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[42] Jay, still aimed at reconciling a continued dependence
Chap. II.} 1774. May.
on England with the just freedom of the colonies.

Meantime, the port-act was circulated with incredible rapidity. In some places it was printed upon mourning paper with a black border, and cried about the streets as a barbarous murder; in others, it was burned with great solemnity in the presence of vast bodies of the people. On the seventeenth the representatives of Connecticut, with clear perceptions and firm courage, made a declaration of rights. ‘Let us play the man,’ said they, ‘for the cause of our country; and trust the event to Him who orders all events for the best good of His people.’ On the same day, the freemen of the town of Providence, unsolicited from abroad, and after full discussion, voted to promote ‘a congress of the representatives of all the North American colonies.’ Declaring ‘personal liberty an essential part of the natural rights of mankind,’ they also expressed the wish to prohibit the importation of negro slaves, and to set free all negroes born in the colony.

Two days after these spontaneous movements, the people of the city and county of New York assembled to inaugurate their new committee with the formality of public approval. Two parties appeared in array; on the one side men of property, on the other tradesmen and mechanics. Foreboding a revolution, they seemed to contend in advance, whether their future government should be formed upon the basis of property, or on purely popular principles. It was plain that knowledge had penetrated the mass of the people, who were growing accustomed to reason for themselves, and were ready to found a

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