BOSTON

PUBLIC

LIBRARY

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning : after- ward thou shall be called ... the faithful city. — ISAIAH I. 26.

c« •£

THE

MEMORIAL

HISTORY OF BOSTON,

INCLUDING

SUFFOLK COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS. 1630—1880.

EDITED

BY JUSTIN WINSOR,

LIBRARIAN OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

- /

IN FOUR VOLUMES. Q ^ J // /

VOL. in. / T

THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS. PART I:

Issued under the business superintendence of the projector, CLARENCE F. JEWETT.

C. C. C. H. LIBRARY A. C. C. H» LIBRARY 50 West Broadway

SOUTH BOSTON, MASS. SQ^ Boston

BOSTON- JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY.

1881.

07856

Copyright, 1881, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & Co.

All Rights Reserved.

.JMMBBID iE. MtSS > I

INTRODUCTION.

MAPS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. In the Introduction to the second volume the Editor offered as full a list as he could make of the maps of Boston and its vicinity, belonging to the Provincial Period. He brought the enumeration down to a time when the struggle of the Revo- lution began to require a new issue of maps, and at this point he again takes up the list.

1774. A Chart of the Coast of New England, from Beverly to Scituate Harbor, in- cluding the Ports of Boston and Salem. Engraved by J. Lodge. This map appeared in the London Magazine, April, 1774(10 X 7/^ inches). In the upper left-hand corner is a Plan of the Town of Boston (5 X 3'/2 inches). There are but few names of interest on the plan. There is a copy in the Boston Athenaeum. The same plate was used in the A»ierican Atlas, issued by Thomas Jefferys in 1776, and printed by Sayer and Bennett.

1774. A Map of the most Inhabited Part of New England, by Thomas Jefferys, Nov. 29, 1774 (37^ X 40 inches). In one corner is a map of the town (8>£ X S1A inches), and also a chart of the harbor (8% X $1A inches), "from an accurate survey." See Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., September, 1864. This map is contained in The American Atlas, by the late Mr. Thomas Jefferys, London, Sayer and Bennett, 1776, numbers [5 and 16. It was also re-engraved for a Map of the most Inhabited Part of New England, published without date, at Augsburg, by Tobias Conrad Letter.

The map of the town seems to be based on the London Magazine map of the same date ; is called A New and Accurate Plan of the Town of Boston in New England. Mr. A. O. Crane issued a fac-simile, Boston, 1875." See the map described under 1784.

1775. A Plan of the Town and Chart of the Harbor of Boston, exhibiting a View of tlie Islands, Castle, Forts, and Entrances into the said Harbor. Dated Feb. I, 1775 (14 X 12 inches) ; includes Chelsea and Hingham, and gives soundings. It appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1775. Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., May, 1860. It is given herewith in fac-simile. The view on the same page of heliotype is of Nix's Mate as it appeared at this time, — now only a shoal. This is a reduction of one of the Des Barres series of coast views.

1775. BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. The earliest plan of the battle is a slight sketch, after information from Chaplain John Martin, drawn by Stiles in his Diary, and reproduced in Historical Magazine, June, 1868 ; where will also be found a rude plan, made by print- ers' rules, given in Rivingtoit's Gazette, Aug. 3, 1775. This last is reproduced in Fro- thingham's Siege of Boston. Lieutenant Page * made an excellent plan, based on a survey

1 Page was one of the royal engineers, and England on leave in January, 1776, when the served as aid to Howe; was wounded; was in London Chronicle spoke of him "as the only one VOL. in. — a.

ii THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

by Montresor, of the British Engineers, showing the laying-out of Charlestown. The suc- cessive positions of the British line are indicated on a smaller superposed sheet. This was issued in London in 1776, called A Plan of the Action at Bunker's Hill on the ijth June, 1775, between His Majesty's Troops under the Command of Major-General Howe, and the Rebel Forces. The same plate, with some changes, was dated April 12, 1793, and used in Stedman's American War. It was re-engraved, reduced, by D. Martin, substitut- ing " American " for " Rebel," and " Breed's " for " Bunker's " in the title, with a few other changes in names, and issued by C. Smith in 1797, in The American War from 1775 to 1783. See Hunnewell's Bibliography of Charlestown and Bunker Hill, 1880, p. 18, where a heliotype is given. It was again re-engraved, much reduced (5^ X 9 inches), for Dear- born's Boston Notions, 1848, p. 156; and soon after, full size, following the original of 1776, in Frothingham's Siege of Boston? A map of Boston, showing also Charlestown and Bun- ker's Hill, — but called Plan of the Battle on Bunkers Hill. Fought on the \jth of June, 1775. By an Officer on the spot. London, printed for R. Sayer and T. Bennett, . . . Nov. -7i '775) — has the text of Burgoyne's letter to Lord Stanley on the same sheet. It has been reproduced in F. Moore's Ballad History of the Revolution, part ii.

Henry de Berniere, of the Tenth Royal Infantry, made a map similar in scale to Page's, but not so accurate in the ground plan. It was called Sketch of the Action on the Heights of Charlestown, and having been first mentioned in the Gleaner, — a newspaper published at Wilkesbarre, Pa., by Charles Miner, — as found recently in an old drawer, it was engraved, in fac-simile, in the Analectic Magazine, Philadelphia, February, 1818; where it is stated to have been found in the captured baggage of a British officer, and to have been "copied by J. A. Chapman from an original sketch taken by Henry de Berniere, of the fourteenth regiment of infantry, now in the hands of J. Cist, Esq." General Dearborn commented on this plan in the Portfolio, March, 1818 (reprinted in Historical Magazine, June, 1868), with the same plan altered in red (19^ X 12,^ inches), which alterations were criticised by Governor Brooks in June, 1818. See N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg., July, 1858. G. G. Smith worked on this rectified plan in producing his Sketch of the Battle of Bunker Hill, by a British Officer (12 X 19 inches), issued in Boston at the time of the completion of the monument in 1843.

Colonel Samuel Swett made a plan (i8>£ X 12^ inches), based on De Berniere's, which was published in his History of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and has been reproduced, full size, in Ellis's Oration in 1841 ; and reduced variously in Lossing's Field-book of the Rev- olution, in Ellis's History, and Centennial History ; and in other places.

There are other plans in the English translation of Botta's War of Independence, in Ridpath's United States, and in other popular histories. A good eclectic map is given in Carrington's Battles of the American Revolution, ch. 15. A map of Charlestown and plan of the battle (16^" X 14 inches), by James E. Stone, was published by Prang & Co. in 1875. Felton and Parker's large survey of Charlestown, 1848, is of use in identifying localities, being made on the same scale as Page's plan ; and it helped Thomas W. Davis in making a Plan showing the redoubt, breastwork, rail-fence, and grass protection, which was published in the Bunker Hill Monument Association's Proceedings, 1876, of which a section is given in Dr. Hale's chapter.

1775. A Plan of Boston, in New England, with its Environs ; made by Henry Pelham (and often signed by him) under permission of Ja : Urquhart, town major, Aug. 28, 1775. It shows the lines about the town and the harbor. It was printed in two sheets (together, 42^ X 28^ inches), and published in London, June 2, 1777, done in

now living of those who acted as aides-de-camp l Frothingham, it will be seen, was in error to General Howe, so great was the slaughter of in supposing his to be the earliest American re- officers that day. He particularly distinguished production. See Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., June, himself in the storming of the redoubt, for which 1875, where will be found his account of the he received General Howe's thanks." — Mass, maps and views of Charlestown before and after Hist. Sot. Proc., June, 1875, p. 56. the battle.

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Nix's MATE IN 1775.

INTRODUCTION. iii

aquatinta by Francis Jukes. Dr. Belknap said of it in 1789: " I believe there is no more correct plan than Mr. Pelham's." — Belknap Papers, ii. 115. There is a copy in Harvard

College Library, and a tracing made from this by George Lamb was given in the Evacuation Memorial, 1876. There are two copies in the Massachusetts Histor-

j ical Society's Library ; another is owned

<y . by Samuel S. Shaw, Esq. Frank Moore,

in his Diary of the American Revolution,

gives a reduced representation of it; and a small fac-simile will be found in S. A. Drake's Old Landmarks of Middlesex. A reduced fac-simile of it is also given herewith.

0

1775. A Plan of the Town of Boston with the Intrenchments, etc., of His Majesty's Forces in \T]$,from the observations of Lieut. Page, of His Majesty 's Corps of Engineers, and from the plans of other gentlemen ; engraved and printed for William Faden, Oct. I, r777 (ll3/( X I7X inches). It is reproduced by Frothingham, in his Siege of Boston, and also in the present History. It gives the peninsula only, with a small bit of Charles- town, and according to Shurtleff it gives names to several streets, etc., different from Bonner's. There was a later edition, October, 1778. The original drawing of this plan is in the Faden collection in the Library of Congress.

1775. Boston, its Environs and Harbour, with the Rebels' Works Raised against that Town in 1775, from the Observations of Lieut. Page, of His Majesty's Corps of Engi- neers, and from the Plans of Capt. Montresor ; scale, 2^ inches to the mile; extends from Point Alderton to Cambridge, and from Chelsea to Dorchester (33 X 18 inches) ; "engraved and published by William Faden, Oct. I, 1778." There is a copy in the Massa- chusetts Historical Society's Library, book 572, No. 3, " Miscellaneous Maps." The original drawing is in the Faden Collection, Library of Congress.

1775. A large chart of Boston Harbor, and the neighboring country, surveyed by Samuel Holland"*- (42 X 30 inches and without title), dated Aug. 5, 1775. It takes in Nahant, Nan- tasket, and Cambridge. It was subsequently dated Dec. I, 1781, with some changes, and with the fortifications of the siege marked in and explained in marginal references ; and is included by Des Barres in the Atlantic Neptune, part iii. No. 6, 1780-83. A text, some- times with this later issue, says it was composed from different surveys, but principally from that of George Callendar, 1 769, late master of His Majesty's ship " Romney." Richard Frothingham's copy of this later plate was used in making the reproduction in Shurtleff s Description of Boston, 1870. The same plate was used in Charts of the Coast and Harbors of New England, from Surveys taken by Samuel Holland, etc., for the use of the Royal Navy of Great Britain. By J. F. W. Des Barres, 1781.

1 Samuel Holland was Surveyor-general of ready to run the line between Massachusetts

the northern colonies, and, working down the and New York. He adhered to the crown

coast from the north, he had completed his sur- in the Revolutionary war, and died in Lower

veys as far south as Boston in 1773; and in 1775 Canada in 1801. Sabine's American Loyalists,

he reported to Lord Dartmouth that he was i. 537.

iv THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

An outline map of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay is contained in a series called Charts of the Coast and Harbors of New England, by J. F. IV. Des Barres,from Surveys by Samuel Holland and his Assistants, who have been employed on that service since the year 1764.

1775. Seat of War in New England by an American Volunteer, with the Marches of the several Corps sent by the Colonies towards Boston, with the attack on Bunker Hill. London, Sayer and Bennett, Sept. 2, 1775. (18 X 15^ inches.) It extends from Lower New Hampshire to Narragansett Bay, and west to Leicester. It was reproduced in the Centennial Graphic, 1875.

On the same sheet are two marginal maps, — Plan of Boston Harbor ($/4 X 6 inches) ; and Plan of Boston and Charlestown, — the latter showing pictorially the battle of Bunker Hill in progress, and the town burning, — (5^ X 12 inches). It seems to fol- low for Boston the London Magazine map, and is fac-similed in W. W. Wheildon's New History of the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1875 ; also in the accounts and memorials of the battle prepared by David Pulsifer, James M. Bugbee, and George A. Coolidge. It also very closely resembles the following : —

1775. Plan of the Town of Boston, with the attack on Bunker's Hill, in the Peninsula of Charlestown, on June 17, 1775. J- Norman, Sc. (11% X 7 inches, folding.) The Charlestown peninsula represents the town burning, and the British troops advancing to attack the redoubt. This map appeared in An impartial History of the War in America Boston : Nathaniel Coverley and Robert Hodge, MDCCLXXXI. vol. i. ; and in the second (1782) Newcastle-upon-Tyne edition of a book, published in London, of a like title, the first English edition having appeared in 1779. 'See Henry Stevens's Hist. Coll., i., No. 435-

1775. Map of Boston and Charlestown, by An English Officer present at Bunko Hill. London, Sayer and Bennett, Nov. 25, 1775. (14 X 14 inches.)

1775. Boston and the Surrounding Country, and Posts of the American Troops, Sept., 1775, is the title of a sketch in TrumbulFs Autobiography, showing the lines of cir- cumvallation as drawn by himself. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., April, 1879, p. 62. It is given in fac-simile, in Dr. Hale's chapter in the present volume.

1775. Plan of Boston and its environs, showing the true situation of His Majesty's Army, and also those of the Rebels ; drawn by an Engineer at Boston, Oct., 1775 ; pub- lished, March 12, 1776, by Andrew Dury ; engraved by Jno. Lodge for the late Mr. Jefferys, geographer to the King. (25 X 17^ inches.) In Charlestown it shows the " Redoubt taken from ye rebels by General Howe," with the British camp on Bunker Hill. It includes Governor's Island, and takes in the Cambridge and Roxbury lines. It bears this address : " To the public. The principal part of this plan was surveyed by Richard Williams, lieutenant at Boston, and sent over by the son of a nobleman to his father in town, by whose permission it is published. N. B. — The original has been com- pared with, and additions made from, several other curious drawings."

1775. Map of Boston, Charlestown and vicinity, showing the lines of circumvalla- tion ; in Force's American Archives, iii. and reproduced in W. W. Wheildon's Siege and Evacuation of Boston and Charlestown, 1876.

1775. Plan of Boston, with Charlestown marked as in ruins ; in the Gentleman's Magazine, October 1775.

1775. A new and correct plan of the Town of Boston and Provincial Camp is in the Pennsylvania Magazine, July, 1775. It resembles that in the Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1775, and was engraved byAitkins (7^ X io>< inches), showing the peninsula only. In one corner of the plate is a plan of the Provincial Camp, scale two miles to one inch, with the circumvallating lines. It is reproduced in W. W. Wheildon's Siege and Evacuation of Boston and Charlestown ; Moore's Ballad History, etc.

1775. A new Plan of Boston Harbour from an actual survey, C. Lownes. sculp.; in the Pennsylvania Magazine, June, 1775. (7^ X *o/4 inches.) It has this legend: "N. B. — Charlestown burnt, June 17, 1775, by the Regulars."

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INTRODUCTION. V

1775. To the Honl. Jno. Hancock, Esq., . . . this Map of the Seat of Civil War in America is . . . inscribed by ... B. Romans. It extends from Buzzard's Bay to Salem, from the ocean to Leicester. (15 X 17 inches.) It contains also a marginal Plan of Boston and its Environs. 1775 (3 X 3/4 inches), showing the circumvallating lines. In the lower right-hand corner is a small view (t X 6^ inches) of The Lines thrown up on Boston Neck by the Ministerial Army. The key reads : " i, Boston ; 2, Mr. Hancock's house; 3, enemy's camp on M* [?] Hill; 4, block house; 5, guardhouses; 6, gate and draw-bridge ; 7, Beacon Hill."

1775. An inaccurate map of Boston and environs (10^ X 8^ inches), made in June, 1775, and published, Aug. 28, 1775, in Almon's Remembrancer, \. It gives the head- quarters of the opposing forces, their camps, lines, etc. The second edition of the first volume of Almon contained a map giving forty miles about Boston, a plan of the town, and a map of the vicinity.

1775. A small Map of Boston and Vicinity, after one made during the British occu- pancy, is given in Harper's Monthly, June, 1873, in an article by B. J. Lossing, describing some views of Boston in the collection of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet of New York.

1775. Boston and circumjacent Country, showing present situation of the King's Troops, and the Rebel intrenchments. July 25, 1775. (16^ X 17 inches.) A fac-simile of this, from the original manuscript owned by Mr. Charles Deane, is given in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., April, 1879.

1775. A draught of the Harbor of Boston, and the adjacent towns and roads, 1775, is the inscription on a manuscript map (12X9 inches) in the Belknap Papers, i. 84, in the Massachusetts Historical Society's cabinet.

1775. Plan of Dorchester Neck, made for the use of the British Army, given in T. C. Simond's History of South Boston, p. 31. The History of Dorchester, p. 333, speaks of a map (of which an engraving is given) drawn by order of the British general, showing nine houses on the Neck, as being in the Massachusetts Historical Society Library ; but it can- not now be found.

1775. Boston and Vicinity, following Pelham for the country and Page for the harbor 03 X 91A inches), was compiled by Gordon for his American Revolution, in 1788.

1775. Boston and Vicinity, 1775-1776 ; engraved for Marshall's Washington; Phila- delphia, C. P. Wayne, 1806. (8^ X I3#-) It follows Gordon's, and was reduced for subsequent editions. A wood-cut of a similar plan is given in Lossing's Field-book of the Revolution, i. 566. See also Carrington's Battles of the American Revolution, p. 154.

1775. Map of Boston and Vicinity. It is an eclectic map, showing the lines of cir- cumvallation, and was engraved for Sparks's Washington, iii. 26, and is also given in the Boston Evacuation Memorial, 1876. It was followed in Guizot's Washington, and in Bryant and Gay's United States; iii. 427.

1775. Boston and its Environs in 1755 and 1776 (6^ X 9 inches). Shows the har- bor and the lines of circumvallation. An eclectic map, engraved for Frothingham's Siege of Boston, p. 91.

1775-1776. BRITISH LINES ON BOSTON NECK. Several plans are preserved. The main defence was at Dover Street, the outer works being near the line of Canton Street. A manuscript plan, — " the courses, distances, etc., taken from the memorandum book of a deserter from the Welch Fusileers," — is preserved in the Lee Papers, belonging to the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and of this a description is given in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., April, 1879, p. 62. A reduced fac-simile is given in Dr. Hale's chapter. It has an explanatory table of the armament in the hand of Colonel Mifflin, Washington's aid, and is signed T. M. A plan nearly duplicate, sent by Washington to Congress (Force's American Archives, fourth series, p. 29), is copied by Force (p. 31), and is reproduced in Wheildon's Siege and Evacuation of Boston. Cf. Trumbull's Au- tobiography, p. 2?, where it is mentioned that Trumbull, an aid to General Spencer, who

vi THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

had made a sketch of the works, by crawling up under cover of the tall grass, had hoped by this means to recommend himself to the Commander-in-Chief. " My further progress was rendered unnecessary," he adds, " by the desertion of one of the British artillery- men, who brought out with him a rude plan of the entire work. My drawing was also shown to the General ; and their correspondence proved that, as far as I had gone, I was correct. This (probably) led to my future promotion." In the Pennsylvania Magazine > Aug. 1775, is an Exact Plan of General Gage's Lines on Boston Neck in America. (9 X n)4 inches.) The scale is a quarter of a mile to 4}f inches. It gives both the outer and inner lines. In the text a statement is made of the guns mounted, ending, — "This is a true state this day, July 31, 1775." A drawing of the British lines on the Neck, dated August, 1775, is in the Faden collection of maps in the Library of Congress. An engraved view is given in heliotype in Dr. Hale's chapter. A somewhat rude delineation of the lines on a contemporary powder-horn is noted in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., June, 1881.

1776. Chart of Massachusetts Bay and Boston Harbor; published, April 29, 1776; extends from Cape Ann to Cape Cod. It appeared in the Atlantic Neptune, dated Dec. I, 1781. According to Shurtleff, one edition of this map is dated May, 1774. It also appeared, with the earlier date, in Des Barres' Charts of the Coast and Harbors of New England, 1781. W.P. Parrott in 1851 issued a reproduction of the Des Barres map of the harbor.

1776. Chart of Boston Bay; published Nov. 13, 1776. Takes in Salem, Scituate, and Watertown. (39 X 3Q>£ inches.) The surveys were made by Samuel Holland. As appearing in the Atlantic Neptune, 1780-83, it is dated Dec. I, 1781, and signed by J. F. W. Des Barres. It is also included in Des Barres' Charts of the Coast and Harbors of New England, 1781. The Back Bay is called " Charles Bay."

1776. There is in the Massachusetts Historical Society's Cabinet a rudely drawn map of the harbor and adjacent parts (8 X 7/^ inches), in which the positions of the American forces are given. The Continental army is put at twenty thousand, and the Royal forces in the town at eight thousand.

1776. The North American Pilot for New England, etc., from original surveys by Captain John Gascoigne, Joshua Fisher, Jacob Blarney, and other Officers and Pilots in His Majesty 's Service. London, Sayer and Bennett, 1776. This contains a chart of the harbor of Boston, with the soundings, etc. (34 X 21 inches). The course up the chan- nel, from below Castle William, is marked by bringing the outer angle of the North Battery in range with " Charlestown tree," which stands on the peninsula, inscribed " Ruins of Charlestown.'' Harvard College Library has the volume, and the loose map is in the Massachusetts Historical Society Library, and in the Public Library. Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Sept. 1864. A second edition, 1800, is also in the College Library, and has the same map.

1776. Map of the seat of War in New England. London ; printed for Carrington Bowles, 1776. (6*4 X 4/4 inches.) It has on the margin a small chart of the harbor and environs.

1776. The seat of the late War at Boston, in the State of Massachusetts (7 X 10 inches), taking in Salem, Marsh field, and Worcester, is given .in the Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, July, 1789.

1776. Plan of Boston in the Geschichte der Kriege in und aus Europa, Nuremberg, 1776.

1776. Carte du port et havre de Boston, par le Chevalier de Beaurain, Paris, 1776 (28 X. 23 inches). It bears the earliest known representation of the Pine-tree banner, in the hands of a soldier, making part of the vignette. There are copies in the Massachu- setts Historical Society Library, and in Harvard College Library.

1776. (?) There is in the collection of maps made in Paris for the State, by Ben Per- ley Poore, and preserved in the State archives, one entitled, Carte de la Baye de Boston,

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INTRODUCTION. vii

situce dans la Nouvelle Angleterre (7 X 61A inches), which is marked, "Tome 1. No. 30," as if belonging to a series.

1776. Carle von dem Hafen und der stad Boston, mil den umliegenden Gegenden und den Ldgern sowohl der Amerikaner als auch der Engldnder, von detn Cheval de Beaurin, nach dem Pariser original von 1776. Frentzel, sculpt. This also appeared in the first part of the Geographische Belustigungen, Leipsic, 1776, by J. C. Miiller, of which there is a copy in Harvard College Library.

1778. The Atlas Ameriquain Septentrional, a Paris, chez Le Rouge, ingenieur Geo- graphe du Rot, 1778, repeated the " Plan de Boston" from Jefferys' American Atlas of 1776, with names in English and descriptions in French. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Sep- tember, 1864. There was also an edition " after the original by M. Le Rouge, Austin Street, 1777," styled La Nouvelle Angleterre en \feuilles.

1780. Carte particuliere du Havre de Boston, reduite de la carte anglaise de Des Barres, par ordre de M. de Sartine, 1780 (23 X 34 inches). It has the seal of the " Depot generale de la marine," and makes part of the Neptune Americo-Septentrional, publie par ordre du Roi.

