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 13
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sternation among thousands of the inhabitants. But the Act had passed, to take effect on the first of June; and Thomas Gage, who was appointed Captain General and Governor of Massa- chusetts, was intrusted with its execution.
The situation of the people of Boston, and indeed of the Colony, was peculiarly trying. The concentrated power and energy of a mighty nation, was to be put forth to crush out the warmest aspirations for liberty which had been fondly cherished for years. To submit to the cruel demands of their oppressors, was to abandon all their former hopes, and to falsify their solemn pledges, and by thus degrading themselves, to become slaves. On the other hand, what would resistance avail ? How could a mere handful of unarmed and undisciplined men prevail against the mighty power of England? To a people less firm and con- scientious, such a dilemma would have been awful-dividing their councils, distracting the people, and rendering the whole commu- nity a confused rabble. But the good people of Boston and of Massachusetts were not to be seduced by flattery, nor intimi- dated by a show of power. They had plighted their faith, and their mutual pledges were to be redeemed. They awaited the event with unwavering fortitude, resolved at the same time to ward off the blow as best they might.
Gage being appointed to the command, the Earl of Dart- mouth, in his letter of instructions, under date of April 9th, informed him that " the sovereignty of the king in his Parliament over the colonies, required a full and absolute submission," and that "his command over the king's troops," and his employing those troops with effect, "would in all probability secure the execution 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 should 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, 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."
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The Boston Port Bill went into operation on the first 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 Gen. 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 adjournment of this meeting on the 31st, they resolved, " that the impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty of the Boston 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 4th, says, "the acts of Great Britain will produce the entire separation and independence of the colonies," and that "it requires but a small share of the gift of discernment, for any one to foresee that Providence will erect a mighty empire in America." But while this great leader in 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 18th, 1774, he says, "Our business is to find means to evade the malignant design of the Boston Port Bill. Calm- ness, courage, and unanimity prevail in Boston. While they are resolved not tamely to submit, they will, by refraining from acts of violence, avoid the snare that they discover to be laid for them, by posting regiments so near them."
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 substantially nullified their Charter. One was entitled "an Act for better regulating the government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay," and provided that the counsellors, which had been chosen
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annually by the General Court, should be appointed by the king, and be removable at his pleasure ; that the judges, sheriffs, and other civil officers, should be appointed by the Governor; that all jurors which had been chosen by the people, should be selected by the sheriff's ; - thus making the whole judicial department dependent upon the crown, and subservient to his will. The same Act provided 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 provided that any person charged with any capital offence, committed while acting " as a magistrate for the suppres- sion 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 endured 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 bankruptcy and ruin upon men of business, and extreme suffering upon the laboring poor ; but they virtually destroyed the impartial administration of justice, and practically annulled that great prerogative of the citizen - trial by jury. Another grand prerogative of the citi- zens of Massachusetts was grossly trampled in the dust. From the very first, the people of New England had been accustomed to assemble together in their town meetings, and there discuss all measures which related to their temporal and spiritual in- terests. Such meetings 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 Gen. 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 appoint-
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ments ; the courts convened under this new authority, and the sheriff's summoned their jurors. But the people in the meantime were not idle. The town committees, the organization of which was, as we have already seen, devised by Samuel Adams, con- stituted a sort of government to which the people looked for advice and protection. A meeting of delegates from the town committees of the counties of Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex and Worcester, met at Faneuil Hall and deliberated upon the state of the Province. They pronounced the new measures of Parlia- ment "a complete system of tyranny," robbing the people of the most essential rights of British subjects, and resolved that all officers accepting appointments 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 meantime 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.
