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Hughes, the stamp-master, compelled to engage that he would not execute the office.

The delegates to the congress-the "Stamp Act Congress," as it is known in history-began to arrive in New-York early in October. The first was the committee from South Carolina. When the question of its appointment came up in the assembly, says Ramsey, it was thus ridiculed by a humorous member: "If you agree to the proposition of composing a Congress of deputies from the different British Colonies, what kind of a dish will you make? New England will throw in fish and onions; the Middle States, flax-seed and flour; Maryland and Virginia will add tobacco; North Carolina, pitch, tar, and turpentine; South Carolina, rice and Indigo; and Georgia will sprinkle the whole composition with saw dust. Such an absurd jumble will you make if you attempt to form a union among such discordant materials as the thirteen British provinces." To which a country member retorted: "He would not choose the gentleman who made the objections for his cook, but, nevertheless, he would venture to assert that if the colonies proceeded judiciously in the appointment of deputies to a Continental Congress, they would prepare a dish fit to be presented to any crowned head in Europe." On Monday, October 7, the congress met in the City Hall. There were present delegates from nine colonies, viz.: Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the government of the counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Suffolk upon Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina. Of these only six were duly authorized committees appointed by the legislatures within the terms of the call. As the New-York assembly had not been in session for a long period, the committee of correspondence chosen at its last session was admitted to represent the province. These were John Cruger, Robert R. Livingston, Philip Livingston, William Bayard, and Leonard Lispenard -an able and fearless body. The South Carolina and Connecticut delegates were restricted in their action by their assemblies. Virginia and North Carolina were not represented; their assemblies having been prorogued by the governors. The Georgia assembly were enjoined by their governor from sending a committee. Hampshire wrote that they were not in a position to send delegates. Among the twenty-eight members who appeared were many whose names were familiar throughout the colonies: Cruger and the

New

Livingstons of New-York, Otis of Massachusetts, Johnson of Connecticut, Dickinson of Pennsylvania, McKeon from Delaware, Gadsden and Rutledge from South Carolina-all historic names. Ruggles of Massachusetts, who had commanded a brigade in the

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late French war, was chosen chairman. The sessions were secret, and the journal printed later is extremely meager in the details of their proceedings. It would seem that they named a committee to draft a declaration of rights and grievances, and then adjourned. They met finally on October 19, and, after mature deliberation, agreed on this document. The authorship of the declaration has been usually ascribed to John Cruger. It has also been claimed for

of Con

aware, names.

in the

mons.

John Dickinson. It is an able and fearless paper, of which any one of the great men named might have been proud. Committees were then appointed—one to draft an address to the king; another a memorial to the lords; a third, a petition to the House of ComOn the 21st, 22d, and 23d these addresses were adopted. On the 24th the colonies were requested to appoint special agents to solicit relief. When the business was completed, Ruggles, who had presided over the several meetings, refused to sign the petitions "as against his conscience." All the others, however, except Ogden of New Jersey, unhesitatingly subscribed their names. The congress, after engaging themselves not to make public their petitions until they were presented, adjourned on the afternoon of Friday, October 28. Meanwhile the people were in council as to some means of forcing the merchants of Great Britain to take up their quarrel or redress their wrongs.

It was both

The call appeared in the "Gazette" of October 31, and was
addressed to the gentlemen merchants of the city. The meeting
was called for four o'clock of the same afternoon.
large and enthusiastic. Resolutions were adopted and subscribed
to by upward of two hundred of the principal merchants, as follows:
Ist, to accompany all orders to Great Britain for goods or mer-
chandise of any nature, kind, or quality whatever, with instructions
that they be not shipped unless the stamp act be repealed; 2d, to
countermand all outstanding orders unless on the condition men-
tioned in the foregoing resolution; 3d, not to vend any goods sent
on commission and shipped after January 1 succeeding, unless
upon the same condition. In consequence of these resolutions the
retailers of goods signed a paper obliging themselves not to buy
any goods, wares, or merchandise after January 1 unless the stamp
act were repealed.

(To be concluded in next number.)

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THE TUSCARORA CONSPIRACY IN CAROLINA.

How and why the Tuscarora Indians came to be in Norin Carolina is a mystery. The whole story of their separation from the northern Iroquois will never be known. Their records are silent. Even tradition, that great preserver of knowledge, tells so little that we may safely conclude that it was from natural causes. Probably it was simply a question of an advantageous location. Our early settlers, when they pushed down from Virginia into the unexplored wilderness, found them settled on the Roanoke, the Pamplico, the Neuse, and the country between. Their language differs so much from that of the other branches of the family, that the separation must have taken place several centuries before the discovery of America. Of their stay in Carolina, their great conspiracy in 1711, their disastrous defeat, and finally, their removal to the north, much has been written. However, so much is untrustworthy that it is only possible to pick from the mingled heap what is most strongly supported.

The tribe belonged to the great Huron-Iroquois family. It was not of the same stock as the rest of the Carolina Indians. They stood like a little island in an ocean of enemies, and were able not only to repel all attacks, but also to extend their territory. Two hundred and seventy-two tribal organizations have been found to exist, or to have existed, within the present limits of the United States. All of these east of the Mississippi may be classified into eight great families. The Tuscaroras were of the same family as the celebrated Five Nations of New York. This Iroquois Confederacy, as it was called, occupied the territory stretching from Vermont to the head of the Ohio, and included that south of Lake Erie and Ontario. It is believed that they originally lived north of the St. Lawrence, but were driven southward by the Adirondacks, assisted by the French. From this circumstance arose their never ending dislike toward that nation; and on account of this dislike they refused to follow them in the French and Indian War. These five nations were the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas,

*This is the belief of General Horatio Hale, of Clinton, Ontario, author of "Iroquois Rites, "and also of General John S. Clark.

+ Thatcher, Vol. II, p. 35.

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