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.
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.
Arthur Schlesinger - Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution
Smith declared,
on a later occasion, that he would remain on the committee as long as
he could be "of any Use in advising Measures consistent with the
Principles I profess and that Allegiance and subordination which we
owe to the Crown and Empire of Great Britain. " Notes and Papers,
pp. 17-18.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
347
ized it. Two resolutions were adopted, declaring that Bos-
ton was suffering in the common cause and that a congress
of deputies from the colonies was the proper way of ob-
taining redress of grievances. No mention was made of
the Boston proposal for non-intercourse. The ticket of
forty-four names, prepared by the caucus, was elected with
little difficulty, although it would appear that James Pem-
berton, a pillar of the Society of Friends, withdrew his
name at once, thus leaving forty-three. 1 This committee
was instructed to correspond with the rural counties and
with the sister provinces, and to devise a means of choosing
delegates to the Continental Congress. The next few weeks
saw the establishment of committees of correspondence in
most of the counties and the adoption of resolutions for an
interprovincial congress as proposed by the Forty-Three at
iladelphia. 2
Forty-Three were as moderate in temper as the
Fifty-One of New York and strove for the same objects.
But under the gracious leadership of the chairman, John
Dickinson, a sharp clash was avoided between the Radical
minority of the committee and the dominant element] and
indeed the two factions found it to their interest to unite
forces, upon most occasions, against a common enemy.
This common foe, of which there was no exact counterpart
in New York, was the strongly consolidated conservative
group entrenched in the lower house of the Assembly under
the leadership of Joseph Galloway, the speaker. Galloway
1 His name is included in 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 426-428, but not in
the newspaper accounts: Pa. Gas. , June 22, 1774; Pa. Journ. , June 22;
Pa. Packet, June 27. For Pemberton's sentiments, vide statement of
Quakers, May 30, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 365-366, and his letter
in Sharpless, Quakers in Revolution, pp. 107-109.
* From June 18 to July 13 committees were appointed in the counties
of Chester, Northampton, Berks, York, Bucks, Lancaster, Bedford,
Cumberland and Chester. Vide files of Pa. Gas. , and Pa. Journ.
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? 348 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
had long been an opponent of Dickinson in provincial poli-
tics over the issue of proprietary vs. royal government for
Pennsylvania; he had upon one occasion declined a chal-
lenge from Dickinson, but the two men fought many a
wordy duel in broadside and newspaper. 1 Like many an-
other gentleman of wealth and prestige who chose the
British side when the war broke out, Galloway believed in
the justice of many of the American demands. He was a
constructive critic of the colonial policy of the home gov-
ernment and believed that alleviation could, and should
properly, come only through the traditional and legal chan-
nel of legislative memorials to Parliament. Efforts at pop-
ular control through extra-legal action were to him a species
of anarchy, and he held himself aloof from all popular
movements whatever their purpose. 2 Confronted with a
popular movement of continental proportions and alarmed
by the vigorous and unusual measures of Parliament against
1 Baldwin, E. H. , "Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician," Pa.
Mag. , vol. xxvi, particularly pp. 161-191.
1 Says Galloway's biographer: "With a conservatism natural to
wealth, and with inherited aristocratic tendencies, Mr. Galloway ob-
served with no small concern the growth of republican ideas. That
there could be any true liberty, or any safety even, under a democracy,
or what he considered was nearly, if not quite, the same thing, mob
rule, he believed impossible. It was with no small degree of appre-
hension, therefore, that he viewed the growing differences between
Great Britain and her Colonies. With a property-holder's natural
aversion to taxation, and with a realization of the injustice which
might result from measures of taxation by Parliament, he aided in all
ways that he considered proper to remove the causes of complaint.
