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CHAP. coercive authority. Our constituents are bound only XI. in honor to observe our determinations." "I cannot

1774.

Sept.

see any way of voting but by colonies," said Gadsden. "Every colony," insisted Ward, of Rhode Island, "should have an equal vote. The counties of Virginia are unequal in point of wealth and numbers, yet each has a right to send two members to its legislature. We come, if necessary, to make a sacrifice of our all, and by such a sacrifice the weakest will suffer as much as the greatest." Harrison, of Virginia, spoke strongly on the opposite side, and was "very apprehensive, that if such a disrespect should be put upon his countrymen, as that Virginia should have no greater weight than the smallest colony, they would never be seen at another convention." But his menace of disunion showed only how little he understood the heart of the Ancient Dominion; and he was at once rebuked by his colleagues. "Though a representation equal to the importance of each colony, were ever so just," said Richard Henry Lee, "the delegates from the several colonies are unprepared with materials to settle that equality." Bland, of Virginia, saw no safety but in voting by colonies. "The question," he added, "is, whether the rights and liberties of America shall be contended for, or given up to arbitrary power." Pendleton acquiesced, yet wished the subject might be open for reconsideration, when proper materials should have been obtained.

This opinion prevailed, and it was resolved that, in taking questions, each colony should have one voice; but the journal adds as the reason, that "the

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congress was not then able to procure proper mate- CHAP. rials for ascertaining the importance of each colony." Henry, during the debate, had declared "that an entire new government must be founded." "I cannot yet think that all government is at an end," said Jay in reply, "or that we came to frame an American constitution, instead of endeavoring to correct the faults in an old one. The measure of arbitrary power is not full, and it must run over, before we undertake to frame a new constitution."

It was next voted that "the doors be kept shut during the time of business;" and the members bound themselves by their honor to keep the proceedings secret, until the majority should direct them to be made public. The treacherous Galloway pledged his honor with the rest.

To the proposal that congress the next day should be opened with prayer, Jay and Rutledge objected, on account of the great diversity of religious sentiments. "I am no bigot," said Samuel Adams, the Congregationalist; "I can hear a prayer from a man of piety and virtue, who is at the same time a friend to his country;" and on his nomination, Duché, an Episcopal clergyman, was chosen for the service. Before the adjournment, Putnam's express arrived with the report of a bloody attack on the people by the troops at Boston; of Connecticut as well as Massachusetts rising in arms. The next day muffled bells were tolled. At the opening of congress, Washington was present, standing in prayer, and Henry, and Randolph, and Lee, and Jay, and Rutledge, and Gadsden; and by their side Presbyterians and Congregationalists, the Livingstons,

CHAP. Sherman, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and others XI. of New England, who believed that a rude soldiery 1774. were then infesting the dwellings and taking the Sept. lives of their friends. When the psalm for the day was read, it seemed as if Heaven itself was uttering its oracle. "Oh Lord, fight thou against them that fight against me. Let them that imagine mischief for me be as dust before the wind. Lord, who is like unto thee who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him? Lord! how long wilt thou look on? Awake, and stand up to judge my quarrel; avenge thou my cause, my God and my Lord. And as for my tongue, it shall be talking of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." After this the minister unexpectedly burst into an extempore prayer for America, for the congress, for Massachusetts, and especially for Boston, with the earnestness of the best divines of New England.

The congress that day appointed one committee on the rights of the colonies, and another on the British statutes affecting their manufactures and trade. They also received by a second express the same confused account of bloodshed near Boston. Proofs both of the sympathy and the resolution of the continent met the delegates of Massachusetts on every hand; and the cry of "war" was pronounced with firmness.

The next day brought more exact information, and the committee of congress on the rights of the colonies began their deliberations. The first inquiry related to the foundation of those rights. Lee of Virginia rested them on nature. "Our ancestors," he said, "found here no government; and as a consequence had a right to make their own. Charters

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are an unsafe reliance, for the king's right to grant CHAP. them has itself been denied. Besides, the right to life, and the right to liberty are inalienable." Jay 1774. of New York likewise recurred to the laws of nature. He would not admit the pretension to dominion founded on discovery, and he enumerated among natural rights, the right to emigrate, and the right of the emigrants to erect what government they pleased. John Rutledge, on the contrary, held that allegiance is inalienable; that the first emigrants had not had the right to elect their king; that American claims were derived from the British constitution rather than from the law of nature. But Sherman of Connecticut deduced allegiance from consent, without which the colonies were not bound by the act of settlement. Duane, like Rutledge, shrunk back from the appeal to the law of nature, and founded the power of government on property in land.

Behind all these views lay the question of the power of parliament over the colonies. Dickinson, not yet a member of congress, was fully of opinion that no officer under the new establishment in Massachusetts ought to be acknowledged, but advocated "allowing to parliament the regulation of trade upon principles of necessity, and the mutual interest of both countries." "A right of regulating trade,” said Gadsden, true to the principle of 1765, "is a right of legislation, and a right of legislation in one case is a right in all;" and he denied the claim with peremptory energy.

Amidst such varying opinions and theories, the congress, increased by delegates from North Carolina, and intent upon securing absolute unanimity, was

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CHAP. moving with great deliberation, and Galloway hoped XI. "the two parties would remain on an equal balance." 1774. But in that body there was a man who knew how to bring the enthusiasm of the people into connection with its representatives. "Samuel Adams," wrote Galloway, "though by no means remarkable for brilliant abilities, is equal to most men in popular intrigue, and the management of a faction. He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, and thinks much, and is most decisive and indefatigable in the pursuit of his objects. He was the man who, by his superior application managed at once the faction in congress at Philadelphia, and the factions in New England.”

One express had brought from Massachusetts the proceedings of Middlesex; another having now arrived, on Saturday, the seventeenth of September, the delegates of Massachusetts laid before congress the address of the Suffolk county convention to Gage, on his seizure of the provincial stock of powder and his hostile occupation of the only approach to Boston by land; and the resolutions of the same convention which declared that no obedience was due to the acts of parliament affecting their colony.

As the papers were read, expressions of esteem, love and admiration broke forth in generous and manly eloquence. In language which but faintly expressed their spirit, members from all the colonies declared their sympathy with their suffering countrymen in Massachusetts, most thoroughly approved the wisdom and fortitude with which opposition to ministerial measures had hitherto been conducted, and earnestly recommended perseverance according to the resolutions of the county of Suffolk. Knowing

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