Meanwhile, the royal commissioners of the revenue at Boston, foiled in their attempt to enforce the obnoxious laws by the refusal of the people to buy goods on which a tax was imposed, were engaged in representing to the British government that they felt apprehensions of their own safety, and that the turbulent condition of the colonies required that troops should be quartered at Boston. Soldiers to the number of seven hundred were accordingly sent to. Boston from Halifax, and landed in the city in September, 1768,, under General Gage. The general and governor claimed the right to billet the troops on the inhabitants; the city council, on the other hand, were persistent in adhering to the terms of the "billeting act," and refusing to provide quarters in the town till the barracks at Castle William should be full. Having the law on their side, they carried their point. The governor was forced to hire quarters for such of the troops as remained in the city. Their presence was a menace to the people which constantly aggravated their discontent.

The assemblies of Virginia and North Carolina adhered to their sympathy with the Massachusetts circular, and were for that action dissolved by their governors. The Massachusetts assembly persisted in its refusal to provide funds for the payment of the troops quartered among them, and were again prorogued. The British parliament prayed the King to bring the leaders of the Massachusetts "treason" to England for trial, but that measure failed of execution.

The first blood of this persistent contest between parliamentary authority and colonial liberty was shed on the fifth of March, 1773. The occasion is known to history as the Boston Massacre. An affray having taken place between some of the soldiers and the citizens, there were some demonstrations on the part of the former, confined mainly to threats, and to harmless charges up and down the streets; until, at last, a portion of the city guard, under Captain Preston, were beset, late in the evening, by a number of citizens. These, however, did nothing more than to taunt the soldiers with cowardice, and dare them to fire. They did fire, and three men, among them the mulatto Crispus Attucks, were killed, and several wounded, two mortally. The greatest commotion immediately ensued. The bells were rung, and in a short time several thousand of the citizens had assembled under arms. Only the counsels of the wisest men among the colonists prevented a bloody encounter. The next day

a great meeting was held in the Old South Church, and a committee, headed by Samuel Adams, was appointed to wait on Governor Hutchinson, and demand the removal of the troops from the town to Castle William, in the harbor. The governor was very reluctant to yield, but the temper and the power of

the colonists overawed him, and after some delay the troops were removed. Captain Preston and his company were tried for murder, and two of the soldiers were convicted of manslaughter.

Upon the very day of the Boston Massacre, Lord North proposed to Parliament the repeal of the duties imposed on the colonies by the law of 1767, except that on tea, and the repeal was effected, in spite of a vigorous opposition. This concession did not, however, reconcile the Americans, as the obnoxious principle against which the colonies had made their struggle was still asserted. The non-importation agreements against the purchase and use of tea were continued. In vain did the English government try every sort of stratagem to induce the Americans to yield. Parliament passed in 1773 a bill allowing the British East India Company to export tea to America free from the duties formerly paid in England, paying only the American duty, so that it was really cheaper in America than in England. Vast quantities were soon shipped to America, but the ships destined for New York and Philadelphia found the ports closed against them, and were compelled to return without effecting a landing. In Charleston the tea was landed, but was not permitted to be offered for sale, and was spoiled while stored in damp cellars. In Boston the people refused to allow the tea to be landed. Governor Hutchinson, however, positively refused to allow it to be returned to England. But the Bostonians found a way of cutting this Gordian knot. A party of citizens, disguised as Indians, and calling themselves "Mohawks," boarded the ships, December 16th, 1773; and, in the presence of thousands of spectators, broke open three hundred and forty-two chests of tea and emptied their contents into the water. This event, which lives in history as the "Boston Tea Party," put an end to the attempts of the British government to force the importation of tea upon the unwilling colonists. Parliament endeavored to retaliate by a series of measures inimical to Boston and Massachusetts. The Boston Port Bill was passed in March, 1774, closing the port of Boston and removing the custom house to Salem, but the people of that town refused to profit by the misfortunes of their patriotic neighbors. Soon after, the charter of Massachusetts was subverted, and the governor was authorized to send to other colonies, or to England, all persons indicted for murder or other capital offenses committed in aiding the magistrates of the colony. These acts caused great suffering in Boston, but only nerved the indomitable spirit of the colonists. The whole people of America sympathized with the oppressed colony, and a second colonial congress was called, on the suggestion of the Massachusetts assembly, to consider the relations of the colonies with Great Britain.

This congress assembled at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, September 5th, 1774, with Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, as its president, and Washington, Henry, Lee,

the Adamses, Jay and Rutledge among

its members. Eleven colonies were represented. The spirit of the congress was still decidedly averse to any attempt at independence, but it was outspoken in its commendation of the course of Massachusetts in her conflict with "wicked ministers." It agreed upon a declaration of rights, recommended the suspension of all commercial intercourse with England until the grievances of the colonies were redressed, and voted an address to the King, another to the people of Great Britain, and still another to the people of Canada. Its remonstrances, however, only called forth stronger measures from the British government. General Gage, then recently appointed governor of Massachusetts, fortified Boston Neck, re-occupied Boston with troops, and, seizing the ammunition and stores in the provincial arsenals of Cambridge and Charlestown, conveyed them to Boston. On March 9th, 1775, the British parliament, as a final measure of determined oppression, passed a bill restraining the commerce of the New England colonies, which was afterward extended to embrace all the colonies except New York and North Carolina. The inhabitants of Massachusetts were declared rebels, and ten thousand troops were sent to America to aid in subduing them. On the other hand, the colonies began preparations for hostilities. The assembly of Massachusetts, having been dissolved by the governor, at once organized itself into a provincial congress, appointed committees of safety and supplies, and voted to equip twelve thousand soldiers, and organize one-fourth of the militia as "minute-men." Other provinces also began to prepare for possible hostilities.

