The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 8

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III > Part 8

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Copies of this Short Narrative were sent at once to England, but the remainder of the edi- tion was not published, for fear of giving “an undue bias to the minds of the jury," till after the trial, when Additional Observations, of twelve pages, were added to it. These were likewise published separately. Both of these documents were reprinted in New York in 1849, and again at Albany in 1870, in Mr. Kidder's History of the Boston Massacre. In this supplemental pub lication it was intimated that the friends of Government had sent despatches " home " "to represent the town in a disadvantageous light." It is certain that a tract did appear shortly in London, called : A fair Account of the late

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

fifth of March was observed until the peace of 1783,1 when the Fourth of July celebration was substituted by the town authorities. Unquestionably the influence of the Boston massacre upon the growing sentiment of inde- pendence throughout the colonies was very great.2 Public opinion was immediately shaped by it, and the remaining ties binding Amcrica to Britain were everywhere visibly relaxed. "On that night," wrote John

unhappy Disturbance at Boston in New England ; extracted from the Depositions that have been made concerning it by persons of all parties ; with an Appendix containing some affidavits and other evidences relating to this affair, not mentioned in the Narrative of it that has been published at Bos- ton. London : printed for B. White, in Fleet

The Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5.0 1770, in which. Mess~Sam ' Gray, Sam! Maverick James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks Patrick Carr were Killed. si others Wounded two of them Mortally

American War is also at variance with the town's narrative.

Of the later historians Mr. Frothingham in the last of his papers on "The Sam Adams Regiments" (Atlantic Monthly, November, 1863), and in his Life of Warren, ch. vi., has given a very excellent account, " carefully collating the evidence that appears. to be authentic;" but he confesses it is vain to reconcile all state- ments. The events are also minutely described in Wells's Life of, Samuel Adams, i. 308. Bancroft, United States, vol. vi. ch. xliii., examines the evi- dence for provocation, and concludes Preston ordered the firing. He cites, through the chapter, his authorities. -ED.]

1 Orations were delivered on the successive anniversa- ries by Thomas Young, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Church, John Hancock, Joseph War- ren, Peter Thacher, Benjamin Hichborn, Jonathan W. Aus- tin, William Tudor, Jonathan Mason, Thomas Dawes, George R. Minot, and Thomas Welsh. [These, having been printed separately, were col- Jected and issued by Peter Edes in 1785, and reissued in 1807. There are accounts of them and their authors in Lor- ing's Hundred Boston Orators. Paul Revere took the occasion of the first anniversary of the massacre, in 1771, to rousc the sensibilities of the crowd by giving illuminated pictures of the cvent, with allegorical ac- companiments, at the windows of his house in North Square. Gazette, "were struck with solemn silence, and their countenances covered with a melancholy gloom."- ED.]

Lane; MDCCLXX. There is a copy in Harvard "The spectators," says the account in the College Library. It is the Government view of the massacre, and is duly fortificd by counter depositions, chiefly by officers and men of the garrison. IIutchinson has given his account of 2 [See the letter to Franklin in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., November, 1865. Also Sparks's Franklin, vii. 499. - ED.] it in his posthumous third volume, and Gordon in his first volume. Stedman's account in his

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

Adams long afterward, "the formation of American Independence was laid." "From that moment," said Mr. Webster on one occasion, " we may date the severance of the British empire."

On the very day of the Boston massacre Lord North brought in a bill to repeal the Townshend revenue act, with the exception of the preamble and the duty on tea, which were retained to signify the continued suprem- acy of Parliament. This proposal met with much opposition, but was finally carried, and approved by the king on April 12.

As the great principle at issue was not relinquished, this new measure of the Government gave but little satisfaction to the colonists. Trade, however, revived, and before the end of 1770 it was open in everything but tea.ª

In the month of September Hutchinson received a royal order in effect introducing martial law into Massachusetts, in so far as to compel him to give up the fortress to General Gage, or such officer as he might appoint. This order was in direct contravention of the charter of the province, which gave the command of the militia and the forts to the civil Governor. After a little hesitation Hutchinson decided to obey the order, and, without consulting the council, he at once handed over the Castle to Colonel Dal- rymple; and from that hour it remained in the possession of England until the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776. The Provincial Assembly, meeting at Cambridge for the third time, and keeping a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, entered a solemn protest against the new and in- supportable grievances under which they labored.2 At this time Franklin, Boston's honored son, was elected as the agent of Massachusetts to repre- sent her cause before the king.3 Certainly no better choice could have been made. In the fulness of his ripened powers, possessed of rare wisdom and integrity, and animated by a spirit of fervent patriotism, he discharged the grave duties of his position with conspicuous fidelity and zeal.

