Stmmcan J>tateuien SAMUEL ADAMS BY JAMES K. HOSMER PROFESSOR IN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ST. LOUIS, MO. BOSTON HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street fe#& ^amnribge 1885 Copyright, 1885, BY JAMES K. HOSMER. iz & ^<Z/ reserued. JVs*, Cambridge: Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. To MRS. MARY HEMENWAY, CTfjt s 33ooR, UNDERTAKEN AT HEE SUGGESTION, AND MADE POSSIBLE BY HZS KINDNESS, IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, The old Teutonic Assembly rose again to full life in the New England town-meeting. Freeman. Samuel Adams, the helmsman of the Revolution at its origin, the truest representative of the home rule of Massachusetts in its town-meetings and General Court. Bancroft. A man whom Plutarch, if he had only lived late enough, would have delighted to include in his gallery of worthies, a man uho in the history of the American Revolution is second only to Wash ington, Samuel Adams. John Fiske. PEEFAOE. A LIFE of Samuel Adams from beyond the Mississippi ! Of all the worthies of Boston is there one more thoroughly Bostonian, and is it not impertinence, bordering upon profanity, for the wild West to lay hold of his name and fame ? The writer of this book believes that his pages will exhibit in Samuel Adams a significance by no means circumscribed within narrow limits. The story of his career can as appropriately claim the attention of the West yea, of the North and South as of the East. But if it should be thought that only New England hands can touch, without sacrilege, so sacred an ark, it may be urged that the members of that larger New England, which has forsaken the ungenerous granite of the old home for the fatter prairies and uplands of the interior, re main, nevertheless, true Yankees, and have bar tered away no particle of their birthright for the more abundant pottage ; they will by no means consent to resign any portion of their vill PREFACE. interest in the gods, altars, and heroes of their race. If a personal reference may be pardoned, the writer can claim that it has come down in his blood to have to do with Samuel Adams. His great-great-grandfather, a colonel of the Old French War, was sent, in the pre-revolutionary days, by the town of Concord to the Massachu setts Assembly, and was one of Sam Adams s faithful supporters in the long struggle when at length Bernard and Hutchinson were foiled and driven out. In the post-revolutionary days the writer s great-grandfather, a former captain of minute-men, sat for Concord for some years in the Massachusetts Senate, under the sway of Samuel Adams as presiding officer. When, on the fateful April morning, Gage sent out the regulars to seize Sam Adams and John Han cock, proscribed and in hiding at Lexington, the ancient colonel and the captain of minute- men, leaving at their homesteads the provincial powder and cannon-balls concealed in the barns and wells, had a main hand in organizing and carrying through, at the north bridge in Con- -cord, the diversion which enabled Sam Adams -to escape, unmolested, to the Congress at Phila delphia. The writer s grandfather, in the next generation again, just arrived at musket-bearing age in the hard time of Shays s Rebellion, sus- PREFACE. ix tained Governor Bowdoin and the cause of law and order, among the rank and file, as did the aged Samuel Adams in a higher sphere. Of all the " embattled farmers " who stood in arms at Concord bridge on the day when the arch-rebel eluded the clutch of King George, the captain of the minute-men, it is said, is the only one whose portrait has been transmitted to our time. That portrait has hung upon the wall of the writer s study while he has been busy with this book ; and it has required no great stretch of imagination sometimes, among the uncertain shadows of midnight, to think that the face of the old " Revolutioner " grew genial and sympathetic, as his great-grandson tried to tell the story of the " Chief of the Revolu tion." Though writing, for the most part, in St. Louis, the author has traveled far to study authorities. Whatever the Boston collections possess, manuscripts, old newspapers, pam phlets, books, has been freely opened to him, and examined by him. His greatest oppor tunity, however, was offered to him at Wash ington, by the kindness of Honorable George Bancroft. Mr. Bancroft holds in his possession most of the manuscripts of Samuel Adams yet extant, together with a large number of auto graph letters written to Mr. Adams throughout X PREFACE. his long life by conspicuous men of the Revolu tionary period. These original papers, a col lection of the greatest value and interest, the writer has been permitted, by the politeness of Mr. Bancroft, to use with entire freedom. This politeness the writer desires most gratefully to acknowledge. Much help has been derived from the " Life of Samuel Adams," by William V. Wells, his great-grandson, whose three large octavos give evidence of much painstaking, and are full of interesting materials. The writer of the pres ent biography has had no thought of super seding the important work of Mr. Wells, which must be consulted by all who desire a minute knowledge of Mr. Adams s character and career. The volumes of Mr. Wells have an especial value on account of the large number of ex tracts from the writings of Samuel Adams which they contain. To some extent the cita tions in the present work have been taken from these ; in great part, however, they have been selected from old legislative reports and news papers, and also from imprinted records, drafts, and letters. The filial piety of Mr. Wells is much too exemplary ; the career of his ancestor throughout he regards with an admiration quite too indiscriminate. Nor is his tone as regards the unfortunate men, against whom Samuel PREFACE. XI Adams fought his battle, that which candid historians of the Revolution will hereafter em ploy. The present book aims to give, in smaller compass, what is most important in Mr. Adams s career, and to estimate more fairly his charac ter and that of his opponents. JAMES K. HOSMER. ST. Louis, March 24, 1885. COISTTElSTTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE THE YOUTH AND HIS SUKROUNDINGS . ..... 1 CHAPTER II. THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE 21 CHAPTER III. THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE 33 CHAPTER IV. IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY 46 CHAPTER V. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION AND THE MASSA CHUSETTS RESOLVES . . . . 62 CHAPTER VI. ! THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND ...... 78 CHAPTER VII. THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA ...... 90 CHAPTER VIII. THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS .... 109 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. PAGE THE RECALL OF BERNARD 126 CHAPTER X. THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS 145 CHAPTER XI. THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS 160 CHAPTER XII. THE CONTROVERSY AS TO ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS . . 183 CHAPTER XIII. THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE 196 CHAPTER XIV. THE CONTROVERSY AS TO PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY 207 CHAPTER XV. THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS 220 CHAPTER XVI. THE TEA-PARTY 243 CHAPTER XVII. HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES 257 CHAPTER XVIII. PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS .... 289 CHAPTER XIX. LEXINGTON . . . 313 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XX. PAGE THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 332 CHAPTER XXI. CHARACTER AND SERVICE OF SAMUEL ADAMS . . . 351 CHAPTER XXII. CLOSING YEARS 376 CHAPTER XXIII. THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY . . 418 INDEX . , 433 SAMUEL ADAMS. CHAPTER I. THE YOUTH AND HIS SUEBOUNDIKGS. THE Folk-mote, the fixed, frequent, accessi ble meeting of the individual freemen for dis cussing and deciding upon public matters, had great importance in the polity of the primeval Teutons, and was transmitted by them to their English descendants. All thoughtful political writers have held it to be one of the best schools for forming the faculties of men ; it must underlie every representative system in order to make that system properly effective. The ancient folk-mote, the proper primordial cell of every Anglo-Saxon body-politic, which the carelessness of the people and the encroach ments of princes had caused to be much over laid in England, reappeared with great vitality in the New England town-meeting. 1 1 Tacitus, Germania, xi. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsge- sckichte, Band i. 4. Freeman, Growth of English Constitution, 2 SAMUEL ADAMS. At the Revolution, in Massachusetts, then in cluding Maine, and containing 210,000 white inhabitants, more than were found in any other American colony, there were more than two hundred towns, whose constitution is thus de scribed by Gordon, a writer of the period : " Every town is an incorporated republic. The selectmen, by their own authority, or upon the appli cation of a certain number of townsmen, issue a war rant for the calling of a town-meeting. The warrant mentions the business to be engaged in, and no other can be legally executed. The inhabitants are warned to attend ; and they that are present, though not a quarter or tenth of the whole, have a right to pro ceed. They choose a president by the name of mod erator, who regulates the proceedings of the meeting. Each individual has an equal liberty of delivering his opinion, and is not liable to be silenced or brow beaten by a richer or greater townsman than himself. Every freeman or freeholder gives his vote or not, and for or against, as he pleases ; and each vote weighs equally, whether that of the highest or lowest inhabitant. . . . All the New England towns are on the same plan in general." p. 17. May, Constitutional History of England, ii. 460. Phil lips, Geschichte des Anyelsachsischen Rechts, p. 12. J. Toulmin Smith, Local Self- Government and Centralization, p. 29, etc. Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies. E. A. Freeman, Jntrod. to Am. Institut. Hist. H. B. Adams, Germanic Origin ofN. E. Towns. Edward Channing, Town and County Government in the Eng lish Colonies of N. A. THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 3 Throughout the thirteen colonies, the folk- mote existed in well-developed form only in the New England town-meeting ; few traces of it can be found in the South ; nor in the middle colonies was the case much different. At the time of the Revolution, New England stood alone in having restored a primitive liberty which had been superseded, each of her little democracies governing itself after a fashion for which there was no precedent without going back to the folk-mote of a remote day to a time before the kings of England began to be arbitrary, and before the people became in different to their birth-right. The New England town is best presented at a point when it has had time to become fully developed, and before the causes have begun to operate which in our day have largely changed it. The period of the Revolution, in fact, is the epoch that must be selected ; and the town of towns, in which everything that is most dis tinctive appears most plainly, is Boston. Boston was a town governed by its folk- mote almost from its foundation until 1822, more than one hundred and eighty years. In 1822, when the inhabitants numbered forty thousand, it reluctantly became a city, giving up its town-meetings because they had grown so large as to be unmanageable, the people 4 SAMUEL ADAMS. thereafter choosing a mayor and common coun cil to do the public business for them, instead of doing it themselves. The records of the town of Boston, carefully preserved from the earliest times, lie open to public inspection in the office of the city clerk. Whoever pores over these records, on the yellow paper, in the faded ink, as it came from the pens of the ancient town clerks, will find that for the first hundred years the freemen are occupied for the most part with their local concerns. How the famous cowpaths pass through the phases of their evo lution, footway, country-lane, high-road, until at length they become the streets and re ceive dignified names ; what ground shall be taken for burying-places, and how it shall be fenced, as the little settlement gradually covers the whole peninsula ; how the Neck, then a very consumptive looking neck, not goitred by a ward or two of brick and mortar-covered territory, may be protected, so that it may not be guillo tined by some sharp north-easter ; what pre cautions shall be taken against the spread of small-pox ; who shall see to it that dirt shall not be thrown into the town dock ; that inquiry shall be made whether Latin may not be better taught in the public schools, such topics as these are considered. For the most part, the record is tedious and unimportant detail for a THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 5 modern reader, though now and then in an ad dress to the sovereign, or a document which implies that all is not harmony between the town and the royal governor, the horizon broad ens a little. But soon after the middle of the eighteenth century the record largely changes. William Cooper at length begins his service of forty-nine years as town clerk, starting out in 1761 with a bold, round hand, which gradu ally becomes faint and tremulous as the writer descends into old age. One may well turn over the musty pages here with no slight feeling of awe, for it is the record, made at the moment, of one of the most memorable struggles of hu man history, that between the little town of Boston on the one hand, and George III. with all the power of England at his back, on the other. At the date of the Stamp Act, 1765, the pop ulation of Boston was not far from 18,000, in vast majority of English blood ; though a few families of Huguenots, like the Faneuils, the Bowdoins, the Reveres, and the Molineux, had strengthened the stock by being crossed with it, and there was now and then a Scotchman or an Irishman. As the Bostonians were of one race, so in vast majority they were of one faith, Independents of Cromwell s type, though there were Episcopalians, and a few Quakers 6 SAMUEL ADAMS. and Baptists. The town drew its life from the sea, to which all its industry was more or less closely related. Hundreds of men were afloat much of the time, captains or before the mast, leaving their wives and children in the town, but themselves being on shore only in the intervals between the most enterprising voy ages. Of the landsmen, a large proportion were ship-builders. The staunchest crafts that sailed slid by the dozen down the ways of the Boston yards. New England needed a great fleet, hav ing, as she did, a good part of the carrying-trade of the thirteen colonies, with that of the West Indies also. Another industry, less salutary, was the distilling of rum ; and much of this went in the ships of Boston and Newport men to the coast of Africa, to be exchanged for slaves. It was a different world from ours, and should be judged by different standards. Besides the branches mentioned, there was lit tle manufacturing in town or country ; the pol icy of the mother country was to discourage colonial manufactures ; everything must be made in England, the colonies being chiefly valuable from the selfish consideration that they could be made to afford a profitable mar ket for the goods. In the interior, therefore, the people were all farmers, bringing their produce to Boston, and taking thence, when THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 7 they went home, such English goods as they needed. Hence the town was a great mart. The merchants were numerous and rich ; the distilleries fumed ; the ship-yards rattled ; the busy ships went in and out ; and the country people flocked in to the centre. Though Boston lost before the Revolution the distinction of being the largest town in America, it remained the intellectual head of the country. Its common schools gave every child a good education, and Harvard College, scarcely out of sight, and practically a Boston institution, gave a training hardly inferior to that of European universities of the day. At the bottom of the social scale were the negro slaves. The newspapers have many advertise ments of slaves for sale, and of runaways sought by their masters. Slavery, however, was far on the wane, and soon after the Revolu tion became extinguished. The negroes were for the most part servants in families, not work men at trades, and so exercised little influence in the way of bringing labor into disrepute. As the slaves were at the bottom, so at the top of society were the ministers, men often of fine force, ability, and education. No other such career as the ministry afforded was open in those days to ambitious men. Year by year the best men of each Cambridge class went into 8 SAMUEL ADAMS. the ministry, and the best of them were sifted out for the Boston pulpit. Jonathan May- hew, Andrew Eliot, Samuel Cooper, Charles Chauncey, Mather Byles, all were characters of mark, true to the Puritan standards, gen erally, as regards faith, eloquent in their office, friends and advisers of the political leaders, themselves often political leaders, foremost in the public meetings, and active in private. Together with the ministers, the merchants were a class of influence. Nothing could be bolder than the spirit in those days of Bos ton commerce. In ships built at the yards of the town, the Yankee crews went everywhere through the world. Timber, tobacco, tar, rice, from the Southern colonies, wheat from Mary land, sugar and molasses from the West Indies, sought the markets of the world in New Eng land craft. The laws of trade were compli cated and oppressive ; but every skipper was more or less a smuggler, and knew well how to brave or evade authority. Wealth flowed fast into the pockets of the Boston merchants, who built and furnished fine mansions, walked King Street in gold lace and fine ruffles, and sat at home, as John Hancock is described, in " a red velvet cap, within which was one of fine linen, the edge of this turned up over the velvet one two or three inches. He wore a blue damask THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 9 gown lined with silk, a white plaited stock, a white silk embroidered waistcoat, black silk small-clothes, white silk stockings, and red mo rocco slippers." It is all still made real to us in the superb portraits of Copley, the mer chants sitting in their carved chairs, while a chart of distant seas unrolled on the table, or a glimpse through a richly curtained window in the background at a busy wharf or a craft un der full sail, hints at the employment that has lifted the men to wealth and consequence. Below the merchants, the class of workmen formed a body most energetic. Dealing with the tough oak that was to be shaped into storm- defying hulls, twisting the cordage that must stand the strain of arctic ice and tropic hur ricane, forging anchors that must hold off the lee-shores of all tempestuous seas, this was work to bring out vigor of muscle, and also of mind and temper. The caulkers were bold pol iticians. The rope-walk hands were energetic to turbulence, courting the brawls with the soldiers which led to the " Boston massacre." It must be said, too, that the taverns throve. New England rum was very plentiful, the cargo of many a ship that passed the " Boston Light," of many a townsman and " high private " who came to harsh words, and, perhaps, fisticuffs, in Pudding Lane or Dock Square. The prevailing 10 SAMUEL ADAMS. tone of the town, however, was decent and grave. The churches were thronged on Sun days and at Thursday lecture, as they have not been since. All classes were renders ; the book sellers fill whole columns in the newspapers with their lists ; the best books then in being in all departments of literature are on sale and in the circulating libraries. The five news papers the people may be said to have edited themselves. Instead of the impersonal articles of a modern journal, the space in a sheet of the " Revolution," after the news and advertise ments, was occupied by letters, in which " A Chatterer," "A. Z.," or more often some classic character, " Sagittarius," " Vindex," " Philan- throp," " Valerius Poplicola," " Nov-Anglus," or " Massachusettensis," belabors Whig or Tory, according to his own stripe of politics, the champion sometimes appearing in a rather Chinese fashion, stilted up on high rhetorical soles, and padded out with pompous period and excessive classic allusion, but often direct, bold, and well-armed from the arsenals of the best political thinkers. Of course the folk-mote of such a town as this would have spirit and interest. Wrote a Tory in those days : l " The town-meeting at 1 Sagittarius, quoted by Frothingham : " The Sam Adams s Regiments," Atlantic Monthly, November, 1863. THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 11 Boston is the hot-bed of sedition. It is there that all their dangerous insurrections are en gendered ; it is there that the flame of discord and rebellion was first lighted up and dissemi nated over the provinces ; it is therefore greatly to be wished that Parliament may rescue the loyal inhabitants of that town and province from the merciless hand of an ignorant mob, led on and inflamed by self-interested and prof ligate men." Have more interesting assem blies ever taken place in the history of the world than the Boston town-meetings ? Out of them grew the independence of the United States, and what more important event has ever occurred? Massachusetts was unquestionably the leader in the Revolution. 1 After the first year of war, 1 On this point, which local pride might dispute, a few au thorities may be cited. Englishmen at the time felt as fol lows : " In all the late American disturbances and in every thought against the authority of the British Parliament, the people of Massachusetts Bay have taken the lead. Every new move towards independence has been theirs ; and in every fresh mode of resistance against the law they have first set the example, and then issued out admonitory letters to the other colonies to follow it." Mauduit s Short View of the Hist, of the N. E. Colonies, p. 5. See also Anburey s Travels, i. 310. Hutchinson, Hist, of Mass. Bay, iii. 257. Rivington, Inde pendence the Object of Congress in America, London, 1776, p. 15. Lord Camden called Massachusetts " The ring-leading Colony." Coming to writers of our own time, Lecky declares, Hist. ofXVIIIth Century, iii. 386: " The Central and South- 12 SAMUEL ADAMS. indeed, the soil of New England, as compared with the Centre and South, suffered little from the scourge of hostile military occupation. Her sacrifices, however, did not cease. There is no way of determining how many New Eng land militia took the field during the strife , the multitude was certainly vast. The figures, however, as regards the more regular levies, have been preserved and are significant. With a population comprising scarcely more than one third of the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies, New England furnished 118,251 of the 231,791 Continental troops that figured in the war. Massachusetts alone furnished 67,907, more than one quarter of the entire number. As re gards the giving of money and supplies, without doubt her proportion was as large. There re sistance to British encroachment began ; thence disaffection to Britain was spread abroad. ern Colonies long hesitated to follow New England. Massa chusetts had thrown herself with fierce energy into the con flict, and soon drew the other provinces in her wake/ Says J. K. Seeley, Expansion of England, pp. 154, 155 : " The spirit driving the colonies to separation from England, a principle attracting and conglobing them into a new union among them selves, how early did this spirit show itself in the New Eng land colonies ! It was not present in all the colonies. It was not present in Virginia; but when the colonial discon tents burst into a flame, then was the moment when Virginia went over to New England, and the spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers found the power to turn the offended colonists into a new nation/ THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 13 As Massachusetts led the thirteen colonies, the town of Boston led Massachusetts. " This Province began it," wrote General Gage, 1 "I might say this town, for here the arch-rebels formed their scheme long ago." The ministers of George III. recognized this leadership and attacked Boston first. So thoroughly did the forces of revolt centre here that the English pamphleteers, seeking to uphold the govern ment cause, speak sometimes not so much of Americans, or New Englanders, or indeed men of Massachusetts, as of " Bostoneers," as if it were with the people of that one little town that the fight was to be waged. Even in the woods and wilds the preeminence was known. When Major George Rogers Clark was sub duing the Mississippi valley, he found that the British emissaries, rousing the Indians and simple French habitant against him by using the terms they could best understand, had urged them " to fight Boston." Boston led the thir teen colonies. Who led the town of Boston? He certainly ought to be a memorable figure. He it is whose story this book is designed to tell. 4 The progenitor in America of the Adams family, so numerous and famous, was Henry 1 To Lord Dartmouth ; quoted in Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson, p. 16. 14 SAMUEL ADAMS. Adams, who, with a family of eight children, settled at an early period near Mount Wollas- ton in Quincy. The inscription on his tomb stone, written by President John Adams, de scribes him as having come from Devonshire, in England. English families of the name trace their descent from a remote Welsh ancestor ; there is a possibility, therefore, of a mixture of Celtic blood in the stock. Grandsons of the emigrant Henry Adams were Joseph Adams, a citizen of Braintree, and John Adams, a sea- captain. The former was grandfather of Pres ident John Adams ; the latter was grandfather of Samuel Adams, the subject of this memoir. The second son of Captain John Adams was Samuel Adams, born May 6, 1689, in Boston, where he always lived, and where he was mar ried at the age of twenty-four to Mary Fifield. From this union proceeded a family of twelve children, three only of whom survived their father. Of these the illustrious Samuel Adams was born September 16, O. S., 1722. The theory that great men derive their pow ers from their mothers rather than their fathers may, perhaps, be regarded as exploded. It will receive no support, at least, from the case of Samuel Adams. Of his mother no mention can be found except that she was rigidly pious after the puritan standards ; his father, however, THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 15 was a man of most noteworthy qualities, and filled a large place in the community in which his lot was cast. He was possessed, at first, of what for those days was a large property, and in 1712 bought a handsome estate in Purchase Street, extending two hundred and fifty-eight feet along the thoroughfare and running thence to the low water line of the harbor. The man sion, large and substantial, fronted the water, of which it commanded a fine view. Samuel Adams, senior, early made impression, passing soon from a purely private station into various public positions. He became justice of the peace, deacon of the Old South Church, then an office of dignity, selectman, one of the im portant committee of the town to instruct the representatives to the Assembly, and at length entered the Assembly itself. His son called him " a wise man and a good man." He was everywhere a leader. In 1715, largely through his influence, the " New South " religious soci ety was established in Summer Street. About the year 1724, with a score or so of others, gen erally from the North End, where the ship yards especially lay, he was prominent in a club designed " to lay plans for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power." It was known as the " Caulkers Club," hence, possibly, one of the best known terms in politi- 16 SAMUEL ADAMS. cal nomenclature. As a representative he sig nalized himself by opposition to that combative old veteran from the wars of Marlborough, Shute, in whose incumbency the chronic quar rel between governor and legislature grew very sharp. The tastes and abilities, indeed, which made the son afterwards so famous, are also plain in the father, only appearing in the son in a more marked degree and in a time more favorable for their exhibition. "Sam" Adams (to his contemporaries it was affectation quite superfluous to go beyond the monosyllable in giving his Christian name) has left but few traces of his boyhood. There is a story that as he went back and forth be tween home and the wooden school-house in School Street, just in the rear of King s Chapel, his punctuality was so invariable that the la borers regulated their hours of work by him. One is glad to believe that this tale of virtue so portentous has no good foundation. Un doubtedly, however, he was a staid, prema turely intelligent boy, responding to the severe Puritan influences which surrounded him, and early developed through listening to the talk of the strong men of the town, for whom his father s house was a favorite meeting-place. Of his college life, too, there is almost no men tion. He was a close student and always after- THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 17 ward fond of quoting Greek and Latin. His father s earnest wish was that he should study theology. Whitefield, as Sam Adams came forward into life, was quickening wonderfully the zeal of New England. It would have been natural for the parents and the sober-minded son to feel a warmth from so powerful a torch. A minister, however, he could not be. He re ceived the degree of A. B. in 1740, and when three years after he became Master of Arts, the thesis which he presented showed plainly what was his true bent. " Whether it be Law ful to resist the Supreme Magistrate, if the Commonwealth cannot otherwise be preserved," was his subject, which he proceeded to discuss in the presence, not only of the college dignita ries, but of the new governor, Shirley, and the Crown officials, who sat in state near the young speakers at Commencement, as do their suc cessors to-day. What he said and what effect he produced is not recorded. No one knew that as the young man spoke, then, for the first time, one of the great Revolutionary group was asserting the right of resistance by the people to arbitrary oppressors. Shirley was perhaps lost in some far-away dream of how he might get at the French ; and when thirty years after, in his retirement at Dorchester, he asked who the Sam Adams could be that 2 18 SAMUEL ADAMS. was sneh a thorn in the side to his successors Bernard and Hutchinson, he was quite uncon scious of the fact that he himself had had the benefit, close at hand, of the first scratch. In the Harvard quinquennial, where the names in the provincial period are arranged not alphabetically, but according to the conse quence of the families to which the students belong, Sam Adams stands fifth in a class of twenty-two. As he reached his majority his father became embarrassed, and while misfor tune impended, Sam Adams, whose disinclina tion to theology had become plain, began the study of law. This his mother is said to have disapproved; law in those days was hardly recognized as a profession, and the young man turned to mercantile life as a calling substantial and respectable. He entered the counting- house of Thomas Gushing, a prominent mer chant, with whose son of the same name he was destined afterwards to be closely connected through many years of public service. For business, however, he had neither taste nor tact. The competition of trade was repulsive to him ; his desire for gain was of the slightest. Leaving Mr. Gushing after a few months, he received from his father XI, 000 with which to begin business for himself. Half of this he lent to a friend who never repaid it, and the THE YOUTH AND HIS SURROUNDINGS. 19 other half lie soon lost in his own operations. Thriftless though he seemed, he began to be regarded as not unpromising, for there were certain directions in which his mind was won derfully active. Father and son became part ners in a malt-house situated on the estate in Purchase Street, and one can well understand how business must have suffered in the circum stances in which they were presently placed. The times became wonderfully stirring. In 1745 Sir William Pepperell led his New Eng land army to the capture of Louisburg. Bos ton was at first absorbed in the great prepara tions ; while the siege proceeded the town was in a fever of anxiety, as it had good cause to be ; for brave though they were, whoever reads the story must feel that only the most extraor dinary good luck could have brought the pro vincials through. When the victory was at length complete, and the .iron cross from the market-place was brought home by the soldiers in token of triumph, never was joy more tu multuous. In all this time Samuel Adams, senior, was in the forefront of public affairs. He sat in the Assembly, and was proposed by that body for the Council or upper house, but was rejected by Shirley. He was a member of most of the military committees, in that day the most important of the legislature ; there 20 SAMUEL ADAMS. are facts showing that his judgment was espe cially deferred to in affairs of that kind. Encouraged by the success at Cape Breton, the colonists planned still further enterprises against the French, in all which Massachusetts, stimulated by Shirley, who had the heart and the head of a soldier, took part with enthusiasm. When in 1748 the magnificent fruits of New England energy were all resigned at the peace of Aix la Chapelle, a deep resentment was felt. In matters relating to peace and war the elder Adams was much concerned. The son meantime, trusting himself more and more to the element for which he was born, figured prominently in the clubs and wrote copiously for the newspapers. One can easily see how business must have been carried on with some slackness, since the two partners were marked by such characteristics. In 1748 Samuel Adams, senior, died, bequeath ing to the younger Samuel a third of his estate, his sister and his brother (who is mentioned about this time in the town records as clerk of the market) receiving their shares. In 1749 he married Elizabeth Checkley, daughter of the minister of the " New South," established himself in Purchase Street, and gave himself, with a mind by no means undivided, to the management of the malt-house. CHAPTER II. THE PRE-REVOLTJTIONARY STRUGGLE. LEAVING " Sam, the Maltster," to wait through the years that must intervene before the hour shall really strike for him, a survey must be made of the institutions into the midst of which he was born, and of the momentous dispute in which he was presently to stand forth as a figure of the first importance. According to the original charter, which was that of a mere trading corporation, vaguely drawn, and which was converted without color of law into the foundation of an independent state, the affairs of Massachusetts were to be managed by a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, who were to hold monthly meetings for that purpose. These officials were to be elected, and a general oversight to be ex ercised, by the stockholders of the company to whom the charter was granted. The colonists were "to enjoy the rights of Englishmen," but had no share in the direction of affairs. The company was transferred, however, very soon, 22 SAMUEL ADAMS. to New England, and the settlement, instead of being subject to stockholders across the water, became then self - governed, an arrangement quite different from that at first contemplated. For the first half century, through a provi sion of the General Court enacted in 1631, no man was to become a freeman unless he were a church member. Since not a fourth part of the adult population were ever church mem bers, the democracy had many of the features of an oligarchy. Among themselves the free men cherished a spirit strongly democratic ; but towards those outside, the spiritual aristocracy preserved a haughty bearing. At the end of fifty years, beneath Charles II. and James II., came a crisis. When at length in 1692 Sir William Phips, a rough and en terprising son of the colony, appeared as gov ernor, he brought with him a document which was far from pleasing to the people, who had hoped from the protestant champion, William III., a restoration of the old institutions. High notions of his prerogative, however, were enter tained by the new king, and were not opposed by even the wisest among his advisers. Mas sachusetts, Plymouth, and Maine were compre hended under one jurisdiction, New Hampshire being left independent. The old freedom of Massachusetts was to a large extent suspended. THE FEE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 23 The theocracy, too, was abolished ; toleration was secured to all religious sects except pa pists ; and the right of suffrage, once limited to church members, was bestowed on all inhabit ants possessing a freehold of the annual value of forty shillings, or personal property to the amount of <40. The appointment of the gov ernor, lieutenant-governor, and colonial secre tary was reserved to the king. The governor possessed the power of summoning, adjourning, and dissolving the General Court, and a nega tive upon all its acts. He was dependent upon it, however, for his salary by annual grant. Two boards, as before, were to constitute the legislature or General Court, a Council and House of Representatives. The members of the latter body were to be chosen annually by the towns, and had the important power of the purse. The Council was to consist of twenty- eight members, who in the first instance were to be appointed by the king. Afterwards, a new Council for each year was to be chosen by joint ballot of the old Council and the Repre sentatives, the power being given to the gov ernor of rejecting thirteen out of the twenty- eight. To all official acts the concurrence of the Council was necessary, and to the king was reserved the power of annulling any act within three years of its passage. 24 SAMUEL ADAMS. To turn to judicial institutions : at the head stood a Superior Court, presided over by a chief justice and subordinate judges. These were appointed by the governor in Council ; so, too, were inferior magistrates, as justices of the peace in each county. In course of time, the regular number of judges in the Superior Court came to be five, and to it was assigned all the jurisdiction of the English Common Pleas, King s Bench, and Exchequer. There were also county courts of Common Pleas for smaller civil cases, Courts of Sessions, com posed of justices of the peace in each county, for inferior criminal cases, and Courts of Pro bate for settling the estates of persons deceased. An attorney-general was appointed to conduct public prosecutions. From 1697 Courts of Vice- Admiralty existed, empowered to try without jury all maritime and revenue cases ; but these tribunals were from the first strenuously op posed. From 1698 a Court of Chancery also existed. The governor was commander-in-chief of the militia, whose officers he was also em powered to appoint. In 1728 the charter of William and Mary was amended, after earnest disputes between Governor Shute and the As sembly (the lower house of the legislature), by a clause giving the governor power to negative the speaker chosen by the Assembly ; and also THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 25 by a clause making it impossible for the house to adjourn, by its own vote, for a longer term than two days. With these representative and judicial insti tutions, which require from the reader careful attention, concerned as he will be in our story with a variety of constitutional disputes, Mas sachusetts, absorbing Plymouth and Maine, passed from her colonial into her provincial period. Though greatly restricted in her in dependence, the new order was really in some respects a vast improvement upon the old. Through the canceling of the condition of church membership, citizenship became prac tically open to all ; for the pecuniary qualifica tion was so small as to embarrass very few. Though the legislature was cramped, the town- meetings were unrestrained, and through the enlargement of the franchise gained a power and interest which they had not before pos sessed. The prevailing tone of American writers, who, as historians or biographers, have treated the Revolutionary struggle, has been that the case against the British government was a per fectly plain one, that its conduct was aggres sion in no way to be justified or palliated, and as blundering as it was wicked. An illustrious 26 SAMUEL ADAMS. Englishman, E. A. Freeman, however, has just written : " In the War of Independence there is really nothing of which either side need be ashamed. Each side acted as it was natural for each side to act. We can now see that both King George and the British nation were quite wrong ; but for them to have acted otherwise than they did would have needed a superhu man measure of wisdom, which few kings and few nations ever had." Our Fourth of July orators may well assume a tone somewhat less confident, when thought ful men in England, not at all ill-disposed to ward America, and not at all blind to the blunders and crimes which strew the course of English history, pass even now, after a hun dred years, such a judgment as this which has been quoted. A candid American student, ad mire as he may the wisdom and virtue of our Revolutionary fathers, is compelled to admit, in this calmer time, that it was by no means plain sailing for King George and his minis ters, and that they deserve something better from us than the unsparing obloquy which for the most part they have received. The love of the colonists toward England had become estranged in other ways than by "taxation without representation." In Mas sachusetts, the destruction of the theocracy THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 27 through the new charter was a severe shock to puritan feeling. The enforced toleration of all sects but papists was a constant source of wrath ; and when, as the eighteenth century advanced, the possibility of the introduction of bishops and a church establishment appeared, a matter which was most persistently and un wisely urged, 1 there was deep-seated resentment. But another stone of offense, which, unlike the fear of prelacy, affected all America as well as New England, and was therefore very im portant, existed in the trade regulations. By the revolution of 1688, the royal power in England was restrained, but that of Parlia ment and the mercantile and manufacturing classes greatly increased. The " Board of Trade" was then constituted, to whom were committed the interests of commerce and a general oversight of the colonies. Adam Smith was still in the far future, and the policy con stantly pursued was neither humane nor wise. We may judge of the temper of the Board from the fact that even John Locke, its wisest and one of its most influential members, solemnly advised William to appoint a captain-general i Grahame, Hist, of V. S., iv. 317. As far as New England was concerned this fear of ecclesiasticism was as potent a source of estrangement as any. Some writers regard it as the principal cause of bad feeling. See John Adams, the Statesman of the Rev olution, by Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. Boston, 1884. 28 SAMUEL ADAMS. over the colonies with dictatorial power, and the whole Board recommended, in 1701, a re sumption of the colonial charters and the in troduction of such "an administration of gov ernment as shall make them duly subservient to England." The welfare of the colonies was systematically sacrificed to the aggrandizement of the gains of English manufacturers and merchants. Sometimes the provisions turned out to the advantage of the colonists, but more frequently there was oppression without any compensating good. ^X Restrictions, designed for securing to the mother-country a monopoly of the colonial trade, crushed out every industry that could compete with those of England. For such products as they were permitted to raise, the colonies had no lawful market but England, nor could they buy anywhere, except in England, the most important articles which they needed. With the French West India islands a most profitable intercourse had sprung up, the colo nists shipping thither lumber and provisions, and receiving in return sugar and molasses, the consumption of which latter article, in the wide spread manufacture of rum, was very large. In 1733 was passed the famous " Sugar Act," the design of which was to help the British West Indies at the expense of the northern colonies, THE P RE-REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE. 29 and by which all the trade with the French islands became unlawful, so that no legitimate source of supply remained open but the far less convenient English islands. The restrictions, indeed, were not and could not be enforced. Every sailor was a smuggler ; every colonist knew more or less of illicit traffic or industry. The demoralization came to pass which always results when a community, even with good rea son, is full of law-breakers, and the disposition became constantly more and more unfriendly toward the mother country. Said Arthur Young : " Nothing can be more idle than to say that this set of men, or the other adminis tration, or that great minister, occasioned the American war. It was not the Stamp Act, nor the repeal of the Stamp Act ; it was neither Lord Rockingham nor Lord North, but it was that baleful spirit of commerce that wished to govern great nations on the maxims of the counter." The Board of Trade, however, the main source of the long series of acts by which the English dependencies were systematically re pressed, should receive execration not too se vere. They simply were not in advance of their age. When, after 1688, the commercial spirit gained an ascendency quite new in Eng land, the colonists, far off, little known, and de- 30 SAMUEL ADAMS. spised, were pitched upon as fair game, if they could be made to yield advantage. In so using them, the men in power were only showing what has so often passed as patriotism, that mere expansion of selfishness, inconsistent with any broad Christian sentiment, which seeks wealth and might for the state at the expense of the world outside. It was inhumanity from which the world is rising, it may be hoped, for which it would be wrong to blame those men of the past too harshly. The injustice, however, as always, brought its penalty ; and in this case the penalty was the utter estrange ment of the hearts of a million of Englishmen from the land they had once loved, and the ultimate loss of a continent. Before the Massachusetts settlement, it had been stipulated in the charter that all the colo nists were to have the rights and privileges of Englishmen, and this provision they often cited. Magna Charta was but a confirmation of what had stood in and before the time of Edward the Confessor, the primitive freedom, indeed, which had prevailed in the German woods. This had been again and again re-confirmed. Documents of Edward I. and Edward III., the Petition of Right of 1628, the Bill of Rights of 1689, had given such re-confirmations ; and the descendants of the twenty thousand Puritans, THE PRE-REVOLUT10NARY STRUGGLE. 31 who, coming over between 1620 and 1640, had been the seed from which sprung the race of New Englanders, knew these things in a gen eral way. They were to the full as intelligent in perceiving what were the rights of English men, and as tenacious in upholding them, as any class that had remained in the old home. Left to themselves for sixty years, there was little need of an assertion of rights ; but when at last interference began from across the wa ter, it was met at the outset by protest. Par liament is a thousand leagues of stormy sea away from us, said they. That body cannot judge us well ; most of all, our representatives have no place in it. We owe allegiance to the king indeed, but instead of Parliament, our General Court shall tax and make laws for us. Such claims, often asserted, though overruled, were not laid aside, and at length in 1766 we find Franklin asserting them as the opinion of America at the bar of the House of Commons. It cannot, however, be said that New Eng land was consistent here. In 1757, for in stance, the authority of Parliament was dis tinctly admitted by the General Court of Mas sachusetts ; so too in 1761 ; and even so late as 1768, it is admitted " that his Majesty s high court of Parliament is the supreme legislative power over the whole empire." 32 SAMUEL ADAMS. I The sum and substance is that as to the con- /stitutional rights of the colonists, the limits were, in particulars, quite undetermined, both in the minds of English statesmen, and also among the colonists themselves. What " the privi leges and rights of Englishmen " were was not always clearly outlined, and the student finds sometimes more, sometimes less, insisted on, according as the temper toward the old world is embittered, or good-natured. As events progress, through fear of prelatical contrivings and through bad trade regulations, as has been seen, the tone becomes more and more exasper ated. On the one side the spirit becomes con stantly more independent ; on the other side, the claims take on a new shade of arrogance. When the first decided steps toward the Rev olution occur in 1764, in the agitations con nected with the Stamp Act, the positions in general of the parties in the dispute may be set down as follows : " Parliament asserted the right to make laws to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever ; the colonies claimed that there should be no taxation without represen tation, and that, since they had no representa tives in Parliament, they were beyond its juris diction." CHAPTER III. THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. SAM ADAMS at twenty-eight, with a wife, and his inheritance now in his hands through the death of his father, had not yet begun to play his proper part before the world. The eyes of men were beginning to turn toward him, indeed, as a man with a head to manage a political snarl, and a pen to express thoughts that could instruct and kindle. He was still, however, the somewhat shiftless manager of the Purchase Street malt-house, and the town censors no doubt said it would be vastly better for him to mind his private business rather than dabble as he did in public matters. That he was a good student and thinker was shown by his contributions to the " Public Adver tiser." He was devoted also to the discussions of the debating-clubs. As yet the Revolution seemed far off. The people of Massachusetts, it has been said, were never in a more easy situation than at the close of the war with France in 34 SAMUEL ADAMS. 1749. The whole charge for the expedition against Cape Breton was reimbursed to them by Parliament, so that the Province was set free from a heavy debt, a liberality which of course made it easier to swallow the bitter pill of restoring Louisburg to the French. With his patrimony Samuel Adams had apparently inherited his father s friendships and enmities, among the latter being a feud with Thomas Hutchinson, a man fast rising to the position of leading spirit of the Province, already in the Council, and destined to fill in turn, sometimes indeed to combine at once, the most distin guished positions. Governor Shirley s popu larity vanished before ill success, which over took his later enterprises. He gave way at length in 1756 to Thomas Pownall, a man of wide experience in colonial life and of much tact, so that while maintaining firmly the pre rogative of the king, in the chronic dispute be tween ministry and Assembly, which was never long at rest, he contrived still to retain the good-will of the people, who did him great honor at his departure. Samuel Adams, who in Shirley had opposed the union of the civil and military powers in one head, was, like his fellow-citizens, better pleased with Pownall, a good opinion which the ex-governor afterward abundantly justified by bravely and intelli- THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE t A gently defending in Parliament the ^ America. In 1758 an incident occurred which attracted much public attention. An attempt was then made to seize and sell the property of Samuel Adams, senior, on account of his connection many years before with the " Land Bank Scheme," a device perhaps not the wisest, which had been resorted to for avoiding great loss which threatened the colony in consequence of a certain interference of the home govern ment in the finances. At the time it had been asserted that each director would be held indi vidually responsible for the liabilities of the concern ; but we may well believe that for Samuel Adams it was a matter somewhat start ling to read in the " News Letter," ten years after his father had been in his grave, and sev enteen years after the affair had taken place, a sheriff s notice that the property he had in herited would be sold at auction " for the more speedy finishing the Land Bank scheme." 1 The sale did not take place, for when the sher iff appeared he found himself confronted by a sturdy citizen, whose resistance he was forced to respect. Soon afterward an act was passed by the legislature liberating the directors from personal liability an act the significance of 1 Boston News Letter, August 10 and 17, 1758. 36 SAMUEL ADAMS. which was not at the time understood, but which was often referred to subsequently as a memorable precedent, in the strife between the colony and Parliament. Turning over the Boston town records, as the venerable rolls lie in their handsome sur roundings in the great city hall that stands on the site of the little wooden school of Sam uel Adams s boyhood, one first finds his name .in 1753, on the committee to visit schools. ^Scarcely a year passes from that date until the town - meetings cease, crushed out by the battalions of Gage, when his name does not appear in connections becoming constantly more honorable. jOie.record, first in the hand /of Ezekiel GoldthVait, town clerk, and after 1761 in that of William Cooper, though mea gre, is complete enough to show how intimately his life is connected with these meetings of the freemen. He serves in offices large and small, on committees to see that chimneys are prop erly inspected, as fire-ward, to see that pre cautions are taken against the spread of the small-pox, as moderator, on the committee to instruct the representatives to the Assembly, as representative himself. From 1756 to 1764 he was annually elected one of the tax-collectors, and in connection with this office came the gravest suspicion of a serious moral dereliction THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 37 which his enemies could ever lay to his charge. Embarrassments which weighed upon the peo ple caused payments to be slow. The tax-collec tors fell into arrears, and it was at length en tered upon the records that they were indebted to the town in the sum of 9,878. The Tories persisted afterwards in making this deficiency a ground of accusation, and Hutchinson, in the third volume of his history, deliberately calls it a " defalcation." No candid investigator can feel otherwise than that to Samuel Adams s contemporaries any misappropriation of funds by him was an absurd supposition. Without stopping to inquire how it may have been with his fellow collectors, it is quite certain that in his case a feeling of humanity, very likely an absence of business vigor, stood in the way of his efficiency in the position. His townsmen wanted him for a high office, a sure proof that they had lost no confidence in him. A suc cessor was appointed to collect the arrears, the Province being asked to authorize the town s action. " Neither the historian nor the con temporary records furnish any evidence to re but the presumption that his ill success as a collector was excusable if not unavoidable." 1 In 1760 the prudent Pownall was succeeded 1 See Province Laws, p. 27, note, edited by Hon. Ellis Ames and A. C. Goodell, Jr., Esq. The latter gentleman has com- 38 SAMUEL ADAMS. by Francis Bernard, a character of quite differ ent temper. Botta has described him as a man of excellent judgment, sincerely attached to the interests of the Province, and of irreproachable character. He was a defender of the preroga tive of the Crown, however, ardent in disposi tion, and quite without the pliancy and adroit ness which had served his predecessor so well. He had before been governor of New Jersey, and now was promoted to the more conspicu ous post in Massachusetts. He had received an Oxford education, was a man of refined and scholarly tastes, and is said to have been able to perform the astonishing feat of repeating the whole of Shakespeare from memory. There is no reason to doubt the authorities who speak well of Bernard, though the portrait that has coma down to us from the patriot writers is dark. Events presently threw governor and Province into positions of violent antagonism to one another. To the governor the people seemed seditious and unreasonable ; to the peo ple the governor appeared arbitrary and irrita ble, and the relation at length became one of thorough hatred. At first he was liberally treated, however,, receiving a grant of ,1,300 for his salary, aW the island of Mt. Desert pletely cleared the character of Samuel Adams in a paper read before the Mass. Histor. Society in the spring of 1883. THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 39 in Maine, favors to which he would have re sponded no doubt graciously if, as an English country gentleman, his every nerve had not been presently rasped by the preposterous lev- elers with whom he was thrown into contact. The fall of Quebec in 1759, immediately preceding the accession of Bernard, was an im portant crisis in the history of Massachusetts. The colonists had learned to estimate their mil itary strength more highly than ever before. Side by side with British regulars, they had fought against Montcalm and proved their prowess. Officers qualified by the best ex perience to lead, and soldiers hardened by the roughest campaigning into veterans, abounded in all the towns. A more independent spirit appeared, and this was greatly strengthened by the circumstance that the destruction of the power of France suddenly put an end to the incubus which, from the foundation of things, had weighed upon New England, viz., the dread of an invasion from the north. Coincident with this great invigoration of the tone of the Prov ince came certain changes in the English pol icy, changes which came about very naturally, but which, in the temper that had begun to prevail, aroused fierce resentment. As the Seven Years War drew towards its close, it grew plain that England had incurred an enor- 40 SAMUEL ADAMS. mous debt. Her responsibilities, moreover, had largely increased. All India had fallen into her hands as well as French America. At the ex pense of her defeated rival, her dominion was immensely expanding ; vast was the glory, but vast also the care and the financial burden. A faithful, sharp-eyed minister, George Grenville, seeing well the needs of the hour, and searching as no predecessor had done into the corruptions and slacknesses of administration, at once fast ened upon the unenforced revenue laws as a field where reform was needed. Industry on land, as we have seen, was badly hampered in a score of ways, and on the sea the wings of commerce were cruelly clipped. Grenville s imprudence was as conspicuous as his eye was keen and his fidelity persistent. As the first step in a series of financial meas- >- ures which should enable England to meet her enormous debt and her great expenses, he set in operation a vigorous exaction of neglected customs and imposts. The vessels of the navy on the American coast were commissioned to act in the service of the revenue, each officer becoming a customs official. At once all con traband trade was subjected to the most ener getic attack, no respect being shown to places or persons. In particular, the Sugar Act, by which an effort had been made to cut off the THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 41 interchange of American lumber and provisions for the sugar and molasses of the French West Indies, was strongly enforced, and the New England sailors, with the enterprising mer chants of Boston, Newport, Salem, and Ports mouth behind them, flamed out into the fierc est resentment. Whereas for many a year the collectors, from their offices on the wharves, had winked placidly at the full cargoes from St. Domingo and St. Christopher, brought into port beneath their very eyes, now all was to be changed in a moment. Each sleepy tide- waiter suddenly became an Argus, and, backed up by a whole fleet full of rough and ready helpers, proceeded to put an end to the most lucrative trade New England possessed. To help forward this new activity in the car- A rying out of laws so often heretofore a dead \ letter, certain legal forms known as " writs of j assistance " were recommended, to be granted / by the Superior Court to the officers of the customs, giving them authority to search the houses of persons suspected of smuggling. The employment of such a power, though contra band goods were often, no doubt, concealed in private houses, was regarded as a great out rage. Writs of assistance in England were le gal and usual. If they were ever justifiable, as English authorities said then and still say, 42 SAMUEL ADAMS. they are justifiable under such circumstances as prevailed in America. Stephen Sewall, however, chief justice of the Province, when applied to for such a writ, in November, 1760, just after the fall of Quebec, expressed doubt as to their legality, and as to the power of the court to grant them. But the application had been made on the part of the Crown by Pax- ton, the chief officer of customs at Boston, and could not be dismissed without a hearing. While the matter was pending Sewall died, and his successor was none other than Thomas Hutchinson, who already held the offices of lieutenant-governor, member of the Council, and judge of probate. He received his new position from Governor Bernard, being pre ferred to Colonel James Otis, to whom the post was said to have been promised by Governor Shirley, years before. Now it is that a figure of the highest im- \ portance in the story of Samuel Adams first comes prominently upon the scene. At the ses sions of the court there had lately sat among the lawyers, in the tie-wig and black gown then customary, a certain " plump, round-faced, smooth-skinned, short-necked, eagle-eyed young politician," James Otis, the younger, already a man of mark, for he held the lucrative position of advocate-general, the official legal adviser of THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 43 the government. It was for him now to de fend the case of the officers of the customs. He, however, refused, resigned his commission, and with Oxenbridge Thacher, a patriotic and elo quent lawyer, was retained by the merchants of Boston and Salem to undertake their cause. Hutch inson, whose invaluable history relates with a certain old-fashioned stiffness but with much calm dignity the story of Massachusetts, does not forget himself, even when he comes to the events in which he himself was an actor. His recital maintains its tone of quiet modera tion even when his theme becomes that bitter strife, in which, fighting to the last, he was himself utterly borne down. It is a disfigure ment of the narrative that he sometimes as cribes mean motives to the champions who faced him in the battle ; but the wonder is, under the circumstances, that the men with whom he so exchanged hate for hate stand forth in his page with so little detraction. Hutchinson declares the conduct of James Otis, in the case of the writs of assistance, to have been caused by chagrin, because his father had failed to receive the position of chief justice. What weight this charge is entitled to will be considered hereafter. Among the high services rendered by John Adams is certainly to be counted the fact that 44 SAMUEL ADAMS. in his faithfully kept diary and familiar letters, from his youth in Shirley s day down to his patriarchal age at Quincy, when his son was President of the United States, we have the most complete and graphic picture extant of America s most memorable period. The record is in parts almost as naive as that of Sewall, 41 the New England Pepys," and gains as much in value from the foibles of the writer, his self- consciousness, his honest irascibility, his nar rowness, as it does from his strong qualities. Here is his picture of the case of the writs of assistance : Otis was a flame of fire. "With a promptitude f classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away everything before him. American in dependence was then and there born ; the seeds of patriots and heroes were then and there sown, to de fend the vigorous youth, the non sine diis animosus infans. Every man of a crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Independence was born." John Adams also took notes of the speech of Otis, which have been preserved. It lasted THE WRITS OF ASSISTANCE. 45 between four and five hours and was indeed learned, eloquent, and bold. The most signifi cant passage is that in which, after describing the hardships endured by the colonies through the acts of navigation and trade, with passion ate invective he denounced taxation without representation. It was by no means a new claim, but the masses of the people caught the words from his lips, and henceforth it came to be a common maxim in the mouths of all that tax ation without representation is tyranny. Hutch- inson continued the case to the next term, " as the practice in England is not known," and James Otis went forth to be for the next ten years the idol of the people. John Adams s assertion, that in this magnifi cent outburst American independence was born, will scarcely bear examination. The speech was not to such an extent epoch-making. Both orator and audience were thoroughly loyal and had no thought of a contest of arms with the mother-country. The principle asserted was only a re-avowal of what, as has been seen, had been often maintained. The argument was simply an incident in the long continued fric tion between parent-land and dependency, not differing in essential character from scores of acts showing discontent which had preceded, though possessing great interest from the ability and daring of the pleader. CHAPTER IV. IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. IN the year 1764, when the agitation con cerning the impending Stamp Act was disturb ing the colonies, Samuel Adams had reached the age of forty-two. Even now his hair was becoming gray, and a peculiar tremulousness of the head and hands made it seem as if he were already on the threshold of old age. His con stitution, nevertheless, was remarkably sound. ^ His frame, of about medium stature, was mus- -<-Scular and well-knit. His eyes were a clear steel tray, his nose prominent, the lower part of his pace capable of great sternness of look, but in or- jdinary intercourse wearing a genial expression. Life had brought to him much of hardship. In 1757 his wife had died, leaving to him a son, still another Samuel Adams, and a daughter. Misfortune had followed him in business. The malt-house had been an utter failure ; his patri mony had vanished little by little, so that be yond the fair mansion on Purchase Street, with its pleasant harbor view, little else remained to IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 47 him ; the house was becoming rusty through want of means to keep it in proper repair. In his public relations, fortune had thus far treated him no more kindly. As tax-collector he had quite failed and was largely in arrears. There was a possibility of losing what little property remained to him, and of having his name stained with dishonor. His hour, however, had now come. In May, 1764, the town of Boston appointed, as usual, the important committee to instruct the representatives just elected to the General Court. The committee were "Richard Dana, Esqr., Mr. Samuel Adams, John Ruddock, Esqr., Nathaniel Bethune, Esqr., Joseph Green, Esqr.," and to Samuel Adams was given the task of drafting the paper. He submitted it in the town-meeting of the 24th, a document very memorable, because it contains the first public denial of the right of the British Parliament , to put in operation Grenville s scheme of the/ Stamp Act, just announced ; and the first sug-( gestion of a union of the colonies for redress of* grievances. Samuel Adams s original draft is still in existence, the first public document he wrote of which we have any distinct trace, though there is ample evidence that his pen had frequently before been employed in that way. One may well have a feeling of awe as 48 SAMUEL ADAMS. he reads upon the yellowing paper, in a hand writing delicate but very firm, the protests and recommendations in which America begins to voice her aspirations after freedom. Adams says : y "What still increases our apprehensions is, that these unexpected Proceedings may be preparatory to more extensive Taxations upon us. For if our Trade may be taxed, why not our Lands, the Produce of our lands, and in short everything we possess or make use of ? This, we apprehend, annihilates our Charter Rights to govern and tax ourselves. ... If Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the Character of free Sub jects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves ? V The instructions close with this important suggestion : " As his Majesty s other Northern American Col onies are embarked with us in this most important Bottom, we further desire you to use your Endeavors that their weight may be added to that of this Prov ince ; that by the united Applications of all who are Aggrieved, all may happily attain Redress." J 1 The first part of this extract is copied from Samuel Ad ams s autograph in the possession of Mr. Bancroft. The con cluding passage does not stand in the original draft, but is copied here from the Boston town records. IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 49 Samuel Adams drew up this document. There can be no doubt that the respectable but inconspicuous citizens associated with him on the committee looked to him to supply ideas as well as form. Patrick Henry s famous " Vir ginia resolutions " denying the right of Parlia ment to tax America did not appear until a year later. Besides the distinct denial of this right contained in Samuel Adams s instruc tions, and the suggestion of the union of the colonies for a redress of grievances, the doc ument contained an assertion of the important position that the judges should be dependent for their salaries upon the general Assembly. Also the hint was thrown out that, if burdens should not be removed, agreements would be entered into to import no goods from Britain, as a measure of retaliation upon British manufac turers. As the story develops, it will quickly be seen how important these suggestions be came. There are, in fact, few documents in the whole course of American history so preg nant with great events. The legislature met in June, when a memo rial was forthwith prepared by James Otis for transmission to the agent of the colony in Eng land, who was expected to make the document known to the English public. The memorial followed the suggestions, almost the very words, 50 SAMUEL ADAMS. of Samuel Adams. A committee was also ap pointed to address the assemblies of the sister colonies, counseling united action in behalf of their common rights. The same year, but at a later session, for Bernard, little pleased with the tone of proceedings, made haste to pro rogue the Assembly, the house, following again the Boston instructions, petitioned the government for the repeal of the Sugar Act. On the 6th of December of this year Sam uel Adams married for his second wife Eliza beth Wells, a woman of efficiency and cheerful fortitude, who, through the forty years of hard and hazardous life that remained to him, walked sturdily at his side. It required, indeed, no common virtue to do this, for while Samuel Adams superintended the birth of the child Independence, he was quite careless how the table at home was spread, and as to the con dition of his own children s clothes and shoes. More than once his family would have become objects of charity, if the hands of the wife had not been ready and skillful. Early in 1765 Grenville brought before Par liament his scheme for the Stamp Act, notice of which had been given some time before. As discussed at home, it had excited little com ment ; some of the colonial agents had favored it. Even Franklin, then agent for Pennsylva- IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 51 nia, apparently regarding its operation as a fore gone conclusion, had taken steps to have a friend appointed stamp distributor in his Province. In America, indeed, there had been opposition. One royal governor, no other than Bernard, was strongly opposed to it, winning from Lord Camden in a discussion with Lord Mansfield the commendation of being a " great, good, and sensible man, who had done his duty like a friend to his country." Hutchinson, too, the lieutenant-governor, opposed it. " It cannot be good policy," he said, " to tax the Americans ; it will prove prejudicial to the national inter ests. You will lose more than you will gain. Britain reaps the profit of all their trade and of the increase of their substance." Such evi dences of discontent, however, as were given, it did not seem at all worth while to regard. The bill at length passed the house late at night, the members yawning for bed, and listening with impatience to the forcible protest of Barre*, who in their idea had the poor sense to magnify a mole-hill into a mountain. _SoJlittle do we un derstand what is trifling and what is momen tous of what passes under our eyes ! The news was brought to the colonies by a ship which reached Boston in April, and the spirit of resistance became universal. Patrick Henry s resolutions, passed in May, were gen- 52 SAMUEL ADAMS. erally adopted as the sentiments of America. In Boston the discontent came to a head in 1 August, when it was resolved to hang in effigy Andrew Oliver, who had been appointed dis tributor of stamps. Decorous though the com munity ordinarily was, there was a population in the streets along the water side quite capa ble of being carried to the extreme of ruth- lessness and folly. Hutchinson most unjustly was made the special mark of their rage. Gor don states that the cause in part was certain unpopular financial enterprises, projected and carried through by him as far back as 1748. Since then, however, his standing with the townspeople had been as high as possible, and it must have been well known that he had op posed the Stamp Act as unjust and impolitic. So far he had given but few signs of a course obnoxious to the people. The mob, however, mad with rum, attacked with such fury the fine mansion of Hutchinson at the North End, that he and his family escaped with difficulty. The house was completely gutted, and then de stroyed. Handsome plate and furniture were shattered ; worst of all, manuscripts and other documents of great importance, collected by Hutchinson for the continuation of his history, were scattered loose in the streets, and for the most part lost. The Admiralty records also IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 53 were burnt and other destruction committed. The demonstration in its earlier phases had the approval of the patriots. A town-meeting, however, the next day, condemned the excesses, and pledged the aid of the people to preserve order henceforth. For the meeting of the Assembly, appointed / for the end of September, Samuel Adams again, in behalf of the town, prepared instructions for the " Boston seat." John Adams, his second cousin, and some years his junior, at the same time performed a similar service for the town of Braintree. The kinsmen put their heads together in the preparation of their work, a co operation that was to be many times repeated in the years that were coming. The " Boston Gazette " spread the documents everywhere throughout the other towns, by whom they were again and again imitated, the papers be coming the generally accepted platform of the Province. Points especially insisted on were the right, secured by charter to the people <>f Massachusetts ^of possessing all the privileges^ of free-born Britons, representation as the-""ir ^ dispensable condition of taxation, and the right of trial by jury, violated in the Admiralty Courts, whose jurisdiction of late had bee i much extended. The same town-meeting yo which the instructions were reported thanked 64 SAMUEL ADAMS. Conway and Barre* for bold speeches in their behalf, and directed that their portraits should be placed in Faneuil Halh) Just now it was that Oxenbridge Thacher, a member of the Assembly, an ardent patriot, and the associate of James Otis in the case of the writs of assistance, died at the age of forty-five. On September 27 the town elected Samuel Adams his successor. The record in the hand of William Cooper states that the election took place on the second ballot, the candidate re ceiving two hundred and sixty-five votes out of four hundred and forty-eight. He appeared the same day in the Assembly-room in the west end of the second story of the Old State House, and was immediately qualified, a mo ment only before the body was prorogued by the governor. It was not until October that he fairly began that life of public service which was to last almost unbroken until his death. Samuel Adams may well be called the " Man of the Town-meeting." Though the sphere of his activity was henceforth for so much of the time the Massachusetts Assembly, he was not through that taken away from the town-meet ing. The connection between the Assembly and the town-meetings, which stood behind it and sent the members to it, was a very close one. Each man who stood in the house, stood IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 55 (if we may make use of a modern distinction) as a deputy and not as a representative ; l that is, he had in theory no independence, was bound as to all his acts by the instructions of the folk-mote that sent him and employed him simply as a matter of convenience. In the first days of New England there was no delegation of authority by the freemen. As the inconven ience had become plain of requiring for the transaction of all business the voices of all the freemen, the board of selectmen had at length come into existence for each town ; and as the towns had multiplied, the central council was at length devised for the care of business that affected all. The town-meeting, however, in the day of its strength jealously kept to itself every particle of power which it could reserve. It was simply for convenience that the folk- motes sent each a man to the Assembly-cham ber in King Street. The freemen could not go in a mass ; that would take them from their bread-winning. For such a crowd, too, there would be no room, nor would it be possible for all to hear and vote. A deputy must go for each town, but the liberty allowed to him was narrow. In the instructions of 1764, Samuel Adams, at the beginning, while informing the deputies that the townsmen " have delegated i Dr. Francis Lieber, Political Ethics, ii. 325. 