USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 2 > Part 49
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SAMUEL ADAMS
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DEFEAT OF THE MERCHANTS
boycotted forever and their names were to be published. Just how these radical Bostonians reconciled their system of extra- legal coercion with their unceasing cry for "liberty" is not entirely clear to the twentieth-century student of their deeds. To them, no doubt, oppression by the British government was one thing ; temporary oppression by a zealous group in order to achieve greater freedom for the whole was another.
The extraordinary thing about their scheme was that it succeeded. Without waiting for authorization from the town the Committee framed its policy, drew the Covenant, and sent it to the committees of the country towns for adoption. If the rustic populace embraced the policy of non-consumption of British goods,-and if it could be made to appear that they did so spontaneously,-the merchants of the province would undoubtedly see the futility of importing from England and would join the opposition party in its measures of retaliation. Apparently some of the outlying towns responded well, for within ten days the radical Boston Gazette printed the following combination of news and propaganda : "We learn from divers Parts of the Country that the People in general, having be- come quite impatient by not hearing a Non-Importation Agree- ment has yet been come into by the Merchants, are now taking the good Work into their own Hands, and have and are solemnly engaging not to purchase any Goods imported from Great Britain, or to trade with those who do import or pur- chase such Goods." Presumably a number of thoughtful, semi-conservative Bostonians read these lines, took them at their face value, and wondered if it were not their duty to advocate non-importation in order to preserve their town's reputation for patriotism. When matters had been engineered to this point, the radicals deemed it the psychological moment for another town meeting.
DEFEAT OF THE MERCHANTS (June 28, 1774)
On June 17 the meeting was held, with John (not Sam) Adams as moderator. By this gathering the existence of the Committee of Correspondence was sanctioned and its "vigi- lance and activity" encouraged. This was a more radical step than the merchants and their friends had anticipated. Now
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that the Committee was legalized and given free rein, to what extent might it not go in instigating insurrection and prevent- ing the return of peace and prosperity? From the mercantile point of view there was only one thing that could save the country, and that was the discharge of the Committee. To this end they now bent every effort, and a grand attack upon the radicals was made at a town meeting in the Old South Meet- inghouse on June 27. The attendance was large; and on this occasion Sam Adams was in the chair.
Knowing that the Covenant had gone forth without the authorization of the town as a whole, the conservatives charged the Committee with having exceeded its authority and de- manded that all letters received and sent by it should be read to the meeting. As this promised to consume too much time the motion was changed so that the Covenant and the corre- spondence pertaining to it were immediately brought before the assemblage. To the merchants present it was obvious that the Committee of Correspondence had gone too far, and Mr. Gray (presumably Mr. Harrison Gray, the treasurer of the province) startled the meeting by moving that it be censured and dismissed.
As Sam Adams was chairman of the Committee in question he very properly vacated the moderator's chair until this busi- ness should be disposed of. Thomas Cushing, a less intense radical, took his place and a discussion which lasted into the evening ensued. In fact it lasted even longer, for before the motion was put to a vote the meeting was adjourned until the following morning. Argument after argument was launched against the Committee and its Covenant, but in vain. When the question was put, the merchants lost by "a vast majority"; fifty or sixty votes were all they could muster. Thereupon the radicals made a very different motion and Boston voted its approval of the Committee's "upright Intentions" and "honest Zeal." Indeed it urged them "to preserve with their usual activity and firmness, and continue steadfast in the way of well-doing."
The town meetings of June 27 and 28, 1774, may without exaggeration be considered a minor crisis in the American revolution. Had the conservatives carried the day and brought about the official dismissal of "Adams, Warren and Company,"
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AVERAGE PUBLIC SENTIMENT
who can say whether the opposition which that organization had built up would have survived? As it was, however, the merchants were decisively defeated, and their method of at- tack was reduced to signing futile protests against the proceed- ings of the Committee and of the town meeting. Governor Gage sustained them, as well as he could, by issuing a procla- mation that "strictly enjoined and commanded" all magistrates in the province to arrest all who signed the Covenant or asked others to sign it. But Gage was too late; the radical propa- ganda had already begun to work in the country towns and the defeat of the Boston merchants must have expedited the process.
