The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5)
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[Sidenote: Hutchinson succeeded by Gage.]
Governor Hutchinson however was soon afterwards removed, and general
Gage appointed to succeed him.
[Sidenote: Measures to enforce the duties.]
{1774}
The fears of Massachusetts, that the spirit which had been roused in
the colonies might gradually subside, were not of long continuance.
The determination not to import tea from England, had so lessened the
demand for that article, that a considerable quantity had accumulated
in the magazines of the East India company. They urged the minister to
take off the import American duty of three pence per pound, and
offered, in lieu of it, to pay double that sum on exportation. Instead
of acceding to this proposition, drawbacks were allowed on tea
exported to the colonies; and the export duty on that article was
taken off. These encouragements induced the company to make shipments
on their own account; and large quantities were consigned to agents in
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and other principal places
on the continent.[222]
[Footnote 222: Minot. Belsham.]
[Sidenote: Ferment in America.]
The crisis was arrived; and the conduct of the colonies was now to
determine whether they would submit to be taxed by parliament, or meet
the consequences of a practical assertion of the opinions they had
maintained. The tea, if landed, would be sold; the duties would,
consequently, be paid; and the precedent for taxing them established.
The same sentiment on this subject appears to have pervaded the whole
continent at the same time. This ministerial plan of importation was
considered by all, as a direct attack on the liberties of the people
of America, which it was the duty of all to oppose. A violent ferment
was excited in all the colonies; the corresponding committees were
extremely active; and it was almost universally declared that whoever
should, directly or indirectly, countenance this dangerous invasion of
their rights, was an enemy to his country. The consignees were,
generally, compelled to relinquish their consignments; and, in most
instances, the ships bringing the tea were obliged to return with it.
At Boston, a town meeting appointed a committee to wait on the
consignees to request their resignation. This request not being
complied with, another large meeting[223] assembled at Faneuil Hall,
who voted, with acclamation, "that the tea shall not be landed, that
no duty shall be paid, and that it shall be sent back in the same
bottoms." With a foreboding of the probable consequences of the
measure about to be adopted, and a wish that those consequences should
be seriously contemplated, a leading member[224] thus addressed the
meeting:
"It is not, Mr. Moderator, the spirit that vapours within these walls
that must stand us in stead. The exertions of this day will call forth
events which will make a very different spirit necessary for our
salvation. Whoever supposes that shouts and hosannahs will terminate
the trials of the day, entertains a childish fancy. We must be grossly
ignorant of the importance and value of the prize for which we
contend; we must be equally ignorant of the power of those who have
combined against us; we must be blind to that malice, inveteracy, and
insatiable revenge, which actuate our enemies, public and private,
abroad and in our bosoms, to hope that we shall end this controversy
without the sharpest, sharpest conflicts;--to flatter ourselves that
popular resolves, popular harangues, popular acclamations, and popular
vapour, will vanquish our foes. Let us consider the issue. Let us look
to the end. Let us weigh and consider, before we advance to those
measures, which must bring on the most trying and terrible struggle
this country ever saw."[225]
[Footnote 223: The language said by Mr. Gordon to have been
used at this meeting proves that many of the people of
Boston were already ripe for the revolution. To the more
cautious among "_the sons of liberty_" who had expressed
some apprehensions lest they should push the matter too far,
and involve the colony in a quarrel with Great Britain,
others answered "It must come to a quarrel between Great
Britain and the colony sooner or later; and if so what can
be a better time than the present? Hundreds of years may
pass away before parliament will make such a number of acts
in violation as it has done of late years, and by which it
has excited so formidable an opposition to the measures of
administration. Besides, the longer the contest is delayed,
the more administration will be strengthened. Do not you
observe how the government at home are increasing their
party here by sending over young fellows to enjoy
appointments, who marry into our best families, and so
weaken the opposition? By such means, and by multiplying
posts and places, and giving them to their own friends, or
applying them to the corruption of their antagonists, they
will increase their own force faster in proportion, than the
force of the country party will increase by population. If
then we must quarrel ere we can have our rights secured, now
is the most eligible period. Our credit also is at stake; we
must venture, and unless we do, we shall be discarded by the
sons of liberty in the other colonies, whose assistance we
may expect upon emergencies, in case they find us steady,
resolute, and faithful."]
