On the first of June, Governor Wright and the Loyalists of Savannah prepared to celebrate the king's birth-day. On the night of the second, some of the leading Whigs spiked the cannon on the battery, and hurled them to the bottom of the bluff. Nineteen days afterward, a meeting was called for the purpose of choosing a committee to enforce the requirements of the American Association, put forth by the Congress of 1774. (vi) The first victim to his temerity in opposing the operations of the committee was a man named Hopkins. He ridiculed the Whigs, and they, in turn, gave him a coat of tar and feathers, and paraded him in a cart through the town for four or five hours. About this time, a letter from Governor Wright to General Gage was intercepted by the vigilant Whigs of Charles-
* The only newspaper in the province (the Georgia Gazette, established in 1762) was under the control of Governor Wright, and through it he disseminated much sophistry, and sometimes falsehoods among the people.
** The committees of St. John's parish convened on the ninth of February, 1775, and addressed a circular letter to the committees of other colonies, asking their consent to the reception of a representative in Congress from that particular parish. Encouraged by the answer they received, they met again on the twenty-first of March, and appointed Dr. Lyman Hall to represent them. When he went to Philadelphia, he took with him, from Sunbury, one hundred and sixty barrels of rice, and two hundred and fifty dollars, as a present to the people of Boston.
*** The whole record of the proceedings of Congress on that day is as follows: "Saturday, October 8, 1774.—The Congress resumed the consideration of the letter from Boston, and, upon motion, Resolved, That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the execution of the late Acts of Parliament; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case, all America ought to support them in their opposition." The proceedings of that one day should be written in brass and marble; for the resolution then adopted was the first Federal gauntlet of defiance cast at the feet of the British monarch. The eighth of October, 1774, should be placed by the side of the fourth of July, 1776, as one of the most sacred days in the calendar of Freedom.
**** These were Noble Wimberly Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, William Gibbons, Joseph Clay, and John Milledge.
* (v) The magazine was at the eastern extremity of the town. It was sunk about twelve feet under the ground, inclosed with brick, and secured by a door in such a way that the governor did not consider a guard necessary.
* (vi) This committee consisted of sixteen leading men of Savannah, among whom was Samuel (afterward General) Elbert, and George Walton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. M'Call (ii., 45) says that, after the meeting adjourned, "a number of gentlemen dined at Tondee's tavern, where the Union flag was hoisted upon the liberty-pole, and two pieces of artillery were placed under it." The Union flag, of thirteen red and white stripes, was not adopted until the first of January, 1776, when it was first unfurled in the American camp, near Boston.
Intercepted Letter.—Seizure of Powder.—Imprisonment of the Governor.—His Escape.—A Traitor.
ton. It contained a request for Gage to send some British troops to suppress the rebellious spirit of the Georgians. *