"seeing their error? Is this, Sir, reforming? Is this making restitution to the East India Company? Surely no gentleman will after this urge anything in their "defence!"* 66 Large as was the number of Bills produced in this Session of Parliament, it was by no means solely on them that Lord North relied. He believed, though erroneously, yet no doubt honestly and truly, that these Bills would avert an appeal to arms, but he felt the necessity of being prepared for either alternative. With that view he recalled Governor Hutchinson from Boston, and sent in his place a veteran of tried conduct, and high in command of the troops, General Gage. Hutchinson on his arrival in England was admitted to an audience of His Majesty, and tended much by his representations to confirm the Government in the hopes which they had formed. General Gage in like manner before his departure assured the King that the Americans would be lions only so long as the English were lambs.† It is indeed a matter of just regret, and deserving to be ranked among the main causes of the schism in our empire which so soon afterwards ensued, that there was then a general tendency at home to undervalue and contemn the people of the Colonies. They, and more especially the natives of New England, were often called by the name of YANKEES, which had grown to be in some measure a term of reproach, although in its origin probably no more than the corruption by the native Indians of the words ENGLISH or ANGLOIS. It must be owned that the public in England were not so much to be blamed for their unfavourable judgment, but rather such men as Hutchinson and Gage, who, having the best means of information, and being Americans by birth or kindred, might well be trusted and believed. To such an extent did these disparaging reflections proceed that a doubt was even uttered whether the Americans possessed the same natural courage as the English. In the course of the ensuing year a Minister of the Crown, the * Debate in the House of Commons, April 21. 1774. †The King to Lord North, Feb. 4. and July 1. 1774. Appendix to this volume. Earl of Sandwich, when speaking in the House of Lords, and Colonel Grant, an officer in the King's service, when speaking in the House of Commons, were so grossly imprudent and ill-judging as to refer to their countrymen over the Atlantic as arrant cowards.* Such words could not fail to sink deep in the minds of the Americans, especially of those who had borne arms. Just after the first blow had been struck Washington referred to them with a feeling of just resentment, though, as usual with him, in a tone of dignified forbearance. This," says he, may serve to convince Lord Sandwich and others of the 66 same sentiment that the Americans will fight for their "liberties and property, however pusillanimous in his Lordship's eyes they may appear in other respects." † 66 66 Had the Boston Port Bill stood alone, unaccompanied by any other legislation, it seems possible that the Americans of the other Colonies seeing the wrong which Boston had committed, and acknowledging the claim to some compensation for it, might, though not wholly approving, yet have acquiesced. But the proposal and still more the passing of the next measure the Massachusetts Government Bill-made them feel their own liberty in danger. If one Charter might be cancelled so might all; if the rights of any one Colony might hang suspended on the votes of an exasperated majority in England, could any other deem itself secure? Under these impressions they resolved at all hazards to make common cause with Massachusetts. The Royalists, now and henceforth called by their countrymen "the Tories," even in their strongholds, as at New York, found themselves outnumbered. The men hitherto most moderate and calm on the popular side, as Colonel Washington, could forbear no longer. They might feel themselves the more inspirited at finding their principles approved and their oppression acknowledged by a powerful party in Great Britain. Eloquent voices had been raised in their behalf. Burke upon a motion to repeal the Tea Duty (a motion certainly not well timed, and which accordingly numbered only fortynine supporters,) had made one of the most admired of *Parl. Hist. vol. xviii. p. 226. and 446. Lord his speeches; the first reported by himself. Chatham towards the close of the Session had twice spoken against the American policy of Ministers; and his lofty tones had reverberated over the Atlantic. And if among the Americans there were any more eager or less scrupulous than the rest who already looked towards France as a future source of succour, they must have hailed as an event auspicious to them the death of Louis the Fifteenth. That monarch had expired at Versailles on the 10th of May, a victim to his own debaucheries. His grandson and successor, Louis the Sixteenth, was a prince of timid and irresolute temper, but of excellent intentions, and blameless in his private life. He had hastened to dismiss the profligate Court and no less profligate Council by which his grandsire had been governed; and although the Ministers whom he first selected might not be any more than himself men of high ability, at least they were not like the former ones debarred by ignominy at home from influence abroad. Henceforth it was plain that France would not be a powerless, nor probably an unconcerned, spectator of whatever pretensions might be started, or whatever conflicts might be waged, by