PROSCRIBING AN IMPORTER.
After an original handbill in the Mass. Hist. Soc. library.
What is known as the "War of the Regulators", or "Regulation", a series of riotous disturbances in North Carolina, 1768-1771, has usually been held to be one of the preliminary uprisings against British oppression. A. W. Waddell, in a paper in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg. (1871, p. 81), contends that it was nothing but a lawless outburst, and advances evidence to prove that the participants were but a small majority of the people, with no great principle in view; that they were ignorant, never republicans, became Tories, and were opposed by the prominent Whig leaders. He considers that Caruthers and other local historians[204] are responsible for the common misconception arising from their attempt to reflect credit on North Carolina for what is claimed to be an early patriotic fervor.
LANDING OF THE TROOPS IN BOSTON, 1768.
Fac-simile of an engraving by Paul Revere, which appeared in Edes and Gill's North American Almanack, Boston, 1770. It is reëngraved in S. G. Drake's Boston, p. 747, and in S. A. Drake's Old Landmarks of Boston, p. 119. Key: 1, The "Beaver", 14 guns; 2, "Senegal", 14; 3, "Martin", 10; 4, "Glasgow", 20; 5, "Mermaid", 28; 6, "Romney", 50; 7, "Launaston", 40; 8, "Bonetta", 10.
Revere also engraved a large copperplate of the same event, which is given in heliotype fac-simile, on different scales, in the Boston Evacuation Memorial (p. 18) and Mem. Hist. of Boston (ii. 532). Cf. also Gay's Pop. Hist. U. S., iii. 356; Dearborn's Boston Notions, 126, etc. The same view of the town was again used by Revere, but extended farther south, in a cut in the Royal American Mag. (1774), which is given in fac-simile in the Mem. Hist. of Boston, ii. 441. There is also a water-color mentioned in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 2d ser., ii. 156. On Revere as an engraver, see W. S. Baker's American Engravers, Philad., 1875, and the list in N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., 1886, p. 204.
In Sept. (dated 14th) the selectmen of Boston sent a circular to the other towns, calling a convention (Boston Rec. Com. Rept., xvi. 263) to consider the declaration of Bernard "that one or more regiments may soon be expected in this province" (original broadside in Mass. Hist. Soc., Misc. MSS., 1632-1795). It is printed and explained in that society's Proceedings, iv. 387. The convention sat from Sept. 22d to 29th. On the 30th, in the early morning, the British fleet took soundings along the water-front, and in the afternoon a number of war-ships came up from the lower harbor and anchored with springs on their cables. On Oct. 1st the landing took place. The news spread through the land, and the irritation was increased. (Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., xx. 9; Barry, Mass., ii. 370; Loring, Boston Orators, 75; Franklin's Works, vii. 418.)
The question of the expense of quartering troops had been raised by Massachusetts and New York in 1767 (Hutchinson, iii. 168), and a letter of Gage on the subject is in the Shelburne Papers, vol. li. (Hist. MSS. Com. Rept., v. 219). Cf. Hillsborough to Governor Franklin in N. J. Archives, x. p. 12. The message of the Assembly to Bernard, praying for their removal (May 31, 1769), is in Hutchinson (iii. App. 497).
A contemporary vindication of the movement, and of Herman Husband, the leader, bringing the history of the commotions down to 1769 only, evidently based on material furnished by Husband, was printed in Boston in 1771.[205] Husband himself seems, during the preceding year, to have printed anonymously, giving no place of publication, a narrative of his own, fortified by the letters of Tryon and others, with the remonstrances and counter-statements.[206]