OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 199 



Other colony, or to Great Britain, for trial. A bill was also passed for 

 quartering soldiers upon the inhabitants. 



" The inhabitants of Boston had foreseen the present crisis, and they 

 met it with undaunted spirit. Information of the passage of the port 

 act was received on the tenth of May, and on the thirteenth, the town 

 resolved, ' that, if the other colonies would unite with them to stop all 

 importations from Great Britain and the West Indies until that act 

 should be repealed, it would prove the salvation of North America and 

 her liberties; but should they continue their exports and imports, there 

 was reason to fear that fraud, power, and the most odious oppression would 

 triumph over justice, right, social happiness, and freedom.' A copy of 

 this resolution was transmitted to the other colonies, the inhabitants of 

 which, expressed deep sympathy in the sufferings of their brethren in 

 Boston, endured in the common cause; and concurring in opinion with 

 them on the propriety of convening a provincial congress, delegates for 

 that purpose were generally chosen. 



" Throughout the continent, the first of June, the day on which the 

 Boston port act was to take effect, on the resolution of the Assembly of 

 Virginia, was adopted as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to 

 implore the divine interposition to avert the heavy calamity which 

 threatened destruction to their civil rights, and the evils of civil war, 

 and to give one heart and one mind to the people, firmly to oppose every 

 invasion of their liberties." 



The terms " Whigs'^ and " Tories'^ were introduced at this time, the 

 former to describe those in sympathy with the cause of Boston and 

 arrayed on the side of the colonies against Parliament, the latter to desig- 

 nate those whose sympathies were with Great Britain against the colonies. 



Throughout the country the warmest interest and most cordial sym- 

 pathy were manifested for the Bostonians. The subjoined documents are 

 drawn from the minutes of the Committee of Safety deposited in the 

 Prothonotary's office at Lancaster, and Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania. 



Copy of a letter from the committee of correspondence for the city of 

 Philadelphia, directed to the freeholders and other inhabitants of this 

 place, dated about the 12th of June, 1771: 



Philadelphia. 



Gentlemen : We beg leave to refer you to the enclosed paper for the 

 steps we have taken on the present alarming occasion. The Governor 

 declining to call the Assembly, renders it necessary to take the sentiments 

 of the Inhabitants; and for that purpose it is agreed to call a Meeting of 

 the Inhabitants of this city and the county at the State House, on Wed- 

 nesday, the 15th instant. And as we would wish to have the sentiments 

 and concurrence of our brethren in the several counties, who are equally 

 interested with us in the General Cause, we earnestly desire you to call 



