‘A ruinous system of colony administration’
When delegates gathered in Philadelphia for the opening meeting of the Continental Congress (5 September 1774), a boycott of British imports was on the agenda. Having taken
under our most serious deliberation, the state of the whole continent, find, that the present unhappy situation of our affairs, is occasioned by a ruinous system of colony administration adopted by the British Ministry about the year 1763, evidently calculated for inslaving these Colonies, and, with them, the British empire.29
After deliberation the Continental Congress issued a declaration which proÂmoted a ‘non-importation, non-consumption and non-exportation agreeÂment’ to take effect among provinces agreeing to resist the homeland’s suppression measures.
Congress concluded that such a boycott ‘faithfully adhered to, will provide the most speedy, effectual and peaceable measure’ to leverage its position in Parliament. The boycott did not lack a sonorous motto: the arrangement was to be known as the Continental Association.Inspired by this action, Congress called for Canadians to overthrow BritÂish rule in North America. ‘We invite you to consult your own glory and welfare’, Congress prefaced the invitation to join Americans in Philadelphia on 10 May 1775. ‘Do not suffer yourselves’, the rebels lectured and cajoled their neighbours
to be inveigled or intimidated by infamous Ministers so far as to become the instruments of their cruelty and despotism, but to unite with us in one social compact, formed on the generous principles of equal liberty, and cemented by such an exchange of beneficial and endearing offices as to render it perpetual.30
Congress set about instructing Canadians on the finer points of joining forces with rebel provinces south of the Great Lakes.
In order to complete this highly desirable union, [consider] whether it may be expedient for you to meet together in your several towns and districts and elect Deputies, who afterwards meeting in a provincial Congress, may chuse Delegates, to represent your province in the conÂtinental Congress to be held at Philadelphia on the tenth day of May, 1775.31
In taking this action, the Continental Congress endowed a child-agent that would speak for the inhabitants of Canada.
Congress detailed how deputies of this Canadian provincial congress were to be selected by ‘your several towns and meetings’. Congress regarded this future assembly as a stakeÂholder in the process by which the Continental Congress would consider ‘one social compact’ for North America.Leaving the overwrought prose to one side, Congress put its technical expertise in parliamentary procedure on display when delegates crafted the proclamation to the Canadians. Canadians were invited to participate in a new civic life with the inhabitants of the 13 rebel provinces. This effort may be contrasted with Commons’ solicitation of trust from the promoters of the Trent-to-Mersey Company. There was nothing imaginary about the interÂest of the canal promoters who had signalled their interest in participating in the law-making exercise that took place in 1766. Given the density of 6 Geo 3 c. 96, once the attention of the House of Commons was engaged in writing a bill of such complexity, stakeholders would be obliged to offer thoughtful participation in the legislative process. On the other side of the North Atlantic Canadians ignored what Congress wrought.