AVERAGE PUBLIC SENTIMENT
When conscientious old Brigadier Ruggles of Hardwick an- nounced his intention to put in jail every man in town who signed the Covenant, he discovered that the number of signa- tories soon exceeded the accommodations of any jail in the county,-and he decided not to carry out his threat. Indeed it was not long before he found his home town entirely un- congenial as a place of residence and' betook himself to Bos- ton, where he was virtually a prisoner. Meanwhile the tide of radicalism rose higher and higher. Worcester moved for- ward the date of the boycott from October 1 to August 1. A number of other towns followed her example. More than a dozen communities, mostly inland towns, adopted the Cove- nant in one form or another before the first of September. Many others looked on approvingly, but held their fire pending the meeting of a Continental Congress, which, it was generally understood, would deal with the matter on a large scale. Here and there, of course, opposition to the Covenant flared up, notably at Easton where about fifty merchants and other citizens signed a manifesto against it; but it is safe to say that in general, outside of Boston, there was no serious opposition to the Solemn League and Covenant.
In the light of the machinations and protestations which have just been described, what shall we say of "the spirit of Massachusetts" as a whole in the summer of 1774? Obvi- ously it was not a spirit of submission. Even in the metropolis that attitude failed to dominate. But can we say that the
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spirit of the smaller towns which accepted the Covenant was the "true spirit of the province" when we reflect that it was in- stigated by a few radicals who led them to believe that Boston approved the Covenant, whereas, as a matter of fact, the town had not been specifically consulted on that point? If so, should we not define "the spirit of Massachusetts" as "hoodwinked excitability" rather than cool determination to protect the rights of Americans? Probably it was a combination of the two, but in that combination the latter element was far stronger than the former.
If Massachusetts had been as excitable as Sam Adams and Dr. Warren wished it were, the Covenant would have been adopted by every town in the province,-not by only about fifteen. On the other hand, it was more excitable than any of its neighbors, for despite all the efforts of the Boston Com- mittee of Correspondence the radical Covenant fell as flat as a pan-cake in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. To the people in these colonies and to the majority of the people in Massachusetts the proposal to place the organization of opposition in the hands of a Continental Congress seemed much more sensible.
CALLING THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (1774)
Among the instructions which Governor Gage brought with him, when he arrived in Boston Harbor early in May, was one to remove the General Court to Salem. At Salem, there- fore, the General Court assembled in the following month,- and in a belligerent frame of mind. Samuel Adams, a repre- sentative from Boston, took possession of the situation, and having taken the precaution to lock the door of the hall in which the House was meeting, he laid before the Assembly the proposals of various town-meetings and committees of cor- respondence that a congress of the colonies be called. As the New York committee had requested the patriots of Massa- chusetts to appoint the time and place for the proposed con- gress Adams moved that it be convened on September 1 at Philadelphia.
While this motion was being discussed, the Secretary of the Province appeared at the door with a proclamation from the
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THE PORT BILL CRITICISED
Governor dissolving the General Court. But the door was locked, and therefore the best Secretary Flucker could do was to read the document to a crowd outside, while the represent- atives went ahead with their business indoors. Sam Adams's resolves providing for a Continental Congress were adopted by a vote of 117 to 12, and the delegates from Massachusetts -James Bowdoin, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Thomas Cushing-were selected. This momentous business was trans- acted on June 17, 1774, and in it is to be found the clearest index of the spirit of Massachusetts after the closing of the port of Boston. That spirit was one of determination to de- fend the infringed rights of Americans and to resort to extra- legal methods in order to accomplish that end.
