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 early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 93
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Under date of February 6, 1769, a gentleman in London wrote to The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia) as follows :
"Setting aside all prejudices and popular clamor against Wilkes' former irregulari- ties, we must acknowledge that he has done and suffered more for the cause of liberty than any patriot in our time ; and in all his latter conduct he has been so steady and so consistent that it has gained him universal applause. He is not only idolized by the mob, but caressed and supported by a great majority of sensible thinking men."
Immediately upon his expulsion from the House Wilkes, with the aid of his friends, began to canvass for his re-election. The polling took place on the 16th of February and resulted in Wilkes being again re- turned ; on learning which the House, on the 17th of February, resolved, by a vote of 235 to 89, that Wilkes having suffered expulsion he "was and is incapable of being elected a Member to serve in this present Parliament."
February 20th Wilkes issued from his prison an address to the free- holders of the county of Middlesex, in which was this paragraph :
"The unanimity you have shown in the second choice of me as your representative, has not prevented my second expulsion. Another writ is ordered, and I must again en- treat you to confirm your former choice by honoring me a third time with your votes."
On the same day that this address was issued a meeting of a large number of Wilkes' friends-Members of the House of Commons, and others-was held at the London Tavern. Certain resolutions were adopted, the preamble of which read in part as follows : "Whereas John Wilkes, Esq., has suffered very greatly in his private fortune from the * See The Pennsylvania Gazette, April 6, 1769.
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severe and repeated prosecutions he has undergone in behalf of the pub- lic ; and as it seems reasonable to us that the man who suffers for the public good should be supported by the public," etc. A subscription was then set on foot "to support the cause of Wilkes," when the sum of £3,340 was immediately subscribed. On March 16th a fresh election of this extending series was held, and once more Wilkes was triumphantly returned ; but on the very next day the House of Commons declared his return "null and void," and issued a writ for a new election. The poll for this new election was taken at Brentford on the 13th of April, and Wilkes received 1,143 votes against 296 given to his opponent, Col. Henry Luttrell. The next day several thousand freeholders, carrying banners and preceded by a band of music, marched from Brentford to the King's Bench Prison to congratulate Wilkes on his victory. The publicans, all the way from Brentford to Knightsbridge, sold their beer at three pence per pot, in honor of Wilkes, as they said. At night houses were illuminated and church bells were rung.
On April 15th the House voted that "Henry Luttrell ought to have been returned, and therefore do order said return to be amended accordingly"; and some days later they declared "that H. Luttrell is duly elected." The scandalous contempt shown by the House for the rights of the electors soon enlisted on behalf of Wilkes every advocate for freedoin in the country. No man, whatever his demerits, can help becoming a hero when his enemies persist in thrusting the role upon him. Chatham thundered on his behalf, Burke and Rockingham came to visit him in prison, and a society was organized for the purpose of paying his debts. The conduct of the House was denounced by Lord Camden (then Lord Chancelor) as a direct attack upon the principles of the Constitution-for which assertion of the popular right to choose a representative his Lordship was ultimately forced from the Govern- ment. Henry Cavendish, the celebrated physicist, grandson of the Duke of Devonshire, declared with great warmth : "I do from my soul detest and abjure, as unconstitutional and illegal, the damnable doctrine that the House of Commons can make, alter, suspend or abrogate the law of the land." This patriotic outburst became a regular toast at political banquets. The Common Council of the city of London presented to the King a strongly-worded remonstrance against the course his Ministers had adopted, and a bold denunciation of the House of Commons-for which many of the latter body would have had the principal movers of the address committed to the Tower, but fear of the popular indignation prevented them from proceeding to extremnity. In this memorable address, or remonstrance-which greatly offended the King-the Com- inon Council declared :
"The majority of the House of Commons have deprived your people of their dearest rights. They have done a deed more ruinous in its consequences than the levying of ship- money by Charles I, or the dispensing power assumed by James II. A deed which must vitiate all the future proceedings of this Parliament, for the acts of the Legislature itself can no more be valid without a legal House of Commons than without a legal Prince upon the throne. Representatives of the people are essential to the making of laws, and there is a time when it is morally demonstrable that men cease to be representatives. That time is now arrived. The present House of Commons do not represent the people."
