Salem County
showed some individuality in introducing the act of Parliament aga:nst
slitting and plating mills as a grievance and denouncing it as "an
absolute infringement of the natural rights of the subject.
showed some individuality in introducing the act of Parliament aga:nst
slitting and plating mills as a grievance and denouncing it as "an
absolute infringement of the natural rights of the subject.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
8
The provincial convention assembled at Carpenters' Hall
on Friday, July 15, with one or more deputies from every
county in the province. * Thomas Willing was chosen chair-
man, Charles Thomson, clerk. The dominant voice of the
rural members was at once insured by an agreement that
the voting should be by counties. The work of the first day
consisted in the adoption of a platform, or set of resolu-
tions, which voiced the opinion of the convention in a sig-
nificant way. "Unanimously" the convention resolved
that it was their " earnest desire that the Congress should
first try the gentler mode" of petitioning for redress be-
fore resorting to "a suspension of the commerce of this
large trading province. " "By a great majority" it was
voted that, notwithstanding, if Congress should deem a
1 Pa. Journ. , June 29, 1774.
1 Balch, T. , Letters and Papers Relating Chiefly to the Provincial
History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1855), pp. 238-239.
1" Russel" in Pa. Gas. , July 20, 1774. "An Artisan" in ibid. , Aug.
31, and "A Mechanic" in Pa. Packet, Sept. 5, argued boldly for a new
committee.
*For the proceedings of the convention, vide Pa. Gas. , July 27, 1774;
also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 555-593-
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? 352
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
non-importation and non-exportation against Great Britain
expedient, the people of the province would join the other
leading provinces in that measure. "By a majority" it
was resolved that, if any further proceedings of Parliament
should cause Congress to take more drastic steps than a
suspension of trade with Great Britain, the inhabitants
would do all in their power to support the action of Con-
gress. The convention agreed unanimously upon resolves
for the maintenance of the customary prices during a non-
importation, and for a boycott of any province, town or
individual failing to adopt the plan agreed upon by Con-
gress.
Most of the next four days was consumed in consider-
ing and amending a draft of instructions for the delegates,
which had been prepared in advance by a sub-committee of
the Forty-Three, of which Dickinson was the leading spirit.
Finally, on Wednesday, the twentieth, a set of resolutions
was agreed upon, which displayed many internal evidences
of a conflict of interest among the members. The lengthy
document was addressed to the House of Representatives,
and commenced with a Dickinsonian essay on the rights of
the colonies and a request that the House should appoint
delegates to the impending congress. 1 The draft of instruc-
tions was transmitted " in pursuance of the trust imposed"
on them by the inhabitants of the several counties qualified
to vote--a delicate intimation of the common source of
authority of the two bodies. The instructions themselves
bear comparison with the resolutions adopted on the first
day of the convention. After naming a comprehensive list
of grievances extending back into the years, it was de-
1 According to Thomson's account, the convention resolved "at the
same time, in case the Assembly refused, to take upon themselves to
appoint deputies. " Still*, op. cit. , p. 346. This does not appear in the
extract of the proceedings accessible; but in any case it undoubtedly
represented the temper of the convention.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 353
clared that the minimum demands of Congress should in-
clude the repeal of British measures "relating to [the
quartering of] the troops; internal legislation; imposition
of taxes or duties hereafter; the thirty-fifth of Henry the
Eighth, chapter the second; the extension of Admiralty
Courts; the port of Boston and Province of Massachusetts
Bay. " In return for these concessions, the Americans
should agree to settle a certain annual revenue on the king
and "to satisfy all damages done to the East India Com-
pany. "
With regard to the best method of obtaining redress, the
delegates were advised to advocate a petition to the British
government; but if Congress should decide upon an imme-
diate severance of all trade, "we have determined, in the
present situation of publick affairs, to consent to a stop-
page of our commerce with Great Britain only. " Should a
partial redress be granted, the boycott should be modified
in proportion to the degree of relief afforded; on the other
hand, should Parliament pass further oppressive acts, the
inhabitants of the province would support such action as
Congress might adopt more drastic than a suspension of
trade. Finally, the convention informed the House of
Representatives that, " though we have, for the satisfaction
of the good people of this Province, who have chosen us
for this express purpose, offered to you such instructions as
have appeared expedient to us, yet it is not our meaning
that, by these or by any you may think proper to give them,
the Deputies appointed by you should be restrained from
agreeing to any measures that shall be approved by the
Congress. " It was this last clause which, no doubt, recon-
ciled the radicals in the convention to a pseudo-endorsement
of half-way expedients, which the experience of former
years had, in their judgment, decisively discredited. As
for the personnel of the delegates, the convention contented
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
itself with proposing the names of three of its members,
Dickinson, Willing and James Wilson, with the suggestion
that the House should select these three together with four
of its own members. 1
On the next day, Thursday the twenty first, the conven-
tion went in a body to the chamber of the House of Repre-
sentatives and presented their resolutions and instructions. 2
Without according any further formal recognition to the
doings of the convention, the House resolved to take under
consideration on the following day the letters received in
behalf of a general congress from the committees of cor-
respondence of the assemblies of Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and Virginia. On the eve of the morrow's session, a
broadside emanating from the Galloway party was handed
to the members of the House. The paper drew its inspira-
tion from the quotation of Hume's with which it opened:
"All numerous Assemblies, however composed, are mere
mobs, and swayed in their debates by the least motive . . .
