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1768. The assembly of Massachusetts opened their session at the commencement of the year 1768, and immediately took into consideration the subject of the new taxes; a very elaborate letter was addressed to Dennis de Berdt, their agent at London, instructing him to make remonstrances. They protested their affection towards Great Britain, and condemned all idea of independence, they gloried in the English name, and their participation in the British constitution. The design,' they observed, to draw a public revenue from the colonies, without their consent, is manifest; a thing absolutely contrary to the established laws, and to our rights. Though nien are known sometimes to disregard life, and even to contemn liberty, they are always at least inviolably attached to their property; even those who ridicule the ideas of right and justice, who despise faith, truth and honor, and every law, divine and human, will put a high value upon money; the savages themselves, who inhabit the forests, know and admit the right of property; they are as strongly attached to the bow, the arrow, and the tomahawk, to their hunting and fishing ground, as other nations can be to gold or silver, and the most precious objects. The Utopian schemes of levelling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable, as those which vest all property in the crown, are arbitrary and despotic. Now, what property can the colonists be conceived to have, if their money may be granted away by others, without their consent?' They added a long enumeration of their rights, and of the commercial advantages accruing to Great Britain, from her colonies; they affirmed, that stipends and salaries, granted by the crown to governors and judges, were things of a nature to alarm the freemen of America; that a more solid foundation for tyranny could not be laid, since the judges in America hold their places, not as in England, during good behavior, but during pleasure; that the colonists were ready to supply the subsidies necessary for the public service, without the intervention of parliamentary authority; that a standing army was unnecessary in America; that the inhabitants had an aversion to these armies, as dangerous to their civil liberties; that England herself, considering the examples of ancient times, ought to fear lest these large bodies of mercenary troops, stationed in a country so remote, might occasion another Cæsar to arise, and usurp, at length, the authority of his sovereign. They also complained of the new board of customs, as tending to create a swarm of pensioners; a race ever obnoxious to the people, and prejudicial to the rectitude and purity of manners. 'Can any thing be more extraordinary than the suspension of the assembly of New York? Liberty has no longer an existence, and these assemblies are useless if, willing or not willing, they must conform to the mandates of parliament. And supposing also, what we deny, that the new laws are founded in right, it is not the less certain that a real prejudice to the two nations

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will be their result, and that the confidence and affection which have hitherto united them, will experience, from their continuance, a signal diminution. These are points which merit the serious consideration of a good government. The colonists are not insensible that it has become fashionable in England, to speak with contempt of the colonial assemblies; an abuse from which the English have more to apprehend than the Americans themselves; for only a few reigns back, the habit also prevailed of contemning the parliament; and it was even an aphorism with king James I. that the lords and commons were two very bad copartners with a monarch, in allusion to the ancient proverb, that supreme power declines all participation; and these attacks, though at present aimed at the colonial assemblies, will one day be directed against the parliament itself.'

They concluded by recommending to their agent to exert his utmost endeavors to defeat the projects of those who persisted with obstinacy in their attempts to sow dissensions, and foment jealousy and discord between the two parts of the realm; dispositions, which, if not promptly repressed, it was to be feared, would lead to irreparable mischief.

The assembly of Massachusetts wrote in similar terms to the earl of Shelburne, and to general Conway, secretaries of state; to the marquis of Rockingham, to lord Camden, to the earl of Chatham, and to the commissioners of the treasury. These letters, as usual, recapitulated the rights of the colonies, and their grievances; those to whom they were addressed, were styled the patrons of the colonies, the friends of the British constitution, the defenders of the human race. The assembly of Massachusetts also addressed a petition to the king, with many protestations of loyalty, and strenuous remonstrances against the grievances already mentioned. But not content with these steps, and wishing to unite all the provinces in one opinion, they took a very spirited resolution, that of writing to all the other assemblies, that it was now full time for all to take the same direction, and to march in concert towards the same object. This measure gave the ministers no little displeasure, and they censured it, in their letters to the governors, with extreme asperity.

The governor of Massachusetts, not without apprehensions from the refractory spirit of this assembly, dissolved it. Nor should it be omitted, that for a long time, there had existed an open breach between these two authorities, which proceeded from no defect of genius or experience in affairs, on the part of the governor, who possessed, on the contrary, an ample measure of both; but he was reputed a secret enemy to American privileges, and it was believed that in his letters to the earl of Hillsborough, he had prompted the government to acts of rigor, and exaggerated the colonial disturbOn the other hand, the representatives were of a lofty spirit, and devotedly attached to their prerogatives. In this state of reci

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procal umbrage and jealousy, the smallest collision led to a dissension, and few were the affairs that could be concluded amicably. In effect, it cannot be doubted, that the animosity which subsisted between the assembly of so capital a province, and governor Bernard, was one of the principal causes of the first commotions, and eventually, of the American revolution.

The government of Great Britain, continually stimulated by the exhortations of the governor,-dissatisfied with the Bostonians, and the inhabitants generally of the province of Massachusetts, was apprehensive of new tumults; and resolved to provide effectually for the execution of the laws. Orders were despatched to general Gage, to send a regiment, and even a more considerable force, if he should deem it expedient, to form the garrison of Boston. It was also determined, that a frigate, two brigs, and two sloops of war, should be stationed in the waters of Boston, to aid the officers of the customs in the execution of their functions.

At this same epoch, a violent tumult had occurred in this city. The Bostonians, wishing to protect a vessel suspected of illicit traffic, had riotously assailed and repulsed the officers of the revenue.