March 30, 1769, Wilkes addressed another letter to the Sons of Liberty at Boston, in which he stated that if he had been permitted to take his seat in the House of Commons he would have been eager to move the repeal of the late Act which laid the new duties on paper,
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paint and other articles. He would have done this from the full per- suasion, not only of its being highly impolitic and inexpedient, but likewise absolutely unjust and unconstitutional-a direct violation of the great fundamental principles of civil liberty. The present session of Parliament had been, in many instances, most unfavorable to public liberty ; but he hoped that the next, and a more upright Administration, would restore all the subjects of the British Empire to the possession of their rights. He had read with grief and indignation the proceedings of the Ministry with regard to the troops ordered to Boston, as if it were the capital of a province belonging to enemies, or in the possession of rebels. He admired exceedingly the prudence and temper of the Ameri- can patriots on so intricate an occasion, maintaining at the same time their own dignity and the true spirit of liberty. Their moderation pre- vented the effusion of blood, which had been shed by the military in St. George's Fields on the most frivolous pretext and in the most in- human way. He submitted to them the propriety of the publication of any letters which might pass between them.
"Many unforeseen engagements and unavoidable accidents" pre- vented an early reply to the aforementioned letter, and it was not until November 4, 1769, that a letter was sent to Wilkes from Boston, signed by James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Richard Dana, Benjamin Kent, John Adams, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Church, Thomas Young and Josiah Quincy, Jr., a committee representing the Sons of Liberty. This letter contained among other paragraphs the following* :
"We yet too sensibly feel the loss of every right, liberty and privilege that can dis- tinguish a freeman from a slave, not to sympathize in the most tender manner with you in the conflict you have been so long engaged in, and in the sufferings you now severely labor under-so far as we can judge, only for a firm and intrepid opposition to Ministerial despotism. We easily perceive the causes and motives of that relentless, unremitted ardor and fury with which you are persecuted.
"With us also the laws seem to lie prostrate at the feet of power. Our city is yet a garrison filled with armed men, as our harbor is with cutters, cruisers and other armed vessels. A main guard is yet placed at the doors of our State House. The other side of the Exchange is turned into a guarded den of revenue officers, to plunder our trade and drain the country of its money, not only without our consent, but against repeated re- monstrances. The military are guilty of all kinds of licentiousness. The public streets are unsafe to walk in, for either sex, by day or by night. Prosecutions, civil and criminal, against the inhabitants, are pushed with great rancor and rigor, while those against the troops and revenue officers and their confederates are frowned upon and embarrassed by every possible means in the power of those who are inimical to the rights of the subject.
* * * Such, without exaggeration, is the present wretched state of the once happy and flourishing city of Boston. Such, in a degree, is the state of all our trading towns ; and such, in effect, is the state of the whole continent.
"There has not been, since the last war, a naval force stationed in St. Lawrence River sufficient to cover a city from an attack of six sail of the line. The forces are in a manner all drawn down to the coasts of the ocean, in conjunction with an army of revenue officers and a fleet of small cruisers and cutters to destroy your own commerce ; and they are accordingly as greedy after their prey as if cruising on a foreign enemy. The Indian nations on the great rivers St. Lawrence and Mississippi, which are well known to sur- round all the British Colonies, are left at liberty to intrigue as usual with the French and Spaniards, to cut the throats of our back inhabitants at pleasure. *
* * The French and Spaniards never will forget nor forgive the severe drubbing they received in the last war ; and from all appearances it is much to be apprehended that the parties to the Family Compact are meditating some great blow, and are as like to strike in North America as in Corsica. However light some may make of the loss of Canada, there is reason to fear, should the French ever be suffered to repossess themselves of that country, the event would soon prove fatal to Britain, if not to the whole British Empire."
