No More Learning

Y. Gas. , Nov. 6, 1775; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. iii, pp.
lo1o-1o11, IIII-IH2, 1115-1116, 1261-1262, 1381-1382, 1520, 1641.
1Ibid. , vol. iii, pp. 802-1704 passim.
'16 George III, c. 5.
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? CHAPTER XIV
TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION (APRIL, 1775-
JULY, 1776)
THE tocsin of war, sounded on the historic Apr^l day at
and Concord, wrought a radical change in the
nature of the opposition directed by the Americans against
the British measures. This did not mean that a struggle
for independence had begun, but it did mean that armed
rebellion had superseded commercial coercion as the de-
pendence of the radicals in their struggle for larger liber-
ties. Thereafter the Continental Association lost its dis-
tinctive character as a method of peaceful coercion; it be-
came subordinated to the military necessities of the times.
The transformation which the Association was under-
going revealed itself in five ways: in the widespread . adop-
tion of defense associations; in the determination_QjLthe
Georgia moderates to adopt the Continental Association as
a deterrent to the more violent methods advocated by the
radicals there; in the spontaneous action of rV <vftra-l<>gral
bodies_in. the several provinces in taking on disciplinary and
military functions; in the adoption, by provinces _expos_eji_to
th. e_perils_Qf- war, of. non-exportation regulations prior to the
tirjp fi^ed in thft Assnc. ia. tkm: and in the important _altera-
tions made in the_text of the originalAssociation . by the
Second Continental Congress.
News of the gallant stand made by the Massachusetts
minutemen was carried down the coast and through the
country by swift couriers. The radical organizations of the
S41
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? 542
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
Associated Colonies were faced with the decision whether
they should follow the Massachusetts extremists into armed
resistance just as they had followed them a little earlier
into commercial opposition. The air was electric with ex-
citement. As individuals, some radicals hesitated or de-
serted the cause; as organizations, they were too deeply
committed to do anything but give loyal support to their
brethren of Massachusetts. The New England group of
provinces, quickened by the hazardous proximity of the
British forces, responded in April and May by reorganizing
their militia and putting it on a war footing. 1 Their action
hardly more than consolidated the military companies that
had been drilled and equipped in the towns and counties
during the several preceding months.
In the remaining provinces the almost invariable form of
action was the adoption of defense associations; and in-
deed the same device was also utilized by Connecticut where
the loyalists were thick in Fairfield County. This plan of
procedure was fashioned frankly on the principle of the old
associations for commercial coercion; and acting through
the same machinery, it gained prestige by reason of the
fact. In phraseology the associations appeared to vary
according to the character of the population. In the more
moderate provinces, like New York and New Jersey, the
subscribers agreed solemnly to " carry into execution what-
ever measures may be recommended by the Continental
Congress or resolved upon by our Provincial Convention;" *
1 The Massachusetts provincial congress had taken its measures earlier,
Vide particularly the votes of Oct. 26, 1774 and April 5, 1775. 4 Am.
Arch. , vol. i, pp. 843-845, 1350-1355. For the acts of the other provinces,
vide New Hampshire provincial congress, May 20, in ibid. , voL ii, pp.
652-653; Rhode Island Assembly, Apr. 25, in ibid. , vol. ii, p. 390; Con-
necticut Assembly, Apr. 26, in ibid. , vol. ii, pp. 411-418.
1 The italics are Governor Franklin's. / N. J. Arch. , vol. x, p. 592.
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? TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION 543
in ultra-radical communities, like Maryland, South Caro-
lina and certain North Carolina counties, the subscribers
pledged their " lives and fortunes " in defense of the Amer-
ican cause. But whatever the form, the underlying mean-
ing of all associations was the same. The defense associa-
tions appeared spontaneously in the various provinces, and
were afterwards usually adopted formally by the provincial
congress or convention with the provision that the male
adult inhabitants be given an opportunity to sign, and the
further provision frequently that the names of dissentients
be listed. The act of signing the defense association was a
more rigid test of loyalty to the radical cause than acceptance
of the Continental Association and largely superseded it in
public attention and importance. 1 These associations spread
southward through the Associated Provinces in the spring
and early summer of 1775'
The course of New York exemplified, in its main out-
lines, the progress of the defense association in every prov-
1 Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and South Carolina
provided that lists of non-signers should be drawn up.