An absurdity strikes a member, he conveys it to his neigh-
bours and the whole is infected. . . . The only way of
making people wise, is to keep them from uniting into large
Assemblies. " By what legal authority, it was asked, has
the convention assembled? " We know not where such
precedents may terminate; setting up a power to controul
you, is setting up anarchy above order--IT 1s THE BEGIN-
NING OF REPUBLICANISM. " *
1 This transaction does not appear in the familiar extract of the pro-
ceedings, but it is sufficiently well authenticated; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p.
607 n. ; "Censor" in Pa. Eve. Post, Men. 5, 1776; Thomson's narrative,
Stille, op. tit. , p. 346.
*4 Am. Arch. , voL i, pp. 557, 606.
1 The writer, who signed himself "A Freeman," also denounced the
rule of voting in the convention, by which the vote of a frontier
county was equal to that of "this opulent and populous city and
county. " Ibid. . voL i, pp. 607-608 n.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
355
On the next day, the House resolved, in words very
similar to the vote of the convention, that a congress was
"an absolute necessity. " They did not follow the cue
given them by the convention as to the personnel of the
delegates, and selected seven members out of their own
body, including Galloway himself. A day later, instruc-
tions were voted to " the Committee of Assembly appointed
to attend the General Congress. " These instructions, com-
posed by Galloway, were drawn with a frank disregard of
the elaborate directions submitted by the convention. In
brief form, they stated that the trust reposed in the dele-
gates was of such a nature and the modes of performance
might be so diversified in the course of the deliberations of
Congress that detailed instructions were impossible; that
the delegates should strive their utmost to adopt measures
for redress and the establishment of union and harmony
with Great Britain while avoiding "every thing indecent
or disrespectful to the mother state. " *
(Had the personnel of the delegates been different, the
radicals would have been well pleased with this blanket
delegation of authorit^ But under the circumstances, Gal-
loway expected to control the action of the delegates; and
his own judgment called for the sending of commissioners to
England to adjust differences and for the scrupulous absten-
tion from measures of non-intercourse. 2 Governor Penn
could well assure the Earl of Dartmouth that "the steps
taken by the Assembly are rather a check than an encour-
agement to the proceedings of the Committee [conven-
tion]. "8 The radicals improved their situation somewhat
by securing the addition of Dickinson to the delegates by
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 606-609; also Pa. Gas. , July 27, 1774.
1 Letter to William Franklin; / N. J. Arch. , vol. x, pp. 475-477.
14 Am. Arch. , voL i, p. 661.
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? 356 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
the roundabout process of electing him to the House on
October 15, and he took his seat in Congress after it had
been in session six weeks. From a broader point of view,
the victory lay with the radicals; for, although the House
had professed to act of their own independent will through-
out, there had been, in a real sense of the term, a " setting
up [of] a power to controul" them, a "setting up [of]
anarchy above order. " Galloway himself had decided, as a
lesser of evils, to take part in a great continental assem-
blage elected in most irregular and informal ways. 1
\The trend of sentiment in New Jersey was dominated, it
would appear, by the course of the two great trading towns
that controlled her commercial destinies. ^] On May 21 and
23 the Philadelphia and New York committees had in-
formed the Boston Committee of Correspondence of their
unwillingness for positive action until the meeting of a
general congress; and news of their position became known
at once in New Jersey. On the last day of the month, the
committee of correspondence of the New Jersey Assembly
transmitted to the Boston committee their endorsement of
a congress, as proposed by the neighboring provinces, to
draw up "a Non-Importation and perhaps a Non-Exporta-
1 The resolution of the House appointing Galloway and his co'leagues
described the congress as composed of committees or delegates ap-
pointed by provincial "Houses of Representatives, or by Convention,
or by the Provincial or Colony Committees. " Galloway jus if ed his
conduct upon the ground that the assemblies had not been permuted to
meet in some provinces. Pa. Mag. , vol. xxvi, p. 309.
1 This was hinted at in the first set of resolutions issued by a public
body in New Jersey--a meeting of the inhabitants of Lower Freehold
township in Monmouth County. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 390; also N. Y.
Journ. , June 7, 1774. The radicalism which characterized the rural
population in most provinces was in New Jersey subdued by the pres-
ence of large numbers of Quakers, particularly in the western portion.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
357
tion Agreement. " 1 This was the signal for a series of
county meetings throughout the province, which adopted
resolutions expressing the same view. 2 They also ap-
pointed committees of correspondence, who were instructed
to meet with the other committees in a provincial convention
for the purpose of choosing delegates to the general con-
gress. This convention of committees gathered at New
Brunswick on July 21, and seventy-two delegates took part
in the three days' deliberations. Their resolutions denied
the right of Parliament to impose revenue taxes and de-
nounced the coercive acts recently passed. A continental
congress was endorsed as the best means of uniting oppo-
sition; and a general non-importation and non-consumption
agreement was recommended as the best course for the
congress to adopt. Delegates were appointed to the con-
gress; but an effort to procure an instruction that the East
India Company should not be reimbursed met with failure. 8
The action of the Delaware counties was, on the whole,
less restrained ihiffl that taken at Philadelphia. Published
appeals for arousing public resentment raked over the
embers of past disputes with Parliament in a bitterly par-
tisan way. 4 The first mass meeting, held in Newcastle
1 Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. viii, pp. 709-710.
