USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lexington > History of the town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1868, Volume I > Part 12
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2 One more "died next morning" and another "lingered until the 14th." Ed. Six. Ed.
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but decided to retain the rest in the town. Faneuil Hall being insufficient to contain the multitude which had assembled, the meeting was adjourned to the Old South Church. The com- mittee which had waited upon Hutchinson, came in with its report of the interview, and pronounced the answer of the Governor unsatisfactory.
The town, after due deliberation,1 raised a new committee, composed of Adams, Hancock, Warren, and other prominent citizens, to bear to the Governor their final message. "It is the unanimous opinion of the meeting," said Adams to the Governor, "that the reply to the vote of the inhabitants in the morning is by no means satisfactory; nothing less will satisfy them than a total and immediate removal of the troops." Hutchinson hesitated, repeating his former state- ment, that he had no power to remove them. "If you have power," rejoined Adams, "to remove one regiment, you have power to remove both. It is at your peril, if you refuse. The meeting is composed of three thousand people. They are be- come impatient. A thousand men are already arrived from the neighborhood, and the whole country is in motion. Night is approaching. An immediate answer is expected. Both regi- ments or none." 2 Hutchinson hesitated, trembled, and finally quailed before the master spirit of this patriot band, and consented to withdraw the troops 3 from the town and quarter them at the Castle. On the return of the committee with the intelligence, the meeting dispersed; but not until they had provided a strong military watch of their own, to be on duty till the regiments should leave the town whose peace and safety they had disturbed.
The Governor was mortified and chagrined at finding him- self foiled in his plan, and his military force checked and con-
1 By a vote of "4000 plus only one dissentient." E. Chase, Beginnings of the American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 236. Ed.
2 W. V. Wells, Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, Vol. I, p. 323. The fol- lowing variant appears in the Life and Works of John Adams, Vol. x, p. 352. Ed.
"If the Lieutenant-Governor or Colonel Dalrymple, or both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority to remove two, and nothing short of the total evacuation of the town by all the regular troops will satisfy the public mind or preserve the peace of the Province. A multitude, highly incensed, now await the result of this application. The voice of ten thousand free men demands that both regiments be forthwith removed. Their voice must be respected, their demand obeyed. Fail, then, at your peril to comply with this requisition: on you alone rests the responsibility of this decision; and if the just expectations of the people are disappointed, you must be answerable to God and your country for the fatal consequences that must ensue. The Committee have discharged their duty, and it is for you to discharge yours. They wait upon your final determination."
3 The Fourteenth and Twenty-ninth were thereafter known in Parliament as "Sam Adams's regiments." Ed.
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trolled by the civil authority. The Government at home, sharing in this mortification, strove to raise the military above the civil power by placing the proscribed town of Boston under martial law. The Governor, in consequence of this step, resigned the Castle to the military commander at Bos- ton. This new act of arbitrary power on the part of the King and Council tended to hasten the rupture which the wisest statesmen had long seen to be merely a question of time.
Up to the commencement of 1772, Boston had acted with- out any special concert with other towns in the Province. Resolutions had been adopted, and the leading patriots in Boston had counselled with kindred spirits in other towns; but there had been no organized channel of communication. But as the weight of British vengeance seemed to be concen- trating upon Boston alone, many of her patriotic citizens were filled with apprehension, bordering upon despair. John Adams had retired from the service of the people; Hancock faltered; Cushing, Phillips, Church, and others, who had been active before, hesitated or declined active service in the pa- triot cause. But there was one man among them who knew not despondency; one who was reared up for the crisis, and who, like all truly great men, was sure to rise with the occa- sion. Samuel Adams stood firm at his post. He saw in pros- pect the independence 1 of the Colonies, and, knowing that great events could be brought about only by active and well concerted means, he conceived the plan of opening a corre- spondence with all the towns in the Province; and by an organized system of town and county committees to form a sort of government by which the energies of the Colony might be directed, and so be prepared for any exigency which might arise. And though his plan at first was but feebly seconded in Boston, and some who had been active before refused to act on the committee, in a short time there came a response from the country 2 which infused new life into the people, confirm- ing the wavering and gaining new advocates for the cause of popular rights.
