$Unique_ID{USH00132} $Pretitle{11} $Title{Our Country: Volume 3 Chapter LII} $Subtitle{} $Author{Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.} $Affiliation{} $Subject{troops assembly governor king liberty parliament act colonies new house} $Volume{Vol. 3} $Date{1905} $Log{} Book: Our Country: Volume 3 Author: Lossing, Benson J., LL.D. Volume: Vol. 3 Date: 1905 Chapter LII Governor Bernard's Interference - Doings of a Popular Assembly in Boston - Landing of Troops There - Firmness of the Council and Selectmen - Public Feeling Outraged - Triumph of the Citizens - Action of the British Parliament - Advent of Lord North - Non-Importation Agreements and the Young Women - Action of the Massachusetts Assembly - Departure of Governor Bernard - Hesitation in Parliament - A Circular to the Colonies - Excitement in England - Fruits of Taxation - Political Excitement in New York. GOVERNOR BERNARD had assured the Massachusetts Convention of his displeasure, and his intention to enforce the laws. He said to them, in a proclamation, when they assembled It is my duty to interpose this instant, before it is too late (for he declared the gathering unlawful). I do, therefore, earnestly admonish you that instantly, and before you do any business, you break up this assembly, and separate yourselves. I speak to you now as a friend to the province and a well-wisher to the individuals of it. But if you should pay no regard to this admonition, I must, as governor, assert the prerogative of the crown in a more public manner; for, assure yourselves (I speak from instruction), the kind is determined to maintain his entire sovereignty over this province, and whoever shall persist in usurping any of the rights of it will repent of his rashness." So spoke the governor bravely, when he knew that a fleet and army were near to support him. But the Convention, as we have observed, did not heed the admonition. They stayed in session six days until they had accomplished their intended business, and they had just adjourned, when the white sails of eight vessels-of-war appeared at the entrance to Boston Harbor, bearing two regiments of British soldiers, which General Gage had ordered from Halifax, commanded by Colonels Dalrymple and Carr. Gage had sent his engineer, Montressor, to assist the troops, if necessary. That officer bore an order, in accordance with the wishes of Governor Bernard, to land the troops in the settled parts of Boston. Accordingly, on Saturday morning, the 1st day of October (1768), the ships moved up to the city, anchored with springs on their cables, and in spite of the solemn remonstrances of the people, the troops were landed on the Long Wharf under cover of the guns of the war-vessels. The cowardly governor had gone into the country to avoid the expected storm of popular indignation, leaving the military to bear the brunt of the odium and its effects. Bernard had tried to induce his council to sanction an order for quartering the troops in the town. They refused, and he took upon himself the whole responsibility of the act. The selectmen, regarding the order as illegal, refused to provide quarters for the soldiers. Dalrymple blustered and threatened, but they were firm. He had prepared for wicked work by providing each of his soldiers with sixteen rounds of ammunition. This fact he made known, and hoping to overawe the inhabitants, he marched his whole force through the town, with fixed bayonets, colors flying, drum' beating, and a train of artillery following, with all the parade of a triumphant army entering a conquered city. The unarmed inhabitants looked on with sorrow but not with fear. They knew that a single act of violence on the part of the troops would cause twenty thousand men, from the hundred towns of Massachusetts, to spring up for their defence like the harvest of dragons' teeth; and that war once begun, a vast host would come from the other provinces like trailing clouds full of wrath and potency. Dalrymple appeared before the selectmen, with one or two other officers, and haughtily demanded both food and shelter for his troops. You will find both at the castle," said the guardians of the town, with the assurance that the law was upholding them. "And you will not furnish quarters for my soldiers asked the colonel. We will not responded the selectmen. Then Dalrymple turned away in wrath, and encamped one regiment in tents on the Common, while the other was compelled to bivouac as best they might in the chilly air of an October night. The compassion of the inhabitants was excited for the poor soldiers, whom they could not blame, and at nine o'clock the Sons of Liberty generously opened Faneuil Hall, and allowed the warriors to slumber there. The next day was the Sabbath. The unwise Dalrymple again paraded his troops through the streets when the people were engaged in public worship, disturbing them with the noise of the fife and drum. His soldiers challenged the citizens in the streets and in various ways he tried to impress them with a sense of utter subjugation. These things only deepened their convictions of duty, and inflamed their resentment. Every strong feeling of the New Englander was violated. His Sabbath was