USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the provincial period. 1692-1775 v. II > Part 44
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The principal topic of discussion in this session was the sal- aries which had been settled upon the judges by the king ; and the officers were called upon to refuse to accept the same. Four of them yielded ; but Oliver, the chief justice, declined, and the House impeached him before the Council.2 Hutchin- son, to evade a decision of the question, proposed to prorogue the court, and, as a preliminary step, acquainted them by mes- sage, that he had "received discretionary leave from the king Feb. 24. to go to England," and, as he intended to avail himself of it, should put an end to the session, that he might prepare for his voyage.3 But both Council and House persisted in their course, and continued to labor for the removal of the chief justice, as " the most necessary business before them." "If, when we complain," said they, " we cannot even be heard, our
1 Bradford's State Papers, 411, 412, Feb. 14, 1774 ; Andrews's Am. Rev. and Hist. i. 308. i. 133.
2 Hutchinson, iii. 442-449 ; Brad- ford, i. 309-314; Boston Post Boy for Feb. 21 and 28, and March 7 and 14, 1774; Boston News Letter for March 3, 1774 ; Boston Gazette for
3 Jour. H. of R. for 1774; Brad- ford's State Papers, 413; Hutchinson, iii. 449 ; Boston News Letter for March 3, 1774.
476
THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA DISCUSSED IN ENGLAND.
CHAP. case is indeed deplorable. Yet we have the pleasure of con- XIV. templating that posterity, for whom we are struggling, will do 1774. us justice by abhorring the memory of those men who owe their greatness to their country's ruin."1 The governor, upon this, prepared to execute his purpose, and sent a messenger to the Council to close the session; but the House refused to admit the messenger until they had completed their business, and authorized the committee of correspondence to act in the recess of the court.2
In the mean time, in England the affairs of America were mar. 7. under discussion ; and early in March, the news of the destruc- tion of the tea having arrived, -"the last drop which made the waters of bitterness overflow," - a message from the king and the American papers were laid before the House, and ordered to be read on the eleventh instant. On Monday of Mar. 14. the following week a debate ensued ; and, amidst confusion, leave was given to bring in a bill for the punishment of Bos- Mar.18. ton, "the principal object of attention." 3 Four days later, the bill was reported, and was read the first time without Mar. 22. debate. On its second reading, there was a slight discussion ;
but the bill was committed without a division.4 Before its Mar. 23. third reading, a petition against it from "several natives of North America " was presented by the Lord Mayor of Lon- don.5 The House then went into a committee of the whole ; and the discussion which followed was exceedingly spirited. "You cannot," said Rose Fuller, " carry this bill into execu- tion without a military force. But if you send over a small
1 Hutchinson, iii. 450.
2 Hutchinson, iii. 453, 454; J. Ad- ams, Diary, in Works, ii. 328-332. The Superior Court, after the im- peachment of Oliver, did not sit again " until a new one was appointed by the Council exercising the powers of a governor under the charter, after the battle of Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775." J. Adams.
3 Debates in Parl. vii. 69-75; Parl. Ifist. xvii. 1164, 1279; Gordon's Am.
Rev. i. 230, 231 ; Lord Mahon's Hist. Eng. vi. 3; Ramsay's Am. Rev. i. 100. Bollan petitioned to be heard for the Massachusetts Council ; but the Com- mons refused to hear him. The Lords, however, gave him an audience; but his protest was of no avail.
4 Debates in Parl. vii. 75, 76; Gor- don's Am. Rev. i. 231.
5 Debates in Parl. vii. 83-86 ; Ram- say's Am. Rev. i. 105.
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THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA DISCUSSED.
number of men, the Boston militia will immediately cut them CHAP. to pieces ; if you send over a larger number, six or seven XIV. thousand, the Americans will debauch them ; and by these 1774. means we shall only hurt ourselves. I would begin by an amercement." 1 Lord North, in reply, declared that he was not an enemy to lenient measures, but that he had found reso- lutions of censure and warning to avail nothing. "We must, therefore," he added, "proceed to some immediate remedy. Now is our time to stand out, to defy them, to proceed with firmness, and without fear. They will never reform until we take a measure of this kind. I hope this act will not, in any shape, require a military force to put it into execution. Four or five frigates will do the business without any military force. But if the consequences of disobedience are likely to produce rebellion, that consequence belongs to them, and not to us. It is not what we have brought on, but what they alone have occasioned. We are only answerable that our measures are just and equitable. Let us, then, proceed with firmness, jus- tice, and resolution." 2 Montagu, the second son of Lord Sandwich, as "a virgin orator," defended the bill.3 Byng, in reply, exclaimed, "You are not punishing the Bostonians ; you are punishing the English merchants."4 Charles Jenkinson sided with the ministry, and eulogized Grenville; Charles Fox spoke on the opposite side. Van declared that "the town of Boston ought to be knocked about their ears, and destroyed ; " Barré indignantly exclaimed, "Keep your hands out of the pockets of the Americans, and they will be obedi- ent subjects. Parliament may fancy they have rights in the- ory, which I'll answer for they can never reduce to practice." 5
Two days later, the discussion was resumed ; and Dowdes- Mar. 25. well, Pownall, and Edmund Burke defended the Americans :
