Another leading Tory writer at this time was Dr. Myles Cooper, the president of King's College, who was as sharply assailed for his _Friendly Address_[306] as the "Westchester Farmer" was.
Something of an official character belongs to _A true state of the proceedings in the Parliament of Great Britain, and in ... Massachusetts Bay, relative to the giving and granting the money of the people of that province, and of all America, in the House of Commons, in which they are not represented_ (London, 1774), for Franklin is said to have furnished the material for it, and Arthur Lee to have drafted it.[307]
One of the most significant of the American tracts of 1774 was John Dickinson's _Essay on the constitutional power of Great Britain over the colonies in America_.[308]
The journals of the provincial congress of Massachusetts (1774-1775) are in the _Mass. Archives_ (vol. cxl.), and have been printed as _Journal of each Provincial Congress of Mass. 1774-75, and of the Com. of Safety, with an Appendix_ (Boston, 1838). The proceedings of the session of Nov. 10, 1774, were circulated in a broadside.
In England we have the debates of Parliament, such correspondence as is preserved, and the records of passing feeling, to help us understand the condition of public opinion.[309]
The Assembly of New York met in January, 1775. Dawson contends that the usual view of the loyal element controlling its action is not sustained by the facts, and that in reality neither patriot nor Tory was satisfied with its action.[310]
The feeling in Virginia is depicted in Giradin's continuation of Burk's _Virginia_ (which was written under the cognizance of Jefferson), in Rives's _Madison_, and in Wirt's _Patrick Henry_.[311]
From Murray's _Impartial History of the Present War_, i. 96. Cf. _London Mag._ (1779, p. 435) for another contemporary engraving.]
The Congress of 1775 met in Philadelphia, May 10th. Quebec had been invited to send delegates.[312] Lieut.-Gov. Colden kept the majority of the New York Assembly from sending delegates.[313] John Hancock was chosen president, May 24th.[314]
The proceedings are given in the _Journals of Congress_.[315]
Perhaps the best expression of argumentative force on both sides was reached in the controversy waged by John Adams against Jonathan Sewall, as he always supposed, but in reality against Daniel Leonard, of Taunton, as it has since been made evident.[316]