A School History of the United States. John Bach McMaster
humiliation, and prayer" in Virginia. For this the governor at once dissolved the legislature. But the members met and instructed a committee to correspond with the other colonies on the expediency of holding another general congress of delegates. All the colonies approved, and New York requested Massachusetts to name the time and place of meeting. This she did, selecting Philadelphia as the place, and September 1, 1774, as the time.
%127. The First Continental Congress.%—From September 5 to October 26, accordingly, fifty-five delegates, representing every colony except Georgia, held meetings in Carpenter's Hall at Philadelphia, and issued:
1. An address to the people of the colonies. 2. An address to the Canadians. 3. An address to the people of Great Britain. 4. An address to the King. 5. A declaration of rights.
%128. The Declaration of Rights.%[1]—In this declaration the rights of the colonists were asserted to be:
1. Life, liberty, and property. 2. To tax themselves. 3. To assemble peaceably to petition for the redress of grievances. 4. To enjoy the rights of Englishmen and all the rights granted by the colonial charters.
[Footnote 1: Printed in Preston's Documents, pp. 192–198. The best account of the coming of the Revolution is Frothingham's Rise of the Republic of the United States, Chaps. 5–11.]
These rights it was declared had been violated:
1. By taxing the people without their consent. 2. By dissolving assemblies. 3. By quartering troops on the people in time of peace. 4. By trying men without a jury. 5. By passing the five Intolerable Acts.
Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of the petition to the King.
SUMMARY
1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did three things:
A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and the Indian country.
B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west of this line.
C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take possession of the new territory and defend the colonies.
2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by taxing the colonists. This she had never done before.
3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it.
4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that body determined to establish its right and passed the "Townshend Acts." But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except that on tea.
5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back.
6. Parliament thereupon attempted to punish Massachusetts and passed the Intolerable Acts.
7. These acts led to the calling and the meeting of the First Continental Congress.
/——————————————————————\
France Spain
/————————\ /———\
Cape Breton. Florida
Canada.
Louisiana east of
the Mississippi.
\——————————————————————
and cuts the new territory (1763) into
Province of Quebec,
East Florida,
West Florida,
Indian country,
and draws proclamation line
limiting colonies in the west.
\———————————————/
New colonial policy necessary.
/———————————————————————\
Country to be defended by 10,000 royal troops.
Cost of troops to be paid
|
|——————————————————————
Partly by crown. Partly by colonies.
|
/—————————————————
Share of colonies to be raised by
Enforcing acts of trade and navigation.
Taxes on sugar and molasses.
Stamp tax (1765).
/—————————————^————————————————\
Resisted. Principle involved.
Action of Virginia and Massachusetts.
Stamp Act Congress.
Act repealed (1766).
Declaratory Act (1766).
——————— / \
| | Glass. |
| | Red and white lead. |
——————— | Painters' colors | Resisted and repealed (1770)
Townshend Acts | Paper. |
(1767). | Tea. /
\
/————^———\
Enforced.
Resisted (1773).
Resistance / \
punished by | Five Intoler- | Continental
| able Acts. | Congress called(1774).
\ /
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