William Meredith and General Conway, more especially on behalf of Virginia. The memorials and addresses of the different provincial Legislatures were in vain presented to the House, or rather were brought up and offered for presentation. It was objected, by members on the Ministerial side, that no petition against a Money Bill could be received, according to the standing orders of the House. The petitions of London merchants and others trading with America were excluded by the same rule. In general, the opponents of the Government measure were scarcely prepared with sufficient knowledge of constitutional principles to maintain their cause in debate. They were easily overborne, as it seemed, by the peremptory assertions of such a lawyer as Yorke, who insisted that

Grenville had now pro

on the 22nd of March. cured the full sanction of Parliament to his American taxing policy. He still endeavoured to soothe the injured colonial interests by granting more bounties on special articles of their produce and traffic. The powerful Minister showed a patronising countenance to men like Pownall, Knox, and Mauduit, who told him that the colonies would acquiesce in his financial plans. But, in spite of all this seeming liberality, America was still to remain in a condition of galling restraint and injurious dependence on certain privileged British interests. Though some relaxation was now granted in the case of iron and timber sent to Ireland, the exportation of almost every American product to any country but England was absolutely

ning and weaving, was made impossible by laws against carrying wool or cloth from one province into another. Other vexatious restrictions on trade and industry were sedulously maintained, and the African slave trade to America, together with the institution of slavery in Virginia and Carolina, was forced upon the colonists, against their earnest remonstrances, by the policy of Great Britain, for the profit of London and Liverpool or Bristol merchants.*

"While free labour was debarred of its natural rights in the employment of its resources, the slave trade was en56-VOL. II.

of that Assembly to tax the inhabitants of the colony. In the debate which ensued, and of which Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were silent hearers, bold language was freely used. The resolutions were opposed by the King's Attorney, couraged to proceed with unrelenting eagerness; and in the year that had just expired, from Liverpool alone, seventy-nine ships had gone in that trade to Africa, and had borne to the West Indies and to the Continent more than 15,300 negroes." (Bancroft, Vol. IV., chap. 12.) The provincial Legislatures would have abolished slavery, as well as the slave-trade; but they were not allowed to interfere with the latter, because all trade from abroad to the colonies was for the Imperial Legislature alone to deal with.

Peyton Randolph, and by Robinson, the Speaker of the House, but were carried by a small majority; one was afterwards rescinded. The LieutenantGovernor, Fauquier, then dissolved the Assembly; but the signal had been given to the other provinces. In the Assembly of Massachusetts, on the 6th of June, Otis proposed that an American Continental Congress should be convened, which was to consist of delegates from all the thirteen provinces. The project was approved, and letters were sent to every provincial representative body, inviting their committees to meet at New York, on the first Tuesday in October. They were "to consult together, and consider of a united representation to implore relief." It seemed doubtful, at first, whether this proposal of a Congress would not prove a failure. Though New York, as well as Virginia and Massachusetts, was strongly disposed to resistance, there was some hesitation in other provinces-New Jersey, Maryland, and New Hampshire-to commit themselves to the leadership of Boston. But in

South Carolina, on the 25th of July, mainly by the deliberate earnestness of Christopher Gadsden, chairman of a committee to which the Massachusetts circular was referred, the provincial Legislature agreed to the plan of joint action. Two or three months, however, would yet be passed, either in painful suspense or in active preparation, before the meeting of the New York Congress. In the meantime, both in America and in England, some important transactions were to take place.

In Boston city, on the 8th of August, the reality of the obnoxious Stamp Act was brought home to the indignant townsfolk by the arrival of Jared Ingersoll. He was a Connecticut man, who had been sent as public agent of that province to England, and had betrayed its cause by assenting to the Stamp Act, for which he was rewarded by the appointment of Stamp-master. A similar appointment for Massachusetts was bestowed upon Andrew Oliver; while, for the other provinces, men were appointed whom the Royal Governors preferred, or who had official friends and patrons in London. It seemed good, therefore, to the uncompromising and determined opponents of the Stamp Act, that all these gentlemen should be compelled by popular demonstrations to resign their office. Nobody should be allowed to distribute stamps; and Grenville's Act of Parliament should be a mere dead letter. It was already known in America that the Grenville or Bedford Ministry was about to fall, and that the King had sent for Pitt. The Boston populace, in a rough and hasty manner, took upon themselves to inflict the sentence of ignominy upon that hated system of government which they hoped was about

A company of mechanics or working-class men, calling themselves, from a phrase in Colonel Barré's speech, the "Sons of Liberty," made an uncouth effigy of Andrew Oliver, which they hung upon an elm-tree. This was on the 14th of August. The Chief-Justice and Deputy-Governor, Hutchinson, ordered the sheriff to take down the figure; but the order was not readily obeyed. The day passed on, while Governor Bernard, moved by Hutchinson, debated with the Provincial Council what they could do. In the evening came a multitude of people, with the effigy laid on a bier, which they carried in triumph through the streets past the State House and under the windows of the Council Chamber, shouting, "Liberty and no stamps!" They pulled down the frame of a wooden building, designed by Oliver for his stamp-office, made a pile and fire, and burnt the image of that unpopular person in front of his own dwelling-house. The commander of the town militia was in vain ordered by Hutchinson to beat his drums and disperse the mob: Hutchinson himself, approaching them with the sheriff, was soon obliged to fly, getting even one or two slight blows. They also made some noise in front of the Province House, where Governor Bernard lived, before dispersing for the night.