[Footnote 224: Mr. Quincy.]
[Footnote 225: Minot.]
[Sidenote: Tea thrown into the sea.]
The question was again put, and passed unanimously in the affirmative.
The captain of the vessel, aware of the approaching danger, was
desirous of returning, and applied to the governor for a clearance.
Affecting a rigid regard to the letter of his duty, he declined giving
one, unless the vessel should be properly qualified at the custom
house. This answer being reported, the meeting was declared to be
dissolved; and an immense crowd repaired to the quay, where a number
of the most resolute, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the vessel,
broke open three hundred and forty-two chests of tea, and discharged
their contents into the ocean.[226]
[Footnote 226: Minot.]
[Sidenote: Measures of parliament.]
These proceedings were laid before parliament in a message from the
crown, and excited a high and general indignation against the
colonies. Both houses expressed, almost unanimously, their approbation
of the measures adopted by his Majesty; and gave explicit assurances
that they would exert every means in their power, to provide
effectually for the due execution of the laws, and to secure the
dependence of the colonies upon the crown and parliament of Great
Britain. The temper both of the parliament and of the nation was
entirely favourable to the high-handed system of coercion proposed by
ministers; and that temper was not permitted to pass away unemployed.
A bill was brought in "for discontinuing the lading and shipping of
goods, wares, and merchandises, at Boston or the harbour thereof, and
for the removal of the custom-house with its dependencies to the town
of Salem." This bill was to continue in force, not only until
compensation should be made to the East India company for the damage
sustained, but until the King in council should declare himself
satisfied as to the restoration of peace and good order in Boston. It
passed both houses without a division, and almost without
opposition.[227]
[Footnote 227: Belsham.]
[Illustration: The Boston Tea Party
_From the painting by Robert Reid, in the Massachusetts State House_
_In this picture, a leading modern American artist has succeeded
admirably in depicting the band of Boston citizens who, disguised as
Indians, boarded three British ships in Boston Harbor, December 16,
1773, and threw their cargoes of tea overboard, in defying England to
impose on the American colonies a tax on tea for the benefit of the
straitened East India Company; 342 chests, valued at about L18,000
were destroyed in this manner, without a sound from a great mob of
onlookers thronging the wharves. The mob dispersed quietly as soon as
the last chest went overboard._]
Soon afterwards, a bill was brought in "for better regulating the
government of the province of Massachusetts Bay." This act entirely
subverted the charter, and vested in the crown the appointment of the
counsellors, magistrates, and other officers of the colony, who were
to hold their offices during the royal pleasure. This bill also was
carried through both houses by great majorities; but not without a
vigorous opposition, and an animated debate.[228]
[Footnote 228: Belsham.]
The next measure proposed was a bill "for the impartial administration
of justice in the province of Massachusetts Bay. It provided that in
case any person should be indicted, in that province, for murder or
any other capital offence, and it should appear by information given
on oath to the governor, that the fact was committed in the exercise
or aid of magistracy in suppressing riots, and that a fair trial could
not be had in the province, he should send the person so indicted to
any other colony, or to Great Britain to be tried." This act was to
continue in force for four years.[229]
[Footnote 229: Idem.]
A bill was also passed for quartering soldiers on the inhabitants; and
the system was completed, by "an act making more effectual provision
for the government of the province of Quebec." This bill extended the
boundaries of that province so as to comprehend the territory between
the lakes, the Ohio, and the Mississippi; and established a
legislative council to be appointed by the crown, for its
government.[230]
[Footnote 230: Belsham.]
