USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Professional and industrial history of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 6
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We must now see how the intelligence of what was passing in New England was received in London. In opening the new Parliament, in which the ministry was stronger even than it had been in the old, the king said: "It gives me mich concern that I am obliged to inform you that a most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience to the law
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still unhappily prevails in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, and has in divers parts of it broke forth in fresh violences of a very criminal nature. These proceedings have been countenanced and encouraged in other of my colonies, and unwarrantable attempts have been made to obstruct the commerce of this kingdom by unlawful combinations." Lord North had assured the last Parliament that " by punishing Boston all America would be struck with a panic." " The very contrary, " now said Mr. Burke, "is the case. The cause of Boston is become the cause of all America. By these acts of oppression you have made Boston the Lord Mayor of America." The ministry, however, and the king, whose blind behest they obeyed with all subservieney, had learned nothing and could be taught nothing by experience : and, unhappily, both ministry and king might rely implicitly on the support of a House of Commons, whose seats had become an article of brokerage and merchandise. Our present narrative has to do only with those puni- tive and repressive measures which bore directly upon the trade and commerce of the colonies, and under which Massachusetts and Boston suffered the more severely, because their commercial interests were so extensive and so important. All the measures adopted at this time, as Josiah Quincy was assured in London by ex-Governor Pownall, "were planned and pushed forward" by his two successors in the governor- ship of Massachusetts, Francis Bernard and Thomas Hutchinson.
The Restraining Bill, which was enacted in the spring of 1:25, and which undertook to deal with the commerce of all New England, was "calculated in no slight degree to heap fresh fuel on the flames already burning in America." "This measure," said Mr. Burke, "is in effect the Boston Port Bill, but upon an infinitely larger scale." And he said further: "Evil principles are prolific : the Boston Port Bill begot this New England bill; this New England bill will beget a Virginia bill: again, a Carolina bill; and that will beget a Pennsylvania bill, till, one by one, Parliament will ruin all its colonies, and root up all their com- merce, and the statute book become nothing but a black and bloody roll of proscription, a frightful code of rigor and tyranny, a monstrous digest of acts of penalty, incapacity and general attainder ; so that, open it where you will, you will find a title for destroying some trade or ruining some province." The bill in question forbade trade from New England ports, except to the British Islands and the British West India Islands. An amendment providing that the colonies might carry coastwise, and from one port to another, "fuel, corn, meal, flour, or
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other victual," was rejected by a large majority. The bill also pro- hibited the resort of the fishing vessels of New England to the Banks of Newfoundland. "The prejudice," says Botta, in his " History of the Revolution," " that must have resulted from this act to the inhabitants of New England may be calculated from the single fact that they an- nually employed in this business about forty-six thousand tons and six thousand seamen ; and the produce realized from it in foreign markets amounted to three hundred and twenty thousand pounds sterling." "The trade arising from the cod-fishery alone at that period, " says Sabine, "furnished the northern colonies with nearly half of their re- mittances to the mother country, in payment for articles of British manufacture, and was thus the very life-blood of their commerce." From some of the questions asked when the bill was in committee, it would seem that the ministry indulged the hope that many of the fishermen would abandon their homes in Massachusetts and emigrate to the more loyal province of Nova Scotia, rather than remain idle and suffer, perhaps, for the necessaries of life, under the pressure of this restrictive legislation. But no one who really knew these liberty-loving men could have entertained such a thought for a moment.
Let us look for a moment at what Boston was at the period of tran- sition from what we may call moral suasion to physical force. It had a population of about seventeen thousand, homogeneous, industrious, in- telligent and self-respecting people. The natural features of the local- ity had been changed but slightly during the century and a half which had passed since it was visited for the first time by the Plymouth settlers. " The original peninsula, with its one broad avenue by land to connect it with the beautiful country by which it was surrounded, had suffi- ciently accommodated its population without much alteration of the land, or without much encroachment on the sea." Hutchinson said of the province of Massachusetts Bay at this time: " In no independent state in the world could the people have been more happy." Boston, more than any other town, represented this prosperity. " It was not only the metropolis of Massachusetts and the pride of New England, but it was the commercial emporium of the colonies."
