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[466]

A Congress, therefore, on ‘the plan of union pro-

Chap. L.} 1773. Sept.
posed by Virginia,’ was the fixed purpose of Samuel Adams. He would have no delay; no waiting for increased strength; for, said he, ‘when our liberty is gone, history and experience will teach us, that an increase of inhabitants will be but an increase of slaves.’ Through the press he appealed to the Continent for a Congress in order to insist effectually upon such terms as would not admit of any other authority within the Colonies than that of their respective Legislatures.1 It was not possible to join issue with the King more precisely.

The first difficulty to be overcome existed in Boston itself. Cushing, the Speaker, who had received a private letter from Dartmouth, and was lulled into confiding in ‘the noble and generous sentiments’ of that Minister, advised that for the time the people should bear their grievances. ‘Our natural increase in wealth and population,’ said he, ‘will in a course of years settle this dispute in our favor; whereas, if we persist in denying the right of Parliament to legislate for us, they may think us extravagant in our demands, and there will be great danger of bringing on a rupture fatal to both countries.’ He thought the redress of grievances would more surely come ‘if these high points about the supreme authority of Parliament were to fall asleep.’2 Against this feeble advice, the Boston Committee of Correspondence aimed at the union of the Province, and ‘the Confederacy of the whole Continent of America.’ They

1 In the Boston Gazette of Monday, 13 Sept. 1773; on second page, 1st and 2d column, 962, 2, 1, and 2. Hutchinson to Dartmouth, 23 Sept., 1773.

2 T. Cushing to Arthur Lee, 20 Sept. 1773.

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