Chapter XI: Front Matter (11)

On the 5th of March, 1770—the same day on which the tragical
encounter of the king's troops with citizens of Boston
occurred—Lord North introduced a motion in Parliament for the
partial repeal of Townshend's revenue act; "not on the
petitions of America, because they were marked by a denial of
the right, but on one from merchants and traders of London.
'The subject,' said he, 'is of the highest importance.
{3206}
The combinations and associations of the Americans for the
temporary interruption of trade have already been called
unwarrantable in an address of this house; I will call them
insolent and illegal. The duties upon paper, glass, and
painters' colors bear upon the manufacturers of this country,
and ought to be taken off. It was my intention to have
extended the proposal to the removal of the other duties; but
the Americans have not deserved indulgence. The preamble to
the act and the duty on tea must be retained, as a mark of the
supremacy of parliament and the efficient declaration of its
right to govern the colonies.' … Thomas Pownall moved the
repeal of the duty on tea. The house of commons, like Lord
North in his heart, was disposed to do the work of
conciliation thoroughly. … Had the king's friends remained
neutral, the duty on tea would have been repealed; with all
their exertions, in a full house, the majority for retaining
it was but 62. Lord North seemed hardly satisfied with his
success; and reserved to himself liberty to accede to the
repeal, on some agreement with the East India Company. The
decision came from the king."

_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 3, pages 381-382._

ALSO IN:
_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 48 (volume 5.)_

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1771.
Suppression of the Regulators of North Carolina.

See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1766-1771.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1772.
The Watauga Association.
The founding of the State of Tennessee.

See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1769-1772.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1772.
The burning of the Gaspe.

"One of the first overt acts of resistance that took place in
this celebrated struggle [in the war of independence] occurred
in 1772, in the waters of Rhode Island. A vessel of war had
been stationed on the coast to enforce the laws, and a small
schooner, with a light armament and twenty-seven men, called
the Gaspé, was employed as a tender, to run into the shallow
waters of that coast. On the 17th of June, 1772, a Providence
packet, that plied between New York and Rhode Island, named
the Hannah, and commanded by a Captain Linzee, hove in sight
of the man-of-war, on her passage up the bay. The Hannah was
ordered to heave-to, in order to be examined; but her master
refused to comply; and being favoured by a fresh southerly
breeze, that was fast sweeping him out of gunshot, the Gaspé
was signalled to follow. The chase continued for
five-and-twenty miles, under a press of sail, when the Hannah
coming up with a bar, with which her master was familiar, and
drawing less water than the schooner, Captain Linzee led the
latter on a shoal, where she struck. The tide falling, the
Gaspé … was not in a condition to be removed for several
hours. The news of the chase was circulated on the arrival of
the Hannah at Providence. A strong feeling was excited among
the population, and towards evening the town drummer appeared
in the streets, assembling the people in the ordinary manner.
As soon as a crowd was collected, the drummer led his
followers in front of a shed that stood near one of the
stores, when a man disguised as an Indian suddenly appeared on
the roof, and proclaimed a secret expedition for that night,
inviting all of 'stout hearts' to assemble on the wharf,
precisely at nine, disguised like himself. At the appointed
hour, most of the men in the place collected at the spot
designated, when sixty-four were selected for the bold
undertaking that was in view. This party embarked in eight of
the launches of the different vessels lying at the wharves,
and taking with them a quantity of paving stones, they pulled
down the river in a body. … On nearing the Gaspé, about two in
the morning, the boats were hailed by a sentinel on deck. This
man was driven below by a volley of the stones. The commander
of the Gaspé now appeared, and ordering the boats off, he
fired a pistol at them. This discharge was returned from a
musket, and the officer was shot through the thigh. By this
time, the crew of the Gaspé had assembled, and the party from
Providence boarded. The conflict was short, the schooner's
people being soon knocked down and secured. All on board were
put into the boats, and the Gaspé was set on fire. Towards
morning she blew up."

_J. F. Cooper,
Naval History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 3._

ALSO IN:
_S. G. Arnold,
History of Rhode Island,
chapter 19 (volume 2)._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1772-1173.
The instituting of the Committees of Correspondence.
The Tea Ships and "the Boston Tea-Party."

"The surest way to renew and cement the union [of the
colonies] was to show that the ministry had not relaxed in its
determination to enforce the principal of the Townshend acts.
This was made clear in August, 1772, when it was ordered that
in Massachusetts the judges should henceforth be paid by the
crown. Popular excitement rose to fever heat, and the judges
were threatened with impeachment should they dare accept a
penny from the royal treasury. The turmoil was increased next
year by the discovery in London of the package of letters
which were made to support the unjust charge against
Hutchinson and some of his friends that they had instigated
and aided the most extreme measures of the ministry. In the
autumn of 1772 Hutchinson refused to call an extra session of
the assembly to consider what should be done about the judges.
Samuel Adams then devised a scheme by which the towns of
Massachusetts could consult with each other and agree upon
some common course of action in case of emergencies. For this
purpose each town was to appoint a standing committee, and as
a great part of their work was necessarily done by letter they
were called 'committees of correspondence.' This was the step
that fairly organized the Revolution."

