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 8
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During the period under review in this chapter, active meas- ures were adopted to improve the roads for the accommodation of the public travel, and to provide better means for the educa- tion of the rising generation.
We may smile at the follies of the past, and think our fathers inhuman and illiterate, but we should remember the spirit of the age ; and, when we compare them with the mass of the people at that time on the Eastern continent, we shall find them in advance of the age in which they lived ; and I fear that if they were compared with the present generation, and all things taken into the account, we should find no great cause for self- exaltation. If we should point to our public charities, as evidence of our moral advance, I fear they might safely con- front us with their patient industry, their prudent economy, and strict integrity. If we should charge them with being too strict in the observance of religious rites, they might with equal justice charge us with being too lax; if they believed too much, we believe too little ; if they were too rigid, we are too pliant ; if they were inclined to ascribe ordinary events to the immediate hand of God, many at the present day are inclined to ascribe all events to the laws of brute matter, and thereby exclude God from the universe. If they had their ghosts and hobgoblins, we have our spiritual rappings ; and if they had those among them who held intercourse with familiar spirits who would lie and deceive, we have mediums who hold communication with spirits
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in the "lower circles," who play "tricks upon travellers," and sport with the credulity of the people.
Our faults and infirmities may assume different forms from those of our forefathers, but for downright folly and extrava- gance, for the neglect of privileges and opportunities, I fear that in the eye of Infinite Wisdom we shall appear nearly on a level with them. They were imperfect, and we lack perfection. Appetites and passions, lusts for wealth and dominion, exist in every age. Our fathers were not free from them; but if they thirsted for broad acres, and seemed desirous of adding farm to farm, that the surface of the earth might be theirs, we, not content to float upon the surface, desire to dive into the bowels of the earth, that all its hidden treasures may be ours. They were not our equals in reckless speculation.
But comparisons being generally odious and unprofitable, true wisdom requires us to improve the present, rather than censure the past ; and if we have arisen above the follies of our fathers, it is because they, as pioneers, prepared the way for us, and so enabled us to stand on vantage ground.
CHAPTER III.
CIVIL HISTORY FROM 1763 TO 1775.
The Natural Expectations of the Colonists - The Stamp Act - Instructions to the Representative - Declaration of Rights, and Resolutions - Endorse- ment of the Doings of Boston - Committee of Correspondence chosen -- The Stamp Act repealed - The Importation of Tea - Resolutions in Oppo- sition to the Importation and Use of the Tea - Measures of Preparation for the Last Appeal - A Pledge that they would support their Resolutions with their Fortunes and their Lives -The Certainty of a Conflict.
THE bloody contest with the French and Indians was over. Canada was conquered ; and the domain of North America was secured to Protestant England. The stern Puritans, who had served so heroically, and we may add prayerfully, in the cause, and who had given success to the arms of Great Britain, were filled with rejoicing. They had proved their devotion to the crown, and had contributed largely to the extension of His Majesty's possessions in North America ; and, by so doing, had secured to themselves the great blessing of enjoying undisturbed the freedom of Congregational worship. They also flattered them- selves, that the king they had served, the country whose interest they had promoted, and the ministry whose administration they had contributed to make illustrious, would gratefully remember the services rendered, and treat their faithful colonists, not only with justice, but with generosity. They expected, and had a right to expect, that, as they had shared with the mother country the dangers and the burdens of these protracted struggles, they should at least be left in peace, to recover from their exhaustion by their own industry and frugality.
In this general expectation the good people of Lexington participated. They had experienced the dangers, encountered the hardships, and felt the exhaustion of the war ; and they needed repose. Lexington according to her population had
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furnished a large number of men. Her citizens who had ren- dered distinguished service to their king and country, had returned to their homes and families, to engage in their industrial pursuits, to render their families more comfortable, and to retrieve their ruined fortunes ; and by their manly exertion and strict frugality, to bear their share of the taxes incident to the war, and at the same time contribute to the maintenance of civil and religious institutions in their native town. Industry revived in the place, and the people were exerting themselves to improve their highways, and increase the facilities for the education of their children, and thus promote the prosperity of the town. But these dreams of peace and prosperity were disturbed by inti- mations that the ministry they had served with so much fidelity, and in whose cause they had cheerfully made such sacrifices, instead of requiting these favors with kindness, were meditating a system of unjust exaction and servitude, greater than anything to which the colonists had ever before been subjected.