From this narrative it is clear that the Boston Port Act led directly to the calling of the First Continental Congress. But one sometimes wonders what action, if any, the Congress would have taken upon Boston's distress if other questions had not arisen to complicate the issue and to create alarm in other colonies besides Massachusetts. Fortunately we are spared the necessity of conjecturing upon this hypothesis; for before the Continental Congress met in September, Parlia- ment had supplied adequate grounds for a colonial coalition in support of the Bay Colony. Soon after the passage of the Port Act, Lord North introduced a bill to alter the government of Massachusetts with a view to "the preservation of the peace and good order of the said province." This bill provided : (1) that henceforth members of the Council should be appointed by the King instead of being elected by the House of Repre- sentatives; (2) that jurors should be selected by the sheriff instead of being chosen in town meeting as had been the cus- tom; (3) that no more unusual town meetings should be called or held except by special permission from the governor.
THE PORT BILL CRITICISED
From the British point of view all these measures were wise and proper. The first brought the government of Massachus- etts into uniformity with that of the other provinces whose governors were appointed by the Crown. It was to be hoped that this modification of the Massachusetts charter might in
1
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THE SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS
some way make that province more tractable. The second and third alterations indicated Parliament's recognition of the fact that the basic trouble with Massachusetts was democratic government. Theoretically town meetings meant ideal gov- ernment in local affairs, but in practice they meant opposition to those who were attempting to govern the British Empire. Something was wrong somewhere,-presumably with the town meeting; so Parliament limited the power of the town in order to improve the administration of the Empire. The bill passed the House of Commons by a majority of 236 to 64 and be- came a law on May 20.
Whatever the non-New England colonies may have thought of the closing of the port of Boston, they were bound to see dangerous symptoms in this act "for the better regulating the government of the province of the Massachusetts' Bay." And what they did not discover for themselves Adams and War- ren hastened to unveil, so that by September 1 all the conti- nental colonies, with the exception of Georgia, were convinced that if they were to continue to enjoy their ancient liberties they must make common cause with Massachusetts in the fight against Parliament. Meanwhile the summer months produced various interesting developments in and about Boston.
THE MANDAMUS COUNCILLORS (August, 1774)
The councillors appointed by the King were to supplant the elected councillors on August 1. Being appointed on the King's writ of mandamus they were christened "Mandamus Council- lors" by the populace, and it was not long before unlimited odium was attached to that appellation. Thirty-six gentlemen in the Province received the writs, and early in August their names were published. Soon afterwards the Boston Com- mittee of Correspondence, acting upon a suggestion from the Worcester committee, held a meeting in Faneuil Hall, which was attended by delegates from the neighboring counties. By this meeting the new Councillors were declared to be "unconsti- tutional officers," the supremacy of Parliament was denied, and a provincial congress to take charge of the government of Massachusetts pending the appointment of "constitutional" officers was proposed. If the country towns had been wait-
1
547
MILITARY OCCUPATION
ing for incitement to open rebellion against the Regulating Act they needed to wait no longer.
By many patriots an open season on "Mandamus Councillors," obedient judges, and sheriffs was now assumed to be declared, especially in the more remote parts of the province. In Berk- shire County a mob forced the judges from their seats and shut up the court-house ; at Worcester an armed mob, said to have been five thousand strong, obliged judges, sheriffs, and "gentlemen of the bar" to march up and down before them and to read thirty times their refusal to function under the new law ; at Taunton and Plymouth the courts were broken up. The accounts of attacks on individuals make less pleasant read- ing. Let it suffice to say that all the new Councillors who did not resign promptly were hunted down, driven from their homes, and forced to take refuge in Boston. Even in Cam- bridge a throng of citizens, exasperated because British troops had just carried off two cannon belonging to the town regi- ment, appeared before the house of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Oliver (afterward the house of Governor Elbridge Gerry and of James Russell Lowell), who was president of the Council, and compelled him to resign.
August 10, 1774, Samuel Adams, Thomas Cushing, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine duly accredited as represen- tatives of the colony, left Boston to attend three weeks later the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. In their absence re- sponsibility for the conduct of the opposition in eastern Massa- chusetts rested chiefly upon the shoulders of Dr. Joseph War- was composed of delegates from every town in Suffolk County, "congress" into a thoroughly radical course. This "congress" was composed of delegates from every town in Suffolk county, and it met first at Stoughton, then at Dedham, and finally at Milton. But before we consider the resolves of that deter- mined body we should turn our attention to certain other as- pects of the summer of 1774, if we are to appreciate fully the strong feelings of Dr. Warren and his associates.