When the Legislature assembled in January, 1773, these responses from the towns were laid before them. The popular
1 "In the summer of 1768 Sam. Adams had concluded the only proper course was independence when the time was ripe." J. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, pp. 54-57. Ed.
2 Eighty towns organized committees of correspondence. J. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 79. Ed.
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voice thus expressed, the firmness manifested, and the deter- mination evinced by the people themselves in their primary meetings, strengthened the hands of the Assembly, and rekin- dled in their breasts those fires of patriotism which were never more to expire. Encouraged by the almost unanimous voice of the whole Province, and strengthened by the noble and pa- triotic response from Virginia, the leading patriots of Massa- chusetts saw that the issue was fairly made, that a rupture between the Colonies and Great Britain was inevitable, and that nothing but union and firmness were necessary to insure independence. Their future measures, therefore, must look to this result.
While these things were occurring, the feelings of the people of Massachusetts were further exasperated by the pub- lication of sundry letters written by Governor Hutchinson to the Ministry in England, urging the adoption of the most arbitrary and oppressive measures against the Colony. It appeared that the Governor had been guilty of the greatest hypocrisy and treachery, urging Great Britain to oppress the people over which he was ruling, while to them he was making the most solemn protestations of friendship and assuring them that he was doing everything in his power to lessen their burdens and secure their rights.
The East India Company, anticipating a profitable market in America, had purchased a large amount of tea, and to pre- vent a heavy loss they prevailed upon the Council to allow them to ship it to America free of duty in England. Three cargoes were destined to Boston. In the mean time, the Com- mittee of Correspondence had succeeded in enlisting the sym- pathy of most of the towns in the Province; and had obtained the assurance from the other Colonies that they would resist this new imposition and would not suffer the tea to be landed. The amount of duty was small, but, as the payment of it would recognize the right of Parliament to tax them, they could not, consistently with their oft-repeated declarations, submit.1
Besides, the leading statesmen were fully sensible that an open rupture must inevitably take place at no very distant day; and they did not intend that any act of concession should be cited against them when the eventful period should arrive. They chose rather to meet the oppressor at the
1 Compare J. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. 1, pp. 82-85. Ed.
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threshold and to admonish him of the danger of his measures before it was too late. It was for Massachusetts in this case, as in all others, to take the lead. The people knew that the · tea ships were on their passage, and that the Governor him- self, in the name of his sons, was among the consignees. A large assembly convened at the "Liberty Tree," where the consignees had been requested to meet the people. Adams, Hancock, and other distinguished patriots were present, but the consignees failed to appear.
A committee was chosen to wait upon them at their ware- houses, and to request them not to land the tea, but to return it to England in the same vessels in which it had been shipped. The consignees without hesitation refused to hearken to their request. A town meeting was called, and a similar request made in the name of the town. In the mean time one of the ships arrived in the harbor, the owner of which promised the Committee of Correspondence that the entry of the ship should be delayed for several days. The citizens of Boston held a meeting the next morning, which was the largest ever known in the town. Adams, Hancock, Warren, and other prominent men were present, and took part in the proceed- ings. It was voted unanimously that the tea should not be landed, but should be sent back without the payment of the duty. The owners of this ship and others which were soon expected finally agreed that they would not enter the tea, but would return it, agreeably to the request of the citizens. Meantime the people of Boston were receiving assurances of cooperation from all parts of the Province. Cambridge, Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, and many other towns in the immediate vicinity acted with them through their committees. Towns more remote assured them of their aid. "We trust in God," wrote the people of Lexington, "that should the state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause." Such was the pledge given; and nobly was it redeemed.