56 SAMUEL ADAMS. to you the power of acting in their publick Concerns in general as your own prudence shall direct you," takes pains immediately to qualify carefully the concession thus : " Always reserv ing to themselves the Constitutional Right of expressing their mind and giving you such In struction upon particular Matters as they at any Time shall Judge proper." 1 There is no doubt that here serious harm could come to pass ; for it must be admitted that the town-meeting plan can never answer for large affairs. In an ideal state, while the folk-mote is at the base, there must be found, through representation, the smaller governing and legislating body, and at length the one man, good enough and. wise enough to be trusted with power to be used independently. The idea is of course quite erroneous that represen tative government is nothing but a substitute for the meeting of the whole people in the fo rum, made necessary by increased population. The representative must be held to a strict ac countability indeed, but he must be his own man, independent in judgment, with an eye to the general interests, not simply those of his constituency ; he must be selected not because he is likely to be a subservient instrument, but for his good judgment and leadership. The 1 Boston Town Records. IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 57 bond should be close between him and those who send him. Nevertheless the representa tive should be the superior man, selected be cause he is superior. " Instructions " are out of place as addressed to such a man ; his judg ment should be left untrammeled, and in cases where representative and constituents are likely to differ, they should defer to him, not he to them. 1 This was not the New England theory. But whatever may have been the New England theory, there is no doubt that, in practice, the men who sat in the Assembly, if they really had ability and force, were as free as need be. Such men as Joseph Hawley at Northampton, Elbridge Gerry at Marblehead, James Warren at Plymouth, characters about to appear in our story, shaped the opinions of the communities in which they dwelt. According to the form, they spoke simply the views of the town, and regularly after election listened respectfully to the instructions which prescribed to them a certain course of conduct, sometimes with great minuteness. They themselves, however, had led the way to the opinions that thus found 1 See discussions of the subject by Dr. Francis Lieber, Po- lit. Ethics, ii. 313, etc. ; John Stuart Mill, Representative Gov ernment, p. 237 ; Dr. Rudolph Gneist, Geschichte und heutige Gestalt der Aemter in England, 112; Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol, Novembers, 1774. 58 SAMUEL ADAMS. voice ; for, with their natural power quickened by their folk-mote training, they usually had tact and force enough to sway the town to po sitions near their own. How much more was this mastery held in the case of such a leader as Samuel Adams ! One fancies that he must have sometimes smiled inwardly, when, after the May election, Boston, through some novice or comparatively obscure personage, charged him and his colleagues, in peremptory terms, to do this, that, and the other thing him whose domination in the patriot ranks became quite absolute, who at last moulded New England opinion, and could place great men and small almost as he pleased ! Or was he so far self- deceived that he did not know his own strength, and believed that many a plan which came from his own powerful brain proceeded from the great heart of the people, which he so thor oughly venerated ? Practically, with all the independent think ing, the able men shaped opinion. In theory, however, all proceeded from the town-meetings, and those who stood for them were deputies, who could only do the people s will. Using the term " representative " in its limited sense, it may be said that a body like the Massachu setts House was not a representative assembly ; it was a convention of the folk-motes, the free- IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 59 men of each town being concentrated for con venience into the delegate who stood in the chamber. Samuel Adams, therefore, was really scarcely less concerned with the folk-mote when he worked in the General Court, than when he worked in Faneuil Hall. In the lat ter case he was the controlling mind of one town ; in the former case, of all the Massachu setts towns, who, as it were, sat down together in the hall in King Street. For what he did in the latter sphere as well as in the former sphere he deserves to be called, above all men who have ever lived, " the Man of the Town- Meeting." No building is so associated with Samuel Adams as the Old State House. It was only now and then that a town-meeting met, and seldom that it became so large as to overflow from Faneuil Hall into the Old South. After Samuel Adams entered the Assembly his at tendance was daily at the chamber for long pe riods, until he went to Congress in 1774. From the close of the Revolution again until 1797, his public service was almost without break. For years he was in the senate, was then lieu tenant-governor, then governor, the functions of all which positions he discharged in one or another of the rooms of the Old State House. No other man, probably, has darkened its door- 60 SAMUEL ADAMS. way so often. A wise reverence has restored the building nearly to its condition of a hun dred years ago. On the eastern gable the lion and the unicorn rear opposite one another, as in the days of the Province ; belfry, roof, and windows are as of yore ; the strong walls built by the masons of 1713, though looked down upon by great structures on all sides, stand with a kind of unshaken independence in their place and compel veneration. Ascending the spiral staircase, one reaches the second story, where all stands as it was in the former time. The Assembly chamber occupies the western end, a well-lighted room, ample in size for the hun dred and twenty-five deputies whom it was intended to accommodate. Its decoration is simple ; convenience, not beauty, was what the Puritan architect aimed at, but it is a well- proportioned and stately hall. On the after noon when the writer first visited it, among other relics there stood at the west end the old " Speaker s desk," as it is called, which, how ever, seems ill-adapted to the use of a Speaker. It has been suggested that probably it was the clerk s desk, for which it seems more suitable. If that is so, here sat Samuel Adams, for he was clerk through all those disturbed years. Here rose his voice as he directed the stormy debate ; here moved his hands as he wrote the IN THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSEMBLY. 61 papers which are the first utterances of Amer ican freedom. In the chamber corresponding, in the eastern end of the building, the gov ernor met with the Council : it was also the ses sion-room of the Superior Court, and here took place the scene already described, when James Otis denounced the writs of assistance. Of many another noteworthy event the Old State House has also been the scene. In its halls were held anciently the town-meetings. Hither came the deputies from the other town- meetings, in the time when the New England folk-motes were most vigorous, most nobly ac tive in effecting great results. In the whole history of Anglo-Saxon freedom, since the times when the Teutons clashed their shields in token of approval in the forests of the Elbe and Weser, what scenes are there more memorable than these old walls have witnessed ! The Old State House is the theatre where our actors for the most part must move. CHAPTER V. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION AND THE MASSACHUSETTS RESOLVES. IT would be quite inexplicable how a new member at once should become to such an ex tent the leading man of the legislative body, deferred to upon every occasion, intrusted with the most important work, and infusing a quite new tone into all the deliberations, were it not for a fact well attested. For many previous years, while the management of the malt-house suffered, not only in Bernard s time but through the years of Pownall also, and far back into the administration of Shirley, the quick mind and ready pen of Samuel Adams had been always busy, until at length the most important docu- lents, promulgated under quite other names, Were really of his authorship. One man, and only one, there was in the Assembly, when Samuel Adams took his seat among them, who was treated by the body with equal deference, and that was James Otis, temporarily absent in New York at the Stamp Act congress, con- PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION, 63 vened there at the suggestion of Massachusetts. In mind, character, and opinions, the two lead ers were a strong contrast to each other in many ways. Otis s power was so magnetic that a- Boston town-meeting, upon his mere entering, would break out into shouts and clapping, and if he spoke he produced effects which may. be compared with the sway exercised by Chatham, whom as an orator he much resembled. Long after disease had made him utterly untrust worthy, his spell remained, and we shall here after see the American cause brought to the brink of ruin, because the people would follow him, though he was shattered. Of this gift__ Samuel Adams possessed little. He was always in speech straightforward and sensible, and upon occasion could be impressive, but his en dowment was not that of the mouth of gold. While Otis was fitful, vacillating, and morbid, Samuel Adams was persistent, undeviating, and sanity itself. While Samuel Adams never abated by a hair his opposition to the British policy, James Otis, who at the outset had given the watch-word to the patriots, later, after Par liament had passed the Stamp Act, said : " It is the duty of all humbly and silently to ac quiesce in all the decisions of the supreme legislature. Nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand will never entertain the thought but of submission to our 64 8 AMU EL ADAMS. sovereign, and to the authority of Parliament in all possible contingencies." ^ A point where the opinions of the two men were quite at variance was the idea of a repre sentation of the colonies in Parliament. While Samuel Adams from the first rejected it as im practicable and undesirable, James Otis advo cated it with all his force. He was far from being alone in this advocacy. In England Grenville with many others was well disposed toward it, and it would probably have been considered but for the declaration made against it by the colonies themselves. Adam Smith, at this time becoming famous, espoused the view. In his idea representation should be proportioned to revenue, and if this were con ceded to the colonies, he foresaw a time when in the growing importance of America the seat of power would be transferred thither. A few years later than this, the British government would most willingly have granted parliamen tary representation to the colonies as a solution of the difficulties. Among Americans, Frank lin, as well as James Otis, earnestly favored the scheme and had anticipations similar to those of Adam Smith ; and Hutchinson early had suggested the same idea. It is quite noticeable that in our own day Professor J. R. Seeley, in the " Expansion of England," treating the PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 65 relations between Britain and her dependen cies at the present time, advocates with elo quence an abrogation of all distinctions between mother-country and dependency, and in lan guage quite similar to that of James Otis urges the compacting and consolidating of the Brit ish empire. He would have a "great world Venice," the sea flowing everywhere, indeed, through its separated portions, but uniting in stead of dividing. Such unification now can be regarded only as advantageous, whether we look toward the gen eral welfare, or to the internal benefits brought by such a consolidation to the powers them selves. Disintegrated Italy has in our day come together into a great and powerful king dom under the headship of the house of Sa voy. Still more memorably Germany has been redeemed from the granulation which for so many ages had made her weak, and has become a magnificent nation. The practical annihila tion of space and time, as man gains dominion over the world of matter, makes it possible that states should be immense in size as never before. The ends of the earth talk together almost without shouting; the man of to-day moves from place to place more easily and speedily than the rider of the enchanted horse or the owner of the magic carpet in the Arabian 5 66 SAMUEL ADAMS. Nights. Modern political unification is a step toward making real the brotherhood of the hu man race, the coming together of mankind into one harmonious family, to which the benevolent look forward. Who can question, moreover, that in the case of the individual citizen, whose political atmosphere is that of a mighty state, there is a largeness of view, a magnanimity of spirit, a sense of dignity, an obliteration of small prejudices, an altogether nobler set of ideas, than are possible to the citizen of a con tracted land ? Really, in the highest view, any limitation of the sympathies which prevents a thorough, generous going out of the heart to ward the whole human race is to be regretted. The time is to be longed and labored for when patriotism shall become merged into a cosmo politan humanity. 1 The man who can call fifty millions of men his fellow-citizens is nearer that fine breadth of love than he whose country is a narrow patch. If parliamentary represen tation of the American colonies had come to pass, the British empire might have remained to this day undivided, and would not the wel fare of the English-speaking race, of the world in general, have been well served thereby ? Plausible and interesting though such con siderations are, parliamentary representation, * Lessing, Gesprdche fur Freimaiirer. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 67 in any adequate shape, was for the colonies one hundred years ago probably quite impracti cable ; and when Samuel Adams took the lead, as he at once did, in opposing the ideas that were so powerfully advocated, he showed great practical sense and rendered a most important service. Writing to Dennys Deberdt, then co lonial agent, December 21, 1765, and speaking of Parliament, he said : - " We are far, however, from desiring any represen tation there, because we think the Colonies cannot be fully arid equally represented ; and if not equally, then in effect not at all. A representative should be, and continue to be, well acquainted with the internal circumstances of the people whom he represents. It is often necessary that the circumstances of individual towns should be brought into comparison with those of the whole ; so it is particularly when taxes are in consideration. The proportionate part of each to the whole can be found only by an exact knowledge of the internal circumstances of each. Now the Col onies are at so great a distance from the place where the Parliament meets, from which they are separated by a wide ocean, and their circumstances are so often and continually varying, as is the case in countries not fully settled, that it would not be possible for men, though ever so well acquainted with them at the beginning of a Parliament, to continue to have an adequate knowledge of them during the existence of that Parliament. . . . 68 SAMUEL ADAMS. " The several subordinate powers of legislation in America seem very properly to have been constituted upon their [the colonists] being considered as free subjects of England, and the impossibility of their being represented in Parliament, for which reason these powers ought to be held sacred. The Ameri can powers of government are rather to be considered as matters of justice than favor, without them, they cannot enjoy that freedom which, having never forfeited, no power on earth has any right to deprive them of." Still another consideration must have weighed with Samuel Adams aside from those men tioned here. He well knew how great the departure had been in England from the prim itive institutions and standards of the old Teu tonic freedom. Liberty seemed to be sinking before the encroachments of arbitrary power. Corruption was universal and scarcely noticed ; the great masses of the people, practically un represented in the government, apathetic or despairing, were losing the characteristics of freemen. /Already he had begun to cherish the idea of independence in his own mind. Amer ica must cut loose, not only because she was de nied her rights, but because she was bound to a ship that was embarrassed almost to sinking, with few sailors in the crew that manned her likely to have strength and skill enough to PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 69 keep her afloat. Precisely at this time, in the troubles connected with the election of Wilkes, the agitation was beginning that was to result, f\ after sixty years, in the great Reform Bill of 1832. The stubborn resistance of America, of which Samuel Adams was to such an extent the heart and centre, operated most beneficently for England, by encouraging there a similar temper. Had the American disputes ended in a grant of parliamentary representation, or any result short of a complete sundering, much of the healthful pressure which afterwards brought on reform in England must have been wanting. That America insisted on independ ence not only saved her, but also the mother land. 1 England s other great dependencies, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, have pre ferred to remain in the bond ; yet at the same time they are free. But in order that it should be possible for then! to remain and be free, it was necessary for America to depart. Only in that way could England be brought to purify herself, and learn how to use properly the power that has been placed in her hands. With the changed temper of the mother land, and the changed conditions under which our lives now pass, the objections to a connec tion with England, so important one hundred 1 Buckle, Hist . of Civilization, i. 345. 70 SAMUEL ADAMS. years ago, have been to a large extent set aside. If the bond were now existing, is there really much in present circumstances to justify the severing of it ? Is Freeman s anticipation to be looked upon as unreasonable and unattrac tive, that a time may come when, through some application of the federal principle, the great English-speaking world, occupying so rapidly north, south, east, and west, the fairest portions of the planet, not only one in tongue, but sub stantially one in institutions and essential char acter, may come together into a vaster United States, the " great world Venice," the pathways to whose scattered parts shall be the subjected seas ? l The meeting of the legislature in September, 1765, which Bernard prorogued so summarily, scarcely giving Samuel Adams time to take his oath as a member, had yet been long enough to afford the governor opportunity to lay before them a message, in which, however he might before have shown leanings to the popular side, he now declared that the authority of Parlia ment was supreme, and counseled submission. The Assembly had time to arrange for an an swer to the address, and a statement of their 1 See also J. R. Seeley s Expansion of England, and a pam phlet by Rev. F. Barham Zincke, noticed in the Nation, April 5, 1883. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 71 position. Samuel Adams was put at once in the forefront, the task being assigned to him/ of drafting the papers. When in October the legislature again met, two documents were soon reported, both the work of Mr. Adams, a re sponse to Bernard, and a series of resolves des tined to great fame as the " Massachusetts Re solves." In the response, while the courtesy of the terms is consummate, the clearest assertions respecting the limitation of the powers of Par-^ liameut are made. Strong loyalty to the king is expressed, while the Assembly at the same^x time refuses to assist in the execution of the Stamp Act. The resolves contain the same ideas substantially, but in a different form of expression, since they were meant to be a pro mulgation to the world of the sentiments of Massachusetts. Matters in Massachusetts were fast passing from the nebulous stage into clear definition. The supporters of the ministry began to with draw from positions inconsistent with the claims now made by the government ; and the As sembly, by adopting these resolves, for the first time committed itself formally to opposi tion. Had Otis been present there would no doubt have been less decision. In May of this year he had made the declaration, already 72 SAMUEL ADAMS. quoted, respecting the necessity of submission to Parliament ; his mind, too, was full of the thought of a parliamentary representation for the colonies. Otis, however, was absent at the Congress in New York, and the energetic new member swayed the House according to his will, with no one to cross his plans. The New York Congress, at which delegates had appeared from nine of the colonies, had been far from harmonious in their discussions. Timothy Ruggles, the president, a delegate from Massachusetts, a brave old soldier, re fused to sign the documents submitted, and cast his lot with the Tories henceforth. Ogden, of New Jersey, acted with him. Otis bore a prominent part, but was nevertheless forced to abandon his positions by signing the papers, which were inconsistent with the idea of sub mission to Parliament, and declaredsAmerican representation to be impracticable. Xj&jfche midst of the debates a ship loaded with stamps arrived, at which the town was thrown into the greatest turmoil. During the excitement the delegates, feeling the necessity of union, made mutual concessions, and finally, with the excep tions above mentioned, signed petitions contain ing substantially the ideas of the Massachusetts Resolves, by which the colonies became " a bun dle of sticks, which could neither be bent nor broken." PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 73 The response to Bernard and the Massachu setts Resolves, which presently after were mocked at in England as "the ravings of a parcel of wild enthusiasts," were greeted in . America with great approval. The 1st of No vember was the day appointed for the Stamp Act to go into operation. In Boston the morn ing was ushered in by the tolling of bells and the firing of minute-guns. The deep popular discontent found sullen expression, though the excesses of the August riots were avoided. The stamps had arrived and been stored at Castle William in the harbor, an additional force being appointed to guard them. Bernard, much embarrassed by the stubborn opposition, sought advice from the Council and Assembly as to what course to take, but with no good re sult. The Assembly, soon after convening, pro ceeded to consider the possibility of transacting business without the use of stamps, a matter which had been touched upon in the preceding session, and for meddling with which they had been prorogued. As was the usage, committees were appointed in which the business was to be shaped before coming under the consideration of the whole body, of all which Mr. Adams was a leading member and sometimes chairman. By his hand, too, at this time the House re buked the governor and Council for drawing 74 SAMUEL ADAMS. without its consent, from the provincial treas ury, money to pay the additional troops at the Castle, declaring that to make expenditures un authorized by the people s representatives was an infringement upon their rights. Otis and his colleagues now returning from New York with a report of the proceedings of the Stamp Act Congress, the Assembly at once indorsed its action. In letters of Mr. Adams at this time sent to England, in which he writes for others as well as himself, a plan is men tioned at which he had before hinted, and which was now, under the name of the " nonimpor tation " scheme, about to become one of the most effective means of resistance which the colonists could employ. Spreading from Mas sachusetts, where Adams had suggested the idea, to the thirteen colonies in general, it struck terror into the hearts of British traders, who saw ruin for themselves in the cutting off of the American demand for their products. A general gloom now settled over Massachu setts. The courts were closed ; business, to a large extent, came to a stand. No legal or commercial papers were valid without the stamp, and the stamps lay untouched at the Castle, the Province refusing to use them. The law was in many places in the colonies set at defiance and evaded. Men had recourse to ar- PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 75 bitration in the settlement of disputes. Ships entered and cleared, and other business was done, in contempt of the statute. Newspapers were published with a death s head in the place where the law required a stamp. The strait was severe, and on the 18th of December a Boston town-meeting took place to consider measures looking toward the opening of the courts. A committee was appointed, of which Samuel Adams was chairman, to petition the governor and Council, and it was agreed to em ploy Jeremiah Gridley, a famous lawyer of the day, James Otis, and John Adams, to support the memorial. Samuel Adams had a quick eye for power and availability of every kind, and now that he was in the foreground he swept the field every where for useful allies. Of the brilliant young men who were about to come forward in Mas sachusetts as the contest became fierce, there is scarcely one whom Samuel Adams did not, so to speak, discover, or to whom, at any rate, he did not stand sponsor as the new-comer took his place among the strivers. He it was who suggested to the town the employment of his young Braintree kinsman, John Adams, who now for the first time steps into prominence in public affairs. The diary of John Adams gives an account of his waiting until candle-light dur- 76 SAMUEL ADAMS. ing the winter afternoon in the representatives chamber, in company with the town s commit tee and many others, until a message came across the hall from Bernard and the Council, in the east room, to Samuel Adams, directing that the memorial of the town should be pre sented, and that the counsel in support should attend, but no others. The memorial had no effect, and the strait remained at present unre lieved. John Adams has interesting things to say in his diary about the clubs, at which he meets the famous characters of the day. " This day learned that the Caucus Club meets at certain times in the garret of Tom Dawes, the adju tant of the Boston regiment. He has a large house, and he has a movable partition in his garret, which he takes down, and the whole club meets in one room. There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one end of the garret to the other. There they drink flip, I suppose, and there they choose a moderator who puts questions to the vote regularly ; and select men, assessors, collectors, wardens, fire-wards, and representatives are regularly chosen before they are chosen in the town. Uncle Fairfield, Story, Rud dock, Adams, Cooper, and a rudis indigestaque moles are members. They send committees to wait on the Merchant s Club, and to propose and join in the choice of men and measures." It was the successor of this club to which PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 77 Samuel Adams now introduced John Adams. The new organization was larger, and the scope of its action, too, instead of being limited to town affairs, now included a far wider range in the struggle that was beginning. CHAPTER VI. THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. CAREFUL observers are remarking that the temper of the legislature, as shown by the re sponse to Bernard and the Massachusetts Re solves, is something quite different from what it has been. This difference is to be attributed to the influence of Samuel Adams, who, al though for several years well known, now for the first time finds opportunity to make him self properly felt. Meantime events are taking place across the water which require our no tice. Inasmuch as the American Colonies had prof ited especially from the successes of the war, it had been felt, justly enough, that they should bear a portion of the burden. It might have been possible to secure from them a good sub sidy, but the plan devised for obtaining it was unwise. The principle was universally admit ted that Parliament had power to levy " exter nal " taxes, those intended for the regulation of commerce. With the Stamp Act, in 1764, THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 79 Grenville had taken a step farther. This was an " internal " tax, one levied directly for the purpose of raising a revenue, not for the regu lation of commerce. The unconscious Gren ville explained his scheme in an open, honest way. "I am not, however," said he to the colo nial agents in London, " set upon this tax. If the Americans dislike it and prefer any other method, I shall be content. Write, therefore, to your several colonies, and if they choose any other mode, I shall be satisfied, provided the money be but raised." But Britain, pushing thus more earnestly than heretofore, found her self, much to her surprise, confronted by a stout and well-appointed combatant, not to be brow beaten or easily set aside. No one was more astonished than Grenville that precisely now an opposition so decided should be called out. He had meant to soften his measures by certain palliatives. For the southern colonies, the raising of rice was fa vored ; the timber trade and hemp and flax in the north received substantial encouragement ; most important of all measures, all restriction was taken from the American whale fishery, even though it was quite certain under such conditions to ruin that of the British isles. Grenville felt that he had proceeded prudently. He had asked advice of many Americans, who 80 SAMUEL ADAMS. had made no objection to, and in some cases had approved, the Stamp Act. Men of the best opportunities for knowing the temper of the colonies, like Shirley, fifteen years governor of Massachusetts, and for a time commander-in- chief of all the military forces in America, had decidedly favored it. Nothing better than the Stamp Act had been suggested, though Gren- ville had invited suggestions as to substitutes. America, however, was in a ferment, and Eng land, too, for one reason or another, was in a temper scarcely less threatening. Something must be done at once. But the responsibility was taken out of the hands of Grenville; a new ministry had come into power, and he was once more a simple member of Parliament. The new premier was the Marquis of Rock- ingham, a young statesman of liberal principles and excellent sense, though with a strange in capacity for expressing himself, which made him a cipher in debate. The secretary of state, in whose department especially came the man agement of the colonies, was General Conway, like Barre* a brave officer and admirable man, and well-disposed toward America. On the 14th of January began that debate, so memo rable both on account of the magnitude of the issues involved and the ability of the dispu tants who took part. A few Americans, Frank- THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 81 lin and other colonial agents among them, list ened breathlessly in the gallery, and transmitted to their country a broken, imperfect report of all the superb forensic thunder. Whoever stud ies candidly the accounts cannot avoid receiving a deep impression as to the power and substan tial good purpose of the great speakers, and as to the grave embarrassments that clogged them in striving to point out a practicable course. The agitation out of which reform was to come was already in the air. While none of the actors in the scene appreciated the depth of the gulf into which England was sinking, all evidently felt the pressure of evil. Mansfield appears ready at one point to admit abuse, but depre cates interference with the constitution, while Pitt denounces the " rotten boroughs," and de clares that they must be lopped off. Edmund Burke made upon this occasion his maiden speech, but no one thought it worth while, in those days before systematic report ing had begun, to record the words of the un known young man. Pitt, who followed him, hushed all into attention as he rose in his fee bleness, his eloquence becoming more touching from the strange disease by which he was af flicted, and which he was accused of using pur posely to increase the effect of his words ; he first praised the effort of the new member, and 82 SAMUEL ADAMS. then proceeded in that address so worthy of his fame. Pitt s advice was that the Stamp Act should be repealed absolutely and immediately, but at the same time that the sovereignty of England over the colonies should be asserted in the strongest possible terms, and be made to extend to every point of legislation, except that of taking their money without consent. "There is an idea in some that the colonies are virtually represented in this house. They never have been represented at all in Parliament. I would fain know by whom an American is represented here. Is he represented by any knight of the shire in any county of this kingdom ? Would to God that re spectable representation were augmented by a greater number ! Or will you tell me that he is represented by any representative of a borough, a borough which perhaps no man ever saw ? This is what is called the rotten part of the constitution ; it cannot endure the century. If it does not drop it must be ampu tated. The idea of a virtual representation of Amer ica in this house is the most contemptible that ever entered into the head of a man. It does not deserve a serious refutation." Later in the winter, when the debate was re newed in the House of Lords, Lord Camden, chief j ustice of the Common Pleas, supported the views of Pitt in a strain which the latter called divine. He tried to establish by a learned cita- THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 83 tion of precedents that the parts and estates of the realm had not been taxed until represented ; but as if he felt that abuses had accumulated, he declared that, if the right of the Americans to tax themselves could not be established in this way, it would be well to give it to them from principles of natural justice. Among those who replied, the most noteworthy was Lord Mansfield, chief justice of England, who declared, in opposition to Camden, that : " The doctrine of representation seemed ill-founded. There are 12,000,000 people in England and Ireland who are not represented ; the notion now taken up, that every subject must be represented by deputy, is purely ideal. There can be no doubt, my lord, that the inhabitants of the colonies are as much repre sented in Parliament as the greatest part of the peo ple of England are represented, among 9,000,000 of whom there are 8,000,000 who have no votes in electing members of Parliament. Every objection, therefore, to the dependency of the colonies upon Parliament, which arises to it upon the ground of representation, goes to the whole present constitution of Great Britain, and I suppose it is not meant to new-model that too ! A member of Parliament chosen by any borough represents not only the constituents and inhabitants of that particular place, but he repre sents the inhabitants of every other borough in Great Britain. He represents the city of London and all other the Commons of this land and the inhabitants 84 SAMUEL ADAMS. of all the colonies and dominions of Great Britain, and is in duty and conscience bound to take care of their interests." When, after the speech of Mansfield, the subject came to a vote in the House of Lords, the matter stood in his favor by one hundred and twenty-five to five. In the Commons the majority on the same side was as overwhelm ing- Looking back upon this momentous debate after a century and a quarter has elapsed, what are we to say as to the merits of it ? England has completely changed since then her colonial policy, but no sober second thought has induced her historians to believe that the position of the government was plainly a wrong one. Pitt and Camden turned the scale for us in the Stamp Act matter : their declarations put back bone into the colonial resistance, and disheart ened the ministry in England ; but Pitt s opin ions were declared at the time to be peculiar to himself and Lord Camden, and have ever since, in England, been treated as untenable. 1 Mans field s theory of " virtual representation," that a representative represents the whole realm, not merely his own constituency, " all other the Commons of this land, and the inhabitants of all the colonies and dominions of Great 1 Massey, Hist, of Reign of George III. i. 262. THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 85 Britain, and is in duty and conscience bound to take care of their interests," is declared by another writer to be grandly true, though, to be sure, somewhat overstrained as regards the colonies. Burke, a few years afterwards, ad dressing the electors of Bristol, developed the doctrine elaborately. Mansfield was right in urging that the constitution knows no limitation of the power of Parliament, and no distinction between the power of taxation and other kinds of legislation. The abstract right, continues our historian, was unquestionably on the side of the minister and Parliament, who had im posed the tax, and that right is still acted upon. In 1868, in the trial of Governor Eyre of Jamaica, the English Judge Blackburn de cided, " although the general rule is that the legislative assembly has the sole right of im posing taxes in the colony, yet when the im perial legislature chooses to impose taxes, ac cording to the rule of English law they have a right to do it." l Lecky says : " It was a first principle of the constitution, that a member of Parliament was the representative not merely of his own constituency, but also of the whole empire. Men connected with, or at least specially in terested in the colonies, always found their way into Parliament ; and the very fact that the colonial ar- 1 Yoiige, Const, Hist, of England, p. 66. 86 SAMUEL ADAMS. guments were maintained with transcendent power within its walls was sufficient to show that the colo nies were virtually represented." Lecky, however, even while thus arguing, admits that the Stamp Act did unquestiona bly infringe upon a great principle ; and he ac knowledges that the doctrine, that taxation and representation are inseparably connected, lies at the very root of the English conception of po litical liberty. It was only by straining matters that the colonies could be said to be virtually represented, and in resisting the Stamp Act the principle involved was the same as that which led Hampden to refuse to pay the ship money. 1 It is only fair for the present generation of Americans to weigh arguments like those of Mansfield, and to understand how involved the case was . The statesmen of the time of George III. were neither simpletons nor utterly ruth less oppressors. They were men of fair pur poses and sometimes of great abilities, not be fore their age in knowledge of national economy and political science ; still, however, sincerely loving English freedom, and, with such light as they had, striving to rule in a proper manner the great realm which was given them to be guided. In ways which the wisest of them did Dot fully appreciate, the constitution had under- 1 Lecky, iii. 353, etc. THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGLAND. 87 gone deterioration through the carelessness of the people and the arbitrary course of many of the rulers, until the primeval Anglo-Saxon freedom was scarcely recognizable, and liberty was in great jeopardy. Following usages and precedents, learned lawyers could easily find justification for an arbitrary course on the part of the ministers, and it is a mark of greatness in Camden, that, learned lawyer though he was, he felt disposed to rest the cause of the colonies on the basis of " natural justice," rather than upon the technicalities with which it was his province to deal. In the shock of the Stamp Act and Wilkes agitations England came to her self, and by going back to the primeval princi ples started on a course of reform by no means yet complete. At this very time Richard Bland of Virginia, anticipating by a century the spirit and methods of the constitutional writers of whom E. A. Freeman is the best- known example, uttered sentences which might well have been taken as their motto by the "Friends of the People," the "Society of the Bill of Rights," and the other organizations in England which were just beginning to be active for the salvation of their country. He derived the English constitution from Anglo - Saxon principles of the most perfect equality, which invested every freeman with a right to vote. i 88 SAMUEL ADAMS. " If nine tenths of the people of Britain are de prived of the high privilege of being electors, it would be a work worthy of the best patriotic spirits of the nation to restore the constitution to its pris tine perfection." Much as Pitt and Camden were admired, and powerful as was their brave denunciation of the Stamp Act and their demand for its repeal, their famous position that a distinction must be made between taxation and legislation, and that while Parliament could not tax it could legislate, seemed no more tenable to Ameri cans than it did to Englishmen. As we shall see, the colonial leaders soon pass on from de manding representation as a condition of taxa tion, to demanding representation as a condi tion of legislation of every kind; they deny utterly the power of Parliament to interfere in any of their affairs ; they owe allegiance to the king, but of Parliament they are completely in dependent. So Franklin had already declared. This position was shocking to Pitt, and he would have been as willing to suppress its upholders as was Lord North himself. It is making no arrogant claim to say that in all this preliminary controversy the Ameri can leaders show a much better appreciation of th principles of Anglo-Saxon liberty, and a management much more statesman-like, than THE STAMP ACT BEFORE ENGj even the best rnen across the water, be expected. As far as New England cerned, there is no denying the oft quoted as sertion of Stoughton that God sifted a whole nation to procure the seed out of which the people was to be developed. The colonists were picked men and women, and the circum stances under which they were placed on their arrival on these shores forced upon them a re vival of institutions which in England had long been overlaid. The folk-mote had reappeared in all its old vigor, and wrought in the society its natural beneficent effect. Together with intelligence and self-reliance in every direction, it had especially trained in the people the polit ical sense. In utter blindness the Englishman of our revolutionary period looked down upon the colonist as wanting in reason and courage. Ileally the colonist was a superior being, both as compared with the ordinary British citizen and with the noble. Originally of the best English strain, a century and a half of training under the institution best adapted of all human institutions to quicken manhood had had its effect. What influences had surrounded lord or commoner across the water to develop in them a capacity to cope with the child of the Puritan, schooled thoroughly in the town-meet ing? CHAPTER VII. THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. FROM the imposing British Parliament, sit ting in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, with Westminster Hall close at hand, and just beyond these the City, fast becoming the heart of the civilized world, to come to the little pro vincial town and the Old State House with its modest company of town-meeting deputies is a change marked indeed. But the deputies are as worthy of regard as their high placed con- temners at St. Stephen s. / Though Otis was still the popular idol, Sam- piel Adams became every day more and more $he power behind all, preparing the documents, laying trains for effects far in the future, watch ful as regards the slightest encroachments. In Faneuil Hall as plain townsman, and also in lis place as deputy, he is found busy with plans for helping on the work of the courts without yielding to the requirements of the Stamp Act, while the crown officials on their \side uphold the authority of Parliament. On THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 91 the 16th of May, 1766, however, the Harrison, a brigantine, six weeks out from England, cast anchor in the inner harbor with news of the repeal of the Stamp Act. The powerful voices raised in opposition to it in Parliament, the pressure from the trading and manufacturing centres, the clamor of the people, had brought about the change. The measure, however, was accompanied by the Declaratory Act, in which the ground of Pitt was by no means taken, but the assertion was made that Parliament was su preme over the colonies in all cases whatsoever. For expediency s sake the obnoxious tax was repealed, but the right to tax and to legislate in every other way for the colonies was plainly stated. The people in general, nevertheless, no ticed only the repeal, and were transported with joy. Salutes were fired from the different bat teries, the shipping was dressed with flags, the streets were full of music. At night Liberty Tree was hung full of lanterns, transparencies were shown, fire-works were displayed on the Common, and high and low feasted and reveled. John Hancock, a rich young merchant, twenty- nine years old, lately come into a great fortune through the death of his uncle, Thomas Han cock, particularly signalized himself by his lib erality. Before his handsome mansion opposite the Common, a pipe of Madeira wine was dis- 92 SAMUEL ADAMS. tributed to the people. His house and those of other grandees near were full of the finer world, while the multitude were out under the trees, just leafing out for the spring. One is glad to record that for once poor Bernard cordially sym pathized with the popular feeling. He and his Council had a congratulatory meeting in the af ternoon, and in the evening walked graciously about among the people, a brief harmonious interlude with discord before and triple discord to come in the near future. In May, as usual, the elections for representa tives were held. Boston returned as the four to which it was entitled, Samuel Adams, Thomas Gushing, James Otis, and a new member, des tined in the time coming to great celebrity, John Hancock. True to his self-imposed func tion of enlisting for the public service young men likely for any reason to be helpful, it was Mr. Adams who brought forward the new mem ber. The handsome, free-handed young mer chant, perhaps the richest man of the Province, began now a public career, in the main though not always useful, almost as continuous and pro tracted as that of Mr. Adams himself. Still another noteworthy addition was made this year to the Assembly in Joseph Haw ley, sent as member for Northampton on the Con necticut River, a man of the purest character, of THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 93 bright intellect, devoted to the cause of the pa triots, and especially helpful through his pro found legal knowledge. His influence was pow erful with the country members, who sometimes showed a jealousy, not unusual in the present day, of the representatives of the metropolis. Samuel Adams and Hawley thoroughly appre ciated one another, and worked hand in hand through many a difficult crisis in the years that were approaching. During the troubled sessions to come Thomas Gushing was chosen each year the speaker an honorable but not especially significant man among the patriots, who, through the fact that he was figure-head of the House, was sometimes credited in England and among the other colo nies with an importance which he never really possessed. Samuel Adams at the same time was made clerk, a position which gave him some control of the business of the House, and was worth about a hundred pounds a year. His ability in drafting documents was now par ticularly in place ; at the same time he was not at all debarred from appearing in debate. From this time forward, until he went to Congress at Philadelphia, he was annually made clerk, the little stipend forming often his sole means of support. At the instance of James Otis, on the 3d of 94 SAMUEL ADAMS. June, the debates of the Assembly were thrown open to the public, and arrangements were made for a gallery where the sessions could be wit nessed by all. For the first time in the history of legislative associations it was made the right yof the plain citizen to hear and see a usage which has modified in important ways the pro ceedings and very character of deliberative bod ies. No long-headed statesman in the colonies, in face of the Declaratory Act, could feel that the contest with the home government was any thing more than adjourned, and the wary Mas sachusetts managers were careful not to be caught napping. The constitution of the Coun cil or upper house will be remembered. It consisted of twenty-eight members, elected each year by the Assembly and the preceding Coun cil, voting together ; the governor possessed the power of rejecting thirteen of the twenty-eight elected. Immediately after the organization of the Assembly at the end of May, Bernard and the leaders came to strife as to the composition of the new Council. There were five persons upon the election of whom the governor s heart was especially fixed, Hutchinson, Andrew and Peter Oliver, Trowb ridge, and Lynde. They were "prerogative men" and very im portant in the way of keeping in check in the THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 95 upper house any feeling of sympathy with the spirit of opposition, which was sure to be rife in the Assembly. As Bernard was anxious to retain them, the popular leaders were just as anxious to exclude them ; Hutchinson, in par ticular, from his great ability and influence, was especially desired on the one hand and dreaded on the other. These five the Assembly refused to reelect, taking the ground that, as crown of ficials, it was inappropriate that they should sit in the legislature. Hutchinson was lieutenant- governor, chief justice, and judge of probate ; the Olivers were respectively secretary and judge in the Superior Court, Lynde was a judge also, and Trowbridge was -attorney-gen eral. In a paper justifying the course of the Assembly, drafted by Adams, but in the com position of which Otis no doubt had a share, the desire was expressed to release " the judges from the cares and perplexities of politics, and give them an opportunity to make still further advances in the knowledge of the law." Ber nard possessed no means of constraining the election of his friends. He rejected six of the councilors elected by the Assembly, by way of retaliation, and scolded the body sharply. The vacancies remained unfilled, although Hutchin son tried to retain his place on the strength of his office as lieutenant-governor. The Assem- 96 SAMUEL ADAMS, bly was inflexible. Into the place of leader of the Council stepped the excellent James Bow- doin, a well-to-do merchant of Huguenot de scent, of the best sense and character, who henceforth for many years played a most use ful part ; at present he rendered great service by keeping the Council and the Assembly in accord. Hawley at once made himself felt as a bold and clear-headed statesman. " The Parliament ot Great Britain," said he, during this session, " has no right to legislate for us." Hereupon James Otis, rising in his seat, and bowing to ward Hawley, exclaimed : " He has gone far ther than I have yet done in this house." With his lawyer s acumen the Northampton member seemed to appreciate the untenability of Pitt s opinion and to reject it at once. In 1766, to deny to Parliament the right of legislating for the colonies was advanced ground, but it came soon to be generally occupied. In December, 1766, soon after the adjourn ment of the legislature, a vessel, having on board two companies of royal artillery, was driven by stress of weather into Boston harbor. The governor, by advice of the Council, directed that provision should be made for them at the expense of the Province, following the prece dent established shortly before, when a com- THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 97 pany had been organized to be paid by the Province, but without the consent of the rep resentatives, for the protection of the stamps at the castle. In the case in hand humanity demanded that the soldiers should be received and provided for ; a principle, however, was again violated in a way which sharp-eyed patri ots could not overlook. Here resistance was made, as in the previous case, and we find now the beginnings of a matter which developed into great importance. According to the account of Hutchinson, the jealousy which the country towns had felt of the influence of Boston was disappearing at the time of the Stamp Act. Thenceforward the leaders are for the most part the Boston men, who project and conduct all the measures of importance. In the intervals between the ses sions of the Assembly, town-meetings are fre quent, in which general interests, as well as things purely local, are considered. In town- meeting and Assembly the leaders are the same, a select body of whom meet at stated times and places in the evening, at least once a week, to concert plans, inspire the newspapers, arrange for news. With calmness and accuracy Hutchinson states the gradual changes of position which the colonies assume as the contest proceeds. 98 SAMUEL ADAMS. The view which advanced minds had some time before adopted became general. The author ity of Parliament to pass any acts whatever affecting the interior polity of the colonies was called in question, as destroying the effect of the charters. King, lords, ffid commons, it is said, form the legislature of Great Britain ; so the king by his governors, the councils and as semblies, forms the legislatures of the colonies. But as colonies cannot make laws to extend farther than their respective limits, Parliament must interpose in all cases where the legisla tive power of the colonies is ineffectual. Here the line of the authority of Parliament ought to be drawn ; all beyond is encroachment upon the constitutional powers of the colonial legis latures. This doctrine, says Hutchinson, was taught in every colony from Virginia to Massa chusetts, as early as 1767. The liberal Rockingham administration, after a few months of power, disappeared, having sig nalized itself as regarded America by the re peal of the Stamp Act, and by the Declaratory Act. Of the new ministry the leading spirit was Charles Townshend, a brilliant statesman, but unscrupulous and unwise. His inclinations were arbitrary ; he regretted the repeal of the Stamp Act, as did also the king and Parliament in general, who felt themselves to have been THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 99 humiliated. Pitt, indeed, now Earl of Chatham, was a member of the government ; but, op pressed by illness, he could exercise no restraint upon his colleague, and the other members were either in sympathy with Townshend s views, or unable to oppose him. Townshend s three measures affecting America, introduced on the 13th of May, 1767, were : a suspension of the functions of the legislature of New York for contumacy in the treatment of the royal troops ; the establishment of commissioners of the cus toms, appointed with large powers to super intend laws relating to trade ; and lastly an impost duty upon glass, red and white lead, painters colors, paper, and tea. This was an " external " duty to which the colonists had heretofore expressed a willingness to submit; but the grounds of Jhe disputa^sgfira.. shifting. Townshend had declared that he held in con tempt the distinction sought to be drawn be tween external and internal taxes, but that he would so far humor the colonists in their quib ble as to make his tax of that kind of which the right was admitted. A revenue of 40,000 a year was expected from the tax, which was to be applied to the support of a " civil list," namely, the paying the salaries of the new commissioners of customs, and of the judges and governors, who were to be relieved wholly 100 SAMUEL ADAMS. or in part from their dependence upon the an nual grants of the Assemblies ; then, if a sur plus remained, it was to go to the payment of troops for protecting the colonies. To make more efficient, moreover, the enforcement of the revenue laws, the writs of assistance, the de nunciation of which by James Otis had formed so memorable a crisis, were formally legalized. The popular discontent, appeased by the repeal of the Stamp Act, was at once awake again, and henceforth in the denial of the right of Parliament to tax, we hear no more of acquiescence in commercial restrictions and in the general legislative authority of Parlia ment. A knowledge of the scandalous pen sion list in England, the monstrous abuses of patronage in Ireland, the corruptions which already existed in America, made the people indignant at the thought of an increase in the numbers and pay of placemen. Now it is that still another of the foster children of Samuel Adams emerges into prom inence, the bright and enthusiastic Josiah Quin- cy, already at the age of twenty-three becom ing known as a writer, who urges an armed resistance at once to the plans of the ministry. It was the over-hasty counsel of youth, and the plan for resistance adopted by the cooler heads was that of Samuel Adams, namely, the non- THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 101 importation and the non-consumption of Brit ish products. From Boston out, through an impulse proceeding from him, town-meetings were everywhere held to encourage the man ufactures of the Province and reduce the use of superfluities, long lists of which were enumer ated. Committees were appointed everywhere to procure subscriptions to agreements looking to the furtherance of home industries and the disuse of foreign products. But while some were watchful, others were supine or indeed reactionary. Pending the op eration of the non-consumption arrangements, which were not to go into effect until the end of the year, a general quiet prevailed, at which the friends of the home government felt great satisfaction. They declared that the "faction dared not show its face," and that " our incen diaries seem discouraged," and in particular they took much hope from the course pursued by James Otis. He, on the 20th of November, in town-meeting, made a long speech on the side of the government, asserted the right of the king to appoint officers of customs in what num ber and by what name he pleased, and declared it imprudent to oppose the new duties. Of the five commissioners of customs three had just ar rived from England, the most important among them being Paxton, whose influence had been 102 SAMUEL ADAMS. felt in the establishment of the board. Robin son and Temple, the other members, were al ready on the ground. In their early meetings, while the Province in general seemed quiet, and the voice of Otis in Faneuil Hall advocated a respectful treatment of the board and a com pliance with the regulations they were to en force, they had some reason to feel that in spite of the hot-headed boy, Quincy, and Samuel Adams with his impracticable non-consump tion schemes, the task of the commissioners "was likely to be an easy one. Before the full effects of the new legislation could be seen, Townshend suddenly died ; but in the new ministry that was presently formed Lord North came to the front, and adopted the policy of his predecessor, receiving in this course the firm support of the king, whose activity and interest were so great in public affairs that he " became his own minister." As the business of the colonies grew every day more important, it was thought necessary at the end of the year to appoint a secretary of state for the American department. For this office Lord Hillsborough was named, who had been before at the head of the Board of Trade. The new official did not hesitate to adopt ag gressive measures, granting, for his first act, to the many-functioned Hutchinson a pension of THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 103 two hundred pounds, to be paid by the commis sioners of customs, through which he became in a measure independent of the people. Of the three men now leaders of the Assem bly, Hawley lived at a distance and was only occasionally in Boston, which became more and more the centre of influence. A certain excitability, moreover, which made him some times over-sanguine and sometimes despondent, hurt his usefulness. Otis, sinking more and more into the power of the disease which in the end was to destroy him, grew each year more eccentric. Samuel Adams, always on the ground, always alert, steady, indefatigable, pos sessing daily more and more the confidence of the Province, as he had before gained that of the town, became constantly more marked as, in loyalist parlance, the "chief incendiary." Just at this time, in the winter session of the leg islature of 1767-68, he produced a series of re markable papers, in which the advanced ground now occupied by the leaders was elaborately, firmly, and courteously stated. The first letter, adopted by the Assembly January 13, 1768, is to Dennys Deberdt, the agent of the Assembly in London, and intended of course to be made public. The different members of the ministry and the lords of the treasury were also addressed, and at last the 104 SAMUEL ADAMS. king. There is no- whisper in the documents of a desire for independence. "There is an English affection in the colonists to wards the mother country, which will forever keep them connected with her to every valuable purpose, unless it shall be erased by repeated unkind usage on her part." The injustice of taxation without representa tion is stated at length, the impossibility of a representation of the colonies in Parliament is dwelt upon, and a voluntary subsidy is men tioned as the only proper and legal way in which the colonies should contribute to the imperial funds. The impropriety of giving sti pends to governors and judges independent of the legislative grants is urged, and the griev ance of the establishment of commissioners of customs with power -to appoint placemen is as sailed. No passage is more energetic than that in which the Puritan forefends the encroach ments of prelacy. " The establishment of a Protestant episcopate in America is also very zealously contended for ; and it is very alarming to a people whose fathers, from the hardships they suffered under such an establishment, were obliged to fly their native country into a wilder ness, in order peaceably to enjoy their privileges, civil and religious. Their being threatened with the loss of both at once must throw them into a disagree- THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 105 able situation. We hope in God such an establish ment will never take place in America, and we desire you would strenuously oppose it. The revenue raised in America, for aught we can tell, may be as consti tutionally applied towards the support of prelacy as of soldiers and pensioners." As a final measure a " Circular Letter " was sent to " each House of Representatives or Burgesses on the Continent." The authorship of these documents has been claimed for Otis, the assertion being made tha Adams was concerned with them only as his sistant. The claim is, however, quite untenable. In style and contents they reflect Adams, while they are in many points inconsistent with the manner and opinions of Otis. Aside from the strong internal evidence, the most satisfactory external proofs have been produced. Mrs. Han nah Wells, the daughter of Samuel Adams, used to say* that, when her father was busy with the composition of the petition to the king, she one day said to him, in girlish awe before the far-off mighty potentate, that the paper would doubtless be soon touched by the royal hand. " It will, my dear," he replied, "more likely be spurned by the royal foot." It is a significant anecdote as showing that he himself had little confidence that the effort of the Province would meet with favor. Though 106 SAMUEL ADAMS. eminent statesmen had been personally ap pealed to, and finally the king, the Assembly were careful to send no memorial to Parliament, not recognizing its right to interfere. Even more important than the documents sent abroad was the " Circular Letter " dis patched by the Assembly to its sister bodies throughout America during the same session. When the measure was first proposed by Mr. Adams, there was a large majority against it, for the feeling in England against concerted action in the colonies was well known, and there was a disinclination to cause any unnecessary friction. In a fortnight, however, a complete change had been wrought, for the measure was carried triumphantly, the preceding action of the House being erased from the record. A few days af ter, on February llth, the form of the letter was reported, again from the hand of Mr. Ad ams. In it a statement was made of the expe diency of providing for a uniform plan in the action of the different legislatures for remon strances against the government policy, infor mation was given as to the action of Massachu setts, and communication was invited as to the measures of the rest. Great pains were taken to disclaim all thought of influencing others. " The House is fully satisfied that your Assembly is too generous and enlarged in sentiment to believe THE TRUE SENTIMENTS OF AMERICA. 107 that this letter proceeds from an ambition of taking the lead or dictating to the other Assemblies. They freely submit their opinion to the judgment of others, and shall take it kind in your House to point out to them anything further that may be thought neces sary." The utmost care and tact were evidently believed to be in place, to avoid exciting jeal ousy. The " Circular Letter " had a good re ception from the various bodies to which it was addressed, and exasperated correspondingly the loyalists. The crown officers of Massachusetts sent energetic memorials to England ; Bernard in particular, besides detailing the new outrage, enlarged upon the older grievance, the deter mination of the Assembly to exclude the crown officers from the Council. The same month of February was still further signalized by the coining forward into promi nence of yet another of the protgs of Samuel Adams, perhaps the ablest and most interest ing of all, Joseph Warren, who, although for some years a writer for the newspapers, now, at the age of twenty-seven, made for the first time a real sensation by a vehement arraignment of Bernard in the " Boston Gazette." The sen sitive governor, touched to the quick by the diatribe, for such it was, and unable to induce the legislature to act in the matter, prorogued 108 SAMUEL ADAMS. it in a mood of exasperation not at all surpris ing ; not, however, until a series of resolutions had been reported by a committee of which Otis and Adams were members, discouraging foreign importations and stimulating home in dustries. These were passed with no dissenting voice but that of stalwart Timothy Ruggles, who, having honestly espoused the cause of king and Parliament, opposed himself now to the strong set of the popular current, careless of results to himself, with the same soldierly resolution he had brought to the aid of Aber- crombie and Sir Jeffrey Amherst in the hard fighting of the Old French War. CHAPTER VIII. THE AEEIVAL OF THE TEOOPS. IF we look back through the controversy that preceded the independence of America, the year 1768 stands out as an important one. The adoption by the Assembly of Massachusetts of the state papers described in the preceding chapter signalized the opening of the year. These were presently after published together in England by that liberal-handed friend of America, Thomas Hollis, under the title, " The True Sentiments of America." They impressed profoundly public sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic. Events of commensurate im portance presently followed, and the year was not to close without a marked increase in the estrangement between mother-land and colo nists. In Pennsylvania the " Farmer s Letters " of John Dickinson were meeting with wide ap proval and quickly obtained circulation in the colonies in general. They were entirely in ac cord with the Massachusetts utterances, and 110 SAMUEL ADAMS. proved that, while Franklin was in England, he had left men behind in his Province well able to take care of the public welfare. Boston town-meeting, in the spring, appointed Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Joseph Warren to express to Dickinson its thanks. Meantime though, as has been seen, the author of the papers of January had little hope that they would meet with a kind reception, the people were more sanguine, and looked for a good re sult. Hillsborough, however, never presented the letter to the king. The government found nothing but unreasonable contumacy in the " True Sentiments of America." The " Circu lar Letter " was regarded as distinctly seditious, and Bernard was required to demand of the leg islature that it should be rescinded, under threat of constant prorogation until it should be done. To give emphasis to the government threat, General Gage, commander of the forces in America, with headquarters in New York, was ominously directed " to maintain the public -^tranquillity." A naval force also was dispatched to Boston, of which the first vessel to arrive was the fifty- gun ship Romney, which signalized its ap proach from Halifax in May by impressing New England seamen from vessels met off the coast. Great ill-will existed between the peo- THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. Ill pie and the ship s crew, which burst into flame a few weeks after in the affair of the Liberty, a sloop owned by Hancock, which had broken the revenue laws. A serious riot came near re sulting. The commissioners of customs, having in mind the Stamp Act riots four years before, took refuge at the Castle ; Bernard withdrew to his house in Roxbury; while the people thronged to town-meeting, which, as usual, when the numbers overflowed, flocked from Faneuil Hall to the Old South. As James Otis entered he was received with cheers and clapping qf hands ; he was made moderator by acclamation, and presently was storming mag nificently before the enthusiastic thousands. No alarming result, however, followed. Ber nard, reasonably somewhat anxious at Roxbury, with scarcely a man to rely on if force should be used, heard at last that the emissaries of the people were coming. It must have been with much relief that he saw presently a quiet pro cession of eleven chaises draw up before his door, from which alighted two-and-twenty citi zens, with a member of his Council at their head, and Otis and Samuel Adams among the number. A representation of grievances was made in decided but temperate terms ; chief of all, the demand was urged that the Romney should be removed from the harbor. 