USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > Reminiscences of Salem, Massachusetts : embracing notices of its eminent men known to the author forty years ago > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
Up to this time, and long afterwards, nothing was sought by the colonists but reconciliation, without the sacrifice of constitutional rights. The colonists claimed to be Englishmen, loyal to the Crown and constitution, and would not tolerate the suggestion of a resort to meas- ures directly aiming at separation.
Unfortunately for the prospect of union, for some time previous to the destruction of the tea, serious differences · had arisen among the colonies. These differences grew, .partly, out of the breach, by some of them, of an agree- ment not to import goods from Great Britain until the oppressive acts of parliament had been repealed, and partly from the uncertain location of boundary-lines be- tween adjoining colonies. They had estranged the colo- nists to such a degree that all but the most sanguine patriots were discouraged ; and Hutchinson was led to write exultingly to Lord Hillsborough, at the beginning of 1772, that the Massachusetts patriots seemed "to be deserted by their late correspondents in Pennsylvania and New York, and all confidence is at an end."* It was also
*From a copy of the letter (No. 20) furnished me by Mr. Sains- bury, of Her Majesty's Public Record Office. It is dated Jan. 24, 1772.
1
12
a disheartening recollection that in the Congress of 1765 the great colony of Virginia was not represented.
That colony embraced a territory larger, by nearly ten thousand square miles, than the entire surface of Great Britain, and claimed contiguous territory larger than both Great Britain and Ireland. It had a population, in 1774, of between five hundred thousand and six hundred thou- sand inhabitants, -which, added to that of Massachusetts Bay, nearly equalled the population of all the other New England and Middle colonies.
Without Virginia, therefore, any confederation would appear weak and defective; but with Virginia, it would show a front sufficiently formidable, it was hoped and be- lieved, to insure effectual resistance. What, then, was the joy of our patriots to find that ancient and powerful colony, aroused by the new measures now specially directed against Massachusetts, chivalrously siding with her injured sister and actually starting the suggestion for a Conti- mental Congress.
The persecution of Massachusetts, moreover, had brought the other colonies to prompt and spontaneous renewals of their former professions of sympathy ; and · the idea of a Congress seemed so warmly and generally entertained, that our patriots saw in the change the active interposition of Providence, and broke forth in prayers of gratitude and strains of rejoicing.
Such were the causes of the conflicting emotions which filled the hearts of the assembly-men when they came together, by the Governor's appointment, at Salem, on the memorable 7th of June.
Philadelphia, and the month of September, had been fixed as the time and place for the proposed Congress.
The Governor proceeded to Salem on the Thursday before the Assembly met, and, the next Saturday, being
3
13
the anniversary of the birth of the King, he was received with great parade, ending with a most brilliant ball at the old Assembly-hall,* on Monday evening.
But under these outward demonstrations of joy, there rankled in every patriotic breast increasing pangs of disap- pointment and sorrow ; for, only two nights before, there had arrived from Bristol, copies of two bills pending before parliament, which, there was every reason to believe, had received the Royal assent before their publication here. These two acts-one purporting to be for better regulating the government of the province, and the other for the in- partial administration of justice here, in certain cases- would, if firmly established and enforced, sweep away the last vestige of the right of self-government, and reduce the province to absolute subjection to foreign rule.
The session lasted but eleven days. On the second day, before proceeding to business, the House passed five resolutions protesting against the removal to Salem, as a grievance ; and the next day sent to the Governor as their answer to his speech at the opening of the session, a . communication full of the same subject. Six days later the Council presented to the Governor an address, in which an invidious allusion was made to Gage's predecessor. Gage interrupted the reader of the address, at this point, and refused to let him proceed. He then returned a briet written reply, concluding, "I consider the address an insult upon his Majesty, and the Lords of the privy council, and an affront to myself."
The communications between the Governor and the
* This hall stood on Cambridge street, and was afterwards purchased and used by the congregation of the South Church, until they built their present meeting house, when it was removed to Federal street, and is now a private residence.