The other two ships had arrived, and the twenty days had nearly elapsed within which they must enter at the custom- house or obtain a clearance. The Governor had stationed an armed ship in the channel below, and had caused the guns at the Castle to be loaded, to prevent the departure of the ships without his permission, - which he had resolved not to
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grant. On the 16th of December, 1773, the people of Boston, with at least two thousand men from the country, assembled at the Old South Church, and resolved that the tea should not be landed. The meeting continued in session till after dark, when the final report came that the Governor had resolved that the vessels should not pass the Castle till the tea had been discharged. Whereupon Samuel Adams rose in great dignity and said, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." In a moment a shout was heard at the door; the war-whoop resounded; a party of forty or fifty men, dis- guised as Indians, passed by the door; and encouraged by the presence of Adams, Hancock, and others at the meeting, repaired to the wharf, where the ships were lying, and, having posted sentinels to keep off intruders, took possession of the vessels, and in about three hours the whole quantity on board, some three hundred and fifty chests of tea, was emptied into the dock, without any injury being done to the rest of the cargo.1
The course pursued by Massachusetts from the first had rendered her the special object of British displeasure; the destruction of the tea at Boston filled up the measure of her iniquity in the estimation of the King and Parliament; and this Province was marked as the victim on which to pour out the vials of their wrath. And well did she merit this pre- eminence. She was the first to assert the rights of the Colo- nies, and the boldest in proclaiming them to the world. She was the most steadfast in her determination to resist British encroachments, and the most active in her efforts to unite the Colonies in the great cause of human freedom.
That Massachusetts stood first in what they denominated rebellious Provinces, the records of Parliament abundantly show. On the 7th of March, 1774, the Earl of Dartmouth laid before the House of Lords a great variety of papers in relation to the conduct of the American Colonies with reference to the duty on tea. These papers were referred to a committee con- sisting of about fifty members, who at once selected Massa- chusetts as the head and front of the offending, not only with reference to the destruction of the tea, but also in relation to the whole subject of taxation and the power of Parliament. In an elaborate report submitted to the House of Lords by the
1 Paul Revere rode post-haste to Philadelphia to carry the news. J. Fiske, The American Revolution, Vol. I, p. 90. Ed.
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Earl of Buckinghamshire, April 20, 1774, the Committee say "that they have attentively read and considered the several papers relative to the proceedings of the Colony of Massachu- setts Bay, in opposition to the sovereignty of his Majesty in his Parliament of Great Britain, and have carefully inspected the journals of the House from the 1st of January, 1764, to the present time." They then proceed to give a detailed account of the doings of this Colony for the period of ten years - showing that Massachusetts had, during that period, not only denied the right of Parliament to tax the Colonies, but had uniformly thrown every obstacle in the way of collecting a revenue in America - overawing the officers of the Crown and compelling them to resign; refusing to quarter troops sent over to enforce the laws, and even denying the right of send- ing troops into the Province in times of peace without their consent; asserting for themselves an exemption from the laws of Parliament, and also claiming for themselves the right to legislate in all cases whatsoever. And while they had in this manner denied the power of Parliament and resisted the exe- cution of the laws, they had taken active measures to draw the other Colonies into the same rebellious policy; and that the destruction of the tea in the harbor of Boston was the crowning act of their insubordination and hostility to the British Government.
Lord North, in introducing the Boston Port Bill, gives Massachusetts the preëminence in disloyalty by saying, "Boston had ever been the ringleader in all riots, and had at all times shown a desire of seeing the laws of Great Britain attempted in vain in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. That the act of the mob in destroying the tea, and the other pro- ceedings, belonged to the acts of the public meeting; and that though the other Colonies were peaceable and well inclined towards the trade of this country, and the tea would have been landed at New York without opposition; yet when the news came from Boston that the tea was destroyed, Governor Tryon thought it would be prudent to send the tea back to England. Boston alone was to blame for having set the example; therefore Boston ought to be the principal object of our attention for punishment."
Thus, Massachusetts justly claims the merit, if merit it be, in being first and foremost in pleading the cause of freedom in opposition to the demands of despotic power, and in adopting
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measures which led to the independence of these States. The fact that she was singled out by the British Government as the object of what they denominated parental chastisement shows that she was regarded as the most forward of the Col- onies of Great Britain in resisting their acts. From this time forth Massachusetts was made to feel the special vengeance of an oppressive administration.
