USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1734 to the year 1800 > Part 19
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While the revolutionists in Pittsfield, as elsewhere, were grow- ing up to this estate, an unfortunate custom existed of keeping
1 See Appendix D.
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the minutes of town-meetings upon sheets of paper loosely stitched together, which, with other town-archives, were, at intervals of a few years, inspected by committees appointed for that purpose, who directed what should be permanently recorded, what kept on file, and what destroyed. It will readily be comprehended how fatal such a process would be to all evidence of tergiversation on the part of the inspectors.
In the record of town-meetings there are, in fact, previous to June, 1774, but two entries bearing upon the unsatisfactory state of affairs with the mother country. One of these was in March, 1768, when William Williams, Josiah Wright, Stephen Crofoot, James Easton, and Rev. Mr. Allen were appointed "to examine the Boston letter to the selectmen." This was the circular sent out in accordance with the vote of a large meeting held at Faneuil Hall, on the 28th of the previous October, to consider the recently- passed Townsend Revenue Acts. It proposed an agreement to discontinue the importation, and, except in cases of absolute neces- sity, the consumption, of British goods, and to encourage American industry, economy, and manufactures. The Pittsfield committee was politically divided, and there was an excellent prospect for two reports and excited action; but it is simply recorded, that the article in the warrant, "to receive the report of the committee," was dismissed.
The other vote was in the following December; and merely, in obedience to an act of the General Court, appropriated £12 for a town-stock of ammunition, to be placed in charge of Deacon Crofoot.
A few significant papers of 1774 - " kept on file, but not re- corded "-remain in the town-archives, and indicate, that, until the summer of that year, the Tories, by professing to " be as averse as any of the patriots in America to taxation without their own voluntary consent," maintained their ascendency. The balance of power was held by those who, afterwards driven by the continued encroachment of Great Britain into the Whig ranks, - where they belonged, - as yet shrank from co-operation with their radical brethren, and, in preference to so dangerous alliance, acted with the party of professions. Timid, but dreading political rather than personal danger, hoping against hope, reasoning against reason, they clung to their trust in the old English love of justice and liberty ; and, patiently waiting until that mythical existence
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should manifest itself, shuddered more convulsively over the slightest exhibition of manly spirit in Massachusetts than at the most atrocious usurpations of king and parliament. And yet they were patriots at heart, and, when driven to the wall, often brave and good ones. It was in assuming their position, not in defending it, that they lacked courage.
The nature of the association of the conservative Whigs with the Tories is shown in the instructions which the town gave its representative in the matter of the Boston Tea-Party ; 1 although the illustration is not altogether perfect, as many firm Whigs in the interior towns-and, outside the clubs, in Boston as well - did not fully comprehend the necessity for a measure which it was so easy for the ill-disposed to stigmatize as a riot.
The paper is, however, interesting, and notwithstanding its legal phraseology, which is due to the authorship of Woodbridge Little, is readable.
The town, having adopted the report, seems to have conceived a suspicion that it might at some time, if spread upon the records, become the subject of unfriendly criticism ; and so resolved that it should " be placed on file and not recorded." - a proceeding which marks the sensitiveness of the public mind at this juncture, as, without any vote to that end, it had never been the practice to record similar documents. It is singular that no sharp-eyed in- spector of the archives ever marked it " to be burned," - a mode in which many a less obnoxious witness of changed opinions was, doubtless, put out of the way.
INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TOWN OF PITTSFIELD TO ITS REPRESENTATIVE REGARDING THE DESTRUCTION OF TEA IN BOSTON HARBOR, Dec. 16, 1773.
The inhabitants of the town of Pittsfield being alarmed at the extraordi- nary conduct of a number of disguised persons, who, on the evening follow-
1 It was an old enstom of towns, upon the choice of a representative, or whenever new and important legislative questions arose, to give him instruc- tions, drafted by a committee (to whose selection much care was given), and adopted by the voters. These instructions had no binding effect, but, of course, carried great weight with the representative, who was generally, but far from in- variably, governed by them. The practice was a relie of times when the legislative function was exercised by the whole body of the freemen, and suggests the reluc- tance of the people wholly to delegate it.