1 From June 8 to July 20, it is recorded that eleven of the thirteen
counties acted; in chronological order: Essex, Bergen, Morris, Somer-
set, Hunterdon, Salem, Middlesex, Sussex, Gloucester, Monmouth and
Burlington. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, 403-404, 450, 524-525, 553-554, 594, 610-
613; Pa. Journ. , July 20, 1774. These meetings endorsed a suspension
of trade contingent upon the approval of the congress, most of them
preferring non-importation and non-consumption alone.
Salem County
showed some individuality in introducing the act of Parliament aga:nst
slitting and plating mills as a grievance and denouncing it as "an
absolute infringement of the natural rights of the subject. "
1Pa. Gas. , July 27, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 624-625. Vide
also Adams, J. , Works (Adams), vol. ii, p. 356.
4 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 410-420, 658-661.
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? 358 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
County on June 29, recommended a continental congress
as the proper agency for securing redress, and appointed a
committee to correspond with the other counties and prov-
inces with reference to the matter. One resolve requested
the speaker of the House of Assembly to convene the mem-
bers of that body not later than August 1, in order to ap-
point delegates to the congress, no request being made of
the governor because of his refusal in the case of the Phila-
delphia petition. 1 A few weeks later county meetings in
Kent and Sussex took similar action. 2 The convention as-
sembled at Newcastle on August 1. Its resolutions ar-
raigned the British Parliament for restricting manufactures
in the colonies, for taking away the property of the colonists
without their consent, for introducing the arbitrary powers
of the excise into the customs in America, for making all
revenue causes tryable without a jury and under a single
dependent judge, and for passing the coercive acts. Dele-
gates were chosen to the approaching congress. 8
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 664; also Pa. Gas. July 6, 1774.
1 Ibid. , Aug. 3, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 664-666.
1 Ibid. , vol. i, pp. 666-667.
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? CHAPTER IX
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS FOR DOMINANCE
IN THE PLANTATION PROVINCES (MAY-
OCTOBER, 1774)
IT is apparent that a revolution of sentiment had oc-
curred among the merchants of the northern seaports.
Those who had promoted movements oi protest against
earlier acts oi Parliament now sought to stop or restrain
the present popular uprising Ry thijt rpvprgf1l rtf front
they occupied the same position of obstruction 011774
that the mercnants and factors ol the plantat1on pro^
vinces had maintained on all occas1ons smcg the begin-
mng ot the commot1ons ten years betore. For this
reason, the course of the plantation provinces in response
to the circular letter of the Boston town meeting of
May 13, 1774, does not show the marked contrast to the
events in the commercial provinces that had characterized
the earlier occasions.
The nature of the contest in 1774 struck closer home
to the Southern planters than the earlier quarrels over
trade reforms, for the issue was more clearly one of per-
sonal liberty and constitutional right, and in the school
of dialectic the plantation provinces acknowledged no
superiors. The long-standing indebtedness of the
planters to the British merchant,,*, was a source of irrita-
tion that undoubtedly jn^11^fd. r^dir^] action, in the
tobacco provinces and in North Carolina in particular.
The demand for a suspension of debt collections played
359
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? 360 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
a part in the popular movement in these provinces, and,
at a later time, in South Carolina as well. On the pre-
sent occasion, the_merchants of Charleston^nd Savannah
were able to coni1n3. I1cl s1vnnort fr^n1 tile, rural d1stricts
'pg due to peculiar local conditions; but
in Virginia anH Nnrt^ QmlinP "-*""? " *h" mfrc,hants
were forff>H tn stanH alnnp, . tha. . planters adopted the
most radical measures of cnm. mcrf. Bl opposition that
were to be found anywhere in, Brij^fy APWiCjiL Mary-
land was only less extreme in the measures adopted.
