Chapter XXII (1)

Scene IV. In Boston, while the Regulars were flying from Lexington.

Lord Boston, surrounded by his Guards and a few Officers.

Lord Boston. If Colonel Smith succeeds in his embassy, and I think there's no doubt of it, I shall have the pleasure this evening, I expect, of having my friends Hancock and Adams's good company; I'll make each of them a present of a pair of handsome iron ruffles, and Major Provost shall provide a suitable entertainment for them in his apartment.

Officer. Sure they'll not be so unpolite as to refuse your excellency's kind invitation.

Lord Boston. Should they, Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn have my orders to make use of all their rhetoric and the persuasive eloquence of British thunder.

Enters a messenger in haste.

I bring your excellency unwelcome tidings--

Lord Boston. For Heaven's sake! from what quarter?

Messenger. From Lexington plains.

Lord Boston. 'Tis impossible!

Messenger. Too true, sir.

Lord Boston. Say--what is it? Speak what you know.

Messenger. Colonel Smith is defeated and fast retreating.

Lord Boston. Good God! what does he say? Mercy on me!

Messenger. They're flying before the enemy.

Lord Boston. Britons turn their backs before the Rebels! the Rebels put Britons to flight! Said you not so?

Messenger. They are routed, sir; they are flying this instant; the provincials are numerous, and hourly gaining strength; they have nearly surrounded our troops. A re-enforcement, sir, a timely succor, may save the shattered remnant. Speedily! speedily, sir! or they're irretrievably lost.

"The Fall of British Tyranny, or American Liberty triumphant." *

ENERAL GAGE soon became a tyrant in the eyes of the people of Boston. However humane were his intentions, the execution of his commission necessarily involved harsh and oppressive measures. Pursuant to the provisions of the Port Bill, he proceeded, after the appointment of the members of the Council (see note 1, next page), to transfer the government June, 1774offices to Salem, and on the 31st of May the Assembly held its final session in Boston. By proclamation, Gage adjourned the House until the 7th of June, and ordered the next meeting at Salem. Anticipating this measure, the House appointed two members of the Assembly--Samuel Adams and James Warren--to act in the interim, as the exigencies of the case might require. These, with a few others already named, held private conferences, and arranged plans for the public good. On the third evening after the adjournment of the Assembly, their plans were matured. The suggestions of New York and other places, as well as the hints thrown out by Pownall in the House of Commons respecting a general Congress, were favorably considered. A plan was arranged for a Continental Congress; they also matured measures for making provisions for supplying funds and munitions of war, prepared an address to the other colonies, inviting their co-operation in the measure of a general Congress, and drew up a non-importation agreement.

If:

* This is a well-written drama, published by Styner and Cist, Philadelphia, in 1776. Its sub-title is, "A tragi-Comedy of Five Acts, as lately planned at the Royal Theatrum Pandemonium at St. James's. The principal place of action, in America." It is dedicated "To Lord Boston [General Gage], Lord Kidnapper [Dunmore, governor of Virginia], and the innumerable and never-ending class of Macs and Donalds upon Donalds, and the remnant of the gentlemen Officers, Actors, Merry Andrews, Strolling Players, Pirates, and Buccaneers in America."

Boldness of the Patriots.--Attempt to Dissolve the Assembly.--The "League."

June 17. 510These several propositions and plans were boldly laid before the General Court when it June 7, 1774 reopened at Salem. The few partisans of the crown in that Assembly were filled with amazement and alarm at the boldness of the popular leaders; and as rank treason was developed in the first acts of the majority, a partisan of government determined, if possible, to put a stop to further rebellious proceedings.

Feigning sudden illness, he was allowed to leave the Assembly. He went immediately to the governor and acquainted him with the proceedings in progress. ** Gage sent his secretary to dissolve the Assembly by proclamation, but the patriots were too vigilant for him. The doors of the Assembly were locked, and the keys were safely deposited in Samuel Adams's pocket. The secretary read the proclamation on the stairs, but it was unheeded by the patriots within.

They proceeded to adopt and sign a "Solemn League and Covenant," in which all former non-importation agreements and cognate undertakings were concentrated, and a committee was appointed to send the covenant, as a circular, to every colony in America. *** They also adopted the other plans matured by Adams and others, and a resolution that "a meeting of committees, from the several colonies on this continent, is highly expedient and necessary, to consult upon the present state of the country, and the miseries to which we are and must be reduced by the operation of certain acts of Parliament, and to deliberate and determine on wise and proper measures to be recom-

* The political complexion of the new Council did not please Gage. He exercised the prerogative given to him by the charter to the fullest extent in rejecting thirteen of the elected counselors. The remainder were not much more agreeable to him.

** General Gage was then residing at the house of Robert Hooper, Esq., in Danvers, about four miles from Salem.

***All who felt an attachment to the American cause were called upon to sign it; and the covenanters were required to obligate themselves, in the presence of God, to cease all commerce with England, dating from the last of the ensuing month of August, until the late wicked acts of Parliament should be repealed and the Massachusetts colony reinstated in all its rights and privileges; to abstain from the use of any British goods whatsoever; and to avoid all commerce or traffic with those who refused to sign the League. Finally, it was covenanted that those who refused to sign the League should be held up to public scorn and indignation by the publication of their names. The articles of the League were transmitted by circulars to all the other provinces, with invitations to the inhabitants to affix their names thereto. Philadelphia alone, as a city, did not accept the invitation to join in such a measure, preferring to refer the matter to a general Congress, and agreeing to execute faithfully all measures therein agreed upon.