1780. Plan of the new Streets in Charlestoivn, with the alteration of the old. Sur- veyed in 1780 by John Leach. No scale given. (25^ Xi9^ inches.) It shows parts of Main and Henley streets, the Square, and Water Street. The names of all abutters on the streets are given, with accurate measurements of each lot. It is manuscript.

1782. A New and Accurate Chart of the Harbour of Boston in New England in North America (6^4 X 9 inches), published in the Political Magazine, November, 1827.

MAPS OF BOSTON SUBSEQUENT TO THE REVOLUTION. — The following list gives all, or nearly all, the maps of Boston (including the harbor and the vicinity, and considerable portions of the town or present city) pub- lished between the close of the Revolution and the middle of the present century : -

1784. Plan of the Town of Boston (9X6 inches). This map is interesting as show- ing the outline of the " tri-mountain" in relation to the streets of 1784, when the original elevation had not been materially changed. It appeared in the Boston Magazine, October, 1784, accompanying a Geographical Gazetteer of Massachusetts, which was originally issued in instalments in that magazine. The original is in a copy of the magazine in the Boston Public Library. It was re-engraved in the New York edition (1846) of A Short Narra- tive of the Horrid Massacre, and in Kidder's History of the Boston Massacre, Albany, 1870. It resembles the London Magazine map of 1774.

1787. Dr. Belknap made a plan of so much of the town as was swept by the fire of April in this year, which spread along Orange Street, taking Hollis Street church, extending to Common Street. A fac-simile of his sketch is given in the Belknap Papers, i. 470.

1789. Chart of the Coast of America, from Cape Cod to Cape Elizabeth. Sold by Matthew Clark, Boston, October, 1789. It has a marginal chart of Boston Harbor (7X6 inches). This chart belongs to a collection of North American charts dedicated by Clark to John Hancock.

1789. A map of the town (9^ X 7 inches), engraved by John Norman (who had his printing office near the Boston Stone), which appeared in the Boston Directory^ of this year, — the earliest one published. Dr. Belknap speaks of it as very imperfect. See Belknap Papers, ii. 115, and Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., June, 1875.

1 This first Boston Directory was reprinted, again separately in that year, from the same correcting the alphabetizing, in Dearborn's Bos- type. Copies of the first Directory usually want ton Notions ; also in the Directory of 1852, and the map; the Public Library copy has it.

Vlll

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

1791. The American Pilot. Boston, John Xonnan, 1791. O. Carleton,1 Sept. 10, 1791, certifies on the title that he has compared the charts with Holland's and Des Barres', and other good authorities. A map of the coast from Timber Island, Maine, to New York, shows Boston Harbor (about 4X4 inches).

1794. Dr. Belknap sketched a plan of that part of the town lying between Washington Street and Fort Hill, showing the new Tontine Crescent. A fac-simile is given in the Belknap Papers, ii. 351.

1794. The English Pilot, London, Mount 6° Davidson, gives a large chart of the Sea Coast of New England from Cape Cod to Casco Bay, lately Surveyed by Captain Henry

llarnsley. Sold by W. &> I. Mount &> T. Page, London. It gives a space of about three inches square to Boston Har- bor. The Pilot also contains a large chart of the Coast of New England from Staten Island to the Island of Breton, as it was actually surveyed by Captain Cyprian Southack. Sold by I. Mount, T. Page, &> W. Mount, London. This

BOSTON LIGHT, 1 1%<)?

plate has a marginal Plan of Boston (n>£ X 7 inches), which seems to be Southack's reduction of Bonner, made sixty years before, in 1733. See Vol. I. p. liv.

1794. Matthew Wellington's Map of Roxbury is the earliest manuscript map of that part of the present city. See Drake's Town of Roxbury, p. 52. There are copies of this at the State House and in the city surveyor's office.

1794. A Plan of Charlestown, surveyed in December, 1794 . . . By Sain1 Thompson, surveyor. Scale, 200 rods to an inch. (\6l/2 X 10,^ inches.) It is stated in the margin that there are 344 acres within the neck, and 3,940 without the neck; that White Island, at the east end of Maiden Bridge, contains 16 acres ; and that the whole acreage therefore

1 Osgood Carleton was born at Haverhill in 1742, and died in 1816. He served in the Revo-

eral Court, in 1801. Muss. Hist. Soc. Proc., i. p. 141. He was an original member of the Mas-

lution ; and after the war taught mathematics in sachusetts Society of the Cincinnati.

Boston, and published various maps, — among 2 This is a fac-simile of a plate in the Massa-

others a map of the State, by order of the Gen- chusetix Magazine, February, 1789.

INTRODUCTION.

IX

is 4,300, which includes Mystic Pond (200 acres), and also all brooks, creeks, and roads in the town. The adjoining towns are shown by different colored lines. Only the county roads in Charlestown are marked, and the site of the meeting-house on Town Hill is indicated. This plan is now in the Secretary's office at the State House, and has never been reproduced.

1795. An original map of the town, surveyed by Osgood Carleton for the selectmen, is preserved in the city surveyor's office, Boston. City Document, No. 119, of 1879.

1795. Carleton's survey was used in a small map (14^ X 9 inches), which was en- graved by Joseph Callender for the second Boston Directory, published by John West, 1796. This same date was kept on the map in the Directories of 1798 and 1800. In 1803 the date is omitted, and a few changes are made in the plate. In 1807 the map is en- titled simply Plan of Boston, and the references are omitted.

1797. An accurate Plan of the Town of Boston, and its vicinity. . . . Also, part of Charlestown and Cambridge, from the surveys of Samuel Thompson, Esq., and part of Roxbury and Dorchester from those of Mr. Whitherington [sic] (all which surveys

CASTLE ISLAND, I 789.*

were taken by order of the General Court). By Osgood Carleton, teacher of mathemat- ics in Boston. I. Norman, Sc. Published as the act directs, May 16, 1797. (37 X 40 inches.) See Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1880, p. 365. There is a heliotype of the Boston part of it reduced, in Vol. IV., following the Harvard College copy.

1800. A new Plan of Boston, from actual surveys by Osgood Carleton, with correc- tions, additions, and improvements. This is of the peninsula only (27 X 20 inches), and is seemingly a section of the 1797 map. It was reproduced in 1878 by G. B. Foster, in fac-simile, somewhat reduced.

1801. Plan of East Boston ; in Sumner's History of East Boston. 1803. See 1795 (Directory map).

1806. A new Plan of Boston, drawn from the best authorities, with the latest im- provements, additions, and corrections. Boston, published and sold by W. Norm an, Pleas- ant Street; sold also by William PeUiam, No. 59 Cornhill. This is the 1800 plan, with the plate lengthened to include South Boston, " taken from the actual surveys of Mr.

1 This cut shows, in fac-simile, a plate of this fortification which appeared in the Massachusetts Magazine, May, 1789. VOL. III. — b.

X THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Withington " (35 X 19 inches). There are changes of ward-numbers and bounds. The lower part of the plate, below Dover Street, is re-engraved. There is a copy in the Boston Public Library.

1809. Directory map, published by Edward Cotton ; engraved by Callender (15 X 9/4 inches).

1814. A map showing houses and estates (28 X 36 inches), drawn by J. G. Hales, engraved by T. Wightman. A fac-simile was issued by Alexander Williams in 1879.

1814. A plan "of the contemplated design of erecting perpetual tide-mills," engraved by Dearborn, on wood, dated February, 1814. A copy in the American Antiquarian Society's Library is indorsed by Isaiah Thomas, " Done by the new method of printing the colors, 1813." This plan is given in reduced heliotype in Mr. Stanwood's chapter in Vol. IV.

1817. Chart of Boston Harbor ; surveyed by Alexander Wadsworth, by order of Commodore William Bainbridge ; engraved by Allen & Gaw ; published in Philadelphia by John Melish in 1819; scale, 1500 feet to one inch (42 X 36 inches). Scale, 1500 feet to one inch.

1818. Plan of the Charlestown Peninsula. . . . From accurate survey by Peter Tuffs, Jr., Esq. Engraved by Annin fir* Smith, Boston. (21 X I7X inches). See Mr. Edes's chapter in this volume.

1819. Boston and Vicinity (31^ X 25 inches), by John G. Hales, engraved by Edward Gillingham. Some issues are dated 1820. To this year are ascribed two volumes of original plans of streets, lanes, and abutting houses, made by Hales for the selectmen, which are preserved in the city surveyor's department. See City Document No. 119, of 1879. Hales's engraved map was reissued, with revisions by Nathan Hale, in 1829 and

1833-

1821. Hales's Survey of Boston and Vicinity has a map of the Back Bay, showing the "Great Dam," or Mill Dam.

1821. Blunt's New Chart of the New England Coast has a marginal chart of Boston Harbor.

1824. Plan of Boston (4 X 6% inches), by Abel Bowen, shows the original water- line and parts of the out-wharf. In Snow's History of Boston ; also in Bowen's Picture of Boston, 1828 ; and in Snow's Geography of Boston, 1830.

1824. Plan of Boston (22 X 22 inches), by William B. Annin and G. G. Smith ; re- issued frequently by Smith, and used in the municipal registers and school documents.

1826. Boston and Vicinity (6 X 3% inches), by A. Bowen ; in Snow's History of Boston, 1826 and 1828 ; and in Bowen's Picture of Boston, 1828.

1828. Plan of Boston (\\}/2 X 9 inches), by Hazen Morse; in Boston Directory, published by Hunt and Simpson, and then by Charles Simpson, Jr.; continued in use till 1839, with changes and additions.

1829. See 1819.

1830. Plan of the Town of Charlestown, in the County of Middlesex .... made in August, 1830, under direction of the Selectmen, conformable to Resolves of the Legislature passed March i, 1830; by John G. Hales, surveyor. Scale, 100 rods to the inch. (26^

X 15 Vz inches.) The principal roads without the neck are laid down, and all the principal streets on the peninsula are shown. This is drawn in india ink and colors ; is preserved in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and has never been reproduced.

1831. Mitchell's United States has a map of Boston and Vicinity (4^ X 3X inches).

1831. Surveys of Dorchester (with Milton) made by Edmund J. Baker; lithographed by Pendleton ; scale, 3 miles to I inch (33 X 26 inches).

1832. Town of Roxbury, by J. G. Hales ; scale, 100 rods to i inch (25 X I7>4 inches); includes the present West Roxbury. It is reduced in F. S. Drake's Town of Roxbury.

1833. See 1819.

1835. Plan of Boston (4 X 2^ inches), by Annin; peninsula only; in Boston Almanac.

INTRODUCTION. xi

1835. Map of Boston (21 X 21 inches); includes Charlestown and Lechmere Point; engraved by G. G. Smith.

1835. Map of Boston (31 X 22 inches) ; drawn by Alonzo Lewis ; engraved by G. W. Boynton ; published by the Bewick Company.

1836. Map of Massachusetts, from surveys ordered by the Legislature in 1830; has a marginal map of Boston (5^ X 4#s inches); published by Otis, Broaders, & Co.

1837. Map of Boston ($}£ X 5 inches) ; engraved by Boynton for Boston Almanac ; used in later years.

1837. Chart of Boston Harbor; surveyed by B. F. Perham; directed by commis- sioners (L. Baldwin, S. Thayer, and James Hayward) appointed March, 1835.

3 837. 'A Plan of South Boston, old bridge to free bridge ; surveyed and drawn by B. F. Perham, — L. Baldwin, S. Thayer. and J. Hayward, commissioners.

1837. A Plan of South Boston, East Boston, and Charlestown; surveyed and drawn by B. F. Perham, — L. Baldwin, S. Thayer, and J. Hayward, commissioners.

1837. A Plan of Cambridge Bridge, and Boston and Roxbtiry Milldam ; was surveyed and drawn by B. F. Perham, under authority of L. Baldwin, S. Thayer, and J. Hayward, commissioners ; and of the same date and authority one of Cambridgeport, East Cam- bridge, and Charlestown. \_No title.'}

1837. A Plan of Cambridgeport, East Cambridge, Charlestown, Chelsea, East Boston, and South Boston; drawn by B. F. Perham, under the authority of the commissioners, L. Baldwin, S. Thayer, and J. Hayward. [No title.'}

1838. Plan of Boston (15 X n inches); in T. G. Bradford's Illustrated Atlas of the United States, Boston.

1838. Plan of Boston (\Sl/z X 9% inches), by Hazen Morse and J. W. Tuttle ; in Boston Directory, 1839, and in later years.

1839. Plan of Boston (18 X 17 inches), showing Governor's and Castle islands; en- graved by G. W. Boynton for Nathaniel Dearborn ; issued with various dates, and pub- lished from 1860 to 1867, with alterations, by E. P. Dutton & Co. It is based on the 1835 map of Lewis.

1839. A Plan of Soutfi Boston, showing the additional wharves since 1835, also harbor line recommended by Commissioners in 1839; drawn by G. P. Worcester, — H. A. S. Dearborn, J. F. Baldwin, C. Eddy, commissioners.

1839. A plan of Charlestown, Chelsea, and East Boston, showing the harbor line ; was drawn by G. P. Worcester under the authority of the commissioners, H. A. S. Dear- born, J. F. Baldwin, and C. Eddy. \_No title}.

1839. A plan of Cambridgeport, East Cambridge, and Charlestown, showing the har- bor line; recommended by the commissioners, H. A. S. Dearborn, J. F. Baldwin, and C. Eddy. [No title'}.

1841. Boston and Vicinity, by Nathaniel Dearborn. It follows the large State map.

1842. Boston and Vicinity (4X4 inches) : in Mitchell's Traveller's Guide through the United States; issued with later dates.

1842. Map of Boston (14 X n/^ inches); engraved by Boynton for Goodrich's Pictorial Geography.

1842. Map of Boston*, including the Charlestown peninsula (15 X 12 inches); en- graved by R. B. Davies for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, London.

1843. Map of the City of Roxbury (34 X 25 inches) ; surveyed in 1843 by Charles Whitney ; published in 1849; scale, 1,320 feet to I inch.

1844. Topographical Map of Massachusetts, by Simeon Boyden, shows Boston Har- bor, with considerable detail, on a size of about 5X5 inches.

1844. Map of Boston (11% X 9 inches); peninsula only; in Dickinson's Boston Almanac.

1844. Map of East Boston (34 X 21 inches), by R. H. Eddy ; drawn by John Noble, June, 1844.

1846. Map of Boston, including East and South Boston ; engraved by G. G. Smith.

Xll THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

1846. Mystic River ; J. Hayward, E. Lincoln, Jr., commissioners.

1846. Charles River to the head of tide waters; drawn by L. Briggs, Jr., — J. Hayward, and E. Lincoln, commissioners.

1846. Plan of part of the City and harbor, showing lines of high and" low water; by G. R. Baldwin.

1846. South Bay ; J. Hayward, E. Lincoln, Jr., commissioners.

1847. Boston Harbor and the Approaches; from a trigonometrical survey, under the direction of A. D. Bache, by commissioners S. T. Lewis and E. Lincoln.

1847. Plan of Boston ; an original manuscript plan, made by W. S. Whitwell for the water commissioners; in the city surveyor's department. See City Document, 1879, No. 119.

1847. Chart of the Inner Harbor; T. G. Gary, S. Borden, E. Lincoln, commissioners ; A. D. Bache, superintendent United States coast-survey.

1848. Plan of the City of Charlestown, made by order of the City Council from actual survey; by Felton 6° Parker, and Ebenr. Barker. Scale, 400 feet to an inch. Litho- graphed by J. H. Bufford, Boston. (32^ X 25 inches.)

1848. Map of Boston, including South and East Boston, by N. Dearborn.

1848. In N. Dearborn's Boston Notions, and engraved by him, appeared these maps : i. Plan of Boston (6 X 4lO inches ; 2. Boston and Vicinity (3X4 inches) ; 3. Boston Harbor (4% X 8 inches). These maps appeared in other of Dearborn's publications about Boston, Guides, etc.

1849. Boston and Vicinity (ti X 9/4 inches); in Boston Almanac, and in Homans's Sketches of Boston.

1849. J. H. Goldthwait's Railroad Map of New England\&s> a marginal map (2% X 2% inches) of Boston and vicinity. 1849. See Roxbury map of 1843.

1849. Chelsea Creek, between East Boston and Chelsea. Exhibiting the circumscribing line to which wharves may be extended; surveyed by J. Low and J. Noble, — S. T. Lewis, and E. Lincoln, Jr., commissioners.

1850. Map of Boston (11 X 9/4 inches) ; engraved by Boynton for the Boston A Imanac.

1850. Map of Dorchester (36 X 28 inches); surveys made by Elbridge Whiting for S. Dwight Eaton ; lithographed by Tappan and Bradford.

1850. Inner Harbor, showing commissioners'1 lines proposed by S. Greenleaf, J. Giles, and E. Lincoln, commissioners.

1850. South Bay ; S. Greenleaf, J. Giles, and E. Lincoln, commissioners.

After this date the maps are very numerous.

CONTENTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

FRONTISPIECE. View of Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill, taken

from Beacon Hill (described on p. 87) Facing titlepage

INTRODUCTION.

MAPS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, i ; PLANS OF THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, i ; BRITISH LINES ON BOSTON NECK, v ; MAPS OF BOSTON SUBSEQUENT TO THE REVOLUTION. The Editor vii

ILLUSTRATIONS: Plan of Boston (Gentleman's Magazine} in 1775, heliotype, i; Nix's Mate in 1775, heliotype, i; Plan of Boston, 1775 (Pelham's), heliotype, iii; Plan of Boston (Page's), heliotype, iii ; Boston Light in 1789, viii ; Castle Island in 1789, ix.

AUTOGRAPHS : Henry Pelham, iii ; James Urquhart, iii ; Osgood Carleton, viii.

Efje Eeboluttonarg Iferiolr.

CHAPTER i.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. Edward G. Porter

ILLUSTRATIONS: James Otis, 6; Revenue Stamp, 12; Table of Stamps, 12; Lieut.- Governor Oliver's Oath, 15; Letter by James Otis, 20; Boston Harbor from Fort Hill, and Boston from Willis's Creek, two heliotypes, 23 ; Thomas Gushing, 34; Samuel Adams, 35; Josiah Quincy, Jr., 37; Extract from John Adams's brief, 38; Boston Massacre, 40; Andrew Oliver, 43; Revere's En- graving of Hancock, 46; John Adams's diary on the Tea-party, 50; Earl Percy, 58; Warren House, 59; General Warren, 60; Mrs. Warren, 63.

AUTOGRAPHS: Chas. Paxton, 4; James Otis, 6; Lord George Grenville, 8 ; Isaac Barre, n ; Earl of Bute, 13; "The Sons of Liberty," 13; Duke of Grafton, 21; Lord North, 26; Town's Committee (Thomas Gushing, Jonathan Mason, Edward Payne, Wm. Phillips, Joseph Waldo, Isaac Smith, Ebenezer

viii THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

AUTOGRAPHS (continued') :

Storer, Wm. Greenleaf), 29; General Knox, 32 ; Thomas Gushing, 34; Josiah Quincy, Jr., 37; Samuel Shaw, 38; Sampson S. Blowers, 38; Benj. Lynde, 38; letter signatures (James Bowdoin, Samuel Pemberton, Joseph Warren), 39; Andrew Oliver, 43 ; Peter Oliver, 43; William Cooper, town clerk, 44; Earl Percy, 58 ; Joseph Warren, 60 ; Adino Paddock, 62 ; Jedediah Preble, 64 ; Artemas Ward, 64; Earl of Chatham, 65; General John Thomas, 65; Gen- eral William Heath, 65.

CHAPTER II.

THE SIEGE OF BOSTON. Edward E. Hale 67

ILLUSTRATIONS: Paul Revere, 69; Fac-simile of " A Circumstantial Account" (Apr. 19, 1775), 73; Gage's order, 76; Panorama from Beacon Hill in 1775, heliotype, 79; Mifflin's plan of the lines on Boston Neck, heliotype, 80 ; Colonel Trumbull's map of Boston and vicinity, heliotype, 80 ; British lines on Boston Neck, looking in and out, two heliotypes, 80 ; plan of the redoubt on Bunker Hill, 82; "General morning orders, June 17, 1775," fac-simile, 83; "On the field," fac-simile, 86; After the Battle, 88; General Knox, 95; General Howe's proclamation, 97; Washington at Dorchester Heights, 98; Major Judah Alden, 99; Washington medal, heliotype, 100.

AUTOGRAPHS : Paul Revere, 69 ; John Parker, 74 ; Timothy Ruggles, 77 ; Israel Putnam, 80 ; Admiral Samuel Graves, 81 ; General Wm. Howe, 81 ; General Henry Clinton, 81 ; General John Burgoyne, 81 ; Colonel William Prescott, 82 ; Colonel Richard Gridley, 82 ; John Brooks, 83 ; General R. Pigot, 85 ; Joseph Ward, 86; John Jeffries, 87 ; John Stark, 89 ; John Manly, 90 ; Judah Alden, 99.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. The Editor 101

ILLUSTRATIONS: Plan of Lexington fight, 102; Wadsworth house, 107 ; Holmes house, 108; Artemas Ward, 109; Washington Elm, no; Craigie house, 112; Elmwood, 114; Roxbury parsonage, 115; plan of Roxbury fort, 115.

AUTOGRAPHS: Richard De/ens, 101 ; Peter Thacher, 103; James Barrett, 103; R. Derby, 103 ; John Sullivan, 104 ; Daniel Morgan, 104 ; Thomas Learned, 104; Alexander Scammell, 105; John Nixon, 105; Nathanael Greene, 105, 117; Charles Lee, 105; William Bond, 105; Ebenezer Bridge, 106; Ralph Inman, 106; Ephraim Doolittle, 107; Artemas Ward, 109; Benjamin Church, in; William Eustis, in ; John Warren, 112 ; William Gamage, Jr., 112; Joseph Reed, 113; John Glover, 113 Andrew Craigie, 113; Wil- liam Prescott, 115; John Greaton, 116; Thomas Chase, 116; Ebenezer Learned, 1 17.

CHAPTER III. THE PULPIT, PRESS, AND LITERATURE OF THE REVOLUTION. Delano A. Goddard 119

ILLUSTRATIONS: Joseph Green, 132; The .\fassachusetts Spy, fac-simile, 135; The Independent Chronicle, fac-simile, 139; fac-simile of Wrarren's second Massa- cre Oration, 143.

AUTOGRAPHS: Samuel Mather, 127 ; John Mein, 131 ; Daniel Leonard, 133; R. T. Paine, 144; William Tudor, 144; Benjamin Church, Jr., 145; Phillis Wheatlcy, 147.

CONTENTS. ix

CHAPTER IV.

LIFE IN BOSTON IN THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. Horace E. Scudder . . . 149 ILLUSTRATIONS: Liberty Tree, 159; Peace-extra (of 1783), 174.

