USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 2 > Part 50
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EFFECT OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS (December, 1774)
It is not surprising that about this time Governor Gage wrote to England advising the suspension of the disturbing laws-the Port Act and the Regulating Act-until a much larger military force could be sent to Massachusetts. Nor is it surprising that the King, no doubt remembering Gage's earlier boast about being able to subdue the province with four regiments, was disgusted.
After a few days at Concord the Provincial Congress ad- journed to meet at Cambridge, where it continued to sit until December 10. In these sessions the patriots of Massachu- setts took three definite steps towards rebellion and revolution. The first was to send an address to Governor Gage, reciting their grievances against the British government and empha- sizing especially their objection to the recent erection of forti- fications on Boston Neck. These works, they declared, should be wholly demolished. When Gage replied that self-defense justified his military preparations the Congress was not satis- fied. The delegates were certain that Gage intended war, and to offset his agressive measures they created a committee on supplies. This committee made an estimate of the ordnance and military stores needed by the province, which was after- wards accepted by the Congress. As the estimate called for an outlay of more than twenty thousand pounds, the Provin- cial Congress was obliged to find ways and means of financ- ing it.
This necessity led to the third and most revolutionary step of all. "Henry Gardner, Esq., of Stow" was appointed re- ceiver-general for the province, and it was recommended that sheriffs and collectors of taxes should pay over to him what-
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BRITISH EXPEDITION TO SALEM
ever public funds were in their possession. Here again one of the Suffolk Resolves was carried into useful execution.
BRITISH EXPEDITION TO SALEM (February 26, 1775)
Nothing did more to universalize and to intensify anti-Brit- ish feeling than General Gage's occasional military gestures and expeditions. The immediate effect of the false rumors that grew out of the Charlestown expedition of September 1 has already been noted. For a few months that one experience seems to have put a quietus on Gage's zeal. Yet one can hardly blame the general for wishing to seize the American stores of munitions. In the first place he very much needed something suggestive of achievement to report to his superi- ors in England. In the second place he must have been aware that the Provincial Congress had instructed one of its com- mittees to secure all the public stores which the British had not already appropriated. Likewise he must have' known that the militia companies of the various towns were drilling on the commons and muster-fields, and that additional organi- zations, called "minutemen," were being formed.
As the tense winter of 1774-75 wore on he tried one or two experiments, but neither of them yielded much glory to the British army or helped him at all in his predicament. The maritime town of Marshfield, in Plymouth County, was a fairly notorious stronghold of British sympathizers, as we have observed when considering local reactions to the Boston Tea Party. As the patriot cause solidified and closed in upon Marshfield the conservatives of that town asked Gage to sta- tion in their midst a detachment of regulars for their protec- tion. The general complied. A force of one hundred men was sent down and remained there undisturbed until the nine- teenth of April. Toward the end of February Gage looked in the other direction and decided to take possession of a few brass cannon and gun carriages which were deposited at Salem or in that neighborhood. One hundred and fifty men, com- manded by a Colonel Leslie, landed at Marblehead one Sun- day morning (February 26, 1775) and marched to Salem. When it became evident that the desired ordnance was not there the exedition moved on towards Danvers until it was
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obliged to halt before an open drawbridge. At the farther end of the bridge stood Colonel Timothy Pickering with thirty or forty of the local militia.
Colonel Leslie looked at the water and he looked at the Americans; and he asked why "the King's highway" was ob- structed. He was told it was "not the King's road but the property of the inhabitants, who had a right to do what they pleased with it." All the British colonel could reply to this was that he had orders to cross the bridge and cross it he would, even if it cost him his life and the lives of all his men. In spite of this rodomontade and a scuffle in some flatboats nearby, the drawbridge remained up until-in the course of an hour or more-an agreement was entered into by the two commanders. Colonel Leslie gave his word of honor that if the draw were lowered so that he might pass over it, he would advance not more than thirty rods beyond it and then return to Boston. Pickering took him at his word, and the ridiculous program was carried out forthwith. Thus a bloody encounter was avoided, but news of the episode hardly served to intimi- date the militia anywhere in Massachusetts.