MILITARY OCCUPATION (May-September, 1774)
When General Gage arrived at Boston in May there were already two regiments of British troops stationed in the vicin- ity. Within the next few weeks four more regiments were
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added to this force and an attendant fleet of warships cast anchor in the harbor. In an optimistic moment Gage had re- marked to King George that with four regiments he could easily subdue the Bostonians. Now he had six at his disposal and did not know how to use them effectively. One thing was clear : the inhabitants of Boston were not cowed by their presence. They refused to build barracks for the soldiers, and when Gage procured naval carpenters for that work the Bostonians split the planks before they could be used. They declined to sell him food for his troops; and "the high sons of Roxbury" burned a load of straw which was on its way to town to serve as bedding for the men. All in all they acted like exasperating schoolboys; but unless war was declared, soldiers could hardly be used to discipline them. Gage was a rather likable sort of military man and he had an American wife. Personally he was not unpopular, nor did he wish to be so. On the other hand he must accomplish something in Massachusetts or appear ridiculous on both sides of the Atlantic.
One of his first steps was to fortify the narrow neck of land that connected Boston with the mainland. More alarming was the expedition of two hundred and sixty men which he sent out to Charlestown (Somerville) on September 1 to seize some powder that belonged to the province. The party was successful and three hundred barrels of powder were captured. That night a rumor spread inland that six Americans had been killed by the enemy. The rumor was false,-but within a very few hours at least forty thousand New Englanders had started for Boston! Two or three thousand actually reached Cambridge before learning that no blood had been shed. Scarcely a week later the Suffolk County congress assembled at a private house in Milton and listened to a series of resolves which had been drafted by a large committee of which Dr. Warren was chairman.
THE SUFFOLK RESOLVES (September, 1774)
Dr. Joseph Warren possessed a literary style which many might envy. It was direct, vigorous, and inflammatory; and nowhere does it appear to better advantage than in the pre-
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THE SUFFOLK RESOLVES
amble to the famous Suffolk Resolves of September 9, 1774.
"Whereas the power but not the justice, the vengeance but not the wisdom, of Great Britain, which of old persecuted, scourged and exiled our fugitive parents from their native shores, now pursues us, their guiltless children, with unrelent- ing severity; and whereas, this then savage and uncultivated desert was purchased by the toil and treasure, or acquired by the valor and blood of those our venerable progenitors, who bequeathed to us the dear-bought inheritance, who consigned it to our care and protection,-the most sacred obligations are upon us to transmit the glorious purchase, unfettered by power, unclogged with shackles, to our innocent and beloved off- spring." These stirring lines were but the opening sentence of a long and eloquent indictment of "the parricide who points the dagger to our bosoms."
This preamble was followed by nineteen resolves, of which almost every one was clearly rebellious,-not against George III but against Parliament's "unparalleled usurpation of un- constitutional power." They condemned the Port Act and the Regulating Act as "gross infractions of those rights to which we are justly entitled by the laws of nature, the British Constitution, and the charter of our province"; and declared that no obedience was due "to either or any part of the Acts above mentioned." Nor should any regard be paid to judges whose authority rested upon the new laws, for they were "un- constitutional officers." Collectors of taxes and other officials who had public moneys in their hands should withhold these funds from the province or county treasurers until constitu- tional government should be restored "or until it shall other- wise be ordered by the proposed Provincial Congress."
Furthermore, all "Mandamus Councillors" who did not publicly resign on or before September 20 should be considered as "obstinate and incorrigible enemies to this colony." Mili- tary instruction and weekly musters of militia companies were recommended; likewise non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies. Finally, the necessity of a Pro- vincial Congress was urged, "to be holden at Concord on the second Tuesday of October." These resolves "being several times read, and put paragraph by paragraph" were unani- mously voted on September 9; two days later a copy of them
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THE SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS
was sent to the Massachusetts delegates at Philadelphia by special messenger. That messenger was Paul Revere.