desecrated, his worship was disturbed, and his liberty was infringed. Natural hatred of the troops, deep and abiding, was soon engendered, and the terms rebel and tyrant were freely bandied between them. The governor and the colonel used every means in their power to induce the council and the selectmen to provide for the troops. Planting themselves firmly on the law, these citizens were unmoved by entreaties or threats. Then the governor and sheriff tried to get possession of a dilapidated building belonging to the province in which to shelter the troops, but the occupants, supported by the law, successfully resisted. The governor now summoned all the acting magistrates to meet him, when he renewed the demand for quarters. Not till the barracks are filled," was the response. The military officers could not put the soldiers into quarters, for the act might cause them to be cashiered on conviction before two justices of the peace, the best of whom," wrote Gage, the keeper of a paltry tavern." When the weather became so cold that tent-life could not be endured, the commanding officer was compelled to hire houses at exorbitant rates for shelter, and to furnish food for the troops at the expense of the crown. So, in this bloodless warfare with British regulars, the citizens of Boston, armed with chartered rights and statute law, were completely victorious. There was nothing for the troops to do, as the people were orderly and law-abiding. The soldiers being housed, the main guard was stationed opposite the State House, with cannon pointing toward the legislative hall. The people smiled at this covert threat, and Gage was convinced that more mischief had arisen from the follies and greed of the crown officers than from anything else; but he recommended the building of barracks and a fortification on Fort Hill, while Bernard, satisfied that the troops could not overturn the authority of the government, nor repress republicanism, again advised a forfeiture of the charter of the province. The commissioners of customs who had fled to Castle William on the Ronney now returned, and were more haughty than ever under the protection of armed men. They caused the arrest of Hancock and Malcom on false charges, claiming penalties for violations of acts of Parliament amounting to, in Hancock's case, almost half a million dollars. Hancock employed John Adams as his counsel, and a painful drudgery I had of his case," said that advocate. Not a charge was established. Soon after these events the British Parliament assembled, and the king, in his speech which he read from the throne, spoke of Boston as being in a state of disobedience to all law and government," proceeding to measures subversive of the constitution, and attended by circumstances that might manifest a disposition to throw off its dependence on Great Britain." He promised, with the support of Parliament, to defeat the mischievous designs of those turbulent and seditious persons" who had, under false pretenses, too successfully deluded numbers of his subjects in America. In both Houses of Parliament great indignation, because of the conduct of the Bostonians, was expressed. The Lords, in their' address to the king, said We shall be ever ready to hear and redress any grievances of your majesty's American subjects; but we should betray the trust reposed in us, if we did not withstand every attempt to infringe or weaken our just rights, and we shall always consider it as one of our most important duties to maintain - tire and inviolate the supreme authority of the legislature of Great Britain over every part of the British Empire." In the Commons, Henry Stanley indulged in bitter denunciations of the Americans. He condemned, in unmeasured terms, the non- importation leagues, as unwarrantable combinations among American tradesmen to cut off the commerce between the colonies and the mother country." I contend, therefore," he said, that men so unsusceptible of all middle terms of accommodation call loudly for our correction. What, sir, will become of this insolent town of Boston when we deprive the inhabitants of the power of sending out their rum and molasses to the coast of Africa For they must be treated like aliens, as they have treated us upon this occasion. The difficulties in governing Massachusetts are insurmountable, unless its charter and laws shall be so changed as to give to the king the appointment of the council, and the sheriffs the sole power of returning juries." In the Upper House, Lord Barrington called the Americans traitors, and worse than traitors, against the crown - traitors against the legislation of this country. The use of troops," he said, was to bring rioters to justice." Even Camden, who opposed Pitt's declaratory act, now acquiesced in the harsh measures against Boston that were proposed, and was severely chastised by the tongue of Edmund Burke for his inconsistency. My astonishment at the folly of his opinions is lost in indignation at the baseness of his conduct," said the gifted Irishman. To gratify the prejudices of the king, Shelburne had been driven from the ministry, and Chatham, offended because of this act, had resigned. Lord North now commenced that long leadership