JONATHAN MAYHEW.
Copied from a mezzotint engraving in the American Antiquarian Society's possession, marked "Richard Jennys, jun., pinxt et fecit."
A portrait by Smibert, and engraved by J. B. Cipriani, is in Hollis's Memoirs (1780), p. 371; and a reëngraving has been made by H. W. Smith. Cf. Bradford's Life of Mayhew; Thornton's Pulpit of the Rev.; Mem. Hist. of Boston, ii. 245, with note on his portraits.
The principal source of detailed information about Mayhew is Alden Bradford's Memoir of the life and writings of Jonathan Mayhew (Boston, 1838). Cf. Tudor's Otis (ch. 10); Thomas Hollis's Memoirs; Tyler's Amer. Lit. (ii. p. 199); touches in John Adams's Works (iv. 29; x. 207, 301); and on his death, Dr. Benjamin Church's Elegy, Dr. Chauncy's discourse, both in 1766, and the Life of Josiah Quincy, Jr., p. 384.
The issue on the question of taxation without representation was forced, after many indications of its coming,[173] when the British Parliament passed the Grenville Act in 1764, and in the next year what is known as the Stamp Act, a tax on business papers, increasing their cost at different rates, but sometimes manyfold.[174] The question of the authorship of the bill is one about which there has been some controversy,[175] and, contrary to the general impression, the truth seems to be that the consideration of the bill caused little attention in and out of Parliament, and the debates on it were languid.[176]
In May a knowledge of the passage of the Stamp Act reached Boston,[177] and it was to go into effect Nov. 1st. In June the Massachusetts legislature determined to invite a congress of all the colonies in October. In August it was known that Jared Ingersoll for Connecticut and Andrew Oliver for Boston had agreed to become distributors of the stamps. The mob hanged an effigy of Oliver on the tree afterwards known as Liberty Tree,[178] and other outrages followed. The governor did not dare to leave the castle. Dr. Mayhew delivered a sermon, vigorous and perhaps incendiary, as Hutchinson averred when he traced to it the passions of the mob which destroyed his own house in North Square on the evening of August 26th.[179] The town contented itself with passing a unanimous vote of condemnation the next day.[180] On Sept. 25th Bernard addressed the legislature in a tone that induced them to reply (Oct. 25th), and to fortify their position by resolves (Oct. 29th).[181] Finally, in December, Andrew Oliver,[182] the stamp distributor, was forced to resign, and on the 17th to sign an oath that he would in no way lend countenance to the tax.[183]
The spirit in Boston was but an index of the feelings throughout all the colonies.[184] The histories of the several States and the lives of their revolutionary actors make this clear.[185]
In October, 1765, what is known as the Stamp Act Congress assembled in New York, in the old City Hall.[186] Its proceedings are in print, and its deliberations are followed in the general histories and in the lives of its members.[187]