These men having resolved that each colony should have only one vote, and that their deliberations should take place without the admission of strangers, proceed ed to the high duty which their countrymen had imposed ipon them.
Tney first expressed their approbation of what had been clone by the inhabitants of Massachusetts-bay; warmly exhorted them to perseverance in the cause of freedom ; and voted, that contributions should be made for them in all the provinces, and continued so long, and in such a manner, as their circumstances might re quire. They next addressed a letter to general Gage ; in which they informed him of their unalterable resolu tion, to oppose every attempt to carry the British acts of parliament into effect ; and entreated him to desist from his military operations, lest a difference altogether irre• concileable should take place between the colonies and the parent state. Their next step was a declaration of their rights, in the shape of resolutions: these resolu• tions were nearly the same with those which the reader will find in a preceding page ; but should he wish for more accurate information, we refer him to Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. ii. p. 214, cd. 8vo. 1804, where the resolutions themselves are given in a note, and ex pressed in the words of the congress. The assembly then proceeded to petition the king, stating the griev ances under which they laboured ; grievances which, they said, were the more intolerable, as the colonies were born the heirs of freedom, and had long enjoyed it under the auspices of former sovereigns: and stating also, that they wished for no diminution of the preroga tive, and no privileges, or immunities, except those which were their rightful inheritance as the subjects of Great Britain ; concluding the whole with an earnest prayer, that his majesty, as the father of his people, would not permit the tics of blood, of law, and of loyalty, to be broken, in expectation of consequences, which, even if they should take place, would never compen sate for the sufferings to which they must give rise. The petition to the king was followed by an address to the people of England, conceived with great vigour, and expressed in the most energetic language. "Be not surprised," they say, "that we, who are descended from the same common ancestors, that we, whose forefathers participated in the rights, the liberties, and the consti tution you so justly boast of, and who have carefully conveyed the same fair inheritance to us, guaranteed by the plighted faith of government and the most solemn compact with British sovereigns, should refuse to surrender them to men, who found their claims on no principles of reason, and who prosecute them with a design, that, by having our lives and property in their power, they may, with the greater facility, enslave you. Are not," they ask, "the proprietors of the soil of Great Britain lords of their own property ? Can it be taken from them without their consent? Will they yield it to the arbitrary disposal of any man, or number of men, whatever ? You know they will not. Why, then, are
the proprietors of America less lords of their property than you are of yours? or why should they submit it to the disposal of your parliament, or any other parliament or council in the world not of their own election ? Can the intervention of the sea that divides us cause disparity in rights? or, can any reason be given, why English subjects, who live three thousand miles from the royal palace, should enjoy less liberty than those who are three hundred miles distant from it? Reason looks with indignation on such distinctions, and freemen can never perceive their propriety." This address was succeeded by a memorial to their constituents ; in which they applaud them for the spirit which they had shown in the defence of their rights ; enjoin them to perse• were in abstaining from the use of every thing manu factured or prepared in England ; and hint at the neces sity of looking forward to melancholy events, and of being ready for every contingency which might take place.
The inclinations of the people were in exact agree ment with the decisions of the congress. The inhabit ants of Boston were supplied by contributions from all quarters. Even those, who, by their situation, appeared the most likely to derive advantages from the cessation of their trade, were most forward to relieve them in their distress ; and the people of Marblehead, a town at no great distance, generously offered them the use of their harbour, and of their wharfs and warehouses, free of all expense. Every one who could procure arms was dili gent in learning how to use them. The whole country of the Massachusetts seemed ready to rise. In the mean time, British troops assembled in greater numbers at Boston ; and general Gage thought it prudent to for tify the neck of land which joins that city to the conti nent. He also seized the magazines of gunpowder, ammunition, and military stores, at Cambridge and Charlestown ; and thus, by depriving the colonists for a time of the means of annoying him, he rendered them less able to carry their designs into execution. An as sembly was called, and its sitting immediately counter manded ; but the representatives met, notwithstanding the proclamation of the governor; and after waiting a day for his arrival, they voted themselves " a provincial congress." Winter approached ; the people refused to supply the troops either with lodging or clothes ; the select men of Boston obliged the workmen employed in erecting the barracks to desist ; and the merchants of New York declared, that they would "never supply any article for the benefit of men who were sent as the enemies of their country.