**** A biographical sketch of this distinguished patriot will be found among those of the signers of the Declaration of Independence printed in the Supplement.

Appointment of Delegates to a Continental Congress.--Denunciation of the "League."--Closing of the Port of Boston.

511mended to all the colonies for the recovery and re-establishment of our just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between Great Britain and America, which is most ardently desired by all good men." They designated the 1st of September as the time, and Philadelphia as the place of meeting. Thomas Cushing, the Speaker of the Assembly, James Bowdoin, many years a member of the Council, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, were chosen delegates. A treasurer was appointed, and the towns were called upon to pay their respective shares of the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars, voted to the delegates in payment of their expenses. The whole business being ended, the Assembly adjourned indefinitely, and thus ended the last session of the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay, under a royal governor.

Gage was greatly irritated by the proceedings of the Assembly, and the acts of the people of Boston in sustaining these traitorous measures. He refused to receive the answer of the General Court to his address, and issued a strong proclamation in denunciation of the _League_ as an unlawful combination, hostile to the crown and Parliament, and ordering the magistrates to apprehend and bring to trial all who should be guilty of signing it. The people laughed at his proclamation, defied the pliant magistrates, and signed the League by thousands. Uncompromising hostility was aroused, and the arm of bold defiance was uplifted, even in the midst of distress and the menaces of foreign bayonets.

At noon on the 1st of June the port of Boston was closed to all vessels that wished to enter, and, after the 14th, all that remained were not allowed to depart. The two 1774 regiments ordered to Boston by Gage had arrived, and were encamped on the Common. Soon afterward, these being re-enforced by several regiments from Halifax, Quebec, New York, and Ireland, the town became an immense garrison. The utter prostration of all business soon produced great distress in the city. The rich, deprived of their rents, became straitened, and the poor, denied the privilege of labor, were reduced to beggary. All classes felt the scourge of the oppressor, yet the fortitude and forbearance of the inhabitants were most remarkable. The sympathy of the people abroad was commensurate with the sufferings of the patriots, and from every quarter came expressions of friendship and substantial tokens of attachment to the sufferers. The people of Georgia sent the Bostonians sixty-three barrels of rice, and seven hundred and twenty dollars in specie. Wheat and other grain were forwarded to them from different points; Schoharie, in New York, alone sending five hundred and twenty-five bushels of wheat. The city of London, in its corporate capacity, subscribed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the relief of the poor of Boston. The people of Marblehead and Salem offered the Boston merchants the free use of wharves and stores, for they scorned to enrich themselves at the expense of their oppressed neighbors. A committee was appointed in Boston to receive and distribute donations, and, in the midst of martial law, the suffering patriots were bold and unyielding.

General Gage was warned to relax the rigor of his military rule, or open rebellion would ensue. He affected to disregard these warnings, yet he employed precautionary measures. Boston is situated upon a peninsula, at that time connected with the continent by a narrow strip of land called the Neck. Convinced that hostilities must ensue unless the home government should recede, and relying more upon soldiers than upon conciliatory deeds, Gage moved in subserviency to this reliance, and stationed a strong guard of armed men upon the Neck. He gave as a reason for this measure the shallow pretext that he wished to prevent desertions from his ranks. The people readily interpreted the meaning of his movement, and saw at once that the patriots of Boston were to be cut off from free communication with those in the country, and that arms and ammunition were not to be transported from the city to the interior. For the first time the free intercourse of New Englanders was interrupted, and the lightning of rebellion, that had for years been curbed within the hearts of the people, leaped forth in manifestations which alarmed the hitherto haughty hirelings of royalty. The members of the new Council, appointed by the governor under the act which changed, and indeed abrogated, the charter of Massachusetts, who had accepted office, were treated with disdain at every step, and a large proportion of them were forced to resign.

Peaceable Resistance of the People.--Preparations for War.--Recantation of the Hutchinson Addressors

512

The courts of justice were suspended; the attorneys who had issued writs of citation were compelled to ask pardon in the public journals, and promise not to expedite others until the laws should be revoked and the charter re-established. The people occupied the seats of justice, that no room might be left for judges. When invited to withdraw, they answered that they recognized no other tribunals and no other magistrates than such as were established by ancient laws and usage. **

Persuaded that war was inevitable, the people, throughout the province, began to arm themselves and practice military tactics daily. Every where the fife and drum were heard, and fathers and sons, encouraged by the gentler sex, took lessons together in the art of war. The forge and hammer were busy in making guns and swords, and every thing bore the animated but gloomy impress of impending hostility. The zeal of true patriots waxed warmer; the fears of the timid and lukewarm assumed the features of courage; the avowed friends of government became alarmed, and those _Addressors_, as they were called, who signed an address to Hutchinson on his departure, were obliged to make public recantations in the newspapers. *** Some of the Boston clergy (particularly Dr. Cooper, the person who

* This picture is from an English print of the time. Then the principal portion of the town was upon the eastern slope and flats. There were a few houses upon the higher ground in the vicinity of Beacon Hill, around the Common, among which was that of John Hancock. In this picture, Beacon Hill is designated by the pole, which, with its barrel, is noticed in a preceding chapter. The peninsula originally contained about seven hundred acres. The hills have been razed and the earth carried into the water, by which means the peninsula is so enlarged that it now comprises about fourteen hundred acres.

