[1774 A.D.] bill as a fast; for which act Governor Dunmore, who had succeeded Lord Botetourt as governor, dissolved them. Previous to their separation, however, they proposed a general congress to deliberate on those measures which the common interest of America might require. On the 1st of June, the day designated by the Port Bill, business was suspended in Boston at noon, and the harbour shut against all vessels. Before that time the people of Massachusetts had received assurances of sympathy and aid from nearly all the other colonies. Emboldened by such support, they determined to act with unabated vigour, and when they met at Salem they resolved on a general congress, to meet on the 1st of September at Philadelphia, nominated five of their members to attend it, voted the sum of £500 for defraying their expenses, and recommended to the several towns and districts of the province to raise this sum, according to their proportion of the last provincial tax; which requisition was readily complied with. On being informed of these proceedings, the governor dissolved the assembly.

The cause of the people of Boston gained ground everywhere, and at length the Boston committee of correspondence, satisfied that they enjoyed the good opinion and confidence of the public, ventured to frame and publish an agreement, entitled a "Solemn League and Covenant." This was couched in such very strong terms that it met with but little favour, and soon sank into oblivion. It was succeeded by a compact of a less exceptionable nature, which was efficacious in preventing commercial intercourse with Great Britain. The necessity of a general congress was soon universally perceived, and the measure was gradually adopted by every colony, from New Hampshire to South Carolina. On the 4th of September delegates appeared at Philadelphia, and the next day the first continental congress was organised at Carpenter's Hall, in Chestnut street. It was resolved that each colony should have one vote, whatever might be the number of its representatives. They made a Declaration of Rights; resolved on an address to the king, a memorial to the people of British America, and an address to the people of Great Britain. These papers had a great effect both in America and England. They inspired the people with confidence in their delegates, and their decency, firmness, and wisdom caused a universal feeling of respect for the congress, which extended even to England. Lord Chatham, speaking of them in the house of lords, said that "for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such complication of circumstances, no nation, or body of men, can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia."

The appearance of things in Massachusetts was far from being auspicious. Soon after General Gage's arrival several regiments arrived from Ireland, New York, Halifax, and Quebec. General Gage excited the jealousy of the townsmen by employing some of the troops in repairing and manning the fortifications on Boston Neck-a measure which the people understood as intended to cut off communication between the town and the country.

Gage had issued writs for the assembling of a convention at Salem on the 5th of October; but, alarmed by the symptoms of increased discontent, he judged it expedient to countermand the writs, by a proclamation suspending the meeting. This proclamation was declared illegal, and ninety representatives assembling, and neither the governor nor his substitute attending, they formed themselves into a provincial congress and adjourned to Concord. Here they appointed a committee to request General Gage to desist from fortifying the entrance into Boston, and to restore that place to its neutral state, as before. The governor expressed the warmest displeasure at the supposition of danger from English troops, to any but enemies of England,

[1774 A.D.]

and warned the congress to desist from their illegal proceedings. The provincial congress then adjourned to Cambridge, where they appointed a committee to prepare a plan for the immediate defence of the province, gave orders for the enlistment of a number of the inhabitants to be in readiness, "at a minute's warning,"1 to appear in arms, elected three general officers, Preble, Ward, and Pomeroy, to command these minute-men, and adjourned to the 23rd of November. On their second assembling they passed an ordinance for the equipment of twelve thousand men, to act on any emergency, and the enlistment of one-fourth part of the militia as minute-men, and appointed two more officers, Prescott and Heath. They also secured the co-operation of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut in raising an army of twenty thousand men.

The new parliament met on the 30th of November, 1774, and were addressed by the king, who referred in strong terms to the rebellious conduct of the people in Massachusetts and the other colonies. Addresses, echoing the royal sentiments, were made by both houses, though not without much opposition. Massachusetts was soon after declared to be in a state of rebellion, and a bill for the restriction of the colonial commerce and fisheries was also passed by parliament.

That portion of the revolution which could be accomplished in the councilhalls may here be considered to have been brought to a close. The colonists had taken their position. They had repeatedly declared their grievances. They had peaceably petitioned for redress, and had met new acts of aggression by unavailing remonstrance. The purpose of resistance had acquired consistency and firmness, and only awaited the resort of tyranny to physical force in order to display its strength. The occasion was soon to arrive when the pen was to be laid aside and the sword unsheathed.

