No More Learning

274-275-
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? THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
401
fore we stop trade, or shall we stop trade while we are
making application? " In what manner ought we to offer
to bear our proper share of the public expenses? Shall we
offer to pay for the tea that was destroyed ? J
Press discussion occupied itself very largely with the
problems of commercial warfare here presented. "A Dis-
tressed Bostonian" noted a general disposition to oppose
the oppressive measures of the home government; but, he
added acutely: "We are variously affected, and as each
feels himself more or less distres'd he is proportionately
warm or cool in the opposition. " z A few typical extracts
will indicate the trend of newspaper discussion. "A Letter
from a Virginian to the Members of the Congress" en-
treated the delegates to avoid all forms of the boycott, re-
minding them that the resources of the mother country
were infinite, and asking: "Shall we punish ourselves, like
froward Children, who refuse to eat when they are hungry,
that they may vex their indulgent Mothers? . . . We may
teize the Mother Country, we cannot ruin her. " * "A Citi-
zen of Philadelphia" took a slightly more advanced view.
1N. Y. Journ. , Aug. 4, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 634-637.
1 Bos. Eve. Post, Sept. 5, 1774. A writer in the Pa. Journ. , Sept. 28,
1774, expanded the same thought in these words: "The farmer, who
insists that the dry goods merchant shall cease to import, though the
measure should even deprive him of bread; and yet, through fear
of some frivolous loss to himself, very wisely protests against non-
exportation, certainly merits the utmost contempt. Nor does the
farmer, in this case, stand alone. The miller lays claim to public
spirit; talks loudly for liberty; and also insists upon a non-importation;
and in order to enforce the scheme upon the merchant, will readily
agree to a general non-consumption; but no sooner is non-exportation
sounded in his ear, than his mighty public spirit, like Milton's devils
at their Pandemonium consultation is instantly dwarfed. 'My interest,
sir! I cannot part with>that! Alas! if a general non-exportation takes
place, what shall I do with my mill? '"
'. V. Y. Gas. , Aug. 22, 1774.
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? 4O2
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
He proclaimed himself in favor of a general non-importa-
tion with England; but he roundly condemned a non-
exportation as a weapon which would inflict "a more
deadly wound" on America than on England, and he op-
posed a suspension of trade with the West Indies as a pun-
ishment to a people who were innocent of wrong-doing. 1
"Juba" addressed himself to "The honourable Dele-
gates," who were soon to convene in Congress, and advo-
cated a non-importation and non-exportation agreement
which included Great Britain, Ireland and the West Indies
in its operation. "I know many objections to a plan of
this kind will be started by self-interested men," he de-
clared, " but is this a time for us to think of accumulating
fortunes, or even adding to our estates? " 2
A comprehensive plan of trade suspension, such as was
advocated by "Juba," was urged on the colonists by many
American sympathizers in Great Britain,8 and received the
widest newspaper support in the colonies, although it had
received no sanction in any of the instructions to members-
elect of Congress. The realization dawned upon the rad-
ical writers that the coercive operation of the measures
adopted should be speedy and far-reaching, notwithstanding
the severe blow to colonial trading interests and the per-
sonal guiltlessness of the populations affected. By with-
drawing American exports from Great Britain, it was esti-
mated that the public revenue would be reduced nearly one
million pounds sterling per annum, about half of which
sum arose from the single article of tobacco. 4 Indeed, "the
lPa. Packet, June 20, 27, 1774; also N. Y. Gas. , June 27, July 4.
*AT. Y. Gasetteer, Sept. 2, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 754-75*.
* E. g. , vide anonymous letters printed in Pa. Journ. , Sept. 14, a1,
1774; Pa. Gas. , Sept. 21; Mass. Spy, June 2; Md. Gas. , May 26.
? "To the People of America" (Boston, Sept. , 1774), in 4 Am. Arch. ,
vol. i, pp. 756-759. Vide also Mass. Spy, Mch. 23, 1775.
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? THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
403
shipping, manufactures and revenue [of England] depend
so much on the Tobacco and Carolina Colonies that they
alone, by stopping their exports, would force redress. " 1
The want of American naval stores, particularly pitch, tar
and turpentine, would also be felt in England immediately. "1
By stopping the exportation of colonial flaxseed to Ireland,
the linen manufacturers of England would be deprived of
their raw material and more than three hundred thousand
employees thrown out of work. 8
The design of stopping all trade with the West Indies
was even a bolder conception, because of the basic impor-
tance of that branch of commerce to American business
prosperity. The plan derived its inspiration from the fact
that more than seventy members of Parliament owned
plantations in the West Indies and they thus exposed an
Achilles-heel to the darts of the Americans. "Suspending
our trade with the West Indies," declared one writer, "will
ruin every plantation there. They can neither feed their
negroes without our corn nor save their crops without our
lumber. A stoppage of North American supplies will bring
on a famine and scarcity too ruinous to be risked without
the most stupid madness. " * "If the West India Planters,
who have great influence in Parliament," said another,
"are content to see their estates ruined, and their slaves
perish, if they will quietly resign these their possessions,
let it be, and let the crime be added to the enormous account
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 237-238.