_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 5._

"The town records of Boston [November 2, 1772] say:—
'It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams that a Committee of
Correspondence 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 occasioned some debate and seems to have
been carried late at night; the vote in its favor, at last,
was nearly unanimous. The colleagues of Adams, who had left
him almost alone thus far, now declined to become members of
the committee, regarding the scheme as useless or trifling.
The committee was at last constituted without them; it was
made up of men of little prominence but of thorough
respectability. James Otis, in another interval of sanity, was
made chairman, a position purely honorary, the town in this
way showing its respect for the leader whose misfortunes they
so sincerely mourned.
{3207}
The Committee of Correspondence held its first meeting in the
representatives' chamber at the town-house, November 3, 1772,
where at the outset each member pledged himself to observe
secrecy as to their transactions, except those which, as a
committee, they should think it proper to divulge. According
to the motion by which the committee was constituted, three
duties were to be performed: 1st, the preparation of a
statement of the rights of the colonists, as men, as
Christians, and as subjects; 2d, a declaration of the
infringement and violation of those rights; 3d, a letter to be
sent to the several towns of the Province and to the world,
giving the sense of the town. The drafting of the first was
assigned to Samuel Adams, of the second to Joseph Warren, of
the third to Benjamin Church. In a few days tidings came from
the important towns of Marblehead, Roxbury, Cambridge, and
Plymouth, indicating that the example of Boston was making
impression and was likely to be followed. On November 20, at a
town-meeting in Faneuil Hall, the different papers were
presented: Otis sat as moderator, appearing for the last time
in a sphere where his career had been so magnificent. The
report was in three divisions, according to the motion. … In
the last days of 1772, the document, having been printed, was
transmitted to those for whom it had been intended, producing
at once an immense effect. The towns almost unanimously
appointed similar committees; from every quarter came replies
in which the sentiments of Samuel Adams were echoed. In the
library of Bancroft is a volume of manuscripts, worn and
stained by time, which have an interest scarcely inferior to
that possessed by the Declaration of Independence itself, as
the fading page hangs against its pillar in the library of the
State Department at Washington. They are the original replies
sent by the Massachusetts towns to Samuel Adams's committee
sitting in Faneuil Hall, during those first months of 1773.
One may well read them with bated breath, for it is the touch
of the elbow as the stout little democracies dress up into
line, just before they plunge into actual fight at Concord and
Bunker Hill. There is sometimes a noble scorn of the
restraints of orthography, as of the despotism of Great
Britain, in the work of the old town clerks, for they
generally were secretaries of the committees; and once in a
while a touch of Dogberry's quaintness, as the punctilious
officials, though not always 'putting God first,' yet take
pains that there shall be no mistake as to their piety by
making every letter in the name of the Deity a rounded
capital. Yet the documents ought to inspire the deepest
reverence. They constitute the highest mark the town-meeting
has ever touched. Never before and never since have
Anglo-Saxon men, in lawful folk-mote assembled, given
utterance to thoughts and feelings so fine in themselves and
so pregnant with great events. To each letter stand affixed
the names of the committee in autograph. This awkward scrawl
was made by the rough fist of a Cape Ann fisherman, on shore
for the day to do at town-meeting the duty his fellows had
laid upon him: the hand that wrote this other was cramped from
the scythe-handle, as its possessor mowed an intervale on the
Connecticut; this blotted signature, where smutted fingers
have left a black stain, was written by a blacksmith of
Middlesex, turning aside a moment from forging a barrel that
was to do duty at Lexington. They were men of the plainest;
but as the documents containing statements of the most
generous principles find the most courageous determination,
were read in the town-houses, the committees who produced
them, and the constituents for whom the committees stood, were
lifted above the ordinary level. Their horizon expanded to the
broadest; they had in view not simply themselves, but the
welfare of the continent; not solely their own generation, but
remote posterity. It was Samuel Adams's own plan, the
consequences of which no one foresaw, neither friend nor foe.
Even Hutchinson, who was scarcely less keen than Samuel Adams
himself, was completely at fault. 'Such a foolish scheme,' he
called it, 'that the faction must necessarily make themselves
ridiculous.' But in January the eyes of men were opening. One
of the ablest of the Tories, Daniel Leonard, wrote:—'This is
the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent ever issued
from the egg of sedition. I saw the small seed when it was
implanted; it was a grain of mustard. I have watched the plant
until it has become a great tree.' It was the transformation
into a strong cord of what had been a rope of sand."

_J. K. Hosmer,
Samuel Adams,
chapter 13._

"In the spring of 1773, Virginia carried this work of
organization a long step further, when Dabney Carr suggested
and carried a motion calling for committees of correspondence
between the several colonies. From this point it was a
comparatively short step to a permanent Continental Congress.
It happened that these preparations were made just in time to
meet the final act of aggression which brought on the
Revolutionary War. The Americans had thus far successfully
resisted the Townshend acts and secured the repeal of all the
duties except on tea. As for tea they had plenty, but not from
England; they smuggled it from Holland in spite of
custom-houses and search-warrants. Clearly unless the
Americans could be made to buy tea from England and pay the
duty on it, the king must own himself defeated. Since it
appeared that they could not be forced into doing this, it
remained to be seen if they could be tricked into doing it. A
truly ingenious scheme was devised. Tea sent by the East India
Company to America had formerly paid a duty in some British
port on the way. This duty was now taken off, so that the
price of the tea for America might be lowered. The company's
tea thus became so cheap that the American merchant could buy
a pound of it and pay the threepence duty beside for less than
it cost him to smuggle a pound of tea from Holland. It was
supposed that the Americans would of course buy the tea which
they could get most cheaply, and would thus be beguiled into
submission to that principle of taxation which they had
hitherto resisted. Ships laden with tea were accordingly sent
in the autumn of 1773 to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and
Charleston; and consignees were appointed to receive the tea
in each of these towns. Under the guise of a commercial
operation, this was purely a political trick.
{3208}
It was an insulting challenge to the American people, and
merited the reception which they gave it. They would have
shown themselves unworthy of their rich political heritage had
they given it any other. In New York, Philadelphia, and
Charleston mass-meetings of the people voted that the
consignees should be ordered to resign their offices, and they
did so. At Philadelphia the tea-ship was met and sent back to
England before it had come within the jurisdiction of the
custom-house. At Charleston the tea was landed, and as there
was no one to receive it or pay the duty, it was thrown into a
damp cellar and left there to spoil. In Boston things took a
different turn."

