Asserting the necessity of union and his own determination to submit to the opinion of the majority, he discussed the mischiefs of an unequal representation, the advantage of a system that should give each colony its just weight. The democratical part of the constitution, he insisted, must be preserved in its purity. Without refusing some regard in the adjustment of representation to the opulence of a colony as marked by its exports and imports, he spoke for a representation of men. "Slaves," said he, "are to be thrown out of the question; if the freemen can be represented according to their numbers, I am satisfied." To the objection that such a representation would confer an undue preponderance on the more populous states, he replied: "British oppression has effaced the boundaries of the several colonies; the distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American." "A compound of numbers and property," said Lynch, "should determine the weight of the colonies;" but he admitted that such a rule could not then be settled. In the same spirit spoke the elder Rutledge: "We have no legal authority; and obedience to the measures we adopt will only follow their reasonableness, apparent utility, and necessity. We have no coercive authority. Our constituents are bound only in honor to observe our determinations." "I cannot 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." For this menace of disunion 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 full information should have been obtained.

It was resolved that, in taking questions, each colony should have one voice; but the journal adds as the reason, that "the congress was not then able to procure proper materials for ascertaining the importance of each colony."

During the debate, Jay dissented in part from Henry, saying: "I cannot yet think 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 that, after a bloody attack on the people by the troops at Boston, Connecticut as well as Massachusetts was 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, Sherman, Samuel Adams, John Adams; and others of New England, who believed that a rude soldiery were then infesting the dwellings and taking the lives of their friends.

When the psalm for the day was read, Heaven itself seemed uttering its oracle. "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. Bring forth the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me. Let them that imagine mischief for me be as dust before the wind. 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." After this, the minister, with the earnestness of the best divines of New England, unexpectedly burst into an extempore prayer for America, for the congress, for Massachusetts, and especially for Boston.

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 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 are an unsafe reliance, for the king's right to grant them has itself been denied. Besides, the right to life and the right to liberty are inalienable." Jay of New York likewise recurred to the laws of nature; and 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 from the

VOL. IV.-5

appeal to the law of nature, and he founded government on property in land.

Behind these views lay the question of the power of parliament over the colonies. "A right of regulating trade," said Gadsden, true to the principle of 1765, "is a right of legisla tion, and a right of legislation in one case is a right in all."

Amid varying opinions and theories, the congress, increased to twelve colonies by delegates from North Carolina and intent upon securing absolute unanimity, moved with great deliberation; so that Galloway hoped "the two parties would remain on an equal balance." 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."

On 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 province's 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. "Unanimity prevailed not of provinces only, but of individual members." In language which but faintly expressed their spirit, they 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 that a new parliament must soon be chosen, they expressed their trust "that the united efforts of North America would carry such conviction to the British nation of

the unjust and ruinous policy of the present administration as quickly to introduce better men and wiser measures."

To this end, they ordered their own resolutions, with the communications from Suffolk county, to be printed. But their appeal to the electors of Britain was anticipated. The inflexible king, weighing in advance the possible influence of the American congress, overruled Lord North, and, on the last day of September suddenly dissolving parliament, brought on the new election before proposals for conciliation could be received.

Gage, with the forces under his command, hoped for no more than to pass the winter unmolested. At one moment a suspension of the penal acts was his favorite advice, which the king ridiculed as senseless; at the next, he demanded an army of twenty thousand men, to be composed of Canadian recruits, Indians, and hirelings from the continent of Europe; again, he would bring the Americans to terms by casting them off as fellow-subjects, and not suffering even a boat to go in or out of their harbors. All the while he was exerting himself to obtain payment for the tea as a prelude to reconciliation. His agents wrote to their friends in congress, urging concessions. Such was the advice of Church, in language affecting the highest patriotism; and an officer who had served with Washington sought to persuade his old companion in arms that New England was conspiring for independence. It was, moreover, insinuated that, if Massachusetts should once resume its old charter and elect its governor, all New England would unite with her, and become strong enough to absorb the lands of other governments; that New Hampshire would occupy both slopes of the Green Mountains; that Massachusetts would seize the western territory of New York; while Connecticut would appropriate Northern Pennsylvania, and compete with Virginia for the West.

The frugal New England people increased their frugality. "As for me," wrote the wife of John Adams, "I will seek wool and flax, and work willingly with my hands." Yet the poorest man in his distress would not accept employment from the British army; and the twelve nearest towns agreed to withhold from it every supply beyond what humanity required.