USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Walks & talks about historic Boston > Part 10
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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 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
Their legality was questioned, and the matter brought be-
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fore a Court held in the Old Town Hall in Boston, in Feb- ruary, 1761. The fiery James Otis denounced these Writs as "the worst instruments of arbitrary power, the most destruc- tive of English liberty and the fundamental law." Referring to the arbitrary power of the writs, he said: "A man's house is his castle, and whilst he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince in his palace. This writ, if it should be declared legal, would totally annihilate this privilege. Custom House officers may enter our houses when they please : we are commanded to permit this entry. Their menial servants may enter, may break locks, bars and everything in their way, and whether they break through malice, or revenge, no man, no Court may inquire."
These powerful words of James Otis stirred the hearts of the people throughout the provinces. The speech and the event constitute the opening scene of resistance in America to British oppression. When the orator exclaimed, "To my dying day I will oppose with all the power and faculties God has given me all such instruments of slavery on one hand and of villainy on the other as this writ of assistance," the inde- pendence of the Colonies was then proclaimed. When Otis left the Town Hall that day he was greeted with loud huzzas from the populace, who threw up their hats in token of their delight, and from the day of that remarkable event, this un- flinching patriot. then thirty-six years of age, led the patriots in the Massachusetts Assembly, and the famous Tory leader, Timothy Ruggles, remarked: "A faction will arise out of this that will shake the province to its foundation."
Governor Bernard of Massachusetts cautioned the new Legislature not to heed "declamatory leading to promote a suspicion of the civil rights of the people being in danger. Such harangues might well suit in the reign of Charles, the First, but in the time of the Georges, they are groundless and unjust." At that very moment, this double dealing, perfidi- ous official, was secretly promoting the scheme of the Lon- don Board of Trade for taking away the Colonial Charters. Mr. Otis was not permitted to live to see the formal declara- tion of independence by the Continental Congress. His ca- reer was ended before the tempest of the Revolution burst upon the land, by a blow from a bludgeon, in the hands of a Custom House Officer whom he had offended. The blow caused a concussion of the brain, which clouded his brilliant intellect for the remainder of his days. From this time the
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Colonies prepared for the impending conflict with the British ministry, with faith in their ultimate triumph because their cause was just. In March, 1765, Parliament, by a unanimous vote, decided that they had a right to tax America without representation. The Massachusetts Assembly retorted by vot- ing that the imposition of taxes and duties by the Parliament of Great Britain upon a people who are not represented in the House of Commons is absolutely irreconcilable with their rights. That no man can justly take the property of another without his consent. This was the universal sentiment throughout the colonies. "If we are taxed without our con- sent, if we are not represented in the body taxing us, and we must submit, then we are slaves." The King, his Min- isters and Parliament having decided to tax America, the Stamp Act was to be the test. It provided that every skin or piece of vellum, or parchment, or sheet, or piece of paper used for legal purposes, such as bills, bonds, notes, leases, policies of insurance, marriage licenses, and a great many other documents, in order to be valid, in courts of law, was to be stamped, and sold by public officers, appointed for the purpose at prices which levied a stated tax on every such document. The bill made offences against its provisions, cognizable in the Courts of Admiralty. To the odiousness of the tax itself was added the provision for its collection by arbitrary power, under the decrees of British judges. When the Stamp Act, framed to proper order by a Commis- sioner, came up for debate, Charles Townshend, the most eloquent man in the House of Commons, in the absence of Pitt, made a speech in defence of it, which was concluded in the following words: "And now, those Americans, chil- dren planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence un- til they have grown to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to retrieve us from the heavy weight of that bur- den which we lie under?" Colonel Barre, who had shared with Wolfe the dangers and fatigues of the campaign against Quebec, and who, having lived in America. knew the people well, instantly sprang to his feet, and with eyes flashing with indignation and with outstretched arm, deliv- ered an unpremeditated phillipic of extraordinary power, in which most wholesome truths were uttered. He exclaimed with scorn, "They planted by your care !" No, your oppres- sion planted them in America! They fled from your
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tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable, and among others to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take it upon me to say, the most formidable of any people on the face of God's carth : yet, actuated by principles of trie Eng- lish liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country from the hands of those who should have been friends. They 'nour- ished by your indulgence.' They grew up by your neglect of them! As soon as you began to care for them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputy of deputies of some member of this House, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and prey upon them ; men, whose behavior, on many occasions has caused the blood of those Sons of Liberty' to recoil within them; men, promoted to the highest seats of justice ; some, who to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to justice in their own. They pro- tected by your arms.' They have nobly taken up arms in your defence, have exerted a valor amid their constant and laborious industry, for the defence of a country, whose frontier was drenched in blood, whilst the interior parts yielded all its little savings to your emoluments. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this House may be, I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subject the king has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them if they should be violated."