_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 5._

"Acting upon the precedent of the time of the Stamp Act, when
Oliver, the stamp commissioner, had resigned his commission
under the Liberty Tree, a placard was posted everywhere on the
3d of November, inviting the people of Boston and the
neighboring towns to be present at Liberty Tree that day at
noon, to witness the resignation of the consignees of the tea,
and hear them swear to re-ship to London what teas should
arrive. The placard closed,—'Show me the man that dares take
this town.' At the time appointed, representatives Adams,
Hancock, and Phillips, the selectmen and town clerk, with
about five hundred more, were present at the Liberty Tree. But
no consignees arrived, whereupon Molineux and Warren headed a
party who waited upon them. The consignees, Clarke, a rich
merchant, and his sons, Benjamin Faneuil, Winslow, and the two
sons of Hutchinson, Thomas and Elisha, sat together in the
counting-house of Clarke in King Street. Admittance was
refused the committee, and a conversation took place through a
window, during which the tone of the consignees was defiant.
There was some talk of violence, and when an attempt was made
to exclude the committee and the crowd attending them from the
building, into the first story of which they had penetrated,
the doors were taken off their binges and threats uttered.
Molineux, generally impetuous enough, but now influenced
probably by cooler heads, dissuaded the others from violence.
… A town-meeting on November 5, in which an effort of the
Tories to make head against the popular feeling came to
naught, showed how overwhelming was the determination to
oppose the introduction of the tea. … When news arrived on the
17th that three tea-ships were on the way to Boston, for a
second time a town-meeting demanded through a committee, of
which Samuel Adams was a member, the resignation of the
consignees. They evaded the demand; the town-meeting voted
their answer not satisfactory, and at once adjourned without
debate or comment. The silence was mysterious; what was
impending none could tell. … On the 28th, the first of the
tea-ships, the Dartmouth, Captain Hall, sailed into the
harbor. Sunday though it was, the Committee of Correspondence
met, obtained from Benjamin Rotch, the Quaker owner of the
Dartmouth, a promise not to enter the vessel until Tuesday,
and made preparations for a mass-meeting at Faneuil Hall for
Monday forenoon, to which Samuel Adams was authorized to
invite the surrounding towns. A stirring placard the next
morning brought the townsmen and their neighbors to the place.
After the organization, Samuel Adams, arising among the
thousands, moved that: 'As the town have determined at a late
meeting legally assembled that they will to the utmost of
their power prevent the landing of the tea, the question be
now put,—whether this body are absolutely determined that the
tea now arrived in Captain Hall shall be returned to the place
from whence it came.' There was not a dissenting voice. … In
the afternoon, the meeting having resolved that the tea should
go back in the same ship in which it had come, Rotch, the
owner of the Dartmouth, protested, but was sternly forbidden,
at his peril, to enter the tea. Captain Hall also was
forbidden to enter any portion of it. 'Adams was never in
greater glory,' says Hutchinson. The next morning, November
30, the people again assembling, the consignees made it known
that it was out of their power to send the tea back; but they
promised that they would store it until word should come from
their 'constituents' as to its disposal. … The Dartmouth each
night was watched by a strong guard; armed patrols, too, were
established, and six couriers held themselves ready, if there
should be need to alarm the country. … During the first week
in December arrived the Eleanor and the Beaver, also
tea-ships, which were moored near the Dartmouth, and subjected
to the same oversight. The 'True Sons of Liberty' posted about
the town the most spirited placards. … The days flew by. At
length came the end of the time of probation. If the cargo of
the Dartmouth had not been 'entered' within that period, the
ship according to the revenue laws, must be confiscated.
Rotch, the Quaker owner, had signified his willingness to send
the ship back to England with the cargo on board, if he could
procure a clearance. The customs officials stood on
technicalities; under the circumstances a clearance could not
be granted. The grim British admiral ordered the Active and
the Kingfisher from his fleet to train their broadsides on the
channels, and sink whatever craft should try to go to sea
without the proper papers. The governor alone had power to
override these obstacles. It was competent for him to grant a
permit which the revenue men and the admiral must respect. If
he refused to do this, then on the next day the legal course
was for the revenue officers to seize the Dartmouth and land
the tea under the guns of the fleet. It was the 16th of
December. A crowd of seven thousand filled the Old South and
the streets adjoining. Nothing like it had ever been known.
Town-meeting had followed town-meeting until the excitement
was at fever heat. The indefatigable Committee of
Correspondence had, as it were, scattered fire throughout the
whole country. … Poor Quaker Rotch … felt himself, probably,
the most persecuted of men, when the monster meeting forced
him in the December weather to make his way out to Milton Hill
to seek the permit from Hutchinson. … Meantime darkness had
fallen upon the short winter day. The crowd still waited in
the gloom of the church, dimly lighted here and there by
candles. Rotch reappeared just after six, and informed the
meeting that the governor refused to grant the permit until
the vessels were properly qualified. As soon as the report had
been made, Samuel Adams arose, for it was he who had been
moderator, and exclaimed: 'This meeting can do nothing more to
save the country.'
{3209}
It was evidently a concerted signal, for instantly … the
famous war-whoop was heard, and the two or three score of
'Mohawks' rushed by the doors, and with the crowd behind them
hurried in the brightening moonlight to Griffin's wharf, where
lay the ships. The tea could not go back to England; it must
not be landed. The cold waters of the harbor were all that
remained for it. Three hundred and forty-two chests were cast
overboard. Nothing else was harmed, neither person nor
property. All was so quiet that those at a distance even could
hear in the calm air the ripping open of the thin chests as
the tea was emptied. The 'Mohawks' found helpers, so that in
all perhaps one hundred and fifty were actively concerned. Not
far off in the harbor lay the ships of the fleet, and the
Castle with the 'Sam Adams Regiments.' But no one interfered."