The next year was not marked by any very notable event. Hutchinson, who had now received his coveted commission as Governor, maintained a controversy with the Assembly upon several matters of legislation, and

1 The self-imposed restrictions adopted by the colonists in reference to foreign articles had pro- duced a great effect in checking extravagance, promoting domestic industry and economy, and opening to the people new sources of wealth. Home-made articles, which at first came into use from necessity, soon became fashionable. At Harvard College the graduating class of 1770 took their degrees in homespun.

2 [John Adams was now a representative from Boston, succeeding Bowdoin, who had gone into the Council. See John Adams's Works, ii. 233. " Although Sam Adams was now the master-mover, John Adams seems to have suc- ceeded to the post of legal adviser, which had been filled by Oxenbridge Thacher and James Otis." The four " Boston seats " were thus VOL. 111 .- 6.

filled by Cushing (the Speaker), Hancock, Sam Adams, and John Adams; and to show their influence the journals indicate that three, and sometimes all of them, were on every important committee for a session which was much con- cerned with political movements. John Adams was at this period a resident of Boston from April, 1768, to April, 1771 ; hut he still retained his office in Boston after removing his family to Braintree ; and again he established a home in Queen Street, opposite the Court House, in 1772 .- ED.]

3 [The choice of Franklin was made Oct. 24, 1770 ; his appointment, signed by Thomas Cush- ing, speaker, is among the Lee Papers, Univer- sity of Virginia. Sce Mr. Towle's chapter in Vol. II. - ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

arbitrarily insisted upon their meeting in Cambridge, until the opposition to it became so strong that he was obliged to consent to a removal to Boston.1 The House soon after censured the Governor for accepting a salary from the king in violation of the charter; and the popular indigna- tion was still further aroused when it became known that royal stipends were provided for the judges in the province. This led to a town-meeting (Oct. 28, 1772), at which an address to his Excellency was prepared, re- questing information of the truth of the report. The Governor declined to make public any of his official advices. Another petition was drafted at an adjourned meeting, requesting the Governor to convene the Assembly on the day to which it stood prorogued (December 2) ; and at the same time the meeting expressed its horror of the reported judicial establish- ment, as contrary not only to the charter but to the fundamental principles of common law. This petition also was rejected in a reply which was read several times at an adjourned meeting and voted " not satisfactory." It was then resolved that the inhabitants of Boston "have ever had and ought to have a right to petition the king, or his representative, for a re- dress of such grievances as they feel, or for preventing of such as they have reason to apprehend; and to communicate their sentiments to other towns." Adams now stood up and made that celebrated motion, which gave visible shape to the American Revolution, and endowed it with life and strength. The record2 says : -

" It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams that a committee of correspondence 3 be appointed, to consist of twenty-one persons, to state the rights of the colonists, and of this province in particular, as men and Christians, and as subjects ; and to communicate and publish the same to the several towns, and to the world, as the sense of this town, with the infringements and violations thereof that have been or from time to time may be made."

The motion was carried by a nearly unanimous vote; but some of the leading men were not prepared to serve on the committee. It was seen that the labors would be arduous, prolonged, and gratuitous; and although they did not oppose, neither did they cordially support a measure which was really greater than they imagined. The committee, however, was well

1 [The instructions of the town, May 25, 1772, to Cushing and the other representatives, are given in the Mass. Ilist. Soc. Proc., January, 1871, p. 9. The House later prepared an ad- dress of remonstrance to the king against taxa- tion without representation, and, July 14, 1772, it was despatched, signed by Cushing. An origi- nal is among the Lee Papers, in the University of Virginia. - ED.]

2 Boston Town Records, November, 1772.

8 [John Adams said that Sam Adams “invent- ed" the committee of correspondence. Froth- ingham, Life of Warren, p. 200. There has been some controversy about the origin of these com-

mittees ; but Bancroft, who has their papers, avers positively that Gordon's opinion (i. 312) of the idea originating with James Warren of Plymouth is erroneous. Bancroft's United States, vi. 428. Sec further, Wells's Samuel Adams, i. 509, ii. 62; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, pp. 284, 312, 327 ; Barry's Massachusetts, ii. 448, and other references in Winsor's Handbook, p. 20. The town's committee of correspondence must not be confounded with the Assembly's committee. See R. Frothingham in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Dec. 16, 1873. See earlier in this chapter for Mayhew's suggestion. See also Hutchinson. iii. 361 ; and Gordon, i. 314. -- ED }

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

LIEUT .- GOVERNOR ANDREW OLIVER.

constructed, with Adams and Warren and other citizens of well known character and the highest patriotism. Otis, though broken in health, was named chairman, as a compliment for his former services.

