, and in all future time it must constitute a novel chapter in the history of mankind...
'and here it must be kept in mind, that wherever the power of Great Britain was thrown off or disavowed, all political control passed by its natural course into the hands of the people. no man, or body of men, had authority to command any other body of men or individual; equality of rights produced an equality of condition; and the structure of government could only be raised on the strength of powers delegated anew to certain persons, for this special purpose, by the willing voice of the people, whom circumstances had made the sole arbiters of their own political destiny. hence the primary movement was to bring the people to understand their interests and act in concert and the first means used to attain this end was the establishment of Committees of Correspondence in different parts of the country. these committees were chosen by the people in towns, counties, parishes, districts, or small neighborhoods'.

*490  'the conjuncture of political exigency and colonial environment produced organization of a peculiar type. indeed, so controlling was the geographical situation alone that this type necessarily reappeared in every plan for any kind of union.here were local groups, widely separated.  unity of purpose might be affirmed among them, but it could not be carried to fruition without CORRESPONDENCE AND COOPERATIVE EFFORT  BY SYMPATHETIC NUCLEII  IN THE INDIVIDUAL COLONIES.bound... among the religiously inclined IT APPEARED IN A DESIRE OF COMMUNION BETWEEN THE CHURCHES.  Merchants saw in this method a weapon for securing release from certain restrictive laws of trade. ALL PROTRACTED RELATIONS between the colonies and their colonial agents in England WERE BASED ON CORRESPONDENCE.  Legislatures were wont to communicate their acts to sister assemblies.

'Secret societies found it desirable and convenient to disseminate their sentiments by correspondence. to cite such instances in a society whose individual members base a considerable portion of their daily activities in the employment of the same principle in the conduct of their various interests, political, religious, mercantile and social, seems trivial. these earlier illustrations would not be worth recalling were it not that partisan historians have lost sight of the principle in their zeal to ascribe the origin of the particular committee under discussion to the inventive genius of their particular demigod.

AT ONCE THE REVOLUTIONARY MACHINERY AND THE GERM OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT  (from excerpts from Edward D. Collins, 'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution'  - 1902)

'It is obviously a principle and not a prototype that we have to deal with. the principle is very simple, and very fundamental. it was correspondence, with cooperation at the terminal points, that brought about the Revolution. as a starting point for the study we may take November 2, 1772, and say that then, for all practical purposes, the committee of correspondence began its life as a local institution of the Revolution, and that Samuel Adams was it s promoter. its importance as a piece of revolutionary machinery can hardly be overestimated. it was not merely a channel through which public opinion might flow; it created public opinion and played upon it to fashion events. it was the mother of committees, and these committees, local and inter-colonial, worked up the war. it initiated measures and its activities comprehended legislative,  executive, and judicial functions. it was the germ of a government'.

 *491 COMMUNICATING TOWNS (from 'the writings of Samuel Adams'  by Henry Alonzo Cushing, New York - 1904)

 Samuel Adams produces the blueprint for American Political Action

Letter to Elbridge Gerry,
November 5, 1772

My Dear Sir...I have the satisfaction of inclosing the last proceedings of our Town meeting (* 'it was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams, that a Committee of Correspondence be appointed to consist of 21 Persons - to state the Rights of the Colonists and of this Province in particular, as Men, as Christians, and as Subjects; to communicate and publish the same to the several towns in this Province and to the World as the sense of this town, with the Infringements and Violations thereof that have been or from time to time may be made - also requesting of each Town a free communication of their Sentiments on this Subject - And the Question being accordingly put - Passed in the Affirmative'.
'in which I think you will perceive a Coincidence with your own Judgment, in a plan concerted for the whole to act upon. our timid sort of people are disconcerted, when they are positively told that the Sentiments of the Country are different from those of the City.  Therefore a free Communication with each Town will serve to ascertain this matter; and when once it appears beyond Contradiction, that we are united in Sentiments  there will be a Confidence in each other and a plan of opposition will be easily formed and executed with Spirit. in such a case  (to return your own Language with entire Approbation) those 'who have Virtue enough to oppose the wicked designs of the Great, will have this for their boast that they have struggled for and with an honest people'.

'...I take Notice of what you observe 'that our whole dependence as a people seems to be upon our own Wisdom and Valor, '  in which I fully agree with you. it puts me in mind of a Letter i received not along ago from a friend of mine of some note in London, wherein he says,  'your whole dependence under God is upon your own Virtue, (Valor).  I know of no Noblemen in this Kingdom who care any thing about you, excepting Lords Chatham and Shelburne, and you would do well to be watchful even of them'.
'I earnestly wish that the inhabitants of Marblehead and other Towns would severally meet, and if they see Cause, among other Measures, second this town and appoint a Committee to be ready to communicate with ours when ready. this would at once discover and Union of Sentiments thus far and  have its Influence on other Towns. it would at least show that Boston is not wholly deserted and might prevent 'its falling a Sacrifice to the Rage or ridicule of our (common) Enemies'. 

'I shall be pleased with your further Sentiments and am in strict truth, (SAMUEL ADAMS)

*492  'In its inception, this government in embryo which Samuel Adams set going was purely a local affair. it was, broadly speaking, Adams's attempt to organize, in such a way that it could be utilized, that spirit of suspicion, discontent and rebellion which he had long been fomenting in Massachusetts. that the organization should overleap the limits of the colony and his management may not have been a part of his original purpose. it does not appear, at any rate, that he foresaw the degree of success awaiting his scheme or ardently desired its development along the lines it followed. the movement, once begun, assumed large proportions and passed out of his control. so long as it was confined to any one colony the ruling spirit in that colony might dominate it; just so soon as it became intercolonial it broke the bonds of local control. the system was too large for one man to 'boss'.

'in his won colony Adams was untiring and invaluable in setting the system in operation. his friends doubted the expediency of his plan and the measure had lukewarm support, but the men who feared or doubted were overborne and those how apprehended failure were silenced by the success with which Adams kept things moving. the Boston committee of correspondence has been likened to a political party manager. it provided for regular meetings, consulted with other similar bodies in the vicinity, stimulated the spread of committees in surrounding towns, kept up a correspondence with them, prepared political matter for the press, circulated it in newspapers and broadsides, matured political measures, created and guided public sentiment - in short, heated the popular temper to the boiling point of revolution and then drew from it the authority to act.

JANUARY OF  1773:
EIGHTY COMMUNICATING TOWNS IN MASSACHUSETTS FOLLOW BOSTON'S LEADERSHIP (excerpts from Edward D. Collins,  'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution' - 1902)

'Plymouth followed Boston's lead. the popular party began to stir. the Boston committee met and organized. its widely distributed report produced a great sensation. it began to assume the powers of a legislative and executive council. the tea importation opportunely gave the committees a subject for correspondence and rapidly impelled the other principal towns to follow the example and appoint committees of correspondence with broad powers. by January of  1773 Hutchinson reported that  80 or more towns in Massachusetts had committees...

*493  TWO LETTERS FROM THE 80 COMMUNICATING TOWNS OF MASSACHUSETTS

TOWN OF PETERSHAM ANSWERS BOSTON'S LETTER

from the 'Boston Gazette' for Monday, January  18,  1773 ,pp 493-7
'Every art and every instrument was made use of to prevent the meetings of the towns in the country, but to no purpose. it is no wonder that a measure calculated to promote a correspondence and free communication among the people should awaken their (Tory) apprehensions; for they well knew it must detect their falsehood...'' Samuel Adams,  'Letter to Arthur lee,  1773)

'the following Letter and proceedings of the Town of Petersham together with a Copy of their Instructions to their Representative, were transmitted to our Committee of Correspondence, viz.

'To the Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Boston.

'Gentlemen,
'the town of Petersham having received a circular letter from the town of Boston, with the state of rights and grievances, as published by them, most sensibly congratulate you, on reflecting on that principle of virtue which must have induced your town, at so critical a day, to take the lead in so good a cause; and our admiration is heightened when we consider your being exposed to the first efforts of the iron jaws of power. the time may come, when if you continue your integrity, that you may be driven from your goodly heritages; and if that should be the case, which god in His infinite mercy prevent, we invite you to share with us in our small supply of the necessaries of life:  and should the voracious jaws of tyranny still haunt us, and we should not be able to withstand them, we are determined to retire and seek refuge among the inland aboriginal natives of this country, with whom we doubt not but to find more humanity and brotherly love than we have lately received from our mother country. we are sensible that there is a number amongst us, who are wicked enough to make use of their whole influence to divide and render the efforts making for a union abortive and that they are induced to conduct in this manner from the low motives of expecting to be sharers in the arbitrary power, which they are so active in endeavouring should take place, and of sharing in the unrighteous plunder of their fellow men. but may god graciously disappoint their measures and turn their hearts.

*494  we sent herewith an attested copy of the doings of our town if the nature of causes ever again bespeaks any more from us, we then again shall offer what then may appear right:  for we read, that those that were faithful spake often, one to the other; and may 'God of his infinite mercy, in his own time, deliver us.
'at a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Petersham, in the county of Worcester, duly assembled according to law, held by adjournment on the 4th of January,  1773,  the committee chosen  the 30th ult, made the following report, viz.

'the town having received a circular letter from the town of Boston, respecting the present grievances and abominable oppression under which this country groans, have thereupon taken into their most serious consideration, the present policy of the British government and administration, with regard to Great-Britain and these colonies, have carefully reviewed the mode of election and the quality of the electors of the commons of that island, and have also attentively reflected upon the enormous and growing influence of the crown and that bane of all free states a standing army, in the time of peace, and in consequence thereof are fully confirmed in opinion, that the antient rights of the nation are capitally invaded and the greatest of the most precious and established liberties of Englishmen utterly destroyed:
'and whereas, the Parliament of Great-Britain by various statutes and acts, have unrighteously destroyed our trade, denied and precluded us from the setting up and carrying on manufactures highly beneficial to the inhabitants of these territories, restricted and prevented our lawful intercourse and commerce with other states and kingdoms, have also made laws and institutions touching life and limb, in disherison (ie.  disinheritance) of the ancient common law of the land; and moreover, have, in these latter times, robbed and plundered the honest and laborious inhabitants of this extensive continent, of their property by mere force and power and are now draining this people of the fruits of their toil, by thus raising a revenue from them against the natural rights of man and in open violation of the laws of God:  this town in union with the worthy inhabitants of Boston, now think it their indispensible duty to consider of the premises and the present aspect of the times and to take such steps as upon mature deliberation are judged right and expedient and hereupon this town.
'resolved, that, with a Governor appointed from Great-Britain (especially at this day) during pleasure, with a  large stipend, dependant upon the will of the crown and controuled by instructions from a British Minister of State; with a council subject to the negative of such a governor, and with all officers civil and military subject to his appointment or consent;

*495 with a castle in the hands of a standing army, stationed in the very bowels of the land, that amazing number of placemen and dependants, with which every maritime town already swarms, no people can ever be truly virtuous, free or brave.
'"RESOLVED,  that the parliament of Great-Britain, usurping and exercising a legislative authority over and extorting an unrighteous revenue from these colonies, is against all divine and human laws. the late appointment of salaries to be paid to our Superiour Court Judges, whose creation, pay and commission depend on mere will and pleasure, complete system of bondage equal to any ever before fabricated by the combined efforts of the ingenuity, malice, fraud and wickedness of man.

'RESOLVED,  that it is the opinion of this town, that a despotic arbitrary government is the kingdom of this world, as set forth in the New Testament, and is diametrically opposite to the establishment of Christianity, in a society and has a direct tendency to sink a people into a profound state of ignorance and irreligion; and that if we have an eye to our won and posterity's happiness (not only in this world but the world to come) it is our duty to oppose such a government.

'AND FURTHER RESOLVED,  that the  depriving the colonies of their constitutional rights, may be fitly compared to the dismembering the natural body, which will soon affect the heart; and it would be nothing unexpected for us to hear, that those very persons who have been so active in robbing the colonies of their constitutional rights, that they have delivered up the constitution of our mother country into the hands of our King.
THEREFORE, RESOLVED,  that it is the first and highest social duty of this people, to consider of, and seek ways and means for a speedy redress of the mighty grievances and intolerable wrongs; and that for the obtainment of this end, this people are warranted, by the laws of God and nature, in the use of every rightful art, and energy of policy, stratagem and force.

'and while we are thus under these awful frowns of divine providence, and involved, as this people are, in heavy calamities which daily increase in number and severity, it is highly becoming towns and individuals to humble themselves  before Almighty GOD,  seriously to commune with their own hearts and seek carefully with tears, for the causes of the prevailing distresses of the land. and while it is apparent that pristine piety and purity of morals have given place to infidelity, dissipation, luxury and gross corruption of mind and morals, there is a loud call for public humility, lamentings and reformation; and it is at this time eminently incumbent upon one and all, to seek at the throne of the Great GOD,  for those special and remarkable interpositions of divine providence,

*496  grace and mercy, which have so often saved New-England from both public and private distress and misery: and as there is great reason to believe that in past times we have too much depended upon the exertions of worldly wisdom and political devices, it becomes us in our present melancholy situation,  to rely  no longer on an arm of flesh, but on the arms of that all-powerful GOD,  who is able to unite the numerous inhabitants of this extensive territory, as a band of brothers in one common cause; who can easily give that true religion which shall make us His people indeed, that spirit which shall fit us to endure temporary hardships for the procurement of future happiness; that spirit of valour and irresistable courage which shall occasion our aged and our youth to jeaopard (to jeopardize, risk) their lives with joy in the highplaces of the field, for his name and service sake, for the preservation also of this goodly heritage of our fathers, for the sake of the living children of our loins and the unborn millions of posterity.
''we believe that there are very many, who in these days have kept their integrity and garments unspotted; and hope that God will deliver them and our nation for their sake. GOD  will not suffer this land, where the gospel hath flourished, to become a slave of the world; he will stir up witnesses of the truth, and in his own time spirit his people to stand for his cause and deliver them. in a similar belief, that Patriot of patriots, the great ALGERNON SIDNEY lived and died and dying breathed a like sentiment and prophecy, touching his won and the then approaching times; a prophecy however not accomplished until a glorious revolution...
'the foregoing Letter and Resolves, together with the following Instructions, were voted unanimously.

INSTRUCTIONS

'as you represent us at the Great and General Court in this dark, gloomy and distressing day of the manifestations of God's judgments against us; we think it our duty and interest to communicate some of our sentiments to you, and to instruct you in some of the most important concerns of the public. it is needless for us to recapitulate to you the many enormous encroachments on our constitution:  But when we consider the circumstances of our forefathers leaving their native country, the hardships they underwent in settling this then howling wilderness, without any cost to Great-Britain, the profits they receive by our trade, the circumstances of the first charter of compact between our forefathers and Great Britain, being wrested from them (and consequently from us) the humble, submissive temper our forefathers shewed, in receiving another which

*497  abridged them of many,m very many, valuable and reasonable rights which were contained in the former, without any colour of right and notwithstanding all the foregoing circumstances, to have the remaining privileges of our present charter wrested from us by mere power, notwithstanding they were granted by special grace, certain knowledge and  (word missing) to have our honest earnings wrested from us without our consent; to have  the public fountains of justice corrupted by private interest, in order to pave the way and enforce acts of injustice and tyranny; we say, that these capital instances of injustice, indicate to us that the glory is departed from the English nation, and that it is our opinion,  that our mother country has lost that divine spirit of truth and righteousness, which in former times have saved them and this country from ruin. therefore, it is our earnest desire and we here direct you, to use your utmost influence (as one of the legislative body) to convince the nation of Great-Britain, that the measures that they have meted out to us, will have a direct tendency to destroy both them and us, and petition the King and Parliament of Great-Britain in the most pathetic and striking manner to deliver us from our aggravated grievances; but, if all this should fail, we recommend it to your consideration and direct you to move it to the consideration of the honourable court, whether it would not be best to call in the aid of some protestant power or powers, requesting that they would use their kind and christian influence, with our mother country, that so we may be relieved and that brotherly love and harmony may again take place and that natural alliance again be restored between us and Great-Britain which may continue until time shall be no more. which god in his infinite mercy grant for Christ's sake.

TOWN OF MENDON, ANSWERS BOSTON'S LETTER

Printed in Boston Gazette of June 7, 1773 p497bottom - 500 top

'at a legal Town Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the Town of Mendon, held by adjournment from February 10th, to March 1,1773, it being the day of our Anniversary Town-Meeting for the Election of Town Officers.
'The Town taking into mature Consideration the several Articles contained in the proceedings of the Town of Boston, relative to our invaluable Rights and Liberties, as men, Christians and Subjects; agree to, and vote the following Resolutions relative to the same, viz.

1.RESOLVED,  that all Men have naturally, an equal Right, to Life Liberty and Property.

*498  2. RESOLVED, that all just and lawful government must necessarily originate in the free Consent of the People.
3. RESOLVED,  that the  Good, Safety and Happiness of the people, is the great End of civil Government; and must be considered as the only rational object, in all original Compacts and political Institutions.
4. RESOLVED,   that a Principle of self-Preservation being deeply planted by the God of Nature, in every human Breast, is as necessary, not only to the well-being of Individuals; but also, to the Order of the Universe, as Attraction and Cohesion are, to the Preservation of material Bodies and the Order of the natural World.
5. RESOLVED,  That a voluntary Renunciation of any powers or Privileges, necessarily included in, or connected with a Principle of Self-Preservation, is manifestly acting counter to the Will of the great Author of Nature, the supreme Legislator. therefore,
6. RESOLVED, that a Right to Liberty and Property,  (which are natural means of Self preservation, ) is absolutely unalienable and can never be lawfully given up by ourselves, or taken from us by others.
7. RESOLVED, that the Claim of the parliament of Great Britain, to the Power of Legislation for the Colonies, in all Cases whatever, is extremely alarming, and threatens the total Deprivation of every Thing that is dear and valuable in Life and is we humbly conceive, abhorrent from the Spirit and Genius of the British Constitution, which is LIBERTY; destructive of the Immunities and Privileges granted us in our Royal Charter; which assures to the Inhabitants of this province, all the Liberties and Immunities of free and natural-born Subjects of England: and in Reality, is not reconcilable to the most obvious principles of Reason;  as it subjects us to a
state of Vassalage, and denies us those essential natural Rights, 'which being the Gift of God-Almighty, it is not in the Power of Man to alienate'.
8. RESOLVED, that the late Revenue-Act, by which the Commons of Great Britain have assumed and exercised a Power of giving and granting to his Majesty the Property of the Colonists without their Consent, is a grievous Infringement of the Right of disposing of our Estates.  (def - property or possessions)
9. RESOLVED, that the unlimited Power vested in the Commissioners of the Customs, of creating inferior Officers and Collectors; and the exorbitant Powers given to these Under-Officers,  and Ministers, to enter at pleasure, and Houses, or other Places;  and to break open Trunks, Chests, etc. upon bare Suspicion of goods concealed, is a grievous violation of the sacred Right of Domestic Security.

*499  10. RESOLVED, that the affixing a Stipend to the Office of the Governor of the Province, to be paid out of the American revenue rendering him independent of the Free Grants of the people; has a necessary Tendency to destroy that Balance of power, which ought to exist between the several Branches of the legislature.

11. RESOLVED,  that affixing Stipends to the Offices of the Judges of the Superior Court of Judicature, rendering them independent of the people and dependent on the Crown for their Support, may hereafter,  considering the Depravity of Human Nature, be improved to Purposes,  big with the most fatal Consequences to the good people of this Province.

12. RESOLVED, that introducing Stand(ing..?) Armies in Times of Peace, without the Consent of the people, is a Violation of their Rights as Free-Men.

13. RESOLVED, that the wresting out of our hands, Castle William, the principal Fortress of this Province and Garrisoning of it with his majesty's Regular Troops is a Violation  of our Charter Privilege.

14. RESOLVED,  that the enormous Extension of the Power of the Courts of Vice-Admiralty, in a great Measure deprives the people in the Colonies of the inestimable Privilege of Trials by Juries.

15. RESOLVED,  that the Act passed in the last Session of parliament, intitled 'An Act for the better preserving his Majesty's Dock-yards, magazines, Ships, Ammunitions and Stores;' by Virtue of which Act, the Inhabitants of the Colonies may for certain supposed offences Committed against said Acts, be arrested and carried from their Families, to any part of Great-Britain, there to be tried; is an Infringement, not only of our essential natural Right, as Men.

16. RESOLVED, that the Acts prohibiting the erecting of Slitting Mills,  for manufacturing our iron; - and the restraining the manufacture and Transportation of Hats, as they deprive us of the natural Advantages of our won Climate; the Produce of our own Country; and the honest Fruits on our own labor and Industry, are very unreasonable and injurious.

17. RESOLVED, that the Act restraining the Transportation of Wool (the Produce of our own Farms) even over a Ferry, subjects the Inhabitants of this province to a great and unreasonable Expence, and is a Violation of a Charter Privilege; as all havens, Rivers, etc. are expressly granted the Inhabitants of the Province and their Successors, to their only use and Behoof  (def - use, advantage, benefit) forever.

*500  18. RESOLVED, that it is the Mind and Desire of this Town, that the Judges of the Superiour Court of Judicature, and all other Officers, who receive Grants from the Province, should have an honorable support, agreeable to the Dignity and Importance of their respective Stations.

19. RESOLVED,   That the Representative of this town be, and he is hereby instructed, to use his utmost Endeavours, in a constitutional Manner, for the Redress of the Fore-mentioned Grievances; and that he in no wise consent to the giving up of any of our rights; whether derived to us from Nature, or by Compact and Agreement.
FINALLY,  When we reflect on the arduous Enterprize of our Fore-Fathers, in transporting themselves to the Wilds of America , the  innumerable Fatigues and Dangers, the vast Expence of Treasure and of  Blood, that attended their Beginning and carrying on a Settlement here among the Savages of the Desart and at the same Time, consider the prodigious Accession of Wealth and Power to the Mother Country, from prodigious Accession of wealth and power to the Mother Country,  from these extended Settlements; it still sets a keener Edge on the Sense of our numerous Grievances:  and we cannot help viewing the late rigourous and burdensome Impositions laid on us by the Hand of the Parent Country, from these extended Settlements; it still sets a keener Edge on the Sense of our numerous Grievances:  and we cannot help viewing the late rigorous and burdensome Impositions laid on us by the Hand of the Parent Country,  as a Departure from those truly noble and magnanimous PRINCIPLES OF LIBERTY  which used heretofore to add a distinguishing Lustre and Glory to the BRITISH Name.

VOTED,  That the foregoing Resolves, be entered on the Town-Book,  that our Children in Years to come, may know the Sentiments of their Fathers, in Regard to our invaluable RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.

VOTED,  That the Town Clerk be directed and he is accordingly directed, to transmit a fair attested Copy of the foregoing Resolves and Proceedings of the Town, to the Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Boston'.

500 bottom, from Richard Frothingham,  'The Rise of the Republic of the United States' - 1890

'The blindness of Toryism was remarkable. its leaders piled ridicule on the origin of this movement, its object and its execution...This appeal of Boston reached the body of the people and revealed the thought that was in their minds, prior to their doing a great revolutionary deed.  before this appeal, there were apathy and a feeling of false security; after it, there was a general sense of danger: before this movement, there was no party organization; after it, the Whigs became connected by a trustworthy representation throughout the province, which widened until it became colonial, and each local committee felt the inspiration of being co-workers with a national party'.

*501  (and 502 top are excerpts from Edward D. Collins, 'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution' - 1902

SIGNIFICANCE  OF COMMUNICATING TOWNS

Here was the nucleus for a local federation. if at this point one would inquire what this body had been created out of, what necessity prepared the way fro its existence, and what work it had to perform, it must be confessed that the committee of correspondence had no legitimacy as a governing body, no institutional authority; that its existence was based on popular impulse, skillfully manipulated and that its permanence could only be insured by discarding custom, precedent, authority - the usual bulwarks of good statecraft. the earlier committees of 1764,  1768 and 1770 arose out of specific needs and their instructions had been clear and definite; but this new creation bore no relation to them and the language of Adams's famous motion, from which the new body must draw instructions as well as authority to act at all, is vague and florid. the contingencies which the committee of correspondence actually faced grew out of future developments and conditions which the committee itself was largely instrumental in creating. as a substitute for the existing form of government it would appear ludicrously insufficient. it was not capable, as a revolutionary institution, of meeting the requirements of a general revolutionary government. it was the germ of a government, but one that would have been purely local.

THE COMMUNICATING COLONIAL ASSEMBLIES

'The only direct injunction laid upon the Boston committee of correspondence by Adams's motion involved a function that this committee was not well adapted to perform, namely:  'To state the rights of the colonists,  and of this province in particular, as men and Christians and as subjects;  and to communicate to the world as the sense of this Town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have been or from time to time may be made'.  this body would have served as well as any other, perhaps,  to state the rights of men and Christians, but the rights of a province and its members as subjects of a government could not be very consistently stated by an extra-legal body composed of men who were acting as anything but subjects, with no vestige of provincial or governmental authority, a body which existed in direct contradiction of the principles and well understood desires of the established government. yet this function was a most important one, for in it lay the key to concerted action and to union. this function, therefore, developed a new necessity in the committee organism, namely, somebody to speak officially for the colony as a unit; and the organism promptly evolved a new arm to assume this function in the choice of committees of correspondence by the various assemblies.

*502  while one would naturally  look to this body for correspondence on the matters of great monument, since it was in the recess of the legislature the official mouthpiece of the colony, the governor being the mouthpiece of the Crown, it was, for reasons that will appear, never a body that originated action.  as a matter of fact intercolonial correspondence was conducted by committees of all grades, town, assembly, and county, the latter a new organ of still later development - a freedom of use that added greatly to efficiency of action. the contention that has appeared over the originator of local committees of correspondence marks also notices of the assembly committees, while the fact that the difference between the two has failed to elicit a distinction has added further to the confusion. in this case as in the other the essential thing is not that some colony suggested the idea before some other, but that in all the colonies circumstances had at length combined to make the idea fruitful. however, to one who examines the instructions given to the assembly committees in the course of their appointment there can be no doubt as to the effective promoter of this part of the system. when the Virginia house of burgesses met on Mar.  12,  1773, and appointed their committee, no other assembly  had chosen one. this committee was 'to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British parliament or proceedings of administration as may relate to or affect the British colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies respecting those important considerations; and the result of such their proceedings from time to time to lay before this house.'

