ling-place, and where they remained to the end of their lives.

Their son Joseph was born in the year 1730, and after enjoying the advantages of education common at that period, in the immediate neighbourhood of Princeton college, he went to Philadelphia to acquire a knowledge of commercial business.

He entered, as soon as his term of apprenticeship in a compting-house was closed, into the bustle and activity of trade; and availing himself of the fortunate situation of the colonies in respect to commerce, and the great opportunities then afforded by the British flag, particularly when used to protect American ships, he was soon one of the large number of thriving colonial merchants, whose very prosperity became a lure to Great Britain, and induced her to look to this country for a revenue.

Mr. Hewes did not remove to North Carolina until he was thirty years of age, previous to which time he had been residing at New York and Philadelphia alternately, with occasional and frequent visits to his friends in New Jersey.

Having made choice of Edenton for his future home, he soon became distinguished in the community of that city for his successful career as a merchant, his liberal hospitalities, great probity and honour, and his agreeable social qualities..

Although nearly a stranger in the state, he was very shortly invited to take a seat in the colonial legislature of North Carolina,-an office to which he was repeatedly

chosen, and which he always filled with advantage to the people of that colony, and with credit to himself.

When the British ministry had proceeded so far as to close the port of Boston,-thus by a most decided and severe act evincing their fixed determination to proceed in their plan of taxing the colonies, and the committees of correspondence instituted first at Boston and afterwards elsewhere, had proposed a meeting of deputies to a general congress to be held at Philadelphia, Mr. Hewes was one of three citizens selected by North Carolina to represent her in such assembly.

On the fourth of September, in the year 1774, this first congress began their session; and on the fourteenth of the same month, Mr. Hewes arrived and took his seat.

The members were generally elected by the authority of the colonial legislatures; but in some instances, a different system had been pursued. In New Jersey and Maryland, the elections were made by committees chosen in the several counties for that particular purpose; and in New York, where the royal party was very strong, the people themselves assembled in those places where the spirit of opposition to the claims of parliament prevailed, and elected deputies who were received into congress, it being known that no legislative act authorizing the election of members to represent that colony in such a meeting, could have been obtained.

The powers, too, with which the representatives of the several colonies were invested, were not only vari ously expressed, but were of various extent. Most

generally they were authorized to consult and advise on the means most proper to secure the liberties of the colonies, and to restore the harmony formerly subsisting between them and the mother country. In some instances, the powers given appear to contemplate only such measures as would operate on the commercial connexion between the two countries; in others, the discretion was unlimited.

The credentials of Mr. Hewes spoke a bolder language than was found in those of most of the delegates; while the greater part of the colonies professed, in appointing the members, an earnest desire of reconciliation, and named the return of harmony as the principal object of their assembling,-North Carolina resolved, by a general meeting of deputies of the inhabitants of the province, that the people approved of the proposal of a general congress to be held at Philadelphia, to deliberate on the state of British America, and "to take such measures as they may deem prudent to effect the purpose of describing with certainty the rights of Americans, repairing the breach made in those rights, and for guarding them for the future from any such violations done under the sanction of public authority."

The delegates were accordingly invested by this meeting of deputies, with such powers as might "make any acts done by them, or consent given in behalf of this province, obligatory in honour upon every inhabitant thereof who is not an alien to his country's good, and an apostate to the liberties of America."

VOL. VII.-Rr

But, however diversified may have been the instructions and powers given to the colonial delegates chosen for this congress; certainly a separation from Great Britain was no part of the object then in view. Reconciliation and the restoration of harmony under the regal government was the aim and the desire of all, although the means of obtaining such a result were variously estimated as involving more or less of forcible resistance.

Immediately after the assembling of congress two important committees had been appointed to whom in fact nearly all the business of the congress was entrusted. The one was to "state the rights of the colonies in general, the several instances in which those rights are violated or infringed, and the means most proper to be pursued for obtaining a restoration of them." The other was to "examine and report the several statutes which affect the trade and manufacture of the colonies."

To the first of these committees Mr. Hewes was added very soon after he took his seat, and contributed his assistance to the preparation of their report.

The committee made their report with little delay, and on the fourteenth day of October, it was adopted, as follows:

"Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British parliament, claiming a power, of right, to bind the people of America by statutes in all cases whatsoever, hath in some acts expressly imposed taxes on them, and in others, under various pretences, but in fact for the pose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies, established a board of commis

pur

sioners, with unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a county..

"And whereas, in consequence of other statutes, judges, who before held only estates at will in their offices, have been made dependent on the crown alone for their salaries, and standing armies kept in times of peace: And whereas it has lately been resolved in parliament, that by force of a statute, made in the thirtyfifth year of the reign of king Henry the Eighth, colonists may be transported to England, and tried there upon accusations for treasons and misprisions, or concealments of treasons committed in the colonies, and by a late statute, such trials have been directed in cases therein mentioned:

"And whereas, in the last session of parliament, three statutes were made: one entitled, 'An act to discontinue in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading, or shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town, and within the harbour of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay in North America;' another entitled,

An act for the better regulating the government of the province of Massachusetts bay in New England;' and another entitled, "An act for the impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England: And another