USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Celebration of the centennial anniversary of the evacuation of Boston by the British Army, March 17th, 1776 > Part 12
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BURGOYNE ON THE SITUATION IN BOSTON.
Another confidential letter from Gen. Burgoyne to Lord Rochfort, written in the summer of 1775, and which has been first made public this year, contains some very interesting disclosures. The expedition to which the General refers, as suggested in his previous letter, was an element of a scheme devised by him in answer to a supposed question, whether nothing could be done in the campaign of that year? His scheme was, that the royal forces should seize and occupy Dorchester Heights, and that, leaving for the retention and defence of the three peninsulas, Charlestown, Boston and Dorchester, one thousand men for each, the remainder of the army - possibly two thousand - should be embarked to cruise along the coast, threatening the sea-board, dividing the provincials, using efforts of policy and strategy to thwart the plans of the rebels and to sow alienation between the provinces. "I begin now to despair of the expedition of which I expressed promising hopes in my last. Enterprise is not ours. Inertness, or what is equal to it, attention to small objects, counteracts or procrastinates undertak- ings when no visible objection lies to them. But I take with great pleas- ure this opportunity to do justice to Mr. Gage ; and the Admiral must
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take to himself, and account for, a great share of our inactivity, our disgrace and our distress.
" I will not undertake a task so useless at present, and so repugnant to my disposition as to particularize instances of these misfortunes, but the glaring facts are not to be concealed : that many vessels have been taken, officers killed, men made prisoners ; that large numbers of swift boats, called whale-boats, have been supplied to the enemy at well-known towns on the coast, in which boats they have insulted and plundered islands immediately under the protection of our ships, and at noonday landed in force and set fire to the light-house, almost under the guns of two or three men-of-war. I am not seaman enough to say that a vigilant and daring enemy, excellent boatmen, and knowing perfectly how to time winds, tides and currents, might not possibly effect these exploits in spite of any diligence on the other side; but I know not where an excuse will be found for not enforcing instant restitution and reparation where boats have been furnished, privateers fitted out, prizes carried in, or provisions refused. And this omission is the more extraordinary, because, before the proclamation of martial law, the Admiral breathed nothing but impatience and flame ; and since that I know General Gage has urged him in vain to put his former schemes into execution.
" It would be invidious to proceed. I have said enough, when com- pared with the observations I had the honor to transmit by the Cerberus, to prevent your lordship forming any very sanguine expectations of this campaign. I am afraid it will require a good deal more activity than we have yet shown, to prevent famine in the town, if not in the army, when winter approaches.
" General Gage appears to be not disinclined to an idea of evacuating Boston, if he can make himself master of New York, and of taking up his winter-quarters there ; and there is much solid reasoning in favor of it. The post, in a military point of view, is much more important, and more proper to begin the operations of next campaign. In political consideration, yet more might be said for it, and in regard to general supply the neighborhood of Long Island, and other adjacent islands, would afford some assistance that we want here. But on the other hand, to quit hold entirely of Massachusetts, at least before solid footing was obtained elsewhere, requires very mature reflection ; I would not be
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understood to give my opinion. The execution of the measure also would demand great foresight, secrecy, and other managemen'. The - inhabitants, friends of Government, must not be left behind. They would require a vast quantity of shipping. The merchandise in the town, great part of which belongs to absentees, and ought to be con- fiscated, amounts, I am told, to the value of three hundred thousand pounds. That deposit ought surely to be detained; to preserve it to the proprietors, if innocent; to the public, where these should be guilty ; and from the use of the enemy in both cases. I think it possible General Gage may not have mentioned this circumstance to Government ; and I submit it to your lordship as one of great importance, and upon which I hope orders will be sent from home ; for I foresee a man of the General's scrupulous integrity (a part of his character that entitles him to the greatest honor) may be induced rather to relinquish or burn warehouses upon an exigency, than subject his reputation to the breath of slander by laying his finger upon private property." . . . " But whether the scheme of leaving Boston takes place in the whole, in part, or not at all, be assured, my lord, the army will be in danger of perishing with hunger and cold the ensuing winter, if the proper departments here do not fully represent, and the depart- ments at home fully believe, the impossibility of any solid supply of any article whatsoever except from Britain or Ireland. At present the sick and wounded are without broth for want of fresh provisions, and the poor ensign cannot draw for his pay at less than fifteen per cent. dis- count."