MARCH 12TH 1773:
VIRGINIA INITIATES THE IDEA OF COMMUNICATING COLONIAL ASSEMBLIES TO KEEP AN EYE ON GREAT BRITAIN AND FOR A 'CONCERT OF ACTION'

'Colony of Virginia by the House of Burgesses, Friday, Mar 12th,  1773  (502 bottom - 503 top from the Virginia Calendar State papers

'Whereas the minds of his Majesty's faithful subjects in this Colony have been much disturbed by various rumors and reports of proceedings tending to deprive them of their ancient, legal and constitutional rights; and whereas the affairs of this Colony  are frequently connected with those of Great Britain, as well as in neighboring Colonies which renders a communication of Sentiments necessary:  in order, therefore, to remove the uneasiness and to quiet the minds of the people as well as for other good purposes above mentioned -

*503  Be it resolved,  that a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry be appointed to consist of 11 persons, to-wit:  the honorable Peyton Randolph, Esquire, Robert Carter Nicholas, Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Diggess, Dabney Carr, Archibald Cary,  and Thomas Jefferson, Esquires, any 6 or whom to be a committee, whose business it shall be o obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such Acts and Resolutions of the British parliament or proceedings of administration as may relate to or affect the British Colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister Colonies respecting those important considerations; and the result of such their proceedings from time to time to lay before this House.

'Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said committee that they do without delay inform themselves particularly of the principles and authority on which was constituted a court of enquiry, said to have been lately held in Rhode Island, with powers to transport persons accused of offences committed in America to places beyond the seas to be tried.

Resolved, That the Speaker do transmit to the Speakers of the different Assemblies of the British Colonies on this Continent, copies of the said Resolutions and desire that they will lay them before their respective Assemblies and request them to appoint some person or persons of their  respective Assemblies and request them to appoint some person or persons of their respective bodies to communicate from time to time with the said committee'.

No similar committee was appointed throughout the colonies for 2 months.  then, on May 15, 1773, their appointment began in the New England group. on that day the speaker of the house in Rode Island wrote to the speaker of the house of burgesses notifying him of Rhode Island's appointing a committee of correspondence and inquiry. the instructions to this committee were copied from the Virginia resolutions.  6 days later Connecticut took similar action in the house of representatives.in New Hampshire this body acted on the 27th, passing resolutions relative to correspondence and inquiry. it was the 28th of May before Massachusetts acted on the Virginia  letter and appointed her committee. she was thus the last of the New England group and the fifth in sequence to take this action, and her instructions, like all the rest, reecho the words of the  Virginia resolutions.

the above excerpts from Edward D. Collins,  'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution' - 1902

*504  Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the present agent of the House of Representatives...last letter to his constituents, as I am informed, strongly recommends the holding up our constitutional Rights, by frequent Resolves, etc.  this we know will be obnoxious to those who are in the plan to enslave us; but remember my countrymen, it will be better to have your liberties wrested from you by force, than to have it said that you even implicitly surrendered them'.

Samuel Adams, Boston Gazette, Dec. 23, 1771

the following  (pp 505 top to 511 middle) excerpts from 'Records of the Colony of Rhode Island' and 'Virginia Calendar State papers'

*505 RHODE ISLAND APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE  May 15, 1773; pp505-507top excerpts from 'Records of the Colony of Rhode Island' and 'Virginia Calendar State Papers'

'Metcalfe Bowler, Speaker of the Hose of Representatives, of Rhode Island, to the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia

Sir: Having received a letter from the speaker of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia, enclosing the resolutions of that patriotic and illustrious Assembly of the 12th of March last; and also a letter, from the committee of correspondence and inquiry, by them appointed. I took the earliest opportunity of laying them before the house of Deputies of this colony, who immediately entered into the consideration of them; and persuaded that nothing less than a firm and close union of the colonies in the most spirited, prudent and consistent measures can defeat the designs of those who are aiming to deprive them of their inestimable rights and privileges, passed nemine contradicente, the resolutions of which I have the honor to enclose you a copy...
that a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry to be appointed, to consist of 7 persons, to wit: the Honorable Stephen Hopkins, Esq. Metcalfe Bowler, Moses Brown, John Cole, William Bradford, Henry Marchant and Henry Ward, esqs;  and 4 of them, to be a committee, whose business it shall be, to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British Parliament or proceedings of the administration as may relate to. or affect  the British colonies, in America; and to keep and maintain a correspondence and communication with the other colonies, respecting these important considerations and the result of their proceedings, from time to time, to lay before the House'.

CONNECTICUT APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE    May 21,  1773...

*506 the honorable Ebenezer Sillliman, Esqr., William Williams, Benjamin Payne, Samuel Holden parsons, Nathaniel Nagles, Silas Deane, Samuel Bishop, Joseph Trumbull, and Erastus Walcott, esquires  whose business it shall be to obtain all such intelligence and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister Colonies respecting the important considerations mentioned and expressed in the aforesaid Resolutions...

NEW HAMPSHIRE APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE...May 27, 1773

.....the Honorable  John Wentworth, Esq., John Sherburne, William Parker,  John Giddings,  Jacob Sheape, Christopher Toppan and John Pickering, Esq ...

MASSACHUSETTS APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE...May 28, 1773

....at a time when it clearly appears that the right and liberties of all are systematically invaded, in or

*507  order that the joint wisdom of the whole may be employed in consulting their common safety,  -Resolved, that this House have a very grateful sense of the obligations they are under to the House of Burgesses, in Virginia, for the vigilance, firmness and wisdom, which hey have discovered at all times in support of the rights and liberties of the American colonies and do heartily concur with them in their said judicious and spirited resolves.

...the committee of correspondence and communication with the other colonies, viz: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Samuel Adams, Hon. John Hancock, Esq., Mr. William Phillips, Capt. William heath, Hon. Joseph Hawley, Esq. Hon. James Warren, Esq., Richard Derby, Jr., Esq., Mr. Elbridge Gerry, Jerathmeel Bowers, Esq., Jedidiah Foster, Esq., Daniel Leonard, Esq., Capt. Thomas Gardner, Capt, Jonathan Greenleaf and James Prescott, Esq'.
the above Records of the Colony of Rhode Island

507 bottom through 508 top  excerpts from Edward D. Collins, 'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution' - 1902
'thus, in the month of May,  1773 the New England colonies, acting on the incentive of the Virginia letter and copying the words of the Virginia resolution,  created  a second type of corresponding committees. on June  14 Samuel Cooper wrote to Franklin:  'Virginia has led the way by proposing a communication and correspondence between all the assemblies through the continent; ; Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire have already chosen committees, so that all New England is now united with Virginia in this salutary plan, and the accession of most, if not all, of the other colonies is not doubted'.

*508 in the southern colonies the progress of the movement was slower, more than a month intervening before South Carolina, the first to act appointed her committee, on July 8. Georgia took like action on September 10, Maryland on October 15,  Delaware on October 23, and North Carolina on the 18th of December'.

SOUTH CAROLINA APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE  July 9, 1773

excerpts from 'Records of the Colony of Rhode Island' and 'Virginia Calendar State Papers from 508.2 to p510.3

'Hon'ble Peyton Randolph

'Sir:  when I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 19th March last the Commons House of assembly of this province was under an adjournment to the 6th Inst. as soon as a House was formed, which was not till yesterday, I laid your letter before them; as a prorogation (def - discontinue a session of political business) was expected, which accordingly took effect at noon,  the House lost not a moment's time, but instantly proceeded to the consideration of your Resolutions which you enclosed me and unanimously approving them, appointed a committee to correspond with yours, agreeable to your recommendations, being desirous to shew their readiness to cooperate with your House in a measure dictated by such wise councils and directed to such laudable ends:  a copy of their Resolutions I now enclose you...

GEORGIA APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE  September 1773

'To the speaker of the House of Representatives of Rhode Island.

'Mr Speaker laid before  the House, 2 letters that he had received from the speaker of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia;  and also,  of the House of Deputies, of Rhode Island...

above excerpt from 'Records of the Colony of Rhode Island' and 'Virginia Calendar State papers'

*509  MARYLAND APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE  October 15, 1773

'the order of the day being read, the House took into consideration the several letters and other papers, communicated to this House by the honorable speaker and addressed to him, by the honorable the speakers of the several colonies of Virginia, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and Rhode Island; and  - Resolved unanimously, that this House most cordially accept the invitation to a mutual correspondence and intercourse with our sister colonies...that a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry, be appointed , to consist of 11 persons...whose business it shall be, to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British Parliament...

DELAWARE APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE   October 23, 1773

'Ordered, that the several letters, from the respective speakers of the House of Burgesses, in the colony of Virginia;  the Hose of Deputies, in the colony of Rhode Island and the House of Representatives, in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay; with the several resolves enclosed be read the second time; which was done, accordingly. and the House, taking the same into consideration, resolved itself into a grand committee of the whole House...

'whereas, the speaker of the late Assembly, presented to the House, several letters, which he received during the recess of the House;  one, from the truly patriotic House of Burgesses, of His Majesty's ancient dominion of Virginia, enclosing a copy of certain resolutions entered into by them, on the 12th of March last; one, from the honorable House of Deputies, of the colony of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, enclosing certain resolutions entered into by them, on the 7th of May last; and one, from the free and spirited House of representatives, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, enclosing certain resolutions, entered into by them, on the  28th day of may last; and requesting that a committee of this House may be appointed, to communicate, from time to time, with the corresponding committees, appointed by the said Assemblies and named in the said respective resolves.
'and , whereas,  this House is of opinion, that the measures adopted by the aforesaid Assemblies and proposed to this , are very salutary, and highly necessary; at this time, when the rights and liberties of all appear

*510 to be systematically invaded. Resolved, that this House have a very grateful sense of the obligations they are under to the House of Burgesses, in Virginia, for the vigilance, firmness and wisdom, which they have discovered at all times, in support of the rights and liberties of the American colonies; and do heartily concur with them in their said judicious and spirited resolves.

'Resolved, that a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry, be appointed, to consist of 5 members, any 3 of whom, to be a quorum;  whose business it shall be, to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British Parliament, or proceedings of the administration, as may relate to, or affect the British colonies in America and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies, respecting these important considerations and the result of such their proceedings, from time to time, to lay before the House.

'Resolved, that it be an instruction to the said committee, that they do, without delay, inform themselves particularly of the principles and authority on which was constituted a court of inquiry, held in Rhode Island; said to be vested with powers to transport persons accused of offences committed in America, to places beyond the seas, to be tried...that the said committee be further instructed to prepare and report to this House, drafts of very respectful answers to the letters above mentioned; also, a circular letter to the speakers of the  several other Houses of Assembly, on this continent, enclosing the aforesaid resolves and requesting them to lay the same before their respective Assemblies, in confidence that they will readily and cheerfully comply with the well-concerted and wise resolves of the House of Burgesses, in Virginia...'

NORTH CAROLINA APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE (510.4 - 511 top)

'Upon the speaker's communicating to this House, a letter from the truly patriotic House of Burgesses, of His Majesty's ancient dominion of Virginia, enclosing a copy of certain resolves entered into by them, upon the  12th of March last, and requesting that this House would appoint a committee, to communicate from time to time, with a corresponding committee by them then appointed and also letters from several of our sister colonies, expressing the high approbation of and  concurrence with so salutary  a measure; this House - Resolve, that the  vigilance which the honorable House of Burgesses, of Virginia, have displayed in attending to every encroachment upon the rights and liberties of America, and the wisdom and vigor with which they have always opposed such encroachments, are worthy the imitation and merit the gratitude of all their sister colonies...Resolved, that a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry,

*511  be appointed, to consist of 9 persons, to wit: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Howe, Mr. Harness, Mr. Hooper,  Mr. Caswell, Mr. Vail, Mr. Ashe, Mr. Hewes and Mr. Samuel Johnston, any  5 of whom, to be a committee, whose business it shall be, to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British parliament, or proceedings of the administration as may relate to, or affect the British colonies, in America and to keep and maintain a correspondence and communication with the other colonies, respecting those important considerations and the result of their proceedings, from time to time,  to lay before this House...

Collins 'Committees of Correspondence'
The middle colonies, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, ere even more dilatory in acting. John Cruger, writing for the New York assembly on April  14,  1773, acknowledged the receipt of the Virginia communications and stated that they would be laid before the assembly when it convened. in a later letter (May 29) he says that this may not be before the beginning of next year. it was January  20 before the New York assembly appointed its committee of correspondence.  the New Jersey assembly acted similarly on the  8th of February. the letter which Virginia sent to Pennsylvania did not elicit even a prompt reply. the speaker of the house, J. Galloway, wrote on September  25,  1773, that although the house deemed it important to cooperate with the other colonies, it preferred to leave the matter over to the next Assembly. the assembly dissolved in a few days and no action was taken'.

here through top of 513 from the records of the Colony of Rhode Island
NEW YORK APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE (511 bottom to 513 top

'to the Hon'ble Peyton Randolph, Esq., Speaker of the House of Burgesses of the  Colony of Virginia.

'Sir: Your letter of the  19th inst. (def - 'instant'- the point of time now present or present with  reference to some action or event.)  to the Speaker of the General Assembly of this Colony I  this day had the pleasure to receive, together with a copy of the resolves entered into by the hon'ble the House of representatives of the Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia, both which shall be laid before our assembly as soon as they are convened...
'the House, according to order, resolved itself into a committee of the whole House, upon the letters received from the speakers of several of the Houses of Assembly on this continent, enclosing the resolutions entered into by them respectively. after some time spent therein, Mr. speaker resumed the chair, and Col. Seaman reported from the committee, that they had directed him to report to the House the following resolutions, to wit:

*512  'Resolved, nemine contradicente, that it is the opinion of this committee, that a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry be appointed, to consist of the following persons, to wit: John Cruger, Esq.,  speaker; James Delancey, James Jauncey, Jacob Walton, Benjamin Seaman, Isaac Wilkins, Frederic Phillips, Daniel Kissam, Zebulon seamen, John  Papalje, Simon Boemm, John Denoyellis and George Clinton. Esqs., or any 7 of them, whose  business it shall be, to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all such acts and resolutions of the British parliament, or proceedings of the administration, as do, or may relate to, or affect. the liberties and privileges of his Majesty's subjects in the British colonies in America; and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with our sister colonies, respecting these important considerations;  and the result of their proceedings to lay before the House... that it is the opinion of this committee, that the  speaker of this House prepare draughts of letters to the speakers of the Assemblies on the continent of America, enclosing these  resolutions and requesting them to lay the same before their respective Assemblies...'

NEW JERSEY APPOINTS ITS COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE

'the House resumed the consideration of the several letters and resolutions of the other Houses of Assembly, on the subject matter of the  common rights and liberties of the  colonies. and  - The House resolved itself into a committee of the whole House, upon the matters aforesaid; and after some time spent therein, Mr. Speaker resumed the chair; and Mr. Crane, chairman of the committee, by order of the House, reported the  resolutions of the committee, as follows, viz:

1. Resolved, that it is the  opinion of this committee, that the House should heartily accept of the invitation to a mutual correspondence and intercourse with our sister colonies... 2. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this committee, that a standing committee of correspondence and inquiry,  be appointed, to consist of the following persons, to wit: James Kinsey, Stephen Crane, Hendrick Fisher, Samuel Tucker, John Wetherill, Robert Friend Price. John Hinchman, John Mehelm and Edward Taylor. Esqs.,  or any 5 of them, whose business it shall be, to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence of all acts and resolutions of the parliament of Great Britain, or the proceedings of the administration, that may have any relation to, or may affect the liberties and privileges of His Majesty's subjects in the British colonies in America ; and to keep up and maintain a correspondence and communication with or sister colonies,  respecting those important considerations; and that they do occasionally lay their proceedings before the House...3. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this committee, that the said committee of correspondence do write letters to

*513.1  the  several speakers of the Assemblies on the continent of America, enclosing these resolutions, and requesting they to lay the same before their respective Assemblies and that they do return the  thanks of the House of the Burgesses of Virginia, for their early attention to the liberties of America.

PENNSYLVANIA'S RESPONSE TO APPOINTING A COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE, 513.1

from the Records of the Colony of Rhode Island' and  'Virginia Calendar State Papers'

'The Honorable Speaker of the House of Burgesses,

'Sir: I embraced the earliest opportunity to communicate your favor of the  19th of March, with the resolves of the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia to the Assembly of this province and i  have it in command from them to assure your honorable house that they esteem it a matter of  greatest importance to co-operate with the representatives of the other Colonies in every wise and prudent measure which may be proposed for the preservation and security of the general rights and liberties, and that it is highly expedient and necessary a correspondence should be maintained between the Assemblies of their several Colonies; but as the present Assembly must in a few days be dissolved by virtue of the charter of the province and any measures they might adopt at this time, rendered  by dissolution ineffectual, they have earnestly recommended the subject matter of the letter and resolves of the House of Burgesses of Virginia to  the consideration of the succeeding Assembly. in the name and by the order of the House, I  have the honor to be with great respect, Sir, your most obedient servant, Joseph Galloway, Speaker.

12 COMMUNICATING  COLONIAL ASSEMBLIES

here to p521.2 from the excerpts from Edward D. Collins, 'Committees of Correspondence of the American  revolution' - 1902

February 8th,  1774

we find, therefore, in the early part of the year 1774 12  committees of correspondence existing, appointed by the legislative bodies of their respective  colonies. the idea was apparently embodied in a more perfect organization than ever before. but the new type did  not possess activity to match its seeming importance. these assembly committees were inactive from the first. the cause of this inactivity is not far to seek. in the first place,  there was little or nothing for them to do. since last June, wrote the Connecticut  committee in November,  1773, nothing had happened worth transmitting.

*514 On May 6,  1774, there was a meeting of the Virginia committee which listened to the report of their select committee and heard the letters  read which had been received from different colonies. the long intervals between their meetings denotes the lack of important business.  on august  29,  1774, Warren, writing for the donation committee at Boston, to Norwich, Conn., said that there was nothing of importance happening that could not be found in the public papers. 

'Secondly, these committees were chosen from members of the assembly, all of whom were desirous of going home when the assembly  adjourned. therefore, under ordinary conditions, the dissolution of the assembly dissolved the committee. for example, Mr. Cruger, speaker of the house in New York, wrote to Virginia, June  9,  1774, that the committee had dispersed, but that he had sent letters to convene  them at the earliest opportunity,  a somewhat indefinite date.  again, on the 27th of the same month, he wrote to the speaker of the house in Rhode island that the latter's letter was received on the day after the committee had broken up and the members had returned to the country. the same thing occurred in Virginia. on the  30th of may,  1774,  25 of the late representatives, 'legally assembled', a greed that letters be written to all the colonies, acknowledging the receipts from Boston and informing them that before they came the assembly  had dissolved and most of the members returned to their counties.
'in the third place, the assembly committees were extremely cautious about acting on their own authority, since they were chosen from a body to which they would be held responsible. this is shown by their being given specific directions to act in certain cases and by their hesitancy to act without such in others. for example, the Massachusetts committee, in communicating to the other colonies the port act, was acting under specific directions from the house, while, on the other hand, the New York committee, at a time when the house was dissolved, in June,  1774, wrote to Virginia that although they  considered a congress the proper thing, they, as merely committee of correspondence, had no power to appoint deputies to a congress. a few days earlier the North Carolina committee had expressed itself similarly on the same subject. the Virginia committee also hesitated to speak for the province on decisive measures.
'Under such circumstances, the assembly committee of correspondence was nothing else than a standing committee of the legislative body in each colony.  the speaker of the house generally acted as its secretary. it acted on advice or direction of the house, to which it was held responsible, and to which it reported its action. these committees were created by constitutional bodies, and their functions can not be considered extra-legal. in fact, they were far too regular to be efficient as pieces  of revolutionary machinery.

THE PROMOTERS OF CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT FORESEE A THREAT TO THEIR POWER

'However, the choice of such committees was not entirely without result. the popular assembly in each colony received preliminary testing. Constitutional questions were raised and discussed, and arguments disseminated, a thing of some importance when the colonies were feeling their way toward a common basis of opposition to the crown which should have at least a  semblance of rationality and consistency. while disclaimer of any intent to sever the connection between America and Great Britain had been made, even by that arch-revolutionist, Samuel Adams himself, the very declaration was so skillfully framed as to have precisely the opposite influence. more important still had been the demonstration that a body could be created which might continue to act in successful opposition to the crown when the royal governors dissolved or prorogued the assemblies. in North Carolina and in new Hampshire this efficiency  of the principle was demonstrated in the spring and summer months of  1774, although  no important matter of business was under way. Hutchinson, always keen to discover the principle involved in any  action and quick to perceive the ultimate possibilities of its development, had written to Lord Dartmouth in 1773, July 10, on this very point:

' 'the assemblies of Virginia, this province, Rhode island and Connecticut have appointed their respective committees of correspondence, who  act in the recess of the courts; and the like committees are expected from the other assemblies when they shall be convened. this in some measure defeats and counteract eh powers reserved to the governors, in what are called the loyal governments, of proroguing or dissolving the assembly at pleasure.

THE COMMUNICATING COUNTIES

New Jersey develops the County Committee of Correspondence - A type of complete Revolutionary government well suited to action and reform of Centralized Government.

'The committee of correspondence was essentially a local institution, and local conditions created it characteristic features in the different colonial communities. e may leave the assembly committees, therefore, at this point, as highly perfected but not very highly effective arms of the system and turn to the development of certain features in other quarters that were to prove not only highly perfected but highly efficient as well. this leads us to the evolution of the county committee of correspondence, the best type of which is to be seen in New Jersey.

*516  'this part of the system was evolved to meet particular needs, just as the first town committee of correspondence had been. the holding of a congress had already been projected, and to take the initiative in actually convening it what better agent could have been fallen upon than that which had suggested it, which was wholly responsible to royal government, but immediately amenable to public opinion and responsive to local needs? some one writing from Philadelphia on the 22d of June,  1774, outlined a plan which was essentially that on which the New Jersey committee of correspondence were constructed. this writer thought that the best method of choosing deputies for a congress would be through their nomination by representatives in the assembly. another plan, the next best, would be for freemen qualified to vote for members of assembly to house delegates to a provincial convention in each colony, this convention to nominate the colony's deputies to a congress,  an additional advantage of this plan would be that...
'the committee of correspondence was such an appeal to the people; it actually represented them; it made them agents in their won salvation; it gave stability to their proceedings.

'The plan outlined in the Philadelphia letter had been already acted upon in new jersey. the freeholders of Essex county met  June 11,  1774,  and appointed a committee of correspondence, whose particular duty as o meet with other county committees 'in order to nominate and appoint deputies to represent this province in General congress'.  during the summer months the other counties of new jersey took similar action. the convention thus anticipated met at New Brunswick,  July  21, and nominated delegates to the continental congress which was to meet at Philadelphia in the following September. the new jersey delegates promptly began to correspond.

'The system at this point reached a well-nigh perfect adjustment. the elasticity of its operation in new Jersey makes that colony a model for its exposition. the inhabitants of each township elected a township committee of correspondence for the special purpose of corresponding with other township committees within the county. it could, however, extend its correspondence when necessary. the county committee was formed to the township committees from members chosen of their own number. this county committee would then correspond with the other county committees in the province and when deemed necessary could call a county meeting or convention. it reacted through the township committees on the individual inhabitants. the county committees chose  in turn certain of their own number  to form a provincial committee of correspondence. the especial function of this body was to correspond with the other colonies and call a provincial congress for new jersey when necessary. it reacted on its own colony through the medium of the county and township committees.

*517 'the superiority of the provincial committee of correspondence over the assembly committees is obvious. ti was always in session as a standing committee, and by referendum could at any time  test the wishes of the people, since the town and county branches of the organization kept constantly in touch with them. the provincial congress on august  12, 1775, defined the qualifications of electors and he powers and functions of the different grades of committees. thus perfected, eh system was a rapidly working and highly efficient piece of administrative machinery. connected with the popular cause through representation in Congress, the action of the system was equally facile toward the central government at one end of the chain of committees being responsible for the execution of the resolutions and orders of the continental and provincial congresses.

'with this conspectus  (def - a general or comprehensive view) of the framework of the system we may turn to the storm centers where local committees were brewing trouble for Great Britain, for in spite of their admirable adaptability as pieces of revolutionary machinery the committees rested after all for their success on the action of the mother country. if in good truth 'esto perpetua' was their most ardent wish, this certainly must have been the case. but it was also equally the case whether 'esto perpetua' was the motto or not.

NEW AGGRESSIVE ACTS OF PARLIAMENT SET THE COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE IN MOTION

Massachusetts makes her LOCAL  grievance and resistance to the tea act a GENERAL CAUSE

'a committee of correspondence was. to repeat, essentially a local agent. in this fact lay its revolutionary power, for revolution was a local affair in its inception. a committee of correspondence simply could not act unless something occurred which touched the interests of is own community. it was functionless if there was nothing to correspond about. to work up a successful revolution the correspondence must show the identity of various local interests or create a fictitious identity. the needed stimulus came in successive acts of parliament, giving at first something to talk about and eventually something to do. the phases of activity are well reflected in the correspondence.

*518  'Although the tea act had little influence in prompting the organization of assembly committees of correspondence, it did give decided impulse to the formation of local committees in all the communities that were immediately interested. Massachusetts furnishes obviously a case in point. the proposed consignment of tea had produced excitement and the assembly and local committees acted at once and in harmony. there was a paramount (def - ^thoroughly^  ^to the mountain^) issue. the assembly committees sent out   a circular letter, October 21, reviewing the situation and urging the necessity of action by each colony to prevent the execution of the pan of the British ministry. this was the part of the larger committee...'

MASSACHUSETTS POINTS OUT THE 'TRUE DESIGN' UNDERLYING THE ESTABLISHING OF COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE

'Province of Massachusetts Bay,
Boston, October  21,  1773

'The Committee of Correspondence of Massachusetts to other Committees of Correspondence.'

Gentlemen,
'The Committee of correspondence appointed by the house of representatives of this province have been not altogether inattentive to the Design of their institution. we have been waiting for intelligence from great Britain from whose injudicious councils the common Grievances of the Colonies have sprang ; in hopes that a Change in the American Department would have produced a happy 
change in the Measures of administration; but we are sorry to say, that from the best accounts that we have obtained the ministry have been hitherto  so far from radically redressing American Grievances that even the least relaxation has not been advised if thought of. on the Contrary, the British parliament have been prorogued without taking the least notice of the affairs of America; while they have been curtailing the Charter of the East India company in such a Manner and in such a degree, as to indicate that they are much more intent upon increasing the power and influence of the Crown than securing the Liberties of the subject. at the same time, this province has had a very recent Discovery of the unaltered resolution of the Ministry to pursue their plan of arbitrary power, in the kings answer to the petitions of our assembly against the appropriation of the Revenue raised from the colonies, for the purpose of rendering our Governor and Judges dependent on the Crown.

