When the First Congress had completed its tedious work on October 26, it
had adopted much of the Virginia Convention proposals: non-importation
of British and West Indian products would begin on December 1;
non-exportation, if necessary, would begin on September 1, 1776; and a
Continental Association patterned after the Virginia Association was
urged for every town and county in the colonies to assure enforcement of
the embargoes. Congress prepared an address to the British people and a
mild memorial to the American people setting forth the history of
"Parliamentary subjugation". The delegates turned aside as premature
Richard Henry Lee's call for an independent militia in each colony.

The very conservative nature of the whole revolutionary movement can be
seen in congress' plea to the British people--"Place us in the same
situation we were at the close of the last war, and our former harmony
will be restored." They wanted a restoration of rights they thought
they long had held and now had lost. To do so, however, involved a
concession of parliamentary authority which few in England were willing
to do.

Great Britain Stiffens

Economic coercion through non-importation, non-exportation, and
non-consumption was the main weapon of the colonials. It had worked
before, it was not to work in 1774. There was a growing resentment in
Britain against the colonials' intransigence. Repeal of the Stamp Act
and the Townshend duties had brought no respect from the colonists and
no suggestions about how to relieve the financial pressures on British
taxpayers. Whereas parliament had listened to the pleas from distressed
London tobacco merchants and traders in 1766 and 1770, members of both
houses were increasingly of the opinion that the earlier repeals were a
mistake. The basic issue of constitutional supremacy had been avoided.
Now it must be faced. Even before the Continental Congress had met,
King George remarked to Lord North, "The die is cast, the Colonies must
either submit or triumph; I do not wish to come to severer measures but
we must not retreat." There is no evidence that British public opinion
differed with him.

Most Englishmen, the king and most members of the commons among them,
considered the raising of independent militia companies in New England
and the enforcement of non-importation by the Virginia Associations to
be acts of rebellion. When they learned about the Continental
Association in late 1774, they wer