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new social order in which they would rule. But on CHAP. that day they chose to follow the wealthier class, if it would but make with them a common cause; and the nomination of the committee was accepted, even with the addition of Isaac Low as its chairman, who was more of a loyalist than a patriot.

The letter from the New York Sons of Liberty had been received in Philadelphia; and when on the nineteenth the messenger from Boston arrived with despatches, he found Charles Thomson, Thomas Mifflin, Joseph Reed and others, ready to call a public meeting on the evening of the next day.

in

On the morning of the twentieth, the king gave person his assent to the act which made the British commander-in-chief in America, his army, and the civil officers, no longer amenable to American courts of justice; and also to that which mutilated the charter of Massachusetts, and destroyed the freedom of its town meetings. "The law," said Garnier, the French minister, "must either lead to the complete reduction of the colonies, or clear the way for their independence." "I wish from the bottom of my heart," said the duke of Richmond, during a debate in the house of lords, "that the Americans may resist, and get the better of the forces sent against them."

While the British parliament was conferring on Gage power to take the lives of Bostonians with impunity, the men of Philadelphia were asking each other, if there remained a hope that the danger would pass by. The Presbyterians, true to their traditions, held it right to war against tyranny; the merchants refused to sacrifice their trade; the Quakers in any event scrupled to use arms; a numerous class, like

May

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May.

CHAP. Reed, cherished the most passionate desire for a II. reconciliation with the mother country. In the 1774. chaos of opinion, the cause of liberty needed wise and intrepid counsellors; but during the absence of Franklin, Pennsylvania fell under the influence of Dickinson. His claims to public respect were indisputable. He was honored for spotless morals, eloquence, and good service in the colonial legislature ; his writings had endeared him to America as a sincere friend of liberty. Possessed of an ample fortune, it was his pride to call himself a "farmer." Residing at a country seat which overlooked Philadelphia and the Delaware river, he delighted in study and repose, and was wanting in active vigor of will. Free from personal cowardice, his shrinking sensitiveness bordered on pusillanimity. pusillanimity. "He had an excellent heart, and the cause of his country lay near it;" "he loved the people of Boston with the tenderness of a brother;" yet he was more jealous of their zeal than touched by their sorrows. "They will have time enough to die," were his words on that morning. "Let them give the other provinces opportunity to think and resolve. If they expect to drag them by their own violence into mad measures, they will be left to perish by themselves, despised by their enemies, and almost detested by their friends." Having matured his scheme in the solitude of his retreat, he received at dinner Thomson, Mifflin, and Reed; who, for the sake of his public coöperation, acquiesced in his delays.

In the evening, about three hundred of the principal citizens of Philadelphia assembled in the Long Room of the City Tavern. The letter from the Sons

II.

of Liberty of New York was read aloud, as well CHAP. as the letters from Boston. Two measures were thus brought under discussion; that of New York 1774 for a congress; that of Boston for an immediate cessation of trade. The latter proposition was received with loud and general murmurs. Dickinson conciliated the wavering merchants by expressing himself strongly against it; but he was heard with applause as he spoke for a general congress. He insisted, however, on a preliminary petition to his friend, John Penn, the proprietary governor, to call together the legislature of the colony. This request every one knew would be refused. But then, reasoned Mifflin and the ardent politicians, a committee of correspondence, after the model of Boston, must, in consequence of the refusal, be named for the several counties in the province. Delegates will thus be appointed to a general congress, "and when the colonies are once united in councils, what may they not effect?" At an early hour Dickinson retired from the meeting, of which the spirit far exceeded his own; but even the most zealous acknowledged the necessity of deferring to his advice. Accepting, therefore, moderation and prudence as their watchwords, they did little more than coldly resolve, that Boston was suffering in the general cause, and they appointed a committee of intercolonial correspondence, with Dickinson as its chief.

On the next day, Dickinson, with calculating reserve, embodied in a letter to Boston the system which, for the coming year, was to form the policy of America. It proposed a general congress of deputies from the different colonies, who, in firm but dutiful

CHAP. terms, should make to the king a petition of their II. rights. This, he was confident, would be granted 1774 through the influence of the wise and good in the

mother country; and the most sanguine of his supporters predicted that the very idea of a general congress would compel a change of policy.

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 clandestinely 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

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speedy relief; but at a full meeting of merchants and CHAP. traders the address was disclaimed, Thirty-three citizens of Marblehead, who signed a similar paper, May. brought upon themselves the public reprobation of their townsmen. Hutchinson had merited in civil cases the praise of an impartial judge; twenty-four lawyers, including judges of admiralty and attorneys of the crown, subscribed an extravagant panegyric of his 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 which soon arrived from that city, and which required the people of Massachusetts to retreat from their advanced position, was therefore 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, organised the government for the year by the usual election of councillors; of these, the governor negatived the unparalleled number of