[Sidenote:  Virginia Resolves, 1769.]

117.  The Virginia Resolves of 1769.—­Parliament now asked the king to have colonists, accused of certain crimes, brought to England for trial.  This aroused the Virginians.  They passed a set of resolutions, known as the Virginia Resolves of 1769.  These resolves asserted:  (1) that the colonists only had the right to tax the colonists; (2) that the colonists had the right to petition either by themselves or with the people of other colonies; and (3) that no colonist ought to be sent to England for trial.

[Sidenote:  Non-Importation Agreements, 1769.]

[Sidenote:  Partial repeal of the Townshend Acts, 1770.]

118.  Non-Importation Agreements, 1769.—­When he learned what was going on, the governor of Virginia dissolved the assembly.  But the members met in the Raleigh tavern near by.  There George Washington laid before them a written agreement to use no British goods upon which duties had been paid.  They all signed this agreement.  Soon the other colonies joined Virginia in the Non-Importation Agreement.  English merchants found their trade growing smaller and smaller.  They could not even collect their debts, for the colonial merchants said that trade in the colonies was so upset by the Townshend Acts that they could not sell their goods, or collect the money owing to them.  The British merchants petitioned Parliament to repeal the duties, and Parliament answered them by repealing all the duties except the tax on tea.

[Illustration:  THE “RALEIGH TAVERN”]

CHAPTER 13

REVOLUTION IMPENDING

[Sidenote:  The British soldiers at New York.]

[Sidenote:  Soldiers sent to Boston, 1768.]

119.  The Soldiers at New York and Boston.—­Soldiers had been stationed at New York ever since the end of the French war because that was the most central point on the coast.  The New Yorkers did not like to have the soldiers there very well, because Parliament expected them to supply the troops with certain things without getting any money in return.  The New York Assembly refused to supply them, and Parliament suspended the Assembly’s sittings.  In 1768 two regiments came from New York to Boston to protect the customs officers.

[Sidenote:  The Boston Massacre, 1770. Higginson, 166-169; McMaster, 118.]

120.  The Boston Massacre, 1770.—­There were not enough soldiers at Boston to protect the customs officers—­if the colonists really wished to hurt them.  There were quite enough soldiers at Boston to get themselves and the colonists into trouble.  On March 5, 1770, a crowd gathered around the soldiers stationed on King’s Street, now State Street.  There was snow on the ground, and the boys began to throw snow and mud at the soldiers.  The crowd grew bolder.  Suddenly the soldiers fired on the people.  They killed four colonists and wounded several more.  Led by Samuel Adams, the people demanded the removal of the soldiers to the fort in the harbor.  Hutchinson was now governor.  He offered to send one regiment out of the town.  “All or none,” said Adams, and all were sent away.