USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lexington > History of the town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1868, Volume I > Part 13
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On the 30th of August, a convention was held at Concord, consisting of delegates from every town and district of Mid- dlesex County, to deliberate upon the state of the Province. Being aware of the critical condition of affairs, they say in
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their Address, "The question now is, whether by a submission to some of the late Acts of Parliament, we are contented to be the most abject slaves, and entail that slavery upon posterity after us; or by a manly, joint, and virtuous opposition, assert and support our freedom. Life and death, or what is more, freedom or slavery, are, in a peculiar sense, now before us; and the choice and success, under God, depend greatly upon ourselves." They resolved that the late Acts of Parliament are unconstitutional, and that no officers appointed under them ought to be obeyed, and concluded by saying, "No danger shall affright, no difficulties shall intimidate us; and if in support of our rights, we are called upon to encounter death, we are yet undaunted, sensible that he can never die too soon, who lays down his life in support of the laws and liberties of his country." Such was the patriotic ground taken by the freemen of Middlesex - such the ennobling senti- ments they would instill into the bosom of every American. Nor was this an empty boast. Their conduct at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill showed that they were true to their professions. To Middlesex County belongs the honor of hold- ing the first convention, and taking the lead in making a perfect organization against the arbitrary power and oppres- sive policy of the British Ministry. With a promptness worthy of all praise every town and district responded to the call.
General Gage kept a watchful eye upon these proceedings; and, regarding these public meetings as among the most dan- gerous means of rallying the people in opposition to his authority, was determined to suppress them. Notices were issued for a meeting in Salem to choose delegates to a county convention. General Gage issued a proclamation forbidding the people "at their utmost peril from attending any meeting not warranted by law." He also sent a detachment of troops 1 to disperse the meeting, but on their arrival the people had dispatched their business and adjourned. Failing in his at- tempts to prevent such meetings, and hearing that the people were taking public measures to perfect themselves in military discipline, the Governor resolved to deprive them of all means of defence, and sent out a detachment to seize all the powder in the public magazine at Charlestown. Fortunately for the cause, the towns had withdrawn their respective stocks, and
1 August 23, 1774. Twenty-third Royal Welsh Fusiliers had landed. Ed.
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consequently none was left but a small quantity belonging to the Province. About this time General Gage commenced fortifying Boston Neck, as the isthmus connecting Boston with the mainland was generally called. This added greatly to the excitement which already existed. It was regarded as a warlike demonstration, and gave evidence of a determination on the part of the Governor to enforce the odious laws at the point of the bayonet.
Yet the people had no disposition to provoke a contest with the King's troops. They chose rather to take peaceable measures to prevent the execution of the laws. Nor were they wanting in devices of this kind. When they obstructed the operation of the courts, or the performance of duties by cer- tain newly appointed officers, it was only on the ground that these officers were appointed in contravention of their Charter and the English Constitution. If they organized military companies, it was only to perfect themselves in the art of war, that they might be better qualified to defend themselves against the King's enemies, and so be enabled to maintain their rights as Englishmen. These measures so an- noyed General Gage that he made them the special subjects of remark in his communications with the Ministry. In a let- ter to the Earl of Dartmouth, August 27, 1774, he says, "It is agreed that popular fury was never greater in this Province than at present; it has taken its rise from the old source at Boston, though it has appeared first at a distance. These demagogues trust their safety in the long forbearance of the 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 has become habitual."
On the 1st of September, 1774, Governor Gage issued writs convening the General Court at Salem on the 5th of October. In many cases the towns, in choosing their representatives, had instructed them to use all peaceable means to oppose the late Acts of Parliament. The people of Lexington instructed their representative to "use his utmost influence that nothing be transacted as a court under the new council, or in con- formity to any of the late Acts of Parliament." In the mean time there had been several important county conventions, which denounced the Acts of Parliament as severe, oppres- sive, and unconstitutional, "designed to strip us of our in-
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alienable rights and dearest privileges," and pointed out vari- ous modes of redress. The Suffolk resolutions declared, "That no obedience is due from this Province to either or any part of these Acts"; that officers who accept appointments under them should be considered "as obstinate and incorri- gible enemies to this Colony"; and they recommend that all collectors of taxes withhold the money from the royal treas- urer, and hold it subject to the direction of the proposed Provincial Congress, which they recommend being called. The Essex resolutions pronounced all officers and private per- sons who attempt to carry out the Acts which violate the Charter of the Province "unnatural and malignant enemies"; declared that town meetings "ought to be called agreeably to the laws of the Province"; and that, "if the despotism and violence of our enemies should finally reduce us to the sad necessity, we, undaunted, are ready to appeal to the last re- sort of states." The Plymouth resolutions declared, "That it is a duty every man and body of men owes to posterity, as well as to God and our country, to oppose with all our power the execution of these unjust and oppressive Acts"; and they recommended to the inhabitants of the Province "never to submit to them in any instance whatever." The Worcester resolutions recommended to the towns to instruct their repre- sentatives, chosen to meet at Salem, "absolutely to refuse to be sworn," except by some officer "appointed according to the Charter of the Province." They also recommended to the several towns to appoint military officers, and to provide themselves with arms and ammunition, against any emer- gency that may arise.
