On this day 250 years ago in New Bern, North Carolina, the Province of North Carolina General Assembly is convened by Royal Governor Josiah Martin. Although the General Assembly was the official body recognized by the British Government, it proved to be no more cooperative with Governor Martin than the outlawed Provincial Congress. That was not surprising in that 61 members of the General Assembly were also members of the Provincial Congress. Moderator John Harvey of the Provincial Congress was also Speaker of the House of Burgesses and the Patriots were the overwhelming majority of both bodies.

Sources: https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/nc_revolution_government_1775.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_North_Carolina_Provincial_Congress

Also on that day in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Mercy Otis Warren writes to John Adams about “the present dark and Gloomy aspect of public affairs.” She asked:

Is there no hope that the Dread Calamity of Civil Convulsions may yet be Averted, or must the Blood of the Best Citizens be poured out to Glut the Vengeance of the most Worthless and Wicked men Ever Nursed in the Lap of America.

And wishes him success in the coming Continental Congress:

I do not Expect the pleasure of seeing you (if we both Live through the Approaching storm) till your Return from the Assembly of the states (Ere which perhaps the Fate of Nations may be Decided and A Mighty Empire trembling to the Centrer) but my Every Wish for your Honour safety and Happiness will Attend you. And may you and your Associates be Directed to those steps which will Redound to the Glory of America, the Welfare of Britain and the promotion of that Equal Liberty which is the Birthright of Man and the only Basis on which Civil society Can Enjoy any durable Tranquility.

“To John Adams from Mercy Otis Warren, 4 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-02-02-0087. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 2, December 1773 – April 1775, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977, pp. 413–414.]