The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5)
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"The news of his majesty's granting salaries to the justices of the
superior court, afforded them a fair opportunity for executing the
plan of establishing committees of correspondence through the colony.
The most spirited pieces were published, and an alarm spread, that the
granting such salaries tended rapidly to complete the system of their
slavery.
"A town meeting was called, and a committee of correspondence
appointed, to write circular letters to all the towns in the province,
and to induce them to unite in measures. The committee made a report,
containing several resolutions contradictory to the supremacy of the
British legislature. After setting forth, that all men have a right to
remain in a state of nature as long as they please, they proceed to a
report upon the natural rights of the colonists as men, christians,
and subjects; and then form a list of infringements and violations of
their rights. They enumerate and dwell upon the British parliament's
having assumed the power of legislation for the colonies in all cases
whatsoever--the appointment of a number of new officers to superintend
the revenues--the granting of salaries out of the American revenue, to
the governor, the judges of the superior court, the king's attorney
and solicitor general. The report was accepted; copies printed; and
six hundred circulated through the towns and districts of the
province, with a pathetic letter addressed to the inhabitants, who
were called upon not to doze any longer, or sit supinely in
indifference, while the iron hand of oppression was daily tearing the
choicest fruits from the fair tree of liberty. The circular letter
requested of each town a free communication of sentiments on the
subjects of the report, and was directed to the select men, who were
desired to lay the same before a town meeting, which has been
generally practised, and the proceedings of the town upon the business
have been transmitted to the committee at Boston. This committee have
their particular correspondents in the several towns, who, upon
receiving any special information, are ready to spread it with
dispatch among the inhabitants. It consists of twenty-one persons of
heterogeneous qualities and professions, &c."
_Gordon's Hist. Am. War_, vol. I. p. 312.
* * * * *
NOTE--No. VII.--_See Page 425._
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF THE MEMBERS COMPOSING THE FIRST CONGRESS:
_New Hampshire._
John Sullivan,
Nathaniel Fulsom.
_Massachusetts Bay._
James Bowdoin,
Thomas Cushing,
Samuel Adams,
John Adams,
Robert Treat Paine.
_Rhode Island and Providence Plantations._
Stephen Hopkins,
Samuel Ward.
_Connecticut._
Eliphalet Dyer,
Roger Sherman,
Silas Deane.
_From the city and county of New York, and other counties
in province of New York._
James Duane,
Henry Wisner,
John Jay,
Philip Livingston,
Isaac Low,
John Alsop.
_From the county of Suffolk, in the province of New York._
William Floyd.
_New Jersey._
James Kinsey,
William Livingston,
John Dehart,
Stephen Crane,
Richard Smith.
_Pennsylvania._
Joseph Galloway,
Charles Humphreys,
Samuel Rhoads,
George Ross,
John Morton,
Thomas Mifflin,
Edward Biddle,
John Dickinson.
_Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware._
Cesar Rodney,
Thomas M'Kean,
George Read.
_Maryland._
Robert Goldsborough,
Thomas Johnson,
William Paca,
Samuel Chase,
Matthew Tilghman.
_Virginia._
Peyton Randolph,
Richard Henry Lee,
George Washington,
Patrick Henry,
Richard Bland,
Benjamin Harrison,
Edmund Pendleton.
_North Carolina._
William Hooper,
Joseph Hughes,
Richard Caswell.
_South Carolina._
Henry Middleton,
John Rutledge,
Thomas Lynch,
Christopher Gadsden,
Edward Rutledge.