112 SAMUEL ADAMS. " I received them," wrote Bernard, " with all possible civility, and having heard their petition I talked with them very freely upon the subject, but postponed giving them a final answer until the next day, as it should be in writing. I then had wine handed around, and they left me highly pleased with their reception." Bernard declared that lie had no authority to remove the Romney, and the matter rested there, the crown officials, not unreasonably, pressing more urgently than ever for a body of troops for their protection. The disturbance had, to be sure, proved slight, bat it might easily have become a grave affair. In the in structions of the town to the representatives, adopted in May, written by John Adams, now resident in Boston, Hutchinson calls attention to a significant attenuation of the usual loyal expression. " They declare a reverence and due subordination to the British Parliament, as the supreme legislative, in all cases of necessity for the preservation of the whole empire. This is a singular manner of express ing the authority of Parliament." The whole continent had approved the " Cir cular Letter." Connecticut, New Jersey, Geor gia, and Virginia had responded, which caused Samuel Adams to exclaim in terms which he afterwards used on a still more memorable oc- THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 113 casion, " This is a glorious day ! " When the demand that the " Circular Letter " should be rescinded became known to the Assembly, through a message from Bernard in which a letter from Hillsborough was quoted, a letter written by Samuel Adams was twice read and twice accepted, by a vote of ninety-two to thir teen, and ordered to be sent to Hillsborough by the first opportunity, without imparting its contents to the governor or the public. The letter closes with the hope that " to acquaint their fellow-subjects involved in the same dis tress of their having invited the union of all America in one joint supplication, would not be discountenanced by our gracious sovereign as a measure of an inflammatory nature." The letter was sent by the first conveyance. Mr. Adams withheld it from publication as long as he considered that the public interests were subserved by so doing ; then he resolved to have it printed in the " Boston Gazette. 1 Ber nard thus relates a scene reported to him : " This morning the two consuls of the faction Otis and Adams had a dispute upon it in the rep resentatives room, where the papers of the house are kept, which I shall write as a dialogue to save paper : " Otis. What are you going to do with the let ter to Lord Hillsborough ? 8 114 SAMUEL ADAMS. "Adams. To give it to the printer to publish next Monday. " Otis. Do you think it proper to publish it so soon, that he may receive a printed copy before the original comes to his hand ? " Adams. What signifies that ? You know it was designed for the people, and not for the minis ter. " Otis. You are so fond of your own drafts that you can t wait for the publication of them to a proper time. " Adams. I am clerk of this house, and I will make that use of the papers which I please. " I had this," continues the governor, " from a gentleman of the first rank, who I understood was present." On the day of the adoption of the letter to Hillsborough, the House considered also the question of rescinding, which was promptly de cided in the negative by a vote of ninety-two to seventeen. Addressing the governor, still by the hand of Samuel Adams, they declared : " The Circular Letters have been sent and many of them have been answered ; those answers are now in the public papers ; the public, the world, must and will judge of the proposals, purposes, and an swers. We could as well rescind those letters as the resolves ; and both would be equally fruitless if by rescinding, as the word properly imports, is meant a repeal and nullifying the resolution referred to. * THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 115 Immediately upon this action, Bernard, as required, prorogued the Assembly, but not un til a committee had been appointed to prepare a petition praying " that his majesty would be graciously pleased to remove his excellency, Francis Bernard, from the government of the Province." Adams justly looked upon the per sistence of the Assembly in this matter as an important triumph, and often referred to it in times when the people s cause was depressed, during the years that were coming, to invigo rate the spirit of his party. Since the governor had been directed to prorogue the Assembly as often as it should come together, until the " Circular Letter " should be rescinded, Massa chusetts in July, 1768, had practically no leg islature. The colonies in general approved the stand of that Province, and the necessity of union began to be felt. In the democracy of Boston, Samuel Adams, among the leaders, was especially the favorite of the mechanics and laborers. His popularity was particularly marked in the ship-yards, the craftsmen in which exercised a great influence. His own poverty, plain clothes, and careless ness as to ceremony and display, caused them to feel that he was more nearly on a level with themselves than Bowdoin, Gushing, Otis, or Hancock, who through wealth or distinguished 116 SAMUEL ADAMS. connections were led to affiliate with the rich and high-placed. Though the legislature could not convene, the restless patriot could find his opportunity in the town-meetings ; and if they were infrequent, he poured himself into the newspapers. Constant, too, were the ha rangues which he delivered in his intercourse with the townsmen, sitting side by side with some ship - carpenter on a block of oak, just above the tide, or with some shop-keeper in a fence corner sheltered from the wind. Most of his writing was done in a study adjoining his bed-room in the Purchase Street house. His wife used to tell how she was accustomed to listen to the incessant motion of his pen, the light of his solitary lamp being dimly visible. Passers in the street would often see, long after midnight, the light from his well-known win dow, and " knew that Sam Adams was hard V at work writing against the Tories." Of his ways, as he moved about in his daily walks, some graphic hints are given in an affidavit which was taken at a time when an effort was made to collect evidence against him. Under a statute of the reign of Henry VIII., which had been produced from under the dust of cen turies, subjects could be taken from foreign parts to England, to be tried for treason. A great desire was felt by the government party THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 117 to make out a case against Samuel Adams suf ficiently strong to justify such deportation. The project was abandoned, but the following curious memorial of the attempt is still pre served in the London state-paper office : " The information of Richard Sylvester of Boston, inn-holder, taken before me, Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., chief justice of said province, this twenty- third of January, in the ninth year of his Majesty s reign : " This informant sayeth that the day after the boat belonging to Mr. Harrison was burnt, the last sum mer, the informant observed several parties of men gathered in the street at the south end of the town of Boston, in the forenoon of the day. The inform ant went up to one of the parties, and Mr. Samuel Adams, then one of the representatives of Boston, happened to join the same party near about the same time, trembling and in great agitation. 1 The party consisted of about seven in number, who were un known to the informant, he having but little acquaint ance with the inhabitants, or, if any of them were known, he cannot now recollect them. The inform ant heard the said Samuel Adams then say to the said party, * If you are men, behave like men. Let us take up arms immediately, and be free, and seize all the king s officers. We shall have thirty thou sand men to join us from the country. The inform ant then walked off, believing his company was dis- 1 The constitutional tremulousness of hand and voice com mon to Mr. Adams is elsewhere described. 118 SAMUEL ADAMS. agreeable. The informant further sayeth, that after the burning of the boat aforesaid, and before the ar rival of the troops, the said Samuel Adams has been divers times at the house of the informant, and at one of those times particularly the informant began a discourse concerning the times ; and the said Sam uel Adams said : * We will not submit to any tax, nor become slaves. We will take up arms, and spend our last drop of blood before the king and Parliament shall impose on us, and settle crown offi cers in this country to dragoon us. The country was first settled by our ancestors, therefore we are free and want no king. The times were never better in Rome than when they had no king and were a free state ; and as this is a great empire, we shall have it in our power to give laws to England. The inform ant further sayeth, that, at divers times between the burning of the boat aforesaid and the arrival of the troops aforesaid, he has heard the said Adams ex press himself in words to very much the same pur pose, and that the informant s wife has sometimes been present, and at one or more of such times George Mason of Boston, painter, was present. The informant further sayeth, that about a fortnight be fore the troops arrived, the aforesaid Samuel Adams being at the house of the informant, the informant asked him what he thought of the times. The said Adams answered, with great alertness, that, on light ing the beacon, we should be joined with thirty thou sand men from the country with their knapsacks and bayonets fixed, and added, We will destroy every sol- THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 119 dier that dare put his foot on shore. His majesty has no right to send troops here to invade the country, and I look upon them as foreign enemies ! This in formant further sayeth, that two or three days before the troops arrived, the said Samuel Adams said to the informant, that Governor Bernard and Mr. Hutch- inson and the commissioners of the customs had sent for troops, and the said Adams made bitter exclama tions against them for so doing, and also repeated most of the language about opposing the king s troops, which he had used as above mentioned about a fortnight before. The informant contradicted the said Samuel Adams, and attributed the sending troops to the resolve of the General Court and the proceed ings of the town-meeting. " Sworn to : T. Hutchinson." The steps taken in America had only strengthened the determination of the govern ment to break the spirit of the colonists. Not only was the project entertained of sending Samuel Adams and other leaders to England for trial, but town-meetings were to be forbid den, and an armed force, consisting of two reg iments and a frigate, was to be sent at once to Boston. Samuel Adams afterward said that from this time he dismissed all thought of reconciliation, and looked forward to, and la- N bored for, independence. Hutchinson declares v that Adams s efforts for independence began as / 120 SAMUEL ADAMS. early as 1765. It is well established, at any rate, that though the vague dream of a great independent American state, some time to exist, had now and then found expression, Samuel Adams, first of men, saw clearly that the time for it had come in the critical period of the reign of George III., and secretly began his labors for it. Up to the year we have reached, indeed, and possibly afterwards, documents which he prepared contain loyal expressions, and some times seem to disclaim the wish or thought of ever severing the connection with the mother country. His Tory contemporaries found great duplicity in Mr. Adams s conduct. He himself would, no doubt, have said that when he dis claimed the thought of independence he spoke for others, the bodies namely which employed his hand to express their conclusions, that he could not be and was not bound in such cases to speak his own private views. It must be con fessed that some casuistry is necessary now and then to make the conduct of Samuel Adams here square with the absolute right. An ad vocate, whose sense of honor is nice, hesitates to screen a criminal of whose guilt he is con vinced, by any reticence as to his own views. A newspaper writer of the highest character will refuse to postpone his own sentiments, while he expresses the differing sentiments adopted by THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 121 the journal which employs him. One wonders if the puritan conscience of Samuel Adams did not now and then feel a twinge, when at the very time in which he had devoted himself, body and soul, to breaking the link that bound America to England, he was coining for this or that body phrases full of reverence for the king and rejecting the thought of independence. The fact was, he could employ upon occasion a certain fox-like shrewdness, which did not al ways scrutinize the means over narrowly, while he pushed on for the great end. Before our story is finished other instances of wily and de vious management will come under our notice, which a proper plumb-line will prove to be not quite in the perpendicular. Bold, unselfish, unmistakably pious as he was, the Achilles of independence was still held by the heel when he was dipped. In September, the Senegal and Duke of Cumberland, ships of the fleet, set sail from the harbor, and Bernard caused the rumor to be spread abroad that they were going for troops. A town-meeting was summoned, and Bernard, apprehending insurrection, caused the beacon on Beacon Hill to be so far dismantled that signals could not be sent to the surround ing country. At the meeting, over which Otis presided, four hundred muskets lay on the floor 122 SAMUEL ADAMS. of Faneuil Hall. A committee, of which Sam uel Adams was a member, was appointed to in quire of the governor as to his reasons for expect ing the troops, and to request him to convoke a general Assembly. Bernard refused, which con duct the committee reported to an adjourned meeting on the day following, when a spirited declaration was made by the town of its pur pose to defend its rights. The governor de scribed the meeting to Hillsborough in these terms : " An old man protested against everything but ris ing immediately, and taking all power into their own hands. One man, very profligate and abandoned, argued for massacring their enemies. His argument was, in short, liberty is as precious as life ; if a man attempts to take my life, I have a right to take his ; ergo, if a man attempts to take away my liberty, I have a right to take his life. He also argued, that when a people s liberties were threatened, they were in a state of war, and had a right to defend them selves ; and he carried these arguments so far, that his own party were obliged to silence him." For the leaders there was plainly work to be done in the way of restraining as well as stim ulating. The policy decided upon was bold, but not without precedent. Since the governor refused to convene the legislature, the town- meeting of Boston resolved to call a convention THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 123 of the towns of the Province, by their represen tatives, as had been done in 1688, choosing at the same time Gushing, Otis, Samuel Adams, and Hancock as their own delegates. Every\ inhabitant also was exhorted to provide himself \ with arms and ammunition, on the pretext that \ a war with France was impending. At once, on September 22d, the convention assembled ; 1 ninety-six towns and four districts sent deputies, i It was much embarrassed during the first three days of its sitting by the unaccountable absence of Otis, whose importance was so great that, however strange his freaks might be, his pres ence could not be dispensed with. The gov ernment party regarded this convention as the most revolutionary measure yet undertaken ; Bernard declared it to be illegal, and solemnly warned it to disperse. The temper of the body, however, was somewhat reactionary, the coun try members in particular holding back from the course to which the " Bostoneers " would have committed them. Adams, who was al ways in advance, was little pleased. His daugh ter remembered afterwards that he exclaimed : "I am in fashion and out of fashion, as the whim goes. I will stand alone. I will oppose this tyranny at the threshold, though the fabric of liberty fall and I perish in its ruins." The petition of the preceding legislature to the king, 124 SAMUEL ADAMS. however, and a letter to Deberdt, also written by Adams, both which papers were manly and strong, were adopted. The great end gained was in the way of habituating the people to coming together in other than the established ways ; and the precedent was found useful in the times that were approaching. On the very day that the convention ad journed, after a session of a week, there arrived from Halifax the 14th and 29th regiments, which have come down in history, following the designation of Lord North, as the " Sam Adams regiments," for reasons which will abundantly appear. While the ships which brought them lay close at hand in the harbor in a position to command the town, the regi ments after landing marched with all possible pomp from Long Wharf to the Common, where they paraded, each soldier having in his cartridge-box sixteen rounds, as if entering an enemy s country. The 29th regiment en camped on the Common, but the 14th was quartered in Faneuil Hall, Bernard insisting that both should be in the body of the town. Samuel Adams wrote the next week to De berdt : " The inhabitants preserve their peace and quiet ness. However, they are resolved not to pay their money without their own consent, and are more than THE ARRIVAL OF THE TROOPS. 125 ever determined to relinquish every article, however dear, that comes from Britain. May God preserve the nation from being greatly injured, if not finally ruined, by the vile ministrations of wicked men in America ! " CHAPTER IX. THE RECALL OF BERNARD. THE troops had arrived, and it is absurd to think that Bernard and the crown officers had no reason on their side in demanding them. With .three quarters of the people of the Prov ince, as shown by the composition of the As sembly, directly hostile to the government pol icy, and in Boston a still larger proportion in opposition, with the upper house of the legisla ture through its constitution scarcely less in sympathy with the people than the lower, the governor had no support in his honest efforts to maintain the parliamentary supremacy, un less he could have the regiments. That the commissioners of the customs had been foolish and cowardly in fleeing with their families to the Castle after the affair of the Liberty, it is quite wrong to assert. They were unquestion ably in danger and had no means of defending themselves. The unpopular laws which they were expected to administer could only be car ried out under protection of a military force. THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 127 When General Gage came on from New 5Tork to demand quarters for the regiments, the Council refused to grant them until the bar racks at the Castle were filled, which was re quired by the letter of the law. The main guard was finally established opposite the State House in King Street, with the cannon pointed toward the door, while the troops were housed in buildings hired by their commander, the at tempt to obtain possession of a ruinous building belonging to the Province being foiled by its occupants, who were backed by town and coun try in refusing to vacate. The troops presented a formidable appear ance as they marched through the streets and paraded on the Common. However objection able in actual service, for imposing display all who are familiar with armies must admit that nothing is equal to the British scarlet, when spread out over ranks well filled and drilled, with the glitter of bayonets above the mass of superb color. The Tories took great heart. Good-natured Dr. Byles congratulated the pa triots because their grievances were at length redressed [red -dressed], and Hutchinson wrote cheerful letters. The people were at first quiet and orderly, but by no means cowed ; and when familiarity at length had bred its usual conse quence, a threatening turbulence appeared. A 128 SAMUEL ADAMS. crowd of abandoned women followed the troops from Halifax, many of whom before long be came inmates of the almshouses. Before a month had passed, forty men had deserted, and one who was recovered was summarily shot. The town, moreover, was shocked by the flog ging of troops, which was administered by negro drummers in public on the Common. Strangely enough, Samuel Adams was once appealed to by the wife of a soldier sentenced to receive a number of lashes almost sufficient to kill him. How the poor creature could have formed the idea that the arch rebel would have influence with the commanders it is hard to say. He made the effort, however, and the interven tion was successful, in the hope, his daughter surmises, who tells the story, that the conces sion would pave the way for conciliatory over tures, with which he was afterwards approached. Through policy, and no doubt also through hu mane inclination, occasions of friction between soldiers and townsmen were avoided as far as possible by the commanders ; the legal restric tion was fully recognized, that the troops could not be employed except upon the requisition of a civil magistrate. Some amusing traditions have come down as to the extent to which non-interference was pursued. At a legal inquiry, a soldier, who THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 129 had been on duty, was said to have been thus interrogated : "The sentinel being asked whether he was on guard at the time, he answered Yes. Whether he saw any person break into Mr. Grey s house ? Yes. Whether he said anything to them ? No. Why he did not ? Because he had orders to challenge nobody. Whether he looked upon them to be thieves ? Yes. Why he did not make an alarm and cause them to be secured ? Because he had orders to do nothing which might deprive any man of his lib erty ! " This story is perhaps an invention, but the policy which it parodies was real. Occasions of offense were avoided ; a good discipline was maintained, and the collisions which at length came to pass grew rather out of the aggressions of the townsmen than from the conduct of the troops. As the fall and winter proceeded, we find Samuel Adams busy in the newspapers, among which his principal organ was the " Boston Gazette," whose bold proprietors, Edes & Gill, made their sheet the voice of the patriot sen timent and gave their office also to be a rally- ing-point for the popular leaders. Adams s signatures at this time are significant : " Obsta principiis," "Arma cedant togse," and "Vin- dex." Through him the popular ideas find 130 SAMUEL ADAMS. expression. He shows the illegality and use- lessness of billeting troops. He assails the com missioners of customs, who, having returned from the Castle, and been censured by the Council because "they had no just reason for absconding from their duty," had taken up their quarters in Queen Street. He considers the arguments of the opponents of America in Parliament, and upon this latter theme is par ticularly wise and forcible. The following let ter he contributed, as " Vindex," to the "Boston Gazette " of December 19, 1768, and it would perhaps be impossible to find a better illustra tion of the superior political sense of the New Englanders, trained in town-meeting, as com pared with their contemporaries in England. Speaking of a certain just claim of the col onies, he says : " I know very well that some of the late contenders for a right in the British Parliament to tax Ameri cans who are not, and cannot be, represented there, have denied this. When pressed with that funda mental principle of nature and the Constitution, that what is a man s own is absolutely his own, and that no man can have a right to take it from him without his consent, they have alleged, and would fain have us believe, that by far the greater part of the people in Britain are excluded the right of chusing their rep resentatives, and yet are taxed ; and therefore that THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 131 they are taxed without their consent. Had not this doctrine been repeatedly urged, I should have thought the bare mentioning it would have opened the eyes of the people there to have seen where their pretended advocates were leading them : that in order to estab lish a right in the people in England to enslave the Colonists under a plausible shew of great zeal for the honor of the nation, they are driven to a bold asser tion, at all adventures, that truly the greater part of the nation are themselves subject to the same yoke of bondage. What else is it but saying that the greater part of the people in Britain are slaves ?\_ For if the fruit of all their toil and industry depends \ upon so precarious a tenure as the will of a few, what security have they for the utmost farthing? What are they but slaves, delving with the sweat of their brows, not for the benefit of themselves, but their masters ? After all the fine things that have been said of the British Constitution, and the boasted free dom and happiness of the subjects who live under it, will they thank these modern writers, these zealous assertors of the honor of the nation, for reducing them to a state inferior to that of indented servants, who generally contract for a maintenance, at least, for their labor?" 1 In Parliament, the American cause was by no means without friends and advocates, among whom the conspicuous figure was now Edmund 1 In most of the extracts given, punctuation, spelling, cap itals, and italics follow those of the originals, as they stand in the old newspapers or the manuscripts. 132 SAMUEL ADAMS. Burke. Even Grenville declared that the order requiring the rescinding of the Circular Letter was illegal. Lord North, however, in Novem ber was " determined to see America at the king s feet ; " he led the ministry, and through both houses England pledged itself to maintain entire and inviolate the supreme authority of the legislature of Great Britain over every part of the empire. Hillsborough introduced reso lutions in the House of Lords condemning the legislature of Massachusetts and the Septem ber convention, approving the sending of the military force, and preparing changes in the charter of the Province which would lessen the popular power. Through the Duke of Bed ford steps were taken toward bringing "the chief authors and instigators " to trial for trea son, and yet the riots at this time in England were beyond comparison greater and more threatening than any disturbances in the col onies. Obstacles, however, were found to bring ing these men to trial. It was declared by the attorney and solicitor-general to be impossible, from the evidence furnished, to make out a case of treason against Samuel Adams or any other person named. The straits to which the trade of England had been brought, through the course pursued by the colonies, produced at length an effect greater than any remon- THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 133 strances. The tax upon glass, paper, and paint ers colors was taken off ; it was, however, al lowed to remain on the one article, tea. In the mean time, in Boston, the controversy was fast and furious. Of the half-dozen news papers, the " Massachusetts Gazette," also known as " Draper s " and the " Court Gazette," was the usual organ of the administration, as the " Boston Gazette " was of the popular lead ers, though other sheets as well teemed with combative periods. The government writers, among whom were some of the commissioners of customs, received liberal pay. On the pop ular side Samuel Adams was the writer most forcible and prolific, and his contributions went also to newspapers at a distance. The follow ing extract is taken from an appeal to the Sons of Liberty, prepared on the anniversary of the repeal of the Stamp Act, and found posted on the Liberty Tree in Providence, R. L, on the morning of the 18th of March, 1769. It ap peared the same morning in the " Providence Gazette," and afterward in the "Boston Ga zette." It is the closing paragraph of the ap peal, and remarkable from the significant words at the end. It is the first instance, perhaps, where Samuel Adams in any public way hints/ at independence as the probable issue of th/a difficulties. / 134 SAMUEL ADAMS. " When I consider the corruption of Great Britain, their load of debt, their intestine divisions, tu mults, and riots, their scarcity of provisions, and the Contempt in which they are held by the nations about them; and when I consider, on the other Hand, the State of the American Colonies with Re gard to the various Climates, Soils, Produce, rapid Population, joined to the virtue of the Inhabitants, I cannot but think that the Conduct of Old Eng land towards us may be permitted by Divine Wisdom, and ordained by the unsearchable providence of the Almighty, for hastening a period dreadful to Great Britain. " A SON OF LIBERTY. "PROVIDENCE, March 18th, 1769." Great efforts were made to obtain circulation for the Tory papers (for now the terms Tory and Whig, borrowed from England, had come into vogue) ; but they had no popular favor as com pared with the " Boston Gazette." Hutchinson declared that seven eighths of the people read none but this, and so were never undeceived. The site of the office of Edes & Gill, in Court Street, is really one of the memorable spots of Boston. Here very frequently met Warren, Otis, Quincy, John Adams, Church, and patri ots scarcely less conspicuous. In those groups Samuel Adams becomes constantly more and more the eminent figure. Here they read the exchanges, corrected the proof of their contri- THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 135 butions, strengthened one another by the inter change of ideas, and planned some of the most remarkable measures in the course to independ ence. At this time, also, Samuel Adams s con troversial pen found other subjects than British machinations. His friend, Dr. Chauncy, becom ing concerned in a sharp dispute with Seabury, afterwards the first bishop of the American Episcopal Church, Adams smote the prelatical adversary with a true Roundhead cudgel. To such as Seabury he was uncompromisingly hos tile till the day of his death, though on one remarkable occasion hereafter to be mentioned he postponed his prejudice to secure a certain ulterior end. For Mr. Seabury s cloth at this time he shows little respect, declaring that u he had managed his cause with the heart, though he had evidently discovered that he wanted the head, of a Jesuit." Massachusetts had been nearly a year with out a legislature, when in May, 1769, the gov ernor issued a summons for a meeting. Otis, Gushing, Samuel Adams, and Hancock were elected almost unanimously in town-meeting, and forthwith "instructed," by the hand of John Adams, in the most determined manner. The Assembly, as soon as the members were sworn, neglecting the usual preliminary, the election of the clerk, who then superintended 136 SAMUEL ADAMS. the election of the speaker, adopted a remon strance prepared by Samuel Adams, demand ing the removal of the troops. When Bernard alleged that the power did not lie with him, a committee, of which Samuel Adams was a member, declared in answer to the assertion : " That the king was the supreme executive power through all parts of the British empire, and that the governor of the Province, being the king s lieutenant and captain-general and commander-in-chief, it indu bitably follows that all officers, civil and military, within the colony are subject to his Excellency." In adopting the report the Assembly declined to proceed to business under military duress, upon which Bernard adjourned them to Cam bridge, urging that in that place the objection would be removed. The Assembly went to Cambridge, although, in 1728, the power of the governor to convene the legislature elsewhere than in Boston had been denied. They went, however, under protest, and when in the suc ceeding administration they were again and again convened at Cambridge, a sharp contro versy resulted, with which we shall presently be concerned. When the governor urged them to hasten their proceedings in order to save time and money, the house replied by Samuel Adams : THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 137 " No time can be better employed than in the pres ervation of the rights derived from the British Con stitution, and insisting upon points which, though your Excellency may consider them as non-essential, we esteem its best bulwarks. No treasure can be better expended than in securing that true old English lib erty which gives a relish to every other enjoyment." News reached Massachusetts of the bold re solves of the Virginia House of Burgesses of this year. " The committee on the state of the Province," of which Mr. Adams was a member, at once reported resolutions embodying those of Virginia in so far as they related to taxation, intercolonial correspondence, and trial by jury of the vicinage. They went back to the * Mas sachusetts Resolves " of 1765, and made so def inite an expression of the claims of the patriots that Hutchinson declared " no such full decla ration had ever before been made, that no laws made by any authority in which the people had not their representatives could be obligatory on them." Two additional regiments had come in the spring to Boston, which, being judged quite unnecessary, had been ordered to Halifax. One had already sailed, and the other was about to embark, when the new resolutions appeared in the " Boston Gazette." Then the regiment was detained ; for the government felt that the declarations were more pronounced in their re- 138 BAM U EL ADAMS. bellious tone than any that had yet been made. At this the Assembly took alarm, and although the resolves had passed in a full house unani mously, one hundred and nine being present, it was voted to modify them. This was done in spite of the more zealous spirits. The regi ment then departed, leaving behind the original force, the 14th and 29th, which were now fast nearing an hour destined to bestow upon them a somewhat unenviable immortality in the his tory of America. Another noteworthy incident in this animated session was the demand by Bernard, in accord ance with the terms of the Billeting Act, by which the troops had been quartered on the town, of a sum to defray the expenses of the troops. Samuel Adams, speaking for his com mittee, showed at length the conflict of the de mand with the chartered rights of the Province, ending with the declaration : " Your Excellency must therefore excuse us iu this express declaration, that as we cannot consistently with our honor or interest, and much less with the duty we owe our constituents, so we shall never make provision for the purposes in your several messages above mentioned." But the career of Francis Bernard in Amer ica had now reached its close. The petitions for his removal that had been sent from the THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 139 Province had probably little effect in producing this result ; but the mercnants of England, alarmed at the non-importation agreements in the colonies and selfishly anxious to stem, if possible, the disaffection that was beginning to tell with such effect on their pockets, made rep resentations that were heeded. While retain ing his office, he was summoned to England, ostensibly to help the government with infor mation and advice ; and, as a mark of the ap proval with which the king and ministry re garded his course, he was made a baronet under the title of Sir Francis Bernard of Nettleham. His demand from the legislature of a grant for the salary during the year to come, made under instruction from the king, was sufficiently legal, inasmuch as he remained governor and was to serve, according to his own ideas, the interests of the Province. Half the salary, moreover, was to be paid to the lieutenant-governor. But the General Court scornfully refused the de mand. It was prorogued early in July " to the usual time for its meeting for the winter ses sion," and on the last day of the month Sir Francis sailed for England. The day of his departure was made a public gala-day. Flags were hoisted, the bells sounded from the stee ples, cannon roared from the wharves, and on Fort Hill blazed a great bonfire. For more 140 SAMUEL ADAMS. than a year he retained in England the title of governor of Massachusetts Bay. Samuel Ad ams, in the " Boston Gazette," May 1st, thus mocked the outgoing magistrate : "Your promotion, sir, reflects an honor on the Province itself ; an honor which has never been con- ferr d upon it since the thrice-happy administration of Sir Edmond Andross of precious memory, who was also a baronet ; nor have the unremitted Endeavors of that very amiable and truly patriotick Gentleman to render the most substantial and lasting services to this people, upon the plan of a wise and uncorrupt set of m rs, been ever parallelled till since you adorned the ch r. . . . Pity it is that you have not a pension to support your title. But an Assembly well chosen may supply that want even to your wish. Should this fail, a late letter, said to have strongly recommended a tax upon the improved LANDS of the Colonies, may be equally successful with the other letters of the like nature, and funds sufficient may be rais d for the Use and Emolument of yourself and friends, without a Dependence upon a military estab lishment supported by the Province at Castle Wil liam. "I am, sir, with the most profound respect, and with the sincerest Wishes for your further Exaltation, the most servile of all your tools. A TORY." Francis Bernard was an honorable and well- meaning man, and by no means wanting in ability. As with the English country gen- THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 141 tlemen in the eighteenth century, in general, the traditions of English freedom had become much obscured in his mind. He leaned toward prerogative, not popular liberty, and honestly felt that the New Englanders were disposed to run to extremes that would ruin America and injure the whole empire. Where among the rural squires or the Oxford scholars of the time can be found any who took a different view? This being his position, no one can deny that during the nine years of his incum bency he fought his difficult fight with courage, persistency, and honesty. He leaned as far as such a man could be expected to lean toward the popular side, showing wisdom in 1763 and 1764, as we have seen, in trying to procure a lowering or abolition of the duties in the Sugar Act, and regarding the Stamp Act as most in expedient. The best friends of America in Par liament, like Lord Camden, extolled in strong terms his character and good judgment. His refined tastes and good dispositions were shown in his interest in Harvard College. After the fire of 1764, he did what he could from his own library to make good the loss of the books which had been burned ; certainly the alumnus in whose youthful associations the plain but not ungraceful proportions of Harvard Hall have become intimately bound may have a kind 142 SAMUEL ADAMS. thought for its well-meaning and much ma ligned architect. The accusations of under hand dealing that were brought against him will not bear examination. Bollan, agent in England of the Massachu setts Council, obtained from Beckford, a liberal member of Parliament, copies of six letters, written by Bernard to influence parliamentary action in November and December, 1768. The letters contain estimates of public characters, an account of events in Massachusetts, and pro posals of certain changes in the charter. When sent to America these papers aroused great in dignation. They were felt to be so important that, despite Sabbatarian scruples, they were considered by the Council on Sunday. The ut most wrath was poured out upon their author. Yet really the letters contain nothing more than views which Bernard had made no secret of. That he was profoundly dissatisfied with the constitution of the colonies and desired changes, every one knew. What opinion he had of his active opponents and their measures was no secret. He did them no more justice than they did him. The changes he advocated were that the provincial governments should be brought to a uniform type ; the Assemblies he would have remain popular, as before ; but for the Council, or upper house, he recommended a THE RECALL OF BERNARD. 143 body made up of a kind of life peers, appointed directly by the king. He recommended, also, that there should be a fixed civil list from which the king s officers should derive a certain provision, declaring that in the existing state of things it was impossible to enforce in the colonies any unpopular law or punish any out rage favored by the people, since civil officers were mainly dependent on annual grants from the Assembly. For a prerogative man, such views were not unreasonable ; certainly Ber nard had made no pretense of holding others. He was, however, bitterly denounced and in sulted. As the Baronet of Nettleham was borne out to sea that quiet summer evening, amid the peal ing bells, the salvos of cannon, and the glare of the great bonfire on Fort Hill, the populace of Boston, as it were, shouted after him their con tumely. Fine Shakespearean scholar that he was, one may well believe that the bitter out bursts of Coriolanus against the common cry of curs, whose breath was hateful as the^ reek of rotten fens, rose to the lips of the aristocrat. Neither side could do justice to the other. The student of history knows well that mutual jus tice and forbearance are in such cases not to be expected. They were the fighters in a fierce conflict, and of necessity bad blood was engen- 144 SAMUEL ADAMS. dered. A different tone, however, may be de manded at the present time. When a writer, after the lapse of a hundred years, declares, " He displayed his malignity to the last, and having done his best to ruin the Province, and to reap all possible benefit from its destruction, took his departure," l one feels that a well-mean ing man is pursued quite too far, and the desire for fair play suggests the propriety of a word or two in his favor. 1 Wells, S. Adams, I 266. CHAPTER X. THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. BERNARD had gone, and in his place stood /Thomas Hutchinson. For the next two years he remained lieutenant-governor, but to all in tents and purposes he was chief magistrate, in which position he remained until the king found no way of disentangling the ever-increas ing perplexities except through the sword of a soldier. Since for five most imporant years the figure of Hutchinson is to be scarcely less prominent in our story than that of Samuel Adams himself, the main facts in his career hitherto may be recapitulated, that the char acter may be fully understood with which now, in the summer of 1769, and in his fifty-eighth year, he comes into the foreground. Born in 1711, he left Harvard in 1727, and soon made some trial of mercantile life. From a line of famous ancestors, among them Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, that strong and devout spirit of the earliest days of Boston, he had inherited a most honorable name and great abilities. He 10 146 SAMUEL ADAMS. was a Puritan to the core ; Ms wealth was large, his manners conciliated for him the good will of the people, which for a long time he never forfeited. He became a church member at twenty-four, selectman of Boston at twenty- six, and at thirty was sent as agent of the Prov ince to London on important business, which he managed successfully. For ten years after his return he was representative, during three of which he served as speaker. In particular, he did good service in the settlement of the Prov ince debt in 1749. For sixteen years he was a member of the Council, and while in the Coun cil he became judge of probate, lieutenant-gov ernor, and chief justice, holding all these posi tions at once. It is shooting quite wide of the mark to base any accusation of self-seeking on the number of Hutchinson s offices. The emoluments accruing from them all were very small ; in some, in fact, his service was practi cally gratuitous. Nor was any credit or fame he was likely to gain from holding them at all to be weighed against the labor and vexation to be undergone in discharging their functions. A more reasonable explanation of his readiness to uphold such burdens is that the rich, high- placed citizen was full of public spirit. That he performed honorably and ably the work of these various offices there is no contradicting THE NON-IMPORTATION testimony. As a legislator no one wiser. As judge of probate he had always be friended widows and orphans. As chief justice, though not bred to the law, he had been an excellent magistrate. Besides all this, he had found time to write a history of New England, which must be regarded as one of the most in teresting and important literary monuments of the colonial period a work digested from the most copious materials with excellent judg ment, and presented in a style admirable for dignity, clearness, and scholarly finish. Now that battle was joined between the peo ple and the prerogative men, he had taken sides with the latter, following his honest opin ions, and keeping his head cool even after the exasperations of years of controversy. On the 14th of February, 1772, he writes : " It is not likely that the American colonies will remain part of the dominion of Britain another cen tury, but while they do remain, the supreme, absolute legislative power must remain entire, to be exercised upon the colonies so far as is necessary for the main tenance of its own authority and the general weal of the whole empire, and no farther." * With these views Hutchinson comes into the leading place among the Tory champions, a 1 From Hutchinson s autograph letter to John H. Hutchin son, Dublin, in Mass. Archives. 148 SAMUEL ADAMS. place which he had not sought, but which, when urged upon him, he did not refuse. As Hutchinson becomes now the conspicu- / bus figure among the royalists, Samuel Adams stands out in a prominence which he has not before possessed in the camp of the patriots. To Bernard " he was one of the principal and most desperate chiefs of the faction." To Hutchinson, however, he becomes u the chief incendiary," the " all in all," the " instar om nium" " the master of the puppets." Whereas to Bernard Samuel Adams has been only one among several of evil fame, to Hutchinson he stands like Milton s Satan among the subor dinate leaders of the hellish cohorts, isolated in a baleful supremacy. This new eminence of Samuel Adams is mainly due to an event which took place in the beginning of Septem ber. James Otis, who was far enough from looking forward to independence, whose favor ite scheme, as we have seen, was an American representation in Parliament, and who with all his opposition was very desirous to be thought loyal, felt outraged beyond measure at the re ports of seditious conduct on his part, that had been made in letters written by the crown offi cers to the government in England. While in this frame of mind, he met, at the British coffee house in King Street, Robinson, one of the com- THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 149 missioners of customs, who was there in com pany with officers of the army and navy and various civil dignitaries. A violent altercation took place which ended in a fight, in the course of which Otis was severely cut and bruised, his head in particular receiving ugly wounds. The proceeding was regarded in the town as most cowardly and brutal, since Otis, while alone, was set upon by several assailants. The hostile temper of the people was greatly incensed by the occurrence, the resentment becoming mixed with passionate grief when it presently ap peared that the mind of the popular idol had become practically wrecked by reason, as was generally believed, of the injuries received. For years already the eccentricities of Otis, which plainly enough indicate a certain mor bidness of mind, had aroused anxiety, and made I him sometimes almost unendurable to those whoy were forced to work with him. When Oxer/ bridge Thacher, the admirable man whose un timely death opened the way for Samuel Adams to enter the Assembly, had happened to think differently from Otis, the latter had treated him in so overbearing and insolent a way that he was obliged to call on the speaker of the house for protection. The bar were sometimes all up in arms against him on account of his ar rogant affronts. Adams usually got on with him 150 SAMUEL ADAMS. better than others did. Gordon says that " Sam Adams was well qualified to succeed Thacher, and learned to serve his own views by using Otis s influence." The old historian regards it as part of Samuel Adams s tact, who, he says, " acquired great ascendency by being ready to acquiesce in the proposals and amendments of others, while the end aimed at by them did not eventually frustrate his leading designs. He showed in smaller matters a pliableness and complaisance which enabled him at last to carry those of much greater consequence." But deft though he was, Adams could not al ways manage Otis, as is indicated by the scene between " the two consuls of the faction," of which we know through Bernard s description, already quoted. At the time of the violence, as is learned from John Adams s report, Otis was in a strange frame of mind, and no doubt comported himself in such a way as to bring the \ assault upon himself. Although the abilities and services of James Otis were so magnificent, ) contemporary testimony makes it plain that he must often have been a source of great embar- ^Vassment through his vacillations and infirmi ties. That his motives were sometimes far enough from being the highest seems probable. The assertion of Hutchinson that his opposition to the government cause was due to wrath, into THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 151 which he fell because his father had not been made chief justice in 1760, would not, unsup ported, be sufficient to establish the fact. Gor don, however, who stood with the patriots, makes the same statement. The story is that Shirley had promised the place to the elder Otis, and that the son had exclaimed: "If Governor Bernard does not appoint my father judge of the Superior Court, I will kindle such a fire in the Province as shall singe the gov ernor, though I myself perish in the flames ; " and that his resistance to the government be gan at the appointment of Hutchinson instead of his father. John Adams, too, touched by a slighting remark of Otis, and dashing down an odd outburst of testiness in his diary, hints at much self-seeking. From 1769, Otis, who had always been an uncomfortable ally, however useful at times, became simply a source of anxiety and embar rassment. His influence with the people yet remained ; by fits and starts his old eloquence still flashed forth, and town-meeting and As sembly, which he had so often made to thrill, were slow to give him up. It required all Samuel Adams s adroitness, however, to hold his crazy associate within some kind of limits, who frequently, as we shall see, put things in the gravest peril in spite of all that could be 152 SAMUEL ADAMS. /done. With Bernard gone, therefore, and Otis incapacitated, Hutchinson and Samuel Adams, in the deepening strife, confront one another, each assisted by, but quite above, his fellow combatants, fighters well worthy of one another ; n point of ability, honesty, and courage. For years now Samuel Adams had laid aside ill pretense of private business, and was de- oted simply and solely to public affairs. The Blouse in Purchase Street still afforded his fam ily a home. His sole source of income was the small salary he received as clerk of the Assem bly. His wife, like himself, was contented with poverty ; through good management, in spite of their narrow means, a comfortable home-life was maintained in which the children grew up happy, and in every way well-trained and cared for. John Adams tells of a drive taken by these two kinsmen, on a beautiful June day not far from this time, in the neighborhood of Boston. Then, as from the first and ever after, there was an affectionate intimacy between them. They often called one another brother, though the relationship was only that of second cousin. "My brother, Samuel Adams, says he never looked forward in his life ; never planned, laid a scheme, or formed a design of laying up any thing for himself or others after him." The case of Samuel Adams is almost without par- THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 153 allel as an instance of enthusiastic, unswerving devotion to the public service throughout a long life. His pittance scarcely supplied food, and when clothing was required, as we shall see, it came by special gift from his friends. Yet with all this, according to the confession of his enemies, he was absolutely incorruptible. Bernard before his departure had written that the most respectable of the merchants would not hold to the non-importation agree ments, and British merchants accordingly felt encouraged to send cargoes to America. On September 4 a factor arrived in charge of a large consignment of goods. The town was ex pecting him ; Samuel Adams, in the " Boston Gazette," had prepared the public mind. At once a meeting of merchants was held at which the factor was " required to send his goods back again." At a town-meeting held on the same day Samuel Adams with others was appointed to vindicate the town from the false representa tions of Bernard and other officials, and the case of those who had broken the non-importa tion agreements was considered. The names of four merchants were placed on the records as infamous ; among those thus gibbeted were a son of Bernard and the two sons of Hutchin- son, with whom the father was believed by the people to be in collusion. Such goods as had 154 SAMUEL ADAMS. been landed were housed, and the key was kept by a committee of patriots. The troops mean while stood idle spectators, for no act could be alleged of which any justice of the peace would take notice, although the temper of the people was so plainly hostile. An invitation from New York, to continue the non-importation agreement until all the revenue acts should be repealed, was at once accepted by the mer chants. Hutchinson, in letters to Bernard, hopes, consistently enough, "that Parliament will show their indignation. ... A rigorous spirit in Parliament will yet set us right ; with out it the government of this Province will be split into innumerable divisions." The committee chosen to defend the town from the aspersions of the crown officials re ported at an adjourned meeting, held a fort night later, an address written by Samuel Adams, which obtained great fame under the title, " An Appeal to the World." It occupies twenty-nine pages of the town-records, and was circulated widely in America and also in Eng land, where it was republished. In the case of Wilkes the principle of representation was at this time undergoing attack in England as well as in America, and there were many who read with eagerness the Boston statement. Speak ing of Bernard, the appeal declares : THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 155 " He always discovered an aversion to free assem blies ; no wonder then that he should be so particu larly disgusted at a legal meeting of the town of Bos ton, where a noble freedom of speech is ever expected and maintained; an assembly of which it may be justly said, Sentire quas volunt et quae sentiunt di- cere licet, they think as they please and speak as they think. Such an assembly has ever been the dread, often the scourge of tyrants." A remarkable forbearance, one is forced to admit, characterizes the conduct of the soldiers during the fall and winter of 1769. In Octo ber a man who had given information regard ing certain smuggled wine, which had arrived from Rhode Island, was tarred and feathered, carted for three hours through the streets, and finally made to swear under the Liberty Tree never again to do the like. John Mein, pub lisher of the " Chronicle," a paper which, from having been neutral, at length took the govern ment side, was a recent Scotch immigrant of intelligence and enterprise. His advertisements as a bookseller are still interesting reading, fill ing as they do whole columns of the news papers with lists of his importations, comprising the best books in that day published. He de serves to be gratefully remembered also as the founder in Boston of circulating libraries. For ridiculing certain of the patriots he was at- 156 SAMUEL ADAMS, tacked and goaded into firing a pistol among the crowd ; he was forced to fly to the main guard for protection, whence he escaped in dis guise, to return soon after to England. Diffi culty was experienced in maintaining the non importation agreements. Certain merchants who had signed them reluctantly, interpreting them now according to the letter, which made them expire on January 1, 1770, at once threw off restrictions on that date and began to sell tea. Among these were the sons of Hutchin- son, who were upheld by their father. The peo ple, however, had a different understanding of the agreement. The restriction, they thought, must remain in force until other merchants could import. A crowd of citizens, merchants, justices of the peace, selectmen, representatives, and magistrates, as well as men of a lower de gree, waited upon Hutchinson, demanding re dress. Hutchinson from the window warned them of the danger of their illegal and riotous proceedings, but finally succumbed to the de mands of the crowd, a course which he later re gretted. " Some of your friends and mine," he afterward wrote to a royalist, " wish matters had gone to extremities, this being as good a time as any to have called out the troops." He felt great doubt whether he was competent, as governor, to order the soldiers to fire, as appears THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 157 from his diary, a doubt shared by the legal lights in England; he was chief magistrate, but did that imply the powers of a justice of the peace ? The same method seems to have been em ployed or at least threatened by the people, in other cases, and to have been much dreaded. A certain Scotchman, a large importer, having been remonstrated with and proving utterly contumacious, Samuel Adams arose in the meet ing and moved grimly that the crowd, consist ing of two thousand people, should resolve itself into a committee of the whole and wait upon him to urge his compliance with the general wish. Thereupon the Scotchman, a little fel low in a reddish, smoke-dried wig, with a squeak ing voice and a roll of the r s like a well-played drum, rushed before the crowd exclaiming: " Mr. Mode-r-r-rator, I agr-r-ree, I agr-r-ree ! " greatly to the people s amusement. Samuel Adams pointed to a seat near himself with a polite, condescending bow of protection, and the frightened man was quieted. It had been intimated from England that, since the government had become convinced that duties like those of the Townshend act were not consistent with the laws of commerce, the imposts would be removed from glass, paper, and painters colors, but not, as we have seen, from 158 SAMUEL ADAMS. the one article, tea. The people were not con ciliated, for it was easy to see that in retaining the duty upon tea, the government proposed to cling to the right of taxing the colonies. This principle the colonists were just as determined to repudiate, and therefore, although as a mat ter of dollars and cents it was a thing of tri fling moment, a resistance to the use of tea from the present time is a main feature of the dis turbance. Tea it was which the sons of Hutch- inson were anxious to bring into the market at the expiration of the non-importation agree ments, when the resistance of the people was so determined. It was voted by the citizens soon after at Faneuil Hall to abstain totally from the use of tea. Since the men were less concerned in the matter than the women, the mistresses of four hundred and ten families pledged themselves to drink no more tea until the revenue act was repealed, and a few days later one hundred and twenty young ladies formed a similar league. " We, the daughters of those patriots," said they, " who have and do now appear for the public interest, and in that principally regard their posterity, as such do with pleasure engage with them in denying ourselves the drinking of foreign tea, in hope to frus trate a plan which tends to deprive a whole com munity of all that is valuable in life." THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS. 159 At the social gatherings the void created by the absence of the popular beverage was quite unfilled, save "by the rather melancholy notes of the spinnet. The importers had no peace. They were pointed out as proscribed men, and were hooted at by boys in the streets. It was during such a disturbance that, on the 22d of February, the first bloodshed took place in Boston, in a con test which had for so long been a mere war of words. A crowd of boys, engaged in torment ing a trader who had made himself obnoxious by selling tea, was fired into by a partisan of the government. One boy was wounded, and another, Christopher Snyder, son of a poor Ger man, was killed. An immense sensation was created. The boy who was slain was eleven years old. At his funeral five hundred of his schoolmates walked before the coffin, and a crowd of more than a thousand people followed. The procession marched from the Liberty Tree to the town-house, and thence to the burying- ground on the Common. The man who had fired the shot narrowly escaped being torn in pieces. So step by step the estrangement in creased, and at length came a formidable ex plosion. ti5 CHAPTER XL THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. As the spring of the year 1770 appeared, the 14th and 29th regiments had been in Bos ton about seventeen months. The 14th was in barracks near the Brattle Street Church ; the 29th was quartered just south of King Street ; about midway between them, in King Street, and close at hand to the town-house, was the main guard, whose nearness to the public build ing had been a subject of great annoyance to the people. During a period when the legis lature was not in session a body of troops had occupied the unused representatives chamber. James Otis had characteristically given voice to the general aversion at this time. At a meeting of the Superior Court in the council chamber he moved an adjournment to Faneuil Hall, saying, with a gesture of contempt and loathing, "that the stench occasioned by the troops in the representatives chamber might prove infectious, and that it was utterly derog atory to the court to administer justice at the THE SAM ADAMS JtEGIMENTS. 161 points of bayonets and the mouths of cannon." During their Boston sojourn the troops were carefully drilled. John Adams, whose house was near the barracks of the 14th, has left a description of the music and exercises to which he and his family were constantly treated. One is forced to admit, also, that a good degree of discipline was maintained ; no blood had as yet been shed by the soldiers, although provo cations were constant, the rude element in the town growing gradually more aggressive as the soldiers were never allowed to use their arms. Insults and blows with fists were frequently taken and given, and cudgels also came into fashion in the brawls. Whatever awe the reg iments had inspired at their first coming had long worn off. In particular the workmen of the rope-walks and ship-yards allowed their tongues the largest license, and were foremost in the encounters. About the 1st of March fights of unusual bitterness had occurred near Grey s rope-walk, not far from the quarters of the 29th, between the hands of the rope-walk and soldiers of that regiment, which had a particularly bad reputa tion. The soldiers had got the worst of it, and were much irritated. Threats of revenge had been made, which had called out arrogant re plies, and signs abounded that serious trouble l o 11 162 SAMUEL ADAMS. was not far off. From an early hour on the evening of the 5th of March the symptoms were very ominous. There was trouble in the neighborhood of the 14th regiment, which was stopped by a sudden order to the soldiers to go into their barracks. A crowd of towns people remained in Dock Square, where they listened to an harangue from a certain myste rious stranger in a long cloak, who has never been identified. An alarm was rung from one of the steeples, which called out many from their houses under the impression that there- was a fire. At length an altercation began in King Street between a company of lawless boys and a few older brawlers on the one side, and the sentinel, who paced his beat before the custom-house, on the other. Somewhat earlier in the evening the sentry had pushed or struck lightly with his musket a barbef- s apprentice, who had spoken insolently to a captain of the 14th as he passed along the street. The boy was now in the crowd, and pointing out the sentry as his assailant, began with his compan ions to press upon him, upon which the soldier retreated up the steps of the custom-house, and called out for help. A file of soldiers was at once dispatched from the main guard, across the street, by Captain Preston, officer of the guard, who himself soon followed to the scene THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 163 of trouble. A coating of ice covered the ground, upon which shortly before had fallen a light snow. A young moon was shining ; the whole transaction, therefore, was plainly visible. The soldiers, with the sentinel, nine in number, drew up in line before the people, who greatly out numbered them. The pieces we re loaded and held ready, but the mob, believing that the troops would not use their arms except upon requisition of a civil magistrate, shouted coarse insults, pressed upon the very muzzles of the pieces, struck them with sticks, and assaulted the soldiers with balls of ice. In the tumult precisely what was said and done cannot be known. Many affidavits were taken in the investigation that followed, and, as always at such times, the testimony was most contradictory. Henry Knox, afterwards the artillery general, at this time a bookseller, was on the spot and used his influence with Preston to prevent a command to fire. Pres ton declared that he never gave the command. The air, however, was full of shouts, daring the soldiers to fire, some of which may have been easily understood as commands, and at last the discharge came. If it had failed to come, indeed, the forbearance would have been quite miraculous. Three were killed outright, and eight wounded, only one of whom, Crispus 164 SAMUEL ADAMS. Attacks, a tall mulatto who faced the soldiers, leaning on a stick of cord- wood, had really taken any part in the disturbance. The rest were by standers or were hurrying into the street, not knowing the cause of the tumult. A placid citizen, standing in his doorway on the corner of King and Congress Streets, was struck by two balls in the arm, upon which, says tradi tion, he turned about and quietly remarked, " I declare, I do think these soldiers ought to be talked to." A wild confusion, with which this curious little spill of milk and water was in strong enough contrast, took possession of the town. The alarm-bells rang frantically ; on the other hand the drums of the regiments thun dered to arms. The people flocked to King Street, where the victims lay weltering, the whiteness of the ground under the moon giving more ghastly emphasis to the crimson horror. The companies of the 29th regiment, forming rapidly, marched to the same spot, upon which, with steady discipline, they kneeled in obedi ence to command, prepared for street-firing. The 14th meanwhile stood ready in their bar racks. " The soldiers are rising. To arms ! to arms ! Town-born, turn out," were the wild cries with which the air was filled. What averted a fearful battle in the streets was the excellent conduct of Hutchinson. He THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 165 had supposed at first that the confusion was due to an alarm of fire, but was presently called out by people running from King Street, with the tidings that he must appear, or the town would soon be all in blood. Making his way to Dock Square, he could produce no impres sion upon the confusion. He avoided the crowd by entering a house, and by a private way at length reached the custom-house. His first act was to take Preston sharply to task. " Are you the commanding officer ? " " Yes, sir." " Do you know, sir, you have no power to fire on any body of people collected together, except you have a civil magistrate with you to give orders?" " I was obliged to, to save the sentry." As a catastrophe seemed imminent, the lieu tenant-governor made his way as quickly as possible to the council-chamber, from the bal cony of which facing eastward down King Street, with the soldiers in their ranks, the an gry people and the bloody snow directly be neath him, he made a cool and wise address. He expressed heart-felt regret at the occur rence, promised solemnly that justice should be done, besought the people to return to their homes, and desired the lieutenant-colonels who stood at his side to send the troops to their 166 SAMUEL ADAMS. quarters. " The law," he declared, " should have its course. He would live and die by the law." The officers, descending to their commands, gave orders to the troops to shoulder arms and return to their barracks. No opposition was made to the arrest of Captain Preston and the nine soldiers who had been concerned in the firing, which was presently effected. The crowd gradually fell away, leaving about a hun dred to attend the investigation, which at once began under Hutchinson s eye, and continued until three o clock in the morning. In good season the next forenoon, Hutchinson, sitting in the council chamber, with such members of the Council as could be assembled, was waited upon by the selectmen of Boston and most of the justices of the county, who told him that townspeople and troops could no longer live together, and that the latter must depart. Hutchinson alleged, as he had done before, that the troops were not under his command, and while the interview went forward the select men were peremptorily summoned elsewhere. To Faneuil Hall the people had flocked be times, the number of the townsmen swelled by crowds who poured in from the country. Wil liam Cooper, the town clerk, acted as chairman at first. When presently the selectmen ap- THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 167 peared, and things took on a more formal shape, Thomas Gushing became moderator, and Dr. Cooper, of the church in Brattle Street, by in vitation of the multitude, offered an earnest prayer. Depositions were then taken, graphic statements of facts connected with the Massa cre, by various eye-witnesses, and then at length Samuel Adams addressed the meeting. What he said must be inferred from the action which the meeting immediately took. A committee of fifteen was appointed, among them Samuel Adams, although he was not at the head of it, who were instructed to wait upon Hutchinson to demand the instant removal of the troops. Measures were then taken for a town-meeting in regular form at three o clock in the after noon, the selectmen preparing, and the consta bles posting the warrants. While the people dispersed, the committee proceeded to discharge their duty that they might be ready to report in the afternoon. Their spokesman announced to Hutchinson that it was the determination of Boston and all the country round that the troops should be removed. According to Hutch- inson s own account, when he, with his Council and the officers of the army and navy stood face to face with the committee of fifteen, he reiterated his declaration that he had no au thority to remove the troops. The committee, 168 SAMUEL ADAMS. dissatisfied, waited after tlie interview in a room adjoining the council chamber. At three o clock the town-meeting assembled in regular form at Faneuil Hall, but the mul titude, swollen by the people of the surrounding towns, became so vast that they adjourned to the Old South. As Hutchinson sat deliberating with the Council and crown officers, the crowd swept past the town-house, over the snow still crimson with the Massacre. How they looked as they moved past, now in groups, now singly, now in a numerous throng, we may get through side-lights. It was a disorderly mob which the evening before had pressed upon the soldiers. But now said a member of the Council to Hutch inson, as they looked from the windows down upon the street : " This multitude are not such as pulled down your house ; but they are men of the best characters, men of estates, and men of religion ; men who pray over what they do." And Hutchinson himself declares, that they were " warmed with a persuasion that what they were doing was right, that they were struggling for the liberties of America," and he judged " their spirit to be as high as was the spirit of their ancestors when they imprisoned Andros, while they were four times as numer ous." It must be owned that there is a tone of candor in these expressions ; nevertheless, it THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 169 was the view of Hutch inson that the demand of the people for the removal of the regiments ought to be resisted, and he has recorded that it was not he who yielded. Colonel Dalrymple, of the 14th regiment, the ranking officer, had indicated that as the first intention had been to station the 29th at the Castle, though he could receive an order from no one but Gage, he would respect the expression of a desire from the magistrates, and would, if it were thought best, send the 29th to the Castle. The town s committee were informed of this, Hutchinson declaring that he would receive no further com munication on the subject. The Council, how ever, with Dalrymple, induced him to meet them again for further deliberation. Issuing, as we may suppose, from the south ern door, the committee of fifteen appeared upon the steps of the Old State House, on their way to the Old South to make their report, Samuel Adams at their head. The crowd had overflowed from the church into the street, and the cry went before, " Make way for the com mittee." Samuel Adams bared his head : he was but forty-eight, but his hair was already so gray as to give him a venerable look. He inclined to the right and left, as they went through the lines of men, saying as he did so : " Both regi ments or none ! " " Both regiments or none ! " 170 SAMUEL ADAMS. Densely as they could be packed, the floor and the double range of galleries in the Old South were filled with the town-meeting, the crowd in the street pushing in on the backs of those already in place, till stairs, aisles, and windows were one mass of eager faces. The reply of the lieutenant-governor was rendered in this presence, namely, that the commander of the two regiments received orders only from the general in New York, but that at the de sire of the civil magistrates, the 29th, because of the part it had played in the disturbance, should be sent to the Castle, and also that the position of the main guard should be changed ; the 14th, however, must remain in the town, but should be so far restrained as to remove all danger of further differences. But now re sounded through the building the cry, " Both regiments or none ! " from the floor, from the galleries, from the street outside, where men on tip-toe strove to get a view of proceedings within. " Both regiments or none ! " and it be came plain what the leader had meant, as he spoke to the right and to the left a moment be fore, while the committee had proceeded from the council chamber to the town-meeting. The watch- word had been caught up as it was sug gested ; and now with small delay a new com mittee, this time consisting of seven, upon which THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 171 the town took more care than ever to put the best men, was sent back to the governor. Of the committee, Hancock, Henshaw, and Pemberton had wealth, ability, and worth, and were moreover selectmen ; Phillips was a mer chant, generous and respected ; Molineux, too, was a merchant, a man of much executive force, but more valued perhaps in action than in coun sel, while Joseph Warren, the physician, im petuously eloquent, had for some years been pushing always higher. On the list of the committee, while Hancock is first, Samuel Ad ams comes second. Probably the rich luxu rious chairman did not forget, even on an oc casion like this, to set off his fine figure with gay velvet and lace, and a gold-headed cane. About four o clock that afternoon, the 6th of March, the new committee entered the council chamber ; and now as the power of the people and the power of the government, like two great hulls in a sea-fight, are about to crash together, in the moment of collision, on the side of the Province the gilded figure-head is taken in and " a wedge of steel " 1 is thrust forth in front to bear the brunt of the impact. 