*519  'In his Majestys
(note- in this particular correspondence there are a number of misspellings which to this point I have corrected but from now on will reproduce...as they appear on the original document)
Answer, we have noting explicit, but his resolution to support the supreme Authority of the British parliament to make laws binding on the Colonies (although the petitions were supported by the express Declarations of the Charter of the province) and his great Displeasure, that principles repugnant to that Right were supported by the express Declarations of the Charter of the province) and his great Displeasure, that principles repugnant to that right were therein held forth. such an answer to such a petition affords the strongest Grounds to conclude, that the ministry are as firmly resolved as ever to continue  the revenue acts and apply the tribute extorted by Virtue of them from the colonies, to maintain the executive powers of the several Governments of America absolutely independent of their respective legislatives; or rather absolutely dependent on the Crown, which will, if a little while persisted in, end in absolute despotism.
'Such being still the temper of the British Ministry, Such the Disposition  of the parliament of Britain under their Direction and influence, to consider themselves as the Sovereign of America. is it not of the utmost importance that our vigilance should increase, that the colonies should be united in their Sentiments of the measures of opposition necessary to be taken by them and that in whichsoever of the colonies any Infringements are or shall be made on the common rights of all, that Colony should have the united Efforts of all for its support. this we take to be the true Design of the Establishment of our committees of Correspondence.
'There is one thing which appears to us to be an object worthy of the immediate Attention of the Colonies. should a War take place, which is thought by many to be near at hand, America will then be viewed by Administration in a Light of importance to great Britain. her Aids will be deemed  necessary;  her Friendship therefore will perhaps  be even courted . would it not then be the highest wisdom in the several American assemblies, absolutely to withhold all kinds of aid in a general war, until the rights and Liberties which they ought to enjoy are restored and secured to them upon the most permanent foundation? this has always been the usage of a spirited house of commons in Britain and upon the best grounds; for certainly protection and Security ought to be the unalterable Condition when Supplys are called for.'
'With Regard to the Extent of Rights which the Colonies ought to insist upon, it is a Subject which requires he closest Attention and Deliberation' and this is a strong Reason why it should claim the earliest consideration of, at least, every committee; in order that we may be prepared when time and
Circumstances shall give to our claim the sure prospect of Success. and when we consider how one great event has hurried on, upon the back of another,  such a time may come and such circumstances take place sooner than we are now aware of. there are certain rights which every Colony has explicitly asserted, and we

*520  trust they will never give up. that in particular, that they have the sole and unalienable right to give and grant their own money and appropriate  it to such purposes as they judge proper, is justly deemed to be of the last importance. but whether even this Right, so essential to our Freedom and Happiness,  can remain...to us, while a Right is claimed by the British parliament to make laws binding upon us in all Cases whatever, you will certainly consider with Seriousness. it would be debasing to us after so manly a Struggle for our rights to be contented with a mere temporary relief. we take the Liberty to present you with the State of a Controversy upon that subject, between the governor of this province and the Assembly. and as the assembly of this or some other Colony may possibly be called into a further Consideration of it, we should think  our selves happy in a Communication of such further Thoughts upon it, as we are persuaded will upon a ...occur to your minds.
'we are far from desiring that the Connection between Britain and America should be broken. Esto perpetua, is our ardent wish; but upon the terms only of Equal Liberty. if we cannot establish an agreement upon these terms, let us leave it to another and wiser Generation. but it may be worth Consideration that the work is more likely to be well done, at a time when the ideas of liberty and its importance are strong in Mens Minds. there is
danger that these ideas will hereafter grow faint and languid. Our posterity may be accustomed to bear the Yoke and being inured to Servility they may even bow the shoulder to the burden. it can never e expected that a people, however numerous, will form and execute a wise plan to perpetuate their Liberty, when they have lost the spirit and felling of it.

'we cannot close without mentioning a fresh instance of the temper and design off the British Ministry ; and that is in allowing the east India Company, with a View of pacifying them, to sip their
teas to America. it is easy to see how aptly  this scheme will serve both to destroy the Trade of the colonies and increase the revenue. how necessary then is it that each Colony should take effectual methods to prevent this measure from having its designed Effects .

'Gentlemen: the foregoing Letter was unanimously agreed to by the Committee of Correspondence, and is in their name and by their order Transmitted to you by your most respectful friends and humble Servants,
(signed 'T. Cushing    S. Adams     W. Heath

P.S. it is the request of the Committee that the Contents of this Letter be not made publick least our Common Enemies should counteract and prevent its design'.

*521  UNITY OF ACTION' OF THE COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE PLAN A BOSTON TEA PARTY

'On Sunday, the 28th of November, news spread about Boston that a tea ship lay in the harbor. the Boston committee of correspondence obtained from her owner a pledge that she should not be entered before Tuesday. Meetings were then held in consultation with committees of neighboring towns - Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, Cambridge - whose joint influence was to be used to prevent landing of the tea. the town put executive action into the hands of the committee. the committee kept up a military watch to prevent any landing of the tea, sent to the neighboring towns and to Rhode island, New Hampshire, New York and Philadelphia news of their proceedings and urged on all the necessity of strenuous opposition. the owner of the ship was sent for repeatedly by the committee, who tried to force him to send the vessel back. on the 13th of December the committees of the five towns held a conference and the next day a handbill was posted calling a town meeting. on the evening of the 16th the tea was destroyed and the next morning the fact was announced to neighboring towns by the Boston committee.
'the destruction of the tea at Boston brought the new organization into requisition for the first time in a way both successful and popular. it had worked through the press, the public meeting and the mob. an opportunity had been created to communicate something of importance to the sister colonies, along with exhortations to stand by the rebellious member and make her cause their own. a second stimulus was not long wanting. the destruction of the tea brought its own penalty in the port act and the port act through the skillful manipulation of the committees of correspondence was turned into a powerful force, working through popular sentiment for unity of action against the mother country...'

excerpts below to the bottom of  p522 from George Bancroft, 'History of the United States', New York - 1886

'the hour of the American revolution was come. the people of the continent obeyed one general impulse, as the earth in spring listens to the command of nature and without the appearance of effort bursts into life. the movement was quickened, even when it was most resisted; and its fiercest adversaries worked with the most effect for its fulfillment. standing in manifold relations with the governments, the culture, and the experience of the past, the Americans seized as their peculiar inheritance the traditions of liberty. beyond any other nation,  they had made trial of the possible forms of popular representation and respected

*522  individual conscience and thought. the resources  of the country in agriculture and commerce, forests and fisheries, mines and materials for manufactures, were so diversified and complete that their development could neither be guided nor circumscribed by a government beyond the ocean. the numbers, purity, culture, industry and daring of its inhabitants proclaimed the existence of a people  rich in creative energy and ripe for institutions of their own.

'they refused to acknowledge even to themselves the hope that was swelling within them and yet in their political aspirations they deduced from universal principles a bill of rights, as old as creation and as wide as humanity. the idea of freedom had always revealed itself at least to  a few of the wise whose prophetic instincts were quickened by love of their kind and its growth can be traced in the tendency of the ages. in America, it was the breath of life to the people. for the first time it found a region and a race where it could be professed with the earnestness of an indwelling conviction and be defended with the enthusiasm that had marked no wars but those for religion. when all Europe slumbered over questions of liberty, a band of exiles, keeping watch by night, heard the glad tidings which promised the political regeneration of the world. a revolution, unexpected in the moment of its coming, but prepared by glorious forerunners, grew naturally and necessarily out of the series of past events by the formative principle of a living belief. and why should man organize resistance to the grand design of Providence? why should not the consent of the ancestral land and the gratulations of every other call the young nation to its place among the powers of the earth? Britain was the mighty mother who bred men capable of laying the foundation of so noble an empire, and she alone could have trained them up. she had excelled all the world as the founder of colonies. the condition which entitled them to independence was now fulfilled. their vigorous vitality refused conformity to foreign laws and external rule.  they could take no other way to perfection than by the unconstrained development of that which was within them. they were not only able to govern themselves, they alone were able to do so; subordination visibly repressed their energies.

'Only by self-direction could they at all times employ their collective and individual faculties in the fullest extent of their ever-increasing intelligence.

*523  excerpts to top p.524  from Edward D. Collins, 'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution' - 1902

news of the port bill came. the scheme of action was like that before. the assembly committee sent the act to the other colonies, requesting them  to give it their immediate attention. the committees of 8 adjoining towns now met the Boston committee at Faneuil  Halland determined to send letters to the several committees in other colonies where they existed, urging as a remedy a renewal of the nonimportation association, which had been used after the stamp act. nothing could better forecast the power that this new engine of revolution was to acquire than the success of its action on the Boston port act. it proposed the same remedy for a local grievance - the  port act - that had been applied to a general grievance - the stamp act. the 2 were entirely different  in purpose and intended operation, but the committee of correspondence  seized the occasion to coerce opinion from sentiments of sympathy and evoked therefrom a consensus of thinking that augured well for the cause of union. the port act letter was followed by an extension of local committees throughout the colonies.  Southern journals bean to abound with accounts of their meetings. the development of the revolution was rapid from this point.  the consensus of opinion that obtained on the necessity of united action prompted that movement to secure it which led to a congress, while the multiplicity of local duties accruing with every onward step led to the splitting up of this mother committee with its general duties into a host of lesser committees, each having its own special function to perform. the creation of a congress marks an unequivocal step in the progress of the revolution and the influence of the committees of correspondence in promoting it deserves attention at this point.

'while a congress would have been a very logical development from the committee organization that we have seen in New Jersey, or from the meetings of local groups of committees of correspondence, dignified by the name  of conventions, that began to appear in Massachusetts after the regulating act, the actual suggestion for that most revolutionary body, the Continental Congress, brings our attention to still another community, and one in which the nonrevolutionary element was strong.

'the complexity of the situation in New York renders analysis of events difficult, to say nothing of analysis of motive. the most pregnant action proceeds apparently from the struggles of local factions, from the attempted settlement of local issues, or from personal considerations, rather than from any well-conceived design to lay the basis for permanent local or national institutions.

'New York, like Massachusetts, at the time of the stamp act trouble had a committee of correspondence. when the act was repealed this committee's nominal existence ceased, but its members, perhaps not unnaturally from their previous service, took an active part in the choice of the

*524  new committee. we have seen that New York did not quickly respond to the example and suggestion of Virginia in choosing n assembly committee. an interesting commentary on the local situation, is the fact that she was even more dilatory in choosing her local committee.

'this committee was formed between the  16th and the  19th of May,  1774.  in the choice of the committee  2 distinct influences appear - merchants and mechanics.  the merchants,  the leading element, called the first meeting,  held on the  16th, which first nominated the committee. the mechanics did little but concur afterwards in the appointment...'

524.1 to 526.1 excerpts from Clarke and Force 'American Archives',  Fourth Series, Washington - 1837
 NEW YORK CALLS A PUBLIC MEETING AND NAMES A 'COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE'

'new York, Monday, May  16,  1774.  the Merchants and other inhabitants of the city of New York, assembled at the Exchange....and nominated the following gentlemen to form a Committee to correspond with our sister Colonies upon all matters of moment... On Tuesday the following Notice was published in hand-bills...

'TO THE PUBLIC:  an advertisement having appeared at the Coffee House, in consequence of the late extraordinary and very alarming advices received from England, inviting the Merchants to meet at the house of Mr. Samuel Francis, on Monday evening, May  16, in order to consult on measures proper to be pursued on the present critical and important occasion:

'A very respectable and large number of the Merchants and other inhabitants did accordingly appear at the time and place appointed and then and there nominated for the approbation of the public,  a Committee of 50 persons, of which 15 to be a sufficient number to do business.

'That therefore, no formality may be wanting to constitute a Committee, duly chosen, the inhabitants of this cit;y and county, are requested to attend at the Coffee house, on Thursday the 19th instant, at 1 o'clock, to approve of the Committee nominated as aforesaid, or to appoint such other persons, as in their discretion and wisdom may seem meet.

*525  'In  consequence of the foregoing Advertisement, a great concourse of the inhabitants met at the Coffee House, on Thursday, May  19,  to confirm or alter the nomination of a committee  to correspond with our sister Colonies, when Mr. Isaac Low addressed his fellow-citizens in the following words:
'GENTLEMEN:  You have been duly apprised, both by handbills and advertisements in this day's papers, of the intention of your present meeting.
'I hope, gentlemen, you will manifest by your conduct that you are actuated by the dictates of calm reason only, in the choice of the Committee i am to propose for your approbation.

'Let us, then, call down wisdom to our aid, and endeavour to walk  in her hallowed paths. Zeal in a good cause is most laudable, but when it transports beyond the bounds of reason it often leaves room fro bitter reflection.
'we ought, therefore, gentlemen, to banish from our hears all little party distinctions, feuds and animosities,  for to our unanimity and virtue we must at last recur for safety; and that man will approve himself the best friend to his country whose highest emulation is to inculcate those principles both by precept and example'.
'In addition to this address of Mr. Low, the following appeals to the people of New York were published at this time: -

'The late Act of Parliament for blocking up the harbour of Boston, is so far from discouraging the inhabitants of that town, that they never were in higher spirits than at the present hour. confiding in the other Colonies, that they will unite in suspending their exports and imports, to and from Great Britain and the West Indies, they have cheerfully resolved to expend their fortunes and lives in the cause. Several among them, willing to part with all they possess for the public good, have subscribed largely for the support of the poor. they study to preserve good order and to find employment for those who will be wholly turned out of business.
'the liberty and welfare of America is suspended on the issue of the present struggle. if it be successful, our enemies will behold America tending to greatness in spite of all their devilish machinations. they will see her in full possession of that freedom which they look upon with envy, and which  they long to destroy. but, if unsuccessful, wretched will be our condition...can there be any, then, so lost to feeling, so lost to reflection, to all disinterestedness and all foresight, as not to be deeply engaged in opposing and frustrating measures big with the fates of America

*526  and freedom, of England and posterity?...Be, then, unanimous and you shall be successful; be united and be free; be virtuous and be happy...

'the English newspapers are stuffed with nonsensical declamations on the right of Parliament to have every farthing in America at their command, and with virulent invictives against the Bostonians. these writers are beneath contempt. they could not think as they do were they not hired. it is not ignorance in their heads, but, to use a strong scriptural phrase, 'ignorance in their hearts', which makes them talk in this manner. common sense refutes them all  by this short question:  How comes another by a right to take away my money without my consent?  but, for our encouragement, let us remember, that some of the greatest and best men in England wish us success; the merchants and manufacturers at home are greatly and generally dissatisfied already and will soon feel the cause of American liberty to be their own. in a word, let all our merchants unite as one man; let them strive against division in this crisis of jeopardy; let them show themselves worthy of that divine appellation,  'the fathers of their country'. and let not the Ministers of the Gospel neglect their duty; let them remember the example of the Apostles, ho embraced every opportunity of testifying their zeal for the civil and religious liberties of mankind; and while they teach men to consider their oppressors as 'the rod of god's anger, and the staff of his indignation',  let them not fail to excite and encourage them to a hope of his interposition in their behalf, while they humble themselves by fasting and prayer and are in use of all proper means for deliverance'.

next paragraph is excerpts from Edward D. Collins, 'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution'.

NEW YORK SUGGESTS A CONGRESS OF DEPUTIES FROM THE COLONIES TO MEET WITHOUT DELAY

'Suggestions for a Congress had been whispered elsewhere, but at the moment of its practical inception it stands to the credit of Ne York's committee of correspondence...New York's suggestion was made in her reply to the letter from Boston on the port act. the date of the reply was May 23...4  days after New York's proposition had gone toward Boston the Virginia house of burgesses entered into an association and recommended the committee of correspondence to correspond with the other colonies on the same subject...'

*527  this page is excerpts from Clarke and Force 'American Archives', Fourth Series, Washington -  1837
New York, Monday, May 23, 1774
'the Committee appointed to correspond with our sister Colonies upon all matters of moment, met at the Coffee House, pursuant to notice for that purpose given...The Committee to prepare a draft of a letter in answer to those received from Boston, presented a draft to the Committee, which was unanimously approved of and ordered to be signed by the Chairman,  and transmitted to the Committee of Correspondence, at Boston; in the words following:

'GENTLEMEN:   the alarming measures of the British Parliament relative to your ancient and respectable town, which has so long been the seat of freedom, fill the inhabitants of this city with inexpressible concern. as a sister Colony, suffering in defence of the rights of America, we consider your injuries as a  common cause, to the redress of which it is equally our duty and our interest to contribute.  but what ought to be done in a situation so truly critical, while it employs the anxious thoughts of every generous mind, is very hard to be determined.

'Our citizens have thought it necessary to appoint a large Committee, consisting of 51 persons to correspond with our sister Colonies on this and every other matter of public moment, and at 10 o'clock this forenoon, we were first assembled. your letter, enclosing the vote of the town of Boston, and the letter of your Committee of Correspondence, were immediately taken into consideration.

'While we think you justly entitled to the thanks of your sister Colonies for asking their advice on a case of such extensive consequences, we lament our inability to relieve your anxiety by a decisive opinion. the cause is general, and concerns the whole Continent, who are equally interested with you and us; and we foresee that no remedy can be of avail unless it proceeds from the joint act and approbation of all; from a virtuous and spirited union which may be expected while the feeble efforts of a few will only be attended with mischief and disappointment to themselves and triumph  to the adversaries of our liberty.
'Upon these reasons we conclude that a Congress (def - united)  of Deputies from the Colonies in general is of the utmost moment;  that it ought to be assembled without delay,  and some unanimous resolution formed in this fatal emergency, not only respecting your deplorable circumstances, but for the security of our common rights. such being our sentiments, it must be premature to pronounce any judgement on the expedient which you have suggested. we beg, however, that you will do us the justice to believer that we shall continue to act with a firm and becoming regard to American freedom and to co-operate with our sister Colonies in every measure which shall be though salutary and conducive to the public good.
'We have nothing to add, but that we sincerely condole with you, in your unexampled distress, and to request your speedy opinion of the proposed Congress,  that if it should meet with your approbation, we may exert our utmost endeavours, to carry it into execution...Ordered,  That the Chairman send a copy of this letter to the Committee at Boston, and to the Committee of Correspondence at Philadelphia, acknowledging their receipt of a copy of their Letter to Boston, and approving the sentiments contained in it'.

*528  'Where justice is the standard, heaven is the warrior's shield....The malice of the Boston port bill has been defeated, in a very considerable degree, by giving you an opportunity of Deserving, and our brethren in this an our sister colonies, an opportunity of Bestowing those benefactions which.... must for eve endear each to the other, and from those indissoluble bonds of friendship and affection, on which the preservation of our rights so evidently depend'.  Joseph Warren,  March 6, 1775

*529  In Carpenters Hall where the Congress met at Philadelphia

First Prayer in Congress

Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me:
Fight against them that fight against me.
Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.
Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me:
say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
Let them be confounded and put to same that seek after my soul:
let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them.
Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the Lord persecute them.
for without cause they have digged for my soul.
let destruction come upon him at unawares;
and let his net that he hath hid catch himself:
into that very destruction  let him fall.
and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord:
it shall rejoice in his salvation.
all my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, Which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth Him
false witnesses did rise up;
they laid to my charge things that I knew not.
they rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my sou.
but as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth:
I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I
I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother
I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother,
but in mine adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together;
yea,  the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not;
they did tear me, and cased not:
with hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.
Lord, how long wilt thou look on?
rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.
I will give thee thanks in the great congregation:
I will praise thee among much people.
Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me:
neither let them wind with the eye that hate me without a cause.
for they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.
yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.
this Thou hast seen O Lord;
keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.
Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even  unto my cause, my God and my Lord.
Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness;
and let them not rejoice over me.
Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it:
let them not say, w have swallowed him up.
let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together  that rejoice at mine hurt:
let them be clothed, with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.
let them shout for joy and be glad, that favour my righteous cause;
yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified,
which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.
and my tongue  shall speak of they righteousness and of they praise all the day long.

35th Psalm

C E M E N T   O F  T H E  A M E R I C A N  U N I O N

'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!'

'A new commandment I give unto you,  That ye love one another.' John 13.34

'With all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forebearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in  the bond of peace.'  Ephesians 4.13

'Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of god, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ'. Ephesians 4.13

'It affords edifying prospects, indeed, to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more charity and conduct themselves, in respect to each other, with a more Christian-like spirit than ever they have done in any former age or in any other nation.'  George Washington

'...the report came that the British ships were bombarding Boston.  the public mind was deeply agitated. 'War! war! war! was the cry',  John Adams wrote. the members met the next morning in this agitated state. The Reverend Jacob Duche appeared with his clerk and in his pontificals; read several prayers; then the psalm for the  seventh day of the month,  - the thirty-fifth... and then, John Adams said, he 'unexpectedly to anybody struck out into an extemporary prayer for America, for the congress, for Massachusetts, and especially for Boston...'  Richard Frothingham

*531  BOSTON'S PORT IS CLOSED BY GREAT BRITAIN (excerpts in pp531-3  from Richard Frothingham 'Siege of Boston', Boston - 1851)

'I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth'.  John Adams

the New England colonists always claimed the liberties of Englishmen. they brought with them the principles that the people are the fountain of political power, and that there can be no just taxation without representation; and contended for the right of applying these principles according to their wants. they brought with them, also, that republican spirit which animated the English Puritans and their early ideal was the establishment of civil (of, pertaining to, consisting of citizens - a native, naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection...distinguished from an alien)
commonwealths (def - a group of sovereign states and their dependencies associated y their own choice and linked with common objectives and interests) on the basis of Christian principles. to their vision, this form was a divine institution, the government of angels in heaven and which ought to be that of men upon earth. it was instituted by God himself in the Holy Scriptures, whereby any nation might enjoy all the ends of government in the best manner, hence the New England communities became republican in form, while they had for their 'quickening spirit, equal rights, freedom of thought and action and personal independence'.
'it was this spirit and the bold application of these principles, that made the colonists, so far as their internal policy was concerned, virtually independent;  while, so far as their external politics were concerned, their allegiance to the crown did not include an admission of the

*532  supremacy of Parliament. in fact, they regarded themselves as capable of organizing local governments, contracting alliances with each other, coining money, making war and concluding peace. the institutions that grew up, shaped in a great measure as experience dictated, were admirably adapted to strengthen and develop a love of liberty united to a respect for law,  the most continual struggles with the aborigines and the French served, as an invaluable school in which to learn the discipline, and to become inured to the dangers, of a military life; while schools, and colleges and churches, maintained with wonderful perseverance, nurtured an equally invaluable intelligence and public virtue. persons and property were secure and labor was less burdened with restriction, and more free to reap a fair reward, than it was in any country in the world,  in a word, there grew up a system of local administration well suited to the condition of a rising people, united to a general organization, capable, in any emergency, of affording it protection...

'this progress, which ought to have been regarded in Great Britain with pride and pleasure, was beheld with jealousy and apprehension; -with jealousy, lest the industrial enterprise of the colonists should compete too successfully with that of the mother country and with apprehension, lest their rising importance should invite them to assert political independence...various measures were recommended to check these ideas. sagacious royalists saw the republican tendencies of the prevailing system of local government, - the Congregationalism in the churches, the town organizations, the local assemblies, - whose influence reached the roots and fibres of the social system...The colonists, however, had enjoyed their social and political advantages too long to relinquish them without a struggle. they determined to retain their admirable system of local government and to keep free from foreign taxation. They claimed the right to go on in the path of freedom and progress they with so much toil and treasure had laid open.  why should a country, clothed by the God of nature with all his highest forms of magnificence and grandeur, be governed by an island of the Old World?...
'in Massachusetts, for nearly a century and a half, there had been a steady and healthy development of free principles. the people manifested it in the early struggles for their charters, in their resistance to the greedy tyranny of Andros, and in the subsequent political controversies between the liberty-men and the prerogative-men. hence, during the  10 years of strong reasoning and firm resolve and eloquent appeal - from  1764 to 1774 - the acts judged unconstitutional and contrary to natural and chartered rights, met in this colony with the most determined opposition. it was carried on by men of the Puritan stock, who had in them the earnestness, singleness of heart,  and ready devotion, of the olden time, and who believed that Divine Providence had appointed them to develop and defend a rational liberty. there was no compromise, by such men, with

*533  duty. hence, in dealing with the small tax on tea, when no other course remained, they did not hesitate to destroy the obnoxious herb. Hutchinson writes,  'this was the boldest stroke that had been struck in america'.  it was done after deliberate council, was the work of no common mob,  was welcomed though the colonies by the ringing of bells and other signs of joy, and was defended as a measure of political necessity. ministerial wisdom devised as a punishment the Boston Port Bill, which was signed March 31, 1774,  and went into effect on the first day of June. the execution of this measure devolved on Thomas Gage, who arrived at Boston May  13, 1774, as Captain General and Governor of Massachusetts...
'The Boston Port Bill went into operation amid the tolling bells, fasting and prayer, the exhibition of mourning emblems, and every expression of general and deep sympathy. it bore severely upon  2 towns, Boston and Charlestown, which had been long connected by a common patriotism. their laborers were thrown out of employment, their poor were deprived of bread and gloom pervaded their streets. but they were cheered and sustained by the large contributions sent from every quarter  for their relief and by the noble words that accompanied them. the mission of this law, however, was rather to develop and intense fraternal feeling, to promote concert of action and a union of the colonies, than to  create a state of open war. the excitement of the public mind was intense;  and the months of June, July and august, were characterized by varied political activity. multitudes signed  a solemn league and covenant against the use of British goods. the breach between the whigs and loyalist daily became wider. patriotic donations from every colony were on their way to the suffering towns...
'the Port Bill not only cut off its foreign trade, but the whole of its domestic trade by water. did a lighter attempt to land hay from the neighboring hills, or a scow  to freight to it lumber or iron, or a float to land sheep, or a farmer to carry marketing over in the ferry-boats, the argus-eyed fleet was ready to see it, and prompt to capture or destroy. not a raft or a keel was allowed to approach the town with merchandise. many of the stores, especially all those on   Long wharf, were closed. in a word, Boston had fairly entered on its season of suffering. did its inhabitants expostulate on the severity with which the law was carried out, the insulting reply was, that to distress them was the very object of the bill.  as though the deeper the iron entered into the soul, the sooner and the more complete would be the submission. citizens of competence were reduced to want; the ever hard lot of the poor became harder. to maintain order and preserve life, at so trying a season, called for nerve and firmness. work was to be provided  when there was no demand for the products of labor and relief was to be distributed according to the circumstances of the applicants. the donation committee sat every day, Sundays excepted'.