foreign states. Virginia was one of the earliest Colonies to stir in support of Boston. There the vanguard of the extreme popular party was headed as before by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson; the latter of whom inditing his own Memoirs more than forty years afterwards has left a curious and authentic account of their proceedings at this time. "What we did," says he, "was with the help "of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the Re"volutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of "that day." ""* Nor did they search in vain that ample storehouse of weapons against the Crown. Adopting one of its Revolutionary precedents, and altering only a few of its antiquated phrases, they drew up a Resolution that the 1st of June, on which day the Boston Port Bill was to come into effect, should be set apart for fasting, humiliation, and prayer, to implore the Divine interposition * Memoirs and Correspondence of Jefferson, edited by Randolph, vol. i. p. 6. ed. 1829. for averting the evils of civil war, and to give one heart and one mind to the people in defence of their just rights. But since the character of the gentlemen who drew up these words was far from being so grave or so religious as to give any weight to that Resolution in their hands, they prevailed on a venerable elder, Mr. Nicholas, to propose it in his own name. Accordingly when proposed by Mr. Nicholas the appointment of the 1st of June as a day of fasting and prayer passed without opposition. Such a vote without the Governor's sanction was deemed a daring inroad on his authority. The Earl of Dunmore, who at that period filled the office, on the very next day and in much wrath dissolved the Assembly. But a large majority of the members, nothing daunted, repaired to the Raleigh Tavern; and in their favourite Apollo chamber signed Articles of Association pledging themselves against the purchase of British merchandise, and desiring their Committee of Correspondence to communiIcate with the Committees of the other Colonies on the expediency of appointing delegates to meet not merely on this occasion but every year in General Congress. Nearly the same feeling was displayed in the other Colonies. The Boston Port Bill was commonly printed with a black border round it, as though it contained funeral news; and it was cried in the streets of many towns under the title of "A barbarous, cruel, bloody, and “inhuman murder." At Philadelphia the Quakers were beginning to deem it inconsistent with their principles to strive any further against the Government; but the rest of the inhabitants agreed to suspend all business on the 1st of June. In most places the Virginia Resolution was adopted, and the day was set aside for fasting and prayer. To relieve the people of Boston under the impending loss of their trade subscriptions of money were announced; and by means of the Corresponding Committees there was set on foot a combination under the ominous name of the "Solemn League and Covenant" neither to purchase nor consume any more goods from Great Britain until their grievances should be redressed. At Boston itself on the morning of the 1st of June all eyes were anxiously turned to the town-clock which had no sooner struck twelve than the custom-house was closed and all legal business was suspended. The revenueofficers were removed to Salem, where the Assembly had already been convened for the week ensuing. But General Gage in the execution of his appointed duty found almost insuperable difficulties from the resolute and wide-spread resentment of the people. When the Assembly did meet according to his order it displayed such a spirit as in his opinion to require its immediate Dissolution. He received an adverse Address even from the merchants and freeholders of Salem, commiserating the fate of Boston, and declining to raise their fortunes on the ruin of their neighbours. Other Resolutions betokening in their terms no slight ferment of the public mind were passed at various meetings of the towns and counties. But far beyond them all in vehemence were the Resolutions of the delegates from the towns in the county of Suffolk, of which towns Boston was the chief. These purported: that no obedience was due to the late Acts of Parliament; that no taxes should be paid to Government; that the persons who had accepted seats in the Council by nomination from the King had acted in direct violation of their public duty; that the late Act establishing the Roman Catholic religion in Canada was dangerous in an extreme degree to the Protestant Religion, and to the rights and liberties of all America; that the inhabitants of the towns should use their utmost diligence to acquaint themselves with the art of war, and for that purpose should appear under arms at least once in every week. According to the terms of the recent Act of Parliament thirty-six persons had been named by the Crown as members of the Council for this province, but only twenty-four would consent to take the oaths, and of these one half under the dread of personal violence speedily resigned. The superior Court of Justice met in due form at Boston with the Chief Justice at its head, but the juries to a man refused to serve. Throughout the Colony the sheriffs, magistrates, and clerks either made their peace with the people by solemnly promising not to act under the new law, or else fled for shelter to the wellguarded town of Boston. That town indeed appeared |