ittees
on the expediency of appointing deputies from the several colonies of
British America to meet annually in GENERAL CONGRESS, at such place as
might be deemed expedient, to deliberate on such measures as the
united interests of the colonies might require.

This was the first recommendation of a General Congress by any public
assembly, though it had been previously proposed in town meetings at
New York and Boston. A resolution to the same effect was passed in the
Assembly of Massachusetts before it was aware of the proceedings of
the Virginia Legislature. The measure recommended met with prompt and
general concurrence throughout the colonies, and the fifth day of
September next ensuing was fixed upon for the meeting of the first
Congress, which was to be held at Philadelphia.

On the 29th, letters arrived from Boston giving the proceedings of a
town meeting, recommending that a general league should be formed
throughout the colonies suspending all trade with Great Britain. But
twenty-five members of the late House of Burgesses, including
Washington, were at that time remaining in Williamsburg. They held a
meeting on the following day, at which Peyton Randolph presided as
moderator. After some discussion it was determined to issue a printed
circular, bearing their signatures, and calling a meeting of all the
members of the late House of Burgesses, on the 1st of August, to take
into consideration this measure of a general league. The circular
recommended them, also, to collect, in the meantime, the sense of
their respective counties.

In the meantime the Boston port bill had been carried into effect. On
the 1st of June the harbor of Boston was closed at noon, and all
business ceased. The two other parliamentary acts altering the charter
of Massachusetts were to be enforced. No public meetings, excepting
the annual town meetings in March and May, were to be held without
permission of the governor.

General Thomas Gage had recently been appointed to the military
command of Massachusetts, and the carrying out of these offensive
acts. As lieutenant-colonel, he had led the advance guard on the field
of Braddock's defeat. Fortune had since gone well with him. Rising in
the service, he had been governor of Montreal, and had succeeded
Amherst in the command of the British forces on this continent. He was
linked to the country also by domestic ties, having married into one
of the most respectable families of New Jersey. I