In fact, while the colonists were freely pouring out their blood and treasure in support of the crown, and His Majesty's posses- sions in America, the ministry were meditating a plan by which the colonists should not only support their own government, but contribute to the maintenance of that power which had oppressed them. This was to be done by enlarging the prerogatives of the home government at the expense of the colonial charters. These contemplated encroachments were looked upon by the people of Massachusetts with peculiar jealousy, and by none more than by the people of Lexington. They had served the king with fidelity, and they claimed justice at his hands. Their proximity to the town of Boston, against which British tyranny seemed, from the first, to be mainly directed, made them alive to everything which tended to impair the prosperity of their prin- cipal market. Besides there were causes operating within the town itself, which served to keep up a high tone of patriotic feeling. The men who had fought as faithful English subjects in defence of English institutions, and also to acquire a larger domain for the crown, felt that they were entitled to the rights of English subjects. They had paid too dearly for their homes and firesides, to be willing to have them invaded by the nation they had served. The military experience they had had, and the
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knowledge of arms they had acquired, gave them confidence in their own strength, so that they were not to be intimidated by any threat of enforcing oppressive laws at the point of the bayonet.
There was another general cause in operation in the colonies to make the people jealous of their rights, and awake to the spirit of liberty. The clergy in those days exercised a controlling influence in their respective parishes. In most of the country towns the minister was the only educated man in the place, and consequently was consulted on all great questions, more fre- quently than any other individual. And as the great theme of that day was that of religious freedom, the clergy were almost uniformly found on the side of liberty. They knew that reli- gious and civil rights were so nearly allied, that they must stand or fall together. They had taught the necessity of resisting oppression, during the French war. The voice of the clergy at that period was on the side of defending our rights at every hazard. " An injured and oppressed people, whose destruction and overthrow is aimed at by unreasonable men, ought, surely, to stand upon their defence, and not tamely submit to their incursions and violence."1 Such was the feeling of that day. It pervaded the whole community in a greater or less degree. But in no town was this doctrine inculcated with more force or fidelity than in Lexington. Their clergyman, the Rev. Jonas Clarke, was a man of decided ability, who was capable of comprehend- ing the whole subject in all its bearings, of showing the intimate connection between civil and religious liberty, and of enforcing the high and important duty of fidelity to God, by maintaining the liberties of the people. He not only sympathized with his brethren generally on these subjects, and acted in harmony with them in inculcating the duty of patriotism ; but in everything pertaining to human rights, and the sacred obligation to maintain them, he was one who took the lead. Understanding the whole subject perfectly, and having a controlling influence in his own parish, he had brought the people up to a high state of enlight- ened patriotism. No man better understood the civil rights of the colonists than the Rev. Mr. Clarke, and no man was more
1 Fast Sermon of Mr. Maccarty, of Worcester, 1759.
12
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successful in infusing his feelings into the great body of the people around him. Under these circumstances, it would be strange if the people of Lexington were not fully alive to the encroachments of the mother country, and ready at all times to maintain their own rights.
In March, 1765, the first of a series of measures for taxing the colonies passed the British Parliament, and soon after received the sanction of the crown. This roused the just indig- nation of the American people.
On the 21st of October, 1765, a town meeting was held in Lexington, to see what Instructions the town would give in rela- tion to the Stamp Act. The subject was referred to the select- men, consisting of James Stone, Thaddeus Bowman, Robert Harrington, Benjamin Brown, and Samuel Stone, Jr., for their consideration, who being duly prepared, submitted at once a draft of Instructions. It is but justice to the memory of Mr. Clarke to say that this paper, as well as several other able papers recorded in our town book, were from his pen. The committee who reported them, though undoubtedly sensible and patriotic men, laid no claim to that finished scholarship which character- izes this and the other papers to which reference is made. There is internal evidence of their authorship, and it has ever been conceded that they were written by Mr. Clarke ; and as further evidence of the fact, I have now before me the original draft of one of these papers in Mr. Clarke's own handwriting. The instructions are so fraught with wisdom, so patriotic in their doctrines, and reflect so fully the sentiments of the people of the town who adopted them unanimously, that I will give them in full.
" To William Reed, Esq. the present Representative of Lexington : -
" SIR, - We have looked upon men as beings naturally free. And it is a truth which the history of ages, and the common experience of man- kind have fully confirmed, that a people can never be divested of these invaluable rights and liberties, which are necessary to the happiness of individuals, to the well-being of communities, or to a well regulated state ; but by their own negligence, imprudence, timidity or rashness. They are seldom lost, but when foolishly forfeited or tamely resigned.
" And therefore, when we consider the invaluable rights and liberties we now possess, the firmness and resolution of our fathers, for the support and preservation of them for us, and how much we owe to ourselves and to posterity, we cannot but look upon it as an unpardonable neglect, any
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longer to delay expressing how deeply we are concerned in some measures adopted by the late ministry, and how much we fear from some acts lately passed in the British Parliament, which appear to us not only distressing to the trade and commerce of this Province, but subversive of several of our most invaluable, internal rights, as well as privileges ; and from which we apprehend the most fatal consequences.