The very suggestion that the remedy for the troubles lay in independ-
ence was repugnant to him. The remedy lay rather in a closer union
with the mother country. The political experiences of Mr. Galloway in
Pennsylvania made him naturally suspicious of the intentions of the
noisy elements among the people, and he soon came to the conclusion
that ultimate independence was their aim; at least their conduct could
lead to nothing else. Hence he determined to exert his best efforts
to prevent such a deplorable occurrence. " Ibid. , p. 440.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 349
Boston, Galloway was now willing to favor an interprovin-
cial congress if it should be composed of delegates chosen
by the members composing the popular branches of the sev-
eral provincial legislatures. Such a congress, he believed,
might formulate a plan of " political union between the two
countries, with the assent of both, which would effectually
secure to Americans their future rights and privileges. " 1
^he policy of the Forty-Three was to conciliate and unite
all factions in the province in support of the approaching
congress. Therefore, although the mere existence of an
extra-legal committee represented a principle hateful to the
Galloway partyjthe Forty-Three adopted a plan of action
which enlisted the co-operation of Galloway almost in spite
of himself. The Forty-Three had been instructed by the
public meeting to devise a means of ascertaining the sense
of the province and of electing delegates to the Continental
Congress. At a meeting on June 27, they decided that they
would ask Speaker Galloway to call the members of the
House together for an unofficial session to consider the
alarming situation, and that they would summon, for the
same time, a convention of county committees "to consult
and advise on the most expedient mode of appointing dele-
gates for the general congress and to give their weight to
such as may be adopted. "2 This latter body, the radical
leaders had already learned " under colour of an excursion
of pleasure," * would be definitely radical in its composition,
for in it the western counties would have a much larger
voice than under the unfair system of representation main-
1 Vide letter signed by Galloway and three others as members of the
committee of correspondence of the Assembly. Pa. Gas. , July 13, 1774;
also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 485-486. Cf. the scathing comment of a
New York newspaper writer. Ibid. , vol. i, p. 486 n.
1 Pa. Gas. , June 29, July 6, 1774; Lincoln, Revolutionary Movement
in Pa. , pp. I73-I75.
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 434. Vide also ibid. , p. 726.
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? 350
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1769-1776
tained by the House of Representatives. 1 Thus, their ob-
ject was to leave the actual appointment of the delegates to
the members of the House, as the Galloway party wished,
but, through the popular convention, to dictate the terms
upon which the delegates should be chosen.
The governor made unnecessary the informal assembling
of the House by summoning a legislative session for Mon-
day, July 18, on the pretext of some Indian disturbances.
When, therefore, the Forty-Three sent their circular letter
to the counties, they noted this fact, and asked the provin-
cial convention to assemble on July 15 "in order to assist
in framing instructions, and preparing such matters, as
may be proper to recommend" to the members of the
House. " 2 For the next several weeks, newspaper articles
served to keep alive the public interest and to indicate the
trend of public opinion. ? A Philadelphian" argued against
non-importation as a mode of opposition because the bur-
den would fall wholly on the drygoods importers whereas
the interests of all were involved. *_J " Brutus" believed
that the plan, proposed by the Boston circular letter, was
dictated more by " heated zeal than by approved reason and
moderation," and maintained that the proper course would
be for Congress to petition the British government for re-
dress. 4 But, according to " Sidney," those who espoused
the method of petition were "men who prefer one cargo
of British goods to the salvation of America," and he de-
manded an immediate non-importation. 5 "Anglus Ameri-
canus" would also include a non-exportation, particularly
1 For the "rotten borough" system in Pennsylvania, vide Adams, J. ,
Works, vol. x, pp. 74-75; Lincoln, op. cit. , pp. 40-52.
2 Pa. Gas. , July 6, 1774. 8 Ibid. , Aug. 17, 1774.
* Ibid. , July 20, 1774. 5 Pa. Journ. , Aug. 31, 1774.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
351
to the West Indies. 1 Rural opinion was well expressed by
Edward Shippen when he advocated a total non-importa-
tion and non-exportation, insisting that the Boston Port
Act contained the names of all the provinces, "only they
are written in lime juice and want the heat of fire to make
them legible. " 2 On July 11 the mechanics and small
tradesmen of Philadelphia held a meeting to urge another
mass meeting of the city and county, at which the Penn-
sylvania delegates should be given unrestricted power to
agree to a trade suspension by the congress. But the
Forty-Three saw in this gathering a design to undermine
their authority, and nothing came of the matter. 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.
