dies, until the act should be repealed, as the only means remaining CHAP. III. for the salvation of North America and her liberties.

1774.

siasm in Ame

It was not in Boston only that this spirit was aroused. Ad- General enthudresses were soon received from every part of the Continent, rica. expressing sentiments of sympathy in their sufferings, exhorting them to resolution and perseverance, and assuring them that they were considered as suffering in the common cause.

The legislature of Virginia was in session when the first intel- : ligence of the Boston Port Bill reached that province. The house of Burgesses appointed the first of June, the day on which the bill was to commence its operation, to be set apart for fasting, prayer, and humiliation; to implore the divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of a civil war; and to give one heart and one mind to the people, firmly to oppose every invasion of their liberties. Similar resolutions were adopted almost every where, and the first of June became throughout the several colonies, a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer; in the course of which sermons were universally preached to the people, well calculated to inspire them with the utmost horror against the authors of the unjust suffering of their fellow subjects in Boston.

In consequence of this measure, the assembly was dissolved; but before their separation, an association was entered into, signed by 89 members, in which they declared an attack on one colony, to compel submission to arbitrary taxes, is an attack on all British America, and threatens ruin to the rights of all, unless

Z

CHAP. III. less the united wisdom of the whole be applied in preven

1774

A general Congress is propos ed.

General Gage arrives in Bcstun.

June 7th.

tion.

They therefore recommended to the committee of correspondence, to communicate with the several committees of the other provinces, on the expediency of appointing deputies from the different colonies, to meet annually in general congress, and to deliberate on those general measures, which the united interests of America might from time to time render necessary. This measure had already been proposed in town-meetings in New York and Boston.

While the people of Boston were yet employed in the first consultations which took place on hearing of the bill directed particularly against their town, General Gage, the successor of Governor Hutchinson, arrived among them. Notwithstanding the deep and solemn gloom of the moment, he was received with those external marks of decent respect which had been usual, and which were supposed to belong to his station.

In a few days the general court assembled, and had notice from the Governor that, in pursuance of the late act of Parliament, their place of session would be changed, and that they would be called together on the first of June, at Salem. To evade this measure, they were hurrying to complete the business before them prior to that day, which being made known to the Governor, he hastily adjourned them to the seventh of June, to meet at the place designated by his instructions.

Soon after assembling, the House of Representatives, mindful

of

1774.

of the importance of combining the wisdom of America in one CHAP. III. great and common council, passed resolutions, declaring the expediency of a meeting of committees from the several colonies. for the purposes therein specified, and appointing five gentlemen as a committee on the part of Massachussetts.

The colonies, from New Hampshire to South Carolina, inclusive, adopted this measure; and, where the legislatures were not in session, the people either elected delegates, who chose a committee, or, in the first instance, elected a committee to represent them in the general congress.

The legislature of Massachussetts also passed declaratory resolutions, expressive of their sense of the state of public affairs, and the designs of government; in which they recommended to the inhabitants of that province totally to renounce the consumption of East India teas, and, as far as in them lay, to discontinue the use of all goods imported from the East-Indies and Great Britain, until the public grievances of America, should be radically and totally redressed.

The more fully to effect this essential purpose, it was again strongly recommended to give every possible encouragement to American manufactures.

The Governor having obtained intelligence of the manner in which the house was employed, sent his secretary, the day on which the committee reported their resolutions, with directions immediately to dissolve the assembly. He found the door shut, and being refused admittance, read the order of dissolution aloud on the stair case.

CHAP. III.

1774.

The day after the dissolution of the assembly, the Governor received an address from the principal inhabitants of Salem, now become the metropolis of the province, which does them infinite honour, and marks the deep impression which a sense of common danger had made. They no longer considered themselves merely as the inhabitants of Salem, but as Americans; and they spurned advantages to be derived to themselves, from the distress inflicted on a sister town for its patriotic zeal, in a cause common to all.

"We are deeply afflicted," say they, "with the sense of our public calamities; but the miseries that are now rapidly hastening on our brethren in the capital of the province, greatly excite our commiseration; and we hope your excellency will use your endeavours to prevent a further accumulation of evils on that already sorely distressed people."-" By shutting up the port of Boston, some imagine that the course of trade might be turned hither, and to our benefit; but nature, in the formation of our harbour, forbids our becoming rivals in commerce with that convenient mart. And were it otherwise, we must be dead to every idea of justice, lost to all feelings of humanity, could we indulge one thought to seize on wealth, and raise our fortunes on the ruin of our suffering neighbours."

About this time rough draughts of the two remaining bills relative to the province of Massachussetts Bay, as well as that for quartering troops in America, were received in Boston, and circulated through the Continent. They served to confirm the wavering, and to render the moderate indignant, while the violent became still more so.

An

1774.

An agreement was framed by the committee of correspon- CHAP. III. dence at Boston, entitled " a solemn league and covenant," wherein the subscribers bound themselves in the most solemn manner, and in the presence of God, to suspend all commercial intercourse with Great Britain from the last day of the ensuing month of August, until the Boston port bill, and the other late obnoxious laws should be repealed. They also bound themselves in the same manner, not to consume, or purchase from any other, any goods whatever which arrived after the specified time, and to break off all commerce, trade, and dealings with any who did, as well as with the importers of the goods. They renounced, in the same manner, all intercourse and connection with those who should refuse to subscribe to that covenant, or to bind themselves by some similar agreement; and they annexed to the renunciation of intercourse, the dangerous penalty of publishing to the world the names of those, who should refuse this evidence of their attachment to the rights and interests of their country.

General Gage published against this covenant a strong proclamation, in which it was termed "an unlawful, hostile, and traiterous combination, contrary to the allegiance due to the King, destructive of the legal authority of Parliament, and of the peace, good order, and safety of the community.' All persons

were warned against incurring the pains and penalties due to such dangerous offences; and all magistrates charged to apprehend and secure for trial, such as should be in any manner guilty of them. But the time when the proclamations of governors were to be attended to had passed away; and the penalties, in the power of the committees of correspondence were much more

dreaded