USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > History of the siege of Boston, and of the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Also an account of the Bunker Hill Monument. With illustrative documents > Part 3
USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > History of the siege of Boston, and of the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Also an account of the Bunker Hill Monument. With illustrative documents > Part 3
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lexington > History of the siege of Boston, and of the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill. Also an account of the Bunker Hill Monument. With illustrative documents > Part 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
The great natural features of the metropolis of Massachu- setts, at this time, were almost unchanged. The original
1 The General Congress remonstrated on these fortifications. General Gage, October 20, in his reply, says : "Two works of earth have been raised at some distance from the town, wide of the road, and guns put in them. The remains of old works, going out of the town, have been strength- ened, and guns placed there likewise." The documents are in the news- papers of this period.
2 General Gage, Aug. 27, 1774, wrote to Lord Dartmouth : - It is agreed that popular fury was never greater in this province than at present, and it has taken its rise from the old source at Boston, though it has appeared first at a distance. Those demagogues trust their safety in the long forbearance of government, and an assurance that they cannot be punished. They chicane, elude, openly violate, or passively resist the laws, as opportunity serves ; and opposition to authority is of so long standing, that it is become habitual.
18
COLONIAL POLITICS.
peninsula, with its one broad avenue by land to connect it with the beautiful country by which it was surrounded, had sufficiently accommodated its population, without much alter- ation of the land, or without much encroachment on the sea. Beacon Hill, and its two neighbor eminences, now so crowded with splendid mansions, were then pasture grounds, over which grew the wild rose and the barberry. Copp's Hill, one of the earliest spots visited by the Pilgrims, and Fort Hill, memorable as the place where Andros and his associ- ates were imprisoned, were also of their original height. Much of Boston, now covered by piles of brick and busy streets, was then overflowed by the tide, or was parceled out in gardens and fields. It would require, however, too much space to dwell on its topography, or its municipal affairs, or to describe the change that enterprise and wealth, under the benign influence of freedom, have wrought in its appearance.
Its government, however, exercised too powerful a political influence to be passed over without remark. Its form was simple, and peculiar to New England. No common law orig- inally authorized it ; and so widely did it differ from that of the municipal corporations of England, that Andros (1686) declared there was no such thing as a town in all the coun- try. At first the inhabitants of the towns managed their affairs in general meeting, but soon chose "the seven men," or " the selectmen," to act as an executive body. The Gen- eral Court in 1636 recognized the towns, and defined their powers. Such was their origin. In Boston the selectmen were at first chosen for six months ; but after a few elections, for a year. The general town affairs were decided in general meetings of the citizens. So important were these little local assemblies regarded, that the absentee from them was fined ; so free were they, that in them - the General Court ordered, 1641 -any man, whether inhabitant or foreigner, might make any motion or present any petition ; so wide was the range of subjects discussed by them, that the debates ran from a simple question of local finance to general questions of provincial law and human rights; so great was their po- litical effect, that the credit has been assigned them of having commenced the American Revolution. The hand votes of the
19
POPULATION OF BOSTON.
citizens in them were equal, and "this apparent equality in the decisions of questions taught every man, practically, the greatest principle of a republic, that the majority must gov- ern." 1 "The people," Tudor well remarks, "were the sub- jects of a distant monarch, but royalty was merely in theory with them."? 2
The population of Boston was about seventeen thousand. A marked peculiarity of it was its homogeneous character. It was almost wholly of English extraction ; and, during the pre- ceding century, it had gradually increased from its own stock. It had few foreigners - few even of English, Irish, or Scotch. It was an early remark in relation to it, that it wore so much the aspect of an English town, that a Londoner would almost think himself at home at Boston. Strangers praised its gen- erous hospitality. "I am arrived," a traveller3 writes, "among the most social, polite, and sensible people under heaven, - to strangers, friendly and kind, - to Englishmen, most generously so." Its inhabitants, by their industry, en- terprise and frugality, generally had acquired a competence. There was no hopeless poverty ; there were few of large wealth ; and none were separated by privileges from the rest of the community. The common school' had made deep its
1 Tudor's Otis, p. 446. 2 Ib., p. 414. 3 A physician, November 8, 1774, describes Boston as follows : - In this land of bustling am I safe arrived, among the most social, polite and sensible people under heaven, - to stran- gers, friendly and kind, - to Englishmen, most generously so. Much have I travelled, and much have I been pleased with my excursions. This is a fine country, for everything that can gratify the man or please the fancy. War, that evil, looks all around us ; the country expect it, and are prepared to die freemen, rather than live what they call slaves. The patriots here are, in general, men of good sense, and high in the cause. I have been introduced to General Gage and the Tories- to Hancock and the Whigs. I find myself a high son - that is the strongest side at present. How long I shall stay here is uncertain. Much have I been entreated to settle here as physician ; and was peace and unanimity once more established, I should prefer this place to any I ever saw. The town is finely situated, very con- siderable, and well worth preserving. If hostile measures take place, I bc- lieve it will fall a sacrifice. 4 In May, 1773, the South Grammar School had 130 scholars ; North, 59 ; South Writing, 220 ; North Writing, 250 ; Writing School, Queen-street, 264.