** Otis's Botta, i., 124.

*** There were many persons of some significance who were willing, at this stage of the controversy, to offer conciliatory measures, and they even gave encouragement to General Gage and his government. One hundred and twenty merchants and others of Boston signed an address to General Gage, expressing a willingness to pay for the tea destroyed. It is averred, also, that some of the wealthiest people of Boston actually endeavored to raise money to pay the East India Company for the tea, but the attempt failed. There were some others who protested against the course of the Committee of Correspondence and the action of a large portion of the ministers of the Gospel, who, they averred, were unduly exciting the people, and urging them headlong toward ruin. But these movements were productive only of mischief. They made the colonists more determined, and deluded the home government with the false idea that the most respectable portion of the people were averse to change or revolution. The following is a copy of the recantation, signed by a large number of the addressors: "Whereas we, the subscribers, did some time since sign an address to Governor Hutchinson, which, though prompted to by the best intentions, has, nevertheless, given great, offense to our country; We do now declare, that we desire, so far from designing, by that action, to show our acquiescence in those acts of Parliament so universally and justly odious to all America, that, on the contrary, we hoped we might, in that way, contribute to their repeal; though now, to our sorrow, we find ourselves mistaken. And we do now further declare, that we never intended the offense which this address has occasioned; that, if we had foreseen such an event, we should never have signed it; as it always has been and now is our wish to live in harmony with our neighbors, and our serious determination is to promote, to the utmost of our power, the liberty, the welfare, and happiness of our country, which Is inseparably connected with our own." The Committee of Correspondence declared the recantation satisfactory, and recommended the signers of it as true friends to America.

Spirit of the American Press.--Zeal of the Committees of Correspondence.--Their importance.--Fortification of Boston Neck.

513first received Hutchinson's letters from Franklin) were very active in promoting hostility to the rulers, and the press exerted its power with great industry and effect. *

The _Massachusetts Spy_ and the _Boston Gazette_ were the principal Whig journals, and through the latter, Otis, Adams, Quincy, Warren, and others communed with the public, in articles suited to the comprehension of all. Epigrams, parables, sonnets, dialogues, and every form of literary expression remarkable for point and terseness, filled these journals. The following is a fair specimen of logic in rhyme, so frequently employed at that day. I copied it from Anderson's _Constitutional Gazette_, ** published in New York in 1775. That paper was the uncompromising opponent of Rivington's (Tory) Gazette, published in the same city.

"The Quarrel with America fairly Stated.

"Rudely forced to drink tea, Massachusetts in anger

Spills the tea on John Bull--John falls on to bang her;

Massachusetts, enraged, calls her neighbors to aid,

And give Master John a severe bastinade.

Now, good men of the law! pray, who is in fault,

The one who begun, or resents the assault?'

The Boston Committee of Correspondence were busy night and day preparing the people of the province for energetic action, and it needed but a slight offense to sound the battle cry and invoke the sword of rebellion from its scabbard. **

Alarmed at the rebellious spirit manifested on all sides, Gage removed the seat August, 1774 of government from Salem back to Boston, and began to fortify the Neck. The work went on slowly at first, for British gold could not buy Boston carpenters, and workmen had to be procured from other places. The people viewed these warlike preparations with indignation, which was heightened by an injudicious act of Gage in sending a detach-

* There were five newspapers printed in Boston in 1774, as follows: the Boston Past, on Monday morning, by Thomas and John Fleet; the Boston News-Letter, by Margaret Draper (widow of Richard Draper) and Robert Boyle; the Massachusetts Gazette awl Boston Post Boy and Advertiser, by Mills and Hicks; the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, by Edes and Gill; and the Massachusetts Spy, by Isaiah Thomas.--See Thomas's History of Printing.

** Anderson was the father of Dr. Alexander Anderson of New York, the earliest wood-engraver, as a distinct art, in America. Now (1855), at the age of eighty years, he uses the graver with all the skill and vigor of earlier manhood.

*** The committee of 1774 consisted of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, John Adams, William Phillips, Joseph Warren, and Josiah Quincy. The importance of these committees of correspondence may be understood by the estimate placed upon them by a Tory writer over the signature of Massachusettensis. "This," he said, "is the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent ever issued from the egg of sedition. It is the source of the rebellion. 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. The vilest reptiles that crawl upon the earth are concealed at the root; the foulest birds of the air rest upon its branches. I now would induce you to go to work immediately with axes and hatchets and cut it down, for a two-fold reason: because it is a pest to society, and lest it be felled suddenly by a stronger arm, and crush its thousands in its fall."