1Unsigned letter (probably of Dr. Franklin) in Mass. Gas. & Post-
Boy, Oct. 24, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 701-702.
3 Ibid. , vol. i, pp. 756-759.
4" To the People of America," ibid. , vol. i, pp. 756-759. Vide also
letter to Bos. Com. Cor. , ibid. , p. 347; "Queries," ibid. , p. 755; "Camillus"
in N. H. Gas. , Aug. 5, 1774; "Plain Dealer" in N. Y. Journ. , July 21;
"A Country Man" in ibid. , Dec. 15.
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? 404
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
of the British Parliament. " 1 "There will be opposers
to this scheme even among our friends (self-interest is
strong)," he added. "I know it requires a great sacrifice
to stop trade to the West Indies. . . . But / see no justice
that the merchant trading to Great Britain should be the
only sufferer, the West-India merchant ought to suffer also,
and especially when his sufferings will absolutely work the
most forceably. " A third writer recalled a long-rankling
grievance of the Americans against the West India plant-
ing element. No less than seventy-four members of Par-
liament " are West India planters and proprietors," he de-
clared. "And I am also credibly informed that they were
the means of fomenting these difficulties by first getting [in
1764] a duty laid on all sugars, molasses, coffee, &c. , not
imported from the English West-India Islands; it will
therefore be necessary to shew them of how much impor-
tance we are, by distressing them for want of our trade. " *
An animated discussion occurred over the question
whether remittances shouldJb,e_withheld_from the British
merchants as well as trade connections. If we liquidate
our annual indebtedness of ? 3,000,000 sterling as usual,
queried "A Plain Dealer," will the British merchants not
be enabled thereby to employ the manufacturers for one
whole year after importation has ceased, a period during
which our measures will be felt only by ourselves ? 3 While
conceding the theoretical injustice involved in a refusal to
pay debts, a Philadelphia writer contended that the case
under consideration was an exception to the rule; for, if
two neighbors shared a lifelong friendship and one of them
took it into his head to kidnap and enslave the child of the
1 "A Distressed Bostonian," Bos. Eve. Post, Sept. 5, 1774.
* Mass. Spy, Aug. 25, 1774, quoting from Conn. Gas.
1 N. Y. Journ. , July 21, 1774.
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? THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
405
other at a time when the other owed him money, would it
be unjust for the debtor to withhold payment until the
child was returned? He concluded that, though Britain
had a demand of debt against the colonists, the Americans
had a demand of a different nature, but superior in value,
against her; and that when Britain granted " liberty, peace
and a free trade," the colonists should repay their debts. " J
The opponents of non-remittance held that it was a dis-
honorable expedient and not necessary under the circum-
stances. Indeed, a "Citizen of Philadelphia" believed
that, if the colonists should suspend the payment of their
debts, the British merchants would retaliate and influence
Parliament to stop all trade connections between American
ports and Europe in order to prevent trade with foreign
nations from being carried on on capital properly theirs. 2
As John Adams and his brother delegates of Massachu-
setts traveled the irksome distance from Boston to the
meeting-place of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia
in the latter weeks of August, they received first-hand evi-
dence of the accelerated progress of popular sentiment
toward extreme measures of boycott, and learned better
than through correspondence the character of the opposi-
tion elements in other provinces.
Upon his arrival at Hart-
ford, Adams had a talk with Silas Deane and his step-sons
who had come over from Wethersfield to greet the Massa-
chusetts delegates; and though these men were " largely in
trade," they announced that they were "willing to re-
nounce all their trade," Deane declaring that the resolu-
tions of Congress would be regarded in Connecticut as
"the laws of the Medes and Persians. " 8 Stopping at
1 Pa. Journ. , Sept . 28, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 811-814.
*"A Few Political Reflections," Pa. Packet, June 27, 1774; also
N. Y. Gas. , July 4.
1Adams, J. , Works (Adams), vol. ii, p. 341.
