Non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation.—By commercial restrictions the delegates hoped to force the British government to change its policy. On September 22 Congress voted to request colonial merchants and others not to place orders for British goods and to delay or suspend orders already sent until Congress could make known its policy. Five days later it resolved that from December 1 there should be no importation of goods from Great Britain or Ireland, or of British or Irish make, and that such goods be neither used nor purchased. On September 30 it was resolved that exportation to Great Britain. Ireland, and the British West Indies ought to cease after September 10, 1775, unless grievances were redressed, and a committee was appointed to formulate a plan for the enforcement of non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation.
The Association.—On October 20 the delegates adopted the "Association" which provided that after December 1 British or Irish goods, East India tea, molasses, syrups, paneles, coffee, and pimento from the British plantations or from Dominica, wines from Madeira or the Western Islands, and foreign indigo should not be imported into British America. It was agreed that slaves should not be imported or purchased after December 1, and slave traders were not to be allowed to rent vessels or purchase goods. Non-exportation was not to be put into force until September 10, 1775, but if redress had not been obtained by that time, American goods would be cut off from Great Britain, Ireland, or the West Indies. Rice, however, might be exported to Europe. Congress agreed to encourage frugality, economy, and industry, to promote agriculture, the arts, and manufactures, especially of wool, and to discourage extravagance and dissipation. Merchants and manufacturers were not to raise prices. A committee in each county, city, and town was to observe the conduct of persons, and if violations of the Association were discovered, the truth was to be published in the newspapers. If any colony did not accede to the Association, intercourse with that colony was to be cut off.
Attempts to obtain coöperation of other Colonies.—Congress also made an effort to obtain the cooperation of neighboring colonies by an address to the people of Quebec and by letters to the inhabitants of St. Johns, Nova Scotia, Georgia, and East and West Florida. A memorial to the people of British America, an address to the people of Great Britain, and a petition to the king were also prepared. May 10, 1775, was set as the date for the assembly of another congress, and on October 26 the First Continental Congress dissolved.
North's conciliatory resolution.—In January, 1775, parliament began consideration of the petition to the king and other papers relating to America. Chatham moved the withdrawal of the troops from Boston but the motion was defeated. On February 1 he presented a plan of conciliation based upon mutual concessions, but this was also rejected. On February 20 Lord North undertook the unexpected rôle of conciliator by a resolution which was considered in committee of the whole and passed by the commons a week later. The resolution provided "that when the Governour, Council, and Assembly, or General Court, of any ... colonies in America, shall propose to make provision ... for contributing their proportion to the common defence, (such proportion to be raised under the authority of the General Court, or General Assembly, of such Province or Colony, and disposable by Parliament,) and shall engage to make provision also for the support of the Civil Government, and the Administration of Justice, in such Province or Colony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be approved by his Majesty and ... Parliament ... to forbear, in respect of such Province or Colony, to levy any Duty, Tax, or Assessment, or to impose any farther Duty, Tax, or Assessment, except only such Duties as it may be expedient to continue to levy or to impose for the regulation of commerce; the nett produce of the Duties last mentioned to be carried to the account of such Province or Colony respectively."
The Restraining Act.—The effect of North's resolution was nullified by the Restraining Act, which, in spite of Burke's powerful speech on conciliation, became law on March 13. This act confined the commerce of the New England colonies to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies, and prohibited the New Englanders from fishing in the northern fisheries, until "the trade and commerce of his Majesty's subjects may be carried on without interruption." In April the act was extended to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. The British government thus closed the door of conciliation and made the American Revolution inevitable.
READINGS
Adams, J., Works, II, 337-517; Adams, S., Writing, II-III; Becker, C.L., Beginnings of the American People, 202-253; Beer, G.L., British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765, 72-315; Bigelow, J., The Life of Benjamin Franklin, II, 7-337; Channing, E., A History of the United States, III, 29-154; Dickinson, J., Writings, in Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Memoirs, XIV, 307-406; Doyle, J.A., "The Quarrel with Great Britain, 1761-1776," in Cambridge Modern History, VII, 148-208; Fisher, S.G., The Struggle for American Independence, I, 1-300; Frothingham, Richard, The Rise of the Republic, 158-455; Henry, W.W., Patrick Henry, I, 24-357; Howard, G.E., Preliminaries of the Revolution; Hutchinson, P.O., The Diary and Letters of his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, I; Johnson, E.R., History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the United States, I, 84-121; Journals of the Continental Congress, I (Worthington C. Ford, ed.); Lecky, W.E.H., History of England in the Eighteenth Century, III, 290-460; Lincoln, C.H., The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania, 1760-1776; MacDonald, William, Select Charters, 272-396; Trevelyan, G.O., The American Revolution, Part I, 1-253; Tyler, M.C., Literary History of the American Revolution, I; Patrick Henry, 32-134; Van Tyne, C.H., The American Revolution, 3-24; Becker, C.L., The Eve of the Revolution; Eckenrode, H.J., The Revolution in Virginia; Schlesinger, A.M., The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution, 1763-1776.