Amidst these hostile measures, one single conciliatory proposition was
made. Mr. Rose Fuller moved that the house resolve itself into a
committee to take into consideration the duty on the importation of
tea into America, with a view to its repeal. This motion was seconded
by Mr. Burke, and supported with all the power of reasoning, and all
the splendour of eloquence which distinguished that consummate
statesman; but reason and eloquence were of no avail. It was lost by a
great majority. The earl of Chatham, who had long been too ill to
attend parliament, again made his appearance in the house of lords. He
could have been drawn out, only by a strong sense of the fatal
importance of those measures into which the nation was hurrying. But
his efforts were unavailing. Neither his weight of character, his
sound judgment, nor his manly eloquence, could arrest the hand of fate
which seemed to propel this lofty nation, with irresistible force, to
measures which terminated in its dismemberment.[231]
[Footnote 231: Idem.]
[Sidenote: General enthusiasm.]
It was expected, and this expectation was encouraged by Mr.
Hutchinson, that, by directing these measures particularly against
Boston, not only the union of the colonies would be broken, but
Massachusetts herself would be divided. Never was expectation more
completely disappointed. All perceived that Boston was to be punished
for having resisted, only with more violence, the principle which they
had all resisted; and that the object of the punishment was to coerce
obedience to a principle they were still determined to resist. They
felt therefore that the cause of Boston was the cause of all, that
their destinies were indissolubly connected with those of that devoted
town, and that they must submit to be taxed by a parliament, in which
they were not and could not be represented, or support their brethren
who were selected to sustain the first shock of a power which, if
successful there, would overwhelm them all. The neighbouring towns,
disdaining to avail themselves of the calamities inflicted on a sister
for her exertions in the common cause, clung to her with increased
affection; and that spirit of enthusiastic patriotism, which, for a
time, elevates the mind above all considerations of individual
acquisition, became the ruling passion in the American bosom.
On receiving intelligence of the Boston port bill, a meeting of the
people of that town was called. They perceived that "the sharpest,
sharpest conflict" was indeed approaching, but were not dismayed by
its terrors. Far from seeking to shelter themselves from the
threatening storm by submission, they grew more determined as it
increased.
Resolutions were passed, expressing their opinion of the impolicy,
injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty of the act, from which they
appealed to God, and to the world; and also inviting the other
colonies to join with them in an agreement to stop all imports and
exports to and from Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, until
the act should be repealed.[232]
[Footnote 232: Minot.]
It was not in Boston only that this spirit was roused. Addresses were
received from every part of the continent, expressing sentiments of
sympathy in their afflictions, exhorting them to resolution and
perseverance, and assuring them that they were considered as suffering
in the common cause.
The legislature of Virginia was in session when intelligence of the
Boston port bill reached that province. The house of Burgesses set
apart the first of June, the day on which the bill was to go into
operation, for fasting, prayer, and humiliation, to implore the divine
interposition to avert the heavy calamity which threatened the
destruction of their civil rights, the evils of a civil war; and to
give one heart and one mind to the people, firmly to oppose every
invasion of their liberties. Similar resolutions were adopted in
almost every province; and the first of June became, throughout the
colonies, a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, in the course of
which sermons were preached to the people, well calculated to inspire
them with horror, against the authors of the unjust sufferings of
their fellow subjects in Boston.
[Sidenote: A general congress proposed.]
This measure occasioned the dissolution of the assembly. The members,
before separation, entered into an association, in which they declared
that an attack on one colony to compel submission to arbitrary taxes,
is an attack on all British America, and threatens ruin to the rights
of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole be applied in
prevention. They, therefore, recommended to the committee of
correspondence, to communicate with the several committees of the
other provinces, on the expediency of appointing deputies from the
different colonies, to meet annually in congress, and to deliberate on
the common interests of America. This measure had already been
proposed in town meetings, both in New York and Boston.
[Sidenote: General Gage arrives in Boston.]
While the people of Boston were engaged in the first consultations
respecting the bill directed particularly against themselves, general
Gage arrived in town. He was received, notwithstanding the deep gloom
of the moment, with those external marks of respect which had been
usual, and which were supposed to belong to his station.
