“Salem, March 5, 1771.”
The fuse was laid to the powder by the arrival of Lieutenant General Thomas Gage as the first military governor of Massachusetts in May, 1774. He at once moved the seat of government from Boston to Salem which was the second town in importance of the colony, and Salem began to exhibit symptoms of active hostility. Gage’s change of administrative headquarters was accompanied by two companies of the Sixty-fourth Regiment of the line, Colonel Alexander Leslie, which were encamped beyond the outskirts of the town. The presence of these troops was a red rag to the people of Salem, and furthermore, Gage outraged public opinion by proposing to choose his own councillors, which appointments had been previously conceded to the Provincial Assembly. A new Act of Parliament, devised to suit the occasion, eliminated the councillors who had been named by the Assembly or General Court, and Gage adjourned this body, then in session in Boston, and ordered it to reconvene in Salem on June 7th.
When the Assembly met in Salem it passed a resolution protesting against its removal from Boston, and acted upon no other political measures for ten days when the House adopted a resolution appointing as delegates to the Congress at Philadelphia, James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine “to consult upon measures for the restoration of harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies.” This action angered General Gage, and he at once prepared a proclamation dissolving the General Court. His secretary posted off to the Salem “town house” to deliver said proclamation, but he was refused admittance, word being brought out to him that the “orders were to keep the door fast.” Therefore the defeated secretary read the document to the curious crowd outside and afterwards in the empty council chamber. So ended the last Provincial Assembly of Massachusetts under a British Governor.
Richard Derby
Having moved his headquarters to Salem, General Gage let it be known that he regarded the odious Boston Port Bill as a measure which must be maintained by military law and an army of twenty thousand men if needs be. He also suppressed the town meetings, appointed new councillors, and heaped up other grievances with such wholesale energy that Salem flew up in arms and defied him. A town meeting had been called for August 24th to choose delegates to a county convention, and the people of the town refused to harken unto the order prohibiting their most jealously guarded institution of local government, the town meeting. Gage hurried back from Boston, took command of his troops, and ordered the Fifty-ninth Regiment of foot to make ready for active service. It is recorded that he showed “Indecent passion, denounced the meeting as treasonable and spoke with much vehemence of voice and gesture, threatened the committee of the town whom he met at the house of Colonel Brown, and ordered up his troops.”
The citizens thereupon held a meeting in the open air, chose their delegates to the county convention, and dispersed. Timothy Pickering, afterwards Washington’s Secretary of War, and other members of the Committee were placed under arrest for their part in this town meeting. Before nightfall of the same day three thousand men of Salem and nearby towns had armed themselves with muskets and were ready to march to the rescue if their town meeting should be further molested, or British troops employed to enforce any further punishments.
General Gage had declared with an oath that he would transport every man of the Committee, and the “embattled farmers” and sailors feared lest these fellow townsmen of theirs might be carried on board the frigate Scarboro which was making ready to sail for England. An express rider was sent out from Boston at midnight to carry the warning of the proposed sailing of this man-of-war, and with the threat of transportation bracing their resolution, the men of Salem replied that “they were ready to receive any attacks they might be exposed to for acting in pursuance to the laws and interests of their country, as becomes men and Christians.”
The issue was not forced by General Gage and having made a failure of the campaign and a blunder of the transfer of the seat of government he returned to Boston with his troops in September. In February of the following year, 1775, he was informed that the Provincial Congress had stored a large amount of munitions and a number of cannon in Salem, and he ordered Colonel Leslie to embark in a transport with a battalion of infantry, disembark at Marblehead, march across to Salem and seize this material of war. These troops, two hundred and fifty strong, sailed from Boston at night and landed on the Marblehead beach Sunday afternoon. Major Pedrick, a patriot of the town, at once mounted a horse and galloped to Salem, two miles away, to carry warning of this invasion. The British infantry marched along the turnpike until they came to the North River, a small, navigable stream making up from Salem Harbor. This was spanned by a drawbridge, and Colonel Leslie was much disturbed to find the drawbridge raised and a formidable assemblage of Salem citizens buzzing angrily at the farther side of the stream. The British officer had no orders to force the passage, and the situation was both delicate and awkward in the extreme. Timothy Pickering had been chosen colonel of the First Regiment of militia and forty of his armed men were mustered, drawn up ready to fire at the order. Colonel Leslie threatened to let loose a volley of musketry to clear the road, and was told by Captain John Felt of Salem:
“You had better not fire, for there is a multitude, every man of whom is ready to die in this strife.”