AUTOGRAPHS : Boston merchants of the Revolutionary period (John Amory, Richard Salter, Timothy Fitch, Daniel Malcom, Alexander Hill, Richard Gary, Joshua Henshaw, John Scott, Samuel Eliot, Henry Lloyd, John Erv- ing, Jr., Joshua Winslow, Samuel Hughes, Thomas Gray, Thomas Amory, J. Rowe, Jos. Green, Edward Payne, Nicholas Boylston, John Hancock, Wil- liam Bowes, Ebenezer Storer, William Coffin, Sol. Davy, John Barrett, Nathaniel Greene, Thomas Russell, Jno. Spconer, Joseph Lee, Joseph Sher- burne, W. Phillips, John Avery, Isaac Winslow, Wm. Fisher, Benjamin Hallowell, Jona. Williams, Nathaniel Appleton, Daniel Hubbard, Jona. Mason, Henderson Inches, Nathaniel Gary, Harrison Gray, Jr.), 152, 153; John Lovell, 160; James Lovell, 160; French officers (Lauzun, Comte de Grasse, Barras, De Ternay, Comte de Rochambeau), 166; Lafayette, 173.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. The Editor ..175

ILLUSTRATIONS : Washington's proclamation, 181 ; Order to Captain Hopkins, 184 ; Bill for pine-tree flag, 188.

AUTOGRAPHS : William Tudor, 185 ; Baron Steuben, 185 ; Solomon Lovell, 185 ; Peleg Wads worth, 186 ; Artemas Ward, 186.

2Last f^untireU Jfears.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

THE LAST FORTY YEARS OF TOWN GOVERNMENT. Henry Cabot Lodge . . . 189

ILLUSTRATIONS: John Adams, 192; James Bowdoin, 195; Washington, 198; Triumphal arch, 200; Hancock house, 202; Hamilton statue, 206; Gerry- mander, 212; George Cabot, 214.

AUTOGRAPHS: George R. Minot, 194; B. Lincoln, 194; John Hancock, 201; Increase Sumner, 204; Moses Gill, 205; Caleb Strong, 205; James Sullivan, 208: Elbridge Gerry, 211; Massachusetts signers at Hartford Convention (George Cabot, Nathan Dane, H. G. Otis, Wm. Prescott, Timothy Bigelow, Joshua Thomas, Saml. S. Wilde, Joseph Lyman, Stephen Longfellow, Jr., Daniel Waldo, George Bliss, Hadijah Baylies), 213.

CHAPTER II. BOSTON UNDER THE MAYORS. James M. Bugbee 217

ILLUSTRATIONS: John Phillips, 223; Josiah Quincy, 227; Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, 228 ; Park Street, 232 ; Harrison Gray Otis, 235 ; Theodore Lyman, 237 ; Samuel A. Eliot, 244.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

AUTOGRAPHS : H. G. Otis, 235 ; the mayors (John Phillips, Josiah Quincy, H. G. Otis, Theodore Lyman, Jr., Charles Wells, Samuel A. Eliot, Samuel T. Arm- strong, Jonathan Chapman, M. Brimmer, Thomas A. Davis, Josiah Quincy, Jr., Benjamin Seaver, John P. Bigelow, J. V. C. Smith, Alexander H. Rice, F. W. Lincoln, Jr., J. M. Wightman, Otis Norcross, N. B. Shurtleff, William Gaston, Henry L. Pierce, Samuel C. Cobb, Frederick O. Prince), 290, 291.

CHAPTER III. BOSTON AND THE COMMONWEALTH UNDER THE CITY CHARTER. John D. Long 293

CHAFFER IV. BOSTON SOLDIERY IN WAR AND PEACE. Francis W. Palfrey 303

ILLUSTRATIONS: Thomas G. Stevenson, 317; William F. Bartlett, 318; Paul J. Revere, 319 ; Robert G. Shaw, 321 ; Wilder Dwight, 322 ; Henry L. Abbott, 323 ; Soldiers' Monument, 324.

CHAPTER V.

THE NAVY AND THE CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD. George Henry Preble . . 331

ILLUSTRATIONS : Plan of Navy Yard as originally purchased, 337 ; Isaac Hull, 339; plan of Navy Yard (in 1823), 342; (in 1828), 350; (in 1874), 366.

AUTOGRAPHS: Commandants (Samuel Nicholson, Wm. Bainbridge, Isaac Hull, C. Morris, W. M. Crane, W. B. Shubrick, J. D. Elliot, John Downes, John B. Nicholson, Foxhall A. Parker, F. H. Gregory, S. H. Stringham, W. L. Hudson, J. B. Montgomery, E. G. Parrott, Chas. Steedman, John Rodgers, Wm. F. Spicer, E. T. Nichols, M. Haxtun, F. A. Parker, George M. Ransom), 352, 353.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT IN BOSTON. James Freeman Clarke . . . . 369

ILLUSTRATIONS: William Lloyd Garrison, 373; Charles Sumner, 391 ; Theodore Parker, 394.

AUTOGRAPHS: Theodore Parker, 394; John A. Andrew, 400.

CHAPTER VII.

THE CONGREGATIONAL (TRINITARIAN) CHURCHES. Increase N. Tarbox . . . 401 ILLUSTRATIONS : Lyman Beecher, 408.

AUTOGRAPHS : Joseph Eckley, 406 ; J. Morse, 407 ; E. D. Griffin, 407 ; John Cod- man, 407 ; Wm. Jenks, 407 ; Lyman Beecher, 408 ; B. B. Wisner, 409 ; W. Adams, 409; Justin Edwards, 409 ; N. Adams, 410; J. S. C. Abbott, 410; Silas Aiken, 411 ; W. M. Rogers, 411 ; Samuel Green, 411 ; E. N. Kirk, 412 ; W. I. Budington, 412 ; J. B. Miles, 413.

CONTENTS. xi

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BAPTISTS IN BOSTON. Henry M. King 421

ILLUSTRATION : Samuel Stillman, 422.

CHAPTER IX. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Daniel Dorchester 433

CHAPTER X.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. Phillips Brooks 447

ILLUSTRATIONS : Tremont Street (about 1800), 451 ; J. S. J. Gardiner, 453 ; Ruins of Trinity (in 1872), 457.

CHAPTER XI.

THE UNITARIANS. Andrew Preston Peabody 467

ILLUSTRATIONS : James Freeman, 473 ; Joseph S. Buckminster, 475.

CHAPTER XII.

A CENTURY OF UNIVERSALISM. A. A. Miner 483

ILLUSTRATIONS: John Murray, 486; First Universalist meeting-house, 489; Hosea Ballou, 493; Columbus Avenue Church, 501.

AUTOGRAPHS : John Murray, 486 ; Edward Mitchell, 490 ; Sebastian Streeter, 490 ; Abner Kneeland, 491 ; Edward Turner, 491 ; L. S. Everett, 491 ; Calvin Gardner, 491 ; J. S. Thompson, 491 ; E. H. Chapin, 492 ; Thomas F. King, 492 ; T. S. King, 492 ; Hosea Ballou, 493 ; Thomas Whittemore, 497 ; Paul Dean, 498 ; Walter Balfour, 499 ; H. Ballou, 2d, 502 ; J. G. Bartholomew, 502; Benj. Whittemore, 503; Lucius R. Paige, 503; Otis A. Skinner, 504; Thomas B. Thayer, 504 ; Sylvanus Cobb, 504.

CHAPTER XIII. THE NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH. James Reed 509

CHAPTER XIV.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. William Byrne 515

ILLUSTRATIONS: Cathedral of the Holy Cross, 516; Bishop Cheverus, 518; Mount Benedict, 522.

AUTOGRAPHS: John Thayer, 515; J. Carroll, 517; John Cheverus, 518; F. A. Matignon, 519; P. Byrne, 519; Benedict, Bishop Fenwick, 520; John B. Fitzpatrick, 526.

xii THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

CHAPTER XV.

CHARLESTOWN IN THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS. Henry H. Edes 547

ILLUSTRATIONS: Richard Devens, 550; the Edes house, 553; Charlestown (in 1789), 554; Tufts's Map of Charlestown (in 1818), 568.

AUTOGRAPHS : Josiah Bartlett, 548 ; Nathaniel Gorham, 549 ; Richard Devens, 550; Walter Russell, 551 ; Samuel Swan, 551 ; Samuel Holbrook, 551 ; Phil- lips Payson, 551; John Kettell, 551; Samuel Devens, 551; David Dodge, 551 ; Charles Devens, 551 ; John Leach, 552 ; Robt. B. Edes, 552 ; Wm. J. Walker, 552; Josiah Wood, 552; Thomas Edes, Jr., 552; Samuel F. ]>. Morse, 553; Joseph Cordis, 554; Joseph Hurd, 554; Samuel Sewall, 554; Ebenezer Breed, 555; Nathan Tufts, 555; Nathaniel Austin, Jr., 555; Isaac Rand, 555 ; Aaron Putnam, 556 ; Samuel Dexter, Jr., 557 ; Timothy Trum- ball, 557 ; Franklin Dexter, 557 ; L. Baldwin, 557 ; M. Bridge, 557 ; Samuel Payson, 558; Benjamin Frothingham, 559; Jedediah Morse, 560; \Vm. I. Budington, 561 ; Thomas Prentiss, 562 ; James Walker, 562 ; David Wood, Jr., 562; William Austin, 564; Thomas Russell, 564 ; Richard Frothingham, 566; Thomas B. Wyman, 566; Solomon Willard, 566; Timothy Walker, 567 ; Oliver Holden, 570.

CHAPTER XVI.

ROXBURY IN THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS. Francis S. Drake 571

ILLUSTRATIONS: Henry Dearborn, 574; Meeting-house Hill (in 1790), 577. AUTOGRAPHS: H. Dearborn, 574; W. Eustis, 575.

CHAPTER XVII.

DORCHESTER IN THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS. Samuel J. Barrows . . . . 589 ILLUSTRATION : Thaddeus Mason Harris, 593.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BRIGHTON IN THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS. Francis S. Drake 60 1

ILLUSTRATION : The Winship mansion, 608.

CHAPTER XIX.

CHELSEA, REVERE, AND WINTHROP FROM THE CLOSE OF THE PROVINCIAL PERIOD.

Mellen Chamberlain 6 1 1

CHAPTER XX.

THE PRESS AND LITERATURE OF THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS. Charles A.

Cummings 617

ILLUSTRATIONS: Benjamin Russell, 619; George Ticknor, 661 ; Ticknor's li- brary, 662; Prescott's library, 667; Edward Everett, 671 ; original draft of Longfellow's "Excelsior," fac-simile, 673 ; Verse from Lowell's "Courtin'," fac-simile, 674.

CONTENTS. xiii

AUTOGRAPHS: Benj. Russell, 619; Nathan Hale, 628; Epes Sargent, 630; Joseph T. Buckingham, 631; Jeremy Belknap, 635 ; Willard Phillips, 639; J. Q. Adams, 642 ; Jared Sparks, 647 ; C. M. Sedgwick, 648 ; L. Maria Child, 648 ; Jacob Abbott, 649 ; Richard H. Dana, 650 ; Charles Sprague, 650 ; John Pierpont, 651 ; S. Margaret Fuller, 656 ; George Ticknor, 661 ; Samuel G. Howe, 664 ; George Bancroft, 665 ; W. H. Prescott, 666 ; Daniel Webster, 670; J. L. Motley, 670; Edward Everett, 671; J. R. Lowell, 674; Oliver Wendell Holmes, 674; John G. Whittier, 675; Nathaniel Hawthorne, 676; H. B. Stowe, 678 ; R. H. Dana, Jr., 679 ; G. S. Hillard, 679 ; Edward E. Hale, 680; E. P. W hippie, 681.

INDEX 683

THE

MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON

Betoiuttonar?

CHAPTER I.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

BY THE REV. EDWARD G. PORTER,

Pastor of the Hancock Church, Lexington.

WHATEVER period we fix upon as the beginning of the American Revolution, we are sure to find some preceding event which, in a greater or less degree, might justly claim recognition on that account. It has generally been conceded that the war opened with the outbreak of hostilities on the morning of April 19, 1775; and that opinion will prob- ably never be reversed. But as there were reformers before the Reforma- tion, so there were many public acts in the Province deemed revolutionary before the memorable engagement on .Lexington Common. Blood had been previously shed in a collision between the king's troops and American citizens in the streets of Boston. Remonstrances against the arbitrary measures of the British Government had repeatedly taken the shape of open and defiant resistance. The Congress of 1765 had issued a Declaration of Rights which, though accompanied by expressions of loyalty to the king, was a very pronounced step towards colonial union and independence. The utterances of Franklin, of Otis, and of Samuel Adams, and the favor with which they were received, clearly indicated the ardent aspirations of the people for political liberty. Every successive encroachment of the Crown was met by an immediate and determined protest. For years the public mind had been in a state of such chronic agitation that the peace was at any time liable to be disturbed by acts of violence.

It is greatly to the credit of the colonists, as British subjects, that the final rupture was so long in coming. They would certainly have been justi- fied in the judgment of mankind had they precipitated rebellion in the

VOL. III. — I.

2 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

earlier stages of their oppression. When we remember what indignities had been heaped upon them ever since the abrogation of the charter in 1684; when we recall the sufferings to which they were subjected by the passage of the numerous navigation laws restricting their commerce and prostrating their industries; when we bear in mind that the affection, which for a century and a half the colonists sincerely cherished for the mother country, was never cordially reciprocated, — we are not surprised that a feel- ing of estrangement at last grew up among them. The wonder is that it did not assert itself long before. For, be it remembered, the spirit of free- dom which took up arms in 1775 was not a sudden development nor an accidental discovery. The people had always had it. They brought it with them from the Old World, where, from the days of King John, it had been the birthright of the English race.1

And so the Revolution, when it came, was only the assertion of this old principle, — a fundamental principle with the colonists, and one which they had never surrendered. Under its guidance they had repeatedly engaged in acts which they considered lawful and patriotic, but which the officers of government condemned as refractory, rebellious, or treasonable. These public acts, extending through many years, constitute no unimportant part of our history, since they contributed largely to bring about the final issue, and, by their close relation to subsequent events, belong to the Revolu- tionary period.

The excitement in Boston during the winter of 1760-61, connected with the application of officers of the customs for writs of assistance in searching houses for contraband goods, must ever be regarded as one of the most important of the early movements foreshadowing the approaching conflict. To understand the bearing of this event, it is necessary to take a glance at the condition of political affairs at that time.

George III. had just come to the throne. Canada had been conquered from the French. England, flushed with victory, was yet oppressed with a heavy debt ; and the attention of her ministers was turned to the system of colonial administration with a view to a large increase of the revenue. The Colonies came out of the war with many losses, to be sure, but trained and strengthened by hardship, encouraged by success, and eager to return to the pursuits of peace. The population was increasing; new and valuable lands were occupied ; and business began to revive with extraordinary rapidity.

From this period we can distinctly trace the growth of two opposing political principles, both of which had existed in New England side by side from the very beginning with only an occasional clashing, but which now were destined to contend with each other in an irrepressible conflict.

1 [The development of the spirit is more ad- outcome of independence was not faced seriously mirably traced than elsewhere in Richard Froth- till quite late. For references in this matter see ingham's Rise of the Republic. The inevitable Winsor's Handbook, p. 102. — En.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 3

These principles found expression in the two parties long existing,1 but which now began to draw apart more and more ; namely, the party of free- dom, and the party of prerogative, — the former insisting upon the right of self-government under the Crown, and the latter maintaining the authority of the Crown in the place of self-government. The question at issue was a radical one, and upon it turned the whole history of the country.

Without stopping to discuss the weakness of England's position, the want of statesmanship in her councils, and the strange infatuation with which she pursued her fatal policy, we cannot overlook certain acts of trade which at this time were enforced by the Court of Admiralty, and which were designed to make the enterprising commercial spirit of America tributary to Great Britain. Much of the mischief brought upon the Colonies can be traced to the Board of Trade, — a powerful organization devised originally by Charles II. and re-established by William III. to regulate the national and colonial commerce. Though only an advisory council, having no executive power, its influence with the king and ministry was such that its recommendations were usually adopted. Burke2 speaks of this notable body as a kind of political "job, a sort of gently-ripening hot-house, where eight members of Parliament receive salaries of a thousand a year for a certain given time, in order to mature, at a proper season, a claim to two thousand." The Board was intended to make the Colonies " auxiliary to English trade. The Englishman in America was to be employed in making the fortune of the Englishman at home."3

At the time of which we are now speaking, a profitable though illicit trade had sprung up between the northern colonies and the West Indies. Instructions were sent to the colonial governors to put a stop to this trade. Francis Bernard, late Governor of New Jersey, and a well known friend of British authority, having succeeded Pownall as Governor of Massachusetts, informed the Legislature in a speech shortly after his arrival " that they derived blessings from their subjection to Great Britain." The Council, in a carefully worded reply, joined in acknowledging the " happiness of the times," but instead of recognizing their " subjection," they spoke only of their " relation " to Great Britain ; and the House, weighing also its words, spoke of " the connection between the mother country and the provinces on the principles of filial obedience, protection, and justice." 4 An oppor- tunity soon occurred to show that the difference in language between the Royal Governor and the General Court was a deep-seated difference of principle and of purpose.

For many years the custom-house officers had availed themselves of their position to accumulate large sums, especially from a misuse of forfeit-

1 [They were exemplified in the long strug- 2 Speech on the Economical Reform.

gle for the maintenance of the first charter 8 Palfrey, History of New England, vol. iv.

(see Mr. Deane's chapter in Vol. I.), and in the p. 21.

conflict over the royal governors' salaries sub- 4 Barry, Hist, of Mass., ii. 256; Bancroft, iv.

sequently (see Dr. Ellis's chapter in Vol. II). 378; and Dr. Ellis's chapter in Vol. II. of this

— ED.] History.

4 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

ures under the old Sugar Act of 1733. This practice, added to the official rigor and party spirit with which they enforced the commercial laws, led to a general and deep-seated feeling of antipathy towards them on the part of the merchants.1 This antipathy was greatly aggravated by a decision in the Superior Court against the treasurer of the Province, and in support of the attitude of the officers of customs.2

In November, 1760, Charles Paxton,3 who was the head of the customs in Boston, instructed a deputy in Salem to petition the Court for "writs of

assistance," to enable them forcibly to enter dwelling-houses and ware- ./ I / houses in the execution of

f^JL/ >r JL^^fZ/7^ their duty- ExcePtions were

at once taken to this applica- tion, and a hearing was asked for by James Otis, an ardent young patriot, whose connection with this case forms one of the most brilliant chapters in our history. At the first agitation of the question he held the post of advocate-general for the Colony, but rather than act for the Crown he had resigned the position. " This is the opening scene of American resistance.4 It began in New England, and made its first battle-ground in a court-room. A lawyer of Boston, with a tongue of flame and the inspiration of a seer, stepped forward to demonstrate that all arbitrary authority was unconstitu- tional and against the law."5 The trial came on in February, 1761. Thomas Hutchinson, who had just succeeded Stephen Sewall as chief-justice, sat with his four associates, " with voluminous wigs, broad bands, and robes of scarlet cloth," in the crowded council chamber of the old Boston town house, " an imposing and elegant apartment, ornamented with two splendid full- length portraits of Charles II. and James II." The case was opened for the Crown by Jeremiah Gridley as the king's attorney, and the validity of writs of assistance was maintained by an appeal to statute law and to English practice. Oxenbridge Thacher calmly replied with much legal and technical ability, claiming that the rule in English courts was not applicable in this case to America. James Otis 6 now appeared for the inhabitants of Boston, and in an impassioned speech of over four hours in length he swayed both the court and the crowded audience with marvellous power. He said : —

1 A petition was sent to the General Court 4 John Adams to the Abbe Mably. Works, at this time, charging the officers of the Crown v. 492.

with appropriating to their own use moneys be- 6 Bancroft, iv. 414.

longing to the Province. This petition was ° This eloquent champion of liberty was a signed by over fifty leading merchants, whose native of Barnstable, and a graduate of liar- names may be found in Drake's Hist, of Boston, vard in 1743. He began the practice of law at 657, note. Plymouth, but two years later removed to Boston,

2 Hutchinson, Massachusetts Ray, iii. 89-92 ; where he rose to distinction as an earnest advo- Minot, Hist, of Mass., ii. 80-87 ! Barry, 262, 263. cate of his country's rights. His father, the elder

3 [There is a portrait of Paxton in the Otis, was a distinguished politician and Speaker Mass. Hist. Society's gallery. One, supposed to of the House, and a candidate for the vacant be by Copley, is in the American Antiqua- judgeship which Governor Bernard had given to rian Society at Worcester. It is not recognized Hutchinson. See Tudor's Life of Otis ; Hutch- by Perkins. — ED.] inson, iii. 86, et seq.; Barry, pp. 258-259.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 5

" I am determined, to my dying day, to oppose, with all the powers and facul- ties God has given me, all such instruments, of slavery on the one hand and villany on the other, as this writ of assistance is. ... I argue in favor of British liberties at a time when we hear the greatest monarch upon earth declaring from his throne that he glories in the name of Briton, and that the privileges of his people are dearer to him than the most valuable prerogatives of the Crown. I oppose that kind of power the exercise of which, in former periods of English history, cost one King of England his head and another his throne."

Otis then proceeded to argue that while special writs might be legal, the present writ, being general, was illegal. Any one with this writ might be a tyrant. Again, he said, this writ was perpetual. There was to be no return, and whoever executed it was responsible to no one for his doings. He might reign secure in his petty tyranny, and spread terror and desolation around him. The writ was also unlimited. Officers might enter all houses at will, and command all to assist them ; and even menial servants might enforce its provisions. He said : —

" Now the freedom of one's house is an essential branch of English liberty. A. man's house is his castle ; and while he is quiet, he is as well guarded as a prince. This writ, if declared legal, totally annihilates this privilege. Custom-house officers might enter our houses when they please, and we could not resist them. Upon bare suspicion they could exercise this wanton power. . . . Both reason and the Con- stitution are against this writ. The only authority that can be found for it is a law enacted in the zenith of arbitrary power, when, in the reign of Charles II., Star Chamber powers were pushed to extremity by some ignorant clerk of the exchequer. But even if the writ could be elsewhere found, it would still be illegal. All precedents are under the control of the principles of law. . . . No acts of Parliament can establish such a writ. Though it should be made in the very words of the petition it would be void, for every act against the Constitution is void." *

Notwithstanding this forcible argument, and the soul-stirring eloquence with which it was presented, it did not prevail. The older members of the

1 It is greatly to be regretted that this cele- rior Court, 1761-1772, which were published in brated speech, which, in the judgment of many, 1865, edited by his great-grandson General Sam- originated the party of Revolution in Massachu- uel M. Quincy, with an appendix on the writs of setts, was never committed to writing. For such assistance by Horace Gray, the present Chief- fragments of it as we have we are indebted to a Justice of the Commonwealth. The late Horace few notes taken at the time, and to some inci- Binney of Philadelphia wrote of the book, at the dental allusions found in letters of Bernard and time, to Miss E. S. Quincy : " I have now read Hutchinson. John Adams, late in life, "after a the reports, and with great satisfaction. They lapse of fifty-seven years," wrote out, by request, had good law in Massachusetts in the days of as much as he could remember of the argument your grandfather, as well as good lawyers and of the speech. See Minot, ii. 91-99; Tudor's a good reporter. Mr. Gray's appendix is one of Life of Otis; Bancroft, iv. 416, note; Corres- the most clear, accurate, and exhaustive exposi- pondence of John Adams and Mrs. Warren in 5 tions that I have read, and has brought me much Mass. Plist. Coll. iv. 340; Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. better instruction than I had before. I rather Aug. 1860; Adams's Life and Works of John think they were legal under the act of Parlia- Adams,'\. 59,81,82; ii. 124, 523, 524. [The case ment. but I cannot believe they were constitu- can be studied from a contemporary point of tional, either here or in England, except as any- view in the reports made by the Josiah Quincy thing an act of Parliament does is constitu- of that day, of cases in the Massachusetts Supe- tional " — ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

court were favorably disposed; but they yielded to the solicitations of Hutchinson, who proposed to continue the cause to the next term, in order, meanwhile, to apply to England for definite instructions. In due time the

answer came, in support of his well known position ; and the court, with the semblance of authority rather than law, decided that the writs of assistance should be granted whenever the revenue officers applied for them.2

1 [This cut follows a painting by Blackburn, in 1755, now owned by Mrs. Henry Darwin Rogers, by whose permission it is here copied. Having been more than once before engraved (see A. B. Durand's in Tudor's Life of Otis ; another by I. R. Smith ; and a poor one in Loring's Hundred Boston Orators'], it was admirably put on steel by Schlecht, in 1879, f°r Bryant and Gay's United States, iii. 332. There is a gene- alogy of the Otis family in N. E. Hist, and Geneal.