1 Debates in Parl. vii. 86.
Debates in Parl. vii. 87, SS.
3 Debates in Parl. vii. 89, 90.
+ Debates in Parl. vii. 91.
5 Debates in Parl. vii. 92-94. For a further sketch of this debate see Boston News Letter for May 19, 1774.
478
THE BOSTON PORT BILL.
CHAP. but so strongly did the current set in favor of the bill, that XIV. remonstrances against it were viewed with disfavor, or listened 1774. to with impatience ; it was passed without division, and was sent to the Lords as if it had been unanimously assented to by the Commons.1 In this body the bill was more fairly dis- Mar.29. cussed ; and the amiable Dartmouth favored conciliation. But Mansfield exclaimed, "The sword is drawn, and you must throw away the scabbard. If you pass this act with tolerable unanimity, Boston will submit, and all will end in a victory without carnage."2 This decided the question ; no division was made; and the journal of the Lords declares that the bill "passed unanimously."3 Thus was the port of Boston closed.
Apr. 19.
At a subsequent date, to "prove that conciliation, not revenge, was predominant in Britain," an immediate repeal of the tax on tea was proposed ; and in the debate which ensued, Edmund Burke, in a masterly speech, surveyed the whole course of the ministry for the past ten years, and declared in favor of the measure now proposed. "Let us," said he, "act like men ; let us act like statesmen. Let us hold some sort of consistent conduct. Leave the Americans as they anciently stood. Do not burden them by taxes. When you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If our sover- eignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take ? They will cast your sovereignty in your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery." 4 But splendid eloquence was of no avail. The opponents of America were more numerous
1 Debates in Parl. vii. 94-104.
2 Speech of Barré, May 2, 1774 ; Shelburne to Chatham ; Life of Lord Mansfield ; Bancroft, vi. 518, 519.
3 Jour. H. of Lords for 1774. This bill was signed March 31, 1774, being " smuggled through the House in sev- enteen days only from its introduction. The evidence before the privy council was suppressed, the agents refused a hearing at the bar, and no member
for Boston or America in either house." Boston Post Boy for May 23, 1774. The bill was published in the colonies with a black border around it, as though it contained funeral news ; and it was cried in the streets of many towns under the title of " A Barba- rous, Cruel, Bloody, and Inhuman Murder." Andrews's Am. Rev. i. 134; Lord Mahon's Hist. Eng. vi. 10. 4 Debates in Parl. vii. 123-174.
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OTHER MEASURES OF PARLIAMENT.
than its friends. Only forty-nine voted to repeal the tax, and CHAP. nearly four times that number voted against the repeal.1 XIV.
Three other measures summed up the action of Parliament, 1774. April and May. so far as the old colonies were concerned. These were, a bill for "the better regulating the government of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay," which abrogated so much of the char- ter as gave to the legislature the election of the Council; abol- ished town meetings, except for the choice of town officers, or on the special permission of the governor ; conferred on the executive the appointment and removal of sheriffs at pleasure ; and intrusted to the sheriffs the returning of juries ; - a bill "for the impartial administration of justice," &c., which trans- ferred the place of trial of magistrates, revenue officers, or soldiers indicted for murder, or other capital offence, to Nova Scotia or Great Britain ; - and a bill for legalizing the quar- tering of troops in Boston.2 All these bills were petitioned against and opposed by the friends of America ; but they were triumphantly carried, and were approved by the king. In the mean time, Hutchinson was recalled, Thomas Gage was ap- pointed in his stead, and four regiments were ordered to en- force submission.3 By his instructions the governor was to Mar.31. close the port of Boston, and to take measures for bringing to condign punishment those patriots who had led the people in the recent movements. Samuel Adams, in particular, was
1 Ayes, 49. Noes, 182. Debates in Parl. vii. 178; Andrews's Am. Rev. i. 119.
2 Boston News Letter for June 9, 1774, and Boston Post Boy for June 6 and 13, 1774, where two of the bills are given, with the debates thereupon. Gordon's Am. Rev. i. 232-235 ; Brad- ford, i. 331; Andrews's Am. Rev. i. 120, 124; Lord Mahon's Hist. Eng. vi. 5, 6; Bancroft, vi. 517, 525, 526 ; Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 8. Copies of these acts were received June 2, and were immediately circu- . lated throughout the colonies.
