[273] Sparks's Franklin, i. 350. It is claimed that Sam. Adams was earlier. Cf. Wells, ii. p. 84.
[274] Bancroft, orig. ed., vi. 508.
[275] Bancroft, orig. ed., vii. 40. To New York the precedence is also given by Gordon, Ramsay, Hildreth, and Dawson (Westchester County, p. 19).
[276] Dawson, pp. 18, 19.
[277] Wells's Sam. Adams, ii. 221. Silas Deane's letters home are in Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., ii.
[278] Works, ix. 339. Cf. E. D. Neill in Penna. Mag. of Hist., ii. 58; Scharf and Westcott's Philadelphia, i. 291.
[279] John Adams's Works, ix. 617, x. 78, 173; Life of Geo. Read, 93. The Congress met in Carpenter's Hall. (Cf. Scharf and Westcott's Philadelphia, i. 290; Egle's Penna., 141; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 262.)
[280] Works, viii. 131, 142. The Congress had been variously constituted. New York and Pennsylvania had acted outside their legislatures. John Adams, in going through those States on his way to Philadelphia, had remarked "that some in them wanted a little animation." The spirit in New York is shown on the loyal side in Jones's New York during the Rev., i. 449. Cf. J. A. Stevens on "New York in the Continental Congress" in The Galaxy, xxii. 149. The credentials of the Delaware members are in the Life of Geo. Read, 91. The Virginia delegates were at variance. Patrick Henry was eager for a fight. R. H. Lee thought Great Britain would revoke her obnoxious legislature. Washington was undecided. The instructions of the Virginia delegates are in Jefferson's Writings, i. 122. Gadsden was for forcing the conflict by attacking Gage in Boston; and a rumor reaching Philadelphia that Boston was undergoing bombardment fanned the flame, and Samuel Adams wrote home that America would stand by the devoted town. In Georgia the royal governor had prevented the choice of delegates, and that province was not represented. The opposing feelings, North and South, can be gathered from some of the tracts Which the Congress elicited:—
A few remarks upon some of the resolutions and votes of the Continental Congress at Philad. in Sept., and the Provincial Congress at Cambridge in November, by a friend to Peace and Good order (Boston, 1775; same, no date,—Sabin, iv. 15,529). The two Congresses cut up (Boston and New York,—Sabin, iv. 15,597). Thomas Jefferson's Summary View of the rights of British America, set forth in some resolutions, intended for the inspection of the delegates now in convention (Williamsburg, 1774; Philad., 1774). A letter from a Virginian to the members of the Congress to be held at Philadelphia, Sept., 1774 (without place, 1774; Boston, 1774, in three editions; London, 1774),—in opposition to the non-importation combination. Address to the deputies in General Congress (Aug. 10, 1774, Charlestown, S. C.,—Sabin, v. 15,511). Letter from a freeman of South Carolina to the deputies of North America, assembled in High Court of Congress at Philadelphia (Charlestown, S. C., 1774,—Sabin, x. 40,277).
The relations of the colonies to the Congress appear in the lives of the leading members. For New England, of which there was not a little jealousy, and whose members refused to attend Sunday sessions (Wells's Sam. Adams, ii. 237; Life of George Read, 97), see C. F. Adams's John Adams; Wells's Sam. Adams, vol. ii. 218; Frothingham's Joseph Warren, ch. 12; Quincy's Josiah Quincy; Austin's Elbridge Gerry, ch. 5. For the Middle States, see Sedgwick's William Livingston; Lossing's Schuyler, i. ch. 17; Shea's (p. 234) and other lives of Hamilton; Read's Geo. Read, 93; Jay's John Jay, and the life of Jay in Flanders's Chief Justices. For Virginia, the lives of Washington (Marshall; Sparks, ii. 505; Irving, i. 365); Rives's Madison, i. 51; Lee's lives of Arthur and R. H. Lee; Wirt's Patrick Henry, 105; lives of Jefferson (Tucker, i. ch. 3; Parton, ch. 17). For South Carolina, the life of Rutledge in Flanders.