The movement to take action in response to the Bos-
ton circular letter received its initial impulse in Mary-
land at a meeting of the inhabitants of Annapolis on
May 25, 1774. The resolutions were an advance be-
yond anything that had been adopted elsewhere up to
this time. The meeting declared that all provinces
should unite in effectual measures t_o_obtain the repeal of
the Boston Port Act and that the inhabitants of Annapolis
would join_ in an oath-bound association, in conjunction
with theth^jVIaryJiai1jir"'1"t1*"7 ? "^ thr> nth0r
provinces for a. n immediate no1i=im. por. t;1t1. '1n w1th
Britain and a sus^cjLdj;d. JQJL^ejUP. gJ! ^atiQIL. The inhabit-
ants would immediately _boycott any province that re-
fused to enter similar resolut1ons with a majority of the
provinces. The meeting further resolved thatj1o lawyer
should bring suit for the recovery of any debt due from
a Marvlander to anv inhabitant _QJ Great Britain until
the Pnrt^Act should t? e repealed. A committee of cor-
respondence was appointed, with instructions to join
with similar committees to be appointed elsewhere in
the province to form one grand committee. 1 The dec-
1 Md. Ga? . , May 26, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 352-353.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES 361
laration about the payment of debts at once aroused pro-
test in the city; and two days later a second meeting
was held to re-consider the question, and the resolution
was carried again, forty-seven to thirty-one. 1 Daniel
Dulany, Jr. , was one of those opposed to the resolution
but later he admitted: "I would have agreed to it if it
had extended to merchants in this country as well as
foreign merchants. ""
All the subsequent meetings in Maryland were county
assemblages, thus reducing the opportunities for mer-
cantile influence. Within three weeks eight of the six-
teen counties were recorded as following the example
of the town of Annapolis. 8 Six of these meetings fav-
ored a non-exportation and non-importation, simultane-
ous or successive; Caroline preferred a modified non-im-
portation only; and Kent was silent on the subject. A
suspension of debt collections, foreign and domestic, was
advocated by four counties, in case of complete non-
intercourse. 4 Six counties declared that all provinces
failing to adopt the general plan should be boycotted.
All the meetings organized committees of correspon-
dence and appointed delegates to the forthcoming pro-
vince convention.
The convention of committees assembled at Annajpjjs
on Wednesday, June 22, for a four days' sitting, with
ninety-two members representing every county in the
1 Md. Gas. , June 2, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 353.
1Ibid. , vol. i. pp. 354-355. A formal protest against the resolution,
signed by one hundred sixty-three names, mostly of stay-at-home
citizens, appeared a few days later. Ibid. , pp. 353-354.
*In chronological order: Queen Anne's, Baltimore, Kent, Anne
Arundel, Harford, lower part of Frederick, Charles, Caroline, Fred-
erick. Ibid. , vol. i. pp. 366-367. 379. 384-386, 402-403, 409, 425-426,
433-434: also Md. Gas. , June 9, 16, 30, 1774.
4 Anne Arundel, Caroline, Frederick, Harford.
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? 362 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
province. It was agreed that everv cquntv should c$st
one vote. The resolutions denounced the punitive acts
of Parliament and declared the willingness of the pro-
vince t9 J9Jn in a retaliatorv association, in company
with the principal provinces of the continent, to -fi^O-P
all, or almost all, commercial intercourse with the
mother country, at a date to be fixed by the general
congress. This latter resolve occasioned long debates
on Friday, lasting from ten in the morning until nine at
night. The division, it would appear, was on the ques-
tion whether the non-intercourse should be absolute, as
proposed by the preliminary county meetings, or quali-
fied. The moderates forced a compromise by which it
was agreed that the non-exportation of tobacco should
not take place without a similar restraint in force in
Virginia and North Carolina, and that articles should be
excepted from the non-importation in case a majority of
the provinces should so decide. Further resolutions
declared that rnemliaiits_nui&t_not raise prices, on pain
of boycott; and that the province would sever all rela-
tions with any province or town which declined the plan
recommended by the congress. 1 Apparently there was
little thought of adopting an association which should go
into effect independently of Congress; the resolutions
were in the nature of instructions to the delegates to
Congress, who were forthwith chosen.
The ^Virginia House of Burgesses was in session when
news was received at Williamsburg of the passage of the
Boston Port Act. ^jfharH Henrv l^eer one of the mem-
bers, urged that an immediate declaration be made in
behalf of Boston, but was dissuaded by some "worthy
1 Md. Gas. t June 30, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 439-440.
Vide a letter from Annapolis in Pa. Journ. , June 29.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES 363
members" who desired first to dispose of necessary
provincial business. 1 "Whatever resolves or measures
are intended for the preservation of our rights and lib-
erties," wrote George Mason, who was a spectator of
these events, "will be reserved for the conclusion of the
session. Matters of that sort here are conducted and
prepared with a great deal of privacy, and by very few
members; of whom Patrick Henry is the principal. "
Finally, on Tuesday, May 24, the House resolved that
the first of June, the day on which the harbor of Boston
was to be closed, should be set aside as a "day of fast-
ing, humiliation and prayer. " Governor Dunmore, sus-
pecting rightly that the fast was 1ntended to prepare the
minds of the people to receive other and more inflam-
matory resolutions, ^'fgfllv^ tllA Wn^g^ two days later.
Not to be foiled, eighty-nine
in the Long Room of the Raleigh
Tavern on Friday morning, with Peyton Randolph as
chairman, and adopted an association in which they
declared war on the East India Company
ing the disu se of dutied tea and of all East India com-
modities. save saltpetre and spices^ It was further recom-
mended to the legislative committee of correspondence
to invite the various provinces to meeJjn annual congress
for the sake of deliberating on measures of common con-
cern. In point of time, this was the first pronounce-
ment by a meeting representing a whole province in
favor of an interprovincial congress; but, as we have
seen, the proposal had already been made by many town
gatherings in various other provinces.
1This account is based chiefly on: ? / Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 350-352,
387-388, 445-446; Washington, Writings (Ford), vol. ii, pp. 412-415,
n. 2; letter of a burgess in Rind's Va. Gas.