1 John Adams, who found the legitimate resources of rhetoric quite inadequate for the expression of his admiration for his kinsman, says Sam Adams was " born and tempered a wedge of steel to split the knot of lignum vitce that tied America to England." 172 SAMUEL ADAMS. Hancock disappears from the fore, and Samuel Adams stands out to take the shock ! Day was already waning, and we may fancy the council chamber lighting up with a ruddy glow from the open fire-places. John Adams long after suggested the scene that took place as a fit subject for a historical painting. " Now for the picture. The theatre and the scenery are the same with those at the discussion of the writs of assistance. The same glorious portraits of King Charles the Second, and King James the Second, to which might be added, and should be added, little miserable likenesses of Governor Winthrop, Governor Bradstreet, Governor Endicott, and Governor Belcher, hung up in obscure corners of the room. Lieu- tenant-Governor Hutchinson, commander-in-chief in the absence of the governor, must be placed at the head of the council-table. Lieutenant-Colonel Dal- rymple, commander-in-chief of his majesty s mili tary forces, taking rank of all his majesty s council lors, must be seated by the side of the lieutenant- governor and commander-in-chief of the Province. Eight-and-twenty councillors must be painted, all seated at the council-board. Let me see, what costume ? What was the fashion of that day in the month of March ? Large white wigs, English scarlet- cloth coats, some of them with gold-laced hats ; not on their heads indeed in so august a presence, but on the table before them or under the table beneath them. Before these illustrious personages appeared THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 173 SAMUEL ADAMS, a member of the House of Repre sentatives and their clerk, now at the head of the committee of the great assembly at the Old South Church." Adams spoke in his straightforward, earnest way, asserting the illegality of quartering troops on the town in time of peace without the con sent of the legislature ; he described the trouble that must come if the troops remained, and urged the necessity of compliance with the de mand of the town. Gordon says that the pe culiar nervous trembling, of which he was the subject, communicated itself as he spoke to Colonel Dalrymple. Hutchinson showed no ir resolution. He briefly defended both the legal ity and the necessity of the presence of the troops, and declared once more that they were not subject to his authority. Samuel Adams once more stood forth : x; It is well known," he said, " that acting as gov ernor of the Province, you are by its charter the commander-in-chief of the military forces within it ; and as such, the troops now in the capital are subject to your orders. If you, or Colonel Dalrymple under you, have the power to remove one regiment, you have the power to remove both ; and nothing short of their total removal will satisfy the people or pre serve the peace of the Province. A multitude highly incensed now wait the result of this application. The 174 SAMUEL ADAMS. voice of ten thousand freemen demands that both regiments be forthwith removed. Their voice must be respected, their demand obeyed. Fail not then at your peril to comply with this requisition ! On you alone rests the responsibility of this decision ; and if the just expectations of the people are disappointed, you must be answerable to God and your country for the fatal consequences that must ensue. The com mittee have discharged their duty, and it is for you to discharge yours. They wait your final determina tion." A long discussion now took place, in which Hutcbinson appears to have stood alone in his wish to continue to oppose the town. His be lief, he says, was that if officers and Council had supported him in the beginning in the firm as sertion that the troops could not be removed without the orders of Gage, the people could have been put off. The Council, however, yielded ; the colonels, too, gave way, Dalrym- ple at last signifying his readiness to remove the 14th as well as the 29th. The position of affairs remained no secret. The people were promptly informed that the governor stood alone. At length Andrew Oliver, the sec retary, upon whom Hutchinson much relied, who had at first advised resistance, declared that it could go no farther, that the governor must give way or instantly leave the Province. THE SA^ 1 ADAMS REGIMENTS. 175 At last, therefore, the formal recommendation came from him to Dairy m pie to remove the troops. The soldier s word of honor was given that it should be done at once, and at dark the committee carried back to the meeting the news of success, upon which, so say the rec ords, " the inhabitants could not but express the high satisfaction which it afforded them." A week was required for the transportation of the troops and their baggage, during which the town, dissatisfied with what appeared like unnecessary delay, remonstrated through the same committee of seven. A night-watch dur ing this time continued in organization, under the same committee. Says John Adams : " Military watches and guards were everywhere placed. We were all upon a level ; no man was ex empted ; our military officers were our superiors. I had the honor to be summoned in my turn, and at tended at the State House with my musket and bay onet, my broadsword and cartridge-box, under the command of the famous Paddock." During this week occurred the funeral of the victims of the Massacre, which took place under circumstances of the greatest solemnity. Four hearses, for one of the wounded had meantime died, containing the bodies, and coming from different directions, met upon the spot in King Street in which the victims had fallen. The 176 SAMUEL ADA\ assemblage was such as had never before been known ; the bells of Boston and the whole neigh borhood tolled, and a great procession, march ing in ranks of six abreast, followed to the Granary Burying Ground, where the bodies were laid in a common grave near the north east corner. There they rest to this day. In England the affair was regarded as a " success ful bully " of the whole power of the govern ment by the little town, and when Lord North received details of these events he always af terward referred to the 14th and 29th as the " Sam Adams regiments." From that day to this, both in England and America, it has been held that there was a great exhibition of weakness, if not actual pol troonery, on the part of the civil and military officers of the government in this conflict with the town of Boston. The idea is quite wrong. Hutchinson, so far from showing any weakness, was resolute even to rashness. Loving his coun try truly, honestly believing that Parliament must be supreme over tfye provincial legisla ture, and that the people would acquiesce in such supremacy if only a few headstrong lead ers could be set aside, he was in a position as chief magistrate which he had not sought. Now that he was in it, however, he pursued THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 177 the course which seemed to him proper, sad dened though he must have been by the unpop- larity, fast deepening into hatred, of which he had become the subject. To uphold the gov ernment cause, the presence of the troops was, in his view, indispensable. The taxes imposed by Parliament there could be no hope of col lecting in the misled Province except with the support of bayonets. Upon what could his own authority rest, with Council and Assembly in vast proportion hostile, if the troops were removed? He had avoided occasions of con flict, as he had reason to feel, with much for bearance. The Massacre of the 5th of March he deeply regretted ; he was determined to have justice done. But when the peremptory demand came from the town for the removal of the regiments, then he felt it right to remain passive ; he thought he had no power in the matter. There is no reason to doubt his own representation, made in private letters, 1 in his history, 2 in his private diary 3 now just come to light, that he would not have yielded but for the course pursued by those about him, whose support he could not do without. Possibly he was right in thinking that a firm front shown from the first by the crown officers would have 1 To Bernard, March 18, 1770. 2 fi st . ft. 2 75. 8 Diary, 79, 80. 12 178 SAMUEL ADAMS. won over the people in spite of the machina tions of the " faction." All men about the governor, however, were at last for yielding, and the people knew it, and were encouraged by it in their own course. In the " Diary," where he expresses himself with more freedom than elsewhere, Hutchinson charges Dalrym- ple with being especially responsible for the result : " Colonel Dalrymple offered to remove one regi ment, to which the soldiers on guard belonged. This was giving up the point. . . . The regiments were removed. He was much distressed, but he brought it all upon himself by his offer to remove one of the regiments." Nor is it necessary to regard Dalrymple as a coward. His character as a brave and prudent soldier is certified to in the strongest terms by the famous Admiral Hood, shortly before the commodore on the Boston station. The regi ments together numbered scarcely six hundred effective men. Boston was evidently sustained by the country. What could six hundred men do against a populous Province ? It was, no doubt, a stretch of authority to order the troops away, but a prudent soldier may well have felt that the circumstances justified it. He took the responsibility, and although the mortification which the act caused in England was so great, THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 179 it is to be noticed that he never received any censure for it. But while we try to do justice to men who have received contemptuous treatment for a hundred years, we must not lose sight of their mistake. Hutchinson s conduct was manful and consistent with his views. He ought, how ever, to have had better views. Out of the best strain of New England as he was, sprung from liberty-loving sires and trained in the folk-mote, what business had he to stand there for arbitrary power against government of the people, by and for the people ? It was a posi tion in which such a man should never have been found. And now let us look at the great contrasting figure. In the scenes we have been contemplating, the two men stand over against one another in a definite opposition and prom inence which we have not before seen. It has been regarded as the most dramatic point of Samuel Adams s career. One may well dwell with admiration on the incidents of his con duct. Where his adversary failed, he was strong. Of like origin and training with him, in Samuel Adams s case the fruit had been le gitimate. He believed with all his heart in the people, that they should be governed only by themselves or their representatives, and was perfectly fearless and uncompromising against 180 SAMUEL ADAMS. all power, whether king, Parliament, or sol diery, which contravened the great right. While he moves in obedience to the principle he recognizes, how effective at this time is his work ! As is so often the case, he is, for the most part, somewhat withdrawn, not the moderator of the town-meeting, nor indeed chairman of the famous committees, but nevertheless the controlling mind. His speech at Faneuil Hall in the forenoon of the 6th of March without doubt outlined the whole policy that must be pursued. When, as the first committee passed from the south door of the State House to the Old South, he kept repeating to right and left, " Both regiments or none," he guided the whole action of the people as the crisis approached. When, an hour or two later, Hancock stepped aside and Samuel Adams walked forward in the council chamber into the spokesman s place, probably he was the one man of the Province who could then have brought the British lion to confusion. He himself seems to have felt that it was the great moment in his life. For almost the only time in his whole career, we find something like a strain of personal exulta tion in his reference to this scene. Writing of Hutchinson s bearing in it to James Warren of Plymouth, in the following year, he says : " It was then, if fancy deceived me not, I observed THE SAM ADAMS REGIMENTS. 181 his knees to tremble. I thought I saw his face grow pale (and I enjoyed the sight) at the appearance of the determined citizens peremptorily demanding the redress of grievances." The contemporary historian, as we have seen, says that Dalrymple, too, trembled. We need not feel, however, that either soldier or civilian played then the part of the craven. The cir cumstances were for them full of danger and difficulty. The determination of ten thousand freemen was focused in the steel-blue eyes of Samuel Adams as he stood in the council cham ber ; the tramp of their feet and the tumult of their voices made a heavy ground-tone behind his earnest, decisive words. It was a time when even a brave man might for a moment blench. By rare good-fortune, the world possesses what is probably the best representation that could at that time have been made of Samuel Adams as, on that March day, he drove the British uniform out of the streets of Boston. John Hancock, two years later, employed the famous John Singleton Copley to paint portraits of himself and Samuel Adams, which hung for fifty years on the walls of the Hancock House in Beacon Street, which were then removed to Faneuil Hall, and are now in the Art Museum. Copley was at first well disposed to the popular cause. At the time of the Massacre he testified 182 SAMUEL ADAMS. against the soldiers, and seems to have admired the bearing of Samuel Adams throughout the disturbances. At any rate, for this portrait, he has chosen to give Samuel Adams as he stood in the scene with Hutchinson in the council chamber. Against a background suggestive of gloom and disturbance, the figure looks forth. The face and form are marked by great strength. The brow is high and broad, and from it sweeps back the abundant hair, streaked with gray. The blue eyes are full of light and force, the nose is prominent, the lips and chin, brought strongly out as the head is thrown somewhat back, are full of determination. In the right hand a scroll is held firmly grasped, the energy of the moment appearing in the cording of the sinews as the sheets bend in the pressure. The left hand is thrown forth in impassioned gesture, the forefinger pointing to the provin cial charter, which with the great seal affixed, lies half unrolled in the foreground. The plain dark-red attire announces a decent and simple respectability. The well-knit figure looks as fixed as if its strength came from the granite on which the Adamses planted themselves when they came to America ; the countenance speaks in every line the man. CHAPTER XII. THE CONTROVERSY AS TO ROYAL INSTRUC TIONS. IN the fall of the year Captain Preston and the soldiers were brought to trial. However the rude part of the people may have thirsted for their blood, it was not the temper of the better-minded. By an arrangement in which Samuel Adams had a share, John Adams and Josiah Quincy, eminent patriots and lawyers, appeared as counsel for the prisoners, while Robert Treat Paine, also eminent, undertook the prosecution. Everything was done to se cure for the prisoners a fair trial. The town attempted to suppress the publication of the official account of the Massacre until proceed ings were over, that the minds of the jurors might be quite unprejudiced. Preston was en tirely acquitted ; most of the soldiers, too, were brought in "Not guilty." Two were found guilty of manslaughter, but let off with no more severe punishment than being branded in the hand in open court. John Adams, fully per- 184 SAMUEL ADAMS. suaded of the innocence of the accused, and Quincy, exerted themselves to the utmost for their clients, and every extenuating circum stance was allowed its full weight. Samuel Adams, it must be confessed, appears not al ways to advantage at this time. He was little satisfied with the postponement of the trial, and quite displeased with the issue. With William Cooper, Warren, arid a concourse of people, if we may trust Hutchinson, he appeared before the Superior Court after the judges had decided not to proceed at once, and sought to induce them to alter their decision. The trial he followed carefully, constantly taking notes. At its conclusion, over the signature " Vindex," he examined the evidence at length, pronounced much of that given for the soldiers false, and battled fiercely with the royalist writers who ventured into the lists against him. The conduct of the town of Boston was really very fine. The moderation which put off the arraignment of the accused men until the pas sions of the hour had subsided, the appearance of John Adams and Josiah Quincy, warm pa triots, in the defense, the acquittal at last of all but two, and the light sentence inflicted upon these, all together constituted a grand tri umph of the spirit of law and order, at a time when heated feeling might have been expected ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 185 to carry the day. If Samuel Adams s counsels had prevailed, it cannot be denied that the out come would have been less creditable. The course of things would have been hurried, the punishment have been more severe. Yet with all their undue vehemence, his utterances pos sess sometimes a noble grandeur. As "Vin- dex " he declares : 1 " Philanthrop may tell us of the hazard of disturb ing and inflaming the minds of the multitude whose passions know no bounds. The multitude I am speaking of is the body of the people, no contempti ble multitude, for whose sake government is instituted, or rather who have themselves erected it, solely for their own good, to whom even kings and all in subordination to them, are, strictly speaking, servants, not masters." On the very day of the Boston Massacre Par liament debated the repeal of the taxes imposed by Townshend upon glass, paper, and paints, voting at last, as has been said, to retain only the duty upon tea. Since the right of taxa tion without representation was thus adhered to, the concession amounted to nothing, and the breach between mother-land and colonies remained as wide as ever. When at length the General Court convened, in March, a most tedious dispute arose at once. Says Hutchinson : 1 January 21, 1771. 186 8 AMU EL ADAMS. " There came a signification of the king s pleasure that the General Court should be held in Cambridge, unless the lieutenant - governor should have more weighty reasons for holding it at Boston than those which were mentioned by the secretary of state against it." Bernard, as we know, had already convened the court at Cambridge, in violation, as was claimed, of the charter, causing no small incon venience to the members and also to Harvard College, the " Philosophy Room " in which was given up to the sessions. The main point, however, upon which the Whigs stood was the insufficiency of the plea of royal " instructions " for violating a provision of the charter. The quarrel continued until 1772, when Hutchinson felt forced to yield the point, although shortly before he had been on the brink of success. Both Otis and Hancock came out at one time on the government side, and Gushing, too, was weak-kneed. Hutchinson might well have felt that he was made even with his adversary for his discomfiture at the time of the Massacre, when one day he was waited upon by a legisla tive committee with Sam Adams among them, bearing a message to the effect that they rec ognized his power under royal instruction to remove the legislature " to Housatonic, in the extreme west of the Province, if he chose." ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 187 For the patriot cause all seemed imperiled, and Hutchinson wrote cheerfully, looking forward to the most substantial cleaving of difficulties from the success of this entering wedge. He was foiled, however; Bowdoin and Hawley stood steadfastly by Samuel Adams, while Otis, speed ily falling once more under the power of his disease, was carried off bound hand and foot. Hancock came round again to his old friends. The tail of the British lion remained in the grasp of these remorseless twisters. While the debate was in progress Hutchin son received his commission as governor, not without many tokens of favor in spite of the lowering brows of the patriots. His brother- in-law, Andrew Oliver, became at the same time lieutenant-governor, and Thomas Flucker secretary. Among the felicitations Harvard College paid a tribute, while the students made the walls of Holden Chapel ring with the an- them : " Thus saith the Lord : from henceforth, behold, all nations shall call thee hlessed ; for thy rulers shall be of thy own kindred, your nobles shall be of yourselves, and thy governor shall proceed from the midst of thee." Shortly before, in 1770, died Dennys De- be rdt, who had served the Assembly long and faithfully in England as agent; and in his 188 SAMUEL ADAMS. place, not without considerable resistance, Franklin "was elected. This famous Boston boy, who as a youth had gone to Pennsylvania, and after a remarkable career had at length proceeded to England, was already the agent of Pennsylvania. No American as yet had gained so wide a fame on both sides of the At lantic. His discoveries in natural philosophy gave him high rank among men of science, and his abilities in politics had also become gener ally recognized. In Massachusetts, neverthe less, a considerable party distrusted him, among whom stood Samuel Adams ; and it is easy to understand why. Franklin s wide acquaintance with the world, joined to a disposition natu rally free, had lifted him to a degree that might well seem alarming above the limitations rec ognized as proper by all true New England- ers. The boy who, according to the well-known story, had advised his father to say grace once for all over the whole barrel of beef in the cel lar, and so avoid the necessity of a blessing at table over each separate piece, was indeed the father of the man. Plenty of stories were rife respecting Franklin, that touched the Puritan corns as much as would this. At the present time, indeed, it is not merely the over-fastidious who take exception to certain passages in Franklin s life. To stern Samuel Adams and ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 189 his sympathizers no man upon whom rested a suspicion of free thinking or free living could be congenial. There were still other reasons, which had probably more weight than that just men tioned in bringing it about that, just at this time Franklin should be opposed in Massachu setts. In some respects, to be sure, his political declarations were exceedingly bold ; witness his famous " examination " in 1765. With all this, however, Franklin was strenuously opposed to any revolution. The British empire he com pared to a magnificent china bowl, ruined if a piece were broken out of it, and he earnestly recommended that it should be kept together. With grand foresight he anticipated the speedy peopling of the Mississippi valley, though at that time few Europeans had crossed the Alle- ghanies ; and he thought the time was not far off when this portion of the English dominions would preponderate, when even the seat of gov ernment might be transferred hither, and Amer ica become principal, while England should be come subordinate. For the views of Samuel Adams, Franklin, probably, had as little liking as Adams had for those of Franklin. As late as the summer of 1773 Franklin wrote to Boston, deprecating the influence of the violent spirits who were for a rupture with the mother coun- 190 SAMUEL ADAMS. try. " This Protestant country (our mother, though of late an unkind one) is worth preserv ing ; her weight in the scale of Europe, and her safety in a great degree, may depend on our union with her." To his well-known de sire to remain united to England was added the fact that Franklin, as deputy postmaster- general, held an important crown office, while his natural son, William Franklin, was royal governor of New Jersey, and a pronounced Tory. Samuel Adams acquiesced in the appoint- U^ment of Franklin, though his party succeeded in associating with him the Virginian, Arthur Lee ; and at the fall session of 1770, by the bidding of the House, Samuel Adams had sent the new agent a long letter of instructions, in which the grievances were recapitulated for which Franklin was to seek redress. These in clude the quartering of troops on the people in time of peace ; the policy of arbitrary instruc tions from his majesty s secretaries of state in violation of the charter; the removal of the legislature from Boston ; the secrecy as to in tended measures of government, with the con cealment from the colonies of the names of their accusers and of the allegations against them ; the sending to England of false reports of speeches and legislative proceedings under the !( U ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. ^y 191 - Province seal ; the enormous extension *of the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Courts, in viSar" .... tion of the clause of Magna Charta by which every freeman on trial was entitled to the " judgment of his peers on the law of the land ; " and finally the threatened bestowal by the king of salaries upon the attorney-general, judges, and governor of the Province, thus re moving their dependence upon the people. All these subjects are treated in detail. The let ter was not only sent to Franklin, but was pub lished in full in the " Boston Gazette." Hutch- inson sent a copy to England, denouncing Sam uel Adams by name as the author, and calling him the " all in all," the " great incendiary leader." In August, 1771, a strong fleet of twelve sail, under Admiral Montague, brother of the Earl of Sandwich, a commander who among the old sea-dogs of England seems to have been marked by characteristics especially canine, cast anchor before the town. The pretext was the impending war with Spain, but all knew it was intended to check the spread of sedition. It is hard to see in these years how the Whig cause could have been prevented from going by the board, but for Samuel Adams. Now in the newspapers, now in the Boston town-meet ing, now at the head of his party in the House, 192 SAMUEL ADAMS. at the first symptom of danger he was on the alert with resolute remonstrance, the more vig orous as those about him grew weary and reac tionary. Fighting steadily the removal of the legislature, he was once more up in arms when Hutchinson, in obedience again to " instruc tions," was about to surrender the command of the Castle to Dalrymple, though the charter required that the commander should be an offi cer of the Province. Again, at the hint that the governors and the law officers were to re ceive salaries from the king and to be 110 longer dependent on the Province, there was the fierc est " oppugnation." This point, indeed, be came at once the subject of a quarrel of the sharpest, just as the long dispute was closing respecting the removal of the legislature. Almost the first business to which the House turned in May, 1772, was the question of the governor receiving a salary from the king. Hutchinson now avowed that his sup port in future was to proceed from the king, and declined to accept compensation from the Province. Vigorous resolutions ,were passed declaring this to be a violation of the char ter, "exposing the Province to a despotic ad ministration of government." Hawley was chairman of the committee reporting the res olutions, but Samuel Adams was concerned in ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 193 their composition. When they passed by a vote of eighty-five to nineteen, several of the loyalists withdrew discouraged. The legisla ture, made sullen, refused to repair the Prov ince House, and Hutchinson, after an energetic reply to Hawley s resolutions, prorogued the court until September. During the summer Lord Hillsborough retired from his secretary ship, making it known to the lords of trade on the eve of that event that the king, " with the entire concurrence of Lord North, had made provision for the support of his law servants in the Province of Massachusetts Bay." In Sep tember this news became known in Boston, and that warrants had been ordered on the com missioners of customs for the payments. The rising tone in the writings of Samuel Adams is very apparent. As " Vindex " he had declared in the " Boston Gazette," when only rumors were rife, " I think the alteration of our free and mutually dependent constitution into a dependent ministerial despotism, a grievance so great, so ignominious and intolerable, that in case I did not hope things would in some measure regain their ancient situation without more bloodshed and murder than has been already committed, I could freely wish at the risk of my all, to have a fair chance of offering to the manes of my slaughtered countrymen a libation of the blood of the ruthless traitors who conspired their destruction." 13 194 SAMUEL ADAMS. As "Valerius Poplicola," October 5, 1772, lie is even more earnest. " Is it not enough," he cried, " to have a Governor an avowed advocate for ministerial measures, and a most assiduous instrument in carrying them on, model d, shaped, controul d, and directed, totally inde pendent of the people over whom he is commissioned to govern, and yet absolutely dependent upon the Crown, pension d by those on whom his existence depends, and paid out of a revenue establish d by those who have no authority to establish it, and ex torted from the people in a Manner most odious, in sulting, and oppressive? Is not this indignity enough to be felt by those who have any feeling ? Are we still threatened with more ? Is Life, Property, and everything dear and sacred to be now submitted to the Decisions of PENSIONED judges, holding their places during the pleasure of such a Governor, and a Council perhaps overawed ? To what a state of In famy, Wretchedness, and Misery shall we be reduced, if our Judges shall be prevail d upon to be thus de graded to HIRELINGS, and the BODY of the people shall suffer their free Constitution to be overturned and ruin d. Merciful God I inspire thy people with wisdom and fortitude, and direct them to gracious ends. In this extreme distress, when the plan of slavery seems nearly compleated, save our country from impend ing ruin. Let not the iron hand of tyranny ravish our laws and seize the badge of freedom, nor avowed Cor ruption and the murderous Rage of lawless Power be ever seen on the sacred Seat of Justice ! ROYAL INSTRUCTIONS. 195 " Let us converse together upon this most interest ing Subject, and open our minds freely to each other. Let it be the topic of conversation in every social club. Let every Town assemble. Let Associations and Combinations be everywhere set up to consult and recover our just Rights. The country claims our active aid. That let us roam ; & where we find a spark Of public Virtue, blow it into Flame. " CHAPTER XIII. THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. " LET associations and combinations be every where set up to consult and recover our just rights." This suggestion, contained at the end of the paper quoted at the close of the last chapter, Samuel Adams proceeded to put at once in practice, setting on foot one of the most memorable schemes with which his name is as sociated. As his career has been traced, we have seen that in the instructions of 1764 and frequently since, his recognition of the impor tance of a thorough understanding between the widely separated patriots has appeared. A let ter of the previous year to Arthur Lee contains the definite suggestion of a Committee of Cor respondence, " a sudden thought which di^ps undigested from my pen," which should not only promote union among the Americans, but also with men similarly minded in England, like the society of the Bill of Rights. The task before Samuel Adams was a hard one. Not only must he thwart the Tories, but he THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 197 found the patriots for the most part quite in different ; he may be said, indeed, to have worked out the scheme alone. Gushing, Han cock, and Phillips, his associates of the Boston seat, were against his idea, as were also the more influential among the selectmen. War ren indeed was a strenuous helper, but had not yet risen into great significance. Church appeared zealous, but he was secretly a trai tor. Three petitions were presented to the selectmen, and three weeks passed before the meeting could be brought about. In the last petition the number of names was much di minished, indicating the difficulty which Sam uel Adams found in holding the people to the work. He used what influence he could out side of Boston to prepare the way for his idea in other towns. Writing to Elbridge Gerry, a young man of twenty-eight, with whom he was just coming into a connection that grew into a close and unbroken life-long friendship, who had encouraged him with an account of interest felt at Marblehead, he says : " Our enemies would intimidate us by saying our brethren in the other towns are indifferent about this matter, for which reason I am particularly glad to re ceive your letter at this time. Roxbury I am told is fully awake. I wish we could arouse the continent." A town-meeting took place, which was ad- 198 SAMUEL ADAMS. journed and again adjourned, in the general lethargy ; so slight was the interest with which the successive steps in a movement of the first importance were regarded ! Hutchinson, in an swer to a resolution of inquiry and a request that the legislature, which was to meet Decem ber 2, might not be prorogued, replied, " That the charter reserved to the governor the full power, from time to time, to adjourn, prorogue, or dissolve the Assembly. A compliance with the petition would be to yield to them the exercise of that part of the prerogative. There would be danger of encouraging the inhabitants of other towns in the Province to similar procedures, which the law had not made the business of town-meetings." The town-meeting caused the governor s words to be read again and again before it, and voted them to be " not satisfactory." The pro ceeding illustrates well the astuteness and knowledge of men of Samuel Adams, who was certainly as consummate a political manager as the country has ever seen. He drafted for the town the resolution and request to the gov ernor, which have just been referred to, and which apparently relate to something very dif ferent from his real purposes ; he was chairman of the committee which presented these docu ments. The whole thing was a trap. He wrote afterwards to Gerry that he knew such requests, THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 199 couched in such terms, must provoke from Hutchinson an arrogant answer, the Affect of which would be to touch the people in a point where they were sensitive, and produce unan imity for the course which he desired to pur sue. As he had expected and planned, the town-meeting resolved unanimously that " they have ever had and ought to have, a right to petition the king or his representative for a redress of such grievances as they feel, or for preventing such as they have reason to appre hend, and to communicate their sentiments to other towns." The town-meeting having been brought into an appropriate mood, there followed the motion which in its consequences was perhaps the most important step which had so far been taken in bringing into existence the new nation. The town records of Boston say : " It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams that a Committee of Correspondence be appointed, to con sist of twenty-one persons, to state the rights of the colonists and of this Province in particular as men and Christians and as subjects ; and to communicate and publish the same to the several towns and to the world as the sense of this town, with the infring- ments and violations thereof that have been or from time to time may be made." The motion occasioned some debate and 200 SAMUEL ADAMS. seems to have been carried late at night ; the vote in its favor, at last, was nearly unanimous. The colleagues of Adams, who had left him almost alone thus far, now declined to become members of the committee, regarding the scheme as useless or trifling. The committee was at last constituted without them ; it was made up of men of little prominence but of thorough respectability. James Otis, in another interval of sanity, was made chairman, a posi tion purely honorary, the town in this way showing its respect for the leader whose mis fortunes they so sincerely mourned. The Committee of Correspondence held its first meeting in the representatives chamber at the town-house, November 3, 1T72, where at the outset each member pledged himself to observe secrecy as to their transactions, except those which, as a committee, they should think it proper to divulge. According to the motion by which the committee was constituted, three du ties were to be performed : 1st, the preparation of a statement of the rights of the colonists, as men, as Christians, and as subjects; 2d, a dec laration of the infringement and violation of those rights ; 3d, a letter, to be sent to the sev eral towns of the Province and to the world, giving the sense of the town. The drafting of the first was assigned to Samuel Adams, of THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 201 the second to Joseph Warren, of the third to Benjamin Church. In a few days tidings came from the important towns of Marblehead, Rox- bury, Cambridge, and Plymouth, indicating that the example of Boston was making impression and was likely to be followed. On November 20, at a town-meeting in Faneuil Hall, the different papers were presented : Otis sat as moderator, appearing for the last time in a sphere where his career had been so magnifi cent. The report was in three divisions, ac cording to the motion. The part by Samuel Adams, which has absurdly been attributed to Otis by later writers, is still extant in his au tograph. The paper of Warren recapitulated the long list of grievances under which the Province had suffered ; while Church, in a let ter to the selectmen of the various towns, solic ited a free communication of the sentiments of all, expressing the belief that the wisdom of the people would not " suffer them to doze or sit supinely indifferent on the brink of destruc tion." In the last days of 1772, the document, hav ing been printed, was transmitted to those for whom it had been intended, producing at once an immense effect. The towns almost unani mously appointed similar committees ; from every quarter came replies in which the senti- 202 SAMUEL ADAMS. ments of Samuel Adams were echoed. In the library of Bancroft is a volume of manuscripts, worn and stained by time, which have an in terest scarcely inferior to that possessed by the Declaration of Independence itself, as the fading page hangs against its pillar in the li brary of the State Department at Washington. They are the original replies sent by the Mas sachusetts towns to Samuel Adams s commit tee, sitting in Faneuil Hall, during those first months of 1773. One may well read them with bated breath, for it is the touch of the elbow as the stout little democracies dress up into line, just before they plunge into actual fight at Concord and Bunker Hill. There is sometimes a noble scorn of the restraints of or thography, as of the despotism of Great Britain, in the work of the old town clerks, for they gen erally were secretaries of the committees ; and once in a while a touch of Dogberry s quaint- ness, as the punctilious officials, though not al ways " putting God first," yet take pains that there shall be no mistake as to their piety by making every letter in the name of the Deity a rounded capital. Yet the documents ought to inspire the deepest reverence. They con stitute the highest mark the town-meeting has ever touched. Never before and never since have Anglo-Saxon men, in lawful folk-mote THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 203 assembled, given utterance to thoughts and feelings so fine in themselves and so pregnant with great events. To each letter stand af fixed the names of the committee in autograph. This awkward scrawl was made by the rough fist of a Cape Ann fisherman, on shore for the day to do at town-meeting the duty his fellows had laid upon him ; the hand that wrote this other was cramped from the scythe-handle, as its possessor mowed an intervale on the Con necticut ; this blotted signature, where smutted fingers have left a black stain, was written by a blacksmith of Middlesex, turning aside a mo ment from forging a barrel that was to do duty at Lexington. They were men of the plainest ; but as the documents, containing statements of the most generous principles and the most cour ageous determination, were read in the town- houses, the committees who produced them, and the constituents for whom the committees stood, were lifted above the ordinary level. Their horizon expanded to the broadest ; they had in view not simply themselves, but the welfare of the continent ; not solely their own generation, but remote posterity. It was Samuel Adams s own plan, the consequences of which no one foresaw, neither friend nor foe. Even Hutchin- son, who was scarcely less keen than Samuel Adams himself, was completely at fault. " Such 204 SAMUEL ADAMS. a foolish scheme," he called it, "that the faction must necessarily make themselves ridiculous." But in January the eyes of men were opening. One of the ablest of the Tories, Daniel Leon ard, wrote : " This is the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent ever issued from the egg of sedition. I saw the small seed when it was implanted ; it was a grain of mustard. I have watched the plant until it has become a great tree." It was the transformation into a strong cord of what had been a rope of sand. Though Samuel Adams could be terribly in earnest, as sufficiently appears from the ex tracts which have been made, there is never an excess of zeal and rage, such as shows itself sometimes in his more youthful and hot-headed disciples, Warren and Quincy. During the oc cupation of Boston by the troops, Wah-en was known to be ready with knock-down arguments, upon occasion, for red-coats that were too forth- putting, and once exclaimed to William Eustis, afterwards governor of Massachusetts : " These fellows say we won t fight ; by heavens, I hope I shall die up to my knees in blood ! " Dur ing the agitation before the formation of the Committee of Correspondence, Josiah Quincy wrote : THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE. 205 " The word of God has pointed the mode of relief from Moabitish oppression : prayers and tears with the help of a dagger. The Lord of light has given us the fit message to send to a tyrant : a dagger of a cubit in his belly ; and every worthy man who desires to be an Ehud, the deliverer of his country, will strive to be the messenger." Such outbreaks of vindictive frenzy never appeared in the speech or conduct of Samuel Adams, though as a dire necessity from which there could be no shrinking without sacrifice of principle an appeal to the sword at some time not far distant began to seem to him inevi table. How high the name of Samuel Adams stood elsewhere than in Massachusetts, was shown early in 1773 in the matter of the burning of the British man-of-war Gaspee, in Narragan- sett Bay. The zealous officer who commanded her had brought upon himself the ill-will of the people by the faithfulness with which he carried out his instructions in executing the obnoxious revenue laws. His vessel running ashore, a party from Providence attacked her in boats, and after a fight, in which the commander was wounded, the Gaspee was burned. The wrath of the Tories and of the officers of the British army and navy was great. A board of commissioners appointed by the crown convened 206 SAMUEL ADAMS. at Providence, who, it was believed, would send the culprits to England for punishment, and perhaps take away the charter of Rhode Island. Through the general connivance of the people, the British admiral and the governor could not find the actors in the affair, although they were well known. Matters wore a dark look. In their distress, the leading men of the colony, looking about for an adviser, made respectful application to Samuel Adams : " Give us your opinion in what manner this colony had best behave in this critical situation, and how the shock that is coming upon us may be best evaded or sustained." Samuel Adams, while giving advice in detail, makes a suggestion which plainly shows what thought now espe cially occupies him : " I beg to propose for your consideration whether a circular letter from your Assembly on the occasion, to those of the other colonies, might not tend to the advantage of the general cause and of Rhode Island in particular." CHAPTER XIV. THE CONTROVERSY AS TO PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. IN the long struggle between the patriots and the government the student becomes bewil dered, so numerous are the special discussions, and so involved with one another. Hutching son and Samuel Adams stand respectively at the heads of the opposed powers, each dex terous, untiring, fearless ; and as the spectator of a mortal combat with swords between a pair of nimble, energetic strivers might easily be come confused in the breathless interchange of thrust and parry, so in trying to follow this un remitting ten years fight, there is absolutely no place where one can rest. The attention must be fixed throughout, or some essential phase of the battle is lost. However deceived Hutchinson may have been for an instant as to the effect of his great rival s stroke in the establishment of the Committee of Correspondence, his eyes were jn a moment opened, and with his usual quick- 208 SAMUEL ADAMS. ness he was ready at once with his guard. He convened the legislature January 6, 1773, and whereas he had always heretofore avoided a formal discussion of the great question at issue, preferring to assume the authority of Parliament over the colonies as a matter of course, he now sent to the legislature a pow erful message in which the doctrine of par liamentary supremacy was elaborately vindi cated. The reception of such a paper was to the legislature a matter of the gravest mo ment. Hutchinson was unsurpassed in acute- ness ; no one knew so thoroughly as he the history of the colonies from the beginning ; his legal reading had been so wide that few could match him in the citation of precedents. At his command, too, were all the skill and learning of the Tory party, which included strong men, like Daniel Leonard, the news paper writer, and Jonathan Sewall, the attor ney-general. Reviewing the past usages of Massachusetts, the governor undertook to show that the course of things favored the idea of the supremacy of Parliament, which had never been denied until the time of the Stamp Act. The grant of liberties and immunities in the charter could not be understood as relieving the Province from obligations toward the su preme legislature, but was only an assurance on PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 209 the part of the crown to the Americans that they had not become aliens, but remained free- born subjects everywhere in the dominions of Britain. By their voluntary removal from England to America, they relinquished a right which they could resume whenever they chose to return to England, the right, namely, of voting for the persons who made the laws. The fact that they had voluntarily relinquished this right by removing could by no means be understood as destroying the authority of the law-makers over them. No line, he alleged, could be drawn between an acknowledgment of the supremacy of Parliament and inde pendence ; and the governor asked if there was anything they had greater reason to dread than independence, exposed as they would then be in their weakness to the attacks of any power which might choose to destroy them. Hutchinson supported and illustrated his posi tions by references to history and constitutional authorities far and near. The tone of the doc ument was moderate and candid : " If I am wrong I wish to be convinced of my error. . . . I have laid before you what I think are the principles of your constitution ; if you do not agree with me, I wish to know your objec tions." Nothing could be better adapted to weaken the spirit of opposition, to which the 14 210 SAMUEL ADAMS. Committees of Correspondence were giving new strength. The governor s message produced a wide and profound effect. The newspapers spread it to the world. It was read not only throughout Massachusetts, but throughout America ; in England, too, it was widely circulated. Many a patriot knit his brows over it as a paper most formidable to his cause ; the Tories called it unanswerable, and extolled its author as a rea- soner whom none could overthrow. But over against him stood his adversary, wary, watchful, undismayed, and the counter-stroke was at once delivered. As Hutchinson had summoned to his help all the acumen and learning of the loy alists, so his opponent laid under contribution whatever shrewdness or knowledge could be found in the opposite camp. Hawley and John Adams, in particular, lent their help. The master agitator, however, himself arranged and combined all, presenting at last an instrument in his own clear, unequivocal English, which the simplest could grasp, which the ablest found it difficult to gainsay. On January 8, the speech of the governor had had a second reading ; then a committee, with Samuel Ad ams for its chairman, was appointed to reply, which reported its answer on the 22d. The Assembly entered into long and careful de- PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 211 liberation concerning it. They had been ac customed to follow with little question their strongest minds, particularly of late the mem bers of the Boston seat ; but in the present crisis they seem to have resolved to take no leap in the dark. The answer of the com mittee was taken up paragraph by paragraph, and thorough proof was demanded for the soundness of all the arguments and the cor rectness of the citations from authorities. All this the committee furnished. The reply, as it came out from this inquisi tion, traversed the governor s speech, position by position. The disturbed condition of the Prov ince, to which he had made allusion, was attrib uted to the unprecedented course of Parliament. The charters granted by Elizabeth and James were cited, and much space was taken in show ing that the laws of the colonies were intended to conform to the fundamental principles of the English constitution, and that they did not im ply the supremacy of Parliament. The terri tory of America was at the absolute disposal of the " crown," and not annexed to the " realm." The sovereignty of Parliament was not im plied in the granting of the charters ; Parlia ment had never had the inspection of colonial acts, for the king alone gave his consent or al lowance. The reply denied that the settlers, 212 SAMUEL ADAMS. when removing to America, relinquished any of the rights of British subjects, one of which was to be governed by laws made by per sons in whose election they had a voice. " His excellency s manner of reasoning on this point seemed to them to render the most valuable clauses of their charter unintelligible." The paper passed on to a consideration of the views of the founders of New England. From Hutchinson s own declarations in his his tory, they sought here to make good their case in opposition to his plea. As regarded the di lemma proposed by the governor, that if Parlia ment were not supreme the colonies were inde pendent, the alternative was accepted, and the claim made that, since the vassalage of the col onies could not have been intended, therefore they must be independent. There cannot be two independent legislatures in one and the same state, Hutchinson had urged. Were not the colonies, then, by their charters made dif ferent states by the mother country? queried the reply. Although, said Hutchinson, there may be but one head, the king, yet the two leg islative bodies will make two governments as distinct as the kingdoms of England and Scot land before the union. Very true, may it please your excellency, was the answer; and if they interfere not with each other, what hin- PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 213 ders their living happily in such a connection, mutually supporting and protecting each other, united under one common sovereign ? As to the dangers of independence, the answer states that the colonists stand in far more fear of des potism than of any perils which could come to them if they were cut loose. The Assembly discussed the paper with the greatest care, point by point. At length it passed, and Sam uel Adams himself, at the head of the com mittee, put the document into the hand of Hutchinson. A controversy has arisen, which need not be entered into here, as to how far the credit of this memorable reply belongs to any one man. That Samuel Adams consulted whoever might be able to give him help is certain, and he gained much from the suggestions of others. In the main, however, the work is undoubtedly his. Wide as is the range of reading implied, it was not beyond him. Devoted heart and soul as he was to the public service, there were few great writers upon the subject of politics, an cient or modern, with whom he was unac quainted. Though not a lawyer, wherever law touched questions of state he was at home. Hutchinson had felt that his message was irre futable. The reply made him think that he had perhaps made a mistake in submitting the 214 SAMUEL ADAMS. matter to argument. Heretofore the policy had been to regard the matter of parliamen tary supremacy as something so clear that it did not admit of discussion ; doubts now began to arise whether it had been wise to abandon this policy. But it was too late to withdraw. To the reply of the House he opposed a rejoin der longer than his original message, adding little, however, to its strength. When the As sembly, through Samuel Adams, met this also, the indefatigable governor once more appeared. The Council, too, by the hand of Bowdoin, took part in the controversy. The patriots published the debate, pro and con, far and wide, confident that their side had been well sustained. On the other hand, the friends of government in England and America extolled the effort of Hutchinson, and found only sophistry in the argument of his oppo nents. Thurlow, then attorney-general, found the governor s course admirable, and Lord Mansfield, whom Hutchinson met in England the following year, passed the highest encomi ums upon his work. In spite of commendation from such high sources, many friends of the government disap proved Hutchinson s course. They felt, says Grahame, that " the principles solemnly estab lished by the crown and Parliament were un- PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 215 hinged and degraded by the presumptuous, argumentative patronage of a provincial gov ernor." Hutchinson himself was ill at ease. He wrote Lord Dartmouth that he did not " intend ever to meet the Assembly again. . . . Your lordship very justly observes that a nice dis tinction upon civil rights is far above the reach of the bulk of mankind to comprehend. I ex perience the truth of it both in the Council and House of Representatives. The major part of them are incapable of those nice distinctions, and are in each house too ready to give an im plicit faith to the assertion of a single leader." As one reviews the strife at this distance, it may be said that both sides argued well. As far as precedents went, Hutchinson certainly could brace himself thoroughly. For centuries the principles of the primeval liberty had un dergone wide perversion. Kings had persisted, and people had acquiesced in all sorts of arbi trary procedure. The first charter, intended only for a trading company, had been put to a use for which it was never designed in being made the basis of a great body-politic. In the second charter, many provisions were indefi nite. The relation of government and governed throughout the colonial history had been full of quarreling. It was often hard enough to say what could be claimed, what rulers and people 216 SAMUEL ADAMS. really thought or intended. A good basis for Hutchinson s argument existed in the British constitution as it was. Samuel Adams pre sented that constitution rather as it had been before the ancient freedom had been overlaid ; as it should be, moreover, and as it tends to be come in these later days, when the progress of reform gives back constantly more and more of the old Anglo-Saxon liberty. 1 Hutch inson hon estly felt that he was right ; he was sustained by many of the best Englishmen of his day ; in fact, at the present time Britons of the highest position and intelligence hold the same conclu sions. The ideas of his opponent, however, are those higher and broader ones which are to rule the world of the future. Before the session ended, the House through Samuel Adams contended with Hutchinson as to the salaries of the judges of the Superior Court, which, like that of the governor, it had been resolved in England should be independ ent of the Province. The prorogation took place on the 6th of March. When on the 5th of March the anniversary of the Massacre was celebrated, the oration be fore the crowded auditory in the Old South was delivered by the brilliant but double-faced Benjamin Church. He was eloquent and seem- 1 Freeman, Growth of the Eng. Const- PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 217 ingly patriotic ; the following prophetic pas sage is found in the address : Some future Congress will be the glorious source of the sal vation of America. The Amphictyons of Greece, who formed the diet or great council of the states, exhibit an excellent model for the rising Americans." Hutchinson having alleged the illegality of the proceedings of the Boston town-meeting, \ which established the Committee of Correspond ence/ and considered the matter of the salaries of the judges, Samuel Adams was chairman of the committee to reply. " By an unfortunate mistake," wrote the governor, " soon after the charter a law passed which made every town in the Province a corporation perfectly demo cratic, every matter being determined by the major vote of the inhabitants ; and although the intent of the law was to confine their pro ceedings to the immediate proceedings of the town, yet for many years past the town of Boston has been used to interest itself in every affair of moment which concerned the Province in general." The legislature during the late session had been so thoroughly occupied by the controversy concerning the parliamentary authority that Samuel Adams had found no opportunity to develop his plan of Committees of Correspond- 218 SAMUEL ADAMS. ence in ways tliat lie had projected. He was of course not sorry to have circumstances bring it about that the initiative in the greater work, the binding together of the separate colonies as the Massachusetts towns were bound together, was taken by Virginia. Early in March, the House of Burgesses debated the matter of an intercolonial system of correspondence ; before the middle of the month the measure had passed, and as soon after as the slow moving posts of those days could bring the news, the intelligence reached Massachusetts. The con troversy as to whether the idea of intercolonial Committees of Correspondence really originated with Samuel Adams is hardly worth dwelling upon. Indeed, the scheme was so obvious that doubtless it occurred originally to many persons. None, however, are known to have been before Samuel Adams in the matter. / That the special action of the House of Bur gesses in March, 1773, came to pass through Boston incitement is a matter which Virginia local pride would no doubt strenuously deny. Boston claimed it, however. " Our patriots say that the votes of the town of Boston, which they sent to Virginia, have produced the resolves of the Assembly there, appointing a Committee of Correspondence, and I have no doubt it is their expectation that a committee for the same PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY. 219 purpose will be appointed by most of the other As semblies upon the continent." 1 Whatever may have been the secret springs, the news of the Virginia action was most warmly welcomed. The General Court had adjourned, but the Boston Committee of Corre spondence distributed the Southern resolutions far and wide. Samuel Adams at once testified his joy, in a letter to R. H. Lee ; and immedi ately upon the convening of the new legisla ture, to which he, with Hancock, Gushing, and Phillips, had been elected by an almost unani mous vote, resolves were introduced responding warmly to the Southern overtures and estab lishing a legislative Committee of Correspond ence. Fifteen members were to constitute it, eight of them forming a quorum. Though Cashing was nominally chairman, Samuel Ad ams was of course the inspirer and chief mover, as he also was of the Boston committee. In both he was by far the foremost man, fanning, as it were, with one hand the fires of freedom already alight in the Massachusetts towns, and with the other holding the torch to the tinder piled up and ready, though not yet kindled, in the slower colonies, until at last the whole land was brought into a conflagration of discontent. 1 Hutchinson, manuscript letter in Mass. Archives, April 19, 1773. CHAPTER XV. THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. IN the session of the General Court which came after the May elections of 1773, the gov ernor, following instructions, signified the king s disapprobation of the appointment of Com mittees of Correspondence, which sit and act during the recesses. The House replied, and Hutchinson gives in his history a summary of their argument. It is strange, when he was able to state so fairly the positions of his oppo nents, that he did not feel more strongly the justice of those positions. The House said : " When American rights are attacked at times when the several Assemblies are not sitting, it is highly necessary that they should correspond, in order to unite in the most effectual means to obtain redress of grievances ; and as in most colonies the Assemblies sit at such times as governors who hold themselves under the direction of administration think fit, it must be expected that the intention of such corre spondence will be made impracticable, unless com mittees sit in the recess. The crown officers had THE I1UTCHINSON LETTERS. 221 corresponded with ministers of state and persons of influence, in order to make plans for a policy deemed grievous by the colonists ; it ought not to be thought unreasonable or improper for the colonists to corre spond with their agents as well as each other, that their grievances might be explained to his majesty, that in his justice he might afford them relief ; and as heretofore the Province had felt the displeasure of their sovereign from misrepresentations, there was room to apprehend that in this instance he had been misinformed by such persons as had in meditation further measures destructive to the colonies, and which they were apprehensive would be defeated by means of Committees of Correspondence, sitting and acting in the recess of the respective Assemblies." The " misinformation " conveyed to the king by persons who favored " measures destructive to the colonies " was a matter which troubled the patriots not a little, leading in the summer of 1773 to a series of proceedings on their part full of adroitness, but quite irreconcilable, one is forced to admit, with fair dealing. The con viction had long prevailed that the policy of the ministry toward America was suggested by persons residing in the colonies, who studied on the spot trie course of events and the temper of the people, and by secret correspondence gave advice which led to obnoxious acts. Franklin at length obtained possession in England of 222 SAMUEL ADAMS. certain private letters from Hutchinson, An drew Oliver, the lieutenant-governor, Paxton, the head of the commissioners of customs, and one or two other loyalists, which were put to an extraordinary use. Precisely how Franklin obtained the letters was a secret for more than a hundred years. Whether his course was al together honorable in the matter need not be considered here. In the recriminations that followed, an innocent man nearly lost his life in a duel, and Franklin himself, after having been exposed to a bitter denunciation by Wed- derburn, the solicitor-general, in the presence of the Privy Council, was ostracised by English society. However it may have been with the obtain ing of the letters, the manner in which they were employed to bring obloquy upon Hutch inson really admits of no defense. Less than half of the letters were from Hutchinson , and in these not a sentence can be found inconsist ent with his public declarations, or expressing more than a mild disapproval of the course of the Whigs. His conviction that Parliament should be supreme in the colonies is apparent, but this he had a thousand times asserted be fore the world. He writes in no unfriendly spirit, and makes suggestions remarkable only for their great moderation. In the only one of THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 223 the six letters in which Hutchinson trenches closely upon controverted points, his expres sions, copied here from the pamphlet published by the Massachusetts Assembly, are as fol lows : " I never think of the measures necessary for the peace and good order of the colonies without pain ; there must be an abridgment of what are called Eng lish liberties. I relieve myself by considering that in a remove from the state of nature to the most perfect state of government, there must be a great restraint of natural liberty. I doubt whether it is possible to project a system of government in which a colony, three thousand miles distant from the par ent state, shall enjoy all the liberty of the parent state. I am certain I have never yet seen the pro jection." In Hutchinson s own defense, he says of j these words, in his history : " To a candid mind, the substance of the whole paragraph was really no more than this : * I am sorry the people cannot be gratified with the enjoy ment of all they call English liberties, but in their sense of them it is not possible for a colony at three thousand miles distance from the parent state to en joy them, as they might do if they had not re moved. " In no way does the governor say more here than he had repeatedly said in public. He 224 SAMUEL ADAMS. makes no recommendation that the charter should be changed, or troops be sent. Such liberties as the establishment of Committees of Correspondence, the discussion of great affairs of state by the town-meetings, the resistance to the ministerial policy in the matter of the payment of the judges and the crown officials, Hutchinson felt, and in the most open manner had said, ought to be abridged. These, in his idea, were excesses, but they could be remedied without touching the charter. He was undoubt edly wrong, of course, but there was nothing underhanded in his fight. He declares further that he wishes well to the colony, and therefore desires an abridgment of its liberty, and that he hopes no more severity will be shown than is necessary to secure its dependence. As to the other letters sent by Franklin at the same time with those of Hutchinson, there is no reason at all for supposing that the lat ter had known anything about them. Oliver goes farther than the governor : he recommends changes in the constitution, hints at taking off the " principal incendiaries," and proposes the formation of a colonial aristocracy from whom the Council shall be drawn. Paxton demands plainly " two or three regiments." Oliver and Paxton did say enough to compromise them selves, but they were comparatively small game, THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 225 about whom the patriots cared little. We have now to see what was made out of these letters. For some months they remained in the hands of the patriots unused. In June, however, soon after the governor s return from Hartford, where he had been concerned with the settle ment of the boundary line between New York and Massachusetts, a public service which he skillfully turned much to the advantage of the Province, Hancock informed the Assembly darkly that within eight-and-forty hours a dis covery would be made, which would have great results. This the spectators in James Otis s gallery caught up, and it was spread through out the town and the Province. At the time named, Samuel Adams desired that the gal leries might be cleared, as he had matters of profound moment to communicate. After the clearing, he spoke of a prevailing rumor that letters of an extraordinary nature had been written and sent to England, greatly to the prejudice of the Province. He added that he had obtained the letters and the consent of the person who had received them to their being read to the House, under the restriction, how ever, that they were neither to be printed nor copied, in whole or part. The letters were then read. After the reading, amid these mys terious surroundings, a committee reported, the 15 226 SAMUEL ADAMS. letters being lumped together, that they tended and were designed to overthrow the constitution of government and to introduce arbitrary power into the Province. The report was accepted al most unanimously. These proceedings were spread abroad, and the curiosity of the people became wonderfully roused as to what the dreadful letters contained. This temper of mind w T as stimulated by rollings of the eyes and raisings of the hands on the part of the Whig leaders over the enormities which could not be spoken. Hutchinson did not prorogue the Court, which would have looked like an attempt on his part to smother the subject, indicative of conscious ness of guilt ; but he sent a message asking for copies of the letters, declaring that he had never written letters, public or private, of any such character as was reported. The House re plied by sending him the dates, and asking him for copies of his letters written on those dates. Hutchinson declined to send the copies, on the ground that there would be an impropriety in laying before them his private correspondence, and that he was restrained by the king from showing that of a public nature. But he said that he could assure them that neither private nor public letters of his u tended, or were de signed to subvert, but rather to preserve entire THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 227 the constitution of the government." He de clared that his letters, of the dates mentioned by the House, contained nothing different from what had been published in his speeches to the Assembly, as well as to the world in his history, and that none of them related to the charter. ***t The popular pressure to know more of the direful discoveries became very earnest. Han cock at length told the House that copies of the letters had been put into his hands in the street. These were found upon comparison to correspond with the letters in possession of the House, and a committee was appointed to con sider how the House might become "honora bly " possessed of the letters, so that they could be published. Hawley soon reported from this committee that Samuel Adams had said that, since copies of the letters were already abroad, the gentleman from whom the letters them selves were received gave his consent that they should be copied and printed. The legislature then ordered that the letters should be printed ; but beforehand, with very Yankee cunning, they took pains to circulate everywhere their resolves. These resolves, putting as they did the worst construction upon the letters, declar ing that they tended to alienate the affections of the king, to produce severe and destructive 228 SAMUEL ADAMS. measures, and that they contained proofs of a conspiracy against the country, went to all the towns. As if Hutchinson had been privy to, if not the author of all the letters, the implication was that it was right to hold him responsible for everything they contained. The towns be came prepossessed with the darkest anticipa tions. The printed letters were at length allowed to go forth. In the popular excitement, and in fluenced by the interpretation which had been given to them, the people universally saw abom inable treachery in what was really harmless. In the midst of the rage against the governor, a petition for his removal and that of Oliver was dispatched by the legislature to Franklin, to be presented to the ministry. The rough draft of this petition, in the hand of Samuel Adams, runs as follows : PETITION TO THE KING. June 23, 1773. Nothing but a Sense of the Duty we owe to our Sovereign and the obligation we are under to consult the Peace and Safety of the Province could induce us to remonstrate to your Majesty the Malconduct of those who, having been born and educated and con stantly resident in the Province and who formerly have had ye confidence and were loaded with ye hon ours of this People, your Majesty, we conceive from THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 229 the purest Motives of rendering the People most happy, was graciously pleased to advance to the high est places of Trust and Authority in the Province. . . . We do therefore most humbly beseech your Majesty to give order that Time may be allowed to us to support these our Complaints by our Agents and Council. And as the said Thomas Hutchinson, Esq., and Andrew Oliver, Esq., have by their above mentioned Conduct and otherwise rendered themselves justly obnoxious to your Majesty s loving Subjects, we pray that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to remove them from their posts in this government, and place such good and faithfull men in their stead as your Majesty in your great Wisdom shall think fit. This transaction, which has been dwelt on at considerable length, deserves attention because it is probably the least defensible proceeding in which the patriots of New England were concerned during the Revolutionary struggle. Nothing can be more sly than the manoau- vring throughout. The end aimed at, to excite against Hutchinson the strongest animosity at a time when his management of the controversy as to parliamentary authority had made an impression of ability, and his service in settling the boundary line so satisfactorily might have conciliated some good-will, was completely suc cessful. His position was henceforth intoler able. When one reads at this distance of time 230 SAMUEL ADAMS. the little pamphlet containing the letters, which the General Court caused to be published, one sees plainly the justice of the remark of Dr. George E. Ellis : " The whole affair is a mar- velously strong illustration of the most vehe ment possible cry, with the slightest possible amount of wool." Without this means of forming a judgment for ourselves, Hutchinson s statements as to the matter would require to be taken with much allowance. View them in connection with this plain evidence, however, and they have great weight, and it is hard to resist the conviction that the man was deeply injured. He said : " They [the letters] have been represented as highly criminal, though there is nothing more than what might naturally be expected from a confidential correspondence." l Again he de clared them to be " the most innocent things in the world ; but if it had been Chevy Chace, the leaders are so adroit they would have made the people believe it was full of evil and treason." 