1
14
Assembly having proved thus fruitless and exasperating, no further political measures transpired in either. branch until the 17th, when the House passed a resolve, appoint- ing as delegates to the Congress at Philadelphia, James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams and Robert Treat Paine. The purpose of the Congress, as indicated by this resolve, was, "to consult upon meas- ures for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and the colonies." A majority of the delegates was to constitute a quorum, and an appropriation of five hundred pounds was voted to defray their expenses.
The Council promptly concurred in this appropriation, but the Governor withheld his consent. The House, not disconcerted by this refusal of the Governor, immediately, through their committee, began to prepare three other re- solves; one, recommending the towns and districts to collect and pay over, before the 15th of August, to Thomas Cushing, one of the delegates, the sum of five hundred pounds. This sum was to be assessed according to a tax-list to be circulated among the towns, and was in place of the appropriation which failed to pass. The second resolve recommended that other towns of the province relieve the necessities of the inhabitants of Bos- ton and Charlestown, who were suffering from the opera- tion of the act closing the port of Boston .. The third resolve recommended abstinence from the use of imported tea, and of all goods and manufactures brought from the East Indies and Great Britain, and the encouragement of American manufactures. This last resolve was the basis of that Solemn League and Covenant, the consequences of which were so disastrous to the manufacturing districts of England.
The choice of delegates and the appropriation for their expenses had, evidently, greatly disturbed the Governor.
15
He soon received a hint of the subsequent proceedings of the House, through the treachery, it was suspected, of Elisha Jones, a tavern-keeper, who represented the town of Weston .*
The Governor forthwith ordered a proclamation, for dissolving the General Court, to be prepared by Thomas Flucker, the Secretary of the province, and to be read as soon as possible to the House of Representatives.
By this time, word had got abroad that the House were pushing measures, with the utmost speed and secrecy, and that the Governor, aware of the nature of their proposed action, had set the Secretary at work in equal haste to thwart their purposes.
The proclamation was soon ready for the Governor's signature, and read as follows :-
PROVINCE OF THE
MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
By the GOVERNOR.
A PROCLAMATION
FOR DISSOLVING THE GENERAL COURT.
. WHEREAS the Proceedings of the House of Represen- tatives in the present Session of the General Court make it necessary for his Majesty's Service, that the said Gen- eral Court should be dissolved.
I have therefore thought fit to dissolve the said General Court, and the same is hereby dissolved accordingly, and the members thereof are discharged from any further attendance.
* This suspicion was strengthened by subsequent events. Jones re- vealed his character to the two spies sent out by Gage to reconnoitre. See the interesting narrative of their adventures, by one of them, Ensign D' Bernicre, in Am. Archives, 4. Series, Vol. i, p. 1203. Jones is briefly noticed by Sabine in his sketches of the Loyalists of the Am. Revolution.
16
Given under my hand at Salem, the 17th Day of June, 1774, in the Fourteenth Year of his Majesty's Reign.
T. GAGE.
By his Excellency's command, THOS. FLUCKER, Secretary.
GOD save the KING .*
Armed with this instrument, the Secretary started at once for the town-house. Elbowing his way through the eager crowd, he mounted the stairs leading to the hall above, but found the door locked and the messenger on guard. He "directed the messenger to go in and acquaint the speaker that the Secretary had a message from His Excellency to the honorable House, and desired he might be admitted to deliver it." The messenger returned, and said he had informed the speaker, as requested, "who mentioned it to the House, and their orders were to keep the door fast."
Thereupon, while the House were finally passing the last resolve, the Secretary proceeded to read the paper, upon the stairs, in presence of the assembled multitude, and then, immediately after, read it in the Council cham- ber. j
Thus ended the last General Court held in Massachu- setts under a provincial governor. After more than eighty years of experiment, since the Commissioners of the Great Seal, under William and Mary, appended its impress to the charter devised by the great lawyers of the English revolution-a period during which this vigorous but comparatively insignificant colony had grown to a large and flourishing province-the system of gov- ernment was now, by another revolution, soon to change into a government of the people, by the people and for
*Essex Gazette, 1774, No. 308. t Ibid.
17.
the people. True, the ancient methods prescribed by the charter might be, as they certainly were, resumed, but. every member of the government was to be chosen by the people, directly or indirectly, and to become amenable, solely, to his constituency-the electors of the common- wealth.
