the streets merrily carolling, "Liberty, property, and no stamps."

The publishers of newspapers which appeared on Friday bore the brunt in braving the penalties of the act. Honor, then, to the ingenious Benjamin Mecom, the bold-hearted editor at New Haven, who on that morning, without apology or concealment, issued the "Connecticut Gazette," filled with patriotic appeals; for, said he, "the press is the test of truth, the bulwark of public safety, the guardian of freedom, and the people ought not to sacrifice it."

Nov.

Nor let the true lovers of their country pass unheeded the grave of Timothy Green, one of an illustrious family of printers, himself publisher of the "New London Gazette," which had always modestly and fearlessly defended 1765. his country's rights; for, on the same day, his journal came forth without stamps, and gave to the world a paper from the incomparable Stephen Johnson, of Lyme. "The hearts of Americans," said he, "are cut to the quick by the act; we have reason to fear very interesting and terrible consequences, though by no means equal to tyranny or slavery. But what an enraged, despairing people will do, when they come to see and feel their ruin, time only can reveal." "The liberty of free inquiry is one of the first and most fundamental of a free people. They may publish their grievances: they have an undoubted right to be heard and relieved. The American governments or inhabitants may associate for the mutual defence of their birthright liberties. It is the joy of thousands that there is union and concurrence in a general congress. We trust they will also lay a foundation for another congress. Shut not your eyes to your danger, O my countrymen! Do nothing to destroy or betray the rights of your posterity; do nothing to sully or shade the memory of your noble ancestors. Let all the governments and all the inhabitants in them unitedly resolve to a man, with an immovable stability, to sacrifice their lives and fortunes, before they will part with their invaluable freedom. It will give you a happy peace in your own breasts, and secure you the most endeared affection, thanks, and blessing of your posterity; it will gain you the

esteem of all true patriots and friends of liberty through the whole realm; yea, and as far as your case is known, it will gain you the esteem and the admiration of the whole world."

1765.

Nov.

The conduct and the language of the "Gazette" animated the patriots within its sphere; and he who would single out in the country the region where at that time patriotism burned with the purest flame can find none surpassing the county of New London. The royalists of New York, like Bernard at Boston, railed at Connecticut as a land of republicans, and at Yale College as "a seminary of democracy."

In New York, "the whole city rose up as one man in opposition to the stamp act." The sailors came from their shipping; "the people flocked in," as Gage thought, "by thousands;" and the leader of the tumult was Isaac Sears. At the corners of streets, at the doors of the public offices, placards threatened all who should receive or deliver a stamp, or delay business for the want of one.

Colden retired within the fort, and drew from the "Coventry" ship-of-war a detachment of marines. He would have fired on the people, but was menaced with being hanged, like Porteus of Edinburgh, upon a sign-post, if he did so. In the evening, a torch-light procession, carrying a scaffold and two images, one of the governor, the other of the devil, came from the Fields, now the Park, down Broadway, to within ten or eight feet of the fort, knocked at its gate, broke open the governor's coach-house, took out his chariot, carried the images upon it through the town, and returned to burn them with his own carriages and sleighs, before his eyes, on the Bowling Green, under the gaze of the garrison on the ramparts, and of all New York gathered round about. "He has bound himself," they cried, "by oath to be the chief murderer of our rights." "He was a rebel in Scotland, a Jacobite." "He is an enemy to his king, to his country and mankind." At the same time, a party of volunteers sacked the house occupied by James, and bore off the colors of the royal regiments.

On Saturday, the second of November, Colden gave way.

The council questioned his authority to distribute the stamps, and unanimously advised him to declare that he would do nothing in relation to them, but await the arrival of the new governor; and his declaration to that effect, duly authenticated, was immediately published. But the confidence of the people was shaken. "We will have the stamp papers," cried Sears to the multitude, " within four-and-twenty hours;" and the crowd expressed their adherence by shouts. "Your best way," added Sears to the friends of order, “will be to advise Lieutenant-governor Colden to send the stamp papers from the fort to the inhabitants." To appease their wrath, Colden invited Kennedy to receive them on board the "Coventry." "They are already lodged in the fort," answered Kennedy, unwilling to offend the people.