Reg. iv. and v. ; also see Freeman's History of Cape CoJ. Otis at one time lived where the Adams Express Company's building on Court .Street now is. No American has received a more splendid memorial than Crawford has be- stowed on Otis in the statue in the chapel at Mount Auburn. See an estimate of Otis in Mr. Goddard's chapter in the present volume. — ED.] 2 Hutchinson, iii. 96; Bancroft, iv. 418; Barry, p. 267.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 7

But Thacher and Otis had not spoken in vain.1 They had electrified the people, and scattered the seeds which soon germinated in a spirit of combined resistance against the encroachments of unlawful power. Among those attending the court was the youthful John Adams, who had just been admitted as a barrister, and whose soul was ready to receive the patriotic fire from the lips of Otis. " It was to Mr. Adams like the oath of Hamilcar administered to Hannibal. It is doubtful whether Otis himself, or any person of his auditory, perceived or imagined the consequences which were to flow from the principles developed in that argument." 2 Patriots were created by it on the spot, — men who awoke that day as from a sleep, and shook themselves for action. Every one felt that a crisis was approaching in the affairs of the Province, if indeed it had not already come.

In tracing the causes which led to the final independence of America, it is always to be borne in mind that independence, in the political sense of the word, was not what the colonists originally desired. They were proud of their position as British subjects ; and not until their loyalty had endured a long series of shocks, did it occur to any one that a separation was either possible or desirable. This will explain the docility with which the people of New England submitted to gross abuses and high-handed political measures through a period of over thirty years without doing more than to assert their rights, and to seek peaceable means of redress. They loved the mother country, and rejoiced in her prosperity.3 Her his- tory, her greatness, her triumphs, were all theirs. Their literature, their laws, their social life, their religious faith, were all English. Most of the towns and counties in Massachusetts were named after those in England, showing the affection the colonists had for the country from which they came. The architecture of Boston houses was almost an exact reproduc- tion of that which prevailed in London or Bristol. A relationship of blood, of affection, and of interest was maintained by the closest com- munication which that age afforded. Packets were continually plying between the two countries ; personal and business correspondence was frequent; and, in ordinary times, this intimacy was not affected by the official character and conduct of those who represented British authority on these shores. If the exercise of that authority had not exceeded its just limits, it would certainly have been a long time before the colonists would have demanded or accepted anything like a political separation. They were not adventurers, seeking capital out of conflict, but peaceable, industrious, law-abiding citizens ; asking only for equality with their fellow- subjects, and deliverance from special and unequal legislation. They knew their rights under the charter, and were resolved to maintain them ; and in this they were simply true to the traditions of the Anglo-Saxon race

1 [The lawyers engaged in this cause are 2 C. F. Adams's Life of John Adams, i. 81.

characterized in the chapter in Vol. IV. by Mr. 8 Greene, Historical View of the American

John T. Morse, Jr. — ED.] Revolution, pp. 5, 6.

8 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

from which they sprang. Their lot was cast in troublous times, but the trouble was not of their fomenting. They never invoked revolution, but were driven to it at last against their will by the stern logic of events. One of these events has already been described ; but properly speaking, the great struggle did not begin with the excitement attending the appli- cation for writs of assistance. That excitement did not affect the coun- try at large, nor did it seriously disturb the loyalty of the people of Boston. It led to much discussion and speculation, but to no organized resistance.

The first direct occasion for the uprising in America was the attempt on the part of the British Government to raise a revenue from the Colonies without their consent and without a representation in Parliament. Upon this turned the whole controversy, which lasted more than ten years and terminated in the final appeal to arms.

After the Peace of Paris,1 England took a position of undisputed su- premacy among the great powers of Europe. Her political and diplomatic influence was greatly increased by her military successes and her new terri- torial acquisitions. But this pre-eminence was attended by an exhausted treasury, and the first important question for her statesmen to ask was, how to increase the revenue. The American colonies, it was known, were gain- ing rapidly in population and wealth. There was no doubt of their ability to furnish large sums to the Crown. The people were loyal, and would be likely to sustain further draughts upon their resources.

So reasoned Charles Townshend, first lord of trade and secretary for the colonies in the new ministry formed by the Earl of Bute. No sooner did Townshend take office than he was ready with his audacious scheme to ignore charters, precedents, laws, and, honor; to abrogate the rights and privileges of colonial legislatures ; and to give Parliament absolute author- ity to tax an unwilling people to whom the privilege of representation had never been granted.

Townshend's scheme, in the form in which he presented it, did not suc- ceed ; but shortly after, — in March, 1763, — Grenville, first lord of the ad-

miralty, eager to advance the inter- British trade, brought in a for the further improvement

// // U °^ ^s maJesty's revenue of the cus-

Y toms," authorizing naval officers on

the American coast to act as custom-house officers. This bill soon passed both Houses and became a law.2

Bute's ministry was of short duration. Grenville soon took his place, supported by Egremont and Halifax, and retaining Jenkinson as principal secretary of the treasury. This triumvirate ministry was so unpopular as to become a "general joke;"3 and was called "the three Horatii," "the

1 Signed in February, 1763. :: \Valpole to Mann, April 30, 1763. See Lord

2 Bancroft, v., 92 ; Barry, ii. 278. Mahon (Stanhope), ///j/0ry of England, xli.

. miralt

v I Vr ) ests °

ti^JT/^- Urt^W~lMj£_^S bill "

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 9

Athanasian administration," a "sort of Cerberus," a "three-headed monster, quieted by being gorged with patronage and office." 1

One of Grenville's earliest measures was a bill for enforcing the Naviga- tion Acts, in which he met with no opposition from Parliament or the King. His next plan was to provide for the army in America by taxing the Colonies. Upon this matter he consulted the board of trade, to ascertain " in what mode least burdensome and most palatable to the Colonies they can contribute toward the support of the additional expense which must attend their civil and military establishment." 2 The head of the board of trade was now the young Earl of Shelburne, an Irish peer, who was begin- ning to have great influence in British councils. On many questions he was a follower of Pitt, and was naturally opposed to extending the authority of Parliament. His reply gave no encouragement to the ministry; yet they continued pursuing their favorite project, and did all in their power to create a public sentiment in its favor. Before any action was taken Egre- mont died, and Shelburne was succeeded by the Earl of Hillsborough. Grenville now renewed his exertions for the passage of a revenue bill ; and at a meeting of the lords of the treasury — Grenville, North, and Hunter — in Downing Street, on the morning of September 22, a minute was adopted directing their secretary, Jenkinson, " to write to the commis- sioners of the stamp duties to prepare a draught of a bill to be presented to Parliament for extending the stamp duties to the Colonies." 3 In obedi- ence to this order the famous Stamp Act was prepared, and subsequently presented to Parliament. Probably its origin is not due to any one man. Bute thought of it, Jenkinson elaborated it, North supported it, Grenville demanded it, and England accepted it. It has generally been called, and with good reason, Grenville's pleasure. Whatever of credit or of odium attaches to it must be given to him. He did not expect the favor of the Colonies, but he was anxious to secure support at home; and as there was some doubt of the bill's passing without an exciting debate, he did not press the matter at once. Hoping also, possibly, to conciliate the Colonies, he yielded to the urgent solicitations of some of their representatives 4 who maintained that the proposed stamp duty was " an internal tax," and therefore that it would be better to " wait till some sort of consent to it shall be given by the several assemblies, to prevent a tax of that nature from being levied without the consent of the Colonies." 5 And so, " out of tenderness to the Colonies," the bill was not brought in for a year.

Meanwhile the Administration succeeded in carrying a measure, April 5, 1764, imposing duties on various enumerated foreign commodities im- ported into America, and upon colonial products exported to any other

^v

1 Wilkes to Earl Temple, in Grenville Papers, sylvania; and Richard Jackson, his own private ii. 81. secretary.

2 Bancroft, v. 107. 5 Grenville Correspondence, ii. 393; Massa- 8 Treasury Minutes, Sept. 22, 1763; Jenkin- chusetts Gazette, May 10, 1764; Bancroft, v. 183;

son's Letter, Sept. 23, 1763; Bancroft, v. 151. Barry, p. 284; Fitzmaurice, Life of William, Earl

* Thomas Penn and William Allen, of Penn- of Shelburne, i. 318, 319. VOL. III. — 2.

10 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

place than Great Britain. A heavy duty was also laid upon molasses and sugar. To enforce the provisions of this bill, enlarged power was given to the vice-admiralty courts, and penalties under the act were made recover- able in these courts.1

The news of the passage of the Sugar Act stirred up an intense com- motion in all the maritime towns of America; the merchants everywhere held meetings, adopted memorials to the assemblies, and sent protests to England. In Boston, James Otis prepared a Statement of the Rights of the Colonies, and Oxenbridge Thacher expressed similar views in a pamphlet entitled Sentiments of a British- American?' A committee — Otis, Gushing, Thacher, Gray, and Sheafe — was also appointed to correspond with the other Colonies ; and circulars were sent out stating the dangers that menaced " their most essential rights," and desiring the " united assistance " of all to secure, if possible, a repeal of the obnoxious acts, and to " prevent a stamp act, or any other impositions and taxes, upon this and the other American provinces." 3

The Legislature, which had been prorogued month after month by Gov- ernor Bernard, to impede its action, finally met in October. Letters were received from the agents in England, and an address to the King was pre- pared ; but as it failed of acceptance with the Council, it gave place to a milder address to the House of Commons, stating the objections which had been urged against the Sugar Act, and praying for a further delay of the Stamp Act.4

With the year 1765 the long dreaded measure, which had come to be regarded as the very symbol of usurpation, came into effect. At the open- ing of Parliament in January, Grenville presented the American question as one of obedience to the authority of the kingdom ; and shortly after, with the support of Townshend, Jenyns,5 and others, he proposed a series of resolutions, fifty-five in number, embracing the details of the Stamp Act, — the essential feature being the requirement that all /Jgal and business documents in the colonies should be written on printed or stamped paper, to be had only of the tax collectors. All offences under this act were to be tried in the admiralty courts, and the taxes were to be collected arbitrarily, without any trial by jury.

1 Minot, ii. 155; Holmes, Annals, ii. 125,^ against. To what purpose will opposition to seq.; Barry, ii. 286. any resolutions of the ministry be, if they are

2 Both published in Boston, June, 1764. The passed with such rapidity as to render it impos- General Court sent a letter of instructions to Mr. sible for us to be acquainted with them before Mauduit, the agent of Massachusetts in London, they have received the sanction of an act of expressing the state of feeling. " If all the Col- Parliament ? A people may be free and toler- onies," says the letter, "are to be taxed at pleas- ably happy without a particular branch of trade ; ure, without any representation in Parliament, but without the privilege of assessing their own what will there be to distinguish them, in point taxes, they can be neither." Minot, ii. 168-175; of liberty, from the subjects of the most abso- Bradford, i. 21, 22.

lute prince? Every charter-privilege may be 8 Hutchinson, iii. no; Minot, ii. 175.

taken from us by an appendix to a money bill, 4 Massachusetts Records ; Journal House of

which, it seems, by the rules on the other side of Representatives, 1764, p. 102. the water, must not at any rate be petitioned 5 Bancroft, v. 231-234.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. II

Grenville advocated his bill with many plausible arguments and explana- tions. He had evidently anticipated all the difficulties it would encounter in England, but he failed utterly to comprehend the situation it would create in America. As was expected, it passed in a full house, February 27, without serious opposition, obtaining a majority of five to one. Among those who spoke and voted against it the names of Jackson, Beckford, Conway, and Barr6 deserve especial mention, as they afterward received the thanks of the Province for their services.

Colonel Barre l will always be gratefully remembered by' the American people in connection with this event. Townshend having said that the Colonies were planted by the care, nourished by the indulgence, and pro- tected by the arms of England, Barre rose and said : —

" They planted by your care ! No ! your oppressions planted them in America. . . . They nourished up by your indulgence ! They grew by your neglect of them. . . . They protected by your arms ! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence. . . . And believe me, — remember I this day told you so, — the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still." '2

"The sun of liberty is set," wrote Dr. Franklin to Mr. Thompson3 the very night that the act was passed ; " the-^Americans must light the lamps of industry and economy."

The news of the passage of the Stamp Act reached Boston in April, and produced immediate alarm and indignation throughout the province.4 Massachusetts and Virginia — " the head and the heart of the Revolution" — were the first to denounce the act, and they were soon followed by New York and Pennsylvania and all the other colonies. The determination was everywhere expressed that the act should never be executed. Sober men resisted it, because they saw that it would block the wheels of trade, prevent exchanges of property, interfere with all industry, and undermine their lib- erties, which they were not prepared thus to surrender. The case would have been entirely different if the colonists had levied these stamp duties

1 Isaac Barre was born, 1726, of a Huguenot Barre and his Times," in Macmillaii's Magazine, family living in Ireland; graduated at Trinity December, 1876. The town of Barre, in Massa- College, Dublin ; entered the army and served chusetts, which was first named for Hutchinson, in the French war ; was a warm friend of Wolfe, was afterward named for Barre.

2 [It was in his speech of Feb. 6, 1765, that Barre had called the opposing party in the colonies the " Sons of Liberty," and the name brought over was soon adopted by them. — Eu.]

and was wounded at Quebec. Through the in- 8 Afterward secretary of the Continental

fluence of Lord Shelburne he entered Parlia- Congress.

ment in 1761, after the fall of Pitt's ministry. 4 [The act was at once issued in a pamphlet

His speeches were spirited, and often aggres- by Edes and Gill, then keeping their press on sive and harsh. He denounced tyranny and the site of the present Adams Express Corn- corruption, and usually appealed to the moral pany's office, in Court Street. See Snow's sympathies of men. He had something of the Boston, p. 258. For the feelings engendered, see vehement, fiery eloquence of Pitt, and was a Warren's letter, in Frothingham's Life of IVar- debater to be feared. See article on " Colonel ren ; and John Adams's Works, iii. 465. — ED.]

12

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

upon themselves, through their own assemblies, as the American people have since freely done to meet the cost of war ; or if they had been allowed

a voice in the government which exercised this authority.

It was an important principle which they felt to be at stake, — a principle which had hitherto been maintained in their relations with the mother country, and which they could not now see vio- lated without a distinct and determined resist- ance.

At this juncture the Legislature of Massachu- setts, at the suggestion of Otis, proposed the calling of an American Congress, consisting of A STAMP.1 committees from each of the thirteen colonies, to

meet at New York in October, "to consult to- gether," and consider the matter of a "united representation to implore relief."

While the leaders of the people were thus taking counsel of one an- other in solemn deliberations as to the course to be pursued, the popu- lar feeling against the act, and the officers appointed to execute it, ran high in Boston. An occasion soon occurred to show how the people felt upon this subject. The birth- day of the Prince of Wales, in Au- gust, was kept as a holiday. Crowds assembled in the streets, shouting "Pitt2 and liberty!" Andrew Oli- ver, brother-in-law of Hutchinson, having been appointed stamp distrib- uter, it was proposed that he be hung in effigy ; and two days later, August 14, the public saw suspended from the old elm known as Liberty Tree3 a stuffed figure of the obnoxious official, together -with a grotesque caricature of Bute.4 This pageant had

S T A M P - O F F I C E,

Lincoln s-Inn, 1765.

TABLE

Ot the. Prices of Parchment and Paper for the Service of Amtrica.

II by .6, 11 S.i-perwe|

16 — bj 10. it Bigh'-pciK J* by ? \. al Ten-penee

j\i — by a6. at Tturtero-prncc

FooUCip* Ninc.pener D -itb P.,r,,rd Noaee. ) u for Indctturo ] • ,.

Fu!«. Port a< One Shilling

Deoif • T«o Sh.lhnp

Medium ii Three bhilbop

Royal ,t Four Shill.nj,

Super JtojaJ al ia 5hiU«p

Paper for Printing

Bool FoobCip«;6i.-6<M

I'«k«— Pol* Pott u 10 «. Uxh Sh-.et D«mj »,3,. J

1 [There are a number of these stamps in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society; but our engraving is cut from one lent by Dr. Samuel A. Green. The impression is on a blue soft paper, secured by a transverse bit of soft metal, with another square piece of paper bearing the royal monogram covering the metal on the reverse. The accompanying reduced facsimile. of a schedule of prices for stamps is from a copy of the Broadside, kindly loaned by Dr. Green. — Eo.l

- A change had just taken place in the minis- try, and Pitt had returned to office.

8 [See the engraving in chapter iv. of the present volume, with note. This fourteenth of August became a memorable anniversary for the Sons of Liberty, who eight years later, 1773, celebrated it by a "festivity " on Roxbury Com- mon. Drake, Town of Roxbury, p 266. — ED.]

4 A large boot, designed to represent Lord Bute, with a head and horns upon it. Bute had been frequently burned in effigy in England in

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 13

been prepared by a party of Boston mechanics,1 called Sons of Liberty, who, prompted by the intense feeling of the hour, devised this method of expressing it. Great excitement followed, and thousands assembled to view the spectacle. When the news reached Hutchinson he ordered the sheriff to remove the effigies ; but nothing was done until evening, when they were taken down by those with whom the proceedings originated, and carried in procession, escorted by a great concourse of people, through the street, into the Old State House, and under the council chamber where Bernard,

Hutchinson, and their advisers were assembled. " Liberty, Property, and no Stamps ! " was the shout which greeted the ears of those dignitaries. After repeated huzzas, the populace moved on to Kilby Street, where they destroyed a frame which the stamp distributer was said to be building for an office. Taking a portion of it, they proceeded to Fort Hill where Oliver lived, and burned the effigies in a bonfire before his house. Boston had

the guise of a jack-boot, — a pun upon his name as John, Earl of Bute. Bonfires of the jack-

kboot were repeated dur- ing several years both in rv/' England and America. ^V=^ Mahon (Stanhope), His-

*- tory of England, v. 25.

[One of the most considerate of the English writers is Grahame, History of the United States, iv. 183. See Winsor's Handbook, p. 4, for other references. — ED.]

1 Benjamin Edes, printer; Thomas Crafts,

painter ; John Smith and Stephen Cleverly, braz- iers ; John Avery, Jr., Thomas Chase, Henry Bass, and Henry Welles.

2 [Subscription to a paper sent by the Order in Boston to the Sons of Liberty in New Hamp- shire, preserved in the Belknap Papers, iii., in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical So- ciety. A silver punch-bowl, said to have been used by the Sons of Liberty, bought by William Mackay after the Revolution, and now owned by R. C. Mackay, was lately exhibited in the Old South Loan Collection. — ED.]

14 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

rarely witnessed such a scene. No one knew what would come of it. Bernard and Hutchinson took refuge in the Castle. The next day a proc- lamation was issued by the Governor, offering one hundred pounds reward to be paid upon the conviction of any person concerned in this transac- tion ; l but no one cared to act as informant against such a strong current of popular feeling. A few days later, August 26, a mixed crowd collected near the Old State House, and proceeded to the house of the registrar of the admiralty, opposite the court house, and burned his public and private papers. They next plundered the house of the comptroller of customs, in Hanover Street, and then hurried to the mansion 2 of Lieut. -Governor Hutchinson, who had incurred the increasing dislike of the people in con- sequence of his subserviency to the Government, his greed of office, and his supposed influence in favor of the Stamp Act. Hutchinson and his family escaped ; but the mob sacked his house and destroyed a large quantity of plate, pictures, clothing, books, and a valuable collection of manuscripts relating to the history of the colony.3 This was a disgraceful proceeding, and would never have taken place but for the frenzy occasioned by the free use of liquor among the " roughs " who led on the mob.4 A large public meeting was held the next morning in Faneuil Hall, and resolu- tions were passed strongly deprecating these lawless proceedings, and call- ing upon the selectmen to suppress such disorders in the future, and pledging the support of the inhabitants to preserve the peace.6 That the leading Patriots had no sympathy whatever with this riotous outbreak is seen also in a letter written by Samuel Adams to Richard Jackson, the colonial agent in London, in which he denounced these proceedings as " high-handed out- rages," of which the inhabitants, " within a few hours after the perpetration of the act, publicly declared their detestation. All was done the day follow- ing that could be expected from an orderly town, by whose influence a spirit

1 Drake, History of Boston, p. 696. 1766, relative to the riot of the year before. He

8 In Garden-court Street ; taken down about says he came into Boston about eight o'clock in

1830. See Introduction to Vol. II. p. xi. the evening and overtook a much greater num-

* [Hutchinson, Massachusetts Bay, iii. 124; ber of men than was usual, not in one large

also see Introduction to Vol. I. of this History, body but in little companies of four or five per-

p. xix. and Vol. II. p. 526; and Drake's Land- sons; and that the report of the disturbance

marks, p. 167. — El).] being actually begun had already, at that time,

4 [See contemporary accounts in Josiah reached Roxbury.

Quincy's Diary, Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., April, These papers also contain, as illustrating this

1858; and Joshua Henshaw's letter, in N. E. period: a report on the condition of the North

Hist, and Geneal. Reg., July, 1878, p. 268. Battery in 1765, and estimates for rebuilding it

Among the papers in the Charity Building is in 1/68; a report to the Governor on the popu-

a copy of a deposition tending to show that the lation of Boston in 1765; and depositions as to

authorities had warning of the riot. Ebenezer trouble with British officers in 1768. These

Simpson testified to the selectmen that, Aug. papers should be calendared. — ED.]

