that Mr. Carr and
myself, returning home together, and conversing on the subject by the
way, concurred in the conclusion, that that measure must inevitably
beget the meeting of a Congress of Deputies from all the Colonies, for
the purpose of uniting all in the same principles and measures for the
maintenance of our rights. My memory cannot deceive me, when I affirm
that we did it in consequence of no such proposition from any other
Colony. No doubt, the resolution itself, and the journals of the day,
will show that ours was original, and not merely responsive to one from
any other quarter. Yet, I am certain I remember also, that a similar
proposition, and nearly cotemporary, was made by Massachusetts, and
that our northern messenger passed theirs on the road. This, too, may be
settled by recurrence to the records of Massachusetts. The proposition
was generally acceded to by the other Colonies, and the first effect,
as expected, was the meeting of a Congress at New York the ensuing year.
The committee of correspondence appointed by Massachusetts, as quoted by
you from Marshall, under the date of 1770, must have been for a special
purpose, and _functus officio_ before the date of 1773, or Massachusetts
herself would not then have proposed another. Records should be examined
to settle this accurately. I well remember the pleasure expressed in the
countenance and conversation of the members generally, on this _debut_
of Mr. Carr, and the hopes they conceived as well from the talents as
the patriotism it manifested. But he died within two months after, and
in him we lost a powerful fellow-laborer. His character was of a high
order. A spotless integrity, sound judgment, handsome imagination,
enriched by education and reading, quick and clear in his conceptions,
of correct and ready elocution, impressing every hearer with the
sincerity of the heart from which it flowed. His firmness was inflexible
in whatever he thought was right: but when no moral principle stood
in the way, never had man more of the milk of human kindness, of
indulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in conversation and conduct. The
number of his friends, and the warmth of their affection, were proofs of
his worth, and of their estimate of it. To give to those now living,
an idea of the affliction produced by his death in the minds of all who
knew him, I liken it to that lately felt by themselves on the death of
his eldest son, Peter Carr, so like him in all his