_J. K. Hosmer,
Samuel Adams,
chapter 16._

ALSO IN:
_W. V. Wells,
Life of Samuel Adams,
volume 1, pages 372-375, 495-512;
volume 2, pages 1-9, 24-29, 61-63, 80-81, 103-130._

_R. Frothingham,
Life of Joseph Warren,
chapter 9._

_Force's American Archives,
volume 1._

See, also, BOSTON: A. D. 1773;
and NEW YORK: A. D. 1773-1774.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (March-April).
The Boston Port Bill.
The Massachusetts Act and the Quebec Act.

"The spoken defiance of the other colonies had been quite as
efficient as the combination of threats and force to which
Boston was compelled to resort, but Lord North launched the
first retaliatory and punitive measure against that city. …
The first of Lord North's bills was the Boston Port Act, which
closed the harbor until indemnity for the tea there destroyed
should be paid and the king be satisfied that thereafter the
city would obey the laws. The demand for indemnity was fair
but the indefinite claim of obedience was not only infamous in
itself but, as Burke said, punished the innocent with the
guilty. … North's second bill was a virtual abrogation of the
Massachusetts charter. The council of twenty-eight had been
hitherto elected every year in joint session of the assembly.
The king might now appoint the whole body to any number, from
twelve to thirty-six, and remove them at pleasure. The men so
appointed were designated mandamus councillors. Thereafter
town-meetings could be held only by permission of the governor
and for the sole purpose of electing officers [General Gage
was made governor under this act, and four regiments were
placed in Boston for his support]. Sheriffs were to return all
juries, and were to be named by the governor and hold office
during his pleasure. The third bill was really a device of the
king's, and it is said that the ministry was confused and
shamefaced in presenting it. It ordained that magistrates,
revenue officers, or other officials indicted in Massachusetts
for capital offences were to be tried either in Nova Scotia or
Great Britain. Another measure made legal the billeting of
troops, against which Boston had hitherto striven with
success, and a fifth, known as the Quebec Act, though
depriving that province of the right of habeas corpus,
restored the French customary law ('coutume de Paris'),
established Roman Catholicism as the state religion, and by
extending its boundaries to the Ohio and Mississippi, shut off
the Northern English Colonies from westward extension. This
was intended as an arbitrary settlement of a vexed question.
The Puritans, however, … exclaimed that the next step would be
the establishment among them of English episcopacy."

_W. M. Sloane,
The French War and the Revolution,
chapter 14._

ALSO IN:
_A. Johnston,
The United States: its History and Constitution,
sections. 57-58._

_Parliamentary History,
volume 17._

_American Archives,
series 4, volume 1, pages 35-220._

_Lord Fitzmaurice,
Life of the Earl of Shelburne,
volume 2, chapter 8._

On the Quebec Act.

See, also, CANADA: A. D. 1763-1774.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (April-October).
Lord Dunmore's War with the Indians.
The Western territorial claims of Virginia.

See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1774.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (May-June).
Effects of the Boston Port Bill.
The call for a Continental Congress.

