The

moderator Peyton Randolph, a man of great influence in the province, they resorted, more strenuously than ever, to the ordinary remedy of associations against the introduction of British manufac tures. The articles of the league having been circulated for the purpose, were soon invested with all the signatures, not only of the assembly, but of the entire province. The other colonies followed the example, and adhered to the confederacy upon oath. inhabitants of Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, even discontinued all commerce with those of Rhode Island and of Georgia, as well because they had refused to join this combination, or the preceding, as because they had exercised an extensive contraband traffic. But at length these provinces also concurred with the others; Georgia in September, Providence and Rhode Island a month later.

In order to prevent the contraventions which avarice, or a secret opposition, might have produced, committees of inspectors were created, to examine the cargoes of all vessels arriving from England, and to stigmatise with the censure specified in their regulations, those who should violate their compact, by publishing their names in the public papers, and declaring them enemies to the country; and, as the people were always ready to take those in band who should be thus denounced, the decrees of these committees were received with general obedience, as if they had proceeded from the authority of government. All were emulous to make use of the manufactures of the country; even the women, hitherto so decided in their taste for English merchandise, not only renounced it, but took a laudable pride in adorning themselves with objects of domestic manufacture.

It is not to be understood, however, that in the midst of this general zeal and enthusiasm, there were no examples of persons, who, governed by interest and a thirst of gain, these powerful motives of the human breast, sought to make their profit of circumstances; extolling, in public, the magnanimity of the American people, but deriding it in their hearts, they addicted themselves to a secret commerce in the merchandise proscribed. Even among those who preached liberty, and affected to be called by its name, even among those who with the most forwardness had embraced the league, there was more than one individual who clandestinely bought and sold. The patriots had declared with so much violence against tea, that, in several provinces, nearly all the inhabitants abstained from the use of it; but this first ardor having abated with time, many, either in secret, or even openly, regaled themselves with this beverage, giving it some other name. The British officers themselves, affecting a military contempt for the civil laws, but not less than others mindful of private interest, ordered merchandise from England in their own names, as if destined for the use of their troops, which they secretly introduced into the country.

Notwithstanding these infringements of the general compact, men of integrity, as always happens, faithful to their public professions, persisted in the retrenchments exacted by their pledge, from which there eventually resulted an incalculable prejudice to the English

commerce.

The assembly of Massachusetts, having met, about the last of May, immediately resumed the ancient controversy, and sent a message to the governor, purporting that whereas the capital of the province was invested with an armed force by land and sea, and the gates of the State House occupied with cannon by a military guard, the assembly could not deliberate with that freedom and dignity which became them; that they hoped, therefore, this hostile apparatus would be removed from the city and port. The governor answered, briefly, that he had no authority over his majesty's ships that were moored in the port, or over the troops which occupied the city. The assembly replied, that this display of armed force was contrary to law; and, no power being superior to that of arms, they asked, what privilege, or what security, was left to the house? that, where arms prevail, the civil laws are silent; that, therefore, the assembly had resolved to abstain from all deliberation whatever, until it should be re-established in all its authority. The governor adjourned it to Cambridge, a town at a short distance from Boston; and addressed it a requisition for a supply of money for the troops. Without noticing this demand, the assembly answered with new resolutions, which discovered the extreme exasperation of their minds. They represented that the discontent which had been excited in the province by the tax laws, the expectation of more troops, the apprehension that they were to be quartered in private houses, and the people reduced to desperation, were things which demonstrated the necessity of new conventions; that the presence of a standing army in the province in time of peace was a violation of their natural rights, and imminently perilous to public liberty; that governor Bernard, in his letters to the earl of Hillsborough, had recommended new modes of tyranny; that general Gage, in writing that there was no longer a government at Boston, had written the truth; but that this ought not to be attributed to an innocent and loyal people, but, in justice, to those who had violated the laws, and subverted the foundations of the constitution. At length, the governor having returned to the charge for subsidies to subsist the troops, the assembly declared, that, for their own honor, and the interest of the province, they could not consent to grant them. South Carolina, Maryland, Delaware, and New York, following the example of the provinces of Massachusetts and Virginia, took the same resolutions, and refused obedience to the mutiny act.

Meanwhile, the English government, willing to give some indication of a better spirit towards its colonies, announced to them its

determination to propose, at the next session of parliament, the repeal of the duties upon glass, paper, and colors; thus maintaining only the duty on tea. This new mildness did not satisfy the Americans; the exception of tea, and the declaration that the law should be abrogated as contrary to the regulations of commerce, persuaded them that it was intended to maintain the right; and this in reality was the truth. They were apprehensive that the affair might be revived when the present heats were dissipated; and that the government, then proceeding with more address and vigor, might renew its at tempts to establish the authority of taxation forever. The assembly of Virginia protested in stronger terms than at first. Combinations were again formed, as well in this province as in Massachusetts and the greater part of the others; but they were this time upon the point of being dissolved, by the defection of New York; this province authorised the importation of every species of English merchandise, excepting such as were charged with some duty.

Governor Bernard was at length succeeded. He departed, without leaving any regret; which should be attributed to circumstances. He was a man of excellent judgment, sincerely attached to the interests of the province, and of an irreproachable character; but he was also a defender of the prerogatives of the crown, and wanted the pliancy necessary in these difficult times; ardent, and totally devoid: of dissimulation, he could never abstain from declaring his sentiments; qualities, none of which, however laudable, can fail to prove unprofitable, or rather pernicious, as well to him that possesses them, as to others, in the political revolutions of states; for the multitude is either indulged without profit, or opposed with detriment.

