Letter from Governour Penn to the Earl of Dartmouth

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In my several letters of the 31st May, and the 4th July, I gave your Lordship an account of the temper and disposition of the people of America with respect to the several Boston Acts of Parliament, and of the measures which I then understood were intended to be pursued. And I am now to inform your Lordship that Deputies from the Colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New-Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three Lower Counties, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, have met, by appointment, in this city, as the most central place, and assembled this morning, for the first time, in general Congress, as it is called, to consult on the proper means of obtaining relief from hard-ships which they suppose to be entailed on the Colonies by those Acts of Parliament. It is said that Deputies are also expected from the Colonies of North Carolina and Georgia, but they have not yet made their appearance.

It is impossible to say what the result of their deliberations may be, but I shall not fail to inform your Lordship of them by the very first opportunity that offers after they are known. I think it, however, my indispensable duty to his Majesty to acquaint your Lordship that, from the best intelligence I have been able to procure, the resolution of opposing the Boston Acts, and the Parliamentary power of raising taxes in America for the purpose of raising a revenue, is, in a great measure, universal throughout the Colonies, and possesses all ranks and conditions of people. They persuade themselves there is a formed design to enslave America, and although the Act for regulating the Government of Canada does not immediately affect the other Provinces, it is nevertheless held up as an irrefragable argument of that intention. General, however, as the resolution is to oppose, there is great diversity of opinions as to the proper modes of opposition. Some are said to be for remonstrance alone upon a state of grievances and claims. Others are for a general, and others again for a partial non-exportation and non-importation, without any remonstrance. This perhaps may be the source of divisions which will not be easily got over.