There was silence in the House of Commons as Colonel Barre sat down, and amazement depicted on the faces of the members, for several minutes after this bold and impas- sioned address. But in the opinion of those members the British Government was strong and the Colonies were weak. "Might made right," and the bill passed the House, Feb- ruary 27. 1765, by a vote of 250 yeas to 50 nays. There was practically no opposition in the House of Lords. that aris- tocratic body had no sympathy with the common people of the American Colonies. On March 25, the King signed the bill and it became a law. A few days afterwards the mon-
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arch was crazy. It was the first of four attacks of the dreadful malady of insanity which affected him during his long life and finally deprived him of the power to rule. The night the act was passed, Benjamin Franklin, who was in London, wrote Charles Thompson, afterwards Secretary of the Continental Congress, "The sun of liberty is set ; the Americans must light the lamps of industry and economy." The news of the passage of the Act and Colonel Barre's elo- quent defence of the Americans, reached the Colonies at the same time. Barre was applauded and his address printed and widely circulated. The Act was everywhere denounced by the people who gathered in excited groups in all the cities and villages. The pulpit thundered condemnation in the name of a righteous God, the newpapers teemed with sedition essays, and the Colonial Assemblies rang with re- bellious utterances. The Stamp Act was to go into effect November 1, 1765. The patriots of Boston determined that the Stamp Distributors should not exercise the duties of their office. Andrew Oliver. Secretary of the Province of Massachusetts, was appointed "Stamp Master" of Boston The Sons of Liberty showed their resentment by hanging him in effigy on the Liberty Tree, which stood on what is now the corner of Washington and Essex Streets. There a great multitude gathered in the early twilight. In their presence it was taken down, laid on a bier. and borne by the populace through the streets to the Old State House under the Coun- cil Chamber. The crowd shouted, "Death to the man who offers a piece of stamped paper to sell," and rushing towards Oliver's house, they there beheaded the effigy, and doubt- less would have killed Oliver could they have found him, but he made his escape. He believed his life was in danger and resigned his office the next morning. The cowardly Governor, Bernard, after issuing a proclamation for the dis- covery and arrest of the rioters, fled to Castle William. Massachusetts invited all the Colonies to send delegates to a convention to be held in New York and twenty-seven delegates met representing nine Colonies. Timothy Rug- gles of Boston, a rank Tory, presided over the Convention, and John Cotton was appointed Secretary. That body con- tinued in session fourteen days and the whole subject of the rights and grievances of the Colonies was fully dis- cussed. John Conger of New York was deputied to write a "Declaration of Rights," Robert R. Livingston of New
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York, prepared the "Petition to the King," and James Otis of Massachusetts wrote a "Memorial to Both Houses of Parliament." These were adopted and have ever been re- garded as able state papers. They embodied the principles that governed the men of the Revolution, that broke out ten years later. On November 1, 1765, the "Stamp Act" became a law in America. Everyone saw that in the state of the public mind at that time, the enforcement was an impossi- bility, yet it was in existence, for as a law of the British realm, no legal instrument of writing was valid, without a stamp, but on November Ist, there was no person com- missioned to sell a stamp, for all appointed had resigned. The Governors had taken an oath to see that the law was enforced, but what could they do, the people were their masters.
