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county of the province, executed."1 But this attitude had not been taken without intermediate steps. In December the town of Boston presented a petition to the governor and council for the reopening of the courts, which was supported by John Adams, who then first publicly identified himself with the patriot cause, of which he became one of the most efficient advocates. After some delay and inconvenience, the courts and custom-houses throughout the colonies, early in the spring, took the risk of proceeding without stamped papers, trusting to find their justification in necessity.

Parliament reassembled January 14, 1766. The king's speech opened with a reference to "affairs in America, and Mr. Secretary Conway laid before the House of Commons important letters and papers on the same subject." On the 17th a petition of the merchants of London trading with North America against the Stamp Act was presented. Then (January 28) followed the examination of Franklin, in relation to the Stamp Act, before the House, in committee.2 With this mass of information before them, American affairs received an exhaustive discussion. The Stamp Act was repealed, and the royal assent was given March 18th. The debates on the Declaratory Act were no less full. It was a memorable session,memorable for the first speech of Burke; for those great speeches of Pitt which placed him at the head of modern orators, for Grenville's masterly defence of his colonial policy, and for Franklin's examination. It was also memorable for the constitutional discussions of Mansfield and Camden in the House of Lords. If the reader finds it difficult to resist Mansfield's judicial interpretation of the British Constitution adverse to the American claim, he recognizes in the great principles then enunciated the force which popularized that Constitution and marked a forward movement of the British race.

The Declaratory Act-that the king, with the advice of Parliament, had full power to make laws binding America in all cases whatsoever -was passed. This gave Pitt some trouble, considering his emphatic declaration in that regard; but the liberal party in the colonies soon met it with the counter-affirmation that Parliament possessed no authority whatever in America except by consent of the provincial assemblies. If the colonists had not forced the British government from its position, they had advanced from their own. The repeal, however, caused great rejoicing on both sides of the Atlantic. British merchants expected no further trouble from nonimportation agreements, and hoped that the colonists would now pay their debts, amounting to £4,000,000. But there were misgivings on both sides. The ardent patriots were outspoken in condemning the Declaratory Act, which Franklin had thought would give no trouble. But the act of 1764, laying duties, remained; and the enforcement of the navigation laws - their real grievance-lost none of its vigor. Governor Bernard was under instructions to enforce the laws against illicit trade; and in addition to these official obligations, his share in the forfeitures of condemned 2 Parliamentary History, xvi. 133 et seq.

1 Mass. State Papers, 61.

BOSTON, Friday 11 o'Clock, 16th May 1766. THIS Inftant arrived here the Brig Harrifon, belonging to John Hancock, Efq; Captain Shubael Coffin, in 6 Weeks and 2 Days from LONDON, with important News, as follows.

T

From the LONDON GAZETTE.

Wefiminster, March 18th, 1766.

THIS day his Majefty came to the Houfe of Peers, and being in his royal robes teated on the throne with the ufual folemnity, Sir Francis Moli. neux, Gentleman Uber of the Black Rod, was font with a Mcffage from his Majelly to the Houle of Commons, commanding their atten dance in the House of Peers. The Commons being come thither accordingly, lus Majefty was pleafed to give his royal affent to

An ACT & REPEAL an A& made in the laft Seflion of Parliament, in țituled, an A&t for granting and applying certain Stamp-Duties and other Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America, towards further defraying the expences of defending, protecting and securing the fame, and for amending fuch parts of the feveral Acts of Parliament relating to the trade and revenues of the laid Colonics and Plantations, as direct the manner of determining and recovering the penalties and forfeitures therein mentioned.

Alfo ren public bills, and ferenteen private oncs.

Yesterday there was a meeting of the principal Merchants concerned in the American trade, at the King's Arms tavern in Cornhill, to confider of an Addrefs to his Majelly on the beneficial Repeal of the late Stamp-A&t.

Yeflerday morning about eleven o'clock a great number of North American Merchants went in their coaches from the King's Arms tavern in Cornhill to the Houfe of Peers, to pay their duty to his Majelly, and to exprefs their fatisfac tion at his figning the Bill for Repealing the American Stamp-Act, there was upwards of fifty coaches in the preceffion.

Last night the faid gentleman difptched-an expreß for Falmouil, with ffteen copies of the Act for repealing the Stamp-Act, to be forwarded immediately for New York.

Orders are given for several merchantmen in the river to proceed to fea immediately on their refpective voyages to North America, fome of whom have been cleared out fince the first of November laft.

Yesterday mellengers were difpatched to Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester. and all the great manufacturing towns in England, with an account of the final decifion of an auzuit affembly relating to the Stamp-A

When the KING went to the House of Peers to give the Royal Affent, there was fuch a vast Concourte of People huzzaing, clapping Hands, &c. that it was feveral Hours before His Majetty reached the Houle.