1 [This cut follows Copley's portrait of An- judge and mandamus councillor), and Chief-Jus- drew Oliver, owned by Dr. F. E. Oliver, by tice Peter Oliver. They had close family rela- whose kind permission it is copied. Perkins's Copley, p. 90. For his family connections see Letem Alwer Mr. Whitmore's chapter in Vol. II. p. 539, and his more extended genealogy of the Olivers in N. E. Ilist. and Geneal. Reg., April, 1865, p. tot. The two sons of Daniel Oliver (who died 1732, leaving a bequest to the town; see Vol.

And Olives

II. p. 539) were Andrew Oliver, the Lieut .- Gov- ernor (who died 1774, and was father of Andrew,

tions with Governor Hutchinson, for Andrew's second wife, Mary, was sister of Hutchinson's wife, the two being daughters of William San- ford; and Dr. Peter Oliver, son of the chief- justice, married Sarah, daughter of Governor Hutchinson. Andrew, the mandamus council- lor, married a sister of the second Judge Lynde, who presided at the massacre trials. The family of the Lieut .- Governor, by his second wife, were refugees with their uncle, the chief-justice. - ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

This committee of correspondence met the next day and chose William Cooper as clerk. By a unanimous vote they gave to each other the pledge of honor "not to divulge any part of the conversation June8. 17H By Order of the Comm Itee at their meetings to any person what- soever, excepting what the committee itself should make AfCorrespondence for Boston William Couper Unk, known."

The work to be done was divided

between them. Adams was appointed to prepare a statement of the rights of the colonists; Warren of the several violations of those rights; and Church was to draft a letter to the other towns.

On November 20 the report was presented at a legal meeting in Faneuil Hall. The statement of rights and of grievances, and the letter to the towns, were masterly presentations of the cause, and carried conviction throughout the province. Plymouth, Marblehead, Roxbury, and Cam- bridge responded at once to the call; and it was not long before commit- tees of correspondence were everywhere established. The other Colonies accepted the plan.1 Virginia saw in it the prospect of union throughout the continent. So did South Carolina. " An American Congress," wrote Samuel Adams to Arthur Lee (April 9, 1773), " is no longer the fiction of a political enthusiast." 2

In the spring of 1773 the East India Company, finding itself embarrassed from the excessive accumulation of teas in England, owing to the persistent refusal of American merchants to import them, applied to Parliament for assistance, and obtained an act empowering the Company to export teas to America without paying the ordinary duty in England. This would enable the Company to sell at such low rates that it was thought the colonists would purchase, even with the tax of threepence on the pound. Accord- ingly ships were laden with the article and despatched to Charleston, Phila- delphia, New York, and Boston, and persons were selected in each of these ports to act as consignees, or "tea commissioners" as they were called.

I [The report of the committee of correspond- ence, made Nov. 20, 1772, was, by order of the town, printed by Edes & Gill, as The Votes and Proceedings of the Frecholders and other Inhabi- tants. Frothingham, Warren, p. 211, etc., has much to show the effect this meeting was having throughout the colonies. - ED.]

2 Secret letters, written by Governor Hutch- inson and Lieut .- Governor Oliver to friends in England, favoring military intervention and otherwise injuring the cause of the colonists, were discovered about this time through the

agency of Franklin, and forwarded to the Patri- ots in Boston. The result was a formal petition to the king for the removal of the odious func- tionaries. These letters were printed in Boston in 1773, and in London in 1774. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1878. [See further on this matter, with a note on the authorities, Vol. 11. p. 86 John Adams saw them as early as March 22, 1773. (Works, ii. 318.) The letters were first pub- lished in Boston, June 16, 1773. Thomas Newell's "diary" in Proc., October, 1877, P. 339 .- ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

When this news became known, all America was in a flame. The people were not to be duped by any such appeal to their cupidity. They had taken their stand upon a principle, and not until that was recognized would they withdraw their opposition. It seemed strange that England had not discerned that fact long before.