The common council of New York next interposed, and asked that the stamped paper should be delivered into their custody. Colden pleaded his oath, and the still greater contempt into which the government would fall by the concession; but the council answered that his power was unequal to the protection of the inhabitants. Gage, being appealed to, avowed the belief that a fire from the fort would be the signal for "an insurrection" and "the commencement of a civil war." So the head of the province of New York and the military chief of all America, confessing their inability to stop the anarchy, capitulated to the municipal body which represented the people. The stamps were taken to the city hall; the city government restored order; the press continued its activity; and in all the streets was heard the shout of "liberty, property, and no stamps."

1765.

Nov.

66

"The

The thirst for revenge rankled in Colden's breast. lawyers of this place," so he reported to the secretary of state, are the authors and conductors of the present sedition; if judges be sent from England, with an able attor ney-general and solicitor-general, to make examples of some very few, this colony will remain quiet;" and, in other letters, he pointed plainly to John Morin Scott, Robert R. Livingston, and William Livingston as suitable victims. When Moore, the new governor, arrived, he could do

nothing but give way to the popular impulse. He dismantled the fort, and suspended his power to execute the stamp act. When the assembly came together, it confirmed the doings of its committee at the congress.

In New Jersey, Ogden was disavowed by his constituents, and burned in effigy. The assembly, by a unanimous vote, accepted his resignation as speaker, and thanked the two faithful delegates who had signed the proceedings of the congress. Of those proceedings, New Hampshire, by its assembly, signified its entire approbation. The voluntary adhesion of the representatives of Georgia was esteemed valid on the part of that colony. Its governor was met by "the same rebellious spirit as prevailed at the north."

1765.

Νον.

The delegates of South Carolina were received by their assembly on the twenty-sixth of November. On that morning, the papers of the congress, the declaration of rights, and the addresses were read; in an evening session, they were all adopted without change, by a vote which wanted but one of being unanimous; they were signed by the speaker, and put on board the "Charming Charlotte," a fine ship riding in the harbor with its sails bent; and the next morning, while the assembly were signifying, in the most ample manner, their satisfaction at the conduct of their agents, it stood away, with swelling canvas, for England. "Nothing will save us," wrote Gadsden, "but acting together; the province that endeavors to act separately must fall with the rest, and be branded besides with everlasting infamy."

The people of North Carolina would neither receive a stamp-man, nor tolerate the use of a stamp, nor suffer its ports to be closed. Its legislature was so long prorogued that it could not join in the application of the congress; but, had there been need of resorting to arms, "its whole force was ready to join in protecting the rights of the continent." It was the same throughout the country. Whereever a jealousy was roused that a stamp officer might exercise his functions, the people were sure to gather about him, and compel him to renew his resignation under oath, or solemnly before witnesses.

The colonies began to think of permanent union. "JOIN OR DIE" became more and more their motto. At Windham, in Connecticut, the freemen, in a multitudinous assembly, agreed with one another "to keep up, establish, and maintain the spirit of union and liberty;" and, for that end, they recommended monthly county conventions, and also a general meeting of the colony.

1765.
Dec.

At New London, the inhabitants of the county of that name, holding a mass meeting in December, unanimously decided, in carefully prepared resolves, that every form of rightful government originates from the consent of the people; that lawful authority cannot pass the boundaries set by them; that, if the limits are passed, they may reassume the authority which they had delegated; and that, if there is no other mode of relief against the stamp act and similar acts, they must reassume their natural rights and the authority with which they were invested by the laws of nature and of God. The same principles were adopted at various village gatherings, and became the polit ical platform of Connecticut.

In New York, the validity of the British navigation acts was more and more openly impugned, and the merchants claimed a right to every freedom of trade enjoyed in England. When the general applied for the supplies, which the province was enjoined by the British mutiny act to contribute for the use of the troops quartered among them, the assembly would pay no heed to an act of parliament to which they themselves had given no assent; and, in the general tumult, their refusal passed almost unnoticed.

Everywhere the fixed purpose prevailed that "the unconstitutional" stamp act should not go into effect. Nothing less than its absolute repeal would give contentment, much as England was loved. The greatest unanimity happily existed; and all were bent on cherishing it for ever. Here was something new in the affairs of men. Never had the people of provinces extending over so vast a continent, and so widely sundered from one another, been thus cordially bound together in one spirit and one resolve. In all their tumults, they deprecated the necessity of declaring inde