In London, in July, 1769, a duel was fought in Hyde Park at night between the Rev. Mr. G- and Mr. D-, a Scottish officer in the Navy. It was occasioned by the officer declaring in a public coffee- * See Sparks' "Library of American Biography," VII : 358.
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room that Mr. Wilkes was not only an infamous scoundrel but a rank coward, and that all who supported his cause merited the same character. Mr. G- took the officer by the nose and told him they would see who was the greatest coward. They immediately adjourned to Hyde Park, attended by two gentlemen of the Army, and after a contest of some five minutes the clergyman wounded the officer in the sword-arm, and that terminated the dispute.
Early in November, 1769, Wilkes' long-pending action against Lord Halifax for damages (see page 534, ante) came to a trial, and the jury brought in a verdict for £4,000 against the defendant. About that time the various numbers (from "1" to "68") of The North Briton, "revised and corrected by the author-with explanatory notes"-were republished in two volumes in London. About that time, also, Wilkes' cause was unexpectedly strengthened by the wielder of the most vigorous pen in the kingdom-the celebrated "Junius." The first of this famous writer's letters to attract particular attention had appeared in January, 1769, the month in which Wilkes began his struggle with the House of Commons. In later letters "Junius," waiving his early objections to the private character of Wilkes, adopted his cause warmly, and in a re- markable letter addressed to the King, published in the Public Adver- tiser December 19, 1769, "Junius" gave a forcible summary of all the points involved in the Middlesex election question, and then appealed to His Majesty to pardon Wilkes. "Discard," wrote "Junius," "those little personal resentments which have too long directed your public conduct. Pardon this man the remainder of his punishment, and, if resentment still prevails, make it what it should have been long since, an act, not of mercy but of contempt." A gentleman writing to George Grenville the day after the publication of this letter said* : "The opinion that Wilkes was 'Junius' has been very general ; but the 'Junius' of to-day will, I think, destroy the supposition."
At that time the British Ministry, under the lead of the Duke of Grafton, was in the full career of the tyranny and corruption which marked the persecution of Wilkes, fired the protests of Edmund Burke and Lord Chatham and even of George Grenville and Lord Mansfield, called forth the invectives of "Junius" and finally precipitated the American Revolution. So recklessly did the coterie in the King's con- fidence carry out their policy that finally some of the Ministers them- selves revolted at the wrongs they were compelled to be responsible for. Lord Granby, a brave soldier, threw up the command of the army, declaring that his past service to the Ministry in Parliament for the in- vasion of popular rights was the greatest misfortune of his life. Lord Chancelor Camden resigned, saying that he had accepted the great seal fully intending never to be led into courses which he could not approve ; but experience had taught him that he had overrated his own independ- ence. Often had he hung his head in Council, and showed in his countenance a dissent which it would have been useless to express in words ; but the time had come when he must speak out-and resign his office. A fortnight later-in January, 1770-the unsavory Duke of Graf- ton was forced to resign his Premiership, being succeeded by Lord North.
April 17, 1770, Wilkes was released from the King's Bench Prison -his term of imprisonment having expired and his fines having been
* See "The Grenville Papers," IV : 495.
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paid. His debts, too, to the amount of £12,000 and upwards, had been paid by the society which had been organized for the purpose. More- over, he was an Alderman of London, and was at the height of his pop- ularity. About a year after his release, while sitting as a magistrate in the City (in virtue of his office as Alderman), he had the good fortune to be able to strike another blow for freedom. The House of Commons had passed a resolution forbidding the "indignity" of reporting their debates. The printers of two newspapers violated the terms of this resolution, and orders were issued summoning them to appear before the House ; but the orders being disregarded a King's messenger was sent into the City to arrest the delinquents on a warrant issued by the Speaker of the House. One of the printers was arrested, when resistance was made and a struggle took place. Thereupon a constable-purposely stationed close at hand by the Wilkesites-instead of aiding the mes- senger arrested both him and his prisoner and brought them to the Mansion House. That evening about six o'clock an exciting scene oc- curred there. Lord Mayor Crosby and Aldermen Wilkes and Oliver were on the bench and were about to deal with this case, when the Deputy Serjeant-at-arms of the House of Commons appeared and de- manded, in the name of the House, that the messenger should be released and the arrested printer handed over to his custody. The magistrates not only declined to do this, but released the printer and made out an order committing the messenger to jail on the ground that he had assaulted a citizen of London. Later the Lord Mayor, "with seem- ing reluctance," agreed to accept bail for the messenger. "This cleverly arranged coup caused much consternation, for the House of Commons saw with an instinct of dread that what was really impending was noth- ing less than a renewal of their contest with Wilkes."
