1768.

of measures for preventing an unconstitutional encroachment of military power on the civil establishment. The governor refused to receive this petition; and he admonished "the gentlemen assembled at Faneuil Hall, under the name of a convention," to break up instantly and separate themselves, or they should be made to "repent of their rashness." The message was received

with derision.

Sept.

The council, adhering to their purpose of conforming strictly to the billeting act, reduced to writing the reasons for their decision to provide no quarters in town till the barracks at the castle should be full; and, on the twentysixth, communicated the paper to Bernard, published it in the "Boston Gazette," and sent a copy to Lord Hillsborough. It proved a disregard for an act of parliament by the very men who assumed to enforce parliamentary authority. On the side of the province, no law was violated; only men would not buy tea, glass, colors, or paper: on the side of Hillsborough, Bernard, and Gage, requisitions were made contrary to the words and the indisputable intent of the statute. In the very beginning of coercive measures, Boston gained a moral victory: it placed itself on the side of law, and proved its enemies to be lawbreakers. The immediate effect of the publication was, says Bernard, "the greatest blow that had been given to the king's government." "Nine tenths of the people considered the declaration of the council just."

The convention, which remained but six days in session, repeated the protest of Massachusetts against taxation of the colonies by the British parliament; against a standing army; against the danger to "the liberties of America from a united body of pensioners and soldiers." They renewed their petition to the king. They resolved to preserve good order, by the aid of the civil magistrate alone. Then," relying on Him who ruleth according to his pleasure, with unerring wisdom and irresistible influence, in the hearts of the children of men," they dissolved themselves, leaving the care for the public to the council.

This was the first example in America of the restoration

1768. Sept.

of affairs by delay. Indiscreet men murmured; but the intelligent perceived the greatness of the result. When the attorney and solicitor general of England were called upon to find traces of high treason in what had been done, De Grey as well as Dunning declared none had been committed. "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."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE CELTIC-AMERICAN REPUBLIC ON THE BANKS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1768.

1768.

Sept.

Ar noon of the twenty-eighth of September, just after the convention broke up, the squadron from Halifax anchored in Nantasket Bay. It brought not two regiments only, but artillery, which Bernard, by a verbal message, had specially requested. Dalrymple, their commander, "expressed infinite surprise that no quarters had been prepared." On the twenty-ninth, the council, at which Smith, the commanding officer of the fleet, and Dalrymple, were present, after much altercation, adhered to the law; and the governor declared his want of power to act alone. "Since that resolution was taken to rise in arms in open rebellion," wrote Gage, "I don't see any cause to be scrupulous." On the following day, the squadron anchored off Castle William to intimidate the council, but without success. At that moment, Montresor, the engineer, arrived, with an order from General Gage to land both the regiments within the settled part of Boston.

Oct.

On the first of October, the day for executing the order, the governor stole away into the country; leaving Dalrymple to despise "his want of spirit," and "to take the whole upon himself." As if they were come to an enemy's country, eight ships-of-war, with loaded cannon, and springs on their cables, were anchored in the harbor so as to command the town; after which, the fourteenth and twenty-ninth regiments, and a part of the fifty-ninth, with a train of artillery and two pieces of cannon, effected their landing on the Long Wharf. Each soldier having

received sixteen rounds of shot, they marched with drums beating, fifes playing, and colors flying, through the streets of the defenceless, unresisting town, and by four in the afternoon they paraded on Boston common.

"All their bravadoes ended as may be imagined," said an officer. "Men are not easily brought to fight," wrote Hutchinson, "when they know death by the sword or the halter will be the consequence." "Great Britain," remarked a wiser observer, " will repent her mistaken policy."

Dalrymple encamped the twenty-ninth regiment, which had field equipage; for the rest, he demanded quarters of the selectmen. They knew the law too well to comply; but, as the night was cold, the Sons of Liberty, from compassion, allowed them to sleep in Faneuil Hall.

1768. Oct.

On the third, Bernard laid before the council Dalrymple's requisition for the enumerated allowances to troops in barracks. "We," answered the council, ready, on our part, to comply with the act of parliament, if the colonel will on his."

are

"Tyranny begins," said Samuel Adams, "if the law is transgressed to another's harm. We must not give up the law and the constitution, which is fixed and stable, and is the collected and long digested sentiment of the whole, and substitute in its room the opinion of individuals, than which nothing can be more uncertain."

While Hood meditated embarking for Boston to winter there, Gage came from New York to demand, in person, quarters for the regiments in the town. The council would grant none till the barracks at the castle were filled.

The governor and the sheriff attempted to get possession of a ruinous building, belonging to the province; but its occupants had taken the opinion of the best lawyer, and kept them at bay.

Bernard next summoned the acting justices to meet him, and renewed the general's demand for quarters. "Not till the barracks are filled," they answered, conforming to the law. "The clause," wrote Gage, "is by no means calculated for this country, where every man studies law." "I

am at the end of my tether," said Bernard to his council; and he asked them to join him in naming a commissary. "To join in such appointment," answered the council, "would be an admission that the province ought to be charged with the expense." The officers themselves could not put the troops into quarters; for they would, under the act, be cashiered, on being convicted of the fact before two justices of the peace. "Before two justices," exclaimed Gage, "the best of them the keeper of a paltry tavern."

1768.

Oct.

At last, the weather growing so severe that the troops could not remain in tents, "the commanding officer was obliged to hire houses at very dear rates," as well as procure, at the expense of the crown, all the articles required by act of parliament of the colony. The main guard was established opposite the state house, so that cannon were pointed towards the rooms in which the legislature was accustomed to sit. But, as the town gave an example of respect for law, there was nothing for the troops to do. Two regiments were there as idle lookers-on, and two more were coming to share the same inactivity. Every one knew that they could not be employed except on a requisition from a civil officer; and there was not a magistrate in the colony that saw any reason for calling in their aid, nor a person in town disposed to act in a way to warrant it.

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The commissioners of the customs, having received orders to return to Boston, wished to get from the council some excuse for their departure, as well as for their return. They had no just reason for absconding from their duty," said Bowdoin; and the council left them to return of themselves; but, in an address to Gage, adopted by a vote of fifteen out of nineteen, they explained how trivial had been the disorders on which the request for troops had been grounded. Gage became convinced by his inquiries that the disturbance in March was trifling; that on the tenth of June the commissioners were neither attacked nor menaced; that more obstructions had arisen to the service from the servants of government than from any