MASSACRE ORATIONS (1771-1775)
The Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770 was an old story in 1775. But the Boston radicals had taken care that time should not dim its memory nor minimize its significance. Owing to their efforts the custom was established to celebrate the anniversary with a special town meeting and an oration com- memorating the "horrid massacre" and dwelling upon "the ruinous tendency of standing armies in free and populous cities in a time of peace, and the necessity of such noble exertions in all future times as the inhabitants of the town then made, whereby the designs of the conspirators may still be frus- trated." This custom, we are told, continued in Boston until 1783, when it was supplanted by the Fourth of July oration. In 1771 Mr. James Lovell was the speaker; in 1772 Dr. Joseph Warren held forth before "a crowded assembly" in the Old South meeting-house; in the following year the oration was delivered by Dr. Benjamin Church; in 1774 John Hancock was the orator, and according to the town records his address
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was "elegant and spirited." ('Tis true that some have sus- pected that his speech was written for him by Samuel Adams, but we need not enter into that controversy.) In 1775 the honor went again to Dr. Warren.
The town meeting that day (March 6, 1775) was held in Faneuil Hall, as usual; but as the hour for Dr. Warren's speech approached, it became evident that the hall was not "capacious enough to contain the Inhabitants, that may attend upon this Occasion." Consequently the meeting was "ad- journed to the Old South Meeting House, to meet there at half past Eleven o'clock." When the appointed hour arrived, the directors of public opinion made excellent use of the material at their disposal. Before Warren was called upon to speak, someone brought up the case of "Mr. Christopher Monk, a young man, now languishing under a Wound he received in his Lungs, by a shot from Preston's Butchering Party of Sol- diers on the 5th of March 1770." A motion was made, and it was voted that "there be a Collection made in this Meeting" for his benefit. Now indeed the psychological moment for Warren's oration had come.
The setting for the occasion could hardly have been im- proved, for besides the Bostonians who had flocked into the meetinghouse there were present about forty British officers of the army and navy. As far as we can learn, these gentlemen had no right to attend a Boston town-meeting; but instead of turning them away, Samuel Adams-who discovered them standing in the aisles-treated them with marked courtesy. Some were invited to occupy front pews; others were accom- modated on the platform above the pulpit stairs,-where their uniforms blazed in striking contrast to the pulpit which was draped in black.
WARREN'S ORATION (March 6, 1775)
Dr. Warren began his address in a firm tone and in a sincere but unimpassioned manner. His first proposition was that "personal freedom is the natural right of every man, and that property, or an exclusive right to dispose of what he has hon- estly acquired by his own labor, necessarily arises therefrom." This was followed by an inspiring narrative of the settlement
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THE SPIRIT OF MASSACHUSETTS
and growth of this country and a picture of the colonists glory- ing in Britain's fame. Then came the story of British aggres- sion, culminating in the atrocity of the Boston Massacre. By this time Warren had worked himself into a mood and man- ner appropriate to his theme. After describing the slaughter with more vividness than delicacy, he exclaimed, "We wildly stare about, and with amazement ask, Who spread this ruin round us? What wretch has dared deface the image of his God? Has haughty France or cruel Spain sent forth her myrmidons? Has the grim savage rushed again from the dis- tant wilderness? Or does some fiend, fierce from the depth of hell, with all the rancorous malice which the apostate damned can feel, twang her destructive bow, and hurl her deadly ar- rows at our breast? No: none of these ;- but how astonish- ing! it is the hand of Britain that inflicts the wound."
Time and again the orator proclaimed America's allegiance to the King; on the other hand he did not hesitate to suggest the probability of armed resistance to British aggression. In many passages his rhetoric is too high-flown for twentieth- century taste; but part of the peroration should be quoted, for it expresses perfectly the spirit of Massachusetts in March, 1775. "You will maintain your rights, or perish in the gener- ous struggle. However difficult the combat, you will never decline it when freedom is our prize. An independence of Great Britain is not our aim. No: our wish is, that Great Britain and the colonies may, like the oak and ivy, grow and increase in strength together. But, whilst the infatuated plan of making one part of the empire slaves to the other is persisted in, the interest and safety of Britain as well as the colonies require that the wise measures recommended by the honorable, the Continental Congress be steadily pursued, whereby the unnatural contest between a parent honored and a child beloved may probably be brought to such an issue as that the peace and happiness of both may be established upon a lasting basis. But if these pacific measures are ineffectual, and it appears that the only way to safety is through fields of blood, I know you will not turn your faces from our foes, but will undauntedly press forward until tyranny is trodden under foot, and you have fixed your adored goddess, Liberty, fast by a Brunswick's side, on the American throne."