26,1765, being at Spectacle Island, he met a 6 [Drake's Boston, p. 701. There are on file in

man-of-war's boat, and one of the men told him the city clerk's office various warning letters ad-

that there was to be a mob in Boston that night, dressed to Benjamin Cudworth, deputy-sheriff,

with intent to pull down the Lieut.-Governor's in a disguised hand ; and also others to Stephen

house, and that their ship's crew was sent for. Greenleaf, sheriff, regarding Cudworth. They

Among these papers is also a copy of a letter were read to the town, and pronounced " abu-

from Warren to the selectmen, dated July 3, sive." — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 15

was raised to oppose and suppress it. It is possible these matters may be represented to our disadvantage, and therefore we desire you will take all possible opportunities to set them in a proper light." 1

Throughout the colonies the same spirit of determined opposition to the Stamp Act was everywhere seen. Many of the officers appointed to dis- tribute the stamps were compelled by the " unconquerable rage of the people " to resign, Oliver among the rest. Towns and legislatures hastened to make their declaration

of rights, following One

another " like a chime of bells," and planting them-

selves firmly upon the Brit- -7" "?»

ish Constitution and their

, ... ,. T .,

chartered liberties. In the

rrta/jsitl trfffa&t/, /7M

Massachusetts Assembly a

series of fourteen resolves, prepared by Samuel <n

Adams, asserting the in- herent and inalienable '

.. . S<r

rights of the people, were <

particularly considered ^ @

and passed in a full house/

These resolves met w i t h *%*•? *f": ?'— ' "/ '7*f

. r fr1** '• /•* ------- ^*.-

great favor, and were ex- /

tensively published and o

OLIVER S OATH.3

quoted throughout the country. On October 7 the first American Congress ever held, composed of delegates from the different colonies, met in New York to take into con- sideration their rights, privileges, and grievances.4 After mature delibera- tion in which members from all parts of the country participated, resolutions were passed embodying the warmest sentiments of loyalty to the King and respect for " that august body, the Parliament," and setting forth, in plain but temperate language, the reasonable demands of America, — such as the right to trial by jury, in opposition to the recent extension of the admiralty jurisdiction ; and the right to freedom from taxation except through the colonial assemblies. The Congress also sent an address to the King, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a petition to the House of Commons. Before adjourning, this Congress consummated a virtual union by which the colonies became, as the delegates prophetically expressed it, " a bundle of sticks which could neither be bent nor broken." 6

1 Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, \. 63. 4 [James Otis here showed his power of

2 Ibid., i. 74-77. leadership. See Tudor's Otis; Bancroft, v. ; 8 [Mr. R. H. Dana, Jr., brought this oath to Flanders's Rutledge ; Ramsey's South Carolina.

the attention of the Massachusetts Historical — ED.|

Society, in June, 1872, their Proceedings of that 6 Bancroft, v. 346. [This congress was a re-

date showing a fac-simile of it ; the present is sponse to the call of Massachusetts. Its pro-

somewhat reduced. — ED.] ceedings are in Almon's Tracts. — ED.]

l6 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

In the mean time there had been further changes in the ministry, result- ing in the elevation of the Rockingham Whigs to power. This announce- ment was received with great satisfaction, as it was understood that the new cabinet was more friendly to American claims. That this opinion had some foundation appears in the orders sent to the royal governors and to General Gage, commander of the forces at New York, only one week before the Stamp Act was to take effect, recommending " the utmost pru- dence and lenity," and advising a resort to " persuasive methods." 1

When the first of November came, the people were prepared to prevent the execution of the odious act by refusing as one man to buy or use the stamps. In Boston they tolled the bells of the churches and fired min- ute-guns. Vessels in the harbor hung their flags at half-mast. " Liberty, Property, and no Stamps ! " was the watchword passing everywhere from mouth to mouth. Effigies of Grenville and Huske 2 were suspended from Liberty Tree early in the morning, and in the afternoon were taken down and carried to the court house and to the North End, and then back to the gallows on the Neck, where they were hung for a short time, and afterward were cut down and torn to pieces. The crowd then quietly dis- persed, and the night was entirely free from disturbance.3

As the Stamp Act had become a law, only stamped paper was legal ; and as the people were firm in their determination not to use it, they were obliged to suspend business. The provincial courts were closed ; mar- riages ceased ; vessels were unmoored ; and all commercial operations were paralyzed. Merchants in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston agreed not to import from England certain enumerated articles ; and in general the people ceased using foreign luxuries, and turned their attention to domestic products. Frugality was the self-imposed order of the day, and it was not without its results.

In December a town-meeting was held in Boston, and a committee ap- pointed to request of the Governor and Council that the courts might be opened.4 At the opening of the Legislature in January, the House, in re- plying to the message of the Governor, demanded relief from the existing grievances. "The custom-houses are now open," they said, "and the people are permitted to transact their usual business. The courts of justice also must be opened, — opened immediately; and the law, the great rule of right, duly executed in every county in this province. This stopping of the course of justice is a grievance which this Court must inquire into. Justice must be fully administered without delay."5 The Council laid this address upon the table ; but, in an informal way, gave assurances that the courts

1 Massachusetts Gazette, Feb. 6, 1766; Debates Adams, Thomas dishing, John Hancock, Ben- in Parliament, iv. 302-306. jamin Kent, Samuel Sewall, John Rowe, Joshua

2 John Huske, a native of Portsmouth, N. H., Henshaw, and Arnold Welles; and they were who had removed to England and obtained a authorized to employ Gridley, Otis, and John seat in the House of Commons, and taken a Adams as counsel. Diary of John Adams in prominent part in favor of the Stamp Act. Works, ii. 157, ft seq. ; Barry, p. 307.

8 Drake, Boston, pp. 707, 708. 5 Massachusetts Gazette, Jan. 23, 1/66; Hutch-

4 This committee was composed of Samuel inson, iii. 143.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 17

would be opened at the next term, and business allowed to be transacted as usual.

This bold attitude of the American people caused no little annoyance and anxiety to the Administration. The case was, moreover, complicated by the change of sentiment in England regarding the justice of the policy initiated by Grenville. The English people were not prepared to repudiate their own love of liberty, nor to force upon any of their fellow-subjects the meas- ures of absolutism against which their own glorious history had been a standing protest. Especially were the commercial and manufacturing towns in England dissatisfied with this policy ; for it had reacted most un- favorably upon them, interrupting trade, injuring credit, and creating much suffering and discontent. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that both sympathy and interest prompted the nation to urge the repeal of an act which was as hostile to their own welfare as to that of America.

Upon the reassembling of Parliament in January, 1766, the King, in his speech, stated that "matters of importance had happened in America, and orders had been issued for the support of lawful authority." 1 The Lords responded, as usual, in terms of deference and co-operation ; but in the House of Commons, which was unusually full, a debate ensued such as perhaps had never been heard before within its walls. The venerable Pitt, after an absence of more than a year, had arrived in town that morning. Though in a very feeble condition, and suffering from the gout, he took his seat while the debate was in progress, and soon after rose and made his ever memorable speech, — a masterpiece of fiery eloquence in which he de- nounced the Stamp Act, and demanded its immediate repeal. He said : —

" It is no\v an act that has passed. I would speak with decency of every act of this House, but I must beg indulgence to speak of it with freedom. The subject of this debate is of greater importance than any that has ever engaged the atten- tion of this House, — that subject only excepted when, nearly a century ago, it was a question whether you yourselves were to be bond or free. . . . On a question that may mortally wound the freedom of three millions of virtuous and brave subjects beyond the Atlantic Ocean, I cannot be silent."

He then proceeded to argue that as the colonies had never been really or virtually represented in Parliament, they could not be held " legally or con- stitutionally or reasonably subject to obedience to any money bill " of the kingdom. In replying to Grenville he said, a little later on : " The gentle- man tells us America is obstinate ; America is almost in open rebellion ! I rejoice that America has resisted." Upon this the whole House started as if touched by an electric shock. Near the conclusion of his speech he said : —

" In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush Amer- ica to atoms. . . . But in such a cause your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would fall like the strong man ; she would embrace the pillars of the State,

1 Massachusetts Gazette, March 27, 1766. VOL. Ill — 3.

A. C. C. H. LIBRARY SOUTH BOSTON, MASS.

l8 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

and pull down the Constitution along with her. . . . Upon the whole I will beg leave to tell the House what is really my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be repealed, absolutely, totally, and immediately ; that the reason for the repeal be assigned, be- cause it was founded on an erroneous principle. . . ." 1

Thus spoke the Great Commoner ; with what effect upon the minds of the House appeared in the current of sympathy which at once turned toward him, and which, a little later on, expressed itself in the famous repeal. Toward the last of the month the House resolved itself into a committee of the whole to consider petitions for the repeal, which had been presented by the merchants of London, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, and other towns. The sittings of this committee were con- tinued more than two weeks. Among others, Benjamin Franklin, then a colonial agent in London, was summoned to the bar of the House; and his minute examination concerning the feelings and wishes of the Colonies con- tributed more to his personal fame than any previous occurrence in his life ; and it is doubtful whether he ever wrote or said anything abler than his ad- mirable replies on this occasion. In all that he said he was prompt and pertinent, accurate and concise, wise and true. The House of Commons listened to him for ten days, and must have been as much astonished at his answers as the whole American people were delighted with them.2

The committee who had listened to this remarkable examination soon " reported that it was their opinion that the House be moved that leave be given to bring in a bill to repeal the Stamp Act."

The crisis came on the night of February 21, when every seat was occu- pied, and the galleries, lobbies, and stairs were crowded with eager specta- tors. The debate was opened by Conway, one of the ministry, and a warm friend of the Colonies. He was followed by Jenkinson, Burke, Grenville,

1 Bancroft, v. 382-396; Debates in Parliament, " Q. — And what is their temper now ? iv. 285-298. "A. — Oh, very much altered.

2 As a specimen of Franklin's shrewdness, " Q. — Did you ever hear the authority of take a few of his answers : — Parliament to make laws for America questioned

" Question. — Do you think it right that Amer- till lately ?

ica should be protected by this country and pay "A. — The authority of Parliament was al-

no part of the expense ? lowed to be valid in all laws except such as

" Answer. — That is not the case. The Col- should lay internal taxes. It was never disputed

onies raised, clothed, and paid during the last in laying duties to regulate commerce. war near twenty-five thousand men, and spent " Q. — If the Stamp Act should be repealed,

many millions. and the Crown should make a requisition to the

" Q. — Were you not reimbursed by Parlia- Colonies for a sum ot money, would they grant

ment ? it ?

"A. — . . . Only a very small part of what " A. — I believe they would.

we spent. " Q. — What used to be the pride of the

" Q. — Do you think the people of America Americans ?

would submit to pay the stamp duty if it was "A. — To indulge in the fashions and manu-

moderated ? factures of Great Britain.

" A. — No, never, unless compelled by force " Q. — What is now their pride ?

of arms. " A, — To wear their old clothes over again

" Q. — What was the temper of America to- till they can make new ones." — Bigelow, Life of

ward Great Britain before the year 1763? Franklin, 5.467-510; Sparks, Franklin, pp. 298-

" A. — The best in the world. . . . 300.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 19

and Pitt. About half-past one in the morning the division took place, and Conway's bill of repeal was carried triumphantly by a vote of two hundred and seventy-five against one hundred and sixty-seven. Pitt and Conway were tumultuously applauded as they left the House, while Grenville l was greeted with hisses. The final debate on the repeal was still more decisive. In the Lords the bill was carried by a majority of thirty-four; and on the day following, March 17, it received the reluctant sanction of the King, who spoke of it as " a fatal compliance." London was delighted with the result; the church bells were rung merrily ; ships displayed their colors ; the streets were illuminated ; and a public dinner was given by the friends of America. In Boston the news was received with every conceivable demon- stration of joy.2 Liberty Tree was decked with lanterns ; bells and guns, flags and music, illuminations and fireworks, proclaimed in unmistakable language the gratitude and loyalty of the people.3 New York voted statues to the King and to Pitt. Virginia voted a statue to the King, and South Carolina one to Pitt. Maryland passed a similar vote, and ordered a por- trait of Lord Camden. Boston had previously voted letters of thanks to Barre and Conway, and requested their portraits for Faneuil Hall.4

In the outburst of joy at the repeal, the public mind had not considered the full meaning of the accompanying declaratory act5 claiming for Parliament absolute power to bind America " in all cases whatsoever." This act was a fatal mistake, and a wanton blow at the well known American principle of local self-government ; for it soon became evident that the object of Parlia- ment was, after all, political subjugation. This was precisely the point upon which the colonists had taken their stand. It was not the mere pecuniary loss involved in the enforcement of the stamp tax that they were consider- ing,— they were abundantly able to pay that, — but it was the underlying question of right ; and if that were not conceded, it would soon be found

1 Walpole, ii. 299, 300. Stamp Act-and the revolutionary proceedings in

2 [Speaker Gushing had enclosed, June Boston, is printed in Mass. f/ist. Coll. iv. 367. 22, 1766, a letter of thanks to the king, and the There is in the collection of Charles P. Green- fac-simile on the next page is from Otis's letter ough, Esq., of Boston (whose treasures have to Gushing on this vote of thanks. The original been very generously put at my disposal, and is in the Lee papers in the University of Vir- from which I have often drawn in this and the ginia Library. The principal demonstrations final volume), a letter from London merchants to took place May 19, 1766. An obelisk was erect- those of Boston, offering congratulations and ed on the Common and decked with lanterns ; encouragement on account of the repeal of the Hancock illuminated his house and discharged Stamp Act. A similar letter from business cor- fireworks in front of it from a stage ; and these respondents was contributed to the Mass. Hist. were responded to by similar demonstrations by Soc. Proc., March, 1876, p. 260, by Mr. T. C. the Sons of Liberty at the workhouse. Views Amory. — ED.]

of the obelisk were engraved by Revere, and 4 This was done at a town-meeting held Sept. one of them is given much reduced in Drake's 18, 1765. The portraits arrived in due time, and Landmarks, p. 359. The earliest rumor of a re- were hung in Faneuil Hall ; but what became of peal had appeared in the Massachusetts Gazette, them afterward is not known. They are sup- April 3, 1766, having come from Philadelphia posed to have been removed when the British two days before. See Thornton's Pulpit of the army had control of the town. Drake, pp. 703, Revolution, p. 120, where is also Chauncy's dis- 704. [See supplementary notes to the next course on the repeal. — ED.] chapter in this volume. — ED.]

3 [A paper by General Gage concerning the 6 6 George III. c. xii.

20

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

r

that the repeal was only a nominal and a temporary relief. Leading Pa- triots saw in this much to excite alarm ; but for the time being, and for the

sake of harmony, they were willing to remain silent.1

No well defined sentiment of union had as yet taken possession of the public mind. Not until it became evi- dent that there was no other way of maintaining their freedom, did any of the Colonies think of measures tend- ing to united action. One of the first to anticipate this ne- cessity was Jona- than Mayhew, the patriotic pastor of the West Church in Irsl \ Boston, who, writ-

» ' ing to his friend Otis

one Lord's Day morning in June, 1 766, said : —

" You have heard of the communion of churches ; while I was thinking of this in my bed, the great use and importance of a com- munion of colonies appeared to me in a strong light. Would it not be decorous for our Assembly to send circulars to all the rest, expressing a desire to cement union among ourselves? A good

1 Wells, Life of Samuel Adams, \. 116-118.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 21

foundation for this has been laid by the Congress at New York ; never losing sight of it may be the means of perpetuating our liberties." l

The possibility of such a union seems to have occurred to at least one English statesman at this time ; for in the same month in which the above words were penned we find Charles Townshend boldly advocating in the House of Commons a radical measure aimed not only to secure a revenue, but also to prevent any such accessions of strength as the Colonies might gain by combined action. No man in the ministry was better informed than Townshend upon American affairs. He knew the resources of the people ; he anticipated their rapid development ; and the scheme which he now promulgated was expressly devised to make the whole colonial power tributary to the Crown. Therefore he favored the abolition of all their charters ; and the substitution of a government in which the local assem- blies should be restrained, a general congress forbidden, and the royal gov- ernors, judges, and attorneys become independent of the people.2

Townshend soon had further opportunities for prosecuting his scheme ; for in the reconstruction of the ministry, which took place in the month of July, he was selected as chancellor of the exchequer by the Duke of Grafton, in the strangely incongruous ad- ministration of Pitt, now created Earl of Chatham. Townshend was the leading spirit in the new government, and availed him- self of every opportunity to urge the ad- -/ ,,

vantages of an American civil list. He ^/ ^

had been, with Grenvilie, a firm advocate of the Stamp Act. He ridiculed the distinction between internal and external taxes. He insisted that America should share the heavy financial burden of England.3 In the ab- sence of Chatham, who was most of the time suffering from feeble health, he dictated to the ministry its colonial policy. " I would govern the Americans," said he, " as subjects of Great Britain ; I would restrain their trade and their manufactures as subordinate to the mother country. These, our children, must not make themselves our allies in time of war and our rivals in peace." With such purposes the resolute and reckless chancellor pushed his way into favor with Parliament, ignoring the scruples of his associates and defying the opposition of his enemies, until he suc- ceeded in carrying the famous Townshend revenue bill through both Houses, and obtained the royal assent. These acts levied a duty on glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea; established a board of customs at Boston for collecting the whole American revenue ; and legalized writs of assistance. The revenue was to be at the disposition of the King, and was to be chiefly employed in the support of officers of the Crown, to secure their indepen- dence of the local legislatures. " The die is thrown ! " cried the Patriots of

1 Bradford, Life of Mayhew, 428, 429. [See 2 Bancroft, vi. 9, 10.

also Mr. Goddard's chapter in the present vol- 8 Fitzmaurice, Life of William, Earl of Slul-

ume. — ED.] burne, iii. 37 et seq.

22 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Boston when they received the news of the passage of Townshend's bill ; "the Rubicon is passed. . . . We will form an immediate and universal combination to eat nothing, drink nothing, wear nothing, imported from Great Britain. . . . Our strength consists in union ; let us above all be of one heart and one mind ; let us call on our sister Colonies to join with us in asserting our rights." J Governor Bernard having refused a petition to summon the Legislature, a town-meeting was called Oct. 28, 1767; and the inhabitants voted neither to import nor to use certain articles of British production. A committee was appointed to obtain subscribers to such an agreement, and the resolutions were extensively circulated throughout the country. The newspapers took up the subject with great warmth, and aided in a very important degree the formation of public opinion at this critical period. Able writers contributed timely letters, among which those written by a " Farmer of Pennsylvania" 2 attained a very wide celebrity for their calm and vigorous treatment of the great constitutional questions of the day. The communications sent by the Massachusetts Legislature in January, 1768, to members of the Cabinet and to the provincial agent in London, contain the full argument respecting the claims of the colonies. These papers, as well as the petition to the king which accompanied them, and the circular-letter to the sister colonies which was issued shortly after, were all drafted by Samuel Adams, whose masterly grasp of the great political issues of the time attracted universal attention and gained a host of friends to the cause of liberty. The circular-letter just alluded to met with a very gratifying response from the other assemblies, and was a most efficient instrument in securing unity of purpose among the leaders of the people in all parts of the country. The publication of these important documents produced such an effect that the board of commissioners of the revenue immediately prepared a memorial to be sent to England, express- ing apprehensions for their personal safety ; complaining of the unwarrant- able license of the American press,3 of the non-importation league, and of New England town-meetings ; and asking for assistance in the execution of the revenue laws ; adding, that there was not a ship of war in the province, nor a company of soldiers nearer than New York.

This memorial, together with the reports of Bernard and Hutchinson, soon drew from Hillsborough, secretary for the colonies, an order sent to all the governors, bidding them use their influence with the assemblies to

1 Barry, ii. 339. 'on> tne approbation of her inhabitants inestimable. . . .

2 John Dickinson, afterward a member of the Love of my country engaged me in that attempt to vindi- *./?.. , ^ r-r- i r cate ller rights and assert her interests, which vour gener- first Continental Congress. [To a letter of grati- osity has thoiig|u proper ^ high]y toapplaud / Nt.ver

tude from Boston Dickinson returned a reply, until my heart becomes insensible of a!l worldly thin.!;-, will which is preserved among the Charity Building 't become insensible of the unspeakable obligations which, papers, and is addressed " To the very respect- as an African. I owe to the inhabitants of the Province of

i. • i ... r .L r T> u j Massachusetts Bay, for the vigilance with which thev have

able inhabitants of the town of Boston ; and

watched over, and the magnanimity with which they have

expresses the " reverential gratitude " for the maintained, the liberties of the British colonies on this

late letter received by him: — continent. A FARMER.

PENNSYLVANIA, April n, 1768.

The rank of the Town of Boston, the wisdom of her 8 ISee Mr- Goddard's chapter in this vol-

counsels, and the spirit of her conduct render, in my opin- time. — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 23

take no notice of the " seditious " circular-letter, which was described as " of a most dangerous and factious tendency," calculated to inflame the minds of the people, to promote an illegal combination, and to excite open opposition to the authority of Parliament. The House of Represen- tatives of Massachusetts was required, in His Majesty's name, to rescind their resolutions, and to " declare their disapprobation of the rash and hasty proceeding." In case of their refusal to comply, it was the King's pleasure that the Governor should immediately dissolve them.1 At the same time General Gage, Commander-in-chief of the royal forces in Amer- ica, was ordered to " strengthen the hands of the Government in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, enforce a due obedience of the laws, and protect and support the civil magistrates and the officers of the Crown in the execution of their duty." 2 Further peremptory orders were sent to Gage, in June, to station a regiment permanently in Boston ; and the ad- miralty was directed to send one frigate, two sloops, and two cutters to remain in Boston harbor; and Castle William was to be put in readiness for immediate use.3

For about a month previous to this the ship of war " Romney " had lain at anchor in the harbor, and her commander had occasioned much trouble by violently impressing New England seamen, and refusing to give them up, even when substitutes were offered. The excitement arising from this was increased by the seizure of the sloop " Liberty" (June 10, 1768), belonging to John Hancock, for an alleged false entry. The popular out- break in consequence of these proceedings, though resulting in no serious injury, was magnified by the commissioners into an insurrection, and made the occasion of still further appeals for personal protection, by force of arms, in the discharge of their duties.4 The citizens, in response to a call for a legal town-meeting to consider the matter, gathered in such numbers at Faneuil Hall that they were obliged to adjourn to the Old South Meet- ing-house, where, with Otis as moderator, an address to the Governor was unanimously voted, and a committee of twenty-one appointed to present it.5 At an adjourned meeting the next day (June 15), Otis strongly recom-

1 Hillsborough to Bernard, April 22, 1768. found out to be not an easy person to deal with.

2 Hillsborough to Gage, April 23, 1768. The papers relating to these affairs of his are 8 [The annexed heliotypes follow originals preserved among the Lee papers, in the libraries

made by the British engineers not far from this of Harvard College and the University of Vir-

time, and issued with DesBarres's series of coast ginia. Malcolm died shortly after, and they

charts. One represents the harbor from Fort show his gravestone to-day in the Copp's Hill

Hill; the other is a view of the town from burying-ground, with its praises of him as "an

Willis's Creek, in East Cambridge. — ED.] enemy of oppression and one of the foremost in

4 [There is an account of this seizure in opposing the revenue acts on America ; " and

Drake's Boston, p. 736. See John Adams's upon it are seen the bullet marks of the British

Works, ii. 215. A prominent leader in the mob soldiers, who used it as a target during the siege,

which endeavored to prevent the sloop from Shurtleff's Description of Boston, p. 209. — En.) being towed under the guns of the " Rom- 5 [This presentation took place at the Gov-

ney " was a Boston tradesman, Daniel Malcolm, ernor's house, on Jamaica Pond, where they were

who had a year or two before some pretty sharp treated with wine, " which highly pleased |Ber-

altcrcations with the revenue officers, accom- nard says] that part of them which had not been

paniecl with vigorous action, so that he was used to an interview with me." — ED.]