on a later occasion, that he would remain on the committee as long as
he could be "of any Use in advising Measures consistent with the
Principles I profess and that Allegiance and subordination which we
owe to the Crown and Empire of Great Britain. " Notes and Papers,
pp. 17-18.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
347
ized it. Two resolutions were adopted, declaring that Bos-
ton was suffering in the common cause and that a congress
of deputies from the colonies was the proper way of ob-
taining redress of grievances. No mention was made of
the Boston proposal for non-intercourse. The ticket of
forty-four names, prepared by the caucus, was elected with
little difficulty, although it would appear that James Pem-
berton, a pillar of the Society of Friends, withdrew his
name at once, thus leaving forty-three. 1 This committee
was instructed to correspond with the rural counties and
with the sister provinces, and to devise a means of choosing
delegates to the Continental Congress. The next few weeks
saw the establishment of committees of correspondence in
most of the counties and the adoption of resolutions for an
interprovincial congress as proposed by the Forty-Three at
iladelphia. 2
Forty-Three were as moderate in temper as the
Fifty-One of New York and strove for the same objects.
But under the gracious leadership of the chairman, John
Dickinson, a sharp clash was avoided between the Radical
minority of the committee and the dominant element] and
indeed the two factions found it to their interest to unite
forces, upon most occasions, against a common enemy.
This common foe, of which there was no exact counterpart
in New York, was the strongly consolidated conservative
group entrenched in the lower house of the Assembly under
the leadership of Joseph Galloway, the speaker. Galloway
1 His name is included in 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 426-428, but not in
the newspaper accounts: Pa. Gas. , June 22, 1774; Pa. Journ. , June 22;
Pa. Packet, June 27. For Pemberton's sentiments, vide statement of
Quakers, May 30, 1774; 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 365-366, and his letter
in Sharpless, Quakers in Revolution, pp. 107-109.
* From June 18 to July 13 committees were appointed in the counties
of Chester, Northampton, Berks, York, Bucks, Lancaster, Bedford,
Cumberland and Chester. Vide files of Pa. Gas. , and Pa. Journ.
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? 348 THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1763. 1776
had long been an opponent of Dickinson in provincial poli-
tics over the issue of proprietary vs. royal government for
Pennsylvania; he had upon one occasion declined a chal-
lenge from Dickinson, but the two men fought many a
wordy duel in broadside and newspaper. 1 Like many an-
other gentleman of wealth and prestige who chose the
British side when the war broke out, Galloway believed in
the justice of many of the American demands. He was a
constructive critic of the colonial policy of the home gov-
ernment and believed that alleviation could, and should
properly, come only through the traditional and legal chan-
nel of legislative memorials to Parliament. Efforts at pop-
ular control through extra-legal action were to him a species
of anarchy, and he held himself aloof from all popular
movements whatever their purpose. 2 Confronted with a
popular movement of continental proportions and alarmed
by the vigorous and unusual measures of Parliament against
1 Baldwin, E. H. , "Joseph Galloway, the Loyalist Politician," Pa.
Mag. , vol. xxvi, particularly pp. 161-191.
1 Says Galloway's biographer: "With a conservatism natural to
wealth, and with inherited aristocratic tendencies, Mr. Galloway ob-
served with no small concern the growth of republican ideas. That
there could be any true liberty, or any safety even, under a democracy,
or what he considered was nearly, if not quite, the same thing, mob
rule, he believed impossible. It was with no small degree of appre-
hension, therefore, that he viewed the growing differences between
Great Britain and her Colonies. With a property-holder's natural
aversion to taxation, and with a realization of the injustice which
might result from measures of taxation by Parliament, he aided in all
ways that he considered proper to remove the causes of complaint.