3 Hutchinson, iii. 458; Bancroft,
vi. 523. It is said that Dartmouth proposed to confer the government of Massachusetts upon Thomas Pownall, with a view to conciliate and quiet the people ; but a majority of the minis- try opposed his appointment. Boston News Letter for Sept. 16, 1773 ; Bos- ton Gazette for Oct. 4, 1773; Brad- ford, i. 316. Gordon, Am. Rev. i. 237, says the appointment of Gage was " not thought of by Mr. Hutch- inson ;" that he expected to have been personally "intrusted with the execution of the ministerial plan," and " was rather disconcerted when he found it to be otherwise."
480
ARRIVAL OF GAGE.
CHAP. marked out for sacrifice, as "the chief of the revolution ; " XIV. and against him and his associates proceedings were to be im- 1774. mediately and formally instituted.1
Pending the passage of the bills just alluded to, the citizens of Massachusetts were not idle ; and as it was evident that the struggle must soon commence, throughout the province compa- nies were organized, under officers of their own choosing ; and arms were provided for them, in the use of which they were diligently trained.2 Nor was the proposal for a Congress overlooked ; and John Hancock, in his oration on the anni- Mar. 5. versary of the "Boston Massacre," suggested a " Congress of deputies from the several houses of assembly on the continent, as the most effectual method of establishing a union for the security of the rights and liberties" of the country.3 As a preparatory step to the calling of such a Congress, a plan was May. formed for frequent and stated communications between the colonies ; and as Franklin had been removed from his office of deputy postmaster general for America, private posts were established, which were found to be of great service in convey- ing intelligence from place to place.4
May 17.
General Gage reached Boston in May, and, on landing at Long Wharf, was received with great parade. The principal officers of the government, the selectmen of Boston, and " a number of other gentlemen," were in attendance, with the com- pany of Cadets ; and, amidst the discharge of cannon from the admiral's ship and from the north and south batteries, he was escorted through King Street, where the troop of horse, the artillery company, the grenadiers, and other military compa-
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1 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 5, note ; Boston Post Boy for July 11, 1774; Bancroft, vi. 523. The letter of Dartmouth to Gage, with instruc- tions, was dated April 9, 1774.
2 Hutchinson, iii. 455. The local histories of different towns prove that some such preparations were made in the latter part of 1773.
3 Oration of March 5, 1774, in Lib.
Mass. Hist. Soc. J. Adams, Diary, in Works, ii. 332, characterizes this as " an elegant, a pathetic, a spirited perform- ance." "The composition, the pro- nunciation, the action," he adds, " all exceeded the expectations of every body. They exceeded even mine, which were very considerable."
4 Bradford, i. 320.
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481
EXCITEMENT IN MASSACHUSETTS.
nies, were drawn up to salute him as he passed. On his arri- CHAP. val at the council chamber his commission was read, and the XIV. oath of office was administered by the president of the Council. 1774. A proclamation was then issued, continuing all officers in their places ; three volleys were fired ; three cheers were given ; and the governor was escorted to Faneuil Hall, where "an elegant dinner was provided for his welcome." 1
Already had the people been warned that the "ministry were determined to try their metal to the utmost." " The spoils of England," it was said, " are insufficient to support the luxury of the minions of power ; they have fixed their vora- cious appetites upon the possessions of the Americans, and intend to make a prey of them." "Depend upon it," it was added, " every colony is to be subdued into a slavish obedience to the tyrannical impositions of Great Britain. Nothing less will suffice ; nothing less is intended. After the subjection of Boston, and perhaps all the New England governments, New Jersey and New York are to be the next in course ; and they talk of taking away Penn's charter." 2 True, the commanders- in-chief were not authorized to fight, unless they could provoke the colonists to be the aggressors ; nor were they to commence hostilities without further orders. But how soon such orders might come no one could tell ; and the appeal for vigilance was not ill-timed.
" Shall the Boston port bill be enforced ?" was the question which first solicited the attention of Gage ; and a consultation was held with Hutchinson, the admiral, and the commissioners of the customs as to what should be done. All agreed that the act should be enforced ; and on the appointed day, as the clock struck twelve, it went into effect ; the custom house was June 1. closed, and the courts were suspended. No opposition was made by the people ; but the bells of the churches were sol-
1 Boston Post Boy for May 23, 1774; Boston News Letter for May 19, 1774; Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 6.
