year, was to control the counsels of America. It proposed a general congress of deputies from the different colonies, who, in firm but dutiful terms, should make to the king a petition of their rights. This, it was believed, would be granted through the influence of the wise and good in the mother country; and the most sanguine predicted that the very idea of a general congress would compel a change in the policy of Great Britain.

In like manner, the fifty-one who now represented the city and county of New York adopted from their predecessors the plan of a continental congress, and to that body they referred all questions relating to commerce, thus postponing the proposal for an immediate suspension of trade, but committing themselves irrevocably to union and resistance. At the same time, they invited every county in the colony to make choice of a

committee.

The messenger, on his return with the letters from Philadelphia and New York, found the people of Connecticut anxious for a congress, even if it should not at once embrace the colonies south of the Potomac; and their committee wisely entreated Massachusetts to fix the place and time for its meeting.

At Boston, the agents and supporters of the British ministers strove to bend the firmness of its people by holding up to the tradesmen the grim picture of misery and want; while Hutchinson promised to obtain in England a restoration of trade, if the town would but pay the first cost of the tea. Before his departure, one hundred and twenty-three merchants and others of Boston addressed him, "lamenting the loss of so good a governor," confessing the propriety of indemnifying the East India company, and appealing to his most benevolent disposition to procure by his representations some speedy relief; but at a full meeting of the merchants and traders the address was disclaimed. Thirty-three citizens of Marblehead, who signed a similar paper, brought upon themselves the public reprobation of their townsmen. Twenty-four lawyers, including judges of admiralty and attorneys of the crown, subscribed an extravagant panegyric of Hutchinson's general character and conduct; but those who for learning and integrity most adorned their profession, withheld their names.

On the other hand, the necessity of a response to the courage of the people, the hearty adhesion of the town of Providence, and the cheering letter from the old committee of New York, animated a majority of the merchants of Boston, and through their example those of the province, to an engagement to cease all importations from England. Confidence prevailed that their brethren, at least as far south as Philadelphia, would embrace the same mode of peaceful resistance. The letter from that city was received with impatience. But Samuel Adams suppressed all murmurs. "I am fully of the Farmer's sentiments," said he; "violence and submission would at this time be equally fatal;" but he exerted himself the more to promote the immediate suspension of commerce.

The legislature of Massachusetts, on the last Wednesday of May, organized the government for the year by the usual election of councillors; of these, the governor negatived thirteen, among them James Bowdoin, Samuel Dexter, William Phillips, and John Adams, than whom the province could not show purer or abler men. The desire of the assembly that he would appoint a fast was refused; "for," said he to Dartmouth, "the request was only to give an opportunity for sedition to flow from the pulpit." On Saturday, the twenty-eighth, Samuel Adams was on the point of proposing a general congress, when the assembly was unexpectedly prorogued, to meet after ten days at Salem.

The people of Boston, then the most flourishing commercial town on the continent, never regretted their being the principal object of ministerial vengeance. "We shall suffer in a good cause," said the thousands who depended on their daily labor for bread; "the righteous Being, who takes care of the ravens that cry unto him, will provide for us and ours."

Hearts glowed warmly on the banks of the Patapsco. That admirable site for commerce-whose river-side and hill-tops are now covered with stately warehouses, mansions, and monuments, whose bay sparkles round the prows of the swiftest barks, whose wharfs invite the wealth of the West Indies and South America, and whose happy enterprise, availing itself of its nearness to the west, sends across the mountains its iron pathway of many arms-had for a century been tenanted only

by straggling cottages. But its convenient proximity to the border counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia had been observed by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and others; and within a few years they had created the town of Baltimore, which already was the chief emporium within the Chesapeake bay. When the messages from the old committee of New York, from Philadelphia, and from Boston, reached its inhabitants, they could not "see the least grounds for expecting relief from a petition and remonstrance." Calling to mind the contempt with which for ten years their petitions had been thrust aside, they were "convinced that something more sensible than supplications would best serve their purpose.”

After consultation with the men of Annapolis, who promptly resolved to stop all trade with Great Britain, the inhabitants of the city and county of Baltimore advocated suspending commerce with Great Britain and the West Indies, chose deputies to a colonial convention, recommended a continental congress, appointed a numerous committee of correspondence, and sent cheering words to their "friends" at Boston.

