USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lexington > History of the town of Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1868, with a genealogical register of Lexington families > Part 12
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without the consent of the Legislature, was an invasion of the natural and chartered rights of the people."
The treacherous Bernard was succeeded by the more treach- crous Hutchinson ; and the affairs of the Colony were not at all improved by the change. The ministry had so far yielded to the colonies as to remove the tax upon tea ; but the concessions came too late. The people plainly saw that paying the duty upon one article, would be surrendering the great principle for which they had contended ; and they boldly declared that they would resist the payment of taxes in any form. On the 18th of October, 1769, the town of Boston published an " Appeal to the World," in which they say, " A legal Meeting in the Town of Boston is an Assembly where a noble freedom of speech is ever expected and maintained ; where men think as they please, and speak as they think. Such an Assembly has ever been the dread, and often, the scourge of Tyrants. Our Rights are invaded by the Revenue Acts ; therefore, till they are all repealed, and the troops recalled, the cause of our just complaints cannot be removed." Still the people of Boston were disposed to abide by all laws constitutionally made ; for while they had no disposition to encounter the troops stationed in their midst, they were careful to have every officer and soldier, who should invade the rights of the citizen, or trample upon the civil authority, brought before the magistrate. In this way, they rendered the troops comparatively harmless, and as burdensome to the crown as they were to the people.
The troops so stationed, became weary of a life of inactivity, and, like soldiers generally in that situation, assumed important airs towards the citizens. Small bodies of them would go through the town at night creating disturbances, and insulting the people who were abroad in the streets. On the evening of the 2d of March, 1770, a number of British soldiers having collected in State street, insulted some of the citizens who were passing, which soon drew together a considerable concourse of people. Preston, a British captain, who was officer of the day, soon appeared with a file of men with fixed bayonets, and their muskets loaded. Preston ordered them to fire upon the citizens, which they did, killing three men, and wounding several others. The excitement was fearful. The bells rang in all the churches.
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The town drums beat. "To arms ! to arms," was the cry. The people were excited almost to madness at the sight of their slaughtered brethren. At eleven the next day, a town meeting was opened at Faneuil Hall with a prayer by Rev. Mr. Cooper. Samuel Adams and fourteen others were chosen a committee to wait upon the Governor, and, in the name of the town, demand the removal of the troops. The Governor after considerable hesitation consented to remove one regiment to the Castle ; 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 their report of the interview, and pronounced the answer of the Gov- ernor unsatisfactory.
The town after due deliberation raised a new committee, com- posed of Adams, Hancock, Warren, and other prominent citi- zens, to bear to the Governor their final message. Samuel Adams, always manly and dignified, would at times rise even above himself, and speak with a majesty and authority which would excite admiration and command obedience. Here was a proper occasion for him to appear as he was, truly great. Hutchinson had exerted himself to the utmost to have Adams sent to England as a traitor to be tried for his life ; and at this important juncture the patriot and the courtier stood face to face. " It is the unanimous opinion of the meeting," said Adams to the Governor, " that your reply to the vote of the inhabitants in the morning is unsatisfactory ; nothing less will satisfy them than a total and immediate removal of all the troops." Hutch- inson hesitated, repeating his former statement, 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 do not. The meeting is composed of three thousand people. They are become very impatient. A thousand men are already arrived from the neighborhood, and the country is in general motion. Night is approaching ; an immediate answer is expected." Hutchinson hesitated, trembled, and finally quailed before the master-spirit of this patriot band, and consented to withdraw the troops from the town, and quarter them at the Castle. On the return of the committee with the
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intelligence, the meeting dispersed ; but not until they had pro- vided 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 himself foiled in his plan, and his military force checked and controlled 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 Boston. 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 without any special concert with other towns in the Province. Resolu- tions 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 concentrating upon Boston alone, many of her patriotic citizens were filled with apprehension, bordering upon despair. And well might they hesitate, if not tremble. They saw their town subjected to martial law, and their trade threatened with destruction ; the King and Parliament, drawing the cords of oppression tighter and tighter around them. And while these accumulating evils seemed to be gathering, as if to burst upon their devoted heads, they saw some of the other colonies faltering and even giving in a partial adherence to the demands of their common oppressor. Boston had become comparatively quiet, and the fires of patri- otism seemed to be dying out. 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 patriot 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 occasion. Samuel Adams stood firm at his post. Seeing the crisis approaching, he was resolved to meet it. He saw in prospect the independence of the colonies, and
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knowing that great events could be brought about only by active and well concerted means, he conceived the plan of opening a correspondence 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, which infused new life into the people, confirming 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 voice thus expressed, the firmness manifested, and the determina- tion evinced by the people themselves in their primary meetings, strengthened the hands of the Assembly, and rekindled in their breasts those fires of patriotism, which were never more to expire. The Governor in his message to the two Houses, with the design of either bringing them to submission, or into a more direct conflict with the parent government, called upon them either to admit or disprove the supremacy of Parliament. The House, by its champion, Samuel Adams, took up the Governor's message, and in an able and artful manner, showed that, from the premises laid down by the Governor in that document, the power of Parliament could not be supreme over the colonies. Encouraged by the almost unanimous voice of the whole Province, and strengthened by the noble and patriotic response from Virginia, the leading patriots of Massachusetts saw that the issue was fairly made, and 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 publication 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. By this development, what had been suspected before, was now more than confirmed.
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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 prevent a heavy loss, they prevailed upon the Council to allow them to ship it to America free of duty in England. The ministry pro- bably thought that this would afford a good opportunity to test the principle, and obtain a concession from the colonists. A large quantity of tea was shipped to America. Three cargoes were destined to Boston. In the meantime, the Committee of Correspondence had succeeded in enlisting the sympathy 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.