Meanwhile, at Boston, things assumed the most serious aspect. The inhabitants supported with extreme repugnance the presence of the soldiers; and these detested the Bostonians. Hence, mutual insults and provocations occurred.

1770. Finally, on the morning of the 2d of March, as a soldier was passing by the premises of John Gray, a ropemaker, he was assailed with abusive words, and afterwards beaten severely. He soon returned, accompanied by some of his comrades. An affray ensued between the soldiers and the ropemakers, in which the latter had the worst.

The people became greatly exasperated; and, on the 5th of the same month, between seven and eight o'clock in the evening, a violent tumult broke out. The multitude, armed with clubs, ran towards King street, crying, 'Let us drive out these ribalds; they have no business here.' The soldiers who were lodged in the barracks of Murray, were eager to fall upon the populace; and their officers had the greatest difficulty in restraining them. Meanwhile, it was cried that the town had been set on fire; the bells pealed alarm, and the crowd increased from all parts. The rioters

deceived the ministers, as he used to say, by telling them the truth. So corrupt, he added, were the men in power, that they reputed his sincerity artifice, and the truth deception. Hence they blindly abandoned themselves to illusions, that made them see things different from what they were in reality, and with a bandage over their eyes, they trod incessantly upon the brink of a precipice.

The 5th of March, lord North, who had been appointed by the king, prime minister, proposed, in a speech to the house of commons, the repeal of taxes, excepting that upon tea. Notwithstanding the opposition of many members, who insisted that the Americans would not be satisfied with this partial repeal, the proposition was finally approved by a great majority. The predictions of the minority were but too well verified in America; the continuance of the duty on tea had the effect to keep alive the same discontents. The combinations were dissolved, however, so far as related to the importation of merchandise not taxed; the article of tea alone continued to be prohibited. The fermentation maintained itself principally in the province of Massachusetts, the local authorities of which were incessantly engaged in altercations with the officers of the crown.

On the whole, how many motives combined to create in America. an insurmountable resistance to the designs of the government! On the one hand, the obstinacy inherent to man, rendered still more inflexible by obstacles, and the blood which had flowed, as also by the love of liberty; on the other, the species of triumph already obtained by perseverance, and the opinion resulting from it, that not from any spirit of indulgence, but a consciousness of inferior force, the government had consented to revocations. The Americans were, besides, persuaded that the rumors which daily increased, of a war with France, would lay the British ministers under the necessity of conceding all their demands; and finally, they'well knew they had powerful protectors, both within and without the walls of parliament. Such were the public occurrences in the colonies, during the year 1770.

1771. In the course of the following year there happened few that are worthy of memory; only the ordinary altercations continued between the assembly of Massachusetts and Hutchinson, who had been appointed governor. All the provinces persisted in open resistance to laws of taxation and of commerce; smuggling was no longer secretly but openly transacted. The officers of the customs had fallen into utter contempt. In Boston, a tidesman of the customs, having attempted to detain a vessel for breach of the acts of trade, was seized by the people, stripped, and carted through the principal streets of the city, besmeared with tar, and then covered with feathers. There was some tumult, also, at Providence; the inhabitants having plundered and burnt the king's ship Wasp.

- 1772. The government then reflected, that in such a distempered state of minds, it could not hope to repress the boldness of the Americans, and secure the observation of the laws, without resorting to some more effectual means. It resolved, among others, to render the officers of the crown totally independent of the colonial assemblies; to effect this, it decided that the salaries and stipends of the governors, judges, and other principal officers of the colonies, should, in future, be fixed by the crown, and paid without the intervention of the colonial assemblies. Immediately new commotions broke out in America, and particularly in the province of Massachusetts, where it was declared that those who should consent to be paid by the crown, independently of the general assembly, should be deemed enemies to the constitution, and supporters of arbitrary government. Thus, all measures taken in England, to vanquish resistance, and reestablish submission in America, not being sustained by an armed force sufficient to coerce, tended to a result absolutely contrary.

And if the government meditated the display of greater vigor, the Americans were occupied with the same thoughts. They were not ignorant, that in popular agitations, nothing tends more directly to the desired object, than having chiefs to direct the movements, ascertain the opinions of all the members of the confederacy, and act with concert in their respective operations. Accordingly, the inhabitants of Massachusetts, following the suggestion of Samuel Adams and James Warren, of Plymouth, formed a council of the partisans of a new order of things, and established a species of political hierarchy, by creating committees of correspondence in all the cities and towns of the province; all referring to the central committee of Boston. The chiefs were six in number, each of whom commanded a division; the chiefs of a division, in like manner, commanded a subdivision, and a movement being given by the first,' was communicated progressively, and without delay, to the whole province. These committees, or clubs, were composed of individuals of different characters; some entered them mechanically, and because they saw others do it; some from attachment to the public cause; others to acquire authority, to gratify their ambition, or their avarice; others, finally, because they believed the general good is the supreme law, and that all the maxims of private morals should bend to this sovereign rule. All were resolved, or said they were resolved, to secure the liberty of their country, or part with life in the glorious attempt.

The governor affirmed, that the greater part of them were Atheists, and contemners of all religion; which made him wonder, he said, to see deacons, and other members of the church, who professed a scrupulous devotion, in league with characters of such a description.