2 The following letter, written a little later in the year, copied here from Hutchinson s letter- book, contains a clear and manly statement : " I differ in my principles from the present leaders of the people. ... I think that by the constitution 1 From Hutchinson s manuscript, Mass. Archiv. 2 From manuscript in Mass. Archiv. THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 231 of the colonies the Parliament has a supreme author ity over them. I have nevertheless always been an advocate for as large a power of legislation within each colony as can consist with a supreme controul. I have declared against a forcible opposition to the execution of acts of Parliament which have laid taxes on the people of America ; I have notwithstanding ever wished that such acts might not be made as the Stamp Act in particular. I have done everything in my power that they might be repealed. I do not see how the people in the colonies can enjoy every lib erty which the people in England enjoy, because in England every man may be represented in Parlia ment, the supreme authority over the whole ; but in the colonies, the people, I conceive, cannot have rep resentatives in Parliament to any advantage. It gives me pain when I think it must be so. I wish also that we may enjoy every priviledge of an English man which our remote situation will admit of. These are sentiments which I have without reserve declared among my private friends, in my speeches and mes sages to the General Court, in my correspondence with the ministers of state, and I have published them to the world in my history ; and yet I have been declared an enemy and a traitor to my country be cause in my private letters I have discovered the same sentiments, for everything else asserted to be contained in those letters, I mean of mine, unfriendly to the country, I must deny as altogether groundless and false." On a fly-leaf of his diary two years later, 232 SAMUEL ADAMS. after quoting a sentence from Erasmus as to the injustice of garbled quotations from a man s words, lie continues : " How applicable is this to the case of my letters to Whately, and the expression, there must be an abridgment of what are called English liberties ! Every thing which preceded and followed, which would have given the real sentiment and taken away all the odium, was left out." It is hard to palliate the conduct of the pa triots. Had the leaders lost in the excitement of the controversies the power of weighing words properly, and did they honestly think Hutchinson s expressions deserved such an in terpretation ? Did they honestly believe that it was right to hold him responsible for what Oliver and Paxton had said? Unfortunately there is some testimony to show that their con duct was due to deliberate artifice. Says their victim : "When some of the governor s friends urged to the persons principally concerned . . . the unwar- rantableness of asserting or insinuating what they knew to be false and injurious, they justified them selves from the necessity of the thing; the public interest, the safety of the people, making it abso lutely necessary that his weight and influence among them should by any means whatever be destroyed." Further, if Hutchinson s testimony in his THE HUTCU1NSON LETTERS. 233 own case is not to be received, what are we to say of Franklin s suspicious hint, who, in trans mitting the letters, counsels the use of mystery and manoeuvring, that, " as distant objects seen only through a mist appear larger, the same may happen from the mystery in this case." l There never were cooler heads than stood on the shoulders of some of those leaders ; it is impossible to think that they were blinded. The complicity of Samuel Adams with the whole affair is unmistakable. His name occurs constantly in the course of the proceedings ; his ascendency among the Whigs at the moment was at its highest. " Master of the puppets, * his writhing adversary calls him, while also de claring that through some kind of evil sorcery many of the representatives, in spite of them selves, were made by him to vote against their will and judgment. The whole transaction has a more than questionable color, and though pa triotic historians and biographers have been able to see nothing in it except, so to speak, a dove-like iridescence, an unprejudiced judge will detect the scaly gleam of a creature in better repute for his wisdom than his harmlessness. Dr. Johnson might have folded Hutchinson and Samuel Adams to his burly breast in an 1 G. E. Ellis, Atlantic Monthly, May, 1884, p. 672 ; also, Cur- wen s Jour., App., art. " Hutchinson." I cannot, however, find the letter to Cooper in which this passage is said to occur. 234 SAMUEL ADAMS. ecstasy, such thoroughly good haters of one another were they. It is hard to say what the casuistry was which enabled the Puritan poli tician, upright though he was, to make crooked treatment of his Tory bete noir square with his sense of right. Apparently he felt that Hutch- inson was the devil, who might rightly be fought with his own fire. Besides the controversy over the letters sent by Franklin, the House, in the summer session of 1773, discussed the independency of the judges of the Superior Court. A series of re solves was passed demanding of those officers whether they would receive the grants of the Assembly or accept their support from the crown, and making it the indispensable duty of "the Commons " of the Province to impeach them before the governor and Council if their reply should be delayed. Hutchinson upon this at once prorogued the House. The term " the Commons " had only lately been applied to the Assembly. Says Hutchinson : " Mr. Adams would not neglect even small circum stances. In four or five years a great change had been made in the language of the general Assembly. That which used to be called the court-house, or town-house, had acquired the name of the state- house ; the House of Representatives of Massachu setts Bay/ had assumed the name of * his majesty s THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS. 235 Commons ; the debates of the Assembly are styled parliamentary debates ; acts of Parliament, acts of the British Parliament ; the Province laws, the laws of the land ; the charter, a grant from royal grace or favor, is styled the compact; and now impeach is used for complain, and the House of Representa tives are made analogous to the commons, and the Council to the Lords, to decide in case of high crimes and misdemeanors." Townshend s revenue act of 1767, by which a tax was laid upon painters colors, glass, paper, and tea, was passed less for the sake of gaining a revenue than for maintaining the abstract right of taxation. The yield had been from the first quite insignificant, and as has been seen, the tax was now entirely repealed, ex cept upon the single article of tea. In the ham pered commerce of that time, duties were lev ied upon articles both when exported and when imported. In the present case the duty upon tea exported from England was taken off, and threepence a pound was assigned as the impost to be paid on the importation into America. As the export duties to be removed were far larger than this import duty, the tea could be sold for a price considerably lower than hereto fore. A double benefit was hoped for, that the Americans, won by cheap tea, might be brought to acquiesce in a tax levied by Parlia- 236 SAMUEL ADAMS. ment, and also that the prosperity of the impor tant East India Company would be furthered, which for some time past, owing to the colonial non-importation agreements, had been obliged to see its tea accumulate in its warehouses, until the amount reached 17,000,000 pounds. The project was Lord North s, and passed Parlia ment in May, by a large majority. Samuel Adams, forever alert, saw the danger in a moment, and was ready with his expedient. Steps must be forthwith taken for a closer bond among the colonies, " after the plan first pro posed by Virginia." A congress of delegates, to meet at some central point, must be arranged for ; it was time for the representatives of the colonies to come together face to face. The credit of originating the idea of a continental congress belongs to Franklin, who in 1754 brought about the congress at Albany. Its main object then, however, had been to take measures for a united resistance against the French. The Stamp Act congress, ten years later, suggested in Samuel Adams s often re ferred to "instructions" of that year, was the first meeting of colonial delegates to resist Eng land. In 1766, 68, 70, and 71, we find him pushing measures looking toward union ; now in 1773 he is outspoken and urgent. His posi tion in the leading colony gave him an oppor- THE HUTCH 1NSON LETTERS. 237 tunity to work effectively, such as others else where did not possess. When in July of this year Franklin wrote to Gushing from London suggesting a congress, Samuel Adams had al ready hinted at it strongly in the preceding January, and Church in his oration on the 5th of March had uttered the prophetic passage that has been quoted. Samuel Adams urged during the present summer, in a series of essays in the " Boston Gazette," the project of a congress as the only salvation of the country. Though Hutchin- son was under obloquy, the cause of the Whigs was far from being in a satisfactory condition. Many were tired of controversy. Gushing, for instance, who had been addressed directly by Dartmouth, the colonial secretary, favored a submissive policy, believing that grievances would be redressed, " if these high points about the supreme authority of Parliament were to fall asleep." Such laxness Samuel Adams tried hard to counteract. Lord Dartmouth to be sure was thoroughly well-meaning. His marked religious character, unusual among men of his station, made him acceptable to the New Eng- landers. He proposed that there should be mutual concessions. Only submit and you shall be treated most graciously, was his tone. But Samuel Adams opposed with all his might. 238 SAMUEL ADAMS. At length, as " Observation" in the " Boston Gazette," September 27, 1773, Samuel Adams wrote : " The very important dispute between Britain and America has, for a long time, employed the pens of statesmen in both countries, but no plan of union is yet agreed on between them ; the dispute still con tinues, and everything floats in uncertainty. As I have long contemplated the subject with fixed atten tion, I beg leave to offer a proposal to my country men, namely, that a CONGRESS OF AMERICAN STATES be assembled as soon as possible ; draw up a Bill of Rights, and publish it to the world ; choose an am bassador to reside at the British Court to act for the united Colonies ; appoint where the Congress shall annually meet, and how it may be summoned upon any extraordinary occasion, what farther steps are necessary to be taken,j&e." Three weeks later, October 11, in the " Ga zette " appeared the following : " But the Question will be asked, How shall the Colonies force their Oppressors to proper Terms ? This Question has been often answered already by our Politicians, viz : Form an Independent State, AN AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH/ This Plan has been proposed, and I can t find that any other is likely to answer the great Purpose of preserving our Liberties. I hope, therefore, it will be well digested and for warded, to be in due Time put into Execution, un less our Political Fathers can secure American Liber- THE HUT CHIN SON LETTERS. 239 ties in some other Way. As the Population, Wealth, and Power of this Continent are swiftly increasing, we certainly have no Cause to doubt of our Success in maintaining Liberty by forming a Commonwealth, or whatever Measure Wisdom may point out for the Preservation of the Rights of America." The legislative committee of correspondence had heretofore done little. Samuel Adams, who by means of the Boston committee had largely re-invigorated the spirit of liberty in the Province, now set the other agency at work, that a similar spirit might be sent throughout the thirteen colonies. It was necessary that Gushing, who, as speaker, was ex officio chair man of the committee, should sign the mani festo. Hutchinson s term " the puppets," of whom Samuel Adams was said to be the mas ter, was perhaps more applicable to Gushing than to some of his fellows. By a skillful touch of the master s fingers, the respectable wooden personality that did duty as the legislative fig ure-head, responded to his wire and danced to the patriot measure. The document is wise, moderate, thoroughly appreciative of the cir cumstances of the hour. " We are far from desiring," thus the paper con cluded, " that the Connection between Britain arid America should be broken. Esto perpetua is our ar dent wish, but upon the Terms only of Equal Liberty. 240 SAMUEL ADAMS. If we cannot establish an Agreement upon these terms, let us leave it to another and a wiser Genera tion. But it may be worth Consideration, that the work is more likely to be well done at a time when the Ideas of Liberty and its Importance are strong in men s minds. There is Danger that these Ideas may grow faint and languid. Our Posterity may be accustomed to bear the Yoke, and being inured to Servility, they may even bow the Shoulder to the Burden. It can never be expected that a people, however numerous, will form and execute as wise plans to perpetuate their Liberty, when they have lost the Spirit and feeling of it." The document was of course written by Mr. Adams, and the selection given is copied from his autograph. Hutchinson now wrote to Dartmouth a letter containing the following passage. Speaking of the Whigs he said : " They have for their head one of the members from Boston, who was the first person that openly, in any public assembly, declared for absolute independ ence, and who, from a natural obstinacy of temper, and from many years practice in politics, is, perhaps, as well qualified to excite the people to any extrava gance in theory or practice as any person in America. From large defalcations, as collector of taxes for the town of Boston, and other acts in pecuniary matters, his influence was small until within these seven years ; but since that, it has been gradually increasing, until TEE HUTCHINSON LETTEtSfi. 241 J te he has obtained such an ascendency as to Direct the town of Boston and the House of Representatives, and consequently the Council, just as he pleases. A principle has been avowed by some who are attached to him, the most inimical that can be devised, that in political matters the public good is above all other considerations ; and every rule of morality, when in competition with it, may very well be dispensed with. Upon this principle, the whole proceeding, with re spect to the letters of the governor and lieutenant- governor, of which he was the chief conductor, has been vindicated. In ordinary affairs, the counsels of the whole opposition unite. Whenever there appears a disposition to any conciliatory measures, this person, by his art and skill, prevents any effect ; sometimes by exercising his talents in the newspapers, an in stance of which is supposed to have been given in the paper enclosed to your lordship in my letter, number twenty-seven, at other times by an open op position, and this sometimes in the House, where he has defeated every attempt as often as any has been made. But his chief dependence is upon a Boston town-meeting, where he originates his measures, which are followed by the rest of the towns, and of course are adopted or justified by the Assembly. " I could mention to your lordship many instances of the like kind. To his influence it has been chiefly owing, that when there has been a repeal of acts of Parliament complained of as grievous, and when any concessions have been made to the Assembly, as the removal of it to Boston and the like, (notwithstanding 16 242 SAMUEL ADAMS. the professions made beforehand by the moderate part of the opposition, that such measures would quiet the minds of the people,) he has had art enough to improve them to raise the people higher by assuring them, if they will but persevere, they may bring the nation to their own terms ; and the people are more easily induced to a compliance from the declaration made, that they are assured by one or two gentlemen in England, on whose judgment they can depend, that nothing more than a firm adhesion to their de mands is necessary to obtain a compliance with every one of them. Could he have been made dependent, I am not sure that he might not have been taken off by an appointment to some public civil office. But, as the constitution of the Province is framed, such an appointment would increase his abilities, if not his disposition to do mischief, for he well knows that I have not a Council which in any case would consent to his removal, and nobody can do more than he to prevent my ever having such a Council." CHAPTER XVI. THE TEA-PARTY. THE colonies generally were resolved not to receive the tea. Resolutions were adopted in Philadelphia, October 18, requesting the agents of the East India Company, who were to sell the tea, to resign, which they did. Boston at once followed the example. Acting upon the precedent of the time of the Stamp Act, when Oliver, the stamp commissioner, had resigned his commission under the Liberty Tree, a plac ard was posted everywhere on the 3d of No vember, inviting the people of Boston and the neighboring towns to be present at Liberty Tree that day at noon, to witness the resigna tion of the consignees of the tea, and hear them swear to re-ship to London what teas should ar rive. The placard closed, u Jlii^Show me the man that dares take this down." At the time appointed, representatives Ad ams, Hancock, and Phillips, the selectmen and town clerk, with about five hundred more, were 244 SAMUEL ADAMS. ^.present at the Liberty Tree. But no consign ees arrived, whereupon Molineux and Warren headed a party who waited upon them. The consignees, Clarke, a rich merchant, and his sons, Benjamin Faneuil, Winslow, and the two sons of Hutchinson, Thomas and Elisha, sat to gether in the counting-house of Clarke in King Street. Admittance was refused the commit tee, and a conversation took place through a window, during which the tone of the con signees was defiant. There was some talk of violence, and when an attempt was made to exclude the committee and the crowd attending them from the building, into the first story of which they had penetrated, the doors were taken off their hinges and threats uttered. Molineux, generally impetuous enough, but now influenced probably by cooler heads, dis suaded the others from violence. A few days later, a serious riot came near taking place be fore the house of Clarke in School Street ; the people outside broke some windows, while from the inside a pistol was fired from the second story. Judicious men among the patriots, how ever, exerted themselves successfully to prevent a repetition of the excesses at the time of the Stamp Act. A town-meeting on November 5, in which an effort of the Tories to make head against THE TEA-PARTY. 245 the popular feeling came to naught, showed how overwhelming was the determination to oppose the introduction of the tea. Precisely how the plans were organized precisely who many of the actors were in the few eventful weeks that remained of 1773, can now never be known. A frequent meeting-place was the room over the printing-office of Edes & Gill, near the corner of Court Street and Cornhill. Samuel Adams, never more fully the master than during these lowering autumn and winter days when such a crisis was encountered, was often at the printing office ; and there and at meetings of the North End Club much was ar ranged. No voice needs to speak out of the si lence of those undercurrents to let us know that he was at the head. When news arrived on the 17th that three tea-ships were on the way to Boston, for a second time a town-meeting demanded through a committee, of which Sam uel Adams was a member, the resignation of the consignees. They evaded the demand ; the town-meeting voted their answer not satisfac tory, and at once adjourned without debate or comment. The silence was mysterious ; what was impending none could tell. The consignees, appreciating their danger, tried to shift their responsibility upon the gov ernor and Council, but without effect. The 246 SAMUEL ADAMS. Committee of Correspondence of the town, combining with itself the committees of Rox- bury, Dorchester, Brookline, Cambridge, and Charlestown, and so forming what Hutchinson called "a little senate," met frequently and maintained a general oversight. They pledged themselves to resist the landing and sale of the tea, and sent out through the Province a joint letter, the composition of Samuel Adams : " We think, gentlemen," this document said, " that we are in duty bound to use our most strenuous endeavors to ward off the impending evil, and we are sure that upon a fair and cool inquiry into the nature and tendency of the ministerial plan, you will think this tea now coming to us more to be dreaded than plague and pestilence." The necessity of resistance was strongly declared, and the advice of the committees urgently asked. The incipient union is becoming very plain at the time of the Boston tea-party. In the crises of an earlier date, each town or province had met the occasion in a condition of more or less isolation. Now, however, as never before, there appears a formal bond ; the newspapers teem with missives, not only from Massachu setts towns, but from the colonies in general, expressing sympathy, fear that the peril will not be adequately met, encouragement to bold- THE TEA-PARTY. 247 ness, praise for decision, missives proceeding from the regularly organized committees, show ing how the ligaments are knitting that are to bind so great a body. On the 28th, the first of the tea-ships, the Dartmouth, Captain Hall, sailed into the harbor. Sunday though it was, the Committee of Correspondence met, obtained from Benja min Rotch, the Quaker owner of the Dart mouth, a promise not to enter the vessel until Tuesday, and made preparations for a mass- rheeting at Faneuil Hall for Monday forenoon, to which Samuel Adams was authorized to in vite the surrounding towns. A stirring placard the next morning brought the townsmen and their neighbors to the place. After the organi zation, Samuel Adams, arising among the thou sands, moved that : " As the town have deter mined at ajate^meeting legafty-g^sembled that they will to the utmost of their power prevent the landing of the tea7~fclie question be now put, whether this body are absolutely deter mined that the tea now arrived in Captain Hall shall be returned to the place from whence it came." There was not a dissenting voice. The meeting had now become larger even than the famous one of the Massacre. As usual they surged across King Street to the Old South, once more under the eyes of Hutchinson, who, 248 SAMUEL ADAMS. as at the time of the Massacre, who could look down upon them from the chamber in the State House where he was sitting with the Council. Samuel Adams s motion was repeated, with the addition : " Is it the firm resolution of this body that the tea shall not only be sent back, but that no duty shall be paid thereon ? " Again there was no dissenting voice. In the afternoon, the meeting having resolved that the tea should go back in the same ship in which it had come, Rotch, the owner of the Dart mouth, protested, but was sternly forbidden, at his peril, to enter the tea. Captain Hall also was forbidden to land any portion of it. " Ad ams was never in greater glory," says Hutch- inson. The next morning, November 30, the peo ple again assembling, the consignees made it known that it was out of their power to send the tea back; but they promised that they would store it until word should come from their " constituents " as to its disposal. While the meeting deliberated, Greenleaf, the sheriff of Suffolk, appeared with a message from the governor. Samuel Adams gave it as his judg ment that the sheriff might be heard ; upon which the paper was read. Hutchinson blamed the meeting sharply, and concluded by " warn ing, exhorting, and requiring " the assemblage THE TEA-PARTY. 249 to disperse, and to " surcease all further unlaw ful proceedings at their utmost peril." The crowd hissed the official heartily, who at once beat a retreat. Copley, the artist, who has al ready appeared in our story as painting the portrait of the "man of the town-meeting," at the time when the regiments were driven to the Castle, was much liked for his honesty and good-nature. As the son-in-law of the con signee, Richard Clarke, and at the same time popular in the town, he was well-fitted to be a mediator. He now asked of the meeting whether the consignees would be civilly treated, if they should appear before it. Upon assur ance that they would be, he went at once to the Castle, whither the Clarkes had betaken themselves, one must allow with perfect good reason, if they valued their safety. He could not prevail upon them, however, to face the assembly, and not long after we find him on the Tory side, until at length he leaves Amer ica. The Dartmouth each night was watched by a strong guard ; armed patrols, too, were es tablished, and six couriers held themselves ready, if there should be need, to alarm the country. The most vigorous resolutions were passed, and a committee was appointed, with Samuel Adams at the head, to send intelligence 250 SAMUEL ADAMS. far and wide. During the first week in De cember arrived the Eleanor and the Beaver, also tea-ships, which were moored near the Dartmouth, and subjected to the same over sight. The "True Sons of Liberty" posted about the town the most spirited placards. From the sister towns the post-riders came spurring in haste with responses to the mani festo of the Committee of Correspondence, all which Samuel Adams took care to have at once published, with whatever rumors there might be as to the conduct of the other provinces re specting tea, which, as all knew, might be ex pected to arrive in other ports besides Boston. Hutchinson, in spite of himself, had become, one is forced to say through the machinations of the Whigs, little more than a cipher in his own jurisdiction. His influence was for the time being completely broken down, and though the fleet lay in the harbor, and the weak regi ments were at the Castle, yet the popular man ifestation was so general and threatening that he could make no head against it. It is absurd to accuse him or the consignees of cowardice because they felt they were in danger in the town. The latter had good reason to seek the protection of the Castle, and the governor might well prefer to occupy his country house. For several times the air was full of riot, and THE TEA-PARTY. 251 Hutchinson and his friends had cause to know that a Boston riot might be a terrible thing. The governor could not depend upon any jus tice of the peace to make a requisition for the use of the military. Whether he himself had power to make such a requisition lawfully was a matter open to doubt. He could expect no support from his Council, his own party were completely overawed. He showed no want of spirit at this time. Says Richard Fro thing- ham : " His course does not show one sign of vacillation from first to last, but throughout bears the marks of clear, cold, passionless in flexibility." It is rather amusing to read his summons to Hancock, commander of the Bos ton cadets, to hold his force in readiness for the preservation of order ; for Hancock, however he may have coquetted with the Tories shortly before, was now a red-hot Whig, as were most of the cadets, who were in great part them selves in the " rabble." The governor de nounced, threatened, pleaded, without yielding a hair from his position that the authority of Parliament must be maintained, although, as we know now, it went sorely against his wish that the tax on tea was retained, and he would gladly have had things as they were before the Stamp Act. The days flew by. At length came the end 252 SAMUEL ADAMS. of the time of probation. If the cargo of the Dartmouth had not been "entered" within that period, the ship, according to the revenue laws, must be confiscated. Rotch, the Quaker owner, had signified his willingness to send the ship back to England with the cargo on board, if he could procure a clearance. The customs offi cials stood on technicalities ; under the circum stances a clearance could not be granted. The grim British admiral ordered the Active and the Kingfisher from his fleet to train their broadsides on the channels, and sink whatever craft should try to go to sea without the proper papers. The governor alone had power to override these obstacles. It was competent for him to grant a permit which the revenue men and the admiral must respect. If he re fused to do this, then on the next day the legal course was for the revenue officers to seize the Dartmouth and land the tea under the guns of the fleet. It was the 16th of December. A crowd of seven thousand filled the Old South and the streets adjoining. Nothing like it had ever been known. Town -meeting had followed town-meeting until the excitement was at fever heat. The indefatigable Committee of Corre spondence had, as it were, scattered fire through out the whole country. The people from deep THE TEA-PARTY. 253 in the interior had poured over the "Neck" into the little peninsula to see what was coming ; the beacons were ready for lighting, and every where eyes were watching, expecting to see them blaze. Poor Quaker Rotch, like his sect in general, quite indifferent to great political principles at stake, ready to submit to " the powers that be," and anxious about his pelf, felt himself, probably, the most persecuted of men, when the monster meeting forced him in the December weather to make his way out to Milton Hill to seek the permit from Hutchin- son. While the merchant journeyed thither and back, the great meeting deliberated. Even as ardent a spirit as Josiah Quincy counseled moderation ; but when the question was put whether the meeting would suffer the tea to be landed, the people declared against it unan imously. Meantime darkness had fallen upon the short winter day. The crowd still waited in the gloom of the church, dimly lighted here and there by candles. Rotch reappeared just after six, and informed the meeting that the governor refused to grant the permit until the vessels were properly qualified. As soon as the report had been made, Samuel Adams arose, for it was he who had been moderator, and exclaimed : " This meeting can do nothing 254 SAMUEL ADAMS. more to save the country. It was evidently a concerted signal, for instantly the famous war- whoop was heard, and the two or three score of " Mohawks " rushed by the doors, and with the crowd behind them hurried in the brighten ing moonlight to Griffin s wharf, where lay the ships. The tea could not go back to England ; it must not be landed. The cold waters of the harbor were all that remained for it. Three hundred and forty-two chests were cast over board. Nothing else was harmed, neither per son nor property. All was so quiet that those at a distance even could hear in the calm air the ripping open of the thin chests as the tea was emptied. The "Mohawks" found helpers, so that in all perhaps one hundred and fifty were actively concerned. Not far off in the harbor lay the ships of the fleet, and the Castle with the " Sam Adams regiments." But no one interfered. The work done, the " Mohawks " marched to the fife and drum through the streets, chaffing on the way Admiral Montague, who was lodging in the town. He gave a surly growl in return, which tradition has preserved. " Well, boys, you ve had a fine pleasant even ing for your Indian caper, have n t you ? But mind, you have got to pay the fiddler yet ! " " Oh, never mind ! " shouted Pitts, the leader, " never mind, squire ; just come out here, if THE TEA-PARTY. 255 you please, and we 11 settle the bill in two minutes." 1 Next morning, while the good Bohea, soaked by the tide, was heaped in windrows on the Dorchester shore, the rueful Boston mothers steeped from catnip and pennyroyal a cup which certainly could not inebriate, and which even Sam Adams s robust patriotism could hardly have regarded as cheering. Through this whole crisis Hancock was in the front, like a brave man, risking his life and his means. Warren, too, and another public- spirited physician, Dr. Thomas Young, who soon after, by removal from the country, brought to an end a career which had promised to become illustrious, were earnestly engaged. To these must be added Josiah Quincy, John Pitts, John Scollay, and the other selectmen, with William Cooper, the intrepid town clerk. But in the whole affair Samuel Adams was more than ever the supreme mind. To his discretion was left the giving of the signal ; as the controller of the Committee of Correspondence, he was prac tically the ruler of the town ; his spirit per vaded every measure. In regard to the whole secret development, which can now never be known, it is probable that his influence was no less dominant than in what was done be fore the world. 1 Lossing s Field Book, i. 499. 256 SAMUEL ADAMS. The couriers galloped with all the four winds to spread the news, Paul Revere reaching Philadelphia the day after Christmas. Here is a specimen of the hastily prepared notes they carried from the Committee of Corre spondence. It is copied from the autograph in Samuel Adams s papers, the s for the most part uncrossed, and punctuation neglected in the breathless haste in which it was written. BOSTON, Dec. llth, 1773. GENTLEMEN, We inform you in great Haste that every chest of Tea on board the three Ships in this Town was destroyed the last evening without the least Injury to the Vessels or any other property. Our Enemies must acknowledge that these people have acted upon pure and upright Principle, the people at the Cape will we hope behave with pro priety and as becomes men resolved to save their Country. To Plyrn & to Sandwich with this addition We trust you will afford them Your immediate Assistance and Advice. The reference at the close of the note is to still a fourth tea-ship which had been cast away on the back of Cape Cod. CHAPTER XVII. HUTCHINSON AND THE TOEIES. THE Boston leaders were now in great dan ger of arrest and deportation to England for trial, the members of the Committee of Corre spondence in particular being shadowed by spies who tried to obtain all information that could be made to count against them. For mutual protection fifteen members of the committee bound themselves to support and vindicate one another, by an agreement which it is interest ing to read. In this document a circumstance slight in itself, but important as revealing the recognized leadership of Samuel Adams, is to be noticed. The first signer is a worthy citi zen, Robert Pierpont, but the name has been erased, and that of Samuel Adams put in its place, Pierpont and the other associates coming afterward. Plainly the committee regarded it as presumptuous that any name should be writ ten before his. The energy of the body was untiring. South Carolina was encouraged, and the tea received there was left to rot in cellars 17 258 SAMUEL ADAMS. in Charleston. Philadelphia and New York responded with equal spirit. Through the com mittees the thirteen colonies were now linked, and the desire for a Congress was becoming general and imperative. When the legislature met in January, 1774, to which time it had been prorogued, Samuel Adams vindicated the Committees of Corre spondence and their activity in the intervals between the sessions, in reply to a message of Hutchinson, who declared the king s disappro bation of such institutions. Comparing the state papers of the veteran disputant at this time with those of ten years previous, one notes a change in the grounds upon which he chooses to base his striving. There is less reference to precedents and documentary authorities, and more frequent appeal to natural right. "The welfare and safety of the people," " the good of the people," are phrases which appear more often. Whether it was that he felt that he could express himself more freely since public sentiment had become so far educated, or whether his own conceptions ripened and altered, his arguments and his watchwords be came different. Hutchinson wrote : " The leaders here seem to acknowledge that their cause is not to be defended on constitutional princi ples, and Adams now gives out that there is no need HUTCH INS ON AND THE TORIES. 259 of it ; they are upon better ground ; all men have a natural right to change a bad constitution for a better, whenever they have it in their power." l Elsewhere, too, Hutchinson declares to Lord Dartmouth that a principle had been avowed by the patriots that " the public good was above all considerations." An important topic during the present ses sion was the one which had now for some time been agitated, and which had been pointedly dwelt upon at the session of the preceding summer, whether the judges of the Superior Court should be suffered to receive salaries from the king, and thus be made quite inde pendent of the Province. The legislature had passed resolves requiring the judges to de cline the royal grant ; and one of the five, Trowbridge, whose feeble bodily condition was believed, at any rate by the Tories, to have unnerved him, had obeyed. His associates fol lowed his example. " One of them assured me," says Hutchinson, " that he was con strained to a compliance, merely because his person, his wife and children, and his property, were at the mercy of the populace, from whom there was nothing which he had not to fear." Peter Oliver alone, the chief justice, refused to 1 Copied from autograph in Mass. Arch. April 7, 1773. 260 SAMUEL ADAMS. yield to the legislative pressure, and was at once taken in hand. The judges, in truth, seem to have been miserably starved. Even their door-keeper is said to have had a larger stipend than theirs. On circuits they traveled eleven hundred, sometimes thirteen hundred miles a year. The highest grant made to any one of them was 120 a year, and it had been much less. The chief justice received only XI 50. Small as the salary was, the grant was sometimes postponed. Respected members of the bench, not long before, had -lived in penury and died insolvent. Peter Oliver set forth that he had been a justice of the Superior Court seventeen years; that his salary had been in sufficient for his support ; that his estate had suffered, and that he had repeatedly had it in mind to resign, but had been encouraged to hope for something better. It had always been a hope deferred, and he announced that he proposed now to accept the offer of the king. When Oliver s purpose became plain, steps were promptly taken in the legislature for his impeachment. Hereupon sprang up a new con troversy with the governor. The Assembly assumed that since the chief justice was ap pointed by the governor by the advice and consent of the Council, the governor and Council by implication, though it might not HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 261 be plainly expressed, possessed also a power of removal. Hutchinson declared that the gov ernor and Council had no power to sit as a court in such a case ; and when the committee of the Assembly, with Samuel Adams at its head, presented themselves before the Council to institute proceedings, the governor held aloof. A neat piece of management here occurred, in which Adams and Bowdoin played into one. another s hands as they had long been accus tomed to do, dexterously circumventing an ob stacle, and making a precedent sure to be afterwards useful. Poor Hutchinson, not less shrewd than they, saw it all, but he had be come the merest shadow of power. " Mr. Adams addressed the Council in this form : * May it please your Excellency and the honorable Council. Mr. Bowdoin, no doubt by concert, ob served to him that the governor was not in Council. This gave opportunity for an answer : * The governor is " presumed " to be present. This was certainly a very idle presumption. It gave pretense, however, for Mr. Adams to report to the House, and, being clerk of the House, afterwards to enter upon the journals, that the committee had impeached the chief justice before the governor and Council, and prayed that they would assign a time for hearing and deter mining thereon." The cunning coryphoai of the two houses in 262 SAMUEL ADAMS. this way were preparing to dispense with the governor entirely. He prorogued the Court before proceedings could go further, sending his secretary for that purpose. The Council received the message, but the House barred its door against him until they had completed cer tain important measures. The last act of the session, while the door was still kept fast, was to direct the Committee of Correspondence to write to Franklin with respect to the public grievances, the final appeal, direct or indi rect, which Massachusetts made for redress. Hutchinson, broken in health by the treat ment he had received from a people whom he sincerely loved and honestly desired to serve, begged the king for leave of absence. It was promptly granted, and the governor would have early availed himself of it, but for the death of Andrew * Oliver, the lieutenant-governor. If Hutchinson should now absent himself, author ity must fall into the hands of the Council, which would be a complete surrender to the Whigs. He therefore postponed his departure until a new appointment could be made. On the 5th of March the oration in com memoration of the Massacre was given by John Hancock. He is described as making a fine ap pearance, and produced upon the vast assembly a great impression. Wells, whose admiration HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 263 foi" his great-grandfather is perfectly unquali fied, insists, with rather naive unconsciousness that there can be anything crooked in such a proceeding, that Samuel Adams wrote the ora tion for Hancock, and then sat blandly by as moderator while the people were deceived into the belief that the man who surpassed all in social graces and length of purse could thun der also from the rostrum with the best. At the end, moreover, the moderator, at the head of the committee appointed by the meeting, thanked the orator in the name of the town for his " elegant and spirited oration." Really there is nothing in the character of either man, it must be admitted with some sadness, to make the assertion seem unreasonable. Han cock was quite capable, as in his love for pop ularity he wooed the turbulent crowd, of appro priating without acknowledgment the strength of some convenient Siegfried, standing invisible at his side. As to Adams, since we have been forced to believe that he had a principal hand in the manoeuvring as regards Hutchinson s letters, it will require no strain to believe him capable of a peccadillo, so trifling in compar ison, as lending Hancock a little brains, that he might gain a credit he did not deserve. The transaction has unquestionably a good side. The cause would be helped by a spirited, patri- 264 SAMUEL ADAMS. otic speech from the handsome, well-born man whose wealth and prodigality gave him pres tige. Hancock, too, would be pleased, and so more firmly bound. No American public man ever postponed more utterly the thought of self than Samuel Adams. Only let the cause be helped ! No man s end was ever better, but now and then in the means there was a touch of trickery. When the news of the Boston tea-party reached England, Parliament, naturally much incensed, prepared promptly to retaliate. Says the authority from whom so much has been taken, whose help, however, we are about to lose : " This was the boldest stroke which had yet been struck in America. . . . The leaders feared no con sequences. And it is certain that ever after this time an opinion was easily instilled and was constantly in creasing, that the body of the people had also gone too far to recede, and that an open and general revolt must be the consequence ; and it was not long before actual preparations were visibly making for it in most parts of the Province." While one party thus girded itself for a war that was no longer to consist in words, the other party pressed on with equal spirit. The first retaliatory measure was the Boston Port Bill, which passed about the end of March in spite of the strenuous opposition of the of America, and against the best judgment also of Hutchinson and some of the wiser Tories. The faithful Colonel Barre showed at this time a curious inconsistency and confusion of ideas. In a speech which causes one almost to believe that the good veteran at the time had fortified himself for his forensic bout with a nip of Dutch courage, he declared " that he liked the measure, harsh as it was ; he liked it for its moderation. . . . He said, I think Boston ought to be punished. She is your oldest son. (Here the House laughed)." 1 A fortnight later, how ever, he stood sturdily with Burke and Pownall in strong opposition. By the Port Bill all ships were forbidden to enter or depart from the port of Boston, until the contumacious town should agree to pay for the destroyed tea, and in other respects make the king sure of its willingness to submit. Many who had hitherto been brave showed now a disposition to quail. Franklin wrote from England to the four Boston repre sentatives, advising that compensation for the destroyed tea should be made to the East India Company, as a conciliatory step. Samuel Ad ams dismissed the advice with the contemp tuous remark that " Franklin might be a great philosopher, but that he was a bungling politi cian." 1 Tudor s Otis, p. 438. 266 SAMUEL ADAMS. A second act was also passed by Parliament to change the constitution of Massachusetts, according to which act the Council was to be appointed by the crown, the judges were to be appointed and removed by the governor, the juries were to be nominated and summoned by the sheriffs, instead of chosen among the peo ple, and, most serious of all, an end was to be put to the free town-meetings, which henceforth were to assemble only as convened by the gov ernor, and to discuss only such topics as he pre scribed. A third act was designed to protect soldiers who might use violence in opposing popular disturbances. Such trials as those of Captain Preston and the men who fired at the Massacre were not to be repeated, but any persons sim ilarly accused were to be sent to Great Britain, or to some other colony, to be judged. A fourth act, affecting Massachusetts less directly than the three which have been de scribed, was, however, scarcely less exasperat ing. It was known as the Quebec Act, and had as its ostensible object the settling of the constitution of Canada. But the measure did far more than this. In disregard of the charters and rights of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia, the boundaries of " Que bec " were extended to the region now occupied HUTCH IN SON AND THE TORIES. 267 by Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wis consin, the whole Northwest ; for all this vast territory an arbitrary rule was decreed. There was to be no habeas corpus ; the people were to have no power; the religion of the pope was not only tolerated, but favored. Said Thurlow, in the House of Commons : " It is the only proper constitution for the colonies ; it ought to have been given to them all when first planted ; and it is what all now ought to be re duced to." Measures were also taken to meet the case of riots, and special instructions were sent for the arrest, at a proper and convenient time, of Samuel Adams, as the " chief of the revolution " above all others. General Gage, commander-in-chief in America, was appointed to supersede Hutchinson temporarily, the quar tering of soldiers upon the people was made legal, and arrangements were entered upon for increasing the military force. Meantime in the Province, the legislature being prorogued, and Hutchinson s power prac tically at an end, authority lay in the hands ofv the Committee of Correspondence. " The governor," says Hutchinson, " retained the title of captain-general, but he had the title only. The inhabitants in many parts of the Province were learning the use of fire-arms, but not under the offi cers of the regiments to which they belonged. They 268 SAMUEL ADAMS. were forming themselves into companies for military exercise under officers of their own choosing, hinting the occasion there might soon be for employing their arms in defense of their liberties." Letters were addressed to the sister colonies, deploring their silence as to the question of parliamentary authority. Adams, writing to Franklin for the Committee, recapitulates the old positions : " It will be vain for any to expect that the people of this country will now be contented with a partial and temporary relief, or that they will be amused by court promises, while they see not the least relaxa tion of grievances. By the vigilance and activity of Committees of Correspondence among the several towns in this Province, they have been wonderfully enlightened and animated. They are united in senti ment, and their opposition to unconstitutional meas ures of government is become systematical. Colony communicates freely with colony. There is a com mon affection among them, the communis sensus ; and the whole continent is now become united in sen timent and in opposition to tyranny. Their old good will and affection for the parent country is not, how ever, lost. If she returns to her former moderation and good humor, their affection will revive. They wish for nothing more than permanent union with her, upon the condition of equal liberty. This is all they have been contending for, and nothing short of this will, or ought to, satisfy them. When formerly HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 269 the kings of England have encroached upon the liber ties of their subjects, the subjects have thought it their duty to themselves and their posterity to con tend with them till they were restored to the footing of the Constitution. The events of such struggles have sometimes proved fatal to crowned heads, perhaps they have never issued but in establishments of the people s liberties." Already Hutchinson had written to Dart mouth : " There are some who are ready to go all the lengths of the chief incendiary, who is determined, he says, to get rid of every gov ernor who obstructs them in their course to in dependency." l Samuel Adams himself now wrote to Arthur Lee : " The body of the people are now in council. Their opposition grows into a system. They are united and resolute. And if the British administra tion and government do not return to the principles of moderation and equity, the evil, which they profess to aim at preventing by their rigorous measures, will the sooner be brought to pass, viz., the entire separa tion and independence of the colonies." News of the Port Bill and of the removal of the seat of government to Salem were received in Boston on the 10th of May, which was at the same time election day. The spirit of the town may be inferred from the voting. Of the 1 From letter-book in Mass. Archiv. July 10, 1773. 270 SAMUEL ADAMS. five hundred and thirty-six votes cast, Hancock received all, Samuel Adams all bat one, and Gushing and Phillips were returned with nearly the same emphasis. The Committee of Corre spondence on the same day issued an invita tion to the Committees of the eight neighboring towns to meet them in convention on the 12th. The towns, Charlestown, Cambridge, Newton, Brookline, Roxbury, Dorchester, Lynn, and Lexington, were promptly on hand by their Committees. The proceedings were open to the public. Samuel Adams was moderator, while Joseph Warren, who every day now be comes more conspicuous, managed proceedings on the floor. The injustice and cruelty of the act closing the port were denounced, and the idea indignantly spurned of purchasing exemp tion from the penalty by paying for the tea. A circular letter prepared by Samuel Adams was sent from the convention to New England and the middle colonies. The paper, having pointed out the injustice and cruelty of the act by which the inhabitants had been condemned unheard, proceeds : " This attack, though made immediately upon us, is doubtless designed for every other colony who shall not surrender their sacred rights and liberties into the hands of an infamous ministry. Now, there fore, is the time when all should be united in opposi tion to this violation of the liberties of all. . HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 271 " The single question then is, whether you con sider Boston as now suffering in the common cause, and sensibly feel and resent the injury and affront of fered to her. If you do, and we cannot believe otherwise, may we not, from your approbation of our former conduct in defense of American liberty, rely on your suspending your trade with Great Brit ain at least, which it is acknowledged will be a great but necessary sacrifice to the cause of liberty, and will effectually defeat the design of this act of re venge. If this should be done, you will please con sider it will be through a voluntary suffering, greatly short of what we are called to endure from the im mediate hand of tyranny." The town, too, took action in the matter. May 13 a town-meeting was held, at which, after prayer by Dr. Samuel Cooper, William Cooper read the text of the Port Bill, which the meeting straightway pronounced repugnant to law, religion, and common sense. Samuel Adams was moderator. The Tories were out in force and strove hard to bring the meeting to an agreement to pay for the tea, which course would buy off the ministry from the enforce ment of the act. As has been mentioned, even Franklin counseled this; but a truer instinct caused the Boston Whigs to regard such a course as a virtual admission that in destroying the tea they had done wrong, and a concession 272 SAMUEL ADAMS. therefore of the principle for which they had been contending. They carried the day. Sam uel Adams, as moderator, transmitted the action of Boston to all the colonies, accompanying his report with these words : " The people receive the edict with indignation. It is expected by their enemies, and feared by some of their friends, that this town singly will not be able to support the cause under so severe a trial. As the very being of every colony, considered as a free peo ple, depends upon the event, a thought so dishonor able to our brethren cannot be entertained as that this town will be left to struggle alone." Paul Revere, the patriot Mercury, carried the document and also the manifesto of the convention of Committees of Correspondence to New York and Philadelphia, consuming in his ride to the latter town six days. The effect of the papers was marvelous. Philadelphia recommended a Congress, and from every quar ter came expressions of sympathy and promises of help. During the summer the people in all the New England and middle colonies came together, and for the most part adopted the phrase that " Boston must be regarded as suf fering in the common cause." Everywhere there was manful resolution that Boston must be sustained. Thomas Gage, the new military governor, on HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 273 the 13th of May, while the town-meeting just described was in session, sailed up the harbor in the frigate Lively, the cannon of which, a year later, were to open the battle of Bunker Hill. Landing first at the Castle, he entered the town on the 17th with great circumstance. Crowds filled the streets, and outwardly all was decorous and respectful. Hancock, at the head of the cadets, received him at the wharf ; there were proper ceremonies in the council chamber, and a great banquet at Faneuil Hall, where many loyal toasts were drunk. The day was raw and rainy, and the public temper, in spite of the outward show, no better. The instruc tions of Gage were to proceed promptly against the ringleaders, who, as Dartmouth wrote, were regarded as having sufficiently compromised themselves by the tea-party to receive the heaviest punishment. Gage, however, was re luctant to act, through a well-grounded pru dence. Though his force was increased to four regiments, no leader could be arrested without certainty of a popular uprising not to be lightly encountered. We have now to bid farewell to a figure who has for more than ten years been scarcely less conspicuous in these pages than Samuel Adams himself. So far as the unfortunate Thomas 18 274 SAMUEL ADAMS. Hutchinson is concerned, the battle is over. As lie disappears from the scene, the reader will not feel that it is an undue use of time if a page or two is devoted to a final consideration of him and the class he represented. History, at this late date, can certainly afford a compassionate word for the Tories, who, be sides having been forced to atone in life for the mistake of taking the wrong side by undergo ing exile and confiscation, have received while in their graves little but detestation. At the evacuation of Boston, says Mr. Sabine in the 44 American Loyalists," eleven hundred loyal ists retired to Nova Scotia with the army of Gage, of whom one hundred and two were men in official station, eighteen were clergymen, two hundred and thirteen were merchants and tra ders of Boston, three hundred and eighty-two were farmers and mechanics, in great part from the country. The mere mention of calling and station in the case of the forlorn, expatriated company conveys a suggestion of respectability. There were, in fact, no better men or women in Massachusetts, as regards intelligence, substan tial good purpose, and piety. They had made the one great mistake of conceding a supremacy over themselves to distant arbitrary masters, which a population nurtured under the influ ence of the revived folk-mote ought by no HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 275 means to have made ; but with this exception, the exiles were not at all inferior in worth of every kind to those who drove them forth. The Tories were generally people of substance, their stake in the country was greater even than that of their opponents, their patriotism, no doubt, was to the full as fervent. There is much that is melancholy, of which the world knows but little, connected with their expulsion from the land they sincerely loved. The estates of the Tories were among the fairest ; their stately mansions stood on the sightliest hill - brows ; the richest and best tilled meadows were their farms ; the long avenue, the broad lawn, the trim hedge about the garden, servants, plate, pictures, the varied circumstance, external and internal, of dignified and generous house keeping, for the most part, these things were at the homes of Tories. They loved beauty, dignity, and refinement. It seemed to belong to such forms of life to be generously loyal to king and Parliament, without questioning too narrowly as to rights and taxes. The rude contacts of the town-meeting were full of things to offend the taste of a gentleman. The crown officials were courteous, well-born, congenial, having behind them the far away nobles and the sovereign, who rose in the imagination, unknown and at a distance as they were, sur- 276 SAMUEL ADAMS. rounded by a brilliant glamour. Was there not a certain meanness in haggling as to the tax which these polite placemen and their su periors might choose to exact, or inquiring narrowly as to their credentials when they chose to exercise authority ? The graceful, the chivalrous, the poetic, the spirits over whom these feelings had power, were sure to be To ries. Democracy was something rough and coarse ; independence, what was it but a sev ering of those connections of which a colonist ought to be proudest ! It was an easy thing to be led into taking sides against notions like these. Hence, when the country rose, many a high-bred, honorable gentleman turned the key in his door, drove down his line of trees with his refined dame and carefully guarded children at his side, turned his back on his handsome estate, and put himself under the shelter of the proud banner of St. George. It was a mere temporary refuge, he thought, and as he pro nounced upon " Sam Adams " and the rabble a gentlemanly execration, he promised himself a speedy return, when discipline and loyalty should have put down the ship-yard men and the misled rustics. But the return was never to be. The day went against them ; they crowded into ships with the gates of their country barred forever HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 277 behind them. They found themselves penni less upon shores often bleak and barren, always showing scant hospitality to outcasts who came empty-handed, and there they were forced to begin life anew. Having chosen their side, their lot was inevitable. Nor are the victors to be harshly judged. There was no unnecessary cruelty shown to the loyalists. The land they had left belonged to the new order of things, and, good men and women though they were, there was nothing for them, and justly so, but to bear their expatriation and poverty with such fortitude as they could find. Gray, Clarke, Erving, and Faneuil, Roy all and Vassall, Fayerweather and Leonard and Sewall families of honorable note, bound in with all that was best in the life of the Province, who now can think of their destiny unpitying? Let us glance at the stories of two or three whose names have become familiar to the reader in these pages. Andrew Oliver, the lieutenant - governor, thought Parliament ought to be supreme. With perfect honesty he upheld his view, be lieving not only that it was England s right, but that in this sovereignty lay his country s only chance for peace and order. The old Tory atoned heavily for his mistake in life and even in death. It broke his heart when his pri- 278 SAMUEL ADAMS. vate letters, sent by Franklin, were used to rouse against him the people s ill-will. In the streets he was exposed to execration. At his funeral the Assembly, taking umbrage because precedence was given to the officers of the army and navy, withdrew, insisting even in presence of the corpse upon an unseemly punctilio. When the body was lowered into the grave the people cheered, and Peter Oliver, the chief jus tice, was prevented by fear for his life from do ing a brother s office at the burial. Stout Timothy Ruggles was the son of the minister of Rochester. He was six feet six inches tall, and as stalwart in spirit as in frame. He became a soldier, and as the French wars proceeded was greatly distinguished for his ad dress and audacity. At the battle of Lake George he was second in command, having charge especially of the New England marks men, whose sharp fire it was that caused the defeat of the Baron Dieskau. As a lawyer, af ter his return from his campaigns, his reputa tion equaled that which he had gained in the field. His bold, incisive character, and a caus tic wit which he possessed, caused men to give way before him. John Adams, in 1759, men tions Ruggles first and most prominently in making a comparison of the leading lawyers of the Province, and tells us in what his "grand- HUT CHIN SON AND THE TORIES. 279 eur " consisted. Ruggles then lived in Sand wich, but removing soon after to Hardwick in Worcester County, he laid out for himself a noble domain, greatly benefiting the agriculture of the neighborhood by the introduction of im proved methods, by choice stock and an appli cation of energy and intelligence in general. In public and professional life he was a rival of the Otises, father and son. He was at one time speaker of the Assembly. He was president of the Stamp Act congress in New York, where his opposition to the patriot positions caused him to be censured. As the conflict between crown and Assembly proceeded, he was one of Samuel Adams s most dreaded opponents. Through force of character he did much to infuse a loyalist tone into the western part of the Province, which might have been fatal to the Whigs, had there not been on the spot a man of Hawley s strength to counteract it. In the Assembly he was Hutchinson s main re liance, able to accomplish little on account of the overwhelming Whig majority, but always consistently working for the ideas in which he believed. When war became certain, " Brig adier " Ruggles was counted as the best of the veterans who still survived from the struggles with the French ; he was much more distin guished than Washington. On the day of the 280 SAMUEL ADAMS. battle of Lexington he organized a force of loyalists, two hundred strong. Later he was in arms on Long Island. But fortune no more favored him. As an exile in Nova Scotia he fared as best he could, dying at last in 1798, a man without a country. But of all the Americans who took the loyal side at the Revolution, Thomas Hutchinson is the most distinguished figure. His early career has been already sketched. His work as a financier had been particularly important, his ability in this direction being conceded by his enemies. John Adams wrote in 1809 : " If I was the witch of Endor, I would wake the ghost of Hutchinson and give him absolute power over the currency of the United States and every part of it, provided always that he should meddle with nothing but the currency. As little as I revere his memory, I will acknowledge that he understood the subject of coin and commerce better than any man I ever knew in this country." Judging him at this distance of time, it can be plainly seen that Hutchinson was a good and able man in many other directions than as a financier. His one mistake, in fact, for which he was made to atone so bitterly in life and death, was disloyalty to the folk-mote, that sovereign People so long discrowned, which on the soil of New England resumed its rights, HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 281 and fought its hot battle with the usurper, Prerogative. He should have chosen his master better ; he ought to have known how to choose better, sprung as he was from the best New England strain, and nurtured from his cradle in the atmosphere of freedom. But his choice was honest, and no one, who examines the evi dence, can say that in his losing cause he did not fight his guns like a man, a sleepless, able captain who went down at last with his ship. He hoped, no doubt, for advancement for himself and his sons, stood in some undue awe, natural enough in a colonist, before the king and English nobles, and came to feel a personal hatred for the men who opposed him, so that he could no more do them justice than they could do it to him. It has been charged that, for the sake of winning favor with the people, he wrote letters of a character likely to give them pleasure, which he exhibited in public as let ters which he intended to send to persons in power ; that, however, they were never sent ; that the impression on the minds of the peo ple having been produced, the letters were destroyed. The charge has been confidently made and may have some grounds. Certainly the trick is discreditable; but it is as incon sistent with his general character as were the occasional shortcomings of Samuel Adams with 282 SAMUEL ADAMS. his. We may admit the faults of Hutchinson, that he was sometimes subservient, that he sometimes bore malice, sometimes, probably, for a moment under temptation stooped to du plicity. Nevertheless, the obloquy of which he has been the victim is for the most part quite undeserved, and any lover of fair play will feel that it ought to be refuted. He held, to be sure, many offices ; it is rather the case, however, that they were thrust upon him than that he sought them ; they were miserably paid, excepting the governorship to which he attained only at a late period; they were positions of burden rather than honor ; his administration of his trusts in every point, excepting as he favored parliamen tary supremacy, was wise and faithful, accord ing to the testimony of all. He has been called covetous ; rather he sacrificed his means for what he thought the public good, and when, as the cause of the king went down, his beautiful home and fine fortune underwent confiscation, he speaks of the loss in his diary and private letters with the dignified equanimity of a high- minded philosopher. Pleasant traditions of the last royal gov ernor yet linger about Milton Hill, the spot which he loved above all others. Old people are still there who have heard from their grand parents the story of Hutchinson s leave-taking, EUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 283 on the June day when at length the soldiers had come with Gage, and he was about setting out for England to give the king the account of his stewardship. As he stepped forth from his door the beautiful prospect was before him, the Neponset winding through the meadows wav ing for the scythe, the villages on the higher ground, the broad blue harbor, unfolded from the wharves to the Outer Light, with the ships on its breast, and the flag above the Castle. He looked up, no doubt, into the branches of the thrifty buttonwoods he had planted, with a good-by glance, then turned his back upon it all, with no thought that it was for the last time. He went down the road on foot, affably greeting his neighbors, Whig and Tory, for the genial magnate was on the best terms with all. At the foot of the hill, his coach, which the next year was taken to Cambridge and appropriated to the use of Washington, received him and carried him to Dorchester Neck, whence in his barge he proceeded to the man-of-war Minerva, and so passed away forever. All that he possessed was confiscated, even the dust of his forefathers, and those still nearer ; and here may be mentioned a circum stance in which the grotesque and the melan choly are strangely commingled. In his tomb on Copp s Hill lay his father and grandfather, 284 SAMUEL ADAMS. and also his wife, whose memory he tenderly cherished. He wrote from England a moving letter to his son, asking that the coffin might be removed to Milton, to a new tomb to be there built, near the home to which he expected to return, prescribing carefully the steps to be taken, that all might be done reverently. But the son, leaving with the other Tories at the time of the evacuation of Boston, never found the opportunity. The tomb with its dead, like everything else belonging to the old governor, was sold. The canny patriot who bought it had a thrift as close as that of the character in the " Pirates of Penzance," who appropriates in the old burying-ground on his freshly pur chased estate the ancestors of the former pos sessor. " I do not know whose ancestors they may formerly have been, but they are now mine," and so he weeps among their graves upon proper occasion. The governor s tomb had before it a stone bearing the name " Hutch- inson," and underneath, the finely-carved es cutcheon of the family. A great-grandson of the governor, on a pious pilgrimage to the spot, found the old lettering erased. The armorial bearings, however, remained distinct and hand some, and over them, as if they were his own, the new proprietor had caused his own name to be carved. The coat of arms he felt apparently HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 285 to be part of his bargain ; so, too, the buried Hutchinsons beneath. The stone is still to be seen in its place above the tomb on Copp s Hill, and under it no doubt lies, with his appropriated ancestors, the clever Whig, whose name it now bears, snugly tucked in, like a hermit-crab in his stolen shell, awaiting Gabriel s trump. When Hutchinson reached England his re ception was of the best. Lord Dartmouth car ried him to the king without giving him time to change his clothes after the journey. A con versation of an hour or two took place, of which he has left a careful report, in which both king and governor appear to good advantage. He was offered a baronetcy, and was as well re ceived as possible by the people in power. His diary, just given to the world, offers an unaf fected account of his experiences, from which the conclusion is irresistible that he bore him self well in his new surroundings, was felt by good men to have played a creditable part, and made all whom he met regard him as a man of good sense. Not Samuel Adams him self could have moved with a stricter conform ity to Puritan standards in the midst of a life often frivolous and corrupt. In fact, the two men, much as they hated one another, were in some respects alike. In point of adroitness they were not ill-matched ; each sought what 286 SAMUEL ADAMS. he believed to be his country s good, with sin cere patriotism, in his separate way ; there was in each the same indefatigability, the same deep gravity of character, combined with a genial manner. From the fashionable amusements of London Hutchinson turned with disgust. Gar- rick utterly displeased him; he could see noth ing attractive in the sports which he was taken to witness. After John Adams s fashion, he notes carefully each Sunday the preacher and the sermon. Like the " chief incendiary," his ideal community would have been his dear Bos ton straitened into a " Christian Sparta." " I assure you," he writes, " I had rather die in a little country farm-house in New England, than in the best nobleman s seat in Old England, and have therefore given no ear to any pro posal of settling here." So frequently in these pages we have the utterances of a homesick spirit, that would gladly have left the splendors and attentions of the court of George III. to re turn to the land he sincerely loved. The ex ile was keenly sensitive to opprobrium, and defends himself in his letters and sometimes in more formal ways. Speaking of his letter- books left behind in his house at Milton, now in the Massachusetts archives, and from which much has been quoted in this volume, he says : HUTCHINSON AND THE TORIES. 