friends, with their speaker as moderator. They adopted the resolves which Washington had brought with him from Mount Vernon, and which formed a well-digested, stringent, and practicable scheme of non-importation, until all the "unconstitutional" revenue acts should be repealed. Such, too, was their zeal against the slave-trade that they made a special covenant with one another not to import any slaves, nor purchase any imported. These associations were signed by Peyton Randolph, Richard Bland, Archibald Cary, Robert Carter Nicholas, Richard Henry Lee, Washington, Carter Braxton, Henry, Jefferson, Nelson, and all the burgesses of Virginia there assembled; and were then sent throughout the country for the signature of every man in the colony.

1769.

The voice of the Old Dominion roused PennsylMay. vania from its slumbers to express through its merchants their approval of what had been done. Delaware did still better: her assembly adopted the Virginia resolves word for word; and every colony south of Virginia followed the example.

1769. May.

For more than ten months, the colony remained without an assembly. Of five hundred and eight votes that were cast in Boston at the ensuing choice of its representatives, Otis, Cushing, Samuel Adams, and Hancock, the old members, received more than five hundred. They were instructed to insist on the departure of the army from the town and province, and not to pay any thing towards its support. Of the ninety-two who voted not to rescind, eightyone, probably all who were candidates, were re-elected; of the seventeen rescinders, only five. Especially Salem condemned the conduct of its former representatives, and substituted two Sons of Liberty. Cambridge charged Thomas Gardner, its representative, "to use his best endeavors that all their rights might be transmitted inviolable to the latest posterity." Nor let history speak the praise only of those who win glory in the field or high honors in the state; a place should be reserved for a husbandman like him, rich in the virtues of daily life, of calm and modest courage, trustworthy and unassuming, who was sent from cultivating his fields to take part in legislation, and carried to his task a discerning mind, a guileless heart, and fidelity even to death. The town of Roxbury recommended a correspondence between the house of representatives in Massachusetts and the assemblies of other provinces.

Meantime, Bernard received his letters of recall. The blow came on him unexpectedly, as he was procuring settlers

for his lands, and promising himself a long enjoyment of office under military protection. True to his character, he remained, to get, if he could, an appropriation for his own salary for a year, and to bequeath confusion to his successor. The legislature, before even electing a clerk or a speaker, complained to him of the presence of "the armament by sea and land, in the port and the gates of the city, during the session of the assembly." On the election of councillors, he disapproved of no less than eleven; among them, of Brattle and Bowdoin, who had been chosen by a unanimous vote. The house then considered the presence among them of troops, over whom the governor avowed that the civil power in the province did not extend. In a message to him, they represented that the employment of the military to enforce the laws was inconsistent with the spirit of a free constitution; that a standing army, in so far as it was uncontrollable by the civil authority of the province, was an absolute power. Gage had at that time discretionary authority to withdraw all the forces from Boston; he had ordered two regiments to Halifax, and was disposed to send away the rest; but Bernard, after consultation with the crown officers, gave his written opinion that it would be ruinous to remove them.

1769. May.

To worry the house into voting him, on the eve of his departure, a full year's salary, he adjourned the legislature to Cambridge; the house, by a unanimous vote, one hundred and nine members being present, petitioned the king to remove him for ever from the government. Another week passes. Bernard threatened to give his assent to no act which the grant of his salary did not precede. The house, disdainfully rejecting his renewed demand, adopted nearly word for word the three resolutions of Virginia on taxation, intercolonial correspondence, and trial by a jury of the vicinage.

For the troops thus quartered in Boston against the will of the province, Bernard demanded the appropriations which the billeting act required. "Be explicit and distinct," said he, in a second message, "that there may be no mistake." After grave deliberation in a most unusually numerous house of one hundred and seven, they made answer: "As represen

1769.

July.

tatives, by the royal charter and the nature of our trust, we are only empowered to grant such aids as are reasonable, of which we are free and independent judges, at liberty to follow the dictates of our own understanding, without regard to the mandates of another. As we cannot, consistently with our honor or interest, and much less with the duty we owe our constituents, so we shall NEVER make provision for the purposes mentioned in your messages."

"To his majesty," rejoined Bernard in his last words, "and, if he pleases, to his parliament, must be referred your invasion of the rights of the imperial sovereignty. By your own acts you will be judged." And he prorogued the general court to the tenth of January.

Newport, Rhode Island, witnessed bolder resistance. A vessel with a cargo of prohibited goods was rescued from the revenue officers, whose ship, named " Liberty," was destroyed.

Just as this was heard of at Boston, Hillsborough's circular, promising relief from all "real" grievances and a repeal of the duties on glass, paper, and colors, as contrary to the true principles of commerce, was made public by Bernard. The merchants, assembling on the twenty-seventh of July, unanimously voted this partial repeal insufficient, since the duty reserved on tea was to save "the right" of taxing; and they resolved to send for no more goods from Great Britain, a few specified articles excepted, unless the revenue acts should be repealed. The inhabitants were to purchase nothing from violators of this engagement; the names of recusant importers were to be published; and a committee was appointed to state the embarrassments to commerce, growing out of the late regulations.

On the last evening of July, Bernard, having completed his pecuniary arrangements with Hutchinson, who was to be his successor, left Boston. "He was to have sent home whom he pleased,” said the Bostonians; "but, the die being thrown, poor Sir Francis Bernard was the rogue to go first."

Trained as a wrangling proctor in an ecclesiastical court,

he had been a quarrelsome disputant rather than a statesman. His parsimony went to the extreme of meanness ; his avarice was insatiable and restless. So long as he connived at smuggling, he reaped a harvest in that way; when Grenville's sternness inspired alarm, his greed was for forfeitures and penalties. Assuming to respect the charter, he was unwearied in zeal for its subversion; professing opposition to taxation by parliament, he urged it with all his power; asserting most solemnly that he had never asked for troops, he importuned for ships-of-war and an armed force. His reports were often false, partly with design, partly from the credulity of panic. He placed every thing in the most unfavorable light, and was at all times ready to magnify trivial rumors into acts of treason. The officers of the army and the navy openly despised him for his cowardly duplicity. "He has essentially served us," said the clergyman Cooper; "had he been wise, our liberties might have been lost."

1769. July.

As he departed, the bells were rung, and cannon fired from the wharfs; Liberty Tree was gay with flags; and at night a great bonfire was kindled upon Fort Hill. When he reached England, he found that the ministry had promised the London merchants never to employ him in America again.

While Boston was advancing towards republicanism, the enthusiasm which had made the revolution at New Orleans could not shape for that colony a tranquil existence. A new petition to France expressed the resolve of the inhabitants to preserve the dear and inviolable name of French citizens, at the peril of their lives and fortunes. They applied to the English; but the governor at Pensacola abstained from offending powers with which his sovereign was at peace. The dread of Spain inspired the design of founding a republic, with an elective council of forty and a protector. It was even proposed, if Louisiana was to be given up to his Catholic majesty, to burn New Orleans to the ground, and leave to an unwelcome master nothing but a desert. When, near the end of July, O'Reilly arrived at the Balise with an overwhelming force, despair prevailed for a