Such, too, were the dramatic incidents attending the choice of the first five delegates* to that Congress which, by successive elections, continued throughout the war. This august assembly managed the vast and various concerns of the colonies, raised, equipped and officered armies, organized and fitted out a navy, built forts, bor- rowed money, issued bills of public credit, established a general post-office and a national hospital, entered into treaties, leagues and alliances, and, in short, was the pro- totype of our present national government, until the adop- tion of the federal constitution raised over all the States the ægis of a Republic.
Letting this digression suffice to impress more vividly upon our minds the importance of the events which took place in this town just one year before the battle of Bun- ker's Hill, we will proceed with our narrative. The Gov- ernor had taken up his residence in the elegant mansion of Robert Hooper, in Danvers, now known as the "Collins
* Of the delegates thus chosen, all held places of the highest trust after the adoption of the constitution. From them were selected two governors and two lieutenant-governors of this commonwealth. Two of them received commissions as justices of the highest court in the state; and one of them was also attorney-general. John Adams never sat under his commission as chief justice of the Supreme Judi- cial Court, but had his ambition gratified by being elected the first Vice President and the second President of the United States of America, and by being appointed commissioner to France, ambas- sador to the Netherlands, and minister plenipotentiary to Great Brit- ain before the peace ; and afterwards, the first minister of the United States to the Court of St. James.
(2)
جروب
. 18
House,"* but deemed it prudent, towards the end of the next month, to order hither two companies of the 64th regiment, to guard his head-quarters ; and, on the 13th of August, the 59th regiment, under Col. Otho Hamilton, landed from the transports in which they had arrived the day before, and encamped near the fort on the Neck.+
The meaning of this martial demonstration was soon evident. Handbills were posted, and a notice appeared in the Essex Gazette,# calling the freeholders together on Wednesday, the 24th day of August, to choose five or ' more delegates to a county convention at Ipswich, for the purpose of considering and determining upon a course of action to be pursued with reference to the recent acts of parliament, "and our other grievances."
One of these acts had provided that, with certain ex- ceptions, no town meeting should be held upon the call of the selectmen, without the leave of the Governor; § and the Governor deemed this call, and the proposed meeting, to be violations of the act. He therefore issued a procla- mation, the day before the meeting, forbidding the free- holders to assemble at their peril ; and, the next morning, an hour before the time fixed for the meeting, he sum- moned before him the committee of correspondence, by whose direction the call had been issued, told them that he considered their proceedings unlawful and seditious, and asked them to disperse the assembly. || As the act . only forbade meetings called by the selectmen, the com- mittee protested that there was no violation of the act, and that they had no authority to break up the meeting. The Governor declined to argue the point so ingeniously
* See Essex Gazette, 1774, No. 306.
t Ibid., No. 316. tlbid., No. 317. § " Act for better regulating the government," etc. || Essex Gazette, 1774, No. 318.
19
made, but informed them that the sheriff would proceed first and warn the assembly to disperse, and, if that ex- pedient failed, he should resort to forcible measures .*
The troops at the Neck were then provided with am- munition, and put in motion. At the lower end of the town they halted and loaded, and eighty of them ad- vanced as far as Newbury street. But the delegates, having been chosen in the mean time, and the business of the meeting being over, the troops were ordered back to their encampment. t The next Saturday the Governor de- parted for Boston.#
Throughout the previous night his guards were under arms, and his safe arrival in Boston was announced in the newspapers. § There is a tradition, in Danvers, that an attempt had been made to assassinate him; and the old front-door of his mansion, perforated by the bullet, it is said, of one who, in passing, boldly fired, and then, spurring his horse, quickly disappeared in the darkness, was long shown in proof of the tradition. Whatever reasons he had for seeking greater safety, 'it is certain that he reported to the Earl of Dartmouth that his object · in going to Boston was that he might attend the ap- proaching session of the Superior Court. | Chief Justice Oliver, who stood impeached by the House of Represen- tatives, had promised to preside ; and it was feared that the people would prevent him, unless the Governor forci- bly interfered.
