CHAPTER accompanied with violence, on the question of electing XXXI. members to a Provincial Convention for the purpose of 1775. choosing such delegates. The popular party carried the April 22. day; and by the Convention presently held, twelve delegates were appointed, any five of whom were authorized to represent the province in the Congress. The Corresponding Committee of New York, on receiving news of the battle of Lexington, drew up an Association for the Defense of Colonial Rights, which every body was called upon to sign-an expedient presently adopted in several other of the colonies, those especially in which considerable differences of opinion existed. The same committee also issued a circular to the several county committees, recommending the speedy meeting of a Provincial Congress, "to deliberate on and direct such measures as may be expedient for our common safety." News having arrived of the fight at Lexington, a great April 24. public meeting was held in Philadelphia, at which measures were taken for entering into a volunteer military association, which soon pervaded the whole province. In spite of the admonitions of their elders, many of the young Quakers took a part in this organization. Mifflin was the moving spirit of the whole. John Dickinson accepted the command of a regiment, as did Thomas McKean and James Wilson, leading lawyers in the city. M'Kean was a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent; Wilson was born in Scotland, but he had studied law and for the last eight years had been a resident in Philadelphia, where his talents had raised him to conMay 1. spicuous notice. The Assembly, which met shortly after, appropriated £1800 toward the expenses of the volunteers. They also appointed a Committee of Safety, of which Franklin, just returned from England, was made chairman. This committee took measures for the de XXXI. fense of Philadelphia, and in a short time assumed the CHAPTER whole executive authority. Franklin, Wilson, and Willing were added to the congressional delegation; Gal- 1775. loway, at his own earnest request, was excused from serving. Governor Penn laid Lord North's conciliatory proposition before the Assembly, but it did not meet with much favor. The Delaware Assembly had already approved the doings of the late Continental Congress, and had ap- March 16. pointed delegates to the new one, in which they were presently imitated by the Assembly of Maryland. April 24. The Virginia Convention, which met at Richmond to March 20. appoint delegates to the new Continental Congress, had been persuaded, by the energy and eloquence of Patrick Henry, to take measures for enrolling a company of volunteers in each county. Before news arrived of the battle of Lexington, Governor Dunmore had ordered the April 21. powder belonging to the province to be taken from the public store at Williamsburg, and placed on board an armed vessel in the river. This proceeding caused a great excitement, increased by news of the Lexington fight. Having collected some companies of the new volunteers, Henry marched toward Williamsburg, and compelled the king's receiver to give bills for the value of the powder taken away. Dunmore sent his family on May 4. board a ship in the river, fortified his palace, and issued a proclamation declaring Henry and his coadjutors guilty of rebellion; but their conduct was sustained and approved by numerous county conventions. In spite of all Martin's efforts to prevent it, a Provincial Congress met in North Carolina simultaneously April 5. with the Assembly, and, for the most part, composed of the same members. Both bodies concurred in approving the proceedings of the late Continental Congress, and in XXXI CHAPTER appointing delegates to the new one. News arriving of the battle of Lexington, an Association was entered into 1775. by the friends of colonial rights, pledging the associators to defend those rights by force, if necessary. The citi zens of Mechlenburg county carried their zeal so far as May 21. to resolve, at a public meeting, to throw off the British connection, and they framed a formal Declaration of Independence. But this feeling was by no means general. There were many who refused to sign the Association, or to take the oath of neutrality tendered instead. Counter combinations were also entered into for sustaining the royal authority. The fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on the northern frontier of New England and New York, the possession of which had cost such severe struggles during the late war, were held by very slender garrisons. Apart from their importance as military positions, especially as Canada did not unite with the other colonies, their cannon and military stores offered a very tempting prize. The controversy between the inhabitants of Vermont and the authorities of New York had reached a high pitch. The New York Assembly, at its late sesMarch 31. sion, which proved, indeed, to be its last, had passed an act offering rewards for the apprehension of those who had been most active in opposing their jurisdiction, and declaring such as did not surrender within a certain time guilty of felony, and liable to suffer death. April 11. Green Mountain Boys retorted by holding a Convention, which totally renounced the authority of New York. The Previous to the battle of Lexington, the expediency of seizing Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been suggested to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, a board of thirteen members, which exercised the general executive direction of affairs. Their attention was now XXXI recalled to the subject by Benedict Arnold, a New Haven CHAPTER trader and shipmaster, who commanded a company of volunteers in the camp before Boston. Arnold received 1775. a commission as colonel, with authority to raise men in Vermont to attempt the surprise of those fortresses. The attention of Connecticut had been called to the same subject, and, about the time of Arnold's departure, some persons deputed for that purpose had induced Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, the two most active leaders among the Green Mountain Boys, to raise a force for the same enterprise. Arnold, as yet without men, joined Allen's party, and claimed the command, but, being refused, agreed to serve as a volunteer. Allen approached Ticonderoga with eighty men, penetrated undiscovered into the center of the fort, surprised the commanding officer in his bed, and summoned him to surrender "in the name May 10. of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress !" Crown Point was taken by Warner with equal ease. The total garrisons of both posts were only sixty men. Upward of two hundred pieces of artillery, and a large and precious supply of powder, of which there was a great scarcity in the camp before Boston, fell into the hands of the captors. Arnold was presently joined by some fifty recruits, who had seized a schooner, and taken several prisoners and some pieces of cannon at Skenesborough, a new settlement (now Whitehall, at the head of Lake Champlain), founded by Colonel Skene, a British officer, who had gone to England to solicit an appointment as governor of Ticonderoga. In this captured vessel Arnold proceeded down the lake, entered the Sorel, surprised the post of St. John's, where the navigation May 16. terminates, captured an armed vessel there, and carried off some valuable stores. Allen proposed to hold St. John's, but was obliged to retire by a superior force XXXI. CHAPTER from Montreal. Arnold, with his vessels, returned to Crown Point. 1775. Meanwhile the Provincial Congress of New HampMay 17. shire appointed a treasurer, issued bills of credit, and voted to raise three regiments, the troops in the camp before Boston to constitute two. Nathaniel Folsom was appointed brigadier; Stark, Read, and Poor were commissioned as colonels. May 15. May 10. The New Jersey Assembly, called together by Governor Franklin to consider Lord North's conciliatory proposi tion, declined to approve it, or to take any decisive step in the matter, except with the consent and approbation of the Continental Congress, already met. No sooner May 23. had the Assembly adjourned than a Provincial Congress was organized, and an Association agreed to for the defense of colonial rights, similar to that of New York. Measures were taken for organizing the militia, and £10,000 were issued in bills of credit for the payment of expenses. But the Congress declined to raise regular troops till some general plan should first be agreed upon. To the Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia all eyes were now eagerly turned. The Eastern delegates were escorted into the city by a cavalcade. Randolph was again elected president, and Charles Thompson secretary. But Randolph being soon called home to attend as speaker of the Virginia Assembly, a session which Dunmore had summoned to take Lord North's conciliatory proposition into consideration, his seat in the Congress was filled by Thomas Jefferson, provisionally appointed for that purpose, and his place as president by May 24. John Hancock. The parish of St. John's, in Georgia, including the district about the River Midway, had chosen March 25. Lyman Hall as their special representative, and as such he was admitted, but without a vote. Having resolved |