of the ministry which continued until near the close of our struggle for independence. He took the initiative as the friend and champion of the king, by replying sharply to Alderman Beckford, who said: "Let the nation return to its good old nature and its old good humor; it were best to repeal the late acts and conciliate the colonies by moderation and kindness." To these wise words, North replied in falsification of history, "There has been no proof of any real return of friendship on the part of the Americans they will give you no credit for affection no credit for an attention to their commercial interests. If America is to be the judge, you must tax in no instance! You may regulate in no instance. Punishment will not be extended beyond the really guilty; and, if rewards shall be found necessary, rewards will be given. But what we do, we will do firmly. We shall go through our plan, now that we have brought it so near success. I am against repealing the last act of Parliament, securing to us a revenue out of America I will never think of repealing it, until I see America prostrate at my feet." The words of the King, Lords and Commons made a deep impression on the minds of the patriots of Massachusetts, and throughout the other provinces. Their liberties were more dangerously menaced than ever, and the instruments for their enslavement were seated in the New England capital and intrenched behind cannon. But the Sons of Liberty were more determined than ever to stand firmly by their rights, and at the same time to maintain a perfect adherence to the law. By this determination they conquered. Their worst enemies in Great Britain could not justly accuse them of treason for any act they had committed. They had a perfect right to cease trading with anybody. They had violated no law; and all the threats of the madmen in the government, and the presence of troops, could not alter their opinions. Their petitions, though rejected by the king with scorn, lost none of their vitality and the official assurance that the monarch would not listen to "wicked men" who denied the supremacy of Parliament, did not move the patriots a single line from the path which they had prescribed for themselves. They felt that Colonel Barry prophetically read their hearts, when, in opposition to a resolution of Lord North, offered in March, 1769, to reject a respectful petition from New York, he said: "I predicted all that would happen on the passage of the Stamp Act and I now warn ministers that, if they persist in their wretched course of oppression, the whole continent of North America will rise in arms, and these colonies perhaps be lost to England forever." When the non-importation agreements were renewed, the young women heartily seconded the action of their fathers and brothers, by engaging in domestic manufactures. The Irish flax-wheel performed an important part in the feminine opposition to British oppression in the spinning of linen thread for summer fabrics and the hum of the big Dutch wool-wheel was heard in many families converting the fleecy rolls from the hand-cards into yarn. In Boston, a party of fifty young women, calling themselves "Daughters of Liberty", met at the house of the venerated pastor of the Scotch Presbyterian Church there, the Rev. John Moorehead, where they amused themselves with spinning two hundred and thirty-two skeins of linen yarn, some very fine, which were given to the worthy white-haired minister. Several of the young women were members of his congregation. Many persons came in to see the novel sight and admire the fair spinners. They were regaled with refreshing fruit, cakes, coffee and comfits, after which anthems and liberty-songs were sung by many fine voices of the Sons and Daughters of Liberty. There were, at that time, more than one hundred spinners in Mr. Moorehead's society. In other colonies like zeal and industry were shown by the young women, and also by whole families. "Within eighteen months past," wrote a correspondent of the New York Mercury, from Newport, Rhode Island, four hundred and eighty-seven yards of cloth and thirty-six pairs of stockings have been spun and knit in the family of James Nixon of this town. Another family, within four years past, hath manufactured nine hundred and eighty yards of woolen cloth, besides two coverlids and two bed ticks and all the stocking yarn for the family. We are credibly informed that many families in this colony within the year past have each manufactured upward of seven hundred yards of cloth of different kinds." When the Massachusetts Assembly met at the close of May, 1769, they simply organized, and then resolved that it was incompatible with their dignity and freedom to deliberate while confronted by an armed force; and that the presence of a military and naval armament was a breach of privilege. They refused to enter upon the business of furnishing supplies of any kind, or discussing any topic excepting that of a redress of their grievances. They petitioned the governor to remove the troops from the town, but their reasonable request was met by a haughty refusal. Not only this, but the governor adjourned the Assembly to Cambridge, and informed them that