ned a decided preponderance, largely through the
skilful management of Samuel Adams, who persuaded the congress to
approve the "resolves" passed at a meeting of Suffolk county,
Massachusetts. These "resolves" rejected the act for the government of
the province, required tax collectors not to pay money into the
governor's treasury, and advised towns to appoint their own officers of
militia. Besides endorsing a policy of armed resistance to government,
congress further demanded the revocation of a series of acts of
parliament, including the Quebec act and the late penal legislation,
drew up a declaration of rights, agreed on non-exportation and
non-importation, sent a petition to the king, and published an address
to the English people. It arranged that a new congress should meet the
following May, and invited the Canadians to join in it, suggesting
grounds of discontent with the English government and pretending a zeal
for religious equality. But the Canadians were not to be caught.

[Sidenote: _AMERICAN LOYALISM._]

Congress separated without having laid down any basis for conciliation
save complete surrender on the part of parliament, which was clearly
impossible. It professed loyalty to the crown, and it is probable that
certain eminent Americans, who, like George Washington, declared that
they knew of no wish for independence, really desired to maintain the
connexion with England, if they could bring affairs back to their
condition before 1763, and actually believed that by cutting off
commercial relations with her, they could compel her to assent to their
demands without an appeal to arms. Like the vast majority of Englishmen,
who did not believe that the Americans would fight, they failed to
understand the situation. In the case of others, like Patrick Henry and
the Adamses, it is useless to attach any weight to loyal expressions.
Too much, indeed, has been made of the American professions of loyalty,
for men's loyalty is better judged by their actions than by their words.
Thousands of Americans proved their loyalty by tremendous sacrifices.
Loyalism on its religious side was connected with the teaching of the
English Church; politically it was the outcome of attachment to law,
monarchy, and the unity of the empire as against revolution, democracy,
and separation.[93] The loyalists, however, included men of various
religious persuasions and of different shades of political opinion. As
Americans, they felt the Brit