A.D. 1774.]

including in it all lands in the back settlements, not named in any previous charter, consented to the prayer of the majority of the inhabitants in favour of their religion. This gave extreme offence to the rigid puritan population of New England, but was undoubtedly the most judicious of all this batch of acts, for it rendered the natives of Canada loyal, and perfectly insensible to all the after attempts of the American insurgents to win them over to their party. Besides leaving the catholics in full enjoyment of their religion, but only within their own community, it made provision for the protestant faith, and it left the Canadians in possession of their ancient laws, except that in criminal cases the trial by jury was introduced. A provincial assembly was established, which was to be appointed and dismissed by the crown, and to take cognisance of all colonial matters, except taxation.

To commence a course of more rigour in Massachusetts, governor Hutchinson was recalled, and general Gage, a man who had seen service, and had the reputation of firmness and promptitude, was appointed in his stead. He set out for his new government with high expectations of what he should be able to effect, declaring that the Americans would only prove lions so long as the English continued lambs. Governor Hutchinson, on his arrival, confirmed the ministry in these ideas. Indeed, one of the great mistakes of the English altogether, had been always to entertain a contempt for the colonists. That they were nothing short of cowards, had been openly asserted by lord Sandwich in the peers, and colonel Grant in the commons. The name of Yankee was become an epithet of ridicule, being originally merely the corruption of the word Anglois by the Indians. These remarks excited the deepest resentment in America.

But the mischief of the new acts became rapidly apparent, and all the prophecies of congresses and resistance were soon realised. Had the Boston Port Bill alone been passed, perhaps not much harm might have been done. There were numbers of people all over America who were of opinion that Boston had gone too far in destroying the tea, and might have remained passive if the Bostonians had been compelled to make compensation. But the fatal act was that which abolished the Massachusetts charter. That made the cause common; that excited one universal alarm. If the English government were thus permitted to strike out the colonial charters at pleasure, all security had perished. All the colonies determined to support their own cause in supporting that of Massachusetts. Those who adhered to the English government were henceforth known only as "tories;" and men like colonel Washington, who had hitherto belonged to the moderate party, now assumed a more hostile tone. The language of the opposition in England added to the encouragement of the most determined; and the death of Louis XV. of France kindled a hope that his more moral and well-disposed successor might be induced to sympathise with a people struggling for independence against the power which had driven France from the North American States.

The Virginians were the first to move to lead the movement. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson took the initiative in a measure which would have better suited the character of the religious New Englanders. They rum

107

maged, according to Jefferson's own memoirs, the old records of the parliamentary proceedings against Charles I. The school in which these new revolutionists studied is thus indicated:-"With the help of Rushton," says Jefferson, "whom we rummaged for revolutionary precedents, and from the puritans of that day, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernising their phrases, for appointing the 6th of June, on which the Port Bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore Heaven to avert from us the evil of civil war; to inspire us with firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of king and parliament to moderation and justice." Conscious, however, that neither of these concoctors of the resolutions had much venerability of character to add weight to such a motion, they applied to a solemn elder, Robert Carter Nicholas, to move it, which he did, and it passed without opposition.

The next day, however, being the 25th of May, lord Dunmore, the governor of the province, dissolved the assembly, expressing much displeasure at the resolution. The members, nothing daunted, retired to the Raleigh Tavern, and, in their favourite retreat, the Apollo Chamber, passed a series of resolutions. The chief of these were to purchase nothing of the East India Company, except saltpetre and spices, until their injuries were redressed; to request the members of all corresponding committees to take measures for the appointment of members to a general congress, thus immediately adopting the idea of governor Pownall; that the new members of the assembly (the writs for which were already issuing) should meet at Williamsburg, to elect delegates from that colony to the congress. This done, the members all separated to their own homes, having agreed to solicit the clergy to recommend from their pulpits the general keeping of the fast-day of the 1st of June. This recommendation was adopted by the clergy, and Jefferson says that its effect throughout the colony was electrical.

