the first provincial congress, as a representative assemblage, stands upon a different footing from the second and the third. The steps taken in assumption of the powers of government originated within itself. Although an elective body of legislators, the members had not been chosen to serve in a provincial congress. With the second and third congresses the case was different. The delegates were elected by the people to represent them specifically in this way. This difference is fundamental, and would justify the consideration of these congresses in two classes; the one self-created, the other deriving its origin from the people. For our purposes, however, we may treat all three as one stage in the process of the evolution of the state.

The first provincial congress, when it severed its connection with the administration of General Gage, very soon found that it was incurring expenses without funds at command to meet them. It was known that the assessors, constables and collectors outside Boston were generally in sympathy with the movement in opposition to Gage and it was hoped that through them the needed funds could be obtained. A tax had been laid at the regular session of the assembly which was not yet collected. The assessors were, therefore, instructed to go ahead with the assessment. A receiver-general was elected and constables and collectors were urged to turn over to him public moneys then in hand or which should thereafter be received by them. From time to time efforts were made to compel these officers to comply with these requests, but that there was some reluctance on their part to do so may be inferred from the statement of the receiver-general on the twenty-fifth of April, 1775, that he had received only £5000 where £20,000 was due. During the brief career of these congresses no direct tax was levied. They

not only without executive head, but they also lacked

of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 151.

the support of a council. For a time indeed it was thought possible that there might be another session of the general court, but the events which occurred on the 19th of April dissipated that expectation. They were, nevertheless, compelled to go ahead and incur debts, which in the course of time had to be met. The first congress made no effort to procure funds outside those remitted to the receivergeneral in response to the call upon the collectors of taxes, but on the third day of May, 1775, the second congress voted to borrow £100,000 lawful money1 and appealed to the continental congress to recommend the several colonies to give currency to the securities on which this sum should be raised. The form of note then prescribed was a promise in the name of "the colony," which was payable in June, 1777, in silver or gold with interest at six per cent. A minimum limit3 of £4 was set for the notes. May twenty-fifth, the provincial congress issued an appeal addressed to the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to subscribe for these securities.

4

On the twentieth of May," funds being required for the advance pay for the army, it was voted to issue a sum not exceeding £26,000 in notes of a new form and of the following denominations: 20s., 18s., 16s., 15s., 14s., 12s., 10s., 9s., and 6s. The notes were dated May twentyfifth, 1775, and the form was a mere certificate that the possessor was entitled to receive from the treasury of "the colony" the designated sum in lawful money, May twenty-fifth, 1776, with interest at six per cent., the note

1 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, pp. 185, 186. In regard to this loan the Council in a message to the House, in 1776, said: "The Treasurer in May, 1775, was directed by this State to borrow the sum of one hundred thousand pounds, lawful money, about seventy-five thousand of which he actually did borrow." Records of the Council quoted in Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. V. p. 668.

2 In the 5th Volume of the Acts and Resolves of the Province of Mass. Bav. pp. 505, 506, 507, Mr. Goodell gives a clear account of these transactions and explains why "Colony" was used instead of "Province."

3 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 187.

4 Ibid., p. 255.

5 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 246.

in the meantime being receivable in all payments at the treasury, for its face value, without interest. It was provided that the notes should circulate in "the colony" without discount or abatement.

Twenty-five thousand nine hundred ninety-eight pounds were then printed from the plates prepared for this emission, and July seventh an additional sum of four thousand and two pounds, making in all thirty thousand pounds of these small notes. Three plates were prepared for this emission, each having thereon engraved bills amounting to forty shillings. They were divided as follows:1 1st plate, 10s., 18s., 12s.; 2nd plate, 16s., 15s., 9s.; 3rd plate, 20s., 14s., 6s.;2 5000 impressions from each plate being required to produce the £30,000. July first, 1775, Paul Revere was allowed fifty pounds "for procuring and engraving four plates and printing 14,500 impressions of colony notes." The fourth plate must have been that from which the notes for the £100,000 loan were impressed.

