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prayers; the collect for the day, the 7th of the month, was most admirably adapted, though this was accidental, or rather providential. A prayer which he gave us of his own composition was as pertinent, as affectionate, as sublime, as devout, as I ever heard offered up to Heaven. He filled every bosom present. . .

10. Saturday. Attended my duty upon the sub-committee.

Dined

at home. Dr. Morgan, Dr. Cox, Mr. Spence, and several other gentlemen, Major Sullivan and Colonel Folsom, dined with us upon salt fish. Rambled in the evening with Jo Reed, and fell into Mr. Sprout's meeting, where we heard Mr. Spence preach. Mr. Reed returned with Mr. Adams and me to our lodgings, and a very sociable, agreeable, and communicative evening we had. He says we never were guilty of a more masterly stroke of policy, than in moving that Mr. Duché might read prayers; it has had a very good effect, &c. He says the sentiments of people here are growing more and more favorable every day.

11. Sunday. There is such a quick and constant succession of new scenes, characters, persons, and events, turning up before me, that I can't keep any regular account. . .

...

12. Monday. ... dined with Mr. Dickinson at his seat at Fair Hill... Mr. Dickinson has a fine seat, a beautiful prospect of the city, the river, and the country, fine gardens, and a very grand library. . . . Mr. Dickinson is a very modest man, and very ingenious as well as agreeable; he has an excellent heart, and the cause of his country lies near it. He is full and clear for allowing to Parliament the regulation of trade, upon principles of necessity, and the mutual interest of both

countries.

13. Tuesday. Attended my duty all day on the sub-committee. Agreed on a report.

14. Wednesday. Visited Mr. Gadsden, Mr. Deane, Colonel Dyer, &c. at their lodgings. Gadsden is violent against allowing to Parliament any power of regulating trade, or allowing that they have any thing to do with us. "Power of regulating trade," he says, "is power of ruining us; as bad as acknowledging them a supreme legislative in all cases whatsoever; a right of regulating trade is a right of legislation, and a right of legislation in one case is a right in all; this I deny." Attended the Congress and committee all the forenoon; dined with Dr. Cox. . . . A mighty feast again; nothing less than the very best of Claret, Madeira, and Burgundy; melons, fine beyond description, and pears and peaches as excellent. This day Mr. Chase introduced to us

a Mr. Carroll, of Annapolis, a very sensible gentleman, a Roman Catholic, and of the first fortune in America. His income is ten thousand pounds sterling a year now, will be fourteen in two or three years, they say; besides, his father has a vast estate which will be his after his father. . .

17. Saturday. This was one of the happiest days of my life. In Congress we had generous, noble sentiments, and manly eloquence. This day convinced me that America will support the Massachusetts or perish with her. . .

28. Wednesday. Dined with Mr. R. Penn; a magnificent house, and a most splendid feast, and a very large company. Mr. Dickinson and General Lee were there, and Mr. Moylan, besides a great number of the delegates. Spent the evening at home, with Colonel Lee, Colonel Washington, and Dr. Shippen, who came in to consult with us. . .

[Oct.] 10. Monday. The deliberations of the Congress are spun out to an immeasurable length. There is so much wit, sense, learning, acuteness, subtlety, eloquence, &c. among fifty gentlemen, each of whom has been habituated to lead and guide in his own Province, that an immensity of time is spent unnecessarily. Johnson of Maryland has a clear and a cool head, an extensive knowledge of trade as well as law. He is a deliberating man, but not a shining orator; his passions and imagination don't appear enough for an orator; his reason and penetration appear, but not his rhetoric. Galloway, Duane, and Johnson are sensible and learned, but cold speakers. Lee, Henry, and Hooper, are the orators; Paca is a deliberator too; Chase speaks warmly; Mifflin is a sprightly and spirited speaker; John Rutledge don't exceed in learning or oratory, though he is a rapid speaker; young Edward Rutledge is young and zealous, a little unsteady and injudicious, but very unnatural and affected as a speaker; Dyer and Sherman speak often and long, but very heavily and clumsily.

20. Thursday. Dined with the whole Congress, at the City Tavern, at the invitation of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania. The whole House dined with us, making near one hundred guests in the whole; a most elegant entertainment. A sentiment was given: "May the sword of the parent never be stained with the blood of her children." Two or three broad-brims over against me at table; one of them said, this is not a toast, but a prayer; come, let us join in it. And they took their glasses accordingly. . . .

24. Monday. In Congress, nibbling and quibbling as usual. There

is no greater mortification than to sit with half a dozen wits, deliberating upon a petition, address, or memorial. These great wits, these subtle critics, these refined geniuses, these learned lawyers, these wise statesmen, are so fond of showing their parts and powers, as to make their consultations very tedious. Young Ned Rutledge is a perfect Bob-oLincoln, a swallow, a sparrow, a peacock; excessively vain, excessively weak, and excessively variable and unsteady; jejune, inane, and puerile. Mr. Dickinson is very modest, delicate, and timid. Spent the evening at home. Colonel Dyer, Judge Sherman, and Colonel Floyd came in, and spent the evening with Mr. Adams and me. Mr. Mifflin and General Lee came in. Lee's head is running upon his new plan of a battalion. . . .