They

The next morning brought another crowd of people about the houses of Hutchinson and Oliver, to demand that the latter should give his written promise, which he did, not to serve as stamp-officer, and that Hutchinson should testify his disapproval of the Stamp Act. The Governor hastened to shut himself up in the fort, while issuing a proclamation for the discovery and arrest of the rioters. were, indeed, not a few disorderly fellows, but nearly all the townspeople and those of neighbouring villages. In the course of another week or two, their rage was further stimulated to an attack upon Hutchinson, who was regarded as the prime author of all the obnoxious measures. On the night of the 26th, they kindled a bonfire in front of the State House; and, having seized on the records of the Admiralty Court, and the account books of the Comptroller of Customs, they burnt those documents with every token of derision. They next drove Hutchinson out of his own house, breaking open its doors with axes, and destroying his furniture and library. He took refuge with Bernard in the Fort or Castle, whence the two wrote bitter complaints to the Government in England. These outrages were blamed by men like Samuel Adanis,

1765.]

and other Boston leaders of colonial public opinion; but it can hardly be doubted that those leaders had done much to excite them. The demand that was to come for a grant of compensation to the individual sufferers will hereafter appear to involve a question of great moment.

The example of mobbing and terrifying the newly-appointed stamp-distributors was soon followed by other provinces. In Rhode Island, on the 28th of August, and in Maryland, on the 2nd of September, the houses of persons connected with that detested measure were demolished by exasperated mobs; and the officials named under its operation, in New Jersey, New Hampshire, and New York, were compelled to resign by fear of the like illtreatment. The Governors at Boston and New York kept the stamped papers still unpacked under guard at the forts of those towns, awaiting some opportunity for their safe distribution. But when Ingersoll proceeded to Connecticut, in order to begin the execution of his unlucky office, there was great trouble in store for him. The townsfolk of Newhaven, who had just elected Roger Sherman their representative in the Provincial Assembly, called upon Ingersoll to give up his appointment. He was reluctant to do this, but promised not to issue the stamps without consent of the people, and set out for Hartford, in company with Governor Fitch, to attend the meeting of the Assembly there. The roads were beset by numerous bands of mounted farmers and yeomen, who overtook Ingersoll, when he had parted from the Governor, and threatened him with vague words of terror, so that he was glad to subscribe his written resignation. This was done at Wethersfield, from which place he was conducted to Hartford, where he was obliged to present his resignation to the Governor and Provincial Assembly. There were no further acts of violence; but the newspapers and pamphlets, the platform and pulpit orators, in each principal town of colonial America, kept up the popular spirit, in ardent anticipation. of the New York Congress. Their arguments and expressions of sentiment were to the same purport as those already quoted. John Adams, of Massachusetts, and an able Maryland lawyer named Dulany, were two of the most effective writers. The provincial Legislatures began, one after another, to meet in September, with the exception of New York, which had not been convened. That of Georgia, the youngest, feeblest, and most dependent colony, was the first to come together, without a summons from its Governor, and to join the proposed Congress. Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland, elected their delegates in good time for the 7th of the ensuing

month.

39

The Massachusetts Legislature met on the 25th of September, with fresh instructions from the constituent townships to oppose the Stamp Act and the Courts of Admiralty. Governor Bernard addressed them with a solemn warning to obey the authority of the British Parliament. He told them that their community was on the brink of a precipice; let them take heed to prevent its falling. He would cast the responsibility on them: from that day, he said, this arduous business of executing the Stamp Act should be put into their hands; it should become a provincial concern. It behoved them to look to it; and so they did. They enacted that all the courts of law in Massachusetts should do business without stamps. A resolution to the same effect had been adopted by the Rhode Island Assembly, with an indemnity for all public officers who disregarded the Stamp Act. Governor Bernard was astounded, and could only resort to a prorogation for several weeks.

At New York, where Governor Colden was supported by General Gage with the military and naval forces, and with the guns of the fort and the ships, there could be no such tumults as at Boston. But the General did not care to assist the Governor to stop the clamours of the press, and of bold speakers against the Stamp Act; and he rather despised the timid apprehensions of civilians like Colden and Bernard. The press was very much wilder, being anonymous, than the oratory of barristers and preachers. "Join or Die," with reference to the Congress of Provinces and their mortal danger from tyranny, was the motto of one paper, which bore the milder title of the Constitutional Courant. The Gazettes of New York, as those of Boston, of Providence in Rhode Island, and of New London in Connecticut, were filled with strenuous assertions of democratic principle. A sentiment of American nationality seemed also to be growing apace.

