There is a great Spirit in the Congress. But our People must be peaceable. Let them exercise [train] every day in the Week, if they Will, the more the better. Let them furnish themselves with Artillery, Arms and Ammunition. Let them follow the Maxim, which you say they have adopted "In Times of Peace, prepare for War." But let them avoid War, if possible, if possible I say.
John Adams to Abigail Adams, 7 October 17741
A delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, John Adams described the frenzied proceedings to his wife, Abigail. "There is no idea of submission here in anybody's head," he affirmed, yet he feared the escalating fervor of the Congress would drive the colonies to premature and inconsidered war. But how were the colonies to resist submission and avoid war? Incensed to a new level by the Coercive Acts enacted to punish the colonies (especially Massachusetts) after the Boston Tea Party, the colonies had finally broken through the obstacles that blocked united action and sent delegates to the Continental Congress. Their charge: devise a united and fervent appeal to Britain, cement the fledgling entity they called the "united colonies," and avoid war. But soon after they began deliberations, news arrived—soon dispelled as rumor—that the British had bombarded Boston. "War! War! War!" the delegates yelled, as Adams relates. Was war now inevitable? Adams dreaded the thought: "let them avoid war, if possible, if possible." But first, let us review the acts deemed punitive and "intolerable" that brought delegates from twelve colonies to Philadelphia.
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