aside" (horse racing is especially denounced in several counties as a form of "dissipation inconsistent with the gloomy prospect before us"); that men of fortune "ought to set examples of temperance and frugality"; that, to encourage the wool industry (for supplies of domestic clothing) "those who have large stocks of sheep [should] sell to their neighbors at a moderate price"; and that "merchants and vendors of goods ought not to take advantage of our present distress but continue to sell the merchandize they now have . . . at the same prices they have been accustomed to," with sinister suggestion as to what might happen to said vendors if this advice were neglected. Many counties with studied economy of phrase except from the non-importation agreement saltpeter and sulphur, as “articles of increasing necessity." The First On the suggestion from Virginia, all the colonies but Georgia chose delegates to a congress, to meet September 1 at Philadelphia. We know this "First Continental Congress" of 1774 only from letters and Congress, later recollections of some of its members and September, from imperfect notes taken at the time by two or three delegates. It sat six weeks, and was a notable gathering, although forty years afterwards John Adams described it as "one third Tories, one third Whigs and the rest Mongrels." 1774 The Moderate party (Adams' "Tories") desired still to use only constitutional agitation to secure redress of grievances. This element was led by Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania, supported by John Jay of New York and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina. The Radicals insisted that, as a prelude to reconciliation with England, the ministry must remove its troops and repeal its acts. After strenuous debate, Galloway's proposals were rejected by a vote of six colonies to five. The Congress then recommended the Radical plan of a huge universal boycott, in the form of a solemn Association. The signers were to bind themselves neither to import any British goods nor to export their own products to Great Britain. To enforce this agree THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1774 205 ment, efficient machinery was recommended. Every town. and county was advised to choose a committee, acting under the supervision of the central committee of its province, "to observe the conduct of all persons," and to have all violations "published in the gazette," that the foes to the rights of America might be "universally contemned." Both content and language of the great Act are modeled closely upon the Virginia Convention's resolutions which, in turn, followed closely the Fairfax County resolutions quoted above. 66 The "First Continental Congress" was not a legislature or a government. The name congress" was used to indicate its informal character. No governing body had Not a "govever held that name. It was a meeting for con- ernment' sultation. It claimed no authority to do more than advise and recommend. The delegates had been elected in exceedingly informal fashion, - by a part of a legislature, called together perhaps in an irregular way; or by a committee of correspondence; or by a mass meeting of some small part of a colony, claiming to speak for the whole; or, in six colonies, by a new sort of gatherings known as provincial conventions, similar to that in Virginia (above). None of this first series of provincial conventions sat more than five or six days (most of them only for a day): and none took any action except to appoint delegates to Philadelphia and to instruct them, except that one or two provided for a second convention, to be held after the Continental Congress. CHAPTER XI THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION I. FROM COLONIES TO COMMONWEALTHS, 1775-1776 THE Assemblies of New York and Georgia refused to ratify the recommendations of the Continental Congress. But within six months all other colonies had adopted the Association either by their regular Assemblies or by "conventions"; and everywhere "committees of public safety" and mobs were terrorizing reluctant individuals into signing. Tar and feathers and "the birch seal" became common means of persuasion; and Moderates complained bitterly that, in the name of liberty, the populace denied all liberty of speech or action. A great revolution, however righteous, is sure to have its ugly phases. The issue had changed. The question, now, was not approval or disapproval of parliamentary taxation, but whether resistance should be forcible. The radical "Patriots" were probably a minority; but they were aggressive and organized, and eventually they whipped into line the great body of timid and indifferent people. On the other hand, many earnest "Patriots" of the preceding period now became "Tories" from repugnance to armed rebellion or to mob rule. Even John Adams was seriously disturbed by the glee of a horse-jockey client at the closing of the courts. In the few cities the revolutionary movement fell largely to the democratic artisan class. June 1, 1774, the governor of New York, writing to the English government on the excitement about the Boston Port Bill, says: "The Men who call'd themselves the Committee [in New York] who acted and dictated in the name of the People - were FROM COLONIES TO COMMONWEALTHS 207 many of them of the lower Rank, and all the warmest zealots. The more considerable Merchants and Citizens seldom or never appeared among them, but, I believe, were not displeased with the Clamor and opposition that was shown against internal Taxation by Parliament." In the winter and spring of 1775, regular legal government broke down. In colony after colony, the governors refused to let the legislature meet, and the people refused to let the governors' courts or other officials act. Then in many places, to prevent absolute lawlessness, county meetings or local committees set up some sort of provisional government, to last until "the restoration of harmony with Great Britain." Action of this kind in Mecklenburg County, North THE CONCORD MINUTE MAN.1 Carolina, on May 30, 1775, through distorted recollections, gave rise years later to the legend of a Mecklenburg "Declaration of Independence" on May 20. 1 A statue by Daniel Chester French at Concord Bridge. On one face of the base is inscribed a stanza from Emerson's "Concord Hymn": Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world. Across the stream, in a curve of the stone fence, is the grave of two British soldiers, over whose dust have been carved the lines from Lowell: They came three thousand miles and died, To keep the Past upon its throne. A second group of provincial During this turbulent disorder, second provincial conventions were held in several colonies, to act upon the recommendations of the First Continental Congress. Of course the "Tories" had refused to pay any conventions attention to the "illegal" elections, and in some cases, indeed, they were excluded from voting by test oaths. Some of these conventions now became de facto governments. They organized troops, raised money, and assumed civil powers far enough to become de facto governments alleviate the existing anarchy. In form, their acts were still recommendations; but the local committees enforced them as law. These second conventions in most of the colonies appointed delegates to the Second Continental Congress. Between the election of that body and its meeting (May 10), General Gage, commander of the British troops in Boston, tried to seize Massaand so called from chusetts military stores at Concord, Lexington "embattled farmers" "the shot heard round the and Concord world" (April 19, 1775). Gage had sown dragon's teeth. From New England's soil twenty thousand volunteers sprang up to besiege him in Boston. Second In consequence, the Second Continental Congress swiftly became a government, to manage the continental Continental revolution; and, during the summer, a third lot Congress of provincial conventions openly avowed themselves governments for their respective colonies, appointing committees of safety (in place of the royal governors, who had been set aside or driven becomes a continental government |