Solemn League and Covenant
Solemn League and Covenant
SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT. The Boston Committee of Correspondence, headed by Samuel Adams, sent a circular letter to Massachusetts towns dated 8 June 1774, in which it asked all adults "to suspend all commercial intercourse" with Britain from 31 August until the Boston Port Act (by which Britain had closed the port of Boston for all shipping) was repealed. To emphasize the seriousness of the matter, and in an appeal to memories of the religious covenants to which the first settlers had subscribed, the committee dubbed its request a "solemn league and covenant," and threatened to publish the names of those people who did not comply, whom it termed "protesters." Merchants throughout Massachusetts objected to the committee's request, because they could not stop the shipment of goods from their British suppliers in time to meet the deadline and would thus be stuck with merchandise they could not sell. The request failed to garner widespread support, forcing Adams and the Boston radicals to defer the issues of nonimportation and nonconsumption to the Continental Congress, which was scheduled to meet at Philadelphia in September 1774.
SEE ALSO Adams, Samuel.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Knollenberg, Bernard. Growth of the American Revolution, 1766–1775. Indianapolis, Ind.: Liberty Fund, 2002.
revised by Harold E. Selesky