534  excerpts on pp. 534-537.1 are from Clarke and Force 'American archives', fourth Series, Washington - 1837

NEW YORK COMES TO THE AID OF 'OUR BRETHREN AT BOSTON

'at a numerous meeting of the inhabitants of the city of New Work, convened in the Fields by public advertisement, on Wednesday, the  6th of July,  1774.  the business of the meeting being fully explained by the Chairman and the dangerous tendency of the numerous and vile arts used by the enemies of America, to divide the distract her councils, as well as the misrepresentations of the virtuous intentions of the citizens of this metropolis, in this interesting and alarming state of the liberties of America, the following resolutions were...passed without one dissentient:

'...that the statute commonly called the Boston Port Act, is oppressive to the inhabitants of that town, unconstitutional in its principles and dangerous to the liberties of British America;  and that, therefore, we consider our brethren At Boston as now suffering in the common cause of these Colonies...that it is the opinion of this meeting, that if the principal Colonies on this Continent shall come into a joint resolution  to stop all importation from,  and exportation to Great Britain, till the Act of parliament for blocking up the harbour of Boston be repealed, the same will prove the salvation of North America and her liberties.... that the Deputies who shall represent this Colony in the Congress of American deputies, to be held at Philadelphia, about the first of September next, are...instructed, empowered, and directed to engage with a majority of the principal Colonies, to agree for this city upon a non-importation from Great Britain, of all goods, wares and merchandises, until the Act for blocking up the harbour of Boston be repealed...it is the opinion of this meeting that it would be proper for every; county in the Colony, without delay, to send two Deputies, chosen by the people, or from the Committees chose by them in each county, to hold, in conjunction with the Deputies for this city and county, a Convention for the Colony...in order to elect a proper number of Deputies to represent the Colony in the general Congress...

'that a subscription should immediately be set on foot for the relief of such poor inhabitants of Boston as are, or may be deprived of the means of subsistence...that these Resolutions be printed in the public newspapers of this city and transmitted to the different counties in this Colony, and to the Committees of Correspondence for the neighboring Colonies...'

SOUTH-HAVEN, NEW YORK, SUGGESTS THAT ALL THE COLONIES 'UNITE

'at a Meeting of the Inhabitants of the parish of South Haven in the County of Suffolk and Colony of New York, the  13th of June,  1774, it is

*535  voted and agreed, that the Act of Parliament, for blocking up the harbour of Boston, is unconstitutional and has a direct tendency to enslave the inhabitants of America, and put an end to all property. and it is also the opinion of this meeting, that if the Colonies all unite, and strictly adhere to a non-importation agreement from Great Britain and the West indies, and have no trade with them, we should have great reason to expect in the short time a repeal of that oppressive Act...and it is further voted and agreed by this meeting, that the following gentlemen...be a Standing Committee for this place, to correspond with the Committee of Correspondence in the City of New York and others...'

HUNTINGTON, NEW YORK, POINTS TO THE 'COMMON CAUSE' ARISING FROM CLOSING THE PORT OF BOSTON

'at a General Town Meeting, on the 21st of June,  1774, the Inhabitants of Huntington came into the following Resolutions:  that every freeman's property is absolutely his own,  and that no man has a right to take it from him without his consent, expressed either by himself or his Representatives...the Act of Parliament...for shutting up the port of Boston, or any other means or device, under colour or pretext of law, to compel them, or any other of his Majesty's American subjects, to submit to parliament Taxations, are subversive of their just and constitutional liberty...

'We are of opinion that our brethren of Boston are now suffering in the common cause of British America. that...it is the indispensable duty of all the Colonies upon this Continent to unite in some effectual measures for repeal of the said act...and we hereby declare ourselves ready to enter into these or such measures as shall be agreed upon by  a general Congress of all the Colonies... We do choose and appoint... a Committee for this town,  to act in conjunction with the Committees of the other towns in the County as a General Committee for the county, to correspond with the Committee of New York'.

ORANGE TOWN, NEW YORK, DECLARES ITS 'ABHORRENCE OF MEASURES SO UNCONSTITUTIONAL
'at a Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Orange Town, and Province of New York, on Monday, the  4th of July, 1774, at the house of Mr. Yoast Mabie, in said town, the following resolves were agreed upon and passed, viz...that however well disposed we are towards his majesty, we cannot see the late Acts of parliament imposing duties upon us and the act for shutting up the port of Boston, without declaring our abhorrence of measures so unconstitutional and big with destruction...

*536  that it is our unanimous opinion, that the stopping all exportation and importation to and from Great Britain and the West Indies, would be the most effectual method to obtain a speedy repeal...that the following gentlemen...be a Committee for this town, to correspond with the City of New York; and to conclude and agree upon such measures as they shall judge necessary, in order to obtain a repeal of said Acts.'

THE TOWN OF RYE, NEW  YORK, SUGGESTS A GENERAL CONGRESS AS THE MOST 'EFFECTUAL MODE OF REDRESSING OUR GRIEVANCES'

'On the  10th day of August,  1774, the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the township of Rye, made... a Committee  to consult and determine with the Committees of the other towns and districts in the County of West Chester,  upon the expedience of sending one or more Delegates to Congress to be held in Philadelphia on the first day of September next...that the Act of parliament for shutting up the port of Boston, and divesting some of the inhabitants of private property, is a most unparalleled, rigorous and unjust piece of cruelty and despotism...that the most effectual mode of redressing our grievances will be by general Congress of delegates from the different Colonies...

'by order of the Committee... the Committee for the town of Rye will meet the Committees of the other towns and districts in the County of West Chester, on Monday, the  22nd day of this instant, at the Court House in the White Plains , to return an answer to a letter from Mr. Isaac Low, Chairman of the Committee of Correspondence in New York'.

PALATINE, NEW YORK, DETERMINES TO 'JOIN AND UNITE' WITH OTHERS IN SENDING RELIEF TO 'JOIN AND UNITE' WITH OTHERS IN SENDING RELIEF TO THE INHABITANTS OF BOSTON.

'Resolutions adopted by the Inhabitants of Palatine District, Tryon County,  New York, at a Meeting held August 27, 1774. this Meeting looking with concern and heartfelt sorrow on the alarming and calamitous condition which the inhabitants of Boston are in, in consequence of the Act of parliament blocking up the port of Boston, and considering the tendency of the late Acts of Parliament, for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, has to abridging the liberties and privileges of the American Colonies, do resolve...that we think it is our undeniable privilege to be taxed only with our own consent, given by ourselves or our representatives. that taxes otherwise laid and exacted are unjust and unconstitutional.. that the Act for blocking up the port of Boston is oppressive and arbitrary; injurious in its principles and particularly oppressive to

*537  the inhabitants of Boston, whom we consider brethren suffering in the common cause.

'that we will unite and join with the different Districts of this County, in giving whatever relief it is in our power to the poor distressed inhabitants of  Boston and that we will join and unite, with our brethren of the rest of this Colony, in any thing tending to support and defend our rights and liberties. that we think the sending of Delegates from the different Colonies, to a general Continental Congress, is a salutary measure and that there be appointed a Standing committee, of this county, to correspond with the Committees of New York and Albany'.

the next 2 paragraphs are taken from Collins 'Committees of Correspondence of the American Revolution'

other colonies sent expressions of similar purport, and the Boston committee, which had been at first inclined to ignore the suggestion and cling to its own special case, was under the necessity of trimming it s sails a little closer to a clearly revolutionary breeze.

'the importance of the step now entered upon can hardly be over-estimated.. the earlier intercolonial correspondence had consisted largely of expressions of good will, unity of sentiment and firmness of purpose to resist oppression. all this was aimless until some body assumed the direction of it to the accomplishment of an end.  The Continental Congress was the body hit upon. the idea was extensively promulgated in the correspondence of the numerous committees and secured widespread approval.

from the bottom paragraph (directly below) through p559 are excerpts from Clarke and Force 'American Archives,  Fourth Series, Washington, 1837

FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA, APPOINTS A COMMITTEE  TO CORRESPOND WITH THE  OTHER TOWNS AND COUNTIES ON THE 'ALARMING SITUATION'

'at a Meeting of the Inhabitants of Fredericksburg, in the County of Soittsylvania and Colony of Virginia,  at the Town House, on Wednesday  the first day of June,  1774: Resolved, that it is the unanimous opinion of this meeting to concur in every proper measure that may be thought expedient by our sister Colonies, on this important occasion, respecting the hostile invasions of the rights and liberties of the town of Boston.  Resolved, that...be appointed a Committee for this town to correspond with the neighbouring towns and counties for the purpose of communicating to each other, in the most speedy manner, their sentiments on this present interesting and alarming situation of America...'

*538  'PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VIRGINIA, RECOGNIZES THAT BOSTON IS SUFFERING 'IN THE COMMON CAUSE OF AMERICAN LIBERTY'.

'At a Meeting of the Freeholders, Merchants and other Inhabitants of the County of Prince William and town of Dumfries, in the Colony of Virginia, at the Court House of the said County, on Monday, the 6th day of June, in the year of our Lord  1774...Resolved, that the city of Boston, in the Massachusetts Bay, is now suffering in the common cause of American liberty and on account of its opposition to an act of the British Legislature, for imposing a duty upon tea, to be collected in America... and it is the opinion of this meeting,  that until the said Acts are repealed, all importation to and exportation from, this Colony ought to be stopped except with such Colonies of Islands in North America as shall adopt this measure...And it is the opinion of this meeting, that the courts of justice  in this Colony ought to decline trying any civil causes until the said Acts are repealed...that the clerk of this Committee d transmit copies of these Resolves to both the printers  in Annapolis and Philadelphia, to be published in their Gazettes'.

TO EFFECT 'A GENERAL ASSOCIATION'

'at a Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the County of Frederick, in Virginia,  and gentlemen practising at the bar, held at the town of Winchester, the  8th day of June,  1774,  to consider of the best mode to be fallen upon to secure their liberties and properties, and also  to prevent the dangerous tendency of an Act of Parliament, passed in the 14th  year of his present Majesty's reign, entitled, 'An  Act to discontinue in such manner, and for such time as  are herein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading and shipping of goods, wares and merchandise at the town and within the harbour of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America', evidently has to invade and deprive us of the same. 
'The Reverend Charles M. Thurston, Moderator... that it is the inherent right of British subjects to be governed and taxed by Representatives chosen by themselves only; and that every Act of the British parliament respecting the internal polity of North America, is a daring and unconstitutional invasion of our said rights and privileges...heartily and unanimously concur with our suffering brethren of Boston, and every other part of North America, that may be the immediate victims of tyranny, in promoting all proper measures to avert such dreadful calamities, to procure a redress of our grievances,  and to secure our common liberties ...that it is the opinion of this meeting that Committees ought to be appointed for the purpose of effecting a general Association, that the measures may be pursued through the whole Continent...'

*539  WESTMORLAND COUNTY, VIRGINIA, URGES UNITY 'TO RESIST THE COMMON DANGER'

'At a respectable Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the County of Westmorland, assembled on due notice, at the Court House of the said County, on Wed,  the 22nd of June,  1774.  the Reverend Mr. Thomas Smith, Moderator.
'several papers, containing the Proceedings of the late House of Burgesses of this Colony,  and the subsequent determinations of the late Representatives after the House was dissolved, together with extracts of several Resolves of the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay, Maryland,  etc., being read, the meeting proceeded seriously to consider the present dangerous and truly alarming crisis, when ruin is threatened to the ancient constitutional rights of North America...that an endeavour to force submission from one Colony to the payment of taxes not so imposed,  is a dangerous attack on the liberty and property of British America,  and renders it indispensably necessary that all should firmly unite to resist the common danger...'

RESOLUTIONS OF RICHMOND COUNTY IN VIRGINIA

'At a respectable Meeting of the Freeholders and Freemen of the County of Richmond, Virginia, after due notice to attend at the Court House of the said colony, on Wednesday, the 29th of June,  1774, in order to give their sentiments to their late Representatives, invited to meet in Williamsburg on the first day of August next, to deliberate on matters of the utmost importance to this country, they, after making choice of the Reverend Issac William Giberne as Moderator...'

PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY IN VIRGINIA, URGES USE OF HOME 'MANUFACTURES'

'At a General Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Prince George's County, Virginia,  the following resolves were proposed and unanimously agreed...That the cause of the town of Boston is the common cause of all the American Colonies...that the raising sheep, hemp and flax, ought to be encouraged...That to be clothed in manufactures fabricated in the Colonies ought to be considered as a badge and distinction of respect and true patriotism'.

YORK COUNTY IN VIRGINIA RAISES A SUBSCRIPTION FOR THE RELIEF OF SUFFERING IN BOSTON

'On Monday, the 18th of July, the freeholders and other Inhabitants of York County, in Virginia, met, according to public notice, at the Court House, in York, to consider what was to be done in the present distressed and alarming situation of affairs throughout the British Colonies in America...Friends and Countrymen:  We are met to-day upon one of the most important matters that can engage the attention of men. you are all well acquainted with the attacks which have been lately made by the British parliament upon what is dearer to Americans than their lives -their liberties...

'It was then unanimously Resolved, that as the constitutional Assemblies of Virginia have been prevented from exercising their right of providing for the security of the liberties of the people, that right again reverts to the people, as the fountain from whence all power and legislation flow;  a right coeval with human nature, and which they claim from the eternal and immutable laws of Nature's God...
'That the first day of September next, or the time of the general Congress, be set apart as a day of prayer and supplication to the Almighty disposer of human events, to direct the Councils of the Americans, and so to dispose of the heart of our Sovereign, that a general harmony may be restored to the British Empire. that a subscription be immediately  opened for the  relief of the inhabitants of Boston, under the direction of the Deputies for this County, who are desired to promote and encourage the same.  that the above Resolves and opinions be published in the Virginia Gazette'.

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FAIRFAX COUNTY CONSIDERS GREAT BRITAIN'S  VENGEANCE AGAINST BOSTON ,  'AS AIMED AT ALL'

'at a General Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the County of Fairfax, at the Court House in  the Town of Alexandria, on Monday, the 18th day of July,  1774: George Washington, Esquire, Chairman...
'Resolved, that this Colony and Dominion of Virginia cannot be considered as a conquered country, and, it it was, that the present inhabitants are the descendants, not of the conquered, but of the conquerors...that our ancestors, when they left their native land and settled in America, brought with them, even if the same had not been confirmed by Charters,  the civil Constitution and form of government of the country they came

*541  from, and were by the laws of nature and Nations entitled to all its privileges, immunities and advantages...and ought of right to be as fully enjoyed as if we had still continued within the Realm of England...
'that the mostly important and valuable part of the British Constitution,  upon which its very existence depends, is the fundamental principle of the people's being governed by no laws to which they have not given their consent by Representatives freely chosen by themselves, who are affected by the laws they enact equally with their constituents, to whom they are accountable ...the Act inflicting Ministerial vengeance upon the town of Boston;  and the 2 Bills lately brought into Parliament for abrogating the Charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay...are part of the above mentioned iniquitous system; that the inhabitants of the town of Boston  are now suffering in the common cause of all British America and are justly entitled to its support and assistance; and, therefore, that a subscription ought immediately to be opened and proper  persons appointed, in every county in this Colony, to purchase provisions and consign them to some gentlemen of character in Boston to be distributed among the poorer sort of the people there.

'Resolved, that nothing will so much contribute to defeat the pernicious designs of the common enemies of Great Britain and her Colonies, as a firm union of the latter, who ought to regard every act of violence or oppression inflicted upon any one of them, as aimed at all; and to effect  this desirable purpose, that a Congress should be appointed, to consist of Deputies from all the Colonies, to concert a general and uniform  plan for the defence and preservation of our common rights...That every little jarring interest and dispute which hath ever happened between these Colonies, should be buried in eternal oblivion...that it is the indispensable  duty of all the gentlemen and men of fortunes to set examples of temperance, fortitude, frugality and industry, and  give every encouragement  in their power, particularly by subscriptions and premiums,  to the improvement of arts and manufactures in America; that great care and attention should be had to the cultivation of flax, cotton, and  other materials for manufacture...Resolved that...during our present difficulties and distress, no slaves ought to be imported into any of the British Colonies on this Continent; and we take this opportunity of declaring our most earnest wishes to see an entire stop forever put to such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade.
'Resolved that it is the opinion of this meeting, that a Solemn Covenant and Association should be entered into by the inhabitants of all the Colonies, upon oath, that they will not...export any manner of lumber to the West Indies,  etc.'

*542  VIRGINIA HOLDS A CONVENTION IN WILLIAMSBURG AND APPOINTS DELEGATES TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

Non-importation of British goods is reaffirmed and relief is sent to the distressed in the Town of Boston.
'At a very full Meeting of Delegates from the different Counties in the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, begun in Williamsburg the first day of August, in the year of our Lord 1774, and continued by several adjournments  to Saturday, the  6th  of the same month, the following Association was unanimously resolved upon, and agreed to...'We do hereby resolve and declare, that we will not, either directly or indirectly, after the first day of November next, import from Great Britain any British manufactures, either from the West Indies or any other place... we will neither ourselves import, nor purchase any slave or slaves...That the merchants and other venders of goods and merchandises within this Colony ought not to take advantage of the scarcity of goods that may be occasioned by this Association, but that they ought to sell the same at the rates they have been accustomed to for twelve months past...
'In order the better to distinguish such worthy merchants and traders who are well-wishers of this Colony, from those who may attempt, through motives of self-interest, to obstruct our views, we do hereby resolve that we will not...deal with any merchant or trader who will not sign this Association...Resolved, That we think ourselves called upon, by every principle of humanity and brotherly affection, to extend the utmost and speediest relief to our distressed fellow-subjects in the town of Boston...
'It being our opinion that the united wisdom of North America should be collected in a general Congress of all the  Colonies,  we have appointed the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esquire, k Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison and Edmund Pendleton, Esquires, Deputies to represent this Colony in the said Congress, to be held at Philadelphia, on the first Monday in September next...'

*343  LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA, URGES UNITY

'at Meeting of the inhabitants of the Borough of Lancaster, at the Court House in said Borough, on  Wednesday, the  15th day of June,  1774.  agreed, that to preserve the constitutional rights of the inhabitants of America, it is incumbent on every Colony to unite and use the most effectual means to procure  a repeal of the late Acts of Parliament against the town of Boston... That the traders and inhabitants of this town will join and concur with the patriotic merchants, manufacturers, tradesmen, and freeholders  of the City and County of Philadelphia and other parts of the Province, in an Association of solemn agreement to this purpose, if the same shall be by them thought necessary.

THE CITY AND COUNTY OF PHILADELPHIA APPOINTS A COMMITTEE TO CORRESPOND WITH OTHER COLONIES AND RECOMMENDS A CONTINENTAL CONGRESS
relief is sent to the poor inhabitants of Boston

'at a very large and respectable Meeting of the Freeholders and Freemen of the City  and County of Philadelphia, in the Province of Pennsylvania, held on Saturday, JUNE 18,  1774. T. Willing and  John Dickinson, Esqs. Chairmen.
'Resolved...That the Act of Parliament for shutting up the port of Boston, is unconstitutional, oppressive to the inhabitants of that town, dangerous to the liberties of the British Colonies, and that, therefore, we consider our brethren at Boston as suffering in the common cause of America. that a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies in North America,  is the most probable and proper mode of procuring relief for our suffering brethren...That a large and respectable Committee, be immediately appointed for the City and County of Philadelphia, to correspond with the sister Colonies and with the several counties in this Province, in order that all may unite in promoting and endeavouring to attain the great and valuable ends mentioned in the foregoing resolution...That the Committee be instructed immediately to set on foot a subscription for the relief of such poor inhabitants of the town of Boston...'

RESOLUTIONS OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

'At a Meeting of a respectable body of the Freeholders, inhabitants of the Resolutions were deliberately and unanimously agreed on...That we

*544  apprehend the Act of Parliament for shutting up the port of Boston, 'until his Majesty's duties be duly collected, etc.,' is highly arbitrary and oppressive to the inhabitants of that town, and in its consequences may endanger the liberties of all the British Colonies in America...That a Congress of Deputies from the said Colonies is the most probable and proper. mode of procuring relief for our suffering brethren...'

PENNSYLVANIA'S NORTHAMPTON COUNTY  ASKS THAT 'CHARITABLE PERSONS' OF THE  COUNTY VOLUNTARILY CONTRIBUTE TO RELIEVE THE SUFFERINGS OF BOSTON.

'At a Meeting of the Justices, the Gentlemen of the Bar, Grand Jury, and principal Inhabitants of the County of Northampton, held at Easton on the  21st day of June,  17734. George Taylor, Esquire, in the Chair. it being considered that it was necessary for all the counties of this province to join with their brethren of Philadelphia in expressing their sentiments upon the present interesting occasion, relative to the oppressive Acts of Parliament lately passed in Great Britain,  tending to destroy the liberties of North America, it was unanimously resolved as follows:

'That the Act of parliament for shutting up the port and harbour of Boston, is an Act of the highest oppression, and a violation of the liberties of America. that as we consider the inhabitants of the said town as suffering in the common cause of American freedom, we will assist them to obtain redress by every legal act in our power.  that it is our opinion  the most constitutional and effectual method for obtaining such redress is by  having a general Congress of Committees, to be composed and chosen out of the members of the different Assemblies of each Colony, that a Committee be formed in this county, consisting of 6 persons... to correspond with out brethren in Philadelphia and the other counties of this Province, and to  co-operate with them in such measures as shall be judged most proper for the  general good. that the  Committee be desired to receive the subscriptions of such charitable persons in this county who shall incline to support the  distressed and suffering inhabitants of the town of Boston.'

PENNSYLVANIA'S NORTHAMPTON COUNTY ASKS THAT 'CHARITABLE PERSONS' OF THE COUNTY VOLUNTARILY CONTRIBUTE TO RELIEVE  THE SUFFERINGS OF BOSTON

'at a meeting of the Justices, the Gentlemen of the Bar, Grand Jury,  and  principal Inhabitants of the County of Northampton, held at Easton,  on the 21st day of June,  1774.  George Taylor, esquire, in the Chair.  it being considered that it was necessary for all the counties of this Province  to join with their brethren of Philadelphia in expressing their sentiments upon the present interesting occasion, relative to the oppressive  Acts of Parliament lately passed in Great Britain, tending to destroy the liberties of North America, it was unanimously resolved as follows:

'That the Act of Parliament for shutting up the port and harbour of Boston,  is an Act of the highest oppression, and a violation of  the liberties of America. that as we consider the inhabitants of the  said town as suffering in the common cause of American freedom, we will assist them to obtain redress by every legal act in our power. that it is our opinion the most constitutional and effectual method for obtaining such redress is by having  a general Congress of Committees, to be composed and chosen out of the members of the different Assemblies of each Colony. that a committee be formed in this county, consisting of  6 persons...to correspond with our brethren in Philadelphia,  and the other counties of this province and to co-operate with them in such measures as shall be judged most proper for the general good.. that the Committee  be desired to receive the  subscriptions of such charitable persons in this county who shall inclined to support the  distressed and suffering inhabitants of the  town of Boston.

PENNSYLVANIA CALL A CONVENTION OF HER DEPUTIES AND ENDORSES A 'GENERAL PLAN OF CONDUCT' FOR ALL THE  COLONIES IN RESISTING THE ACTS OF PARLIAMENT.
'At a Provincial Meeting of Deputies chosen b the several Counties, in Pennsylvania, held at Philadelphia, Friday,  July  15,  1774,  and continued by adjournments from day to day...Agreed, That in case of any difference  in sentiment, the  question be determined by the Deputies voting by counties.

*545  'The Letters from Boston of the  13th of May were then read, and a short account given of the steps taken in consequence thereof , and the  measures  now pursuing in this and the neighbouring Province. after which the  following  Resolves were passed...That the Act of Parliament for shutting  up the port of Boston, is unconstitutional,  oppressive to the inhabitants  of that town, dangerous to the liberties  of the British Colonies; and,  therefore, that we consider our brethren at Boston as suffering in the common cause of these Colonies...That the Bill for altering the  administration of justice in certain criminal cases within the Province of Massachusetts Gay...if passed into an Act of Parliament, will be as unconstitutional,  oppressive and dangerous, as the Act above mentioned...That there is an absolute necessity that a Congress of Deputies from the  several Colonies  be immediately assembled, to consult together,  and form a general plan of conduct to be observed by all the Colonies, for the purposes of procuring relief for our suffering brethren, obtaining redress of our grievances, preventing future dissensions, firmly establishing our rights, and restoring harmony between Great Britain and her Colonies on the constitutional foundation...

'That, although a suspension of the  commerce of this  large trading Province, with Great Britain, would greatly distress multitudes of our industrious inhabitants, yet that sacrifice, and a much greater, we are ready  to offer for the preservation of our liberties... That the venders of merchandise of every kind, within this Province, ought not to take advantage of the Resolves relating to non-importation, in this Province, or elsewhere...That it is the duty of every member of this Committee to promote, as much as he can, the subscription set on foot, in the several counties of  this Province, for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Boston.

THE TOWN OF FARMINGTON, CONNECTICUT PROCLAIMS THAT IT IS A SHARER IN THE 'INSULTS OFFERED TO THE TOWN OF BOSTON'.

'a very numerous and respectable body were assembled, of near 1000 people...then the following resolves were passed...That the  late Act which their malice hath caused to be passed in Parliament, for blocking up the port of Boston, is unjust, illegal and oppressive; and that we, and every American, are sharers in the insults offered to the town of Boston...

'That we scorn the chains of slavery; we despise every attempt to rivet them upon us; we are the  sons of freedom, and resolved, that, till time shall be no more, that god-like virtue shall  blazon  our hemisphere...'

*546  CONNECTICUT'S  HOUSE OF  REPRESENTATIVES RESOLVE ON THE  BLOCKING UP OF BOSTON'S PORT
'In the House of  Representatives of the English Colony of Connecticut. this House, taking into their serious consideration sundry Acts of the British Parliament...thereupon do declare and resolve as follows,  viz... That the late Act of Parliament inflicting pains and penalties on the town of Boston, by blocking up their harbour, is a precedent justly alarming to the British Colonies in America, and wholly inconsistent with, and  subversive of, their constitutional rights and liberties...

'at their Sessions at

NORWICH, CONNECTICUT, FEARS 'GREATER EVILS' FROM PRINCIPLES ADOPTED BY PARLIAMENT

'At a very full Meeting of the Inhabitants of the town of Norwich, in the Colony of Connecticut, legally  warned and convened, in the Town House, on the 6th day of June,  1774... that we will, to the utmost of our abilities, assert and defend  the liberties and immunities of British America and that we will co-operate with our brethren in this and the other Colonies, in such reasonable measures as shall, in a general congress, or otherwise, be judged most proper to relieve us from the burdens we now feel and secure us from greater evils we fear will follow from the principles adopted by the British Parliament respecting the town of Boston...'

CONNECTICUT TOWNS MEET TO PRESERVE THEIR LIBERTIES 'WHICH WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM OUR CREATOR'.
'At a Meeting of Delegates, from the Towns in the Counties of Hartford, New London and Windhame, and a part of the County of Litchfield, held at  Hartford, in Connecticut, on the  15th  of September,  1774...This meeting taking  into their serious consideration  the absolute necessity of a non-consumption agreement, as shall be recommended by the general Congress of Delegates from  all the free British  Colonies in America, now convened at Philadelphia...