he was going to England to lay a statement of the affairs of the colony before the king. The House instantly adopted a petition to his majesty, asking for the withdrawal of Bernard from the colony forever; and they also adopted a resolution declaring that the establishment of a standing army in the colony in time of peace, was not only an invasion of natural rights, but a violation of the British Constitution, highly dangerous to the people, and unprecedented. Perceiving the Assembly to be incorrigible, the governor dissolved them and sailed for England, leaving the province in the care of the Lieutenant-Governor, Thomas Hutchinson. Proofs of Bernard's duplicity, greed, petty malice, mischievous exaggeration, falsehoods, and continual plottings for the destruction of tie Massachusetts free government, so well known here, had been sent to England by one of his political friends, and caused his immediate recall. He never recrossed the Atlantic, and died in 1779. Meanwhile the merchants of New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis and other places had renewed their non-importation leagues with vigor and Washington, at Mount Vernon, assisted by his neighbor, George Mason, had matured the plan for such an association which, as we have observed, he laid before the Virginia House of Burgesses when they reassembled after they had been dissolved by Governor Botetourt. That patriot afterward wrote to his correspondent in London, from whom he ordered goods: "You will perceive, in looking over the several invoices, that some of the goods there required are upon condition that the act of Parliament imposing a duty on tea, paper, &c., for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, is totally repealed and I beg the favor of you to be governed strictly thereby, as it will not be in my power to receive any articles contrary to our nonimportation agreement, which I have subscribed, and shall religiously adhere to, and should if it were, as I could wish it to be, ten times as strict." Mason wrote to Washington: Our all is at stake; and the little conveniences and comforts of life, when set in competition with our liberty, ought to be rejected, not with reluctance, but with pleasure." In view of the movements in America, the British Parliament hesitated. They perceived that the colonies were forming a more formidable combination against British commerce and manufactures than any before and some of the more sensible men in Parliament urged the repeal of the tea act, and so end the controversy. So favorable an opportunity," they said, may never recur." But Lord North replied We will not consent to discuss the question because of the combinations in America. To do so would furnish a fresh instance of haste, impatience, levity, and fickleness. I see nothing uncommercial in making the Americans pay a duty on tea." North was only the echo of the monarch, who swayed this minister with perfect control. The king had made it an inflexible rule never to redress a grievance unless such redress was prayed for in a spirit of obedience and humility. He was also determined to assert the right of Parliament to tax the colonies, and insisted that one tax must always be laid to keep up that right. So the king and his pliant minister clung to the duty on tea. Hillsborough, under the direction of North, sent a Circular to all the colonies, in which a promise was given that no more taxes for revenue should be laid upon them, and that the duties upon paper, painters' colors and glass should be taken off by a repeal of the law levying them. It was believed that this concession would satisfy the Americans, forgetting that a principle broader and deeper and more vital than any statute law was at the bottom of the discontent in the colonies. British statesmen and publicists of the aristocratic party demurred at this concession. Dr. Johnson, then a pensioner of the government and afterward author of the tract entitled Taxation no Tyranny, growled out his dissatisfaction in the coarse expression: "The Americans are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging." And the short-sighted Hillsborough, exaggerating the sentiments of the monarch, said: We can grant nothing to the Americans except what they may ask with halters around their necks." The Circular sent to the colonies was wrung from the reluctant ministry by fear of a revolt at home. The capital of the kingdom was then fearfully shaken by a violent political excitement that filled thoughtful minds with dread. John Wilkes, the irrepressible political writer already mentioned, had suddenly returned from exile, and was elected a representative in Parliament by the voters of Middlesex. The king desired to keep him out of Parliament, and the pliant House of Commons refused to give him a seat. The people were aroused by great indignation because of this interference with their rights. Wilkes was chosen to be a magistrate of London, by a large majority and again the voters of Middlesex elected him to represent them in Parliament. Again the Commons kept him from his seat by voting the returns null and void, without the shadow of a fact to warrant the action. A third and fourth time he was elected