24. The Second Continental Congress. While these things were going on, the Continental Congress was again in session in Philadelphia. The delegates to the Congress were by no means

ready to separate the colonies from England. They were bent only on maintaining the resistance which had been made until England should right their wrongs, and they clung as long as they could to the theory that Parliament was undertaking to govern them contrary to the laws of the empire, but that an

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appeal to the king and to their friends in England would bring about a change of policy. They were fortified in this belief by the energetic support which they received from a small party in Parliament.

The resistance to the king's troops had been most open in a single locality, but there was a determined spirit of resistance everywhere. It was clear that the colonies must act together if they would accomplish anything. So when the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, after Lexington and Concord, asked the Continental Congress to take charge of the army which was gathered about Boston from other colonies than Massachusetts, the Continental Congress did assume the general control, and the colonies took together the important step of raising troops and money to resist England. John Adams' was a delegate from Massachusetts, and on his nomination George Washington of Virginia was June 15, unanimously elected general and commander-in-chief of the Army of the United Colonies. He immediately set out for Cambridge, and on his way heard an important piece of news.

1775.

1 John Adams was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, October 19, 1735. At the outbreak of the war for independence he was a lawyer. He was a man of sturdy nature who was willing to do unpopular things if he thought they were right; he defended the soldiers engaged in the Boston Massacre, for instance. He will be met later in our history, for he was a conspicuous statesman and became the second president of the Union. Some of the most animated accounts of the historic days in which he lived are to be found in the Familiar Letters of John and Abigail Adams, Abigail Adams being his wife, who stayed at home much of the time that John Adams was in the Continental Congress. His life in the American Statesmen series is by John T. Morse, Jr.

2 There are many easily accessible lives of Washington. I have written one, George Washington, an Historical Biography. There is one in two volumes in American Statesmen series, by Henry Cabot Lodge, and an illustrated one by Woodrow Wilson. Washington Irving's Life of Washington is one of the fullest.

8 As the Congress was called continental, so the army was called the continental army and the paper money issued by Congress, continental currency. The word is significant as indicating that the people had caught at the idea of a comprehension of all the colonies in one great nation.

25. Battle of Bunker Hill. On the evening of the 16th of June the Committee of Safety had sent troops to Charlestown, for they had heard that the British meant to occupy that place. There in the night they had thrown up fortifications upon a hill commanding Boston. The part of the hill nearest Boston was called Breed's Hill; behind it rose Bunker Hill. The British had been unwilling to make an attack upon the camps about Boston, for that meant open war; but such a movement as this could not be overlooked.

As soon (on the morning of the 17th) as they discovered the Americans intrenched, they sent troops across the river from Boston to dislodge them. They were very confident of quickly routing these raw troops with their regular soldiers. The Americans, behind a hastily built redoubt and a rail fence padded with new-mown hay, awaited the coming of the British as they marched up the hill. They had orders not to fire till they could see the whites of their enemies' eyes. stirred till the British were within fifty yards.

Not a soldier

Then, as the order was given, the Americans poured a deadly volley into the ranks. The redcoats, used to war, stood their ground for a moment, and then, seized with panic, rushed down the hill. Three times the British regulars were ordered up the hill. Twice they were driven back by the countrymen, who from behind their slight fortifications coolly fired upon the redcoats. Then the Americans' ammunition gave out; and when the third attack came, they fired stones from their guns and slowly retreated, leaving the British in possession.1

The battle of Bunker Hill had been fought. The Americans, led by Prescott and Putnam,3 had lost their brave gen

1 Read Dr. Holmes's dramatic poem "Grandmother's Story of the Battle of Bunker Hill."

Colonel Prescott was grandfather of the historian.

8 Israel Putnam, who had fought in the French and Indian War, was a farmer in Pomfret, Connecticut. When the news of Lexington reached him he was plowing a field. He took the horse out of the plow, jumped on his back, and leaving orders for the militia company to follow him, was off at once for the scene of action.