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ing the sixteenth day of December last, entered on board the ships commanded by Captains Hall, Bruce, and Coffin, lying in the harbor of Boston, then and there breaking up and destroying three hundred and forty- two chests of tea belonging to the Honorable East India Company, a number of the said inhabitants petitioned the seleetmen of said town that a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of said town might be called, which was accordingly done ; and, at a meeting holden on the tenth day of January last, the said town appointed a committee of five persons to prepare instructions for their representative relative to said conduct, and adjourned said meeting to the twentieth day of said month; at which time the said committee reported as follows, viz. : -
That the said conduet was unnecessary and highly unwarrantable, every way tending to the subversion of all good order and of the Con- stitution, as we determine that the king himself hath two superiors ; to wit, his heavenly King, and his own laws: nor was there ever a more flagrant instance that even the perpetrators of the fact viewed them- selves as enterprising an act in itself unlawful and unjustifiable; other- wise they would not have disguised themselves, or have attempted it in the night.
At the same time, we are as averse as any of the patriots in America to being subjected to a tax without our own free and voluntary consent, and shall, we trust, always abide by that principle. And, was there not an alternative between the destruction of said tea and the people's being saddled with the payment of the duty thereon, we should not have the like reason to complain ; but, as far as we live in the country, judge other- wise.
And as great damage hath been sustained by the owners of said tea in the destruction thereof, and as they will doubtless seek some com- pensation therefor, and as the inhabitants of this Provinee have here- . tofore been obliged to pay large sums of money by reason of the like unjustifiable eonduet and proceedings of individuals not duly authorized thereto, -
We do therefore enjoin it upon you, that, by all prudent ways and means, you manifest the abhorrence and detestation which your constituents have of the said extraordinary and illegal transaction, as also of all the other publie transactions which have been leading to, or in any degree countenan- eing, the same; and especially that you do not directly or indirectly consent to any proposals which may be made, or any measures which may be taken, to render your constituents chargeable to any payment or satisfaction which may be required to be made to the owners of said tea, as we have deter- mined, at all events, never to pay or advance one farthing thereto; and, if your assistance is called for, that you exert yourself to the utmost of your power to bring the persons connected in the destruction of said tea, and other sueh-like offenders, to condign punishment; and it is the expectation
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of this town, that you strictly adhere to these, their instructions, as you value their regard or resentment.
WILLIAM WILLIAMS. WOODBRIDGE LITTLE. DAVID BUSH. ELI ROOT. JNO. BROWN.
Committee.
To Capt. CHARLES GOODRICH.
Jan. 19, 1774.
CHAPTER X. RESISTANCE TO PARLIAMENTARY AGGRESSION.
[MARCH - OCTOBER, 1774.]
Boston Port-Bill and Regulating Acts. - First Revolutionary Town Action of Pittsfield. - Committee of Correspondence appointed. - The League and Covenant adopted. - Pittsfield contributes in Aid of the Sufferers by the Port- Bill. - Obstruction of the King's Court. - Seth Pomeroy. - Oliver Wendell.
T' THE spring of 1774 brought events which everywhere consol- idated the Whigs, and made broad the dividing lines between those who would defend, and those ready to surrender, the liberties of the Province.
The act of Parliament which soon became infamous as "The Boston Port-bill"- excluding commerce from the harbor of that town, and removing the seat of government to Salem -received the royal assent on the 31st of March, and was printed in the Boston newspapers of May 10.
The acts "for the better regulating the government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay," and "for the impartial adminis- tration of justice " in the same, followed closely, and wrought an entire abrogation of the charter in all those particulars by which it afforded protection to civil or personal liberty.
Under the new laws, councillors created by royal mandamus, and the superior judges appointed by his Majesty's governor, held office during the king's pleasure. All other officers, judicial, executive, and military, were appointed by the governor, indepen- dently of the Council, and -except the sheriffs, who could only be displaced with consent of the Council- were removable by the same sole authority. The governor's appointing power, - a grievous fountain of corruption, even with the checks provided by William's charter, - now concentrated with the new right of
187
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removal in the unchecked control of the king and his automatic representative, was fearfully augmented.