20809
From a copy of the portrait in the possession of Hon. Winslow Warren, by his courtesy JOSEPH WARREN
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THE ISSUE JOINED
PUBLIC OPINION
As one looks back, from the day of Warren's massacre oration in March, 1775 to the day after the Tea Party in December, 1773, he is certain to feel that during those fifteen months the public opinion of Massachusetts had undergone a marked change. At the time of the destruction of the tea active opposition to the British government appears to have been confined to a few aggrieved merchants and to such patriotic die-hards as Samuel Adams, John Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren and Elbridge Gerry. To this company one should add, of course, the mob, which was ready to op- pose anything in order to enjoy a bit of excitement. The people of the interior of the province were fairly contented and there was little, if any, reason to suppose that the com- fortable status quo would not continue indefinitely. Sam Adams's attempt to resurrect the tiresome issue of the negli- gible tax on tea met with little encouragement, and Massa- chusetts as a whole was not proud of what had happened in Boston on December 16, 1773.
News that Parliament had made up its mind to punish the ebullient metropolis by closing its port made a stir through- out the province, but even in Boston itself there was no unanimity of feeling. The "better" class of citizens, mer- chants for the most part, thought that Parliament was justified and that the sooner Boston paid the bill and got down to business the better. Their prudence and pacifism, however, was defeated by the organization and propaganda of the Com- mittee of Correspondence. In town meeting Boston declined to admit that she had done wrong; and the other towns, in general, gave her their moral support.
The Boston Port Act led directly to the calling of the First Continental Congress, but it did not throw Massachusetts into a tantrum of resistance. From which one may infer, and probably correctly, that in her heart the province still disap- proved of the Tea Party. But when it became apparent that the British Government intended not only to punish Boston but to remodel the government of the entire province, every red-blooded Yankee began to roll up his sleeves. To use an old New England expression, there was "no call" for steps
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in that direction. Massachusetts had lost half of her in- dependence when a new charter supplanted the old toward the end of the seventeenth century. Did Britain now intend to take away the other half? If so, there was going to be a fight.
When public opinion had reached this point it was not difficult for the radical "machine"-Sam Adams, Dr. Warren and their co-workers-to make it articulate, and to organize an independent government for the people of Massachusetts. In the Suffolk Resolves, Warren may have expressed more intense feeling than the average of his fellow-citizens felt at that time, but his rhetorical skill intensified the general dis- satisfaction until it approximated his own passion. The smooth transference of the government from the old General Court to the new Provincial Congress was an amazing achieve- ment. At the very moment when the men of Massachusetts were protesting that they did not aim at independence, they cast off the government which suited them not and set up one that met their immediate needs. To all intents and purposes the new government took possession of the treasury and mili- tary establishment of the old.
When this juncture was reached, Great Britain had to choose between acknowledging herself defeated and attempting to assert her authority. On the night of April 18, 1775 she chose the latter course.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
ADAMS, JOHN .- Works (10 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1850-1856)-in- cludes a life of John Adams and notes by C. F. Adams. Vol. III contains Adams's diary for 1774-75. In spite of its self-conscious- ness and egotism it affords an interesting view of men and events in Massachusetts just before the Revolution.
BANCROFT, GEORGE .- History of the United States; author's last revision (N. Y., Appleton, 1887)-Chapters I, II III, IV and VIII of Vol. IV describe Massachusetts on the verge of war, in the fervent style which our grandfathers admired.
BARRY, JOHN STETSON .- History of Massachusetts (3 vols., Boston, Phil- lips, Sampson, 1855-57)-Vol. II, chap. XIV, gives a straightforward account of the events from the passage of the Tea Act to the beginning of the siege of Boston. Excellent for background.
BELCHER, HENRY .- The First American Civil War (2 vols., London, Mac- millan, 1911)-A modern history of the Revolution written by an Englishman. An antidote for Bancroft. Chapters III and IV of Vol. I treat of Boston in 1774-75.
BRADFORD, ALDEN .- History of Massachusetts (3 vols .; each vol. separately published. Vols. I, II, Boston, Richardson and Lord, 1822-29)-A sober, painstaking history, written in the days when the name of Hutchinson was still detested in Massachusetts. A remarkable work by a pioneer in the field. Chapters xiv and xv of Vol. I deal with the years 1774 and 1775.
