and attachment to the British constitution, they say: "You, sir, represent a people, who are not only descended from the first settlers of this country, but inhabit the very spot they first possessed. Here was first laid the foundation of the British Empire, in this part of America, which from a very small beginning, has increased and spread in a manner very surprising, and almost incredible, especially when we consider that all this has been effected without the aid or assistance of any power on earth; that we have defended, protected, and secured ourselves against the invasions and cruelties of savages, and the subtlety and inhumanity of our inveterate and natural enemies, the French; and all this without the appropriation of any tax by Stamps, or Stamp Acts, laid upon our fellow subjects, in any part of the King's dominions, for defraying the expense thereof. This place, Sir, was at first the asylum of liberty, and we hope, will ever be preserved sacred to it, though it was then no more than a barren wilderness, inhabited only by savage men and beasts. To this place our fathers, (whose memories be revered,) possessed of the principles of liberty in their purity, disdained slavery, fled to enjoy those privileges, which they had an undoubted right to, but were deprived, by the hands of violence and oppression, in their native country. We, Sir, their posterity, the freeholders, and other inhabitants of this town, legally assembled for that purpose; possessed of the same sentiments, and retaining the same ardour for liberty, think it our indispensable duty, on this occasion, to express to you these our sentiments of the Stamp Act, and its fatal consequences to this country, and to enjoin upon you, as you regard not only the welfare, but the very being of this people, that you (consistent with

our allegiance to the King, and relation to the government of Great Britain) disregarding all proposals for that purpose, exert all your power and influence in opposition to the Stamp Act, at least till we hear the success of our petitions for relief. We likewise, to avoid disgracing the memories of our ancestors, as well as the reproaches of our own consciences, and the curses of posterity, recommend it to you, to obtain if possible, in the honourable House of Representatives of this Province, a full and explicit assertion of our rights, and to have the same entered on their publick records, that all generations yet to come, may be convinced, that we have not only a just sense of our rights and liberties, but that we never, with submission to Divine Providence, will be slaves to any power on earth."

This was the sort of spirit which now animated the great body of the American people from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Nor was it indeed confined to the Continent, for the people in the West India Islands showed a determination equally strong to resist the Stamp Act.

CHAPTER IV.

Meeting of the first Continental Congress at New York-They publish a manifesto, and petition the King and Parliament-1st. of November 1765 observed throughout the Colonies as a day of mourning-Publick funeral of Liberty in New Hampshirenon-importation agreement-the people refuse to use Stamps-effects of the popular ferment upon the Parliament-debates upon its repeal-effects of the non-importation upon the Merchants of London-their petition to the King and Parliament.—Repeal of the Stamp Act-universal joy of the Americans in consequence:

ON the sixth day of June 1765, a resolution was moved by Mr. James Otis, in the Assembly of Massachusetts, setting forth the expediency of calling a continental Congress, to be composed of deputies from the Legislatures of each respective Province, to consult on the present circumstances of the Colonies, and to consider the most proper means of averting the difficulties under which they laboured. The Governour and other friends of the Ministerial party, finding that it would be vain to oppose such a measure in the present state of popular excitement, made a merit of necessity and appeared to take the lead in it, that they might on the passage of the resolution, be enabled to form their committee out of the friends of the government. The resolution passed without much opposition. New York was fixed upon as the place of meeting, early in the month of October ensuing. The committee appointed, on the part of Massachusetts were James Otis jun. Oliver Patridge, and Timothy Ruggles of whom Governour Bernard, in his letter to the Lords of trade, thus expresses his approbation. "Two of the three chosen are fast friends to government,

prudent and discreet men, such as I am sure will never consent to any improper application to the government of Great Britain."

These gentlemen lost no time in preparing a letter to the Speakers of the several Colonial Assemblies, enclosing the resolution, and requesting their concurrence therewith. South Carolina was the first to yield assent to the proposed Congress. The Governours of New York, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, prorogued their respective Legislatures, and thus prevented them from acceding to the proposition; but in the first of these Colonies the Committee, who had been appointed in the preceding year as a Committee of general correspondence during the recess of the Legislature, took upon themselves the responsibility of attending the meeting, in behalf of their Colony, and their authority was confirmed by the succeeding Assembly.

On the second Tuesday of October 1765, the day appointed, twenty eight deputies, viz: from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, and the Committee as already mentioned of New York, met at the City of New York and after appointing Mr. Ruggles of Massachusetts their Chairman, proceeded to deliberate on the subject of their grievances. It was agreed to draw up a manifesto of their grievances, and a declaration of rights, in which they respectfully but firmly asserted their exemption from all taxes not imposed by their own representatives. They also determined upon a memorial to the House of Lords, and a petition to the King and Commons. These papers were signed only by the members from six Colonies-those from Connecticut, New York, and South

The

Carolina not having been empowered to do so. Chairman, Mr. Ruggles, one of those upon whose loyalty the Governour of Massachusetts had so strongly calculated, left the meeting without signing; and his colleague, Mr. Otis, was upon the point of doing the same, but fortunately the influence of Mr. Thomas Lynch was successfully exerted to prevent him.

The Congress having completed the business before them, dissolved its meeting on the 25th of October. Those Colonies which had not sent Committees, adopted the same sentiments by subsequent resolutions, and expressed their approbation of the proceedings of the Congress in the warmest manner. In New Hampshire, the resolutions and petitions of the Congress were unanimously approved of; and the concurrence of their Legislature was thus made known to their agents in London: "We in this Province have not been so boisterous and irregular as some others, not because we are insensible of our distresses, but because we thought the present mode most likely to obtain relief."

The first day of November," the great, the important day," when the Stamp Act was to take effect, at length approached. In Boston its dawn was ushered in by the tolling of bells as for a funeral. Many of the shops and stores were shut. Effigies of the men who supported the Act were paraded about the streets, and carried to a gallows erected on Boston Neck, where after being suspended for some time, they were cut down and torn to pieces, amid the shouts and acclamations of thousands.

At Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, similar proceedings took place. Publick notice was given to the friends of liberty to attend her funeral-For this pur