Download History of the Transition from Provincial to Commonwealth Government in Massachusetts Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ...army daily: one pound of bread; one pint of milk or one gill of rice; one quart of "good spruce or malt beer;" one gill of peas or beans, "or other sauce equivalent;" and a stated amount of beef and pork, or of beef alone, with a weekly allowance of fish. There was also a weekly allowance of a half pint of vinegar "if it can be had," and of six ounces of "good butter" to each man, as well as " one pound of good common soap for six men per week." Ibid., 568. 1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, 52. This Committee made a report, February 10, 1775; "the report was ordered to be Bled." Ii/iJ., 95. 2 Ibid. 52. November 28, 1 774. Ibid. December 7, 1774. IliJ., 61. With equal promptness, however, on the day after the action just outlined, the members of the first Congress put themselves on record by accepting a suggestive and significant report submitted by the committee on manufactures.1 Although merely a series of recommendations to their constituents, the action illustrates plainly the condition of the province and the policy of its leaders. The preamble of their resolutions suggests that "the happiness of every political body of men upon earth, is to be estimated, in a great measure, upon their greater or less dependence upon any other political bodies;" internal economic weakness may readily entail political subjection to another body. To prevent "so great an evil, more to be dreaded than death itself, it must be the wisdom of this colony at all times, more especially at this time, when the hand of power is lashing us with the scorpions of despotism, to encourage agriculture, manufactures, and economy, so as to render this state as independent of every other state...