merica, and which is not recognized at this day
by the British Government and enjoyed by the people in all the provinces
of the Dominion of Canada.

The correctness of these remarks will appear from a summary of the
proceedings of this Continental Congress, and extracts from its
addresses, which will show that the colonies, without exception, were as
loyal to their constitutional sovereign as they were to their
constitutional rights,[344] though in royal messages and ministerial
speeches in Parliament their petitions and remonstrances were called
treason, and the authors of them were termed rebels and traitors. The
principal acts of this Congress were a Declaration of Rights; an address
to the King; an address to the people of Great Britain; a memorial to
the Americans; a letter to the people of Canada. Non-importation and
non-exportation agreements were adopted and signed by all the members;
and Committees of Vigilance were appointed.

"Then on the 26th of October, the 'fifty-five' separated and returned to
their homes, determined, as they expressed it, 'that they were
themselves to stand or fall with the liberties of America.'"[345]

Among the first important acts of this Congress was the declaration of
colonial rights, grievances, and policy. As this part of their
proceedings contains the whole case of the colonies as stated by their
own representatives, I will give it, though long, in their own words, in
a note.[346] This elaborate and ably written paper does not appear to
contain a sentiment of treason, nor anything which the members of the
Congress had not a right to express and complain of as British subjects;
while they explicitly recognized in Parliament all the authority which
could be constitutionally claimed for it, and which was requisite for
British supremacy over the colonies, or which had ever been exercised
before 1764.

On the 1st of October, the Congress, after long consideration,
unanimously resolved--

"That a loyal address to his Majesty be prepared, dutifully requesting
the Royal attention to the grievances which alarm and distress his
Majesty's faithful subjects in North America, and entreating his
Majesty's gracious interposition to remove such grievances, and thereby
to restore to Great Britain and the colonies that harmony so necessary
to the happiness of the British empire, and so ardently desired by all
America."

This address or petition, like all the papers emanating from this
Cong