The provincial convention assembled at Carpenters' Hall
on Friday, July 15, with one or more deputies from every
county in the province. * Thomas Willing was chosen chair-
man, Charles Thomson, clerk. The dominant voice of the
rural members was at once insured by an agreement that
the voting should be by counties. The work of the first day
consisted in the adoption of a platform, or set of resolu-
tions, which voiced the opinion of the convention in a sig-
nificant way. "Unanimously" the convention resolved
that it was their " earnest desire that the Congress should
first try the gentler mode" of petitioning for redress be-
fore resorting to "a suspension of the commerce of this
large trading province. " "By a great majority" it was
voted that, notwithstanding, if Congress should deem a
1 Pa. Journ. , June 29, 1774.
1 Balch, T. , Letters and Papers Relating Chiefly to the Provincial
History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1855), pp. 238-239.
1" Russel" in Pa. Gas. , July 20, 1774. "An Artisan" in ibid. , Aug.
31, and "A Mechanic" in Pa. Packet, Sept. 5, argued boldly for a new
committee.
*For the proceedings of the convention, vide Pa. Gas. , July 27, 1774;
also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 555-593-
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? 352
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
non-importation and non-exportation against Great Britain
expedient, the people of the province would join the other
leading provinces in that measure. "By a majority" it
was resolved that, if any further proceedings of Parliament
should cause Congress to take more drastic steps than a
suspension of trade with Great Britain, the inhabitants
would do all in their power to support the action of Con-
gress. The convention agreed unanimously upon resolves
for the maintenance of the customary prices during a non-
importation, and for a boycott of any province, town or
individual failing to adopt the plan agreed upon by Con-
gress.
Most of the next four days was consumed in consider-
ing and amending a draft of instructions for the delegates,
which had been prepared in advance by a sub-committee of
the Forty-Three, of which Dickinson was the leading spirit.
Finally, on Wednesday, the twentieth, a set of resolutions
was agreed upon, which displayed many internal evidences
of a conflict of interest among the members. The lengthy
document was addressed to the House of Representatives,
and commenced with a Dickinsonian essay on the rights of
the colonies and a request that the House should appoint
delegates to the impending congress. 1 The draft of instruc-
tions was transmitted " in pursuance of the trust imposed"
on them by the inhabitants of the several counties qualified
to vote--a delicate intimation of the common source of
authority of the two bodies. The instructions themselves
bear comparison with the resolutions adopted on the first
day of the convention. After naming a comprehensive list
of grievances extending back into the years, it was de-
1 According to Thomson's account, the convention resolved "at the
same time, in case the Assembly refused, to take upon themselves to
appoint deputies. " Still*, op. cit. , p. 346. This does not appear in the
extract of the proceedings accessible; but in any case it undoubtedly
represented the temper of the convention.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 353
clared that the minimum demands of Congress should in-
clude the repeal of British measures "relating to [the
quartering of] the troops; internal legislation; imposition
of taxes or duties hereafter; the thirty-fifth of Henry the
Eighth, chapter the second; the extension of Admiralty
Courts; the port of Boston and Province of Massachusetts
Bay. " In return for these concessions, the Americans
should agree to settle a certain annual revenue on the king
and "to satisfy all damages done to the East India Com-
pany. "
With regard to the best method of obtaining redress, the
delegates were advised to advocate a petition to the British
government; but if Congress should decide upon an imme-
diate severance of all trade, "we have determined, in the
present situation of publick affairs, to consent to a stop-
page of our commerce with Great Britain only. " Should a
partial redress be granted, the boycott should be modified
in proportion to the degree of relief afforded; on the other
hand, should Parliament pass further oppressive acts, the
inhabitants of the province would support such action as
Congress might adopt more drastic than a suspension of
trade. Finally, the convention informed the House of
Representatives that, " though we have, for the satisfaction
of the good people of this Province, who have chosen us
for this express purpose, offered to you such instructions as
have appeared expedient to us, yet it is not our meaning
that, by these or by any you may think proper to give them,
the Deputies appointed by you should be restrained from
agreeing to any measures that shall be approved by the
Congress. " It was this last clause which, no doubt, recon-
ciled the radicals in the convention to a pseudo-endorsement
of half-way expedients, which the experience of former
years had, in their judgment, decisively discredited. As
for the personnel of the delegates, the convention contented
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? THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
itself with proposing the names of three of its members,
Dickinson, Willing and James Wilson, with the suggestion
that the House should select these three together with four
of its own members. 1
On the next day, Thursday the twenty first, the conven-
tion went in a body to the chamber of the House of Repre-
sentatives and presented their resolutions and instructions. 2
Without according any further formal recognition to the
doings of the convention, the House resolved to take under
consideration on the following day the letters received in
behalf of a general congress from the committees of cor-
respondence of the assemblies of Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and Virginia. On the eve of the morrow's session, a
broadside emanating from the Galloway party was handed
to the members of the House. The paper drew its inspira-
tion from the quotation of Hume's with which it opened:
"All numerous Assemblies, however composed, are mere
mobs, and swayed in their debates by the least motive . . .
