Note 280 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

Works, viii. 131, 142. The Congress had been variously constituted. New York and Pennsylvania had acted outside their legislatures. John Adams, in going through those States on his way to Philadelphia, had remarked "that some in them wanted a little animation." The spirit in New York is shown on the loyal side in Jones's New York during the Rev., i. 449. Cf. J. A. Stevens on "New York in the Continental Congress" in The Galaxy, xxii. 149. The credentials of the Delaware members are in the Life of Geo. Read, 91. The Virginia delegates were at variance. Patrick Henry was eager for a fight. R. H. Lee thought Great Britain would revoke her obnoxious legislature. Washington was undecided. The instructions of the Virginia delegates are in Jefferson's Writings, i. 122. Gadsden was for forcing the conflict by attacking Gage in Boston; and a rumor reaching Philadelphia that Boston was undergoing bombardment fanned the flame, and Samuel Adams wrote home that America would stand by the devoted town. In Georgia the royal governor had prevented the choice of delegates, and that province was not represented. The opposing feelings, North and South, can be gathered from some of the tracts Which the Congress elicited:—