"The first of November was Friday. "It was black Friday in America. The morning was ushered in by the tolling of bells. Minute guns were fired as if a funeral procession was passing. Flags were hoisted at half mast, as if there had been a national bereavement. There were orations and ser- mons appropriate to the occasion. The press spoke out boldly. As none but stamped paper was legal and the peo- ple were determined not to use it, all business was sus- pended. The courts were closed, marriages ceased. vessels lay idle in the harbor, social and commercial relations were paralyzed. But the Americans held in their hands a power- ful retaliatory measure which they did not hesitate to use.
The commerce between England and America had be- come very important. Some New York merchants proposed to strike a deadly blow at that trade. They entered into an agreement not to import from England certain enumerated articles after the Ist of January next ensuing. The mer- chants of Boston and Philadelphia entered into a similar agreement. and retail merchants agreed not to buy or sell goods imported after January Ist. In this way England was made to feel some of the miseries she had inflicted upon the Colonies. The patriotic people co-operated with the merchants.
Domestic manufactures were commenced in almost every family. Forty or fifty young ladies, calling themselves "Daughters of Liberty," met at the house of Rev. Dr. More- head of Boston. with their spinning wheels and spun two hundred and thirty skeins of yarn in a day. There were up-
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wards of one hundred spinners in Dr. Morchead's Society.
"Within a month," wrote a gentleman from Newport, Rhode Island, some time afterwards, "four hundred and eighty-seven yards of cloth and thirty-six pairs of stockings have been spun and knit in the family of James Nixon in this town." The wealthiest vied with the middling classes in economy and wore clothing of their own manufacture. That wool might not be scarce the use of sheep flesh for food was discouraged. In these ways was one great source of British prosperity dried up. From this time on when firm but respectful appeals went to the British ministry, they were seconded by the manufacturers and merchants of England, and their potential voices were heeded. The King, at least, became dissatisfied with Greenville's leader- ship and failure. He retired him and William Pitt was called to the premiership. Before accepting the offer, Pitt wanted to know what line of policy was to be pursued. The King vielded much. consenting very reluctantly to a change in the American Stamp Act. This Act was again brought into the House of Commons and there was an ani- mated discussion over it. Pitt, who was in his place in the House, with his legs swathed in flannels, arose and leaning upon his crutches, made one of the most remarkable speeches ever heard in the House of Commons.
He proposed an absolute, total and immediate repeal of the Stamp Act, while at the same time declaring England's absolute sovereignty over the Colonies. The proposition was warmly seconded by Edmund Burke in a brilliant and eloquent address. A repeal bill was introduced and on the 18th of March, 1766, it passed both Houses of Parliament, notwithstanding a stout opposition to it, in the House of Lords, and the bill was signed by the King. In London the repeal was hailed with great joy and satisfaction as the merchants and manufacturers, now hoped for a revival of their prosperous trade with America.
Pitt became the "lion" of the hour, with the populace, but was caricatured and maligned by the British aristocrats.
When the news of the repeal reached America there was great rejoicing. In Boston the patriots gathered under the "Liberty Tree" and passed laudatory resolutions to all who had participated in bringing about this repeal. "A day was set apart for celebrating the event. It was ushered in with great rejoicing. "At one o'clock in the morning after the
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news had come, the bell in the tower of the Hollis Street Church began ringing: then the bells in Christ Church an- swered and soon every bell in town was ringing. Guns were fired, and drums beat, and bands of music were playing loudly before two o'clock. There wasn't much sleep for anybody that, morning. The people hung flags from the steeples and tops of houses. They kept up the excitement all day, and when night came houses were illuminated and fireworks were set off on the Common, more splendid than any one before had known."