In the meantime, general Gage landed at Boston on the 13th of May. The Port Bill had preceded him a few days, and the tone of the other colonies rendered the Bostonians firmer in their temper than ever. Gage had married an American lady, and he was received with every show of cordiality and respect by the council, the magistrates, and principal gentlemen. He was invited to a public dinner, and the same evening Hutchinson was burnt in effigy. The next day a meeting was called, which showed what sort of stuff Gage would have to deal with. The resolve of the meeting was to stop all importation and exportation from Great Britain and the West Indies until the Port Act was repealed. The copy of the Port Act was printed with a broad black border, and the document was circulated all over the colonies, with fierce comments, and the denunciation of the act as "a barbarous, cruel, bloody, and inhuman murder." In many places it was burned publicly. At New York, where parties were more equally balanced, threats were used to compel the inhabitants to sympathise with the people of Boston. At Philadelphia, except the Quakers, who chiefly adhered to the government, there was a general agreement to keep the fast, and, under the name of "the Solemn League and Covenant," an association to

A.D. 1774.]

this was sitting, Mr. Samuel Adams, acting in concert with Mr. Warren, employed himself in working up the members of the assembly by what was called a CAUCUS, a word of mighty influence to the present day in America, meaning a private meeting to carry out certain cut-and-dried measures. Samuel Adams was a man who had lost character by having embezzled and applied to his own purposes a large amount of taxes, when collector; but, since these uneasy agitations commenced, he had shown so much talent for managing political movements, that his countrymen were willing to forget the past, and he had been rapidly growing into influence. Adams was so successful, that he had got more than thirty members ready to adopt his plans for raising the

109

the members of the caucus had accomplished their object, and they dispersed in high glee at the carrying through of this not very creditable trick. The five hundred pounds had to be collected; but they found no difficulty in this, the people regarding the resolution as a valid act of assembly.

The citizens of New York favourable to the revolutionary movement entered into active correspondence with the other colonies for the summoning of the congress, and John Jay, one of the earliest and most zealous fathers of the revolution, has had the credit of being the first to suggest a congress, but we have seen that the people of Virginia had already done this, and that governor Pownall, still earlier, had thrown out the idea.

spirit of the colony against the act, the whole of this being kept unknown to the friends of government. The scheme was to vote the appointment of a committee, consisting of Samuel and John Adams, and three others, to meet the other provincial committees at Philadelphia on the 1st of September. On the 17th of June the assembly, therefore, suddenly closed their doors, and proceeded to vote this scheme, and five hundred pounds for the expenses of their delegates. A hint of the procedings, however, being carried to general Gage, he instantly sent his secretary to dissolve them. He found the doors closed, and was refused entrance, whereupon he read the proclamation upon the stairs in the hearing of a number of members who were shut out. But

VOL. V.-No. 218.

On the 1st of June, according to the arrangements of general Gage, as the clock struck twelve, all the public offices were closed, and the whole official business was transferred to Salem. But the wide discontent of the people met him there as much as at Boston. When the assembly met, which was in the following week, such was its spirit that general Gage felt that he must dissolve it again. Instead of the people of Salem rejoicing in the good fortune intended for them, by the transfer of the trade and the expenditure of government money there, they sent up an address, declaring that they should be dead to every idea of justice and feeling of humanity, if they thought of improving their fortunes at the expense of their Boston neighbours.

There were, however, a great many exceptions to the fiery and revolutionary spirit still. An address, signed by one hundred and twenty gentlemen and merchants of Boston, expressed their regret at the lawless violence of their countrymen and townsmen. The justices of the county of Plymouth, met in sessions, declared their deep concern at seeing committees of correspondence, and clergymen, whose office was to preach peace, entering into a league calculated to exasperate the mother country, and to destroy the order of society. There were others amongst the wealthy people of Boston who offered to raise money and pay the East India Company for their teas which had been destroyed; but the multitude were far beyond ideas so honourable, and these attempts at justice and moderation only, like oil flung upon fire, made the conflagration the more furious.

