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346]
close.
Ruggles, of
Massachusetts, and
Ogden, of New
Jersey, pretended that the resistance to the Stamp Act through all
America was treason, argued strenuously in favor of the supreme authority of parliament, and cavilling to the last at particular expressions, refused to sign the papers prepared by the
Congress.
Dyer, of
Connecticut, had conceded that there were objections of weight; but in the night of the twentyfourth, ‘union,’ said he, ‘is so necessary, disunion so fatal, in these matters, that as we cannot agree upon any alteration, they ought to be signed as they are, by those who are authorized to do so.’
1 Ogden insisted, that it was better for each province to petition separately for itself; and
Ruggles, the presiding officer of the
Congress, heedless of their indignation, still interposed his scruples and timidities.
On the morning of the twenty-fifth, the anniversary of the accession of George the Third, the Congress assembled for the last time, and the delegates of six colonies being empowered to do so, namely; all the delegates from Massachusetts, except Ruggles; all from New Jersey, except Ogden; all those of Rhode Island; all of Pennsylvania, excepting Dickinson, who was absent but adhered; all of Delaware; and all of Maryland, with the virtual assent of New Hampshire, Connecticut, New-York, South Carolina, and Georgia, set their hands to the papers, by which the colonies became, as they expressed it, ‘a bundle of sticks, which could neither be bent nor broken.’
