ould 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