Attempted Seizure of Arms and Ammunition at Cambridge.--Alarm concerning Boston.--Convention in Boston

September l, 1774 ment 514of troops to seize a quantity of gunpowder belonging to the province, stored at Charlestown and Cambridge. This act greatly exasperated the people, and large numbers assembled at Cambridge, determined upon attacking the troops in Boston. About the same time, intelligence went abroad that the ships of war in Boston harbor were bombarding the town and the regular troops were massacring the people, sparing neither September 3. age nor sex. The news spread rapidly, and the thrill of horror produced by the report was succeeded by a cry of vengeance. In less than thirty-six hours the country for more than one hundred and seventy miles in extent was aroused. From the shores of Long Island to the green hills of Berkshire, "To arms! to arms!" was the universal shout. Instantly, on every side, men of all ages were seen cleansing and burnishing their weapons, furnishing themselves with provisions and warlike stores, and preparing for an immediate march; gentlemen of rank and fortune exhorting and encouraging others by voice and example. The roads were soon crowded with armed men, marching for Boston with great rapidity, but without noise or tumult. Full thirty thousand men were under arms and speeding toward the town; nor did they halt until well assured that the report was untrue. *

At a convention of delegates from the several towns in Suffolk county, to which Boston belonged, held on the 6th of September, it was resolved that no obedience was due to 1774 any part of the late acts of Parliament. Collectors of taxes, and other officers holding public money, were recommended to retain the funds in their hands until the old charter was restored; that persons who had accepted seats in the Council had violated the duty they owed to their country; that those who did not resign by the 20th of September should be considered public enemies; that the Quebec Act, establishing Romanism in Canada, was dangerous to Protestantism and liberty, and that they were determined to act on the defensive only so long as just reason required. They also recommended the people to seize and keep as a hostage any servant of the crown who might fall in their way, when they should hear of a patriot being arrested for any political offense. They drew up an address to General Gage, telling him frankly that they did not desire to commence hostilities, but that they were determined not to submit to any of the late acts of Parliament; they also complained loudly of the fortifications upon the Neck.

Gage denounced the convention as treasonable, and, in reply to their address, declared that he should take such measures for the safety of his troops and the friends of government as he thought proper, at the same time assuring them that the cannon placed in battery on the Neck should not be used except to repel hostile proceedings. Unlike Governor Carleton of Canada, he had no word of kindness or act of conciliation for the patriots, ** and they, in turn, reviled the governor and set his power at naught. Tarring and feathering and other violent acts became common, and the Tories or friends of government in the surrounding country were obliged to seek refuge in Boston. The eight military companies in the town, composed of citizens, were mostly broken up. John Hancock had been commander of a corps called the Governor's Independent Cadets. General Gage had dismissed him, and the company, indignant at the affront, appointed a committee, on the 14 th of August, to

* See Hinman's Historical Collections from Official Records, &c., of Connecticut.

It was believed by some, that the rumor of the bombardment at Boston was set afloat by some of the leading patriots, to show General Gage what multitudes of people would rise up to crush his troops if he dared to abuse his power by committing the least act of violence.

** The kindness which Governor Carleton manifested toward the American prisoners captured at Quebec and the Cedars in 1776, did more to keep down rebellion in that province than any severe measures could have effected. Lamb says, that "in the spring of 1776. Governor Carleton addressed the prisoners with such sweetness and good-humor as was sufficient to melt every heart. 'My lads,' he said, 'why did you come to disturb an honest man in his government that never did any harm to you in his life? I never invaded your property, nor sent a single soldier to disturb you. Come, my hoys, you are in a very distressing situation, and not able to go home with any comfort. I must provide you with shoes, stockings, and warm waistcoats. I must give you some victuals to carry you home. Take care, my lads, that you do not come here again, lest I should not treat you so kindly."--Lamb's Journal of the American War, p. 89, Dublin, 1809.

Revolutionary Town Meetings.--Order for Convening the Assembly countermanded.--Meeting of the Assembly

515wait on the governor at Salem, and return him their standard, disbanded themselves." *

The day before the meeting of the Suffolk convention, the general Continental September, 1774 Congress met in Philadelphia, and as soon as information of its firm proceedings reached Massachusetts, the patriots assumed a bolder tone. Gage summoned the House of Representatives to meet at Salem, to proceed to business according to the new order of things under the late act of Parliament. Town meetings were held, but so revolutionary were their proceedings, that Gage countermanded his order for the Assembly. His right to countermand was denied, and most of the members elect, to the number of ninety, met at Salem on the day appointed. Gage, of course, was not there, and as nobody appeared to open the court or administer the oaths, they resolved themselves into a provincial Congress, adjourned to Concord, and there organized by choosing John Hancock president, and

* I copy from the Massachusetts Spy of September, 1774, the following lampoon in rhyme:

"A sample of gubernatorial eloquence, So lately exhibited to the company of cadets of Your Colonel H--n--k, by neglect Has been deficient in respect; As he my sovereign toe ne'er kissed, 'Twas proper he should be dismissed; I never was and never will By mortal man be treated ill. I never was nor ever can Be treated ill by mortal man. Oh had I but have known before That temper of your factious corps, It should have been my greatest pleasure To have prevented that bold measure. To meet with such severe disgrace--My standard flung into my face! Disband yourselves I so cursed stout! Oh had I, had I, turned you out!"

** This is given as a specimen of the fearlessness of the press at that time, for it must be remembered that the Spy was printed in Boston, then filled with armed troops employed to put down rising rebellion. Gage's proclamations were paraphrased in rhyme, and otherwise ridiculed. One of these, now before me, commences,

"Tom Gage's Proclamation, Or blustering Denunciation (Replete with Defamation), Threatening Devastation And speedy Jugulation Of the New English Nation, Who shall his pious ways shun." It closes with "Thus graciously the war I wage, As witnesseth my hand--TOM GAGE. "By command of Mother Carey. "Thomas Flucker, Secretary." *

*** A biographical sketch of Mr. Hancock will be found among those of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, in the Supplement. Flucker was Secretary of Massachusetts under Gage. Henry (afterward general) Knox, of the Revolution.

