[Sidenote:  The colonists aid Massachusetts. Higginson, 174-177.]

[Sidenote:  George Washington.]

125.  Sympathy with the Bostonians.—­King George thought he could punish the Massachusetts people as much as he wished without the people of the other colonies objecting.  It soon appeared that the people of the other colonies sympathized most heartily with the Bostonians.  They sent them sheep and rice.  They sent them clothes.  George Washington was now a rich man.  He offered to raise a thousand men with his own money, march with them to Boston, and rescue the oppressed people from their oppressors.  But the time for war had not yet come although it was not far off.

[Sidenote:  The Quebec Act, 1774.]

126.  The Quebec Act, 1774.—­In the same year that Parliament passed the four acts to punish Massachusetts, it passed another act which affected the people of other colonies as well as those of Massachusetts.  This was the Quebec Act.  It provided that the land between the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Great Lakes should be added to the Province of Quebec.  Now this land was claimed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  These colonies were to be deprived of their rights to land in that region.  The Quebec Act also provided for the establishment of a very strong government in that province.  This seemed to be an attack on free institutions.  All these things drove the colonists to unite.  They resolved to hold a congress where the leaders of the several continental colonies might talk over matters and decide what should be done.

[Sidenote:  The First Continental Congress, 1774.]

127.  The First Continental Congress, 1774.—­The members of the Continental Congress met in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia, in September, 1774.  Never, except in the Federal Convention (p. 137), have so many great men met together.  The greatest delegation was that from Virginia.  It included George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee.  From Massachusetts came the two Adamses, John and Samuel.  From New York came John Jay.  From Pennsylvania came John Dickinson.  Of all the greatest Americans only Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were absent.

[Illustration:  CARPENTER’S HALL, PHILADELPHIA.]

[Sidenote:  The American Association, 1774.]

128.  The American Association, 1774.—­It soon became clear that the members of the Congress were opposed to any hasty action.  They were not willing to begin war with Great Britain.  Instead of so doing they adopted a Declaration of Rights and formed the American Association.  The Declaration of Rights was of slight importance.  But the Association was of great importance, as the colonies joining it agreed to buy no more British goods.  This policy was to be carried out by the Committees of Correspondence.  Any colony refusing to join the Association should be looked upon as hostile “to the liberties of this country,” and treated as an enemy.  The American Association was the real beginning of the American Union.