QUESTIONS BEFORE CONGRESS.

115

as the act would involve the Province in a civil war, without the assurance of the support of the whole country.1

The Mecklenburg declaration was not laid before Congress. It was the first declaration of independence formulated in a meeting of American citizens, but its adoption by Congress was not now considered expedient; even the Carolina delegates agreeing that the hour had not yet come for so bold a step, but it was a sufficient sign of the times.2

The questions before Congress were grave and multitudinous; yet the members, though appointed to confer with one another, were not authorized to organize a government. The Revolution had gone further in Massachusetts than elsewhere. A practical definition of sovereignty was needed there which should include the democratic elements in the government of the province, as the people no longer supported British authority. What should take its place? This was the first question to be solved not in Massachusetts alone, but throughout the country. In the reorganization of government upon a democratic foundation, sovereignty must be expressed in a new form. What should it be? These abstract questions must, by the force of events, soon become concrete.

On the twenty-ninth, Congress agreed to an address to "the oppressed inhabitants of Canada," which went substantially over the same grounds as the old one. It was an appeal to the Canadians to unite with the other inhabitants of America in the defense of liberty, but the obstacles which made the old address ineffective had not

1 See note on the Mecklenburg declaration, p. 110, ante.

2 For the application of Massachusetts to the Continental Congress in the matter of "taking up and exercising the powers of civil government;" see the Journal of its Provincial Congress, 219, 229-231

116

INDEPENDENCE IMMINENT.

meanwhile been removed. The sentiment of independence was now in the air, yet no one seemed prepared to advocate it. John Adams, in his reply to Leonard's pamphlet, had most earnestly denied that the people of Massachusetts were aiming at independence. The North Carolina delegates urged the citizens of Mecklenburg county to be patient. The opinion prevailed that the efforts for reconciliation had not been exhausted, and, on the third of June, Congress appointed one committee to prepare a petition to the King; another, to prepare an address to the inhabitants of Great Britain; a third, to prepare one for Ireland; a fourth, to prepare one for the inhabitants of Jamaica; and a fifth, "to bring in an estimate of the money necessary to be raised;" a report which necessarily involved administrative measures. Some such report was necessary after the resolution adopted on the twenty-sixth that Great Britain had begun hostilities. The Committee consisted of Washington, Schuyler, Boerum, Cushing and Harrison, and the committee to draft the petition to the King, of Dickinson, Johnson, Rutledge, Jay and Franklin.

On the same day, the twentieth of July was appointed "to be observed throughout the twelve united colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer,”—the first of a succession of fast days observed during the Revolution, and at critical times in the later history of the nation.1 It seems to have been suggested by the annual observance of a day of fasting and prayer in New England instituted by the Pilgrim Fathers. As the evidence of impending

1 See the order of the New York Provincial Congress to observe the day recommended by Congress in the Journal of the New York Congress, p. 69; also the resolution of the New York convention to keep the 27th of August in like manner, and "that three sermons, suitable to the occasion, be preached on that day before the Convention." Journal, p. 554; also the resolution of the Continental Congress to observe the 11th of December as

MASSACHUSETTS ORGANIZES.

117

hostilities accumulated before Congress, its daily business became military in character; thus in reply to the request of the Massachusetts Congress, on the reorganization of government, it was decided, on the ninth of June, that as no obedience was due to the act of Parliament which had altered the charter of the province, or to the governor or lieutenant governor, who would attempt to execute the act, these officers were to be considered absent; and as there was no longer a council in the province, evils would arise from the suspension of its civil government, especially at a time when General Gage was actually levying war against its loyal subjects, therefore, the Massachusetts convention should write letters to the inhabitants of towns entitled to representation in the assembly and request them to elect such representatives as they saw fit.1 The assembly, when chosen, should elect councilors and with these should exercise the powers of government until the King could send a governor, who should consent to govern the colony according to its charter. This was the first interference of Congress in the civil affairs of a colony, and the advice signified that the people should continue to nullify English laws until the Crown should undertake to govern the colony in compliance with a charter which an act of Parliament had declared null and void.

The device of declaring the executive office in Massachusetts vacant was doubtless suggested from the charter of 1692, which empowered the council to assume execu

"a day for fasting and prayer, to be appointed in each State, and general reformation of manners," in Journal of the New York Committee of Safety, pp. 770, 817; and the proclamation for a like observance by Gouveneur Morris, February 28th, 1777, in Journal of the Committee of Safety of New York, pp. 817-818. Similar resolutions may be found in the Journals of other colonies at this time.

1 Journal, I, 115.

118

FROM COLONIES TO STATES.

tive functions in case of the absence of the governor and lieutenant governor, or their inability to act. There was needed only a general willingness to make such absence permanent, and Congress might instruct every Provincial assembly to reorganize government on a democratic basis. But it was not yet the intention of the leaders to declare the colonial executive offices permanently vacant. The leaders were to pass through an experience similar to that of English statesmen during the first years of the tyrannical government of James II. before they ventured boldly to declare the throne vacant, and thus to lay the foundation of constitutional monarchy in England.

The recommendation of Congress to Massachusetts was a step toward the formation of a free commonwealth, and it has an immediate bearing upon the theory of State sovereignty. The transition from colony to commonwealth was not made by the colony alone, but after the recommendation and with the assistance of a Congress representing united America. The advice of Congress to Massachusetts proves the truth of the saying of Lincoln, that the Union is not only older than the Constitution, but older than the States. Thirteen commonwealths could not develop from thirteen colonies unless each was assured of the support of all the rest. Had there been no sentiment of nationality and union, there could have been no commonwealths. The theory of State sovereignty was an after-thought, advanced, not so much as a theory of the nature of the American commonwealths, but as part of a theory of the administration of government advocated when political parties had become thoroughly organized and were competing for the control of public affairs. The struggle for sovereignty had not yet come.

From this time Congress pursued the dual and difficult policy of conducting a war and running a political cam

paign. It poured forth political manifestoes without stint, as full payment it might seem, of all claims upon the rights of man. Perhaps a half dozen of these declarations are now remembered; but the forgotten ones would make a respectable volume. Refractory legislatures and aggressive creditors, domestic and foreign, were defuged with addresses and formal resolutions. It was the age of political manifestoes, and Congress led the age. The lapse of time, however, bears testimony to their value. The early record of a national movement was never before written more zealously and at the same time more unconsciously.

The advice to Massachusetts involved military measures, and, on the following day,1 Congress formulated a request to the Committees of Safety in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey,2 to collect saltpetre and brimstone and, with all possible dispatch, to transport them to the Provincial Convention at New York, which was urged to have the powder mills in the colony immediately put in condition to manufacture gunpowder "for the use of the continent." A like recommendation was sent to the committees of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, and Philadelphia was named as the place of deposit. The committees of the Southern colonies were to make a like collection for the general use. The material thus gathered together was to be paid for out of the continental funds.

Religion is a powerful factor in the evolution of government and the confidence of men that the Creator of the Universe takes an interest in their individual affairs has always inspired them to the noblest efforts. The appointment of a day of fasting and prayer, which was re

1 June 10, 1775, Journal, I, 116.

2 The collection in East Jersey was to be sent to New York; in West Jersey, to Philadelphia.