Appointment of Committees of Safety and Supplies.--Appointment of military Officers.--Spiking of Cannons

516Benjamin Lincoln, afterward a revolutionary general, secretary. A committee, appointed to consider the state of the province, prepared an address to Gage, which the Congress adopted, and then adjourned to Cambridge, where another committee was sent to present the address to the governor. In that address they protested against the fortification of the Neck, and complained of the recent acts of Parliament, while they expressed the warmest loyalty to the king and the government. Gage replied, as he did to the Suffolk committee, that his military preparations were made only in self-defense, and were justified by the warlike demonstrations on every hand. He concluded by pronouncing their Assembly illegal, and in contravention of the charter of the province, and warned them to desist.

The denunciations of Gage had no other effect than to increase the zeal of the patriots. The Provincial Congress proceeded to appoint a Committee of Safety, at the head of which was John Hancock, giving it power to call out the militia. A committee was appointed to provide ammunition and stores, and the sum of sixty-six thousand dollars was appropriOctober 26, 1774ated for the purpose. Provision was also made for arming the people of the province. They appointed Henry Gardner treasurer of the colony, under the title of _receiver general_, into whose hands the constables and tax-collectors were directed to pay all public moneys which they received. Jedediah Preble, Artemus Ward, and Seth Pomeroy, were appointed general officers of the militia. * The first did not accept the appointment, and Ward and Pomeroy alone entered upon the duty of organizing the military. Ammunition and stores were speedily collected at Concord, Woburn, and other places. Mills were erected for making gunpowder; manufactories were set up for making arms, and great encouragement was given to the production of saltpeter.

The Provincial Congress disavowed any intention to attack the British troops, yet took measures to cut off their supplies from the country. Gage issued a proclamaNovember 10tion, denouncing their proceedings, to which no attention was paid; and as the recommendations of the Provincial Congress had all the authority of law, he was unsupported except by his troops, and a few officials and their friends in the city. Apprehending that the people of Boston might point the cannons upon the fortifications about the town upon himself and troops, he caused a party of sailors to be landed by night from a ship of war in the harbor, who spiked all the guns upon the battery at Fort Hill.

At a session of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, convened on the 23d of November, it was voted to enrol twelve thousand minute men-- volunteers pledged to be ready to enter the field at a minute's notice-- and an invitation was sent to Connecticut and Rhode Island to follow this example, and increase the number of minute men to twenty thousand. They elected the same delegates to the general Congress, to meet again in May, 1775; appointed Colonel Thomas and Colonel Heath additional generals; and adopted measures for the formation of a new Provincial Congress, to meet early in the ensuing year. They then adjourned to attend the general thanksgiving, held according to their own appointment. ** When the year 1774 closed, the colonies were on the verge of open insurrection. Let us turn for a moment to view the progress of events in England.

When the colonial agents there observed the manifest improbability of a reconciliation and the certainty of an appeal to arms, they were exceedingly active in their efforts to mold the popular opinion in favor of the colonies. The various addresses put forth by the

* For a sketeh of the life of General Ward, see ante, page 190. Pomeroy was in the battle of Lake George, in 1755, and was the soldier of that name whom Everett supposes to have shot Baron Dieskau. See page 109.

** This appointment was always made by the governor, as at the present day, but the patriots had absolutely discarded his authority.

*.....daughter Lucy, in opposition to the wishes of her father, who desired a more advantageous match for her. Knox was a young bookseller in Boston, and Miss Flucker, who possessed considerable literary taste, became acquainted with him while visiting his store to purchase articles in his line. A sympathy of taste, feeling, and views produced mutual esteem, which soon ripened into love. Her friends looked upon her as one ruined in prospects of future social esteem and personal happiness, in wedding one who had espoused the cause of rebellion; but many of those very friends, when the great political change took place, were outcasts and in poverty, while Lucy Knox was the center of tbe first social circle in America.

Efforts of Franklin and others.--Counteraction by Adam Smith and others.--Proceedings in Parliament

517Continental Congress were printed and industriously circulated. Dr. Franklin and other friends of America traversed the manufacturing towns in the north of England, and by personal communications enlightened the people upon the important questions at issue. The inhabitants of those districts were mostly Dissenters, looking upon the Church of England as an oppressor; and, by parity of simple reasoning, its main pillar, the throne, was regarded equally as an instrument of oppression. They were, therefore, eager listeners to the truths respecting human rights which the friends of republicanism uttered, and throughout Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham, and Northumberland, the people became much excited.

Ministers were alarmed, and concerted measures to counteract the effects produced by these itinerant republicans. Adam Smith, the author of "The Wealth of Nations," Wedderburne, the solicitor general, and other friends of the ministry, wielded their pens vigorously; and, at their solicitation, Dr. Roebuck, of Birmingham, a very popular man among the manufacturing population, followed in the wake of Franklin and his friends, and endeavored to apply a ministerial antidote to their republican poison. In this he was measurably successful, and the districts were quieted.