Do declare and resolve, that, in case the said general Congress shall recommend a non-importation of British goods only, or if British and West India goods, we will enter into a solemn contract and agreement not to purchase or consume any articles that shall be prohibited by such non-importation agreement... That such mercenary wretches, whose avarice

*547  can seek for gratification in  the distress and ruin of their country,  are  wholly unworthy  of our confidence, friendship, or support...These measures, dictated by necessity, we enter upon  for the preservation of our liberties, which we have received from our Creator ,  and may not resign or suffer to be ravished from us...'
PORTSMOUTH,  NEW HAMPSHIRE, SYMPATHIZES WITH BOSTON AND VIEWS BOSTON'S INTEREST AS HER OWN

'Committee of Portsmouth, New Hampshire to the Committee of Boston, Portsmouth, May  19,  1774

'We think the late Act of Parliament, to shut up the port of Boston, of the most extraordinary nature, and fatal tendency. administration are taking every method to disunite  the colonies,  thereby to render the noble opposition  to their arbitrary and destructive measures abortive. we hope a firm union of all the Colonies will still subsist, and that such a plan may be devised and resolutely pursued by all as may prevent the cruel effects of this act. we heartily sympathize with you under your present difficult and alarming situation; and we will exert ourselves to carry any plan into effect which may be concerted by the Colonies for the general relief. we sincerely wish you resolution and prosperity in the common cause and shall ever view your interest as our own.

RHODE ISLAND SUGGESTS AN 'INVIOLABLE UNION'

'At the General assembly  of the Governour and Company of the English Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in America, begun and holden by adjournment at Newport, within and for the  said Colony, on  the second Monday in June,  in the year of our Lord  1774...Resolved...that it is the opinion of this Assembly that a firm and inviolable union of all the Colonies, in counsels and measures, is absolutely necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties...'
PROVIDENCE,  RHODE ISLAND, AWAKENS:  'AS A COMMUNITY, WE WOULD DO UNTO OTHERS AS WE WOULD THAT THEY SHOULD DO UNTO US'

'At a Town Meeting held at Providence, Rhode Island, convened by warrant, on the  12th day of August,  1774:  Benjamin Man, Moderator.  Instructions to the Deputies of this town in General Assembly.

*548  'Gentlemen:  The sufferings and distresses of the people of the  town of Boston, occasioned by a relentless execution of that cruel edict for blocking up the port,  awakens our attention and excites our compassion.  their cause is our cause; and unless aid and succour be afforded them, they may be discouraged into a hurtful submission, and Ministerial vengeance may next be directed against this Colony, and in the end alight upon all.  You are therefore requested to use your endeavours at the next session  of the General assembly, to procure a grant to e made from this Colony of such  sum of money as they may think fit, towards relieving and mitigating the difficulties and distresses which that town must experience from  the operation of that most unrighteous inhibition, the hostile manner of carrying the same into force, and a general arrest of their liberties.

'permit us to observe, that in doing this it will be evidenced, that as a community,  we would do unto others as we would that they should do unto us in a like circumstance; and that it will be a greater testimony  of unanimity  in the general concernments of America  in this day of struggle and danger, than private contributions, and far more equal'.

ESSEX COUNTY  IN NEW JERSEY SEES THE 'DANGEROUS AND ALARMING CONSEQUENCES'  OF THE BOSTON PORT BILL

'At a Meeting  of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of Essex, in  the Province of New Jersey, at Newark, in the said County, on Saturday, the  11th day of June,  1774.  this meeting taking into serious consideration some late alarming measures adopted by  the British parliament for depriving his Majesty's American subjects of their undoubted and constitutional rights and principles; and particularly  the Act for blockading the port of Boston...do unanimously  resolve and agree...

'That the late Act of Parliament relative to Boston, which so absolutely destroys every idea of safety and confidence, appears to us big with the most dangerous and alarming consequences...That this county will most readily and cheerfully join their brethren of the other counties in this Province, in promoting such Congress of Deputies, to be sent from each of the Colonies, in order to form a general plan of union, so that the measures to be pursued for the important ends in view may be uniform and firm...'

MORRIS COUNTY IN NEW JERSEY SENDS HELP TO THE 'SUFFERERS AT BOSTON'

'at a Meeting of a respectable body of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of Morris, in the Province of East New Jersey, at the Court

*549  House in Morristown, in the said County, on Monday,  the  27th June,  1774...

'that the late Acts of Parliament for imposing taxes for the purpose of  raising a revenue  in America, are oppressive and arbitrary, calculated  to disturb the minds and alienate the affections of the Colonists from the mother country...That it is the opinion of this meeting, that the Act of parliament, for shutting up the port of Boston, is unconstitutional, injurious in  its principles to the general cause of American freedom, particularly oppressive to the inhabitants of that town and that, therefore, the people of Boston are considered by us as suffering in the general cause of America.

'That unanimity and firmness in the Colonies are the most effectual means to relieve our suffering brethren at Boston, to avert the dangers justly to be apprehended from that alarming Act, commonly styled the Boston Port Bill, and to secure the invaded rights and privileges of America...That we will most cheerfully join our brethren of the other counties in this Province, in promoting an union of the Colonies, by forming a general Congress of Deputies to be sent from each of the Colonies...That it is the request of this meeting that the county Committee... do take into their serious consideration  the propriety  of setting on foot a subscription for the benefit of the sufferers at Boston, under the Boston Port Bill...'
HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY, SUGGESTS SENDING DELEGATES TO A GENERAL CONGRESS.
'The Freeholders and  Inhabitants of Hunterdon County, in the Province of New Jersey, convened by advertisement, at the house of John Ringo, in Amwell, in said County, on Friday, the  8th July,  1774...That as the  town of Boston is now suffering in the common cause of American freedom, it is the opinion of this meeting, that subscriptions be hereafter opened in every town  in this county and the money subscribed to be applied towards the relief of the suffering poor in said town of Boston, until they may be relieved, by being restored to their just rights and privileges. that this county will appoint a Committee to meet the Committees of the several counties of this Colony, at such time and place as may be agreed on, in order to elect and appoint Delegates to represent this Colony at the  general Congress...'
MIDDLESEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY, SEES AMERICAN LIFE, LIBERTY AND PROPERTY, ENDANGERED
'According to notice, which had been  given to the  Freeholders and Inhabitants of the County of Middlesex, New Jersey, a great number from every

*550  quarter of the  county  met at the Court House in  New Brunswick  on Friday,  the  15th  day of July,  1774,  at  2 o'clock...but as the Court House could not contain half the number, the meeting adjourned to the Presbyterian Meeting  House;  where, after some deliberation  upon the dangerous situation of the publick affairs  in America, the meeting unanimously Resolved as follows,  viz...

'That the unexampled distresses brought on  the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, particularly  that of blocking up the port of Boston, and  depriving them  of all trade and  commerce, in virtue of n act or Acts of Parliament, is a cruel  oppression, in which  all the Colonies are intimately concerned;  tending by a numerous train of consequences, to fasten  on them the  chains of vassalage and slavery; or lay prostrate  at the  feet of an unjustly  incensed Ministry  the inhabitants of this wide extended country, who would triumph over their liberties, sport with their lives and claim their properties at will... That  an immediate subscription be set on foot,  throughout this country, towards the relief of the suffering families in the  town of Boston... We  agree with our brethren of all the counties in this Province, in the method of choosing Committees of Correspondence, and also that such Committees from the several counties  do meet, at a place convenient...to elect proper persons to represent this Colony in  the proposed Congress...

TOWNSHIP OF MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY,  RECOMMEND  THAT  FUTURE AMERICAN INVESTIGATE THOSE TRUTHS OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

'On Tuesday, July  19,  1774,  a majority of the Committees from the several Townships in the County of Monmouth, of  the Colony of New Jersey, met according to appointment, at the Court House at Freehold, in sad county;  and appearing to have been regularly chosen and constituted by their respective Townships,  they unanimously agreed upon the propriety and expedience of election a Committee  to represent the whole  county at the approaching Provincial Convention,  to be held at the City of New Brunswick,  for the necessary purpose of constituting a Delegation from this Province,  to the  general Congress of  the Colonies...

TOWNSHIPS OF MONMOUTH COUNTY NEW JERSEY, RECOMMEND THAT FUTURE AMERICANS INVESTIGATE  THOSE TRUTHS OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

'On Tuesday, July  19,  1774,  a majority of the Committees from the  several Townships in  the County of Monmouth,  of  the Colony of New Jersey, met according to appointment, at the Court  House at Freehold,in said county; and appearing to have been regularly chosen and constituted by their  respective Townships,  they unanimously agreed  upon the propriety and expedience of electing a Committee  to represent the  whole county at the  approaching  provincial Convention,  to be held d at the City of New Brunswick,  for the necessary  purpose of constituting a Delegation from this Province,  to the  general Congress of the Colonies...

'As they, on the one hand, firmly believe that the one hand, firmly believe that the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Colony in general and those of the  town of Boston in particular, are,  to all intents and purposes, as loyal subjects as any in all his Majesty's widely extended Dominions; and on the  other,  that (although the present coercive and oppressive measures against them may have taken their rise in some part from the grossest and most cruel misrepresentation  both of their disposition and conduct, ) the blockade of that town is principally designed to lead the way in an attempt to execute a dreadful

*551 deep laid plan for enslaving all America.  they are, therefore, clearly of opinion, that the Bostonians are now eminently suffering in the common  cause of American freedom, and that their fate may probably prove  decisive to this very extensive Continent, and even to the whole British nation...Whence they earnestly entreat every rank, denomination, society and profession of their brethren, that, laying aside all bigotry, and every  party disposition,  they do now universally  concur in one generous and vigorous effort for the encouragement and  support of their suffering friends, and in  a resolute assertion of their birth-right, liberties and privileges...

'as general Congress of Deputies from the several American Colonies is proposed  to be held at Philadelphia some time in September next,  they declare their entire approbation of the design...They are therefore met this day, vested with due authority, from their respective constituents,  to elect a Committee to represent this County of Monmouth in any future necessary transactions respecting the cause of liberty,  and especially to join the Provincial Convention soon be held...for the purpose of nominating and constituting a number of Delegates, who, in behalf of this Colony, may steadily attend said general Congress and faithfully serve  the  labouring cause of freedom...

'As,  under the present operation of the Boston Port Bill, thousands of our respected brethren in that town must necessarily be reduced to great distress, they feel themselves affected with the sincerest sympathy  and  most cordial commiseration;  and as they expect, under GOD,  that the final deliverance of America will be owing, in a great degree, to a continuance of their virtuous struggle, they esteem themselves bound in duty and interest, to afford them every assistance and alleviation in their power...
'May this notification,,  by some faithful record, be handed down to the  yet unborn descendants of Americans, that nothing but the most fatal necessity  could have wrested the present inestimable enjoyments from  their ancestors. let them universally inculcate upon their beloved offspring  and investigation of those truths, respecting both civil and religious liberty,  which have been so clearly and fully stated in this generation. May  they be carefully taught in all their schools; and may they never rest, until through a Divine blessing upon their efforts, true freedom and liberty  shall reign  triumphant over  the whole Globe...'

*552 COUNTIES  IN NEW JERSEY,  CONSIDER  THE CLOSING OF THE PORT OF BOSTON 'REPUGNANT TO THE COMMON PRINCIPLES OF HUMANITY AND JUSTICE.

'At a General Meeting of the Committees of the  several Counties in the Province of New Jersey,  at new Brunswick, on  Thursday,  the  21st of July...We think the several late Acts of parliament for shutting up  the port of Boston; invading the Charter rights of the province of Massachusetts Bay...are not only subversive of the undoubted rights of his Majesty's American subjects, but also repugnant to the common principles of humanity and justice. these proceedings, so violent in themselves,  and so truly alarming to the other Colonies, (many of which are equally exposed to Ministerial vengeance,) render it the indispensable duty  of all,  heartily  to unite in the most proper measures... To effect this important purpose we conceive the most eligible method is, to appoint a General Congress of Commissioners  (def - commission -authority granted) of the respective Colonies...resolved, that it appears to us, to be a duty incumbent on the good people of this Province, to afford some immediate relief to the many suffering inhabitants of the town of Boston...'

RESOLVE OF KENT COUNTY, DELAWARE

'The Freeholders and other Inhabitants of Kent County, on Delaware, now assembled at the Court House in the Town of Dover, this  20th day of July, Anno Domini  1774,  taking into their most serious consideration sundry Acts of the British Parliament, in which their power and right to impose duties and taxes on his majesty's subjects in the British Colonies and plantations in America, for the  purpose of raising a revenue, and declared, attempted to be exercised, and in various ways enforced and carried into execution;  more especially  the Act depriving the great and lately flourishing town of Boston of all trade whatsoever, by shutting up their port and harbour with a formidable fleet and army...'
SUSSEX COUNTY, DELAWARE, SUGGESTS NON-IMPORTATION OF BRITISH  GOODS

'At a General meeting of the Freeholder and other Inhabitants of the County of Sussex, on Delaware, at the Court House in  Lewestown, on Saturday, the  23d of July  1774; This Assembly taking into their very serious consideration the present critical situation of American affairs;  of the exclusive right of the Colonists of imposing taxes upon themselves;  of the invasion of that right by the statute of sixth George the Third,  chapter 12, by which statute and sundry others, the Parliament of Great Britain have assumed the power of making laws  to bind the Colonies without their consent, either by themselves or by their Representatives;

*553 a recent instance of which is exhibited in a late statute commonly called  the Boston Port Bill; Therefore, in order to collect the voice and sentiments of this Assembly, the following Articles were proposed, voted, and agreed to...
'That the late Act of Parliament,inflicting pains and penalties on the town of Boston, by blocking up their harbour, is a precedent justly alarming to  the British Colonies in America and entirely inconsistent with,  and subversive of, their constitutional rights and liberties...That a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies in North America is the most probable and proper mode of obtaining a redress of America and  grievances...that it would conduce to the restoration of the liberties of America should the Colonies enter into a joint agreement not to import  any article of British manufactory...'

DELAWARE  HOLDS A CONVENTION

August 1,  1774, P.M. - The Representatives of the Freemen of the Government of the Counties of New Castle,Kent and Sussex, upon Delaware, met at new Castle, in pursuance of Circular letters from the Speaker of the House, who was requested o write and forward the  same  to the several Members of Assembly, by the Committees of Correspondence for the several counties aforesaid, chosen and appointed for that among other purposes by the Freeholders and Freemen of the said counties respectively...
'Resolved...That the Act of parliament for shutting up the port of Boston is unconstitutional...That a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies in North America is the most probable and proper mode of procuring  relief for our suffering brethren...That the said Committee immediately  set on foot a subscription for the relief of such poor inhabitants of the town of Boston as may be deprived of the means of subsistence  by the Act of Parliament, commonly styled the Boston Port Bill...'

SOUTH CAROLINA SEES THE PORT BILL AS AIMED AT ALL AMERICAN RIGHTS, PROPERTIES, AND PRIVILEGES

'Resolutions unanimously entered into by the inhabitants of South Carolina,  at a General meeting held at Charlestown, in said Colony, on Wednesday, ,  Thursday and Friday, the  6th, 7th and 8th days of July,  1774...
Resolved,  That the late Act for shutting up the port of Boston and the two Bills relative to Boston, had been brought  into parliament, there read and  committed, are of the most alarming nature to all his Majesty's subjects

*554 in America -are calculated to deprive many thousand Americans of their rights, properties and privileges, in a most cruel, oppressive and  unconstitutional manner - are most dangerous precedents and though levelled immediately at the people of Boston, very  manifestly  and glaringly  show if the inhabitants of that town are intimidated into a mean submission to said Acts, that the like are designed for all the Colonies; when, not even the shadow of liberty of his person, or security of his property, will be left to any of his subjects residing on the American Continent. resolved,  Therefore, that not only the dictates of humanity, but the soundest principles of true policy and self-preservation, make it absolutely necessary for the inhabitants of all the colonies in America to assist and support the people of Boston...'

RESOLVES OF WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA

'At a General Meeting of the Inhabitants of the District of Wilmington,  in the Province of North Carolina, held at the town of Wilmington,  July  21,  1774...Resolved, That...a Committee...prepare a Circular Letter to the several counties of this province, expressive of the sense of the inhabitants of this District, with respect to the several acts of parliament lately made for the oppression of our sister Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, for having exerted itself in defense of the constitutional rights of America... Resolved, That...it will be necessary that a general Congress be held...'

WILMINGTON CIRCULAR LETTER TO THE OTHER COUNTIES

'Gentlemen:  At this conjuncture of British politicks, when the liberty and property of North American subjects are at stake, when the schemes of a designing Minister are so far matured to action, that the  port of Boston is shut up, that the charter of Massachusetts Bay is cruelly infringed and its Government converted into one nearly military, to be silent would be insidious...'

THE NORTH CAROLINA CONVENTION ADHERES TO 'THE FIRST LAW OF NATURE'

'The Journal of the Proceedings of the first Provincial Convention of North Carolina, held at Newbern, on the 24th day of August, A.D.  1774...At a General meeting of Deputies of the Inhabitants of this province, at Newbern,  the  25th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1774...the Meeting met according to adjournment; and  came to the following Resolutions,

*555 to wit...We...the Deputies from the several Counties and Towns  of the province of North Carolina, impressed with the most sacred respect for the British Constitution... viewing with the utmost abhorrence every attempt which may tend go disturb the peace and good order of this Colony...at the same time conceiving it a duty which we owe to ourselves and posterity, in the present alarming state of British America, when our most essential rights are invaded by powers unwarrantably assumed by  the Parliament of Great Britain, to declare our sentiments in the most public manner, least silence should be construed as acquiescence,  and that we patiently submit to the burthen which they have thought fit to impose upon us...

'Resolved, that we claim no more than the rights of Englishmen without diminution or abridgment; that it is our indispensable duty and will be our constant endeavour, to maintain those rights to the utmost of our power consistently with the loyalty which we owe Sovereign, and a sacred regard for the British Constitution... It is of the very essence of the British Constitution, that NO SUBJECT SHOULD BE TAXED, BUT BY HIS OWN CONSENT, FREELY GIVEN BY HIMSELF IN PERSON, OR BY HIS LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES...

(my CAPS...THE CORE OF THE CURRENT S-I-N OF 'GOVERNMENT' IN AMERICA O-N      E-V-E-R-Y   L-E-V-E-L....we are just about ENSLAVED NOW...)

Resolved,  That the  inhabitants of the Massachusetts Province have distinguished themselves in a manly support of the rights of America in general, and that the cause in which they now suffer is the  cause of every honest American  who deserves the blessings which  the Constitution holds forth to them. that the  grievances under which the town of Boston labors at present are the effect of a resentment levelled at them for having stood  foremost in an opposition to measures which must eventually have involved  all British America  in a state of abject dependence and servitude...commonly called the Boston Port Act, as it tends to shut up the port of Boston,  and thereby effectually destroy its trade and deprive the merchants and manufacturers of a subsistence which they have hitherto procured by an hones industry...and as the duration of this act depends upon circumstances founded merely in opinion, and in their nature indeterminate, and  thereby may make the  miseries it carries with it even  perpetual...

RESOLVED, that  the inhabitants of the Massachusetts Province have distinguished themselves in a manly support of the rights of America in general, and that the cause in which they now suffer is the cause of every honest American who deserves the  blessings which the Constitution holds  forth to them. that the grievances under which the town of Boston labors at present are the effect of a resentment levelled at them for having stood foremost in an opposition to measures which must eventually have  involved all British America in a state of abject dependence and servitude...commonly called the Boston Port Act, as it tends to shut  the port of Boston, and thereby effectually destroy its trade, and deprive the merchants and manufacturers of a subsistence which  they have hitherto procured by an hones industry...and as the  duration of this act depends upon circumstances founded merely in opinion, and in their nature indeterminate and thereby may make the miseries it carries with it even perpetual...

Resolved, That we will not import any slave or slaves, or purchase any slave or slaves, imported or brought into this Province by others, from any  part of the world, after the first of November next...That we approve of the proposal of a general Congress, to be held in the City of Philadelphia  on the 20th of September next, then  and thereto deliberate upon the present state of British America, and to take such measures as they  may deem prudent to direct the purpose of describing with certainty the rights of Americans; repairing the breaches made in those rights; and for guarding them for the future from any such violations done under the sanction of publick authority...

*556  'Resolved, That they view the attempts made by the Minister upon the town of Boston, as a prelude to a general attack upon the rights of the other Colonies;and that upon the success of this depends in a great  measure, the happiness of America,  in its present race, and in posterity;  and that therefore it becomes our duty  to contribute in  proportion to our abilities to ease the burthen imposed upon that town for their virtuous  opposition to the Revenue acts, that they may be enabled to persist in a prudent and manly opposition to the schemes of parliament, and render its dangerous designs abortive...That the following be Instructions for the Deputies appointed to meet in general Congress on the part of this Colony,  to wit...that we cannot depart from a steady adherence to the first law of nature; a firm and resolute defence of our persons and properties against all unconstitutional encroachments whatsoever...'

GEORGIA'S RESOLUTION ON THE BRITISH BLOCKADE OF BOSTON'S PORT

'The critical situation to which the British Colonies in America are likely to be reduced, from the alarming and arbitrary impositions of the late Acts of the British Parliament, respecting the town of Boston,as well as  the Acts that at present extend to the  raising of a perpetual revenue, without the  consent of the people or their Representatives is considered as an object extremely important  at this critical juncture, and particularly calculated to deprive the American subjects of their constitutional rights and liberties, as a part of the British Empire. it is therefore requested, that  all persons within  the limits of this Province do attend at the Liberty Pol  at Fondee's Tavern, in Savannah, on Wednesday, the  27th instant, in order that the said matters  may be taken under consideration and such other constitutional measures pursued as may then appear to be most eligible...

'Resolutions entered into at Savannah,in Georgia, on Wednesday the  10th day of August,  1774, at  a General meeting of the Inhabitants of the Province, assembled to consider the state of the Colonies in America...Resolved, Nemine Contradicente,  That as protection and allegiance are reciprocal, and under the British Constitution, correlative terms, his Majesty's liege subjects in America  have a clear and indisputable right,  as well from the general laws of mankind, as from the ancient and established customs of the land, so often recognized...That an act of parliament, lately passed for blockading the port and harbour of Boston, is contrary  to our idea of the British Constitution: First, for that it in effect deprives good and lawful men of the use of their property without judgment of their peers; and secondly, of r that it is in nature of an ex-post-facto (def - having retroactive force; made or done) law and indiscriminately blends as objects of punishment the innocent with the guilty; neither do we conceive the same justified upon a principle of necessity;  for that numerous instances evince that the laws and executive power of Boston  have made sufficient provision  for the punishment of all offenders against persons and property subsequently) law,  and indiscriminately  blends as objects of punishment the innocent  with the  guilty;neither do we conceive the same justified upon a principle of necessity;  for that numerous instances evince that the laws and executive power of  Boston have made sufficient provision  for the punishment of all offenders against persons and property.

*557  'Resolved...That the Act for abolishing the Charter of Massachusetts Bay, tends to the subversion of American rights; for, besides those general liberties the original settlers brought over with them as their birthright, particular immunities were granted by such Charter as an inducement and means of settling the Province; and we apprehend the said Charter cannot be dissolved but by a voluntary surrender of the people, representatively declared.

Resolved...That we will concur with our 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...'

MIDDLESEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS CONSIDERS ITS DUTY AS CHRISTIAN FREEMEN
'at a Meeting of the Committees from every town and district in the County of Middlesex, and Province of Massachusetts Bay, held at Concord...having read the late Act  of the British Parliament, entitled 'An Act for the better regulating the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England',  and debated thereon; voted that a Committee be appointed to take into consideration the said Act, and  report to this meeting...It is evident, to every attentive mind, that this province  is in a very dangerous and alarming situation. we are obliged to say however painful it may be to us, that the question now is, whether,  by a submission to some late Acts of the parliament of Great Britain, we are contented to be the most abject slaves, and entail that slavery  on posterity  after us; or, by a manly, joint, and virtuous opposition, assert and support our freedom.

'There is a mode of conduct, which, in our very critical circumstances, we would wish to adopt; and conduct, on the one hand, never tamely submissive to tyranny and oppression;  on the other,  never degenerating  into  rage, passion and confusion.  this is a spirit which we revere,  as we find it exhibited in former ages, and will command applause to the latest posterity.  the late Acts of Parliament pervade the whole system of jurisprudence, by which means we think the fountains of justice are fatally corrupted. our defence must therefore be immediate, in proportion to the suddenness of the attack, and vigorous in proportion to the danger.

'We must now exert ourselves, or all those efforts, which for 10 years past have brightened  the annals of this country, will be totally frustrated.  Life and death, or, what is more, freedom and slavery, are, in a peculiar sense, now before us; and the choice and success, under GOD,

*558  depend greatly upon ourselves.  we are, therefore, bound, as struggling,  not only for ourselves, but future generations, to express our sentiment in the following Resolves; sentiments which, we think, are founded in truth and justice and , therefore, sentiments we are determined to abide by.

'Resolved, That it is the opinion of this body, that the  present Act, respecting the Government of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, is an artful, deep laid plan of oppression and despotism and that it requires  great skill and wisdom to counteract it. this wisdom we have endeavoured to collect from the  united sentiments of the country; and may be attended  with such very important consequences as may now ensue, yet a sense of our duty as men, as freemen, as Christian freemen, united in the firmest bonds, obliges us to resolve that every Civil Officer now in commission in this Province, and acting in conformity to the late Act of Parliament, is not an officer agreeable to our Charter;  therefore, unconstitutional and ought to be opposed in the manner hereafter recommended...

'Resolved, That it is the opinion of this body of Delegates, that a Provincial Congress, is absolutely necessary in our present unhappy situation.  these are sentiments which we are obliged to express, as these Acts are intended immediately to take place. we must now either oppose them, or tamely give up all we have been struggling for, it is this that has forced us so soon on these very important resolves. However, we do it with humble deference to the Provincial and Continental Congress, by whose Resolutions we are determined to abide; to whom, and the world, we cheerfully appeal for the uprightness of our conduct...'

BOSTON RECOGNIZES CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY, HUMANITY AND GENEROSITY

'At a legal and very full Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the town of Boston, by adjournment, at Faneuil Hall, June  17, 1774.  The Honourable John Adams, Esquire,  Moderator.

'Upon a motion made, the town again entered into the  consideration of that article in the warrant, viz:   'To  consider and determine what measures are to be taken  on the present exigency  of our public affairs,  more especially relative to the late edict of a British Parliament  for blocking up the harbour of Boston and annihilating the trade of this town;  and after very serious debates thereon,

'Voted,  (with only one dissentient,) That the Committee of Correspondence e enjoined forthwith to write to all the  other Colonies, acquainting them that we are not idle;  that we are deliberating upon the steps to be taken on the present exigencies of our public affairs; that our

*559  brethren,  the landed interest of this Province, with an unexampled spirit  and unanimity, are entering into a non-consumption agreement, and that we are waiting with anxious expectation for the result of a Continental Congress, whose meeting we impatiently desire, in whose wisdom and firmness we can confide, and in whose determination we shall cheerfully acquiesce.