"The Boston Port Bill was received in America with honors not
accorded even to the Stamp Act. It was cried through the
streets as 'A barbarous, cruel, bloody, and inhuman murder,'
and was burnt by the common hangman on a scaffold forty-five
feet high. The people of Boston gathered together in
town-meeting at Faneuil Hall, and expresses were sent off with
an appeal to all Americans throughout America. The responses
from the neighborhood came like snow-flakes. Marblehead
offered the use of its wharves to the Boston merchants; Salem
averred that it would be lost to all feelings of humanity were
it to raise its fortunes on the ruins of its neighbor.
Newburyport voted to break off trade with Great Britain, and
to lay up its ships. Connecticut, as her wont is, when moved
by any vital occurrence, betook herself to prayer and
humiliation, first, however, ordering an inventory to be taken
of her cannon and military stores. Virginia, likewise,
resolved to invoke the divine interposition, but, before
another resolution which called for a Congress could be
introduced, her House was precipitately dissolved; whereupon
the resolution was brought up and passed at a meeting called
in 'the Apollo,' where it was further declared that an attack
on one colony was an attack upon all. Two days later the
Massachusetts letter itself was received, upon which the
Virginians called a convention. From all parts contributions
in money poured into Boston, and resolutions were everywhere
passed, declaring that no obedience was due the late acts of
Parliament; that the right of imperial taxation did not exist;
that those who had accepted office under pay of the king had
violated their public duty; that the Quebec act establishing
Roman Catholicism in Canada was hostile to the Protestant
religion, and that the inhabitants of the colonies should use
their utmost diligence to acquaint themselves with the art of
war, and for that purpose should turn out under arms at least
once a week. In the fulness of time, a cordon of ships was
drawn around Boston, and six regiments and a train of
artillery were encamped on the Common—the only spot in the
thirteen colonies where the government could enforce an order.
The conflict between constitutional liberty and absolutism had
now reached that dangerous point where physical force became
one of its elements. … The situation was at once recognized
throughout the colonies, and the knowledge that in union there
is strength, manifested itself in one general impulse toward a
Colonial Congress. Committees of Correspondence were organized
in every county, and throngs attended the public meetings.
{3210}
'One great, wise, and noble spirit; one masterly soul
animating one vigorous body,' was the way John Adams described
this impulse. The Canadas alone remained inanimate. … But not
so those to whom constitutional liberty was as the breath of
life. On the 17th of June (1774) the Massachusetts Assembly,
which had been removed by a royal order to Salem, answered
Virginia by resolving on a call for a Continental Congress at
Philadelphia. The governor, hearing of what was going on, sent
the secretary of the colony to dissolve the Assembly, but,
finding the doors shut upon him, he had to content himself
with reading the message to the crowd outside. The House went
on with its work, while, at the same time, a great meeting,
with John Adams in the chair, was being held at Boston in
Faneuil Hall. Twelve colonies agreed to send delegates to a
Continental Congress to be held at Philadelphia in September."

_E. G. Scott,
The Development of Constitutional Liberty in the
English Colonies of America,
chapter 11 (with corrections by the author)._

ALSO IN:
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision)
volume 4, chapter 1._

See, also, BOSTON: A. D. 1774.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774(May-July).
Governor Hutchinson's departure for England.
His conversation with King George.

In May, 1774, Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, who had
applied some months before for leave of absence to visit
England, was relieved by General Gage and took his departure.
General Gage was temporarily commissioned to be "Captain
General and Governor-in-Chief" of the Province of
Massachusetts, and "Vice-Admiral of the same," combining the
civil and military powers in himself. It was then supposed
that Hutchinson's absence would be brief; but, to his endless
grief, he never saw the country again. Soon after his arrival
in England he had an interview with the king, which is
reported at length in his Diary. The conversation is one of
great historical interest, exhibiting King George's knowledge
and ideas of American affairs, and representing the opinions
of a high-minded American loyalist. It is reprinted here
exactly as given in Governor Hutchinson's Diary, published by
his great-grandson in 1883:

"July 1st.—Received a card from Lord Dartmouth desiring to see
me at his house before one o'clock. I went soon after 12, and
after near an hour's conversation, his Lordship proposed
introducing me immediately to the King. I was not dressed as
expecting to go to Court, but his Lordship observing that the
King would not be at St. James's again until Wednesday [this
was Friday], I thought it best to go; but waited so long for
his Lordship to dress, that the Levée was over; but his
Lordship going in to the King, I was admitted, contrary, as
Lord Pomfret observed to me, to custom, to kiss His Majesty's
hand in his closet: after which, as near as I can recollect,
the following conversation passed.

K.—How do you do Mr. H. after y voyage?

H.—Much reduced Sir by sea-sickness; and unfit upon that
account, as well as my New England dress, to appear before
your Majesty. Lord D. observed—Mr. H. apologised to me for his
dress, but I thought it very well, as he is just come ashoar;
to which the K. assented.

K.—How did you leave your Government, and how did the people
receive the news of the late measures in Parliament?

H.—When I left Boston we had no news of any Act of Parliament,
except the one for shutting up the port, which was extremely
alarming to the people.

(Lord D. said, Mr. H. came from Boston the day that Act was to
take place, the first of June. I hear the people of Virginia
have refused to comply with the request to shut up their
ports, from the people of Boston, and Mr. H. seems to be of
opinion that no colony will comply with that request.)

K.—Do you believe, Mr. H., that the account from Virginia is
true?

H.—I have no other reason to doubt it, except that the
authority for it seems to be only a newspaper; and it is very
common for articles to be inserted in newspapers without any
foundation. I have no doubt that when the people of Rhode
Island received the like request, they gave this answer—that
if Boston would stop all the vessels they then had in port,
which they were hurrying away before the Act commenced, the
people of R. Island would then consider of the proposal. The
King smiled.

Lord D.—Mr. H., may it please your Majesty, has shewn me a
newspaper with an address from a great number of Merchants,
another from the Episcopal Clergy, another from the Lawyers,
all expressing their sense of his conduct in the most
favourable terms. Lord Dartmouth thereupon took the paper out
of his pocket and shewed it.

K.—I do not see how it could be otherwise. I am sure his
conduct has been universally approved of here by people of all
parties.

H.—I am very happy in your Majesty's favourable opinion of my
administration.

K.—I am intirely satisfied with it. I am well acquainted with
the difficulties you have encountered, and with the abuse &
injury offered you. Nothing could be more cruel than the
treatment you met with in betraying your private letters.

The K., turning to Lord D.—My Lord, I remember nothing in them
to which the least exception could be taken.

Lord D.—That appears, Sir, from the report of the Committee of
Council, and from your Majesty's orders thereon.

