CHAPTER XXI.
"There is a spirit working in the world,
Like to a silent, subterranean fire;
Yet, ever and anon, some monarch hurl'd
Aghast and pale attests its fearful ire,
The dungeon'd nations now once more respire
The keen and stirring air of liberty.
The struggling giant wakes, and feels he's free;
By Delphi's fountain-cave that ancient choir
Resume their song; the Greek astonish'd hears,
And the old altar of his worship rears.
Sound on, fair sisters! sound your boldest lyres—
Peal your old harmonies as from the spheres.
Unto strange gods too long we've bent the knee,
The trembling mind, too long and patiently."
George Hill.
"Grand jurors, and sheriffs, and lawyers we'll spurn;
As judges, we'll all take the bench in our turn,
And sit the whole term without pension or fee,
Nor Cushing nor Sewall look graver than we.
Our wigs, though they're rusty, are decent enough;
Our aprons, though black, are of durable stuff;
Array'd in such gear, the laws we'll explain,
That poor people no more shall have cause to complain."
Honeywood's "Radical Song."
E have considered, in the preceding chapter, the most important events, during the first nine years of the reign of George III., having any bearing on the Revolution. We have seen the germs of oppression, planted at different times from the era of the Restoration, springing into life and vigor, and bearing the bitter fruit of tyranny; and observed the bold freemen of America pruning its most noxious branches, and trampling in the dust its "apples of Sodom." We have seen the tide of British power swelling high, and menacing, and beheld the firm rock of sound principles fearlessly breasting its billows, and hurling them baek toward their source. We have seen a loyal people, warmly attached to the person of their sovereign, and venerating the laws of their fatherland, goaded, by ministerial ignorance and haughty indifference respecting the claims of right when interfering with expediency, to the assumption of manly defiance both of king and Parliament, until hireling butchers, with pike and bayonet, were seated in their midst to "harass the people and eat out their substance." We now behold them pressed to the alternative
TO FIGHT OR BE SLAVES.
For several years the newspaper press had been rapidly growing in political importance, and the vehicle of mere general news became the channel of political and social enlightenment. In proportion to the development of its power and the creation of public opinion favorable to its views, was the increase of its boldness, and at the beginning of 1770 the American press was not only united in sentiment, but almost as fearless in the expression of political and religious opinions as the newspapers of the present day. American liberty was its theme, and almost every sheet, whether newspaper, almanac, tract, or hand-bill, issued at this time, was tinctured if not absolutely pervaded, by the absorbing topic. I have before
Bickerstaff's Boston Almanac.—Explanation of its Frontispiece.—Revival of the Terms "Whig" and "Tory."
me a copy of Bickerstaff's Boston Almanac for 1770, the title-page of which is here given, with a fac-simile of the engraving that adorns it.
The portrait of Otis is supported on one side by Liberty, and on the other by Hercules, or Perseverance. At the feet of the latter, uncoiling, preparatory to striking a blow, is the venomous rattlesnake, an emblem used on some of the colonial flags when the war began. This was significant of the intention of America, under the guidance of the Spirit of Liberty, to 'persevere, and strike a deadly blow, if necessary. The poetry and maxims of the almanac are replete with political sentiments favorable to freedom; and its pages contain the celebrated "Massachusetts Song of Liberty," which became almost as popular throughout the colonies as did Robert Treat Paine's "Adams and Liberty" at a later day. * It is believed to have been written by Mrs. Mercy Warren.
Party lines began now to be strictly drawn, and the old names of Whig and Tory, used in England toward the close of the seventeenth century, and recently revived, were adopted here, the former being assumed by those who opposed Parliamentary taxation, and the latter applied to those who favored it. *** In Boston the wound inflicted by Bernard, in the introduction of soldiers, was daily festering. A weekly paper, the "Journal of the Times," fostered the most bitter animosity against the soldiers, by the publication of all sorts of stories concerning them, some true, but many more false and garbled. Daily quarrels between citizens and soldiers occurred upon the Common and in the streets; and
* We give on the following page a copy of the Massachusetts Song of Liberty, with the music, as printed in the Boston Almanac.
** See note, page 71.
Abuse of Mr. Otis.—Massachusetts Song of Liberty.
the fact that Mr. Otis had been severely beaten with fists and canes, in a coffee-house, by