Before the Congress adjourned it was ordered that another Congress should meet on May 10, 1775, in order to take action on the result of the petition to the King.
SUMMARY
1. As soon as Great Britain acquired Canada and the eastern part of the Mississippi valley from France, and Florida from Spain, she did three things:
A. She established the provinces of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and the Indian country.
B. She drew a line round the sources of all the rivers flowing into the Atlantic from the west and northwest, and commanded the colonial governors to grant no land and to allow no settlements to be made west of this line.
C. She decided to send a standing or permanent army to America to take possession of the new territory and defend the colonies.
2. A part of the cost of keeping up this army she decided to meet by taxing the colonists. This she had never done before.
3. The chief tax was the stamp duty on paper, vellum, etc. This the colonists refused to pay, and Parliament repealed it.
4. The colonists having denied the right of Parliament to tax them, that body determined to establish its right and passed the "Townshend Acts." But the colonists refused to buy British goods, and Parliament repealed all the Townshend duties except that on tea.
5. As the Americans would not order tea from London, the East India Company was allowed to send it. But the people in the five cities to which the tea was sent destroyed it or sent it back.