26. Wednesday. Dined at home. This day the Congress finished. Spent the evening together at the City Tavern; all the Congress, and several gentlemen of the town. . .

28. Friday. Took our departure, in a very great rain, from the happy, the peaceful, the elegant, the hospitable, and polite city of Philadelphia. It is not very likely that I shall ever see this part of the world again, but I shall ever retain a most grateful, pleasing sense of the many civilities. I have received in it, and shall think myself happy to have an opportunity of returning them.

john Adams, Works (edited by Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850), II, 365-402 passim.

154. Enforcement of the Association (1774)

THE

BY GOVERNOR THE EARL OF DUNMORE

For Dunmore, see above, No. 135.

HE Associations first in part entered into, recommended by the people of this Colony, and adopted by what is called the Continental Congress, are now enforcing throughout this country with the greatest rigour. A Committee has been chosen in every County, whose business it is to carry the Association of the Congress into execution, which Committee assumes an authority to inspect the books, invoices, and all other secrets of the trade and correspondence of Merchants; to watch the conduct of every inhabitant, without distinction, and to send for all such as come under their suspicion into their presence; to inter

rogate them respecting all matters which, at their pleasure, they think fit objects of their inquiry; and to stigmatize, as they term it, such as they find transgressing what they are now hardy enough to call the Laws of the Congress, which stigmatizing is no other than inviting the vengeance of an outrageous and lawless mob to be exercised upon the unhappy victims. Every County, besides, is now arming a Company of men, whom they call an Independent Company, for the avowed purpose of protecting their Committees, and to be employed against Government, if occasion require. The Committee of one County has proceeded so far as to swear the men of their Independent Company, to execute all orders which shall be given them from the Committee of their County.

As to the power of Government, which your Lordship, in your letter of November 11, directs should be exerted to counteract the dangerous measures pursuing here, I can assure your Lordship that it is entirely disregarded, if not wholly overturned. There is not a Justice of the Peace in Virginia that acts, except as a Committee-man. The abolishing the Courts of Justice was the first step taken, in which the men of fortune and pre-eminence joined equally with the lowest and meanest. The General Court of Judicature of the Colony is much in the same predicament; for though there are at least a majority of his Majesty's Council, who, with myself, are the Judges of that Court, that would steadily perform their duty, yet the Lawyers have absolutely refused to attend, nor indeed would the people allow them to attend, or evidences to appear. The reason commonly assigned for this proceeding, is the want of a Fee Bill, which expired at the last session of Assembly; and it is a popular argument here, that no power but the Legislature can establish Fees; and the Fee Bill not having been renewed, it is attributed to the dissolution. But the true cause of so many persons joining in so opprobrious a measure, was to engage their English creditors, who are numerous, to join in the clamours of this country; and not a few to avoid paying the debts in which many of the principal people here are much involved.

With regard to the encouraging of those, as your Lordship likewise exhorts me, who appeared, in principle, averse to these proceedings, I hope your Lordship will do me the justice to believe I have left no means in my power unessayed to draw all the assistance possible from them to his Majesty's Government; but I presume your Lordship will not think it very extraordinary, that my persuasions should have been

unavailing, against the terrours, which, on the other hand, are held out by the Committee.

Independent Companies, &c., so universally supported, who have set themselves up superiour to all other authority, under the auspices of their Congress, the Laws of which they talk of in a style of respect, and treat with marks of reverence, which they never bestowed on their legal Government, or the Laws proceeding from it. I can assure your Lordship, that I have discovered no instance where the interposition of Government, in the feeble state to which it is reduced, could serve any other purpose than to suffer the disgrace of a disappointment, and thereby afford matter of great exultation to its enemies, and increase their influence over the minds of the people.

But, my Lord, every step which has been taken by these infatuated people, must inevitably defeat its own purpose. Their Non-Importation, Non-Exportation, &c., cannot fail in a short time to produce a scarcity, which will ruin thousands of families. The people, indeed, of fortune, may supply themselves and their negroes for two or three years, but the middling and poorer sort, who live from hand to mouth, have not the means of doing so; and the produce of their lands will not purchase those necessaries, (without which themselves and negroes must starve,) of the Merchants who may have goods to dispose of; because the Merchants are prevented from turning such produce to any account. As to manufacturing for themselves, the people of Virginia are very far from being naturally industrious; and it is not by taking away the principal, if not the only encouragement to industry, that it can be excited; nor is it in times of anarchy and confusion, that the foundation of such improvements can be laid. The lower class of people, too, will discover that they have been duped by the richer sort, who, for their part, elude the whole effects of the Association by which their poor neighbours perish. What, then, is to deter those from taking the shortest mode of supplying themselves? and unrestrained as they are by laws, from taking whatever they want wherever they can find it?

The arbitrary proceedings of these Committees, likewise, cannot fail of producing quarrels and dissensions, which will raise partisans of Government; and I am firmly persuaded that the Colony, even by their own acts and deeds, must be brought to see the necessity of depending on its mother country, and of embracing its authority.

Peter Force, compiler, American Archives, Fourth Series (Washington, 1837), I, 1061-1063.

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