The very interesting matter from the pen of Gen. Burgoyne is drawn from a volume bearing the following title : "Political and Military Episodes in the latter half of the 18th Century. Derived from the Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. John Burgoyne, General, States- man, Dramatist. By Edward Barrington De Fonblanque. London : Macmillan & Co. 1876."
DESTRUCTION OF "LIBERTY-TREE."
One act of pure spitefulness on the part of the British soldiers, during their occupancy of Boston, tended to concentrate the patriotic attach-
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ment which the people had for ten years felt for a conspicuous object associated with the spirit of Liberty. This was the wanton destruction, with insulting demonstrations, of the famous Liberty-Tree.
That part of Washington street, then called Orange street, on the corner of the present Essex street -then Auchmuty's lane -was known as Hanover square, opposite the corner of Frog lane, now Boylston street, the site of the Market building. On the square stood a substan- tial wooden house, with gables, and two large chimneys, in the yard of which was a lofty and spreading elm-tree, one of a cluster near the square. This was Liberty-Tree. Its designation, and what we may call its inauguration, date from the night of Ang. 13, 1765. A lively class of the citizens of Boston had taken the title of " Sons of Liberty," an appellation offered for their use by their friend Col. Barre, in his glorious speech on their side in the House of Commons. On the even- ing just uamed, an effigy of Andrew Oliver, Secretary of the Province, and who was to be the distributor of the odious stamps, was suspended from a branch of the tree, accompanied by a figure of the devil peeping out of a boot, and holding the Stamp Act in his hand, with other satirical emblems, - a very hard pun upon his Majesty's hated Scotch ad- viser, the Earl of Bute. On the next morning, as a great crowd collected around, some of the neighbors attempted to remove the decorations, but were warned to desist. The sheriff was ordered by the Lieut .- Governor, as Chief Justice, to take them down ; but, on viewing the scene, and its conditions, he pronounced the attempt dangerous.
It would appear that this ingenions device for expressing contempt and hostility to the Earl of Bute was not original on this side of the water. A Boston paper of Ang. 20, 1763, contains the following : -
" About two miles from Honiton there was suspended on an apple-tree, that grew over the road, a figure, as big as life, dressed in Scotch plaid, with something to resemble a ribbon over one shoulder, and, on a painted board, affixed to the tree, were these lines : -
" 'Behold the man who made the yoke, Which doth Old England's sons provoke ; And now he hangs upon a tree, An emblem of our liberty. 21
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" 'Now, Britons, all join heart and hand, His sly-schemed project to withstand, That all our sons, as well as we, May have our " Cider go Scot free."
" ' Liberty, Property, and No Excise.'"
The effigy was taken down on the night of the 14th, and borne by a mob to Oliver's residence on Fort Hill, where it was burnt, driving him and his family from his house, which they defaced, and stoning the Lieut. Governor and Sheriff who sought to disperse them. On the 26th of the month the rioters did the same violent and destructive acts upon the dwellings of Mr. Story, of the Admiralty, of Mr. Hallowell, of the Customs, and of the Chief Justice, Lient. Gov. Hutchinson.
Other efligies were hung on the tree, Nov. 1, 1765, the day when the Stamp Act was to take effect, amid mournful and riotons demonstra- tions, muffled bells tolling, flags at half-mast, inflammatory handbills and wandering mobs. The effigies were twice taken down and carried in procession, restored, hung on the gallows-tree on the Neck, and at night destroyed with cheers.
Under the apprehension that Mr. Oliver would still attempt to dispose of the stamps, he was summoned, on Nov. 16, to appear at the tree on the next day, "to make a public resignation." He asked that the ceremony might transpire at the Town House. But, no. He must corre to the tree. There, with a company of two thousand, including the selectmen, merchants and best citizens, he subscribed a declaration attested by Richard Dana, Justice of the Peace. This precious paper is now in the possession of the venerable R. II. Dana, grandson of the Justice. Oliver also made a speech, expressing his " utter detestation of the Stamp Act."
Henceforward the tree became emblematic, and, after a sort, sacred. By a vote of the Sons of Liberty, on February 14, 1766, it was "trimmed after the best manner," by some carpenters, under the direc- tion of a skilful gentleman.