287 "When I was threatened by the tea-mobs, I car ried them to Milton, and when I was obliged to re turn to the Castle upon Gen. Gage s arrival, it did not come into my mind where I had put them. I ana sure there is nothing in them but what will evidence an upright aim, and an endeavor to keep off the miseries which in spite of my endeavors a few men have brought upon the country; and if they will take the whole of them, they will find a uniform plan for preserving the authority of Parliament, and at the same time indulging the colonies in every point in which the people imagined they were aggrieved." To attacks which were made upon him by the Whigs in Parliament he replied by a for mal " Vindication," in which he speaks of him self in the third person. The paper was not printed then, and appears now for the first time in the diary. It is a document full of clear ness and dignity, and has much interest to the student of our Revolutionary history. A pas sage from this follows : " It is asserted that no one fact has ever appeared to have been materially misrepresented by him, nor any one proposal made unfriendly to the rights and liberties of mankind in general, or tending to take from the Province of which he was governor, the privileges enjoyed by its charter, or any powers or privileges from the inhabitants of the colonies, which can be made to consist with their relation to Parlia- 288 SAMUEL ADAMS. ment as the supreme authority of the British do minions. . . . " It is a remark more ancient than any British col ony that Gubernatorum vituperatio populo placet, and every governor of Massachusetts Bay, for near a century past, has by experience found the truth of it." With this outburst we dismiss the ruined exile from our attention. CHAPTER XVIII. PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. As Hutchinson looked his last upon Boston harbor, having his mind cheered by a warm ad dress, expressing for him deep respect, which had been sent in to him by a hundred and twenty respectable merchants, and by a second similar address coming from the lawyers, he must have heard the tolling of the bells that announced the closing of the port of Boston in retaliation for the destruction of the tea. The steps which the government had taken were decided enough, but the instrument through whom they were to be carried into execution was a man far different from the as tute, energetic Hutchinson. Gage was mild in temper, and of very moderate ability. His disposition was to treat Boston good-naturedly, and it was only when fortified by others that he made up his mind to put the Port Bill in force. The Whig leaders, relieved from the op position of their great antagonist, manoeuvred and drove forward relentlessly, outwitting or 19 290 SAMUEL ADAMS. overriding the general at every step, until his weak amiability gave way to outbreaks of testy ill-nature. The General Court which had convened on the 26th of May was memorable as the last under the colonial charter. The other colo nies, as well as Massachusetts, were now ripe for the Congress, and Samuel Adams, who in the gathering Revolution had attained in his own Province an almost autocratic ascendency, prepared to secure the nomination of dele gates. For a few days nothing could be done, for Gage prorogued the Court, to meet early in June at Salem. The session presently took place in that town, and never had the hand of the great master been so deft and at the same time so daring : one moment pulling strings with the nicest caution, the next it was, as it were, clenched and delivered in a telling blow. But whether in the form of flattering palm or doubled fist, it ruled the hour omnipotently, and brought to pass a triumphant success. Samuel Adams, working with the Commit tee of Correspondence to the last moment, then hurrying over the country roads to Salem, was late in reaching the place of meeting, giving much anxiety to the patriots, who followed him now like children, and much joy to the Tories, for the report spread that at last the soldiers PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 291 had seized him. While the Assembly waited, he entered the hall. The Tories, made bold by the presence in town of a general as chief magistrate, with soldiers at his back, bore themselves with much arrogance. The pres sure of the crowd of spectators in the hall in which the court was to assemble was consider able, and a group of Tories had taken posses sion of the space about the chair appropriated to the clerk. When Samuel Adams entered, one of their number, in a gold-laced coat and otherwise richly dressed, had seated himself in the chair, which he seemed disposed to retain. " Mr. Speaker, where is the place for your clerk ? " said Samuel Adams, with his eyes fixed upon the intruder and the group that surrounded him. The speaker pointed to the chair and desk. " Sir," said Mr. Adams, " my company will not be pleasant to the gentlemen who occupy it. I trust they will remove to another part of the house." The Tories gave way before him, and his bearing soon dispelled the idea with which some of the Tories had flattered themselves, that Samuel Adams had been delayed by his fears. The House at once after organization pro tested against the removal from Boston. The Council presented to the governor a respectful address ; but when at last a wish was expressed 292 SAMUEL ADAMS. that his administration might be a happy con trast to that of his two immediate predeces sors, Gage angrily interrupted the chairman, refused to listen farther, and denounced the address as insulting to the king and privy council, and to himself. Affairs were indeed critical. Boston, with many of its Whigs weak- kneed and its latent Toryism all brought to the surface and made demonstrative by the dis play of power by the ministry, was in danger of adopting a measure for giving compensation for the tea, and perhaps going still farther in the path of concession, to win relief from the calamity that had come. A town-meeting was called. Samuel Adams could not be in two places at once, and to Joseph Warren was left the responsibility of bringing things to a good issue. Warren, gallant as he was, felt his heart sink. He was like a general of division, who, having fought long with great effect under the eye of an old field-marshal, suddenly in a day of the utmost danger finds himself intrusted with an independent command. He begged the generalissimo to come back. " I think your at tendance can by no means be dispensed with over Friday, as I believe we shall have a warm engagement." But on that very day it was the 17th of June, one year before Bunker Hill there was work to be done at Salem too, and PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 293 Warren had to fight it out by himself. With John Adams in the chair as moderator, the lieutenant on the floor brought all to a victo rious issue. At that time he first realized his own great power and became self-reliant. Mean while Samuel Adams, in his field, having bur rowed for days like a skillful engineer, at length sprung his mine, and in the most audacious of assaults carried the position. A larger number of representatives had ap peared than ever before, drawn together by the greatness of the crisis, many of whom were dis posed to be reactionary, if not actually Tories. A committee of nine on the state of the Prov ince, consisting of the principal members of the Assembly, and of which Samuel Adams was chairman, had been appointed in May be fore the prorogation. By this committee all action must be initiated. If a hint should reach Gage that the Assembly were engaged in the election of delegates to a Congress, it was known that he would at once prorogue the Court to prevent such action. Samuel Ad ams studied his problem warily. Sounding the members of his committee, he found some of them doubtful in the cause. In particular Daniel Leonard of Taunton, a man of ability, who is now known to have been one of Hutch- inson s own sharpest writers, was to be dreaded. 294 SAMUEL ADAMS. The plan pursued was to entertain in meetings of the committee vague propositions for concil iation, until the lukewarm or Tory members should form the idea that some compromise was likely to be proposed. Meantime Samuel Adams secretly made sure of those in the com mittee upon whom he could rely, and gradually ascertained precisely what other members of the House could be counted upon. All must be done with the most velvet-footed caution, and days must pass. A sufficient majority must be secured and instructed, so that the measure might be carried with little debate, as soon as proposed, and no hint of it reach Gage. The days passed. At meetings of the com mittee the old cat purred of conciliation with half-closed, sleepy eyes, until the doubtful men were completely deceived. Leonard himself, at length, went home to Taunton on legal busi ness, feeling that if Sam Adams was ready to yield, there was no need of being watchful. At once Adams set one of his best lieutenants, James Warren of Plymouth, an apt and faith ful pupil, to keep the committee in play, while he worked as secretly but more actively out side. At first he was sure of but five ; in two days he could count on thirty ; at length he had under his hand a majority, and all was PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 295 ready. One feels that if sharp-eyed Hutchin- son had been on the spot, there would have been trouble. Gage, however, satisfied with his show of energy in rebuking the Council, and abundantly assured that the temper of the Assembly was peaceful, looked amiably on with his hands folded. The spring at last was like lightning. On Fri day, the 17th of June, one hundred and twenty- nine members were present. Sam Adams, at the head of the committee on the state of the Province, suddenly caused the door to be locked, and charged the doorkeeper to let no one in or i out. The next instant a series of resolves was \ produced providing for the appointment of James Bowdoin, Thomas Gushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine, to meet the delegates of other colonial Assemblies, on the 1st of September, at Philadelphia, or any other place that should be decided upon. The House was at once in an uproar, and an earnest effort was made to choke off the measure. But the majority rose in its power ; the lieutenants, secretly drilled, were each in place, and the arch conspirator, cool and genial, but adroit and forceful as any man who ever ruled a senate, held every string in his hand. Attempts were made by Tory members to leave the hall, when it became plain how things must go. The door- 296 SAMUEL ADAMS. keeper, beset and browbeaten by heated men, grew uneasy under the responsibility which was placed upon him ; whereupon Sam Adams, with a curious inversion of the great Cromwel- lian precedent, but with a spirit as self-reliant and straightforward as that of the other great Puritan brewer himself, did not turn his Par liament out, but bolted them in. Making sure that the door was still fast, he put the key into his own pocket. Some debate there must be, and while it went forward a Tory member, pleading sickness, in some way did manage to make his escape, and hurried at once to Gage with the news. Forthwith the general prepared the shortest possible message of prorogation, and his secre tary hurried with it to the hall. The door was still locked, with the key in Samuel Adams s pocket, and even Thomas Flucker, Esquire, no inconsiderable personage himself, and now the messenger of the governor and commander-in- chief, demanded admission in vain. The fact that he was without was imparted to the speaker, who communicated it formally to the House, but the majority ordered the door to be kept fast. By this time rumors of a great legislative coup cTetat were flying through the town and a crowd began to collect in the ap proaches to the hall. To these, for want of PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 297 a better audience, and also to several mem bers of the House who had come late to the session, Flucker read his message. No tac tics, meantime, could long stave off the end at which Sam Adams aimed. The Tories suc cumbed, the doubtful went over in a troop to the Whig side, the delegates were elected with only twelve dissenting voices, and five hun dred pounds were voted to pay their expenses. Since no money could be drawn from the pub lic treasury without the governor s consent, every town in the Province was assessed in proportion to its last tax-list, to provide the sum. Resolves were then passed for the re lief of Boston and Charlestown, as the special sufferers by the Port Bill, renouncing the use of tea and all goods and manufactures com ing from Great Britain, and encouraging home productions to the utmost. All that was nec essary having been fully and satisfactorily per formed, Mr. Flucker was admitted, the Assem bly with all grace submitted to the mandate of prorogation, and the members scattered. The horse was stolen, and General Gage locked the barn-door with great vigor. Samuel Adams dispatched the news by printed circular to the selectmen of the towns, with the apportionment made in each case for the fund to defray the expenses of the dele- 298 SAMUEL ADAMS. gates, and himself received the sums that were sent. Notice was sent, too, by Gushing, as speaker, to all the colonies, informing them of the action of Massachusetts. This it was which had been generally awaited, and now, following in her wake, the thirteen colonies, from New Hampshire to Georgia, prepared for the great Congress at Philadelphia on September 1. The interval between the prorogation of the legislature and the departure of the delegates to Philadelphia was by no means an idle one for the patriots. As chairman of the commit tees for devising plans for the relief of the poor and distributing the donations which began to arrive from all quarters, Samuel Adams was kept busy. On the 27th of June occurred a town-meeting, memorable as being the last oc casion upon which the Tories made an effort to stem in that community the course of the Revo lution ; after this they threw themselves back upon the military power. Taking advantage of the public distress, which became every day greater, a meeting was called by them at Fan- euil Hall. In the enforced idleness of all classes, a multitude attended, and, as usual, the meeting adjourned to the Old South. A few weeks previous, a " solemn league and cove nant " against using British productions of every kind had been drawn up by Warren, PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 299 and had received many signatures. This doc ument having been read, a Tory denounced it, and presently after a vote of censure was moved upon the Committee of Correspond ence, providing also for its annihilation. Sam uel Adams, the moderator, quickly left the chair to Gushing, taking his place on the floor as champion of the Committee of which he had been the creator and the ruling spirit. The debate was long and vehement, lasting until dark of the long June day, and was resumed the following forenoon. It was conducted in the presence of an audience of ruined men; merchants whose idle ships had nothing be fore them but to rot at the wharves, mechanics whose labor had suddenly become a drug in the market, sailors to whom the sea was barred. A slight yielding from the course into which the Whigs had struck would remove at once the incubus. It was not at all necessary to become Tories ; certain small concessions, like the pay ment for the tea and an admission that its de struction had been a mistake, would be enough. Even Josiah Quincy had advised moderation at the time, and now great patriots like Frank lin declared this to be a proper step. To Samuel Adams, who saw no safety in such a course, the time was indeed critical. But when the question was put as to the anni- 300 SAMUEL ADAMS. hilation of the committee, the meeting " by a great majority " 1 voted in the negative, and then almost unanimously the resolve passed : " That the town bear open testimony that they are abundantly satisfied of the upright inten tions and much approve of the honest zeal of the Committee of Correspondence, and desire that they will persevere with their usual ac tivity and firmness, continuing steadfast in the way of well-doing." This was an indorsement of an unyielding course. The Tories, so utterly defeated in town-meeting, signed a protest, which was widely distributed, against the " sol emn league and covenant ; " but their sleepless and implacable opponent stormed at them as " Candidus " from the columns of the u Boston Gazette." The " solemn league and covenant " spread throughout the Massachusetts towns, through all New England, and into the colonies in general, becoming a most formidable non importation agreement, which the royal gov ernors denounced in vain. The patriots now lived in daily fear of the arrest of Samuel Adams and his prominent sup porters. Urgent letters are extant, entreating him to be on his guard ; steps were taken to make his house more secure. But Gage de- 1 These words in the town records are underscored by Wil liam Cooper, showing his strong feeling. PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 301 layed ; the matter was left largely to his discre tion, and he was quite justified in thinking it would be imprudent. A public seizure would have been the height of rashness, and a private arrest would have brought upon the British force, still far from large, though it was gradu ally increasing, such an avalanche of patriots as would infallibly have crushed it. It came very near being the case that positive orders were sent to Gage for the seizure. Says Hutchin- son : " The lords of the privy council had their pens in their hands in order to sign the war rant to apprehend Adams, Molineux, and other principal incendiaries, try them, and if found guilty, put them to death." Lord Mans field told Hutchinson that the warrant was not sent, "because the attorney and solicitor gen eral were in doubt whether the evidence was sufficient to convict them ; but he said things would never be right until some of them were brought over." More insidious assaults were made, however, without success. Hutchinson in his day had known Adams too well to try such means. " Why hath not Mr. Adams been taken off from his opposition by an office ? " inquired members of the ministry. " Such is the obsti nacy and inflexible disposition of the man," was the reply, " that he never would be conciliated 302 SAMUEL ADAMS. by any office of gift whatever." Gage was less wise, and made a trial which had an ignomin ious failure. In 1818 Mr. Adams s daughter re lated: The governor sent, by Colonel Fenton, who commanded one of the newly arrived regi ments, a confidential and verbal message, prom ising Adams great gifts and advancement if he would recede, and saying it was the advice of Governor Gage to him not to incur the further displeasure of his majesty. Adams listened with apparent interest to this recital, until the mes senger had concluded. Then rising, he replied, glowing with indignation : " Sir, I trust I have long since made my peace with the King of kings. No personal consideration shall induce me to abandon the righteous cause of my coun try. Tell Governor Gage it is the advice of Samuel Adams to him no longer to insult the feelings of an exasperated people." There is some reason also for supposing that he was offered afterward a pension of two thousand guineas, and a patent of nobility in the Ameri can peerage which was projected. Early in August Gage received official news of the act of Parliament changing the charter, which had been for some time unofficially known, and instructions to put it at once in force. Thirty-six councilors were nominated by the crown, according to the new method, PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 303 called the " mandamus " councilors ; of these twenty-four accepted. They at once met, and other arbitrary measures were taken. The Committee of Correspondence retaliated by recommending that all men should practice military drill, and that a provincial congress should be summoned. Preliminary to this the counties met in convention, one hundred and fifty delegates from the towns of Middlesex as sembling at Concord, and the towns of Essex convening at Ipswich. Gage, meantime, took cannon from Cambridge, and in defiance of the protests of the selectmen began to fortify Bos ton Neck. During the summer of 1774, Samuel Adams, while preparing for his departure to Philadel phia, continued to direct affairs in straitened Boston. He was the leading member of a com mittee of safety, whose particular work was to afford employment to the poor in the repairing of streets and building of wharves on the town s land. His correspondence continues. To R. H. Lee he writes : " It is the virtue of the yeo manry we are chiefly to depend upon." The sentence lets us know the kind of democracy in which Adams believed. His disposition was to put the fullest reliance upon the peo ple, yet sometimes he is careful to specify that it is the " yeomanry " or " the bulk of the peo- 304 SAMUEL ADAMS. pie" who are to be built upon. As he dis trusted the fine world which was ready to cringe before power, he recognized too the possibility of danger at the other end of the scale, from the " mob." In March of the present year there had been a riot at Marblehead, the peo ple burning lawlessly a small-pox hospital. Through Elbridge Gerry the facts came to Samuel Adams, and the Assembly were peti tioned for armed assistance. It would have been mortifying to the patriots and a triumph to the Tories if the Assembly had been brought to use arms against the people. The House de layed, probably through Adams s influence, and the matter meanwhile fortunately quieted it self. At a later time, however, in the Shays rebellion, we shall find the man of the town- meeting standing as sternly against the mis guided people as he ever did against Tory or crown official. " Vox populi vox Dei " was a sentiment to which he fully subscribed, but it must be the voice of the substantial people. Donations came from near and far to the sup port of suffering Boston. Salem and the ports adjacent commonly received what was sent ; and thence the carriage was made by land to the centre. As the time drew near for the departure to Philadelphia, Samuel Adams gave his parting charge to the Committee of Correspondence, a PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST C0JV charge which they spoke of as " instrci from which they must on no account deviat authoritative had his word become. The very last business performed was to arrange for a convention of deputies from Boston and the ad joining towns at some inland point, out of the way of interruptions. This, it was felt, might pave the way for a general congress of the Province, which was likely before long to be wanted. The execution of this project, and the general direction of affairs, was to lie with Joseph Warren, who, since the " Port Bill meet ing " of June 17, had fully found his powers, and during the short remnant of his life was to show himself a man of great executive force. And now let us pause for a moment, as Sam- ^ uel Adams is on the point of leaving Massachu setts for the first time, to look at his home life. He still occupied the house in Purchase \ Street, the estate connected with which had, as time went forward, through the carelessness of its preoccupied owner become narrowed to a scanty tract. It was nevertheless a sightly place, from which stretched seaward before the eye the island-studded harbor, with the many ships, the bastions of the Castle, low ly ing to the right, and landward the town, ris ing fair upon its hills. Samuel Adams, shortly 20 306 SAMUEL ADAMS. before this time, had been able, probably with the help of friends, to put his home in good order, and managed to be hospitable. For apparently life went forward in his home, if frugally, not parsimoniously, his admirable wife making it possible for him, from his small in come as clerk of the House, to maintain a de cent housekeeping. His son, now twenty-two years old, was studying medicine with Dr. Warren, after a course at Harvard, a young man for whom much could be hoped. His daughter was a promising girl of seventeen. With the young people and their intimates the father was cordial and genial. He had an ear for music and a pleasant voice in singing, a practice which he much enjoyed. The house was strictly religious ; grace was said at each meal, and the Bible is still preserved from which some member of the household read aloud each night. Old Surry, a slave woman given to Mrs. Adams in 1765, and who was freed upon coming into her possession, lived in the family nearly fifty years, showing devoted attachment. When slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, papers of manumission were made out for her in due form ; but these she threw into the fire in anger, saying she had lived too long to be trifled with. The servant boy whom Samuel Adams carefully and kindly PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 307 reared, became afterwards a mechanic of char acter, and worked efficiently in his former mas ter s behalf when at length in old age Adams was proposed for governor. Nor must Queue be forgotten, the big, intelligent NeAvfoundland dog, who appreciated perfectly what was due to his position as the dog of Sam Adams. He had a vast antipathy to the British uniform. He was cut and shot in several places by sol diers, in retaliation for his own sharp attacks ; for the patriotic Queue anticipated even the " embattled farmers " of Concord bridge in in augurating hostilities, and bore to his grave honorable scars from his fierce encounters. The upholders of the house of Hanover had received ho heartier bites than those of Queue since the days of the Jacobites. Until now, in his fifty-third year, Samuel Adams had never left his native town except for places a few miles distant. The expenses of the journey and the sojourn in Philadelphia were arranged for by the legislative appropri ation. But the critical society of a populous town, and the picked men of the thirteen colo nies were to be encountered. A certain sump- tuousness in living and apparel would be not only fitting, but necessary in the deputies, that the great Province which they represented 308 SAMUEL ADAMS. might suffer no dishonor. Samuel Adams him self probably would have been quite satisfied to appear in the old red coat of 1770, in which Copley had painted him, and which no doubt his wife s careful darning still held together ; but his townsmen arranged it differently. The story will be best told in the words of a writer of the time : " The ultimate wish and desire of the high govern ment party is to get Samuel Adams out of the way, when they think they may accomplish every of their plans ; but, however some may despise him, he has certainly very many friends. For, not long since, some persons (their names unknown) sent and asked his permission to build him a new barn, the old one being decayed, which was executed in a few days. A second sent to ask leave to repair his house, which was thoroughly effected soon. A third sent to beg the favor of him to call at a tailor s shop, and be meas ured for a suit of clothes, and choose his cloth, which were finished and sent home for his acceptance. A fourth presented him with a new wig, a fifth with a new hat, a sixth with six pair of the best silk hose, a seventh with six pair of fine thread ditto, an eighth with six pair of shoes, and a ninth modestly inquired of him whether his finances were not rather low than otherwise. He replied it was true that was the case, but he was very indifferent about these matters, so that his poor abilities were of any service to the public ; upon which the gentleman obliged him to PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 309 accept of a purse containing about fifteen or twenty Johannes." l On the 10th of August the four delegates set forth : Thomas Gushing (who took the place of Bowdoin, kept at home by the sickness of his wife), Samuel and John Adams, and Robert Treat Paine. They left the house of Gushing in considerable state. "Am told," says John Andrews, " they made a very respectable parade in sight of five of the regiments encamped on the Common, being in a coach and four, pre ceded by two white servants well mounted and armed, with four blacks behind in livery, two on horseback and two footmen." At Water- town they dined with a large number of their friends, who drove out thither for the final parting. Hence they proceeded in a coach ar ranged for their special convenience. The jour ney, with the great attentions they received, is graphically related in the diary of John Adams, who was, as the reader of these pages by this time well knows, a most admirable observer and reporter, in part for the same reason Lowell gives for Margaret Fuller s sharpness : " A person must surely see well, if he try, The whole of whose being s a capital I." 1 John Andrews to William Barrell, Boston, August 11, 1774. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 1865. The new suit was given just before the departure for Philadelphia. 810 SAMUEL ADAMS. In Connecticut they were received with great circumstance. Cavalcades accompanied them from town to town. " At four we made New Haven. Seven miles out of town, at a tavern, we met a great number of carriages and horsemen who had come out to meet us. The sheriff of the county, and constable of the town, and the justices of the peace were in the train. As we were coming, we met others to the amount of I know not what number. As we came into the town, all the bells in town were set to ringing, and the people, men, women, and children, were crowding at the doors and windows as if it was to see a coro nation. At nine o clock the cannon were fired, about a dozen guns, I think." Bears, the landlord of the tavern, afterwards tells them : " the parade which was made to introduce us into town was a sudden proposal in order to divert the populace from erecting a liberty-pole," engineered by the Tories. Rarely enough in his life did Sam Adams take a holiday, and now one thinks that, with so much that was tremendous impending, a man could hardly be in a mood for the enjoyment of new scenes and people, and the reception of honors, however flattering. He had long lived, however, with his head in the lion s mouth, and though the beast roared as never before, he had good reason to feel that in the general rising of America, of which he everywhere found to- PREPARATIONS FOR THE FIRST CONGRESS. 311 kens, the bite might at last be risked. As they passed onward in the pleasant summer weather, there was no doubt much to enjoy ; but whether his experiences were agreeable or otherwise, of matters purely personal he makes no more men tion now than at other times. The two kins men, so long already companions, and now in closer relations than ever, good friends though they were, were in some points strangely unlike. Honest John parades himself artlessly in every page he writes, now in self-chastening, now in comfortable self-complacency. Reticent Sam, on the other hand, though he lived with the pen in his hand, and wrote reams every year which went into print, is as silent as to himself as if he had been dumb. Whether he was elated or discouraged, happy or wretched, his mood rarely leaves on his page any trace of itself. The biographer of Samuel Adams, therefore, is thankful enough for the help rendered him by the unreserved Hutchinson and the naive chat of the Braintree statesman. So in the agreeable record of the latter we follow the deputies onward. Each Sunday we know the country parson whose preaching they experi ence, his text, his subject, perhaps the heads of his discourse. At each stage we know not so well the name of the town as that of the cheer ful landlord with whom they lodge. Starting from Coolidge s in Watertown, we have seen 312 SAMUEL ADAMS. them bring up at Isaac Bears s, in New Haven, the curt host who dampens any self-com placency they may incline to feel by declaring the demonstration in their honor to be nothing but a Tory device to head off the raising of a liberty-pole. Thence on to Curtiss s, to Quin- tard s, to Fitch s, Haviland s, Cock s, and Day s, until at length they drive up before Hull s, " The Bunch of Grapes," in New York. Here they rest for several days, seeing the town under the guidance of McDougall, afterwards major-general, and meeting John Morin Scott, John Jay, Duane, and members of the great Livingston family, as they had met in Con necticut Silas Deane and Roger Sherman. On the 27th they reached Princeton, where, attending the college prayers, they find the Scotch president, Dr. Witherspoon, " as high a son of liberty as any man in America." They cross the Delaware at Trenton, a pleasant sum mer transit. The men of Glover s amphibious regiment who are to struggle with ice cakes here in a year or two are still quietly fishing off Marblehead, and the Hessians of Colonel Rahl are still free and happy farmers in the pretty villages about Marburg and Cassel. In Phila delphia presently after, " dirty and fatigued," they take lodgings, the four Massachusetts del egates together, " with Miss Jane Port in Arch Street." CHAPTER XIX. LEXINGTON. ON September 5, the delegates, fifty-three in number, met at the city tavern, then viewed the famous hall built for the Society of House Carpenters, and concluded it was sufficient for their purpose. Peyton Randolph of Virginia was made chairman, and Charles Thomson secretary. The Massachusetts delegates had adopted the policy of keeping in the back ground, influenced greatly, no doubt, by an in cident that happened as they were on the point of entering Philadelphia, and which Jo hn Ad ams thus detailed in his old age : " We were met at Frankfort by Dr. Rush, Mr. Mifflin, Mr. Bayard, and several other of the most active sons of liberty in Philadelphia, who desired a conference with us. We invited them to take tea with us in a private apartment. They asked leave to give us some information and advice, which we thankfully granted. They represented to us that the friends of government in Boston and in the Eastern states had represented us to the Middle and South 314 SAMUEL ADAMS. as four desperate adventurers. Mr. Gushing was a harmless kind of man, but poor, and wholly depend ent upon his popularity for his subsistence. Mr. Samuel Adams was a very artful, designing man, but desperately poor, and wholly dependent on his pop ularity with the lowest vulgar for his living. John Adams and Mr. Paine were two young lawyers, of no great talents, reputation, or weight, who had no other means of raising themselves into consequence than by courting popularity. We were all suspected of wishing independence. Now, said they, you must not utter the word independence, nor give the least hint or insinuation of the idea, either in Congress, or any private conversation ; if you do, you are undone ; for independence is as unpopular in all the Middle and South as the Stamp Act itself. No man dares to speak of it. ... You are thought to be too warm. You must not come forward with any bold measure ; you must not pretend to take the lead. You know Virginia is the most popular state in the Union very proud they think they have a right to lead. The South and Middle are too much disposed to yield it. ... This was plain dealing, but it made a deep impression. That conversation has given a coloring to the whole policy of the United States from that day to this (1822)." As the presidency of Congress was given to Virginia, so the first memorable event of the session was an impassioned speech by Patrick Henry, reciting the colonial wrongs, the ne- LEXINGTON. 315 cessity of union, and of the preservation of the democratic part of the constitution. Applause was general, and a debate followed, in which for the most part only the Southern members ap peared, though John Jay took part. Samuel Adams was without doubt the most conspicu ous and also the most dreaded member of the body. All knew that he had been especially singled out as the mark of royal vengeance ; with the leading men he had long been in cor respondence ; his leadership in the most popu lous colony, which had so far borne the brunt of the struggle, was a familiar fact, as was also his authorship of the documents and measures which had done most to bring about a crisis. His views were generally felt to be quite too extreme. His first move was one of the most long headed proceedings of his whole career, a wily master-stroke even for him. In the dif ferences of religious belief, so many of the members holding to their views with ardent in tolerance, it was felt by many to be quite inex pedient to open the Congress formally, after the preliminaries were arranged, with prayer. Samuel Adams, however, sternest of the Puri tans, and well known to hate everything that had to do with prelacy ten times more because a large proportion of the Episcopalians in the 316 SAMUEL ADAMS. colonies held the popular cause in contempt, electrified friend and foe by moving that the Rev. Mr. Duche, an Episcopal clergyman, should be asked to open their deliberations with a religious service. Few acts in his ca reer, probably, cost him a greater sacrifice, and few acts were really more effective. A rumor came at the moment that Boston had been bombarded. In the excitement that prevailed Mr. Duch performed the service impressively, although his conduct afterward proved him to be a wretched character. 1 " Joseph Read, the leading lawyer of Philadelphia," says John Adams, " returned with us to our lodgings. He says we never were guilty of a more mas terly stroke of policy than in moving that Mr. Duch might read prayers. It has had a very good effect." If Prynne in the Long Parlia ment had asked for the prayers of Laud, the sensation could not have been greater. Before such a stretch of catholicity, the members be came ashamed of their divisions, and a spirit of harmony, quite new and beyond measure sal utary, came to prevail. Immediately afterward a committee was formed, the description of whose duties recalls the language used by the Boston town-meeting in 1772, when the Committee of Correspond- 1 Graydon s Memoirs, p. 98, note. LEXINGTON. 317 ence was formed. The committee was " to state the rights of the colonies in general, the several instances in which those rights are vio lated and infringed, and the means most proper to be pursued for obtaining a restoration of them." The committee was to consist of two delegates from each province, Samuel and John Adams acting for Massachusetts. Another committee was also appointed to examine and report the several statutes which affected trade and manufactures. Meantime the plans concerted between Sam uel Adams on the one hand, and Warren with the home-keeping patriots on the other, were carried to fulfillment. Warren engineered the famous " Suffolk Resolves," that " no obedience was due to either or any part of the recent acts of Parliament, which are rejected as the at tempts of a wicked administration to enslave America." The determination was expressed to remain on the defensive so long as such conduct might be vindicated by the principles of reason and self-preservation, but no longer, and to seize as hostages the servants of the crown as an offset to the apprehension of any persons in Suffolk County who had rendered themselves conspicuous in the defense of violated liberty. A Provincial Congress was recommended, and all tax-collectors were exhorted to retain moneys 318 SAMUEL ADAMS. in their hands until government should be con stitutionally organized. So far there had been no utterance quite so bold as this, and Warren at once committed his resolves to the faithful saddlebags of prompt Paul Revere, who con veyed them in six days to the banks of the Schuylkill. The hosts now faced each other with weapons drawn, and any day might see an encounter. Samuel Adams was believed by the moderate men and the Tories to manage things both in and out of Congress. "While the two parties in Congress remained thus during three weeks on an equal balance, the republi cans were calling to their assistance the aid of their factions without. Continued expresses were employed between Philadelphia and Boston. These were under the management of Samuel Adams, a man who, though by no means remarkable for brilliant abilities, yet is equal to most men in popular intrigue and the management of a faction. He eats little, drinks little, sleeps little, thinks much, and is most decisive and in defatigable in the pursuit of his objects. It was this man, who, by his superior application, managed at once the faction in Congress at Philadelphia and the factions in New England. Whatever these patriots in Congress wished to have done by their colleagues without, to induce General Gage, then at the head of his majesty s army at Boston, to give them a pretext for violent opposition, or to promote their measures LEXINGTON. 319 in Congress, Mr. Adams advised and directed to be done ; and when done, it was dispatched by express to Congress. By one of these expresses came the inflammatory resolves of the county of Suffolk, which contained a complete declaration of war against Great Britain." 1 Galloway, the writer quoted, an able lawyer, who had just before been Speaker of the Penn sylvania Assembly, was a leader in Congress of the strong party who desired conciliation. The plan proposed by him, and which came within one vote of being accepted, was a union of the colonies under a general Council, which, in con junction with the British Parliament, was to care for America. Galloway confesses to have been fairly frightened out of his purpose by what he supposed to be the power of Samuel Adams. The Declaration of Rights, embodying a non- consumption and non-importation of British goods ; the addresses to the king, to the peo ple of England, of Canada, and of the British American colonies, and a letter to the agent of the colonies in England, comprise the published papers of the first Congress, seven weeks pass ing while they were in preparation. Of these 1 Historical and Political Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the American Revolution, by Joseph Galloway. London, 1780. Page 67. 320 SAMUEL ADAMS. the first and most important is substantially the same as that adopted by the people of Boston in 1772. What part precisely Samuel Adams took, we cannot tell. He himself says nothing, and there was no formal report. John Adams s pictures are as vivid as possible, but the value of his evidence is impaired by his ev ident prejudice and sense of self-importance. Bits of testimony, such as that just quoted from Galloway, throw some further light. Gordon states : " In some stage of their proceedings the danger of a rupture with Britain was urged as a plea for certain concessions. Upon this Mr. S. Adams rose up, and, among other things, said in substance : I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it was revealed from heaven that nine hun dred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand to survive and retain his liberty. One such freeman must possess more virtue and enjoy more happiness than a thousand slaves ; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what he hath so nobly preserved. All his tact and all his force were brought into the fullest play, and we can be certain that his influence was great. He writes to Warren, September 25, indicating that the disposition to regard Massachusetts as over-rash is somewhat overcome, but that great caution must be used LEXINGTON. 321 on account of a pervading fear that independ ence is aimed at, and a subsequent subjugation of America by the power of New England. If the first Congress was not won to thoughts of independence, it was kept, at any rate, from measures disastrously reactionary. When Congress adjourned, October 26, appointing a second convention for May 20, 1775, Samuel Adams had reason to feel that the course of things had been not unsatisfactory. The two Adamses and Gushing were received, upon their arrival in Boston, November 9, with public demonstrations. Letters are extant from the patriots who had remained behind in Bos ton, addressed to Samuel Adams, while at Phil adelphia, full of regard and a reverence almost filial, showing in every line how his wisdom was deferred to. The uneducated people, in deed, are said to have become superstitious with regard to him, believing that he had a pro phetic power, and had in his keeping war and peace. As usual, there was no respite for him. Gordon is authority for the statement that the presence of Samuel Adams in the Provincial Congress, which had come into being, caused it to push preparations for war, and that, since many members were timid, and excused them selves from attendance under plea of sickness, at his instance measures were taken to keep 21 322 SAMUEL ADAMS. them at their work. He was like a stout ser geant, who makes it his duty not only to face the foe, but sometimes to pass along the rear of the line of battle, with an admonitory prick of the bayonet for the timid ones who may be disposed to run before the enemy s fire. As a body, however, the Provincial Congress was brave and united, and included the best men in Massachusetts. To the second Continental Congress the in terval is short, but the factotum crowds it with work. He leads the Provincial Congress in measures for making the people aware of the imminence of their danger ; he is at the head of the town s committee to distribute donations from abroad ; he reaches out on the one hand to Canada, on the other to the Mohawk and Stockbridge Indians, in efforts to induce them to march to the patriotic music ; but his most remarkable manifestation is in connection with the fifth celebration of the Boston Massacre, on the 6th of March, the 5th being Sunday. The truth was, that since the change in the charter in the preceding year no town-meeting could be legally held save such as the governor ex pressly called. The well-trained " Bostoneers," however, had a ruse ready, over which the dazed Gage stroked his chin, without being able to make up his mind to interfere. The clause LEXINGTON. 323 of the Government Act was clear as to the prohibition of town-meetings. The preceding August, Gage, disposed as usual to be good- natured, had summoned the selectmen to the Province House. " If a meeting were wanted he would allow one to be called, if he should judge it expedient." The fathers of the town told him they had no occasion for calling a meeting; they had one alive. Gage looked serious : " I must think of that ; by thus doing you can keep the meeting alive for ten years." Foreseeing the storm, indeed, the May meeting of 1774 had not "dissolved," but " adjourned." So, too, had the Port Bill meeting of June 17. During the remainder of the year, therefore, and into the year following, as one turns over the pages of the town records, the " adjourned " May meeting, or the " adjourned " Port Bill meeting, are reported, which serve perfectly every purpose, the town comfortably riding out the storm by the parliamentary technicality. The meeting of the 6th of March was an ad journment of the Port Bill meeting. Warren, knowing that the orator would be in danger, with characteristic bravery solicited the post for himself. Generally it is as the manager, somewhat withdrawn behind the figures in the fore ground, that Samuel Adams makes himself 324 SAMUEL ADAMS. felt. In 1770, at the driving out of the regi ments, he is not chairman of the town s commit tee that waits upon Hutchinson, but stands be hind Hancock, only coming forward at the moment of danger. At the destruction of the tea, he is not in the company, but his sentence from the chair was evidently the concerted signal for which all were waiting. Again, at the last great town-meeting before Lexington and Concord, March 6, 1775, the fifth cele bration of the Boston Massacre, while Warren is the heroic central figure, Samuel Adams is behind all as chief director. On that day Gage had in the town eleven regiments. Of trained soldiers there were scarcely fewer than the number, of men on the patriot side ; and when we remember that many Tories throughout the Province, in the disturbed times, had sought refuge in Boston, under the protection of the troops, we can feel what a host there was that day on the side of the king. Nevertheless, all went forward as usual. The warrant appeared in due form for the meeting, at which an ora tion was to be delivered to commemorate the "horrid Massacre," and to denounce the "ruin ous tendency of standing armies being placed in free and populous cities in time of peace." The Old South was densely thronged, and in the pulpit as moderator once more, by the side LEXINGTON. 325 of the town clerk, William Cooper, quietly sat Samuel Adams. Among the citizens a large party of officers were present, apparently in tent upon making a disturbance with the de sign of precipitating a conflict. The war, it was thought, might as well begin then as at any time. Warren was late in appearing ; Samuel Adams sat meantime as if upon a powder-barrel that might at any minute roar into the air in a sudden explosion. The tradi tion has come down that he was serene and un moved. He quietly requested the townsmen to vacate the front seats, into which, in order that they might be well placed to hear, he politely invited the soldiers, whose numbers were so large that they overflowed the pews and sat upon the pulpit stairs. Warren came at last, entering through the window behind the pulpit to avoid the press. Wells gives, from a con temporary, the following report : " The Selectmen, with Adams, Church, and Han cock, Cooper, and others, assembled in the pulpit, which was covered with black, and we all sat gaping at one another above an hour, expecting! At last a single horse chair stopped at the apothecary s, opposite the meeting, from which descended the orator (War ren) of the day ; and entering the shop, was followed by a servant with a bundle, in which were the Cicero nian toga, etc. 326 SAMUEL ADAMS. " Having robed himself, he proceeded across the street to the meeting, and being received into the pulpit, he was announced by one of his fraternity to be the person appointed to declaim on the occasion. He then put himself into a Demosthenian posture, with a white handkerchief in his right hand, and his left in his breeches, began and ended without ac tion. He was applauded by the mob, but groaned at by people of understanding. One of the pulpiteers (Adams) then got up and proposed the nomination of another to speak next year on the bloody Massacre, the first time that expression was made to the au dience, when some officers cried, O fie, fie ! The gallerians, apprehending fire, bounded out of the win dows, and swarmed down the gutters, like rats, into the street. The Forty-third Regiment returning ac cidentally from exercise, with drums beating, threw the whole body into the greatest consternation. There were neither pageantry, exhibitions, processions, or bells tolling as usual, but the night was remarked for being the quietest these many months past." A picturesque incident in the delivery of the oration was that, as Warren proceeded, a Brit ish captain, sitting on the pulpit stairs, held up in his open palm before Warren s face a num ber of pistol bullets. Warren quietly dropped his handkerchief upon them and went on. It was strange enough that that oration was given without an outbreak. " We wildly stare about/ he says, " and with amaze- LEXINGTON. 327 ment ask, Who spread this ruin around us ? What wretch has dared deface the image of his God ? Has haughty France or cruel Spain sent forth her myrmi dons ? Has the grim savage rushed again from the far distant wilderness ? Or does some fiend, fierce from the depth of Hell, with all the rancorous malice which the apostate damned can feel, twang her de structive bow and hurl her deadly arrows at our breast ? No, none of these ; but how astonishing ! It is the hand of Britain that inflicts the wound. The arms of George, our rightful king, have been employed to shed that blood which freely should have flowed at his command, when justice, or the honor of his crown, had called his subjects to the field." l The oration was given without disturbance, though the tension was tremendous. In the proceedings that followed the quiet was not perfect, but the collision was averted for a time. The troops were not quite ready, and on the patriot side the presiding genius was as prudent as he was bold. 2 Shortly afterward Samuel 1 Frothingham s Warren, p. 433. 2 Hutchinson gives an interesting fact respecting this mem orable town-meeting, in his Diary. " September 6, 1775. Col. James tells an odd story of the intention of the officers the 5 March ; that 300 were in the meeting to hear Dr. Warren s oration : that if he had said anything against the King, &c., an officer was prepared, who stood near, with an egg to have thrown in his face, and that was to have been a signal to draw swords, and they would have massacred Hancock, Adams, and hundreds more ; and he added he wished they had. I am glad 328 SAMUEL ADAMS. Adams sent the following quiet account to Richard Henry Lee in Virginia, which is taken here from the autograph : BOSTON, March, 1775. On the sixth Instant, there was an Adjournment of our Town-meeting, when an Oration was delivered in Commemoration of the Massacre on the 5th of March, 1770. I had long expected they would take that oc casion to beat up a Breeze, and therefore (having the Honor of being the Moderator of the Meeting, and seeing Many of the Officers present before the orator came in) I took care to have them treated with Ci vility, inviting them into convenient Seats, &c., that they might have no pretence to behave ill, for it is a good maxim in Politicks as well as War, to put and keep the enemy in the wrong. They behaved tol erably well till the oration was finished, when upon a motion made for the appointment of another orator, they began to hiss, which irritated the assembly to the greatest Degree, and Confusion ensued. They, however, did not gain their End, which was appar- they did not : for I think it would have been an everlasting disgrace to attack a body of people without arms to defend themselves. " He says one officer cried Fy ! Fy ! and Adams immedi ately asked who dared say so ? And then said to the officer he should mark him. The officer answered, And I will mark yon. I live at such a place, and shall be ready to meet you. Adams said he would go to his General. The officer said his General had nothing to do with it ; the affair was between them two." Diary and Letters, pp, 528, 529. LEXINGTON. 329 ently to break up the Meeting, for order was soon restored, and we proceeded regularly and finished. I am persuaded that were it not for the Danger of pre cipitating a Crisis, not a Man of them would have been spared. It was provoking enough to them, that while there were so many Troops stationed here for the design of suppressing Town-meetings, there should yet be a Meeting for the purpose of deliver ing an oration to commemorate a massacre perpe trated by soldiers, and to show the danger of stand ing armies. And now Gage was preparing for the expe dition to secure the stores at Concord, and make the oft-threatened seizure of Hancock and Adams. However the general may have vapored shortly before in England, he had shown since his arrival in Boston a judicious hesitation as to precipitating hostilities, which he saw well must at once follow the arrest of the important men. Reinforcements, however, were now on the way ; he had been urged for ward by letters from England, and he made ready for the attempt. Several months before this time, in the Provincial Congress, Samuel Adams had called attention to the danger of allowing expeditions of regulars into the inte rior, and had recommended opposition if they should proceed more than ten miles from Bos ton. From this suggestion it may have come 330 SAMUEL ADAMS. about that the militia everywhere were so on the alert, and that on the evening of the 18th, when the news spread that the regulars were coming out, Jonas Parker s company paraded so promptly on Lexington Green. That night, in the house of the Rev. Jonas Clark, which still stands a few rods from the Common, lodged Samuel Adams and John Hancock, about to start upon their journey southward. Rumors of the coming of the troops had reached the village through several channels, and when an hour after midnight Parker s men loaded with powder and ball, Hancock and Adams, stepping over from the minister s, looked on. Shortly before, the centaur, Paul Revere, having es caped from the clutches of the British, had galloped up, and found all asleep. The ser geant, who with eight men was stationed at the house, roused by the courier s urgency, stated that the family did not wish to be disturbed by any noise. " Noise," cried Paul Revere, " you 11 have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out." On came the light infantry, moving swiftly in the fresh night air. In a moment more occurred the incident of Major Pitcairn s order and pistol shot ; then while the smoke cleared after the memorable volley, Adams and Hancock were making their way across the fields to Woburn. For Adams LEXINGTON. 331 it was an hour of triumph. The British had fired first ; the Americans had " put the enemy in the wrong ; " the two sides were committed ; conciliation was no longer possible. As the sun rose there came from him one of the few exult ant outbursts of his life : " What a glorious morning is this ! " They waited in the second precinct of Woburn, now Burlington, while the minute-men, through the forenoon, hurried by with their arms. At noon a man broke in upon them, at the house of the minister, with a shriek, and for a moment they thought them selves lost. They were then piloted along a cart-way to a corner of Billerica, where they were glad to dine off cold salt pork and pota toes served in a wooden tray. A day or two later they set out for Philadelphia. A spirited, manly letter is extant, written by John Hancock, at Worcester, to the Committee of Safety. We have already had occasion to notice his weakness ; his conduct hereafter will show still greater shortcomings. One is glad to view him at his best ; for at his best he was a generous and able man. CHAPTER XX. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. HARTFORD was reached on the 29th by the two delegates, where, in a secret meeting with Governor Trumbull and others, they heard the plan arranged for the surprise of Ticonderoga. Gushing, John Adams, and Paine joined them, and soon afterward, in company with the Con necticut delegation, the Massachusetts deputies entered New York with great ceremony. With their number increased to fourteen by the ad dition of the New York delegates, they crossed the Hudson, escorted by five hundred gentle men and two hundred militia. Through New Jersey the honors continued, and at Philadel phia the climax was reached. Says Curwen s " Journal : " u Early in the morning a great number of persons rode out several miles, hearing that the Eastern del egates were approaching, when, about eleven o clock, the cavalcade appeared (I being near the upper end of Fore Street) ; first, two or three hundred gentle men on horseback, preceded, however, by the newly THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 333 chosen city military officers, two and two, with drawn swords, followed by John Hancock and Samuel Ad ams in a phaeton and pair, the former looking as if his journey and high living, or solicitude to support the dignity of the first man in Massachusetts, had im paired his health. Next came John Adams and Thomas Gushing in a single-horse chaise : behind fol lowed Robert Treat Paine, and after him the New York delegation and some from the Province of Con necticut, etc., etc. The rear was brought up by a hundred carriages, the streets crowded with people of all ages, sexes, and ranks. The procession marched with a slow, solemn pace. On its entrance into the city, all the bells were set to ringing and chiming, and every mark of respect that could be was expressed ; not much, I presume, to the secret liking of their fel low delegates from the other colonies, who doubtless had to digest the distinction as easily as they could." The events of the 19th of April had widened the breach greatly ; nevertheless, when Samuel Adams, now more than ever looking forward to nothing less than independence, stood among his fellow members in the second Continental Congress, he found himself still alone. Even John Adams and Jefferson were as yet far from being ready for such a step, and in the debates the only questions raised were between a party which was in favor of resisting British encroach ments by force of arms and a party which de sired to make still further appeals to king and 334 SAMUEL ADAMS. Parliament, both parties looking forward only to a restoration of the state of things existing before the disputes began. Among the leading statesmen of America, independence was the desire of Samuel Adams alone. He lost a staunch supporter just now in the untimely death of Josiah Quincy, Jr., by consumption, which occurred on shipboard in April, on his return from England, whither he had gone hop ing for an improvement in health. Quincy s relations with Samuel Adams, who was twenty- two years older than he, were almost those of a son. Except Warren, no one stood higher in Adams s esteem, who always referred to him with respect and tenderness. Quincy, in turn, was devoted. " Let our friend, Samuel Adams, be one of the first to whom you show my let ters," he wrote to his wife, and again, speak ing of England : " The character of your Mr. Samuel Adams stands very high here. I find many who consider him the first politician in the world. I have found more reason every day to convince me he has been right when others supposed him wrong." His reputation as a desperate and fanatical adventurer, with nothing to lose, still followed him, and his advocacy of a scheme was often an injury to it. Massachusetts, through Warren, now beyond all men the leader at home, sought THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 335 to secure an authorization of the Provincial Congress, which many in the Continental Con gress hesitated to grant, since it would be prac tically a recognition of the independence of Massachusetts. When Peyton Randolph, how ever, retired from the chair to attend the session of the Virginia Legislature, the presidency was given to Massachusetts, in the person of John Hancock, a measure for which the two Ad amses worked hard, having in view a double advantage ; by putting the richest man in New England into conspicuous position, the idea was dispelled that only needy adventurers were con cerned ; and, on the other hand, Hancock him self was likely to be clamped firmly to the pop ular cause by the honor which was shown him. By far the most important business trans acted by the second Continental Congress was the appointment of Washington as commander- in-chief, a service principally due to John Adams, though the nomination was seconded by Samuel Adams. " Full of anxieties," says John Adams, " concern ing these confusions, and apprehending daily that we should hear very distressing news from Boston, I walked with Mr. Samuel Adams in the State House yard, for a little exercise and fresh air, before the hour of Congress, and there represented to him the various dangers that surrounded us. He agreed to 336 SAMUEL ADAMS. them all, but said, * What shall we do ? I answered him ... I was determined to take a step which should compel all the members of Congress to de clare themselves for or against something. I am determined this morning to make a direct motion that Congress should adopt the army before Boston, and appoint Colonel Washington commander of it. Mr. Adams seemed to think very seriously of it, but said nothing. " Accordingly, when Congress had assembled, I rose in my place. . . . Mr. Washington, who hap pened to sit near the door, as soon as he heard me allude to him, from his usual modesty, darted into the library-room. Mr. Hancock heard me with visi ble pleasure, but when I came to describe Washington for the commander, I never remarked a more sudden and striking change of countenance. Mortification and resentment were expressed as forcibly as his face could exhibit them. Mr. Samuel Adams seconded the motion, and that did not soften the president s physiognomy at all." On the 12th of June Gage made his proc lamation, offering pardon "to all persons who shall forthwith lay down their Arms and return to the Duties of peaceable Subjects, excepting only from the Benefit of such Pardon Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose Offences are of too flagitious a Nature to admit of any other Consideration than that of condign Pun ishment." News of his proscription probably THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 337 reached Samuel Adams at the same time with that of the battle of Bunker Hill, and of the death of the man whom he is believed to have loved beyond all others, Dr. Warren. The fol lowing letter to his wife is contained among his manuscripts : PHIL., June 28th, 1775. MY DEAREST BETSY, yesterday I received Letters from some of our Friends at the Camp informing me of the Engagement between the American Troops and the Rebel Army in Charlestown. I can not but be greatly rejoyced at the tryed Valor of our Country men, who by all Accounts behaved with an intrepidity becoming those who fought for their Liberties against the mercenary Soldiers of a Tyrant. It is painful to me to reflect on the Terror I must suppose you were under on hearing the Noise of War so near. Favor me my dear with an Account of your Apprehensions at that time, under your own hand. I pray God to cover the heads of our Countrymen in every day of Battle and ever to protect you from Injury in these distracted times. The Death of our truly amiable and worthy Friend Dr. Warren is greatly afflicting ; the Language of Friendship is, how shall we resign him ; but it is our Duty to submit to the Dispensations of Heaven " whose ways are ever gracious, ever just." He fell in the glorious Struggle for publick Liberty. Mr. Pitts and Dr. Church inform me that my dear Son has at length escaped from the Prison at Boston. . . . Remember me to my dear Hannah and sister 22 338 SAMUEL ADAMS. Polly and to all Friends. Let me know where good old Surry is. Gage has made me respectable by naming me first among those who are to receive no favor from him. I thouroughly despise him and his Proclamation. . . . The Clock is now striking twelve. I therefore wish you a good Night. Yours most affectionately, S. ADAMS. Wells has stated that no letter of Samuel Adams can be found in which any reference is made to the death of Warren, overlooking that which has just been given. It is, per haps, singular that Adams expressed no more. " Their kindred souls were so closely twined that both felt one joy, both one affliction," said the orator at Warren s re-interment after the British evacuation. That Samuel Adams wore him in his heart of hearts all men knew, and his silence is part of that reticence as to his own emotions which has been referred to as so constantly marking him. His relation to War ren, who died at thirty-five, was similar to that in which he stood to Quincy, though somewhat more intimate. " The future seemed burdened with his honors," says Bancroft of Warren, and it is hard to see how promise could be finer. His powers were becoming calmed and trained, while losing no particle of their youthful force. He was at once prudent and yet most impetu- THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 339 ous, able in debate in town-meeting or Assem bly, prompt and intrepid in the field. Either as statesman or as soldier he might have been his country s pride. Samuel Adams swept aside personal griefs and perils. He adopted Washington cordially, and poured out for him whatever information could be of value to a man of the South about to take command of an army of New England troops. He strove to prepare for him a good reception by sending beforehand to the impor tant men the most favorable commendations. Less fortunate was the work of the Adamses in behalf of Charles Lee, who, largely through them, was appointed second in command, the eccentric, selfish marplot, who so nearly wrecked the cause he assumed to uphold. On the 1st of August the second Continental Congress ad journed until the 5th of September, the Massa chusetts delegation, on their return, having in care five hundred thousand dollars for the use of the army of Washington. When Samuel Adams, with his fellow dele gates, arrived from Philadelphia, he found in session " The General Assembly of the territory of Massachusetts Bay," in which he was to sit as one of the eighteen councilors. He was at once made Secretary of State. His son became a surgeon in the army of Washington, while his 840 SAMUEL ADAMS. wife and daughter were inmates of the family of Mrs. Adams s father at Cambridge. Leaving his public functions in the hands of a deputy- secretary, Samuel Adams is in the saddle again on the 12th of September, and, after riding three hundred miles on a horse lent him by John Adams, with great benefit to his health, he is soon once more at Philadelphia, for the opening of the third Continental Congress. The jealousy toward New England was now even greater than ever before in the proprietary and some of the southern colonies. Gadsden, R. H. Lee, Patrick Henry, and a few others, were ready for independence. As yet, however, there was no discussion of this matter. Samuel Adams, impatient, began to entertain the idea of establishing independence for the New Eng land colonies by themselves, cherishing the hope that the rest would follow in time. The defection of Dr. Benjamin Church, which was discovered in the fall of 1775, must have caused him pain scarcely less than the deaths of Quincy and Warren. Next to these, no one of the younger men had promised more fairly than Church. His abilities were brilliant, his inter est in all the Whig projects apparently most sincere. He had been implicitly trusted. Years before, while secretly a writer for the govern ment, he had escaped discovery. Now he was THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 341 detected, while betraying to the enemy, by let ters written in cipher, the plans of the Massa chusetts patriots. He narrowly escaped execu tion. He was allowed to take passage for the West Indies in a ship which was never heard of more. To relate particularly the doings of the Con tinental Congress must be left to the general historian. The reports are meagre ; a thousand details came up for consideration, and Samuel Adams was busy in many different ways which it would be wearisome to try to trace. Inde pendence was more than ever at his heart, but seemed as far off as ever. John Adams, who had reached his ground at last, went home in the winter and remained two months ; Han cock, becoming estranged from his plain com panions, affiliated with the aristocratic members from the middle and southern colonies ; both Gushing and Paine favored conciliation. Jef- fersoii remembered Samuel Adams as the chief promoter of the invasion of Canada. He be came warmly friendly to the brave Montgomery, followed with ardent hope the reduction of St. Johns, Chambly, and Montreal, and was much afflicted when the young conqueror was struck down in the winter storm at Quebec. Disaster, as always, nerved him to new efforts. 