,
and county, whose business it should be to observe the conduct of all
persons, those who refused to sign the Association as well as those who
signed it, and to publish the names of all persons who did not observe
the agreements there entered into, "to the end that all such foes of
the rights of British-America may be publicly known and universally
condemned as the enemies of American liberty"; and it was likewise
recommended that the committees should inspect the customs entries
frequently, that they should seize all goods imported contrary to the
recommendation of the Association and reship them, or, if the owner
preferred, sell them at public auction, the owner to be recompensed for
the first costs, the profits, if any, to be devoted to relieving the
people of Boston.

Having thus adopted a Petition to the King, a Memorial to the
Inhabitants of the British Colonies, and an Address to the People of
Great Britain, and having recommended a certain line of conduct to
be followed by all loyal Americans, the first Continental Congress
adjourned. It had assumed no "coercive or legislative authority";
obedience to its determinations would doubtless depend, as Mr. Rutledge
had said, upon "the reasonableness, the apparent utility and necessity"
of its recommendations.

"There can be no doubt," the Earl of Dartmouth is reported to have said,
"that every one who had signed the Association was guilty of treason."
The Earl of Dartmouth was not counted one of the enemies of America; and
if this was his opinion of the action of the first Continental Congress,
Lord North's supporters in Parliament, a great majority since the
recent elections, were not likely to take a more favorable view of it.
Nevertheless, when the American question came up for consideration in
the winter of 1776, "conciliation" was a word frequently heard on all
sides, and even corrupt ministers were understood to be dallying with
schemes of accommodation. In January and February great men were sending
agents, and even coming themselves, to Dr. Franklin to learn what in his
opinion the colonies would be satisfied with. Lord Chatham, as might
be guessed, was meditating a plan. On the 29th of January, he came to
Craven Street and showed it to Franklin, who made notes upon it, and
later went out to Hayes, two hours' ride from London, where he remained
for four hours listening to the easy flow of the Great Commoner's
eloquence without being able to get any of his o