The general court convened by the governor at Salem, passed
resolutions, declaring the expediency of a meeting of committees from
the several colonies; and appointed five gentlemen as a committee on
the part of Massachusetts. The colonies from New Hampshire to South
Carolina inclusive, adopted this measure; and, where the legislatures
were not in session, elections were made by the people. The
legislature of Massachusetts also passed declaratory resolutions
expressing their opinion on the state of public affairs, and
recommending to the inhabitants of that province to renounce, totally,
the consumption of East India teas, and to discontinue the use of all
goods imported from the East Indies and Great Britain, until the
grievances of America should be completely redressed.
The governor, having obtained intelligence of the manner in which the
house was employed, sent his secretary with directions to dissolve the
assembly. Finding the doors shut, and being refused admittance, he
read the order of dissolution aloud on the staircase. The next day,
the governor received an address from the principal inhabitants of
Salem, at that time the metropolis of the province, which marks the
deep impression made by a sense of common danger. No longer
considering themselves as the inhabitants of Salem, but as Americans,
and spurning advantages to be derived to themselves from the distress
inflicted on a sister town, for its zeal in a cause common to all,
they expressed their deep affliction for the calamities of Boston.
About this time rough drafts of the two remaining bills relative to
the province of Massachusetts, as well as of that for quartering
troops in America, were received in Boston, and circulated through the
continent. They served to confirm the wavering, to render the moderate
indignant, and to inflame the violent.
An agreement was framed by the committee of correspondence in Boston,
entitled "a solemn league and covenant," whereby the subscribers bound
themselves, "in the presence of God," to suspend all commercial
intercourse with Great Britain, from the last day of the ensuing month
of August, until the Boston port bill, and the other late obnoxious
laws should be repealed. They also bound themselves, in the same
manner, not to consume, or purchase from any other, any goods whatever
which should arrive after the specified time; and to break off all
dealings with the purchasers as well as with the importers of such
goods. They renounced, also, all intercourse and connexion with those
who should refuse to subscribe to that covenant, or to bind themselves
by some similar agreement; and annexed to the renunciation of
intercourse, the dangerous penalty of publishing to the world, the
names of all who refused to give this evidence of attachment to the
rights of their country.
General Gage issued a proclamation in which he termed this covenant
"an unlawful, hostile, and traitorous combination, contrary to the
allegiance due to the King, destructive of the legal authority of
parliament, and of the peace, good order, and safety of the
community." All persons were warned against incurring the pains and
penalties due to such dangerous offences; and all magistrates were
charged to apprehend and secure for trial such as should be guilty of
them. But the time when the proclamation of governors could command
attention had passed away; and the penalties in the power of the
committee of correspondence were much more dreaded than those which
could be inflicted by the civil magistrate.[233]
[Footnote 233: Belsham. Minot.]
Resolutions were passed in every colony in which legislatures were
convened, or delegates assembled in convention, manifesting different
degrees of resentment, but concurring in the same great principles.
All declared that the cause of Boston was the cause of British
America; that the late acts respecting that devoted town were
tyrannical and unconstitutional; that the opposition to this
ministerial system of oppression ought to be universally and
perseveringly maintained; that all intercourse with the parent state
ought to be suspended, and domestic manufactures encouraged; and that
a general congress should be formed for the purpose of uniting and
guiding the councils, and directing the efforts, of North America.
The committees of correspondence selected Philadelphia for the place,
and the beginning of September as the time, for the meeting of this
important council.
[Sidenote: Congress assembles.]
On the fourth of September, the delegates from eleven[234] provinces
appeared at the place appointed; and, the next day, they assembled at
Carpenter's Hall, when Peyton Randolph, late speaker of the house of
Burgesses of Virginia, was unanimously chosen president. The
respective credentials of the members were then read and approved; and
this august assembly, having determined that each colony should have
only one vote; that their deliberations should be conducted with
closed doors; and that their proceedings, except such as they might
determine to publish, should be kept inviolably secret; entered on the
solemn and important duties assigned to them.[235]
[Footnote 234: Those of North Carolina arrived on the
fourteenth.]