342 SAMUEL ADAMS. The reader will be interested in the following letter from his wife, copied from the autograph, which the " bad paper " and the " pen made with scissars " make not easily decipherable : CAMBRIDGE Feb. 12 th , 1776. MY DEAR, I Received your affectinate Letter by Feseuton and I thank you for your kind Concern for My health and Safty. I beg you Would not give yourself any pain on our being so Near the Camp; the place I am in is so Situated, that if the Regulars should ever take Prospect Hill, which god forbid, I should be able to Make an Escape, as I am Within a few stone casts of a Back Road, Which Leads to the Most Retired part of Newtown. ... I beg you to Excuse the very poor Writing as My paper is Bad and my pen made with Scissars. I should be glad (My dear), if you should nt come down soon, you would Write me Word Who to apply to for some Monney, for I am low in Cash and Every thing is very dear. May I subscribe myself yours ELIZA " ADAMS. The chafing fanatic of independence, whose fire was rising more and more, sent out in February an " Earnest Appeal to the People." The opponents of independence, led now by the able Wilson of Pennsylvania, conspicuous af terwards in the debates on the constitution, and as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, pursued a vigorous course. Helped es- THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 343 pecially by Wyeth of Virginia, Samuel Adams stood against them. His abilities were greater in other fields than on the floor of debate, ready and impressive though he was, and he at this time sadly missed the help of John Adams, whose power here was of the highest. The baffled striver, borne down for the time by the odds against him, gnashed his teeth against his colleagues, Hancock, Paine, and Gushing, who rendered him no help. " Had I suggested an idea of the vanity of the ape, the tameness of the ox, or the stupid servility of the ass, I might have been liable to censure ; " thus he wrote. Massachusetts stood nobly by him, for at the reelection of delegates, though Hancock was returned, like the two Adamses, by a good majority, Paine was barely chosen, and Gush ing was entirely dropped, Elbridge Gerry of Marblehead taking his place, and showing him self at once a capable combatant side by side with the veteran. But a change was preparing. Speaking of the work of Thomas Paine, Samuel Adams bore this testimony to its value : " Common Sense and The Crisis undoubtedly awakened the public mind, and led the people loudly to call for a declaration of independence." But months were to pass before the new mood of the people was to make itself felt in Con- 344 SAMUEL ADAMS. gress. Adams, with the small phalanx of ad vanced men, among whom, besides Wyeth, were Ward of Rhode Island, Chase of Mary land, and Oliver Wolcott and Roger Sherman of Connecticut, faced the moderate men. He fought also outside, trying especially to coun teract the influence of the Quakers, a sect whose conduct in general tried his patience greatly, and which in convention just before had issued an address strongly urging unquali fied submission. Samuel Adams handled with out gloves the respectable broad-brims : " * But, say the puling, pusillanimous cowards, * we shall be subject to a long and bloody war, if we de clare independence. On the contrary, I affirm it the only step that can bring the contest to a speedy and happy issue. By declaring independence we put our selves on a footing for an equal negotiation. Now we are called a pack of villainous rebels, who, like the St. Vincent s Indians, can expect nothing more than a pardon for our lives, and the sovereign favor, re specting freedom and property, to be at the king s will. Grant, Almighty God, that I may be numbered with the dead before that sable day dawns on North America." Samuel Adams undoubtedly prepared the resolutions respecting the disarming of the To ries, being chairman of the committee on that matter. It was more and more the case that THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 345 his state papers before the war* became the models for important documents, and were used directly to explain to the public the justice of the American cause. John Adams, until within a few months, and Jefferson, to the present mo ment, had regarded independence with disfavor, only to be accepted as a last resort. Franklin looked upon it as an event, which, if it must come, was lamentable. Washington, in the first Congress, denied that the colonies desired, or that it was for their interest, "separately or collectively, to set up for independence." Up to the time when he became commander-in- chief, he desired peace and reconciliation on an honorable basis. Joseph Warren died without desiring American freedom. Even after Lex ington he favored reconciliation, founded on the maintenance of colonial rights. " This," said be, " I most heartily wish, as I feel a warm affection for the parent state." Samuel Adams had a few correspondents of views similar to his own. Such were Joseph Hawley, who, be cause he was ill, or through some unaccounta ble neglect, was suffered to hide his fine powers and accomplishments during all these mighty years in the seclusion of Northampton ; also Dr. Samuel Cooper, and James Warren of Plym outh, fast rising in Massachusetts to take his namesake s place in council, though he never 346 SAMUEL ADAMS. appeared in the field. To the latter Adams writes in April : " The child Independence is now struggling for birth. I trust that in a short time it will be brought forth, and, in spite of Pharaoh, all America will hail the dignified stranger." The plain people, too, whom he loved and trusted, rallied to him. At last, on the 6th of April, while the Pennsylvania As sembly, under the lead of the incorrigible Dick inson, who was now as energetic at the brake as he had once been on the engine, was in structing its delegates to discourage separation, a measure was passed abolishing British cus tom-houses in the thirteen colonies, and open ing their ports to the commerce of the world. Samuel Adams was on the committee that re ported it, and wrote to Hawley that the " united colonies had torn into shivers the British acts of trade." By May 10, under the lead of John Adams, Congress had recommended to the col onies to set up governments of their own, sup pressing all crown authority. In May, also, the Virginia delegates were instructed from home to declare for independence ; Maryland was won through the influence of Thomas Chase ; in Pennsylvania the power of Dickinson visibly waned ; everywhere there was movement, until / -&n\he 5th of June Richard Henry Lee of Vir ginia offered ^i THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 347 onies free and independent states, recommend ing the formation of foreign alliances, and a plan of confederation. As in some elaborate piece of music, a mighty march with distinct, slowly succeeding tones goes forward, while the intervals are filled in with innumerable subordinated notes, so in this advance toward independence, while the sol emn steps are measured, a thousand minor de tails are everywhere interspersed. The hour at hand constantly pressed. Powder in this di rection, provisions and clothes in that ; troops to be recruited ; roads to be built ; inert Whigs to be stimulated ; active Tories to be sup pressed ; officers to be commissioned ; plans of campaign to be devised ; hostile projects to be counteracted ; all this must go forward. Samuel Adams bore his part in all the intrica cies, but saw to it that the main theme should be forever thundered with a volume more and more prevailing. On the 8th of June began the debate on Lee s resolution. We do not know the special arguments used, nor with certainty the names of the speakers on the side of independence, ex cepting John Adams. Elbridge Gerry, many years after, told the daughter of Samuel Ad ams that the success of Lee s measure was largely due to the " timely remarks " of her 348 SAMUEL ADAMS. father ; that in one speech he occupied an un usually long time, and that two or three waver ing members were finally convinced by him. He remembered it as Samuel Adams s ablest effort. Edward Rutledge, at length, brought about a postponement of the question for three weeks, that the hesitating delegates of the cen tral colonies might have time to consult their constituents ; but not before Jefferson, John Adams, Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston had been made a committee to prepare the Declaration. One who follows this story must feel regret that Samuel Adams was not of this number. It happened not through neglect, for at the same time he was appointed to stand for Massachusetts on a committee re garded, probably, as certainly not less impor tant, a committee, namely, consisting of one from each colony, to prepare a plan of confed eration. The three weeks passed, during which the ripening sentiment of the country made itself strongly felt by Congress. For Samuel Adams it was a time of labor, for now it was, in per sonal conferences with hesitating members, that he brought to bear his peculiar powers. When the measure was again taken up, on the first days of July, all was secured. There was no longer a dissenting voice, and the delegates, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 349 after the memorable form, pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. It seems to have been not at all a solemn hour. The weather was very hot, and through the open windows there came in from a stable close by a swarm of mosquitoes and horse-flies, who bit viciously at the legs of the members through their silk stockings. American patri otism owes to these energetic insects an obliga tion very great and by no means adequately recognized ; for the Fathers, wrought upon by the sedulously applied torment, hastened to sign the famous document of Jefferson, sub mitted at last by the committee. Now that the struggle was over, the members became positively hilarious in their good-nature. John Hancock dashed down his great signature in such shape " that George the Third might read it without his spectacles." " Now we must all hang together," it was remarked. " Yes," said Franklin, "or we shall all hang separately." " When it comes to the hanging," said fat Mr. Harrison of Virginia to lean little Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, " I shall have the ad vantage of you : for my neck, probably, will be broken at the first drop, whereas you may have to dangle for half an hour." For Samuel Adams it was the most tri umphant moment of his life ; but he writes 350 SAMUEL AD AM 8. thus calmly to his friend, John Pitts, at Bos ton : PHIL. July, 1776. MY DEAR SIR, you were informed by the last Post that Congress had declared the thirteen United Col onies free and independent States. It must be al lowed by the impartial World that this Declaration has not been made rashly. . . . Too Much I fear has been lost by Delay, but an accession of several Colonies has been gained by it. Delegates of every Colony were present and concurred in this important Act ex cept those of New York, who were not authorized to give their Voice on the Question, but they have since publickly said that a new Convention was soon to meet in that Colony, and they had not the least Doubt of their acceding to it. Our Path is now open to form a plan of Confederation and propose Alliances with foreign States. I hope our Affairs will now wear a more agreable aspect than they have of late. S. A. 1 1 Copied from the autograph. CHAPTER XXI. CHARACTER AND SERVICE OF SAMTJJ i, ADAMS. WE have readied a point in the career of Samuel Adams from which it will be conven ient to take a retrospect. He was now fifty- four years old. Although his life was destined to continue more than a quarter of a century longer, and although the work that he accom plished in the years that were coming was im portant, his great and peculiar desert is for the work done during these twelve years from 1764 to 1776, with the description of which this book has been thus far occupied. That Massachu setts led the thirteen colonies during the years preliminary to the Revolution has been suffi ciently set forth ; that Boston led Massachusetts is plain ; the reader of the foregoing pages will clearly understand that it was Samuel Adams who led Boston. If the remark that Bancroft uewhere makes is just, that " American free dom was more prepared by courageous coun sel than successful war," it would be hard to 352 SAMUEL ADAMS. exaggerate the value of the work of Samuel Adams in securing it. Bancroft has spoken of Samuel Adams as, more than any other man, " the type and repre sentative of the New England town-meeting." l Boston, as we have seen, is the largest com munity that ever maintained the town organiza tion, probably also the most generally able and intelligent. No other town ever played so con spicuous a part in connection with important events. Probably in the whole history of the Anglo-Saxon race there has been no other so interesting manifestation of the activity of the folk-mote. Of this town of towns Samuel Adams was the son of sons. He was strangely identified with it always. He was trained in Boston schools and Harvard College. He never left the town except on the town s errands, or those of the Province of which it was the head. He had no private business after the first years of his manhood ; he was the public servant sim ply and solely in places large and small, fire- ward, committee to see that chimneys were safe, tax collector, moderator of town-meeting, representative. One may almost call him the creature of the town-meeting. His development has taken place among the talk of the town pol- 1 In a private conversation with the writer ; also Hist, of Constitution, ii. 260. CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 353 iticians at his father s house, on the floors of Faneuil Hall and the Old South, from the time when he looked on as a wondering boy to the time when he stood there as the master-figure. "His chief dependence," wrote Hutchinson, in a passage already quoted, "is upon Boston town-meeting, where he originates the measures which are followed by the rest of the towns, and, of course, are adopted or justified by the Assembly." Edward Everett declared too, in the Lexington oration, that " The throne of his ascendency was in Faneuil Hall. As each new measure of arbitrary power was announced from across the Atlantic, or each new act of menace and violence on the part of the officers of the government or of the army occurred in Boston, its citizens, oftentimes in astonishment and perplexity, rallied to the sound of his voice in Faneuil Hall ; and there, as from the crowded gallery or the moderator s chair he animated, enlightened, fortified, and roused the admiring throng, he seemed to gather them to gether beneath the aegis of his indomitable spirit, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings." Though the sphere of his activity was to so large an extent the Massachusetts Assembly, he was not the less for that, as has appeared, the " man of the town-meeting." The Assembly was a collection of deputies, of whom each was the mouthpiece of his constituency, having the 23 354 SAMUEL ADAMS. folk-mote behind him, which limited his action by careful instructions, kept sharp watch of his behavior, and suffered him to hold office for so short a term that he was in no danger of getting beyond control. The Assembly was, therefore, rather a convention of town-meetings than a representative body, bearing in mind Dr. Lie- ber s distinction ; and when Samuel Adams ar rayed and manoeuvred them in the west cham ber of the Old State House against Bernard or Hutchinson in the east chamber, the regi ments lying threateningly just behind, either in the town or at the Castle, it was the Mas sachusetts towns that he marshaled almost as much as if the population had actually come from the hills and the plains, gathering as do the hamlets of Uri and Appenzell in Switzer land, to legislate for themselves without any delegation of authority. 1 We have seen that New England had been prolific of children fitted for the time. Men like John Scollay, William Cooper, William Molineux, William Phillips, Robert Pierpont, John Pitts, Paul Revere, plain citizens, mer chants, mechanics, selectmen of the town, dea cons in the churches, cool headed, well-to-do, persistent, courageous, were sturdy wheel-horses for the occasion. Of a higher order, and great 1 Freeman, Growth of the English Const. CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 355 figures in our story, have been James Otis, James Bowdoin, Joseph llawley, Thomas Gush ing ; and of the younger generation, John Han cock, Josiah Quincy, Joseph Warren, John Ad ams, Benjamin Church, men who had some of them a gift of eloquence to set hearts on fire, some of them executive power, some of them cunning to lay trains and supply the flash at the proper time, some wealth, and birth, and high social position. It was a wonderful group, but in every one there was some inadequacy. The splendid Otis, whose leadership was at first un questioned, who had only to enter Boston town- meeting to call forth shouts and clapping of hands, and who had equal authority in the Assembly, was, as early as 177C, fast sinking into insanity. In spite of fits of unreasonable violence and absurd folly, vacillations between extremes of subserviency and audacious resist ance, his influence with the people long re mained. He was like the huge cannon on the man-of-war, in Victor Hugo s story, that had broken from its moorings in the storm, and be come a terror to those whom it formerly de fended. He was indeed a great gun, from whom in the time of tfee Stamp Act had been sent the most powerful bolts against unconstitutional oppression. With lashings parted, however, as the storm grew violent he plunged dangerously 356 SAMUEL ADAMS. from side to side, almost sinking the ship, all the more an object of dread from the calibre that had once made him so serviceable. It was a melancholy sight, and yet a great relief, when his friends saw him at last bound hand and foot, and carried into retirement. Bowdoin, also, was not firm in health, and though most active and useful in the Council, has thus far done little elsewhere. Hawley, far in the interior, was often absent from the centre in critical times, and somewhat unreliable through a strange moodiness ; Gushing was weak ; Han cock was hampered by foibles that sometimes quite canceled his merits ; Quincy was a bril liant youth, and, like a youth, sometimes fickle. We have seen him ready to temporize when to falter was destruction, as at the time of the casting over of the tea ; again, in unwise fervor, he could counsel assassination as a proper ex pedient. Warren, too, could rush into extremes of rashness and ferocity, wishing that he might wade to the knees in blood, and had just reached sober, self-reliant manhood when he was taken off. John Adams showed only an intermittent zeal in the public cause until the preliminary work was done, and Benjamin* Church, half hearted and venal, early began the double-deal ing which was to bring him to a traitor s end. There was need in this group of a man of suf- CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 357 ficient ascendency, through intellect and char acter, to win deference from all, wise enough to see always the supreme end, to know what each instrument was fit for, and to bring all forces to bear in the right way, a man of consummate adroitness, to sail in torpedo-sown waters without exciting an explosion, though conducting wires of local prejudice, class-sensi tiveness, and personal foible on every hand led straight down to magazines of wrath which might shatter the cause in a moment, a man having resources of his own to such an extent that he could supplement from himself what was wanting in others, always awake though others might want to sleep, always at work though others might be tired, a man de voted, without thought of personal gain or fame, simply and solely to the public cause. Such a man there was, and his name was Samuel Adams. In character and career he was a singular combination of things incongruous. He was in religion the narrowest of Puritans, but in man ner very genial. He was perfectly rigid in his opinions, but in his expression of them often very compliant. He was the most conservative of men, but was regarded as were the " aboli tion fanatics " in our time, before the emancipa tion proclamation. Who will say that his up- 358 SAMUEL ADAMS. Tightness was not inflexible ? Yet a wilier fox than he in all matters of political manoauvring our history does not show. In business he had no push or foresight, but in politics was a won der of force and shrewdness. In a voice full of trembling he expressed opinions, of which the audacity would have brought him at once to the halter if he could have been seized. Even in his young manhood his hair had become gray and his hand shook as if with paralysis ; but he lived, as we shall see, to his eighty-second year, his work rarely interrupted by sickness, serving as governor of Massachusetts for several suc cessive terms after he had lived his three score and ten years, almost the last survivor among the great pre-revolutionary figures. Among his endowments eloquence was not his most conspicuous power. As an orator Samuel Adams was surpassed by several of his contem poraries. His ordinary style of speech was plain and straight-forward, rarely, it is prob able, burning out into anything like splendor. For swelling rhetoric he was quite too sincere and earnest. John Adams, in his old age, " In his common appearance, he was a plain, sim ple, decent citizen, of middling stature, dress, and manners. He had an exquisite ear for music, and a charming voice when he pleased to exert it. Yet his CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 359 ordinary speeches in town-meetings, in the House of Representatives, and in Congress, exhibited nothing extraordinary; but upon great occasions, when his deeper feelings were excited, he erected himself, or rather nature seemed to erect him, without the small est symptom of affectation, into an upright dignity of figure and gesture, and gave a harmony to his voice which made a strong impression on spectators and auditors, the more lasting for the purity, correct ness, and nervous elegance of his style." In Philadelphia, in 17 T4, 1775, and 1776, John Adams probably was by far the best de bater in Congress. Jefferson wrote : "As a speaker Samuel Adams could not be com pared with his living colleague and namesake, whose deep conceptions, nervous style, and undaunted firm ness made him truly our bulwark in debate. But Mr. Samuel Adams, although not of fluent elocution, was so rigorously logical, so clear in his views, abun dant in good sense, and master always of his subject, that he commanded the most profound attention when ever he rose in an assembly by which the froth of declamation was heard with the most sovereign con tempt." Samuel Adams had his say and ceased. One may be quite certain that he was seldom tedi ous. He was never the " dinner-bell " of town- meeting or Assembly ; but James Otis and John Adams certainly surpassed him as orators, the 360 SAMUEL ADAMS. former of whom might with good reason con test with Patrick Henry the title of " the American Chatham," while the latter was well called "the Colossus of debate." Nor is it as a writer that Samuel Adams is at his best. It is probable that he was one of the most voluminous writers whom America has as yet produced. Some twenty-five sig natures have been identified as used by him in the newspapers at different times. At the same moment that he filled the papers, he went on with his preparation of documents for the town and the Assembly till one wonders how a sin gle brain could have achieved it all. If those writings only which can be identified were pub lished, the collection would present a formida ble array of polemical documents, embracing all the great issues out of whose discussion grew our independence. They were meant for a par ticular purpose, to shatter British oppression, and when that purpose was secured, their au thor was perfectly careless as to what became of them. Like cannon-balls which sink the ship, and then are lost in the sea, so the bolts of Samuel Adams, after riddling British au thority in America, must be sought by diving beneath the oblivion that has rolled over them. Of the portion that has been recovered, these pages have given specimens enough to justify a CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 361 high estimate of the genius and accomplish ments of their author. It was an age of great political writers. Contemporary in England were Burke and " Junius," - in France, Mon tesquieu, Rousseau, and Voltaire, in America, Dickinson, Franklin, and Paine. Samuel Ad ams will bear a good comparison with them, generally offering for any shortcoming some compensating merit. If there is never the mag nificence of Burke, there is an absence, too, of all turgid and labored rhetoric. If there is a lack of Franklin s pith and wit, there is a lack, too, of Poor Richard s penny wisdom. If we miss the tremendous invective of " Jnnius," we find instead of acrid cruelty the spirit of humanity. If there is no over bitter denunciation, there is on the other hand no milk and water. While he is never pedantic, the reader has had occa sion to see his familiarity with ancient and modern literature, and in particular his ac quaintance with writers upon constitutional his tory. The clearness of his style is admirable, his logic unvaryingly good. His intensity of conviction, both religious and political, some times makes him narrow. He can speak only in stern terms of a Tory ; scarcely otherwise of a Catholic or Episcopalian ; to free-thinkers like Franklin and Paine he did not at first find it easy to be cordial. But had he been more 362 SAMUEL ADAMS. tolerant, he must have been less intense and forceful. That the power of Samuel Adams as a writer was better appreciated by his contemporaries than it has been by his successors is abun dantly apparent. The man who more than any other felt his blows has left it on record that Samuel Adams had been "for near twenty years a writer against government in the pub lic newspapers, at first but an indifferent one ; long practice caused him to arrive at great per fection, and to acquire a talent of artfully and fallaciously insinuating into the minds of his readers a prejudice against the character of all whom he attacked, beyond any other man I ever knew." " Bernard," says a contemporary, " used to 4 damn that Adams. Every dip of his pen stings like a horned snake. " These are the bitter, chagrin-charged comments of his opponents. His friends found no words strong enough to make known their appreciation. That the patriots were in the majority they directly attributed to him. Says James Sulli van : " By his speeches and 4 Gazette produc tions a large majority was produced and main tained in Massachusetts in opposition to the claims of the ministry." Says John Adams : " A collection of his writings would be as curi ous as voluminous. It would throw light upon CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 363 American history for fifty years. In it would be found specimens of a nervous simplicity of reasoning and eloquence that have never been rivaled in America." It was, however, as a manager of men that Samuel Adams was greatest. Such a master of the methods by which a town-meeting may be swayed, the world has never seen. On the best of terms with the people, the ship-yard men, the distillers, the sailors, as well as the merchants and ministers, he knew precisely what springs to touch. He was the prince of canvassers, the very king of the caucus, of which his father was the inventor. His ascendency was quite extraordinary and no less marked over men of ability than over ordinary minds. Always clear-headed and cool in the most confusing turmoil, he had ever at command, whether he was button-holing a refractory in dividual or haranguing a Faneuil Hall meeting, a simple but most effective style of speech. As to his tact, was it ever surpassed ? We have seen Samuel Adams introduce Hancock into the public service, as he did a dozen others. It is curious to notice how he knew afterwards in what ways, while he stroked to sleep Hancock s vanity and peevishness, to bring him, all un conscious, to bear, now against the Boston Tories, now against the English ministry, now 364 SAMUEL ADAMS. against prejudice in the other colonies. Pen niless as he was himself, it was a great point, when the charge was made that the Massachu setts leaders were desperate adventurers who had nothing to risk, to be able to parade Han cock in his silk and velvet, with his handsome vehicle and aristocratic mansion. One hardly knows which to wonder at most, the astuteness or the self-sacrifice with which, in order to pre sent a measure effectively or to humor a touchy co-worker, he continually postpones himself while he gives the foreground to others. Per haps the most useful act of his life was the bringing into being of the Boston Committee of Correspondence ; yet when all was arranged, while he himself kept the laboring oar, he put at the head the faltering Otis. Again and again, when a fire burned for which he could not trust himself, he would turn on the mag nificent speech of Otis, or Warren, or Quincy, or Church, who poured their copious jets, often quite unconscious that cunning Sam Adams really managed the valves and was directing the stream. The same ability at management has showed itself in his career in the Continental Congress. " I always considered him," said Jefferson, " more than any other member, the fountain of our more important measures ; " and again, writing in 1825 : CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 365 "If there was any Palinurus to the Revolution, Samuel Adams was the man. Indeed, in the East ern States, for a year or two after it began, he was truly the Man of the Revolution. He was constantly holding caucuses of distinguished men (among whom was R. H. Lee), at which the generality of the meas ures pursued were previously determined on, and at which the parts were assigned to the different actors who afterwards appeared in them. John Adams had very little part in these caucuses ; but as one of the actors in the measures decided on in them, he was a Colossus." How profound was the belief which the To ries held in his cunning has been illustrated in the case of Hutchinson. Here are still other testimonies. The charge of duplicity becomes intelligible, from that Machiavellian streak in his character, the existence of which it is use less to attempt to deny : " John Adams is the creature and kinsman of Sam uel Adams, the Cromwell of New England, to whose intriguing arts the Declaration of Independence is in a great measure to be attributed, the history of which will not be uninteresting. " When the Northern delegates broached their po litical tenets in Congress, they were interrogated by some of the Southern ones, whether they did or did not aim at independence, to which mark their violent principles seemed to tend. Samuel Adams, with as grave a face as hypocrisy ever wore, affirmed that 366 SAMUEL ADAMS. they did not ; but in the evening of the same day, in a circle of confidential friends (as he took them to be), confessed that the independence of the colonies had been the great object of his life ; that whenever he had met with a youth of parts, he had endeavored to instil such notions into his mind, and had neglected no opportunity, either in public or in private, of pre paring the way for that event which now, thank God, was at hand. " He watched the favorable moment when, by plead ing the necessity of a foreign alliance, and urging the impracticability of obtaining it without a declaration of independence, he finally succeeded in the accon> plishment of his wishes." 1 Another Tory, writing from Boston early in this year, assails Adams and Hancock in this wise : " This man, whom but a day before hardly any man would have trusted with a shilling, and whose honesty they were jealous of, now became the confi^ dant of the people. With his oily tongue he duped a man whose brains were shallow and pockets deep, and ushered him to the public as a patriot too. He filled his head with importance, and emptied his pockets, and as a reward kicked him up the ladder where he now presides over the Twelve United Provinces, and where they both are at present plunging you, my countrymen, into the depths of distress." 1 "Decius," Lond. Morn. Post, 1779 (Moore s Diary of the Revolution, ii. 144). CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 367 After the destruction of Rivington s press in New York, the loyalist printer returned to England, and published a pamphlet to show that the intention of Congress was to assert American independence and maintain it with the sword. " That I may thoroughly explain this matter," he continues, " it is necessary the public should be made acquainted with a very conspicuous character, no less a man than Mr. SAMUEL ADAMS, the would-be Crom well of America. As to his colleague, JOHN HAN COCK, that gentleman is, in the language of Hu- dibras, * A very good and useful tool Which knaves do work with, called a fool/ But he is too contemptible for animadversion. He may move our pity, not our indignation. Mr. Ad ams, on the other hand, is one of those demagogues who well know how to quarter themselves on a man of fortune, and, having no property of his own, has for some time found it mighty convenient to appro priate the fortune of Mr. Hancock to public uses, I mean the very laudable purpose of carrying on a trade in politics. " Mr. Adams finding, therefore, how very profitable a business of this kind might be made without the necessity of a capital of his own, it is no wonder he should eagerly embrace the opportunity of dealing in political wares with the demagogues of Britain. " In justice to that gentleman s talents and virtues, 368 SAMUEL ADAMS. it must be confessed that he is an adept in the busi ness, and is as equal to the task of forwarding a re-| bellion as most men. He is therefore far from being unworthy the notice of British patriots. His politics are of a nature admirably adapted to impose on a credulous multitude. " Mr. Adams s character may be defined in a few words. He is a hypocrite in religion, a republican in politics, of sufficient cunning to form a consummate knave, possessed of as much learning as is necessary to disguise the truth with sophistry, and so complete a moralist that it is one of his favorite axioms, The end will justify the means. When to such accom plished talents and principles we add an empty pocket, an unbounded ambition, and a violent disaffection to Great Britain, we shall be able to form some idea of Mr. Samuel Adams." "That Machiavellian streak in his char acter ! " But do we need to go out of our way and call it Machiavellian ? He would have been, alas ! a less typical New Englander had he not stooped now and then to a piece of sharp practice. No Sam Slick, peddling out his cargo of clocks, or whittling away at a horse-swap, or (we must regretfully say it) inventing and distributing his wooden nutmegs, was ever " cuter " than Samuel Adams. The uncon scionable outside world, while it ascribes to the Yankee character a thousand traits of worth, persists in detecting in the pot of ointment a CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 369 most egregious fly. Who will deny that the defect is there ? Sam Adams was too thorough a Yankee to be quite without it. We believe that he fell into it unconsciously. In the cases of sharp practice that can be brought home against him, it was, at any rate, never for him self, but always for what he believed the public good ; for from first to last one can detect in him no thought of personal gain or fame. As Samuel Adams s followers often did not know that they were being led, so, possibly, he himself failed to see sometimes that he was leading, believing himself to be the mere agent of the will of the great people, which decided this way or that. Quite careless was he as re^ gards wealth, as regards his position before his contemporaries and in history. Time and again the credit for great measures which he orig inated was given to men who were simply his agents, and there was never a remonstrance from him ; time and again the men whom he brought forward from obscurity, and whom he set here and there with scarcely more volition of their own than so many chess-men, stood in an eminence before the world which is not yet lost, obscuring the real master. Papers which would have established his title to a position among the greatest, he destroyed by his own hand, or left at hap-hazard. 24 370 SAMUEL ADAMS. If we briefly sum up the services rendered during these twelve years, the particulars of which, as they have been detailed, have seemed involved and confusing, it is easy to see how the men of his own day came to set him by the side of Washington, and how writers of our time can declare him " second only to Wash ington." 1 Those instructions to the Boston representatives in 1764, in which Samuel Ad ams spoke for the town, emerging then, at the age of forty-two, into the public life where he remained to the end, contain the first sugges tion ever made in America for a meeting of the colonies looking toward a resistance to British encroachments. From that paper came the " Stamp Act Congress." While the contem poraries of Samuel Adams rejoiced over the re peal of the Stamp Act, he saw in the declaration of Parliament by which it was accompanied, " that it was competent to legislate for the colonies in all cases whatsoever," plain evi dence that more trouble was in store ; and he was the most influential among the few who strove to prevent a disastrous supineness among 1 " A man whom Plutarch, if he had only lived late enough, would have delighted to include in his gallery of worthies, a man who in the history of the American Revolution is second only to Washington, Samuel Adams." JOHN FISKE (taken from his forthcoming History of the American People, by kind permission of the author). CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 371 the people. From this time forward, in Massa chusetts, the substantial authorship of almost every state paper of importance can be traced to him ; so, too, the initiation of almost every great measure. Nor was he the less a man of national im portance from the circumstance that his activ ity for the most part, up to this time, has been circumscribed by the limits of Massachusetts. As in Massachusetts the stirrings of freedom were most early and most earnestly felt, so for many years Massachusetts was a battle-ground in which arbitrary power and popular liberty were hotly contending, while the remaining Provinces had little to disturb their peace. " Boston is suffering in the common cause," became the cry of America, at the time of the Port Bill, in 1774. Massachusetts had been no less suffering in the common cause for a full decade before, the long parliamentary wrestle between her General Court and the royal gov ernors having been waged for the benefit of the whole thirteen colonies no less than for herself. Elsewhere, no doubt, there was dis turbance : in Virginia, in particular, the dis cord was grave between the Burgesses and the royal representatives. Massachusetts, however, was far more than any other Province the field of strife, the critical point beyond all others 372 SAMUEL ADAMS. being the Old State House in Boston, with Hutchinson or Bernard in one end, and the Assembly in the other. The great leader of the Massachusetts folk-motes manoeuvred and fought in a small space; but what was done was done for an entire continent. It was no combat of mere local significance. Who can estimate the greatness of the interests in volved ? From 1768, perhaps from an earlier period, he saw no satisfactory issue from the dispute but in the independence of America, and began to labor for it with all his energy. It had been a dream with many, indeed, that some time there was to be a great independent empire in this western world ; but no public man saw so soon as Samuel Adams, that in the latter half of the eighteenth century the time for it had come, and that to work for it was the duty of all patriots. 1 We have passed in review the 1 July 1, 1774, Hutchinson, having just reached London, was hurried by Lord Dartmouth into the presence of the king, without being allowed time to change his clothes after the voyage. A conversation of two hours took place, the king showing the utmost eagerness to find out the truth as to Amer ica. While answering the king s inquiries concerning the pop ular leaders, Hutchinson remarked that Samuel Adams was regarded " as the opposer of Government and a sort of Wilkes in New England. " King : What gives him his importance ? " Hutchinson : A great pretended zeal for liberty and a most CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 373 great figures of our Revolutionary epoch, one by one, and seen that neither then, seven years before the Declaration of Independence, nor long after, was there a man except Samuel Ad ams who looked forward to it and worked for it. The people generally had not conceived of the attainment of independence as a present possi bility. Those who came to think it possible, like Franklin, Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and James Otis, shrank from the idea as involving calamity, and only tried to secure a better reg ulated dependence. As late as 1775, the idea of separation, according to Jefferson, had "never yet entered into any person s mind." 1 It was well known, however, what were the opinions of Samuel Adams. He was isolated even in the group that most closely surrounded him. Even so trusty a follower and attached a friend as Joseph Warren could not stand with him here. What Garrison was to the abolition of slavery, Samuel Adams was to independence, a man looked on with the greatest dread as an ex tremist and fanatic by many of those who after wards fought for freedom, down almost to that inflexible natural temper. He was the first that publicly as serted the independency of the colonies upon the kingdom." Diary and Letters of Hutchinson, p. 167. Hutchinson had before declared the same thing in a letter to Dartmouth, already quoted. 1 Cooke s Virginia, p. 375. 374 SAMUEL ADAMS. very day, July 4, 1776, when, largely through, his skilful and tireless management, independ ence was brought to pass. We are accustomed to call Washington the " Father of his country." It would be useless, if one desired to do so, to dispute his right to the title. He and no other will bear it through the ages. He established our country s free dom with the sword, then guided its course during the first critical years of its independent existence. No one can know the figure without feeling how real is its greatness. It is impossi ble to see how, without Washington, the nation could have ever been. His name is and should be greatest. But after all is " Father of Amer ica " the best title for Washington ? Where and what was Washington during those long preliminary years while the nation was taking form as the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child? A quiet planter, who in youth as a surveyor had come to know the woods; who in his young manhood had led bodies of provincials with some efficiency in certain unsuccessful military expeditions ; who in maturity had sat, for the most part in silence, among his talking colleagues in the House of Burgesses, with scarcely a suggestion to make in all the sharp debate, while the new nation was shaping. There is another character in CHARACTER AND SERVICE. 375 our history to whom was once given the title, "Father of America," a man to a large ex tent forgotten, his reputation overlaid by that of those who followed him, no other than this man of the town-meeting, Samuel Adams. As far as the genesis of America is concerned, Samuel Adams can more properly be called the " Father of America " than Washington. CHAPTER XXII. CLOSING YEAES. BRITISH authority in America, so far at any rate as this could be done in the forum, was shattered by the Declaration of Independ ence. The work was then transferred to the field. Samuel Adams s heroic time has come to an end ; his distinctive work is done ; if he had died at the Declaration, his fame would be as great as it is now ; what further he ac complished, though often of value, an ordinary man might have performed. The events of his life may be given henceforth with little detail. So long as the war continued he remained in Congress, with the exception of one year, when infirmity, and the fact also that Massachusetts was in the act of adopting her state constitu tion, in connection with which he rendered important service, kept him at home. Con gress fell woefully in popular esteem, but the work and the responsibility remained vast for the few who were faithful. Samuel Adams has been accused of unfriendliness to Wash- UNIT S IIS] CLOSING YEARS. \X > ington, and of having been Conway cabal. The papers are in ervation which put at rest this calumny, and enable us to understand precisely what feeling Samuel Adams did at this time entertain for Washington. / It was neither strange nor at all discreditable at that period in the war to doubt whether Washington was the best man in the country for the head of the army. The supreme position in the hearts of Americans, which he came afterwards to hold, was at that time far enough from being achieved. In the flood of disaster which had so often over whelmed the American efforts, could any hu man eye then see clearly what portion of re sponsibility for it rested on the commander, what portion on his subordinates, and what was due to things in general? So far, the only brilliant achievements of Washington had been the victories at Trenton and Princeton, and that the credit for those successes belonged to him was less clear than it is now. The " Fabian policy," which he had to so large an extent pursued, and which the world now be lieves to have been masterly, did not vindicate itself at once to the contemporaries of Washing ton. / To Samuel Adams, so straight and im petuous, who from the beginning of his course had sought his object with the directness and 378 SAMUEL ADAMS. force of a cannon-ball, and who felt that a fair exertion of the military strength of America ought to burst to pieces the British opposition, Washington, not unnaturally, seemed unener- getic. y But though Samuel Adams might be secretly impatient, and might give his impatience ex pression in directions where he thought good might result, he had no desire ]put to sustain the leader in all efficient work. He had even been willing to make him dictator. His own declarations, repeatedly uttered under circum stances which must cause them to seem true to the most suspicious, make it clear that he was never Washington s enemy, and never plotted for his removal. / A word must be said about the origin of this calumny, which troubled Adams in his lifetime, and followed him after his death. We have already seen Samuel Ad ams the object of the enmity of John Han cock, in the old days of the struggle wkh- Hutchinson. Now, again, Hancock sJ^worse nature has the upper hand, and gives dregrace- ful evidence of itself. His disposition to asso ciate with the aristocratic, temporizing element, his obstructive course when the Declaration of Independence was pending, the absurd pomp which he persisted in maintaining as President of Congress, even when the nation seemed at CLOSING YEARS. 379 the last gasp, offended much his austere and simple-minded colleague. Undoubtedly these things had provoked from Adams severe re mark. This sharp criticism, combined with the fact that the Tories, and indeed others, habitually spoke of Hancock in a way quite ex asperating to one so vain, as the " ape " or " dupe " of Samuel Adams, gives abundant ex planation why an estrangement should have come about. Hancock pursued his former friend with great malignity. He circulated, if he did not originate, the slander that Samuel Adams was the enemy of Washington; and in other ways used his high prestige to spread false ideas as to his colleague s opinions and aims. Said Mr. Adams : " The Arts they make use of are contemptible. Last year, as you observe, I was an Enemy to General Washington. This was said to render me odious to the People. The Man who fabricated that Charge did not believe it himself." l In July, 1778, the British fleet left the Dela ware in haste, fearing to be blocked up by the superior force of d Estaing, about to arrive, and immediately Clinton, abandoning Phila delphia, retreated through New Jersey, fighting 1 In the Adams papers are several letters of interest as bearing upon this point. One written to General Greene has an especial value. 380 SAMUEL ADAMS. on the way the battle of Monmouth, where vic tory was so balked for the Americans by the misconduct of Charles Lee. Immediately after ward the French admiral, with twelve sail of the line, four frigates, and four thousand troops, sailed into the Delaware, bringing M. Gerard, the ambassador, for whom Congress, at once re turning to Philadelphia, prepared a great recep tion. The ceremonies took place on August 5, and were more elaborate than had ever before been witnessed in America. Somewhat ludi crously, in this pompous pageant Samuel Ad ams, associated with his old friend Richard Henry Lee, appears as master of ceremonies, leading off in the bowings and parade by which the man of Versailles was to be made to feel that he had not fallen among the Goths. But more than once before this we have seen that Samuel Adams could pocket his preferences to serve an occasion. The French alliance came near going to ship wreck at the outset. Great was the mortifica tion, great the wrath at the French, to whose desertion, as it was called, the failure in Rhode Island was attributed. A serious riot between American and French sailors occurred in Bos ton, in which all the old animosity of the French war, which for the time had slumbered, seemed on the point of reappearing. Washington and CLOSING YEARS. 881 Congress took all means possible to restore a cordial understanding, in which efforts Samuel Adams bore a great part. Here it was, too, that Hancock rendered one of his greatest ser vices, his very vanity and prof useness, for once, helping to an excellent result. He threw his house open to d Estaing and his officers, enter taining them magnificently. Thirty or forty dined with him each day, whom he dazzled with his liveries and plate. At Concert Hall, too, he gave them a great ball, and stimulated other Whigs to similar hospitalities. The entente cor- diale, which the Newport storm had disturbed, grew firm again amid the steam of punch and the airs of the Boston fiddlers. Adams opposed, in 1780, Washington s plan for giving to officers serving through the war half pay for life. To this period, too, belongs one of the greatest mistakes of his career, which must be referred to what may be called his town-meeting ideas. He showed his dislike to the delegation of power to such an extent as to oppose the establishment of departments presided over by secretaries, preferring as the executive machinery of Congress the form of committees, which had prevailed from the first, and had often proved inconvenient. There was probably a degree of justice in the criticism of Luzerne, the French minister : 382 SAMUEL ADAMS. " Divisions prevail in Congress about the new mode of transacting business by secretaries of different de partments. Samuel Adams, whose obstinate, resolute character was so useful to the Revolution at its origin, but who shows himself so ill suited to the conduct of affairs in an organized government, has placed himself at the head of the advocates of the old system of committees of Congress, instead of relying on minis ters or secretaries under the new arrangement." He opposed the establishment of a Foreign Office ; so, too, of a War Department, for the secretaryship of which the name of General Sullivan had been mentioned. He opposed, with equal decision, the appointment of a secretary of finance, which position, however, was created and bestowed upon Robert Morris, with results most important and beneficent. For the moment he consented to the dictator ship of Washington, but generally he looked askance at all approaches to the "one man power," standing ready to sacrifice efficiency even in desperate circumstances, rather than contravene the principle that authority should rest, as immediately as possible, in the hands of the plain people. On February 24, 1781, at length, four years and a half after the scheme had been initiated, the Articles of Confederation were ratified, and the affixing of his signature to these was the CLOSING YEARS. last act of Samuel Adams in Congress. The committee appointed to draw up the Articles of Confederation, created at the same time with the committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence, had found their work one of the greatest difficulty. Samuel Adams, it will be remembered, represented Massachusetts on the former committee, while John Adams served upon the latter. The embarrassing labor had gone forward whenever, from time to time, a moment could be snatched from the ever press ing conduct of the war. It seemed scarcely possible to frame a practicable scheme. The several States, having declared themselves free from the authority of England, exulted in their independence, and regarded with great jeal ousy any scheme by which their liberty might be curtailed. Some bond must of necessity be devised, which would enable them to present front to the danger which threatened all alike. But the smaller States feared to be swallowed up by the larger, and the larger sometimes felt it to be beneath their dignity to stand on an equal footing with the smaller. There was as yet no common sentiment of nationality. Constitution framers never had a harder task. There was little enough precedent for a great federal league. The architects were inexpe rienced, those for whom they worked were 884 SAMUEL ADAMS. most suspicious, the dangers and distractions, in the midst of which they must deliberate, were quite overwhelming. The Constitution of 1787 we feel to be vastly better, but the Confederation that preceded it is, of course, not to be despised. The Constitution was the child of the Confederation, its existence not possible without its parent. The Confederation was tentative, temporary, and no doubt as close and effective as it was possible, under the circumstances, to make it. The intermittent debates had tediously proceeded while often cannon thundered north and south, and the Con gress, scarcely less than the commanders, were forced to live in the saddle. One by one the greater leaders of 1774, 1775, and 1776 had re tired, yielding place often to inferior men, while they themselves served sometimes in the field, sometimes in their home legislatures, some times remained idle on their farms. At length, of all those who took part in sketching the original plan, Samuel Adams was left alone. The adoption of the Articles of Confedera tion, so far from increasing, rather limited the powers of Congress. Sessions were to be an nual, to commence on the first Monday in November ; the delegates were to be appointed for a year, but were liable at any time to be recalled by the States that had sent them. To CLOSING YEARS. 385 all important points nine States must consent, whereas before a mere majority had been de cisive. No State could vote unless represented by at least two delegates. As regards peace, war, and foreign intercourse, Congress pos sessed most of the powers now exercised by the federal government ; but it had no means of raising a revenue independent of State ac tion, except the resources, already exhausted and fallen into disrepute, of paper issues and loans. Congress could make requisitions on the States, but had no power to enforce them ; the oftener they were made the less they were heeded. It is worth while to look somewhat particu larly at the Articles of Confederation, because in the framing of them Samuel Adams was so largely concerned, and because, too, as will be seen, they appeared to him, for the most part, quite satisfactory as a bond of union between the States. He reluctantly gave them up after wards for the Constitution, even after their weakness had become very plain, dreading of all things a disposition to centralize. In the States the legislatures should be held in strict subordination to the town-meetings ; and, again, in the federation, there should be no compro mise of the independence of the States. In April Samuel Adams took leave of Congress 25 386 SAMUEL ADAMS. for Massachusetts, from whose soil he never afterwards departed. The following correspondence can be appro priately introduced here, as showing what men in these times were after Samuel Adams s own heart : FROM MAJ. GEN. MACDOUGAL. WEST POINT, Dec. Wth, 1781. Maj. Gibbs of your line is the bearer of this, by whom I have sent you a plate, a specimen of the material which covers my board. It is made, as the set is, of old unserviceable camp-kettles. TO MAJ. GEN. ALEX. MACDOUGAL. May 13th, 1782. The present you sent me by Maj. Gibbs gratified me exceedingly. I intend to transmit it to my pos terity as a specimen of Spartan frugality in an American general officer. The citizen and the soldier are called to the exercise of self-denial and patience, and to make the utmost exertions in support of the great cause we are engaged in. S. A. Always, when at home from Congress, as the town records of Boston show, he had been at the town-meetings, serving as moderator, on committees of correspondence, safety, and in spection, committees for obtaining orators for the celebration of the anniversary of the Mas- CLOSING YEARS. 387 sacre, for the reformation of the manners of the town, for the instruction of representatives to address Lafayette, to take care of schools, etc., etc. 1 So it is that this Antseus of democracy touches, as he can, his mother earth, to draw in strength for the battle he is waging. Now that he is at home again permanently, he seems to be constantly present at the town-meetings, act ing as moderator whenever he is willing to serve as such, and intrusted with business great and small. Once more, too, the old man found him self under the roof of the Old State House, which had seen so many of his early battles and triumphs, for he was straightway elected to the Senate of the State, and became at once its presiding officer. As such he sat in that famous chamber to the east, where James Otis had denounced the writs of assistance, and where he himself had confronted Hutchinson in the stormy day of the Massacre. One last scene of military pomp signalized the close of the war. In the late fall of 1782 the French army, which had fought well in the field, and gained honor among the people, hold ing aloof from marauding and deeds of license, a fact which put it often in favorable con trast even with the American levies, marched from the Hudson to Boston, to embark for the 1 Town records of Boston from 1775 to 1781. 388 SAMUEL ADAMS. West Indies. In uniforms of white and violet, with the fleur-de-lis waving over their ranks, in gaiters, queues, and great cocked hats, such as had figured at Fontenoy and in the wars of Frederick, the long column worked its way through the interior villages to the seaboard. The Baron Viome ml, who had done brilliantly at Yorktown, was their commander. Boston town-meeting did all honor to their guests, for the Frenchmen remained some days while the transports were preparing. Samuel Adams was the prominent figure in the demonstrations. Efforts having been made to restore the refugee Tories to their original rights, Adams, appointed by the town of Boston, instructed the Committee of Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, in terms which show that his im placability was undiminished. The committee are directed to oppose " to the utmost of their power every enemy to the just rights and liber ties of mankind ; after so wicked a conspiracy against these rights and liberties by certain ingrates, most of them natives of these States, and who have been refugees and declared trai tors to their country, it is the opinion of this town that they ought never to be suffered to return, but excluded from having lot or place among us." However harsh this expression may appear, no fair student of the history of CLOSING YEARS. 389 those days will deny the reasonableness of the judgment. There was every motive for pru dence as to the admission of British emissa ries and men of Tory sentiments. Whatever their professions, they could scarcely fail to treat with contempt the new order of things, and try secretly to undermine it. Efforts were made in 1784 and 1785 to exchange the Boston town-meeting for a city organization, which, it was felt, would be much more convenient for managing the affairs of so large a population. The people, however, could not bring them selves .to give up the venerable system which had accomplished such memorable results. Samuel Adams took a leading part in the dis cussions, and was chairman of the important committee to whom was left the duty of stat ing the " defects of the town constitution." In this capacity he reported to the town that " there were no defects," l and in his time there was no change. In 1786 came the formidable popular out break known as Shays s Rebellion. The weight of federal and state taxes, combined with the pressure of a vast private indebtedness, well- nigh crushed the people. Circumstances made proper the most rigid economy, but the vicious spirit of extravagance prevailed. The courts, 1 Town records, November 9, 1785. 390 SAMUEL ADAMS. whose agency had been invoked for the collec tion of the debts, were declared in the western counties to be engines of destruction. Other grievances, sometimes partly reasonable, some times absurd, were the cost of litigation, the inordinate salaries of many public officers, and the existence of the Senate in the state con stitution, which was condemned as needless and aristocratic. At conventions of the people, sometimes imposing through numbers, dema gogues dwelt in exaggerated terms upon these topics, and, in no secret way, violence was counseled against the laws of the land. The means employed, indeed, were the same used against British authority, which had resulted in the Revolution. Those precedents, in that time recent, were in the minds of the agitators ; and it could be plausibly urged that the men now in authority under the new order could not consistently find fault with this application of their own machinery, which the people were setting at work once more to right great wrongs by which they felt themselves oppressed. Sam uel Adams and those who believed with him certainly had reason to be much embarrassed by the situation. There is nevertheless no evi dence that the old democrat hesitated for a moment as to his course. While the public suffering could not be doubted, it was the re- CLOSING YEARS. 391 suit of a terrible war and could not be helped. Whatever injustice existed could be reached and remedied by constitutional means, without an overturn, a thing which could not at all be said of the old oppressions. He wrote to John Adams : "Now that we have regular and constitutional governments, popular committees and county conven tions are not only useless but dangerous. They served an excellent purpose, and were highly neces sary when they were set up, and I shall not repent the small share I then took in them." As the danger thickened, Samuel Adams was one of those who declared for the sternest measures, to maintain the constitution and the laws. Once more at the head of Boston town- meeting, which he guided as moderator, and whose spokesman he, as usual, became, as first on the committee appointed to draft an ad dress, he strengthened the hands of his old fellow- fighter, the fearless, energetic Bowdoin, then governor, who was ready to do his full duty. The entire state militia was called out, and was well commanded, for fortunately the veteran officers of the Revolution stood stoutly on the side of law and order. The gossiping William Sullivan gives a good picture of the noble Bowdoin, standing on the 392 SAMUEL ADAMS. steps of the court-house at Cambridge while the troops of General John Brooks pass by in review. He was fifty-eight years old, tall and dignified, dressed in a gray wig, cocked hat, white broadcloth coat and waistcoat, red small clothes, and black silk stockings. His air and manner were quietly grave, his features rather small for a man of his size, his colorless face giving evidence of the delicate health which no doubt had prevented him from taking a stand among the first of the patriots. Blood was shed at Springfield, and at length in mid winter came the famous march of General Lin coln to Petersham, thirty miles in one night through a driving snow-storm, which scattered the main power of the insurgents, and ended the danger. The attitude in which Samuel Adams stood to the Federal constitution was much misrep resented during his lifetime, and a misunder standing as regards it has clouded his fame to the present day. He disliked to confer great powers, as we have repeatedly seen, on a body far removed from its constituents. According to his town-meeting ideas there should always be as few removes as possible of the power from the people. In 1785 Samuel Adams writes to Elbridge Gerry, advising against " a general CLOSING YEARS. 393 revision of the confederation," which seems to him dangerous and unnecessary, and he appears to strike hands with Gerry and his colleague King, the representatives from Massachusetts, to embarrass those who favor a stronger cen tral government. 1 At the same time, however, he declares : " It would have been better to have fallen in the struggle than now to become a contemptible nation," and he seems to be per suaded that there must be in some way a strong, effective union. His declarations are perhaps not altogether consistent, and imply some un certainty. At the beginning of the convention assem bled in Massachusetts for the ratification or rejection of the constitution, Samuel Adams underwent a severe affliction in the death of his son, who, with his constitution broken by the hardships of a surgeon s life during the war, died at thirty-seven. For two weeks de bates went forward without result, Mr. Adams sitting silent, though it should be mentioned that at the beginning, no doubt with the idea of securing harmony, he made a motion quite similar to that which preceded the delibera tions at Philadelphia in 1774, and which was regarded as such a master-stroke. It was that the ministers of the town in turn, without re- 1 Bancroft, Hist, of Constit. i. 199. 394 SAMUEL ADAMS. gard to sect, should be invited to open the meetings with prayer. An effort was made to bring the convention to an abandonment of the consideration of the instrument by paragraphs, and induce it to vote upon the document as a whole, which without doubt would have resulted in its rejection. This Samuel Adams opposed in a speech still extant. He declared that he had difficulties and doubts as regards the proposed constitu tion, as had others, and he desired to have a full investigation instead of deciding the mat ter in a hurry. This prevailed, and in the course of the following week the shrewd man agers who favored the acceptance of the form submitted devised a way to secure victory. Nine amendments were prepared, famous as the " conciliatory propositions," the story of which is told as follows by Colonel Joseph May : 1 " Adams and Hancock [then governor] were both members of the convention in Massachusetts, and the two most powerful men in the State. Adams ques tioned the policy of the adoption without amend ments, and let men know his reasons ; but Hancock was in great trouble, and, as usual on such occasions, he had, or affected to have, the gout, and remained at home, wrapped up in flannel. The friends of the con- 1 Wells, iii. 258. CLOSING YEARS. 395 stitution gathered about him, flattered his vanity, told him the salvation of the nation rested with him: if the constitution was not accepted, we should be a ruined nation ; if he said accept it, Massachusetts and the nation would obey. They persuaded him to that opinion. It was reported abroad that he had made up his mind, and had recovered from his illness so far that, on a certain day, he would appear again in the convention, and would make a speech which would probably be in favor of adopting the constitution. Theophilus Parsons, afterwards the famous judge, was the most active in procuring this result. He wrote a speech for Hancock to read in the convention. " So when the day arrived, Mr. Hancock was helped out of his house into his coach, and driven down to the place where the convention was held, Federal Street, and thence carried into the conven tion by several young gentlemen, who were friends of the family and in the secret. He rose in his place and apologized for his absence, for his feebleness, and declared that nothing but the greatness of the emer gency would have brought him from his bed of sick ness ; but duty to his country prevailed over consider ations of health. He hoped they would pardon him for reading a speech which he had carefully prepared, not being well enough to make it in any other man ner. Then he read the speech which Parsons had written for him, and from Parsons s manuscript, and sat down. One of his friends took the manuscript hastily from him, afraid that the looker-on might see that it was not in Hancock s hand, but Parsons s." 396 SAMUEL ADAMS. Colonel May next relates the course adopted to secure the cooperation of Adams : " The same means were undertaken to influence Mr. Adams. It was not, however, so easy. They had done what they could with experiment : flattery would have no effect upon him ; but they knew two things, first, that he had great confidence in the democratic instincts of the people ; and second, that he was a modest man, and sometimes doubted his own judgment when it differed from the democratic in stincts aforesaid. So they induced some of the lead ing mechanics of Boston to hold a meeting at the Green Dragon Inn in Union Street, their private gathering-place, and pass resolutions in favor of the constitution, and send a committee to present them to him. He was surprised at the news of the meet ing, and the nature of the resolutions, and asked who was there. They were just the men, or the class of men, whom he confided in. He inquired why they had not called him to attend the meeting. Oh, we wanted the voice of the people/ was the answer. Mr. Adams was still more surprised, and, after long consideration, concluded to accept the constitution with the amendments." Daniel Webster gave in 1833 a graphic ac count of the same incident, in which Paul Re vere, whose attributes, as he goes on in life, become rather those of Vulcan than Mercury, is made to play the leading part : " He received the resolutions from the hands of CLOSING YEARS. 397 Paul Revere, a brass-founder by occupation, a man of sense and character and of high public spirit, whom the mechanics of Boston ought never to forget. How many mechanics, said Mr. Adams, were at the Green Dragon when the resolutions were passed? More, sir, was the reply, than the Green Dragon could hold. And where were the rest, Mr. Re vere ? In the streets, sir. * And how many were in the streets ? More, sir, than there are stars in the sky. " In the " conciliatory propositions " all pow ers not expressly delegated to Congress were reserved to the several States ; the basis of rep resentation was altered ; the powers of taxation and the granting of commercial monopolies by Congress were restricted; grand jury indict ments in capital trials were provided for ; the jurisdiction of federal courts in cases between the citizens of different states was limited, and the right of trial by jury was given in such cases. Upon the introduction of these amend ments, Mr. Adams urged the ratification of the constitution, upon the understanding that they were to be recommended. Still another speech followed, in which he became a strong advocate of the instrument, and dwelt upon the amend ments one by one ; and it is a curious feature of the speech that, though he well knew where the amendments really came from, yet with 398 SAMUEL ADAMS. some of his old-time cunning his evident desire is to encourage the general impression that Hancock originated them. It was a matter of great importance that the popular governor should be supposed to have presented his own views ; and the admiring Mr. Wells, uncon scious, as we have found him before, of any de vious trickery, takes pains to show how Adams strove hard to produce in his hearers a false impression. It is not edifying, but it is cer tainly droll, to see how the young foxes suc cessfully manage to outwit the old fox, who then, all unconscious that he has himself been a victim, goes on with his wily expedient to inveigle the convention into doing right. The debate proceeded, the eloquence of Fisher Ames making a powerful impression in favor of the constitution. Massachusetts had instructed her delegates to insist on an annual election of congressmen; Samuel Adams, al ways believing that power delegated should return as soon as possible to the people, from whom alone it could come, and willing, no doubt, to subscribe to Jefferson s phrase : " Where annual election ends, tyranny begins," asked why congressmen were to be chosen for two years. Caleb Strong explained that it was a necessary compromise, at which Adams an swered, " I am satisfied." The concession CLOSING YEARS. 399 seemed so important to the convention that he was asked to repeat it, which he did. At length he suggested certain other amend ments. These were rejected by the conven tion, though afterward accepted by the nation. They now form the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th arti cles in amendment ; the clauses of the concilia tory propositions were also in part adopted as amendments. We need not follow more particularly the episodes of the convention, which at last ratified the constitution by a narrow majority, the vote standing one hundred and eighty-seven to one hundred and sixty-eight. Probably there were few men in the convention, as there were few in the country, who did not feel that there were defects in the form proposed. The only real difference apparently between Samuel Adams and those who were held to be special advo cates of the constitution was, that while all felt there were defects, the latter wished to accept the instrument at once and unconditionally, and to run the risk of future amendments ; whereas Mr. Adams felt that the ratification should be accompanied by a recommendation of amend ments. The first conciliatory proposition in particular, expressly reserving to the States the rights not delegated to the federal government, Adams regarded as "a summary of a bill of 400 SAMUEL ADAMS. rights," and therefore of great importance. Jef ferson also declared that the proposition sup plied the vital omission of a bill of rights, which was what " the people were entitled to against every government on earth, general or particu lar, and what no just government should refuse or rest on inference." Bancroft is careful to point out that Adams by no means makes the acceptance of the amendments a condition of ratification, but would have them simply recom mended at the same time with the ratification. Letters of Mr. Adams soon after this express very earnestly his desire to have the amend- ^/ments adopted. He wished "to see a line drawn as clearly as may be between the federal powers vested in Congress and the distinct sov ereignty of the several States, upon which the private and personal rights of the citizens de pend." His fear was lest "the constitution, in the administration of it, would gradually, but swiftly and imperceptibly, run into a consoli dated government, pervading and legislating through all the States ; not for federal purposes only, as it professes, but in all cases whatso ever. . . . Should a strong Federalist see what has now dropped from my pen, he would say that I am an c Anti-Fed, an amendment mon ger, etc." * Mr. Bancroft sums up well Samuel i To K. H. Lee, July 14, 1789, from the autograph. CLOSING YEARS. 