"TONGUE OF THE OLD CHURCH BELL Which, on the morning of April 19th, 1775. sounded the Alarm summoning the Citizens of Lexington to rally and resist the approach of the British.
CHAPTER V
GOVERNOR GAGE'S ADMINISTRATION
Passage of the Boston Port Bill - Gage appointed Governor - His Instructions from Dartmouth - Gage arrives in Boston - The Bill goes into Operation - Bells tolled, and a Day of Fasting and Prayer appointed - Boston holds a Town Meeting - Two Other Bills passed by Parliament transferring Appoint- ments to the Crown, and changing fundamentally our Charter - Four Counties meet in Convention - Resolutions adopted - Officers appointed by the Crown compelled to resign, and Jurors refuse to be sworn - Middlesex Convention's Address - Gage forbids the Holding of Public Meetings - Seizes Public Powder at Charlestown and fortifies Boston Neck - Gage calls a General Court - Call revoked - A Provincial Congress organized at Salem, and adjourned to Con- cord - The Provincial Congress recommend an Organization of the Militia, appoint General Officers, and Committees of Supplies and Safety - Delegates to the Continental Congress - Provincial Congress appoint a day of Fasting and Prayer - Worcester and Concord selected as Depots for Military Stores.
THE steady and undeviating opposition of the Province of Massachusetts to the oppressive acts of the Ministry and Parliament, and the wisdom by which all their measures had been made abortive, naturally rendered that corrupt court impatient to crush the Colony at a blow. They only waited for a convenient opportunity. In the estimation of the Min- istry the destruction of the tea filled up the measure of colonial iniquity; and the mighty power of a mighty nation was to be concentrated upon the town of Boston. Lord North brought forward his bill for closing the port. It was hurried through both houses of Parliament, and received the royal assent on the 31st of March, 1774. This Act, which has generally been denominated the "Boston Port Bill," fell particularly hard upon the people of Boston and Charlestown. As it was the great mart of commerce in New England, and a large share of the people depended in one form or another upon the trade of the place, for employment, closing the port, and so anni- hilating all commerce, spread consternation among thousands of the inhabitants. But the Act had passed, to take effect on the 1st of June; and Thomas Gage, who was appointed Captain-General and Governor of Massachusetts, was en- trusted with its execution.
The Earl of Dartmouth, in his letter of instructions to
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Gage, under date of April 9, informed him that "the sover- eignty of the King in his Parliament over the Colonies, re- quired a full and absolute submission," and that "his com- mand over the King's troops," and his employing those troops with effect "would in all probability secure the execu- tion of the law, and sustain His Majesty's dignity." Gage landed in Boston on the 17th of May, and was received by the people and the Legislature with all the attention and with every demonstration due to his station. He undoubtedly flattered himself that he would be able in a short time to bring the people to submission; for two days after his arrival he wrote to Lord Dartmouth "that the Port Bill has staggered the most presumptuous." Still he thought it prudent to call for additional troops,1 which were forwarded in the course of the summer and early autumn, so that he wrote that he was able "to form a force of nearly three thousand men, exclusive of the regiment to defend the Castle."
The Boston Port Bill went into operation on the 1st of June, without any opposition on the part of the people. Still, the tolling of bells, fasting and prayer, and the exhibition of emblems of mourning proclaimed a deep religious feeling more dangerous to the peace of the Governor and the success of his measures than any display of military force could have been. Amid this state of gloom the people were not inactive. On the 13th of May, the very day on which General Gage arrived in the harbor, the people of Boston met at Faneuil Hall, chose Samuel Adams moderator, and adopted a vote inviting all the other Colonies "to come into a joint resolution to stop all importations from Great Britain till the Act for blocking up the harbor of Boston be repealed." At an ad- journment of this meeting, on the 31st, they resolved, "that the impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty of the Bos- ton Port Bill, exceed our powers of expression; we therefore leave it to the just censures of others, and appeal to God and the world."