Parliament assembled on the 30th of November. The king informed them that America was on the verge of open rebellion. When the usual address to the king was proposed in the House of Commons, the opposition offered an amendment, asking his majesty to lay before Parliament all letters, orders, and instructions relating to American affairs, as well as all the intelligence received from the colonies. Lord North opposed the amendment, because it made the first advances toward a reconciliation, and therefore was inconsistent with the dignity of the government! The address was replete with assurances of support for the king and ministers in all measures deemed necessary to maintain government in the colonics, or, in other words, in drawing the sword, if necessary, to bring the Americans to the feet of royal authority. A debate, characterized by considerable bitterness, ensued, but the amendment was rejected, and the loyal address was adopted by a vote of two hundred and sixty-four against seventy-three. Similar action was had in the House of Lords, and an address was carried by a vote of sixty-three to thirteen. Nine peers signed a sensible protest, which concluded with these words: "Whatever may be the mischievous designs or inconsiderate temerity which leads others to this desperate course, we wish to be known as persons who have ever disapproved of measures so pernicious in their past effects and future tendencies; and who are not in haste, without inquiry and information, to commit ourselves in declarations which may precipitate our country into all the calamities of a civil war."

Franklin and his associates caused strong remonstrances and petitions to be sent in from the northern manufacturing districts; and respectful petitions were also sent in from London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, and other large towns, praying for a just and conciliatory course toward America. These petitions were referred to an inactive committee--"a committee of oblivion," Burke called it--while a few counter petitions, procured by Roebuck, were acted upon immediately. Petitions from Americans, and even one from Ja-

* Adam Smith was born at Kirkaldy, in Scotland, in 1723. At the age of three years he was carried off by some gipsies, but soon afterward was recovered. He was educated at Oxford, and was designed for the Church. He became an infidel in religious views, and of course turned his attention to other than clerical duties. He was the friend of Hume, Gibbon, and several of the most distinguished infidel writers of France. He wrote much, but the work on which his reputation rests is his "Inquiry into the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations," published in 1771. It was for a long time the ablest work on political economy in the English language. He died in 1790, as he had lived, a contemner of Christianity.

Appearance of Pitt in Parliament.--His Speech on American Affairs.--His conciliatory Proposition.

518maica, in favor of the colonies, were treated with disdain, and the Americans had every reason to believe that government was anxious to light up the flame of war, with the expectation of at once crushing the spirit of independence in the West by a single tread of its iron heel of power.

Parliament, which adjourned until after the Christmas holidays, reassembled on the1775 20th of January. Greatly to the astonishment of every one, Lord Chatham (Pitt) was in his place in the Upper House on the following day. It was understood that he had washed his hands of American affairs, and that he would probably not be seen in Parliament during the session. It was a mistake, and the great statesman opened the business of the session by proposing an address to the king, asking him to "immediately dispatch orders to General Gage to remove his forces from Boston as soon as the rigors of the season would permit."

"I wish, my lords," he said, "not to lose a day in this urgent, pressing crisis. An hour now lost may produce years of calamity. For my part, I will not desert, for a single moment, the conduct of this weighty business. Unless nailed to my bed by extremity of sickness, I will give it my unremitted attention. I will knock at the door of this sleeping and confounded ministry, and will rouse them to a sense of their impending danger. When I state the importance of the colonies to this country, and the magnitude of danger from the present plan of misadministration practiced against them, I desire not to be understood to argue for a reciprocity of indulgence between England and America. I contend not for indulgence, but justice to America; and I shall ever contend that the Americans owe obedience to us in a limited degree." After stating the points on which the supremacy of the mother country was justly predicated, the great orator continued: "Resistance to your acts was necessary as it was just; and your vain declarations of the omnipotence of Parliament, and your imperious doctrines of the necessity of submission, will be found equally incompetent to convince or to enslave your fellow-subjects in America, who feel that tyranny, whether ambitioned by an individual part of the Legislature or the bodies who compose it, is equally intolerable to British subjects." He then drew a picture of the condition of the troops in Boston, suffering from the inclemencies of winter, insulted by the inhabitants, wasting away with sickness and pining for action; and finally, after alluding to the wisdom of the late Congress and the approval of their acts by the people, he exclaimed, "I trust it is obvious to your lordships that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain--must be fatal. We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract while we can, not when we must.... To conclude, my lords, if the ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that they _can_ alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown, but I will affirm that they will make the crown not worth his wearing. I will not say that the king is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone."

Chatham's motion was negatived by a vote of sixty-eight to eighteen. Not at all discouraged, he immediately presented a bill, in which it was proposed to renounce the power of taxation, demand of the Americans an acknowledgment of the supreme authority of Great Britain, and invite them to contribute, voluntarily, a specified sum annually, to be employed in meeting the charge on the national debt. This accomplished, it proposed an immediate repeal of all the objectionable acts of Parliament passed during the current reign, and then in force. * This, of course, ministers regarded as a concession to the colonies quite as injurious to national honor as any thing yet proposed, and more humiliating, even, than Dr. Tucker's propositions, then attracting much attention, that Parliament should, by solemn act, separate the colonies from the parent government, and disallow any application for restoration to the rights and privileges of British subjects, until, by humble petition, they should

* These were ten in number: the Sugar Act, the two Quartering Acts, the Tea Act, the Act suspending the New York Legislature (hereafter to be noticed), the two Acts for the Trial in Great Britain of Offenses committed in America, the Boston Port Bill, the Act for Regulating the General Government of Massachusetts, and the Quebec Act

Virtual Declaration of War against the Colonists.--Warm Debates in Parliament--Chatham and Franklin.--Gibbon and Fox.

519ask for pardon and reinstatement. * Chatham's proposition received very little favor in the House of Lords, though loudly applauded by the more intelligent people without, ** and it was negatived, on the motion of the Earl of Sandwich to "reject the bill now and forever," by a vote of sixty-one against thirty-two.