ATTITUDE OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS (September, 1774)
Suffolk was not the only county to hold a meeting and to pass resolves. In fact about September 1, 1774, there was almost an epidemic of county meetings. At Concord, on August 30, Middlesex held a convention which was attended by delegates, one hundred and fifty in all, from every town and district in the country. This body declared that to obey the recent acts of Parliament "would be to annihilate the last vestiges of liberty in this province; and therefore we must be justified by God and the world in never submitting to them." Worcester, Plymouth, and Essex Counties likewise assembled and passed significant resolves. But only Suffolk possessed a Dr. Warren, and therefore the Suffolk Resolves alone have won recognition in history.
If we are to believe John Adams-and who can doubt his word ?- the reading of these resolutions at Philadelphia on September 17 produced an extraordinary effect upon the mem- bers of the Continental Congress. "The esteem, the affection, the admiration for the people of Boston and the Massachusetts which were expressed yesterday, and the fixed determination that they should be supported, were enough to melt a heart of stone. I saw the tears gush into the eyes of the old, grave, pacific Quakers of Pennsylvania." On the following day the Congress unanimously resolved "that they earnestly recom- mended to their brethren a perseverance in the same firm and temperate conduct as expressed in the resolutions determined upon at a meeting of the delegates for the county of Suffolk, on Tuesday, the 6th instant, trusting that the effect of the united efforts of North America in their behalf, will carry such conviction to the British nation, of the unwise, unjust, and ruinous policy of the present administration, as quickly to introduce better men and wiser measures."
THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS (October, 1774)
One of the resolutions passed by the Essex Convention in early September advised that the House of Representatives
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THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS
should convert itself into a Provincial Congress and carry on the government of Massachusetts without the assistance of the governor or his Mandamus Councillors. Naturally this recom- mendation was especially displeasing to Governor Gage, and it led him to make rather a fool of himself. He had sum- moned the General Court to meet at Salem in the first week in October, but the temper of the various county resolves dis- turbed him. A week before the date set for assembling he issued a blundering proclamation which excused the represent- atives-elect from their duty of coming together and announced that he would not be present. Just why he did not dissolve or prorogue the General Court in the customary manner does not appear. To have done either would have rendered their meet- ing clearly unconstitutional; as it was, he left the door of legal- ity open and deprived himself of a good case against the repre- sentatives of the people of Massachusetts.
On October 5 the Court assembled at Salem. After waiting a day for the governor to appear, it resolved itself into a Provincial Congress, as had been suggested by the Essex Convention. John Hancock, whom Gage had recently dis- missed from the command of the Independent Company of Cadets, was elected chairman and Benjamin Lincoln of Hing- ham was chosen secretary. Almost immediately the Congress adjourned to meet at Concord three days later, thus realizing- almost to the letter-one of the Suffolk Resolves. At the Salem meeting only ninety representatives appeared. But the open conversion of the House of Representatives into a Pro- vincial Congress made that body suddenly interesting to the people of Massachusetts. Many towns that had neglected to choose representatives now hastened to elect delegates. Con- cord swarmed with more than two hundred and fifty of the latter, and their place of assembly was changed from the court-house to the meeting-house.
In the light of subsequent events the personnel of this gath- ering cannot be lightly passed over. Among the delegates from Boston were, of course, John Hancock and Dr. Joseph Warren; the Marblehead delegation included Elbridge Gerry ; from Pepperrell came William Prescott who was soon to dis- tinguish himself at Bunker Hill; from Cambridge, Thomas Gardner, who was to lose his life in that battle; James Bar-
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THE SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS
rett, who was to command the Concord militia at the North Bridge a few months hence, was present, too; likewise Artemas Ward, the first commander of the American army; and James Sullivan, from the District of Maine, a future governor of Massachusetts. Not all the delegates were distinguished men in 1774 or later, but all were fired with a determination that made them a formidable gathering.
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