2*
.
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COLONIAL POLITICS.
mark of common brotherhood; and in the public meeting, in the social circle, in the varied walks of life, men met as equals in the race of enterprise or of ambition. The Province House - still standing - was the centre of fashion ; and the polished circle that moved in it shed abroad the influence of manners characterized by the urbanity of the olden time. The attention paid to cducation and religion, and the activity of the printing presses, indicate the value placed on the higher interests of a community. The general thrift was shown in the air of comfort spread over the dwellings, the elegance of many private mansions, and the number of public buildings. One fact is worthy of remark. Notwithstanding the political excitement that continued for ten years, with hardly an inter- mission ; notwithstanding the hot zeal of the sons of liberty, the bitter opposition of as zealous loyalists, the presence of the military, the firing upon the people, the individual col- lisions with the soldiers, " throughout this whole period of ferment and revolution, not a single human life was taken by the inhabitants, either by assassination, popular tumult, or public cxecution.771
The prosperity of Massachusetts never had been greater, and it never had felt less the ordinary burdens of society. It was, as to commerce, the envy of the other colonies. " In no independent state in the world," Hutchinson writes, "could the people have been more happy."? Boston, more than any other town, represented this prosperity. Its relative impor- tance, when compared with the citics and towns of the other colonies, was far greater than it is at the present day ; and it was pronounced the most flourishing town in all British America. A glance at the ship-yards marked on the map will indicate the direction of a large portion of its industry ; . a thousand vessels, cleared in a single year from its port,3 will indicate the activity of its trade. It was not only the metrop- olis of Massachusetts and the pride of New England, but it was the commercial emporium of the colonies. It could assert, without much exaggeration, that its trade had been an
! Tudor's Life of Otis, p. 451. 2 Hutchinson, vol. 3, p. 351. 3 Price's Map, 1769.
.
21
BOSTON PATRIOTS.
essential link in that vast chain of commerce which had raised New England to be what it was, the southern prov- inces to be what they were, the West India Islands to their wealth, and the British empire to its height of opulence, power, pride and splendor.1
To enumerate the services and to sketch the characters of the patriots who won for Boston a world-wide renown, would require a volume. I can do little more than indicate their fields of labor. The foremost of them, James Otis, so vehe- ment and wild in his support of liberty that the British called him mad, of such pure patriotism and spirit-stirring eloquence that the people hung upon his words with delight, had accom- plished his great pioneer work ; and his fine genius, by a savage blow from an enemy, had become a wreck. Samuel Adams, the giant reformer, who best represents the sternness, the energy, the puritanism of the Revolution, was commenc- ing his career as a member of the Continental Congress, and had begun to manage its factions, by the simple wand of integrity of purpose, with the same success with which he gathered about him the strong men of Boston. "All good men," George Clymer writes in 1773, "should erect a statue to him in their hearts." John Adams, ardent, eloquent, learned in the law, ready with his tongue or his pen to defend the boldest measures as necessary, whether the destruction of the tea or the obstruction of a court, was in the same Congress continuing a brilliant service. There, too, was John Hancock, whose mercantile connections, social position, lav- ish hospitality and large wealth, made up an influence in favor of the Whig cause, when influence was invaluable. Joseph Warren, skilful as a physician, of a chivalrous spirit and of fascinating social qualities, beloved as a friend and of judgment beyond his years, seeing as clearly as any other the great principles of the contest, and representing as fully as any other the fresh enthusiasm of the Revolution, was work- ing laboriously in the committee of correspondence, in the
1 Vote of Boston, May 18, 1774. Town Records. The population of New York was about 21,000; the population of Massachusetts, in 1775, was estimated at 352,000 ; that of the colony of New York at 238,000.
