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The Association, with its threats and dependence upon extra-legal bodies for enforcement, was a direct blow at the commercial system of the empire and could scarcely help provoking retaliation. When the Congress adjourned, some of its members predicted war. In New England the impression that war was inevitable was widespread. In Massachusetts a provincial congress was at once organized, which assumed the reins of government and began to prepare for defence. A com mittee of safety was chosen to carry on the work during recesses of the Congress. Thomas Gage, the governor, began fortifying Boston, while he looked about for opportunities to seize military stores which the colonists were accumulating. The raising of vol untary militia companies was soon begun in Virginia. In South Carolina, as earlier in Boston and New York, a quantity of tea was now actually destroyed, and a general committee assumed prac tical control of the province. From New York city and Phila delphia, as centres, the process of revolutionizing the two most conservative provinces was carried on. When Parliament met, at the close of 1774, the King and ministers declared that a most daring spirit of resistance existed in Massachusetts, which was countenanced by the other Colonies, where unlawful combina tions against the trade of Great Britain were already widely extended. In these opinions the Government had the support of the majority in the two Houses, and in a joint address the rebellion in Massachusetts was declared to be a fact. As a conciliatory measure Chatham proposed that Parliament agree by resolution not to levy any tax upon the Colonies, but that the Continental Congress be required to make a free grant of a perpetual revenue which should be fully at the disposition of Parliament, the Con gress fixing the quota which should be paid by each province. But the imperialist and mercantilist ideas of Chatham were expressed in the further provisions that the system of trade and navigation should not be changed and that the Army might be lawfully kept in any part of the dominions, though it should never be used to violate the just rights of the people. Edmund Burke, in his great speech on conciliation, advocated a return to the system of requisitions and did not consider a representation of the colonists in Parliament as a possibility. But these motions were rejected, and a resolution introduced by Lord North was passed. This con tained no recognition of extra-legal bodies, but provided that when the assembly of any Colony should engage to support civil government within the Colony and contribute according to its ability to the common defence, the King and Parliament would then forbear to levy any more taxes on that province except what were necessary for the regulation of trade. The Colonies, with the exception of New York, North Carolina and Georgia, were excluded from the fisheries, as a counterstroke to the Association. North's resolution proved futile, and the two parties drifted steadily toward war, though the British Government in its military estimates made no adequate provision for meeting the crisis.
April 19, 1775, hostilities be gan in Massachusetts. A force was sent overland to Concord, 20m. from Boston, to seize or destroy the military stores which the colonists had brought together at that village. The minute men were warned to oppose the approaching force, and at Lexing ton, a village situated on the road to Concord, occurred a skir mish in which the first blood of the American War of Indepen dence was shed. The troops marched on to Concord and destroyed such of the stores as had not been removed or concealed. On their return march they were pursued by a galling fire from behind fences and buildings, and had it not been for the arrival of a relieving force the command would have been destroyed before it reached the protection of the British vessels of war at Boston. The "Lexington alarm" brought in throngs of militiamen from all parts of New England. Officers were appointed by the pro
vincial congress of Massachusetts and by similar bodies in the other Colonies, and immediately the so-called siege of Boston began. Cannon, as well as every other form of military equip ment, were now in great demand. In order to secure supplies and at the same time strike a telling blow at British authority in the north, Ticonderoga was surprised and taken on May io. Men from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the New Hampshire Grants (later Vermont) co-operated in this enterprise. It was soon followed by a dash into Canada, by steps which involved New York in the affair, and by the organization of a military force under Gen. Philip Schuyler for permanent service on the northern frontier. Meantime reinforcements reached Boston, led by Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne, and it was resolved to extend the British lines by occupying the heights of Dorchester on the south and those of Charlestown on the north.
The Americans, hearing of this, seized Breed's Hill, overlooking Charlestown, where they hastily threw up a re doubt on the night of June 16. The British might easily have en trapped them, but instead on the next day the American position was assaulted on the left and carried, though with much difficulty and after a loss to the assailants of more than i,000 men. Such was the battle of Bunker Hill, one of the most dramatic encounters in the war. In connection with all these events the Americans claimed to be acting on the defensive. But it was not difficult to perceive that, especially in New England, this claim only imper fectly concealed an intensely aggressive spirit.
The news of the outbreak of hostilities aroused strong feeling throughout the Colonies. The Second Continental Congress met under its influence. Its mem bers, however, had been chosen and instructed before the clash of arms, and for that reason the course which had been worked out for them differed only slightly, if at all, from that which had been fol lowed by their predecessors. To a certain extent the new body ad hered to the former course of action. But a state of war now existed in New England and on the Canadian border. Troops were expected soon to arrive at New York. Reports of these events were thrust upon the attention of Congress at once, and the provinces involved asked for advice as to what course they should pursue. As a result of these events in the Colonies generally, the Association was being changed from a system of co-operation against British trade into a union for purposes of defence. This new situation the Congress was forced to meet. This it did largely by resolutions of advice to the Colonies, but also by positive orders. Of the former class were the resolutions about the pro curing of military supplies, the assumption of powers of govern ment by the various Colonies, and concerning defence at New York city, on the northern frontier and, later, in the highlands of the Hudson. Of a more decisive character was the appointment of officers for the army, George Washington being made commander in-chief, the prescribing of their pay, the issue of continental bills of credit, the issue of articles of war, the regulation of trade and of Indian affairs, and the establishment of postal communica tion. As the revolutionary movement progressed through 1775 and the early months of 1776, executive authority in the royal and pro prietary provinces collapsed. The assemblies were either dissolved or ceased to meet. The governors, their authority gone, retired on board British vessels of war, returned to England or, perchance, found themselves prisoners. This gradual fall of the old govern ments, imperial and colonial, was the revolution on its negative side. The rise of the system of congresses, conventions and com mittees, deriving their authority from the people, was the revolu tion on its positive side, and foreshadowed the new federal system which was rising on the ruins of the half-federated empire.