The Congress, which was to be the prototype of American national Assemblies, was held at New York, from the 7th to the 25th of October, 1765. It consisted of delegates from the. Houses of Representatives of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina; of delegates from Delaware and New Jersey, less formally nominated by the representatives of those provinces; and the members of the Corresponding Committee of the New York Assembly. New Hampshire and Georgia sent word that they would abide by the decisions of the Congress. James Otis and Samuel and John Adams, of Massachusetts, Judge Robert Livingston, of New York, the Rev. Stephen Johnson, of Connecticut, and

other Northern men, here met Christopher Gadsden, Lynch, and John Rutledge, of South Carolina, whom they found like-minded. Governor Colden told them at once that their Congress was unconstitutional and unlawful, but did not attempt to interfere with its meetings. Their proceedings were calm and judicious, for the end which they had in view. General Gage wrote to Governor Bernard, on the 12th :-"Those who compose it [the Congress] are of various characters and opinions; but in general, the spirit of democracy is strong among them, supporting the independence of the provinces as not subject to the legislative power of Great Britain. The question is not of the inexpediency of the Stamp Act, but that it is unconstitutional and contrary to their rights." There was, indeed, a great deal of abstract discussion on liberty, privilege, and prerogative, led by James Otis, of Boston. Some were for putting their case on the privileges secured to the colonies by Royal Charters; but the majority preferred to insist on their antecedent rights as men, and citizens of the English nation. Freedom from taxation, otherwise than by their own representative Legislatures, and the right of trial by jury, which was denied by the Admiralty Courts, were the two main points aimed at in the resolutions of this Congress. It was contended that all supplies to the Crown were free gifts; that neither the people of Great Britain, nor their Parliament, could give away the property of the colonists in America; that no representation of the colonists in the British. House of Commons was practicable; and that the colonists must therefore be taxed only by their own Provincial Assemblies. These views were expressed in a petition to the King, and in an address to the House of Lords, though Gadsden and Lynch were for sending no address to either of the Houses of Parliament. To the House of Commons a different address was sent, with a general acknowledgment of "all due subordination to the Parliament of Great Britain," admitting its power to legislate for the regulation of trade through the whole Empire, or for the amendment of the common law, but disputing its authority to impose taxes on the colonies, and entreating to be relieved from such imposts. Towards the close of these deliberations of the Congress, great popular excitement was aroused in New York by the arrival of a vessel with stamped papers. The official distributor, M'Evers, had resigned, but the Governor had announced his intention to provide for the issue of stamps. Stern threats were uttered, and repeated in street placards, against the man who should begin this odious task. The Congress, how

ever, finished its work quietly, by signing the resolutions, the petition, and the addresses to Parliament, from which only two names of delegates were withheld, as dissentient from its conclusions.

America had thus found the way to create for itself, upon emergency, a fit organ of expression for the common purpose of all its different provinces. The Massachusetts Assembly, of which Samuel Adams was now a member, replied to Governor Bernard's speech of warning, and refused to quit their defence of "the just rights of this province." Their address contained a pregnant description of the crisis. "The Stamp Act," it was remarked, "wholly cancels the very conditions upon which our ancestors, with much toil and blood, and at their sole expense, settled this country, and enlarged his Majesty's dominions. It tends to destroy that mutual confidence and affection, as well as that equality, which ought ever to subsist among all his Majesty's subjects in this wide and extended Empire; and, what is the worst of all evils, if his Majesty's American subjects are not to be governed according to the known and stated rules of the Constitution, their minds may, in time, become disaffected." Massachusetts, in fact, had now said its last word upon the question of England taxing America, and it was never to be unsaid. There was nothing more for Bernard to do; but the LieutenantGovernor of New York, Colden, who was about to be superseded by Sir Henry Moore as Governor, would make another attempt to execute the Stamp Act. He appointed his son the temporary dis tributor of stamps, and on the 31st of October took his oath, as did most of the other Governors of provinces, to carry the law into effect. The Provincial Government Council, as well as the town council of New York city, advised him not to enter upon so rash an engagement. The citizens were determined to let no stamps be put in use.

It was on the 1st of November that these imposts were, by the Act of Parliament, to be introduced in legal and mercantile business. On that day, neither at New York, nor at Boston, nor anywhere else in the thirteen colonies, was there any person to issue the stamps. The church bells of every town rang a muffled peal, and other signs of public mourning were made in mockery of the deceased or still-born measure of British legislation. The newspapers, each printed without a stamp, told their readers of the defeat which American civil courage had that day inflicted upon usurping statesmen in England, and upon their venal accomplices near at hand. The New York mer chants had, on the preceding day, met and agreed to renounce all trade with England, at least to