VOL. II. 31
2 Letters from England, of April 7 and 8, 1774, in Boston Post Boy for May 23, 1774.
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ARRIVAL OF TROOPS.
CHAP. emnly tolled, mourning emblems were exhibited, and the day XIV. was improved, not only in Massachusetts, but even in Virginia,
1774. and indeed in other colonies, in fasting and prayer.1 Hutch- inson, with his family, left on the same day, in the Minerva, for England. From some parts of the province public testi- monials of respect were tendered him ; 2 but in general his departure was little lamented. He had forfeited the esteen of the lovers of liberty ; and, leaving the country which gave him birth, the remainder of his days was passed in England, where his descendants still reside.3
The troops which had been sent to enforce the port bill had not arrived ; and the loyalists anxiously awaited their appear- May 31. ance. "Many are impatient," wrote Gage, "for the arrival of the troops ; and I am told that people will then speak and act openly, which they now dare not do."4 But they had not long to wait ; for in a little over a month a large force was concentrated in Boston. The king's regiment and the forty- Jun. 14 ninth landed about the middle of June, and encamped on the and 15. July 4 Common ; 5 and early in July the fifth and thirty-eighth regi- and 5. ments landed at Long Wharf.6 At Salem, likewise, the fifty- Aug. ninth regiment from Halifax was posted ; 7 and additional troops, to be quartered in Boston, were ordered from New York, the Jerseys, and Quebec.8
May.
The annual election was a season of unusual depression and gloom ; and "many felt sad with the apprehension that it would be the last of the kind." 9 Nor was the conduct of
' Boston Post Boy for May 23, Post Boy for May 30 and June 6, 1774 ; Gordon's Am. Rev. i. 239; An- 1774 ; Boston News Letter for June 2, 1774. drews's Am. Rev. i. 135 ; Ramsay's Am. Rev. i. 118; Grahame, ii. 488; 3 Hist. iii. 459; Allen's Biog. Dict. Lord Mahon's Hist. Eng. vi. 10; Wirt's Patrick Henry, 113.
2 Addresses were sent to him from 120 merchants and gentlemen of Bos- ton, from members of the bar, the episcopal clergy, the magistrates of Middlesex, and from a number of citizens of Salem and Marblehead. Hutchinson's Hist. iii. 459; Boston
4 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 7. 5 Boston Post Boy for June 20, 1774.
6 Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 7.
7 Newell's Diary, in Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 7.
00 Gordon's Am. Rev. i. 252; Frothingham's Siege of Boston, 7.
9 Gordon's Am. Rev. i. 238.
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483
DISCUSSION IN THE GENERAL COURT.
Gage such as to encourage the belief that he was disposed to CHAP. conciliate ; for when the board of councillors was presented to XIV. him for approval, thirteen were rejected ; 1 and in his opening 1774. address he declared his intention, in obedience to the instruc- May 26. tions of the king, to remove the General Court to Salem.2 The reply of the Council was not sent in until after these measures had taken effect ; and while they declared their readi- June 9. ness, " on all occasions, cheerfully to cooperate with his excel- lency " in every step tending to "restore harmony " and " extri- cate the province from their present embarrassments," which were attributable, in their estimation, to the conduct of his " two immediate predecessors," they at the same time affirmed that " the inhabitants of the colony claimed no more than the rights of Englishmen, without diminution or abridgment ; " and that these, "as it was their indispensable duty, so would it be their constant endeavor, to maintain, to the utmost of their power, in perfect consistence with the truest loyalty to the crown, the just prerogatives of which they should ever be zealous to support."3 To this message, which was certainly respectful, the answer of the governor was short and bitter. Jun. 14. "I cannot," said he, "receive an address which contains inde-' cent reflections on my predecessors, who have been tried and honorably acquitted by the Lords of the Privy Council, and their conduct approved by the king. I consider this address as an insult upon his majesty and the Lords of the Privy Coun- cil, and an affront to myself." 4
The course of the House was equally decided ; and while they congratulated his excellency upon his safe arrival, and declared that " they honored him in the most exalted station in the province, and confided in him to make the known con- stitution and charter the rule of his administration," they
1 Gordon's Am. Rev. i. 239.
2 Bradford's State Papers, 413.
3 Boston Post Boy for June 20,
1774; Boston News Letter for June
16, 1774 ; Bradford's State Papers, 414, and Hist. i. 327.
4 Boston Post Boy for June 20, 1774 ; Bradford's State Papers, 415.
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484
DISCUSSION IN THE GENERAL COURT.