A few days later the Lord Mayor, Wilkes and Oliver were sum- moned to attend the House. Wilkes stayed away, but the other two obeyed the summons. Oliver defied the House and was committed to the Tower, and later the Lord Mayor was sent there also. (See page 597.) Three times Wilkes was directed to appear before the House, and three times he treated the notice with contempt. After a futile struggle the House had to give way, and Wilkes chuckled over this tribute to his power, whereby he contrived to humiliate the House in return for all it had made him suffer. He went about free, while the Lord Mayor and Alderman Oliver remained in the Tower till the end of the Parliamentary session. Wilkes, who might well boast of his victory, heard no more of the matter. The King wrote to his Ministers : "I will have nothing more to do with that devil Wilkes." Thus ended this extraordinary episode, the most conspicuous of Wilkes' inany tri- umphs. Ever since then the reporting of Parliamentary debates has been an uncontested privilege of the press !
In July, 1771, Wilkes was elected Sheriff of London and Middlesex, and courted popularity by disallowing the attendance of the military at executions. He also discountenanced the trying of prisoners in chains and the taking of money for admission to the Court of Old Bailey. January 24, 1772, he was presented by the Common Council with a silver cup worth £100, in recognition of his services to the City. In this and the following year he was returned at the head of the poll for the mayor- alty, but was rejected by the Court of Aldermen. However, the un-
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questionable services rendered by Wilkes to the popular cause ultimately insured his election, and on the 8th of October, 1774, after a desperate struggle with the nominees of the Court party, he was declared the duly elected Lord Mayor of London. The same day he delivered an address to "the Common Hall." Of course the King of England could not be expected to be glad at Wilkes' election to the mayoralty, and a rumor was almost immediately circulated that the Lord Chancelor, on Wilkes being presented to that official, would signify to him that the King did not approve of the citizens' choice. "If he dare," said Wilkes, "I will tell him to inform the King that I am as fit to be Lord Mayor as he (Lord Bathurst) is to be Chancelor !" As Wilkes would have kept his word, the formal approval of the election was duly made. When, after his induction into office, Wilkes was presented to George III-who then met him for the first time-the King remarked that he (Wilkes) was the best bred Lord Mayor he had ever known.
Shortly after Wilkes had announced his candidature for the mayor- alty Parliament was dissolved, and Wilkes immediately came forward to stand as a candidate for Middlesex County, at the next general election, with his friend Serjeant John Glynn. The following "engagement" was signed and published in September by the two candidates :
"We do solemnly promise and engage ourselves to our constituents, if we have the honor of being chosen representatives in Parliament of the county of Middlesex, that we will endeavor to the utmost of our power to have passed an Act for the repeal of the four late Acts respecting America, viz. : The Quebec Act, establishing Popery and the system of French Canadian laws in that extensive Province ; the Boston Port Act ; the Act for altering the Charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and the Act for the trial in Europe of persons accused of criminal offences in America *- being fully persuaded that the passing of such an Act will be of the utmost importance for the security of our excel- lent Constitution and the restoration of the rights and liberties of our fellow-subjects in America."
On the 29th of October Wilkes was once more, and for the fifth time, returned Member of Parliament for Middlesex. No opposition was offered now to his taking his seat, and he took it on the 2d of December. Thus, after ten years' struggle against all the influence of the Court and Ministry, Wilkes had obtained a seat in Parliament and the chief magistracy of London. Besides, he had established forever three of the most cherished rights of the subject-freedom from arbitrary arrest, freedom of the press, and the right of the electors to choose their representatives without dictation from any authority. The day was yet to come when he was to oblige the House to direct that all the records of the resolutions passed against him should be expunged by their Clerk before his eyes. Then his victory was complete, for the House had already censured "General Warrants." Wilkes continued to represent Middlesex throughout the remainder of his Parliamentary career.