.
22
COLONIAL POLITICS.
Boston committee of safety, in the committee on donations, in the provincial committee of safety, and in the Provincial Con- gress. Josiah Quincy, jr., the Boston Cicero, devoted to the patriot cause, profound in the conviction that his countrymen would be required to seal their labors with their blood, was on a confidential mission to England, - being destined, on his return, to yield up his pure spirit in sight of the native land which he loved so much and for which he labored so well. Thomas Cushing, of high standing as a merchant, of great amenity of manner, of large personal influence, was a dele- gate to the Continental Congress. So widely was his name known in England, from its being affixed to public docu- ments, that Dr. Johnson remarked, in his ministerial pamphlet, that one object of the Americans was to adorn Cushing's brows with a diadem. James Bowdoin, as early as 1754 one of the members of the General Court, was still of such fresh public spirit as to be one of the leading politicians; and though not so ardent as some of his associates, yet his sterling char- acter gave him great influence, while he was none the less attached to the Whig cause, and none the less obnoxious to the royal governor. Benjamin Church, a respectable physi- cian, of genius and taste, who had made one of the best of the "massacre" orations, was working in full confidence with the patriots, though his sun was destined to set in a cloud. Nathaniel Appleton was active on various boards, and his name is affixed to some of the most patriotic letters that went from the donation committee. William Phillips, one of the merchant princes, irreproachable as a man, for thirty years deacon of the Old South, was serving on various boards. and contributed money in aid of the cause with the same liberality with which, subsequently, he contributed to aid the cause of education. Oliver Wendell, of liberal educa- tion, of uncommon urbanity of manner and integrity of char- acter, at this time in mercantile life, though subsequently a judge, was one of the selectmen and one of the committee of correspondence. John Pitts, of large wealth and of large influence, was a zealous patriot, one of the Provincial Con- gress, and on other boards. James Lovel, the schoolmaster, of fair reputation as a scholar, was an efficient patriot and
23
BOSTON PATRIOTS.
was destined to severe suffering on account of his political course. William Cooper, the town-clerk forty-nine years, the brother of Dr. Cooper, who lived a long and useful life, was one of the most fearless and active of the Whigs. William Molineaux, a distinguished merchant, an ardent friend to the country, whose labors had proved too much for his constitu- tion, had just died. Paul Revere, an ingenious goldsmith, as ready to engrave a lampoon as to rally a caucus, was the great confidential messenger of the patriots and the great leader of the mechanics. Benjamin Austin, a long time in public life and in responsible offices; Nathaniel Barber, an influential citizen ; Gibbens Sharpe, a deacon of Dr. Eliot's church, one of the zealous and influential mechanics ; David Jeffries, the town treasurer, a useful citizen and active pat- riot ; Henry Hill, wealthy, of great kindness of heart, and greatly beloved ; Henderson Inches, afterwards filling offices of high trust with great fidelity ; Jonathan Mason, a deacon of one of the churches, one of the opulent merchants, of solid character and great influence ; Timothy Newell, one of the deacons of the Brattle-street church; William Powell, of large wealth and of great usefulness; John Rowe, also rich, enterprising and influential ; John Scollay, of much public spirit, energetic and firm, -all these, and others equally deserving, were actively employed on various committees and in important and hazardous service. They were not the men to engage in' a work of anarchy or of revolution. In fact, strictly speaking, their work was not revolutionary. There were no deep-seated political evils to root out. There was no. nobility taking care of the masses, no inferior order hating a nobility ; no proud hierarchy in the church, no grinding mo- nopoly in the state. But there was a social system based on human equality, new in the world, with its value tested by new results. Hence the patriots did not aim to overturn, but to preserve. They asked for the old paths. They claimed for their town its ancient rights - for the colony its ancient liberties. To them freedom did not appear as the instigator of license, but as the protector of social order and as the guar- dian genius of commercial enterprise and of moral progress.