Such is a specimen of the resolutions of the several counties. They all recommended a Provincial Congress, and some recommended that the members chosen to meet at Salem resolve themselves into such a Congress. They also recom- mended military preparation; and while they discouraged and denounced any attack upon the King's troops, they more than intimated that they would resist by force of arms rather than be converted into slaves. They also declared in favor of holding town meetings to deliberate upon the affairs of the Province, and recommended that no money be paid into the treasury of the Province organized under the late Acts of Parliament. The conventions and their doings coming to the knowledge of Governor Gage, he issued a proclamation on
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the 28th of September, adjourning without day the General Court which he had summoned to meet at Salem, October 5. The reasons assigned for this unusual and arbitrary course were that many tumults and disorders had taken place since he called the meeting, and that "the extraordinary resolves which had been passed in many counties and the instructions given by the town of Boston and some other towns to their representatives" rendered it "highly inexpedient that a Great and General Court should be convened" at that time.
But as the proclamation was issued only a few days before the time of meeting, many of the members had already left home and were on their way to Salem before they heard of the high-handed measure of the Governor. In obedience to the summons and a preconcerted arrangement, nearly one hun- dred members met at Salem on the 5th of October; and after waiting one day to see if the Governor or any public officer would appear to administer the oath of office, on the 6th they resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, and chose John Hancock, chairman, and Benjamin Lincoln, clerk. After this temporary organization, they voted to adjourn to the 11th inst., to meet at the court-house at Concord, that being the time and place designated by several of the coun- ties for holding a Provincial Congress, before the meeting of the General Court at Salem had been ordered by the Governor.
After a session of three days at Concord, the Congress adjourned to Cambridge, where their sittings were continued from the 17th of October to the 10th of December. During this session they adopted a system of measures to put the Province in a state of preparation and defence. Though they deprecated hostilities with Great Britain, and had not "the most distant design of attacking, annoying, or molesting His Majesty's troops," 1 they were not insensible to the fact that these troops were brought into the Province to reduce the people to a state of subjection to unjust and arbitrary laws which would render them the mere vassals of a corrupt for- eign Ministry. To guard against an evil which they deemed greater than death itself, they adopted a plan of organizing,
1 The attitude of the troops and their officers towards the Provincials is well shown in the Memoirs and Letters of Captain W. Glanville Evelyn, of the Fourth Regiment ("King's Own") from North America, 1774-1776. Printed for private circulation, by James Parker & Co., Oxford, 1879. Ed.
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arming, and calling out the militia in case of emergency. This plan provided, among other things, that all able-bodied men should be enrolled, and that these companies should immedi- ately assemble and elect their proper officers; that these offi- cers, when elected, should assemble as soon as may be and elect field officers; that the field officers should enlist at least one quarter of the men enrolled, and form them into com- panies of at least fifty men, each man to be armed and equipped and held in readiness to march on the shortest notice. These were what were denominated "minute-men." In addition to the platoon and field officers, they provided for general officers and designated their rank. To meet the expenses which might arise from the employment of the mili- tia, and to procure such arms and military stores as might be necessary, they chose a committee of supplies, consisting of David Cheever, of Charlestown, Mr. Gill, Colonel Lee, Mr. Greenleaf, and Colonel Lincoln; and to carry out this part of the plan more effectually they elected Henry Gardner, Esq., of Stow, as Treasurer and Receiver-General, and directed that all taxes that had been granted and all moneys in the hands of collectors should be paid over to this new treasurer, instead of being paid into the royal treasury. They also created what they denominated a "Committee of Safety," consisting of John Hancock, Dr. Warren, Dr. Church, Mr. Devens, Captain White, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Norton of Quincy, who declined, Mr. Watson, and Colonel Orne, and clothed them with large discretionary powers; and among them the power of calling out the militia in such numbers and at such times and places as they might deem expedient. The Con- gress subsequently selected Jedediah Preble (who declined the appointment), Artemas Ward, Seth Pomeroy, John Thomas, William Heath as general officers to command the troops in case they were called out.