The ministry, governed by the ethics of the lion (without his magnanimity), "might makes right," followed up their foolish rejection of the olive branch, by proposing measures tantamount to an actual declaration of war upon the American colonists, as rebels. On the 2d of February, North proposed the first of a series of coercive measures. He moved, in the Commons, for an address to the king, affirming that the province of Massachusetts was in a state of rebellion; that Great Britain would not relinquish an iota of her sovereign rule in the colonies, and urging his majesty to take effectual measures for enforcing obedience to the laws. The address concluded with the usual resolution to support him with their "lives and fortunes."

On introducing the motion, North intimated that a part of his plan was to materially increase the military forces in America, and to restrain the entire commerce of New England with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies. Fox moved an amendment, censuring the ministry and praying for their removal. Dunning and the great Thurlow engaged in the debate on the side of the opposition, which became very warm. Fox's amendment was negatived by a vote of three hundred and four against one hundred and five, and North's motion prevailed by a majority of two hundred and ninety-six to one hundred and six in the Commons, and in the Upper House by eighty-seven to twenty-seven; nine peers protesting. ***

* Josiah Tucker, D.D., dean of Gloucester, was an able English divine, and son of Abraham Tucker, author of The Light of Nature Pursued, a work in nine octavo volumes. Dr. Tucker was a famous pamphleteer at the time of our Revolution. He was the only friend of the British ministry who wrote in favor of the independence of the colonics.

** The corporation of the city of London passed a vote of thanks to him, and Franklin (to whom Chatham submitted the bill before offering it in the Senate) sent forth an address to the people of England, and to his own countrymen there, in which he portrayed the wickedness of rejecting this plan of reconciliation, the only feasible one that had been offered for years. Franklin and other agents asked to be examined at the bar of the House of Commons touching the demands of the general Congress; but even this courtesy, for it could be called nothing more, was roughly denied.

*** Gibbon the historian, author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who had then a seat in Parliament, writing to his friend Sheffield, said, "We voted an address of 'lives and fortunes,' declaring Massachusetts Bay in a state of rebellion; more troops, but, I fear, not enough, to go to America, to make an army of ten thousand men at Boston; three generals, Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne! In a few days we stop the ports of New England. I can not write volumes, but I am more and more convinced that, with firmness, all may go well; yet I something doubt.'"

*** Gibbon was very much disposed to take sides with the Americans, and it is said that he publicly declared at Brooke's Coffee-house, that "there was no salvation for England, unless six of the heads of the cabinet council were cut off and laid upon the tables of the houses of Parliament as examples." Gibbon had his price, and, within a fortnight after the above expression was uttered, took office under that same cabinet council, with a liberal salary and promise of a pension. His mouth was thus stopped by the sugar-plums of patronage. So says Bailey, author of "Records of Patriotism and Love of Country," page 169. Bailey also gives the following poem, which he asserts was written by Fox:

"King George, in a fright, lest Gibbon should write The story of Britain's disgrace, Thought no means more sure his pen to secure Than to give the historian a place. But his caution is vain, 'tis the curse of his reign That his projects should never succeed. Though he write not a line, yet a cause of decline In the author's example we read. His book well describes, how corruption and bribes Overthrew the great empire of Rome; And his writings declare a degen'racy there, Which his conduct exhibits at home."

The first volume of Gibbon's Rome was published in 1776, and the sixth and last on his fifty-first birthday, in 1788. His bookseller, Mr. Cadell, on that day gave him forty thousand dollars. Gibbon died in January, 1794.

John Wilkes in Parliament His Character and Career.--Bill for destroying the New England Fisheries.--A conciliatory Bill

520In the debate on this bill the celebrated John Wilkes, then a member of Parliament, fora radical paper, who had given the government a world of trouble during a portion of the first eight years of the reign of George III., took a conspicuous part in favor of the Americans.

He declared that a proper resistance to wrong was _revolution_, and not _rebellion,_ and intimated that if the Americans were successful, they might, in after times, celebrate the revolution of 1775 as the English did that of 1688. Earnest recommendations to pursue milder measures were offered by the opposition, but without effect. It was voted that two thousand additional sea men and one thousand four hundred soldiers should be sent to America.

A few days afterward Lord North brought February 10, 1775 forth another bill, providing for the destruction of the entire trade of the New England colonies, and of their fisheries. ** It had a clause, excepting those individuals from the curse who should produce a certificate from their respective governors testifying to their general good conduct, and who should acknowledge the supremacy of the British Parliament. In addition to the opposition which the bill received in the Commons, the merchants of London presented an earnest remonstrance against it, *** and so did the Quakers in behalf of their brethren in Nantucket, but without effect. It passed by a majority of one hundred and eighty to fifty-eight. Fresh intelligence from America, represent-March 8, adhesion to the Continental Congress, arrived at this juncture, and another bill was speedily passed, in the form of an amendment, including all the colonies in the Restraining Act, except New York and North Carolina, where loyalty seemed to predominate.

