Summary

Wishful thinking that differences between the Mother Country and her recalcitrant Colonies might find amicable settlement ended with the gunfire on the Lexington Common. While New Englanders were closing in upon Boston, ringing it with redoubts and fortified lines from the Mystic River to Dorchester, the second Continental Congress forgathered in Philadelphia, and resolved itself, day after day, into a committee of the whole "to take into consideration the state of America." That it was critical, every delegate from each of the twelve colonies represented fully realized.

Advice was received on the second day of the session (May 11, 1775) that the British Ministry had declared its intention to enforce obedience to each and every act of the Parliament, objectionable, coercive, restrictive as they were. The army in America was to be reinforced by at least three infantry regiments and some six hundred marines. More vessels of war had been ordered into commission to augment the squadron already based upon Boston. Some of the new troops were to be landed in New York, posing the urgent question; how should they be re­ceived? Within a week the Congress heard, in stunned surprise, that a handful of irregulars had taken the fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, with their numerous military stores.

By May 21 only a few of the problems had found partial solutions. New York should not oppose the troops as long as they proved peaceable, and did not attempt to erect fortifications. The cannon and all other military stores from Ticonderoga and Crown Point should be inventoried and removed to the south end of Lake George, where a strong defensive post should be established. The Continental Association's restrictions upon exportation should be expanded to embrace Quebec, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, the two Floridas, and that part of Georgia, which had not yet sent delegates to the Congress.

Meanwhile, the depositions and affidavits proving the British had fired first at Lexington had sped by express through the Colonies. Their contents spread dismay among the merchants, whose fondest hopes had been built upon reconcilia­tion and an abandonment of all restrictions on trade; and among the Tories, who, in many cases, had suffered from the severity of overzealous Committees of of Inspection and Correspondence. But they sparked renewed military ardor from Pennsylvania to South Carolina, in every cross-road, hamlet, town or city where the momentous tidings were proclaimed.

In Boston, the British still reeled from the disastrous retreat from Concord. All supplies, except by sea, had been cut off, and many inhabitants had pled for permission to remove themselves and their effects from the beleaguered town. General Gage, seeing fewer mouths to feed, had considered approval of their desires, if firearms would be delivered up. But a great clamor arose from those loyal to the Crown. Only the disaffected would leave, and then Boston would be set on fire by the Rebels.