100 



Miissuchusctts ; — addressed a letter to Governor Gage ; published 

 a declaration of rights ; formed an association not to import 

 or use goods of British manufacture ; sent a petition to the 

 king ; an address to the inhabitants of Great Britain ; another 

 to the inhabitants of Canada ; and another to the inhabitants of 

 the Colonies. 



The exportation of all military stores to America had been 

 strictly forbidden by order of the King in Council ; and every 

 vessel, of Avhat nation soever, was liable to be seized if employed 

 in carrying thither arms and amunition. The country was 

 sadly deficient in all the munitions of war, and the Massachu- 

 setts Committee of Safety, now considered the executive of the 

 Province, was therefore collecting them through their agents 

 from every quarter where they could be obtained. This, how- 

 ever, was done as quietly and secretly as possible. A quantity 

 of powder in the arsenal at Charlestown had recently been 

 seized by Governor Gage, in pursuance of a late order of the 

 King. This produced great excitement throughout the Colony, 

 About the middle of December, 1774, a report also reached 

 Salem that a regiment of troops had embarked the preceding 

 Sabbath in Boston, said to be destined for this place for the 

 purpose of " arresting, detaining and securing gunpowder." 

 This, however, was a false alarm. 



The people Avere also industriously collecting arms for them- 

 selves, wherever and from whomsoever they could obtain them. 

 Every patriot held, Avith Macbriar, that '• well is he who shall 

 barter his house for a helmet, and sell his garment for a sword ; " 

 and several shameful outrages Avere committed by the British 

 in Boston upon persons charged with the crime of attempting 

 to purchase a musket. 



The 3^ear 1775 Avas ushered in without any improvement in 

 the condition of the oppressed and down-trodden colonists. Dark 

 and portentous clouds hung thickly about their political horizon, 

 indicating that a fearful storm was not far distant. The petition 

 of the Philadelphia Congress to the King had proved an entire 

 failure. It was treated with silent neglect. The repeal of a 

 few acts of Parliament would then have satisfied America, 

 and her independence Avould have been a plant of later groAvth. 

 The idea of dissolving the tie which united them with the 

 mother country appears scarcely to have been entertained at that 

 time. The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, seven days 

 after the battle of Lexington, uses the following language . — 

 '• But they [the ministers,] have not yet detached us from our 

 Royal Sovereign. We profess to be his loyal and dutiful 