While the Restraining Act was under consideration, North astonished all parties by offering what he pretended to be a conciliatory bill. It proposed that when the proper authorities, in any colony, should offer, besides maintaining its own civil government, to raise

* This fearless political writer was born in 1727. He became a member of Parliament in 1757. In the forty-fifth number of the "North Briton," published in 1763, he made a severe attack on government, for which he was sent to the Tower. On account of a licentious essay on woman he was afterward expelled from the House of Commons. Acquitted of the charge for which he was committed to the Tower, he prosecuted Mr. Wood, the Under Secretary, received five thousand dollars damages, and then went to Paris. He returned to England in 1768, sent a letter of submission to the king, and was soon afterward elected to a seat in Parliament for Middlesex. The seat was successfully contested by another. He was then elected alderman of London, and the same year obtained a verdict of twenty thousand dollars against the Secretary of State for seizing his papers. He was sheriff in 1771, and in 1774 was elected lord mayor, and took his seat in Parliament for Middlesex. He was made Chamberlain of London in 1779, and soon afterward retired from the field of party polities. He died at his scat in the Isle of Wight in 1797, aged seventy years. The likeness here given is copied from a medal struck in his honor. The obverse side has a pyramid upon a pedestal, beside which stands a figure of Time inscribing upon the pyramid the number 45. On the pedestal are the words Magna Charta, and beneath, In memory of the year MDCCLXVIII. Wilkes had a most forbidding countenance, but his manners were pleasing. In his private character he was licentious, yet his talents and energy employed upon the popular side made him the idol of the people.

** According to testimony produced in Parliament, about 400 ships, 2000 fishing shallops, and 20,000 men were thus employed in the British Newfoundland fisheries.

*** The people of New England were, at that time, indebted to the merchants of London nearly five million dollars. With the destruction of the trade of the colonists, all hope of collecting even a small share of this sum would be lost.

Singular Position of Lord North.--His Triumph.--Action of the London Merchants.--The moral Spectacle in the Colony

521a certain revenue and place it at the disposition of Parliament, it would be proper to forbear imposing any tax, except for the regulation of commerce. The ministerial party opposed it because it was conciliatory, and the opposition were dissatisfied with it because it proposed to abate but a single grievance, and was not specific. To his great astonishment, the minister found himself in the midst of a cross- fire from both parties; yet he stood his ground well, and adroitly carried the proposition through. Although he acknowledged that it was really a cheat with a fair exterior of honesty, and intended to sow division in the councils of the colonies, heedless members of Parliament gave it support, and the bill was passed by a vote of two hundred and seventy-four to eighty-eight

On the heel of this bill Burke proposed a conciliatory plan, and five days afterward Mr. Hartley offered a mild scheme, similar to Chatham's; but they were March 22 negatived by large majorities. The "lord mayor, aldermen, and livery of London," urged by the merchants, who were smarting under the effects of the lash applied to the Americans, addressed the king in condemnation of the late measures toward the colonies. April 10, 1775 They were sternly rebuked by his majesty, who expressed his astonishment that any of his subjects presumed to be abettors of the rebels. It was obvious that

"King, Commons, and Lords were uniting amain

To cut down this guardian of ours,"

and Franklin, abandoning all hope of reconciliation, sailed for America.

For more than ten years the colonies had complained of wrongs, petitioned for redress, and suffered insults. Forbearance was no longer a virtue, and, turning their backs upon Great Britain, they prepared for war. In this movement Massachusetts took the lead. The Provincial Congress ordered the purchase of ammunition and stores for an army of fifteen thousand men. They called upon the Congregational clergy to preach liberty from their pulpits, and hearty responses were given. "The towns, which had done so fearlessly and so thoroughly the preparatory work of forming and concentrating political sentiment, came forward now to complete their patriotic actions by voting money freely to arm, equip, and discipline 'Alarm List Companies;' citizens of every calling appeared in their ranks, to be a private in them was proclaimed by the journals an honor; to be chosen to office in them, a mark of the highest distinction. In Danvers, the deacon of the parish was elected captain of the minute men, and the minister his lieutenant. The minute men were trained often, the towns paying the expense; and the company, after its field exercises, would sometimes repair to the meeting-house to hear a patriotic sermon, or partake of an entertainment at the town-house, where zealous sons of liberty would exhort them to prepare to fight bravely for God and their country. Such was the discipline--so free from a mercenary spirit, so full of inspiring influences--of the early American soldiery. And thus an army, in fact, was in existence, ready at a moment's call, for defensive purposes, to wheel its isolated platoons into solid phalanxes, while it presented to an enemy only opportunity for an inglorious foray upon its stores." *

Had the counsels of inflamed zeal and passion--inflamed by the most cruel and insulting oppression--prevailed, blood would have been shed before the close of 1774. Troops continued to arrive at Boston, ** and the insolence of the soldiery increased with their numbers

* Frothingham's Siege of Boston, p. 42.

** In November, 1774, there were eleven regiments of British troops, besides the artillery, in Boston. In December, 500 marines landed from the Asia man-of-war, and, at the close of the month, all the troops ordered from the Jerseys, New York, and Quebec had arrived. A guard of 150 men was stationed at the lines upon the Neck. The army was brigaded. The first brigadier general was Earl Percy, Moncrief his brigade major; the second general was Pigott, his major, Small; third general, Jones, his major, Hutchinson, son of the late governor. The soldiers were in high spirits, and the officers looked with contempt upon the martial preparations of the people. "As to what you hear of their taking arms to resist the force of England," wrote an officer, in November, 1774, "it is mere bullying, and will go no further than words, whenever it comes to blows, he that can run the fastest will think himself best off". Believe me, any two regiments here ought to be decimated, if they did not beat, in the field, the whole force of the Massachusetts province."