The very suggestion that the remedy for the troubles lay in independ-
ence was repugnant to him. The remedy lay rather in a closer union
with the mother country. The political experiences of Mr. Galloway in
Pennsylvania made him naturally suspicious of the intentions of the
noisy elements among the people, and he soon came to the conclusion
that ultimate independence was their aim; at least their conduct could
lead to nothing else. Hence he determined to exert his best efforts
to prevent such a deplorable occurrence. " Ibid. , p. 440.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES 349
Boston, Galloway was now willing to favor an interprovin-
cial congress if it should be composed of delegates chosen
by the members composing the popular branches of the sev-
eral provincial legislatures. Such a congress, he believed,
might formulate a plan of " political union between the two
countries, with the assent of both, which would effectually
secure to Americans their future rights and privileges. " 1
^he policy of the Forty-Three was to conciliate and unite
all factions in the province in support of the approaching
congress. Therefore, although the mere existence of an
extra-legal committee represented a principle hateful to the
Galloway partyjthe Forty-Three adopted a plan of action
which enlisted the co-operation of Galloway almost in spite
of himself. The Forty-Three had been instructed by the
public meeting to devise a means of ascertaining the sense
of the province and of electing delegates to the Continental
Congress. At a meeting on June 27, they decided that they
would ask Speaker Galloway to call the members of the
House together for an unofficial session to consider the
alarming situation, and that they would summon, for the
same time, a convention of county committees "to consult
and advise on the most expedient mode of appointing dele-
gates for the general congress and to give their weight to
such as may be adopted. "2 This latter body, the radical
leaders had already learned " under colour of an excursion
of pleasure," * would be definitely radical in its composition,
for in it the western counties would have a much larger
voice than under the unfair system of representation main-
1 Vide letter signed by Galloway and three others as members of the
committee of correspondence of the Assembly. Pa. Gas. , July 13, 1774;
also 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, pp. 485-486. Cf. the scathing comment of a
New York newspaper writer. Ibid. , vol. i, p. 486 n.
1 Pa. Gas. , June 29, July 6, 1774; Lincoln, Revolutionary Movement
in Pa. , pp. I73-I75.
1 4 Am. Arch. , vol. i, p. 434. Vide also ibid. , p. 726.
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? 350
THE COLONIAL MERCHANTS: 1769-1776
tained by the House of Representatives. 1 Thus, their ob-
ject was to leave the actual appointment of the delegates to
the members of the House, as the Galloway party wished,
but, through the popular convention, to dictate the terms
upon which the delegates should be chosen.
The governor made unnecessary the informal assembling
of the House by summoning a legislative session for Mon-
day, July 18, on the pretext of some Indian disturbances.
When, therefore, the Forty-Three sent their circular letter
to the counties, they noted this fact, and asked the provin-
cial convention to assemble on July 15 "in order to assist
in framing instructions, and preparing such matters, as
may be proper to recommend" to the members of the
House. " 2 For the next several weeks, newspaper articles
served to keep alive the public interest and to indicate the
trend of public opinion. ? A Philadelphian" argued against
non-importation as a mode of opposition because the bur-
den would fall wholly on the drygoods importers whereas
the interests of all were involved. *_J " Brutus" believed
that the plan, proposed by the Boston circular letter, was
dictated more by " heated zeal than by approved reason and
moderation," and maintained that the proper course would
be for Congress to petition the British government for re-
dress. 4 But, according to " Sidney," those who espoused
the method of petition were "men who prefer one cargo
of British goods to the salvation of America," and he de-
manded an immediate non-importation. 5 "Anglus Ameri-
canus" would also include a non-exportation, particularly
1 For the "rotten borough" system in Pennsylvania, vide Adams, J. ,
Works, vol. x, pp. 74-75; Lincoln, op. cit. , pp. 40-52.
2 Pa. Gas. , July 6, 1774. 8 Ibid. , Aug. 17, 1774.
* Ibid. , July 20, 1774. 5 Pa. Journ. , Aug. 31, 1774.
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? CONTEST IN COMMERCIAL PROVINCES
351
to the West Indies. 1 Rural opinion was well expressed by
Edward Shippen when he advocated a total non-importa-
tion and non-exportation, insisting that the Boston Port
Act contained the names of all the provinces, "only they
are written in lime juice and want the heat of fire to make
them legible. " 2 On July 11 the mechanics and small
tradesmen of Philadelphia held a meeting to urge another
mass meeting of the city and county, at which the Penn-
sylvania delegates should be given unrestricted power to
agree to a trade suspension by the congress. But the
Forty-Three saw in this gathering a design to undermine
their authority, and nothing came of the matter. 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.