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? 406 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Middletown, the members of the local committee of corres-
pondence and many other persons assured the delegates
that " they would abide by whatever should be determined
on, even to a total stoppage of trade to Europe and the
West Indies. " * Reaching New Haven, a chief trading
town of Connecticut, the chorus of approval was marred
by a false note or two. In one discussion some serious
doubts were cast upon the coercive effect of a total non-
exportation to the West Indies, even if well executed;
while from another source Adams was informed that a
boycott agreement would serve no good purpose because
Congress would lack power to enforce it. He learned from
the tavern keeper that the fine parade which had greeted
the delegates seven miles from the city on their arrival had
been contrived at the last moment by the moderates "in
order to divert the populace from erecting a liberty pole,
&c. " 2
Arriving in due time in New York city, the delegates
lingered nearly a week, sightseeing and "breakfasting,
dining, drinking coffee, &c. ," amidst " all the opulence and
splendor" of that city. Much of this time was spent in
the company of McDougall, John Morin Scott, Isaac Sears
and other radicals, from whom Adams gained much inti-
mate knowledge of the local political situation. McDou-
gall warned the Massachusetts delegates to moderate their
language in order not to frighten the timorous elements
there that had combined, from various motives, in support
of the Congress. 8 While the visiting delegates were yet in
1 Adams, J. , Works (Adams), vol. ii, p. 342.
* Ibid. , vol. ii, p. 344.
1 These groups, McDougall reported, were chiefly the following: those
men who had been induced to join the movement by assurances that
commercial coercion would secure relief without any danger of civil
commotions; those who were fearful "lest the levelling spirit of the
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? THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION 407
the city, the "Fifty-One" held a session to discuss the
business of the approaching Congress for the benefit of the
New York delegates. Three of the latter attended; and a
very clear intimation was given that the best course would
be for Congress to recommend to the Bostonians to reim-
burse the East India Company and that America should
then return to a non-importation of dutied goods; but
should they be reduced to the " last sad alternative of en-
tering into a non-importation agreement," then it should
not be a partial one as before, but should include every
European commodity from all parts of the world. 1
Whether or not this measured advice reached the ears of
John Adams he does not record in his diary; and he prob-
ably lost his best opportunity of hearing of it a few nights
later when the "Fifty-One" dined the Massachusetts
delegates with "a profusion of rich dishes, &c. , &c. ," and
Adams spent the evening talking shop with James Duane,
the lawyer of the "sly, surveying eye. "
When the Massachusetts delegation rode into Philadel-
phia on Monday, August 29, "dirty, dusty, and fatigued,"
they found a score or more of the delegates already gath-
ered in the city. The few days intervening before the open-
ing of Congress were spent by the waiting delegates in
meeting and appraising each other and in comparing notes
as to recent political developments in various parts of
America. 2 Of the fifty-six delegates who eventually ap-
New England Colonies should propagate itself into New York; " those
who entertained "Episcopalian prejudices" against New England;
"merchants largely concerned in navigation, and therefore afraid of
non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreements;"
and those who looked to the government for favors. Adams, J. , Works
(Adams), vol. ii, pp. 345-355-
1 N. Y. Gasetteer, Sept. 2, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 324 n.
1Adams, J. , Works (Adams), vol. ii, pp. 357-364; N. Y. Hist. Soc.
Colls. , vol. xix, pp. 12-19.
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? 408 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
peared from the twelve provinces, most of the men met
for the first time. 1 A large proportion of them had taken
active part in the popular house of the provincial legisla-
tures; 2 six of them had served in the Stamp Act Congress;
practically all of them were members of committees of cor-
respondence. All of them were of American nativity; and
they must have felt a responsibility almost personal for the
critical situation in which America found herself. As lead-
ers of local movements for larger colonial rights and ex-
emptions in the preceding years, their names were, for the
most part, well known to each other. Their present inten-
tions, however, were a matter for conjecture and appre-
hension.
Friends and foes of the Congress alike appreciated the
difficulties of the situation. "An assembly like this," wrote
the Connecticut delegates, "though it consists of less than
sixty members, yet, coming from remote Colonies, each of
which has some modes of transacting public business pecu-
liar to itself,--some particular Provincial rights and inter-
ests to guard and secure, must take some time to become
1John Dickinson, who had earlier been excluded from election
through the efforts of Galloway, took his seat on October 17. Prior
to this time, however, Dickinson was in close touch with the delegates
in small dinner-groups and in other informal ways; e. g. , vide Adams,
J. , Works (Adams), vol. ii, pp. 360, 363, 379, 381, 382, 386, 397. James
Bowdoin, of Massachusetts, had refused his election at the hands of
the Assembly, because his relatives thought his great fortune ought
not to be hazarded. Hazelton, Decl. of Inde. , p. 9; Hibernian Chronicle
(London), October 27, 1774. William Samuel Johnson, of Connecticut,
had declined his appointment on the ground of an important law case
which required his attendance at Albany, an excuse which produced
no end of skeptical comment. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 895; Conn. Cour. ,
Aug. 2, 1774; Journals Cant. Cong. (L. C. Edition), vol. i, p. 18 n.