Town-meetings, permitted to be held for the election of muni- cipal officers and representatives, were strictly confined in their functions to the bare casting of the necessary ballots; and special meetings were allowed only with license first had of the governor, designating what matters alone they might consider. The selection of jurors - previously made, as now, by the selectmen, with the' ratification of the towns - was given to the king's sheriff's. Acts, passed almost simultaneously with the others, provided for quar- tering troops in America, and for the transportation to England for trial of persons charged, like the soldiers implicated in the Boston massacre, with murders committed in the support of the royal authority. The enactment of despotism was complete. In the new system of government, hardly a vestige remained of those safeguards, which, in the Colonies even more absolutely than in Great Britain, were essential to the preservation of liberty. Prac- tically, nothing whatever in the perverted Constitution interposed between the people and the sovereign's will : for the House of Re- presentatives, mighty as it proved by its advice, was, in its legis- lative capacity, reduced to utter impotence by the governor's inexhaustible prerogative of prorogation and dissolution ; by the unqualified veto which he, as well as the puppet Council, might exercise upon all its acts ; and by the independence of its appro- priations, enjoyed by the governor and judges, who, by another still recent innovation, received their salaries directly from the Crown.
Thus two departments of the Provincial Government - the judicial and the executive, including the council and the military - were the mere registrars and instruments of the king's will; while the third, if it consented to assume the rôle to which it had been assigned, was more insignificant for good than either.
Heretofore the people of the Colonies had been alarmed by measures of Parliament, which, not otherwise oppressive, were taken in violation of their privileges, either under the charter or as English subjects. They had detected, in the occasional exercise of powers which infringed upon colonial rights, the insidious design of overthrowing them altogether. Now the very citadel of all right was attacked, not by veiled advances, nor by sapping hid- den foundations, but by bold and crushing assaults upon its most jealously-guarded defences.
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Thanks to the prescient leadership which had kept Massachu- setts alive to the impending danger, she was ready to meet it when it came. The excitement, with the news of the obnoxious acts of Parliament, spread inward from the capital, and everywhere roused the same spirit of indignation and determined resistance. In every direction, nothing was heard of but meetings and patriotic resolu- tions. May 12, -two days after the publication of the Port-bill, - the delegates of eight neighboring towns, summoned by the Bos- ton committee, met at the selectmen's room in Faneuil Hall, and adopted spirited measures to unite the colonies in defence of the common liberties ; 1 and it was, perhaps, to a missive sent out by this little assemblage, that the petition for the first Pittsfield town- meeting held in this emergency alludes. The petition, however, was dated on the 24th of June; and, early in that month, rough drafts of the regulating acts, and news of their probable passage, were received by the Boston committee, and dispersed over the country with so good effect, that, on the 20th, "The Boston Ga- zette " was able to pronounce " the aspect of affairs highly favor- able to American liberties " .. " the whole continent seeming inspired by one soul, and that a rigorous and determined one." 2 It was due partly to its remoteness from the capital, and partly, doubtless, to the still potent Tory influence, that Pittsfield manifest- ed a dilatory spirit that never again appeared in her patriotic coun- cils. But, on the 24th, a petition was presented to the selectmen, requesting them to convene a town-meeting, " to act and do what the town think proper respecting the circular letter sent out by the town of Boston and other towns in this Province; and such other matters as the town shall think proper in regard to the invaded liberties and privileges of this country."
This petition was signed by James Easton, John Strong, Ezekiel Root, Oliver Root, Timothy Childs, John Brown, Matthew Wright, David Noble, Daniel Weller, and James Noble; and the select- men to whom it was addressed were David Bush, William Francis, Dan Cadwell, Eli Root, and Israel Dickinson. The warrant for a town-meeting on Thursday, the 30th of June, was signed by all the selectmen except Cadwell; 3 and it was accordingly held, Josiah Wright presiding as moderator.
1 Frothingham's Life of Warren, p. 301.
2 Frothingham's Warren, p. 333.
3 David Bush had scruples as to taking up arms against the king, to whom he had, as a militia captain, sworn allegiance; but he acted, generally, with the
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The first action taken was to appoint " a standing committee to correspond with the correspondent committees of this and other Provinces; " and it was thus constituted : Rev. Thomas Allen, Deacon James Easton, Mr. John Brown, Deacon Josiah Wright, Mr. John Strong, Capt. David Bush, Lieut. David Noble.
