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 May. 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 II. 1774 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, Ma 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 May. CHAP. thirteen, among them James Bowdoin, Samuel Dex II. ter, William Phillips, and John Adams, than whom 1774. the province could not show purer or abler men. The desire of the assembly that he would appoint a fast was refused; "for," said he to Dartmouth, "the request was only to give an opportunity for sedition to flow from the pulpit." On Saturday, the twentyeighth, Samuel Adams was on the point of proposing a general congress, when the assembly was unexpectedly prorogued, to meet after ten days, at Salem. The people of Boston, then the most flourishing commercial town on the continent, never regretted their being the principal object of ministerial vengeance. "We shall suffer in a good cause," said the thousands who depended on their daily labor for bread; "the righteous Being, who takes care of the ravens that cry unto him, will provide for us and ours." CHAPTER III. VOICES FROM THE SOUTH. MAY, 1774, CONTINUED. III. May. HEARTS glowed more warmly on the banks of the CHAP. Patapsco. That admirable site of commerce, whose river side and hill-tops are now covered with stately 1774. warehouses, mansions and monuments, whose bay sparkles round the prows of the swiftest barks, whose wharfs receive to their natural resting-place the wealth of the West Indies and South America, and whose happy enterprise sends across the mountains its iron pathway of many arms to reach the valley of the Mississippi, had for a century been tenanted only by straggling cottages. But its convenient proximity to the border counties of Pennsylvania and Virginia had at length been observed by Scotch Irish Presbyterians, and other bold and industrious men; and within a few years they had created the town of Baltimore, which already was the chief emporium within the Chesapeake Bay, and promised to become one of the most opulent and populous cities of the world. When the messages from the old com VOL. VII. 5 |