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which the imagination can fill up. This was the news in Boston:

"At a great meeting in Faneuil Hall a circular letter from the city of New York, in token of abhorrence, was ordered to be torn in pieces, and scattered to the winds."

"The students in Princeton College, arrayed in black gowns, gathered in the college yard (James Madison is one of them), and while the bell tolled, this letter was committed to the flames."

"A great meeting in the City of Charleston, South Carolina, of which Charles Pinckney was chairman, voted that the people of Georgia ought to be amputated from the rest of the brethren, as a rotten part, that might spread a dangerous infection."

"At a meeting held in Faneuil Hall, it was voted not to hold intercourse with the merchants of New Hampshire, or with any who hold intercourse with them."

"The merchants of Philadelphia, Boston and Charleston have decreed non-intercourse with New York."

"Captain Whitman, lately arrived in Philadelphia from Newport, was not allowed to land his cargo, but was compelled to turn back."

"In Wyoming, Pennsylvania, the Connecticut men have kept up an almost continuous fire on the blockhouse from four entrenchments."

"There has been a raid from New York into sundry towns granted by New Hampshire, in which blood was shed."

This was the Union that eyes saw which see the Union of to-day. The patriots were bitter towards each other on account of the breaking of the non-importation agreement. Colonies were fighting each other on questions of jurisdiction. America seemed destined to reproduce the petty autonomy of ancient Greece, and, as a penalty, to suffer from border warfare, chronic impotence, and subjection to foreign sway.

Two years after this disunion the tax on tea was annulled. The bold strike of the Boston Tea Party elicited the Boston Port Act, by which the trade of the town was cut off and its municipal privileges were annulled; the act altering the charter of Massachusetts, by which its local government was overthrown; and the act for the administration of justice, by which persons charged with offences might be removed to England for trial. The presence of an army and a fleet attested that the hand of the greatest power on the globe was laid heavily on Massachusetts.

The people of the twelve colonies saw, in this action, their own rights and liberties menaced. Then the separate interests, the rivalries, the contentions, the prejudices, the antagonisms of the colonies seemed buried and forgotten; the only thing remembered

was, that one of them had been stricken down by the hand of power. Pathetic appeal, party manipulation, personal influence, were not required to arouse a general indignation. This instinctively welled up from every American heart. The blow, like a wound upon a single nerve, convulsed the whole body politic. On the Fourth of July, 1774, what unbounded congratulations must have been heard in this community as the journals of that morning announced, "Every post brings advices of the action of towns, cities and counties, containing assurances of their sending deputations to assist at the grand Congress of representatives of all the colonies, to whose wisdom, firmness and virtue, the liberty, property and whole interest of this free and august continent are to be delegated!'

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The action here described as going on in July continued until the meeting of the Congress in September. The foremost men of the Revolution participated in it. It was far more than the choice of members to the proposed Congress. For illustration: Baltimore adopted this significant resolution: "Resolved, unanimously, that the inhabitants of this county will, and it is the opinion of this meeting that this colony ought to, break off all trade and dealings with that colony, province or town, which shall decline or refuse to come into similar resolutions with a majority of the colonies." The pledge to abide by

the decision of the Congress in relation to dealing with the mother country was universal. No colony was more decisive in its action than Virginia; and no resolves were more explicit than those which Jefferson penned, or of the meeting in which Washington was the chairman. In this colony a convention of delegates from all the counties decided that those who refused to abide by the decisions of the Congress ought to be regarded as inimical to the country. These meetings had the quality of regularity. They were composed of persons qualified to vote under the laws. They collected and expressed definitely and authoritatively the will of the majority. It was to the effect, that, in the matter of procuring a redress of grievances, the way marked out by the Congress should be looked upon as a paramount rule of action. Further, it was declared that those who did not submit to the decisions of the majority should suffer pains and penalties.

The inhabitants of Massachusetts in the same way were enjoined to annul the acts of Parliament which altered their charter. This injunction was universal. Thus it was decided, before the Congress met, or before the act was attempted to be executed, that it should share the fate of the Stamp Act, even though the shedding of blood might be the consequence. And the pledge was given to support Massachusetts in this resistance. In maturing this action, Wash

ington said, in the Virginia Convention, "I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and march myself at their head for the relief of Boston."

This Congress met on the fifth day of September, 1774. Their first great act related to Massachusetts. It was passed on the eighth of October: "Resolved, That this Congress approve of the opposition made by the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the late acts of Parliament; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case all America ought to support them in their opposition." This pledge was but the echo of hundreds of localities.

After great difficulty Congress agreed to Articles of Association. On the twentieth of October, fifty-two members signed them. This instrument begins with these words: "We do for ourselves, and the inhabitants of the several colonies whom we represent, firmly agree and associate under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of our country." The instrument consists of fourteen articles. It contains rules in relation to the non-importation and non-exportation and non-consumption of merchandise from Great Britain. One article provides that the parties to the Association will not import nor purchase any slave imported after the first day of December, and will wholly discontinue the slave-trade, and refuse to deal

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