After adopting this general plan and selecting the appropri- ate officers to carry it into effect, the Provincial Congress pre- pared and published an Address "to the freeholders and other inhabitants of the towns and districts of Massachusetts Bay," in which they say, "You are placed by Providence in the post of honor, because it is the post of danger; and while struggling for the noblest of objects, the liberties of your country, the happiness of posterity, and the rights of human nature, the eyes, not only of North America and the whole British Em-
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pire, but of all Europe are upon you. Let us therefore be alto- gether solicitous that no disorderly behavior, nothing unbe- coming our characters as Americans, as citizens, and as Christ- ians, be justly chargeable to us." They also prepared an Ad- dress to the clergy, in which they recommend "to the minis- ters of the Gospel in the several towns, and other places in this Colony, that they assist us in avoiding that dreadful slavery, with which we are now threatened, by advising the people of their several congregations, as they wish their prosperity, to abide by, and strictly adhere to, the resolutions of the Conti- nental Congress, as the most peaceable and probable methods of preventing confusion and bloodshed." Before closing their labors, the Provincial Congress made choice of John Han- cock, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine to represent this Province in the next Continental Congress.
While these things were occurring in Massachusetts, the Continental Congress was holding a session in Philadelphia. This patriotic body was composed of delegates from twelve Provinces; Massachusetts being represented at that time by Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine. They approved the measures and endorsed the doctrines put forth by the county conventions and the Provin- cial Congress of Massachusetts. They also recommended an agreement and entered into a covenant not to import or con- sume British merchandise or manufactures. They likewise adopted a Petition to the King, an Address to the people of Great Britain and to the inhabitants of the Colonies, and an- other to the people of Canada. But while this Congress were truly firm and independent, and were resolved to support the rights of the Colonies, and while they approved of the manly and noble stand taken by the people of Massachusetts, they knew the strong temptation they were under to commit some overt act of war against the King's troops; and hence they recommended to the people of Massachusetts "to submit to a suspension of the administration of justice, where it could not be procured in a legal and peaceable manner under the rules of their present Charter and the laws of the Colony." They also recommended to the people of Boston "to conduct themselves peaceably towards Governor Gage, and His Majesty's troops stationed there, as far as can possibly be consistent with their immediate safety, and the security of the town; avoiding and
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discountenancing every violation of His Majesty's property, or any insult to his troops; and that they peaceably and firmly persevere in the line they are now conducting, on the defen- sive." Such were the measures adopted - and such the pol- icy recommended by the patriots who composed the Con- tinental Congress :- a body of men concerning whom Lord Chatham said in the British Parliament, "I must declare and avow, that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men, can stand in prefer- ence to the General Congress at Philadelphia. It must be obvious to your Lordships, that all attempts to impose servi- tude upon such men must be vain - must be futile."
While these decided measures were being adopted by the people in the Colony, and while every county and almost every town in Massachusetts was, in its humble way, resounding with notes of preparation, the Tories and the British officials were ridiculing the idea of attempting to withstand His Majesty's troops. A British officer, writing from Boston, November 3, 1774, says, "The Resolutions of Congress are only thrown out as a bugbear to intimidate the merchants of Boston, and frighten the Ministry into a repeal of the late Acts. The faction in Boston is now very low. Believe me, all ranks of the people are heartily tired of disorder and confu- sion; as soon as the determination of Great Britain to dispose of their resolves and petitions is known, all will be very quiet." Another British officer, writing from Boston, November 22, to a friend in London, says, "As to what you hear of their taking arms to resist the force of England, it is mere bullying, and will go no further than words; whenever it comes to blows, he that can run the fastest, will think himself best off. Believe me, any two regiments here ought to be decimated, if they did not beat in the field the whole force of Massachu- setts Province; for though they are numerous, they are but a mere mob, without order or discipline, and are very awk- ward at handling their arms." Writing home to Scotland from Boston, December 26, an officer in the King's service declares, "Our army is in high spirits, and at present this town is pretty quiet. I make no doubt things will wear a new face here, especially when your sentiments of the Ministry's firmness are authenticated." While letters from Boston were representing the Americans as cowards, Colonel Grant de-
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clared in the House of Commons, February 2, 1775, "that he had served in America, and knew the Americans well; was certain they would not fight. They would never dare to face an English army, and did not possess any of the qualifications necessary to make a good soldier."
Though certain officers in the British army at Boston at- tempted to call in question the courage of the Americans, and to ridicule the idea of their resorting to arms, General Gage viewed the proceedings of the Provincial Congress with some degree of apprehension; especially their recommendation for the organization of the militia. Consequently on the 10th of November, 1774, he issued a proclamation in which he de- nounced these measures as having "a most dangerous tend- ency to ensnare His Majesty's subjects, the inhabitants of this Province, and draw them into perjuries, riots, seditions, treason, and rebellion"; and he exhorts and commands, in His Majesty's name, "all his liege subjects" not to comply " in any degree with the resolves, recommendations, direc- tions, and regulations" of the Provincial Congress, "as they regard His Majesty's highest displeasure, and would avoid the pains and penalties of the law."