"The Supreme Disposer of all events," said they, "will terminate this severe trial of your patience in a happy confirmation of American freedom." For this spirited conduct, Baltimore was applauded as the model; and its example kindled new life in New York.

On the twenty-eighth, the assembly of New Hampshire, though still desiring to promote harmony with the parent land, began its organization for resisting encroachments on American rights.

Three days later, the people of New Jersey declared for a suspension of trade and a congress, and claimed "to be fellowsufferers with Boston in the cause of liberty."

For South Carolina, the character of its labor forbade all thought of rivalling British skill in manufactures. Its wealthy inhabitants, shunning the occupations of city life, loved to reside in hospitable elegance on their large and productive estates. Its annual exports to the northern provinces were of small account, while to Great Britain they exceeded two millions of dollars in value. Enriched by this commerce, its people cherished a warm affection for the mother country, and delighted

in sending their sons "home," as England was called, for their education. The harbor of Charleston was almost unguarded, except by the sand-bar at its entrance. The Creeks and Cherokees on the frontier, against whom the English government had once been solicited by South Carolina herself to send over a body of troops as a protection, were still numerous and warlike. The negro slaves, who in the country near the ocean very far outnumbered the free, were so many hostages for the allegiance of their masters. The trade of Charleston was in the hands of British factors, some of whom speculated already on the coming confiscation of the rice-swamps and indigo-fields of "many a bonnie rebel." The upland country was numerously peopled by loyal men who felt no grievances. And yet the planters refused to take counsel of their interests or their danger. "Boston," said they, "is but the first victim at the altar of tyranny." Reduced to the dilemma either to hold their liberties as tenants at will of the British house of commons, or to prepare for resistance, their choice was never in doubt. "The whole continent," they said, "must be animated with one great soul, and all Americans must resolve to stand by one another even unto death. Should they fail, the constitution of the mother country itself would lose its excellence." They knew the imminent ruin which they risked; but they "remembered that the happiness of many generations and many millions depended on their spirit and constancy."

The burgesses of Virginia sat as usual in May. The extension of the province to the west and north-west was their great ambition, which the governor, greedy of a large possession of land and of fees for conniving at the acquisitions of others, selfishly seconded in flagrant disregard of his instructions. To Lady Dunmore, who had just arrived, the assembly voted a congratulatory address, and its members invited her to a ball. The thought of revolution was not harbored; but they none the less held it their duty to resist the systematic plan of parliamentary despotism; and, without waiting for an appeal from Boston, they resolved on its deliverance. First among them as an orator stood Patrick Henry. But eloquence was his least merit: he was revered as the ideal of a patriot of Rome in its austerest age. At the approach of danger his language gained

the boldness of prophecy. He was borne up by the strong support of Richard Henry Lee and Washington. It chanced that George Mason was then at Williamsburg, a man of strong and true affections; learned in constitutional law; a profound reasoner; honest and fearless in council; shunning the ways of ambition from sorrow at the death of his wife for whom he never ceased to mourn; but earnestly mindful of his country, as became one whose chastened spirit looked beyond the interests of the moment. After deliberation with these associates, Jefferson prepared the resolution which, on the twentyfourth, at the instance of Robert Carter Nicholas, the house of burgesses adopted. In the name of Virginia it recommended to their fellow-citizens that the day on which the Boston port act was to take effect should be set apart "as a day of fasting and prayer, devoutly to implore the divine interposition for averting the dreadful calamity which threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil war; and to give to the American people one heart and one mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American rights." The resolve, which bound only the members themselves, was distributed by express through their respective counties as a general invitation to the people. Especially Washington sent the notice to his constituents; and Mason charged his little household of sons and daughters to keep the day strictly, and attend church clad in mourning.

On the morning which followed the adoption of this measure Dunmore dissolved the house. The burgesses immediately repaired to the Raleigh tavern, about one hundred paces from the capitol; and with Peyton Randolph, their late speaker, in the chair, voted that the attack on Massachusetts was an attack on all the colonies, to be opposed by the united wisdom of all, In conformity with this declaration, they advised for future time an annual continental congress. They named Peyton Randolph, with others, a committee of correspondence to invite a general concurrence in this design. As yet social relations were not imbittered. Washington, of whom Dunmore sought information respecting western affairs, continued his visits at the governor's house; the ball in honor of Lady Dunmore was well attended. Not till the offices of courtesy and of patriot

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