On the 19th of May, in celebration of the Repeal of the Stamp Act, the tree was the centre of merry-making and festivity, with illuminations and fireworks, and bells ringing. The tree was hung with garlands
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and colors, and a pole rising in the centre of it, by its new signifi- cance, doubtless reconciled what remained in the town of the old Puritan traditional dislike of poles dressed in May time. Governor Hancock welcomed the people to a pipe of Madeira on the Common, where, also at night, was raised a pyramid of two hundred and eighty lamps. On the evening of the next day there was a festival of lanterns, borne by immense crowds of men and boys, with all sorts aud devices of illummi- nations around the tree ; and, to add to the general joy, a collection was taken up for funds for discharging all who were in prison for debt, by a general jail delivery, that they, too, might share in the glad merriment. The heart of Boston was warm, though its will was rebellious. En- gravings are extant of a four-sided obelisk, with its ornaments and inscriptions, which was set under Liberty-Tree at this time. The sides bore rude portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, of the Marquis of Rockingham, the Duke of York, Gen. Conway, Lord Townshend, Col. Barre, Win. Pitt, Lord Dartmouth, Charles Townshend, Lord George Sackville, John Wilkes, Alderman Beckford, Lord Camden, etc., with an extraordinary variety of devices and emblematic conceits, piteous, boastful, sarcastic and devont, with ten lines of patriotic rhymes, defiant or mournful, on each side. Paul Revere contributed his genius to this remarkable piece of symbolism. When, on September 11, the news arrived of a change of ministry, a copper plate 33 feet by 23 was strongly nailed to the tree, inscribed, " The Tree of Liberty, Aug. 14, 1765." The fame which the tree had acquired in England is shown by the curious fact that about the time of the catastrophe to be presently related, there died, at Backway, near Cambridge, England, a gentleman named Philip Billes, Esq., who left to two gentlemen, not relatives, his con- siderable fortune, on condition that they would faithfully execute his will by burying his body under the shadow of Liberty-Tree in Boston, New England. This statement appears in the "Boston Evening Gazette," Aug. 22, 1774, copied from an English publication of June 3. The tree innst be considered as having put forth and cast its leaves through sne- cessive seasons in sympathy with the patriots who had attached to it their love and veneration. It was because of what it thus symbolized to them that it was hateful to the British soldiers, who doomed it to destruction. On August 4th a party of them, led on by a tory laegney,
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Job Williams, cut it down and burned it. A soldier who was lopping off one of its branches fell with it and was instantly killed.
Lafayette said, in a speech which he made during his visit to Boston, in 1824, " The world should never forget the spot where once stood Liberty-Tree, so famous in your annals."
THE BESIEGED IN BOSTON.
All accounts agree in representing the condition of the army and the people in the town, during the summer months, as involving general distress, with discontent and apprehension. The ministry in England were perplexed as to whether they should give positive instructions to their General, or leave him to his own judgment ; and he was evidently distracted in that judgment, unable to leave Boston, and unwilling to remain in it. Happily for him he was to be relieved of further responsi- bility, as despatches received in September recalled him, nominally to give information and advice. When he left he expected to return here. Before his departure he issued several proclamations.
The following has interest * : -
"A COMMISSION BY HIS EXCELLENCY, THE HON. THOMAS GAGE, CAPT. GENERAL, GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF, &c., &c.
To CREAN BRUSH, Esquire : -
"Whereas, there are large Quantities of Goods, Wares and Merchandize, Chattels and Effects, of considerable Value, left in the Town of Boston, by Persons who have thought proper to depart therefrom, which are lodged in Dwelling-houses, and in Shops, and Store-houses, adjoining to, or making Part of Dwelling-houses ;
* In the cabinet of the Mass. Historical Society is preserved in a large volume a series of Proclamations by the several Royal Governors, with broadsides, fly-leaves and miscellaneous printed papers, of much historie value. I am indebted to this source for the documents here copied.
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" And, Whereas, there is great Reason to apprehend, and the Inhabitants have expressed some Fears concerning the Safety of such Goods, especially as great Part of the Houses will necessarily be occupied by His Majesty's Troops, and the Followers of the Army, as Barracks during the Winter season : To quiet the Fears of the Inhabitants, and more especially to take all due care for the Preservation of such Goods, Wares, and Merchandize : I have thought fit, and do hereby authorize and appoint you, the said Crean Brush, to take and receive into your care, all such Goods, Chattels and Effects, as may be voluntarily delivered into your Charge by the Owners of such Goods, or the Person or Persons whose Care they may be left in, on your giving Receipts for the same : and you are to take all due Care thereof, and to deliver said Goods when called upon, to those to whom you shall have given Receipts for the same.