Immediately on His Majelly's Signing the Royal Allent to the Repeal of the Stamp-Act the Merchants trading to America.diffatcl.ed a Veffel which had been in waiting, to put into the first Port on the Content with the Account.

There were the greatell Rejoicings poffible in the City of London,by all Ranks of People, on the TOTAL Repeal of the Stamp-Act,—the Ships in the River dilplayed all their Colours, 1!Jununations and Bonfires in many Parts. fhort, the Rejoicings were as great as was ever known on any Occafion.

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In

It is faid the Acts of Trade relating to Americs would be taken under Confideration, and all Grievances removed. The Friends to America are very pow erful, and difpofed to affitt us to the utmost of their Ability.

Capt. Blake failed the fame Day with Capt. Coffin, and Capt. Shand a Fort night before him, both bound to this Port.

"It is impoffible to express the Foy the Town is now in, on receiving the above, great, glorious and important NEWS-The Bells nll the Churches were immediately fet a Ringing, and we hear the Day for a general Rejoicing will be the beginning of next Week.

PRINTED for the Benefit of the PUBLIC, by Drapers, Edes & Gill, Green & Ruffell, and Fleets. The Cuflowers to the Boston Papers may have the above gratis at thorospective

Offices.

Fac-simile of an original in the library of the Mass. Hist. Society. - ED.]

goods laid his motives open to suspicion. Nothing could have been more unfortunate for his administration. It was also alleged that merchants were encouraged in schemes to defraud the revenue; and that when their ships and cargoes were compromised, they were seized and condemned. At a time when conciliatory measures were needed to reassure the colonists, the harshest were followed. Nevertheless, the repeal weakened the prerogative party on both sides of the water, and encouraged the liberal party by a knowledge of its power.

Governor Bernard opened the General Court, May 29, 1766, with congratulations on the repeal of the Stamp Act. If he had stopped there he would have acted wisely; but he alluded to the "fury of the people" in their treatment of Hutchinson, and to some personal matters, which called forth a reply from the House couched in terms showing no abatement of animosity. This was increased on the receipt of another message from the governor (June 3), enclosing the Act of Repeal and the Declaratory Act, and at the same time informing them that he had been directed by Secretary Conway to recommend "that full and ample compensation be made to the late sufferers by the madness of the people," agreeably to the votes of the House of Commons. He also complained of their exclusion of the principal crown officers from the Council by non-election. The General Court promptly availed themselves of this last topic for reply, instead of committing themselves on the matter of compensation. They did not fail, however, to vote a politic address of thanks to the king for assenting to the repeal of the Stamp Act, and to offer their grateful acknowledgments to Pitt and those members of the two Houses who had advocated it.2 But the subject of compensation could not be passed by. The governor urged prompt compliance with the recommendation of Conway. The House, however, professing the greatest abhorrence of the madness and barbarity of the rioters, and promising their endeavors "to bring the perpetrators of so horrid a fact to exemplary justice, and, if it be in their power, to a pecuniary restitution of all damages," regarded compensation by the province as not an act of justice, but rather of generosity, and wished to consult their constituents. Therefore they referred the matter to the next session.3

In December the two Houses passed a bill granting compensation to those who had suffered losses in the Stamp Act riots, but, on the suggestion of Joseph Hawley, accompanied it with a general pardon, indemnity and oblivion to the offenders. Why they should have been so solicitous for the safety of those who had committed crimes, condemned in June in the severest terms, does not appear; and this invasion of the royal prerogative of pardon did not fail to attract the attention of the Parliament.*

1 Mass. State Papers, 81.

2 Mass. State Papers, 91, 92.

8 Mass. State Papers, 94.

proposed bill for compensation, an extract from Secretary Conway's letter to Governor Bernard, and letters from De Berdt, the agent, advising compliance with the parliamentary recommen. dation. A copy is in the Boston Public Li

Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. 359; Prior Documents, 134. During the adjournment a double broadside had been issued, containing the brary.

In the late contest with Parliament the colonists had gained a victory, but it was neither final nor precisely on the right ground. As a matter of practical politics, they were ready to accept Pitt's distinction between commercial regulations and internal taxes. They took the repeal of the Stamp Act with thanks, but not as a finality. They participated in the lively demonstrations of joy which followed that event on both sides of the Atlantic; but thoughtful observers on both sides perceived that one of the most powerful agencies in effecting the repeal was the mercantile class, which had no intention of relinquishing its grasp upon colonial commerce. Nor was the popular feeling without guidance. It was the good fortune of the colonists, all through the long contest, to have statesmen like John Adams, Jay, and Dickinson, who could supplement the passionate appeals of Otis and some of his associates with the calm reasons of political philosophy. None rendered more valuable services in this respect than John Adams. In a series of papers which appeared in the Boston Gazette in the summer and fall of 1765, - when the minds of the people were inflamed by the Stamp Act, and were afterwards republished in London as A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, he combated the ecclesiastical and feudal principles which lay at the bottom of the monarchical and Anglican system.