by overwhelming majorities, and each time, the Commons, under the influence of the king, and in violation of the seminal principle of representative government, denied him a seat in the House, and gave it to his opponent at the hustings. Their plea was that Wilkes was an outlaw. This deadly blow, as the people regarded it, at one of the dearest rights of the British subject, moved the public mind of the kingdom most power fully, and added thousands of intelligent men to the list of friends of the Americans, the vital principle of whose resistance to the government was the sacred right of representation as an equivalent for taxation. Mobs appeared in London and various parts of the kingdom, vehemently protesting by great violence against the outrage upon popular liberty. In these demonstrations many lives were lost. The houses of crown-officers were attacked, and even the palace of Whitehall the residence of the king was seriously menaced by a vast concourse of people, shouting, Wilke and Liberty." The populace were restrained from violence, and possible from the murder of the king, by the interference of the Royal Guards. To this political agitation was added that which was caused by the distress, real and prospective, of the merchants and manufacturers of England, created by the non-importation leagues in operation in America. These causes combined pressed the English people, at that time, to the verge of revolution. They were taught by current events to regard their king as a foe to popular liberty, and a willing usurper of the rights of the people and attachment to the crown was greatly weakened. Hillsborough's Circular had not the least effect upon the Americans except to stimulate them to more determined resistance. The repeal of some of the obnoxious acts would be a partial relief from taxation but so long as the duty on tea was retained, the principle involved remained the same. While a tax for revenue in the smallest degree was imposed upon the Americans, their real grievance was not redressed, and they stood firm in their attitude of resistance. They worked the engine of non-importation with great vigor. The exports from England to America which, in 1768, had amounted to almost $12,000,000 (of which amount tea represented $660,000), in 1769 amounted to only a little over $8,000,000, the tea being only $220,000. Pownall, the immediate predecessor of Bernard as governor of Massachusetts, showed, in a speech in Parliament, that the total produce of the new taxes for the first year had been less than $80,000, and that the expenses of the new custom- house arrangements had reduced the net profits of the crown revenue in the colonies to $1,475, while the extraordinary military expenses in America amounted, for the same time, to $850,000. Yet the stubborn king and his pliant minister insisted upon retaining the duty on tea, to save the royal prerogative, and keeping up an expensive military establishment to enforce its collection Samuel Adams was doubtless right when he publicly declared, on the arrival of the repeal of the Stamp Act: The conduct of England is permitted and ordained by the unsearchable wisdom of the Almighty for hastening the independence of these colonies." The die was now cast. The Americans almost despaired of having their grievances redressed by the oppressor. Opposition to taxation without representation was the prevailing rule in all the colonies. In Boston the people endured the presence of soldiers, with whom almost daily irritating collisions took place. In New York, late in 1769, there was much political excitement growing out of an indirect method of cheating the people into a compliance with the provisions of the mutiny act proposed by a desperate tory coalition. It was the issuing of bills of credit, on the security of the province, to the amount of $700,000, to be loaned to the people, the interest to be applied to defraying the expenses of the colonial government. It was none other than a proposition for a monster bank, without checks, for the purpose of applying the profits to defraying the expenses of keeping troops in the province. It was also a game for political power which menaced the liberties of the people. When an act for this purpose was before the Assembly, the leaders of the popular party raised a cry of alarm. Early on Sunday morning, the 16th of December, 1769, a hand-bill was found widely distributed over the city of New York, addressed, in large letters, To the Betrayed Inhabitants of the City and Colony of New York," and was signed, "A Son of Liberty." It denounced the money scheme as a deception covering wickedness declared that evidently the proposition to grant supplies to tie troops unqualifiedly was an acknowledgment of the right to exact such subsidies, and a virtual approval of all the revenue acts and that the scheme was intended to divide and distract the colonies. It directed the attention of the Assembly to the patriotic attitude of the other colonies, and exhorted them to imitate their example. It hinted at a corrupt coalition between the acting-governor (Colden) and the head of a powerful family (De Lancey), and called upon the Assembly to repudiate the act concocted