This closing of the port of Boston aroused the thirteen British colonies in America. After a great deal of letter-writing it was decided to have men from each of these colonies meet and talk matters over. In September of this year (1774) they met in Philadelphia. At this meeting, which was called the First Continental Congress, it was decided that laws were made in England that were unjust to America, that the colonists objected to taxes that were fixed by Parliament and would buy no more goods from England while a tax was upon them; and that they objected to the support of a large British army in the colonies.
And this First Continental Congress sent a petition to King George III., saying that the unjust laws should be done away with.
How the King received this petition is soon told.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SONS of LIBERTY at TURTLE BAY
Now in New York almost everybody was anxious to carry out the decision of this First Continental Congress.
But the Assembly said that the Congress had not been a lawful gathering and must not be obeyed. The colonists replied that they would do as they thought best, no matter what the King's Assembly ordered.
You must know that some of the people supported the royal cause and were called Royalists or Tories. The others were called Patriots or Whigs. The English called the patriots rebels.