REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT.

239

sentatives was irrepressible. Walpole also says, that when the doors were thrown open, a burst of gratitude greeted Conway as he appeared, and the groups gathered around him seemed like captives greeting their deliverer. Burke says, 'his face shone as if it had been the face of an angel.' Granville the defeated minister, moved along, swelling with rage and mortification, while the crowd pressed on him with hisses. But when the venerable Pitt appeared, that crowd was uncovered, and the same enthusiastic, but more reverent gratitude, which they manifested, touched him with the tenderest delight. Many attended his chair as he was carried out from the venerable pile, and the multitude followed him with their benedictions.

An ebullition of joy broke forth from the American Colonies when they received the news.' South Carolina voted a statue to Pitt, and Virginia one to the king; and an obelisk was raised, on which the names of the friends of the Colonies in England were engraved. Even Washington himself said: They have all my thanks for their opposition of that act of oppression; since to have attempted its enforcement, I am satisfied, would have been attended with consequences more direful than had been generally apprehended.'

Nothing gained by the repeal.-But the joy of the repeal of the Stamp Act was short-lived. The eyes of the people were still opened in the direction of the British throne, and serious apprehensions, which afterwards proved too well grounded, were felt, lest other acts of aggression should be proclaimed. The statesmen of America knew that Great Britain had given up noth. ing-it had been a source of regret and mortification to all clear-headed Englishmen, when the Imperial Legislature, bent to the necessity of the occasion, should have vitiated the moral influence of the deed by the following puerile declaration: Parliament has a right to bind the Colonies in all cases whatsoever.' Machiavelli somewhere says: That wise princes, when forced to bend, do it with a grace which wins the populace.' This remark could never have been applied to the Parliament of England. The right to tax America in all cases whatsoever was still asserted there; it was denied here. It had been the question of right only, from the beginning; it was then what the stubborn John Adams afterwards said: "The right to take one pound implies the right to take a thousand.'

What the Colonies had suffered from actual tyranny was hardly worth

A bright day in May was set apart in Boston for the display of public gladness, and the spot where resistance to the Stamp Act began, was the centre of attraction. At one in the morning the bell nearest Liberty Tree was the first to be rung; at dawn colors and pendants rose over the housetops all around it; and the steeple of the nearest meeting house was hung with banners. During the day all prisoners for debt were released by subscription. In the evening the town shone as though night had not come. An obelisk on the Commor was brilliant with a loyal inscription; the houses round Liberty Tree exhibited illuminated figures, not of the King only, but of Pitt, Camden, and Barré, and Liberty Tree itself was decorated with lanterns till its boughs could hold no more.-Bancroft, vol. v. p. 458.

From every pulpit ascended thanks to Almighty God. Mayhew, of Boston, the apostle of freedom, from his own pulpit addressed the following words to Pitt, as though he were actually standing before the altar, instead of lying prostrate upon his sick-bed in distant England: To you grateful America attributes that she is reinstated in her former liberties. The universal joy of America blessing you as our father, and sending up ardent vows to heaven for you, must give you a sublime and truly God-like pleasure; it might perhaps give you spirits and vigor to take up your bed and walk, like those cured by the word of Him who came from heaven to make us free indeed. America calls you over and over again her father: live on in health and happiness and honor. Be it late when you must cease to plead the cause of liberty on earth.'

240

FRESH AGGRESSIONS ON THE COLONIES.

mentioning; nor would the oppression which any community suffers from op pression be worth mentioning, if they resisted it to the death on the start. Tyranny is not so strong as tyrants think; it is one of the weakest of things, for when brave men strike it they shiver it to a thousand pieces. Despotism is strong only where men themselves are weak. But America began to teach the sublime principles of free government to the parent country, and unfalter ingly was she to press her noble lessons till they had been conned, and at last comprehended. The history of the Colonies for the next eight years may be summed up in resistance to acts of oppression from the British government. Every new measure was attended with new odium, and inflamed still deeper indignation. In June, 1767, a tax was laid on several articles imported into the Colonies. In July, an act established a Board of Trade and Commissioners of Customs, independent of the colonial legislatures. A few days later, another act of Parliament prohibited the Assembly of New York performing any act of legislation whatever-the pretext being they had refused complying with the requirements of the Mutiny act. Protests were made by Assemblies, non-importation associations were formed, and pamphlets, newspapers, orators and preachers, everywhere instigated the people to resistance. In February, 1768, the Assembly of Massachusetts sent out a Circular Letter to the other Colonial Assemblies, inviting them to co-operate in obtaining redress of grievances, and cordial responses were sent back with the bold declaration that Parliament had no right to tax the Colonies without their consent. The ministry resented this bold act of Massachusetts, and ordered the Assembly, in the name of the king, to rescind the Letter. They deliberately resolved that they would not rescind it. Said James Otis, in the Legislature: 'When Lord Hillsborough knows we will not rescind our acts, he should apply to Parliament to rescind theirs.' 'Let Britons,' exclaimed the defiant Samuel Adams, ' rescind their measures, or the Colonies are lost to them forever.' When the new Commissioners of Customs arrived in Boston, in May, 1768, they seized a sloop whose owner had ordered it to sail without complying with the new customs' requisitions. They were unfortunate in the selection of their vessel, for it belonged to John Hancock, the last man whose property they could well afford to touch. The Commissioners were assailed by a mob; their houses were injured; and they were compelled to seek shelter in Castle William.