[Footnote 235: See note No. VII, at the end of the volume.]
Committees were appointed to state the rights claimed by the colonies,
which had been infringed by acts of parliament passed since the year
1763; to prepare a petition to the King, and addresses to the people
of Great Britain, to the inhabitants of the province of Quebec, and to
the twelve colonies represented in congress.
Certain resolutions[236] of the county of Suffolk in Massachusetts,
having been taken into consideration, it was unanimously resolved
"that this assembly deeply feels the suffering of their countrymen in
Massachusetts Bay, under the operation of the late unjust, cruel, and
oppressive acts of the British parliament; that they most thoroughly
approve the wisdom and fortitude with which opposition to these wicked
ministerial measures has hitherto been conducted; and they earnestly
recommend to their brethren, a perseverance in the same firm and
temperate conduct, as expressed in the resolutions determined upon, at
a meeting of the delegates for the county of Suffolk, on Tuesday the
sixth instant; trusting that the effect of the united efforts of North
America in their behalf, will carry such conviction to the British
nation of the unwise, unjust, and ruinous policy of the present
administration, as quickly to introduce better men, and wiser
measures."
[Footnote 236: See note No. VIII, at the end of the volume.]
It was resolved, unanimously, "that contributions from all the
colonies, for supplying the necessities, and alleviating the
distresses of our brethren in Boston, ought to be continued, in such
manner, and so long, as their occasions may require."
The merchants of the several colonies were requested not to send to
Great Britain any orders for goods, and to direct the execution of
those already sent to be suspended, until the sense of congress on the
means to be taken for preserving the liberties of America, be made
public. In a few days, resolutions were passed, suspending the
importation of goods from Great Britain, or Ireland, or any of their
dependencies, and of their manufactures from any place whatever, after
the first day of the succeeding December; and against the purchase or
use of such goods. It was also determined that all exports to Great
Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, should cease on the 10th of
September, 1775 less American grievances should be redressed before
that time. An association, corresponding with these resolutions, was
then framed, and signed by every member present. Never were laws more
faithfully observed, than were these resolutions of congress; and
their association was, of consequence, universally adopted.
Early in the session, a declaration[237] of rights was made in the
shape of resolutions. This paper merits particular attention, because
it states precisely the ground then taken by America. It is observable
that it asserted rights which were not generally maintained, at the
commencement of the contest; but the exclusive right of legislation in
the colonial assemblies, with the exception of acts of the British
parliament _bona fide_ made to regulate external commerce, was not
averred unanimously.
[Footnote 237: See note No. IX, at the end of the volume.]
The addresses prepared, the various papers drawn up, and the measures
recommended by this congress, form the best eulogy of the members who
composed it. Affection to the mother country, an exalted admiration of
her national character, unwillingness to separate from her, a
knowledge of the hazards and difficulties of the approaching contest,
mingled with enthusiastic patriotism, and a conviction that all which
can make life valuable was at stake, characterise their proceedings.
[Sidenote: Address to the people of Great Britain.]
"When," they say in the address to the people to the people of Great
Britain, "a nation led to greatness by the hand of liberty, and
possessed of all the glory that heroism, munificence, and humanity,
can bestow, descends to the ungrateful task of forging chains for her
friends and children, and, instead of giving support to freedom turns
advocate for slavery and oppression, there is reason to suspect she
has either ceased to be virtuous, or been extremely negligent in the
appointment of her rulers.
"In almost every age, in repeated conflicts, in long and bloody wars,
as well civil as foreign, against many and powerful nations, against
the open assaults of enemies, and the more dangerous treachery of
friends, have the inhabitants of your island, your great and glorious
ancestors, maintained their independence, and transmitted the rights
of men and the blessings of liberty to you their posterity.