Informed of this event, general Gage detached two regiments instead of one, to take up their quarters in Boston. At this news, the inhabitants assembled, and sent a deputation to the governor, praying him to inform them, if the reports in circulation, relative to a garrison extraordinary, were true; and to convoke another assembly. He answered, that he had indeed received some private intimation of the expected arrival of troops, but no official notice; that as to the convocation of an assembly, he could take no resolution without the orders of his majesty.

He flattered himself, that the people would become more submissive, when, left to themselves, they should no longer have a rallying point for sedition in the colonial assembly. He endeavored, therefore, to gain time; inventing, every day, new motives for delaying the session of the assembly. But this conduct produced an effect directly contrary to his anticipations. The inhabitants of Boston, having received the answer of the governor, immediately took an unanimous resolution, sufficiently demonstrative of the real nature of the spirit by which they were animated; it was resolved, that, as there was some probability of an approaching war with France, all the inhabitants should provide themselves with a complete military equipment, according to law; and that, as the governor had not thought proper to convene the general assembly, a convention should be convoked of the whole province. These resolutions were transmitted, by circulars, to every part of Massachusetts; and such was the conseat of opinions, that out of ninety-seven townships, ninety-six sent their deputies to the convention of Boston.

They met on the 22d of September. Wishing to proceed with moderation, they sent a message to the governor, assuring him that they were, and considered themselves, as private and loyal individuals; but no less averse to standing armies, than to tumults and sedition. They complained, but in measured terms, of the new laws, and the imputations of disloyalty with which they had been traduced in England. Finally, they entreated the governor to convoke the general assembly, as the only constitutional remedy that could be resorted to in the present calamities. The governor answered haughtily, as the troops already approached. The convention, after having communicated what had occurred to De Berdt, the agent at London, dissolved itself.

The day preceding their separation, the soldiers destined for the garrison, arrived, on board a great number of vessels, in the bay of Nantasket, not far from Boston. The governor requested the council to furnish quarters in the city. The council refused; alleging that castle William, situated on a small island in the harbor, was sufficiently roomy to receive the troops. But the commanders of the corps had orders to take their quarters in the town. Meanwhile, it was given out, that the Bostonians would not suffer the soldiers to land. This menace, and especially the resolution of a general armament, inspired the commanders of the royal troops with much distrust. Consequently, general Gage, whose intention, it appears, had been at first to land one regiment only, gave orders to colonel Dalrymple to disembark the two, and to keep a strict guard in the city. Accordingly, on the first of October, every preparation having been made, the squadron, consisting of fourteen ships of war, began to move, and took such a position as to command the whole city; the ships presented their broadsides, and the artillery was in readiness to fire upon the town, in case of any resistance. The troops began to disembark at one o'clock in the afternoon, without receiving any molestation; they immediately entered the town, with their arms loaded, a suitable train of artillery, and all the military parade usually displayed in such circumstances. The selectmen of Boston being requested, in the evening, to provide quarters for the soldiers, peremptorily refused. The governor ordered the soldiers to enter and occupy the State House. Thus stationed, the main guard was posted in front of this edifice, with two field pieces pointed towards it. The Bostonians were naturally much shocked at these arrangements. They could not see, without extreme indignation, the palace of the public counsels, the ordinary seat of their general assemblies, and the courts of judicature, occupied by so many troops, and on all sides surrounded by such a display of arms. The streets were full of tents, and of soldiers, continually coming and going to relieve the posts; who challenged at every moment the citizens as they passed. The divine services were interrupted by the

continual beating of drums and the sound of fifes; and all things presented the image of a camp. The inhabitants experienced the most insupportable constraint from a state of things not only extraordinary, but even without example, in the province of Massachusetts.. Cries of displeasure resounded from every quarter against these new orders of the governor. The soldiers beheld the citizens with an evil eye, believing them to be rebels; the citizens detested the soldiers, whom they looked upon as the instruments of an odious project to abolish their rights, and sent to impose on them the yoke of an unheard of tyranny. The most irritating language frequently passed between them, and thus exasperated their reciprocal animosity.

It is true, however, that this display of military force so repressed the multitude, that for a considerable space of time tranquillity was preserved.

1769. But in England, the parliament having been convoked about the close of the year 1768, the obstinacy of the Americans, in refusing obedience to its new laws, determined the government to adopt rigorous measures against the colonies, and especially against the province of Massachusetts, where sedition had acquired the profoundest roots. The parliament condemned, in the severest terms, all the resolutions taken by this province. They approved that the king should employ force of arms for the repression of the disobedient; and declared, that he had the right to cause the chief authors of the disorders to be arrested, and brought to England for trial, according to the statute of the 35th year of the reign of Henry VIII.

But these new measures of the English encountered a very ill reception in America. The assembly of Virginia immediately took, in the strongest terms that could be devised, the resolutions they believed the most proper to secure their rights. They also drew up a supplication to be presented to the king, with a view of exciting his compassion towards an unfortunate people. He was conjured as the father of his subjects, and as a clement king, to interpose his royal intercession, and avert the evils which menaced and already oppressed them; his pity was implored, that he would not suffer the colonists, who had no powerful protection, to be forced from their firesides, wrested from the embraces of their families, and thrust into dungeons, among robbers and felons, at the distance of three thousand miles from their country, to linger until judges whom they knew not should have pronounced their fate. A condition so deplorable would leave them no other wish, no other prayer, but that relenting death might soon deliver them from so many miseries. These proceedings incurred the displeasure of the governor, who dissolved them, with a severe reprimand. But they assembled in another place, as private individuals; and having chosen for their

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