difference of opinion; the opponents of the measure yielded, and on July 8th, the petition was adopted. No further attempt was ever made towards a reconciliation.[1]Another Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain was prepared, and they were besought as "friends, countrymen, and brethren," not to sanction the tyrannous course of government towards America. Repudiating the charge that they were aiming at independence, they recounted in forcible language the injuries they had received, and the necessity they were under of defending themselves. "We are accused," they say, "of aiming at independence; but how is this accusation supported? By the allegations of your ministers, not by our actions. Abused, insulted, and contemned, what steps have we pursued to obtain redress? We have carried our dutiful petitions to the throne. We have applied to your justice for relief. What has been the success of our endeavors? The clemency of our sovereign is unhappily diverted; our petitions are treated with indignity; our prayers answered by insults. Our application to you remains unnoticed, and leaves us the melancholy apprehension of your, wanting either the will, or the power to assist us. Even under these circumstances, what measures have we taken that betray a desire of independence? Have we called in the aid of those foreign powers, who are the rivals of your grandeur?When your troops were few and defenceless, did we take advantage of their distress, and expel them our towns? Or have we permitted them to fortify, to receive new aid, and to acquire additional strength?" Two other papers were drawn up; an Address to the People of Ireland, and a Letter to the Assembly of Jamaica, both documents of force and pungency, which might have helped to convince the English ministry, that the colonists knew how to use the pen as well as the sword.
Congress, aware of the importance of securing the aid, or at least neutrality of the Indians, appointed three boards for Indian affairs, and a good deal of attention was bestowed upon the red men and their peculiarities. During this session of Congress, also, the first line of posts for the communication of intelligence through the United States, was established. Benjamin Franklin was appointed, by an unanimous vote, postmaster-general, with power to appoint as many deputies as he might deem proper and necessary, for the conveyance of the mail from Falmouth, in New England, to Savannah, in Georgia.
Dr. Benjamin Church was put at the head of an army hospital; but a few months afterwards, as Holmes, in his Annals, notes, Dr. Church was detected in a traitorous correspondence with the British in Boston. He was tried, and convicted, and Congress ordered him to be closely confined. Some time subsequently, being allowed to depart with his family for the West Indies, the vessel foundered at sea, and all were lost.
In consideration of the present
- ↑ See Appendix II., at the end of the present chapter.