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 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 unconstitu- tional, and that no officers appointed under them ought to be obeyed, and conclude 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
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patriotic ground taken by the freemen of Middlesex - such the ennobling sentiments 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 holding the first convention, and taking the lead in making a perfect organization against the arbitrary power and oppressive 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 to disperse the meeting, but on their arrival the people had dispatched their business and adjourned. Failing in his attempts to prevent such meetings, and hearing that the people were taking public measures to perfeet themselves in military discipline, the Gov- ernor resolved to deprive them of all means of defence, and sent out a detachment and seized all the powder in the public maga- zine at Charlestown. But fortunately for the cause, the towns had withdrawn their respective stock, and consequently none was left but what belonged to the Province - which was only a small quantity. About this time General Gage commenced for- tifying Boston Neck, as the isthmus connecting Boston with the main land was generally called. This added greatly to the excitement which already existed. It was regarded as a warlike demonstration, and showed the people 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 peaccable measures to prevent the execution of the laws. Nor were they wanting in devices of this kind. The odious laws having been passed for the express purpose of depriving them of their just rights, they felt authorized to defeat them by any lawful means. They
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were his Majesty's loyal subjects, and were ready to do anything to promote the interest of the empire and honor of the crown ; but they must be treated as English subjects. They had too much respect for the English Constitution, and the great prin- ciples of English liberty, to sce them trampled upon by a heartless ministry, or their lawless subordinates. When they obstructed the operation of the courts, or the performance of duties by certain 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 annoyed General . Gage, that he made them the special subjects of remark in his communications with the ministry. In a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, August 27th, 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." And under date of September 2d, he says, " With regard to the clause in the new law relative to town meetings, . so many elusions are discovered under various pretensions of adjournments, electing to vacant offices, people assembling peaceably upon their own affairs without notification ; and withal no penalty ; that no person I have advised with, can tell what to do with it. At a distance they go on as usual. Civil government is near its end. Nothing can be done but by forci- ble means." Under date of September 20th, he writes, "The country people are exercising in arms, and getting magazines of arms and ammunition in the country, and such artillery as they can procure, good and bad. They talk of fixing a plan of gov- ernment of their own; and it is somewhat surprising that so many of the other Provinces interest themselves so much in behalf of this."
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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 conformity to any of the late Acts of Parliament." In the meantime there had been several important county conventions, which denounced the Acts of Parliament as severe, oppressive, and unconstitu- tional, 'designed to strip us of our inalienable rights and dearest privileges,' and pointed out various 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 incorrigible enemies to this Colony," and they recommend that all collectors of taxes withhold the money from the royal treasurer, and hold it subject to the direction of the proposed Provincial Congress, which they recommend being called. The Essex resolutions pronounced all officers and pri- vate persons 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 resort of states." The Plymouth resolutions declare, "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 representatives, 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 emergency that may arise.
Such is a specimen of the resolutions of the several counties.
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They all recommend a Provincial Congress, and some recommend that the members chosen to meet at Salem, resolve themselves into such a Congress. They also recommended military prepa- ration ; 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 delib- erate 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 procla- mation on the 28th of September, adjourning without day the General Court, which he had summoned to meet at Salem, October the 5th. 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 extra- ordinary 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 hundred 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 them- selves 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 counties 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
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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," 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 foreign ministry. To guard against an evil which they deemed greater than death itself, they adopted a plan of organizing, 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 immediately assemble, and elect their proper officers ; that these officers, 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 companies of at least fifty men, cach 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 gen- eral officers and designated their rank. To meet the expenses which might arise from the employment of the militia, 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, Col. Lee, Mr. Greenleaf and Col. 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. War- ren, Dr. Church, Mr. Devens, Capt. White, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Quincy, Mr. Watson and Col. 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 Congress subse- quently selected Jedediah Preble, (who declined the appointment,) Artemas Ward, Seth Pomeroy, John Thomas, William Heath,
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as General officers to command the troops in case they were called out.
After adopting this general plan, and selecting the appropriate officers to carry it into effect, the Provincial Congress prepared and published an Address " to the freeholders and other inhabit- ants 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 empire, but of all Europe, are upon you. Let us therefore be altogether solicitous that no disorderly behavior, nothing unbecoming our characters as Amer- icans, as citizens, and as Christians, be justly chargeable to us." They also prepared an Address to the clergy, in which they recommend " to the ministers 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 resolu- tions of the Continental Congress, as the most peaceable and probable methods of preventing confusion and bloodshed." Before closing their labors, the Provincial Congress made choice of John Hancock, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, to represent this Province in ยท the next Continental Congress.
While these things were occurring in Massachusetts, the Con- tinental 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 Provincial Congress of Massa- chusetts. They also recommended an agreement, and entered into a covenant, not to import or consume 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 another to the people of Canada. But while this Congress were truly firm and independent, and were resolved
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to support the rights of the Colonies ; and while they approved of the manly and noble stand taken by the people of Massachu- setts, 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 peaccable 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 discountenancing every violation of his Majesty's property, or any insult to his troops ; and that they peaceably and firmly per- severe in the line they are now conducting, on the defensive." Such were the measures adopted - and such the policy recom- mended by the patriots who composed the Continental 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 preference to the General Congress at Phil- adelphia. It must be obvious to your Lordships, that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, must be vain - must be futile."
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