An absurdity strikes a member, he conveys it to his neigh-
bours and the whole is infected. . . . The only way of
making people wise, is to keep them from uniting into large
Assemblies. " By what legal authority, it was asked, has
the convention assembled? " We know not where such
precedents may terminate; setting up a power to controul
you, is setting up anarchy above order--IT 1s THE BEGIN-
NING OF REPUBLICANISM. " *
1 This transaction does not appear in the familiar extract of the pro-
ceedings, but it is sufficiently well authenticated; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p.
607 n. ; "Censor" in Pa. Eve. Post, Men. 5, 1776; Thomson's narrative,
Stille, op. tit. , p. 346.
*4 Am. Arch. , voL i, pp. 557, 606.
1 The writer, who signed himself "A Freeman," also denounced the
rule of voting in the convention, by which the vote of a frontier
county was equal to that of "this opulent and populous city and
county. " Ibid. . voL i, pp. 607-608 n.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
355
On the next day, the House resolved, in words very
similar to the vote of the convention, that a congress was
"an absolute necessity. " They did not follow the cue
given them by the convention as to the personnel of the
delegates, and selected seven members out of their own
body, including Galloway himself. A day later, instruc-
tions were voted to " the Committee of Assembly appointed
to attend the General Congress. " These instructions, com-
posed by Galloway, were drawn with a frank disregard of
the elaborate directions submitted by the convention. In
brief form, they stated that the trust reposed in the dele-
gates was of such a nature and the modes of performance
might be so diversified in the course of the deliberations of
Congress that detailed instructions were impossible; that
the delegates should strive their utmost to adopt measures
for redress and the establishment of union and harmony
with Great Britain while avoiding "every thing indecent
or disrespectful to the mother state. " *
(Had the personnel of the delegates been different, the
radicals would have been well pleased with this blanket
delegation of authorit^ But under the circumstances, Gal-
loway expected to control the action of the delegates; and
his own judgment called for the sending of commissioners to
England to adjust differences and for the scrupulous absten-
tion from measures of non-intercourse. 2 Governor Penn
could well assure the Earl of Dartmouth that "the steps
taken by the Assembly are rather a check than an encour-
agement to the proceedings of the Committee [conven-
tion]. "8 The radicals improved their situation somewhat
by securing the addition of Dickinson to the delegates by
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 606-609; also Pa. Gas. , July 27, 1774.
1 Letter to William Franklin; / N. J. Arch. , vol. x, pp. 475-477.
14 Am. Arch. , voL i, p. 661.
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? 356 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
the roundabout process of electing him to the House on
October 15, and he took his seat in Congress after it had
been in session six weeks. From a broader point of view,
the victory lay with the radicals; for, although the House
had professed to act of their own independent will through-
out, there had been, in a real sense of the term, a " setting
up [of] a power to controul" them, a "setting up [of]
anarchy above order. " Galloway himself had decided, as a
lesser of evils, to take part in a great continental assem-
blage elected in most irregular and informal ways. 1
\The trend of sentiment in New Jersey was dominated, it
would appear, by the course of the two great trading towns
that controlled her commercial destinies. ^] On May 21 and
23 the Philadelphia and New York committees had in-
formed the Boston Committee of Correspondence of their
unwillingness for positive action until the meeting of a
general congress; and news of their position became known
at once in New Jersey. On the last day of the month, the
committee of correspondence of the New Jersey Assembly
transmitted to the Boston committee their endorsement of
a congress, as proposed by the neighboring provinces, to
draw up "a Non-Importation and perhaps a Non-Exporta-
1 The resolution of the House appointing Galloway and his co'leagues
described the congress as composed of committees or delegates ap-
pointed by provincial "Houses of Representatives, or by Convention,
or by the Provincial or Colony Committees. " Galloway jus if ed his
conduct upon the ground that the assemblies had not been permuted to
meet in some provinces. Pa. Mag. , vol. xxvi, p. 309.
1 This was hinted at in the first set of resolutions issued by a public
body in New Jersey--a meeting of the inhabitants of Lower Freehold
township in Monmouth County. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 390; also N. Y.
Journ. , June 7, 1774. The radicalism which characterized the rural
population in most provinces was in New Jersey subdued by the pres-
ence of large numbers of Quakers, particularly in the western portion.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
357
tion Agreement. " 1 This was the signal for a series of
county meetings throughout the province, which adopted
resolutions expressing the same view. 2 They also ap-
pointed committees of correspondence, who were instructed
to meet with the other committees in a provincial convention
for the purpose of choosing delegates to the general con-
gress. This convention of committees gathered at New
Brunswick on July 21, and seventy-two delegates took part
in the three days' deliberations. Their resolutions denied
the right of Parliament to impose revenue taxes and de-
nounced the coercive acts recently passed. A continental
congress was endorsed as the best means of uniting oppo-
sition; and a general non-importation and non-consumption
agreement was recommended as the best course for the
congress to adopt. Delegates were appointed to the con-
gress; but an effort to procure an instruction that the East
India Company should not be reimbursed met with failure. 8
The action of the Delaware counties was, on the whole,
less restrained ihiffl that taken at Philadelphia. Published
appeals for arousing public resentment raked over the
embers of past disputes with Parliament in a bitterly par-
tisan way. 4 The first mass meeting, held in Newcastle
1 Bos. Com. Cor. Mss. , vol. viii, pp. 709-710.
1 From June 8 to July 20, it is recorded that eleven of the thirteen
counties acted; in chronological order: Essex, Bergen, Morris, Somer-
set, Hunterdon, Salem, Middlesex, Sussex, Gloucester, Monmouth and
Burlington. 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, 403-404, 450, 524-525, 553-554, 594, 610-
613; Pa. Journ. , July 20, 1774. These meetings endorsed a suspension
of trade contingent upon the approval of the congress, most of them
preferring non-importation and non-consumption alone.