The meeting then adopted the "Worcester Covenant," - the most stringent form of the solemn league and covenant, by which individuals bound themselves, and towns their citizens, not to purchase or use any goods, the production of Great Britain or her West-Indian Colonies, or which had been imported through her companies trading to the East; and, generally, agreed to act together in resisting the aggressions of the mother country. Dea. James Easton, John Brown, and John Strong were chosen dele- gates to a county congress,1 to be held at Stockbridge, on the sixth of July ; and the meeting adjourned to the 11th, to await their action, but not without first resolving to keep the 14th as a day of solemn fasting and prayer.
Col. John Ashley of Sheffield presided in the congress at Stock- bridge ; and Theodore Sedgwick, then a young lawyer of the same town, was clerk.
Thomas Williams of Stockbridge, Peter Curtis of Lanesborough, John Brown of Pittsfield, Mark Hopkins of Great Barrington, and Theodore Sedgwick, were appointed to consider the obnoxious acts of Parliament, and " report their sense of them." Whatever their report was, - and it was certainly patriotic, -it was unani- mously adopted.
Whigs, and once or twice took the field, in cases of alarm. Dan Cadwell was a loyalist of the better sort, and seems not to have lost the esteem of the people, who elected him to town-offices, and once to the Committee of Safety, during the war. The case of Ezekiel Root is a singular one. He was a very pronounced Tory in his conversation, and even went so far as to name his children for the British commanders; but all his recorded acts are on the Whig side, as in signing the above petition, in serving on the Committee of Safety, and in volunteering for Bennington and other fields. He was often elected to important town-offices, and once at least by the extreme radicals to represent them in county congress. In- deed, although both Mr. Cadwell and Capt. Root were sometimes disciplined for a too loud expression of their Toryism, - to the offence of sensitively patriotic ears, - it seems to have been regarded by the community as the eccentricity of worthy men, which would never stand seriously in the way of their duty. They certainly never lost the good will of a people who were not famed for charity towards political opponents.
1 Assemblies of town delegates were then styled indifferently congresses, con- ventions, or committees.
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The following delegates were appointed to draft " an agreement to be recommended to the towns of the county for the non-con- sumption of British manufactures :" Timothy Edwards, Esq., of Stockbridge, Dr. William Whiting of Great Barrington, Dr. Lemuel Barnard of Sheffield, Dr. Erastus Sergeant of Stockbridge, and Deacon James Easton. And they reported the subjoined league and covenant, which was unanimously adopted, “paragraph by paragraph."
LEAGUE AND COVENANT.
WHEREAS the Parliament of Great Britain have, of late, undertaken to give and grant away our money without our knowledge or consent; and, in order to compel us to a servile submission to the above measures, have proceeded to block up the harbor of Boston; also have, or are about to vacate the charter, and repeal certain laws of this Province heretofore enacted by the General Court and confirmed to us by the King and his predecessors : therefore, as a means to obtain a speedy redress of the above grievances, we do solemnly and in good faith covenant and engage with each other : -
1st, That we will not import, purchase, or consume, or suffer any person for, by, or under us, to import, purchase, or consume, in any manner what- ever, any goods, wares, or manufactures which shall arrive in America from Great Britain from and after the first day of October next, or such other time as shall be agreed upon by the American Congress; nor any goods which shall be ordered from thence from and after this day until our charter and constitutional rights shall be restored, or until it shall be determined by the major part of our brethren in this and the neighboring Colonies, that a non-importation or non-consumption agreement will not have a tendency to effect the desired end, and until it shall be apparent that a non-importation or non-consumption agreement will not be entered into by the majority of this and the neighboring Colonies- except such articles as the said General Congress of North America shall advise to import and consume.
2d, We do further covenant and agree, that we will observe the most strict obedience to all constitutional laws and authority, and will at all times exert ourselves to the utmost for the discouragement of all licentiousness, and suppressing all disorderly mobs and riots.
