USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I > Part 100
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With the entrance of Barré into the ranks of the Administration in the Summer of 1766 liis prospects seemed brilliant. "He was in office under a great Minister for whom the country had long been sighing. The Minister was revolving in his mind vast schemes of foreign alliance and of Colonial reform, and Barré was certainly, in point of ability, though not in rank, the ablest representative of the Government in the House of Commons. It is natural to suppose that he expected to reap some of the glory of their accomplishment ; but never was a bright dawn more quickly obscured. In a few months Chatham had disappeared. He still attempted,t from his retirement, to direct the reform of the East India Company, but he did it in such a way as to cause the greatest embarrassment to his friends. In the debates on India Barré took a prominent part. He had long taken an interest in the business of India. A few years before, when Sullivan and Clive were striving for supremacy at the India House, it was generally believed that, had Sullivan been successful, Barré would have gone to India instead of Clive .; A Bill was now brought in to regulate the affairs of the Company. Burke and Rockingham loudly protested against the infringement of the charter, * while Barré became the champion of Parliamentary control. *
"On another point the Opposition were inore successful. They forced the Government to reduce the land tax. Some equivalent for this loss was necessary. The Opposition knew this well. They also knew that [Charles] Townshend, the Chancelor of the Exchequer, had declared the practicability of raising a revenue in America. * A * revenue Act was passed, and all the ill-will, all the terror, all the sedi- tion, which it was hoped had subsided forever, awoke in America with
* The portrait of Colonel BARRE, which appears as a frontispiece to this History, is a reproduction from an engraving by W. T. Fry (published in London February 1, 1817, and now owned by Mr. George S. Bennett of Wilkes-Barré), after a portrait painted by A. G. Stuart and owned by the Earl of St. Vincent.
+ His arrogance had increased, and it was so much intensified by irritating gout, that it became almost impossible to serve with him. His disease later almost approached madness.
# ROBERT CLIVE, Baron CLIVE of Plassey, born in England in 1725. At the age of eighteen he entered the service of the East India Company. In 1756 he commanded an expedition against the Nawab of Bengal, to avenge the tragedy of the Black Hole at Calcutta. In 1758 he was appointed Governor of Bengal. In 1760, owing to ill health, he returned to England, where he was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Clive of Plassey.
Lord Clive was Governor of Bengal a second time, from 1765 till 1767, when he resigned. His official conduct subsequently became the subject of Parliamentary inquiry, which resulted practically in his favor in 1773. He committed suicide at London in November, 1774.
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fresh violence .* It seems strange that Shelburne and Barré, when we consider their disapprobation of the measure, and recollect that it was subsequently one of the chief features of their opposition, should not have tendered their resignations at once. That they did not do so proves either that they were prepared to hold office while the Government pur- sued a policy which they supposed was of vital danger to the country, or that the real consequences of American taxation had not as yet been thoroughly appreciated, even by its opponents.
"In the commencement of 1768 John Wilkes returned to England [see page 542, ante] and was elected a Member of the House of Com- mons. Immediately the passions on both sides burst into a flame. Affairs went rapidly froin bad to worse. From acts of folly and violence the popular party rushed into libels, and very nearly into rebellion. From threats and rigor the Government proceeded to frame illegal resolutions in the House of Commons, and to fill the streets of London with troops. The dignity of Parliament, which generations of corrup- tion, of buying, of selling and of bullying had never offended, was now declared insulted. The strife was between the New Age and the Old Age, and everything which was worst in both came conspicuously to the front."+
George III was a king by no means to be adınired. So far as family matters went he was a model man, but beyond that he seems to have been not so dull as he was a miost arbitrary inaster. Though decent at home, he permitted all kinds of corruption among the Court and Gov- ernment officials. He insisted on being a ruler of the most positive character. He had no liking for Parliamentary rule. He wanted to be an autocrat, indifferent to the means he employed. Under George there were two supreme issues : Ministers were not held responsible to Parlia- inent, and corruption in public place was rampant. As Erskine put it some years later-the House of Commons "instead of being a control upon the Crown, was become the great engine of its power." It was the King's policy-as a recent writer has stated-"to nullify the public control over Parliament as well as the control of Parliament over the Government ; to obtain a Parliament unconnected with the people, and a Ministry unconnected with a Parliament."
