66 L. 1773. Oct. Such were the thoughts which Samuel Adams un- CHAP. bosomed to his faithful fellow-laborer. The Press 1 which he directed, continued to demand an annual Congress of American States to frame a Bill of Rights," or to "form an Indpendent State, an American Commonwealth." Union, then, Union, was the first, the last, the only hope for America. Massachusetts, where the overruling will of Samuel Adams swayed the feebler politicians, was thoroughly united. But that was not enough; "we must have a Convention of all the Colonies," he would say to his friends; and the measure was recognised by the royalists as "of all others the most likely to kindle a general flame." His advice was confirmed by the concurrent opinion of Franklin, to whose "greatness” 4 he had publicly paid a tribute. His influence brought even Cushing to act as one of a select Committee with himself and Heath of Roxbury; and they sent forth a secret Circular, summoning all the Colonies to be prepared to assert their rights, when time and circumstances should give to their claim the 2 5 1 Boston Gazette, 964, 2, 2; and 966, 1, 1 2 Hutchinson to J. Pownall, 18 Oct. 1773. Franklin to T. Cushing, 7 July, 1773; Hutchinson to Dartmouth, 19 October, 1773. * Samuel Adams in Boston Gazette, 963, 3, 1, 2. See Wedderburne's Speech, 111. "Others declare they will be altogether independent. Those of the latter opinion have for their head one of the members of Boston [Samuel Adams], who was the first person that openly and in any public assembly declared for a toVOL. VI.— -40 tal independence, and who from a 1773. Oct. CHAP. surest prospect of success. "And when we consider," L. they said, "how one great event has hurried on after another, such a time may come and such circumstances take place, sooner than we are now aware of." They advised to contentment with no temporary relief. They explained that the King would certainly maintain the power of Parliament, to extort and to appropriate a tribute from the Colonies; that the connection between Great Britain and America should be broken, unless it could be perpetuated on the terms of equal liberty; that the necessary contest must be entered upon, while "the ideas of liberty were strong in men's minds; and they closed with desiring each Colony to resist the designs of the English Ministry in allowing the East India Company to ship its teas to America. That Company was already despatching its consignments simultaneously to Charleston, to Philadelphia, to New-York, and to Boston. The sys tem gave universal offence, not only as an enforcement of the tax on tea, but also as an odious monopoly of trade.1 Philadelphia, the largest town in the Colonies, began the work of prevention. Its inhabitants met on the eighteenth of October in great numbers at the State House, and in eight resolutions, denied the claim of Parliament to tax America; specially condemned the duty on tea; declared every one who should directly or indirectly countenance the attempt, an enemy to his country; and requested the agents of the East India Company to resign. The movement was so general and so com 1 Gen. Haldimand to Dartmouth, 28 Dec. 1773. manding, that the agents, some cheerfully, others CHAP. reluctantly, gave up their appointment.1 few days not one remained. L. Within a 1773. South Carolina, by her spirit and perseverance, gave now, as she had ever done, evidence that her patriotism would be the support of Union. The Province was at that time in a state of just excitement at the arbitrary act of its Council in imprisoning Thomas Powell, the Publisher of the South Carolina Gazette, for an alleged contempt. The Council was a body in which the distinguished men of that Province scorned to accept a seat; its members were chiefly the Crown officers; and they held their places at the King's pleasure. Their power to imprison on their mere warrant was denied; the prisoner was taken before Rawlins Lowndes and another magistrate on a writ of habeas corpus, and was released. The questions involved in the case were discussed with heat; but they did not divert attention from watching the expected tea ships. Oct. The "ideas of Liberty" on which resistance was Nov. to be founded, had taken deep root in a soil which the Circular of Massachusetts did not reach. At this moment the people of Illinois were most opportunely sending their last message respecting their choice of a Government directly to Dartmouth himself. We have seen how vainly they had reasoned with Gage and Hillsborough for some of the privileges of self-direction. Here, as on other occasions, French Archives, Angleterre, 503. Garnier to D'Aiguillon, 17 December, 1773, incloses the documents. Gordon's Hist. of Pennsyl vania, 481, 482. Hazard's Register Bull to Dartmouth, 18 Sept. 1773. Nov. CHAP. Dartmouth, with the purest intentions, adopted the L. policy of his predecessor. He censured "the ideas of the inhabitants of the Illinois District with regard to a civil Constitution as very extravagant;" and rejected their proposition to take some part in the election of their rulers,' as "absurd and inadmissible." A plan of Government was therefore prepared of great simplicity, leaving all power with the executive officers of the Crown, and Gage had been summoned to England to give advice on the administration of the Colonies, and especially on the mode of governing the West. It was on the fourth of November, that the fathers of the Commonwealth of Illinois, through their Agent Daniel Blouin, forwarded their indignant protest against the proposed form, which they rejected as "oppressive and absurd," "much worse than that of any of the French or even the Spanish Colonies." "Should a Government so evidently tyrannical be established," such was their language to the British Minister, "it could be of no long duration; " there would exist "the necessity of its being abolished." The words were nobly uttered and were seasonable. The chord of liberty vibrated on the Illinois, and the sympathy of the western villages with freedom was an assurance that they too would join the great American family of Republics. The issue was to be tried at Boston; its teaships were on the water; the Governor himself under the name of his sons was selected as one of the con Dartmouth to Gage, 4 Nov. 1772; Gage to Dartmouth, 6 Jan. 1773; Dartmouth to Gage, 3 March, 1773. * Sketch of Government, &c. &c. for Illinois. Daniel Blouin to Lord Dartmouth, 4 Nov. 1773. L. 1773. Nov. signees; the moment for the decision was hastening CHAP. In the night between the first and second of November, a knock was heard at the door of each one of the persons commissioned by the East India Company, and a summons left for them to appear without fail at Liberty Tree on the following Wednesday, at noon, to resign their commission;1 printed notices were also posted up, desiring the freemen of Boston and the neighboring towns to meet at the same time and place as witnesses. On the appointed day, a large flag was hung out on the pole at Liberty Tree; the bells in the Meetinghouses were rung from eleven till noon. Adams, Hancock and Phillips, three of the four Representatives of the town of Boston, the Selectmen, and William Cooper the Town Clerk, with about five hundred more, gathered round the spot. As the consignees did not make their appearance, the Assembly, appointing Molineux, Warren and others a Committee, marched into State Street to the warehouse of Richard Clarke, where all the consignees were assembled. Molineux presented himself for a parley. "From whom are you a Committee?" asked Clarke. "From the whole people." "Who are the Committee?" "Nothing is now to be kept secret," replied Molineux; "I am one," and he named all the rest. "And what is your request?" Molineux read a paper, requiring the consignee to promise not to sell the teas, but to return them to London in the 1 Order on Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, 2 Nov. 1773. Abstract of the Correspondence from America, made by Thurlow 2 Handbills posted up the 2d and Wedderburn. and 3d of November, 1773. |