From Saturday to Thursday, the angry Governor was thinking how he might inflict exemplary punishment on the refractory committee at Salem, whose adroit evasion of the act of parliament, although he affected to treat it
* Essex Gazette, 1774. No. 318. tlbid. # Ibid. § Ibid.
|| Letter of Gage to Dartmouth, Aug. 27, 1774, in Am. Archives, 4 Series, Vol. i, p. 741; also same to same, Sept. 2, 1774, Ibid., p. 767.
-
20
as a quibble, had so disturbed him that he mentioned it, as a matter of importance, in his despatches to the Secre- tary for colonial affairs. He had already ordered the ar- rest of the Salem committee, and Colonel Peter Frye, a magistrate here, had issued a warrant upon which some of them had been brought before him, and bound over to the Superior Court, as violators of the act of parliament .* Gage swore that the whole committee should recognize or go to prison ; and it was rumored that he intended to seize them, and send them as prisoners in the Scarborough, man-of-war, which was about to sail for England. t But the Governor soon had other troublesome and more mo- mentous subjects to consider.
On Thursday, the 1st of September, writs for calling a new General Court, to be held at Salem on the 5th of the next month, were published by the Governor's order. Fortunately, the fatality attending so many of his schemes awaited this measure. His threats against the Salem committee had been too freely and openly uttered. On Wednesday the watchful committee at Boston, suspicious of evil designs against their brethren here, despatched an express, after ten o'clock at night, to warn the latter of a movement of troops, possibly destined for Salem.
The messenger was cordially received, and returned with the encouraging reply that they were ready for any attacks to which they might be "exposed for acting in pursuance of the laws and interest of their country, and as became men and Christians."#
At half-past four o'clock the next morning, the very day on which the writs for calling the Assembly were issued, thirteen boats, filled with troops, pushed stealthily off from the Long wharf in Boston and headed up Mystic
* Essex Gazette, 1774, No. 320.
t Am. Archives, ut supra, p. 762. ¿ Ibid.
:،٠٫٧
21
River. It soon appeared that the powder-house on Quarry .Hill in Charlestown was their chief objective point. Here they seized and carried off two hundred and fifty half-barrels of gunpowder, while a detachment marched to Cambridge and brought away two pieces of artillery belonging to the militia .*
All Middlesex was soon aroused, and excited and in- dignant crowds gathered in the highway, increasing as they proceeded, and arming themselves with the weapons that .came nearest at hand. Before this multitude had dispersed, it was rumored that Gage was on the way to attack them. To prevent a collision, they extorted from Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, whose house in Cambridge they had surrounded, a promise to dissuade the Governor from resorting to forcible measures. This promise was kept, and the Governor returned for answer that no such purpose had been entertained by him, and that he should not molest them. t
.
Had the Governor proceeded to Salem in pursuance of his rumored intention to arrest the committee, no doubt the first great tragedy of the Revolution would have been . enacted here, or had he marched against the exasperated freeholders of Middlesex, the battle of Lexington would have been anticipated nearly eight months, in sight of Harvard College.
The demonstrations in Middlesex, quickly followed by reports of the hostile attitude of other parts of the Prov- ince, and the neighboring colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut, thoroughly alarmed the Governor and his Councillors. Their plans for aggression were abandoned ; and they resolved that "the first and only step now to take was to secure the friends of Government, and reinforce
* Am. Archives, ut supra, p. 762. t Ibid., p. 764.
„
+جميمر
22
the troops," in Boston, "with as many more as could possi- bly be collected." The Governor wrote, the next day, to the Earl of Dartmouth, that he had thoughts of sending transports to bring the two regiments at Quebec, to Bos- ton, and that he intended to order Major General Haldi- mand to bring, from New York and Philadelphia, the troops under his command at those places .*
The people of Salem, though anxiously preparing for the future, preserved, with few exceptions, ; an appearance of firmness and self-control. In a determined but quiet way, Col. Frye was made to recall his warrant for the arrest of the committee and to give up their bail-bonds to the principals. He further gratified the committee and people by publishing a card averring that this retraction was of his own free will, and announcing his determina- tion not to take or hold any office under the objectionable acts of parliament.