Nowhere was the feeling more intense on the subject than in Boston. The consignees were prominent men and friends of the Governor.1 On the night of November I they were each one summoned to appear on the following Wednesday noon, at Liberty Tree, to resign their commissions. Handbills were also posted over the town, inviting citizens to meet at the same place.2 On the day appointed, the bells rang from eleven to twelve o'clock, and the town-crier summoned the people to meet at Liberty Tree, which 'was decorated with a large flag. About five hundred assembled, including many of the leading Patriots. As the consignees failed to appear, a committee was appointed to wait upon them and request their resigna- tion ; and, in case they refused, to present a resolve to them declaring them to be enemies of their country. The committee, accompanied by many of the people, repaired to Clarke's warehouse and had a brief parley with the consignees, who refused to resign their trust.

A legal town-meeting was now called for, and the selectmen issued a war- rant for one to be held on the fifth.3 It was largely attended, and Hancock 4 was chosen moderator. A series of eight resolves was adopted, similar to those which had been recently passed in Philadelphia, and extensively circu- lated through the press. The consignees were again, through a committee, asked to resign; and again they refused, and the meeting adjourned.

On the seventeenth a vessel arrived, announcing that the tea-ships were on the way to Boston and might be hourly expected. Another legal meet- ing was immediately notified for the next day, at which Hancock was again the moderator. Word was sent to the consignees that it was the desire of the town that they would give a final answer whether they would resign their appointment. The answer came that they could not comply with the re-

1 Two of them were his sons, Elisha and Thomas; the others were Richard Clarke and sons, Benj. Faneuil, Jr., and Joshua Winslow.

2 Draper's Gazette of November 3 contained the following : -

"To the Freemen of this and the neighboring towns :

"GENTLEMEN, - Vou are desired to meet at Liberty Tree this day at twelve o'clock at noon ; then and there to hear the persons, to whom the tea shipped by the East India Company is consigned, make a public resignation of their office as consignees, upon oath ; and also swear that they will reship any teas that may be consigned to them by said Company, by the first vessel sailing for London.

" Boston, Nov. 3, 1773. O. C., Secretary.

"( Show us the man that dare take down this."

Several of these handbills are in possession of the Mass. Hist. Society.

8 This warrant is now in the possession of Judge Mellen Chamberlain.

4 [Revere's portrait of Hancock is given in the text. It appeared in the Royal Amer. Mag., March, 1774, which contains also Hancock's massacre oration of that year. On Nov. 11, 1773. Hutchinson had directed Hancock, as colonel of the cadcis, to hold them in readiness for service. Frothingham, Life of Warren, p. 249, mentions the original of this order as being in the hands of the late Col. J. W. Sever. A curious engrav- ing of " Ifis Exey John Hancock, late President of the American Congress, J. Norman, sc.," ap- pearcd in An Impartial History of the War in America, Boston, 178, vol. i. On the Hancock papers (most of which are printed in the Amer- ican Archives) sce Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, January, ISIS, p. 271 and Deceni- ber, 1857; and Vol. IV. of this History, p. 5, note. - En.1

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

quest.1 Upon this the meeting dissolved, without passing any vote or expressing any opinion. "This sudden dissolution," says Hutchinson,2 "struck more terror into the consignees than the most minatory resolves."

The whole matter was now understood to be in the hands of the com- mittee of correspondence, who constituted the virtual government of the province.

On Sunday, November 28, the ship "Dartmouth," Captain Hall, after a sixty days' passage, appeared in the harbor, with one hundred and four-

MAGNA

CHARTAL

The Hon. JOHN HANCOCK. Efq

teen chests of tea.8 There was no time to be lost. Sunday though it was, the selectmen and the committee of correspondence held meetings to take immediate action against the entry of the tea. The consignees had gone to the Castle; but a promise was obtained from Francis Rotch, the owner of the vessel, that it should not be entered until Tuesday. The towns around Boston4 were then invited to attend a mass meeting in Faneuil Hall the next morning.5 Thousands were ready to respond to

I The answer is given in Frothingham's Life of Warren, p. 251.

2 History, iii. 426.

8 [The next morning, twenty-ninth, the vessel came up and anchored off Long Wharf (Massa- chusetts Gazette, November 29). The journal of the "Dartmouth " is in Traits of the Tea-Party, p. 259. - ED.

4 Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, Cam- bridge, and Charlestown.