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 threshold, and 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 himself 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 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 17
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name of the town. In the meantime one of the ships arrived in the harbor, the owner of which promised the Committee of Cor- respondence, 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 proceedings. 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. Cam- bridge, Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, and many other towns in the immediate vicinity, acted with them through their committees. Towns more remote assured thiem 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 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, disguised 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
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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. The work being accomplished, the party went quietly to their respective homes. John Adams, in a letter written the next day, playfully said, " All things were conducted with great order, decency, and a perfect submission to govern- ment." The destruction of the tea produced a general rejoicing throughout the colonies. The act was hailed with great exulta- tion everywhere, and served to bind the people together more closely than anything which had occurred.
In one of the popular ballads of the day, the destruction of the tea is thus graphically described :
" Quick as thought the ships were boarded, Hatches burst, and chests displayed ; Axes, hammers, help afforded ; What a glorious crash they made !"
The Legislature of Massachusetts took active measures to sustain the dignity and maintain the rights of the Province. Provision had been made in Great Britain for paying the judges of the Supreme Court by the crown. Knowing the tendency and design of this measure were to destroy the independence of the judiciary, and make it subservient to the king, the Legis- lature protested against it, and requested the judges to decline the corrupting donation, and at the same time voted them liberal salaries from the colonial treasury. Four of the judges yielded to the request of the Legislature ; but Oliver, the Chief Justice, refused. Whereupon the House found a bill of impeachment against him, and declared him suspended from office, till the issue could be tried by the Council.
The course pursued by Massachusetts from the first, had rendered her the special object of British displeasure ; and 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 preeminence.
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She was the first to assert the rights of the colonies, 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. Other colonies had taken high and patriotic grounds ; and if some of them had, at some partic- ular juncture, stepped a little in advance of Massachusetts, they were soon seen falling in her rear; and if they did not tempo- rarily forsake her, they thought they had performed their whole duty, when they had resolved to follow where the Puritan Province should lead.
Freedom, with Massachusetts, was not a passion, but a prin- ciple - a deep religious conviction, which was not to be stifled by king or Parliament. Her people regarded civil government as a divine institution ; and their zeal for civil and for religious liberty being kindled at the same altar, they could no more desert the state than the church. With no disposition to invade the pre- rogatives of Great Britain, they were determined to maintain their own rights unimpaired. With such views and principles, resistance to British encroachment would follow as a matter of course. The people felt that they were acting under great responsibility - that they were acting, not for themselves alone, but also for posterity. They knew the insidious arts of des- potism in stealing away one right after another, and they chose to repel the first aggression. Whether the tax were great or small, they regarded the encroachment as equally palpable ; and they esteemed it to be their duty to resist the threepenny tax on tea, rather than entail vassalage upon their children and their children's children. They disdained all freedom which they held at the mercy of foreign masters. Besides, their enlightened statesmanship, as well as their religious faith, taught them that this western continent was a field opened by the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, for the spread of civil and religious freedom, and that at no distant day it must be independent of the old world. Consequently when other colonies of less faith faltered, Massachusetts, animated by the zeal and faith of a pious min- istry, warmed by the patriotism of the eloquent Otis, and guided and sustained by the wisdom and unflinching integrity of the far-seeing and incorruptible Adams, was ever ready to assert the
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rights of the colonies, and to adopt such measures as were best calculated to sustain the sacred cause of 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 consisting of about fifty members, who at once selected Massachusetts 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 Earl of Buck- inghamshire, April 20, 1774, they say, "that they have atten- tively read and considered the several papers relative to the proceedings of the Colony of Massachusetts 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 sending 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 execution 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 Massa- chusetts the preëminence in disloyalty, by saying, " Boston had ever been the ringleader in all riots, and had at all times shown
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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 proceedings, 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 elaims the merit, if merit it be, in being first and foremost in pleading the cause of freedom in opposition to the demands of despotie power, and in adopting 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 colonies of Great Britain in resisting their acts. From this time forth Massachusetts was made to feel the special vengeance of an oppressive administration.
As the British ministry was pleased to give Massachusetts the credit of being first and foremost in her opposition to their measures, so we are willing to accept the honor. What the corrupt ministry of George the Third was pleased to brand with dishonor, Massachusetts regards as patriotism, and glories in, as her most praiseworthy deeds, and is willing to submit the decision of this question to the impartial verdict of the world. That verdict has already, been rendered. And while the proud court of king George has been pronounced cruel and oppressive, the Colony of Massachusetts Bay has been lauded for her patri- otism, and extolled for her firm devotion to the great cause of freedom and equal rights.
CHAPTER V.
GOVERNOR GAGE'S ADMINISTRATION.
Passage of the Boston Port Bill - Gage appointed Governor - His Instruc- tions from Dartmouth - Gage arrives in Boston - The Bill goes into Opera- tion - Bells tolled, and a Day of Fasting and Prayer appointed - Boston holds a Town Meeting - Two Other Bills passed by Parliament transferring Appointments to the Crown, and changing Fundamentally our Charter - Four Counties meet in Convention - Resolutions adopted - Officers ap- pointed 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 Concord - The Provincial Congress recommend an Organization of the Militia, appoint General Officers, and Committees of Supplies, and Safety - Delegates to the Continental Con- gress - Provincial Congress appoint a day of Fasting and Prayer - Wor- cester 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 Parlia- ment, 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 con- venient opportunity. The destruction of the tea filled up the measure of colonial iniquity, in the estimation of the ministry ; 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 annihilating all commerce, spread con-
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