George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[328] ‘is a direful attack upon the liberties of the colonies,

chap. XVII.} 1765. Sept.

will be a necessary incitement to industry, and for many cogent reasons will prove ineffectual. Our courts of judicature,’ he added, ‘must inevitably be shut up; and if so, the merchants of Great Britain will not be among the last to wish for its repeal.’

Enlightened by discussions, towns, and legislatures, as opportunity offered, made their declaration of rights, following one another like a chime of bells, and preparing the public mind for the union of the continent.

In the infant colony of Georgia, all feeble as it was, the great majority of the representatives, at the instance of their speaker, against the will of the governor, came together on Monday, the second of September, and though they doubted their power, at such a voluntary meeting, to elect delegates to the Congress, they sent an express messenger to New-York to promise their adhesion to its results; ‘for,’ said they, ‘no people, as individuals, can more warmly espouse the common cause than do the people of this province.’

Further north, on the ninth of September, the assembly of Pennsylvania, disregarding the opinions of Galloway, its speaker, who wished to see the Stamp Act executed, accepted the plan of Congress by a majority of one. At the same time it recognised the indispensable duty to grant requisite aids cheerfully and liberally, but only in a constitutional way, through its own assembly.

Next in time, but first in the explicit declaration of rights, the Assembly of Rhode Island not only joined the union, but unanimously directed all the officers of the colony to proceed in all their duties as