* The central radical organizations of the several provinces adopted
defense associations as follows: the New York provincial congress on
May 26, 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i,, p. 1256; the New Jersey provincial congress
on May 31, ibid. , vol. ii, p. 690; the Pennsylvania Assembly on June 30,
ibid. , vol. ii, p. 1172; the Maryland provincial convention on Aug. 12,
ibid. , vol. iii, pp. 107-108; the North Carolina provincial congress on
Aug. 23, ibid. , vol. iii, p. 187; the South Carolina provincial congress on
June 3, ibid. , vol. ii, pp. 896-807; the Connecticut Assembly in October,
ibid. , vol. iii, p. 1026. In the Delaware Counties, no record of action
has been found; however, an out-and-out military association was signed
in Kent County on May 25; ibid. , vol. ii, p. 704. In Virginia, it would
appear that this method was not tried; but the militia was reorganized
by resolution of the provincial convention of Mch. 25, 1775; ibid. , vol.
ii, pp. 169-170. Some of the county associations in North Carolina were
more plainspoken than the association adopted by the provincial con-
gress, being modeled on the South Carolina association; e. g. , ibid. , vol.
ii, p. 1030.
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? 544 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
ince. 1 We have Lieutenant Governor Colden's word that
"the first accounts of the action between the King's Troops
and People near Boston was spread with horrid and aggra-
vating circumstances. The Moment of Consternation and
anxiety was seized, the People were assembled, and that
Scene of Violence and Disorder was begun which has en-
tirely prostrated the Powers of Government and produced
an Association by which this Province has solemnly united
with the others in resisting the Acts of Parliament. " * For
nearly a week after the receipt of the fateful news the city
was ruled by the mob. Under the leadership of ultra-
radicals like Sears and Lamb, the arsenal was raided and
the muskets distributed; the custom house was shut up;
business was at a standstill; and armed citizens paraded
about the streets.
Out of this " State of anarchy" issued three things: of
great import. An association was set on foot in New York
city on April 29 by which the subscribers, professing alarm
at the revenue plans of the ministry and at "the bloody
scene now acting in the Massachusetts-Bay," resolved never
to become slaves, and associated, under all the ties of re-
ligion, honor and love of country, to carry into execution
whatever measures were determined upon by the Conti-
nental Congress or the provincial congress for the purpose
of preserving the constitution and opposing the arbitrary'
and oppressive acts of Parliament. 1 A new committee of
one hundred, of more radical complexion even than the
Sixty, was chosen on May 1 with power to act in "the
present unhappy exigency of affairs as well as to observe
1 In the following account, Professor Becker's discussion, with his
references, has been relied upon where no other authority is cited.
tf. Y. Parties, 1760-1776, pp. 193-227.
* Letter Books, vol. ii, p. 402. Vide also ibid. , p. 404.
? N. Y. Journ. , May 4, I775; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, p. 471.
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? TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION
545
the conduct of all persons touching the Association. " A
call was sent out for a provincial congress " at the present
alarming juncture " to meet on May 22. The defense asso-
ciation was taken up by the two latter bodies, when they
met, and applied to the inhabitants of the province as a
touchstone of their allegiance to the radical organization.
At the first meeting of the One Hundred on May 1, it
was resolved to offer the association of April 29 to every
inhabitant in the county, save Colden only, the names of
those refusing to subscribe to be recorded. In the high
excitement of the hour the association was quickly signed
by more than a thousand persons; and within a month
eighteen hundred had subscribed in the city alone. 1 On
May 26 a resolution was passed by the provincial congress
that all members be desired to sign the association of April
29; and arrangements were made for county committees to
tender the association to every inhabitant of the province
and return to the congress a list of signers and non-signers
not later than July 15. No penalty for dissentients was
imposed. By the time fixed, the defense association had
been subscribed by one hundred members of the provincial
congress, fourteen failing to do so. "The official returns
show in five districts of Orange County approximately
1,550 signers and 250 non-signers; in seven districts of
Ulster County, approximately 1,770 and 80 non-signers;
in seven or eight districts of Suffolk County, 2,060 signers
and 200 non-signers; in six precincts of Dutchess County,
1 ,680 signers and 882 non-signers; in one district of Char-
lotte County, 110 signers; in three districts of Cumberland
County, 123 signers and 10 non-signers; in Queens County,
17 signers and 209 non-signers. "
1 Colden, Letter Books, vol. ii, p. 424. Colden added, however:
"there must be at least three Times that number who have an equal
Right to Sign. "
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? 546 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
By September the policy of the provincial congress toward
non-signers began to be defined. "Although this Congress
have a tender regard for freedom of speech, the rights of
conscience, and personal liberty," declared the resolution of
September 1, yet, for the public safety, any person denying
the authority of the provincial or continental congress or
any county or district committee should be disarmed, and,
for a second offense, should be confined at his own expense.
This vote did not apply in terms to non-signers; and two
weeks later the provincial committee of safety voted to
disarm all of the latter by force if necessary. This was
disapproved by the provincial congress in October; and
there the matter rested until March, 1776, when the com-
mittee of safety again ordered the disarming of non-
associators. This time the provincial congress gave its
support.
