George Washington; or, Life in America One Hundred Years Ago.

by John S. C. Abbott

The governor, much annoyed, prorogued the Assembly, and ordered it to meet again in Boston, on the 1st of January, 1770.

The “Non-Importation Associations,” as they were called, produced the effect, on British commerce, which the advocates of those measures had anticipated. The British merchants were in great trouble. They flooded Parliament with petitions that the taxes might be repealed, so that commerce might be restored.

Lord North became prime minister. He was one of the most haughty of England’s nobles, with limited capacity, but an obstinate will. He revoked all duties excepting that on tea. Thus he adhered to the principle that England had a right to impose taxes upon America, without allowing the Americans any representation in Parliament. He distinctly announced that this single tax was continued, “to maintain the parliamentary right of taxation.” It was foolishly thought that, because the tax was only three-pence on the pound, the Americans would therefore consent to be betrayed into the establishment of the principle.

There were many Englishmen in Parliament whose sympathies were entirely with the Americans. In strains of eloquence equal to any which have ever proceeded from human lips, they argued the cause of colonial rights. George III. was one of the most obstinate of men. Lord North was bound to obey his behests. He but gave utterance to the sentiments of his royal master in saying:

“The properest time to exert our right of taxation is when the right is refused. To temporize is to yield. The authority of the mother country, if it is now unsupported, will be relinquished forever. A total repeal cannot be thought of, till America is prostrate at our feet.”[67]

The British soldiers, established in Boston, were exceedingly obnoxious to the citizens, and bitter hostility soon sprung up between them.

These veterans, inured to the cruelties of war, as, in their gay uniform they paraded the streets, with gleaming bayonets and loaded muskets, looked very contemptuously upon the towns-people, and often treated them with great insolence.

One day there was some collision between a party of young Bostonians and a small band of soldiers. The unarmed young men were put to flight, and the soldiers pursued them. The alarm bells were rung. Excited crowds swept through the streets. The mob, armed with clubs and stones, assailed the troops fiercely. They defended themselves with bullets. Four of the populace were killed. Several others were wounded. The exasperation had now risen to such a pitch that the governor deemed it expedient to remove the troops from the town. Tidings of the “Boston Massacre” swept through all the colonies, and added additional fuel to the flame already so fiercely burning.

Lord Botetourt found no friendly response to his representations at the British Court. He had been sent to Virginia to overawe the inhabitants, and to bring them into servile obedience to the British crown. He had thought that the same views of truth, which had influenced his mind, would exert a conciliatory influence upon the king and his cabinet. But he was bitterly disappointed. Opprobrium was his only reward. Desponding and enfeebled, he was attacked by a bilious fever and died. He had become endeared to the people by his noble espousal of their cause. Washington testified that he was disposed “to render every just and reasonable service to the people whom he governed.” The House of Burgesses erected a statue to his memory, in the area of the capitol.

The path of this world, as of all its nations and individuals, has ever been through darkness, clouds, and storms. While the tempest of national war, which was to doom our land to the most awful woes, was thus deepening its folds, Washington undertook another expedition, across the mountains, to the Ohio. He was influenced by public as well as private considerations. The State of Virginia had offered a bounty of two hundred thousand acres of land, to be divided among the officers and soldiers, who had served during the French war, according to their rank. Washington was one of the Virginia Board of Commissioners. There had been great neglect in settling these claims. The zeal of Washington was aroused that they should be promptly and fully paid.