CHAP. deprecated the removal of the court to Salem, but expressed XIV. the hope that " the true state of the province, and the charac- 1774. ter of his majesty's subjects in it, - their loyalty to their sov- ereign and their affection for the parent country, as well as their invincible attachment to their just rights and liberties, - would be laid before his majesty ; and that he would be the happy instrument of removing his majesty's displeasure, and restoring harmony, which had been long interrupted by the artifices of interested and designing men."1 Nor did they pause here ; for Samuel Adams, satisfied that the time for action had come, conferred with Warren, of Plymouth, and convened " caucuses,"2 in which the plan of a union of the colonies was matured. This was to be brought before the House for adoption ; and as the measure was of the utmost importance, it was kept secret from the governor, lest it should be frustrated.
Jun. 17.
On the appointed day the doors were closed and the subject was broached; but before any action could be taken in the premises, a loyalist member obtained leave of absence, and im- mediately despatched a messenger to Gage, to inform him of what was passing. The governor, in great haste, sent the secretary to dissolve the court. Finding the door locked, he knocked for admission, but was answered that "the House was upon very important business, which when they had finished they would let him in." Failing to obtain entrance, he stood upon the steps, and read the proclamation in the hearing of several of the members and others, and after reading it in the council chamber, returned.3 The House took no notice of
1 Boston Post Boy for June 13, izens to agree upon candidates to be 1774 ; Bradford's Hist. i. 328, 329. The House, before proceeding to busi- ness at Salem, protested against the removal of the court.
2 The word " caucus," which is of American invention, and which seems to have been first used in Boston, is employed to denote a meeting of cit-
proposed for election to office, or to concert measures for supporting a party. Its precise origin is not known. See Gordon's Am. Rev. i. 240; Web- ster's Dictionary.
3 For the proclamation see Boston Post Boy for May 20, 1774.
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485
RELIEF MEETING IN BOSTON.
this message, but proceeded with their business ; and, by a CHAP. vote of one hundred and seventeen to twelve, having deter- XIV. mined that "a committee should be appointed to meet, as soon 1774. as may be, the committees that are or shall be appointed by the several colonies on this continent, to consult together upon the present state of the colonies," James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine were selected for that purpose, and funds were provided for defraying their expenses.1 Yet even now, whatever the ardent may have wished, all did not "meditate an independency of Great Britain ; much less did they suppose that a resort to arms would be necessary to support their liberties."2 But they were resolved to show the ministry that a determination prevailed throughout the colonies to oppose their arbitrary and oppressive laws ; and that, whatever the cost to themselves, they were ready to take a decided stand in defence of their rights.
Already had meetings been held in Boston,3 to adopt meas- ures for relief from the burdens of the detested port bill ; and on the day that the court was prorogued, the citizens, by ad- Jun. 17. journment, gathered in Faneuil Hall, and, with John Adams in the chair, with but one dissentient, voted that the committee of correspondence be " enjoined forthwith to write to all the other colonies, acquainting them that we are not idle ; that we are deliberating upon the steps to be taken in the present exi- gencies of our public affairs ; that our brethren, the landed interest of this province, with an unexampled spirit and una- nimity, are entering into a non-consumption agreement ; 4 and
1 Boston Post Boy for June 20, 1774 ; Boston News Letter for June 23, 1774 ; J. Adams's Diary, in Works, ii. 339; Gordon's Am. Rev. i. 240, 241; Andrews's Am. Rev. i. 137, 138 ; Bradford, i. 329-331.
2 Bradford, i. 330.
3 A meeting was held, May 13, to consider the act of Parliament for shutting up the port and harbor ; and
it was voted to make application to the other colonies to refuse all impor- tations from Great Britain, and to withhold all commercial intercourse with her, as the most probable means to procure the repeal of the act com- plained of. Bradford, i. 320; An- drews's Am. Rev. i. 134.
4 This non-importation agreement, which was called " the solemn league
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486
PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE.
CHAP. that we are waiting with anxious expectation for the result of XIV. a CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, whose meeting we impatiently de- 1774. sire, in whose wisdom and firmness we confide, and in whose determinations we shall cheerfully acquiesce." 1 And well might Boston, and Charlestown, which was also suffering, pause and deliberate ; for in both towns laborers were thrown out of employment, the poor lacked bread to eat, business was suspended, and a general gloom pervaded the streets. But sympathy for their distress was every where manifested ; throughout the province, and even from other colonies, large contributions were sent for their relief; and the different towns seemed to vie with each other in hearty expressions of interest and friendship.2
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