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The substantial grievance of the commercial colonies was not the Stamp Act, which had not taken a farthing from their pockets. It was the enforcement of trade regulations, which impaired the value of the fisheries and dried up a principal source of revenue. A renewal of the contest, and for the first time on its true grounds, was not long postponed. The Rockingham ministry gave way, and Pitt, gazetted Earl of Chatham July 30, 1766, took the helm of state August 2d, and was the nominal head of the government until October, 1768. Among those associated with him. were the Duke of Grafton, Charles Townshend, Conway, and the Earl of Shelburne. It was Pitt's misfortune and his country's during these stormy times, that when he was most needed he was disabled by sickness. Historians have speculated as to the probable pacification of America had Pitt not Chatham guided affairs.1 Pitt's was a great name in America as well as in Europe. By his genius the French power in America had been destroyed. This the colonists knew. He had been generous in reimbursing their expenses in the late war. This, and his efforts in effecting the repeal of the Stamp Act, they remembered with gratitude. Whatever man could do in restoring things to their old order Pitt could have done. He might even have relinquished something of his claims for parliamentary supremacy in respect to trade and general legislation; but it is doubtful whether, even at that early period, he could have eradicated the ideas of independence which had taken possession of the colonists, or have arrested the movement which resulted in the independence of America and the overthrow of the royal prerogative in England. The Massachusetts Assembly

1 Mahon's Hist. of Eng., v. 81.

was in no amiable frame of mind. When there was no cause for quarrel, they made one. Bernard had probably been advised to preserve a prudent

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1 [The Amsterdam edition, 1782, of Geschiedenis van het Geschil tusschen Groot-Britannie en Amerika... door zijne Excellentie, den Heere John Adams.

There is a likeness of John Adams as a young man engraved in his Life and Works, vol. ii. He says of himself at the time of the famous scene when Otis was making his plea against the Writs of Assistance, and he was taking notes of it, that the artist depicting it would have to represent the young reporter as "looking like a short, thick Archbishop of Canterbury" (Works, x. 245). There was a print published in London in 1783 showing a head in a circle, which is reproduced in the Mag. of Amer. Hist., xi. 93. Copley painted him once, in 1783, in court dress, and the painting now hangs in Memorial Hall, Cambridge. The head of this full-length picture was engraved for Stockdale's edition of Adams's Defence of the Constitutions, published in 1794; and the painting was never engraved to show the entire figure till it appeared in vol. v. of the Works (A. T. Perkins's Copley, p. 27). Cf. the head in Bartlett Woodward's United States.

Stuart first painted him in 1812, and this picture belongs to his descendants, and is engraved in the Works, vol. i. There are copies of this picture by Gilbert Stuart Newton and B. Otis, both of which have been engraved. The Newton copy is in the Mass. Hist. Society (Catal. of Cabinet, no. 47; Proc., 1862, p. 3). The Otis copy

has been engraved by J. B. Longacre (Sanderson's Signers, vol. viii.). Stuart again painted Adams in 1825, the year before he died, representing him as sitting at one end of a sofa. It is engraved on steel in the Works, vol. x., and on wood in the Mem. Hist. Boston, iii. 192. (Cf. Mason's Stuart, p. 125.) Another Stuart is owned by Mr. T. Jefferson Coolidge, of Boston.

A portrait by Col. John Trumbull also hangs in Memorial Hall, Cambridge; and Adams's likeness is also in Independence Hall. (Cf. Irving's Washington, quarto ed., vol. v.) A cabinet full-length by Winstanley, painted while Adams was at the Hague (1782), is in the Boston Museum (Johnston's Orig. Portraits of Washington, p. 93).

Among the contemporary popular engravings, mention may be made of that by Norman in the Boston Magazine, Feb., 1784; one in the European Magazine (vol. iv. 83).

Stuart also painted a portrait of the wife of John Adams, which is engraved in the Works, vol. ix. A picture of her by Blythe, at the age of twenty-one, accompanies the Familiar Letters.

Views of the Adams homestead in Quincy, Mass., are given in the Works (vol. i. p. 598); in Appleton's Journal (xii. 385); in Mrs. Lamb's Homes of America. An india-ink sketch, showing a distant view of Boston beyond the house, is in the halls of the Bostonian Society. ED.]

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