not in all cases on
the score of patriotism; a Charleston manifesto argued: "The planters
are greatly in arrears to the merchants; a stoppage of importation would
give them all an opportunity to extricate themselves from debt. The
merchants would have time to settle their accounts, and be ready with
the return of liberty to renew trade."[10]

27. ~The Action of the Continental Congress.~ The first Continental
Congress met September 5, 1774, and on September 22 recommended
merchants to send no more orders for foreign goods.[11] On September 27
"Mr. Lee made a motion for a non-importation," and it was unanimously
resolved to import no goods from Great Britain after December 1,
1774.[12] Afterward, Ireland and the West Indies were also included, and
a committee consisting of Low of New York, Mifflin of Pennsylvania, Lee
of Virginia, and Johnson of Connecticut were appointed "to bring in a
Plan for carrying into Effect the Non-importation, Non-consumption, and
Non-exportation resolved on."[13] The next move was to instruct this
committee to include in the proscribed articles, among other things,
"Molasses, Coffee or Piemento from the _British_ Plantations or from
_Dominica_,"--a motion which cut deep into the slave-trade circle of
commerce, and aroused some opposition. "Will, can, the people bear a
total interruption of the West India trade?" asked Low of New York; "Can
they live without rum, sugar, and molasses? Will not this impatience and
vexation defeat the measure?"[14]

The committee finally reported, October 12, 1774, and after three days'
discussion and amendment the proposal passed. This document, after a
recital of grievances, declared that, in the opinion of the colonists, a
non-importation agreement would best secure redress; goods from Great
Britain, Ireland, the East and West Indies, and Dominica were excluded;
and it was resolved that "We will neither import, nor purchase any Slave
imported after the First Day of _December_ next; after which Time, we
will wholly discontinue the Slave Trade, and will neither be concerned
in it ourselves, nor will we hire our Vessels, nor sell our Commodities
or Manufactures to those who are concerned in it."[15]

Strong and straightforward as this resolution was, time unfortunately
proved that it meant very little. Two years later, in this same
Congress, a decided opposition was manifested to branding the
slave-trade as inhuman, and it was thirteen years before South Carol