Under the provisions of the Port Bill and the Restraining Bill, everything was changed. Not only the foreign trade, but all the coastwise traffic of the port, including the movements of the humblest craft, was arrested. " Did a lighter attempt to land hay from the islands, or a boat to bring in sand from the neighboring hills, or a scow
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to freight to it lumber or iron, or a float to land sheep, or a farmer to carry marketing over in the ferry-boats, the argus-eyed fleet was ready to see it, and prompt to capture or destroy. Not a raft or a keel was allowed to approach the town with merchandise. Many of the stores, especially all those on Long Wharf, were closed. In a word, Boston had entered on its season of suffering. Did its inhabitants expostulate on the severity with which the law was carried out, the insulting reply was that to distress them was the very object of the bill." The story of humiliation and distress, as we read it, recalls the lamentation of the prophet : "How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary ! "
During the month of September, 1364, Boston Neck was fortified by Governor Gage, and from this time forward the inhabitants, so far as they were able, began to leave the town. After " the battle of the minute-men," at Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1115, this migration was increased; for the town was cut off from all inter- course with the country, and was deprived of its usual supplies, by land as well as by water, of provisions, fuel and other necessaries. A similar exodus went forward from Charlestown, which was included in the scope of the Port Bill, and of whose population only two hundred, out of between two and three thousand, remained when the battle of Bunker Hill was fought. Before' this battle, both parties were skir- mishing to secure the stock on the islands in the harbor. On the 12th of June martial law was proclaimed, and on the 17th came the battle, after which Boston was a beleaguered town. During the following month opportunity to leave it was given to those who desired to do so, as the searcity of provisions, present and prospective, made the in- habitants a burden to General Gage, but no plate could be carried away, or money in excess of five pounds to each person. In September a snow arrived from Cork " laden with claret, pork and butter, " and, at or about this time, a British sympathizer wrote in the best of spirits as follows: " Such is the abundance of fuel and provision for man and beast daily arriving here, that instead of being a starved, deserted town, Boston will be this winter the emporium of America for plenty and pleasure." "Our works," said Lieutenant Carter, on the 19th of October, "are daily increasing; we are now erecting redoubts on the eminences on Boston Common, and a meeting-house | the Old South ] where sedition has been often preached, is clearing out, to be made a
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riding-house for the light dragoons." But the sanguine predictions of the autumn were not fulfilled. The investment of the town by the Revolutionary army was so close and complete that scarcity and famine began to stare both soldiers and citizens in the face. This is the state of things reported on the 14th of December: " The distress of the troops and inhabitants in Boston is great beyond all possible de- scription. Neither vegetables, flour, nor pulse for the inhabitants: and the king's stores so very short, none can be spared from them; no fuel, and the winter set in remarkably severe. The troops and inhab- itants absolutely and literally starving for want of provisions and fire. Even salt provision is fifteen pence sterling per pound." The supply of fuel being exhausted, orders were issued authorizing working par- ties to take down the Old North meeting-house, and about one hun- dred old wooden houses. One of these houses was the Old South parsonage opposite School street, the venerable building in which Governor Winthrop spent the last four or five years of his life, in which the Rev. John Norton, the Rev. Samuel Willard, the Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton, the Rev. Joseph Sewall, and the Rev. Thomas Prinee had lived successively, and in which Mr. Prince wrote his " Annals." It had been leased a short time previously to Benjamin Pierpont for business purposes, the tide of trade in its course southward having reached that point. The building next to it on the north, on the corner of Spring Lane, was occupied as a wholesale and retail store by Gilbert Deblois.
