CHAPTER XXIV.

PROPOSITION FOR THE UNION OF THE COLONIES.--ACTIVE MEASURES TAKEN LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE.--DELEGATES ELECTED TO CONGRESS.--DESTRUCTION OF TEA AT PROVIDENCE.--TROOPS RAISED.--POSTAL SYSTEM ESTABLISHED.--DEPREDATIONS OF THE BRITISH.--"GOD SAVE THE UNITED COLONIES."

1774. Limitation of negro slavery, 210

Resolution recommending the union of the colonies passed at Providence town meeting, 210

1774. Boston port bill passed, 211

Small-pox at Newport, 211

Indication of popular indignation, 212

Activity of Committees of Correspondence, 212

Publishment of the Hutchinson letters, 213

Franklin removed from his position as superintendent of American post-offices, 214

1774. General Gage entered Boston as Governor, 215

Sympathy of Rhode Island for Boston; East Greenwich the first to open a subscription, 215

Hopkins and Ward elected delegates to Congress, 216

1774. Congress met in Philadelphia; adopted a declaration of rights; recommended the formation of an American Association, 217

Distribution of arms, 218

Exportation of sheep stopped; manufacture of fire-arms begun, 219

Tea burnt at Providence, 219

Troops started for Boston, 219

Army of Observation formed with Nathanael Greene, commander, 220

Rhode Island troops on Jamaica Plains, 221

Articles of war passed, 221

Capture of a British vessel by Captain Abraham Whipple, 221

Rhode Island Navy founded, 222

William Goddard's postal system went into operation, 222

Colony put upon a war footing, 223

Bristol bombarded and the coast of Rhode Island plundered, 224

Part of the debt of Rhode Island assumed by Congress as a war debt, 225

Rhode Island in the expedition against Quebec, 226

Depredation of the British squadron, 226

Battle on Prudence Island, 227

Evacuation of Boston, 228

Death of Samuel Ward, 228

The Assembly of Rhode Island renounced their allegiance to the British Crown, 228