popular movements, always more easy to excite than to maintain. A great number of loyalists, believing that things would not come to the last extremities, and that either the petitions sent to England would dispose the government to condescend to the desires of the Americans, or that, in time, the latter would become tranquil, had hitherto kept themselves quiet; but it was to be feared, that at present, seeing all hope of reconciliation vanished, and war, no longer probable, but already waged against that king towards whom they wished to remain faithful, they would break out, and join themselves to the royal forces, against the authors of the revolution. It was even to be doubted, whether many of the partisans of liberty, who had placed great hope in the petitions, would not falter at the prospect of impending losses and inevitable dangers. Every thing indicated that the contest would prove long and sanguinary. It was little to be expected, that a population, until then pacific, and engaged in the arts of agriculture, and of commerce, could all at once learn that of war, and devote themselves to it with constancy, and without reserve. It was much more natural to imagine, that, upon the abating of this first fervor, the softer image of their former life recurring to their minds, they would abandon their colors, and implore the clemency of the conqueror. It was, therefore, an enterprise of no little difficulty for Congress to form regulations and take measures, capable of maintaining the zeal of the people, and to impart to its proceedings the influence which at first had been given to its acts by public opinion. Discipline was to be enforced; money was to be raised; arms and military stores to be obtained; and due regard to be had to the securing help from abroad. The position and course of the Indian tribes were also to be carefully attended to; for it was greatly to be feared that the English could offer them inducements to join against the Americans far greater than any counter inducements which the colonists could name.[1]
Anxious to preserve the appearance at least of conciliation, "An Humble and Dutiful Address" to the king was drawn up by Dickinson, and passed, though not without great opposition from the New England members. Addresses to the People of Great Britain to the People of Ireland, and to the "Oppressed Inhabitants of Canada," were also prepared, and a day of fasting and prayer was appointed. "These papers," says Pitkin, "breathed the same ardent love of liberty, contained the same dignified sentiments, evinced the same determined purpose of soul, and the same consciousness of the justice of their cause, as those of the former session. Nor were they couched in language less bold and energetic, on the subject of their rights, or less affectionate towards those to whom they were addressed."
From the necessity of the case, Congress proceeded to exercise the authority called for by the present emergency.
- ↑ See Curtis's "History of the Constitution," vol. i., p. 30–41, where the position of the Second Continental Congress and the Formation and Character of the Revolutionary Government are ably discussed.