When matters had reached such a point, a collision of arms became only a question of time. The first of these collisions, which inaugurated the American revolution, and made war actual, was the memorable fight at Lexington, April 19th, 1775. On the previous night General Gage had dispatched a force of about eight hundred men to destroy the military stores collected by the colonists at Concord. The minute-men rallied at break of day to oppose the march of

the British troops, and the first conflict occurred at the historic bridge of Lexington, where the colonists, numbering about seventy, under the leadership of Captain Parker, disputed the advance of the troops. Major Pitcairn, the English commander, rode up to the militia and called out: "Disperse, ye rebels, throw down your arms and disperse!" Not being obeyed, he ordered his soldiers to fire, which they did, killing seven of the patriots and wounding nine others. The British then advanced to Concord and destroyed part of the stores there; but by this time the minute-men of the whole neighboring country were aroused, and, after a skirmish, the British were compelled to beat a hasty retreat. The Americans pursued them, keeping up a continual fire, and doing great execution. At Lexington the retreating British were re-enforced by nine hundred men, under Lord Percy, who threw out flanking parties to protect the main body, and the united forces moved rapidly to Charlestown. During this expedition the British lost, in killed, wounded and missing, about two hundred and eighty; the provincials about ninety.

The fight at Lexington came upon the colonies like the clap of thunder which startles the avalanche from its resting place. Before it there had been peace; after it there was continuous war, until American independence was established. The tidings ran through eastern Massachusetts like a flame of fire, and the Continental army, born in a day, followed so closely on the heels of Lord Percy's retreating soldiers that they had hardly reached Boston before that city was beseiged by an irregular but considerable and rapidly increasing force. The New England colonies at once took measures for organizing an army of thirty thousand men, though they did not for many months succeed in raising that number. The news was sent by express through all the provinces. By the regular colonial assemblies in some cases, and by provincial congresses in others, delegates were chosen to a Continental Congress which assembled in Philadelphia on the 10th of May, and most of the colonies took steps for raising troops. The patriot army around Boston, with General Ward and Israel Putnam at its head, invested the city with a regular line of fortifications. Meantime the "Green Mountain Boys," a patriotic organization of Vermont, were not idle. On May 10th, 1775, under Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, they attacked and captured the British fortifications at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress."

On the same day that this inspiriting success was won, the Congress assembled at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia. Randolph was again chosen president, but, being called home to attend as speaker the suddenly convoked session of the Virginia assembly, John Hancock, the fearless patriot of Massachusetts, was

elected in his place. Even in the midst of the preparations for war which were progressing-nay, in the midst of these actual hostilities-the Congress yet hesitated to declare for independence. It protested its loyalty to the mother country, and its desire for peace, though opposing with arms the illegal and tyrannical measures of Parliament and, the ministry. It, however, assumed at once a comprehensive authority, which circumstances made necessary, in which supreme executive, legislative, and in some cases judicial functions were united— an authority without any fixed limits or formal sanction, except the ready obedience of a large majority in most of the colonies. It resolved at once that hostilities had been commenced by Great Britain, and declared in favor of armed defense. Another petition to the King and people of Great Britain was adopted, in which occurred the following significant paragraph: "We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery." It voted to raise an army of twenty thousand men, and on June 15th, elected George Washington commander-in-chief of all the forces raised or to be raised for the defense of the colonies, resolving that they would "assist him and adhere to him, with their lives and fortunes, in the defense of American liberty." It recommended the colonists to refuse to furnish provisions to British troops, not to recognize commercial exchanges with Great Britain, and to withhold the colonial shipping from the service of the British. It also voted to issue two millions of dollars in continental bills of credit, agreed to articles of war, established a board of Indian affairs and a postoffice department, with Benjamin Franklin as postmaster general-in a word, it assumed all the func tions of a national government.

Meanwhile another impetus had been given to the popular feeling in favor of revolution by the battle of Bunker Hill. The Continental army which besieged Gage in Boston numbered, in early June, about sixteen thousand men. To make the blockade of the city more perfect, Colonel Prescott, with about a thousand men, including a company of artillery, was sent on the night of June 16th, by order of the committee of safety, to take possession of and fortify Bunker Hill, a considerable eminence on the Charlestown peninsula, commanding the northern road from Boston. By some mistake he passed Bunker Hill and occupied Breed's Hill, on the southern end of the peninsula, where he threw up a breastwork. The British, at sunrise, discovered what had been done, and, after a sharp cannonade during the morning, three thousand troops under Howe and Pigot crossed the bay and landed at the foot of Breed's Hill. At three