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AFFAIR OF THE SLOOP LIBERTY.

war, lying in the harbour, and the sloop was cut from her fastening, and brought under the guns of the ship. It was to prevent this removal that the mob had collected. Many of the officers were wounded in the scuffle, and the multitude being baffled in their attempts to retain the sloop at the wharf, repaired to the houses of the collector, and other officers of the customs, where they committed acts of violence and injury to their property. This riotous disposition lasting for several days, the commissioners of customs applied for protection to the governor; but he, not being able to protect them, advised them to remove from Boston; they consequently retired first, on board the Romney man-ofwar, and afterwards to Castle William.

The rioters were prosecuted; but the prosecutions could not be successfully carried on, in consequence of the public excitement. About this time, some seamen were impressed in Boston, by order of the officers of the Romney. A town meeting being called, in consequence of this aggression, a petition full of complaints of repeated outrages, and praying for redress, was sent to the governor. The general court of

Massachusetts having been dissolved by governor Bernard, who refused to convene it again without the king's command, a convention was assembled at Boston, composed of delegates from the several towns in the colony, to deliberate on constitutional measures of redress. They disclaimed legislative authority, but petitioned the governor to assemble the general court, professed their loyalty, wrote to the agent of the province in England, stating the character in which they met; and, after recommending patience and order to the people, dissolved the session.

The day before the convention rose, two regiments, which had been detached by general Gage, arrived under convoy at Nantasket road. Next day, the fleet was brought to anchor near Castle William. Having taken a station which commanded the town, the ships having their broadsides towards it, the troops landed to the number of seven hundred men, and marched with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, martial music, and the usual military parade, to the common. In the evening the selectmen of Boston were ordered to quarter the two regiments in the town; but they absolutely refused. A temporary shelter was permitted, however, to one regiment, without its camp equipage, in Fanueil Hall. The next day, the state house was opened

BRITISH TROOPS IN BOSTON.

151

for the soldiers by the order of the governor, and two fieldpieces, with the main guard, were stationed just in its front.

This was regarded by the people as a peculiar outrage. The very temple of liberty was profaned by the presence of armed soldiers. The council chamber having been reserved, the members of that body were compelled to pass guards of soldiery in order to reach their place of meeting. The common was covered with tents. Soldiers were constantly marching through the streets; and sentinels challenged the inhabitants as they passed. The Sabbath was profaned, and the devotion of the sanctuary disturbed by the sound of martial music. The place had all the appearance of a garrison town. The people felt the insult, but were by no means intimidated, and when a requisition was made for barracks for the troops, the council declined to furnish them, lest by so doing they might seem to adopt a measure of submission. In a few weeks a fresh reinforcement of troops arrived, under Colonels Mackay and Pomeroy.

Parliament, meantime, resolved to persevere in the system of coercion, and united in an address to the king expressing their satisfaction at the measures which he had pursued, giving assurance of their support, and beseeching him to direct the governor of Massachusetts to institute an inquiry into all acts of treason committed in that colony since 1767, and to send the offenders to England for trial.

Nothing could have been done more effectually to irritate the people than this resolution. The general court of Massachusetts was not in session when it reached America; but the house of burgesses of Virginia passed resolutions, asserting the exclusive right of taxing the colony and the right of trial by jury in the vicinage; and ordered their speaker to transmit copies of the resolutions to the other colonies. An address to the king, of the usual tenor, was also voted. The governor, on learning the character of these proceedings, dissolved the assembly. This measure only inflamed the spirit of opposition; the assembly was immediately convened, at a private house, and unanimously resolved on agreements not to import British goods, similar to those which had been entered into at the north.

The general court of Massachusetts was convened on the 30th of May, 1769; and, after some altercation with the governor, concerning the subjects of legislation, it was removed to Cambridge. On the 6th of July, the governor made a re

quisition for funds to defray the expenses of the troops in Boston, which was decisively refused; and resolutions were passed at the same time, recommending assemblies of the people in the several towns, to petition for redress of grievances and declaration of rights. The governor then prorogued the general court, to meet at Boston, on the 10th of January.

On the first of August, governor Bernard was recalled, leaving the administration of the province in the hands of lieutenant governor Hutchinson. The people, on his departure, manifested their joy by ringing the bells, firing guns, covering their liberty tree with flags, and kindling a great bonfire on Fort Hill.

In 1770, Lord North was appointed prime minister. His first measure was partly conciliatory; it was a repeal of the port duties; but with the exception of the duty on tea. This left the assertion of the right of taxation in full force; and of course was wholly unsatisfactory to the colonists.