31, We will exert ourselves, as far as in us lies, in promoting peace, love, and unanimity among each other; and, for that end, we engage to avoid all unnecessary lawsuits whatever.
4th, As a strict and proper adherence to the non-importation and non- consumption agreement will, if not seasonably provided against, involve us in many difficulties and inconveniences, we do promise and agree, that we will take the most prudent care for the raising of sheep, and for the manufactur-
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ing all such cloths as shall be most useful and necessary; and also for the raising of flax, and the manufacturing of linen ; further, that we will by every prudent method endeavor to guard against all those inconvenienees which might otherwise arise from the foregoing agreement.
5th, That if any person shall refuse to sign this, or a similar covenant, or, after having signed it, shall not adhere to the real intent and meaning thereof, he or they shall be treated by us with all the neglect they shall justly deserve, particularly by omitting all commercial dealings with them.
6th, That if this, or a similar covenant, shall, after the first day of August next, be offered to any trader or shop-keeper in this county, and he or they shall refuse to sign the same for the space of forty-eight hours, that we will from thenceforth purchase no article of British manufacture or East-India goods from him or them until such time as he or they shall sign this or a similar covenant.
It was further resolved that the delegates should severally rec- ommend the distressed circumstances of the poor of Charlestown and Boston to the charity of their constituents, and that their contributions should be " remitted in the fall in fat cattle."
Pittsfield, at its adjourned meeting, voted that "the county covenant should be esteemed similar to the Worcester."
The record of its donations " in fat cattle " is not preserved ; but in the town-archives is the following receipt : -
BOSTON, Nov. 30, 1774.
Received from the town of Pittsfield, by the hand of James Easton (in cash) a donation of six pounds, twelve shillings, lawful money, for the relief and support of the poor sufferers in the town of Boston, by means of the Boston Port-bill.
By order and in behalf of the Committee of Donations.
ALEX. HOGSDEN, Clerk.1 £6,12,0.
The meeting of the 11th had a peculiar termination ; being " dissolved, except in reference to the general Congress," but, as to that, adjourned to the third Monday in October. The first Continental Congress was to meet on the first of September; and the people, looking eagerly to its wisdom for guidance, feared that in the interval the new laws would take effect to prevent the call- ing of a new meeting to consider its advice. The omnipotence of
1 This donation was also acknowledged in " The Boston Gazette," Dee. 5, and with it a private contribution of twelve shillings from Deacon Easton.
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Parliament was fairly matched by the vitality of an adjourned town-meeting. That any thing, calling itself law, could intervene to prevent their re-assembling with unimpaired powers under a fair and regular adjournment, was beyond the comprehension of New- England townsmen.
But events crowded responsibilities upon Massachusetts patriots that would not wait the advice of Continental wisdom. The Regulating Act, and that " for the more impartial administration of justice," - bitterly nick-named "The Murder Act," - were, early in August, known to have received the royal signature, and their promulgation was daily expected.1
Popular resistance to the organization of the courts under the new acts was threatened in many counties. Worcester was ablaze ; and " a flame sprang up at the extremity of the Province" which Gov. Gage attributed to the machinations of the Bos- ton committee, and especially to a letter, a copy of which fell into his hands. "The popular rage," wrote his Excellency immediately after the events we are about to relate, "is very high in Berkshire, and makes its way rapidly to the rest." 2
"'And all," thought the bewildered governor, " from that pesti- lent Boston clique "! As though the spark were more essential to the flame than the fuel, or kindled that which was not prepared for it.
It was true, however, that the patriotic rage of Berkshire was fed by the advice and appeals sent abroad by the same men who, at Boston, were troublesome to Gage and his master. It is true, too, that the people " at the extremity of the Province," intending to act in co-operation with their brethren at the east, placed them- selves, as far as it was necessary for that purpose, under the same great and wise leadership. At this particular juncture, we have their own authority for saying that they "acted in conformity with the advice of the wisest men in the Colony." 3 And it adds to, rather than diminishes, the glory of the Berkshire fathers, that, when unity was essential to success, the step taken by them, in advance of the other counties, was part of the great plan by which zeal tempered with discretion made up the issues of the Revolution.
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