Navigation Act. In 1764 an act was passed which declared that the bills which had been issued by the colonial government should no longer be regarded as legal currency. About the same time, the House of Commons passed eighteen acts for imposing duties on the colonies. The Stamp Act was deferred to the next session; but the others were immediately enforced. The colonists were greatly excited by the determination of the British parlia ment to carry these acts into immediate effect. Every day the affection of the colonists for the mother country was evidently diminishing, and the determination to resist force by force was more and more cherished. Combinations were formed to resist these acts. They were viewed as violations of the British constitution, and as destructive of the first principles of liberty. The House of Burgesses of Virginia passed spirited resolutions, denying the right of parliament to tax the colonies. The Assembly of Massachusetts recommended a meeting of delegates from each of the colonies to propose an address to his majesty and parliament, imploring relief.

7. On the 7th of October, 1765, twenty-eight delegates assembled in the city of New York. Nine colonies were represented. This congress declared that the colonists were entitled to all the rights and liberties of natural-born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain: that the most essential of these were the exclusive power to tax themselves, and the privilege of trial by jury. A petition to the king, and a memorial to each house of parliament, were also agreed upon. The most intense excitement began to appear in all the colonies, which occasionally broke

6. What right did the British parliament assert? Upon what did they insist? What act was passed in reference to the bills issued by the colonial governments? For what purpose were other bills passed about the same time? How many were passed? Was the Stamp Act carried into immediate effect? What effect was produced upon the colonists? For what purpose were combinations formed? In what light were these acts of parliament viewed? What resolutions were passed by the House of Burgesses in Virginia? What did the Assembly of Massachusetts recommend?

7. When and where did the delegates meet? How many colonies were

out into acts of violence. The petition of the colonies was not allowed to be read in parliament. The Stamp Act was, however, repealed.

8. In 1767 another act was passed for taxing America, by imposing duties on tea, glass, paper, and other articles. Another act was passed, appointing the officers of the navy as customhouse officers. Another act was passed, restraining the legislature from passing any act whatever, until they had furnished the king's troops with all the articles required by law. These three acts created great alarm among the colonists. If parliament assumed the right to abolish the legislative power of the colonies, some other right guarantied to them by their charters might be attacked, and they might even abolish the charters.

CHAPTER IX.

CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

1. THE Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774. All the colonies were represented, except Georgia. A series of resolutions, defining the rights of the colonies, and the instances in which they had been violated, were passed. Among the resolutions were the following:

"Resolved unanimously, That the inhabitants of the English colonies in North America, by the immutable. laws of nature, the principles of the English constitution, and the several charters or compacts, have the following rights: 1. They are entitled to life, liberty, and property;

represented? What did they declare? What was agreed upon? Was this petition allowed to be read in parliament?

8. What three acts were passed in 1767, in reference to the colonies? What was the effect of the passage of these three acts?

1. Where did the Continental Congress meet? When? What colonies were represented? What did they define in their resolutions? By

and they have never ceded to any foreign power whatever, a right to dispose of either without their consent; 2. That our ancestors, who first settled these colonies, were, at the time of their emigration from the mother country, entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immuni ties of free and natural-born subjects within the realms of England; 3. That by such emigration they by no means forfeited, surrendered, or lost any of these rights; but that they were, and their descendants now are, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of all or such of them as their local circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy; 4. That the foundation of English liberty and of all free governments, is a right in the people to participate in their legislative councils; and as the English colonists are not represented, and, from their local and other circumstances, cannot properly be represented in the British parliament, they are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their several provincial. legislatures, where their right of representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of taxation and internal policy, subject only to the negative of their sovereign, in such a manner as has been heretofore used and accustomed. But from the necessity of the case, and a regard to the natural interests of both countries, we cheerfully consent to the operation of such acts of the British parliament as are bona fide restrictive to the regulation of our external commerce for the advantage of the whole empire, and the commercial benefit of its respective members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America without their con

what title did the colonists possess the rights enumerated? What is the first right defined by their resolutions? To what were their ancestors, who first settled the colonies, entitled at the time of their emigration? What effect did their emigration have upon these rights? What did they declare to be the foundation of English liberty and of all free governments? Were the colonies represented in the British parliament ? In what cases did they declare that they were entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation? Subject only to what? To what acts of the British parliament did they cheerfully consent? To what law were the respective colonies entitled? To what especial privilege? To the

sent; 5. That the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of England, and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege of being tried by the peers of their vicinity, according to the course of that law; 6. That they are entitled to the benefit of such of the English statutes as existed at the time of their colonization, and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be applicable to their local and other circumstances; 7. That his majesty's colonies are likewise entitled to all the immunities and privileges granted and confirmed to them by royal charter, or secured by their several codes of provincial laws. 8. That they have a right peaceably to assemble to consider their grievances and petition the king; and that all prosecutions, prohibitory proclamations, and commitments for the same, are illegal. 9. That the keeping a standing army in these colonies in the time. of peace, without the consent of the legislature of that colony in which such army is kept, is against law. 10. That it is indispensably necessary to good government, and rendered essential by the English constitution, that the constituent branches of the legislature be independent of each other; that the exercise of legislative power in the colonies by a council appointed during the pleasure of the crown is unconstitutional, dangerous, and destructive to the freedom of American legislation. All of which, the aforesaid deputies, in behalf of themselves and constituents, do claim, demand, and insist on as their indubitable rights and liberties, which cannot be legally taken from them, altered, or abridged by any power whatever, without their consent, by their representatives in their several provincial legislatures."

2. An address to the king and to the people of Great

benefit of what statutes were they entitled? To what further immunities and privileges were they entitled? What right of assembling to discuss their grievances, and of petitioning the king, did they claim? What did they declare to be illegal? What did they declare in reference to keeping a standing army in the colonies? What did they declare to be indispensable to good government? What did they declare to be unconstitutional? In whose behalf did they claim these rights?

Britain was prepared, and a memorial to the inhabitants of British America. In their address to the people of Great Britain, they say: "You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of independence. Be assured that these are not facts, but calumnies. Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we will ever esteem a union with you to be our greatest glory and our greatest happiness. We shall ever be ready to contribute all in our power to the welfare of the whole empire. We shall consider your enemies as our enemies, and your interest as our interest. But if you are determined that your ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind; if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of the law, the principles of the constitution, nor the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding human blood in such an impious cause, we must then tell you that we will never submit to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for any ministry or nation in the world."

3. In their address to the king, they say: "Permit us then, most gracious sovereign, in the name of all your faithful people in America, with the utmost humility, to implore you, for the honor of Almighty God, whose pure religion our enemies are undermining; for your glory, which can be advanced only by rendering your subjects happy, and keeping them united; for the interests of your family, depending upon an adherence to the principles that enthroned it; for the safety and welfare of your kingdom and dominion, threatened with almost unavoidable dangers and distress, that your majesty, as the loving father of your whole people, connected by the same bonds

2. What did the Continental Congress prepare? In their address to the people of Great Britain, what do they say that the people have been told? Were these facts? If the people of the colonies were allowed to be as free as the people of Great Britain, how would the colonists esteem a union with them? To what would they be ever ready to contribute? How would the colonists consider the enemies of the people of Great Britain? If they could not be restrained from shedding human blood in such an impious cause, what did the colonists tell them? 8. By what title did they address the king? In whose name? For