"The pursuits of commerce and of the mechanic arts, the freedom of the press, of speech and of public meetings, the courts, the churches and the schools, were all interrupted." Small-pox added to the horrors; and all who were in sympathy with the patriot cause longed to leave the town, "and to breathe, though in poverty and exile, the free air of the neighboring hills." General Howe, who had succeeded General Gage in the command, was only too glad to promote their departure, and, during the first part of the winter, hundreds were permitted to go in boats to Point Shirley, whence they dispersed into the country. In January the weather moderated, the harbor was freed from ice, and. supplies having arrived, by a general order, the demolition of houses ceased. In the mean time the besieging army under General Washing- ton was not idle. For want of ammunition it could not attempt to carry the town by assault, but the hope and purpose were by means of its strategy to compel the British army to withdraw from the peninsula. During a severe cannonade which occupied the attention of the invested
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troops, General Washington, on the night of the 4th of March, took pos- session of the Dorchester Heights. On the 4th General Howe decided to evacuate, and, ten days later, he took his departure. A young captain, Jedediah Huntington, whose son, early in the next century, was to be a minister of the Old South Church, wrote to his father from the camp on the evening of March 1: "This morning we had the agreeable sight of a number of ships leaving the town of Boston with a large number of boats full of soldiers, about ten of clock several lads came to our out centries and informed us that the troops had entirely left the town and that the selectmen were coming out to see us, soon after we had the pleasure of seeing Messrs. Austin, Seollay, Marshall, &c., they had an interview with the general and gave him the best intelli- gence they could concerning the state of the town and the intentions of the enemy-the enemy are now all lying between the castle and light- house in full view from the town and make a very formidable appear- ance."
Boston was not injured so much, either by the bombardment or by the action of the British soldiery, as had been reported. Dr. Warren, a brother of the hero who fell on Bunker Hill, and one of those who entered the town as soon as the evacuation had been accomplished, wrote in his diary: "The houses I found to be considerably abused inside, where they had been inhabited by the common soldiery, but the external parts of the houses made a tolerable appearance. The streets were clean, and, upon the whole, the town looks better than I expected." A small number of troops took formal possession, and fortifications were erected at various points to guard against possible attacks from the sea. The inhabitants returned more slowly than they would have done but for the presence of the small-pox, and although, during the spring, the selectmen reported that the disease was confined to the hospitals in the west part of the town, it was some time before the streets resumed their old appearance of cheerfulness and activity. The summer was a sickly one, and business revived slowly. The Boston Gasette, which had been printed in Watertown during the siege, did not return to Boston until November 4, and the Provincial Congress did not convene here until November 12.
There was a wide gulf between the Boston of the provincial days and the Boston after the siege. With the Declaration of Independence provincial existence had come to an end. As has been well said : " Amer- ican history is divided into two parts-the history of the colonies, and
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the history of the United States; and between these two portions -- between the Declaration and the Treaty of Paris-lie six years of war." Several hundred of the inhabitants of Boston, loyal notwithstanding all that had happened to the British crown, accompanied General Howe to Nova Scotia, among them many who had been most prominent in commerce, in public affairs, and in the churches. New men took the places which had been made vacant in business and other circles. Salem had threatened, since the passage of the port bill, to become the rival of Boston ; but, now, the commerce of that town, and of the entire north shore, began to eentre here. At first much of the business was outside strictly commercial lines, that is to say, it consisted in the fitting out and maintenance of privateers, and it proved very profitable to those engaged in it; but this soon gave place to the movements of more regular and legitimate trade. According to an index prepared by Dr. Edward Strong, three hundred and sixty-five vessels belonging to Boston were commissioned as privateers, twenty in 1:16, thirty-one in 1912, and a larger number annually as the war went on. The earliest was the Lady Washington, of thirty tons, April 22, 116. She was followed by the Yankee, Warren, Independence, Wolfe, Speedwell, Viper, Reprisal, American Tartar, Revenge, Sturdy Beggar, True Blue, etc., etc.
Three months before the promulgation of the Declaration of In- dependence, April 6, 1726, a measure was carried in the Continental Congress, by which the thirteen colonies abolished British custom- houses, prohibited the importation of slaves, and opened all their ports to the commerce of the world, excepting those still held by the British troops. Samuel Adams wrote to Joseph Hawley that the " United Colonies had torn into shivers the British aets of trade." For a short period almost absolutely free trade prevailed.