The opinions of Shelburne and Barré and the Government were too divergent in 1768 for the two inen to remain inembers of the Cabinet any longer, and so in the Autumn of that year they resigned their respective offices. About the saine time the resignation of Chatham left the Duke of Grafton in name, as he had long been in reality, Prime Minister. The followers of Grenville, Rockingham and Chatham (who composed the Opposition) were, it is true, constantly at variance, but
* The leading spirit of the Chatham Ministry was Charles Townshend (mentioned on page 584), a brilliant statesman, but unscrupulous and unwise. His opinions were arbitrary ; he regretted the repeal of the Stamp Act, as did also the King and the Parliament in general, who felt themselves to have been humiliated. Three measures affecting America were introduced in the House of Commons by Townshend May 13, 1767. They were : A suspension of the functions of the Legislature of New York for contumacy in the treatment of the Royal troops; the establishment of Commissioners of the Customs, appointed with large powers to superintend laws relating to trade ; and, lastly, an impost duty on glass, red and white lead, painters' colors, paper and tea. This last was an "external" duty, to which the Colonists had theretofore expressed a willingness to submit. A revenue of £40,000 a year was expected from the tax, which was to be applied to the support of a "civil list"-namely, the paying the salaries of the new Com- missioners of Customs and of the Judges and Governors in the Colonies, who were to be relieved wholly or in part from their dependence upon the annual grants of the Colonial Assemblies; then, if a surplus remained, it was to go to the payment of troops for protecting the Colonies. Before the full effects of the new legislation could be seen, Townshend suddenly died; but in the new Ministry that was presently formed Lord North came to the front and adopted the policy of his predecessor-receiving in this course the firm support of George III, whose activity and interest in public affairs were so great that he "became his own Minister."
+ From Hugh F. Elliot's "Colonel Barre and His Times" -- previously mentioned.
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they united in their ranks the most brilliant speakers of their time- Edmund Burke, John Dunning (see page 609) and Isaac Barré standing almost unrivalled in the House of Commons. At the beginning of his opposition Barré found all the materials at hand to make that opposition fierce and effective.
"During this period the position of the Government was difficult to the higliest degree. The law imposed upon it the duty of maintaining order, but the police force at its disposal was composed of a few broken- down old men, who had become policemen simply because they were too aged or decrepit for other trades. Time and prescription had handed down to the House of Commons a vast mass of privileges which, to a certain extent, the Government was bound to protect, or, at all events, not to see lightly abused. The privileges of the House of Commons were now attacked by furious mobs. London became one seething mass of sedition. [See pages 543 and 547.] * Not a day passed witli- out its riot. The people rose in their trades. There were mobs of sailors, of weavers, of coal-lieavers, of Thames waterinen, of tailors, of hatters. The doors of Parliament were beset by an unruly multitude, who loudly called for redress, and beat the Members whom they considered hostile. The position was critical. Lord Mansfield prophe- sied that there would be a rebellion in ten days-but the Government called in the troops and the riots were quelled."
In January, 1770, Lord North became Prime Minister, but 110 change occurred in the policy of the Government. The country seemed united against the Premier, and mimberless petitions praying for a dis- solution of Parliament were sent up to the King. A foreign war was imminent-Spain laying claim to the sovereignty of one of the Falkland Islands. Barré and those acting with him declared that the negligence of the Government amounted to a trifle less than treason, and the country was nearly involved in an expensive war for "an island which was little better than a barren moor, which had a detestable climate, 110 inhabit- ants, no trees, no commercial advantages, and no living creatures but the snipe and the flocks of wild geese which haunted its bogs." Next-in the Spring of 1771-came the quarrels between the House of Commons and the printers. (See page 554.) Barré took a most active part in at- tempting to avert the blow from Lord Mayor Crosby. He tried all the Parliamentary usages by which, in those days, a feeble minority could oppose a tyrannous majority. The House had never "divided" so often in one night. The Speaker complained that he was tired to death, and did not know how the question would ever be settled. At last, when every expedient had failed, Barré got up and attacked the Government. As the speech which he then delivered affords a fair specimen of Barré's declamatory style, and is also an illustration of the violence occasionally introduced into the Parliamentary debates of that period, the following passages from it are here introduced.