Wilkes' term as Lord Mayor-which is commemorated by an obelisk in Ludgate Circus-coincided with the definitive adoption by the Govern- ment of the policy of coercing the American Colonies. The Common Council of London sent protest after protest to King and Parliament against the oppression of the Colonies; and Lord Mayor Wilkes, the placeman's bête noire, was in his element in the attitude of presenting such remonstrances. April 10, 1775, Lord Mayor Wilkes, accompanied by the Sheriffs, several Aldermen, and a committee of the Livery, went from the Guildhall to St. James' Palace to present to the King "an
* Relative to the passing of this lastmentioned Act, see page 599, post.
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address, remonstrance and petition" of the City Government, praying for the removal of the then Ministers "for their iniquitous measures with respect to their fellow-subjects in America." The paper was read aloud by the City Counselor, who gave it to the Lord Mayor who delivered it to the King with a half-bent knee and the most profound reverence. The stubborn, fat-witted King handed the paper to a Lord in waiting, and then, deliberately taking a paper from his pocket, read the follow- ing answer :
"It is with the utmost astonishment that I find any of my subjects capable of en- couraging the rebellious disposition which, unhappily, exists in some of the Colonies in North America. Having entire confidence in the wisdom of my Parliament, the great Council of the Nation, I will steadily pursue those measures which they have recommended for the support of the constitutional rights of Great Britain, and the protection of the commercial interests of my kingdoms."
Following the reading of this an awkward silence of about two minutes ensued, when the Lord Mayor made a low bow, then retreated backwards to the middle of the room and made a second bow, and, in like manner, a third bow at the door, when the King removed his hat to his Lordship and thus ended the business for that time.
Repeatedly snubbed, London went on "encouraging the rebellious disposition" of which the King complained, and as a last resort addressed the electors of the whole country, deploring a war which originated in violence and injustice "and must end in ruin." Three months before the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia the Com- mon Council of London begged George III to suspend hostilities in order to attempt a reconciliation. The King replied that he would extend clemency "as soon as the rebellion was at an end." "London was help- less, but she could and did refuse to give any subscription in support of the war. Let it be remembered to her honor that her action was dictated throughout less by commercial considerations than by adherence to the great principle of taxation without representation."
Wilkes did not possess the ready eloquence which is characteristic of the born leader of the masses. His speeches were always carefully prepared. Macaulay says that "his speaking, though pert, was feeble, and by no means interested his hearers so much as to make them forget his face, which was so hideous that the caricaturists were forced, in their own despite, to flatter him." Lord Brougham, in his "Sketches of Pub- lic Characters who Flourished During the Reign of George III," wrote of Wilkes :
"Of the light but very important accomplishments which fill so prominent a place in the patriotic character-great eloquence and a strong and masculine style in writing -he had but little. His compositions are more pointed than powerful ; his wit shines far more than his passions glow ; and as a speaker, when he did speak, which was but rarely, he showed indeed some address and much presence of mind, but no force, and produced hardly any effect. If we are to judge of Wilkes' speaking by the very few examples preserved of it, we should indeed form a very humble estimate of its merits. Constant declamation about rights and liberties and tyrants and corruption, with hardly the merit of the most ordinary commonplaces on these hackneyed topics, seem to fill up its measure-with neither fact nor argument nor point nor anything at all happy or new in the handling of the threadbare material. But what it wanted in force it probably made up in fury ; and as calling names is an easy work to do, the enraged multitude as easily are pleased with what suits their excited feelings, gratifying the craving which excite- ment produces for more stimulus. That he failed, and signally failed, whenever he was called upon to address an audience which rejects such matters, is very certain. In Par- liament he was seldom or never heard after his own case had ceased to occupy the public attention [about 1782]."
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