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COLONIAL POLITICS.
To their praise be it said, that they counted ease and luxury and competence as nothing, so long as were denied to them the rights enjoyed by their ancestors.
The labors of the Boston divines deserve a grateful remerh- brance. Some of them, distinguished by their learning and eloquence, were no less distinguished by their hcarty oppo- sition to the designs of the British administration. This opposition had been quickened into intense life by the attempts made from time to time to create a hierarchy in the colonies. The Episcopal form of worship was always disagreeable to the Congregationalists ; but it was the power that endeavored to impose it on which their eyes were most steadily fixed. If Parliament could create dioceses and appoint bishops, it could introduce tithes and crush heresy. The ministry entertained the design of sending over a bishop to the colonies; and con- troversy, for years, ran high on this subject. So resolute, however, was the opposition to this project, that it was aban- doncd. This controversy, John Adams' says, contributed as much as any other cause to arouse attention to the claims of Parliament. The provisions of the Quebec act were quoted with great effect; and what had been done for Canada might be done for the other colonies. Hence, few of the Congrega- tional clergy took sides with the government, while many were zealous Whigs ; and thus the pulpit was often brought in aid of the town-meeting and the press. Of the Boston divines, none had been more ardent and decided than Jonathan May- hew, one of the ablest theologians of his day ; but he died in 1766. Dr. Charles Chauncy, Dr. Samuel Cooper, Dr. Andrew Eliot, Dr. Ebenezer Pemberton, Reverends John Lathrop, John Bacon, Simeon Howard, Samuel Stillman, were of those who took the popular side. They were the familiar associates and the confidential advisers of the leading patriots; but by virtue of their office, they were not less familiar or less con- fidential with wide circles of every calling in life, who were playing actively and well an important part, and without whose hearty cooperation the labors of even leading patriots
1 Letter, December 2, 1815. The spirit of the time is well represented in a plate in the Political Register of 1769.
-
.
Lord now lellest thou
thy Servant depart in P
Tal in New England
ing Works
No Lords Spiritual or Tempo-
Inberty & Pre-
atom of Conscience
Sydney on
Locke
66
Shall they be obliged to maintain Bishops
that cannot maintain themselves
W.W. Wilson Je.
. In Attempt to land a Bishop in America.
Engraved for Frothinghan:s History.
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BOSTON MECHANICS.
would have been of little avail. At a time when the pristine reverence for the ministers had hardly declined into respect, who shall undervalue the influence such men threw into the scale, in giving intensity to zeal and firmness to resolution, and thus strengthening the tone of public opinion? They gave the sanction of religion - the highest sanction that can fill the human breast - to the cause of freedom, the holiest cause that can prompt human effort. They nurtured the idea in the people that God was on their side; and that power, however great, would be arrayed in vain against them. No wonder that, in the day of Lexington, there were men who went to the field of slaughter with the same solemn sense of duty with which they entered the house of worship.1
No description of Boston will be just, that does not make honored mention of Boston mechanics. It was freedom of labor that lay at the bottom of a century's controversy, and none saw it more clearly, or felt it more deeply ; for it was the exercise of this freedom, - the industry, skill, and success of the American mechanics, - that occasioned the acts of the British Parliament, framed to crush the infant colonial manu- factures. The Boston mechanics, as a general thing, were the early and steady supporters of the patriot cause. No temptation could allure them, no threats could terrify them, no Tory argument could reach them. In vain did the loyalists endeavor to tamper with them. "They certainly carry all before them," a letter says. As the troops thickened in Bos- ton, some living in town, and some from the country, without much thought, accepted the chance to work on barracks for their accommodation. It did not, however, last long. "This morning," Newell writes, September 26, 1774, "all the car- penters of the town and country that were employed in build- ing barracks for the soldiery left off work at the barracks."
