Volume I Part 39 (1/2)
”The Committees of Correspondence selected Philadelphia for the place, and the beginning of September as the time, for the meeting of this important Council.”--_Ib._, pp. 409, 410.]
[Footnote 340: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., pp.
72-75.]
[Footnote 341: Colonial History, Vol. I., Chap. v., p. 398.]
[Footnote 342: _Ib._, pp. 395, 396.
”It is, perhaps, impossible for human wisdom to contrive any system more subservient to these purposes than such a reciprocal exchange of intelligence by Committees of Correspondence. From want of such a communication with each other, and consequently of union among themselves, many States have lost their liberties, and more have been unsuccessful in their attempts to regain them after they were lost.
”What the eloquence and talents of Demosthenes could not effect among the States of Greece, might have been effected by the simple device of Committees of Correspondence. The few have been enabled to keep the many in subjection in every age from the want of union among the latter.
Several of the provinces of Spain complained of oppression under Charles the Fifth, and in transports of rage took arms against him; but they never consulted or communicated with each other. They resisted separately, and were, therefore, separately subdued.”--_Ib._, p. 396.]
[Footnote 343: Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. VII., Chap.
viii., p. 97.
The authority of this new Act was never acknowledged in Ma.s.sachusetts.
Of the 36 Legislative Councillors nominated by the Crown, one-third of them declined to accept the appointment, and nearly all who did accept were soon compelled, by the remonstrances and threats of their neighbours, to resign. So alarmed was Governor Gage, that after he had summoned the new Legislature to meet him at Salem, he countermanded his summons by proclamation; but which was considered unlawful, and the a.s.sembly met, organized itself, and pa.s.sed resolutions on grievances, and adopted other proceedings to further the opposition to the new Act and other Acts complained of.
Even the Courts could not be held. At Boston the judges took their seats, and the usual proclamations were made; when the men who had been returned as jurors, one and all, refused to take the oath. Being asked why they refused, Thomas Chase, one of the pet.i.t jury, gave as his reason, ”that the Chief Justice of the Court stood impeached by the late representatives of the province.” In a paper offered by the jury, the judges found their authority disputed for further reasons, that the Charter of the province had been changed with no warrant but an Act of Parliament, and that three of the judges, in violation of the Const.i.tution, had accepted seats in the new Council. The Chief Justice and his colleagues repairing in a body to the Governor represented the impossibility of exercising their office in Boston or in any other part of the province; the army was too small for their protection; and besides, none would act as jurors. Thus the authority of the new Government, as established by Act of Parliament, perished in the presence of the Governor, the judges and the army.--_Ib._, pp. 111, 112.
The English historian, Dr. Andrews, remarks on this subject:
”The list of the new (Legislative) Council appointed by the Crown consisted of thirty-six members. But twelve of the number declined their commissions, and most of those who accepted were speedily obliged to resign them in order to save their property and persons from the fury of the mult.i.tude. The judges newly appointed experienced much the same treatment. All the inferior officers of the Courts of Judicature, the clerks, the juries, and all others concerned, explicitly refused to act under the new laws. In some places the populace shut up the avenues to the court-houses; and upon being required to make way for the judges and officers of the court, they declared that they knew of no court nor establishment in the province contrary to the ancient usages and forms, and would recognize none.
”The former Const.i.tution being thus destroyed by the British Legislature, and the people refusing to acknowledge that which was subst.i.tuted in its room, a dissolution of all government necessarily ensued. The resolution to oppose the designs of Great Britain produced occasionally some commotions; but no other consequences followed this defect of government. Peace and good order remained everywhere throughout the province, and the people demeaned themselves with as much regularity as if the laws still continued in their full and formal rigour.” (Andrews' History of the War, Vol. I., pp. 145, 146.)]
CHAPTER XX.
THE GENERAL CONGRESS OR CONVENTION AT PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1774.
The word Congress, in relation to the United States, is synonymous with the word Parliament in Great Britain, signifying the Legislature of the nation at large; but before the revolution the word Congress was used, for the most part, as synonymous with Convention--a voluntary meeting of delegates elected by towns or counties for certain purposes. A meeting of delegates from the several towns of a county was called a _Congress_, or Convention of such county; a meeting of delegates of the several towns of a province was called a Provincial Congress, or Convention; and a meeting of _delegates_ of the several County Conventions in the several provinces was called a _General_ or _Continental_ Congress, though they possessed no _legal_ power, and their resolutions and addresses were the mere expressions of opinion or advice.
Such was the Continental Congress that a.s.sembled in Philadelphia the 5th of September, 1774--not a legislative or executive body possessing or a.s.suming any legislative or executive power--a body consisting of fifty-five delegates elected by the representatives of twelve out of the thirteen provinces--Georgia, the youngest and smallest province, not having elected delegates. The sittings of this body, or Congress, as it was called, continued about eight weeks, and its proceedings were conducted with all the forms of a Legislative a.s.sembly, but with closed doors, and under the pledge of secrecy, until dissolved by the authority of the Congress itself.
Each day's proceedings was commenced with prayer by some minister. Mr.
Peyton Randolph, Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, was elected President, and Mr. Charles Thompson, of Pennsylvania, was chosen Secretary.
After deciding upon the mode of conducting the business, it was resolved, after lengthened discussion, that each colony should be equal in voting--each colony having one vote, whatever might be the number of its delegates.
This Congress consisted of the a.s.sembled representatives of the American colonies, and truly expressed their grievances, opinions, and feelings.
As the proceedings were with closed doors, the utterances of individuals were not reported; but in the reported results of their deliberations there is not an opinion or wish expressed which does not savour of affection to the mother country and loyalty to the British Const.i.tution.
Down to this ninth or last year of the agitation which commenced with the pa.s.sing of the Stamp Act, before b.l.o.o.d.y conflicts took place between British soldiers and inhabitants of Ma.s.sachusetts, there was not a resolution or pet.i.tion or address adopted by any Congress, or Convention, or public meeting in the colonies, that contained a principle or sentiment which has not been professed by the loyal inhabitants of British America, and which is not recognized at this day by the British Government and enjoyed by the people in all the provinces of the Dominion of Canada.
The correctness of these remarks will appear from a summary of the proceedings of this Continental Congress, and extracts from its addresses, which will show that the colonies, without exception, were as loyal to their const.i.tutional sovereign as they were to their const.i.tutional rights,[344] though in royal messages and ministerial speeches in Parliament their pet.i.tions and remonstrances were called treason, and the authors of them were termed rebels and traitors. The princ.i.p.al acts of this Congress were a Declaration of Rights; an address to the King; an address to the people of Great Britain; a memorial to the Americans; a letter to the people of Canada. Non-importation and non-exportation agreements were adopted and signed by all the members; and Committees of Vigilance were appointed.