Salem County
showed some individuality in introducing the act of Parliament aga:nst
slitting and plating mills as a grievance and denouncing it as "an
absolute infringement of the natural rights of the subject. "
1Pa. Gas. , July 27, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 624-625. Vide
also Adams, J. , Works (Adams), vol. ii, p. 356.
4 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 410-420, 658-661.
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? 358 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
County on June 29, recommended a continental congress
as the proper agency for securing redress, and appointed a
committee to correspond with the other counties and prov-
inces with reference to the matter. One resolve requested
the speaker of the House of Assembly to convene the mem-
bers of that body not later than August 1, in order to ap-
point delegates to the congress, no request being made of
the governor because of his refusal in the case of the Phila-
delphia petition. 1 A few weeks later county meetings in
Kent and Sussex took similar action. 2 The convention as-
sembled at Newcastle on August 1. Its resolutions ar-
raigned the British Parliament for restricting manufactures
in the colonies, for taking away the property of the colonists
without their consent, for introducing the arbitrary powers
of the excise into the customs in America, for making all
revenue causes tryable without a jury and under a single
dependent judge, and for passing the coercive acts. Dele-
gates were chosen to the approaching congress. 8
14 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 664; also Pa. Gas. July 6, 1774.
1 Ibid. , Aug. 3, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 664-666.
1 Ibid. , vol. i, pp. 666-667.
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? CHAPTER IX
CONTEST OF MERCHANTS AND RADICALS FOR DOMINANCE
IN THE PLANTATION PROVINCES (MAY-
OCTOBER, 1774)
IT is apparent that a revolution of sentiment had oc-
curred among the merchants of the northern seaports.
Those who had promoted movements oi protest against
earlier acts oi Parliament now sought to stop or restrain
the present popular uprising Ry thijt rpvprgf1l rtf front
they occupied the same position of obstruction 011774
that the mercnants and factors ol the plantat1on pro^
vinces had maintained on all occas1ons smcg the begin-
mng ot the commot1ons ten years betore. For this
reason, the course of the plantation provinces in response
to the circular letter of the Boston town meeting of
May 13, 1774, does not show the marked contrast to the
events in the commercial provinces that had characterized
the earlier occasions.
The nature of the contest in 1774 struck closer home
to the Southern planters than the earlier quarrels over
trade reforms, for the issue was more clearly one of per-
sonal liberty and constitutional right, and in the school
of dialectic the plantation provinces acknowledged no
superiors. The long-standing indebtedness of the
planters to the British merchant,,*, was a source of irrita-
tion that undoubtedly jn^11^fd. r^dir^] action, in the
tobacco provinces and in North Carolina in particular.
The demand for a suspension of debt collections played
359
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? 360 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
a part in the popular movement in these provinces, and,
at a later time, in South Carolina as well. On the pre-
sent occasion, the_merchants of Charleston^nd Savannah
were able to coni1n3. I1cl s1vnnort fr^n1 tile, rural d1stricts
'pg due to peculiar local conditions; but
in Virginia anH Nnrt^ QmlinP "-*""? " *h" mfrc,hants
were forff>H tn stanH alnnp, . tha. . planters adopted the
most radical measures of cnm. mcrf. Bl opposition that
were to be found anywhere in, Brij^fy APWiCjiL Mary-
land was only less extreme in the measures adopted.
The movement to take action in response to the Bos-
ton circular letter received its initial impulse in Mary-
land at a meeting of the inhabitants of Annapolis on
May 25, 1774. The resolutions were an advance be-
yond anything that had been adopted elsewhere up to
this time. The meeting declared that all provinces
should unite in effectual measures t_o_obtain the repeal of
the Boston Port Act and that the inhabitants of Annapolis
would join_ in an oath-bound association, in conjunction
with theth^jVIaryJiai1jir"'1"t1*"7 ? "^ thr> nth0r
provinces for a. n immediate no1i=im. por. t;1t1. '1n w1th
Britain and a sus^cjLdj;d. JQJL^ejUP. gJ! ^atiQIL. The inhabit-
ants would immediately _boycott any province that re-
fused to enter similar resolut1ons with a majority of the
provinces. The meeting further resolved thatj1o lawyer
should bring suit for the recovery of any debt due from
a Marvlander to anv inhabitant _QJ Great Britain until
the Pnrt^Act should t? e repealed. A committee of cor-
respondence was appointed, with instructions to join
with similar committees to be appointed elsewhere in
the province to form one grand committee. 1 The dec-
1 Md. Ga? . , May 26, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 352-353.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES 361
laration about the payment of debts at once aroused pro-
test in the city; and two days later a second meeting
was held to re-consider the question, and the resolution
was carried again, forty-seven to thirty-one. 1 Daniel
Dulany, Jr. , was one of those opposed to the resolution
but later he admitted: "I would have agreed to it if it
had extended to merchants in this country as well as
foreign merchants. ""
All the subsequent meetings in Maryland were county
assemblages, thus reducing the opportunities for mer-
cantile influence. Within three weeks eight of the six-
teen counties were recorded as following the example
of the town of Annapolis. 8 Six of these meetings fav-
ored a non-exportation and non-importation, simultane-
ous or successive; Caroline preferred a modified non-im-
portation only; and Kent was silent on the subject. A
suspension of debt collections, foreign and domestic, was
advocated by four counties, in case of complete non-
intercourse. 4 Six counties declared that all provinces
failing to adopt the general plan should be boycotted.