" What of all most alarms us, is an Act commonly called the Stamp Act ; the full execution of which we apprehend would divest us of our most inestimable charter rights and privileges, rob us of our character as free and natural subjects, and of almost everything we ought, as a people, to hold dear.
" Admitting there was no dispute, as to the right of Parliament to impose such an Act upon us, yet we cannot forebear complaining of it in itself considered, as unequal and unjust, and a yoke too heavy for us to bear. And that not only as it falls heaviest upon the poor, the widow and the fatherless, and the orphan ; not only as it will embarrass the trade and business of this infant country, and so prevent remittances to England ; but more especially as the duties and penalties imposed by it, are numer- ous, and so high that it will quickly drain the country of the little cash remaining in it, strip multitudes of their property, and reduce them to poverty ; and in a short time render it utterly impossible for the people to subsist under it; and what will be the consequences of this to our friends in Great Britain, as well as to ourselves, is easily seen.1
" But we humbly conceive this Act to be directly repugnant to those rights and privileges granted us in our Charter, which we always hold sacred, as confirmed to us by the Royal word and seal, and as frequently recognized by our Sovereign and the Parliament of Great Britain, wherein it is expressly granted to us and to our children, that we shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects, within any of his Majesty's Dominions, to all intents, constructions, and purposes, as if we were every one of us born in his Majesty's realm of England. And further that the full power and authority to impose and levy proportionable and reasonable taxes, upon the estates and persons of all the inhabitants within the Province, for the support and defence of his Majesty's Govern- ment, are granted to the General Court or Assembly thereof.
" But by this Act a tax, yea a heavy tax, is imposed, not only without and beside the authority of said General Court, in which this power, which has never been forfeited nor given up, is said to be fully and exclusively lodged, but also in direct opposition to an essential right or privilege of free and natural subjects of Great Britain, who look upon it as their darling and constitutional right never to be taxed but by their own consent, in person or by their Representatives.
1 By this Act, a ream of bail bonds, stamped, cost £100; a ream of common printed ones before had been sold for £15. A ream of stamped policies of insurance cost £190; a ream of common ones without stamps, £20. Other papers were taxed in the same proportion.
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" It is vain to pretend (as has been pretended) that we are virtually or in any just sense, represented in Parliament ; when it is well known that so far from this, our humble Petitions and decent Remonstrances, prepared and sent home by the Representative body of this people, were not admitted a hearing in Parliament, even at the time when those measures and acts from which we apprehend so much, were depending in the Hon. House of Commons ; - a hardship which greatly adds to the grievance, and seems to intimate, that we have but too little to hope in consequence of the most humble and dutiful steps.
" However, this is not all. By this Aet we are most deeply affected, as hereby we are debarred of being tried by juries in case of any breach, or supposed breach of it - a right which until now, we have held in common with our brethren in England- a right which under Providence has been the great barrier of justice, the support of liberty and property in Great Britain and America - a right which is the glory of the British Government.
"The Great Charter of England, commonly called Magna Charta, happily provided for all free and natural subjects of the realm of England, that no amercement shall be assessed but by the oath of honest and lawful men of the vicinage, and that no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseized of his freehold or liberties, or free customs, nor passed upon, nor condemned, but by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land; but instead of this most important right, such is the extension of power given by this Act to Courts of Admiralty, that all offences against it may be heard and tried and determined in said courts, to the entire sub- version of this important right, confirmed to us by the Great Charter and our own.
"This we apprehend will open a door to numberless evils which time only can discover ; at least it will oftentimes oblige us to risk our fortunes, our liberties and characters, upon the judgment of one, and perhaps a stranger, or perhaps that which is worse. This will subject us entirely to the mercy of avaricious informers, who may at pleasure summon us from one part of the Province to the other upon suspicion of the least offence, and thus bring upon innocent persons a sort of necessity of pleading guilty by paying the penalty, to avoid a greater expense. And this being the state of things, what will then be necessary but a weak or wicked person for a judge; and from natural and free-born subjects, we shall quickly become the most abjeet slaves - wholly cut off from our last resource - hope of redress !
" These, sir, being the real sentiments of us, the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town, of this Act, as in its nature and effects considered, you cannot be surprised to find us greatly alarmed and deeply affected. And therefore, at the same time that we are firmly resolved in all possible ways to express our filial duty and loyalty to our Sovereign, and a due veneration for both Houses of Parliament ; we do also as concerned for ourselves, our posterity and country, entreat and enjoin it upon you, that so far from encouraging, aiding or assenting in the execution of this Act,
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you do rather endeavor as far as consistent with allegiance and duty to our rightful Sovereign, to promote such measures as on the contrary, may tend to preserve us in the enjoyment of the invaluable rights and liberties we at present possess, at least till we hear the result of the measures already taken for general redress.