H.—The correspondence, Sir, was not of my seeking. It was a
meer matter of friendly amusement, chiefly a narrative of
occurrences, in relating of which I avoided personalities as
much as I could, and endeavoured to treat persons, when they
could not be avoided, with tenderness, as much as if my
letters were intended to be exposed; whereas I had no reason
to suppose they ever would be exposed.

K.—Could you ever find Mr. H. how those letters came to New
England?

H.—Doctor F., may it please your Majesty, has made a publick
declaration that he sent them, and the Speaker has
acknowledged to me that he received them: I do not remember
that he said directly from Doctor F., but it was understood
between us that they came from him. I had heard before that
they came either direct from him, or that he had sent them
through another channel, and that they were to be communicated
to six persons only, and then to be returned without suffering
any copies to be taken, I sent for the Speaker and let him
know what I had heard, which came from one of the six to a
friend, and so to me. The Speaker said they were sent to him,
and that he was at first restrained from shewing them to any
more than six persons.

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K.—Did he tell you who were the persons?

H.—Yes, sir. There was Mr. Bowdoin, Mr. Pitts, Doctor
Winthrop, Doctor Chauncy, Doctor Cooper, and himself. They are
not all the same which had been mentioned before. The two Mr.
Adamses had been named to me in the room of Mr. Pitts and
Doctor Winthrop.

K.—Mr. B. I have heard of Lord D.—I think he is father-in-law
to Mr. T. [Temple].

K.—Who is Mr. Pitts?

H.—He is one of the Council—married Mr. B.'s sister.

K.—I have heard of Doctor Ch. and Doctor Cooper, but who is
Doctor Winthrop?

H.—He is not a Doctor of Divinity, Sir, but of Law; a
Professor of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy at the
College, and last year was chose of the Council.

K.—I have beard of one Mr. Adams, but who is the other?

H.—He is a Lawyer, Sir.

K.—Brother to the other?

H. No, Sir, a relation. He has been of the House, but is not
now. He was elected by the two Houses to be of the Council,
but negatived. The speaker further acquainted me that, after
the first letter, he received another, allowing him to shew
the Letters to the Committee of Correspondence; and afterwards
a third, which allowed him to shew them to such persons as he
could confide in, but always enjoined to send them back
without taking copies. I asked him how he could be guilty of
such a breach of trust as to suffer them to be made publick?
He excused it by saying that he was against their being
brought before the House, but was overruled; and when they had
been read there, the people abroad compelled their
publication, or would not be satisfied without it. Much more
passed with which I will not trouble your Majesty; but after
the use had been made of the Letters, which is so well known,
they were all returned.

K., turning to Lord D—This is strange:—where is Doctor F., my
lord?

Lord D.—I believe, Sir, he is in Town. He was going to
America, but I fancy he is not gone.

K.—I heard he was going to Switzerland, or to some part of the
Continent.

Lord D.—I think, Sir, there has been such a report.

K.—In such abuse, Mr. H., as you met with, I suppose there
must have been personal malevolence as well as party rage?

H.—It has been my good fortune, Sir, to escape any charge
against me in my private character. The attacks have been upon
my publick conduct, and for such things as my duty to your
Majesty required me to do, and which you have been pleased to
approve of. I don't know that any of my enemies have
complained of a personal injury.

K.—I see they threatened to pitch and feather you.

H.—Tarr & feather, may it please your Majesty; but I don't
remember that ever I was threatened with it.

Lord D.—Oh! yes, when Malcolm was tarred and feathered
[Almanac for 1770, May, MS. Note], the committee for tarring
and feathering blamed the people for doing it, that being a
punishment reserved for a higher person, and we suppose you
was intended.

H.—I remember something of that sort, which was only to make
diversion, there being no such committee, or none known by
that name.

K.—What guard had you, Mr. H.?

H.—I depended, Sir, on the protection of Heaven. I had no
other guard. I was not conscious of having done anything of
which they could justly complain, or make a pretence for
offering violence to my person. I was not sure, but I hoped
they only meant to intimidate. By discovering that I was
afraid, I should encourage them to go on. By taking measures
for my security I should expose myself to calumny, and being
censured as designing to render them odious for what they
never intended to do. I was, therefore, obliged to appear to
disregard all the menaces in the newspapers, and also private
intimations from my friends who frequently advised me to take
care of myself.

K.—I think you generally live in the country,
Mr. H.; what distance are you from town?

H.—I have lived in the country, Sir, in the summer for 20
years; but, except the winter after my house was pulled down,
I have never lived in the country in winter until the last. My
house is 7 or 8 miles from the Town, a pleasant situation, and
most gentlemen from abroad say it has the finest prospect from
it they ever saw, except where great improvements have been
made by art, to help the natural view. The longest way the
road is generally equal to the turnpike roads here; the other
way rather rough.

K.—Pray, what does Hancock do now? How will the late affair
affect him?

H.—I don't know to what particular affair your Majesty refers.

K.—Oh, a late affair in the city, his bills being refused.
(Turning to Lord D.) Who is that in the city, my Lord?

Lord D. not recollecting—

H.—I have heard, Sir, that Mr. Haley, a merchant in the city,
is Mr. Hancock's principal correspondent.

K.—Ay, that's the name.

H.—I heard, may it please your Majesty, before I came from New
England, that some small sums were returned, but none of
consequence.

K.—Oh, no, I mean within this month, large sums.

Lord D.—I have heard such rumours, but don't know the
certainty.