The troops were still here, but, on the 10th of Septem- ber, a measured drum-beat, and the shrill whistle of the fife, first caught faintly from the lower end of the town, but momently growing louder, announced to the people up town that the troops were in motion. Soon, the whole regiment from the Neck appeared. They made no show of violence, but were watched in silence, by the crowds on the street corners, as, with colors flying, they kept their way through the town and towards the old road to Boston.
At Danvers South-Parish, now Peabody, they were joined by the guards from the Governor's head-quarters, and, resuming their march together, they soon turned out
* Gage to Dartmouth, Ibid., 768.
t Some disturbances occurred, but the town authorities took prompt action to quell them, and succeeded in preserving order.
23
of sight, around the wooded knolls that bordered the road to Lynn,* The dust raised by the feet of the last, armed soldier of Britain who should ever encamp upon the soil of Essex County, floated off, and settled upon blackberry vines, or sprinkled with drab the yellow spikes of the golden-rod that fringed the old stone walls along the way. And where a few moments before rose and fell the mo- notonous sound of marching platoons, broken by strains of martial music, oaths and ribald jests, nothing was heard but the peaceful tinkle of the cow-bell, the distant bleat- ing of sheep and the crickets' chirruping trill.
The concentration of the Governor's forces in Boston, which deprived him of all protection or show of power in Salem, was a sufficient reason for not attempting to hold the General Court here; but another circumstance was conclusive against such a proceeding. The act for better regulating the government of the province had revoked the clause in the Charter providing for the annual election of twenty-eight Councillors, by the Assembly, and had substituted a council of the King's nomination, who, from the name of the warrant conferring the office, received the title of Mandamus Councillors. Of the thirty-six councillors selected by the King, twenty-five responded to the Governor's call, and were sworn in. ¡ As soon as the fact of their acceptance of the office became known, they were held up as traitors and outlaws. The Middlesex freeholders in their furious march, besieged in their own homes, three of these Councillors, including the Lieuten- ant-Governor, and forced them to resign their seats at the
* Essex Gazette, 1774, No. 320.
t Ibid., Nos. 315, 316, 317. Nine of these resigned their seats before the 6th of September. Palmer was absent from the province, and Woodbridge was dead when the appointment arrived. So that but fourteen sworn councillors remained. - Ibid., No. 319.
-
24
Board. There were indications that this was to be the settled policy of the people ; and those of the new Council who were determined to hold their places, were obliged to seek refuge in Boston, where they were closely guarded by the King's troops.
.
To get this odious body from their shelter in Boston to the Court House in Salem, was, therefore, a task which, under the circumstances, the military strategist at the head of the government and army, did not feel inclined to undertake .* If the members were courageous enough to venture upon the journey, they would, in all proba- bility, be waylaid and forced to resign like their brethren in Middlesex ; or, something still worse might happen, to precipitate a collision between the troops and the people, -a contingency for which Gage began to believe he was not fully prepared. To hold a General Court without the coordinate upper branch was impossible ; and he might, . therefore, be obliged, from sheer necessity, to recognize a council chosen under the Charter, which would surely have lost him his place and the favor of the Crown. In this state of affairs no other course was open to the Gov- ernor but to notify the members not to attend; and, ac- cordingly, a week before the first day of the session, he caused to be published his proclamation, excusing the Representatives elect from appearing at, or holding, a General Court.t
Notwithstanding this proclamation, when the fifth of October arrived, ninety of the Representatives assembled. # Among them were men of tried courage and determina- tion, who were bent upon executing the purpose they had in view, whether the Governor appeared or not. They had long been looked up to by the people of the Province,
* See letter of Gage to Dartmouth, Sept. 2, 1774, supra.
t Essex Gazette, 1774, No. 323. # Ibid., No. 324.
25
for advice and encouragement, and their proceedings were now watched with eager expectation.
So, on that eventful October morning, we can conceive the excitement here to have been intense.
The quaint old gables that looked down upon the crooked streets and narrow lanes of the town must have seemed to share the anxious curiosity of their tenants, as, under the shadows of projecting covings, or from open casements above, bare-armed gossips discussed with neigh- bors opposite the probable doings of the Representatives.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.