"Given under my Hand and Seal, at Head-quarters in Boston, the first day of October, 1775, &c.
" THOMAS GAGE.
" By His Excellency's Command,
"SAMUEL KEMBLE, Secr'y."
"[ By Order of the Commander-in-Chief, proper Apartments in Faneuil Hall are provided for the Reception of such Goods as may be delivered, where Attendance will be given from Ten o'Clock every morning 'till One."
The property of the citizens which, according to this order, was stored in Faneuil Hall, was removed afterwards, that the building might be used by the British officers, for theatrical performances. It was con- sequently for the most part scattered and lost.
CREAN BRUSHI.
We are naturally concerned to ask who was the man bearing such an extraordinary name, to whom the Royal General committed such a responsible service, and how he discharged it. The people driven from their homes had left all this valuable property at risk ; and when on the approach of winter the General found it necessary to house his army, he wished to empty stores and dwellings.
Crean Brush was a man of ill-repute, and of a stormy career, and he came to an unhappy end. He may be traced in Dr. O'Callaghan's Doc- umentary History of New York. He was born in Dublin, bred to the
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law, and admitted to practice in New York, where he held office under the Provincial Secretary. He appears as a violent actor in the controversies and hostilities between the authorities of New York and the settlers in the so-called " Hampshire Grants," now Vermont, who held titles from the Governor of New Hampshire, disputed by New York. In those controversies, the famous Ethan Allen appears conspicuously as one of the settlers. ITis wife was a step-daughter of Crean Brush. Brush had made his way to Boston in the autumn of 1775, and had so ingra- tiated himself with the General, as to have the above trust assigned to him. Early in the next year, he obtained from Gen. Howe authority to raise in the town a body of three hundred loyal volunteers, who were to serve, like the corps of Royal Fencible Americans already organized in the town, on certain terms. Just previous to the Evacuation, as we shall see, Howe gave him another commission, under which he set an example followed by too many others, hardly worse, however, than himself, of breaking open and plundering houses and stores of furniture and goods. He packed his own spoils, to the vahie, it was said, of a hundred thousand dollars, on board the brigantine Elizabeth. While the heavily laden vessel was straggling off, to join the departing fleet, she was captured, with the robbers in her, by the gallant Manly, and brought back to Boston, giving occasion for a sharp quarrel between the owners of the goods in her and her captors. Brush was put in jail, heavily ironed, in Boston, and kept under rigid restrictions, marked by merited indignities, though it would seem that he found means for gross intemperance. The next year he was joined by his wife, who, after he had been in prison more than nineteen months, contrived, by disguising him in her own clothing, to enable him, on the night of November 5, 1777, to get out of jail, and, by preparations she had made for him, to effect his escape to New York. Hle first went to Vermont, to look after his fifty thousand acres of land. He fell into further trouble, - his estate was mainly confiscated. Under grief and remorse, he blew out his brains with a pistol, in May, 1778.
PRINTING IN BOSTON.
With their proclamations and notifications of various kinds, the British Generals furnished mich matter for the press in Boston. Ben-
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jamin Edes, the sturdy Whig printer of the " Boston Gazette," had, with marvellous prowess, on the first shutting up of Boston, contrived to evade the sentinels, and not only to get out of the town himself, but to carry with him an old press, and some founts of type. He continued his paper at Watertown. Margaret, the widow of Richard Draper, con- tinued his paper, the "Boston News Letter," in her own name, and in the British interest, during the Siege, and her press was well patronized.
PROCLAMATIONS BY GEN. GAGE.
In another of these papers, Gen. Gage offers a reward of ten guineas for the apprehension of the person who had stolen the Province Seal.
The following call for ascertaining the number of people in the town may have been prompted by a desire to give information in England : -
"BY THE GOVERNOR. A PROCLAMATION.
" The Circumstances of the Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, being such as makes it necessary I should know the Number of Persons that still remain therein : I have thought fit to issue this proclamation, requiring a Return of the Names of every Inhabitant in said Town (the Army and Navy excepted) and their Places of Abode, unto the Town Major, at his Office in Long Lane, on or before Thursday next, the Fifth day of this Instant, distinguishing the Males from the Females with their respective Ages.
