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of Worcester, Middlesex, and Essex; and on the next day, after calm consultation, they collectively denied the power of parliament to change the minutest tittle of their laws. As a consequence, they found that all appointments to the newly instituted council, and all authority exercised by the courts of justice, were unconstitutional; and therefore that the officers, should they attempt to act, would become usurpers of power" and enemies to the province, even though they bore the commission of the king. The Boston port act they found to be a wicked violation of the rights to life, liberty, and the means of sustenance, which all men hold by the grace of Heaven, irrespectively of the king's leave. The act of parliament removing from American courts the trials of officers who should take the lives of Americans, they described as the extreme measure in the system of despotism.

For remedies, the convention proposed a provincial congress with large executive powers. In the mean time, the unçonstitutional courts were to be forbidden to proceed, and their officers to be detested as "traitors cloaked with a pretext of law." As Gage had orders to make arrests, each individual patriot was placed under the protection of his county and of the province. The practice of the military art was declared to be the duty of the people.

1774. Aug.

Gage looked about him for more troops, recommended the repair of Crown Point, a strong garrison at Ticonderoga, a well-guarded line of communication between New York and Canada, and he came from Salem to support the chief justice in opening the court at Boston.

On the same day began the term of the inferior court at Springfield. But, early in the morning, fifteen hundred or two thousand men, with drums and trumpets, marched into that town, set up a black flag at the court house, and threatened death to any one who should enter. After some treaty, the judges executed a written covenant not to put their commissions in force; Worthington resigned his office of councillor; those of the lawyers who had sent an address to Gage atoned for their offence by a written confession. Williams, the tory of Hatfield, and others, were compelled

1774. Aug.

successively to go round a large circle, and ask forgiveness. Catlin and Warner fell upon their knees; old Captain Mirreck, of Monson, was drawn in a cart and threatened to be tarred and feathered. The people agreed that the troops, if Gage should march them to Worcester, should be resisted by at least twenty thousand men from Hampshire county and Connecticut.

At Boston, the judges took their seats, and the usual proclamations were made; when the men who had been returned as jurors, one and all, refused to take the oath. Being asked why they refused, Thomas Chase, who was of the petit jury, gave as his reason "that the chief justice of the court stood impeached by the late representatives of the province." In a paper offered by the jury, the judges found their authority disputed for the further reasons that the charter of the province had been changed with no warrant but an act of parliament, and that three of the judges, in violation of the constitution, had accepted seats in the new council.

The chief justice and his colleagues, repairing in a body to the governor, represented the impossibility of exercising their office in Boston or in any other part of the province; the army was too small for their protection; and, besides, none would act as jurors. Thus the authority of the new government, as established by act of parliament, perished in the presence of the governor, the judges, and the army.

Gage summoned his council, but only to meet new discomfitures. Its members dared not show themselves at Salem, and he consented to their violating the act of parliament by meeting in Boston. Hutchinson, the son of the former governor, withdrew from the council. The few who retained their places advised unanimously to send no troops into the interior, but so to re-enforce the army as to constitute Boston a "place of safe retreat."

Far different was the spirit displayed on that day at Concord by the county convention, in which every town and district of Middlesex was represented. "We must now exert ourselves," said they, "or all those efforts which for ten years past have brightened the annals of this country

1774.

will be totally frustrated. Life and death, or, what is more, freedom and slavery, are now before us." In behalf, therefore, of themselves and of future generations, they enumerated the violations of their rights by late acts of parliament, which they avowed their purpose to nullify; and they sent their resolves by an express to the continental conAug. gress. "We are grieved," said they, "to find ourselves reduced to the necessity of entering into the discussion of those great and profound questions; but we deprecate a state of slavery. Our fathers left us a fair inheritance, purchased by blood and treasure; this we are resolved to transmit equally fair to our children; no danger shall affright, no difficulties intimidate us; and if, in support of our rights, we are called to encounter even death, we are yet undaunted; sensible that he can never die too soon who lays down his life in support of the laws and liberties of his country."

The convention separated in the evening of the last day of August, to await the decisions of the continental congress; but before the next sun was up the aspect of affairs was changed.

CHAPTER X.

THE SUFFOLK COUNTY CONVENTION.

SEPTEMBER, 1774.

1774.

Sept.

THE province kept its powder for its militia at Quarry Hill on a point of land between Medford and Cambridge, then within the limits of Charlestown. In August, the towns had been removing their stock, each according to its proportion. On Thursday morning, the first day of September, at half past four, about two hundred and sixty men, commanded by Lieutenant-colonel Madison, embarked on board thirteen boats at Long Wharf, rowed up Mystic River, landed at Temple's farm, took from the public magazine all the powder that was there, amounting to two hundred and fifty half-barrels, and transferred it to the castle. A detachment from the corps brought off two field-pieces from Cambridge.

This forcible seizure, secretly planned and suddenly executed, set the country in a flame. Before evening, large bodies of the men of Middlesex began to collect; and, on Friday morning, thousands of freeholders, leaving their guns in the rear, advanced to Cambridge, armed only with sticks, and led by captains of the towns, representatives, and committee men. Warren, hearing that the roads from Sudbury to Cambridge were lined by men in arms, took with him as many of the Boston committee as came in his way, crossed to Charlestown, and with the committee of that town hastened to meet the committee of Cambridge. On their arrival, they found Danforth, a county judge and mandamus councillor, addressing four thousand people who stood in the open air round the court-house steps; and such order prevailed that the low voice of the feeble old man

was heard by the whole multitude. He finished by giving a written promise never "to be any way concerned as a member of the council." Lee, in like manner, confirmed his former resignation. The turn of Phipps, the high sheriff, came next, and he signed an agreement not to execute any precept under the new act of parliament.

1774. Sept.

Oliver, the lieutenant-governor, who resided at Cambridge, repaired to Boston in the "greatest distress." "It is not a mad mob," said he to the British admiral; and he warned Gage that "sending out troops would be attended with the most fatal consequences.' Had they marched only five miles into the country, Warren was of opinion that not a man of them would have been saved. Gage remained inactive; writing, as his justification to the ministry: "The people are numerous, waked up to a fury, and not a Boston rabble, but the freeholders and farmers of the county. A check would be fatal, and the first stroke will decide a great deal. We should therefore be strong, and proceed on a good foundation, before any thing decisive is urged, which it is to be presumed will prove successful."

Oliver returned to Cambridge with the assurance that no troops would appear, and to beg the committee's leave to retain his places. But in the afternoon three or four thousand men surrounded his house, and demanded his resignation. "My honor is my first consideration," said Oliver; "the next my life. Put me to death or destroy my property, but I will not submit." Yet, on the first appearance of danger, he yielded to all their demands; then, walking into his own court-yard, he reassumed the air of a hero, and comforted himself by repeating: "I will do no more, even though they put me to death."

For three hours, beneath the scorching sun of the hottest day of that summer, the people kept the ranks in which they were marshalled, and their "patience, temperance, and fortitude" were remarked upon as the chief elements "of a good soldier." They allowed the force of the suggestion that the governor, in removing the stores of the province, had broken no law; and they voted unanimously their abhor