While there was a reserve of accumulated wealth in Boston, which was of the utmost value to the town in this period of transition, and which enabled it to cope with many of the troubles involved in the great disaster of war, personal suffering and individual loss were very great. The burden of taxation bore heavily on the majority; there was a serions depreciation of the paper currency, and a corresponding advance in the prices of commodities, and vain endeavors were made from time to time to check this advance in prices by legislative enact- ment. The Rev. John Eliot, writing, June 12, 1222, to his friend the Rev. Jeremy Belknap, then settled at Dover, New Hampshire, said,
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" We are all starving here," and he complained that as a result of a recent "regulating bill," people would not bring provisions into the town, and it was impossible to procure the necessaries of life. In an- other letter, March 12, 1:19, Mr. Eliot wrote: " The miseries of famine are now mingled with the horrors of war. The poor people in the almshouse have been destitute of grain and other necessaries these many days. Many respectable families are almost starving." A few months before, the Rev. Dr. Chauncey, minister of the First Church, in a sermon before the State authorities, made a strong representation of the injury and hardship inflicted on the clergy by the depreciation of the currency, " and withal a redress of their wrongs was decently and solemnly urged ; " but nothing was done for their relief. Another cor- respondent of Dr. Belknap, Mr. Ebenezer Hazard, afterward post- master general, wrote in 1480: " Boston affords nothing new but complaints upon complaints. I have been credibly informed that a person who used to live well has been obliged to take the feathers out of his bed and sell them to an upholsterer to get money to buy bread. Many doubtless are exceedingly distressed, and yet, such is the infatu- ation of the day, that the rich, regardless of the necessities of the poor. are more luxurious and extravagant than formerly. Boston exceeds even Tyre, for not only are her merchants princes, but even her tavern-keepers are gentlemen. May it not be more tolerable for Tyre than for her! There can be no surer sign of a decay of morals than the tavern-keepers growing rich fast." It it said that John Hancock issued invitations to a ball, November, 1280, printed on the backs of playing-cards, showing a scarcity in other things besides the necessaries of life.
We quote once more from the Rev. John Eliot, under date of March 29, 1:80: "The town of Boston is really poor. If some brighter prospects do not open, it is my opinion that we cannot subsist. Yon are sensible how much depends upon our trade. Let this one instance of our going downwards convince you. An outward bound cargo can- not be purchased for the whole amount of the vessel and cargo return- ing safely to the wharf. Thus the balance is against us, supposing no risk. What then can be the emoluments of trade, when the vessels are so much exposed to every danger from the ire of Neptune equally with the attacks of British cruisers? Many widowed families add to the distress of the North End, who were in good circumstances before the commencement of this tedious season. Most of the ready money which
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was in the town, the country people have drained-such was the neces- sity of obtaining fuel at any price. One effect these things have upon all orders of men in the sea-ports,-a hearty wish for peace, which sentiment did not pervade the mobility till the present time."
With this distress-almost side by side with it-there was an expend- iture of money, and an ostentatious display, especially on the part of those who had just come into the possession of wealth, such as had never been known before in Massachusetts. We quote from an his- torian of the period on this point, because his statement of the case ex- plains the reverses which followed when the inevitable reaction came: . The usual consequences of war were conspicuous upon the habits of the people of Massachusetts. Those of the maritime towns relapsed into the voluptuousness which arises from the precarious wealth of naval adventures. An emulation prevailed among men of fortune to exceed each other in the full display of their riches. This was imitated among the less opulent classes of citizens, and drew them off from those prin- ciples of diligence and economy which constitute the best support of all governments, and particularly of the republican. Besides which, what was most to be lamented, the discipline and manners of the army had vitiated the taste, and relaxed the industry of the yeomen. In this dis- position of the people to indulge the use of luxuries, and in the ex- hausted state of the country, the merchants saw a market for foreign manufactures. The political character of America, standing in a re- spectable view abroad, gave a confidence and credit to individuals here- tofore unknown. This credit was improved, and goods were imported to a much greater amount than could be consumed and paid for."
