“The trust reposed in you is of such a nature, and the modes of executing it may be so diversified in the course of your deliberations, that it is scarcely possible to give you particular instructions respecting it. We shall therefore only in general direct, that you are to meet in Congress the committees of the several British colonies at such time and place as shall be generally agreed on, to consult together on the present critical and alarming situation and state of the colonies, and that you, with them, exert your utmost endeavours to form and adopt a plan which shall afford the best prospect of obtaining a redress of American grievances, ascertaining American rights, and establishing that union and harmony which is most essential to the welfare and happiness of both countries. And in doing this, you are strictly charged to avoid every thing indecent or disrespectful to the mother state.” Under instructions like these the first general Congress assembled; agreeably to instructions like these that august body acted. All honourable means were used to restore peace on the part of the colonists that were required by the constitution of England, more was offered than reason and strict justice demanded. Nothing but an infatuation making men blind, deaf and dumb, could have resisted the appeals and consummate arguments in favour of chartered and violated rights that were poured upon the king, the parliament and the people of Great Britain, from the deep, the translucent fountain of intelligence concentrated in the Congress of 1774. The members were determined to clear their own skirts of blood and not draw the bow of physical opposition until their arrows were dipped in the liquid fire of eternal justice and fixed in the quiver of wisdom.