the Massachusetts men were
cordially welcomed, twice over, but straightway cautioned against two
gentlemen, one of whom was "Dr. Smith, the Provost of the College, who
is looking up to Government for an American Episcopate and a pair
of lawn sleeves"--a very soft, polite man, "insinuating, adulating,
sensible, learned, insidious, indefatigable," with art enough, "and
refinement upon art, to make impressions even upon Mr. Dickinson and Mr.
Reed." In Pennsylvania, as in every colony, Mr. Adams found, there was
a tribe of people "exactly like the tribe, in the Massachusetts, of
Hutchinsonian Addressers." Some of this tribe had managed to elbow their
way into the committees of deputies to the Congress, at least from the
middle colonies, and probably from South Carolina as well.

The "most spirited and consistent of any" of the deputies were the
gentlemen from Virginia, among whom were Mr. Henry and Mr. R. H. Lee,
said to be the Demosthenes and the Cicero of America. The latter, Mr.
Adams liked much, a "masterly man" who was very strong for the most
vigorous measures. But it seemed that even Mr. Lee was strong for
vigorous measures only because he was "absolutely certain that the same
ship which carries hence the resolutions will bring back the redress."
If he supposed otherwise, he "should be for exceptions."

From the first day of the Congress it was known that the Massachusetts
men were in favor of "vigorous measures;" vigorous measures
being understood to mean the adoption of strict non-importation,
non-consumption, and non-exportation agreements. There were moments
when John Adams thought even these measures tame and unheroic: "When
Demosthenes (God forgive the vanity of recollecting his example) went
ambassador from Athens to the other states of Greece, to excite a
confederacy against Phillip, he did not go to propose a Non-Importation
or Non-Consumption Agreement...." For all this, the Massachusetts men
kept themselves well in the background, knowing that there was much
jealousy and some fear of New England leadership and well aware that
the recent experience with non-importation agreements had greatly
diminished, in the mercantile colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, and
South Carolina, the enthusiasm for such experiments.

The trouble with non-importation agreements, as Major Hawley had told
John Adams, was that "they will not be faithfully observed; that the
Congress have no power to enforce obedience to their law