not long before his
property was confiscated, like that of other Tories, and after six years
of exile he died in London. The new governor, Thomas Gage, who had long
been commander of the military forces in America, was a mild and
pleasant man without much strength of character. His presence was
endured but his authority was not recognized in Massachusetts. Troops
were now quartered again in Boston, but they could not prevent the
people from treating the Regulating Act with open contempt. Courts
organized under that act were prevented from sitting, and councillors
were compelled to resign their places. The king's authority was
everywhere quietly but doggedly defied. At the same time the stoppage of
business in Boston was the cause of much distress which all the colonies
sought to relieve by voluntary contributions of food and other needed
articles.

[Sidenote: Continental Congress meets, Sept. 1774.]

The events of the last twelve months had gone further than anything
before toward awakening a sentiment of union among the people of the
colonies. It was still a feeble sentiment, but it was strong enough to
make them all feel that Boston was suffering in the common cause. The
system of corresponding committees now ripened into the Continental
Congress, which held its first meeting at Philadelphia in September,
1774. Among the delegates were Samuel and John Adams, Robert Livingston,
John Rutledge, John Dickinson, Samuel Chase, Edmund Pendleton, Richard
Henry Lee, Patrick Henry, and George Washington. Their action was
cautious and conservative. They confined themselves for the present to
trying the effect of a candid statement of grievances, and drew up a
Declaration of Rights and other papers, which were pronounced by Lord
Chatham unsurpassed for ability in any age or country. In Parliament,
however, the king's friends were becoming all-powerful, and the only
effect produced by these papers was to goad them toward further attempts
at coercion. Massachusetts was declared to be in a state of rebellion,
as in truth she was.

[Sidenote: The Suffolk Resolves, Sept. 1774.]

While Samuel Adams was at Philadelphia, the lead in Boston was taken by
his friend Dr. Warren. In a county convention held at Milton in
September, Dr. Warren drew up a series of resolves which fairly set on
foot the Revolution. They declared that the Regulating Act was null and
void, and that a king who violates the chartered rights of his subject