'Voted, Unanimously,  That our warmest thanks be transmitted to our brethren on the Continent, for that humanity, sympathy and affection with  which they have been inspired, and which they have expressed towards  this distressed town at this important season...Whereas  the Overseers of the Poor in the town of Boston are a body politic, by law constituted for the reception and distribution of charitable donations for the use of the poor of the said town...That all grants and donations to this town, and the poor thereof, at this distressing season, be paid and delivered into the hands of said Overseers, and by them appropriated and distributed, in concert with the Committee lately appointed by this town for the consideration of ways and means of employing the poor'.

THE TOWN OF BOSTON SENDS A LETTER TO THE COLONY OF NEW JERSEY

'Sir:  The Committee of Correspondence for this town have handed to the Committee of Donations a letter from you  of the 28th ult., which breathes such a spirit of union and hearty concern for the rights of America, as  must enkindle in every breast the highest opinion of the  virtue and firmness of the inhabitants of New Jersey. with hearts deeply impressed with gratitude, we note your kind intentions to contribute for the  relief of the inhabitants of this town, suffering by means of the Boston Port Bill, and desire to know 'in what way  you can best answer our present necessities, whether cash remitted or articles of provision'.  for answer, if cash would be equally agreeable to our friends, it would be very acceptable at this time, but would leave that matter entirely to your convenience. the Christian sympathy and generosity of our friends through the Continent cannot fail to inspire the inhabitants of this town with patience, resignation, and firmness, while we trust in the Supreme Ruler of the universe, that he will graciously hear our cries and in his time free us from our present bondage and make us rejoiced in his great salvation. Pleased to present our greatful acknowledgements to our friends of New jersey and be assured we are, with great esteem, sir, your friends and fellow-countrymen...

*560  UNION AND LIBERTY ( excerpts from pp560-564 are from Richard Frothingham,  'The Rise of the Republic of the United States' - 1890)

September 5th 1774
the communicating towns, counties and assemblies, become the FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS

REALIZATION OF A UNION
1.  It rested on a public opinion  that understood the nature and design of the Boston port-bill
2.  It had the positive force of stern determination.
3. This 'union' was an invulnerable shield over American developments.

UNION AND LIBERTY  or Self-government with Union, now and forever.

excerpts from Richard Frothingham, 'The Rise of the  Republic of  the United States. pp 560-564

'The Tea Act  and its sequence, - the BOSTON PORT ACT,  -were fulfilling their mission. they were the proximate cause of events, -one naturally and inevitably evolving another,  - which had the effect of changing the condition f the American cause from discord to harmony,  from confusion to order, from the road to ruin to the  broad way to national triumph.  The Whig affirmed - the Tory conceded -  that there was union.  it rested on a public opinion  so broad and deep  - a determination so stern - that it had become a positive force. it was an invulnerable shield  cast over American development; and, in relation to matters common to all  and properly  pertaining to its sphere, ready to dominate over merely provincial ideas and objects. as the  learned in academic halls reflected  on the  grand unfolding, they said:
'the  last and recent stroke of the parliament at our liberties has astonish America into a real and efficacious union, which it is beyond the power of Europe to dissolve'...

'Under the fresh impulse of the next parliamentary stroke,  the sentiment of American union  became embodied in an association having the force of law. in truth such a union of mind and heart was the country.  it was pronounced indissoluble. on the flag floating over popular  gathers was the motto UNION AND LIBERTY.   they were facts and forces working together and were correlative. the  feeling thus early was union and liberty, now and forever: it seemed as though that generation realized that thee could be no union without liberty and no genuine liberty without the  power there was in union to protect it. indeed, it was decreed in the  regular channels by which  the will of the people is collected and declared, d - in a solemn pledge 'of national truth and honor',  - that those who were  not true to American union were false to American liberty.

*561 AMERICAN union NOT IMPOSED FROM THE TOP

'The history presented in the stages of the  development of American  union is not that of one leader,  or of a few leaders, who  planned a great political movement and created the spirit by which it was to be executed; or who carried forward a people by the  power of their intellect or the  magnetism of their renown: it is rather the history of communities, who however marked by diversity in their forms of local life, had really the  foundation for a certain unity in being imbued with similar ideas, who were moved by similar impulses, and who alike aimed to guard the right  to hold and improve the free institutions which they had developed. a claim more just was never proffered at the footstool of power. a history  more interesting and valuable cannot be presented to American youth. it  shows, in these communities, a population of two and a half millions in action; moving steadily forward - all marching together one way - towards an end which they earnestly and honestly disvowed and deprecated, but which, in the plan of Providence, was the  goal marked out for them to reach.

'The result thus far was real American union.  during the  10 years of the past struggle the  popular leaders had inculcated the sentiment that union was salvation.  the  fact of its achievement inspired the ranks of the party with enthusiasm. it purified and magnified their work.  'Then I review', one writes, 'the annals of the world, I am constrained to believe  that great things await America. When Liberty was well-nigh banished  from every quarter of the globe, she found an asylum in this savage land.  Learning, liberty and every thing that ennobles the human mind, have constantly been travelling westward'.  these great things required a condition of freedom for their development. but the assumption of the right to tax, and the whole system of domination founded on t assumption,  were repugnant to the Saxon genius of liberty and law which English America inherited from the parent state'. Ezra Stiles, who penned these words, prophesied:  'If oppression proceeds, despotism may force an annual congress; and a public spirit of enterprise may originate an American Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, supported by such intrepid and persevering importunity as even sovereignty may hereafter judge it not wise to withstand. there will be a Runnymede (def - a meadow  on the South  bank of the Thames, West of London, England:  reputed site of the  granting of the Magna Charta by King John,  1215. in America'...

'the congress now engrossed the pubic mind. it convened when the disobedience of the people of Massachusetts to the Regulating Act was representing the determined and stern feeling of the 13 colonies, and when the  conviction was growing that arms would have to decide the  contest. 'Let us remember',  a Virginian wrote, 'that with the sword our fathers obtained their constitutional rights and by the sword it is our duty to defend them'.  in the conviction that this duty must be performed, Washington, ready to stake his fortune and his life in the cause,

*562  said in the Virginia convention:  'I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my  own expense and march myself at their head for the  relief of Boston'...

'On the  fifth day of September most of the  delegates elected to the  congress were in Philadelphia.  they were invited by the speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly to hold their sessions in the State House, but decided to meet in the hall owned by the  carpenters, - a fine brick building,  having commodious rooms for the use of the committees, and an excellent  library in the chambers. it is still in good preservation. at  ten o'clock in the morning the delegates met at the City Tavern, walked to Carpenter's hall, and began the sessions of the Continental Congress.

'This assembly, when all the members had taken their seats, consisted of  55 delegates, chose by 12 colonies. they represented a population of two millions two hundred thousand, paying a revenue of  80,000 pounds sterling. Georgia, which did not elect delegates,  gave a promise to concur with her 'sister colonies' in the effort to maintain their right to the British constitution,  - which, according to the American interpretation,was  'a Constitution founded on reason and justice, and the indelible rights of mankind':  words that  went to the depths of the American cause. in general, the delegates elect were men of uncommon ability, who had taken a prominent part  in the political action of their  several localities,  had won public confidence, and were fair exponents  of the aims, feelings, and political ideas of the country.  Some had corresponded; one was in the Albany convention of  1754;  8 were members of the congress of  1765; but nearly all met for the first time.

CONGRESS ATTENDED BY MEN OF POSITIVE CHARACTER  from the  New England,  Middle  and Southern Colonies

'Each of the 3 divisions by which  the colonies were usually  designated -  the New England, the  Middle  and the Southern colonies - had on the floor of the congress men of a positive character.
New England presented,
in John Sullivan, vigor,
in Roger Sherman,  sterling sense and integrity;
in Thomas Cushing, commercial  knowledge;
in John  Adams,  large capacity  for public affairs;
in Samuel Adams,  a great character, with influence and power to organize.

the Middle colonies presented, in
in Philip  Livingston, the merchant price of enterprise and  liberality;
in John Jay,  rare public virtue, juridical learning and classic taste;
in William Livingston,  progressive ideas tempered by conservatism;
in John Dickinson, 'The Immortal Farmer', erudition and literary  ability;
in  Caesar Rodney and Thomas Mckean, working power;
in James Duane,  timid Whigism, halting, but keeping true to the cause;
in Joseph Galloway,  downright Toryism, seeking control, and at length going to the enemy.

*563  the Southern colonies presented,
in Thomas Johnson,  the gasp  of a statesman;
in Samuel Chase, activity and boldness;
in the Rutledges,  wealth and accomplishment;
in Christopher Gadsden, the  genuine American;

and in the Virginia delegation, an illustrious group,
-Richard Bland, wisdom
in Edmund Pendelton, practical talent;
in Peyton Randolph,  experience in legislation;
in Richard Henry Lee, statemanship in union, justice and patriotism.
'If, said Patrick Henry, 'you speak of solid information and sound judgment,
(George) Washington  unquestionably is the greatest man of them all'.

those others who might be named were chosen on account of their fitness for duties which the  cause required. many  had independent fortunes.  they constituted a noble representation of the ability, culture, political  intelligence, and wisdom of 12 of the colonies.

THE 'SENTIMENT OF UNION' AND 'THE OBJECT AIMED AT' IN CALLING THE CONGRESS

'The delegates represented communities, so far as their domestic  relations were concerned, independent of each other. each had its own assembly, which had framed the local laws. indeed, there were no political relations whatever between them, except the important one of being alike British subjects, of owing allegiance alike to the British crown and being alike proud of the glories of the British flag. but the measures counted on to produce division in their councils tended to union.  the evidences were increasing, that these communities, in which diversity had so long ruled paramount, were sternly resolved to embody their sentiment of union in a common bond that should operate with the force of law. thus 'colonies differing in religious opinions and in commercial interests, in everything dependent on climate and labor, in usages and manners, swayed  by reciprocal prejudices, and frequently  quarrelling with each other respecting boundaries, found themselves united in one representative body,  and deriving from that union a power that was to be felt throughout the  civilized world'.  the object aimed at, as stated in the  credentials of the delegations, and especially in those of the two powerful colonies of Massachusetts and Virginia,. was to obtain a redress of grievances and  to restore harmony between Great Britain and America, which, it was said,  was desired by all good men. it was the conviction that this might be done through a Bill of Rights, in which the limits of the powers of the colonies and the mother country might be defined.

'The congress was organized by the choice of Peyton Randolph of Virginia  for President and Charles Thomson of Philadelphia, not a member, for Secretary...Congress then decided to appoint a committee to state the rights of the Colonies,  the instances in which those rights had been violated, and the most proper means to obtain their restoration; and

*564  another committee to examine and report  upon the statutes affecting the trade and manufactures of the colonies.
'on this day Samuel Adams, in answer to the objection  to opening the sessions with prayer, grounded on the diversity of religious sentiment among the members, said that he could hear a prayer from a man of piety and virtue, who was a friend to the country, and moved  that Mr. Duche, an Episcopalian, might be desire to read prayers to the congress on the following morning, the motion prevailed and congress soon after adjourned.

CONGRESS IS OPENED WITH PRAYERS TO GOD AND THE READING OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH PSALM
'That evening the report came that the British ships were bombarding Boston. the public mind was deeply agitated. 'War! war! war! was the cry', John Adams wrote.  the members met the next morning in this agitated state. the Reverend Jacob Duche appeared with his clerk and in his pontificals; read several prayers;  then the Psalm for the seventh day of the month,  -the thirty-fifth,  -which began:  'Plead Thou my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me, and fight Thou against them that fight against me. Lay hand upon the shield and buckler, and  stand up to help me'
and then,
 John Adams said,  he 'unexpectedly to anybody struck out into an extemporary pray for America, for the congress,  for Massachusetts, and especially for Boston,
which was so fervent that it filled the  bosom of every man present'.
on this day the members of the two committees already named were appointed, when the congress adjourned for several days.
'the congress sat with closed doors. nothing transpired of their proceedings, except the organization and the rule of voting. the members bound themselves to keep their doings secret until a majority should direct their publication. Their decisions were awaited in the deepest anxiety...

''Three days later  (September  17) congress received the resolves of the  county of Suffolk, which  included Boston. they declared that the  people owed an indispensable duty to God and their country to preserve those liberties for which the fathers fought and bled, expressed the determined opposition of the inhabitants  to the Acts altering the  charter, and promised cheerful submission to such measures as the continental congress might recommend...'

*565  RESOLVES OF SUFFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS ARE LAID BEFORE THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (excerpts on pp. 565-571 Top,  from 'Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 Government Printing Office -1904)

'The Resolutions entered into by the delegates from the several towns and districts in  the county of Suffolk, in  the province of Massachusetts -bay, on Tuesday the  6th instant, and their address to his excellency Gov.  Gage, dated the  9th instant. were laid before the congress and are as follows:

'at a meeting of the delegates of every town and district in the county of Suffolk, on Tuesday  the  6th if Sept,. at the house of Mr. Richard Woodward,  of Deadham, and by adjournment, at the house of Mr. (Daniel) Vose, of Milton, on Friday  the  9th instant, Joseph Palmer, esq.  being chosen moderator and William Thompson, esq. clerk,  a committee was chosen to bring in a report to the convention, and the following being several times read and put paragraph by paragraph, was unanimously voted, Viz.
'Whereas the power but not the justice, the vengeance but not the  wisdom of Great-Britain, which of old persecuted, scourged and exiled our fugitive parents from their native shores, now pursues us, their guiltless children, with unrelenting severity: and whereas, this, then savage and uncultivated desert, was purchased by the  toil and treasure, or acquired by the blood and valor of those of our venerable progenitors; to us they bequeathed the dear bought inheritance, to our care and protection they consigned it, and the most sacred obligations are upon us to transmit the  glorious purchase, unfettered by power, unclogged with shackles, to our innocent and beloved offspring. on the fortitude, on the  wisdom and on the exertions of this important day, is suspended the fate of this new world and of unborn millions. if a boundless extent of continent, swarming with millions. if a boundless extent of continent, swarming with millions, will tamely submit to live, move and have their being at the arbitrary will of a licentious minister, they  basely yield to voluntary slavery, and future generations shall load their memories with incessant execrations.  - On the other hand, if we arrest the hand which would ransack our pockets, if we disarm the parricide which points the  dagger to our bosoms, if we nobly defeat that fatal edict which proclaims a power to frame laws for  us in all cases whatsoever, thereby entailing the endless and numberless curses of slavery upon us, our heirs and their heirs forever; if we successfully resist that unparalleled usurpation of unconstitutional power, whereby  our capital is robbed of the means of life; whereby the streets of Boston are thronged with military executioners; whereby our coasts are lined and harbours crowded with ships of war; whereby the charter of the colony, that sacred barrier against the encroachments of tyranny, is mutilated and, in effect, annihilated; whereby a murderous law is framed to shelter villains from the hands of justice; where by the unalienable and inestimable inheritance, which we

*566  derived from nature, the  constitution of Britain, and the  privileges warranted to us in the charter of the province, is totally wrecked, annulled and vacated, posterity will acknowledge that virtue which preserved them free and happy; and while we enjoy the rewards and blessings of the faithful, the torrent of panegyrists (def - those who give lofty  oration/writing in praise of a person or thing; eulogy) will roll our reputations to that latest period, when the streams of time shall be absorbed in the abyss of eternity.  -Therefore, we have resolved, and do RESOLVE,

1. THAT whereas his majesty, George the Third, is the rightful successor to the throne  of great-Britain, and justly entitled to the allegiance of the British realm, and agreeable to compact, of the English colonies in America -therefore, we, the heirs and successors of the firs planters of this colony, do cheerfully acknowledge the said George the Third to e our rightful sovereign, and that said covenant is the tenure and claim on which are founded  our allegiance and submission.

2.THAT it is an indispensable duty which we owe to God, our country,  ourselves and posterity, by all lawful ways and means in our power to maintain, defend and preserve those civil and religious rights and liberties, for which many of our fathers fought, bled and died and to hand them down entire to future generations.

3.THAT the late acts of the British parliament for blocking up the harbour of Boston, for altering the established form of government in this colony, and for screening the most flagitious (def- shamefully wicked) violaters of the  laws of the province from a legal trial, are gross infractions of those rights to which we are justly entitled by the laws of nature, the British constitution, and the charter of the  province.
4. THAT  no obedience is due from this province to either or any part of the acts above-mentioned, but that they be rejected as the attempts of a wicked administration to enslave America.

5. THAT so long as the justices of our superior court of judicature,  court of assize,  (def - a trial session,  civil or criminal, held periodically in specific  locations in England, usually  by a judge of a superior  court) etc.,  and inferior court of common pleas in this county are appointed, or hold their places, by any other tenure than that which the  charter and the laws of the  province direct, they must be considered  as under undue influence, and are therefore unconstitutional officers , and , as such, no regard ought to be paid to them by the people of this county.

6. THAT if the justices of the superior court of judicature, assize, etc., justices of the court of common pleas, or of the  general sessions of the peace, shall sit and act during their present disqualified state, this county will support and bear harmless, all sheriffs and their deputies, constables, jurors and  other officers who shall  refuse to carry into execution  the orders of said courts; and , as far as possible, to prevent the many in

*567  conveniences which must be occasioned by a suspension of the courts of justice, we do most earnestly recommend it to all creditors, that they shew all reasonable and even generous forbearance to their debtors; and to all debtors, to pay their just debts with all possible speed, and if any disputes relative to debts or trespasses shall arise, which cannot be settled by the parties, we recommend it to them to submit all such causes  to arbitration; and it is our opinion that the contending parties or either of them, who shall refuse so to do, ought to be considered as co-operating with the enemies of this country.
7.  THAT it be recommended to the  collectors of taxes, constable and  all other officers, who have public monies in their hands, to retain the  same, and not to make any  payment thereof to the provincial county treasurer until the civil government of the province is placed upon a constitutional foundation, or until it shall otherwise be ordered by the proposed provincial Congress.

8. THAT the persons who have accepted seats at the council board, by virtue of a mandamus from the King, in conformity to the late act of the British parliament, entitled, an act for the regulating the government of the Massachusetts-Bay, have acted in direct violation of the duty they owe to their country, and have thereby given great and just offense to this people; therefore,  resolved, that this county do recommend it to all persons, who have so highly offended by accepting said departments,  and have not already publicly resigned their sears at the council board, to make public resignations of their places at said board, on or before the  20th day of this instant, September; and that all persons refusing so to do, shall, from and after said day, be considered by this county as obstinate (def - firmly or stubbornly adhering to one's opinion) and incorrigible (def- bad beyond correction or reform) enemies to this country.

9.  THAT the fortifications begun and now carrying on upon  Boston Neck,  are justly alarming to this country and gives us reason to apprehend some  hostile intention against that town, more especially as the commander in chief has, in a very extraordinary  manner,  removed the powder from the magazine (def - a metal receptacle  for a number of cartridges, inserted into  certain types of automatic weapons and when empty  removed and replaced  by a full receptacle in order to continue firing.) at Charlestown,  and has also forbidden the  keeper of the magazine at Boston,  to deliver out to the owners, the powder, which they had lodged in said magazine.

10. THAT the late act of parliament for establishing the Roman Catholic religion and the French  laws in that extensive country, now called Canada ,  is dangerous in an extreme degree to the protestant religion and to the civil rights and liberties of all America; and , therefore, as men and Protestant religion and to the civil rights and liberties of all America; and, therefore, as men and Protestant Christians,  we are indispensably obliged to take all proper measures for our security.

*568  11. THAT whereas our enemies have flattered themselves that they shall make an easy  prey of this numerous,  brave and  hardy people, from an apprehension that they are unacquainted with military discipline;  we therefore, for the honor, defence and security of this county and province, advise, as it has been recommended  to take away all commissions from the officers of the militia, that those who now hold commissions, or  such other persons, to be elected in each town as officers in the militia, that those who now hold commissions, or other such persons,  to be elected in each town as officers in the militia, as shall be judged of sufficient  capacity  for that purpose, and who have evidenced themselves the inflexible friends  to the rights of the people;  and that the inhabitants of  those towns and districts who are  qualified, do use their utmost diligence to acquaint themselves with the art of war as soon as possible, and do, for that purpose, appear under arms at least once every week.

*12 THAT during the present hostile appearances on the part of Great-Britain, notwithstanding the many insults and oppressions which we most  sensibly resent, yet, nevertheless, from our affection to his majesty,  which we have at all times evidenced, we are determined to act merely upon  the defensive, so long as such conduct may be vindicated by reason and the principles of self-preservation, but no longer.

*13  THAT as we understand it has been in contemplation to apprehend sundry persons of this county,  who have rendered themselves conspicuous in contending for the violated rights and liberties of their county- men;  we do recommend, should such an audacious measure be put in practice, to seize and keep in safe custody, every servant of the present tyrannical and unconstitutional government throughout the county and province, until the persons so apprehended be liberated from the  hands of our adversaries, and restored safe and uninjured to their respective friends and families.

*14 THAT until our rights are fully restored to us, we will, to the utmost of our power, and we recommend the same  to the other counties, to withhold all commercial intercourse with Great-Britain, Ireland and the West-Indies, and abstain from the  consumption of British merchandise and manufactures, and especially  of East-India teas and piece goods, with such additions, alterations and exceptions only, as the General Congress  of the  colonies may agree to.

*15 THAT under our present circumstances, it is incumbent on us to encourage arts and manufactures amongst us, by all means in our power, and that *(the names of those appointed on this committee were Joseph Palmer, of Braintree;  Ebenezer Dorr,  of Roxbury; James Boies and Edward Preston, of Milton, and Nathaniel Guild, of Walpole.) be and are hereby appointed a committee, to consider of the best ways and means to promote and stablish the same, and to report to this convention as soon as may be.

*569  *16  THAT the exigencies of our public affairs, demand that a provincial Congress be called to consult such measures as may be adopted and  vigorously executed by the whole people; and we do recommend  it to the several towns in this county, to chuse members for such a provincial Congress, to be holden at Concord, on the second Tuesday of October, next ensuing.

*17  THAT this county, confiding in the wisdom and integrity of the  continental Congress, now sitting at Philadelphia,  pay all due respect and  submission to such measures as may be recommended by them to the colonies, for the restoration and stablishment  of our just rights, civil and religious, and for renewing that harmony and union  between Great-Britain and the colonies, so earnestly  wished for  by all good men.

*18  THAT whereas the universal uneasiness which prevails among all orders of men, arising from the wicked and oppressive measures of the present administration, may influence some unthinking persons to commit outrage upon private property; we would heartily recommend to all persons of this community, not to engage in any routs, (def - tumultuous or disorderly crowd), riots, or licentious attacks upon the properties of any person whatsoever, as being subversive of all order and government; but, by a steady, manly, uniform, and persevering opposition, to convince our enemies, that in a contest so important, in a cause so solemn, our conduct shall be such as to merit and approbation of the wise and the admiration of the brave and fee of every age and of every country.

*19  THAT should our enemies, by any sudden manoeuvres, render it necessary to ask the aid and assistance of our brethren in the country, some one of the committee of correspondence, or a select  man (def - men chosen by New England towns to manage certain affairs..carefully, fastidiously selected) of such town, or the town adjoining, where such  hostilities shall commence, or shall be expected to commence, shall despatch couriers with written messages to the select men, or committees  of correspondence, of the several towns in the  vicinity,  with a written account of such matter who shall despatch others to committees more remote, until proper and sufficient assistance be  obtained, and that the expense of said couriers be defrayed by the county, until it shall be  otherwise ordered by the provincial Congress.
'At a meeting of delegates from the several towns and  districts in the county of Suffolk,held at Milton, on Friday, the 9th of September,  1774 - voted, That Dr.Joseph  Warren, of Boston, etc. be a committee to wait on his excellency the governor, to inform him, that this county are alarmed at the fortifications making on Boston Neck, and to remonstrate  against the  same, and the repeated insults offered by the soldiery, to persons passing and repassing into that town and to confer with him upon those subjects...

*570  THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS  'MOST THOROUGHLY APPROVES' THE RESOLVES OF SUFFOLK COUNTY

'The Congress, taking the foregoing into consideration,
'RESOLVED UNAN, That this assembly deeply feels  the suffering of their countrymen in the Massachusetts-Bay, under the operation of the late unjust, cruel and oppressive acts of the British parliament - that they most thoroughly approve the  wisdom and fortitude, with  which opposition to these wicked ministerial measures has hitherto been conducted and they earnestly recommend to their brethren, a perseverance in the same  firm and temperate conduct as expressed in the resolutions determined  upon, at a (late) meeting of the delegates for the county of Suffolk, on Tuesday,  the 6th instant, trusting  that the effect(s) of the united efforts of North America in their behalf,  will carry such conviction to the  British nation, of the unwise, unjust, and ruinous polity of the present administration, as quickly to introduce better men and wiser measures.*

'RESOLVED UNAN,  That contributions from all the colonies for supplying the necessities, and alleviating the distresses of our brethren at Boston, ought to be continued , in such manner , and so long as their occasions may require.
ORDERED, That contributions from all the colonies for supplying the necessities and alleviating the distresses of our brethren at Boston, ought to be continued, in such manner, and so long as their occasions may require.
ORDERED, That a copy of the above resolutions be transmitted to Boston by the president.

'The committee appointed to examine and report the several statutes, which affect the trade and manufactures of the colonies, brought in their report, which was ordered to lie on the table.

(footnote - Eluding the prohibition of town meetings, a meeting was convened  first at Dedham and then at Milton, before which was laid a set of resolutions prepared by Joseph Warren.  they were adopted on September  9, and became known as the SUFFOLK RESOLVES.  they were sent express to Congress by Paul Revere,  who reached Philadelphia on Friday, September  16,  and delivered them to the Massachusetts delegates. on the day after,  they were laid before Congress, and were acted upon the same day. 'this was one of the happiest days of my life', noted John Adams in his Diary.  'In Congress we had generous, noble sentiments, and manly eloquence. this day convinced me that America will support the Massachusetts or perish with her'. and to his wife he wrote: 'These votes were passed in full Congress with perfect unanimity. the esteem, the affection, the admiration for the people of Boston and the Massachusetts, which were expressed

*571  yesterday, and the fixed determination that they should be supported, were  enough to melt a heart of stone.I saw tears gush into  the eyes of the old, grave, pacific Quakers of Pennsylvania'.  Samuel Adams wrote that the resolves were 'read with great applause', and that the Congress was unanimous in its resolutions. Quincy, THE LIVE OF QUINCY, 155
Silas Deane noted that the  two resolutions of Congress we passed without one dissenting voice, though all the members were present'. Ford, CORRESPONDENCE OF SAMUEL BLACHLEY; WEBB, 1. 39. Jones believed that this endorsement by Congress put an end to  the usefulness of the Tories or Loyalists in the Congress. to endorse the  Suffolk resolves was but a step in the policy of the Massachusetts delegation.  on the 24th of September the two Adams talked with Dickinson -'a true Bostonian' was Samuel Adams' comment.  'The Congress have, in their resolve of the  17th instant ,  given their sanction to the resolutions of the county of Suffolk, one of which is to act merely upon the defensive so long as such  conduct may be justified by reason and the principles of self-preservation - BUT NO LONGER. they have great dependence upon your tried patience and fortitude. they suppose ;you mean to defend your civil Constitution.  They strongly recommend perseverance and a firm and temperate conduct, and give you a full pledge of their united efforts in your behalf. they have not yet come to final resolutions. it becomes them to be deliberate.I have been assured, in private conversation with individuals,  that if you should be driven to the necessity of acting in self-defense of your lives or liberties, you would be justified by their constituents,  and openly supported by all the means  in their power'  SAMUEL ADAMS TO JOSEPH WARREN, September 25th 1774.