All the meetings organized committees of correspon-
dence and appointed delegates to the forthcoming pro-
vince convention.
The convention of committees assembled at Annajpjjs
on Wednesday, June 22, for a four days' sitting, with
ninety-two members representing every county in the
1 Md. Gas. , June 2, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 353.
1Ibid. , vol. i. pp. 354-355. A formal protest against the resolution,
signed by one hundred sixty-three names, mostly of stay-at-home
citizens, appeared a few days later. Ibid. , pp. 353-354.
*In chronological order: Queen Anne's, Baltimore, Kent, Anne
Arundel, Harford, lower part of Frederick, Charles, Caroline, Fred-
erick. Ibid. , vol. i. pp. 366-367. 379. 384-386, 402-403, 409, 425-426,
433-434: also Md. Gas. , June 9, 16, 30, 1774.
4 Anne Arundel, Caroline, Frederick, Harford.
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? 362 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763-1776
province. It was agreed that everv cquntv should c$st
one vote. The resolutions denounced the punitive acts
of Parliament and declared the willingness of the pro-
vince t9 J9Jn in a retaliatorv association, in company
with the principal provinces of the continent, to -fi^O-P
all, or almost all, commercial intercourse with the
mother country, at a date to be fixed by the general
congress. This latter resolve occasioned long debates
on Friday, lasting from ten in the morning until nine at
night. The division, it would appear, was on the ques-
tion whether the non-intercourse should be absolute, as
proposed by the preliminary county meetings, or quali-
fied. The moderates forced a compromise by which it
was agreed that the non-exportation of tobacco should
not take place without a similar restraint in force in
Virginia and North Carolina, and that articles should be
excepted from the non-importation in case a majority of
the provinces should so decide. Further resolutions
declared that rnemliaiits_nui&t_not raise prices, on pain
of boycott; and that the province would sever all rela-
tions with any province or town which declined the plan
recommended by the congress. 1 Apparently there was
little thought of adopting an association which should go
into effect independently of Congress; the resolutions
were in the nature of instructions to the delegates to
Congress, who were forthwith chosen.
The ^Virginia House of Burgesses was in session when
news was received at Williamsburg of the passage of the
Boston Port Act. ^jfharH Henrv l^eer one of the mem-
bers, urged that an immediate declaration be made in
behalf of Boston, but was dissuaded by some "worthy
1 Md. Gas. t June 30, 1774; also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 439-440.
Vide a letter from Annapolis in Pa. Journ. , June 29.
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? CONTEST IN PLANTATION PROVINCES 363
members" who desired first to dispose of necessary
provincial business. 1 "Whatever resolves or measures
are intended for the preservation of our rights and lib-
erties," wrote George Mason, who was a spectator of
these events, "will be reserved for the conclusion of the
session. Matters of that sort here are conducted and
prepared with a great deal of privacy, and by very few
members; of whom Patrick Henry is the principal. "
Finally, on Tuesday, May 24, the House resolved that
the first of June, the day on which the harbor of Boston
was to be closed, should be set aside as a "day of fast-
ing, humiliation and prayer. " Governor Dunmore, sus-
pecting rightly that the fast was 1ntended to prepare the
minds of the people to receive other and more inflam-
matory resolutions, ^'fgfllv^ tllA Wn^g^ two days later.
Not to be foiled, eighty-nine
in the Long Room of the Raleigh
Tavern on Friday morning, with Peyton Randolph as
chairman, and adopted an association in which they
declared war on the East India Company
ing the disu se of dutied tea and of all East India com-
modities. save saltpetre and spices^ It was further recom-
mended to the legislative committee of correspondence
to invite the various provinces to meeJjn annual congress
for the sake of deliberating on measures of common con-
cern. In point of time, this was the first pronounce-
ment by a meeting representing a whole province in
favor of an interprovincial congress; but, as we have
seen, the proposal had already been made by many town
gatherings in various other provinces.
1This account is based chiefly on: ? / Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 350-352,
387-388, 445-446; Washington, Writings (Ford), vol. ii, pp. 412-415,
n. 2; letter of a burgess in Rind's Va. Gas.