1 A Tory letter, dated Boston, September 2, 1774, says : Some of the min- isters are continually in their sermons stirring up the people to resistance ; an instance of which lately happened in this neighborhood, where the minis- ter, to get his hearers to sign some inflammatory papers, advanced that the · signing of them was a material circumstance to their salvation ; on which they flew to the pen with an eagerness that sufficiently testified their belief in their pastor.
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COLONIAL POLITICS.
British gold could not buy Boston labor. "New England holds out wonderfully," a letter in September says, "notwith- standing hundreds are already ruined, and thousands half starved." Loyalists from abroad were astonished at such obstinacy. Gage was disappointed and perplexed by this refusal. It was one of the disappointments that met him at every turn. "I was premature," he writes Lord Dartmouth, October 3, 1774, "in telling your lordship that the Boston artificers would work for us. This refusal has thrown us into difficulties." He sent to New York for workmen. The Boston mechanics, through their committee, sent a letter expressing their confidence "that the tradesmen of New York would treat the application as it deserved." The governor at length was successful in getting mechanics from New York and other places, to work for him. The patriotic mechanics of Boston were doomed to a long season of trial and suffering. ·
The patriots carried on their political action by public meet- ings, by committees, by social clubs, and through the press.
The right of public meeting was always dear to New Eng- land; and the local assemblies of the towns were used with immense efficiency by the patriots of the Revolution. Here dangerous political measures were presented to the minds of the citizens. Here public opinion was concentrated, sternly set against oppression, and safely directed in organized resist- ance. Great town-meetings were those in Boston, where Samuel Adams was the moderator; where James Otis, John Adams, and Josiah Quincy, jr., were the orators; where lib- erty was the grand inspiration theme; and where those to respond to the burning words were substantial, intelligent men, in earnest about their rights! The government' had long
1 Governor Gage summoned the selectmen to meet at the Province House, August 13, when he abruptly handed them the clause about town-meetings, and read it to them. He was going out of town; and if a meeting was wanted, he would allow one to be called, if he should judge it expedient. The selectmen told him they had no occasion for calling a meeting - they had one alive. The governor looked serious, and said " He must think of that. By thus doing they could keep the meetings alive for ten years." The select- men replied that the provincial law would be the rule of their conduct ; when the governor stated that he was determined to enforce the act of Parliament, and they must be answerable for any bad consequences. - Boston Records :
$
BOSTON MEETINGS.
27
felt their effect, and dreaded their influence. This was the reason why the regulating act prohibited them after the first of August, and why Governor Gage summoned the selectmen to the Province House to tell them that he should enforce the act. The selectmen remarked that they should be governed by the law of the province. Now, the clause framed to strangle free speech was clear enough as to prohibition, but was silent as to adjournment. Hence, the source of the sedi- tious mischief, which the British ministry expected this clause would dry up, continued as prolific as ever. Hence, meetings called before the first of August were kept alive for weeks and months; and they might be kept alive, remarked Gage, for years. The governor and his advisers were puzzled. They dared not order the troops to kill them; and to their infinite annoyance, the patriots continued to thunder in the forum. The people flocked in crowds to Faneuil Hall, a place redolent with the blossoming of young America. When this overflowed, the resort was to the Old South Church, which hence has not inaptly been called the Sanctuary of Freedom. But in case an obnoxious office was to be resigned, or a patriotic agreement was to be entered into, or a public measure was to be lampooned, the concourse flocked to Liberty Tree, where, agreeable to previous notice, the invisible genius of the place had displayed the satirical emblems, or procured table, paper, and pens. It was a fine large old elm, near the Boylston Market. A staff ran through it, reaching above it, on which a flag was displayed, and an inscription was put on it, stating that it was pruned by order of the Sons of Liberty in 1766. All processions saluted it as an emblem of the popular cause. No wonder it put the royal governors in mind of Jack Cade's Oak of Reformation.1
The labors of the town-officers and of the committees, at this time, were arduous and important. The selectmen con- fined their labors chiefly to municipal concerns, though they often met with the committee of correspondence. At a crisis when so much depended on the good order of the town, their
Boston Gazette, August 15. General Gage, September 2, writes of this clause in the act : No persons I have advised with can tell what to do with it. 1 Governor Bernard's letter, June 16, 1773.
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