The net outcome of the circulation of the defense asso-
ciation was that the Continental Association was elbowed
into the background; for the new association by its spirit
not only exacted obedience to the old regulations of commer-
cial opposition, but in explicit terms demanded allegiance
to unnamed radical measures yet to be formulated. Inci-
dentally the propaganda attendant upon the promotion of
the defense association had served the purpose of extend-
ing radical organization into rural parts of New York that
had been untouched on the several earlier occasions.
Of the old British provinces, Georgia had succeeded
thus far in holding off from any union in measures against
Great Britain.
The widespread resolutions of censure and
boycott had not been without a chastening influence on her;
but it was the news of the beginning of hostilities that, by
a curious indirection, now brought Georgia over to the side
of the Continental Association. 1 In June, 1775, a defense
1 Wright to Gage, June 27, 1775; Gibbes, Doc"y History, vol. ii, pp. o8-99-
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? TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION 547
association, copied verbatim from the New York associa-
tion of April 29, was circulated in various parts of the
province. 1 The Georgia moderates perceived that, in spite
of the success of their obstructive tactics hitherto, the flood-
tide of insurrection surging high in other provinces threat-
ened to sweep the malcontents of Georgia into extreme
measures unless discreet concessions were made. Whereas
the moderates had opposed the adoption of the Continental
Association when the alternative was peaceful opposition to
Great Britain or no opposition, many of them were now
willing to join in pacific measures of opposition when the
choice seemed to lie between that alternative and the immi-
nence of violent resistance. 2 This at once made possible a
coalition of the more progressive moderates with the more
conservative radicals of the Savannah stamp. * It was this
union of factions that sought to control the movement for
a provincial congress, called for July 4, 1775.
At a caucus held at Savannah on June 13 and attended by
thirty-four citizens, many of whom later joined the British
side, the program of the coalition was formulated as fol-
lows: (1) "we will use our utmost endeavours to preserve
the peace and good order of this Province; . . . no person
behaving himself peaceably and inoffensively shall be
molested in his person or property" notwithstanding his
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 1136-1137; vol. ii, pp. 1551-1552. Vide also
ibid. , vol. ii, p. 471.
1 Vide Wright's letter to Dartmouth; Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls. , vol. iii.
p. 183. Read Dr. Zubly's sermon at the opening of the provincial con-
gress in the light of this interpretation. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, pp. 1557-
1567. Zubly became a loyalist eventually.
1" From Georgia we learn that a Coalition of Parries is likely to take
place," said the S. C. & Am. Gen. Gag. , July 7, 1775. "The Tories in
Georgia are now no more; the Province is almost universally on the
right side, and are about to choose Delegates to send to the Congress,"
wrote a Charlestonian on June 29; Pa. Gas. , July 19, also 4 Am. Arch. ,
vol. ii, p. 1119.
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? 548 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
private sentiments; (2) in the absence of the General As-
sembly, the provincial congress should adopt a petition to
the king for redress of grievances, expressive of the sense
of all who choose to sign it; (3) the interest of Georgia is
inseparable from that of the mother country and all the
sister provinces, and to act apart from the latter would be a
just cause for their resentment; (4) Georgia ought forth-
with to "join the other Provinces in every just and legal
measure to secure and restore the liberties of all America
and for healing the unhappy divisions now subsisting be-
tween Great Britain and her Colonies. " * On June 22 a
meeting of the inhabitants of the town and district of
Savannah at Liberty Pole chose a committee for the pur-
pose of carrying out the Continental Association. 2
The moderates were playing with fire, but they were left
with no alternative. The provincial congress of July con-
tained delegates from every part of the province except
the two small parishes of St. James and St. Patrick. Some
parishes which had hitherto been apathetic or else actively
opposed to extra-legal measures " manifested a very Laud-
able Zeal upon this Occasion. " 1 On the second day of the
meeting, the resolutions adopted by the Savannah caucus
were presented, and the congress voted that the paper
should " lie upon the table for the perusal of the members. "
A few days later the congress voted its opinion that the
paper "ought not to have been entitled or dressed in the
form of Resolves, but rather as recommendations, or in the
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, p. 1544.
1 For names of the members, vide McCall, Hist. Ga. , vol. ii, pp. 44-45-
For a slightly different list, vide Ga. Rev. Recs. , vol. i, p. 72.
* Official communication of the Georgia congress to the Second Con-
tinental Congress; Journals Cont. Cong. , vol. ii, p. 193 n. The journal
of the provincial congress may be found in Ga. Rev. Recs. , vol. i, pp.
229-280; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. ii, pp. 1543-1568.
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? TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION 549
nature of a Petition or Address to this Congress. " This
was fair warning that the radicals of the St. John's stamp
were making themselves felt in the congress.
The Savannah coalition were permitted to carry things
pretty largely their own way during the first few days.