BROWN, ABRAM ENGLISH .- John Hancock, His Book (Boston, Lee and Shepard, 1898)-A readable biography, based largely upon Hancock's letter-book. Chapter XVII narrates the events of 1774-75 as they affected Hancock.
BURNETT, EDMUND CODY, editor .- Letters of Members of the Continental Congress (3 vols., Washington, 1921-1926)-Some of the letters from the Massachusetts members, in Vol. I, are significant historical docu- ments of this period.
CHANNING, EDWARD .- History of the United States (6 vols., New York, Macmillan, 1919-1925)-Volume III, chap. v, gives a compendious but singularly vivid account of the years 1770-1774. Probably the best brief statement of this period.
FISHER, SYDNEY GEORGE .- The Struggle for American Independence (2 vols., Phila. and London, Lippincott, 1908)-This is one of the earliest attempts to relate the story of the Revolution with entire fairness. It is successful in this respect, and has the additional merit of giving useful citations in the footnotes.
FORCE, PETER, compiler .- American Archives; consisting of authentic re- cords, state papers, debates, and letters and other notices of public affairs, the whole forming a documentary history of the origin and progress of the North American Colonies; of the course and accom- plishment of the American Revolution. Fourth Series. (6 vols., Washington, 1837-1853)-Volume I, contains an extraordinary amount of contemporary material dealing with Massachusetts in 1774-75. See index, under "Massachusetts Bay."
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FROTHINGHAM, RICHARD .- Life and Times of Joseph Warren (Boston, Little, Brown, 1865)-An excellent old-school biography. One-sided, but invaluable in its own field. Especially good is the account of the Suffolk Resolves.
GRAY, HARRISON .- A Few Remarks upon Some of the Votes and Resolu- tions of the Continental Congress, Held at Philadelphia in September and the Provincial Congress, Held at Cambridge in November, 1774. By a Friend to Peace and good Order (Boston, 1775)-This pam- phlet illustrates the point of view of the extreme conservatives.
HARLOW, RALPH VOLNEY .- Samuel Adams, Promoter of the American Revolution. A study in Psychology and Politics (N. Y., Holt, 1923) -A recent biography which attempts a new interpretation of its subject.
HILDRETH, RICHARD .- The History of the United States (6 vols., N. Y., Harper, 1880)-Chapter I of Vol. III covers this period sufficiently for the general reader.
HOLLAND, JOSIAH GILBERT .- History of Western Massachusetts. The Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire (2 vols., Springfield, Bowers, 1855)-Chapter xv of Vol. I touches upon the unrest in Western Massachusetts before and after the passage of the Boston Port Bill.
HOSMER, JAMES KENDALL .- Samuel Adams (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1900)-Though prejudiced in favor of its subject, this is a sound and highly readable biography.
HOSMER, JAMES KENDALL .- The Life of Thomas Hutchinson, Royal Gov- ernor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (Boston, Houghton Mif- flin, 1896)-A good biography of an unpopular man. Pages 304- 318 depict Hutchinson's sentiments and deeds from the time of the Tea Party till his departure for England about six months later.
HULTON, ANN .- Letters of a Loyalist Lady, being the Letters of Ann Hulton, sister of Henry Hulton, Commissioner of Customs of Boston, 1767-1776 (Cambridge, Harvard Univ. Press, 1927)-This collection of letters is as informing as it is charming. Ann Hulton's views presumably reflect those of her brother, a broad-minded British official.
HUTCHINSON, THOMAS .- The History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1749 to 1774 (London, John Murray, 1828)-As Governor Hutchinson's narrative ends at June 1, 1774, only pages 439-460 deal with the period between the Tea Party and Lexington. But these are worth reading as an example of Hutchinson's literary style and of the harassed state of his mind in 1774.
LINCOLN, WILLIAM .- History of Worcester, Massachusetts (Worcester, C. Hersey, 1862)-An excellent, old-fashioned, town history. Chapter VI narrates the disturbances of 1774-75 in detail, and with noticeable fairness.
MASSACHUSETTS : PROVINCIAL CONGRESS .- Journals of each Provincial Con- gress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775 and of the Committee of Safety. (Boston, 1838)-An invaluable source of information for the student of Massachusetts History in this period.
