THE FIRST GENERAL CONGRESS.
Shortly after Washington's return to Mount Vernon, in the latter part
of June, he presided as moderator at a meeting of the inhabitants of
Fairfax County, wherein, after the recent acts of Parliament had been
discussed, a committee was appointed, with himself as chairman, to
draw up resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the present
meeting, and to report the same at a general meeting of the county, to
be held in the court-house on the 18th of July.
The committee met according to appointment, with Washington as
chairman. The resolutions framed at the meeting insisted, as usual, on
the right of self-government, and the principle that taxation and
representation were in their nature inseparable: that the various acts
of Parliament for raising revenue, taking away trials by jury,
ordering that persons might be tried in a different country from that
in which the cause of accusation originated, closing the port of
Boston, abrogating the charter of Massachusetts Bay, etc., etc., were
all part of a premeditated design and system to introduce arbitrary
government into the colonies; that the sudden and repeated
dissolutions of Assemblies whenever they presumed to examine the
illegality of ministerial mandates, or deliberated on the violated
rights of their constituents, were part of the same system, and
calculated and intended to drive the people of the colonies to a state
of desperation, and to dissolve the compact by which their ancestors
bound themselves and their posterity to remain dependent on the
British crown. The resolutions, furthermore, recommended the most
perfect union and co-operation among the colonies; solemn covenants
with respect to non-importation and non-intercourse, and a
renunciation of all dealings with any colony, town, or province that
should refuse to agree to the plan adopted by the General Congress.
They also recommended a dutiful petition and remonstrance from the
Congress to the king, asserting their constitutional rights and
privileges; lamenting the necessity of entering into measures that
might be displeasing; declaring their attachment to his person,
family, and government, and their desire to continue in dependence
upon Great Britain; beseeching him not to reduce his faithful subjects
of America to desperation, and to reflect that _from our sovereign
there can be but one appeal_.
The resolutions reported by the committee were adopted, and Washington
was chosen a delegate to represent the county at the General
Convention of the province, to be held at Williamsburg on the 1st of
August. [On the date appointed the convention assembled.] Washington
appeared on behalf of Fairfax County, and presented the resolutions,
already cited, as the sense of his constituents. He is said, by one
who was present, to have spoken in support of them in a strain of
uncommon eloquence. The Convention was six days in session.
Resolutions, in the same spirit with those passed in Fairfax County,
were adopted, and Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, George
Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and
Edmund Pendleton, were appointed delegates, to represent the people of
Virginia in the General Congress.
General Gage from the time of taking command at Boston, had been
perplexed how to manage its inhabitants. Had they been hot-headed,
impulsive, and prone to paroxysm, his task would have been
comparatively easy; but it was the cool, shrewd common sense, by which
all their movements were regulated, that confounded him. There was no
uproar, no riots; everything was awfully systematic and according to
rule. Town meetings were held, in which public rights and public
measures were eloquently discussed by John Adams, Josiah Quincy, and
other eminent men. Over these meetings Samuel Adams presided as
moderator; a man clear in judgment, calm in conduct, inflexible in
resolution, deeply grounded in civil and political history, and
infallible on all points of constitutional law.
Gage was at a loss how to act. It would not do to disperse these
assemblages by force of arms; for the people who composed them mingled
the soldier with the polemic; and like their prototypes, the
covenanters of yore, if prone to argue, were as ready to fight. So the
meetings continued to be held pertinaciously. Faneuil Hall was at
times unable to hold them, and they swarmed from that revolutionary
hive into old South Church. The liberty tree became a rallying place
for any popular movement, and a flag hoisted on it was saluted by all
processions as the emblem of the popular cause.
When the time approached for the meeting of the General Congress at
Philadelphia, Washington was joined at Mount Vernon by Patrick Henry
and Edmund Pendleton, and they performed the journey together on
horseback. It was a noble companionship. Henry was then in the
youthful vigor and elasticity of his bounding genius, ardent, acute,
fanciful, eloquent; Pendleton, schooled in public life, a veteran in
council, with native force of intellect, and habits of deep
reflection; Washington, in the meridian of his days, mature in wisdom,
comprehensive in mind, sagacious in foresight. Such were the apostles
of liberty, repairing on their august pilgrimage to Philadelphia from
all parts of the land, to lay the foundations of a mighty empire.
Congress assembled on Monday, the 5th of September, in a large room in
Carpenter's Hall. There were fifty-one delegates, representing all the
colonies excepting Georgia. The meeting has been described as "awfully
solemn." The most eminent men of the various colonies were now for the
first time brought together; they were known to each other by fame,
but were, personally, strangers. The object which had called them
together was of incalculable magnitude. The liberties of no less than
three millions of people, with that of all their posterity, were
staked on the wisdom and energy of their councils.