* * * * *
NOTE--No. VIII.--_See Page 425._
_These resolutions manifested a degree of irritation which had not
before been displayed. They are introduced in the following manner:_
"Whereas the power but not the justice, the vengeance but not the
wisdom of Great Britain, which of old persecuted, scourged, and exiled
our fugitive parents from their native shores, now pursues us their
guiltless children, with unrelenting severity; and whereas this, then
savage and uncultivated desert, was purchased by the toil and
treasure, or acquired by the blood and valour of those our venerable
progenitors; to us they bequeathed the dear bought inheritance; to our
care and protection they consigned it; and the most sacred obligations
are upon us to transmit the glorious purchase, unfettered by power,
unclogged with shackles, to our innocent and beloved offspring. On the
fortitude, on the wisdom, and on the exertions of this important day,
is suspended the fate of this new world, and of unborn millions. If a
boundless extent of continent, swarming with millions, will tamely
submit to live, move, and have their being at the arbitrary will of a
licentious minister, they basely yield to voluntary slavery, and
future generations shall load their memories with incessant
execrations. On the other hand, if we arrest the hand which would
ransack our pockets, if we disarm the parricide which points the
dagger to our bosoms, if we nobly defeat that fatal edict which
proclaims a power to frame laws for us in all cases whatsoever,
thereby entailing the endless and numberless curses of slavery upon
us, our heirs, and their heirs for ever; if we successfully resist
that unparalleled usurpation of unconstitutional power, whereby our
capital is robbed of the means of life; whereby the streets of Boston
are thronged with military executioners; whereby our coasts are lined,
and harbours crowded with ships of war; whereby the charter of the
colony, that sacred barrier against the encroachments of tyranny, is
mutilated, and in effect annihilated; whereby a murderous law is
framed to shelter villains from the hands of justice; whereby the
unalienable and inestimable inheritance, which we derived from nature,
the constitution of Britain, and the privileges warranted to us in the
charter of the province, is totally wrecked, annulled, and vacated:
Posterity will acknowledge that virtue which preserved them free and
happy; and while we enjoy the rewards and blessings of the faithful,
the torrent of panegyrists will roll our reputations to that latest
period, when the streams of time shall be absorbed in the abyss of
eternity.
"Therefore resolved," &c. &c. &c.
* * * * *
NOTE--No. IX.--_See Page 427._
"Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British parliament,
claiming a power, of right, to bind the people of America by statutes
in all cases whatsoever, hath in some acts expressly imposed taxes on
them; and in others, under various pretences, but in fact for the
purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in
these colonies, established a board of commissioners with
unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of courts of
admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial
of causes merely arising within the body of a county.
"And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before
held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent
on the crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in
times of peace: And whereas it has lately been resolved in parliament,
that by force of a statute, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign
of King Henry VIII. colonists may be transported to England and tried
there upon accusations for treasons, and mis prisons and concealments
of treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute, such
trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned.
"And whereas, in the last session of parliament, three statutes were
made; one entitled, 'An act to discontinue in such manner and for such
time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or
shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town, and within the
harbour of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay in North
America;' another entitled, 'An act for the better regulating the
government of the province of Massachusetts Bay in New England;' and
another act, entitled, 'An act for the impartial administration of
justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them
in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and
tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England;' and
another statute was then made, 'for making more effectual provision
for the government of the province of Quebec,' &c. All which statutes
are impolitic, unjust, and cruel, as well as unconstitutional, and
most dangerous and destructive of American rights.
"And whereas, assemblies have been frequently dissolved, contrary to
the rights of the people, when they attempted to deliberate on
grievances; and their dutiful, humble, loyal, and reasonable petitions
to the crown for redress, have been repeatedly treated with contempt
by his majesty's ministers of state; the good people of the several
colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, New Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, justly alarmed at the
arbitrary proceedings of parliament and administration, have severally
elected, constituted and appointed deputies to meet and sit in general
congress, in the city of Philadelphia, in order to obtain such
establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties, may not be
subverted: whereupon the deputies so appointed being now assembled, in
a full and free representation of these colonies, taking into their
most serious consideration, the best means of attaining the ends
aforesaid, do in the first place, as Englishmen their ancestors in
like cases have usually done, for asserting and vindicating their
rights and liberties, declare, that the inhabitants of the English
colonies in North America, by the immutable laws of nature, the
principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or
compacts, have the following rights.
"Resolved, unanimously, 1st, that they are entitled to life, liberty,
and property; and they have never ceded to any sovereign power
whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent.
"Resolved, unanimously, 2d, that our ancestors, who first settled
these colonies, were, at the time of their emigration from the mother
country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free
and natural born subjects, within the realm of England.
"Resolved, unanimously, 3d, that by such emigration they by no means
forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of those rights, but that they
were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and
enjoyment of all such of them, as their local and other circumstances
enabled them to exercise and enjoy.