British Soldiers march into Boston, September, 1768.-Barnard, the Royal Governor, ordered General Gage to enter Boston with his troops to overawe the people, and on a quiet Sabbath morning, late in September, 1768, they marched in 'with drums beating, and colors flying, and, with all the insolence of conquerors, took possession of a captured city.' Deeply outraged to see their beautiful Common turned into a camp ground for mercenary soldiers, the Assembly refused them food and shelter. The indignation of the citizens could hardly be restrained, and collisions took place.

The People rise against the Troops-March 2, 1770.-Finally, on March

THE IEA THROWN INTO BOSTON HARBOR.

241

2d, 1770, the people rose to drive the troops from the city. The soldiers fired on them, killing three and wounding others, the bells rang an alarm, and the whole population poured into the streets. Governor Hutchinson was compelled to give assurances that their wishes should be respected. They demanded the instant withdrawal of the troops, and the trial of Captain Preston, the commander of the guard, who had fired on the mob, for murder. The demand was granted.

The Tea thrown into the Boston Harbor.-One of the most odious measures was an act allowing the East India Company, the then all-powerful corporation of the empire, to export its teas to America, free of duty in England, and large quantities were shipped in 1773. But there was a universal determination to prevent its introduction, and, under the disguise of Indians, some Boston men boarded the tea ships, broke open three hundred and forty-two chests, and cast their contents into the sea. This was followed by an Act of Parliament to punish the people of Boston, and their port was closed. This might all have been very well had it succeeded as a punishment. But no measure since the Stamp Act had excited such wide and bitter hostility. It blended the Colonies together as if in the welding of a seven times heated furnace. The cup of British iniquity was full; it would hold no more, and the case was now to be decided by the last argument of kings."

1

Imperial Legislation of Retaliation and Revenge. The Boston Port Bill.-Boston had now become the focal point on which the indignation of England was bent, and the centre from which the fires of the Revolution were to radiate. For the first time in the history of the Colonies, the law of retaliation and revenge was invoked against them. In March, 1774, with the avowed object of punishing the people of Boston for having resisted the introduction ot the East India Company's teas, Parliament interdicted 'all commercial inter course with the port of Boston, and prohibited landing and shipping any goods in that place,' until indemnity should be rendered. This act was called the Boston Port Bill. When the news of its passage reached America, the people of Boston in a public meeting declared that the impolicy, injustice, and inhumanity of the act exceeded their powers of expression.' The Assembly met, but the Governor ordered its members to remove to Salem. They reassembled there and passed revolutionary measures, among which was a recommendation to all the Colonies to choose delegates to a National Congress, to consider the alarming aspect of public affairs,' and five men of character and

doomed town.

On the 1st of June, 1774, the Boston Port Bill went into operation. It was a heavy blow for the Business was crushed, and great suffering ensued. The utter prostration of trade soon produced wide-spread distress. The rich, deprived of their rents, became straitened; and the poor, denied the privilege of laboring, were reduced to beggary. All classes felt the scourge of the oppressor, but bore with remarkable fortitude. They were conscious of beng right, and everywhere, tokens of liveliest sympathy were manifested. Flour, rice, cereal grains, fuel and money, were sent to the suffering people from the

different colonies; and the City of London, in its corporate capacity, subscribed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the poor of Boston.-Lossing's History of the United States, page 226.

2 These words, in Latin, were often placed upon cannon. Before the armory at Richmond, Virginia, was destroyed, in April, 1865, several old French cannons made of brass were there, on two of which these words appeared. They also appear upon some French cannon at West Point.-Lossing's History of the United States, note 3, page 226.

242

SYMPATHY WITH MASSACHUSETTS.

distinction were selected to represent Massachusetts in that body. The motive of General Gage in removing the Assembly to Salem, arose in the belief that, by closing the port of Boston, the increase of trade in Salem would win the people to the side of the crown. But in a public meeting they declared 'that Nature, in forming their harbor, had prevented their becoming rivals in trade, and even if it were otherwise, they should regard themselves lost to all sense of justice, and all feelings of humanity, could they indulge one thought of raising their fortunes upon the ruins of their countrymen.'

