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CHAP from Georgia as a delegate for the parish of St. John's, and was gladly admitted with the right to May vote, except when the question should be taken by

1775.

13.

colonies.

The first important decision of congress related May. to New York. The city and county on the fifteenth 15. asked how to conduct themselves with regard to the regiments which were known to be under orders to that place; and with the sanction of Jay and his colleagues, they were instructed, not to oppose the landing of the troops, but not to suffer them to erect fortifications; to act on the defensive, but to repel force by force, in case it should become necessary for the protection of the inhabitants and their property.

When Edmund Burke heard of this advice, he expressed surprise at the scrupulous timidity which could suffer the king's forces to possess themselves of the most important post in America. But in the want of an effective military organization, of artillery, and ammunition, no means existed to prevent the disembarkation of British regiments. The city was at the mercy of the power which commanded the water; and which, on any sudden conflict, could have sent an army into its streets, and have driven the patriots from their homes.

But the advice of the continental congress was pregnant with embarrassments, for it recognised the existing royal government of New York, and tolerated its governor and all naval and military officers, contractors, and Indian agents, in the peaceful discharge of their usual functions. The rule was laid down for the province, before its own congress could come together; and when they assembled, they could

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1775.

but conform to it. All parties seemed tacitly to agree to CHAP. a truce, which was to adjourn the employment of force. Towards the royal government the colonists manifest- May ed courteous respect; avoiding every decision which should specially invite attack or make reconciliation impossible. They allowed the British vessel of war, "the Asia," to be supplied with provisions; but adopted measures of restraint in the intercourse between the ship and the shore. They disapproved the act of the people in seizing the king's arms. To Guy Johnson, the superintendent of the Indians, they of fered protection, if he and the Indians under his superintendency would promise neutrality. They sent to Massachusetts their warmest wishes in the great cause of American liberty, and made it their first object "to withstand the encroachments of ministerial tyranny;" but they, at the same time, "labored for the restoration of harmony between the colonies and the parent state," and were willing to defer decisive action till every opportunity for the recovery of peace by an accommodation should have been exhausted. In this manner the aristocratic portion of the friends of American rights in the province exercised a controlling influence. They stood before God and the world free from the responsibility of war, having done every thing to avoid it, except to surrender their rights. Of all the provinces, New York was in its acts the most measured; consistently reluctant to believe in the fatal necessity of war, but determined if necessary to defy the worst, for the preservation of liberty; confident that in the hour of need, its forbearance and moderation would secure the union of its people.

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CHAP. These were the considerations which swayed the continental congress in the policy which it dictated to New York. They also induced John Jay of that colony to make the motion in congress for a second petition to the king.

May.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE REVOLUTION EMANATES FROM THE PEOPLE.

MAY, 1775.

XXXV.

May

18.

THE motion of Jay was for many days the subject CHAP. of private and earnest discussion; but the temper of the congress was still irresolute, when on the eighteenth of May they received the news of the taking of Ticonderoga. The achievement was not in harmony with their advice to New York; they for the time rejected the thought of invading Canada, and they were inclined even to abandon the conquest already made; though as a precaution they proposed to withdraw to the head of Lake George all the сарtured cannon and munitions of war, which on the restoration of peace were to be scrupulously returned.

For many days the state of the union continued to engage the attention of congress in a committee of the whole. The bolder minds, yet not even all the delegates from New England, discerned the tendency of events towards an entire separation of the colonies from Britain. In the wide division of opinions the decision appeared for a time to rest on South

CHAP. Carolina; but the delegates from that province, no XXXV. less than from the others of the south, like the central 1775. colonies, nourished the hope of peace, for which they May. desired to make one more petition.

21.

Vain illusion! The unappeasable malice of the supporters of the ministry was bent on the most desperate and cruel efforts, while every part of the continent rung the knell of colonial subjection. A new nation was bursting into life. Boston was so strictly leaguered, that it was only from the islands in and near the harbor that fodder, or straw, or fresh meat could be obtained for the British army. On Sunday May morning, the twenty-first of May, about sunrise, it was discovered, that they were attempting to secure the hay on Grape Island. Three alarm guns were fired; the drums beat to arms; the bells of Weymouth and Braintree were set a ringing; and the men of Weymouth, and Braintree, and Hingham, and of other places, to the number of two thousand, swarmed to the sea side. Warren, ever the bravest among the brave, ever present where there was danger, came also. After some delay, a lighter and a sloop were obtained; and the Americans eagerly jumped on board. The younger brother of John Adams was one of the first to push off and land on the island. The English retreated, while the Americans set fire to the hay.

May

25.

On the twenty-fifth of May, Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, arrived with reinforcements. They brought their angling rods, and they found themselves pent up in a narrow peninsula; they had believed themselves sure of taking possession of a continent with a welcome from the great body of the