The governor
saw clearly that scenes of bloodshed were at hand, and though thus
braved, he mercifully forbore to commence them.
In the mean time the committees of correspondence in order to fan the
flames of sedition into one universal conflagration, had been spreading
abroad rumours of massacres, and of attacks on Boston both by land and
sea. It was in this state of affairs that a meeting of delegates from
all the neighbouring towns was called, and which was held, in spite
of the governor's proclamation. This meeting passed resolutions
more decidedly hostile to the British government than any previously
promulgated. They called the late acts of parliament gross infractions
of civil and religious liberty, and wicked attempts to establish
despotism, which ought to be resisted; they resolved to indemnify all
officers who should refuse to execute any process issued by the judges
appointed by the crown; they declared every member of the new council an
enemy to his country; they condemned the plan of fortifying Boston-neck;
they denounced the late act establishing the Roman Catholic religion in
Canada, as dangerous alike to the Protestant religion, and to the rights
and liberties of all America; they recommended a total suspension of
commercial intercourse with Great Britain, the encouragement of domestic
manufactures, the appointment of a provincial congress, and the exercise
of the people in arms; they advised collectors of taxes to retain the
money in their own hands until the civil government of the province
should be placed on a constitutional basis, or a provincial congress
should direct its application; and while they exhorted the people to
abstain from riots, they expressed their determination to resist the
measures of government to the utmost.
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