There being an inequality in the number of delegates from the
different colonies, a question arose as to the mode of voting; whether
by colonies, by the poll, or by interests. After some debate, it was
determined that each colony should have but one vote, whatever might
be the number of its delegates. The deliberations of the House were to
be with closed doors, and nothing but the resolves promulgated, unless
by order of the majority. To give proper dignity and solemnity to the
proceedings, it was moved on the following day that each morning the
session should be opened by prayer. In the course of the day, a rumor
reached Philadelphia that Boston had been cannonaded by the British.
It produced a strong sensation; and when Congress met on the following
morning (7th), the effect was visible in every countenance. The
delegates from the east were greeted with a warmer grasp of the hand
by their associates from the south. [The rumor proved to be
erroneous.]
Owing to closed doors, and the want of reporters, no record exists of
the discussions and speeches made in the first Congress. The first
public measure was a resolution declaratory of their feelings with
regard to the recent acts of Parliament, violating the rights of the
people of Massachusetts, and of their determination to combine in
resisting any force that might attempt to carry those acts into
execution.
A committee of two from each province reported a series of
resolutions, which were adopted and promulgated by Congress, as a
"declaration of colonial rights." In this were enumerated their
natural rights to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property; and
their rights as British subjects. Among the latter was participation
in legislative councils. This they could not exercise through
representatives in Parliament; they claimed, therefore, the power of
legislating in their provincial assemblies; consenting, however, to
such acts of Parliament as might be essential to the regulation of
trade; but excluding all taxation, internal or external, for raising
revenue in America. The common law of England was claimed as a
birthright, including the right of trial by a jury of the vicinage; of
holding public meetings to consider grievances; and of petitioning the
king. The benefits of all such statutes as existed at the time of the
colonization were likewise claimed; together with the immunities and
privileges granted by royal charters, or secured by provincial laws.
The maintenance of a standing army in any colony in time of peace,
without the consent of its legislature, was pronounced contrary to
law. The exercise of the legislative power in the colonies by a
council appointed during pleasure by the crown, was declared to be
unconstitutional, and destructive to the freedom of American
legislation. Then followed a specification of the acts of Parliament,
passed during the reign of George III., infringing and violating these
rights. These were--the sugar act; the stamp act; the two acts for
quartering troops; the tea act; the act suspending the New York
legislature; the two acts for the trial in Great Britain of offences
committed in America; the Boston port bill; the act for regulating the
government of Massachusetts, and the Quebec act.
"To these grievous acts and measures," it was added, "Americans cannot
submit; but in hopes their fellow subjects in Great Britain will, on a
revision of them, restore us to that state in which both countries
found happiness and prosperity, we have for the present, only resolved
to pursue the following peaceable measures: 1st. To enter into a
non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation agreement, or
association. 2d. To prepare an address to the people of Great Britain,
and a memorial to the inhabitants of British America. 3d. To prepare a
loyal address to his majesty." The above-mentioned association was
accordingly formed, and committees were to be appointed in every
county, city and town to maintain it vigilantly and strictly.
Masterly state papers were issued by Congress in conformity to the
resolutions: viz, a petition to the king, drafted by Mr. Dickinson, of
Philadelphia; an address to the people of Canada by the same hand,
inviting them to join the league of the colonies; another to the
people of Great Britain, drafted by John Jay, of New York; and a
memorial to the inhabitants of the British colonies by Richard Henry
Lee, of Virginia.
The Congress remained in session fifty-one days. Every subject,
according to Adams, was discussed "with a moderation, an acuteness,
and a minuteness equal to that of Queen Elizabeth's privy council."
The papers issued by it have deservedly been pronounced masterpieces
of practical talent and political wisdom. From the secrecy that
enveloped its discussions, we are ignorant of the part taken by
Washington in the debates; the similarity of the resolutions, however,
in spirit and substance to those of the Fairfax County meeting, in
which he presided, and the coincidence of the measures adopted with
those therein recommended, show that he had a powerful agency in the
whole proceedings of this eventful assembly. Patrick Henry, being
asked, on his return home, whom he considered the greatest man in
Congress, replied: "If you speak of eloquence, Mr. Rutledge, of South
Carolina, is by far the greatest orator; but if you speak of solid
information and sound judgment, Colonel Washington is unquestionably
the greatest man on that floor."
On the breaking up of Congress, Washington hastened back to Mount
Vernon, where his presence was more than usually important to the
happiness of Mrs. Washington, from the loneliness caused by the recent
death of her daughter and the absence of her son. The cheerfulness of
the neighborhood had been diminished of late by the departure of
George William Fairfax for England, to take possession of estates
which had devolved to him in that kingdom. His estate of Belvoir, so
closely allied with that of Mount Vernon by family ties and reciprocal
hospitality, was left in charge of a steward, or overseer. Through
some accident the house took fire, and was burnt to the ground. It was
never rebuilt. The course of political events which swept Washington
from his quiet home into the current of public and military life,
prevented William Fairfax, who was a royalist, though a liberal one,
from returning to his once happy abode, and the hospitable
intercommunion of Mount Vernon and Belvoir was at an end for ever.