401 Adains s position when he speaks of " the error that many have made in saying that he was at first opposed to the constitution. He never was opposed to the constitution ; he only waited to make up his mind." l His contemporaries in deed declared that his influence saved the constitution in Massachusetts. His position is quite different from that not only of Patrick Henry, but also from that of R. H. Lee and Elbridge Gerry, who opposed with all their power. As the year 1788 drew to a close, the Federal constitution being now in force, though two States still withheld their assent, an effort was made to send Samuel Adams again to Congress. In the newspapers of the time the most earnest tributes are paid to him. He is set side by side with Washington. Says the " Independent Chronicle " of December, 1788 : " While we are careful to introduce to our Federal legisla ture the American Fabius, let us not be un mindful of the American Cato." " America," says another, " in her darkest periods ever found him forward and near the helm, and for her sake he with cheerfulness seven years served her with a halter round his neck. Naked he went into her employ, and naked he came out 1 From a private letter to the writer. 26 402 SAMUEL ADAMS. of it." Says another : " It has been said, he is old and anti-federal. His age and experience are the very qualifications you want. His in fluence caused the constitution to be adopted in this State." Mr. Adams, however, lost the election, which was won by Fisher Ames, a young lawyer of thirty-one, who by his eloquence in the consti tutional convention had raised to the highest a reputation, before becoming brilliant. The virulence of party spirit was excessive. To have advocated amendments to the consti tution, however reasonable and proper, was enough to condemn the most respected man, as far as the Federalists were concerned. There was danger even from other weapons than sharp tongues and pens. A note is still pre served, written rudely on coarse paper, with the words blurred by the moisture of the wet grass of Samuel Adams s garden, into which it had been thrown, in which he is warned against assassination. In April following, how ever, Adams became lieutenant-governor, Han cock being governor. He had already been in Hancock s Council, and the reconciliation had now become cordial. Adams, indeed, had always been magnanimous. In Hancock s case, the lapse of years and increasing infirmities mitigated animosities, and gave opportunity to CLOSING YEARS. 403 the better nature which he certainly had. Their supporters, rejoicing to see the old pa triots once more friends and again in the fore ground together, printed the ticket in letters of gold. The following year the venerable pair were again chosen, and in a speech to the legislature, made by Adams upon entering on his second term of office, one finds expressions so cool and wise concerning the great constitutional question, that it is hard to see how even the smoke of partisan battle could have blinded men to their justice : " I shall presently be called upon by you, sir, as it is enjoined by the constitution, to make a declara tion upon oath, (and shall do it with cheerfulness, be cause the injunction accords with my own judgment and conscience,) that the commonwealth of Massachu setts is, and of right ought to be, a free, sovereign, and independent State. I shall also be called upon to make another declaration, with the same solemnity, to sup port the constitution of the United States. I see the consistency of this, for it cannot have been intended but that these constitutions should mutually aid and support each other. It is my humble opinion that, while the commonwealth of Massachusetts maintains her own just authority, weight, and dignity, she will be among the firmest pillars of the federal Union. "May the administration of the federal govern ment, and those of the several States in the Union, 404 SAMUEL ADAMS. be guided by the unerring finger of heaven ! Each of them and all of them united will then, if the peo ple are wise, be as prosperous as the wisdom of hu man institutions and the circumstances of human society will admit." A conflict which seems to have aroused the old energy of Adams more than any other that occurred during his declining years was that as to whether theatrical representations should be allowed in Boston. In 1790 the legislature was petitioned for authority to open a theatre in Boston, which was promptly refused. In the following year a town-meeting instructed the representatives to obtain, if possible, a repeal of the prohibitory act. It was carried, over the protest of Samuel Adams and the old-fash ioned citizens. When Harrison Gray Otis made a vigorous demonstration on the same side, Samuel Adams " thanked God that there was one young man willing to step forth in the good old cause of morality and religion." He himself fought the Philistines on the floor of Faneuil Hall until his weak voice was drowned in roars of disapproval. The prohibitory act was not repealed, but a theatre was opened in spite of it, upon which Hancock vindicated the law bv causing the whole company to be ar rested on the stage. A new application from the town for a repeal of the act brought the CLOSING YEARS. 405 legislature to compliance. Samuel Adams had now become governor, for we are anticipating somewhat. His theory was that the governor was simply an executive officer, whose only proper function was to carry out the popular will as expressed in the legislative enactments. He says in one of his inaugurals : " It is yours, fellow-citizens, to legislate, and mine only to revise your bills under limited and qualified powers ; and I rejoice that they are thus lim ited. These are features which belong to a free government alone. 1 But desperate circum stances demanded desperate expedients. His dear Boston, so far from becoming the u Chris tian Sparta " of his dreams, was fast going to the dogs of depravity. Under the circumstances consistency was a jewel not at all too precious to be sacrificed. He set himself stubbornly against the popular will and vetoed the repeal. So long as he sat in the chair of the chief mag istrate the prohibitory law remained on the statute books, though the scandalous play-ac tors dodged through their performances after a fashion in spite of the constables, to the delight of the graceless generation which had come into the places of the fathers. Though his natural force was suffering some abatement, Adams could yet defend with power still great the old, oft-threatened positions, in 406 SAMUEL ADAMS. front of which, all his life, he had fought so faithful a battle. John Adams returned from Europe in 1788, after an absence of nine years. In the earlier time the kinsmen had been of one mind, but the younger had imbibed aristocratic notions during his life in courts, which divided him from his friend. A correspondence be tween John Adams, then vice-president of the United States, and Samuel Adams, then lieu tenant-governor of Massachusetts, which, al though courteous, illustrates the difference of their ideas, was a notable controversy of the time. Of the democratic ideas Jefferson be came the leading exponent. Although at pres ent not dominant, these were soon to become the prevailing ideas of America. Of the hold ers of these, "Republicans," as they were at first called, Samuel Adams was recognized as the head in Massachusetts. With the approach of the fall in 1793, Han cock s infirmities perceptibly increased, and his end was plainly near. The two men had come to stand once more hand in hand, as in the bygone days, when Gage had outlawed them together, and they had fled before the regulars with the volleys of Lexington filling the April morning. What though Hancock had trimmed and played the fool ? Again and again he had risked wealth and life, as he stood chivalrously CLOSING YEARS. 407 in the thick of peril. What though he had in sulted and calumniated his old associate ? His heart had turned tenderly to him once more in old age, and Samuel Adams, as tenderly, held him once more in a brotherly clasp. Here is his last letter to Hancock : 1 BOSTON, Sept. 3d, 1793. MY VERY DEAR SIR, I received your letter on Saturday evening last. It cheered the spirit and caused the blood to thrill through the veins of an old man. I was sorry for the injunction you laid me under. I hope you will relax it, and give me leave to keep it. I shall then read it often, and when I leave it, it will be read to your honor after you and I shall be laid in the dust. I am rejoiced to discover by it that your mind is firm and your speech good. Shall I venture to conjure you, as your friend, strictly to comply with the advice of your physicians ? I have seen Drs. Jarvis and Warren ; they tell me that they were all united in opinion, and say that they are in hopes, under Providence, to bring you to such a state of health as to enable you to perform the duties of a station with which the people have honored you, which I pray God you may continue in many years after I am no more here. Mrs. Adams joins me in best regards to you and Madam. Your sincere friend, S. ADAMS. 1 From the autograph. 408 SAMUEL ADAMS. Hancock died at last on the 8th of October. He was honored with a most solemn funeral, and Samuel Adams followed the coffin as chief mourner. The strength of the septuagenarian failed to sustain him under the emotions that overwhelmed him. He withdrew from his place as the train wound past the Old State House, and it went on to the Granary Burying Ground without the man of the gray head and the trembling hands, who through Hancock s death had become chief magistrate of Massachusetts. On January 17, 1794, Samuel Adams de livered his first speech, as governor, to the Senate and House. He thought it worth while to recapitulate to some extent the ultimate grounds of freedom which he had so often as serted, and it was perhaps well, in the wide spread doubt that had come to exist as to the expediency of trusting government to the hands of the people. In 1794, 1795, and 1796 Mr. Adams was elected governor by heavy majorities, although the Federalists made efforts to defeat him. In his addresses to the two houses he occupied the reasonable mean between the extreme Fed eralists and the extreme Republicans, insisting upon the necessity of a just concession of power to the Union, while urging at the same time a maintenance of the rights of the States. He CLOSING TEARS. 409 approved thoroughly the policy of Washington as regards European entanglements, acknowl edging the wisdom of his proclamation of neu trality, issued soon after the arrival of Citizen Genet. The Jay treaty of 1796, warmly favored by Hamilton and Fisher Ames, Adams opposed, in company with Madison, Gallatin, and Brock- hoist Livingston, and made no effort to stop the expressions of popular disapproval which, in Boston, became riotous. His position drew down upon him unmeasured wrath from the Federalists, though few at the present time will maintain that the provisions of that treaty were wise. As the year 1797 opened, Samuel Adams, now seventy-five, gave notice, in a speech to the legislature, of his retirement from public life. That he had honor in this hour elsewhere than at home had been shown in the presidential election which had just taken place, when, in the electoral college, Virginia had thrown for Thomas Jefferson twenty votes, and for Samuel Adams fifteen. Both houses of the Massachu setts General Court addressed him in terms of great respect, and in May the toiLworn servant of the people laid down his responsibilities. His appearance in age is thus described by Wells : 410 SAMUEL ADAMS. " He always walked with his family to and from church, until his failing strength prevented. His stature was a little above the medium height. He wore a tie-wig, cocked hat, buckled shoes, knee-breeches, and a red cloak, and held himself very erect, with the ease and address of a polite gentleman. On stopping to speak with any person in the street his salutation was formal yet cordial. His gestures were animated, and in conversation there was a slight tremulous mo tion of the head. He never wore glasses in public, except when engaged in his official duties at the State House. His complexion was florid and his eyes dark blue. The eyebrows were heavy, almost to bushiness, and contrasted remarkably with the clear forehead, which, at the age of seventy, had but few wrinkles. The face had a benignant, but careworn expression, blended with a native dignity (some have said maj esty) of countenance, which never failed to impress strangers." Henceforth he lived in his house in Winter Street (the Purchase Street home he had been forced to resign), his wife at his side, cared for by his daughter and her children. In cap and gown he walked in his garden or sat in the door- way. As age grew upon him his nearer life receded, and the great figures and deeds of the Revolution were oftener in his thoughts. Once more he walked with Otis and Warren and Quincy ; once more, in mind, he rallied into closest battle-order the scattered Massa- CLOSING YEARS. 411 chusetts towns, put to flight, unweaponed, the Fourteenth and Twenty-ninth regiments, and barred on*- Gap-e in the great crisis of the throe when " the child Independer ^ was born." In mixed companies, and among strangers, he was reserved and silent; among friends he was com panionable, abounding in anecdote, and keenly alive to wit. His grandchildren read to him, or were his amanuenses. To the last he was in terested in the common schools. In 1795, while rejoicing over the establishment of academies, he had, as governor, expressed to the legisla ture the fear that a large increase of these institutions might lessen "the ancient and ben eficial mode of education in grammar schools," whose peculiar advantage is "that the poor and the rich may derive equal benefit from them, while none, excepting the more wealthy, gen erally speaking, can avail themselves of the benefits of the academies." His form now was familiar in the school-rooms, and he was known as a friend by troops of children. It is pleasant to record that in the storm of party fury, now hotter than ever, there were some Federalists broad-minded enough to do him honor. When, in 1800, Governor Caleb Strong was advancing through Winter Street, in a great procession, probably at the time of his inauguration, Mr. Adams was observed in SAMUEL ADAMS. his house, looking out upon the pageant. The governor called a halt, and ordered the music to cease. Alighting fro ^ &&& he e^eted f-.J^ ^IA,- * , ., *& - ~^~ ~vJiu J man at the door, grasped the paralytic hands, and expressed, with head bared, his reverence for Samuel Adams. The soldiers presented arms, and the people stood uncovered and silent. Could he have lived a second life, a brilliant recognition would probably have fallen to him. The forces of federalism were becoming ex hausted; the incoming wave of democracy would certainly have lifted him into a place of power. Already, as we have seen, Virginia, in 1796, cast fifteen votes in the electoral college for him as president; her great son, Jefferson, as he came at last into the supreme position, recalled, with enthusiasm, their association and sympathy in the first Congresses and could hardly find language strong enough to express his regret that old age must have its dues. "A government by representatives elected by the people, at short periods, was our object ; and our maxim at that day was, Where annual election ends, tyranny begins. Nor have our departures from it been sanctioned by the happiness of their effects." " How much I lament that time has deprived me of your aid ! It would have been a day of glory which should have called you to the first office of my ad- CLOSING YEARS. 413 ministration. But give us your counsel, my friend, and give us your blessing, and be assured that there exists not in the heart of man a more faithful esteem than mine to you, and that I shall ever bear you the most affectionate veneration and respect." l His work was done, and Adams calmly awaited the end. As his friends were obliged to buy clothes for him that he might make a respectable appearance at the first Continental Congress, in 1774, so at the last it would have been necessary to support and bury him at the public expense, had he not inherited from his son, the army surgeon, claims against the gov ernment which yielded about six thousand dol lars. This sum, fortunately invested, sufficed for the simple wants of himself and his admi rable wife. Tudor, in his " Life of James Otis," gives the following often quoted description of the political character of Samuel Adams: " He attached an exclusive value to the habits and principles in which he had been educated, and wished to adjust wide concerns too closely after a particular model. One of his colleagues who knew him well, and estimated him highly, described him, with good- natured exaggeration, in the following manner : Samuel Adams would have the State of Massachu- 1 February 26, 1800; March 29, 1801; from the manu scripts. 414 SAMUEL ADAMS. setts govern the Union, the town of Boston govern Massachusetts, and that he should govern the town of Boston, and then the whole would not be inten tionally ill-governed. " It is not a good description of Samuel Ad ams s limitation. He believed, to be sure, in the town first, then the State, then the Union ; but he had no such overweening confidence in himself as is here denoted. From the voice of the plain people there could be, in his idea, no appeal. In town-meeting assembled, their man date would be wise, and must be authoritative. To that he deferred submissively in important crises, postponing his own judgment. His com rades knew it, and sometimes shrewdly played upon him, as when they overcame his hesi tation before the Federal constitution. Even when he himself was far in the foreground, acting with all energy from his own inspira tions, it is probable he often fancied that he represented and was pushed by the popular im pulse. He was submissive before " instruc tions," as if in some way he were really heark ening to the voice of God. He was slow in recognizing the ways through which, in a vast republic like ours, all large affairs must be ad ministered. A nation of fifty millions cannot be run upon the town-meeting plan. There is a perilous decentralization, toward which, in CLOSING YEARS. 415 the great forming days, Samuel Adams tended, as others rushed toward peril in the opposite extreme. Into the feeble Congress of 1781 he could not bear that there should be any in troduction of " one man power," which alone could give it efficiency ; he favored terms of office too short for the suitable training of the official ; he thought power must ever return speedily to the people who gave it, so that the representative might never forget that he was the creature of his constituents. The cases are few, however, in which his advocacy was unreasonable ; when all has been said that can be said, America has had but few public men as devoted, as wise, as magnificently serviceable as he. He grew feeble during the summer of 1803, and was conscious, as was every one, that the end was at hand. Early on the morning of Sun day, October 2, the tolling bells made known to the town that he was dead. The " Independent Chronicle " did him honor the next day in a fine specimen of dignified, old-fashioned obitu ary. There was embarrassment, through political enmity, in procuring a suitable escort for his funeral. But at length difficulties were over come, and an impressive train, headed by the 416 SAMUEL ADAMS. Independent Cadets, and consisting of many dignitaries and private friends, accompanied the plain coffin through the streets, during the firing of minute guns from the Castle. He was borne past the doors of the Old South, which in his age had become his place of wor ship; at length the muffled drums reverberated from Faneuil Hall, but before reaching it, at the Old State House, the funeral turned. Had no occult sympathy established itself between the heart that had grown still and the pile that rose so venerable in the twilight of the autumn day ? No other voice had sounded so often in its chambers ; its thresholds had felt the lightness of his youth and the feebleness of his age. Beneath its roof had gathered the scattered Massachusetts towns in the great old days, and, submissive to his controlling mind, had there wrought out a work that must sanctify the spot forever. Had there been a poet in the crowd, one fancies the blank win dows of the council chamber and the assembly- room might have been seen to become suffused, and the quaint belfry to make some obeisance. There is no record that any sign was given. The train moved up Court Street into Tremont Street, and in the Granary Burying Ground, close by the victims of the Boston Massacre, Samuel Adams found his grave. In what was CLOSING YEARS. 417 once Dock Square, the town he loved has com memorated him worthily in imposing bronze. His dust lies almost beneath the feet of the passers in the great thoroughfare, and no stone marks the spot. 27 CHAPTER XXIII. H - K90 /H frkA^o^M** THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. HAVE New Englanders preserved the town- meeting of Samuel Adams ? Thirteen million, or about one quarter, of the inhabitants of the United States, are believed to be descendants of the twenty-one thousand who, in the dark days of Stuart domination, came from among the friends of Cromwell and Hampden to people the northeast. In large proportion they have for saken the old seats, following the parallels of latitude into the great northwest, and now at length across the continent to California and Oregon. At the beginning of the century Grayson wrote to Madison that " New England ers are amazingly attached to their custom of planting by townships." So it has always been ; wherever New Englanders have had power to decide as to the constitution of a forming state, it has had the township at the basis. But in the immense dilution which this element of population has constantly undergone, through the human flood from all lands, which, side by THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 419 side with it, has poured into the new territories, its influence has of necessity been often greatly weakened, and the form of the township has been changed from the original pattern, sel dom advantageously. 1 In New England itself, moreover, a similar cause has modified some what the old circumstances. While multitudes of the ancient stock have forsaken the granite hills, their places have been supplied by a Cel tic race, energetic and prolific, whose teeming families throng city and village, threatening to outnumber the Yankee element, depleted as it has been by the emigration of so many of its most vigorous children. To these new-comers must be added now the French Canadians, who, following the track of their warlike an cestors down the river- valleys, have come by thousands into the manufacturing towns and into the woods, an industrious but unprogres- sive race, good hands in the mills, and marvel- ously dexterous at wielding the axe. Whatever may be said of the virtues of these new-com ers, and, of course, a long list could be made out for them, they have not been trained to i S. A. Galpin, Walker s Statistical Atlas of U. S. ii. 10. Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, as follows : Albert Shaw, Local Government in Illinois ; E. W. Bemis, Local Government in Michigan and the North- West ; E. R. L. Gould, Local Govern ment in Pennsylvania; 3, Macy, Institutional Beginnings of a Western State (Iowa). 420 SAMUEL ADAMS. Anglo-Saxon self-government. We have seen the origin of the folk-mote far back in Teu tonic antiquity. As established in New Eng land, it is a revival of a very ancient thing. The institution is not congenial to all ; the Irishman and Frenchman are not at home in it, and cannot accustom themselves to it, until, as the new generations come forward, they take on the characteristics of the people among whom they have come to cast their lot. At present, in most old New England towns, we find an element of the population numbering hundreds, often thousands, who are sometimes quite inert, allowing others to decide all things for them ; sometimes voting in droves in an unintelligent way as some whipper-in may di rect ; sometimes in unreasoning partisanship following through thick and thin a cunning demagogue, quite careless how the public wel fare may suffer by his coming to the front. Still another circumstance which threatens the folk-mote is the multiplication of cities. When a community of moderate size, which has gone forward under its town-meeting, at length increases so far as to be entitled to a city char ter, the day is commonly hailed by ringing of bells and salutes of cannon. But the assuming of a city charter has been declared to be " an almost complete abnegation of practical de- THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY, 421 mocracy. The people cease to govern them selves ; once a year they choose those who are to govern for them. Instead of the town-meet ing discussions and votes, one needs now to spend only ten minutes, perhaps, in a year. No more listening to long debates about schools, roads, and bridges. One has only to drop a slip of paper, containing a list which some one has been kind enough to prepare for him, into a box, and he has done his duty as a citizen." 1 In the most favorable circumstances, the mayor and common council, representing the citizens, do the work for them, while individuals are dis charged from the somewhat burdensome, but educating and quickening duties of the folk- mote. As yet the way has not been discovered through which, in an American city, the pri mordial cell of our liberty may be preserved from atrophy. Though the town-meeting of the New Eng land of to-day rarely presents all the features of the town-meeting of Samuel Adams, yet wherever the population has remained tolerably pure from foreign admixture, and wherever the numbers at the same time have not become so large as to embarrass the transaction of busi ness, the institution retains much of its old vigor. The writer recalls the life, as it was 1 New York Nation, May 29, 1866, 422 SAMUEL ADAMS. twenty-five years ago, of a most venerable and uncontaminated old town, whose origin dates back more than two hundred years. At first it realized almost perfectly the idea of the Teu tonic " tun." For a long time it was the fron tier settlement, with nothing to the west but woods until the fierce Mohawks were reached, and nothing but woods to the north until one came to the hostile French of Canada. About the houses, therefore, was drawn the protection of a palisade to inclose them (tynari) against attack. Though not without some foreign in termixture, the old stock was, twenty-five years ago, so far unchanged that in the various " dees- tricks" the dialect was often unmistakably nasal ; the very bob-o-links in the meadow- grass, and the bumble-bees in the holly-hocks might have been imagined to chitter and hum with a Yankee twang ; and " Zekle " squired "Huldy," as of yore, to singing-school or ap ple-paring, to quilting or sugaring-off, as each season brought its appropriate festival. The same names stood for the most part on tax, vot ing, and parish lists that stood there in the time of Philip s war, when for a space the people were driven out by the Indian pressure ; and the fathers had handed down to the modern day, with their names and blood, the venerable methods by which they regulated their lives. THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 423 On the northern boundary a factory village had sprung up about a water-power ; at the south, too, five miles off, there was some rattle of mills and sound of hammers. Generally, however, the people were farmers, like their ancestors, reaping great hay-crops in June with which to fat in the stall long rows of sleek cattle for market in December ; or, by farmer s alchemy, transmuting the clover of the rocky hills into golden butter. From far and near, on the first Monday of March, the men gathered to the central vil lage, whose people made great preparations for the entertainment of the people of the out skirts. What old Yankee, wherever he may have strayed, will not remember the "town- meeting gingerbread," and the great roasts that smoked hospitably for all comers ! The sheds of the meeting-house close by were crowded with horses and sleighs ; for, in the intermediate slush, between ice and the spring mud, the runner was likely to be better than the wheel. The floor of the town-hall grew wet and heavy in the trampling; not in Eng land alone is the land represented ; a full rep resentation of the soil comes to a New Eng land town-meeting, on the boots of the free men. On a platform at the end of the plain room sat the five selectmen in a row, at their 424 SAMUEL ADAMS. left was the venerable town clerk, with the am ple volume of records before him. His memory went back to the men who were old in Wash ington s administration, who in their turn re membered men in whose childhood the French and Indians burned the infant settlement. Three lives, the town clerk s being the third, spanned the whole history of the town. He was full of traditions, precedents, minutiae of town history, and was an authority in all dis puted points of procedure from whom there was no appeal. In front of the row of select men with their brown, solid farmer faces, stood the moderator, a vigorous man in the forties, six straight feet in height, colonel of the county regiment of militia, of a term s experience in the General Court, and therefore conversant with parliamentary law, a quick and energetic presiding officer. It was indeed an arena. The south village was growing faster than the " street," and there were rumors of efforts to be made to move the town-hall from its old place, which aroused great wrath; and both south village and "street" took it hard that part of the men of the dis tricts to the north had favored a proposition to be set off to an adjoining town. The weak side of human nature came out as well as the strong, in the numerous jealousies and bicker- THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 425 ings. Following the carefully arranged pro gramme or warrant, from which there could be no departure, because ample warning must be given of every measure proposed, item after item was considered, a change here in the course of the highway to the shire town, how much should be raised by taxes, the apportion ment of money among the school districts, what bounty the town would pay its quota of troops for the war, a new wing for the poor-house, whether there should be a bridge at the west ford. Now and then came a touch of humor, as when the young husbands, married within the year, were elected field-drivers, officers tak ing the place of the ancient hog-reeves. Once the moderator for the time being displeased the meeting by his rulings upon certain points of order. " Mr. Moderator," cried out an an cient citizen with a twang in his voice like that of a well-played jewsharp, " ef it s in awrder, I d jest like to inquire the price of cawn at Cheapside." It was an effective reductio ad absurdum. Another rustic Cicero, whom for some reason the physicians of the village had displeased, once filled up a lull in proceedings with : " Mr. Moderator, I move that a dwelling be erected in the centre of the grave-yard in which the doctors of the town be required to reside, that they may have always under their eyes the fruits of their labors." 426 SAMUEL ADAMS. The talkers were sometimes fluent, some times stumbling and awkward. The richest man in town, at the same time town treasurer, was usually a silent looker-on. His son, how ever, president of the county agricultural so ciety, an enterprising farmer, whose team was the handsomest, whose oxen were the fattest, whose crops were the heaviest, was in speech forceful and eloquent, with an energetic word to say on every question. But he was scarcely more prominent in the discussions than a poor cultivator of broom-corn, whose tax was only a few dollars. There was the intrigue of certain free-thinkers to oust the ministers from the school-committee, the manoeuvring of the fac tions to get hold of the German colony, a body of immigrants lately imported into the factory- village to the north. These sat in a solid mass at one side while the proceedings went on in an unknown tongue, without previous training for such a work, voting this way or that accord ing to the direction of two or three leaders. Watching it all, one could see how perfect a democracy it was. Things were often done far enough from the best way. Unwise or doubtful men were put in office, important projects were stinted by niggardly appropriations, unworthy prejudices were allowed to interfere with wise enterprises. Yet in the main the result was THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 427 good. This was especially to be noted, how thoroughly the public spirit of those who took part was stimulated, and how well they were trained to self-reliance, intelligence of various kinds, and love for freedom. The rough black smith or shoemaker, who had his say as to what should be the restriction about the keeping of dogs, or the pasturing of sheep on the western hills, spoke his mind in homely fashion enough, and possibly recommended some course not the wisest. That he could do so, however, helped his self-respect, and caused him to take a deeper interest in affairs beyond himself than if things were managed without a right on his part to interfere ; and this gain in self-respect, public spirit, self-reliance, to the blacksmith and shoe maker, is worth far more than a mere smooth or cheap carrying on of affairs. Is there anything more valuable among An glo-Saxon institutions than this same ancient folk-mote, this old-fashioned New England town-meeting ? What a list of important men can be cited who have declared, in the strongest terms that tongue can utter, their conviction of its preciousness ! 1 It has been alleged that to 1 John Stuart Mill, Representative Government, p. 64, etc. ; De Tocqueville, De la Democratic en Ame rique, i. 96, etc.; J. Toulmin Smith, Local Self -Government and Centralization, p. 29, etc. ; May, Constitutional History of England, ii. 460 ; 428 SAMUEL ADAMS. this more than anything else was due the su premacy of England in America, the successful colonization out of which grew at last the United States. France failed precisely for want of this. 1 England prevailed precisely because " nations which are accustomed to township in stitutions and municipal government are better able than any other to found prosperous col onies. The habit of thinking and governing for one s self is indispensable in a new coun try." So says De Tocqueville, seeking an ex planation for the failure of his own race, and the victory of its great rival. 2 None have ad mired this thorough New England democracy more heartily than those living under a very different polity. Richard Henry Lee of Vir ginia wrote in admiration of Massachusetts, 3 as the place u where yet I hope to finish the re mainder of my days. The hasty, unpersever- ing, aristocratic genius of the South suits not my disposition, and is inconsistent with my Bluntschli, quoted by H. B.Adams, Germanic Origin ofN. E. Towns ; Jefferson, to Kercheval, July 12, 1816, and to Cabell, February 2, 1816; John Adams, Letter to his wife, October 29, 1775; Samuel Adams, Letter to Noah Webster, April 30, 1784; R. W. Emerson, Concord Bicentennial Discourse, 1835, etc. 1 Lecky, Hist. XVIIIth Century, i. 387. 2 De la Dem. en Am. i. 423. 8 Life of R. H. Lee, Letter to John Adams, October 7, 1779, i. 226. THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 429 views of what must constitute social happiness and security." Jefferson becomes almost fierce in the earnestness with which he urges Vir ginia to adopt the township. " Those wards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their governments, and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-government, and for its preservation. . . . As Cato, then, concluded every speech with the words 4 Carthago delenda estj so do I every opinion with the injunction: Divide the coun ties into wards ! " 1 The town-meeting has been called " the pri mordial cell of our body-politic." Is its condition at present such as to satisfy us ? As we have seen, even in New England, it is only here and there that it can be said to be well-maintained. At the South, Anglo-Saxon freedom, like the enchanted prince of the "Arabian Nights," whose body below the waist the evil witch had fixed in black marble, had been fixed in African slavery. The spell is destroyed ; the prince has his limbs again, but they are weak and wasted from the hideous trammel. The traces of the folk-mote in the South are sadly few. Nor elsewhere is the prospect encouraging. The influx of alien tides to whom our precious heir- 1 Works, vi. 544; vii. 13. 430 SAMUEL ADAMS. looms are as nothing, the growth of cities and the inextricable perplexities of their govern ment, the vast inequality of condition between man and man what room i there for the lit tle primary council of freemen, homogeneous in stock, holding the same faith, on the same level as to wealth and station, not too few in num ber for the kindling of interest, not so many as to become unmanageable what room is there for it, or how can it be revivified or created ? It is, perhaps, hopeless to think of it. Mr. Free man remarks that in some of the American col onies " representation has supplanted the prim itive Teutonic democracy, which had sprung into life in the institutions of the first settlers." Over vast areas of our country to-day, repre sentation has supplanted democracy. It is an admirable, an indispensable expedient, of course. Yet that a representative system may be thor oughly well managed, we need below it the primary assemblies of the individual citizens, " regular, fixed, frequent, and accessible," dis cussing affairs and deciding for themselves. De Tocqueville seems to have thought that An glo-Saxon America owes its existence to the town-meeting. It would be hard, at any rate, to show that the town-meeting was not a main source of our freedom. Certainly it is well to hold it in memory ; to give it new life, if pos- THE TOWN-MEETING TO-DAY. 431 sible, wherever it exists; to reproduce some semblance of it, however faint, in the regions to which it is unknown ; it is well to brush the dust off the half-forgotten historic figure who, of all men, is its best type and representative. INDEX. ADAMS, HENRY, progenitor of the Adams family, 13. Adams, John, value of his diary, 43 ; describes James Otis in the case of the writs of assistance, 44 ; writes the Braintree instructions in 17G5, 53 ; supports the petition to the governor and council in 1765, 75; describes the Caucus Club, 76 ; removes to Boston and writes instructions for the repre sentatives in 1768, 112 ; writes in structions for the representatives in 1769, 135 ; drives with Samuel Adams, 152 ; his account of Sam uel Adams at the time of the Bos ton Massacre, 172 ; serves on the night-watch, 175 ; defends the sol diers. 183; gives aid in the con troversy as to parliamentary au thority, 210 ; presides at the Port Bill meeting in 1774, 293 ; elected delegate to the first Continental Congress, 295, etc. ; sets out for Philadelphia, reports the journey in his diary, 309, etc. ; his self- consciousness, 311 ; nominates Washington for commander-in- chief , 335 ; begins to favor inde pendence in third Continental Congress, 341 ; on committee to prepare the Declaration of Inde pendence, 348; the best debater in the early Congresses, 359 ; de fends aristocracy in a controversy with Samuel Adams, 406. Adams, Captain John, grandfather of Samuel Adams, 14. Adams, Joseph, grandfather of Pres ident John Adams, 14. Adams, Samuel, Senior, father of Samuel Adams, a political leader, his home and estate, justice of the peace, deacon, selectman, member of Assembly, helps form - . - 28 the Caulkers Club, 15; opposes Governor Shute, 16 ; his promi nence in time of Governor Shir ley, 19 ; dies in 1748, 20. Adams, Samuel, his parentage, 14 ; school days and college life, 16; his thesis as a Master of Arts, 17 ; tries law, mercantile life, 18 ; be comes his father s partner in a malt-house, 19 ; marries Elizabeth Checkley, 20 ; inherits a feud with Thomas Hutchinson, 34 ; at tempt to seize and sell his prop erty to close the Land Bank scheme, 35; accused of defalca tion as tax-collector, 37, 47 ; shows marks of age at 42, death of his wife, failure in business, 46 ; writes town s instructions to the repre sentatives in 1764, 47 ; marries Elizabeth Wells, 50; elected to Assembly in 1765, man of the town- meeting, 54; becomes the leader of the Assembly, 62 ; compared with James Otis, 63 ; opposes par liamentary representation of the colonies, 64, 67 ; writes the re sponse to Barnard and the Massa chusetts Resolves, 71 ; suggests ] the non-importation scheme, 74; I his keenness in discovering able young men, 75 ; becomes clerk of the Assembly, 93 ; non-importa tion and non-consumption agree ments adopted, 101 ; writes docu ments constituting the " True Sentiments of America," 103 ; denounces a Protestant episco pate, 104 ; writes the Circular Letter" of 1768, 105; has words with James Otis, 113; his popu larity with mechanics and labor ers, 115 ; description of, in the affidavit of Richard Sylvester, 117 ; begins, in 1768, to work for 434 INDEX. independence, 119; Tory accusa tions of duplicity, 120 ; his indig nation at reactionary spirit in 1768, 123 ; appealed to to save a soldier irom Hogging, 128 ; his ac tivity in the newspapers, 129 ; on imperfections of the British con- w^stitution, 130; publicly hints at independence in 17G9, 134 ; de nounces the Rev. Mr. Seabury, 135 ; inocks Governor Bernard at his departure, 140 ; becomes leader of the patriots on the decay of Otis, 148 ; his poverty and incor ruptibility, 152 ; writes Appeal to the World," 154; protects the x/Scotchman, 157 ; his bearing at the time of the Boston Massacre, 167, etc. ; his speech to Governor Hutchinson in the council cham ber, 173 ; displeased with the issue of the trial of the soldiers, the " Vindex" letters, 184; foiled by Hutchinson in the controversy as to royal instructions, 186 ; dis trusts Franklin, 189 ; opposes su- Eineness in 1771, 191; denounces i 1772 pensioned judges, 194 ; V brings into being the Committee of Correspondence, 196, etc. ; his counsel sought by Rhode Island at the time of the destruction of the Gaspee. 205 ; the controversy as to parliamentary authority, 210, etc. ; his connection with the affair of the Hutchinson letters, 225; advocates a congress of the colonies in 1773, 236 ; publicly ad vocates independence in 1773, 238; his part in the destruction of the tea, 243, etc. ; bases Amer ica s claim to liberty mainly on natural right, 258 ; tries to bring about the impeachment of Chief Justice Peter Oliver, 261 ; writes an oration for Hancock to deliver on anniversary of the Massacre, 263 ; his great ascendency at time of the Port Bill, 290; engineers the choosing of delegates for the first Continental Congress, 291, etc. ; elected delegate to the first Continental Congress, 295, etc. ; locks the Assembly in, 296 ; ch?ir- man of committee for relieving the poor and distributing dona- tions after the Port Bill goes into v operation, 298 ; champion of the Committee of Correspondence against the Tories, 299 ; the gov ernment s reasons for not seizing him in 1774, testimony of Hutch inson to his incorruptibility, 301 ; Gage s attempt upon him through Colonel Fenton, 302 : his ideas of democracy, 303; his home life, the place in Purchase Street, 305 ; his taste in music, 306 ; receives help from his friends before going to Philadelphia, 308 ; sets out for the first Congress, 309; his reti cence, 311 ; meets on the journey to Philadelphia patriots from the other colonies, 312 ; his influence dreaded in the Congress, 315 ; he moves that the Rev. Mr. Duche, an Episcopalian, open the Con gress with prayer, 315; on com mittee to state the rights of the colonies, 317 ; vigorously opposes all concession, 320; his great in fluence in Massachusetts, 321 ; in the Provincial Congress, 322 ; at the town-meeting of March 6, 1775, 324, etc. ; letter to R. H. Lee describing it, 328 ; flight from Lexington, April 19, 1775, 330, 331 ; on the way to the second Continental Congress, 332 ; soli tary among leading statesmen, in 1775, in his wish for independence, 333 ; seconds nomination of Wash ington to be commandef-in-chief, 335 ; proscribed by Gage, 336 ; let ter on his proscription and the death of Joseph Warren, 337 ; cor diality toward Washington, agency in the appointment of Charles Lee to be second in command, becomes secretary of state in Massachu setts, 339 ; at Philadelphia for the third Continental Congress, 340 ; promotes invasion of Canada, 341 ; writes " Earnest Appeal to the Peo ple," in behalf of independence, February, 1776, 342 ; denounces his colleagues from Massachusetts, 343 ; denounces the Quakers, 344 ; in the debate on R. H. Lee s reso lution, 347 ; on committee to pre pare a plan of confederation, 348 ; letter to John Pitts describ ing the Declaration of Independ ence, 350 ; the man of the town- meeting, 352, etc. ; his place in the group of Massachusetts lead ers, a combination of incongrui ties, 357 ; as an orator. 358 ; as a writer, 360, etc. ; testimony of friends and enemies to his power, INDEX, 435 362 ; as a manager of men, 3G3, etc. ; called by Jefferson the Pa- linurus of the Revolution, 3G5; a Tory s estimate, 3GG ; Riving- ton s estimate, 3G7 ; a typical Yan kee, 3G8; his unselfishness, 3G9 ; " second only to Washington," 370 ; his importance not circum scribed, 371 ; first advocate of in dependence, 372 ; appropriateness of the title " Father of America," 374 ; his later congressional ser vice, helps construct the state constitution of Massachusetts, 376; never unfriendly to Wash ington, 377, etc. ; at the reception of M. Gerard, French ambassador, 380; helps maintain the entente cordiale with the French, opposes giving half-pay for life to Revolu tionary officers, opposes estab lishment of departments with secretaries, 381,382; his last act in Congress to sign Articles of ^Confederation, 382 ; his attach- **fhent to these, 385 ; continued in terest in Boston town-meeting, 386; president of the Massachu setts Senate, 387 ; at the depart ure of the French army, implaca ble towards the Tories, 388 ; re ports no defects in the town con stitution of Boston, 389 ; opposes Shays s rebellion, 391 ; hesitates at the adoption of the federal constitution, 392, etc. ; how won over, 396; defeated for Congress by Fisher Ames, warned against assassination, becomes lieutenant- governor, 402 ; address to the Massachusetts legislature, 403 ; controversy as to theatrical rep resentations, 404, 4C5 ; controversy with John Adams, leads "Repub licans in Massachusetts, 406 ; restored friendship with Hancock, last letter to Hancock, 407; at Hancock s funeral, as governor, 408; approves Washington s pol icy as to foreign entanglements, disapproves Jay treaty, honored by Virginia in presidential elec tion of 1796, 409; appearance in / age, 410 ; interest in common schools, 411 ; Caleb Strong s ven eration, Jefferson s tribute, 412, /413; his deference toward the voice of tl e people, 414 ; his death, 415 ; his funeral, 416 ; his unmarked grave, 417. Adams, Samuel, 3d, studies medi cine with Dr. \Varreu, 306 ; es capes from Boston during the siege, 337 ; becomes a surgeon in Washington s army, 339 ; his death, 393. Ames, Fisher, his influence at the adoption of the federal constitu tion by Massachusetts, 398 ; de feats Samuel Adams for Congress, 402. Appeal to the World, 154. Assembly, Massachusetts, constitu tion of, 23 ; relation of to the town-meetings, 55, cts. ; its cham ber in the Old State House, GO. Attucks, Crispus, killed in the Bos ton Massacre, 164. BARRE, COLONEL ISAAC, opposes the Stamp Act in Parliament, 51 ; his speech at the time of the Boston Port Bill, 2G5. Bears, Isaac, landlord at New Ha ven, entertains del agates to the first Congress, 310, 312. Beaver, tea-ship in 1773, 250. Bernard, Francis, becomes governor in 17GO, his character, 38, 140; opposes the Stamp Act, Camden s testimony in his favor, 51 ; his conduct in the affair of the Lib erty, 111 ; his removal prayed for by the Assembly, 115 ; describes a town-meeting, 122 ; adjourns As sembly to Cambridge in 1769, 136 ; recalled and made baronet, 139 ; his departure from America, 143 ; testimony as to S. Adams as a writer, 362. Billeting Act, 138. Blackburn, Judge, his view of par liamentary supremacy, given in 18G8, in the case of Governor Eyre of Jamaica, 85. I Bland, Richard, of Virginia, recom- I mends restoration in English con- I stitution of the primitive Anglo- i Saxon freedom, 87. j Board of Trade, its baleful agency in promoting the estrangement of j the colonies from England, 27. I Bollan, agent of Massachusetts i Council, obtains in England let ters thought to compromise Ber- j nard, 142. j Boston, at the beginning of the Rev olution, 3 ; town records of, 4 ; population, 5 ; industries of, 6 ; slavery in, 7 ; ministers, mer- 436 INDEX. chants of, 8 ; workmen, newspa pers, 10 ; folk-mote in, 11 ; leads the Revolution, 13 ; calls a con vention of towns in 1768, 122 ; con duct at the time of the Massacre, 184 ; conduct at destruction of tea, 243 : conduct at the time of the Port Bill, 271 ; harbor closed by the Port Bill, 289 ; Gage tries vainly to stop the town-meetings, 323. Boston Gazette, organ of the Whigs, its popularity, 133, 134. Bowdoin, James, of Huguenot ori gin, 5 ; becomes leader of the Council in 1766, 96; steadfast against removal of the legislature from Boston, 187 : takes part in the controversy as to parliament ary authority, 214 ; takes part in tlie effort to impeach Chief Jus tice Oliver, 261 ; elected delegate to the first Continental Congress, 295 ; prevented from going by the sickness of his wife, 309 ; his use fulness crippled by ill-health, 356 ; portrait of in Shays s rebellion. 392. Bunker Hill, battle of, 337. Burke, Edmund, his ideas on rep resentation, 57 ; his maiden speech, 81 ; friend of America in 1769, 131. Byles, Rev. Dr. Mather, 8 ; on the re(d)dressed grievances, 127. CAMDEN, Lord, praises Governor Bernard, 51 ; his speech in debate on repeal of the Stamp Act, 82 ; disposed to rest the cause of the colonies on the basis of natural justice, 87. Charter, first, of Massachusetts, 21 ; second, its features, 22, 23 ; changed in 1774, 302. Chase, Thomas, of Maryland, favors independence, 344. Chauncy, Rev. Charles, 8 ; his con troversy with the Rev. Mr. Sea- bury, 135. Checkley, Elizabeth, first wife of Samuel Adams, 20 ; her death, 46. Church, Dr. Benjamin, appears to favor the Committee of Corre spondence, 197 ; drafts in part its manifesto, 201 ; his oration on the anniversary of the Massacre, 216 ; suggests a Congress of the col onies in 1773, 217 ; treason of, Church membership, at first requi site for a freeman, 22. Circular Letter of 1768, adopted, 1C5, 106 ; Assembly refuses to re scind it, 114. Clark, Major George Rogers, finds, in subduing the Mississippi valley, the Indians and habitant prepared "to fight Boston," 13. Clark, Rev. Jonas, Adams and Han cock at his house in Lexington, April, 1775, 330. Clarke, Richard, consignee of tea in 1773, 244. Committee of Correspondence, Sam uel Adams s first idea of, account of its formation, 196, etc. ; re sponse of the towns to its over tures, 201, etc. ; intercolonial, pro posal for proceeds from Virginia, 218. Confederation, Articles of, difficul ties of framing, 382, etc. ; Samuel Adams s attachment to, 385. Congress, Continental, recommend ed by Church and Samuel Adams, 237 ; election of delegates to the first, 297, etc. ; opening of the first, 313 ; state papers of the first, 319 ; not unsatisfactory to the friends of freedom, 321 ; second Continental Congress, 333, etc. ; third Continental Congress, 341, etc. Congress, Provincial, steps toward, 303 ; ability and worth of its mem bers, 322. Constitution, federal, adoption of in Massachusetts, 392, etc. Conway, General, English secretary of state, 80. Cooper, Rev. Dr. Samuel, 8 ; prayer at town-meeting after the Boston Massacre, 167 ; favors independ ence, 345. Cooper, William, town clerk of Bos ton, 5, 36 ; presides at the meet ing alter the Massacre, 166; hia vehemence against the soldiers, 184 ; at the destruction of the tea, 255 ; at town-meeting of March 6, 1775, 325. I Copley, J. S., his portraits of mer- [ chants, 9 ; paints Samuel Adams, 181 ; his conduct at destruction of the tea, 249. i Council, constitution of, 23 ; changed by Parliament in 1774, 266. Court, Superior, constitution of, 24; controversy concerning inde- INDEX. 437 pendence of judges of, 216, 234, 259. Courts, subordinate, constitution of, Gushing, Thomas, Samuel Adams in the counting-room of the father of, 18 ; speaker of the Assembly for successive years, 93 ; reactionary ; in the case of the removal of the j legislature, 186 ; opposes the Com- ; mittee of Correspondence, 197 ; | chairman of the legislative Com- j mittee of Correspondence, 219 ; | favors submission in 1773, 237 ; j brought over to Whig side by ! Samuel Adams, 239 ; elected dele gate to first Continental Congress, | 295; sets out for Philadelphia, 309; favors conciliation in third Continental Congress, 341 ; fails of reelection, 343 ; his limitation, 356. DALRYMPLE, colonel of the 14th regi ment at Boston Massacre, 169 ; yields to the people, 174 ; his character as a soldier, 178. Dartmouth, Earl of, colonial sec retary after Hillsborough, 237 ; HutchinsOn describes to him Sam uel Adams, 240. Dartmouth, first tea-ship in 1773, 247. Deberdt, Dennys, agent of the As sembly in England, addressed through Samuel Adams in 1768, 103 ; dies and is succeeded by Franklin, 187 ; Declaration of In dependence, moved by R. H. Lee, 346 ; debate on, 347 ; committee to draft, 348 ; hilarity of Congress at its adoption, 349. Declaratory Act, 91. De Tocqueville, on the value of the town-meeting, 428, 430. Dickinson, John, author of the " Farmer s Letters," 109 ; thanked by Boston, 110 ; vehement oppo sition to the Declaration of Inde pendence, 346. Distilling, important business in co lonial Boston, 6. Duch(5, Rav. Mr., opens first Conti nental Congress with prayer, 316. EAST INDIA COMPANY, distress of to be relieved by the Tea Act, 236. Ecclesiasticism, potent cause of the estrangement of the colonies from England, 27. Edes & Gill, publishers of the Bos ton Gazette, their office an impor tant gathering place for the Whigs, 129, 134, 245. Eleanor, tea-ship in 1773, 250. Eliot, Rev. Andrew, 8. FANEUIL, BENJAMIN, of Huguenot origin, 5 ; consignee of the tea in 1773, 244. Faneuil Hall, usual place for town- meetings, 59 ; four hundred mus kets on the floor, 121 ; quarters of the 14th regiment, 124 ; at the time of the Massacre, 166; Sam uel Adams in, 353. Fifield, Mary, mother of Samuel Adams, 14. Flucker, Thomas, colonial secre tary, 187 ; sent by Gage to pro rogue Assembly in 1774, 296. Folk-mote, primordial cell of Anglo- Saxon liberty, reappears in the New England town-meeting. See Town- Meet ing. Franklin, Benjamin, before the bar of the House of Commons in 1766, 31 ; acquiesces in the Stamp Act, 50 ; favors representation of the colonies in Parliament, 64 ; agent of the Assembly, 188 ; distrusted by Samuel Adams, 189 ; his con nection with the Hutchinson let ters, 221, 233 ; favors making com pensation for the destroyed tea, 265 ; regards independence with disfavor, 345 ; on committee to draft Declaration of Independ ence, 348 ; his joke July 4th, 349. Franklin, William, Tory governor of New Jersey, 190. Freeman, E. A., harsh judgment of either party in American Revolu tion out of place, 26 ; his views anticipated by Bland, 87 ; his ac count of the democracy of Switz erland, 354 ; declares representa tion is supplanting democracy in some parts of America, 430. GADSDEN, CHRISTOPHER, early ready for independence, 340. Gage, General Thomas, testimony to the leadership of Boston in the Revolution, 13 ; demands quarters for the troops in 1768, 127 ; ap pointed temporarily governor, 267; enters upon his office, 273, 289; foiled by Samuel Adams in the election of delegates to the 438 INDEX. first Continental Congress, 297 : fortifies Boston Neck, 303 ; foiled by Boston as to the prohibition of town - meetings, 323 ; proscribes Samuel Adams and Hancock, 33G. Galloway, the Tory, his testimony as to the influence of Samuel Ad ams in 1774, 318. Gaspee, the burning of the, 205. George III., difficulty of his posi tion, 26. Gerry, Elbridge, Samuel Adams writes to him concerning the Com mittee of Correspondence, 197 ; elected to third Continental Con gress. 343 ; joked tor his small size at the Declaration of Inde pendence, 349 ; opposed to federal constitution, 401. Ge"rard, French ambassador, for mally received, 380. Goldthwait, Ezekiel, town clerk of Boston, 36. Gordon, his description of a New England town at the Revolution, 2 ; his testimony to the self-seek ing of James Otis, 151 ; his testi mony as to the earnestness of Samuel Adams in the first Con gress, 320. Grayson, on attachment of New Ensflanders to town-meetings, 418. Greenleaf, sheriff of Suffolk, at the destruction of the tea, 248. Grenville, George, enforces customs regulations at the close of the Seven Years War, 40 ; introduces the Stamp Act, 50 ; favors parlia mentary representation for the colonies, G4 ; his fair purposes, 79 ; disapproves the order requir ing the rescinding of the Circular Letter of 1768, 132. Grey s rope-walk, workmen of, en gage in brawls with the soldiers, 161. HALL, captain of the tea-ship Dart mouth, 247. Hancock, John, at home, 8 ; cele brates repeal of the Stamp Act, 91 ; elected to Assembly, 92 ; at the time of the Massacre, 171 ; employs Copley to paint Samuel Adams, 181 ; reactionary in the case of the removal of the legis lature, 186 ; his connection with the Hutchinson letters, 225 ; his part in the destruction of the tea, 243, etc. ; opposes the Committee of Correspondence, 197 : his ora tion on the anniversary of the Massacre, 262 : receives Gage on his arrival as governor, 273 ; flight from Lexington, April 19, 1775, 330 ; writes a manly letter, 331 ; be comes President of Congress, 335 ; his mortification at the nomination of Washington as commander-in- chief, proscribed by Gage, 336 ; affiliates with aristocrats, 341 ; his limitations, 356 ; called the "dupe" of Samuel Adams, 366, 367 ; circulates thfe story that Samuel Adams is unfriendly to Washington, 379 ; helps to restore the entente cordiale with the French, 381 ; won over by The- ophilus Parsons to support federal constitution, 395 ; reconciled with Samuel Adams, 402 ; death and funeral, 408. Harrison. Benjamin, his joke at the Declaration of Independence, 349. Harvard College, befriended by Gov ernor Bernard, 141 ; legislature removed thither from 1769 to 1772, 136 ; celebrates the accession of Hutchinson to governorship, 187. Hawley, Joseph, member of the Assembly from Northampton, 92 ; his advanced ground in 1766, 96 ; his excitability, 103 ; steadfast against the removal of the legis lature, 187 ; aids in the contro versy as to parliamentary au thority, 210 ; in the case of the Hutchinson letters, 227 ; favors independence, 345 ; his usefulness crippled by his moodiness and the remoteness of his home, 356. Henry, Patrick, his resolutions in 1765, 51 ; his speech at opening of the first Continental Congress, 314; early ready for independ ence, 340 ; opposed to the federal constitution, 401. Henshaw, selectman on town s com mittee at time of the Boston Mas sacre, 171. Hillsborough, Earl of, colonial sec retary, 132; retires in 1772, 193. Hollis, Thomas, publishes in Eng land "The True Sentiments of America." 109. House of Representatives. See As sembly. Huguenot families in Boston, 5. Hutchinson, Thomas, in feud with Samuel Adams, Senior, 34; chief INDEX. 439 justice in 17GO, and tries case of the writs of assistance, 42 ; as his torian, 43 ; opposed to the Stamp Act, 51 ; suffers outrage in the riot of 17G5, 52 ; favors parliament ary representation of the colonies, 64; rejeetei for the Council by the Assembly, 95 ; pensioned by Hillsborough in 1767, 102 , as lieu tenant-governor, chief magistrate in 17G9, 145; summary of his ca reer hitherto, 145, 140, 147 ; at the Boston Massacre, 1G4, etc. ; be comes governor, 187 ; at fault as to the Committee of Correspond ence, 203 ; controversy as to par liamentary authority, 208, etc. ; the Hutchinson letters, 221, etc. ; settles boundary between Massa chusetts and New York, 225 ; de scribes Samuel Adams to Lord Dartmouth, 240 ; his conduct at the destruction of the tea, 251 ; John Adams s testimony to his financial ability, his one mistake, 280 ; his character, 281, etc. ; his farewell to Milton Hill, 282 ; con fiscation of his tomb and theft of his coat of arms, 284 ; good re ception in England, interview with the king, 285 ; his austerity, his love for America, 286 ; his let ter-books, his " Vindication," 287 ; addresses at his departure from merchants and lawyers, 289 ; his testimony to the incorruptibility of Samuel Adams, 301 ; gives fact as to town-meeting of March 6, 1775, 327 ; testimony as to Samuel Adams s ability as a writer, 362 ; as to his early advocacy of inde pendence, 372. Hutchinson, Thomas and Elisha, sons of the governor, break the non - importation agreement in 1770, 156 ; at destruction of the tea, 244. INSTRUCTIONS, Samuel Adams s of 1764 to representatives, 47 ; those of S. and J. Adams in 17G5, 53; the general doctrine of instruc tion to representatives, 55 ; from the king to crown officials, re sisted in 1770, 186, etc. JAY, JOHN, at opening of the first Continental Congress, 315. Jay treaty, opposed by Samuel Ad ams, 409. Jefferson, Thomas, late in favoring independence, 345 ; drafts the Declaration, 348 ; upon Samuel Adams as an orator, 359 ; upon Samuel Adams s ability as a man ager, 3G4, 3G5 ; his reverence for Samuel Adams, 412, 413 : his lik ing for the town organization, 429. I KNOX, HENRY, at Boston Massacre, 163. LAND BANK SCHEME, 35. Lecky, on virtual representation of the colonies in Parliament in 17G5, 85. Lee, Arthur, associated with Frank lin as agent of the Assembly, 190 ; correspondent of Samuel Adams, 196. Lee, Charles, made second in com mand of army, 1775, 339. Lee, Richard Henry, correspondent of Samuel Adams, 328 ; early ready for independence, 340 ; moves the Declaration, June 5, 1776, 346 ; opposed to federal con stitution, 401. Leonard, Daniel, denounces Commit tee of Correspondence, 204 ; able Tory writer, 208 ; outwitted by Samuel Adams at choosing of dele gates to the first Continental Con gress, 293, etc. Liberty, sloop, affair of, 111. Liberty Tree, 243. Lincoln, General, his march to Pe tersham, 392. Livingston, R. R., on committee to draft the Declaration of Inde pendence, 348. Locke, John, member of Board of Trade, 27. Louisburg, expedition to, 19. Luzerne, French minister, criticises Samuel Adams as obstructing an organized government, 381. Lynde, judge of the Superior Court, rejected for the Council by the Assembly, 95. MACDOUGALL, Major General, meets Samuel Adams, 312 ; correspond ence concerning camp equipage, 386. Magna Charta, a confirmation of old privileges, 30. i Mandamus councilors, 302. I Mansfield, Lord, speech in debate I on the repeal of the Stamp Act, 440 INDEX. 83 ; approves Hutchinson s course in the controversy as to parlia mentary authority, 214. Massachusetts leads the thirteen colonies in the Revolution, 11 ; under the old charter, 21 ; under the new charter, 22, etc. ; under provisional government, 321, etc. ; under the state constitution, 376, etc. Massachusetts Gazette, organ of the Tories, 133. Massacre, Boston, 160, etc. May, Colonel Joseph, tells how Sam uel Adams and Hancock were won to support the federal consti tution, 394, 395. Mayhew, Rev. Jonathan, 8. Mechanics of Boston, 9. Mein, John, driven out as a Tory, 155. Merchants of Boston, 8. Milton Hill, Hutchinson s farewell to his home at, 282. Mohawks, at the tea-party, 254. Molineux, William, on town s com mittee at the Massacre, 171 ; at destruction of the tea, 244. Montague, Admiral, commands Brit ish fleet in 1771, 191 ; at destruc tion of the tea, 254. Montgomery, Major General, favor ite of Samuel Adams, 341. NEWSPAPERS, of Boston, 10. Non-importation and non-consump tion agreements in 1767, 101 ; in 1769, 153 ; in 1774, 298. North, Lord, succeeds Townshend as premier, 102 ; determined to see America at the king s feet, 132 ; introduces the Tea Act, 236. OLD SOUTH CHURCH, Samuel Adams, Senior, deacon of, 15 ; at the time of the affair of the Liberty, 111 ; at the time of the Massacre, 1G8, etc. ; at the destruction of the tea, 247, etc. ; on March 6, 1775, 324, etc. Old State House, why interesting, 59 ; description of, 60 ; at the time of the Massacre, 160, etc. ; the battle-ground of Samuel Adams, 354 ; at the funeral of Samuel Adams, 416. Oliver, Andrew, stamp-distributor in 1765, 52 ; rejected as secretary of state, for the Council, by the Assembly, 95 ; advises Hutchinson to yield at the time of the Mas sacre, 174 ; becomes lieutenant- governor, 187 ; connection with the Hutchinsoii letters, 222, 224 ; his removal demanded, 228 ; his sad fate, 277. Oliver, Peter, rejected, as judge of the Superior Court for the Coun cil, by the Assembly, 95 ; as chief justice refuses to decline the royal grant, 259 ; efforts to impeach him, 260. Otis, James, Senior, 42. Otis, James, Junior, his personal appearance, 42; the case of the writs of assistance, 44 ; his power as an orator, readiness to sub mit to the Stamp Act, 63; fa vors parliamentary representa tion of the colonies, 64 ; at the Stamp Act Congress, 72 ; opens debates of the Assembly to the public, 94 ; reactionary in 1767, 101 ; his speech in the affair of the Liberty. Ill ; has words with Samuel Adams, ilC ; his delay to appear at the convention of the towns in 1768, 123 ; assaulted in 1769, 148; his overbearing man ners, 149 ; as a source of embar rassment, 150 ; his self-seeking, 151 ; expresses aversion to the soldiers, 160; reactionary in the case of the removal of the legisla ture, 186 ; made chairman of the Committee of Correspondence, 200; his last appearance in Fan- euil Hall, 201 ; his great powers and his limitations, 355. PAINE, ROBERT TREAT, prosecutes soldiers after the Massacre, 183 ; elected delegate to the first Conti nental Congress, 295; sets out, 309; favors conciliation in the third Congress, 341. Paine, Thomas, writes "Common Sense " and the " Crisis," 343. Parliament, controversy as to au thority of, 207, etc. Parsons, Theophilus, at adoption of federal constitution, 395. Paxton, commissioner of customs, 101 ; his connection with the Hutchinson letters, 222, 224. Pemberton, selectman, on town s committee at the time of the Mas sacre, 171. Per>perell, Sir William, at Louisburg, 19. INDEX. 441 Phillips, on town s committee at time of the Massacre, 171 ; op poses Committee of Correspond ence, 197 ; at destruction of the tea, 243. Pierpont, Robert, member of Com mittee of Correspondence, 257. Pitt, speech in the debate on the re peal of the Stamp Act, 82. Pitts, John, at destruction of the tea, 254 ; Samuel Adams writes to him describing the Declaration of Independence, 349. Port Bill, 264 ; goes into effect, 289. Pownall, Thomas, becomes governor in 1756, 34 ; defends America in Parliament, 35, 265. Prelacy, fear of, a main cause of the estrangement of the colonies, 27 : denounced by Samuel Adams, 104. Preston, Captain Thomas, at Boston Massacre, 162; brought to trial, 183. QUAKERS, oppose the Revolution and denounced by Samuel Adams, 344. Quebec, effect of its capture in 1759, 39. Quebec Act, 266. Queue, the dog of Samuel Adams, 307. Quincy, Josiah, advocates armed re sistance in 1767, 100 ; defends the soldiers after the Massacre, 183 ; his excessive vehemence, 205 ; counsels moderation at the de struction of the tea, 253 ; his un timely death, 334 ; his brilliancy and limitations, 356. RANDOLPH, PEYTON, president of Continental Congress, 313. Read, Joseph, praises policy of ask ing Rev. Mr. Duche" to pray at opening of Congress, 316. Representation, theory of discussed, 56 ; parliamentary, favored by Otis and others, opposed by Sam uel Adams, 64, etc. ; supplanting democracy in some parts of Amer ica, 430. Revere, Huguenot family, 5 ; Paul, carries news of the tea-party to Philadelphia, 256 ; the patriot Mercury, 272 ; carries Suffolk Re solves to Philadelphia, 318 ; April 19, 1775, 330 ; wins Samuel Adams to favor the federal constitution, 396, 397. Right, petition of, of 1628, 30. Rights, Bill of, 1689, 30. Rivington, Tory, describes Samuel Adams and Hancock, 367. Robinson, commissioner of customs, assaults Otis, 148. Rockiugham, Marquis of, premier, 80. Romney, man-of-war, in Boston har bor, 17G8, 110. Rotch, Benjimin, owner of the Dart mouth, 247 ; his visit to Hutchin- son at destruction of the tea, 253. Rup;gles, Timothy, president of Stamp Act Congress, 72 ; opposes Whigs in 1768, 108 ; his character, 278. Rush, Dr. Benjamin, and others ad vise Massachusetts delegates to first Continental Congress, 313. Rutledge, Edward, and the Decla ration of Independence, 348. SAGITTARIUS, Tory writer, on Boston town-meeting, 10. "Sam Adams regiments," arrival of, 126 ; their fine display, 127 ; their non-interference, 128, 155 ; at the Massacre, 1GO, etc. Scollay, John, selectman, at the tea- party, 255. Seabury, Rev. Mr., denounced by Samuel Adams, 135. Seeley, J. R., his "Expansion of England " quoted, 64. Sewall, Jonathan, able Tory writer, 208. Sewall, Stephen, chief justice, 42. Shays s Rebellion, 389, etc. ; Sam uel Adams opposes, 391. Sherman, Roger, early favors inde pendence, 344; on committee to draft Declaration, 348. Shirley, Governor, hears Samuel Adams s Master of Arts oration, 17; his military activity, 20; fa vors the Stamp Act, 80. Shute, Governor, opposed Samuel Adams, Senior, 16 ; charter amended in time of, 24. Slavery, in Massachusetts, 7. Smith, Adam, favors parliamentary representation of the colonies, 64. Snyder, Christopher, death of, 159. Stamp Act, introduced, 50 ; goea into operation, 73 ; repeal of, 91. I Stamp Act Congress, 72. Strong, Gov. Caleb, does honor to Samuel Adams, 411. | Sugar Act, passage of, 28 ; enforce- i moat of, 40. 442 INDEX. Sullivan, Wm., describes Governor Bowdoin, 391. Surry, negro servant of Samuel Adams, 306. Sylvester, Richard, his description of Samuel Adams, 117. TEA, duty on retained in 1769, 157 ; act for sending to America, May, 1773, 236 ; destruction of, 243, etc. Temple, commissioner of customs, 1767, 102. Thacher, Oxenbridge, in case of writs of assistance, 43 ; his death, 54 ; abused by Otis, 149. Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, approves Hutchinson s course, 214 ; favors oppression of colonies, 267. Tories, to be judged compassion ately, 274; their stake in the country, refinement, and real pa triotism, 275 ; often of honorable note, 277 ; their arrogance at the coming of Gage, 291 ; their last effort to stem the Revolution, 298 ; estimates of Samuel Adams by, 365, etc. ; Samuel Adams im placable towards, 388. Towns in Massachusetts at the Rev olution, 2. Town-meetings, a revival of the Anglo-Saxon folk-mote, 1 ; descrip tion of at the Revolution, 2 ; rela tion of to the Assembly, 54, etc. ; reluctant to delegate power, 55 ; in Boston the most interesting man ifestation in history of the folk- mote, Samuel Adams the man of, 352 ; reports there is no defect in, 389 ; influences at present modi fying in New England and else where, foreign admixture, 419 ; the growth of cities, 420 ; descrip tion of, to-day, 422 ; preciousness of, 427, 428 ; its decay, 429. Towushend. Charles, his three meas ures affecting America, 99. Trade regulations, a cause of es trangement, 29. Trowbridge, as attorney-general re jected for the Council by the As sembly, 95; as judge of the Su perior Court, refuses royal grant, 259. UNIFICATION, political, desirable, 65. VICE-ADMIRALTY, courts of, 24. ViomtSnil, Baron, at Boston, 388. Virginia, resolves of 1769, 137 ; in augurates intercolonial Commit tees of Correspondence , 218 ; ca&ts fifteen votes for Samuel Adams as President in the electoral college in 1796, 409. Virtual representation, 84. WARD, of Rhode Island, favors inde pendence, 344. Warren, James, letter of Samuel Adams to, on the Massacre, 180 ; at election of delegates to first Continental Congress, 294 ; favors independence, 345. Warren, Joseph, arraigns Bernard in the Boston Gazette, 107 ; on town s committee at time of the Massacre, 171 ; vehement against the soldiers, 184 ; favors the Com mittee of Correspondence, 197 ; drafts in part its manifesto, 201 ; his excessive vehemence, 204 ; at destruction of the tea, 244, 255 ; manages the Port Bill meeting, 292; author of "Solemn League and Covenant " against using Brit ish productions, 298 ; arranges for the Suffolk Convention in 1774, 305; the Suffolk Resolves, 317; town-meeting of March 6, 1775, 325, etc. ; becomes leader in Mas sachusetts, 334; death and char acter, 337, 338; does not desire independence, 345 ; his limita tions, 356. Washington, nominated comman der- in-chief, 335 ; treated cor dially by Samuel Adams, 339; does not at first favor independ ence, 345 ; compared with Sam uel Adams, 374; Samuel Adams never his enemy, 377. Wells, Elizabeth, second wife of Samuel Adams, 50 ; her efficiency, 50 ; letter to her husband, 342. Wilson, of Pennsylvania, opposes independence, 342. Wolcott, Oliver, favors independ ence, 344. Writs of assistance, the case of, 41. Wyeth, of Virginia, favors independ ence, 343. YONGE, C. D., English constitutional historian, on parliamentary right to tax, 85. Young, Arthur, on the Acts of Trade, 29. Young, Dr. Thomas, at the destruc tion of the tea, 255. 14 DAY TTSF Qm I O 7; > m Jco - m ;s o > r n i U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES