XXXI.

1775.

Mifflin, youngest of the orators who on the twenty- CHAP. fifth of April, addressed the town-meeting called in Philadelphia on receiving the news from Lexington. Thousands of the inhabitants of the city were present, and agreed "to associate for the purpose of defending with arms, their lives, their property, and liberty." Each township in Berks county, resolved to raise and discipline its company. Reading formed a company of its old men also, who wore crape in lieu of a cockade, in token of sorrow for the slaughter of their brethren. In Philadelphia thirty companies, with fifty to one hundred in each, daily practised the manual exercise of the musket.

5.

The Pennsylvania assembly which met on the first day of May, would not listen to the ministerial terms. "We can form," say they, "no prospect of any lasting advantages for Pennsylvania but what must arise from a communication of rights and property with the other colonies." The fifth of May saw May the arrival of Franklin after a placid voyage over the smoothest seas; and the next morning he was. unanimously elected a deputy to the congress. It was the signal for Galloway to retire; but the delegation, to which Thomas Wilson and James Wilson were added, were still instructed to combine if possible a redress of grievances with "union and harmony between Great Britian and the colonies."

The little colony of Delaware was behind no one in public spirit. In Maryland, at the request of the colonels of militia, Eden at Annapolis gave up the arms and ammunition of the province to the freemen of the county. Pleased with his concession, the provincial convention distinguished itself by its dis

XXXI.

2.

CHAP. passionate moderation; and "its delegates to congress went determined to bring about a reconciliation." 1775. Virginia was still angry at the seizure of its proMay vincial magazine and at the menace of Dunmore to encourage an insurrection of slaves, when on the second day of May, at the cry from Lexington, the independent company of Hanover and its county committee were called together by Patrick Henry. The soldiers, most of them young men, kindled at his words, elected him their chief, and marched for Williamsburg. On the way it was thought that his army increased to five thousand.

3.

"There is scarce a county of the whole colony," wrote Dunmore, "wherein part of the people have not taken up arms, and declared their intention of forcing me to make restitution of the powder." Alarmed by the "insurrections," he convened the council of Virginia, and in a proclamation of the May third of May did not scruple to utter the falsehood that he had removed the ammunition lest it should be seized by insurgent slaves. Message after mes sage could not arrest the march or change the pur pose of Henry. Lady Dunmore, who need have feared nothing for herself, professed to dread being retained as a hostage, and with her family retired to the Fowey man-of-war. The governor first resolved to resist and then thought it best to yield. May On the morning of the fourth, at about sunrise, a messenger met Patrick Henry at Doncastle's Ordinary in New Kent, and as a compensation for the gunpowder taken out of the magazine, paid him three hundred and thirty pounds, for which he was to ac count to the provincial congress of Virginia. When

4.

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it was afterwards found that the sum exceeded the CHAP. value of the powder, the next Virginia convention directed the excess to be restored.

Two days after the return of the volunteers, Dunmore issued a proclamation against "a certain Patrick Henry," and his "deluded followers;" and secretly denounced him to the ministry as "a man of desperate circumstances, one who had been very active in encouraging disobedience and exciting a spirit of revolt among the people for many years past." On the other hand, the interior resounded with the praise of the insurgents. On the eighth, Louisa county sent them its hearty thanks. On the ninth, Spottsylvania cordially approved their prudent, firm, and spirited conduct; and Orange county in a letter signed among others by the young and studious James Madison, a recent graduate of Princeton college, applauded their zeal for the honor and interest of the country. "The blow struck in Massachusetts," they add, "is a hostile attack on this and every other colony, and a sufficient warrant to use reprisal."

1775.

May.

11.

On the eleventh, Patrick Henry set off for the May continental congress; and his progress was a triumph. Amidst salutes and huzzas, a volunteer guard accompanied him to the Maryland side of the Potomac ; and as they said farewell, they invoked God's bless ing on the champion of their "dearest rights and liberties."

CHAPTER XXXII.

EFFECTS OF THE DAY OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD CONTINUED:
TICONDEROGA TAKEN.

May.

MAY, 1775.

CHAP. THE people of South Carolina, who had hoped relief XXXII. through the discontinuance of importations from Brit1775. ain, had received the decision of parliament with bitter disappointment. The tidings from Lexington foretold an inevitable conflict. South Carolina was insulated by her remoteness; yet she did not falter. On the very night after receiving the news, men of Charleston took possession of the royal arsenal, and distributed twelve hundred stand of arms. On the second day of June, the members of her provincial congress, Henry Laurens being their president, associated themselves for defence against every foe; "ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to secure her freedom and safety." They resolved to raise two regiments of infantry, and a regiment of rangers. To this end, one hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling were issued in bills of credit, which for a year and a half the enthusiasm of the people did not suffer to fall in

XXXII.

value. "We are ready to give freely half or the CHAP. whole of our estates for the security of our liberties," was the universal language.

The militia officers threw up their commissions from the royal governor, and submitted to the orders of congress. A council of safety was charged with executive powers. In the midst of these proceedings, Lord William Campbell, their new governor, arrived, and the provincial congress waited on him with an address: "No lust of independence has had the least influence upon our counsels; no subjects more sincerely desire to testify their loyalty and affection. We deplore the measures, which, if persisted in, must rend the British empire. Trusting the event to Providence, we prefer death to slavery."

"The people of Charleston are as mad as they are here in Boston," was the testimony of Gage.

The skirmish at Lexington became known in Savannah on the tenth of May, and added Georgia to the union. At that time she had about seventeen thousand white inhabitants and fifteen thousand Africans. Her militia was not less than three thousand. Her frontier, which extended from Augusta to St. Mary's, was threatened by the Creeks with four thou sand warriors; the Chickasaws, with four hundred and fifty; the Cherokees, with three thousand; the Choctaws, with twenty-five hundred. But danger could not make her people hesitate. On the night of the eleventh, Noble Wimberley Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, and others, broke open the king's magazine in the eastern part of the city, and took from it over five hundred pounds of powder.

1775.

May.