That very night Samuel Adams sent fast riders to carry the news to the country towns. The next day, with letters to the leaders in other colonies in his saddlebags, Paul Revere, the great courier of the Revolution, started on his long ride to New York and Philadelphia. As he went from town to town and told the story of the Tea Party the people cheered him, spread dinners for him, built bonfires, and fired cannon. He saw thousands of people gather in New York and Philadelphia, and heard them declare that they would stand by Boston. [Sidenote: =Boston Port Bill=] Boston soon needed help, for the king and Parliament passed a law that no ship could enter or leave Boston Harbor, and another which forbade town meetings. Other hard laws were also passed, and an army was sent to Boston to force the people to obey them. =88. The First Continental Congress.= We have seen a call go forth for a Congress at Philadelphia (1774). The Massachusetts legislature chose Samuel Adams and his cousin, John Adams, with two others to go to the Congress. [Illustration: ASSEMBLY ROOM IN CARPENTER'S HALL _Here met the first Continental Congress of the colonies_] [Sidenote: =Strange visitors=] But Samuel Adams was very poor and could not afford to dress in a style suited to meet the rich merchants of New York and Philadelphia and the great planters of the southern colonies. One evening while the family was at tea, in came the most fashionable tailor of the town to take his measure. Next came a hatter, and then a shoemaker. In a few days a new trunk at his door told the story, for in it were a suit of clothes, two pairs of shoes, silver shoe buckles, gold knee buckles, a cocked hat, a gold-headed cane, and a fashionable red cloak. What proof of the people's love for their neighbor! [Illustration: CARPENTER'S HALL, PHILADELPHIA] [Sidenote: =Poor but loyal=] Although Samuel Adams was a very poor man, George III did not have offices enough to bribe him or gold enough to buy his pen. Several times the king's officers had tried to do both, but they did not succeed. [Sidenote: =What Samuel and John Adams saw on the way to Philadelphia=] In a carriage drawn by four horses, the delegates to Congress were escorted by their friends right by the king's soldiers. The people of the large towns met them, escorted them, rang bells, fired cannon, feasted them at banquets, and talked of the Congress. [Sidenote: =New and noble friends=]