Lanterns were hung on the Paddock Elms in front of Major Paddock's house, much to that old Tory's indignation, and he offered a reward for the names of the men who had desecrated his "pets."
At the suggestion of one of Boston's fair ladies, the liberal citizens raised funds and ransomed and set at liberty every prisoner for debt in the jails of the New England metropolis that they might participate in the general joy.
"Rich merchants threw open their doors and the town gave itself up to a general celebration. John Hancock, the ardent patriot, opened a pipe of wine in front of his fine mansion on Beacon Street. The local government dined at the Prov- ince House, and toasts were drunk to the health of the King. William Pitt and Parliament. Every year afterward for sev- eral years, March 18th, the date of the repeal, was celebrated by the people. The people would meet in Liberty Hall under the tree, show the British flag from the flag staff which ran up through the tree, sing songs, hear speeches, make long processions, and separate more determined than ever to stand up for their liberty.
The Boston Massacre
"Well-fated shades! let no unmanly tear From pity's eye disdain your honored bier ; Lost to their view, surviving friends may mourn, Yet o'er thy pile celestial flames shall burn. Long as in freedom's cause the wise contend, Dear to your country shall your fame extend ; While to the world the lettered stone shall tell How Caldwell, Attucks, Gray and Maverick fell." Fleet's Post, March 12, 1770.
The Stamp Act was repealed, but the Colonists soon per- ceived that it was only a truce in the war of the British Par- liament upon their liberty. A series of obnoxious measures followed which kindled anew their indignation. Although Pitt, the friend of America was again called to the Ministry. in his shattered health, he seemed to have failed in sagacity. He was unable to control the Cabinet, which was made up of discordant material. The majority of them were friends of the King and thoroughly in sympathy with his coercive policy towards America. The British troops sent to the Colonies still remained there and they had power under the law to break into houses and search for deserters. The Royal Gov- ernor of New York went so far as to demand of the Assem- bly an apprehension for the subsistence of the King's in- struments of oppression. In the absence of Pitt, Charles Townshend became the ruling spirit of the British Cabinet. He co-operated with Lord Grenville, a bitter enemy of Amer- ica, in devising new schemes of taxation, and they formed a bill on this basis, which was adopted by Parliament. This bill levied duties on tea, glass, paper, painters' colors and other articles used by the Colonists. Another bill provided for a Board of Revenue Commissioners, with headquarters in Boston, to be independent of Colonial legislation. The New York Assembly was forbidden to perform any legislative act whatever, until they should comply with the mutiny act in regard to the subsistence of troops. These bills were direct
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blows against the liberties of the Americans and all the Colo- nial Assemblies protested against them. Meantime the French Government was keeping a close watch on this struggle be- tween Parliament and the Colonists, ready to give their aid to the Americans at the opportune moment. As an offset to the direct tax bill the Non-Importation Societies, which had been discontinued, were reorganized all over the Colonies, and their powerful machinery, once in operation, almost de-
The Boston Massaere.