On the following day John Adams wrote of the numberless prejudices to be removed.  'We have been obliged to act with great delicacy and caution.  We have been obliged to keep ourselves out of sight, and to feel the  pulses of and sound the depths; to insinuate
(def- 1. to suggest or hint slyly. 2.to instill or infuse subtly or artfully, as into the mind. 3. to bring or introduce into a position or relation b;y indirect or artful methods: ie. to insinuate oneself into favor)

our sentiments, designs and desires by means of other persons; sometimes of one Province , and sometimes of another. TO JUDGE TUTOR, September  26, 1774.

a good illustration of this labor is given in the meeting with Shippen, Richard Henry Lee and Washington,  on the evening of the  28th. WASHINGTON TO ROBERT MACKENZIE, October 9, 1774
 as a result of these deliberations, the resolutions of the  30th here printed must have been framed and submitted;  but as events proved, too early to be adopted. and this, too,  in the  face of a belief of
Adams that all Congress 'profess to consider our Province as suffering in the common cause, and indeed they seem to feel for us,as if for themselves'. TO HIS WIFE September 29, 1774



*pp 571 Bottom, 572 Top from Richard Frothingham,  'The Rise of the Republic of the United States' (1890)
'Congress, in  resolves passed unanimously, expressing feeling for the sufferings 'of their countrymen in the Massachusetts Bay', most thoroughly approved the fortitude and wisdom with which the opposition to ministerial measures had been conducted,and earnestly recommended  a perseverance in the same firm and temperate  conduct that was expressed in the resolutions of the county of Suffolk.  they voted that contributions from all the  colonies for alleviating the distress of their brethren of Boston ought to be continued' so long as their occasions might require'.  these resolves, together with the Suffolk resolves, were ordered to be printed...

*572 'Congress now adopted  five resolves in relation to Massachusetts.  the first was agreed upon on the  8th of October, and was as follows:
'that this congress approve of the opposition made by the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late Acts of parliament; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case all America ought to support them in their opposition'. ...

'Four additional resolves were passed by congress on the Monday and Tuesday (10th and 11th) following. they declared that all persons in Massachusetts who consented to take office under the new Acts ought to  be considered wicked tools of the despotism that was preparing to destroy the rights which God, nature and compact had given to America, and ought to beheld in abhorrence by all good men...'  the five resolves were ordered to be transmitted by the President to the Boston committee, as the advice of congress on the subject-matter of their letter.

'While these events were occurring, the two committees already named were proceeding with their deliberations. the notices of their debates  indicate the patience required to surmount obstacles before a result could be reached...On the  14th of October the members agreed upon a Declaration of Rights.

*pp572 Bottom to 577 Top  are excepts from 'Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-89 Government Printing Office - 1904

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS  Friday,  October  14, 1774

'The Congress met according to adjournment and resuming the consideration of the  subject under debate - came into the following Resolutions:
Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British parliament, claiming a power of right to bind the people of America, by statute in all case whatsoever, hath in some acts expressly imposed taxes on them and  in others, under various pretences, but in fact for the purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies, establish;ed a board of commissioners, with unconstitutional powers and extended the jurisdiction of courts of Admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the  body of a county.

*573 ' And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependant on the Crown along

''And  it has lately been resolved in Parliament, that by force of a statute,  made in the 35th year of the reign of King Henry the eighth, colonists may be transported to England and tried there upon accusations for (1) treasons and (2)misprisons (def - misprision(?) ...
1. a neglect or violation of official duty by one in office.
2. failure by one not an accessory to prevent or notify the authorities of treason of felony
...or concealments of treasons committed in the colonies;
and by late statute,  such trials have been directed in  cases therein mentioned.

1'and whereas, in the last session of parliament, three statutes were  made;

'one , intituled 'an act to discontinue, in such manner and for such shipping of goods, wares and merchandise, at the town, and within the  harbour of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts-bay in North-America';
another entitled 'An act for the better regulating the government of the province of the Massachusetts-bay  in New-England'
another intituled' an act for the impartial administration of justice, in the  cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts-bay, in New-England'.
 and another statute was then made, 'for making more effectual provision for the government of the province Quebec, etc.'
all which statutes are impolitic, unjust and cruel, as well as unconstitutional and most dangerous and destructive of American rights.

'and whereas, Assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to the rights of people, when they attempted to deliberate on grievances;  and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petitions  to the crown for redress, have been repeatedly treated with contempt, by his majesty's ministers of state.

'the good people of the several Colonies of New-hampshire, Massachusetts-bay,  Rhode-island and Providence plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Newcastle,  Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina,  justly alarmed at these arbitrary proceedings of parliament and administration, have severally elected, constituted, and appointed deputies to meet and sit in general congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties may not be subverted.

'Whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in a full and free representation of these Colonies, taking into their most serious consideration, the best means of attaining the ends aforesaid, do, in the first

*574  place, as Englishmen, their ancestors in like cases have usually done, for asserting and vindicating their rights and liberties, declare,
'That the inhabitants of the English Colonies in North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following Rights:
RESOLVED,  N.C.D. 1. That they are entitled to life, liberty and  property and they have never ceded to any sovereign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.

RESOLVED. N.C.D. 2. That our ancestors, who first settled these colonies, were at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties and immunities of free and natural-born subjects, within the  realm of England.

RESOLVED. N.C.D. 3. That  by such emigration they  by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy.

RESOLVED. N.C.D. 4.  That the foundation of English liberty and or all free government, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative council:  and as the English colonists are not represented and from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial legislatures, where their  right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of their  sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But, from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament as are bona fide, restrained to the regulation of our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial  benefits of is respective members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America, without their consent.

RESOLVED, N.C.D. 5.  That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of England , and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage,  (def - a region near or about the place; vicinity)

*575  RESOLVED,  6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the English statutes as existed at the time of their colonization; and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances.

RESOLVED,  N.D.C. 7.  That these,  his majesty's colonies, are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by  royal charters, or secured by their several codes of provincial laws.

RESOLVED , N.C.D. 8. That they have a right peaceably  to assemble, consider of their grievances,  and petition the King; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal.

RESOLVED, N.C.D. 9 that the keeping a Standing army in these colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony, in which such army is kept, is against law.

RESOLVED, N.C.D.10. It is indispensably necessary  to good government, and rendered essential by the English constitution,  that the  constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that, therefore  the  exercise of legislative power in several colonies, by a council appointed, during the pleasure, by the  crown, is unconstitutional,  dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American  legislation.
'All and each of which the  aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally  taken from them altered or abridged by any power  whatever, without their own consent, by their representatives in their several provincial legislatures.
'In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and violations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire, that harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be restored, we pass  over for the present, and proceed  to state such acts and measures as have been adopted since the last war, which  demonstrate a system formed to enslave America.

RESOLVED, N.C.D.  That the following acts of Parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists; and that the repeal of them is essentially necessary in order to restore  harmony between Great-Britain and the American colonies, viz:
'The several acts of 4 Geo. 3. ch. 15,  and ch. 34. - 5 Geo. 3. ch. 25- 6 Geo.  S. Ch. 52 -7 Geo. 3. ch.41, and ch. 46 - 8 Geo. 3. ch 22,

*576  which impose duties for the purpose of raising a revenue in America,
extend the powers of the admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits,
deprive the American subject of trial by jury,
authorize the judges' certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages, that he might otherwise be liable to,
requiring oppressive security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property
and are subversive of American rights.

'Also  the  12 Geo. 3. ch. 24 entituled
'An act for the better securing his Majesty's dock-yards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores,
which declares a new offence in America, and deprives the American subject of a constitutional trial by a jury of the vicinage, (def - area nearby (vicinity), in the neighborhood) by authorizing the trial of any person, charged with the committing any offence described in the said act, out of the realm, to be indicted and tried for the same in ANY shire or county within the realm.

'also the three acts passed in the last session of parliament, for stopping the port and blocking up the  harbour of Boston, for altering the charter and government of the Massachusetts-bay, and that which is entituled 'An act for the better administration of Justice', etc.

'Also the act passed in the  same session for establishing the Roman Catholick Religion  in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable  system of English laws and erecting a tyranny there, to the  great danger, from so total a dissimilarity of Religion, law, and  government of the neighbouring British colonies, by the assistance of whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from France.
'Also the act passed in the same session fro the better providing, suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service in North-America.

'Also the act passed in the same session for the better providing suitable  quarters for officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service in North America.

'Also the act passed in the same session for the  better providing suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his Majesty's service in North-America.

'Also, that the  keeping a standing army in several of these colonies, in time of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony in which such army is kept, is against law.

'To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit, but in hopes that their fellow subjects in Great-Britain will,  on a revision of them, restore us to that state in which both countries found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present only resolved to pursue the  following peaceable measures:

'RESOLVED, unanimously, That from and after the first day of December next, there by no importation  into British America, from Great Britain  or Ireland  of any goods, wares  or merchandise whatsoever, or from any other place of any such goods, wares or merchandise. (note - 'this paragraph was struck out.')

*577  '1. To enter into a non-importation,non-consumption and non-exportation agreement or association.
2. 'To prepare an address to the people of Great-Britain, and a memorial  to the inhabitants of British America,  etc.
3. 'To prepare a loyal address to his majesty; agreeable to Resolutions already entered into.

note -excerpts from here to p578.1 from Richard Frothingham, 'The Rise of the Republic  of the United States' - 1890

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
'This (note - above) paper
*claimed for Americans the immunities of free subjects within the realm of England,
so far as circumstances would allow.

*It claimed that they had a coequal right  to the British Constitution,  - the constitution  of their country,  -and
* (it claimed) that they had 'a free and exclusive power of legislation in their provincial legislatures,
where their rights of representation could alone be preserved in all cases of taxation and internal POLITY',  (def - 1. a particular system of government. 2. the practice of profession of conducting political affairs.),
subject to the negative of the sovereign.
* It contained 10 RESOLVES,
- in which were enumerated  the rights that could not be legally taken from them
- or altered
-or abridged by any power whatever.
and it specified 11 Acts of parts of Acts of parliament which were necessary to be repealed,

IN ORDER TO RESTORE HARMONY BETWEEN THE COLONIES AND GREAT BRITAIN...

'With  the exception of two of the articles,  the Declaration was adopted unanimously. the  phrase in some instances is similar to that in the Bill of Rights of William and Mary.
It presents the colonies as a unit in the vital matters of
REPRESENTATION,
FREE DISCUSSION,
FREE ASSEMBLIES, and
TRIAL BY JURY,
in a word, SELF-GOVERNMENT.
It was hoped -faintly  by some, strongly by others - that the basis laid down in this interesting paper might lead to an act of settlement, fixing  the terms for a permanent union between America  and England.

'Congress decided  (September 27) on COMMERCIAL NON- INTERCOURSE  with Great Britain as the means of restoring American rights. It (September 30)appointed a committee to bring in a plan for carrying this measure into effect, who reported on the 12th of October.
the measure deeply affected  great  material  interests; and the  difficulties met and overcome  were a foretaste of what was to be encountered in the formation of the more perfect union  under the Constitution...
'The Association was signed on the  20th  of October by  52 members.  their covenant was in these words:
'We do
for ourselves and the inhabitants of the several colonies whom we represent,
firmly agree and associate under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of our country'.

*578 The instrument consisted of 14 articles, forming rules for the non-importation and non-exportation and NON-CONSUMPTION OF MERCHANDISE FROM GREAT BRITAIN..
The committees of correspondence were charged to inspect the  entries at the  customhouses.
Thus the Association was virtually law, bearing on the individual; and a penalty was affixed to all violations of it.
'The Association  has been termed a compact (def -expressed concisely, pithy, terse) formed for the preservation of American rights,  - 'a league of the continent, which first expressed the sovereign will of a free nation in America',
and the commencement of the American Union.
It was  an embodiment of the sentiment of union and of the will of the people
on the subject of their commercial relations,
the first enactment, substantially of  a general law by America.
for nearly two years the instrument was termed 'The Association  of the United Colonies'....

pp578.-81, excerpts from 'Journals of the Continental Congress  1774-89' - 1904

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE AMERICAN UNION
'The Association of the United Colonies'

We, his Majesty's most loyal subjects, the Delegates of the several Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode-Island,  Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey,Pennsylvania, the three Lower Counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, deputed to represent them in a Continental Congress, held  in the City of Philadelphia,  on the fifth  day of September,  1774, avowing our allegiance to his Majesty; our affection and regard for our fellow-subjects in Great Britain and elsewhere;  affected with the deepest anxiety and most alarming apprehensions at those grievances and distresses with which His Majesty's American subjects are oppressed;and having taken under our most serious deliberation the state of the whole Continent, find that the present unhappy situation of our affairs is occasioned by a ruinous system of Colony Administration,  adopted by the British Ministry about the year 1763, evidently calculated for enslaving these Colonies,  and, with them, the British Empire. In prosecution of which system, various Acts of Parliament have been passed for raising a Revenue in America, for depriving the American subjects, in many instances of the constitutional Trial by Jury, exposing their lives to danger by directing a new and illegal trial beyond the seas for crimes alleged to have been committed in America; and in prosecution of the same system, several late, cruel, and oppressive Acts have been passed respecting the Town of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay,

*579 and also an Act for extending the Province of Quebec, so as to border on the Western Frontiers of these Colonies, establishing an arbitrary Government therein, and discouraging the settlement of British subjects in that wide extended country; thus, by the influence of civil principles  and ancient prejudices, to dispose the inhabitants to act with  hostility against the free Protestant Colonies, whenever a wicked Ministry shall choose so to direct them.

'to obtain redress of these Grievances, which threaten destruction to the Lives, Liberty and Property of his Majesty's subjects in North America, we are of opinion  that a Non-Importation, Non-Consumption and Non-Exportation Agreement, faithfully adhered to, will prove the most speedy, effectual, and peaceable measure; and, therefore, we do, for ourselves, and the inhabitants of the several Colonies whom we represent, firmly agree and associate, under the sacred ties of Virtue, Honour, and Love of our Country, as follows
1. THAT from and after the first day of December next, we will not import into British America, from Great Britain or Ireland, and Goods, Wares, or Merchandises as shall have been exported from Great Britain or Ireland;  nor will we, after that day, import any East India Tea from any part of the Plantations or from Dominica;  nor Wines from Madeira, or the Western Islands;  nor Foreign Indigo.

2.  THAT 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.

3. As a Non-Consumption Agreement, strictly adhered to, will be an effectual security  for the observation of the Non-Importation, we, as above, solemnly  agree and associate, that from this day we will not purchase or use any Tea imported on account of the East India Company, or any on which a Duty hath been or shall be paid;  and from and after the first day of March next we will not purchase or use any East India Tea whatsoever; nor will we, nor shall any  person for or under us, purchase or use any of those Goods, Wares, or merchandises we have agreed not to import, which we shall know, or have cause to suspect, were imported after the first day of December, except such as come under the rules and directions of the tenth Article hereafter mentioned.

4 The earnest desire we have not to injure our fellow-subjects in Great Britain, Ireland,  or the West Indies, induces us to suspend a Non-=Exportation  until the tenth day of September,  1775; at which time,  if the  said Acts and parts of Acts of the British parliament herein after mentioned, are not repealed, we will not, directly or indirectly, export any Merchandise or Commodity whatsoever to Great Britain, Ireland,  or the West Indies, except Rice to Europe.

5.  Such as are Merchants, and use the British and Irish Trade, will give orders as soon  as possible to their Factors, Agents and Correspondents, in Great Britain and Ireland, not to ship any goods to them, on any pretence what-

*580 soever, as they cannot be received in America; and if any Merchant residing in Great Britain or Ireland, shall directly or indirectly ship any Goods, Wares, or Merchandises for America, in order to break the said Non-Importation agreement, or in any manner contravene the same , on such unworthy conduct being well attested, it ought to be made publick; and, on the same being so done, we will not from thenceforth have any commercial connection with such Merchant.

6. that such as are Owners of vessels will give positive orders to their Captains, or Masters, not to receive on board their vessels any Goods prohibited by the said Non-Importation agreement, on  pain of immediate dismission  from their service.

7. We will use our utmost endeavours to improve the  breed of Sheep, and increase their number to the greatest extent; and to that end, we will kill them as sparingly as may be, especially those of the most profitable kind; nor will we export any to the West Indies or elsewhere; and those of us who are or may become over-stocked with, or can  conveniently spare any Sheep,  will dispose of them to our neighbors, especially to the poorer sort, upon moderate terms.

8.  That we will, in our several stations, encourage Frugality, Economy and Industry, and promote Agriculture, Arts and the Manufactures of thinks Country,  especially that of Wool;  and will discountenance and discourage every species of extravagance and dissipation, especially all horse-racing, and all kinds of gaming, cock-fighting, exhibitions of plays, shews ,  and other expensive diversions and entertainments; and on the death of any relative or friend, none of us, or any of our families, will go into any further mourning-dress than a back crape or ribbon on the arm or hat for gentlemen, and a black ribbon and necklace for ladies , and we will discontinue the giving of gloves and scars at funerals.

9.  That such as are venders of Goods or Merchandises will not take advantage of the scarcity of Goods that may be occasioned by this Association, but will sell the same at the rates we have been respectively accustomed to do for 12 months last past. and if any vender of Goods or Merchandises shall sell any such goods on higher terms, or shall, in any manner, or by any device whatsoever, violater or depart from this Agreement, no person ought, nor will any of deal with any such person, or his or her Factor (def - a person who acts or transacts business for another) or Agent, at any time thereafter for any commodity whatever.

10.  in case any Merchant, Trader, or  other person, shall import any Goods or Merchandise, after the first day of December, and before the first day of February next, the same ought forthwith, at the election of the owner, to be either re-shipped or delivered up to the Committee of the County or Town wherein they shall be imported, to be stored at the risk of the importer, until the Non-Importation Agreement shall cease or be sold under the direction of the Committee aforesaid; and in the last mentioned case, the owner or owners of such Goods shall be reimbursed out of the sales the firs cost and charges;  the profit, if any, to be applied towards relieving and employing such poor inhabitants of the Town of Boston as are immediate sufferers by the Boston Port Bill; and a particular account of all goods so returned, stored, or sold,  to be inserted in the publick papers; and if any Goods or Merchandises shall

be imported after the said first day of February,  the same ought forthwith to  be sent back again, without breaking any of the packages thereof.

11.  That  a Committee be chose in every County, City, and Town, by those who  are qualified to vote for Representatives in the Legislature, whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching this association; and when it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of a majority of any such Committee, that any person within the limits of their appointment has violated this Association, that such majority do forthwith cause the truth of the case to be published in the Gazette, to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America  may be publickly known, and universally contemned as the enemies of American Liberty; and thenceforth we respectively will break off all dealings with him or her.

12. That the Committee of Correspondence, in the respective Colonies, do frequently inspect the Entries of their Custom Houses, and inform each other, from time to time, of the true stage thereof, and of every other material circumstance that may occur relative to this Association.

13.  That all Manufactures of this country be sold at reasonable prices, so  that no undue advantage be taken of a future scarcity of Goods.

14.  And we do further agree and resolve that we will have no Trade, Commerce, Dealings, or Intercourse whatsoever with any Colony or Province in North America, which shall not accede to, or which shall hereafter violate this association, but will hold them as unworthy of the rights of freemen , and an inimical to the liberties of this country.

'and we do solemnly bind ourselves and our constituents, under the ties aforesaid, to adhere to this Association until such parts of the several Acts of parliament passed since the close of the last war, as impose or continue Duties on Tea, Wine, Molasses, Syrups, Paneles, Coffee, Sugar, Pimento,  Indigo, Foreign paper, Glass and Painters' Colours, imported into America, ,  and extend the powers of the Admiralty Courts beyond their ancient limits,  deprive the American subjects of Trial by Jury, authorize the Judge's certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from damages that he might otherwise be liable to from a trial by  his peers, require oppressive security from a claimant of Ships of Goods seized, before he shall be allowed to defend his property, are repealed,  - And until that part of the Act of the  12th George III. Ch.  24, entitled 'An Act for the better securing his Majesty's Dock-yards, Magazines, Ships, Ammunition, and Stores, by which any person charged with committing  any of the offences therein described, in America, may be tried in any Shire or County within the Realm, is repealed - and until the 4 Acts, passed in the last session of Parliament, viz:  that for stopping the Port and blocking up the Harbour of Boston - that for altering the Charter and Government of Massachusetts Bay - and that which is entitled An Act for the Better Administration of Justice, etc,  - and that for extending the Limits of Quebec, etc.,  are repealed. and we recommend it to the Provincial Conventions, and to  the Committees in the respective Colonies, to establish such farther Regulations as they may think proper for carrying into execution this Association.

'The foregoing Association being determined upon  by the Congress, was ordered to be subscribed by the several Members thereof;  and thereupon, we have hereunto set our respective name accordingly...'

*582  excerpts  on pp.582-585 from Richard Frothingham,  'the Rise of the Republic of the United States' - 1890

Congress passed a warm and grateful vote of thanks to the noble advocates of civil and religious liberty, in and out of parliament, who had generously defended  the cause of America; fixed upon the 10th of May following for another congress, unless meantime there should be a redress of grievances; and invited all the colonies in North America to send deputies to it. it dissolved on the 26th of October.  its measures were received by the two political parties into which the people were divided in a spirit corresponding to their principles and aims.

'The Whigs welcomed them with joy and exultation.  'Last week, ' runs a newspaper editorial,  'the grand Continental Congress ended;  they having, in a manner highly honorable to themselves and constituents,  and serviceable to their country, finished the important business on which they were appointed, and met to deliberate and determine for a great and increasing nation.  the world has hardly ever seen any assembly that had matters of greater consequence before them, that were chosen in a more honorable manner, were better qualified for the high trust reposed in them, executed it in a more faithful, judicious, and effectual manner, or were more free and unanimous in their conclusions, than this. Their proceedings are all drawn with a masterly hand; the expediency of every adopted measure is clearly pointed out, and the whole plan is so well calculated, so tempered with goodness and  wisdom, with mildness and resolution, so guarded by prudence and supported by reason, that in all probability it can hardly fail of the desired effect'.  Thanks to the congress re-echoed from the generous breasts of grateful thousands. Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Four, it was said, would be a year of triumphant jubilee, when medals, pictures, fragments of writings, would revive the memory of these proceedings, and when, if any adventitious (def - associated with something by chance rather than as an integral part) circumstances could give precedency,  it would be to inherit the blood or even to possess the name of a member of the glorious assembly.

I l l u s t r i o u s  C o n g r e s s !  M a y  E a c h N a m e  B e  C r o w n e d  W i t h  I m m o r t a l
F a m e !

'The Tories denounced the men and the measures of the  congress in bitter and unmeasured terms.  they characterized it as composed of the bankrupt and the rich, of churchmen and dissenters,  of the knavish and the honest, chosen by the zealots of every district. it was a treasonable purpose, projected by Eastern republicans. it was filled with factions.  an oily demagogue, Samuel Adams,  -
who ate little and slept little,
thought much and was indefatigable,
-and the haughty sultans of the South, juggled the  whole conclave. these persons, from the time of the

*583  'Stamp Act,  designed to throw off all dependence on Great Britain, and meant, by every fiction, falsehood, and fraud, to delude the people. they meant, by every fiction, falsehood.and fraud, to delude the people. they were secret and hypocritical and left no fraud (def - deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage. unessayed  (essay - put to the test) to conceal their intentions. the measures supported the allegation that the Whigs aimed at rebellion. the proof was absolutely positive in the approval of the Suffolk resolves and in the pledge to support by force the inhabitants of Massachusetts in refusing obedience to the Regulating Acts. in pointing to these facts, they asked, 'What think ye of the congress now?' and they reasoned,  'It is barely possible that the  stars in their courses may fight in favor of the colonies, that an earthquake may swallow up the king's army in Boston, and that every ship of war and every transport ordered from England to America may be blasted with lightning or overwhelmed in the ocean. but if there should be no miraculous interposition of Heaven to defeat the natural power of the mother country, should we go on to enrage it, it must at last fall upon us with an irresistible impetuosity'.
' These citations will serve to show the flood of contemporary eulogy and denunciation poured out on this congress.  Its action was remarkably faithful to the republican ideas universally accepted by the country...
'The papers of this congress, explaining its measures and vindicating the American cause, have been uniformly praised for their soundness, dignity, strength, and purity of style. they drew from Lord Chatham the tribute delivered in the House of Lords, in which he said:  'When your lordships look at the papers, when you consider their decency, firmness and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow, that, in all my reading and observation,  - and it has been my favorite study:  I have read Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world, - that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress (def -an act of coming together, encounter, meeting) at Philadelphia'.  Daniel Webster advised young men who desired to breath in the spirit of their Revolutionary ancestors, who desired that every pulsation of their hearts and every aspiration of their ambition should be American, to master the  contents of these impartial papers, and become imbued with their sentiments...'
'The action of the  congress in relation to Massachusetts - its approval of the Suffolk resolves, its pledge to support the inhabitants, if they were obliged to resist by force the execution of the Regulating Act, its recommendation that contributions should be continued for the relief of the sufferers by the Port Act - was in harmony with the sentiments of the patriots in all quarters, as conveyed in every newspaper that came by the post to Philadelphia.  the noble flow of donations into Boston lasted  ten months. they were raised in the municipalities, and forwarded by persons selected to speak in their name, generally committees chosen by the qualified voters; and during these ten months they were accompanied by

*584  letters from these committees, addressed to the  patriots of Boston, more precious than the gifts themselves. these letters were  answered by  a committee, called  the Donation Committee, chosen j by the qualified voters of Boston.  This correspondence is voluminous.  a very few of the letters appeared at the time in the newspapers, most of them remaining  for nearly a century in manuscript. they were consequently independent  expressions of sentiment, one locality not knowing what another locality had written...
'This record forms a rare  chapter of genuine history. it was written when the people who were making this history were inspired by the  consciousness of being engaged in defending a just cause. a high authority remarks, that  'never did a more sincere and perfect conviction that every principle of right was arranged with them animate (def - give life to; make alive) the human bosom,  than was now felt by the great body of Americans';  and another, that 'The animation of the times raised the actors in these scenes above themselves, and excited them to deeds of self-denial which the interested prudence of calmer seasons can scarcely credit'.  They were uniting in  the bonds of law, and the record is as a window admitting a view of their inner life, - revealing their thought, their hope, their faith, their passion, their love;  showing how they felt as countrymen,and  what they regarded as their country. nothing could be more generous than the expressions  of admiration, or more tender than the offerings of sympathy, or more free from calculation that the enthusiasm  for principle, or more solemn than the pledge of fortune and life, or more reverent than the trust in providence. The noble record portrays the  brotherhood that constituted  the real union of the colonies. it admits posterity into the heart of the Revolution. it is a Christian prologue grandly spoken on the entrance of the United Colonies into the family of nations...
'The spirit exhibited in the municipalities was the same, whether they had grown up under charter, proprietary (def - privately owned and operated for a profit) or royal forms of government,  and whether the individual or denominational sympathies were Congregational, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, or Quaker; underlying all were Christian brotherhood, sympathy in fundamental political ideas and enthusiasm for the rights of human nature.  These sentiments  could not be bound by provincial lines. they expressed the yearning for American unity, - and this for the sake of principles as wide in their application as the common humanity, the simple narrative of the progress of events shows how a noble spirit spread from breast to breast and from colony to colony, beyond the power of human calculation.  The time having come for the people to pass from the control of the mother country,  the Governor of the Universe, by a secret influence on their minds, disposed  them to  union , and to give to this union  the strength of law. hence the Twelve United Colonies. Hence, while the old forms of government remained,  the Association virtually constituted a new and independent authority,-a government through congresses and committees. Hence the manifestation,

*585  in the pledge to support Massachusetts, of a readiness to use the united strength for the common defence. Hence the stern determination that the recommendations of the general congress should have the force of laws...The Americans, through the modern  instrumentality of representation, inaugurated a general council; and they now began to look to  it as their guide, and to consider it a necessity that  its decisions concerning the common welfare should be respected as laws. it is scarcely possible  to overrate the importance of this result. it is safe to say that it influenced the whole future course of American history.
'Indeed, union had not only passed from sentiment into law, but had become a power.  The loyalists could not see this. The chain that appear to the Whigs bright and golden, appeared  to the Tories (def - a member of the British party during the American Revolutionary period)  but a rope  of sand.