Samuel Adams, writing to Arthur Lee, then in London, under date of April 4, says, the acts of Great Britain will pro- duce the "entire separation and independence of the Colonies," and that "it requires but a small portion of the gift of dis- cernment for any one to foresee that Providence will erect a mighty empire in America." But while this great leader in
1 Fourth and Forty-third Regiments. Ed.
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the Province saw that a collision was inevitable, and that the result must be glorious to the Colonies, with that prudence characteristic of the truly great, he recommended wise moderation. In a letter to Lee, May 18, 1774, he says, "Our business is to find means to evade the malignant design of the Boston Port Bill. Calmness, courage, and unanimity prevail. While they are resolved not tamely to submit, they will, by refraining from any acts of violence, avoid the snare that they discover to be laid for them, by posting regiments so near them." 1
But it was not the Boston Port Bill alone that General Gage was to carry into effect. The British Parliament had passed two other acts, quite as objectionable as the Port Bill - acts which robbed the people of many of their rights and substan- tially nullified their Charter. One was entitled "An Act for better regulating the government of the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay," and provided that the counsellors, who had been chosen annually by the General Court, should be ap- pointed by the King, and be removable at his pleasure; that the judges, sheriffs, and other civil officers should be ap- pointed by the Governor; that all jurors, who had been chosen by the people, should be selected by the sheriffs; - thus making the whole judicial department dependent upon the Crown and subservient to his will. The same act pro- vided that no town meetings, except the annual meetings for the choice of town officers in March or May, should be holden without the consent of the Governor. The other act pro- vided that any person charged with any capital offence, com- mitted while acting "as a magistrate for the suppression of riots, or in the support of the laws of revenue, or acting in his duty as an officer of revenue," might, at the pleasure of the Governor, be removed to any other Colony, or to Great Britain for trial.
These acts formed a system of oppression hardly to be en- dured by a people born to the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. Up to this period the question had been mainly one of taxation; but now almost every right was impaired and every privilege taken away. The great principles of the English Constitution and the American Charters were wantonly violated. These acts not only shut up the harbor of Boston and thereby destroyed the trade of the town, bringing
1 W. V. Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, Vol. II, pp. 149-50, 168. Ed.
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bankruptcy and ruin upon men of business and extreme suf- fering upon the laboring poor, but they virtually destroyed the impartial administration of justice and practically an- nulled that great prerogative of the citizen - trial by jury. Another grand prerogative of the citizens of Massachusetts was grossly trampled in the dust. From the very first, the people of New England had been accustomed to assemble in their town meetings and there discuss all measures which related to their temporal and spiritual interests. Such meet- ings were by implication granted in their first Charter, and were clearly established by usage and enjoyed by the whole people; and when the despotic Andros attempted to abridge this right, the people resisted the encroachment as an attack upon one of their dearest privileges.
The last-named acts were received by General Gage on the 6th of August, 1774, and he lost no time in attempting to carry them into effect. Most of his counsellors accepted their appointments; the courts convened under this new authority, and the sheriff's summoned their jurors. But the people in the mean time were not idle. The town committees, the organ- ization of which was, as we have already seen, devised by Samuel Adams, constituted a sort of government to which the people looked for advice and protection. A meeting of dele- gates from the town committees of the counties of Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Worcester met at Faneuil Hall and de- liberated upon the state of the Province. They pronounced the new measures of Parliament "a complete system of tyr- anny," robbing the people of the most essential rights of British subjects, and resolved that all officers accepting ap- pointments under these oppressive acts ought to be regarded as traitors to the Colony; that a Provincial Congress ought to be held, and that the action of the courts in the mean time ought to be suspended. Such suggestions were readily adopted by the people. The judges in attempting to hold a court in Berkshire County were driven from the bench, and jurors selected by the sheriff in the County of Suffolk refused to be sworn. The counsellors who had been appointed by the King were compelled to resign or seek safety in Boston.
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