right of
self-government and placing it in the hands of the agents of the king.
3. The Transportation Bill, which ordered that all soldiers charged with
the crime of murder should be taken to England for trial. 4. The Quebec
Act, which made the country east of the Mississippi and north of the
Ohio a part of Canada. These acts were to be enforced by the sending of
troops to America.

THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

The result of the passage of these harsh measures was to unite all the
colonies in a determination to resist them to the last. The necessity
for consultation among the leaders was so apparent that, in response to
a general call, the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia,
September 5, 1774, all the colonies being represented except Georgia,
which favored the action.

This Congress adopted a declaration of rights, asserting that they alone
were empowered to tax themselves, and it named a number of acts of
Parliament that were a direct invasion of such rights. An address was
sent to the king and to the people of Great Britain, but none to
Parliament, which had deeply offended the Americans. The agreement known
as the Articles of Association pledged our ancestors not to buy goods or
sell them to Great Britain until the obnoxious acts were repealed by
Parliament. It declared further that, if force was used against
Massachusetts by England, all the other colonies would help her in
resisting it. Before adjournment, a new Congress was called to meet in
the following May.

The language of the First Continental Congress sounds bold, but the
people themselves were bolder. Companies of armed men began drilling
everywhere, and the Americans were eager for a conflict with the
detested "red coats." The excitement was more intense in Massachusetts
than anywhere else, and it was plain that the opening gun of the
impending Revolution would be fired upon her soil. The affairs of the
colony were directed by a provincial congress, which collected a
quantity of guns and ammunition, and ordered the enrollment of 20,000
"minute men," who were to hold themselves ready to answer any call at a
minute's notice.

General Gage was the British commander in Boston, and he was so alarmed
by the aggressive acts of the Americans that he began to throw up
fortifications on the neck of land connecting the town with the
mainland. His alert spies notified him that the Americans had collected
a quantity of military supplies which