PALFREY, JOHN GORHAM .- History of New England (5 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1858-1890). Chapters x and XII of Vol. V cover the subject adequately, but the author's strictures upon Hutchinson now seem unfair.
PICKERING, OCTAVIUS .- The Life of Timothy Pickering (4 vols., Boston, Little, Brown, 1867-1873)-Vol. I, ch. Iv gives a detailed account of Col. Leslie's expedition to Salem.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
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ROWE, JOHN .- Letters and Diary of John Rowe, 1759-1762, 1764-1779. (Boston, Clarke, 1903)-Edited by Annie Rowe Cunningham. Here and there this diary throws interesting sidelights on Boston life in 1774-1775.
SCHLESINGER, ARTHUR MEIER .- The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution, 1763-1776 (N. Y., Columbia Univ., 1918)-Chapters VII, and VIII give an interesting account of the cross currents of colonial opinion in 1774. The writer has the advantage of possessing an extra- New England point of view which is stimulating.
TREVELYAN, SIR GEORGE OTTO .- The American Revolution (6 vols., N. Y., and London, Longmans, Green, 1905-1915)-The American troubles as seen through the eyes of a very friendly Englishman. An excellent piece of literature. Chapters v, VII, and VIII in Vol. I give a dramatic and for the most part correct picture of Massachusetts just before the outbreak of the Revolution.
TUDOR, WILLIAM .- Life of James Otis (Boston, Wells and Lilly, 1823) -A classic, which is as enjoyable today as it was a hundred years ago. Chapters XXVII, XXVIII, and XXIX bear upon the period of this chapter.
WELLS, WILLIAM VINCENT .- The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams (3 vols., Little, Brown, Boston, 1865)-The standard work on Samuel Adams, but not the most readable. In a sense it is a com- panion piece to Frothingham's Warren, but it is less artistic. -
CHAPTER XIX
THE NINETEENTH OF APRIL, 1775
BY ALLEN FRENCH
THE BRITISH IN BOSTON
When midnight sounded from the steeples of Boston, an- nouncing the end of the 18th of April, 1775, there began the most fateful day in the history of Massachusetts. The found- ing of the colony occupied a busy decade; everything since had been of slow growth; but in that single day the situation changed from peace to war, and the colonists became rebels fighting, if not yet for independence, at least for acknowledg- ment of their rights.
Thomas Gage, the British Governor of the Province and commander in chief, doubtless felt himself pushed into action. Since his fruitless attempt to seize the concealed cannon at Salem, he had seen the Whigs completing a rival military or- ganization, and setting up the machinery of a civil govern- ment not recognized by the British Government. Both were beyond his control. For his authority extended nowhere be- yond the bounds of Boston, while outside a legislature was sitting at Concord, committees were carrying on every sort of illegal activity, and a colonial treasurer was in function to whom the towns were reported to be paying the monies due to the lawful treasurer of the Province. Quite as important, the ancient militia of the Province had been remodelled to admit into its organization companies, and in fact regiments, of minutemen pledged to be ready at all times. The neigh- boring colonies were following suit. A government assum- ing to be Massachusetts had decided that an "Army of ob- servation" should be immediately called out, whenever five hundred of the regulars, with artillery and baggage, should march from Boston. Distrusting even this expedient, the
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PLAN OF DESTRUCTION OF STORES
Province began to take steps to keep a number of troops con- stantly under arms, and invited the other New England colo- nies to do the same.
PLAN OF DESTRUCTION OF STORES
No royal governor could watch such actions without plan- ning to check them. If Gage could act before any of the provincials were regularly in arms, his success would be more certain. Legally he felt safe, because the actions of the provincials had been declared by what till now had been superior authority to be treasonable. Of military force he had sufficient, considering the large reinforcements that had been promised him. The loyalists at his elbow were urging that the rebels be disarmed; the spring was early, and the roads were good. To be sure, Gage had already pointed out, in a letter home, that the colonists could be formidable when fighting by their own frontier methods; and of those methods he had surely seen enough at Braddock's defeat in 1755.
Nevertheless, other considerations decided him to seize the military stores which the Provincial Congress had been as- sembling at Concord for the use of its army. He knew those depots to be small and scattered, yet he laid his complex plans and gave his orders, guilelessly expecting them to be carried out in secret.
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