The congress resolved unanimously on July 6 to "carry
into execution all and singular the measures and recom-
mendations of the late Continental Congress," particularly
the Declaration of Rights and the Continental Association.
The provisions of the latter were re-stated and explicitly
adopted, with no alterations of importance. 1 A concession
was even made to the opinion prevalent in the plantation
provinces in favor of a suspension of prosecutions for debt:
no summons was to be issued or civil warrant granted un-
less, in the opinion of the magistrate concerned, there were
good grounds to believe that the defendant intended to
abscond. This was a moderate version of the popular reg-
ulation which gave the supervision of actions for debt to
radical committees rather than to provincial officials. A
petition for redress was sent to the king; and five delegates,
one of whom was loyalist in sympathies, were chosen to
represent the province in the Second Continental Congress,
then in session.
At this point the radical elements began to assert their
control. Strengthened by the sentiment aroused by the
Lexington affair, they were able to carry through resolu-
1 Such changes of date were introduced as were made necessary by
the fact that the non-importation regulation was going into effect at a
later date than that fixed in the original Association. The provision
in Article x as to the disposition of goods imported before February 1
was omitted as no longer applicable. The provision in Article xiv
authorizing provincial bodies to establish further regulations did not
appear. To the list of parliamentary acts which must be repealed were
added the two laws, lately passed, for restraining the trade of most of
the colonies.
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? 550 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
tions asserting the right of the provincial congress to levy
taxes and issue paper money, and pledging Georgia to her
share of the " expenses which have or may accrue in the
defence of the violated rights of America. " They endorsed
the defense association which had been circulated about
Georgia in June and appointed a committee to present a
copy for the signature of all the inhabitants of the town
and district of Savannah. Finally, they recommended that
in the election of delegates to the next provincial congress
the inhabitants should pledge their lives and fortunes to
support the measures which they might adopt. A general
committee, composed of the Savannah delegates and such
other delegates as might be in town, was appointed to
supervise the execution of the resolutions of the continental
and provincial congresses and to advise with all the paro-
chial and district committees.
The radicals were in the saddle, although their seat was
by no means secure. The work of establishing committees
to enforce the Association went forward. Governor Wright
wrote to the home government that there "are very few
Men of real Abilities, Gentlemen, or Men of Property in
their Tribunals. The Parochial Committee are a Parcel of
the Lowest People, Chiefly Carpenters, Shoemakers, Black-
smiths &c. with a Few at their Head; in the General Com-
mittee and Council of Safety there are Some better Sort of
Men and Some Merchants and Planters, but Many of the
Inferior Class: and it is really Terrible, my Lord, that
Such People Should be Suffered to Overturn the Civil
Government and most arbitrarily determine upon, and
Sport with Other Mens Lives Libertys and Propertys. " *
The accession of Georgia to the Continental Association
relieved the province of the ban placed on it by the Conti-
1 Letter of Dec. 19, 1775; Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls. , vol. iii, p. 228.
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? TRANSFORMATION OF THE ASSOCIATION
551
nental Congress, although it does not appear that Congress
took any formal step to that effect beyond admitting the
Georgia delegates to their seats. 1
The non-importation regulations of the Association were
well enforced in Georgia thereafter. 2 On August 1, Gov-
ernor Wright informed the home government that: "The
Committee here take upon themselves to Order Ships and
Vessells that arrive to Depart again without suffering them
to come up to Town and unload. Some they admit, some
they Order away just as they please, and exactly copy after
Carolina, and are making a very Rapid Progress in the
execution of their Assumed Powers. " * A few days later
he added with reference to the defense association that:
"Every Method has been used to Compdl the People to
Sign the Association; and those who Decline, they threaten
to Proscribe, and for fear of that, and losing their Prop-
erty, or having it Destroyed, Great Numbers have been
Intimidated to Sign, and I suppose by far the greater Part
of the Province have signed it; indeed it is said there are
few in the Country who have not. " * On September 23,
he described the situation in Georgia as: "Government
totally Annihilated, and Assumed by Congresses, Councils
and Committees, and the greatest Acts of Tyranny, Op-
pression, Gross Insults &c &c &c commited, and not the
least means of Protection, Support, or even Personal
Safety . . . " 8 On October 14 he closed his case by stat-
ing: "The Poison has Infected the whole Province, and
1 The General Committee at Charleston revived trading connections on
August 1, 1775. S. C. Gas. , Sept. 7, 1775-
1 E. g. , Ga. Rev. Recs. , vol. i, pp. 81, 90; Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls. , vol. iii,
pp. 210, 215; Journs. Cont. Cong. , vol. ii, pp. 251-252.
1 Ga. Hist. Soc. Colls. , vol. iii, p. 205.
4 Ibid.
* Ibid.