But all the province, even to Falmouth and beyond it, shared the sorrows of Boston, and cheered its inhabitants in their sufferings. Nor did its citizens despair. Its newly elected representatives were instructed never to acknowledge the regulating act; and, in case of a dissolution, to join the other members in forming a provincial congress.

The assembly was summoned to meet at Salem on the fifth of October, at which time the councillors who had been legally commissioned in May intended to take their seats, as their period of office was a year, and they were not removable during the term for which they were chosen. Against so clear a title, the mandamus councillors would not dare to claim their places without a larger escort than they could receive. Gage was in a dilemma. On the twenty-eighth of September, by an anomalous proclamation, he neither dissolved nor prorogued the assembly which he had called, but declined to meet it at Salem, and assumed to discharge the representatives elect from their duty of attendance.

Meantime, the continental committee on the rights of the colonies, having been increased by one member from each of the three provinces-Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania -extended their searches to the statutes affecting industry and trade. But in a body whose members were collected from remote parts of the country, accustomed to no uniform rules, differing in their ideas and their forms of expression, distrust could be allayed only by the most patient discussions; and, for the sake of unanimity, tedious delay was inevitable.

In the first place, it was silently agreed to rest the demands of America not on considerations of natural rights, but on a historical basis. Nothing was complained of but innovations, so that every appearance of a revolution was avoided.

How far the retrospect for grievances should be carried was the next inquiry. South Carolina would have included all laws restrictive of manufactures and navigation; in a word, all the statutes of which Great Britain had been so prodigal toward her infant colonies, for the purpose of confining their trade and crippling their domestic industry. But the Virginians, conforming to their instructions, narrowed the issue to the innovations during the reign of George III.; and, as Mary

land and North Carolina would not separate from Virginia, the acts of navigation, though condemned by Richard Henry Lee as a capital violation of American rights, were not included in the list of grievances.

The Virginians had never meant to own the binding force of the acts of navigation: the proposal to recognise them came from Duane of New York, and encountered the strongest opposition. Some wished to deny altogether the authority of parliament; others, its power of taxation; others, its power of internal taxation only. These discussions were drawn into great length, and seemed to promise no agreement; till, at last, John Adams was persuaded to shape a compromise in the spirit and very nearly in the words of Duane. His resolution ran thus: "From the necessity of the case and a regard to the mutual interest of the 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 its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their consent."

This article was contrary to the principles of Otis at the commencement of the contest; to the repeated declarations of Samuel Adams; to the congress of 1765, which had put aside a similar proposition when offered by Livingston of New York. Not one of the committee was fully satisfied with it; yet, as the ablest speaker from Massachusetts had given way, the concession was inevitable. It stands as a monument that the congress harbored no desire but of reconciliation. "I would have given everything I possessed for a restoration to the state before the contest began," said John Adams, at a later day. His resolution accepted that badge of servitude, the British colonial system.

During these discussions, Galloway of Pennsylvania, in secret concert with the governor of New Jersey and with Colden of New York, proposed for the government of the colonies a president-general of the king's appointment, and a grand council to be chosen once in three years by the several assemblies.

The British parliament was to have the power of revising the acts of this body, which in its turn was to have a negative on British statutes relating to the colonies. "I am as much a friend to liberty as exists," blustered Galloway, as he presented his insidious proposition, "and no man shall go further in point of fortune or in point of blood than the man who now addresses you." His scheme held out a hope of a continental union, which was the long-cherished policy of New York; it was seconded by Duane and supported by Jay, but opposed by Lee of Virginia. Patrick Henry objected to intrusting the power of taxation to a council to be chosen not directly by the people, but indirectly by its representatives; and he condemned the proposal in all its aspects. "The original constitution of the colonies," said he, "was founded on the broadest and most generous base. The regulation of our trade compensates all the protection we ever experienced. We shall liberate our constituents from a corrupt house of commons, but throw them into the arms of an American legislature, that may be bribed by a nation which in the face of the world avows bribery as a part of its system of government. Before we are obliged to pay taxes as they do, let us be as free as they; let us have our trade open with all the world." "I think the plan almost perfect," said Edward Rutledge. But not one colony, unless it may have been New York, voted in its favor; no more than a bare majority would consent that it should even lie on the table; and at a later day congress struck the proposal from its record.

