PROCEEDINGS AT BOSTON.
During the deliberations of the British parliament, the Bostonians and people of Massachusets Bay had continued their outrages. The assembly and populace alike showed their utter aversion to the British government in language and actions which could not be misunderstood. The mob destroyed every cargo of tea that arrived in the port, and the assembly showed its hostility by petitioning for the removal of the chief-justice, Peter Oliver, Esq., because he had taken his majesty’s grant. The house further resolved to impeach the chief-justice in their own name, and in the name of all the inhabitants of the province; and when the governor denounced their proceedings as unconstitutional, they drew up articles according to this resolution, charging him with high crimes and misdemeanors. The governor, however, refused to take any step in the matter, and this only tended to exasperate them still more. At this moment, indeed, some of the leaders, at the head of whom was Mr. Samuel Adams, were publicly proclaiming that America must and should become independent of Great Britain. Their sentiments were also made known by their unbounded admiration of Benjamin Franklin. His name was mentioned everywhere with enthusiasm, and before their dissolution the assembly resolved to continue him their agent in England, although the governor refused to ratify the appointment, or to sanction their act for paying him his salary.
Among the ministerial arrangements was the substitution of General Gage in the room of Hutchinson as governor. General Gage landed on the wharf on the 13th of May, with part of his family and suite, and was warmly welcomed by the council, magistrates, and others, and afterwards entertained at a public dinner. On the other hand, the mob spent their impotent rage on Hutchinson by burning him in effigy. The reception which Gage met with on landing seemed to augur well for his administration, and his prospect seemed the more cheering because he was united to an American lady, and from long residence in the colony, had made many friends. But there was a strong under-current at work which threatened to sweep away all the authority which any governor might possess however popular he might be as a man. And this was made more impetuous at this time by the intelligence which arrived concerning the Boston Port Bill. This intelligence was received a few days before General Gage arrived, and although the Bostonians gave him a hearty welcome, they soon displayed what feelings they possessed upon the subject. On the very next day after they had given him this welcome, a numerous town meeting took the bill into consideration, and resolved, “That it is the opinion of this town, that, if the other colonies come into a joint resolution to stop all importation from, and exportation to Great Britain, and every part of the West Indies, till the act be repealed, the same will prove the salvation of North America and her liberties; and that the impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty of the act exceed all our powers of expression: we, therefore, leave it to the just censure of others, and appeal to God and the world.” In order to spread disaffection, the act was printed and widely circulated throughout the colonies. Nor were the presses of Boston alone engaged in this work. Other colonies had thousands of copies struck off, and in some the copy of the act was accompanied with comments, and with a black border, while the vendors cried it about under the title of “A barbarous, cruel, bloody, and inhuman murder.” In some places it was burned with great solemnity; in others, as at Philadelphia, subscriptions were set on foot for the relief of those Bostonians who should be deprived of the means of subsistence by the operations of the act; while in Virginia the assembly which was then sitting, adopted a proposal that the first day of June, on which the Post Bill was to commence, should be a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore heaven to avert the evils of civil war, to inspire the Americans with firmness in support of their rights, and to turn the hearts of king and parliament to moderation and justice. For this vote, Lord Dunmore, the governor of the province of Virginia, dissolved the assembly, and the members then repaired to a tavern, where they agreed to articles of association, in which they pronounced the Boston Port Bill to be the result of a system having for its object the reduction of the inhabitants of British America to slavery. At this meeting it was declared that tea ought not to be used by any well-wisher to constitutional liberty; and that from the course pursued by the East India Company in favour of arbitrary taxation, the people ought not to purchase any of their commodities, except saltpetre and spices, until their grievances should be redressed. It was also declared that an attack on one colony was an attack upon all, and that it should be resisted by their united councils. Acting upon this opinion, which was by no means logical, they recommended to the committee of correspondence to communicate with all the other committees, “on the expediency of appointing deputies from the several colonies of British America, to meet in general congress, at such place, annually, as should be thought most convenient, to deliberate on the measures required by their common interests.” Finally, this meeting of the dissolved assembly of Virginia, agreed that the members who should be elected under the new writs then issuing, should meet in convention at Williamsburgh, on the first of August, for the purpose of appointing delegates to sit in congress. This was a monster stride in the march of revolution, and it was easy to foresee its ultimate and awful consequences.