"What can be your [the Ministers'] intention in such an attack upon all honor and virtue ? Do you mean to bring all men upon a level with yourselves, and to extirpate all honesty and independence ? Perhaps you imagine that a vote will settle the whole con- troversy. Alas! you are not aware that the manner in which your vote is procured remains a secret to no man. Listen ; for, if you are not totally callous, if your con- sciences are not seared, I will speak daggers to your souls and awake you to all the hells of a guilty recollection. Guilt, as the poet justly observes, is the source of sorrow. Trust me, therefore, your triumph shall not be a pleasing one. I will follow you with whips and with stings through every maze of your unexampled turpitude, and plant eternal thorns beneath the rose of Ministerial reprobation. * * *
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"But it is in vain that you hope by fear and terror to extinguish every spark of the ancient fire of this Isle. The more sacrifices, the more martyrs, you make, the more numerous will the Sons of Liberty become. They will multiply like the Hydra's heads, and hurl down vengeance on your devoted heads. Let others act as they will, while I have a tongue or an arm they shall be free; and that I may not be a witness of this monstrous proceeding, I will leave the House ! Nor do I doubt but every independent, every honest, man will follow me. These walls are unholy, they are baleful, they are deadly, while a prostitute majority holds the bolt of Parliamentary omnipotence, and hurls its vengeance upon the virtuous !"
As Barré retired from the House there were loud cries, "To the bar ! To the bar !" but the Ministers wisely declined to increase their embarrassments by calling him to account. Sir George Savile protested against the action of the Government and then, accompanied by several of his friends, followed Barré from the House.
Barré continued steadfast in opposition, but the Court was not to be braved with impunity. In January, 1773, Lieutenant Colonel Mor- rison of the army, who was Barre's junior, was promoted over his head to the rank of Colonel. Barre immediately wrote to Lord Chatham as follows :
"The particular manner in which His Majesty has been advised to make a late pro- motion in the army, has so much the appearance of a premeditated affront to me that I feel myself under an absolute necessity of retiring from a profession in which I have served six and twenty years. * * This new discipline, my Lord, is surely not cal- culated to cherish the spirit of an army which your Lordship has taught to conquer in every clime. Directed as it has been lately, I am proud of renouncing the profession. To enable me to take this step with propriety to myself, and with decent respect to the King, I feel that I stand in need of the long experience and sound judgment of much abler men than myself."
Chatham advised Barré to formally petition the King for promotion in his proper turn. This he did, but nothing resulting from it he resigned from the army February 21, 1773. Both Prime Minister North and the Hon. Richard Rigby, Paymaster General of the Forces, expressed regret for the manner in which Colonel Barré had been treated, and there can be little doubt that the course pursued by the War Office with respect to Barré was suggested by the King .* In 1773 the Opposition party was dead, and its members, according to Walpole, were wriggling themselves into Court as fast as possible. Not a cloud, even the size of a man's hand, appeared in the sky. Late in February, 1774, however, news reached England that on the night of December 16, 1773, at Boston, in Massachusetts, a band of "Mohawks" had thrown overboard into the cold waters of the harbor, from three ships lying there, 342 chests of tea belonging to the East India Company and valued at £18,000. March 18, 1774, Lord North presented in the House of Commons a Bill for the immediate removal of the officers concerned in the collection and management of His Majesty's custom-duties at Boston, and to discontinue the landing and discharging of goods at that port. In the course of the long and earnest debate on this Bill-known as "The Boston Port Bill" -it was stated that Boston was "the port of the greatest consequence to England of any existing." In discussing the Bill Colonel Barré said, among other thingst : * * "The Bill before you is the first vengeful 'step that you have taken.