H.—Mr. Hancock, Sir, had a very large fortune left him by his
uncle, and I believe his political engagements have taken off
his attention from his private affairs. He was sensible not
long ago of the damage it was to him, and told me he was
determined to quit all publick business, but soon altered his
mind.

K.—Then there's Mr. Cushing: I remember his name a long time:
is not he a great man of the party?

H.—He has been many years Speaker, but a Speaker, Sir, is not
always the person of the greatest influence. A Mr. Adams is
rather considered as the opposer of Government, and a sort of
Wilkes in New England.

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K.—What gave him his importance?

H.—A great pretended zeal for liberty, and a most inflexible
natural temper. He was the first that publickly asserted the
Independency of the colonies upon the Kingdom, or the supreme
Authority of it.

K.—I have heard, Mr. H., that your ministers preach that, for
the sake of promoting liberty or the publick good, any
immorality or less evil may be tolerated?

H.—I don't know, Sir, that such doctrine has ever been
preached from the pulpit; but I have no doubt that it has been
publickly asserted by some of the heads of the party who call
themselves sober men, that the good of the publick is above
all other considerations, and that truth may be dispensed
with, and immorality is excusable, when this great good can be
obtained by such means.

K.—That's a strange doctrine, indeed. Pray, Mr. H., what is
your opinion of the effect from the new regulation of the
Council? Will it be agreeable to the people, and will the new
appointed Councillors take the trust upon them?

H.—I have not, may it please your Majesty, been able to inform
myself who they are. I came to Town late last evening, and
have seen nobody. I think much will depend upon the choice
that has been made.

K.—Enquiry was made and pains taken that the most suitable
persons should be appointed.

H.—The body of the people are Dissenters from the Church of
England; what are called Congregationalists. If the Council
shall have been generally selected from the Episcopalians, it
will make the change more disagreeable.

K.—Why are they not Presbyterians?

H.—There are very few Churches which call themselves
Presbyterians, and form themselves voluntarily into a
Presbytery without any aid from the civil government, which
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland enjoys.

Lord D.—The Dissenters in England at this day are scarce any
of them Presbyterians, but like those in New England,
Congregationalists, or rather Independents.

K.—Pray, what were your Ancestors, Mr. H.?

H.—In general, Sir, Dissenters.

K.—Where do you attend?

H.—With both, Sir. Sometimes at your Majesty's chapel, but
more generally at a Congregational church, which has a very
worthy minister, a friend to Government, who constantly prays
for your Majesty, and all in authority under you.

K.—What is his name?

H.—Doctor Pemberton.

K.—I have heard of Doctor Pemberton that he is a very good
man. Who is minister at the chapel?

H.—The Rector is Dr. Caner, a very worthy man also, who
frequently inculcates upon his hearers due subjection to
Government, and condemns the riotous violent opposition to it;
and besides the prayers in the Liturgy, generally in a short
prayer before sermon, expressly prays for your Majesty, and
for the chief Ruler in the Province.

K.—Why do not the Episcopal ministers in general do the same?

H.—In general, Sir, they use no other prayer before sermon
than a short collect out of the Liturgy.

K.—No—(turning to Lord D.) It is not so here, my Lord?

Lord D.—I believe it is, Sir. In your Majesty's Chapel they
always use such a prayer. It is a form adapted.

K.—I think you must be mistaken.

Lord D.—No, Sir. This prayer used to be printed formerly, but
of late it has not been printed with the service. In general
the ministers use a collect, as Mr. Hutchinson says; sometimes
the collect in the Communion service—'Prevent us, O Lord,'
&c., but I think oftener the collect for the second Sunday in
Advent.

H.—My education, Sir, was with the Dissenters. I conceive
there is no material difference between reading a prayer out
of a book, and saying it 'memoriter,' without book.

Lord D.—I think, Sir, it is not very material. The prayers of
the Dissenters are in substance very much the same with those
in the service of' the church.

K.—I see no material difference, if the prayers be equally
good, but will not that depend upon the minister? But, pray,
Mr. H., why do your ministers generally join with the people
in their opposition to Government?

H.—They are, Sir, dependent upon the people. They are elected
by the people, and when they are dissatisfied with them, they
seldom leave till they get rid of them.

K.—That must be very dangerous. If the people oblige them to
concur with them in their erroneous principles on Government,
they may do it in religion also, and this must have a most
fatal tendency.

H.—There is one check, Sir, upon the people. Unless a minister
be dismissed by a council of Churches, the Province law makes
provision for the recovery of the salary; but we have no
instance where a minister, for any length of time, has brought
suits for the recovery of his salary, after the people refuse
to hear him. They generally weary him, and sooner or later
they get clear of him.

Lord D.—That's a considerable tye, however.

K.—Pray, Mr. H., does population greatly increase in your
Province?

H.—Very rapidly, Sir. I used to think that Doctor F., who has
taken such pains in his calculations, carried it too far when
he supposed the inhabitants of America, from their natural
increase, doubled their number in 25 years; but I rather think
now that he did not; and I believe it will appear from the
last return I made to the Secretary of State, that the
Massachusets has increased in that proportion. And the
increase is supposed, including the importation of foreigners,
to be, upon the whole, greater in most of the Southern
Colonies than in the Massachusets. We import no settlers from
Europe, so as to make any sensible increase.

K.—Why do not foreigners come to your Province as well as to
the Southern Governments?

