Part 6 (2/2)

31. THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (1774).

[Sidenote: Gage's quarrel with Ma.s.sachusetts.]

The news of this series of coercive measures was hardly received in Ma.s.sachusetts before General Gage appeared, bearing a commission to act as governor of the province; and in a few weeks the Port Bill and the modifications of the charter were put in force. If the governor supposed that Boston stood alone, he was quickly undeceived. From the other towns and from other colonies came supplies of food and sympathetic resolutions.

On June 17th, under the adroit management of Samuel Adams, the General Court pa.s.sed a resolution proposing a colonial congress, to begin September 1st at Philadelphia. While the resolutions were going through, the governor's messenger in vain knocked at the locked door, to communicate a proclamation dissolving the a.s.sembly. The place of that body was for a time taken by the Committee of Correspondence, in which Samuel Adams was the leading spirit, and by local meetings and conventions. In August, Gage came to an open breach with the people. In accordance with the Charter Act, he proceeded to appoint the so-called ”mandamus”

councillors. An irregularly elected Provincial Congress declared that it stood by the charter of 1692, under which the councillors were elected by the General Court. The first effect of the coercive acts was, therefore, to show that the people of Ma.s.sachusetts stood together.

[Sidenote: Delegates chosen.]

[Sidenote: The Congress.]

Another effect was to enlist the sympathy of the other colonies. The movement for a congress plainly looked towards resistance and revolution.

In vain did the governors dissolve the a.s.semblies that seemed disposed to send delegates. Irregular congresses and conventions took their place, and all the colonies but Georgia somehow chose delegates. The first Continental Congress which a.s.sembled in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, was, therefore, a body without any legal status. It included, however, some of the most influential men in America. From Ma.s.sachusetts came Samuel Adams and John Adams; from New York, John Jay; from Virginia, Patrick Henry and George Was.h.i.+ngton. The general partic.i.p.ation in this congress was an a.s.surance that all America felt the danger of parliamentary control, and the outrage upon the rights of their New England brethren.

[Sidenote: Declaration of Rights.]

This feeling was voiced in the action of the Congress. Early resolutions set forth approval of the action of Ma.s.sachusetts. Then came the preparation of a ”Declaration of Rights” of the colonies, and of their grievances. They declared that they were ent.i.tled to life, liberty, and property, and to the rights and immunities of free and natural born subjects within the realm of England. They denied the right of the British Parliament to legislate in cases of ”taxation and internal polity,” but ”cheerfully consent to the operation of such Acts of the British Parliament as are _bona fide_ restrained to the regulation of our external commerce.” They protested against ”the keeping up a standing army in these colonies in times of peace.” They enumerated a long list of illegal Acts, including the coercive statutes and the Quebec Act.

[Sidenote: The a.s.sociation.]

The only action of the First Continental Congress which had in any degree the character of legislation was the ”a.s.sociation,”--the only effective non-importation agreement in the whole struggle. The delegates united in a pledge that they would import no goods from England or other English colonies, and particularly no slaves or tea; and they recommended to the colonies to pa.s.s efficient legislation for carrying it out. The Revolutionary ”congresses” and ”conventions,” and sometimes the legislatures themselves, pa.s.sed resolutions and laid penalties. A more effective measure was open violence against people who persisted in importing, selling, or using British goods or slaves.

[Sidenote: Action of the Congress.]

The First Continental Congress was simply the mouthpiece of the colonies.

It expressed in unmistakable terms a determination to resist what they considered aggressions; and it suggested as a legal and effective means of resistance that they should refuse to trade with the of mother-country.

Its action, however, received the approval of an a.s.sembly or other representative body in each of the twelve colonies. Before it adjourned, the congress prepared a series of addresses and remonstrances, and voted that if no redress of grievances should have been obtained, a second congress should a.s.semble in May, 1775.

32. OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES (1775).

[Sidenote: Att.i.tude of the Whigs.]

[Sidenote: Coercion]

When Parliament a.s.sembled in January, 1775, it was little disposed to make concessions; but the greatest living Englishman now came forward as the defender of the colonies. Pitt declared that the matter could only be adjusted on the basis ”that taxation is theirs, and commercial regulation ours.” Although he was seconded by other leading Whigs, the reply of the Tory ministry to the remonstrance of the colonies was a new series of acts. Ma.s.sachusetts was declared in a state of rebellion; and the recalcitrant colonies were forbidden to trade with Great Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies, or to take part in the Newfoundland fisheries.

[Sidenote: Affairs in Ma.s.sachusetts.]

[Sidenote: Lexington and Concord.]

Before these acts could be known in America, matters had already drifted to a point where neither coercion nor conciliation could effect anything.

Through the winter 1774-1775 Gage lay for the most part in Boston, unable to execute his commission outside of his military lines, and unwilling to summon a legislature which was certain to oppose him. The courts were broken up, jurors could not be obtained, the whole machinery of government was stopped. Meanwhile, in February, 1775, the people had a second time elected a provincial congress, which acted for the time being as their government. This body prepared to raise a military force, and asked aid of other New England colonies. April 19, 1775, a British expedition was sent from Boston to Lexington and Concord to seize military stores there a.s.sembled for the use of the provincial forces. The British were confronted on the village green of Lexington by about one hundred militiamen, who refused to disperse, and were fired upon by the British.

At Concord the British found and destroyed the stores, but were attacked and obliged to retire, and finally returned to Boston with a loss of three hundred men. The war had begun. Its issue depended upon the moral and military support which Ma.s.sachusetts might receive from the other colonies.

33. JUSTIFICATION OF THE REVOLUTION.

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