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
GENERAL ELECTION.
In the month of September, although parliament had more than a year to complete its septennial term, it was dissolved by proclamation, and writs issued for a new one. This step was taken, it would appear, chiefly that the sense of the nation might be known more fully concerning the affairs of America. This was found to be decidedly hostile to the late proceedings of the Americans. Loyalty, indeed, had increased at home in proportion as it had decreased in the colonies. All classes united in the opinion that the king, parliament, and country had been grossly insulted by the Americans, and that they deserved chastisement. Hence the general election, which took place in October, resulted greatly in favour of ministers. Some few places, it is true, proposed tests to the candidates, including pledges to stop hostilities with America, but the great majority were in favour of coercive measures if the Americans did not lay down their arms of rebellion. In this election Wilkes and Glynn were elected for Middlesex, so that this popular idol once more found a seat in parliament. He took his seat more proudly than ever, for he was this year also elected lord mayor of London: a high dignity for a man whose chief merits were those of agitation.