"Resolved, 4th, that the foundation of English liberty and of all free
government, is a right in the people to participate in their
legislative council: and as the English colonists are not represented,
and from their local and other circumstances cannot properly be
represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and
exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial
legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be
preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal polity subject only
to the negative of their sovereign, in such manner as has been
heretofore used and accustomed: but from the necessity of the case,
and a regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully
consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament, as
are, _bona fide_, restrained to the regulation of our external
commerce, for the purposes of securing the commercial advantages of
the whole empire to the mother country, and the commercial benefits of
its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation internal or
external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without
their consent.
"Resolved, unanimously, 5th that the respective colonies are entitled
to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and
inestimable privilege of being tried by their peers of the vicinage,
according to the course of that law.
"Resolved, 6th, that they are entitled to the benefit of such of the
English statutes, as existed at the time of their colonisation; and
which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to
their several local and other circumstances.
"Resolved, unanimously, 7th, that these, his majesty's colonies are
likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and
confirmed to them by royal charters, or secured by their several codes
of provincial laws.
"Resolved, unanimously, 8th, that they have a right peaceably to
assemble, consider of their grievances, and petition the King; and
that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for
the same, are illegal.
"Resolved, unanimously, 9th, that the keeping a standing army in these
colonies, in times of peace, without the consent of the legislature of
that colony in which such army is kept, is against law.
"Resolved, unanimously, 10th, it is indispensably necessary to good
government, and rendered essential by the English constitution, that
the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each
other; that, therefore, the exercise of legislative power in several
colonies, by a council appointed, during pleasure, by the crown, is
unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of
American legislation.
"All and each of which the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves
and their constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on, as their
indubitable rights and liberties; which cannot be legally taken from
them, altered or abridged by any power whatever, without their own
consent, by their representatives in their several provincial
legislatures.
"In the course of our inquiry, we find many infringements and
violations of the foregoing rights, which, from an ardent desire that
harmony and mutual intercourse of affection and interest may be
restored, we pass over for the present, and proceed to state such acts
and measures as have been adopted since the last war, which
demonstrate a system formed to enslave America.
"Resolved, unanimously, that the following acts of parliament are
infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists; and that
the repeal of them is essentially necessary, in order to restore
harmony between Great Britain and the American colonies, viz.
"The several acts of 4 Geo. III. chap. 15, and 34.--5 Geo. III. chap.
25.--6 Geo. III. chap. 52.--7 Geo. III. chap. 41, and chap. 46.--8
Geo. III. chap. 22; which imposed duties for the purpose of raising a
revenue in America; extend the power of the admiralty courts beyond
their ancient limits; deprive the American subject of trial by jury;
authorise the judge's certificate to indemnify the prosecutor from
damages, that he might otherwise be liable to; requiring oppressive
security from a claimant of ships and goods seized, before he shall be
allowed to defend his property, and are subversive of American rights.
"Also 12 Geo. III. chap. 24, intitled, 'an act for the better securing
his majesty's dockyards, magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores,'
which declares a new offence in America, and deprives the American
subject of a constitutional trial by a jury of the vicinage, by
authorising the trial of any person charged with the committing of any
offence described in the said act, out of the realm, to be indicted
and tried for the same in any shire or county within the realm.
"Also the three acts passed in the last session of parliament, for
stopping the port and blocking up the harbour of Boston, for altering
the charter and government of Massachusetts Bay, and that which is
intitled, 'an act for the better administration of justice,' &c.
"Also, the act passed in the same session for establishing the Roman
catholic religion in the province of Quebec, abolishing the equitable
system of English laws, and erecting a tyranny there, to the great
danger, (from so total a dissimilarity of religion, law, and
government) of the neighbouring British colonies, by the assistance of
whose blood and treasure the said country was conquered from France.
"Also, the act passed in the same session for the better providing
suitable quarters for officers and soldiers in his majesty's service
in North America.
"Also, that the keeping a standing army in several of these colonies,
in time of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that
colony in which such army is kept, is against law.
"To these grievous acts and measures, Americans cannot submit; but in
hopes their fellow subjects in Great Britain will, on a revision of
them, restore us to that state, in which both countries found
happiness and prosperity, we have for the present only resolved to
pursue the following peaceable measures: 1. to enter into a
non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement or
association. 2. To prepare an address to the people of Great Britain,
and a memorial to the inhabitants of British America: and, 3. To
prepare a loyal address to his majesty, agreeable to resolutions
already entered into."
END OF VOLUME I