freedom must be done soon, or he will be no party to the achievement. He rises, but it is to restrain; and, being truly brave and truly resolved, he speaks the language of moderation: "Shouts and hosannas will not terminate the trials of this day, nor popular resolves, harangues, and acclamations vanquish our foes. We must be grossly ignorant of the value of the prize for which we contend, of the power combined against us, of the inveterate malice and insatiable revenge which actuate our enemies, public and private, abroad and in our bosom, if we hope that we shall end this controversy without the sharpest conflicts. Let us consider the issue before we advance to those measures which must bring on the most trying and terrible struggle this country ever saw.' "Now that the hand is to the plough," said others, "there must be no looking back;" and the seven thousand voted unanimously that the tea should not be landed. 1773. Dec. It had been dark for more than an hour. They knew that a delay of a few hours would place the tea under the protection of the admiral at the castle. The church in which they met was dimly lighted by candles, when at a quarter before six Rotch appeared, and related that the governor would not grant him a pass, because his ship was not properly cleared. As soon as he had finished his report, loud shouts were uttered; then Samuel Adams rose and gave the word: "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." On the instant, a cry was heard at the porch; the war-whoop resounded; a body of men, forty or fifty in number, disguised and clad in blankets as Indians, each holding a hatchet, passed by the door; and encouraged by Samuel Adams, Hancock, and others, and increased on the way to near two hundred, marched two by two to Griffin's Wharf, posted guards to prevent the intrusion of spies, took possession of the three tea-ships, and, in about three hours, three hundred and forty chests of tea, being the whole quantity that had been imported, were emptied into the bay, without the least injury to other property. "All things were conducted with great order, decency, and perfect submission to gov ernment." The people who looked on were so still that the noise of breaking open the tea-chests was plainly heard. After the work was done, the town became as quiet as if it had been holy time. The men from the country that very night took home the great news to their villages. The next morning, the committee of correspondence appointed Samuel Adams and four others to draw up a declaration of what had been done. They sent Paul Revere as express with the information to New York and Philadelphia. The joy that sparkled in the eyes and animated the countenances and the hearts of the patriots, as they met one another, is unimaginable. The governor, meantime, was consulting his books and his lawyers to make out that the resolves of the meeting were treasonable. Threats were muttered of arrests, of executions, of transporting the accused to England; while the committee of correspondence pledged themselves to support and vindicate each other and all persons who had shared in their effort. The country was united with the town, and the colonies with one another more firmly than ever. The Philadelphians unanimously approved what Boston had done. New York, all impatient at the winds which had driven its tea-ship off the coast, was resolved on following the example. In South Carolina, the ship, with two hundred and fiftyseven chests of tea, arrived on the second of December; the spirit of opposition ran very high; but the consignees were persuaded to resign: so that though the collector after the twentieth day seized the dutiable article, there was no one to vend it or to pay the duty, and it perished in the cellars where it was stored. 1773. Dec. Late on Saturday the twenty-fifth, news reached Philadelphia that its tea-ship was at Chester. It was met four miles below the town, where it came to anchor. On Monday, at an hour's notice, five thousand men collected in a town-meeting; at their instance, the consignee who came as passenger resigned; and the captain agreed to take his ship and cargo directly back to London, and to sail the very next day. The Quakers, though they did not appear openly, gave the measure every private encouragement. “The ministry had chosen the most effectual measures to unite the colonies. The Boston committee were already in close correspondence with the other New England colonies, with New York and Pennsylvania. Old jealousies were removed, and perfect harmony subsisted between all." "The heart of the king was hardened like that of Pharaoh;” and none believed he would relent. Union, therefore, was the cry; a union which should reach "from Florida to the icy plains" of Canada. "No time is to be lost," said the "Boston Gazette;" "a congress or a meeting of the American states is indispensable; and what the people wills shall be effected." Samuel Adams was in his glory. He had led his native town to offer itself cheerfully as a sacrifice for the liberties of mankind. 1773. Dec. CHAPTER LI. THE KING IN COUNCIL INSULTS THE GREAT AMERICAN PLEBEIAN. DECEMBER, 1773—FEBRUARY, 1774. 1773. Dec. THE just man enduring the opprobrium of crime, yet meriting the honors due to virtue, is the sublimest spectacle that can appear on earth. Against Franklin were arrayed the court, the ministry, the parliament, and an all-pervading social influence; but he only assumed a firmer demeanor and a loftier tone. On delivering to Lord Dartmouth the address to the king for the removal of Hutchinson and Oliver, he gave assurances that the people of Massachusetts aimed at no novelties; that, "having lately discovered the authors of their grievances to be some of their own people, their resentment against Britain was thence much abated." The secretary expressed pleasure at receiving the petition, promised to lay it before the king, and hoped for the restoration "of the most perfect tranquillity and happiness." It had been the unquestionable duty of the agent of the province to communicate proof that Hutchinson and Oliver were conspiring against its constitution; to bring censure on the act, it was necessary to raise a belief that the evidence had been surreptitiously obtained; but William Whately, the banker, who was his brother's executor, was persuaded that the letters in question had never been in his hands, and refused to cast imputations on any one. The newspaper press was therefore employed to spread a rumor that they had been dishonestly obtained through John Temple. The anonymous calumny which was attrib uted to Bernard, Knox, and Mauduit, was denied by "a member of parliament," who truly affirmed that the letters which were sent to Boston had never been in the executor's hands. Again the press declared, what was also true, that Whately, the executor, had submitted files of his brother's letters to Temple's examination, who, it was insinuated, had seized the opportunity to purloin them. Temple repelled the charge instantly and successfully. Whately, the executor, never made a suggestion that the letters had been taken away by Temple, and always believed the contrary; but, swayed not so much by the solicitations of Hutchinson and Mauduit as by his sudden appointment as a banker to the treasury, he published an evasive card, in which he did not relieve Temple from the implication. A duel followed between Temple and Whately, without witnesses; then newspaper altercations on the incidents of the meeting, till another duel seemed likely to ensue. Cushing, the timid speaker of the Massachusetts assembly, to whom the letters had been officially transmitted, begged that he might not be known as having received them, lest it should be "a damage" to him; the member of parliament, who had had them in his possession, never permitted himself to be named; Temple, who risked offices producing a thousand pounds a year, publicly denied "any concern in procuring or transmitting them." To prevent bloodshed, Franklin said: "I alone am the person who obtained and transmitted to Boston the letters in question." His ingenuousness exposed him to "unmerited abuse in every company and in every newspaper, and gave his enemies an opening to reject publicly the petition, which otherwise would have been dismissed without parade. Jan. 1774. On the eleventh of January, 1774, Franklin for Massachusetts, and Mauduit, with Wedderburn, for Hutchinson and Oliver, appeared before the privy council. "I thought," said Franklin, "that this had been a matter of politics, and not of law, and have not brought any counsel." The hearing was therefore adjourned to the twenty-ninth. Meantime, the enraged ministry and the courtiers talked |