As long as I sit here among you I will oppose the taxing of America. * * Keep your hands out of the pockets of the Americans and they will be obedient subjects. I think this Bill a moderate one, but I augur that the next proposition will be a black one. * * You have not a loom nor an anvil but what is stamped with America ; it is the main prop of your trade. : * America employs all your workmen here ; nourish and protect it, that they may be supported."
* See page 601.
+ See "American Archives," Fourth Series, I : 46.
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When the Bill came up on its final passage through the House Barré voted for it. He admitted afterwards* that he had supported the Administration in blocking the port of Boston, "but," said he, "I think I have no great guilt on that head, as I thought it was a measure adopted to produce a compromise for the damage the East India Company had sustained. The Ministers had given the most explicit assurances that the merchants of Boston desired such a Bill, and that the people of Massachusetts would, as soon as it was passed, immediately return to their duty." On March 31st, His Majesty "being seated on the throne in the House of Lords, adorned with his crown and regal ornaments, and attended by his officers of State-the Commons also being in at- tendance"-the Royal assent was pronounced on the Boston Port Bill.
Great Britain had now come, with respect to her American Colonies, to that fatal dilemma : "Resist, and we will cut your throats ; subinit, and we will tax you !" April 15, 1774, on motion of Lord North, there was brought before the House of Commons a measure entitled : "An Act for the Impartial Administration of Justice in the cases of persons questioned for any acts done by them in execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England." With respect to this measure the Premier said he hoped that it would effectually secure the Province of Massachusetts from future disturbances. Further, it "was to give every man a fair and im- partial trial." Continuing, Lord North said :
"If it shall be found that a man is not likely to meet with a fair and impartial trial, the Governor will be empowered to send him to any of the other Colonies where the same kind of spirit has not prevailed ; but if it should be thought that he could not have such fair and impartial trial in any of the Colonies, in that case he is to be sent to Great Britain, to be tried before the Court of King's Bench. * * * A measure such as this will show to that country that this nation is roused to defend its rights and protect the security of peace in its Colonies ; and when roused, that the measures which it takes are not cruel nor vindictive, but necessary and efficacious. Temporary distress requires temporary relief. I shall, therefore, propose this Bill only for the limited time of three or four years. "We must consider that everything that we have that is valuable to us is now at
stake. * * * Governor Hutchinson comes home, and His Majesty has appointed as Commander and Governor-in-chief General Gage-a man whose great abilities and exten- sive knowledge of that country will give him a superior advantage. * There is one *
thing I much wish, which is the punishment of those individuals who have been the ring- leaders and forerunners of these mischiefs. A prosecution has already been ordered against them by His Majesty's servants, but I cannot promise myself any very good effect until this law shall have reached the Province."
During the discussion of this Bill in the House Colonel Barré delivered a speech which attracted considerable attention at the time, particularly in America; and which, for many years thereafter, was largely instrumental in keeping alive the regard and affection of the patriotic people of this country for Colonel Barré-for American writers and orators of the Revolutionary period often referred to the speech. Seventy years ago, and earlier, it was one of the stock pieces printed in the leading school "Readers" and "Speakers" of the country. In the circumstances, therefore, it seems appropriate to introduce it here.
"I rise with great unwillingness to oppose this measure-in its very infancy, before its features are well formed-or to claim that attention which this House seems to bestow with so much reluctance on any arguments in behalf of America. But I must call you to witness that I have been hitherto silent or acquiescent to an unexpected degree of modera- tion. While your proceedings, severe as they were, had the least color of foundation in justice I desisted from opposing them. Nay, more ! Though your Bill for stopping up the port of Boston contained in it many things most cruel, unwarrantable and unjust, yet, as they were couched under those general principles of justice, retribution for injury, and compensation for loss sustained, I not only desisted from opposing, but assented to,
* See "American Archives," Fourth Series, VI : 286 ; also this page, last paragraph.
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its passing. The Bill was a bad way of doing what was right ; but still it was doing what was right. I would not, therefore, by opposing it, seem to countenance those violences which had been committed abroad, and of which no man disapproves more than I do.