" And, I do hereby further require of every Person that may hereafter come into the Town of Boston, immediately after their Arrival, to enter their Names at the office aforesaid.
" Given at Boston the Second Day of October, 1775, &c., &e. " THOMAS GAGE. " By His Excellency's Command, "THOMAS FLUCKER, Secr'y. "GOD Save the KING."
The number of inhabitants other than soldiers was estimated at 6,573, and of the soldiers, with their women and children, at 13,600. The
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people were required to be in their houses at nine o'clock, and the streets, which were dark and dangerous, were patrolled. A vote had been passed at a town-meeting in 1773, to purchase, in London, three hundred street lamps. But they were on board one of the tea-ships that went ashore on Cape Cod, in December of that year.
BURGOYNE'S THEATRICALS IN BOSTON.
General Burgoyne had nearly two months longer stay in the town after Gage had gone, to mature freely his own opinions in a closer in- timacy with his colleague, Gen. Howe, then in the chief command, while Clinton went over to Charlestown.
In the irksome confinement and routine of garrison life, wherever officers can find female associates and friends, there is always one resource, however forced and tame it may be, which will be sought as a relief from despondency and inanity. Such of the sex in Boston as indulged tory proclivities, and such were not lacking, with attractions of grace and culture, responded to the efforts of the officers to provide assemblies and dances. These were held in Concert Hall, which has so recently disappeared from the southerly corner of Court and Hanover streets. There were other women in Boston, who would take no part in such gayeties. In a confidential letter which Burgoyne wrote, Ang. 20th, to Attorney-General Thurlow, he refers with some complacency to the literary labors which had occupied his constrained leisure, as he had been " called upon to draw a pen instead of a sword." "If the proela- mation for the exercise of martial law, the correspondence with Lee, or the answer to Washington upon the subject of rebel prisoners, fall into your hands, I request you to consider those prodnetions with all the allowances your candor can suggest." But the writer is silent as to his kindly intended efforts, as a man of pleasing social qualities, to con- tribute to the amusement of the melancholy circle in Boston. A series of theatrical exhibitions was given under his direction, in Faneuil Hall, in the autumn. On the adjoining page is a fac-simile of the announce- ment of the tragedy of " Zara," which was acted several times. Bur- goyne wrote the Prologue and the Epilogue, the former of which was spoken by Lord Rawdon, and the latter by a young lady, ten years old.
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In these compositions the writer good-humoredly ridicules the prudery and Puritan severity of the Bostonians, but urges the English troops to
" Unite the warrior's with the patriot's care, And whilst you burn to conquer, wish to spare."
While the young lady's concluding moral points to the naughtiness of rebellion, and lays it down that, -
" Duty in female breasts should give the law, And make e'en love obedient to Papa."
A reference to this performance is found in a letter addressed by Thomas Stanley - second son of Lord Derby - to Hugh Elliot, after Stanley's return to Boston, where he had served on Burgoyne's staff. [Memoir of the Right Hon. Hugh Elliot, by the Countess of Minto, p. 92.]
"We acted the tragedy of Zara two nights before I left Boston, for the benefit of the widows and children. The prologue was spoken by Lord Rawdon, a very fine fellow and good soldier. I wish you knew him. We took above £100 at the door. I hear a great many people blame ns for acting, and think we might have found something better to do ; but General Howe follows the example of the King of Prussia, who, when Prince Ferdi- nand wrote him a long letter, mentioning all the difficulties and distresses of the army, sent back the following concise answer : ' De la gaieté, encore de la gaieté, et toujours de la gaieté.' The female parts were filled by young ladies, though some of the Boston ladies were so prudish as to say this was improper."
Later, in the enjoyment of these theatricals, the spectators and the actors experienced a somewhat rude shock. On the evening of Jan. 8th, 1776, a farce, called " The Blockade of Boston," was upon the stage in Faneuil Hall. One of the actors, representing a travesty of Gen. Washington, had come in in grotesque array, with wig and rusty sword, with a squire, in similar array, carrying a rusty gun. At this moment a sergeant rushed in shouting, "The Yankees are attacking our works on Bunker's Hill." For a moment this was taken to be a part of the play. But, on the next, Gen. Howe, who was present, gave the order, "Officers, to your alarm posts!" There was an instant
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