XLIX. 1773. Feb. CHAP. ton, and the option to the Province between submission and the forfeiture of their rights. "I wish,” said he, "Government may be convinced that something is necessary to be done." "We want a full persuasion that Parliament will maintain its Supremacy at all events." "Without it, the opposition here will triumph more than ever." March The people on their part drew from their institution of Committees of Correspondence throughout the Province, the hope of a union of all the Colonies. "Some future Congress," said they, "will be the glorious source of the salvation of America; the Amphictyons of Greece, who formed the Diet or great Council of the States, exhibit an excellent model for the rising Americans." Whether that great idea should become a reality depended on Virginia. Its Legislature came together on the fourth of March, full of the love of country. Its Members had authentic information of the proceedings of the town of Boston; and public rumors had reached them of the Commission for inquiry into the affairs of Rhode Island. They had read and approved of the answers which the Council and the House of Massachusetts had made in January to the speech of Hutchinson. They formed themselves, therefore, into a Committee of the whole House on the state of the Colony; and in that Committee Dabney Carr, of Charlotte, a young statesman of brilliant genius as well as of fervid patriotism, moved a series of resolutions for a system of intercolonial 1 Hutchinson to Bernard, March, 1778. 2 Hutchinson to Dartmouth, 20 March, 1773. "Oration delivered at Boston, March 5, 1773, by Dr. Benjamin Church. XLIX. 1773. Committees of Correspondence. His plan included CHAP. a thorough union of Councils throughout the Continent. If it should succeed and be adopted by the March other Colonies, America would stand before the world as a Confederacy. The measure was supported by Richard Henry Lee, with an eloquence which never passed away from the memory of his hearers; by Patrick Henry with a still more commanding majesty.1 The Assembly was of one mind; and no person appropriated to himself praise beyond the rest. They did what greatness of mind counselled; and they did it quietly, as if it were but natural to them to act with magnanimity. On Friday the twelfth of March, the Resolutions were reported to the House, and unanimously adopted. They appointed their Committee on which appear the names of Bland and Lee, of Henry, and Carr, and Jefferson. Their Resolves were sent to every Colony, with a request that each would appoint its Committee to communicate from time to time with that of Virginia. In this manner, Virginia laid the foundation of our union. Massachusetts organized a Province; Virginia promoted a confederacy. Were the several Committees but to come together, the world would see an American Congress. 8 The associates of Dabney Carr were spared for still further service to humanity. He himself was cut down in his prime; and passed away like a shadow; but the name of him, who at this moment of crisis, beckoned the Colonies onward to union, must not perish from the memory of his countrymen. 1 Letter in Wirt's Life of Henry, 104. "Peyton Randolph, Circular 19 March, 1773. • Hutchinson's Hist. iii. 393. CHAP. XLIX. The effect of these Resolutions of the Old Domin 1773. heart. Xion was decisive.1 In Massachusetts they gladdened "Virginia and South Carolina by their steady perseverance," inspired the hope, that the fire of Liberty would spread through the Continent. "A Congress and then an Assembly of States," reasoned Samuel Adams, is no longer "a mere fiction in the mind of a political enthusiast." What though "the British nation carry their liberties to market, and sell them to the highest bidder?" "America," said he, repeating the words of Arthur Lee, "America shall rise full plumed and glorious from the mother's ashes." 8 4 A copy of the proceedings of Virginia was sent to every town and district in Massachusetts, that "all the friends of American Independence and freedom," might welcome the intelligence; and as one Meeting after another echoed back the advice for a Congress, they could hardly find words to express how their gloom had given way to light, and how "their hearts even leapt for joy." "We trust the day is not far distant," said Cambridge by the hand of Thomas Gardner, "when our rights and liberties shall be restored unto us, or the Colonies, united as one man, will make their most solemn appeal to Heaven, and drive tyranny from these northern climes." 5 1 "Most of the Colonies, if not all, will come into the like resolutions, and if the colonies are not soon relieved, some imagine a Congress will grow out of this measure." T. Cushing to A. Lee, 22 April, 1773. 2 Samuel Adams to Richard Henry Lee, 9 April, 1773. Samuel Adams to A. Lee, 9 April, 1773. 4 Original Papers, 351. • Committee of Correspondence of Cambridge, to Committee of Boston; in the handwriting of Thos. Gardner. Original Papers in my possession. XLIX. 1773. "The Colonies must assert their liberties whenever CHAP. the opportunity offers;" wrote Dickinson from Pennsylvania.1 The opportunity was nearer than he thought; in England Chatham saw plainly, that "things were hastening to a crisis at Boston, and looked forward to the issue with very painful anxiety.' " It was the King who precipitated the conflict. He had no dread of the interposition of France, for that power, under the Ministry of the day, feared lest the enfranchisement of the Anglo-American Colonies should create a dangerous rival power to itself, and was eager to fortify the good understanding with England by a defensive treaty, or at least by a treaty of commerce. Louis the Fifteenth was resolved at all events to avoid war.5 6 From the time therefore that the Representatives of Massachusetts avowed their legislative Independence, the King dismissed the thought of obtaining obedience "by argument and persuasion." The most thorough search was made into every Colonial law that checked or even seemed to check the Slave-trade; and an Act of Virginia, which put no more obstructions upon it, than had existed for a generation, was negatived." Parliamentary taxation was also to be enforced. The continued refusal of North America to receive tea from England, had brought distress upon the April. John Dickinson to Samuel Adams, Fairhill, 10 April, 1773. Chatham to T. Hollis, 18 April, 1778. Mémoire sur L'Angleterre, in Angleterre, Tome 502. Dispatches of Aiguillon to de Guines in March and April 1773. VOL. VI.-39 King to Lord North, 20 April, Dartmouth to Hutchinson, 10 Dartmouth to Dunmore, No. 2, XLIX. 1773. CHAP. East India Company, which had on hand wanting a market great quantities imported in the faith that that April, agreement could not hold. They were able to pay neither their dividends, nor their debts; their stock depreciated nearly one half; and the Government must lose their annual payment of four hundred thousand pounds. The bankruptcies, brought on partly by this means, gave such a shock to credit, as had not been experienced since the South Sea year; and the great manufacturers were sufferers. The direc tors came to Parliament with an ample confession of their humbled state, together with entreaties for assistance and relief; and particularly praying that leave might be given to export teas free of all duties to America and to foreign ports. Had such leave been granted in respect of America, it would have been an excellent commercial regulation, as well as have restored a good understanding to every part of the empire. Instead of this, Lord North proposed to give to the Company itself the right of exporting its teas. The existing law granted on their exportation to America a drawback of three fifths only of the duties paid on importation. Lord North now offered a drawback of the whole. Trecothick in the Committee also advised to take off the import duty in America of three pence the pound, as it produced no income to the revenue; but the Ministry would not listen to the thought of relieving America from taxation. "Then," added Trecothick in behalf of the East India Company, 1 Compare Franklin to Cushing, to W. Franklin, and to Cooper. * Duke of Grafton's Autobiogra phy, iii. 108. The Duke was then Lord Privy Seal, but not of the Cabinet. |