"Upon the present question I am totally unprepared. The motion itself bears no sort of resemblance to what was formerly announced. The noble Lord [North] and his friends liave had every advantage of preparation. They have reconnoitered the field and chosen their ground. To attack them in these circumstances may, perhaps, savor more of the gallantry of a soldier than of the wisdom of a senator. But, sir, the proposition is so glaring, so unprecedented in any former proceedings of Parliament, so unwarranted by any delay, denial or preservation of justice in America, so big with misery and oppression to that country and with danger to this, that the first blush of it is sufficient to alarm and rouse me to opposition. It is proposed to stigmatize a whole people as persecutors of in- nocence and men incapable of doing justice ; yet you have not a single fact on which to ground that imputation.
"I expected the noble Lord would have supported this motion by producing in- stances of the officers of Government in America having been prosecuted with unremitting vengeance, and brought to cruel and dishonorable deaths, by the violence and injustice of American juries. But he has not produced one such instance ; and I will tell you more, sir-he cannot produce one. The instances which have happened are directly in the teeth of his proposition. Captain Preston and the soldiers who shed the blood of the people [see page 594, ante] were fairly tried and fully acquitted. It was an American jury-a New England jury, a Boston jury-which tried and acquitted them. Captain Preston has, under his hand, publicly declared that the inhabitants of the very town, in which their fellow-citizens had been sacrificed, were his advocates and defenders. Is this the return you make them? Is this the encouragement you give them to persevere in so laudable a spirit of justice and moderation ?
"When a Commissioner of the Customs, aided by a number of ruffians, assaulted the celebrated Mr. [James] Otis in the midst of the town of Boston, and with the most barbarous violence almost murdered him, did the mob-which is said to rule that town- take vengeance on the perpetrators of this inhuman outrage against a person who is sup- posed to be their demagogue? No ! sir, the law tried them ; the law gave heavy damages against them, which the irreparably-injured Mr. Otis most generously forgave, upon an acknowledgment of the offense. Can you expect any more such instances of magnanimity under the principle of the Bill now proposed? But the noble Lord says : 'We must now show the Americans that we will no longer sit quiet under their insults !' Sir, I am sorry to say that this declamation is unbecoming the character and place of him who utters it. In what moment have you been quiet? Has not your government, for many years past, been a series of irritating and offensive measures, without policy, principle or moderation ? Have not your troops and your ships made a vain and insulting parade in their streets and in their harbors? It has seemed to be your study to irritate and inflame them. You have stimulated discontent into disaffection, and you are now goading that disaffection into rebellion.
"You know, sir, what constant care is taken in this country to remind the military that they are under the restraint of the civil power. In America their superiority is felt still greater. * * I have been bred a soldier ; have served long. I respect the profession, and live in the strictest habits of friendship with a great many officers ; but there is not a country gentleman of you all who looks upon the army with a more jealous eye, or would more strenuously resist the setting them above the control of the civil power. No man is to be trusted in such a situation. It is not the fault of the soldier, but the vice of human nature, which, unbridled by law, becomes insolent and licentious, wantonly violates the peace of society and tramples upon the rights of human kind. With respect to those gentleinen who are destined to this service-they are much to be pitied. It is a service which an officer of feeling and of worth must enter upon with infinite reluctance ; a ser- vice in which his only merit must be to bear much and do little.
"When I stand up as an advocate for America, I feel myself the firmest friend of this country. We stand upon the commerce of America. Alienate your Colonies and you will subvert the foundation of your riches and your strength. Let the banners be once spread in America, and you are an undone people. You are urging this desperate, this destructive, issue. You are urging it with such violence-and by measures tending so manifestly to that fatal point-that, but for that state of madness which only could inspire such an intention, it would appear to be your deliberate purpose. In assenting to your late Bill I resisted the violence of America, at the hazard of my popularity there. I now resist your frenzy, at the same risk here. You have changed your ground. You are becoming the aggressors, and are offering the last of human outrages to the people of America by subjecting them, in effect, to military execution. I know the vast superiority of your disciplined troops over the Provincials ; but, beware how you supply the want of discipline by desperation. Instead of sending them the olive branch, you have sent the naked sword. By the olive branch, I mean a repeal of all the late laws-fruitless to you and oppressive to them.
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