stroyed the commerce with England. While the Americans stood in an attitude of firm resolve, not to submit to any schemes for their enslavement, they counselled moderation and condemned any but legal, just and dignified measures. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania, the author of some very brilliant letters to the Colonists, said at this time, "Our cause is a cause of the highest dignity; it is nothing less than to maintain the liberty, which Heaven itself hath made us free. I hope it will not be disgraced in any colony by a single rash step. We have constitutional methods of seeking redress and they are the best methods." Other patriotic leaders gave similar advice. The people were urged to stand on the de-
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fence and not to be the aggressors. In short they would make the King, his Ministers and the British Parliament, the real revolutionists. The King was determined that the Colonists should render implicit obedience and to enforce that, a large military force should be sent to America. By letters and petitions to Parliament and to distinguished men in England, the Colonists endeavored to inform and convince the English people of the justice of their cause. Many of these docu- ments were the production of the teeming brain and facile pen of Samuel Adams, one of the soundest, purest, most inflexible and most incorruptible men of his time, poor in purse but rich in principle. Governor Hutchinson said of him: "He is of such an obstinate and inflexible disposition that he could never be conciliated by any office or gift whatever." William Living- ston, an eminent lawyer of New York, wrote at this time (1768) : "Liberty, Religion and Science are on the wing to these shores. The finger of God points out a mighty empire to your sons. The land we possess is the gift of Heaven to our fathers. The day dawns on which the foundation of this mighty empire is to be laid, by the establishment of a regular American Constitution. Before seven years roll over our heads the first stone must be laid." And so it proved for in 1775, the fulfilment began in earnest. The Revenue Commis- sioners, and the treacherous Governor Bernard, sent letters to General Gage in New York requesting him to hold a regi- ment in readiness to send to Boston to assist the Crown Offi- cers in executing the laws. A frigate and a few smaller ves- sels of war were ordered to Boston harbor for the same pur- pose. This was regarded by the Americans, as a virtual dec- laration of war, yet they kept the sword of resistance in the scabbard as long as possible. In June, the sloop "Liberty," belonging to John Hancock, whom the Crown Officers cor- dially hated, because of his opposition to them, was seized un- der peculiar circumstances. She had come into the harbor with a cargo of Madeira wine. Hancock had resolved to resist the obnoxious revenue laws, and at about nine o'clock in the evening, his Captain and others in his employ, entered the cabin, confined the tide waiter, who was in charge, and proceeded to land the wine, without entering it at the Custom House.
The next day the vessel was seized by the Custom Officers for violating the Revenue Laws. In defiance of the protests of the citizens, who soon became an infuriated mob, the sloop
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"Liberty" was towed under the guns of the British man-of- war Ranney. The mob followed the Custom Officers to their homes, pelted them with stones and other missiles, and broke the windows of their offices. They seized a pleasure boat belonging to the Collector, dragged it through the streets to the Common where they burned it. Then they quietly dis- persed. The British Ministry became exasperated when they learned of the formation of the Non-Importation Leagues. The Assembly of Masachusetts passed certain condemnatory resolutions in a circular to the King and his Ministers. Lord Hillsborough demanded that they be rescinded, which the Assembly refused to do, saying, "If the votes of this House are to be controlled by the direction of a minister, we have but a vain semblance of liberty." All over the Colonies this demand of Lord Hillsborough was regarded as a direct at- tempt to abridge if not absolutely control, free discussion, and so deprive them of their liberties. One after another, the Assemblies of the other Colonies passed Resolutions approv- ing the action of Massachusetts. The Colonies were fast being moulded into one body, one sentiment pervading the whole resistance to British tyranny. Governor Bernard tried to keep the people quiet by mischievous duplicity. He was false to the people he governed and to the masters he pre- tended to serve. He tried to make Hancock and Adams his friends by offering them bribes. He offered the lucrative office of Advocate General to John Adams, then a rising young lawyer, who instantly rejected it. He cautiously ap- proached that sturdy old Puritan, Samuel Adams, with the offer of a place, but was met with a stinging rebuke. On October 1, 1768, eight British men-of-war anchored off Long Wharf and two regiments of British soldiers from Halifax, were landed under the guns of the war vessels, in spite of the solemn remonstrances of the people. The cowardly Gov- ernor, Bernard, went into the country to avoid the storm of popular indignation. The Selectmen of the town refused to provide quarters for the troops. Colonel Dalrymple, an Eng- lish bully, stormed and threatened, but all in vain, the Select- men stood firm. He issued to each of his soldiers, sixteen rounds of ammunition, hoping thus to overawe the inhabi- tants. He marched his troops through the town with fixed bayonets, with a train of artillery following. colors flying, drums beating, as if returning from some great victory. But there was no fear in the hearts of the people. They knew
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