5 The following placard appeared on Monday morning : -

" FRIENDS ! BRETHREN ! COUNTRYMEN !

" That worst of plagues, the detested TEA, shipped for this port by the East India Company, is now arrived in this barbor. The hour of destruction, or manly opposition to

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

this summons, and the meeting was obliged to adjourn to the Old South. Boston, it was said, had never seen so large a gathering .? It was unani- mously resolved, upon the motion of Samuel Adams, that the tea should be sent back, and that no duty should be paid on it. " The only way to get rid of it," said Young, "is to throw it overboard." At an adjourned meeting in the afternoon, Mr. Rotch entered his protest against the pro- ceedings ; but the meeting, without a dissenting voice, passed the signifi- cant vote that if Mr. Rotch entered the tea he would do so at his peril. Captain Hall was also cautioned not to allow any of the tea to be landed. To guard the ship during the night, a volunteer watch of twenty-five persons was appointed, under Captain Edward Proctor. "Out of great tenderness" to the consignees, the meeting adjourned to Tuesday morning, to allow fur- ther time for consultation. The answer, which was given jointly, then was that it was not in the power of the consignees to send the tea back; but they were ready to store it till they could hear from their constituents. Before action could be taken on this reply, Greenleaf, the Sheriff of Suffolk, entered with a proclamation from the Governor, charging the inhabitants with violating the good and wholesome laws of the province, and " warning, exhorting, and requiring them, and each of them there unlawfully assembled, forthwith to disperse."2 This communication was received with hisses and a unanimous vote not to disperse. At this juncture, Copley the artist, son- in-law of Clarke, tendered his services as mediator between the people and the consignees, and was allowed two hours for the purpose ; but after going to the Castle he returned with a report which was voted to be "not in the least degree satisfactory." In the afternoon, Rotch and Hall, yielding to the demands of the hour, agreed that the tea should return, without touching land or paying duty. A similar promise was obtained from the owners of two other tea-ships, which were daily expected; and resolutions were passed against such merchants as had even " inadvertently " imported tea while subject to duty. Armed patrols were appointed for the night; and six post- riders were selected to alarm the neighboring towns, if necessary. A report of the proceedings of the meeting was officially transmitted to every seaport in Massachusetts; also to New York and Philadelphia, and to England.3

In a short time the other tea-ships, the " Eleanor " and the " Beaver," arrived and, by order of the committee, were moored near the " Dartmouth" at Griffin's Wharf,4 that one guard might answer for all. Under the revenue laws the ships could not be cleared in Boston with the tea on board, nor

the machinations of tyranny, stares you in the face. Every friend to his country, to himself and posterity, is now called upon to meet at Faneuil Hall at nine o'clock THIS DAY (at which time the bells will ring), to make a united and suc- cessful resistance to this last, worst, and most destructive measure of Administration."

Boston Gazette, Nov. 29, 1773; Wells's Life of S. Adams, ii. 110. [The original draft of the call to the committees of the neighboring towns, in Warren's hand, is owned by Mr. Bancroft. Frothingham's Warren, p. 255 .- ED.]

1 Jonathan Williams was chosen moderator ; and the business of the meeting was conducted by Adams, Hancock, Young, Molineux, and Warren.

2 Hutchinson, Massachusetts Bay, vii. 432.

% For accounts of this meeting see Boston Post-Boy, News-Letter, and especially the Gazette for Dec. 6, 1773.

4 Now Liverpool Wharf, near the fool of Pearl Street.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

could they be entered in England; and, moreover, on the twentieth day from their arrival they would be liable to seizure. Whatever was done, therefore, must be done soon. The Patriot leaders were all sincerely anxious to have the tea returned to London peaceably, and they left nothing undone to accomplish this object. On the eleventh of December the owner of the " Dartmouth " was summoned before the committee, and asked why he had not kept his agreement to send his ship back with the tea. He replied that it was out of his power to do so. "The ship must go," was the answer. "The people of Boston and the neighboring towns absolutely require and expect it."1 Hutchinson, in the meantime, had taken measures to prevent her sailing. No vessel was allowed to put to sea without his permit; the guns at the Castle were loaded, and Admiral Montagu had sent two war- ships to guard the passages out of the harbor.

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630-1880, Vol. III, Part 8

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897 Publication date: 1880-1881 Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood Number of Pages: 770

Author: Jewett, Clarence F; Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897
Publication date: 1880-1881
Publisher: Boston : J.R. Osgood
Number of Pages: 770