A considerable quantity of military stores having been deposited at Concord, an inland town, about eighteen miles from Boston, General Gage resolved to destroy them [also to capture Samuel Adams and John Hancock, who had been warned to escape from Boston]. For the execution of this design, he, on the night preceding the 19th of April, detached Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn, with eight hundred grenadiers and light infantry, who, at eleven o'clock, commenced a silent and expeditious march for Concord. Messengers, who had been sent from town for that purpose by Dr. Joseph Warren, who had happily received timely notice of the expedition, eluded the British patrols and gave the alarm, which was rapidly spread by churchbells, signal-guns, and volleys. On the arrival of the British troops at Lexington, six miles below Concord, they found about seventy men, belonging to the minute-company of that town, on the parade, under arms. Major Pitcairn, who led the van, galloping up to them, called out, "Disperse, disperse, ye rebels! damn you! why don't you disperse?" The sturdy yeomanry not instantly obeying his order, he advanced nearer, fired his pistol, flourished his sword, and ordered his soldiers to fire. The troops cheered, and immediately fired; several of the provincials fell, and the rest dispersed. The British con

1 The militia organised in this manner received the appellation of "minute-men." [These were Paul Revere and William Dowers, the former of whom is immortal for his midnight ride." Certain details of the tradition are under dispute.]

[The question of firing the first shot at Lexington was studiously examined at the time, each side claiming exemption from the charge of being the aggressor, and Frothingham and Hudson collate the evidence. It seems probable that the British fired first, though by design or accident a musket on the provincial side flashed in the pan before the regulars fired. Stedman, who was not present, and most British writers, say the Americans fired first, as did Pitcairn.-JUSTIN WINSOR."]

H. W.-VOL. XXIII. R

[1774 A.D.] tinuing to discharge their muskets after the dispersion, a part of the fugitives stopped and returned the fire. Eight Americans were killed, three or four of them by the first discharge of the British, the rest after they had left the parade. Several also were wounded.

The British detachment now pressed forward to Concord. A party of light infantry took possession of the bridge, while the main body entered the town and proceeded to execute their commission. They spiked two twentyfour-pounders, threw five hundred pounds of ball into the river and wells, and broke in pieces sixty barrels of flour. Meanwhile the provincial militia were reinforced, and Major Buttrick of Concord assuming the command, they advanced towards the bridge. Not being aware of the transaction at Lexington, and anxious that the British should be the aggressors, he ordered his followers to refrain from giving the first fire. As he advanced, the light infantry retired to the Concord side of the river and commenced pulling up the bridge, and on his nearer approach they fired, and killed a captain and one of the privates. The provincials returned the fire; a severe contest ensued, and the regulars were forced to give ground with some loss. They were soon joined by the main body, and the whole detachment retreated with precipitancy. All the inhabitants of the adjoining country were by this time in arms, and they attacked the retreating troops in every direction. Stone walls and other coverts served the provincial soldiers for lines and redoubts, whilst their superior knowledge of the country enabled them to head off the British troops at every turn of the road. Thus harassed, they reached Lexington, where they were joined by Lord Percy, who, most opportunely for them, had arrived with nine hundred men and two pieces of cannon.2 The close firing, by good marksmen, from behind their accidental coverts, threw the British into great confusion, but they kept up a retreating fire on the militia and minute-men. If the Salem and Marblehead regiments had arrived in season to cut off their retreat, in all probability but few of the detachment would ever have reached Boston. Of the Americans engaged throughout the day, fifty were killed and thirty-four wounded. The British loss was sixty-five killed, one hundred and eighty wounded, and twenty-eight prisoners. To their wounded prisoners the Americans behaved with the utmost tenderness and humanity, and apprised Gage that he was at liberty to send the surgeons of his own army to minister to them. The affair of Lexington was the signal for war. The provincial congress of Massachusetts met the next day after the battle, and determined the number of men to be raised; fixed on the payment of the troops; voted an issue of paper money; drew up rules and regulations for an army: and all was done in a business-like manner.f

BANCROFT ON THE AFTERMATH OF LEXINGTON

Darkness closed upon the country and upon the town, but it was no night for sleep. Heralds on swift relays of horses transmitted the war-message from hand to hand, till village repeated it to village; the sea to the backwoods; the plains to the highlands; and it was never suffered to droop, till it had been borne north, and south, and east, and west, throughout the land. It spread over the bays that receive the Saco and the Penobscot. Its loud

['This skirmish inspired Emerson's famous Concord Ode, in which he says of this first volley of "the embattled farmers," that they "fired the shot heard round the world."]

Colonel Stedman,m a British historian, says that the fagged-out regulars reached Percy's lines with "their tongues hanging out of their mouths like dogs after a chase."]