Wolcott and Law, of the same province, had also declined, pleading
poor health.
* Forty of them had served in provincial legislatures, ten or more
of them in the speakership.
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? THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION 409
so acquainted with each one's situations and connections, as
to be able to give an united assent to the ways and means
proposed for effecting what all are ardently desirous of
. . . Every one must be heard even on those points or sub-
jects which in themselves are not of the last importance;
and indeed, it often happens that what is of little or no
consequence to one Colony is of the last to another. "' In
this Congress, affirmed John Adams, "is a diversity of re-
ligions, educations, manners, interests, such as it would
seem impossible to unite in one plan of conduct. " 2
The delegates from the plantation provinces were, as we
have seen, for the most part instructed to push for a limited
non-importation and non-exportation agreement; and the
rising tide of radical feeling in the North, as indicated in
the newspapers, gave promise that many delegates from
that section would also join in the movement. Ljndeed, con-
sidering that only eleven delegates in the whole Congress
were merchants and these, for the most part, men more
addicted to politics than to trade, some plan of non-impor-
tation and non-exportation was the inevitable outcome of
the Congresaj The agricultural interests clearly possessed
the controlling influence; but it is impossible to give precise
figures, for one-half of the membership were content to
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 854-855.
? Adams, J. , Works (Adams), vol. ix, pp. 346-348. Vide also Ward's
view, in Staples, R. I. in Cont. Cong. , pp. 16-17. A comment of an
unfriendly observer (probably William Kelly, the New York merchant)
is not without significance in this connection. After predicting that
the Congress would end in confusion, he wrote: "My Reasons for
thinking so are, that Men, 1500 Miles asunder, have very different
Interests; that there will be near a Hundred Deputies assembled, most
of which being Merchants, Shopkeepers, and Attornies, the latter of
them will certainly rule, for no Men are so true to their own Inter-
est as Lawyers, for they will not stick at any Thing in prosecuting
their Interest. " He proposed that the ministry should bribe some of
the leading lawyers! London Gazetteer, Sept. 28, 1774; also Y <:
Gaz. , Dec. 5.
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? 41o THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
classify themselves as lawyers although frequently their in-
comes were derived in large part, if not chiefly, from agri-
cultural holdings. 1 The ultimate conscious object of the
boycotters in Congress was not merely the repeal of the
punitive acts of 1774 but the goal that had formerly been
so dear to the merchant class--a return to the conditions
of the years before 1763. Within the ranks of this group
there was a clear understanding of the economic interests
endangered by a suspension of trade and a willingness, on
the part of many of them, to shift the anticipated losses on
their brethren in the other provinces.
(The chief danger to the adoption of a plan of continental
non-intercourse came from a determine4_and plausible
group of moderates, led by Joseph Galloway! who insisted
that the only permanent relief was to be found in an en-
lightened definition of imperial relations and colonial liber-
ties in the form of a plan of union. This group saw in
commercial coercion only a 'source of irritation to Great
Britain, and wagered their faith on memorializing and
petitioning. Galloway averred, somewhat unjustly, that
the men who favored his plan of union " were men of loyal
principles, and possessed of the greatest fortunes in Amer-
ica; the other were congregational and presbyterian repub-
licans, or men of bankrupt fortunes, overwhelmed in debt
to the British merchants. " 2
The first three weeks of the meeting of the Continental
Congress might furnish an object-lesson for the skilled par-
liamentarian of any age. 8 "We [Massachusetts delegates]
1 E. g. , Sullivan of N. H. , Dickinson of Pa. , Henry of Va. and the
Rutledges of S. C.
* Historical and Political Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the
American Rebellion (London, 1780), pp. 66-67.
1The sources of information for the proceedings of the First Conti-
nental Congress are meager, however. They are contained in: Journals
of the Continental Congress (L. C. Edition), vol. i; John Adams's notes,
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? THE CONTINENTAL ASSOCIATION
411
have had numberless prejudices to remove here," wrote
John Adams on September 27. "We have been obliged to
act with great delicacy and caution.