June fifth, 1775,3 a committee was appointed "to bring in a resolve for the purpose of giving a credit to the bills of all the governments on the continent." On the twentyeighth of June a resolve was passed, making the notes and bills of this and the other colonies of the continent, except Nova Scotia and Canada, a legal tender. Thus was the way made easy for a new régime of paper money, toward which the provincial congress had nominally contributed, when it was dissolved July nineteenth, £130,000, all in the form of interest-bearing securities payable in 1776 and 1777, £100,000 in notes of £4 and upward, to be paid in silver and £30,000 in small notes payable in lawful money. The £30,000 was obviously intended for

1 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 464.

2 The reference in the Journals, etc., p. 297, to the plate containing the $20, $14 and $6 notes is obviously a misprint or a clerical error. The plate must have been

the 3rd Plate.

3 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 299.

* Attention has already been called to the fact that the receiver-general apparently received only £75,000 from the £100,000 loan.

local circulation, and it may be inferred from the appeal to the continental congress, May third, for aid in obtaining circulation for the securities of the colony, that the £4 notes also, notwithstanding their form, were expected to find some sort of circulation. The debt thus incurred was assumed by the new government, which took charge of affairs when the third provincial congress dissolved.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

(At first Colony, then State.)

May sixteenth' in the days of the second provincial congress an application had been made to the continental congress for "advice respecting the taking up and exercising the powers of civil government." The answer which was communicated to the third congress suggested that a call should be made upon the inhabitants to elect representatives to an assembly; that the representatives thus chosen should elect councillors, and that the council and the house should exercise the powers of government." Pursuant to these suggestions a new government styled a General Assembly, or General Court, still without an executive officer at the head, was inaugurated July nineteenth on the dissolution of the third Congress. It must be borne in mind that the Charter of 16913 made the council the executive head of the government in case of a vacancy in the offices of both governor and lieutenantgovernor. Moreover, this contingency had occurred, in 1714, when by failure to appoint a new governor within six months after the death of Queen Anne, Dudley's commission became void, and his council, for a few weeks, assumed charge of the government.*

1 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, p. 230.

2 Ibid., p. 359.

3 Acts and Resolves of the Prov. of Mass. Bay, Vol. I., p. 19.

4 Hutchinson's History of Mass., Vol. II., p. 191. Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. IV., p. 339.

Again, when Lieutenant-Governor Phipps died in 1757, the council, for a short time, acted, as Hutchinson1 phrases it, "in a two-fold capacity, as governor, and as the second branch of the legislature," pending the arrival of Governor Pownall. Thus, it will be seen that, whatever the disadvantages of this form of government, it was not entirely new to the people of Massachusetts.

The first act of the "Council and House of Representatives in General Court assembled" was to confirm the doings of the provincial congresses; the second was to respond to a suggestion of the committee of safety,' July sixth, 1775, and to provide that there should be forthwith stamped on copper plates bills of credit of the colony to the amount of £100,000 in sixteen different denominational values, running from one shilling to forty shillings. The form of the bill of credit then emitted was in the nature of a certificate that the possessor would be paid the designated sum in lawful money and that the bill would be received in all payments. The bills of this issue were to be retired according to their terms, £40,000 in 1778, £30,000 in 1779 and £30,000 in 1780.

3

The action of the assembly in returning to the methods of the first half of the century and in the face of their recent experience, emitting bills of public credit' secured by the pledge of a future tax would be inexplicable if the situation of affairs were not borne in mind. It must be remembered, however, that as yet no tax-levy had been made by the new government; that Boston, the most important source of revenue, was in the hands of the English and that elsewhere in the colony, the uncertainty and

1 Hutchinson's History of Mass., Vol. III., p. 52.

2 Journals of the Provincial Congress of Mass. Bay, pp. 588, 589.

3 Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. IV., p. 416. In signing these bills red, blue and black ink was ordered to be used. Council Records quoted in Acts and Resolves Prov. Mass. Bay, Vol. V., p. 509.

4 There is one difference between these bills and the hills of public credit emitted by the Province. Instead of being drawn up in the form of irredeemable due bills, they contained a statement that by a given day the possessor should be paid.