[1774 A.D.]

reveille broke the rest of the trappers of New Hampshire, and ringing like bugle-notes from peak to peak, overleapt the Green mountains, swept onward to Montreal, and descended the ocean river, till the responses were echoed from the cliffs of Quebec. The hills along the Hudson told to one another the tale. As the summons hurried to the south, it was one day at New York; in one more at Philadelphia; the next it lighted a watch-fire at Baltimore; thence it waked an answer at Annapolis. Crossing the Potomac near Mount Vernon, it was sent forward without a halt to Williamsburg. It traversed the Dismal Swamp to Nansemond along the route of the first emigrants to North Carolina. It moved onwards and still onwards through boundless groves of evergreen to New Berne and to Wilmington. "For God's sake, forward it by night and by day!" wrote Cornelius Harnett by the express which sped for Brunswick. Patriots of South Carolina caught up its tones at the border, and despatched it to Charleston, and through pines and palmettoes and moss-clad live oaks, still farther to the south, till it resounded among the New England settlements beyond the Savannah. Hillsborough and the Mecklenburg district of North Carolina rose in triumph, now that their wearisome uncertainty had its end. The Blue Ridge took up the voice and made it heard from one end to the other of the valley of Virginia. The Alleghanies, as they listened, opened their barriers that the "loud call" might pass through to the hardy riflemen on the Holston, the Watauga, and the French Broad. Ever renewing its strength, powerful enough even to create a commonwealth, it breathed its inspiring word to the first settlers of Kentucky; so that hunters who made their halt in the matchless valley of the Elkhorn commemorated the nineteenth day of April by naming their encampment Lexington. With one impulse the colonies sprang to arms; with one spirit they pledged themselves to each other "to be ready for the extreme event." With one heart the continent cried, "Liberty or death!"

The country people, as soon as they heard the cry of innocent blood from the ground, snatched their firelocks from the walls, and wives and mothers and sisters took part in preparing the men of their households to go forth to the war. The farmers rushed to "the camp of liberty," often with nothing but the clothes on their backs, without a day's provisions, and many without a farthing in their pockets. Without stores or cannon, or supplies even of powder or of money, Massachusetts, by its congress, on the 22nd of April resolved unanimously that a New England army of thirty thousand men should be raised, and established its own proportion at thirteen thousand six hundred. The term of enlistment was fixed for the last day of December.

Boston was beleaguered round from Roxbury to Chelsea by an unorganised, fluctuating mass of men, each with his own musket and his little store of cartridges, and such provisions as he brought with him or as were sent after him or were contributed by the people round about. The British officers, from the sense of their own weakness and from fear of the American marksmen, dared not order a sally. Their confinement was the more irksome, for it came of a sudden before their magazines had been filled. They had scoffed at the Americans as cowards who would run at their sight, and they had saved themselves from destruction only by the rapidity of their retreat.

The news from Lexington surprised London in the last days of May. The Massachusetts congress, by a swift packet in its own service, had sent to England a calm and accurate statement of the events of the 19th of April, fortified by depositions, with a charge to Arthur Lee, their agent, to give it the widest circulation. These were their words to the inhabitants of Britain: "Brethren, we profess to be loyal and dutiful subjects, and, so hardly dealt

[1774 A.D.] with as we have been, are still ready, with our lives and fortunes, to defend the person, family, crown, and dignity of our royal sovereign. Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry we will not submit. Appealing to heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free."

Granville Sharpe, who was employed in the ordnance department, declined to take part in sending stores to America, and after some delay threw up his employment. Lord Chatham was the real conqueror of Canada for England, and Carleton had been proud to take to Quebec as his aide-de-camp Chatham's eldest son. But it was impossible for the offspring of the elder Pitt to draw his sword against the Americans, and his resignation was offered, as soon as it could be done without a wound to his character as a soldier. Admiral Keppel, one of the most gallant officers in the British navy, asked not to be employed in America. The recorder of London put on a full suit of mourning,

and being asked if he had lost a relative or friend, answered, "Yes, many brothers at Lexington and Concord."

On the 24th of June the citizens of London, agreeing fully with the letter received from New York, voted an address to the king, desiring him to consider the situation of the English people, "who had nothing to expect from America but gazettes of blood and mutual lists of their slaughtered fellow subjects." And again they prayed for the dissolution of parliament, and a dismission forever of the present ministers. As the king refused to receive this address on the throne, it was never presented, but it was entered in the books of the city and published under its authority. The Society for Constitutional Information, after a special meeting on the 7th of June, raised £100, "to be applied," said they, "to the relief of the widows, orphans, and aged parents of our beloved American fellow subjects, who, faithful to the character of Englishmen, preferring death to slavery, were, for that reason only, inhumanly murdered by the king's troops at Lexington and Concord." Other sums were added, and an account of what had been done was laid before the world by Horne Tooke in the Public Advertiser. The publication raised an