Slike strani
PDF
ePub

dress of thanks should be presented to the king, assuring his majesty that they would not fail to exert every means in their power of effectually providing for the due execution of the laws, and securing the dependence of the colonies upon the crown and Parliament of Great Britain." On the 14th of March, a bill was introduced "for the immediate removal of the officers concerned in the collection of his majesty's customs from the town of Boston, and to discontinue the landing and discharging, lading and shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the said town, or within the harbor thereof."

The proposal of Lord North encountered but little opposition. The warmest advocates of the colonies were unable to justify the daring conduct of the Bostonians in destroying the tea, and even Barré and Conway were in favor of passing the bill. On its final reading, it was opposed by Burke, but it passed nevertheless with very few negatives. A few of the peers protested against the measure, but the House of Lords voted its adoption immediately, and on the 31st of March it received the royal assent. Another bill was soon after proposed by the irate minister. It was It was entitled "for better regulating the government of Massachusetts Bay;" but it was equivalent to a complete abrogation of the charter. By this bill, the royal governor was empowered to appoint all the civil authorities whatever, who were also to have the nomination of juries, functions hitherto vested in the people themselves; and as their town meetings had proved the nursery

1774.

of opposition to government, they were now entirely prohibited, except for the purpose of electing representatives. A third bill, ostensibly designed "for the more impartial administration of justice," provided-in view of such cases as that of Captain Preston--that "any person indicted for murder, or any other capital offence, committed in aiding the magistracy, the governor might send the person so indicted to another colony, or to Great Britain, for trial.” These bills were opposed by Barré, Conway, Johnstone, Burke, Fox, and others. Barré, with his usual directness and force, speaking of the third bill, said to the members of the House, "You may think, that a law founded on this motion will be a protection to the soldier who imbrues his hand in the blood of his fellow subjects. I am mistaken if it will. Who is to execute it? He must be a bold man indeed who will make the attempt. If the people are so exasperated that it is unsafe to bring the man who has injured them to trial, let the governor who withdraws him from justice look to himself. The people will not endure it; they would no longer deserve the reputation of being descended from the loins of Englishmen if they did endure it. You have changed your ground. You are becoming the aggressors, and offering the last of human outrages to the people of America, by submitting them to military execution. Instead of sending them the olive branch, you have sent the naked sword. By the olive branch, I mean a repeal of all the late laws, fruitless to you, and oppressive to them. Ask their aid in a constitutional manner,

CH. XII.]

COERCIVE MEASURES RESOLVED UPON.

and they will give it to the utmost of their ability. Your journals bear the recorded acknowledgments of the zeal with which they have contributed to the general necessities of the state. What madness is it that prompts you to attempt obtaining that by force which you may more certainly obtain by requisition? They may be flattered into any thing, but they are too much like yourselves to be driven. Respect their sturdy English virtue: retract your odious exertions of authority; and remember that the first step towards making them contribute to your wants is to reconcile them to your government." Despite all opposition, the bill passed by a majority of four to one.

A fourth bill, for quartering troops in America, being the former act revised, was shortly added to the others; on which occasion Lord Chatham, who, owing to his declining health could take but a small part in the debates, opposed the ministerial policy with his usual animation. "I condemn," he said, "in the severest manner, the turbulent and unwarrantable conduct of the Americans in some instances, particularly in the late riots at Boston; but, my Lords, the mode which has been pursued to bring them back to a sense of their duty is so diametrically opposed to every principle of sound policy, as to excite my utmost astonishment. You have inYou have involved the guilty and the innocent in one common punishment, and avenge the crime of a few lawless depredators upon the whole body of the inhabitants. My Lords, it has always been my fixed and unalterable opinion, I will carry it with me to the grave, that this country

311

has no right under heaven to tax America. It is contrary to all the principles of justice and civil policy, it is contrary to that essential, unalterable right ingrafted into the British constitution as a fundamental law, that what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but which cannot be taken away from him without his consent." Burke also raised his eloquent voice againt the ministerial measures; but all opposition was vain. The supporters of the ministry were in so large a majority that they carried every thing before them.

A fifth act, known as the Quebec Act, was designed to conciliate the Canadians in case the colonies should venture to proceed to extremities. This act wisely placed the Roman Catholics and Protestants on an equality, confirmed to the Roman Catholic clergy their extensive landed property, allowed the administration of justice to be carried on by the old French law, created a legislative council to be named by the crown, and enlarged the boundaries of the province southward as far as the Ohio. It was owing to these judicious measures, probably, that the Canadians declined taking part subsequently in the open resistance which the other colonies organized against England.

General Gage, in addition to his being commander-in-chief of the royal forces, was appointed governor of Massachusetts in the place of Hutchinson, an appointment which seemed to show that the ministry were prepared to use force if necessary. Gage arrived in Boston, May 13th, and 1774. although the news of the closing of the

[ocr errors]

port had reached the town some days before, and although the feelings of the people were highly excited by that measure, there was no want of proper respect towards the new governor. He was received with all the distinction due to his rank and character. But it soon became evident, that neither the extensive powers committed to him, nor the array of military force by which he was supported, operated in the slightest degree to intimidate the people. Hutchinson, before his departure, having dissolved the General Court, a town meeting was held in Boston the day after Gage's arrival. It was numerously attended, and the subject of the port bill was fully considered. "The impolicy, injustice, inhumanity, and cruelty of the act," such was their earnest language "exceed all our powers of expression; and, therefore, we leave it to the censure of others, and appeal to God and the world." They also declared it as their opinion, that, "if the other colonies come into a joint resolution to stop all importations from, and exportation to, Great Britain, and every part of the West Indies, till the act be repealed, the same would prove the salvation the salvation of North America and her liberties." Josiah Quincy, too, in his celebrated "Observations on the Boston Port Bill," issued at this very time, burst forth in fervid tones of remonstrance:"Whence arose this extraordinary stride of legislation? What is it that the town of Boston hath done? What new and unheard of crime have the inhabitants committed, to justify the enacting of Buch disabilities, forfeitures, pains and