Peace came at last ; and although there were public debts, State and national, to be provided for, and heavy taxation to be endured, and an inheritance of trouble, of one kind and another, left by the war, to be carried for a long time to come, every one rejoiced at the dawn of the auspicious day which seemed to be rising upon the young nation. In reply to an address from the Legislature of Massachusetts, General Washington wrote, March 29, 1483: "Happy, inexpressibly happy, in the certain intelligence of a general peace, which was concluded on the 20th of January last, I feel an additional pleasure in reflecting that this glorious event will prove a sure means to dispel the fears expressed by your Commonwealth for their northeastern boundary, that territory being by the treaty secured to the United States in its fullest extent." It would have been well for both countries, if the sentiments expressed
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in the preamble to the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States could have been permanently adhered to as the basis for all their future dealings with each other: "Whereas reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience are found by experience to form the only permanent foundation of peace and friendship between states, it is agreed to form the articles of the proposed treaty on such princi- ples of liberal equity and reciprocity, as that partial advantages, those seeds of discord, being excluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries may be established, as to promise and secure to both, perpetual peace and harmony. "
With the advent of peace, every description of merchandise arrived from abroad in large quantities, and prices fell rapidly. Many repre- sentatives of English houses made their appearance, and some Boston business men returned who had been living in England during the war; and all brought speculative ventures with them. The newspapers of the time are filled with advertisements of goods just received from British and other European ports. For example: "Gilbert & L. Deblois hath imported in the last ships from London a large and general assortment of piece goods and hardwares." "N. B. Those who please them with their custom may depend upon great penny- worths." "William Foster & Co. have received by the last vessels from Europe a beautiful assortment of picked goods." "William De Blois most respectfully informs the merchants, captains of ships, and the public, that he has just received from London, in the Britan- nia, Captain Lambert; Hope, Captain Fellows; and Minerva, Captain Hodgson, a large and compleat assortment of ship chandlery." Na- thaniel Ingraham, who had just arrived in the Rosamond, Captain Love, from London, offers for sale merchandise from that and other ports, and adds: " The goods having been purchased before the peace, will be sold cheaper than any purchased since." " N. B. Excellent Cheshire cheese and a few hampers best London porter." We find this an- nouncement under date of June 5, 1:83: " This morning arrived a ship from Cork, loaded with beef, pork and butter." The first publication in the papers of the inward entries and the outward clearances at the custom-house appears on the 6th of August in the same year. Most of the English trade of Boston was carried on through London, with an occasional vessel arriving from or sailing for Liverpool. We read under date of November 2 ;: "For Liverpool in Great Britain, the Brig Juno, Peter Cunningham master, lying at Tileston's Wharf." Novem-
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ber 13: "Paul Revere, directly opposite Liberty Pole, South End, Boston, has imported and will sell ' hardware and cutlery ' at a very low advance for cash."
During the years 1640 to 1945 the exports from Great Britain to all the American colonies had averaged about three millions sterling anni- ally. Dr. Price, an able economist, and a steadfast friend of the newly independent States, estimated that this average would be reached and passed in 1983. Writing in that year he said: "Allowing for the increased quantities of rum, teas, and various entered or unentered importations from other countries than Britain, the estimate of goods from all Europe may be now put at three millions and a half sterling, exclusive of tea, brandy, rum and wine." He predicted that it would be some time before trade could " get into the regular course of circu- lation, and the exports be favorable to tally with the imports." The exports from the United States were rice, indigo, flour, tobacco, tar, beef, pork, fish, oil and lumber. The worst apprehensions of the com- mercial world were soon realized; supply far outran demand; prices declined to a ruinous point ; bankruptcies multiplied, and in the absence of exports in adequate quantity, the country began to lose its specie at a serious rate. In a London paper of March 9, 1984, we read: " Two ships are arrived in our river from Boston in New England, both in ballast, not having been able to procure cargoes of any kind, though they had (what is most desirable in that country) specie to pay for all they should have brought away. It appears from hence that the northern parts of the American States are in a much worse situation than the provinces to the southward. Boston was once the most flourishing place in America, and employed near five hundred sail of shipping, besides coasting and fishing vessels, which were numerous to a degree. Besides the trade which subsisted within themselves, they were to America what Holland has been to Europe-the carriers for all the other colonies. At present their distillery is entirely at a stand ; their peltry and fur trade, once so considerable, is entirely 'over; the fishery is exceedingly trifling; instead of the vast exports of hemp, flax, tar, pitch, turpentine, staves, lumber and provisions, the only thing that offered at Boston, when the above ships sailed, was train-oil, which they got up at a high price."
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