That they also consult upon all such reasonable and lawful Measures as may be expedient for the Colonies, in an united Manner to persue in Order to procure a Redress of their Grievances, and to ascertain and establish their Rights and Liberties.
That they also endeavor to Procure a regular annual Convention of Representatives from all the Colonies to consider of Proper Means for the preservation of the Rights and Liberties of the Colonies. ...[122]
(Witnessed) Henry Ward, Sect'y.
126. Another "Call" for the Continental Congress
June 17, 1774, the Massachusetts House of Representatives, under the lead of Samuel Adams (and after a carefully planned, secret campaign), adopted the following resolutions.
That a meeting of committees from the several colonies on this continent is highly expedient and necessary, to consult upon the present state of the colonies, and the miseries to which they are and must be reduced by the operation of certain acts of Parliament respecting America, and to deliberate and determine upon wise and proper measures, to be by them recommended to all the colonies, for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies, most ardently desired by all good men: Therefore, resolved, that the Hon. James Bowdoin, Esq., the Hon. Thomas Cushing, Esq., Mr. Samuel Adams, John Adams and Robert Treat Paine, Esqrs., be, and they are hereby appointed a committee on the part of this province, for the purposes aforesaid, any three of whom to be a quorum, to meet such committees or delegates from the other colonies as have been or may be appointed, either by their respective houses of burgesses or representatives, or by convention, or by the committees of correspondence appointed by the respective houses of assembly, in the city of Philadelphia, or any other place that shall be judged most suitable by the committee, on the 1st day of September next; and that the speaker of the house be directed, in a letter to the speakers of the houses of burgesses or representatives in the several colonies, to inform them of the substance of these resolves.
[This is often referred to as "the call" for the Continental Congress. It was the first action by a colonial legislature in regular session. It did not, however, have "legal" validity under the Charter to which the men of Massachusetts constantly appealed. That charter (1691) required the assent of the upper House and the approval of the governor for every resolution and every appointment; and these elements, of course, were lacking. The dramatic story of Sam Adams' plot is well told in many places,—notably in Dr. Hosmer's Samuel Adams.]
127. A Virginia County Suggests a Continental Congress and a General Association
Force, American Archives, Fourth Series, I, 392-393.