Wednesday, February 1, 1775 1

Ordered, That Hon. John Hancock, Esq., Major Hawley, Hon. Mr. Cushing, [of Boston,] Mr. Adams, Col. Warren, Mr. Paine, Mr. Pitts, Doct. Holten, Col. Heath, Col. Gerrish, Mr. Cushing of Scituate, Hon. Col. Ward, and Col. Gardner,2 be a committee to take into consideration the state and circumstances of the province.

33

Saturday, February 11, 1775, A.M.

Ordered, That Col. Tyng, Mr. Adams, Doct. Warren, Major Hawley, Col. Ward, Hon. Mr. Hancock, and Mr. Paine, be a committee3 to report a resolve, purporting the determination of this people, coolly and resolutely, to support their rights and privileges, at all hazards.

Wednesday, February 15, 1775, A.M.

Ordered, That Mr. Adams, Major Hawley, Mr. Gerry, Hon. Mr. Cushing, Mr. Paine, Col. Palmer, and Mr. Freeman,4 be a committee to bring in a resolve holding up to the people of this province, the imminent danger they are in, from the present disposition of the British ministry and parliament, and that there is reason to fear that they will attempt our sudden destruction: and the importance it is to the inhabitants of this colony to prepare themselves for the last event. . . .5

Ordered, That Mr. Adams, Mr. Gerry, Hon. Mr. Cushing, Mr. Paine, Hon. Col. Ward, Col. Prescot,6 and Major Holten, be a committee to wait on the Hon. Col. Williams, and [Nathaniel] Wales, Esq., and inform them that the Congress had had notice of their being in town as a committee from Connecticut, in order to have a conference with us; and that we are ready to confer with them by a committee, at such time and place as shall be most agreeable to them.

Ordered, That no member of this Congress depart therefrom until the conference with the committee from Connecticut is over.

The committee appointed to wait upon the gentlemen from Connecticut, reported, that they had attended that service, and delivered the message with which they were charged; and that the gentlemen propose this evening to meet the committee from this Congress at such place as you shall appoint.

Ordered, That the committee on the state of the province be the committee from this Congress, to meet the gentlemen from Connecticut, this evening, at Capt. Stedman’s, for the proposed conference.

Printed in the Journals of Each Provincial Congress , 84, 97–98, 101, 105.

1.

The Second Provincial Congress of Massachusetts met at Cambridge, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 16; at Concord from Mar. 22 to Apr. 15 and again on Apr. 22; and at Watertown from Apr. 22 to May 29 ( Journals of Each Provincial Congress , 75).

2.

RTP’s fellow members on this standing committee were John Hancock of Boston (1737–1793); Joseph Hawley of Northampton (1723–1788); Thomas Cushing of Boston 34(1725–1788); Samuel Adams of Boston (1722–1803); James Warren of Plymouth (1726–1808); John Pitts of Boston (1737–1815); Samuel Holten of Danvers (1738–1816); William Heath of Roxbury (1737–1814); Joseph Gerrish of Newbury (1708–1776); Nathan Cushing of Scituate (1742–1812); Artemas Ward of Shrewsbury (1727–1800); and Thomas Gardner of Cambridge (1724–1775) (Schutz, Legislators of the Mass. General Court).

3.

The others members of this committee were John Tyng of Dunstable (1705–1797); Samuel Adams of Boston (1722–1803); Joseph Warren of Roxbury (1741–1775); Joseph Hawley of Northampton (1723–1788); Artemas Ward of Shrewsbury (1727–1800); and John Hancock of Boston (1737–1793) (Schutz, Legislators of the Mass. General Court).

4.

Benjamin Freeman (1718–1786) represented Harwich (Schutz, Legislators of the Mass. General Court, 224).

5.

The committee reported back the same afternoon that there was “real cause to fear” that approaches to Great Britain “for ‘peace, liberty, and safety,’ will not meet with a favorable reception.” To counteract the implied threat of British troops, the committee called upon the “great law of self-preservation” and encouraged the development of militias and the manufacture of firearms. The entire report appeared in Journals of Each Provincial Congress , 103, and in the newspapers.

6.

James Prescott (c. 1721–1800) represented Groton (Schutz, Legislators of the Mass. General Court, 317).