General Gage, seeing the lowering aspect of affairs, took the precaution to throw more troops into the neighbourhood, so that he had some six regiments, with a train of artillery, when he encamped on the common near Boston. Active emissaries were immediately sent amongst these troops, who, by presents of ardent spirits and fine promises, seduced a considerable number from their duty. To prevent this, he stationed a strong guard at Boston Neck, a narrow isthmus connecting the town with the common and open country. On this a vehement cry was raised, that he was going to cut off all communication with the country, blockade the town, and reduce it to submission by famine. The inhabitants of the county of Worcester sent a deputation to inquire Gage's intentions, and they did not omit to hint that, if necessary, they would drive in the guard with arms; and, in fact, besides the arms which most Americans then had, others had been supplied to such as were too poor to purchase them. Gordon, their historian, tells us that the people were preparing to defend their rights by the sword; that they were supplying themselves from Boston with guns, knapsacks, &c. According to the militia law, most men were well furnished with muskets and powder, and were now busily employed in exercising themselves; that all was bustle, casting balls, and making ready for a struggle.

Gage, seeing all this, removed the gunpowder and the military stores from Charleston, Cambridge, and other localities, to his own quarters. This, again, excited a deep rage in the people, who threatened to attack his troops. To prevent this, he went on briskly with his defences on the Neck; but what he did by day the mob endeavoured to undo by night. They set fire to his supplies of straw; they sunk the boats that were bringing bricks, and overturned his wagons conveying timber. Nothing but the greatest patience and forebearance prevented an instant collision.

A meeting of delegates from the towns of the county of Suffolk-of which Boston was the chief-was held in September, which, in spite of the governor's proclamation of its illegality, went on to declare that the acts of the late parliament were not to be obeyed-they were the proceedings of a wicked administration; that no taxes should be paid to government; that all public monies should be retained in the hands of the collectors till congress should direct their appropriation; that the persons who had accepted seats in the assembly by a mandamus from the king had acted in direct violation of the duty they owed to

their country, and that all who did not resign before the 20th of that month should be pronounced incorrigible enemies of their country; that the late act, establishing the Roman catholic religion in Canada, was highly dangerous to the protestant religion, and to the rights and liberties of all America; that all persons were to perfect themselves in the use of arms, to elect only such militia officers as were stanch friends to the rights of the people, and whenever it was rumoured that the governor intended to apprehend sundry persons, it was required that, on such arrests, the people should seize every servant of the government, and only release them on the release of their friends uninjured. They also sent an address to general Gage, protesting against his fortifications, as evidently meant to be employed to the injury of the public; to which the governor replied, that, on the contrary, they were meant for the simple defence of his troops and the preservation of peace, and would not be used at all, except to repel any hostile attempt on their part. Meantime, the members of the council of Massachusetts had been named, according to the late act of parliament, to the number of thirty-six; but of these only twenty-four would take the oaths, and even half of these, terrified by the most deadly menaces, soon resigned. It was the same with the courts of justice; the juries summoned, to a man, refused to serve. Sheriffs, magistrates, clerks, and other officers, were equally deterred from acting; and those who did not coalesce with the people fled into Boston. Such was the state of things in this province; the soldiers were entrenched in their camp; the whole of the judicial and executive life of the colony was suspended, and only a single spark of popular offence needed at any hour to burst into the explosion of civil war.

But the commotion was by no means local. The Virginians, with Jefferson, and Henry, and Randolph at their head, were as busy brewing the tempest. On the 1st of August they held their convention to prepare the instructions for their delegates to the congress. Jefferson drew up a fiery article, denying the right of a hundred and sixty thousand electors in England to make laws for four millions of people in America. The number of Americans was grossly exaggerated by this statement; but the document went on to deny that the king had any right to a yard of land within the province, or to send a single armed man to those shores; that he had no right to lay any tax, or interfere in any manuer with their trade. This was, in fact, a full declaration of independence. But Jefferson, in his zeal, was without the prudence of his more politic contemporaries. Though they thought much as he did, they did not yet want to alienate the opposition in England by avowing their real sentiments. A new set of instructions was therefore drawn up, professing their undiminished loyalty to the crown of England, and their determination to support the king in all his just rights with their lives and fortunes; admitting how deeply indebted the planters were to the merchants of Great Britain, and their desire to maintain the old connection; at the same time. declaring that they were bound to sympathise with and support the people of Massachusetts; and protesting that, if general Gage's proclamation against the Solemn League and Covenant was attempted to be carried out, it would justify