24 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

mended peaceable and orderly methods of obtaining redress, and depre- cated in the strongest terms all acts of mob violence, hoping that the cause of their grievances would yet be removed; and added: " If not, and we are called on to defend our liberties and privileges, I hope and believe we shall, one and all, resist even unto blood ; but I pray God Almighty that this may never so happen." 1

The Governor disclaimed having any responsibility for the occurrences complained of, but promised to stop impressments. Meanwhile, Hills- borough's instructions to Massachusetts to rescind her non-importation res- olutions arrived, and were communicated in a message from Bernard to the General Court. Otis took the floor in reply, and spoke for two hours with even more than his accustomed vehemence, showing that it would be im- possible for this House to rescind a measure of the previous House which had been already executed. He spoke respectfully of the King, but ar- raigned the course of the ministry and the legislation of Parliament with great severity. The subject occupied the attention of the House for nine days, under the guidance of a special committee.2 The Governor com- municated the threat to dissolve the Assembly in case they refused to comply, and pressed them for a decision. A recess was requested for consultation, but it was refused. The question was then put, in secret session, whether the House would rescind the resolution "which gave birth to their circular-letter to the several houses of representatives and burgesses of the other colonies." The vote was taken viva voce, and stood ninety- two nays against seventeen yeas. The answer to the Governor, informing him of their decision, stated that they regarded the circular-letter mod- erate and innocent, respectful to Parliament, and dutiful to the King; that they entertained sentiments of reverence and affection for both ; that they, as subjects, claimed the right of petition jointly and severally, of correspondence, and of a free assembly; and that the charge of treason was unjustly brought against them. The Governor, following his instruc- tions, thereupon closed the session, and the next day dissolved the General Court by proclamation. Thus was taken away the right of free discussion vested in the time-honored representative Assembly of Massachusetts. It was an act of arbitrary power, destined to recoil heavily upon those who enforced it. The other Colonies felt that their liberties were invaded as well, and sent the most cordial assurances of their sympathy and support. In this we can clearly see a new impulse given to the sentiment of union as a necessary means of mutual security. As dangers thickened, the people stood more and more together, determined to assert and defend their con- stitutional rights against the unlawful aggressions of imperial power. It soon became evident that the Administration had resolved upon employ- ing the strong arm of military power to sustain its authority in the " re-

1 Boston News-Letter, June 16 and 23, 1768. John Hancock, Colonel Otis, Colonel Bowers,

2 This committee consisted of Thomas Cush- Mr. Spooner, Colonel Warren, and Mr. Saun- ing (speaker), Mr. Otis, Samuel Adams (clerk), ders.

.

1 V "I '^/.'T/ //A- // •/{"</' y f ^'),'.i/,'/t' A//// /W/

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 25

fractory" Province. Preparations were making to transfer two regi- ments from Halifax to Boston, and it was soon after announced that two others were expected from Ireland. This naturally led to a great excite- ment, and a town-meeting was called to consider what " wise, constitutional, loyal, and salutary measures " could be taken in the emergency. The Governor was requested to give information in regard to the troops, and to convene the Legislature. Upon his refusal, a convention of all the towns was proposed, to be held in Faneuil Hall within two weeks; and it was recommended that all the inhabitants should be provided with fire- arms and suitable ammunition ; 1 and a day of fasting and prayer was ap- pointed and observed in accordance with the New England custom.

The convention met on September 22, and was composed of representa- tives of nearly every settlement in the province. The same officers were chosen for chairman and clerk that filled those positions in the late Assembly, and the Governor was petitioned to " cause an assembly to be immediately convened." He refused to receive the petition, and denounced the con- vention as illegal, advising the members to separate at once, or they would " repent their rashness." The convention did not follow his advice, but continued in session six days, and reaffirmed the former declarations made by the General Court concerning their charter rights. The proceedings throughout were calm and moderate. A respectful petition to the king was prepared, in which they wholly disclaimed the charge of a rebellious spirit. An address to the people was also adopted, recommending sub- mission to legal authority and abstinence from all participation in acts of violence. This was the first of those independent popular assemblies which soon began to exercise political power in the colonies. The Patriot lead- ers were wise and sagacious men, who, in asserting their rights, knew well how to keep the law on their side. When the proceedings of this conven- tion were submitted to the attorney-general, and to the solicitor-general of England, to ascertain if they were treasonable, both declared that they were not. " Look into the papers," said De Grey, " and see how well these Americans are versed in the crown law. I doubt whether they have been guilty of an overt act of treason, but I am sure they have come within a hair's breadth of it." z

No sooner had the convention adjourned than the fleet arrived in the harbor, bringing two regiments, with artillery, under command of Colonel Dalrymple.3 In response to a requisition for quarters in the town the council, and afterwards the selectmen, adhering to the law, declined to act, stating that the barracks at Castle Island were provided for that purpose.

1 Hutchinson, iii. app. I.. ; Boston News-Letter, came near being roused in this way. Governor postscript, Sept. 22, 1768. Bernard was informed of the movement, and

2 Bancroft, vi. 206. sent Sheriff Greenleaf to remove the combus- 8 [The Patriots had prepared to fire the bea- tibles. Frothingham, Life of Warren, p. 80. An

con above the town, and had placed a broken excellent likeness of Greenleaf, by Smibert, is

tar-barrel in the skillet. This was perhaps the owned by Mrs. S. G. Bulfinch, of Cambridge,

only time in which the surrounding country — Eo.J VOL. III. — 4.

26

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

On the first of October eight armed ships, with their tenders, approached the wharves, with cannon loaded and springs on the cables. The Four- teenth and Twenty-ninth regiments, and a part of the Fifty-ninth, with two field-pieces, landed at Long Wharf and marched with fixed bayonets, drums beating and colors flying, through the streets as far as the Common, where a portion of the troops encamped, the remainder being allowed by the Sons of Liberty, later in the day, to occupy Faneuil Hall.1 We can easily imagine the surprise and indignation with which the people of Boston be- held this demonstration of authority. They keenly felt the insult offered to their loyalty, and though no open resistance was made it was soon appa- rent that such a state of things could only engender mutual hostility which might at any time break out in a disturbance of the peace. The odious terms " rebel " and " tyrant " were now spoken with increasing bitterness, and the lines were drawn more sharply than ever between Tory and Patriot. While Boston was thus in the hands of a hireling soldiery, her people waited anxiously for intelligence from abroad, hoping that their communications to the King and Parliament would meet with a favorable consideration ; 2 but again they were doomed to disappointment. Changes had taken place in the cabinet, but there was no change in the purpose of the Government. Chatham had resigned ; Shelburne was removed ; and Lord North 3 had taken the place left vacant by the death of Townshend.4 At the opening of Parliament, the King referred to Boston as being " in a state of diso- bedience to all law and government," and declared it to be his purpose " to defeat the mischievous designs of those turbulent and seditious per- sons " who had " but too successfully deluded numbers" of his subjects in America. An animated debate followed, in which it was said that the difficulties in governing Massachusetts were " insurmountable, unless its charter and laws should be so changed as to give the King the appoint- ment of the council, and to the sheriffs the sole power of returning juries."

1 [Paul Revere's plate, showing this landing, is given in Vol. II. p. 532. Mrs. Turrell says in her recollections, in Ar. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg., April, 1860, p. 150: "When the British troops came here they were lodged in a sugar- house in Brattle Square, which belonged to Mrs. Inman. I think there were three thousand of them. The officers lodged in the house of Madam Apthorp, in which I now live." But this paper is somewhat confused in other res- pects, if not in this. See John Adams's Works, ii. 213. — ED.]

2 [There is in the Charity Building collection a draft of a letter from the selectmen, Nov. 12, 1768, to Pownall and De Berdt, as endorsed by William Cooper, "on the present deplorable condition of this town, . . . changed from a free city to an almost garrison state." — ED.]

8 Lord North, eldest son of the Earl of Guil- ford, entered the cabinet at the age of thirty-five, and remained fifteen years, during the most crit-

ical period in English history. He was always a favorite of the king, and a recognized leader in the ministry. He never understood the charac-

ter or claims of the American people, and conse- quently favored a mistaken policy towards them, to which he adhered throughout the war.

4 At the early age of forty-one. Bancroft, in summing up the character of Townshend, aptly calls him "the most celebrated statesman who has left nothing but errors to account for his fame," vi. 99.

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 27

Burke defended the Colonies, and denounced as illegal and unconstitutional the order requiring the General Court to rescind their resolutions. Bar- rington accused the Americans as traitors, adding, " The troops have been sent thither to bring rioters to justice." Lord North defended the recent act of Parliament, and said that he would never think of repealing it until he should see America " prostrate at his feet."

" Depend upon it," said Hillsborough to one of the colonial agents, " Parliament will not suffer their authority to be trampled upon. We wish to avoid severities towards you ; but if you refuse obedience to our laws the whole fleet and army of England shall enforce it."

The indictment against the Colonies was presented in sixty papers laid before Parliament. Both Houses declared that the proceedings of the Mas- sachusetts Assembly, in opposing the revenue acts, were unconstitutional ; that the circular-letter tended to create unlawful combinations ; and that the Boston convention was proof of a design of setting up an independent au- thority ; and both Houses proposed, under the provisions of an obsolete act of Henry VIII., to transport to England " for trial and condign punishment," in direct violation of trial by jury, the chief authors and instigators of the late disorders. In the famous debate of this session, Burke, Barre, Pow- nall, and Dowdeswell spoke eloquently in behalf of the Colonies ; but the address and resolutions were carried by a large majority.

After being nearly a year without a Legislature, Massachusetts was again permitted by the Governor, in the name of the King, to send its representa- tives to a General Court convened, according to the charter, on the last Wed- nesday in May, 1769. The first business was a protest against the breach of their privileges, and a petition to the Governor to have the troops re- moved from Boston, as it was inconsistent with the Assembly's dignity and freedom to deliberate in the presence of an armed force. They declined to enter upon the business of supplies, or anything else except the considera- tion of their grievances. The Governor refused to grant their petition, alleg- ing want of authority over His Majesty's forces ; and after vainly waiting a fortnight for them to vote him his year's salary, he adjourned the Assem- bly to Cambridge, and informed them that he was about to repair to Eng- land to lay the state of the province before His Majesty. The Assembly thereupon passed a unanimous vote, one hundred and nine members being present, to petition the king " to remove Sir Francis Bernard l forever from this government."2 It has always been believed that much of the difficulty between Massachusetts and Great Britain was owing to the total unfitness of Bernard for the important position which he held during nine eventful years. His frequent misrepresentations of the spirit and conduct of the colonists are a matter of record. He left no friends behind him. Indeed his departure was an occasion of public rejoicing. " The bells were rung, guns

1 Bernard had recently received a baronetcy, fidence of any order or rank of men within his "a most ill-timed favor, when he had so griev- province." Mahon, History of England, v. 241. ously failed in gaining the affections or the con- 2 y<w/>-«<z/, House of Representatives, 1769, 36.

28 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

were fired from Mr. Hancock's wharf, Liberty Tree was covered with flags, and in the evening a great bonfire was made upon Fort Hill." l

Lieut.-Governor Hutchinson succeeded to the chair as chief magistrate. He was a native of Boston, was acquainted with public affairs, and for many years had held more important offices than any other man in the province ; but his career had been so often marred by duplicity and avarice that very little hope was cherished of any improvement in the administration. His failure was in part owing to the difficulty he found in trying to serve both England and America, with a decided preference in favor of the former, at a time when the opinions and interests of the two countries were rapidly be- coming distinct. He was not the man for the times.2 When the Massachu- setts Assembly, sitting at Cambridge, had refused to grant the supplies de- manded by Bernard, that functionary prorogued it to the tenth of January. When that date arrived, Hutchinson, under arbitrary instructions from Hills- borough, prorogued it still further to the middle of March.

Meanwhile the non-importation agreements had become so general as to produce a visible effect upon British commerce. Exports from England to America had fallen off seriously, and English merchants were really injured more than the Americans by the narrow revenue policy of the Government. Lord North, perceiving this, caused a circular-letter to be sent to the Colonies, proposing to favor the removal of duties from all articles, except tea, enumer- ated in the late act. This was evidently a measure of expediency, dictated wholly by self-interest; and as by retaining the duty on tea there was no surrender of the obnoxious claim contained in the declaratory act, it did not materially affect the situation in America.

Boston at this time, in a legal town-meeting,3 issued an Appeal to the World, prepared by Samuel Adams, vindicating itself from the aspersions of Bernard, Gage, Hood, and the revenue officers. The Appeal says : -

" We should yet be glad that the ancient and happy union between Great Britain and this country might be restored. The taking off the duties on paper, glass, and

1 Hutchinson, iii. 254. [See Dr. Ellis's esti- appear as ridiculous as possible, which generally mate of Bernard in Vol. II. of this History, p. 65. occasioned a grin of applause." Not long before The Governor left his estate on Jamaica Pond, this, the Sons of Liberty had dined together, Aug. July 31, 1769, and embarked the next day from 14, 1769, at Dorchester, and there is a list of their the Castle. Lady Bernard did not leave the es- names in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., August, 1869. tate till December, 1770. — ED.] John Adams's Works, ii. 218.

2 Hutchinson 's History of Massachusetts Bay William Cooper, who figures largely in the deserves honorable mention as a work of rare town's transactions at this time, was a son of the ability and candor, for which students of our Rev. William Cooper, D.D., of the Brattle Street history will always be grateful. [See Dr. Ellis's Church; was born Oct. i, 1721, and died Nov. estimate of Hutchinson's administration in Vol. 28, 1809. He was first chosen town clerk in 1761, II. p 69 ; and that by Frothingham in his Warren, and held the office till his death. In 1755-56 he p. 107. — ED.] was a representative to the General Court. From

8 [Cooper, the town clerk, issued the warrant 1759 to 1800 he was Register of Probate. He is

for this meeting, Sept. 28, 1769, and the meeting buried in the Granary Burial-ground. He lived

was held, October 4. A contemporary account on Hanover Street. He married, April 26, 1745,

(in the Chalmers papers, ii. 37, in the Sparks Katharine, daughter of Jacob Wendell, and had

MSS. in Harvard College Library) says that sixteen children. See notices in Boston Patriot,

Cooper read the letters to the meeting, "and Dec. 6, 1809, and Evening Transcript, July 7,

took a good deal of 'pains to make the Governor iSSi. — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

29

painters' colors, upon commercial principles only, will not give satisfaction. Discon- tent runs through the continent upon much higher principles. Our rights are invaded by the revenue acts ; therefore, until they are ALL repealed, . . . and the troops recalled, . . . the cause of our just complaints cannot be removed."

^/

SIGNATURES OF THE TOWN S COMMITTEE.

Society in Boston was thoroughly moved by the prevailing sentiment.2 Three hundred wives subscribed to a league agreeing not to drink any tea

1 [These autographs are from a letter sent by the town to Dennis De Berdt, the colony's agent in England, in order that through him "our friends in Parliament maybe acquainted with the difficulties the trade labors by means of those acts." It recapitulates how the merchants and traders of Boston had entered into an agreement, August, 1768, not to import goods from Great Britain after Jan. i, 1770, and had made a further agreement, Oct. 17, 1769, that no goods should be sent from here till the revenue acts be re- pealed; and how the other colonies had not gone to the same extent ; and so they informed De Berdt that they had notified their correspon- dents to ship goods with the express condition that the act imposing duties on tea, glass, paper, and colors be totally repealed, and had forwarded to him papers with their views on the matter. The original is in a collection of a part of the papers of Arthur Lee, who succeeded De Berdt as the agent of Massachusetts, and thus retained many of the documents emanating from the prov-

ince and from Boston during the early days of the controversy. The younger Richard Henry Lee, after writing the Lives of the elder of his name and of Arthur Lee, divided the manuscripts which had come to him among three institu- tions,— the Libraries of Harvard College, of the University of Virginia, and of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. No rec- ognizable principle of adaptation was followed in the division, sets being broken, — those now in Virginia containing many papers of the utmost interest for Boston history, and in some cases when others closely allied with them are in the Harvard College collection. The Editor has been kindly entrusted with these other collections by their respective guardians. Those in the College Library have been calendared in print under his direction. — ED.]

2 [Richard Frothingham has minutely traced the progress of events and feelings of the people during this period, — from October, 1768, to the Massacre, — in his papers, " The Sam Adams

30 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

until the revenue act should be repealed. The young, unmarried women followed their example, and signed a document beginning as follows : " We, the daughters of those Patriots who have appeared ... for the public interest, ... do now with pleasure engage with them in denying ourselves the drinking of foreign tea." ' . . . Even the children caught the spirit of patriotism, and imitated their elders in maintaining what they considered to be their " constitutional " rights.2

It was now nearly a year and a half since the troops had come to Boston, and their presence was a continual source of irritation to the inhabitants. Their services were not wanted ; their parades were offensive ; their bearing often insulting. Quarrels would occasionally arise between individual sol- diers and citizens. " The troops greatly corrupt our morals," said Dr. Cooper, " and are in every sense an oppression. May Heaven soon deliver us from this great evil ! " 3

In this state of things, any unusual excitement might at any time occasion disastrous results. Towards the end of February an event occurred which threw the public mind into a ferment, and prepared the way for the tragic scenes of the fifth of March. A few of the merchants had rendered them- selves unpopular by continuing to sell articles which had been proscribed. One of them in particular4 had incurred such displeasure that his store was marked by the crowd with a wooden image as one to be shunned. One of his friends, a well known informer,5 attempted to remove the image, but was driven back by the mob. Greatly exasperated, he fired a random shot among them and mortally wounded a young lad,6 who died the following evening. The funeral was attended by five hundred children, walking in front of the bier; six of his school-mates held the pall, followed by thirteen hundred of the inhabitants. The bells of the town were tolled, and the whole community partook of the feeling of sadness and indignation that innocent blood had been shed in the streets of Boston.7

A few days later, a still more serious occurrence took place. On Friday, March 2, two soldiers, belonging to the Twenty-ninth Regiment, were pass- ing Gray's rope-walk, near the present Pearl Street, and got into a quarrel with one of the workmen. Insults and threats were freely exchanged, and the soldiers then went off and found some of their comrades, who returned with them and challenged the ropemakers to a boxing-match. A fight

Regiments," in Atlantic Monthly, June, August, l Boston Gazette, Feb. 12, 1770, et seq. ; Loss-

1862, and November, 1863; matter which is only ing, Field-Book, i. 488. epitomized in his Life of Warren. John Mein, 2 Lossing, " 1776," p. 90.

the printer, had refused to join in any non-impor- 3 Rev. S. Cooper to Governor Thomas Pow-

tation agreement, and his name had been pub- nail, Jan. i, 1770. licly proclaimed as one to be avoided in trade. * Theophilus Lillie.

He in turn printed the State of the Importation of 8 Ebenezer Richardson, who lived near by. Great Britain with the Port of Boston from Jan- 6 Christopher Snider.

uary to August, 1768, and showed some of his 7 Evening Post, Feb. 26, 1770. [See Hutch- detractors in the light of importers. See Henry inson ; Gordon, i. 276; John Adams's Works, ii. Stevens's Historical Collections, i. No. 393. — ED.] 227. — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 31

ensued, in which sticks and cutlasses were freely used. Several were wounded on both sides, but none were killed. The proprietor and others interposed, and prevented further disturbance.1 The next day it was re- ported that the fight would be resumed on Monday. Colonel Carr, com- mander of the Twenty-ninth, complained to the Governor of the conduct of the rope-makers. Hutchinson laid the matter before the council, some of whom freely expressed the opinion that the only way to prevent such colli- sions was to withdraw the troops to the Castle ; but no precautionary meas- ures were taken. At an early hour on Monday evening, March 5, numerous parties of men and boys were strolling through the streets, and whenever they met any of the soldiers a sharp altercation took place. The ground was frozen and covered with a slight fall of snow, and a young moon shed its mild light upon the scene. Small bands of soldiers were seen passing between the main guard 2 and Murray's barracks in Brattle Street, armed with clubs and cutlasses. They were met by a crowd of citizens carrying canes and sticks. Taunts and insults soon led to blows. Some of the soldiers levelled their firelocks, and threatened to " make a lane " through the crowd. Just then an officer3 on his way to the barracks, finding the passage obstructed by the affray, ordered the men into the yard and had the gate shut. The alarm-bell, however, had called out the people from their homes, and many came down towards King Street, supposing there was a fire there. When the occasion of the disturbance was known, the well disposed among them advised the crowd to return home ; but others shouted: "To the main guard! To the main guard! That's the nest!" Upon this they moved off towards King Street, some going up Cornhill, some through Wilson's Lane, and others through Royal Exchange Lane. Shortly after nine o'clock an excited party approached the Custom House, which stood on the north side of King Street, at the lower corner of Exchange Lane, where a sentinel was standing at his post. "There's the soldier who knocked me down ! " said a boy whom the sentinel, a few min- utes before, had hit with the but-end of his musket. " Kill him ! Knock him down ! " cried several voices. The sentinel retreated up the steps and loaded his gun. " The lobster is going to fire," exclaimed a boy who stood by. " If you fire you must die for it," said Henry Knox,4 who was passing.

1 [See Drake, Landmarks, 274. It was men meeting-house. His father, William, a ship- of the Fourteenth Regiment who were engaged master, had married Mary, a daughter of Robert in this affair, and their barracks were in the Campbell ; and Henry was their seventh son, modern Atkinson Street. — ED.] and was born in 1750, in a house which Drake,

2 The " main guard " was located at the head Life of Henry Knox, p. 9, depicts, and says was of King Street, directly opposite the south door standing, in 1873, on Sea Street, opposite the of the Town House. The soldiers detailed for head of Drake's wharf. Losing his father in daily guard-duty met here for assignment to 1762, Henry went into the employ of Wharton& their several posts. Bowes, who had succeeded the year before to

3 Captain Goldfinch. the stand of Daniel Henchman, on the south

4 Afterward general, and secretary of war. corner of State and Washington streets. Knox [Knox was of Scotch-Presbyterian stock from the was in this employ when the massacre occurred; north of Ireland, and his family belonged to the but the next year (1771) he started business on parish of Moorhead, the pastor of the Long Lane his own account on the same street, about where

32 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

" I don't care," replied the sentry ; " if they touch me, I '11 fire." While he was saying this, snowballs and other missiles were thrown at him, where- upon he levelled his gun, warned the crowd to keep off, and then shouted to the main guard across the street, at the top of his voice, for help. A sergeant, with a file of seven men, was sent over at once, through the crowd, to protect him. The sentinel then came down the steps and fell in with the file, when the order was given to prime and load. Captain Thomas Preston of the Twenty-ninth soon joined his men, making the whole num- ber in arms ten.1 About fifty or sixty people had now gathered before the Custom House. When they saw the soldiers loading, some of them stepped forward, shouting, whistling, and daring them to fire. " You arc cowardly rascals," they said ; " lay aside your guns and we are ready for you." "Are the soldiers loaded?" inquired a bystander. "Yes," answered the Captain, "with powder and ball." "Are they going to fire on the in- habitants?" asked another. " They cannot," said the Captain, " without my orders." " For God's sake," said Knox, seizing Preston by the coat, " take your men back again. If they fire, your life must answer for the conse- quences." " I know what I 'm about," said he, hastily; and then, seeing his men pressing the people with their bayonets, while clubs were being freely used, he rushed in among them. The confusion was now so great, some calling out, "Fire, fire if you dare! " and others, "Why don't you fire?" that no one could tell whether Captain Preston ordered the men to fire or not; but with or without orders, and certainly without any legal warning, seven of the soldiers, one after another, fired upon the citizens, three of whom were killed outright: Crispus Attucks,2 Samuel Gray, and James Caldwell ; and two others, Samuel Maverick 3 and Patrick Carr, died soon after from their wounds. Six others were badly wounded. It is not known that any of the eleven took part in the disturbance except Attucks, who had been a conspicuous leader of the mob.

