commendable modesty they accepted the offer of the Carpenters' Company to
use their hall.

And so there they convened on the fifth day of September, Seventeen
Hundred Seventy-four, having met by appointment, and walked over from the
City Tavern in a body. Forty-four men were present--not a large
gathering, but they had come hundreds of miles, and several of them had
been months on the journey.

They were a sturdy lot; and madam! I think it would have been worth while
to have looked in upon them. There were several coonskin caps in evidence;
also lace and frills and velvet brought from England--but plainness to
severity was the rule. Few of these men had ever been away from their own
Colonies before, few had ever met any members of the Congress save their
own colleagues. They represented civilizations of very different degrees.
Each stood a bit in awe of all the rest. Several of the Colonies had been
in conflict with the others.

Meeting new men in those days, when even the stagecoach was a passing show
worth going miles to see, was an event. There was awkwardness and
nervousness on the swarthy faces; firm mouths twitched, and big, bony
hands sought for places of concealment.

The meeting had been called for September First, but was postponed for
five days awaiting the arrival of belated delegates who had been detained
by floods. Even then, delegates from North Carolina had not arrived, and
Georgia not having thought it worth while to send any, eleven Colonies
only were represented. Each delegation naturally kept together, as men
will who have a fighting history and a pioneer ancestry.