CHAP. independent of the colonial Legislature to dragoon XXXVI. us." He openly denied the superiority of the exSept. isting forms of government. It was not reverence 1768. for Kings, he would say, that brought the ancestors of New England to America. They fled from Kings and bishops, and looked up to the King of Kings. "We are free, therefore," he concluded, "and want no King."1 "The times were never better in Rome, than when they had no King and were a free State." As he reflected on the extent of the Colonies in America, he saw the vast empire that was forming, and was conscious it must fashion its own institutions, and reform those of England. But at this time Massachusetts had no representative body. Bernard had hinted, that instructions might be given to forbid the calling of the Assembly even at the annual period in May; and to reduce the Province to submission by the indefinite suspension of its Legislature. Was there no remedy? The men of Boston and the villages round about it were ready to spring to arms. But of what use were "unconnected" movements? Ten thousand men had assembled suddenly in 1746 on the rumor of the approach of a French expedition; thirty thousand could at a signal come forth, with gun in hand, to drive the British troops into the sea; but was there the steady courage to keep passion in check, and restrain disorder? On the fifth of September, there appeared in the Boston Gazette, a paper in the form of Queries,2 Affidavits in the State-paper 2 Queries in Boston Gazette, 5 Sept. 1768; 701, 31, signed Clericus Americanus. Bernard to Hillsborough, 16 Sept. 1768, Letters to Hillsborough, &c. 70. XXXVI. 1768. designed to persuade the people that the Acts of Par- CHAP. liament and the measures of the British Government for their execution, necessarily implied a leaping over Sept. all those covenants and compacts which were the basis of the political union with Great Britain; that, therefore, it was expedient for the inhabitants of every town in the Province, to choose representatives for a General Assembly with instructions, on their coming together, to pray for the enlargement of their privileges to the extent of that first original Charter1 of the Colony, which left to the people the choice of their Governor, and reserved to the Crown no negative on their laws. "If," continued the writer, "an army should be sent to reduce us to slavery, we will put our lives in our hands and cry to the Judge of all the earth, who will do right, saying: Behold-how they come to cast us out of this possession which thou hast given us to inherit. Help us, O Lord, our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude." Wednesday, the seventh, early in the morning, the Senegal left the port. The next day, the Duke of Cumberland, a large ship, sailed for Nova Scotia. On the eighth of September, Bernard let it be known that both vessels of war were gone to fetch three regiments. Sullen discontent appeared on almost every brow. On the ninth a Petition was signed for a Town Meeting "to consider of the most wise, constitutional, loyal, and salutary 2 "The old Charter which had nothing of royalty in it." Bernard to Hillsborough, 16 September, 1768; Letters to Hillsborough, 74. Compare Gage to Hillsborough, 7 Sept. 1768. 2 Bernard to Gage, 16 Sept, 1768. Captain Corner's Diary, Thursday, 8 Sept. CHAP. measures "1 in reference to the expected arrival of XXXVI. 1768. Sept. troops. Union was the heart's desire of Boston; union first with all the towns of the Province, and next with the sister Colonies; and the confidence which must precede union could be established only by consummate prudence and self-control. On Saturday, Otis, Samuel Adams, and Warren met at the house of Warren, and drew up the plan for the Town Meeting, the Resolves, and the order of the debates. The subject was not wholly new; Otis had long before pointed out the proper mode of redress in the contingency which had now occurred. It must be ascertained if the Colony in the midst of excitement could preserve the self-possession necessary for instituting government.* All day Sunday Bernard suffered from "false alarms and threats as usual;" insisted, that a rising was agreed upon; and in his fright at an empty barrel placed on the beacon, actually called a meeting of the Council." 6 On Monday the twelfth, the inhabitants of Boston gathered in a Town Meeting at Faneuil Hall, where the arms belonging to the town, to the number of four hundred muskets, lay in boxes on the floor. After a prayer from the fervid and eloquent Cooper, minister of the Congregation in Brattle Street, and the election of Otis as moderator, a committee in XXXVI. 1768. Sept. quired of the Governor the grounds of his apprehen- CHAP. sions that regiments of his majesty's troops were daily to be expected; and he was also requested "in the precarious situation of their invaluable rights and privileges, civil and religious, to issue precepts for a General Assembly." On the next morning at ten o'clock, report was made, that troops were expected to arrive; and that Bernard refused to call an Assembly. Rashness on the part of the people of Boston would have forfeited the confidence of their own Province, and the sympathies of the rest; while feebleness would have overwhelmed their cause with ridicule. It was necessary for them to halt; but to find a position where it was safe to do so; and they began with the declaration that "It is the first principle in civil society, founded in nature and reason, that no law of the society can be binding on any individual, without his consent, given by himself in person, or by his representative of his own free election." They further appealed not to natural rights only, but to the precedents of the revolution of 1688; to the conditions on which the House of Hanover received the throne; to the bill of rights of William and Mary; and to their own Charter; and then they proceeded to resolve, "That the inhabitants of the town of Boston will, at the utmost peril of their lives and fortunes, maintain and defend their rights, liberties, privileges, and immunities." To remove uncertainty respecting these rights, they voted, "that money could not be levied, nor a standing army be kept up in the Province but by their own free consent." This report was divers times distinctly read and CHAP. considered, and it was unanimously voted that it XXXVI. be accepted and recorded. The record remains to the honor of Boston among all posterity. 1768. Sept. "There are the arms," said Otis, pointing to the chests in which they lay. "When an attempt is made against your liberties, they will be delivered." One man, impatient to offer resistance, cried out, that they wanted a head; another, an old man, was ready to rise and resume all power; a third reasoned, that liberty is as precious as life, and may equally be defended against the aggressor; that when a people's liberties are threatened, they are in a state of war and have a right to defend themselves. But every excessive opinion was overruled or restrained, so that the country might the more cheerfully respond to the town of Boston. The Bill of Rights declared that for the redress of grievances, Parliaments ought to be held frequently; the Assembly of Massachusetts had been arbitrarily dissolved; and Bernard refused to issue writs for a new one; so that the legislative rights of the Colony were suspended. The Town therefore, following the precedent of 1688, proposed a Convention in Faneuil Hall. To this body they elected Cushing, Otis, Samuel Adams, and Hancock, a committee to represent them; and directed their Selectmen to inform the several towns of the Province of their design. It was also voted by a very great majority 1 Compare Edmund Burke's Speech, 8 Nov. 1768, in Cavendish, i. 39. "Such an order to a Governor was an annihilation of the As sembly; and when the Assembly was dissolved, an usurped Assembly met." |