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.

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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

DESTRUCTION OF TEA AT BOSTON.

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on consignment. The company were allowed to export it from England free of duty, so that, although the obnoxious duty on its importation into the colonies still remained, it was offered at lower prices than in former times. Confident of finding a market, at these reduced prices, the company sent large cargoes to New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Boston. The inhabitants of New York and Philadelphia sent the ships back to London, 'and they sailed up the Thames, to proclaim to all the nation, that New York and Pennsylvania would not be enslaved.' The people of Charleston unloaded the tea, and stored it in cellars, where it perished.

The Boston people disposed of the article in a more summary way. Before the vessels arrived with it, a town meeting was held to devise measures for preventing the landing and sale of the tea. The agreement not to use it was renewed; and a committee was chosen to request the consignees not to unlade or sell it. They referred the matter to the merchants who were to take charge of it; but received for answer, that they could make no promises, because they had received no orders on the subject. When the tea arrived, another meeting was called, 'to make a united and successful resistance to this last and worst measure of the administration.' People came in from the adjoining towns in such numbers, that it was found necessary to adjourn the meeting from Fanueil Hall to a large church. Here it was voted to use all lawful means to prevent the landing of the tea, and to procure its return to England. After several days spent in negotiations, the consignees refusing to return it, and the governor to order a pass to be given for the vessels to sail, a number of men, disguised as Mohawk Indians, proceeded to the vessels lying at the wharf with the tea on board, raised the hatches, took out the chests, and after breaking them open, quietly emptied their whole contents into the dock. The number of men concerned in this business was about fifty; but for many years afterwards it was not known who they were. This was the most cool and determined defiance of the government which had yet been hazarded. The crisis which it tended to bring about appears to have been apprehended, and was deliberately met. Josiah Quincy jun., a leading statesman of the time, warned the citizens, in town meeting, 'that the spirit then displayed and the sentiments then avowed should be such as they should be ready to approve and maintain at any future day. For to retreat from the ground they should then take,

would bring disgrace on themselves, and ruin on the country.' He by no means overrated the importance of the position at that time assumed.

The intelligence of this proceeding excited a great sensation in England. It was communicated to parliament, in a message from the crown; and excited strong indignation against the colonies. Both houses expressed their approbation of the king's measures, and promised their support in maintaining his authority. A bill was brought in for discontinuing the lading and shipping of goods, wares and merchandise at Boston or the harbour thereof, and for the removal of the custom house, with its dependencies, to the town of Salem. This bill was to continue in force, not only until compensation should be made to the East India company for the damage sustained, but until the king should declare himself satisfied, as to the restoration of peace and good order in Boston. It passed almost without opposition.

This was followed by another bill, subverting the charter of Massachusetts, and vesting in the crown, the appointment of the counsellors, magistrates and other officers of the colony, to hold office during the king's pleasure.

Next, followed a bill for transporting persons accused of sedition, treason, &c., to some other colony or to England for trial. After this, came the 'Quebec Bill,' extending the territory of Canada so as to include Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, and vesting the government of that province in a legislative council appointed by the crown.

The measures of hostility towards Massachusetts were intended to break the union of the colonies, and detach the others from her. But it had a directly opposite effect. The other colonies were unanimously determined not to desert their champion in the hour of peril; and the union was firmly cemented by the very measures intended to effect its dissolution.

When the intelligence of the Boston Port Bill reached that place, a town meeting was called, in which the unconquerable spirit of the inhabitants was clearly manifested. They passed resolutions expressing their opinion of the impolicy, injustice and inhumanity of the act, from which they appealed to God and to the world; and inviting the other colonies to join them in an agreement to stop all imports and exports to and from Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, until the act should be repealed.

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The same spirit was manifested throughout the country. Addresses were sent to the Bostonians from every part of the country, expressing sympathy in their afflictions, exhorting them to persevere in their course, and assuring them, that they were regarded as suffering in the common cause. A day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation, was appointed in all the colonies, and a general congress of deputies from each was proposed. About the same time, General Gage arrived in Boston to assume the government of the province.

The general court, convened by the governor at Salem, appointed delegates for the congress; and the other colonies followed their example. The legislature of Massachusetts also passed resolutions, recommending to the people to renounce the consumption of tea and all kinds of British goods until the grievances of the colonies should be redressed. The governor, learning how the house was employed, sent his secretary to dissolve the assembly; but he was refused admittance, and read the order of dissolution aloud on the staircase. Next day the people of Salem sent an address to the governor, spurning the offers of advantages made to them at the expense of Boston.

Rough drafts of the law, subverting the charter of Massachusetts, were now received; and by way of reply the committee of correspondence in Boston framed an agreement, entitled 'a solemn league and covenant,' to suspend all commercial intercourse with Great Britain and all consumption of its products, until the obnoxious laws should be repealed; and threatening to publish the names of all who refused to conform to this agreement.

General Gage issued a proclamation denouncing this act, and threatening punishment; but his threats were utterly disregarded.

On the 4th of September, 1774, the continental congress assembled at Philadelphia. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was chosen president, and Charles Thompson secretary. It was then determined that each colony should have one vote; and that their proceedings, except such as they might determine to publish, should be kept secret.

Resolutions were passed approving the conduct of the people of Massachusetts in resisting the encroachments of arbitrary power, and trusting that the effect of the united efforts of North America in their behalf, will carry such conviction to the British nation, of the unwise, unjust, and ruin

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