penalties? Punishments that descend indiscriminately on all, ought to have the sanction of unerring wisdom and almighty power, or it will be questioned, if not opposed. The present vengeance falls indiscriminately on the acknowledged innocent, as well as the supposed guilty. Surely, the evil is of a very malignant and terrible nature that can require such an extraordinary remedy. Admit for a moment, that the inhabitants of Boston were charged as high criminals; the highest criminals are not punishable till arraigned before disinterested judges, heard in defence, and found guilty of the charge. But so far from all this, a whole people are accused; prosecuted by, they know not whom; tried, they know not when; proved guilty, they know not how; and sentenced in a mode which, for number of calamities, extent and duration of severity, exceeds the annals of past ages, and we presume, in pity to mankind, will not mark any future era in the world."*

It may well be believed that this was a trying moment to the patriots of Boston. Would they who had taken the first resolute step in the struggle, be left to maintain it single-handed, or would their countrymen come forward to strengthen their resistance and mitigate the sufferings they were called upon to endure? Every means was immediately taken to obtain the sympathy of their fellow colonists. The bill, printed on

[blocks in formation]

66

SPIRITED ACTION OF THE HOUSE OF BURGESSES.

CH. XII.] black-edged paper, adorned with death's head and cross-bones, was hawked about, coupled with the epithets of cruel, barbarous, bloody, and inhuman murder,” and solemnly burned by the assembled populace. Agents were sent to the other colonies to engage them in the common cause. Numbers of the clergy, from their pulpits, animated the people to resistance, while the press teemed with the most moving and vigorous appeals to their feelings. The news of the injury inflicted on Boston, produced throughout the colonies a general and spontaneous feeling of indignation.

The House of Burgesses in Virginia, was in session when the bill for closing the port of Boston arrived. They immediately proceeded to pass the following order, May 24th, 1774: "This House being deeply impressed with apprehension of the great dangers to be derived to British America, from the hostile invasion of the city of Boston, in our sister colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbor are, on the first day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June next be set apart by the members of this House, as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition for averting the heavy calamity ́ which threatens destruction to our civil rights, and the evils of civil war; to give us one heart and one mind, firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American rights; and that the minds of his Majesty and his Parliament may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice,

VOL. I.-42

313

to remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger, from a continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin. Ordered, therefore, That the members of this house do attend in their places, at the hour of ten in the forenoon, on the said first day of June next, in order to proceed with the speaker and the mace to the church in this city, for the purposes aforesaid; and that the Rev. Mr. Price be appointed to read prayers, and to preach a sermon suitable to the occasion." For this independent conduct the House was dissolved the next day by Lord Dunmore, the governor. The members thereupon withdrew to a convenient place in the vicinity, formed themselves into a vigilance committee, and adopted a spirited declaration of their views, in which a GENERAL CONGRESS was strongly urged.* Washington was at his post as a member of the House, and took his full share in its patriotic proceedings. He was no idle spectator of the progress of events. Although on intimate terms with Lord Dunmore, the governor, his whole soul was deeply interested in the momentous questions at issue, and he was prepared to go the full length with his countrymen in resisting the tyrannous course of Parliament. "For my own part," he says, in one of his letters, "I shall not undertake to say where the line between Great Britain and the colonies should be drawn, but I am clearly of opinion that one ought to be drawn, and our rights clearly ascertained. I could wish, I own, that the dispute had

* See Appendix I., at the end of the present chapter.

been left for posterity to determine, but the crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition that can be heaped upon us, till custom shall make us tame and abject slaves." Delegates from the several counties assembled at Williamsburgh, on the 1st of August. They were six days in session, and appointed Washington, Randolph, Henry, and others, as delegates to represent Virginia in the General Congress.

Strong expressions of determined opposition to the port bill, and assurances of support to the disfranchised citizens of Boston, were made wherever the act became known. At New York there was a considerable struggle between the friends of the administration and the friends of liberty, but the latter at length prevailed by the influence and management of those patriotic individuals, who had on several occasions manifested great activity and zeal in their opposition to the obnoxious measures of the ministry. Addresses were also sent from Connecticut, Pennsyl vania, the Carolinas, and other colonies, to the committee in Boston, assuring them of support, and declaring that they considered the cause of Boston as the common cause of the country.*

[blocks in formation]

*

1774.

The General Court met, May 25th, not without heavy foreboding as to what was before them. General Gage's first official act did not tend to remove their apprehensions, for he went to the very extent of his authority under the charter, in rejecting thirteen out of the twenty-eight elected counsellors. But the Representatives of the people did not lose heart: they persevered in the work which they had in hand. The governor adjourned the court to Salem, an offensive act on his part; but the members remained steadfast to their purpose. They adopted

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

By a district-meeting at Wilmington, N. C.,

[ocr errors]

July 21. "A comparison of these dates will at once show how strong was the instinct of union, which, at this period, pervaded the country, and how prompt the colonies were in adopting that principle of combination which served as the direct antagonist to the policy of the British ministry, designed as it was, by confining its obnoxious measures to one colony, to diminish the probability of a united resistance. In looking to these dates, it should also be remembered that the colonial action, in some instances, was independent of that of an earlier date in other colonies. In Virginia, the recommendation of a Congress was adopted two days before the intelligence was received of a similar measure, several days earlier, both in Philadelphia and in New York.”

« PrejšnjaNaprej »