When the firing began the people instinctively fell back, but soon after returned for the killed and wounded. Captain Preston restrained his

the Globe newspaper now is, calling his estab- of the royalist secretary of the province, Thomas lishment the " London Bookstore." At least one Flucker, who had vainly tried to prevent the book, Cadogan on the Gout, bears his imprint, union ; and a year from the day of their marriage 1772, and at the end of it is a list of medical and Knox had slipped out of Boston clandestinely, other books which he had imported. Brinley to avoid interception by Gage, while his wife Catalogue, No. 1585. See H. G. Otis's letter in concealed in her quilted skirts the sword herhus- N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg., July, 1876, p. band was afterwards to make honorable. — ED.] 362. In November, 1774, Knox writes to Long- J Some accounts say eight.

2 Usually called a mulatto, sometimes a slave ; and in the American Historical Record for De- cember, 1872, he is held to have been a half- breed Indian. [George Livermore gives us a glimpse of the past life of Crispus Attucks as a man in London : " The magazines and new pub- slave, in his " Historical Research on Negroes as lications concerning the American dispute are Slaves," in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 1862, Aug., p. the only things which I desire you to send at 173. See also N.E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg.,Qc\.. present." It will be remembered that Knox but 1859^.300. — ED.] six months before this had married a daughter 8 [See Sumner's East Boston, p. 171. — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 33

men from a second discharge, and ordered them back to the main guard. The drums beat to arms, and several companies of the Twenty-ninth formed, under Colonel Carr, in three divisions, in the neighborhood of the Town House. And now the alarm was everywhere given. The church bells were rung, the town drums beat to arms, and King Street was soon thronged with citizens who poured in from all directions. The sight of the mangled bodies of the slain sent terror and indignation through their ranks. The excitement surpassed anything which Boston had ever known before. It was indeed a " night of consternation." No one knew what would happen next ; but in that awful hour the people were guided by wise and prudent leaders, who restrained their passions and turned to the law for justice. About ten o'clock the Lieut-Governor appeared on the scene and called for Captain Preston, to whom he put some sharp and searching questions. Forced by the crowd he then went to the Town House, and soon appeared on the balcony, where he spoke with much feeling and power concerning the unhappy event, and promised to order an inquiry in the morning, saying " the law should have its course ; he would live and die by the law." On being informed that the people would not disperse until Captain Preston was arrested, he at once ordered a court of inquiry; and after consultation with the military officers, he succeeded in having the troops removed to their barracks, after which the people began to disperse. Preston's exam- ination lasted three hours, and resulted in his being bound over for trial. The soldiers were also placed under arrest. It was three o'clock in the morning before Hutchinson retired to his house. By his judicious exer- tions he succeeded in calming a tumult which, had it been left to itself, might in a single night have involved the town in a conflict of much greater proportions. Early in the morning, large numbers of people from the sur- rounding country flocked into the town to learn the details of the tragedy, and to confer with the citizens as to what was to be done. Faneuil Hall was thrown open for an informal meeting at eleven o'clock. The town clerk, William Cooper, acted as chairman until the selectmen could be summoned from the council chamber, where they were in conference with the Lieut.-Governor. On their appearance, Thomas Gushing was chosen moderator; and Dr. Cooper, brother of the town clerk, opened the meet- ing with prayer. Several witnesses brought in testimony concerning the events of the previous night. A committee of fifteen, including Adams, Gushing, Hancock, and Molineux, was chosen to wait on the Lieut.-Gov- ernor and inform him that the inhabitants and soldiery could no longer live together in safety ; and that nothing could restore peace and prevent fur- ther carnage but the immediate removal of the troops.1 In the afternoon at three o'clock a regular town-meeting was convened at the same place, by legal warrant, to consider what measures could be taken to preserve the

1 [Dr. Belknap records an anecdote told by him and demanded the removal of the troops

Governor Hancock, of the trepidation which after the massacre. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., March,

seized Hutchinson when the committee went to 1858, p. 308. — ED.] VOL. III. — 5.

34

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

*/

1 [This cut follows a painting which has for and is believed, from the costume, to represent many years hung in the Essex Institute, Salem, the Patriot of this name ; though the earlier

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

35

SAMUEL ADAMS.

peace of the town. The attendance was so large that the meeting was ad- journed to the Old South, which was soon crowded to its utmost capacity.

Speaker of the same name, who died in 1748, may possibly have been the sitter. The painting itself has no inscription, as the courteous Libra- rian, Dr. Henry Wheatland, informs me. In 1876 a descendant caused a copy of it to be made for Independence Hall, Philadelphia, in the belief that it represented the later Thomas Gushing. He was born in Bromfield Street, on the spot long occupied by the public house of that name. — ED.]

1 [This cut follows the larger of Copley's por- traits of Adams, and was painted when he was forty-nine. The smaller and later one has already been given in Vol. II. p. 438. The present pic- ture for many years hung in Faneuil Hall, and is now in the Art Museum; it has been engraved before in Wells's Life of Samuel Adams, vol. i., in Bancroft's United States, vol. vii., and else- where. It represents the Patriot, clad in dark red, defending the rights of the people under the

36 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

Samuel Adams presented the report of the committee, which was that they could not obtain a promise of the removal of more than one of the regi- ments at present. " Both regiments or none ! " was the cry with which the meeting received this announcement. The answer was voted to be unsatis- factory ; and another committee was appointed, consisting of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, William Molineux, William Phillips, Joseph \Varren, Joshua Henshaw, and Samuel Pemberton, to inform the Lieut.-Governor that nothing less than the total and immediate removal of the troops would satisfy the people. At a late hour the committee returned with a favorable report, which was received by the meeting with expressions of the greatest satisfaction. Before adjourning, a strong military watch was provided for ; and the whole subject of the public defence was left in the hands of a " committee of safety," consisting of those who had just waited on the Lieut.-Governor.

On Thursday, March 8, the funeral of the slain was an occasion of mournful interest to the whole community. The stores were generally closed. The bells of Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, and Roxbury were tolled. Never before, it was said, was there so large an assemblage in the streets of Boston. The procession started from the scene of the massacre in King Street, and proceeded through the main street six deep, followed by a long train of carriages, to the Middle or Granary Burying-ground, where the bodies of the victims were deposited in one grave.

After the removal of the troops to the Castle, nothing occurred to dis- turb the usual quiet of the town. The people waited patiently for the law to have its course. In October, Preston's case came on for trial in the Superior Court, followed in November by that of the soldiers implicated in the massacre. Through the exertions of Samuel Adams and others, the best legal talent in the province was secured on both sides. The prosecu- tion was conducted by Robert Treat Paine, in the absence of the king's at- torney.1 Auchmuty, the prisoners' counsel, had the valuable assistance of John Adams and Josiah Quincy, the distinguished Patriots, who gener- ously consented to take the position, — a severe ordeal at such a time, — in order that the town might be free from any charge of unfairness, and that the accused might have the advantage of every legal indulgence.2 As a

Charter, — as he maybe supposed to have ap- l [This was Jonathan Sewall, who, as John peared when he confronted Hutchinson and his Adams says, "disappeared." It is probable that council on the day after the massacre. Wells, Samuel Quincy — a few months later to be made Life of Adams, i. 475. The Copley head of Sam solicitor-general — assisted Paine, as stated by Adams was engraved by J. Norman in An Im- Ward in his edition of Curwen's Journal, and partial History of the War in America, Boston, by Mr. Morse in Vol. IV. ; though I find no con- 1781. The journals of the Boston committee of temporary authority for such statement, unless correspondence, as well as the papers of Sam what John Adams says (Works, x. 201) in con- Adams, are in the possession of Bancroft the nection with the soldiers' trial applies as well to historian. Frothingham, Life of Warren, p. vii. Preston's. Quincy is known, however, to have Wells, Life of Sam Adams, vol. i. pp. vi. and x., been on the Government side in the soldiers' gives a particular account of the Adams papers, trials. — ED.]

Bancroft's United States, p. vi. preface. See an 2 [See the chapter on "The Bench and Bar,"

estimate of Adams in Mr. Goddard's ch. — ED.] by John T. Morse, Jr., in Vol. IV. — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

37

result of the trial, Preston was acquitted ; six of the soldiers were brought in "not guilty; " and two were found guilty of manslaughter, branded in the

1 [Of this picture there is this account by Miss E. S. Quincy in Mason's Life of Gilbert Stuart, p. 244 : " There was an engraving that his widow, Mrs. Abigail Quincy, considered an excellent likeness. This print, Stuart had de- clined to copy; but after reading the memoir of J. Quincy, Jr., published in 1825, he said : ' I must paint the portrait of that man ; ' and re- quested that the print, and the portrait of his brother Samuel Quincy, by Copley, should be sent to his studio." Miss Quincy says in a pri-

vate letter: "The portrait was entirely satis- factory to my father and Mrs. Storer. The cast in his eye was one of his characteristics which they would not have allowed to be omitted." Jonathan Mason, who studied law in Mr. Quin- cy's office, Mr. Gardiner Greene, who saw him in London, Dr. Holbrook, of Milton, and many others testified to the likeness. There is an estimate of Quincy in Mr. Goddard's chapter in this volume. Quincy lived on the present Washington Street, a little south of Milk Street.

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

hand in open court, and then discharged. These trials must ever be re- garded as a signal instance of that desire for impartial justice which char- acterized the American people throughout the stormy period which ushered in the Revolution.1

The manuscript of instructions to the represen- tatives of the town, in his handwriting (1770), is noted in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., December, 1873, P- 2J6- See also Frothingham's War- ren, p. 1 56. H is f am i ly relations can be traced in Vol. II. p. 547, and in the accounts of the Bromfield and Phillips family in the same vol- ume pp. 543, 548. His

father-in-law was William Phillips, who was the son of the Rev. Samuel Phillips of Andover, and who coming to Boston entered into business con- nections with Edward Bromfield, a rich mer- chant, whose daughter he afterward married, in 1764, and whose house on Beacon Street, figured in Vol. II., p. 521, he bought and lived in till his death in 1804. He amassed a large fortune, which has been transmitted to our day, though now mainly possessed by a collateral branch of the family. He took the Patriot side in the Rev- olution ; and in August, 1774, Josiah Quincy, Jr., writes to Samuel Adams, then in Philadelphia : " It is very difficult to keep our poor in order. Mr. Phillips has done wonders among them. I do not know what we should do without him." After his daughter (Mrs. Quincy) lost her husband in 1775, she with her young son, the future Pres- ident Quincy, lived with her father till 1786. Mr. Phillips 's two younger daughters — twins, born in 1756, Sarah and Hannah — married re- spectively Edward Dowse and Major Samuel Shaw, who had been an aid to General Knox

/4^?-r^t^jc^Cr t^/^

in the Revolution. Both were pioneers in open- ing trade with China after the war, and Shaw's memoir has been written by President Quincy. Shaw lived in Bulfinch Place, in a house built for him in 1793 by Charles Bulfinch; and it is to-day, shorn of its ample grounds, known as Hotel Waterston. An account of Phillips can be found in the American Quarterly Register, xiii., No. i. — ED.]

1 For details see Lives of John Adams and Josiah Quincy. The Brief used by the former is in the Boston Public Library. [It is a small brochure of ten leaves, six by four inches, fast- ened by a pin, and four of the leaves are blank. The annexed fac-simile is of the opening para-

graph. Kidder, who formerly owned the docu- ment, has printed it in his Boston Massacre, p. 10.

tr

Sampson Salter Blowers, who assisted Adams and Quincy, had graduated at Harvard in 1763,

and was only made a barrister in 1773; and in the next year married a daughter of Benjamin Kent, with whom he went to Nova Scotia at the time of the loyalist exodus. The presiding judge was the younger Lynde, whose portrait is

given in Vol. II. p. 558. All that remains of his charge is given in the appendix of The Diaries of Benjamin Lynde, and of Benjamin Lynde, Jr. Boston, privately printed, 1880.

John Adams wrote to J. Morse in 1816 ( Works of John Adams, x. 201) that the report of Pres- ton's trial " was taken down, and transmitted to England, by a Scottish or English stenogra- pher, without any known authority but his own. The British Government have never permitted it to see the light, and probably never will." When the trial of William Wemms and seven other soldiers came on, Nov. 27, 1770, the same short-hand writer, John Hodgson, was employed ; and the published report, — entitled The Trial of William Wemms, . . . for the Murder of Crispus Attucks. . . . Published by per- mission of the Court. . . . Boston : printed by J. Fleeming, and sold at his Printing Office, nearly opposite the White Horse Tavern in Newbury Street. M.DCC.LXX., — makes a duodecimo of two hundred and seventeen pages. It gives the evi- dence and pleas of counsel. The last seven pages are occupied with a report, "from the minutes of a gentleman who attended," of the trial, December 12, of Edward Manwaring and

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

39

Previous to 1770 the people of Boston had celebrated the Gunpowder Plot annually with public demonstrations. After the Boston massacre, the

others, who were accused by several persons of firing on the crowd during the massacre from an adjacent window in the Custom House ; but they were easily acquitted. This little volume was reprinted in Bos- ton in 1807 and 1824, and again in Kidder's monograph in 1870. The plan of King Street, used at the trials, pre- pared by Paul Revere, is in the collection of Judge Mellen Chamberlain, of the Boston Public Library. An examina- tion of the reports of the trial is made in P. W. Chandler's American Criminal Trials, \.

A minute narrative of the events was printed between black lines in the Boston Gazette of March 12, but the papers of the day made few references to the event till after the trial, when more or less discontent with the verdict was manifested. Such particularly marked a series of articles in the Gazette, signed " Vindex " (Sam Adams), which reflected upon the argu- ments of the counsel for defence. Buckingham, Reminiscences, i. 168.

Some verses inscribed upon one of the pict- ures of the massacre closed as follows, referring to Boston and Preston : —

" Should venal courts, the scandal of the land, Snatch the relentless villain from her hand, Keen execrations, on this plate inscribed, Shall reach a judge who never can be bribed."

A letter from William Palfrey to John Wilkes, dated Boston, March 13 (1770), is printed in Mass. Hist.Soc. Proc., March, 1863, P- 4^°- (See also Sparks, American Biography, new series, vol. viii.) And on p. 484 is printed one from Thomas Hutchinson to Lord Hillsborough on the same theme.

There are some particulars entered upon the Town Records of the statements made at the meeting at Faneuil Hall the next forenoon ; but so many were ready to testify, that a committee was appointed to gather the evidence. The an- nexed autographs are attached to a letter ad- dressed to the agent of Massachusetts in London, the original of which is in the Lee collection of papers in the University of Virginia Library ; and with the letter was sent a copy of a Nar- rative authorized by the town. A similar letter, and other copies, were sent to various important people in England, — a list of whom, together with the letter, is printed at the end of some copies of the Narrative, which was also probably

drawn up by the same gentlemen, and, as print- ed, is called A short Narrative of the Horrid

Massacre in Boston perpetrated in the evening of the Fifth Day of March, 1770, by Soldiers of the XXIXth Regiment, with some Observations on the State of Things prior to that Catastrophe. Boston : printed by order of the Town, by Messrs. Edes &° Gill. MDCCLXX. It had an appendix of depo- sitions, including one of Jeremiah Belknap ; but another, of Joseph Belknap, is contained in the Belknap Papers, i. 69, in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society. A large fold- ing plate showed the scene in State Street. It was immediately reprinted in London, in at least three editions, — two by W. Bingley,in Newgate Street, with the large folding plate re-engraved ; and the third by E. and C. Dilby, with a smaller plate, a fac-simile of which, somewhat reduced, is given on the next page. The supplement of the Boston Evening Post, June 18, 1770, has news from London, May 5, announcing the republica- tion of it, and stating that the frontispiece was engraved from a copper-plate print sent over with the "authenticated narrative."

Copies of this Short Narrative were sent at once to England, but the remainder of the edi- tion was not published, for fear of giving " an undue bias to the minds of the jury," till after the trial, when Additional Observations, of twelve pages, were added to it. These were likewise published separately. Both of these documents were reprinted in New York in 1849, and again at Albany in 1870, in Mr. Kidder's History of the Boston Massacre. In this supplemental pub- lication it was intimated that the friends of Government had sent despatches "home" "to represent the town in a disadvantageous light." It is certain that a tract did appear shortly in London, called : A fair Account of the late

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

fifth of March was observed until the peace of 1783,* when the Fourth of July celebration was substituted by the town authorities. Unquestionably the influence of the Boston massacre upon the growing sentiment of inde- pendence throughout the colonies was very great.2 Public opinion was immediately shaped by it, and the remaining ties binding America to Britain were everywhere visibly relaxed. " On that night," wrote John

unhappy Disturbance at Boston in New England ; extracted from the Depositions that have been made concerning it by persons of all parties ; with an Appendix containing some affidavits and other evidences relating to this affair, not mentioned in the Narrative of it that has been published at Bos- ton. London : printed for B. White, in Fleet

American War is also at variance with the town's narrative.

Of the later historians Mr. Frothingham in the last of his papers on " The Sam Adams Regiments" (Atlantic Monthly, November, 1863), and in his Life 'of Warren, ch. vi., has given a very excellent account, " carefully collating the evidence that appears to be authentic ; " but he confesses it is vain to reconcile all state- ments. The events are also minutely described in Wells's Life of Samuel Adams, i. 308. Bancroft, United States, vol. vi. ch. xliii., examines the evi- dence for provocation, and concludes Preston ordered the firing. He cites, through the chapter, his authorities. — En.]

1 Orations were delivered on the successive anniversa- ries by Thomas Young, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Church, John Hancock, Joseph War- ren, Peter Thacher, Benjamin Hichborn, Jonathan W. Aus- tin, William Tudor, Jonathan Mason, Thomas Dawes, George R. Minot, and Thomas Welsh. [These, having been printed separately, were col- lected and issued by Peter Edes in 1785, and reissued in 1807. There are accounts of them and their authors in Lor- ing's Hundred Boston Orators. Paul Revere took the occasion of the first anniversary of the massacre, in 1771, to rouse the sensibilities of the crowd by

D »^ » «t / -2 giving illuminated pictures of

e perpetrated mKina JiCreft Beaton on MarcAj.J77O. in tffoc* e

. . " , the event, with allegorical ac-

J1* Sam' Gray. JamlMai'cru&.Jamej CalthvtJl &upu* AaueJe* . , . ,

compamments, at the windows Carr »a-fEMf<i. **r ether* Wounded a*o of tntsnJfor tatty Q{ ^ h()use ^ -^onh Square.

Lane; MDCCLXX. There is a copy in Harvard "The spectators," says the account in the

College Library. It is the Government view of Gazette, " were struck with solemn silence, and

the massacre, and is duly fortified by counter their countenances covered with a melancholy

depositions, chiefly by officers and men of the gloom." — ED.]

garrison. Hutchinson has given his account of 2 [See the letter to Franklin in Mass. Hist. Soc.

it in his posthumous third volume, and Gordon Proc., November, 1865. AlsoSparks's Franklin,

in his first volume. Stedman's account in his vii. 499. — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 41

Adams long afterward, " the formation of American Independence was laid." " From that moment," said Mr. Webster on one occasion, " we may date the severance of the British empire."

On the very day of the Boston massacre Lord North brought in a bill to repeal the Townshend revenue act, with the exception of the preamble and the duty on tea, which were retained to signify the continued suprem- acy of Parliament. This proposal met with much opposition, but was finally carried, and approved by the king on April 12.

As the great principle at issue was not relinquished, this new measure of the Government gave .but little satisfaction to the colonists. Trade, however, revived, and before the end of 1770 it was open in everything but tea.1

In the month of September Hutchinson received a royal order in effect introducing martial law into Massachusetts, in so far as to compel him to give up the fortress to General Gage, or such officer as he might appoint. This order was in direct contravention of the charter of the province, which gave the command of the militia and the forts to the civil Governor. After a little hesitation Hutchinson decided to obey the order, and, without consulting the council, he at once handed over the Castle to Colonel Dal- rymple; and from that hour it remained in the possession of England until the evacuation of Boston in March, 1776. The Provincial Assembly, meeting at Cambridge for the third time, and keeping a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, entered a solemn protest against the new and in- supportable grievances under which they labored.2 At this time Franklin, Boston's honored son, was elected as the agent of Massachusetts to repre- sent her cause before the king.3 Certainly no better choice could have been made. In the fulness of his ripened powers, possessed of rare wisdom and integrity, and animated by a spirit of fervent patriotism, he discharged the grave duties of his position with conspicuous fidelity and zeal.

The next year was not marked by any very notable event. Hutchinson, who had now received his coveted commission as Governor, maintained a controversy with the Assembly upon several matters of legislation, and

1 The self-imposed restrictions adopted by the filled by Gushing (the Speaker), Hancock, Sam colonists in reference to foreign articles had pro- Adams, and John Adams ; and to show their ducecl a great effect in checking extravagance, influence the journals indicate that three, and promoting domestic industry and economy, and sometimes all of them, were on every important opening to the people new sources of wealth, committee for a session which was much con- Home-made articles, which at first came into use cerned with political movements. John Adams from necessity, soon became fashionable. At was at this period a resident of Boston from Harvard College the graduating class of 1770 April, 1768, to April, 1771 ; but he still retained took their degrees in homespun. his office in Boston after removing his family to

2 [John Adams was now a representative Braintree ; and again he established a home in from Boston, succeeding Bowdoin, who had gone Queen Street, opposite the Court House, in into the Council. See John Adams's Works, ii. 1772. — ED.]

233. " Although Sam Adams was now the 3 [The choice of Franklin was made Oct. 24,

master-mover, John Adams seems to have sue- 1770; his appointment, signed by Thomas Cush-

ceeded to the post of legal adviser, which had ing, speaker, is among the Lee Papers, Univer-

been filled by Oxenbridge Thacher and James sity of Virginia. See Mr. Towle's chapter in

Otis." The four "Boston seats" were thus Vol. II. — ED.] VOL. III. — 6.