by this combination. It closed with a summons of the inhabitants to a meeting in The Fields the next day, to express their views and to instruct their representatives in the Assembly to oppose the measure and in case they should refuse, to send notice thereof to every Assembly in America, and to publish their names to the world. Not less than fourteen hundred people assembled around the Liberty Pole, on Monday, where they were harangued by John Lamb, an active Son of Liberty and afterward an efficient artillery officer in the Continental Army. He was then thirty-four years of age; a prosperous merchant, a fluent speaker, and vigorous writer. He swayed the multitude on that occasion by his eloquence and logic and by unanimous vote they condemned the action of the Assembly in passing obnoxious bills. Their sentiments were embodied in a communication to that House, which was borne by a committee of seven leading Sons of Liberty, namely: Isaac Sears, Caspar Wistar, Alexander McDougall, Jacob Van Zandt, Samuel Broome, Erasmus Williams, and James Varick. The leaven of toryism then permeated the New York Assembly. When the obnoxious hand-bill was read by the Speaker, Mr. De Lancey moved that the sense of the House should be taken whether the said paper was not an infamous and scandalous libel." When the vote was taken, twenty of the pliant Assembly voted that it was so, and only one member voted No. That member was Philip Schuyler. He boldly faced the rising storm, and by his solitary vote rebuked, in a most emphatic manner, the cowardice of those of his compeers who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him in former trials. The Assembly then set about ferreting out the author of the hand-bill. They authorized the lieutenant-governor to offer a reward of $50 for the discovery of the offender. Lamb was cited before the House, but was soon discharged. The printer of the hand-bill, when discovered, was brought to the bar, when the frightened man gave the name of Alexander McDougall as the author. He was the son of a Scotchman from the Hebrides, a sailor, an ardent Son of Liberty, and afterward a major-general in the Continental Army. He was taken before the House, where he would make no acknowledgment and refused to give bail. He was indicted for libel and cast into prison, where he remained fourteen weeks until arraigned for trial, when he pleaded not guilty, and gave bail. On that occasion he spoke with vast propriety," William Smith wrote to Schuyler, "and awed and astonished many who wish him ill, and added, I believe, to the number of his friends." Several months afterward he was again brought before the House, when he was defended by George Clinton, an active member of that body, who became the first governor of the State of New York. To the question whether he was the author of the hand-bill signed "A Son of Liberty," McDougall replied, That as the Grand Jury and the Assembly had declared the paper a libel, he could not answer; that as he was under prosecution in the Supreme Court, he conceived it would be an infraction of justice to punish twice for one offence but that he would not deny the authority of the House to punish for a breach of privilege when no cognizance was taken of it, in another court." His answer was declared to be a contempt, and he was again imprisoned. In February, 1771, he was released and was never afterward molested. I rejoice," said McDougall, when ordered to prison, "that I am the first to suffer for liberty since the commencement of our glorious struggle." McDougall was regarded as a martyr. "The imprisoned sailor," says John C. Hamilton, in his biography of his father, General Alexander Hamilton, "was deemed the true type of imprisoned commerce. To soften the rigors of his confinement, to evince the detestation of its authors, and in his person to plead the public wrongs, became a duty of patriotism. On the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act, his health was drank with honors, and the meeting, in procession, visited him in prison. Ladies of distinction daily thronged there. Popular songs were written, and sung under his prison bars, and emblematic swords were worn. His name was upon every lip. The character of each individual conspicuous in the great controversy became a subject of comment and the applause which followed the name of Schuyler, gave a new value to the popularity his firmness had acquired." McDougall was emphatically a "man of the people." He thoroughly sympathized with those classes in society - the working men and women - who are generally weak in social and political influence where, as then in New York, an aristocratic class bears rule, because of their inability to make their voices heard by those in authority. Without any of the spirit of a demagogue, he was a popular leader, because the people saw that his whole soul was enlisted in his efforts in their behalf and like every really earnest man, the utterances of his convictions carried with them great weight. He was a true type of what is generally known as the "common people" - the great mass of citizens who carry on the chief industries of a country - its agriculture, commerce, manufactures and arts.