'An American also cast the horoscope:  (def - prediction of future events) 'All power of government is derived from God through the instrumentality of kings or the people. Has the impartial Governor of the Universe communicated his attributes of power, wisdom, justice, and mercy  to kings only, and denied the least portion of them to every other class of mankind?... The American congress derives all its power, wisdom and justice, not from scrawls of parchment signed by kings, but from the people.  a more august and equitable legislative body never existed in any quarter of the globe. it is founded on the principles of the most perfect liberty, a freeman, in honoring and obeying the congress, honors and obeys himself...The least deviation from the resolves of the Congress will be treason.it will be treason against  the present inhabitants of the colonies, against the millions of unborn generations who are to exist hereafter in America, against the  only liberty and happiness which remain to mankind...We are now laying the foundation of an American constitution. Let us there fore hold up every thing we do to the eye of posterity. they will probably measure their liberties and happiness by the most careless of our footsteps.  let no unhallowed hand touch the precious seed of liberty...Wise and good men in Britain have lifted up the curtain of futurity in America. Let us not be afraid  to look through it.Ye intuitive spirits who see through the connection of cause and effect, ye holy spirits who have been accustomed to trace the  operations of Divine Providence, ye decisive  spirits who resolve and execute at once, - ye know what I mean. 'In aeternitatem ping,' said a poet. let us neither think, write, speak nor act, without keeping our eyes fixed upon the period which shall dissolve our connection with Great Britain.  the deliverance of the present ministry may precipitate it, but the ordinary course of human  things must accomplish it. Britain may relax from her present arbitrary  measures; but political necessity, not justice, must hereafter be the measure of her actions. Freemen cannot bear a middle state between freedom and slavery. it is essential to the happiness of liberty  that it should be secure and perpetual.'

*601  APPENDIX  (pp601-603  excerpts from Jedediah Morse,  'Annals of the American Revolution', Hartford,  1824)

PLEADED - INSISTED - AFFIRMED

Pamphlets were also published, containing the reasons and pleas  colonies against the acts. These were sent over to their agents and put into the hands of the ministry.

In these it was PLEADED:

'THAT by the constitution and common law of England,  the English  were a free people;

'THAT their freedom consisted in this general privilege,

'THAT no laws could be made or abrogated without their consent, by their representatives in parliament:

'THAT no privilege, included in the general rights of the  free subjects of Great Britain, was more essential to their freedom,  more approved and fixed than this,

'THAT  no tax, loan, or benevolence can be imposed on them but by their consent, by their representatives in parliament:

'THAT, this was a privilege of ancient date, and that there was none of which they had become more jealous; none which they had more expressly claimed, or for which they had more vigorously contended, as essential to the preservation of the liberty, property and safety of the subject.

'It was INSISTED:

'THAT  the colonists were as much British subjects as those who had been born and lived in Great Britain, and had a right to the same privileges:

*603  'THAT these had been stipulated and confirmed by royal charters, acknowledged by the people of Great Britain, and enjoyed by the colonies for more than a century:

'THAT the colonists could  not be represented in Parliament, nor give their consent, directly or indirectly, to laws made, or taxes imposed, by its authority; and therefore that charging stamp duties, or other internal taxes, on the American colonies would be inconsistent with the British constitution, and an infringement on their natural and essential rights.

'It was URGED:

'THAT if the taxations in  contemplation should take place, and the principles on which they were founded be adopted and acted upon , the colonies would enjoy no more than the  show of legislation, and the king's subjects, in them, the  shadow of English liberty only:

'THAT the same principles, which would warrant a tax of this kind on one article, would upon every article, and a tax of a pound, as well as of a penny, or of 1,000 pounds, and so on, without limitation, as Parliament might judge convenient.

'It was AFFIRMED:

THAT the law was no less the rule and measure of the king's government and power, than of his subjects;  and  that while it asserted and maintained the royal powers and prerogatives, it equally asserted and maintained their rights and liberties.

'Further it was PLEADED:
'THAT the taxes were impolitic,  (def - ..not  + citizen..? or 'diplomatic...)
, as well as an infringement of the rights of the subject:

THAT the colonies were a great interest, and of high importance to Great Britain:

THAT the increase of their numbers, commerce and riches was in reality the increase of her strength, commerce and opulence:

THAT the profit s of their industry, spirit of enterprise, and circuitous trade all centre of (note: on?) Great Britain, and that the revenue of the crown, no less than the wealth of the nation, was greatly increased, at the expense of the colonies, and that the revenue of  of the crown, no less than the  wealth of the nation, was greatly increased, at the expense of the colonies:  (note:?)...

*604  ONE GREAT SOUL OF HARMONY
Excerpts from Clarke and Force'AmericanArchives', Fourth Series,Washington - 1837 on pp 604-11

Proceedings at Charlestown, South Carolina

Charlestown, S. C. ' June  4,  1774*

*  Charlestown, S.C. June  6, Saturday last being the King's birthday, when his Majesty entered the the thirty-seventh year of his age, the same was observed here in the usual way,  ie. the bells were rung - colours displayed - guns, at the forts, fired-the militia was reviewed - and his Honour,  the Lieutenant Governor, had company to dine with him in the Council Chamber - but there was not a single house illuminated at night, nor any other demonstration of joy; the people lamenting that so good a Prince should be beset by a Ministry who seem to have studied to alienate, rather than preserve, the affections of his most loyal subjects'.

America has never seen a more critical period than the present. The Stamp Act, with all its ruinous consequences, portended less evil to this Continent than the present gathering storm.

'When I consider the determined resolution of parliament to enforce their pretended right of internal taxation,  and reflect that the free-born Colonists, who have extended the British Empire over this once savage land, will sooner die than surrender the privileges of Englishmen, I tremble for the consequences. My heated imagination anticipates all the horrours of a civil war, and foresees these flourishing Provinces deluged with the unnatural blood shed of our brethren and fellow-subjects. in this alarming situation of affairs, methinks I see every brow contracted into a serious gloom, and every thinking man earnestly inquiring 'what is to be done'.

'Nothing can be entered upon by honest men, with spirit and resolution, till they are  first convinced of the justice of their cause. Let us then, without prejudice, inquire whether the present struggles of America are defensible on principles of equity? (def - fair, impartial, just) If we are wrong, let us with honour give up  before force exacts a submission;  if we are right, let us act like true patriots, and hold it out to the last, preferring one hour of virtuous liberty to a whole eternity of bondage.

'The original source of contention, from which every particular act of opposition  has sprung, is reducible to this simple question:
has the Parliament of Great Britain a right to tax America internally?
I presume they have not.
Two perfect rights can never interfere; if they have a just right to demand our property, we cannot in justice withhold it;
and if they have a right to take from us one penny without our consent, for the same reason they have a right to the whole.
From which this consequence is demonstrably evident:
that we have no property at all,
but are vassals of the British House of Commons,
holding all our possessions by their gracious forbearance,
who have a right at pleasure, to take what, when, how much and in any manner, they please.
Or,in a word, I may say with Mr. Locke,
'what property has any man in that which another has a right to take from him?'

*605  'It being proved that the Parliament has no right to tax America internally, it follows,  that their claim is founded only in their superior strength. What name do we assign to that man, or body of men, who demands our property without any right,intending to prosecute the claim with an armed force?  i blush to mention it, and shall only say, that the man who demands my money with a pistol at my breast is commonly  called a robber; and that no proposition in Euclid is more capable of demonstration, than that such a man has as good a right to the money in my pocket as the House of Commons to tax us without our consent.
'In this view of the matter, we are justified by the Constitution, by reason, by nature, yea, by GOD himself, in opposing, by every prudent measure, the payment of every such demand. heaven approves the generous struggle.
'We are only contending for our natural rights and that liberty wherewith GOD has made us all free. the cause we are embarked in is good and if any of the subordinate means used have been rash, the  blame of them lies at the door of those who, by oppression,  (which will make a wise man mad) have hurried the loyal Americans  unadvisedly into them.'

'We are, therefore, reduced to this dilemma, either to acknowledge ourselves tenants at will to the House of Commons, or resolutely oppose this claim by every prudent measure. What are the prudent measures? I answer, that all the Americans should unite, firmly  resolved to stand by one another even to death; one great soul of harmony should animate this whole Continent, and dispose each one to consider an injury offered to any part as offered to himself. Hapless Boston!  that firmest bulwark of American liberty, is doomed to be the first victim at the altar of Ministerial vengeance. Shall we stand by indifferent spectators because we were spared?  Surely, no! The free-born soul of every genuine patriot resents the  guilty thought,  and resolves to stand or fall with these firm defenders of our common rights. To enforce this union more, give me leave to observe, that New-York and Philadelphia are in the same predicament with Boston; and what is Charlestown behind either? Have not all obstructed the operation of one unconstitutional British Act of Parliament?  and where is the mighty difference between destroying the tea, and resolving to do it, with such firmness as intimidated the Captains to return? Besides, did not every Province applaud the Bostonians with high commendations of their Zeal for American liberty?  I humbly hope they will act so far consistent with themselves, as to resent the treatment offered  to that town as thought were offered to every other one. The contrary conduct would be ungenerous, cruel, and contrary to the true interest of the whole.'

'Why are  the Bostonians destined for the first sacrifice?  Not because they are most guilty:  but because the Ministry would fondly divide the Province -divide and destroy - an attempt to punish all at once might unite all. If they ever can subjugate the free spirit of New England, (which may GOD forbid,) that instant the evil genius of tyranny will begin to stalk over these Provinces with gigantic strides, blasting the fruits of our virtuous industry. Where gay fields now smile, debecked in the yellow robe of full eared harvest, soon would desolation from over the un-


*606  cultivated earth. Suns would in vain arise and in vain would showers descend: for who would be industrious when others would reap the fruit of his labour? After the subjugation of Boston, New-York, and Philadelphia, our turn would be next.  Methinks I see our courts of justice removed - our harbour blockaded - navigation stopped- our streets crowded with soldiers, insulting the peaceable inhabitants, and raising provisions to a starving price -and, after a little time, the now flourishing Charlestown reduced to a neglected plain.'
'Rise just indignation! Rise patriotism! and every public  virtue! to the aid  of our much injured country. Let us convince the world  that Britons will be Britons still in every age and clime. Let us instantly join our sister Colonies and resent the treatment offered by every possible means, whilst our united opposition can avail. let us heartily unite in some well digested general plan that connot fail to operate to the  early relief of our brethren in Boston, now actually suffering in the common cause of American liberty. Let us begin by abolishing all parties and distinctions abandoning luxurey  anbd pleasure - and establishing economy.  Let us nobly determine to make a willing sacrifice of our private interest to this glorious cause - this cause of infinite importance. Let us enter into solemn resolutions not to import any British goods, (a very few necessary articles excepted) and determine firmly and strictly to adhere to them till the  privileges of Boston  are restored - the Tea Duty repealed - and the right of internal taxation given up. Let us,  (if we are driven  to that extreme  necessity, and nothing  less can restore us to our Constitutional  freedom,) even desist to export - in which case it will be expedient that we determine not to distress each other by suits, and apply to the gentle men of the  law to decline business. Let us endeavour to make the union amongst ourselves, as well as with our sister Colonies, as perfect as human means can render it. 'By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall'.  I foresee many inconveniences that will
arise from every measure we can pursue; but I maintain it, they are infinitely short of what would follow on our giving up the point in dispute.  If the Parliament's claim of internal taxation be established, either by our consent or by a military force,. that moment we are transformed into slaves - all our property at the  absolute disposal of the House of Commons.'

'Death itself is an event devoutly to be wished in comparison of such a state.Let us then act wisely;  of two evils choose the least - join with our sister Colonies in a determined proper opposition to tyranny.  Resolve rather to die the last of American freemen, than live the first of American slaves'.

* 607  IMPRUDENT SUBMISSIONS

'To  the  worthy inhabitants of the Town of Boston -                      'Rhode island, July  21, 1774

'My Dear Brethren:  The manly firmness with which you sustain every kind of Ministerial abuse, injury, and oppression, and support the glorious cause of liberty, reflects the highest  honour upon the town.  The few, very few amongst you, who have adopted the principles of slavery, serve, like the  shade in a picture, to exhibit ;your virtues in a more striking point of light. Unhappy men, I sincerely pity them,that they should have so little sense of the dignity of human nature; so little sense of their duty to GOD, as to wish to reduce rational beings, formed after his divine image,  to a state of brutish or worse than brutish servitude;  that  they should be so dead to all the feelings of humanity, publick spirit,  and universal benevolence,  as to prefer the sordid pleasure of being upper slaves to foreign tyrants, and under  them tyrannizing over their country, to the God-like satisfaction of saving that country. How wretchedly  these men mistake happiness! All the riches and honour in the world cannot give any pleasure in the least degree equal to the sincere heart-felt joy which  the patriot feels in the consciousness of having supported the dignity,  the freedom, and happiness of his country.

''The attempt made by these men to annihilate your Committee of Correspondence was very natural.  The robber does not wish to see our property entirely secured.  An enemy, about to invade a foreign country, does not wish to see the coast well guarded and the country universally alarmed. Upon the same principles these men wish the dissolution of the Committee.  They know that a design was formed to rob the Americans of their property; they hoped to share largely in the general plunder;  but they now see that by the vigilance, wisdom and fidelity, of the several Committees of Correspondence, the  people are universally apprized of their danger,  and will soon enter into such measures for the common security as will infallibly blast all their unjust expectations; and this is the true source of all the abuse thrown upon your Committee. But Oh, ye worthy few! continue to treat all their attempts with the neglect which they deserve.Thus the generous mastiff looks down with pity and contempt upon the little noisy, impertinent curs, which bark at him as he walks the streets. Your faithful services have endeared you to the wise and good in every  Colony. Continue your indefatigable labours in the common cause, and you will soon see the  happy success of them in the salvation of your country.

'The tools of power , and their connections, I imagine, are daily  persuading you, my brethren, to submit to the Ministry. They pretend to pity  your distresses, and

*608  assure you that the only way for you to get relief, is the making compensation for the  tea and submitting to the Revenue Acts. But did ever a man preserve his money by  delivering up his purse to the highwayman who  dared to demand it? is it the way to  preserve life, to throw away our arms and present our naked bosoms to the  murderer's sword?
'The town of Boston has been resembled to Carthage, and threatened with the same  fate by a Member of Parliament. The execution of the sentence is already begun. It may not be amiss, then, to turn to the history of that people. There had been two long and very  bloody wars between Rome and that city. The Romans were victorious. But the Carthagenians having, in  a few years, almost recovered their former state of wealth and power, the Romans looked upon them with a jealous eye, and took  every opportunity, (unless by an open war,) to depress them. the Carthagenians,  dreading a war and hoping, by a proper submission, to conciliate  the  Roman affection, sent Ambassadors to Rome, with orders to declare that they entirely abandoned themselves,  and all they possessed, to the discretion of the Romans.  The Senate of Rome, in return, granted them their liberty;  the  exercise of their own laws,  all their territorist and possessions, as private persons, or as a Republick, on condition that, in 30 days, they should send 300 hostages to Lilybaeum,  and do what the Consuls should order them. This cruel order was submitted to.  The hostages were immediately sent. They were the flower and hopes of the most noble families of Carthage.Upon their departure nothing was heard but the most dismal cries and groans;  the  whole city was in tears; and the mothers of these devoted  youth tore their hair and beat their breasts in all the  agonies of grief and despair.  they fastened their arms around their lovely offspring and could not be separated from them but by force.This cruel sacrifice, I should think, would have melted the Romans into compassion; but it had no such effect. Ambition and tyranny are incapable of any humane or tender feeling. The Deputies, therefore, attended the  Roman camp, and told the Consuls they were come in the name of the Senate of Carthage,to receive their orders, which they were ready to obey in all things.the Consul praised their good disposition and ready obedience, and  ordered them to deliver up all their arms. This fatal order was complied with, and an infinite number of weapons of all kinds, and a fine fleet of ships, accordingly delivered up. Would any thing less than the entire destruction of Carthage have satisfied the Romans, they would now have been perfectly content. They had wholly disarmed the Carthagenians,  and got all  the noble youth hostages, as a security for their quiet submission; but all this did not satisfy them. The Consul sternly told them that the Senate of Rome  had determined to destroy Carthage;that they must quit their city and remove to some other part of their territory,  four leagues from the sea. This they refused to do. The Romans therefore attacked their city, which, notwithstanding its defenseless state, bravely sustained a most terrible siege three whole years.had the Carthegenians preserved their youth, the navy, and their arms;  had they united their neighbouring nations against the common oppressor, and immediately prepared for their defence,they might, perhaps, have defeated the Romans, and preserved their city entirely, or at least for many years longer.But they , by imprudent submissions put themselves wholly in the power of the enemy; and the consequences were, the miserable death of several hundred thousand people, and the utter destruction of their city! Take warning, my dear countrymen, by this terrible example.

*609  'What would the Minister have, if not the  good of the Nation? You have invariably promoted it from the first foundation of the Colony. In war you have bravely defended yourselves and the neighbouring Colonies. You have taken a glorious part in several foreign expeditions. You have even, by  your conquests, given peace to Europe. Besides these important advantages, the Nation has received millions of the profits of your commerce; every thing more than a bare subsistence, which you could gather from all quarters of the globe, being by you remitted to Great Britain for her manufactures. What would he have more? He tells you plainly that your liberty, your lives and property, must be laid at his feet. But, my brethren,  suffer every thing, even the  horrours of civil war, sooner than make the vile submission. Should you agree to pay for the tea, something more would be demanded.  Should that be complied with, something further would still be demanded.In short nothing will satisfy him but destroying the town, or reducing it to a poor fishing village. A plan  hath been formed and steadily pursued, for changing the free Constitution of Britain into  an absolute Monarchy. Luxury, bribery and corruption, have given the Minister the  absolute command of England and Ireland. The only remaining obstacle to his unlimited power, is the brave resistance made by the Americans. You are among the first of those Sons of Freedom, who have bravely stemmed the  torrent of tyranny. You have penetrated and exposed the mischievous designs of the Ministry. You  have pointed out proper measures to defeat those execrable designs,  and entered into those measures with spirit. This, and not the destruction of the tea, hath brought down the vengeance of the Ministry  upon you. they have left you no alternative, but to give up your liberties, and hold your lives and property as slaves, by their mere arbitrary will and pleasure; or nobly determine to maintain those just rights and privileges, which, by the laws of God and your country, you are entitled to. You will never hesitate one moment. I am sure, my generous countrymen, you were born and nurtured in the arms of Freedom. You were never yet conquered by any power on earth.You have vast and sure resources. The Colonies,now heartily united, consider your cause as their own. they will soon enter into spirited and effectual measures for your relief. A great part of the people of England
and Ireland will support you; and the distress in which the Nation will soon be involved, by the ill conduct of the Minister, will soon compel him to change his measures,or sink under the resentment of an injured people. Spurn therefore, from your presence and councils forever,  those who dare to propose the giving up our liberties; continue bravely to bear up under your present distress; persevere in the glorious cause in which we are engaged: it is the cause of our king, our country and of God himself.
He conducted your fathers to America;  planted and preserved them in the wilderness, that they might worship him in a manner acceptable to him. you have always maintained the publick (and I hope private) worship of god. you and almost all America have lately addressed him in a most solemn manner.He hath often delivered us when all human help failed.Witness the destruction of the French fleet at Chebucta. he is the same gracious and all-powerful Being.Let us, my brethren,  put our trust in him;for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.Let the priests and ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar;  and let them and all of us, most devoutly say, 'Spare they people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach';  and we may rely upon it that he will, in due time,deliver us from all our enemies and continue us a great, a free and a happy people.'

*610 TO SUBDUE SEPARATELY

'To the inhabitants of the British Colonies in America - Philadelphia,  June 15, 1774

Brethren...a regular plan has been invariably  pursued to enslave these Colonies,  and that the Act of Parliament for the blocking up the port of Boston is a part of the plan. however unprecendented and cruel that measure is, yet some persons among us might have flattered themselves that the resentment of the parliament is directed solely against the town. The last advices mention two Bills to be passing in parliament, one changing the chartered Constitution of the province of Massachusetts Bay  into a Military Government; and another empowering Administration to send for and try persons in England for actions committed in that Colony.

'By these instances we perceive that Administration has not only renounced all respect, and all appearance of respect for the rights of these Colonies, but even the plainest principle of justice and humanity. were the Representatives of the people of Massachusetts Bay called upon to make satisfaction for the damage done to private property in any late tumult there? No. yet it was known that those Representatives had made ample reparation for the injuries committed on occasion of the Stamp Act. It was known that the like reparation had been made by the Assemblies of New York and Rhode island.In short,it was known, that notwithstanding the incessant pains taken by many Ministers to tease the Colonies by oppressions and insults into madness, yet they have, with difficulty, excited only a few tumults, for which the popular branch  of the Legislature in the several Colonies has ever been ready to atone upon requisition from the Crown...

'Pretence sand reasons are totally different. The provocation said to be given by our sister Colony, are but the pretences for the exhorbitant severity exercised against pressing the freedom of America, by a military force, to be supported by money taken out of our pockets,  and the supposed conveniency of opportunity for attaining this end. These reasons are evident from the Minister's speech. The system is formed with art, but the art is discoverable. Indeed, I do not believe it was expected we should have such early and exact intelligence of the schemes agitated against us as we have received. Any person who examines the multitude of invectives published in pamphlets and newspapers in Great Britain, or the speeches made in either House of Parliament, will find them directed AGAINST THE COLONIES IN GENERAL.  The people in that kingdom have been, with great cunning and labour,inflamed AGAINST THE COLONIES IN GENERAL...

'Is it not extremely remarkable,after such a variety of charges affecting ALL the Colonies, that the statute of vengeance should be levelled against a single Colony? New York, Philadelphia, and Charlestown have denied freedom of trade to ships sailing under the protection of Acts of Parliament. Will not the House of Commons  think the inhabitants of these places 'have disobeyed their authority', and that a punishment should be inflicted on them? why do we not hear of some measure pursued

*611  'against those cities? Are they immaculate in the eyes of Administration and Parliament? has not each of those places done real damage to the East India Company?  Has there been even a requisition of compensation for that damage from any of them? Why is there such a profound silence observed with respect to them? Because they are judged by Administration and Parliament more innocent that the Colony of Massachusetts Bay? No. Because Administration and Parliament do us Americans the  honour to think we are such idiots that we shall not believe ourselves interested in the  fate of Boston, but that one Colony may be attacked and humbled after another, without showing the sense or spirit of beasts themselves, many of which unite against common danger.

'Why were the states of Greece broken down into the tamest submission, by Philip of Macedon, and afterwards by the Romans? because they contended for freedom SEPARATELY.  Why were the states of Greece broken down into the tame submission, by Philip of Macedon, and afterward by the Romans? Because they contended for freedom SEPARATELY. Why were the ancient inhabitants of the Kingdom, that now harasses us, conquered by their invaders? Tacitus will inform us. 'Nor was any thing more advantageous to us against very powerful nations, than their imprudence in NOT CONSULTING TOGETHER FOR THE INTEREST OF THE WHOLE.  Conventions for repelling a common danger were rare. Thus,  while each State resisted singly, all were subdued'....

'Surely you cannot doubt at this time, my countrymen, but that the people of Massachusetts Bay are suffering in a cause common to us all; and, therefore, that we ought immediately to concert the most prudent measures for their relief and our own safety.

'Our interest depending on the present controversy is unspeakably valuable. We ave not the least prospect of human assistance.The passion of despotism,raging like a plague for about  seven years past, has spread with unusual malignity through Europe; Corsica, Poland and Sweden, have sunk beneath it. the remaining spirit of freedom  that lingered and languished in the parliament of France, has lately expire. What Kingdom or State interposed for the relief of their distress.'

'Kingdom or State interposed for the relief of their distressed fellow-creatures? The contagion has at length  reached Great Britain. Her statesmen emulate the Nimrods of the Earth, and wish to become 'mighty hunters' in the woods of america. what kingdom or state will interpose for our relief?  The preservation of our freedom, and of every attendant blessing, must be wrought out, under providence, by ourselves. Let not this consideration discourage us. We cannot be false to each other,without being false to ourselves. We have the firmest foundation of union and fidelity- that we wish  to attain the same things - to avoid the same things.

'When a certain masterly  statesman invented a Committee of Correspondence in Boston, which has provoked so much of the spleen of Massachusetts, did not every colony, nay, every county, city, 100 and town, upon the hole continent adopt the measure, I had almost said, as if it  had been a revelation from above, as the happiest means by cementing the Union  and acting in concert?

John Adams, from the 'Works of John  Adams' by Charles Francis Adams (1851)