Sympathy with Massachusetts Bay. In the meantime the sympathy and aid of the people of the other colonies were freely extended to Boston, to relieve the commercial embarrassment which followed the enforcement of the Port Bill. It seems proper here to notice the significant fact that, in the attempt to drag the colonists into slavish obedience to British tyranny, Parliament abandoned all the accepted canons of enlightened Statesmanship, and went back to the precedents of antiquity,' inflicting so far as it could, the curse of non-intercourse between sea-ports, towns, and neighbors. How futile was this scheme of short-sighted policy, soon appeared. It linked those Thirteen Colonies together with 'hooks of steel' in a crusade against the common foe. Money poured into Boston from every quarter, with words of encouragement, and inspirations of hope. The noble Virginians, when they heard of this Boston Port Bill, rallied round the House of Burgesses then in session, and asked that the solemn enactment of a public fast should be proclaimed. On Tuesday, the 24th of May, the House of Burgesses passed an order which stands upon their journal in the following terms:- Tuesday, the 24th of May, 14 George III., 1774. This house, being deeply impressed with apprehension of the great dangers to be derived to British America, from the hostile invasion of the City of Boston, in our sister-colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose commerce and harbor are, on the first day of June next, to be stopped by an armed force, deem it highly necessary that the said first day of June be set apart, by the members of this house, as a day of fasting, humilia1 All commercial restrictions arose in the policy of bar--clearly laid down the broad principles which should barous nations, who wished to exclude men and com- have guided British statesmen in treating the American munities from intercourse with each other. Tariffs question. Of the crisis, which he clearly foresaw was apgrew out of barbarism. All the maritime nations ef proaching, he unhesitatingly declared, that the Ameriantiquity had their commercial agents in foreign coun- can Colonies should either be fairly represented in the tries visited by their vessels or trading citizens, sent British Parliament, or allowed their independence. to guard their interests, and protect their property and He pronounced the prohibitory laws of England a lives. Without such protection the property of every manifest violation of the most sacred rights-impertiadventurer committed to the sea, was likely to fall nent badges of slavery imposed upon the colonies withinto the hands of pirates, or to be treated with injus- out any sufficient reason, by the groundless jealousv tice in foreign ports. In few of the ancient nations was of the merchants and manufacturers of the mother there any regard paid to individual rights. The sacred- country.' 'Great Britain derives nothing but loss from ness of private rights was a principle almost as un- the dominion she assumes over her colonies.' He known as the operations of galvanism. We have heard even went so far as to say: 'It is not very probable much of the civilization of Rome; but, while her ora- that they will ever voluntarily submit to us; the blood tors and poets were bringing her beautiful tongue to which must be shed in forcing them to do so is, every perfection, and sculptors and architects were creat- drop of it, the blood of those who are, or of those whom ing their matchless ideals of strength and beauty, we wish to have for our fellow-citizens. They are she treated all foreign nations as her natural foes. All very weak who flatter themselves that in the state to vessels driven by stress of weather upon her coasts were which things are come, our colonies will be easily conconfiscated, and the crews were put to death. In those quered by force alone.' He further indicates the vast days, might so effectually constituted right, that the advantages Great Britain would at once and permaweaker party no more thought of asking for justice, nently derive, if she should voluntarily give up all than the enemy conquered in battle hoped for mercy. authority over her colonies, and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and t make peace and war as they might think proper.'

Adam Smith-the foremost political economist of that time, if not indeed the most illuminated of any age

SPIRIT OF indepenDENCE IN VIRGINIA.

243 tion and prayer, devoutly to implore the Divine interposition for averting the heavy calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights, and the evils of civil war; to give us one heart and one mind, firmly to oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American rights; and that the minds of His Majesty and his Parliament, may be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to remove from the loyal people of America all cause of danger from a continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin.

'Ordered, therefore, That the members of this house do attend in their places, at the hour of ten in the forenoon, on the said first day of June next, in order to proceed with the Speaker and the mace to the church in this city, for the purposes aforesaid; and that the Reverend Mr. Price be appointed to read prayers, and to preach a sermon suitable to the occasion.'

Enraged at these treasonable proceedings Lord Dunmore prorogued the Assembly. But they at once withdrew to the Raleigh tavern, and formed an association, signed by 89 members of the late House of Burgesses. Their address breathes a spirit of such lofty statesmanship and manhood, that it deserves a place in any history which portrays, however briefly, the causes which immediately led to the Declaration of Independence.

Spirit of Independence in Virginia.-' An Association, signed by 89 members of the late House of Burgesses. We, His Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the late representatives of the good people of this country, having been deprived, by the sudden interposition of the executive part of this government, from giving our countrymen the advice we wished to convey to them, in a legislative capacity, find ourselves under the hard necessity of adopting this, the only method we have left, of pointing out to our countrymen such measures as, in our opinion, are best fitted to secure our dear rights and liberty from destruction, by the heavy hand of power now lifted against North America. With much grief we find, that our dutiful applications to Great Britain for the security of our just, ancient and constitutional rights, have been not only disregarded, but that a determined system is formed and pressed, for reducing the inhabitants of British America to slavery, by subjecting them to the payment of taxes imposed without the consent of the people or their representatives; and that, in pursuit of this system, we find an act of the British Parliament, lately passed, for stopping the harbor and commerce of the town of Boston, in our sister-colony of Massachusetts Bay, until the people there submit to the payment of such unconstitutional taxes; and which act most violently and arbitrarily deprives them of their property, in wharves erected by private persons, at their own great and proper expense; which act is, in our opinion, a most dangerous attempt to destroy the constitutional rights and liberty of all North America. It is further our opinion, that as tea, on its importation into America, is charged with a duty imposed by Parliament, for the purpose of raising a revenue without the consent of