The first of June was not only observed as a day of fasting and humiliation in Virginia, but also at Philadelphia, Boston, and other places. Shops were closed, and the church-bells tolled dolefully; but whether prayer was offered in sincerity and truth, and in calm devotion, demands a doubt; for when men’s passions are inflamed, there can be no fitness for acts of piety. In the mean time the assembly of Massachusets Bay met at Boston, on the 25th of May, for the last time. On that day, General Gage laid before them some common business of the province, and then announced the painful necessity he was under of removing them and all public offices to Salem, by the first of June, in conformity with the recent acts of parliament. He adjourned them to the 7th of June, then to meet at Salem, and on that day they re-assembled at the place appointed, and named a committee to consider and report the state of the province. Some of the committee named were for pursuing mild and conciliatory measures, and seeing this, Mr. Samuel Adams conferred with Mr. Warren on the necessity of obtaining a better display of spirit. Warren engaged to keep the committee in play, while Adams should be secretly engaged in winning over members to their party. In a few days Adams succeeded in gaining over and concerting measures with more than thirty members, and it was then resolved to proceed at once to business. On the 17th of May they ordered the doors to be locked, and that no one should be permitted to go in or out. They hoped by this plan to keep all friends of government from giving any information concerning their councils, and to finish their business before the governor could interfere with a prorogation or dissolution. One member favourable to government, however, contrived to get out, and to give information of what was doing within. The governor sent his secretary to dissolve them, but he was refused admittance, and he read the proclamation of dissolution upon the stairs leading to the chamber in the hearing of several members, who, like himself, could not obtain admittance. By this time, however, the committee had done all they wanted to do: they had appointed a committee to meet other provincial committees on the 1st of September, at Philadelphia; had voted £500 for its use; had chosen a treasurer; and having no money in hand, had recommended the towns and districts of the province to raise the sum by equitable proportions, according to the last provincial tax. This was a gross insult to the governor, and the committee exulted in having had the opportunity of offering it. Their feelings of triumph, however, do no honour to human nature, since that triumph, such as it was, was obtained by the paltry artifice of obtaining possession of the house to the exclusion of all such members as would have voted against the measure they had proposed and carried.
On the 1st of June, exactly as the clock struck twelve, the custom-house of Boston was shut up, and all lawful business ceased in its port. Its trade was nominally transferred to Salem; but the spirit of rivalry which formerly distinguished American merchants seemed now to be wholly lost in sympathy. No one discovered the slightest inclination to profit by the distress of the refractory town of Boston. The merchants and freeholders of Salem, indeed, presented an address to General Gage, censuring the measures that had been adopted, commiserating the people of Boston, and declining to derive any advantage offered them by the Boston Port Bill. Nature, they said, by the formation of their harbour, forbade their becoming rivals with that convenient mart, and were it otherwise they must be dead to every idea of justice, and lost to all feelings of humanity, if they could indulge one thought of acquiring wealth, and building up their fortunes upon the ruin of their suffering neighbours. These certainly were sentiments honourable to humanity, but unfortunately they were coupled with others of a different character. The petitioners repeated the old saying, which was now become notoriously false, that they still ardently wished to preserve their connexion with the British empire: and yet the people of Salem falsified their assertion on the very next day after it was made, by joining a general association, which by this time had been got up by many of the committees of correspondence, and which was called “a solemn league and covenant,” after the famous bond of their Puritan forefathers. The nature of this league may be seen from the document which all its members signed. It declared that the compact had been entered into as the only means of avoiding the horrors of slavery, or the carnage and desolation of civil war; that those who subscribed to it covenanted in the presence of God to suspend all commercial intercourse with Great Britain till the Boston Port Bill should be restored; and that they would have no dealings with persons who would not sign it, or should afterwards violate it, but would publish their names as enemies to their country, and as men excommunicated or cut off from all social intercourse. This league spread rapidly through all the states; thousands joined it of their own free will, and others were impelled to subscribe to it through fear. In most places, indeed, it was conceived more dangerous to oppose the popular will, than to risk a war with Great Britain. And it was in vain that the governor sought to stem the onward progress of the tide of revolution. He issued a proclamation, forbidding such unlawful and traitorous combinations, and warned the people against countenancing them; but his orders were disregarded, and his very power questioned. In Boston all became sullen and threatening, and General Gage at length deemed it advisable to take means more efficacious than proclamations in repressing tumult. A detachment of artillery, with some regiments of infantry were ordered to encamp near Boston, and these were soon reinforced by fresh troops from Great Britain and Ireland. But it was soon found that the troops could not be depended upon:—bought by gills of ardent spirits and promises of reward, many, and especially the raw recruits, deserted their ranks; and General Gage next placed a guard on the Isthmus, called Boston-neck, which joins the peninsula whereon the town is built to the main land. This movement, like all the other movements made by the officers of government, was misrepresented, and hastened on the crisis. A cry was raised and a report spread that the governor intended to cut off all communications, and compel the town to submit to terms. The exciting cry produced the effect that was wished far and near. Even those provinces which had hitherto been slow to join the Bostonians in their hostility towards government, now earnestly exhorted them to brave their supposed doom, as the eye of all America was upon them; and the hands of all the Americans ready to be stretched forth for their deliverance.
In conformity to the bill for regulating the government of Massachusets Bay, General Gage reorganised the Massachusets council. Commissions arrived in August for the new council, and thirty-six were appointed, but twelve out of that number refused to accept office; and even those who did accept office, were soon glad, for the most part, to throw up their commissions, from the odium which they had incurred and the threats by which they were intimidated. General Gage, however, issued writs for convening an assembly in October. But order and law were now out of the question in Boston. The juries would not serve under the new judges, and the very officers refused, from disaffection or fear, to summon them. The colonists had now, in fact, begun to arm, to collect warlike stores, and to train the youth to military exercises. Nothing was to be seen or heard of except the purchasing of arms and ammunition, the casting of balls, and the making of all those preparations which testified immediate and determined resistance. Under these circumstances, General Gage fortified Boston-neck, and seized and removed to head-quarters all the gunpowder and military stores that were deposited at Charlestown, Cambridge, and other places within his province. The people now rose in arms, and threatened to attack the troops. Several thousands marched from all quarters for this purpose, and though they did not come to blows, they threw every possible obstruction in the way of those employed in constructing the works on Boston-neck, burning the materials by night, sinking the boats laden with bricks, and overturning the trucks laden with timber. The governor saw clearly that scenes of bloodshed were at hand, and though thus braved, he mercifully forbore to commence them.
In the mean time the committees of correspondence in order to fan the flames of sedition into one universal conflagration, had been spreading abroad rumours of massacres, and of attacks on Boston both by land and sea. It was in this state of affairs that a meeting of delegates from all the neighbouring towns was called, and which was held, in spite of the governor’s proclamation. This meeting passed resolutions more decidedly hostile to the British government than any previously promulgated. They called the late acts of parliament gross infractions of civil and religious liberty, and wicked attempts to establish despotism, which ought to be resisted; they resolved to indemnify all officers who should refuse to execute any process issued by the judges appointed by the crown; they declared every member of the new council an enemy to his country; they condemned the plan of fortifying Boston-neck; they denounced the late act establishing the Roman Catholic religion in Canada, as dangerous alike to the Protestant religion, and to the rights and liberties of all America; they recommended a total suspension of commercial intercourse with Great Britain, the encouragement of domestic manufactures, the appointment of a provincial congress, and the exercise of the people in arms; they advised collectors of taxes to retain the money in their own hands until the civil government of the province should be placed on a constitutional basis, or a provincial congress should direct its application; and while they exhorted the people to abstain from riots, they expressed their determination to resist the measures of government to the utmost. Their resolutions concluded thus:—“Should our enemies by any sudden manoeuvre, render it necessary for us to ask aid of our brethren in the country, some one of the committee of correspondence, or a select man from the town where hostilities shall commence or be expected, or from the town adjoining, shall despatch couriers with written messages to the select men, or committees of correspondence in the vicinity, who shall send others to committees more remote, until sufficient assistance be obtained: the expense of couriers to be defrayed by the county, until otherwise ordered by the provincial assembly.” The meeting also drew up a petition of remonstrance to the governor, respecting the fortification of Boston-neck, in which they plainly stated that although they had no inclination to commence hostilities, they were resolved, notwithstanding, to resist the late acts of the British parliament at all hazards. Gage replied, that it was his duty to preserve the peace, and to erect such works as should protect his soldiers from surprise: at the same time he assured them that his artillery should not be employed unless hostile proceedings on their part rendered it necessary.
By this time the people of Virginia had taken one of the front ranks in the march of revolution and independence. On the 1st of August, Jefferson and other members of the convention met as appointed, to agree as to instructions for the delegates to be sent to the approaching congress. Jefferson had drawn up a violent paper, but falling sick, it was presented by Peyton Randolph. The sum and substance of this paper was, in fact, that the Virginians should claim an absolute independence and sovereignty. The leap, however, which Jefferson proposed to take was far too long for the mass of his fellow-citizens as yet to take; but the document was deemed worthy of being printed, and it was published under the title of “A summary View of the Rights of British America.” The members of this convention, however, took a leap which did not fall far short of that which Jefferson proposed. The instructions they prepared, at least, made it manifest unto all men, that, although they professed loyalty to the sovereign, their aim was to undermine his throne; or, in other words, to obtain independence. They averred their allegiance to King George, declared that they sincerely approved of a constitutional connexion with their mother country, and even professed a willingness to submit to reasonable regulations and restrictions on their commerce—but this was only a preamble to sentiments teeming with rebellion and hostility to the king whom they professed to obey, and the country with which they asserted they still wished to be connected. In this section of their instructions the Virginians instructed their deputies at congress to cooperate cordially with Massachusets Bay and the other colonies; declared that the proclamation issued by General Gage was alarming, and illegal, and such as would justify resistance and reprisals if attempted to be carried into effect; agreed to send speedy and liberal relief to the Bostonians, and to abide by such alterations in their present articles as congress might recommend and the delegates of Virginia assent to; and bound themselves not to export any tobacco after the 10th of August, and in lieu of its cultivation to encourage manufactures; to deal with no merchants who raised the price of articles during the present crisis, and to require the county committees to publish the name of those who would not conform to their regulations. The convention finished by choosing the delegates who were to represent them in congress.
This congress met, as appointed, at Philadelphia, on the 4th of September. On their meeting, all the provinces from Massachusets to South Carolina, with the single exception of North Carolina, were found to be represented, and even delegates from that province arrived on a later day. The delegates met on the following day at Carpenters’-hall, chose Payton Randolph president, and organised themselves into a deliberate assembly. At the commencement, although there were several delegates from some of the provinces, it was agreed that each state should have only one distinct vote. They then proceeded to business. At first they agreed upon a declaration of rights to which they were entitled, they said, by the laws of nature, the principles of the British constitution, and their several charters. Their next step was to concoct a non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation association, which was not to be infringed by any American citizen. This was followed by a series of solemn addresses; one to the king, expressing loyalty and affection; one to the people of Great Britain, showing how barbarously and tyrannically they had been treated by a corrupt administration, etc.; and one to the French people of Quebec, inviting them to make common cause with them, and urging them to take up arms against the English, who had only recently conquered Canada. Their province was only wanting, they said, to complete the bright and strong chain of union! The congress also sent letters to the colonists of Georgia, East and West Florida, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, exhorting them to shake off their dependence on their mother country, and to join them in their contest. They also sent a remonstrance to General Gage, against his military proceedings, which bore, they said, a hostile appearance unwarranted by the tyrannical acts of parliament: forgetting that it was the conduct of the Bostonians alone which induced him to take these steps. Finally, the congress resolved that if any attempts were made to seize any American, in order to transport him beyond sea for trial of offences committed in America, resistance and reprisals should be made: then, having agreed that another general congress should be held on the 10th of May next, they dissolved themselves; i. e. on the 28th of October.
It has been seen that General Gage had issued writs calling the assembly to meet at Salem on the 5th of October. Before that day arrived, he thought it expedient to countermand the writs by proclamation, and to discharge such members as were already returned. This proclamation, however, was not heeded. Ninety members met on the day appointed, and though the governor was not there to open the session, or any one deputed by him to administer the oaths, they appointed a committee to consider the proclamation, and resolved themselves, with others who might afterwards join them, into a provincial congress. Having chosen Mr. John Hancock, the owner of the Liberty sloop, and a great merchant in the contraband line, to be their president, they adjourned to the town of Concord, about twenty-live miles distant from Boston Here their first business was to appoint a committee to wait upon Governor Gage with a remonstrance, in which they vindicated their meeting by a reference to the distracted state of the province, and called upon him, for the honour of the king and the public peace, to desist from the construction of fortifications against the town of Boston. The governor indignantly replied, “That the lives, liberty, and property of none but avowed enemies could be endangered by the troops of Great Britain, who had shown no disposition for hostilities, though they might be expected to feel resentment at the exertions employed to deprive them even of the necessaries of life.” He also reminded this self-constituted provincial congress that while they affected to complain of alterations made in their charter by acts of parliament, their very meeting was in direct violation of their own constitution; and, finally, he exhorted them to desist from all illegal proceedings. The governor’s exhortation was, however, unheeded. On receiving his reply, they adjourned to Cambridge, where they appointed a committee to draw up a plan for the military defence of the province. They likewise settled all matters relating to the militia; arranged means for the collection of arms; provided for the receipt of taxes; appointed committees for these different purposes; named Jedediah Pribble and Artemas Ward, who had seen some service in the war with the French and Canadians, to be their generals; and even deliberated upon the precise period for opposing or attacking the king’s troops. Emissaries were also sent by them to Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, to request them to prepare their respective quotas, so as to make up an army of 20,000 men, and a committee was appointed to correspond with the Protestants of Canada, and especially those of the Presbyterian persuasion. Finally, they addressed a circular letter to all the dissenting ministers in New England, exhorting them to assist in averting the slavery with which the country was threatened, and appointed a day of public thanksgiving for the happy union which existed throughout the colonies. Having done all this, early in December the provincial congress of Massachusets prorogued themselves, appointing a new meeting in the ensuing month of February.
This conduct naturally excited the indignation of the governor, and he issued a proclamation forbidding the people to pay any obedience to these seditious resolutions. But proclamations now sounded in the ears of the people of Massachuset’s Bay as idle words, and the resolutions were strictly obeyed. The same disregard to the mandates of government was also shown in other colonies. The king had issued a proclamation strictly prohibiting the exportation of warlike stores to America; and as soon as this became known in the colonies, the people of Rhode Island seized upon forty pieces of cannon belonging to the crown, which had been mounted on batteries for the defence of the harbour, and carried them off, while those of New Hampshire surprised a small fort, called “William and Mary,” and carried off the ordnance, gunpowder, and other military stores. Mills, moreover, were erected for making gunpowder, and manufactories for making arms. Every thing, in fact, indicated that a fierce and bitter struggle was about to commence between America and the mother country. The train was laid, and the application of the match only was wanting to effect a fearful conflagration.
GEORGE III. 1773-1775