42 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

arbitrarily insisted upon their meeting in Cambridge, until the opposition to it became so strong that he was obliged to consent to a removal to Boston.1 The House soon after censured the Governor for accepting a salary from the king in violation of the charter; and the popular indigna- tion was still further aroused when it became known that royal stipends were provided for the judges in the province. This led to a town-meeting (Oct. 28, 1772), at which an address to his Excellency was prepared, re- questing information of the truth of the report. The Governor declined to make public any of his official advices. Another petition was drafted at an adjourned meeting, requesting the Governor to convene the Assembly on the day to which it stood prorogued (December 2) ; and at the same time the meeting expressed its horror of the reported judicial establish- ment, as contrary not only to the charter but to the fundamental principles of common law. This petition also was rejected in a reply which was read several times at an adjourned meeting and voted " not satisfactory." It was then resolved that the inhabitants of Boston " have ever had and ought to have a right to petition the king, or his representative, for a re- dress of such grievances as they feel, or for preventing of such as they have reason to apprehend ; and to communicate their sentiments to other towns." Adams now stood up and made that celebrated motion, which gave visible shape to the American Revolution, and endowed it with life and strength. The record2 says: —

" It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams that a committee of correspondence 3 be appointed, to consist 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 infringements and violations thereof that have been or from time to time may be made."

The motion was carried by a nearly unanimous vote ; but some of the leading men were not prepared to serve on the committee. It was seen that the labors would be arduous, prolonged, and gratuitous; and although they did not oppose, neither did they cordially support a measure which was really greater than they imagined. The committee, however, was well

1 [The instructions of the town, May 25, mittees ; but Bancroft, who has their papers, 1772, to Gushing and the other representatives, avers positively that Gordon's opinion (i. 312) are given in the Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., January, of the idea originating with James Warren of 1871, p. 9. The House later prepared an ad- Plymouth is erroneous. Bancroft's United States, dress of remonstrance to the king against taxa- vi. 428. See further, Wells's Samiifl Adams, \. tion without representation, and, July 14, 1772, 509, ii. 62; Frothingham's Rise of the Republic, it was despatched, signed by Gushing. An origi- pp. 284, 312, 327 ; Barry's Massachusetts, ii. 448, nal is among the Lee Papers, in the University and other references in Winsor's Handbook, p. of Virginia. — ED.] 20. The town's committee of correspondence

2 Boston Town Records, November, 1772. must not be confounded with the Assembly's

3 [John Adams said that Sam Adams "invent- committee. See R. Frothingham in Mass. Hist. ed" the committee of correspondence. Froth- Soc. Proc., Dec. 16, 1873. See earlier in this ingham, Life of Warren, p. 200. There has been chapter for Mayhew's suggestion. See also some controversy about the origin of these com- Hutchinson, iii. 361 ; and Gordon, i. 314. — ED.]

THE BEGIN. XING OF THE REVOLUTION.

43

LIEUT.-GOVERNOR ANDREW OLIVER.1

constructed, with Adams and Warren and other citizens of well known character and the highest patriotism. Otis, though broken in health, was named chairman, as a compliment for his former services.

1 [This cut follows Copley's portrait of An- drew Oliver, owned by Dr. F. E. Oliver, by whose kind permission it is copied. Perkins's Copley, p. 90. For his family connections see Mr. Whitmore's chapter in Vol. II. p. 539, and his more extended genealogy of the Olivers in N. E. Hist, and Geneal. Reg., April, 1865, p. 101. The two sons of Daniel Oliver (who died 1732, leaving a bequest to the town; see Vol.

judge and mandamus councillor), and Chief-Jus- tice Peter Oliver. They had close family rela-

II. p. 539) were Andrew Oliver, the Lieut-Gov- ernor (who died 1774, and was father of Andrew,

tions with Governor Hutchinson, for Andrew's second wife, Mary, was sister of Hutchinson's wife, the two being daughters of William San- ford ; and Dr. Peter Oliver, son of the chief- justice, married Sarah, daughter of Governor Hutchinson. Andrew, the mandamus council- lor, married a sister of the second Judge Lynde, who presided at the massacre trials. The family of the Lieut.-Governor, by his second wife, were refugees with their uncle, the chief-justice. — ED.]

44 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

This committee of correspondence met the next day and chose William Cooper as clerk. By a unanimous vote they gave to each other the pledge

of honor "not to divulge any Part of the conversation / at tneir meetings to *££t<- any person vvhat- soever, excepting what the committee itself should make known."

The work to be done was divided between them. Adams was appointed to prepare a statement of the rights of the colonists ; Warren of the several violations of those rights ; and Church was to draft a letter to the other towns.

On November 20 the report was presented at a legal meeting in Faneuil Hall. The statement of rights and of grievances, and the letter to the towns, were masterly presentations of the cause, and carried conviction throughout the province. Plymouth, Marblehead, Roxbury, and Cam- bridge responded at once to the call ; and it was not long before commit- tees of correspondence were everywhere established. The other Colonies accepted the plan.1 Virginia saw in it the prospect of union throughout the continent. So did South Carolina. " An American Congress," wrote Samuel Adams to Arthur Lee (April 9, 1773), " is no longer the fiction of a political enthusiast." 2

In the spring of 1773 the East India Company, finding itself embarrassed from the excessive accumulation of teas in England, owing to the persistent refusal of American merchants to import them, applied to Parliament for assistance, and obtained an act empowering the Company to export teas to America without paying the ordinary duty in England. This would enable the Company to sell at such low rates that it was thought the colonists would purchase, even with the tax of threepence on the pound. Accord- ingly ships were laden with the article and despatched to Charleston, Phila- delphia, New York, and Boston, and persons were selected in each of these ports to act as consignees, or "tea commissioners" as they were called.

1 [The report of the committee of correspond- agency of Franklin, and forwarded to the Patri- ence, made Nov. 20, 1772, was, by order of the ots in Boston. The result was a formal petition town, printed by Edes & Gill, as The Votes and to the king for the removal of the odious f unc- Proceedings of the Freeholders and other Inhabi- tionaries. These letters were printed in Boston tants. Frothingham, Warren, p. 211, etc., has in 1773, and in London in 1774. Mass. Hist, Soc. much to show the effect this meeting was having Proc., 1878. [See further on this matter, with a throughout the colonies. — ED.] note on the authorities, Vol. II. p. 86 John

2 Secret letters, written by Governor Hutch- Adams saw them as early as March 22, 1773. inson and Lieut.-Governor Oliver to friends in (Works, ii. 318.) The letters were first pub- England, favoring military intervention and lished in Boston, June 16, 1773. Thomas otherwise injuring the cause of the colonists, Newell's "diary" in Proc., October, 1877, p. were discovered about this time through the 339. — ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 45

When this news became known, all America was in a flame. The people were not to be duped by any such appeal to their cupidity. They had taken their stand upon a principle, and not until that was recognized would they withdraw their opposition. It seemed strange that England had not discerned that fact long before.

Nowhere was the feeling more intense on the subject than in Boston. The consignees were prominent men and friends of the Governor.1 On the night of November i they were each one summoned to appear on the following Wednesday noon, at Liberty Tree, to resign their commissions. Handbills were also posted over the town, inviting citizens to meet at the same place.2 On the day appointed, the bells rang from eleven to twelve o'clock, and the town-crier summoned the people to meet at Liberty Tree, which was decorated with a large flag. About five hundred assembled, including many of the leading Patriots. As the consignees failed to appear, a committee was appointed to wait upon them and request their resigna- tion ; and, in case they refused, to present a resolve to them declaring them to be enemies of their country. The committee, accompanied by many of the people, repaired to Clarke's warehouse and had a brief parley with the consignees, who refused to resign their trust.

A legal town-meeting was now called for, and the selectmen issued a war- rant for one to be held on the fifth.3 It was largely attended, and Hancock4 was chosen moderator. A series of eight resolves was adopted, similar to those which had been recently passed in Philadelphia, and extensively circu- lated through the press. The consignees were again, through a committee, asked to resign ; and again they refused, and the meeting adjourned.

On the seventeenth a vessel arrived, announcing that the tea-ships were on the way to Boston and might be hourly expected. Another legal meet- ing was immediately notified for the next day, at which Hancock was again the moderator. Word was sent to the consignees that it was the desire of the town that they would give a final answer whether they would resign their appointment. The answer came that they could not comply with the re-

1 Two of them were his sons, Elisha and 4 [Revere's portrait of Hancock is given in Thomas ; the others were Richard Clarke and the text. It appeared in the Royal Amer. Mag., sons, Benj. Faneuil, Jr., and Joshua Winslow. March, 1774, which contains also Hancock's

2 Draper's Gazette of November 3 contained massacre oration of that year. On Nov. u, 1773, the following: — Hutchinson had directed Hancock, as colonel of " To the Freemen of this and the neighboring towns : the cadets, to hold them in readiness for service.

" GENTLEMEN, — You are desired to meet at Liberty Frothingham, Life of Warren, p. 249, mentions

Tree this day at twelve o'clock at noon ; then and there to the original of this order as being in the hands

hear the persons, to whom the tea shipped by the East of th j c ,_ j w Seyer A cur;ous .

India Company is consigned, make a public resignation of

their office as consignees, upon oath ; and also swear that mS of Hls E*Cy John Hancock, late President

they will reship any teas that may be consigned to them by of the American Congress, J. Norman, SC.," ap-

said Company, by the first vessel sailing for London. peared in An Impartial History of the War in

" Boston, Nov. 3, i773. o. C, Secretary. America, Boston, 1781, vol. i. On the Hancock

" |^~ Show us the man that dare take down this." papers (most of which are printed in the Amer-

Several of these handbills are in possession lean Archives) see Massachusetts Historical Society

of the Mass. Hist. Society. Proceedings, January, 1818, p. 271 and Decem-

3 This warrant is now in the possession of ber, 1857 ; and Vol. IV. of this History, p. 5, Judge Mellen Chamberlain. note. — ED.]

46

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

quest.1 Upon this the meeting dissolved, without passing any vote or expressing any opinion. " This sudden dissolution," says Hutchinson,2 " struck more terror into the consignees than the most minatory resolves."

The whole matter was now understood to be in the hands of the com- mittee of correspondence, who constituted the virtual government of the province.

On Sunday, November 28, the ship " Dartmouth," Captain Hall, after a sixty days' passage, appeared in the harbor, with one hundred and four-

The HonV'jOHX HANCOCK.

teen chests of tea.3 There was no time to be lost. Sunday though it was, the selectmen and the committee of correspondence held meetings to take immediate action against the entry of the tea. The consignees had gone to the Castle ; but a promise was obtained from Francis Rotch, the owner of the vessel, that it should not be entered until Tuesday. The towns around Boston4 were then invited to attend a mass meeting in Faneuil Hall the next morning.6 Thousands were ready to respond to

1 The answer is given in Frothingham's Life of Warren, p. 251.

2 History, Hi. 426.

8 [The next morning, twenty-ninth, the vessel came up and anchored off Long Wharf (Massa- chusetts Gazette, November 29). The journal of the " Dartmouth " is in Traits of the Tea-Party, p. 259. — ED.

4 Dorchester, Roxbury, Brookline, Cam- bridge, and Charlestown.

8 The following placard appeared on Monday morning: —

" FRIENDS ! BRETHREN ! COUNTRYMEN ! "That worst of plagues, the detested TEA, shipped for this port by the East India Company, is now arrived in this harbor. The hour of destruction, or manly opposition to

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 47

this summons, and the meeting was obliged to adjourn to the Old South. Boston, it was said, had never seen so large a gathering.1 It was unani- mously resolved, upon the motion of Samuel Adams, that the tea should be sent back, and that no duty should be paid on it. " The only way to get rid of it," said Young, " is to throw it overboard." At an adjourned meeting in the afternoon, Mr. Rotch entered his protest against the pro- ceedings; but the meeting, without a dissenting voice, passed the signifi- cant vote that if Mr. Rotch entered the tea he would do so at his peril. Captain Hall was also cautioned not to allow any of the tea to be landed. To guard the ship during the night, a volunteer watch of twenty-five persons was appointed, under Captain Edward Proctor. " Out of great tenderness" to the consignees, the meeting adjourned to Tuesday morning, to allow fur- ther time for consultation. The answer, which was given jointly, then was that it was not in the power of the consignees to send the tea back ; but they were ready to store it till they could hear from their constituents. Before action could be taken on this reply, Greenleaf, the Sheriff of Suffolk, entered with a proclamation from the Governor, charging the inhabitants with violating the good and wholesome laws of the province, and " warning, exhorting, and requiring them, and each of them there unlawfully assembled, forthwith to disperse." 2 This communication was received with hisses and a unanimous vote not to disperse. At this juncture, Copley the artist, son- in-law of Clarke, tendered his services as mediator between the people and the consignees, and was allowed two hours for the purpose ; but after going to the Castle he returned with a report which was voted to be " not in the least degree satisfactory." In the afternoon, Rotch and Hall, yielding to the demands of the hour, agreed that the tea should return, without touching land or paying duty. A similar promise was obtained from the owners of two other tea-ships, which were daily expected ; and resolutions were passed against such merchants as had even " inadvertently " imported tea while subject to duty. Armed patrols were appointed for the night ; and six post- riders were selected to alarm the neighboring towns, if necessary. A report of the proceedings of the meeting was officially transmitted to every seaport in Massachusetts; also to New York and Philadelphia, and to England.3

In a short time the other tea-ships, the " Eleanor" and the "Beaver," arrived and, by order of the committee, were moored near the " Dartmouth" at Griffin's Wharf,4 that one guard might answer for all. Under the revenue laws the ships could not be cleared in Boston with the tea on board, nor

the machinations of tyranny, stares you in the face. Every 1 Jonathan Williams was chosen moderator ;

friend to his country, to himself and posterity, is now called and the business of the meeting was conducted

upon to meet at Faneuil Hall at nine o'clock THIS DAY (at ... . .. •»«• v j

which time the bells will ring), to make a united and sue- bX Adams» Hancock, Young, Mol.neux, and

cessful resistance to this last, worst, and most destructive Warren.

measure of Administration." 2 Hutchinson, Massachusetts Bay, lii. 432.

Boston Gazette, Nov. 29, 1773; Wells's Life 8 For accounts of this meeting see Boston

of S. Adams, ii. no. [The original draft of the Post-Boy, News-Letter, and especially the Gazette

call to the committees of the neighboring towns, for Dec. 6, 1773.

in Warren's hand, is owned by Mr. Bancroft. 4 Now Liverpool Wharf, near the foot of

Frothingham's Warren, p. 255. — ED.] Pearl Street.

48 THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

could they be entered in England ; and, moreover, on the twentieth day from their arrival they would be liable to seizure. Whatever was done, therefore, must be done soon. The Patriot leaders were all sincerely anxious to have the tea returned to London peaceably, and they left nothing undone to accomplish this object. On the eleventh of December the owner of the " Dartmouth " was summoned before the committee, and asked why he had not kept his agreement to send his ship back with the tea. He replied that it was out of his power to do so. "The ship must go," was the answi-r. "The people of Boston and the neighboring towns absolutely require and expect it." l Hutchinson, in the meantime, had taken measures to prevent her sailing. No vessel was allowed to put to sea without his permit ; the guns at the Castle were loaded, and Admiral Montagu had sent two war- ships to guard the passages out of the harbor.

The committees of the towns were in session on the thirteenth. On the fourteenth, two days before the time would expire, a meeting at the Old South again summoned Rotch and enjoined upon him, at his peril, to apply for a clearance. He did so, accompanied by several witnesses. The col- lector refused to give his answer until the next day, and the meeting adjourned to Thursday, the sixteenth, the last day of the twenty before con- fiscation would be legal. For two days the Boston committee of corre- spondence had been holding consultations of the greatest importance.

" That little body of stout-hearted men were making history that should endure for ages. Their secret deliberations, could they be exhumed from the dust of time, would present a curious page in the annals of Boston ; but the seal of silence was upon the pen of the secretary, as well as upon the lips of the members." 2

On Wednesday Rotch was again escorted to the Custom House, where both the collector and the comptroller " unequivocally and finally " refused to grant the " Dartmouth " a clearance unless her teas were discharged.

Thursday, December 16, came at last, — dies irae, dies ilia ! — and Boston calmly prepared to meet the issue. At ten o'clock the Old South was filled from an outside assemblage that included two thousand people from the sur- rounding country. Rotch appeared and reported that a clearance had been denied him. He was then directed as a last resort to protest at once against the decision of the Custom House, and apply to the Governor for a passport to go by the Castle. Hutchinson, evidently anticipating such an emergency, had found it convenient to be at his country-seat on Milton Hill,3 where it would require considerable time to reach him. Rotch was instructed to make all haste, and report to the meeting in the afternoon. At three o'clock the number of people in and around the Old South was estimated at seven thousand, — by far the largest gathering ever seen in Boston. Addresses

1 Bancroft, vi. 482. as Hutchinson's country-seat, «is not Hutchin-

2 Wells's Life of Samuel Adams, ii. 119. son's house but another on Milton Hill. The 8 [The mansion which is delineated in Bryant true house was taken down not long since.—

and Gay's History of the United States, iii. 372, ED.]

THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.

49

were made by Samuel Adams, Young, Rowe, Ouincy,1 and others. "Who knows," said Rowe, " how tea will mingle with salt water ? " a suggestion which was received with loud applause.2 When the question was finally put to the vast assembly it was unanimously resolved that the tea should not be landed. It was now getting darker and darker, and the meeting-house could only be dimly lighted with a few candles ; yet the people all remained, know- ing that the great question must soon be decided. About six o'clock Rotch appeared and reported that he had waited on the Governor, but could not obtain a pass, as his vessel was not duly qualified. No sooner had he con- cluded than Samuel Adams arose and said : " This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." 3 Instantly a shout was heard at the porch ; the war-whoop resounded, and a band of forty or fifty men, disguised as Indians, rushed by the door and hurried down toward the harbor,4 followed by a throng of people ; guards were carefully posted, according to previous arrangements, around Griffin's wharf to prevent the intrusion of spies. The " Mohawks," and some others accompanying them, sprang aboard the three tea-ships and emptied the contents of three hundred and forty-two chests of tea into the bay, "without the least injury to the vessels or any other prop- erty." No one interfered with them ; no person was harmed ; no tea was allowed to be carried away. There was no confusion, no noisy riot, no

1 [The speech which Josiah Quincy, Jr. de- livered at this meeting, Dec. 16, 1773, together with one of Otis in 1767, are the only reports at any length of all the speeches made in Boston pub- lic meetings from 1768 to 1775. Frothingham's Warren, p. 39. Quincy's Life of Josiah Quincy, Jr., 2d ed. p. 124. Mr. Quincy's speech is pre- served only in a letter which, after he had gone to England, he wrote to his wife from London, Dec. 14, 1774, and the words given by Gordon were copied from the manuscript still existing. It counselled moderation. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Dec. 16, 1873, Mr. Waterston's address. — ED.]

2 Miles, Principles and Acts of t lie Revolution, pp. 485, 486.

3 Francis Rotch's information before the privy council. [The moderator of this meeting was William Phillips Savage. His portrait is owned by Mr. G. H. Emery. The original min- utes, in the hand of William Cooper, of the meet- ings from Nov. 29, 1773, are preserved among the papers in the Charity Building. They show the names of the watch of twenty-five men, under Captain Proctor, who were to guard the ships that night ; and later each successive watch was empowered to appoint its successors for the fol- lowing night. The.final report of Mr. Rotch is entered in the minutes for December 16, as follows : —

" Mr. Rotch attended and informed that he had demanded a pass for his vessel of the Gov- ernor, who answered that he was willing to grant anything consistent with the laws and his duty to VOL. in. — 7.

the King, but that he could not give a pass un- less the vessel was properly qualified from the Custom House ; that he should make no distinc- tion between this and any other vessel, provided she was properly cleared.

" Mr. Rotch was then asked whether he would send his vessel back with the tea under her pres- ent circumstances; he answered that he could not possibly comply, as he apprehended it would be to his risk. He was further asked whether he would land the tea ; he answered he had no busi- ness with it unless he was properly called upon to do it, when he should attempt a compliance for his own security.

" Voted, that this meeting be dissolved ; and it was accordingly dissolved."

Here the minutes end, the remaining leaves of the book being blank. — ED.]

4 [The conclave which had decided upon this movement had been held in the back office of Edes & Gill's printing house, on the site of the present Daily Advertiser building. A room over the office was often the meeting place of the Pa- triots, and the frequenters got to be known as the Long-Room Club. Drake, Landmarks, p. 81. There is some reason to believe that this was the office of Josiah Quincy, Jr. A letter about the punch-bowl used by the Patriots be- fore going to the wharf is given in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., December, 1871. Lossing, Field- Book of the Revolution, \. 499, gives the portrait of David Kinnison, the last survivor of the " Mo- hawks." — ED.]

THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

infuriated mob. The multitude stood by and looked on in solemn silence while the weird-looking figures,1 made distinctly visible in the moonlight, removed the hatches, tore open the chests, and threw the entire cargo overboard. This strange spectacle lasted about three hours, and then the people all went home and the town was as quiet as if nothing had happened. The next day fragments of the tea were seen strewn along the Dorchester shore, carried thither by the wind and tide.2 A formal declaration of the transaction was drawn up by the Boston committee ; and Paul Revere was sent with despatches to New York and Philadelphia, where the news was received with the greatest demonstrations of joy.3 In Boston the feeling was that of intense satisfaction proceeding from the con- sciousness of having exhausted every possible measure of legal redress before undertaking this bold and novel mode of asserting the rights of the people.4 " We do console ourselves," said John Scollay, one of the select- men, and an actor in the scene, "that we have acted constitutionally."5 "This is the most magnificent movement of all," said John Adams.6 "There

1 The names of the actors in this scene, as well as of those who planned it, were not di- vulged till after the Revolutionary War. It is supposed that about one hundred and forty per- sons were engaged in it. [The " Dartmouth's " journal says one thousand people came on the wharf. The party actually boarding the ships has been estimated from seventeen to thirty, the former number being all that have been identi- fied. See Frothingham in Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., Dec. 16, 1873, xyho thinks that the list given in Hewes's book is not accurate as respects those who boarded the ships. " Several of the party have been identified, but the claims presented for others are doubtful." John Adams refused to have the names given him. ( Works, ii. 334.) Captain Henry Purkitt, who is called the last survivor of the party, died March 3, 1846, aged ninety-one. As to Hewes, see also Loring's Hun- dred Boston Orators, p. 554. — ED.]

2 Barry, ii. 473. [A small quantity of it is preserved in a phial in the Mass. Hist. Society's cabinet. Thomas Newell records in his diary, Jan. I, 1774: "Last evening a number of per- sons went over to Dorchester and brought from thence part of a chest of tea, and burnt it in our Common the same evening." A fourth vessel of the tea-fleet was wrecked on the back side of Cape Cod. The Boston committee immediately sent a message in that direction. " The people of the Cape will we hope behave with propriety, and as becomes men re- solved to serve their

country." We next hear of this tea in a letter from Samuel Adams to James Warren, Jan. 10, 1774. "The tea which was cast on shore at the