In May,
1774, as the representative of the latter purpose, General Gage arrived
in Boston, and was soon followed by considerable bodies of troops. In
August of the same year measures were taken for a Provincial Congress,
to concert and execute an effectual plan for counteracting the system
of despotism which had been introduced. The Congress instructed the
general officers "effectually to oppose and resist" all attempts to
execute the obnoxious acts of the British Parliament; and by a singular
coincidence on the same day, February 9, 1775, the Parliament pledged
the lives and property of the Commons to the support of those laws.
On the side of the Americans, the courts were declared unconstitutional
and their officers traitors--and the practice of the military art was
earnestly recommended.
By the 1st of September, 1774, the issue was fairly presented. The
claim on one side was the supremacy of the British Parliament, and on
the other the supremacy of the American people. Parliament claimed the
right to legislate for or over the colonies in all cases whatsoever;
this right the colonists denied. Parliament had asserted its supremacy
by the passage, in May, 1774, of "An act for the better regulating the
government of the province of Massachusetts Bay," and "An act for the
more impartial administration of justice in said province.
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