H.—I take it, Sir, that our long cold winters discourage
them. Before they can bring the land to such a state as to be
able in summer to provide for their support in winter, what
little substance they can bring with them is expended, and
many of them have greatly suffered. The Southern colonies are
more temperate.

K.—What is the reason you raise no wheat in your Province?

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H.—In most places, especially near the sea, it blasts.

K.—To what cause is that owing?

H.—It has been observed that when the grain is so forward as
to be out of the milk the beginning of July, it seldom blasts;
and that about the 8th or 10th of that month the weather
becomes exceeding hot, and what are called the honey dews of
the night are fixed upon the grains by the scalding sun in a
hot morning, and if the grain be then in the milk it shrivels
up, and the straw becomes rusty and black. This is a pretty
general opinion of the cause.

K.—To what produce is your climate best adapted?

H.—To grazing, Sir; your Majesty has not a finer Colony for
grass in all your dominions: and nothing is more profitable in
America that pasture, because labour is very dear.

K.—Then you import all your bread corn from the other
Colonies?

H.—No, Sir, scarce any, except for the use of the maritime
towns. In the country towns the people raise grain enough for
their own expending, and sometimes for exportation. They live
upon coarse bread made of rye and corn mixed, and by long use
they learn to prefer this to flour or wheat bread.
K.—What corn?

H.—Indian corn, or, as it is called in Authors, Maize.

K.—Ay, I know it. Does that make good bread?

H.—Not by itself, Sir; the bread will soon be dry and husky;
but the Rye keeps it moist, and some of our country people
prefer a bushel of Rye to a bushel of Wheat, if the price
should be the same.

K.—That's very strange.

Lord D.—In many parts of Scotland, Sir, Rye is much esteemed
as making good and wholesome bread.

The King enquired very particularly into many other parts of
the produce of the country, and the natural history of it, to
which I gave the best answers I was capable of.

K.—New York, I think, comes the next to Boston in their
opposition to Government?

H.—Does your Majesty think nearer than Pennsilvania?

K.—Why, I can't say that they do of late.

K.—Rhode Island, Mr. H., is a strange form of Government.

H.—They approach, Sir, the nearest to a Democracy of any of
your Colonies. Once a year all power returns to the people,
and all their Officers are new elected. By this means the
Governor has no judgment of his own, and must comply with
every popular prejudice.

K.—Who is their Governor now?

H.—His name, Sir, is Wanton, a Gentleman who I have reason to
think wishes to see Government maintained as much as any they
could find in the Colonies.

K.—How is it with Connecticut? are they much better?

H.—The constitutions, Sir, are much the same; but Connecticut
are a more cautious people; strive to make as little noise as
may be, and have in general retained a good share of that
virtue which is peculiarly necessary in such a form of
Government.

More was said upon the state of these and some of the other
Colonies. There being something of a pause about this time, I
turned to Lord Dartmouth and asked—Does your Lordship remember
when you had the first account of the Lieutenant Governor's
death, and whether it was before the Letters which I wrote by
Governor Tryon?

Lord D.—Oh, yes, I had a letter from you several weeks before
that, giving an account of it.

H.—There was a vessel sailed for Lisbon the day after he died,
and I gave a letter to the master in charge, to put it on
board the first Vessel for London, but was doubtful of the
conveyance.

K.—We never could find out which way that letter came. Is the
present L. Governor a relation to the late Mr. Oliver?

H.—No, Sir, not of the same family. I have no connection with
him, nor did I ever let him know that I had mentioned him as
one of the persons I thought might be proper for a Lieutenant
Governor.

K.—The Chief Justice, I think, is brother to the late
Lieutenant Governor?

H.—Yes, Sir.

K.—We had thought of him, but as he was not one of those you
had named, the present Gentleman, upon enquiry, appeared under
all circumstances the most proper.

H.—I had some particular inducement not to mention the Chief
Justice. He is related to me, and his appointment would have
increased the envy against both of us.

K.—How is he related to you?

H.—One of his sons, Sir, married one of my daughters. I was,
besides, uncertain whether the salary would be continued; and
if it should be, his salary as Chief Justice exceeded it,
except in case of my absence, and then the expense of living,
and the additional trouble from his post, I considered as more
than an equivalent. I considered further, that the controversy
in which he had been engaged as Chief Justice would render the
administration peculiarly difficult just at that time; and I
supposed it would immediately devolve upon him by my absence,
having then no expectation of being superseded. I never took
more pains to divest myself of all personal views than in
mentioning proper persons for this place. I should have been
more anxious, if I had not thought it not improbable that some
person might be appointed, and sent from England.

K.—What number of Indians had you in your Government?

H.—They are almost extinct. Perhaps there are 50 or 60
families at most upon the Eastern Frontier, where there is a
small fort maintained; tho' I conceive the inhabitants would
not be in the least danger. It looks, Sir, as if in a few
years the Indians would be extinct in all parts of the
Continent.

K.—To what is that owing?

H.—I have thought, Sir, in part to their being dispirited at
their low despicable condition among the Europeans, who have
taken possession of their country, and treat them as an
inferior race of beings; but more to the immoderate use of
spirituous liquors. There are near 100 families, perhaps more,
of Indians who are domiciliated, and live, some in other towns,
but most of them at a place called Mashpee, where they have a
church, and a Missionary to preach to them, and also an Indian
Minister who has been ordained, and preaches sometimes in
their own language.

K.—What, an Episcopal Minister?

H.—No, Sir, of the Congregational persuasion or form of
worship.

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