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5.

instantaneously felt through the whole continent. CHAP. This city is as one man in the cause of liberty; our inhabitants are resolutely bent on supporting their 1775. committee and the intended provincial and continental congresses; there is not the least doubt of the efficacy of their example in the other counties. In short, while the whole continent are ardently wishing for peace upon such terms as can be acceded to by Englishmen, they are indefatigable in preparing for the last appeal.

"We speak the real sentiments of the confederated colonies, from Nova Scotia to Georgia, when we declare, that all the horrors of civil war will never compel America to submit to taxation by authority of parliament."

The letter was signed by the chairman and eightyeight others of the committee, of whom the first was John Jay. They did this, knowing that at the time there were not five hundred pounds of powder in all the city, that several regiments were already ordered to New York, that it was commanded by Brooklyn heights, and that the deep water of its harbor exposed it on both sides to ships of war.

The packet for England had hardly passed Sandy Hook, when on Saturday, the sixth of May, the delegates to the continental congress from Massachusetts and Connecticut, drew near. Three miles from the city, they were met by a company of grenadiers and a regiment of the city militia under arms, by carriages and a cavalcade, and by many thousands of persons on foot. Along roads which were crowded as if the whole city had come out to meet them, they

CHAP. made their entry, amidst loud acclamations, the ringXXXI. ing of bells, and every demonstration of joy.

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May

8.

On Monday the delegation from Massachusetts, with a part of that of New York, were escorted across the Hudson River by two hundred of the militia under arms, and three hundred citizens; and triumphal honors awaited them at Newark and Elizabethtown.

The governor of New Jersey could not conceal his chagrin, that Gage "had risked commencing hostilities," before the experiment had been tried of attempting to cajole the several colonial legislatures into an acquiescence in Lord North's propositions.

The committee of Newark were willing to hazard their lives and fortunes in support of their brethren of the Massachusetts Bay. Princeton and Perth Amboy advised a provincial congress; to which Morris county promptly appointed delegates. "All ranks of men" in Woodbridge greatly applauded and admired the conduct and bravery of Massachusetts. On the second of May the New Jersey committee of correspondence called a provincial congress for the twenty-third at Trenton. To anticipate its influnece, the governor convened the regular assembly eight days earlier at Burlington, and laid before them the project of Lord North. The assembly could see in the proposition no avenue to reconciliation; and declared their intention to "abide by the united voice of the continental congress.

Such too was the spirit of Pennsylvania. "Let us not be bold in declarations and cold in action; nor have it said of Philadelphia that she passed noble resolutions and neglected them," were the words of

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1775.

Mifflin, youngest of the orators who on the twenty- CHAP. fifth of April, addressed the town-meeting called in Philadelphia on receiving the news from Lexington. May. Thousands of the inhabitants of the city were present, and agreed "to associate for the purpose of defending with arms, their lives, their property, and liberty." Each township in Berks county, resolved to raise and discipline its company. Reading formed a company of its old men also, who wore crape in lieu of a cockade, in token of sorrow for the slaughter of their brethren. In Philadelphia thirty companies, with fifty to one hundred in each, daily practised the manual exercise of the musket.

5.

The Pennsylvania assembly which met on the first day of May, would not listen to the ministerial terms. "We can form," say they, "no prospect of any lasting advantages for Pennsylvania but what must arise from a communication of rights and property with the other colonies." The fifth of May saw May the arrival of Franklin after a placid voyage over the smoothest seas; and the next morning he was unanimously elected a deputy to the congress. It was the signal for Galloway to retire; but the delegation, to which Thomas Wilson and James Wilson were added, were still instructed to combine if possible a redress of grievances with "union and harmony between Great Britian and the colonies."

The little colony of Delaware was behind no one in public spirit. In Maryland, at the request of the colonels of militia, Eden at Annapolis gave up the arms and ammunition of the province to the freemen of the county. Pleased with his concession, the provincial convention distinguished itself by its dis

May

2.

CHAP. passionate moderation; and "its delegates to congress went determined to bring about a reconciliation." 1775. Virginia was still angry at the seizure of its provincial magazine and at the menace of Dunmore to encourage an insurrection of slaves, when on the second day of May, at the cry from Lexington, the independent company of Hanover and its county committee were called together by Patrick Henry. The soldiers, most of them young men, kindled at his words, elected him their chief, and marched for Williamsburg. On the way it was thought that his army increased to five thousand.

3.

"There is scarce a county of the whole colony, wrote Dunmore, "wherein part of the people have not taken up arms, and declared their intention of forcing me to make restitution of the powder." Alarmed by the "insurrections," he convened the council of Virginia, and in a proclamation of the May third of May did not scruple to utter the falsehood that he had removed the ammunition lest it should be seized by insurgent slaves. Message after message could not arrest the march or change the purpose of Henry. Lady Dunmore, who need have feared nothing for herself, professed to dread being retained as a hostage, and with her family retired to the Fowey man-of-war. The governor first resolved to resist and then thought it best to yield. May On the morning of the fourth, at about sunrise, a messenger met Patrick Henry at Doncastle's Ordinary in New Kent, and as a compensation for the gunpowder taken out of the magazine, paid him three hundred and thirty pounds, for which he was to account to the provincial congress of Virginia. When

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it was afterwards found that the sum exceeded the CHAP. value of the powder, the next Virginia convention directed the excess to be restored.

Two days after the return of the volunteers, Dunmore issued a proclamation against "a certain Patrick Henry," and his "deluded followers;" and secretly denounced him to the ministry as "a man of desperate circumstances, one who had been very active in encouraging disobedience and exciting a spirit of revolt among the people for many years past." On the other hand, the interior resounded with the praise of the insurgents. On the eighth, Louisa county sent them its hearty thanks. On the ninth, Spottsylvania cordially approved their prudent, firm, and spirited conduct; and Orange county in a letter signed among others by the young and studious James Madison, a recent graduate of Princeton college, applauded their zeal for the honor and interest of the country. "The blow struck in Massachusetts," they add, "is a hostile attack on this and every other colony, and a sufficient warrant to use reprisal."

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May.

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On the eleventh, Patrick Henry set off for the May continental congress; and his progress was a triumph. Amidst salutes and huzzas, a volunteer guard accompanied him to the Maryland side of the Potomac; and as they said farewell, they invoked God's blessing on the champion of their "dearest rights and liberties."