The Governor, however, felt himself strengthened and sup- ported by the fact that at the meeting of Parliament, Novem- ber 29, the King, in his Speech from the Throne, assured them of "his firm and steadfast resolution to withstand every at- tempt to weaken or impair the supreme authority of Parlia- ment over the Colonies"; and that the Lords and Commons had, by a large majority, sustained the Crown. The Governor was also instructed by Lord Dartmouth, under dates of De- cember 10, 1774, and January 4, 1775, to carry out His Maj- esty's pleasure, and to use his utmost endeavors to prevent the appointment of delegates to the Continental Congress, to be holden in May, 1775. The Governor, in response to these instructions, assures his lordship that the firm stand taken by the King and Parliament "has cast a damp upon the faction," and he begins to hope that "they will fall on some means to pay for the tea" they had destroyed.
But while Gage was flattering himself with the hope that the action of Parliament would awe the Colonies into sub- mission, the fires of patriotism were burning brighter and brighter in the bosoms of all true Americans. The several towns and districts in the Province had elected their dele-
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gates to the second Provincial Congress, and on the 1st day of February, 1775, they assembled at Cambridge, and organized for the dispatch of business. On the 9th, they elected Hon. John Hancock, Dr. Joseph Warren, Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr., Mr. Richard Devens, Captain Benjamin White, Colonel Joseph Palmer, Mr. Abraham Watson, Colonel Azor Orne, Mr. John Pigeon, Colonel William Heath, and Mr. Jabez Fisher a Committee of Safety, to continue in power till the further order of this or some other Congress or House of Representatives of the Province. They also "empowered and directed" them, when they should think it expedient "to alarm, muster, and cause to be assembled with the utmost expedition, and completely armed and accoutred, and sup- plied with provisions sufficient for their support in their march to the place of rendezvous, such and so many of the militia of this Province as they shall judge necessary for the end and purpose of opposing" the execution of the late Acts of Parliament, designed to annul the Charter and enslave the people of the Province. And they earnestly recommended to all officers and soldiers of the militia to obey the calls of this committee, "and to pay the strictest obedience thereto, as they regard the liberties and lives of themselves and the people of the Province."
At the same time they had appointed, as before stated, general officers to command the troops called out by the Com- mittee of Safety. They also published a patriotic and spirited Address to the Inhabitants of Massachusetts, which com- mences and closes as follows: -
"Friends and Fellow Sufferers; -
" When a people, entitled to that freedom which your ancestors have nobly preserved as the richest inheritance of their children, are invaded by the hand of oppression, and trampled on by the merciless feet of tyranny, resistance is so far from being criminal, that it becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. Your conduct hitherto, under the severest trials, has been worthy of you as men and Christians, and notwithstanding the pains that have been taken by your enemies, to inculcate the doctrine of non- resistance and passive obedience, and by every art to delude and terrify you, the whole continent of America has this day come to rejoice in your firmness. We trust you will still continue steadfast, and having regard to the dignity of your characters as freemen, and those generous sentiments resulting from your natural and political connections, you will never submit your necks to the galling yoke of
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despotism prepared for you; but with a proper sense of your de- pendence on God, nobly defend those rights which Heaven gave, and no man ought to take from you."
Having dispatched its business, and appointed Thursday, the 16th day of March, as a day of fasting and prayer to the Sovereign Ruler of nations, the Provincial Congress ad- journed on the 16th of February, to meet at Concord on the 22d of March.
The Committee of Safety and the Committee of Supplies held meetings almost daily between the sessions of the Con- gress, and adopted the most active and efficient measures to put the Colony in a state of defence. That there might be more harmony and efficiency, they generally met together. They directed sub-committees to procure cannon and small- arms, powder and ball, and military stores, such as provi- sions, tents, entrenching tools, and whatever would be required in case troops were called into the field. The journal of their proceedings shows at once their energy and their poverty - their strong devotion to the cause of liberty, and the destitution of the Colony in almost everything necessary to carry on a war, in case they were driven to the necessity of taking up arms in defence of their rights. They selected Worcester and Concord as the depots of such arms and stores as they could obtain. But their journal shows greater prep- aration than was actually made. The cannon and other stores ordered could not in many cases be obtained. But everything in the Colony went to show that a rupture was expected, and that stout hearts and strong hands were relied upon to supply the defects of munitions of war; and that the patriots trusted in the justice of their cause and the overruling providence of God to bring them off conquerors and more than conquerors, should their oppressors take the field against them.
As the object of this chapter has been to state the real question at issue, and to show the various steps by which the collision was brought about, we have brought the account down to the 1st of March, 1775, being about the period when General Gage commenced operations in the field. We have seen that the controversy originated in the question of taxa- tion; Great Britain claiming the right to legislate for the Col- onies "in all cases whatsoever," and consequently to impose such taxes upon them as the King and Parliament might think fit; and the Colonies insisting that by their Charters and
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