With this defeat, Galloway lost his mischievous importance. At the provincial elections in Pennsylvania, on the first day of October, Dickinson, his old opponent, was chosen almost unanimously a representative of the county. Mifflin, though opposed by some of the Quakers as too warm, was elected a burgess of Philadelphia by eleven hundred votes out of thirteen hundred, with Charles Thomson as his colleague. The assembly, on the very day of its organization, added Dickinson to its delegation in congress; and he took his seat in season to draw the address of that body to the king.

During the debates on the proper basis of that address, letters from Boston announced that the governor continued

seizing private military stores, suffering the soldiery "to treat both town and country as declared enemies," fortifying the town and mounting cannon at its entrance, as though he would hold its inhabitants as hostages in order to compel a compliance with the new laws. As he had eluded the meeting of the general court, they applied to congress for advice; if the congress should instruct them to quit the town, they would obey. The citizens, who collectively had been more affluent than those of any other place of equal numbers in the world, made a formal offer to abandon their homes, and throw themselves, with their wives and children, their aged and infirm, on the charity of the country people, or build huts in the woods, and never revisit their native walls until re-established in their rights and liberties. Gadsden blazed up at the thought, and he proposed that Gage should be attacked and routed before re-enforcements could arrive; but the congress was resolved to exhaust every means of redress before sanctioning an appeal to arms.

The more impetuous people were ever inclined to break the bounds set for them. About the middle of October, the brig Peggy Stewart, from London, arrived at Annapolis with two thousand three hundred and twenty pounds of tea, on which the owner of the vessel made haste to pay the duty. The people of Maryland resented this voluntary submission to the British claim, which their delegates to the general congress were engaged in contesting. For the honor of the province a committee kept watch to prevent the landing of the tea; successive public meetings drew throngs even from distant counties; till the two importers and the ship-owner jointly expressed their contrition, and offered to expiate their offence by burning the "detestable article" which had caused their misconduct. When it appeared that this would not satisfy the crowd, the owner of the brig, after a little consultation with Charles Carroll, proposed to devote that also to the flames. The offer was accepted. The penitent importers and owner went on board the vessel with hats off and lighted torches in their hands, and, in the presence of a multitude of gazers, set fire to the packages of tea, all of which, together with the Peggy Stewart, her canvas and cordage, were consumed.

Washington ardently wished to end civil discord and re

store tranquillity upon constitutional grounds, but his indignation at the wrongs of Boston could be appeased only by their redress, and his purpose to resist the execution of the regulating act was unalterable. "Permit me," so he addressed a British officer then serving under Gage, "with the freedom of a friend, to express my sorrow that fortune should place you in a service that must fix curses to the latest posterity upon the contrivers, and, if success (which, by the by, is impossible) accompanies it, execrations upon all those who have been instrumental in the execution. The Massachusetts people are every day receiving fresh proofs of a systematic assertion of an arbitrary power, deeply planned to overturn the laws and constitution of their country, and to violate the most essential and valuable rights of mankind. It is not the wish of that government, or any other upon this continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence; but none of them will ever submit to the loss of those rights and privileges without which life, liberty, and property are rendered totally insecure. Is it to be wondered at that men attempt to avert the impending blow in its progress, or prepare for their defence if it cannot be averted? Give me leave to add as my opinion, that, if the ministry are determined to push matters to extremity, more blood will be spilled on this occasion than history has ever yet furnished instances of in the annals of North America."

Ross, a Pennsylvanian, moved in congress that Massachusetts should be left to her own discretion with respect to government, and the administration of justice as well as defence. The motion was seconded by Galloway, in the hope of insulating her. Had it been adopted, she would have revived her first charter, under the Pine Tree flag of her forefathers, and elected her governor. From the desire of conciliation the province was suffered to continue in a state of anarchy; but on the eighth of October it was resolved, though not unanimously, “that this congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of the 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, all America ought to support them in their opposition." This is the vote which hardened George III. to listen to no terms. Galloway and Duane de