The presence of the military in Boston too, still served to keep alive the animosity of the people, who were constantly brought into unpleasant collision with these unwelcome and uninvited guests. On the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, an affray took place in King-street, now called State-street, in which a small detachment of soldiers, under the command of Captain Preston, after being assaulted with snow balls and other missiles, and one of them struck with a club, fired upon the populace, killing three men, mortally wounding two, and slightly wounding several others.

The drums were instantly heard beating to arms; thousands of the people assembled, and seeing the dead bodies of their fellow citizens who had fallen in the cause of liberty, they resolved on a general attack upon the soldiery. The lieutenant governor being sent for, addressed the people from the balcony of the state house, and at length prevailed upon them peaceably to disperse. The next day, Captain Preston and his party of soldiers were committed to prison, to await the course of law; and the troops were all withdrawn from the town to Castle William.

Those who had fallen in this affair, were honoured with a public funeral of great pomp and solemnity. The shops were closed; the bells of Boston and the neighbouring towns were tolled; and an immense number of citizens followed the first martyrs of the opening revolution to their final resting place.

AFFAIR OF THE SCHOONER GASPEE.

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Captain Preston and his soldiers were brought to trial some time after. Six weeks were spent in examining witnesses and hearing counsel; and John Adams and Josiah Quincy, who were distinguished leaders of the popular party, exerted themselves with great ability in defence of the accused. The captain and six of the men were acquitted; and two were found guilty of man-slaughter. This result was highly honourable to the distinguished counsel and to the impartial tribunal of the colony.

The occurrences of 1771, were not important. Hutchinson, the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, was appointed governor; and used his prerogative of adjourning the general court from Boston to Cambridge and Salem, in spite of the remonstrances of the members.

In 1772, a bold act of hostility was committed in Rhode Island, which greatly exasperated the British ministry. Lieutenant Doddington, who commanded the revenue schooner Gaspee, had become very obnoxious to the people of that colony, by his extraordinary zeal in the execution of the revenue laws. On the 9th of June, the Providence packet was sailing into the harbour of Newport, and Lieutenant Doddington thought proper to require the captain to lower his colours. This being refused, as degrading, the Gaspee fired at the packet, to bring her to: the American captain, however, still holding his course and keeping in shoal water, contrived to run the schooner aground in the chase. As the tide was ebbing, the Gaspee was set fast for the night, during which, a number of fishermen, aided by some of the most respectable inhabitants of Providence, manned some boats and boarded the Gaspee. The lieutenant was wounded in the affray; but, with everything belonging to him, he, with his crew, was carefully conveyed on shore. The vessel, with her stores, was then burned, and the party returned home. A reward of five hundred pounds, offered by the governor, and every exertion to discover the perpetrators of this bold action, were ineffectual. The people were banded together by a principle of resistance to tyranny which neither threats nor promises could shake.

Committees of correspondence were this year organised in the several towns of Massachusetts, for the purpose of securing concert of action, in their measures of opposition, and, in 1773, at the suggestion of the house of burgesses of Virginia, standing committees were appointed by the different

154

LORD DARTMOUTH SECRETARY.

colonial assemblies; and by this means a confidential communication and interchange of opinions was kept up between the colonies.

Lord Dartmouth, who was supposed to entertain favourable views towards the colonists, having succeeded Lord Hillsborough, as secretary of state for the colonies, the legislature of Massachusetts addressed a letter to him, expressing a desire for complete reconciliation. This, however, was ineffectual. Neither the British cabinet, nor the nation, was disposed to recede from the ground they had taken.

About this time, a discovery was made, which caused a great deal of excitement in New England. Doctor Franklin, the agent of Massachusetts in England, obtained possession of the letters which had been addressed by governor Hutchinson and lieutenant governor Oliver, to the department of state, and sent them to the general court. They were evidently designed to induce the ministry to persist in their obnoxious measures. They represented the patriots as a mere faction who were not countenanced by the mass of the people, and who were emboldened by the weakness of the means used to restrain them. More vigorous measures were recommended; and, among the rest, a plan for altering the charters of the colonies, and making the high officers dependent solely on the crown for their salaries.

The assembly passed a vote of censure on the writers of these letters; and petitioned the king to remove them for ever from the government of the colony. This petition was disapproved; but Hutchinson was soon after removed and General Gage appointed to succeed him.

The effect of this disclosure of the treachery of Hutchinson and Oliver was electrifying. The passions of the people were inflamed by it to the highest pitch; and their expectation of a better understanding with the government, was greatly diminished by the conviction that traitors among them were engaged in misrepresenting the state of the country and their own dispositions to the ministry.

The duties on other importations excepting tea, had been removed; and an alteration, corresponding to this change, had been made by the colonists in their non-importation agreements. Tea, therefore, remained the only prohibited article. Great quantities of it had accumulated in the warehouses of the East India Company; and, as none was ordered by the colonial merchants, it was determined to send it over