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Chapter 32:
Effects of the day of
Lexington and
Concord continued:
Ticonderoga taken.
May, 1775.
the people of
South Carolina, who had hoped relief
through the discontinuance of importations from Britain, did not falter on learning the decision of parliament.
On the instant,
Charles Pinckney, using power intrusted to him by the provincial congress, appointed a committee of five to place the colony in a state of defence; on the twenty-first of April, the very night after their organization, men of
Charleston, without disguise, under their direction, seized all the powder in the public magazines, and removed eight hundred stand of arms and other military stores from the royal arsenal.
The tidings from
Lexington induced the general committee to hasten the meeting of the provincial congress; whose members, on the second of June,
Henry Laurens being their president, associated themselves for defence against every foe; ‘ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to secure her freedom and safety.’
They resolved to raise two regiments of infantry, and a regiment of rangers.
To this end, one hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling were issued in bills of credit, which for a year and a half the enthusiasm of the people did not suffer to fall in