" In the meantime, we earnestly recommend to you, the most calm, decent and dispassionate measures, for our open, explicit and resolute assertion and vindication of our charter rights and liberties ; and that the same be so entered upon record, that the world may see, and future gene- rations know, that the present both knew and valued the rights they enjoyed ; and did not tamely resign them for chains and slavery. We shall only add, that the best economy of the public money is at all times necessary, and never more so than at present, when public debts are heavy, and the people's burdens great and likely to increase.
" We take it for granted, therefore, that you will carefully avoid all unaccustomed and unconstitutional grants, which will not only add to the present burden, but make such precedents as will be attended with conse- quences which may prove greatly to the disadvantage of the public."
Instructions such as these, read in open town meeting, and discussed and adopted by a unanimous vote of the inhabitants, would do much towards creating a just appreciation of their rights as subjects, and of the duties they owed, not only to their Sovereign, but to themselves. A people thus instructed, and trained in the school of stern religious principles, would be found ready for almost any emergency. Consequently when the town of Boston, to manifest their opposition to the oppressive acts of the ministry, resolved that they would not import or use certain articles on which these duties were laid, the inhabitants of Lex- ington at a meeting held Dec. 28, 1767, " Voted unanimously, to concur with the town of Boston, respecting importing and using foreign commodities, as mentioned in their votes, passed at their meeting on the 28th day of October, 1767."
Nothing of moment occurred in the municipal affairs of the town during the period under review. Roads were repaired, schools were supported, the poor were provided for, and the paramount subject, the maintenance of public worship, received its due share of attention. But the subject which pressed upon them most heavily during this period, was the oppression of the mother country. Not however, that the measures of the British ministry did bear directly and immediately upon them with any distressing hardship at that time. But our patriotic forefathers
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viewed all such subjects on a broad and disinterested scale ; they looked at the principle involved in the measures ; and they knew full well that a trifling tax upon stamped paper or upon tea, would serve as an entering wedge to a system of taxation which must reduce the colonies to a state of absolute dependence, if not complete vassalage ; and patriotism prompted, nay, religion required, that they should oppose the first attempt to trample upon their rights. These feelings were general among the people, and nowhere were they entertained with more ardor than in the parish over which Mr. Clarke presided ; and consequently the people here let no opportunity pass unimproved, which bore upon the great subject of human rights.
On the 21st day of September, 1768, the inhabitants of Lex- · ington assembled in town meeting legally warned, " To take into their serious consideration the distressed state of the Province at the present day, and to pass any vote relative thereto." After due consideration, they made choice of Isaac Bowman, Esq., William Reed, Esq., and Dea. James Stone, "to prepare rea- sons for our present conduct ; " who subsequently reported the following Declarations and Resolves.
" Whereas it is the first principle in civil society, founded in nature and reason, that no law of the society can be binding on any individual without his consent, given by himself in person, or by his Representative of his own free election ; and whereas in and by an Act of the British Parliament, passed in the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary of glorious and blessed memory, entitled an Act declaring the rights and lib- erties of the subjects, and settling the succession of the crown, - the Pre- amble of which Act is in these words, viz.
" ' Whereas the late King James the Second, by the assistance of diverse evil Councillors, Judges, and Ministers employed by him, did endeavor to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion, and the laws and liber- ties of the kingdom : It is expressly among other things, declared, that the levying of money for the use of the crown by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parliament for a longer time, or in other manner than the same is granted, is illegal.'
" And whereas in the third year of the same King William and Queen Mary, their Majesties were graciously pleased by their Royal Charter, to give and grant to the inhabitants of this his Majesty's Province, all the territory therein described, to be holden in free and common soccage, and also to ordain and grant to the said inhabitants certain rights, liberties, and privileges therein expressly mentioned, among which it is granted, estab- lished, and ordained, that all and every, the subjects of them, their heirs,
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and successors which shall go to inhabit within said Province and territory, and every of their children which shall happen to be born there, and on the seas in going thither or returning from thenee, shall have and enjoy all the liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects, within any of the Dominions of them, their heirs and successors, to all intents, purposes, and constructions, whatever, as if they and every of them were born within the realm of England.
" And whereas by the aforesaid Act of Parliament, made in the first year of the said King William and Queen Mary, all and singular, the premises contained therein, are elaimed, demanded, and insisted on as the undoubted rights and liberties born within the realm: And whereas the freeholders and other inhabitants of this town in said Charter mentioned, do hold all the rights and liberties therein contained, to be sacred and inviolable; at the same time publicly and solemnly acknowledging their firm and unshaken allegiance to their alone rightful Sovereign King George the Third, the lawful successor of the said King William and Queen Mary to the British throne :
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