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to one statute, they might to all; that there was no abiding place between unconditional universal submission and independence. Alarmed that so desperate an alternative should be forced upon them, the colonists, still professing loyalty to a common sovereign, were driven nearer and nearer to a total denial of the power of the British legislature; but, for the present, they confined their case to the power of taxation. "I will freely spend nineteen shillings in the pound," said Franklin, "to defend my right of giving or refusing the other shilling; and, after all, if I cannot defend that right, I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence to any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger." "The Americans," said Thomson Mason, the ablest lawyer of that day in Virginia, "are hasty in expressing their gratitude, if the repeal of the stamp act is not at least a tacit compact that Great Britain will never again tax us. The different assemblies, without mentioning the proceedings of parliament, should enter upon their journals as strong declarations of their own rights as words can express. Thus one declaration of rights will stand against another; and matters will remain as they were, till some future weak minister, equally a foe to Britain and her colonies, shall, by aiming at popularity, think proper to revive the extinguished flame."

May.

To the anxious colonies, Boston proposed union as 1766. the means of security. While within its own borders it sought "the total abolishing of slavery," and encouraged learning, as the support of the constitution and the handmaid of liberty, its representatives were charged to keep up a constant intercourse with the other English governments on the continent, to conciliate any difference that should arise; ever preferring their friendship and confidence to the demands of rigorous justice. Henceforth its watchword was union, which the rash conduct of the dismayed officers of the crown contributed to establish. Bernard was elated at having been praised in the house of lords by Camden for one set of his opinions, and quoted as an oracle in the Bedford protest for the other. There was even a rumor that

he was to be made a baronet. His superciliousness rose with his sense of personal safety; and he boasted that, on the meeting of the legislature, he should play out his part as governor.

In choosing the new house in Massachusetts, many towns, stimulated by the "rhapsodies" of Otis, put firm patriots in the places of the doubtful and the timid. Plymouth sent James Warren, the brother-in-law of Otis; and Boston, at the suggestion of Samuel Adams, gave one of its seats to John Hancock, a popular young merchant, of large fortune. At their organization, on the last Wednesday in May, the representatives elected James Otis their speaker, and Samuel Adams their clerk. Otis was still the most influential member of the house; had long been held in great esteem throughout the province; had been its delegate to the New York congress, and had executed that trust to universal acceptance. Though irritable, he was placable, and at heart was truly loyal. Bernard ostentatiously negatived the choice. The negative, as unwise as it was unusual, excited undefined apprehensions of danger; but the house, deferring to legal right, acquiesced without complaint, and substituted as its speaker the respectable but irresolute Thomas Cushing.

1766. In the afternoon of the same day, at the choice of May. the council, the four judges of the supreme court, of whom Hutchinson was the chief, the king's attorney, and Oliver, the secretary and late stamp-master, all members of the last year's board, were not re-elected; for, said Samuel Adams, "upon the principle of the best writers, a union of the several powers of government in one person is dangerous to liberty." The ballot had conformed strictly to the charter and to usage, and the successful candidates were men of prudence, uprightness, and loyalty. But Bernard "resented the exclusion of the crown officers by negativing six of the ablest "friends of the people in the board." He had the legal right to do so; and the legislature submitted without

a murmur.

Here the altercation should have terminated. But, on the following day, Bernard, an "abject" coward where

courage was needed, and now insolent when he should have been conciliatory, undertook to force the election of Hutchinson and Oliver, as the condition of an amnesty; and accused the house of having determined its votes from "private interests."

1766.

Concurrently, Rigby, as the leader of the Bedford party, on the third of June, proposed in the British June. house of commons an address to the king, censuring America for its "rebellious disposition," and pledging parliament to the coercion of the colonies.

From the ministerial benches, Charles Townshend, professing to oppose the motion, spoke substantially in its favor. "It has long been my opinion," said he, in conclusion, "that America should be deprived of its militating and contradictory charters, and its royal governors, judges, and attorneys be rendered independent of the people. I therefore expect that the present administration will, in the recess of parliament, take all the necessary previous steps for compassing so desirable an event. The madness and distractions of America have demanded the attention of the supreme legislature; and the colony charters have been considered, and declared by judges of the realm inconsistent and actually forfeited by the audacious and unpardonable resolves of subordinate assemblies. This regulation must no longer be trusted to accidental obedience. If I should differ in judgment from the present administration on this point, I now declare that I must withdraw, and not longer co-operate with persons of such narrow views in government; but I hope and expect otherwise, trusting that I shall be an instrument among them of preparing a new system."

Rigby was ably supported by Lord North and Thurlow; and especially by Wedderburn, who railed mercilessly at the ministers, in a mixed strain of wit, oratory, and abuse: so that, notwithstanding a spirited speech from Conway, and a negative to the motion without a division, America was taken out of their control and made the sport of faction. The very same day on which Townshend proclaimed a war of extermination against American charters, similar

threats were uttered at Boston. In communicating the circular letter from Conway, proposing "to forgive and forget" the incidents of the stamp act, and directing the several governors to "recommend" to the colonial legislatures an indemnification of all sufferers by the riots which it occasioned, Bernard renewed his complaints that the principal crown officers had been dropped from the council, and held out a menace of a change in the charter of the province, if Hutchinson should not be elected to the board. "The requisition is founded upon a resolution of the

June.

house of commons," he continued, employing the 1766. word which that body, after debate, as well as Conway, had purposely avoided. "The authority with. which it is introduced should preclude all disputation about complying with it."

Bernard's speeches fell on the ear of Samuel Adams as not less "infamous and irritating" than the worst “that ever came from a Stuart to the English parliament;" and, with sombre joy, he called the province happy in having for its governor one who left to the people no option but between perpetual watchfulness and total ruin.

"The free exercise of our undoubted privileges,” replied the house, "can never, with any color of reason, be adjudged an abuse of our liberty. We have strictly adhered to the directions of our charter and the laws of the land. We made our election with special regard to the qualifications of the candidates. We cannot conceive how the assertion of our clear charter right of free election can tend to impeach that right or charter. We hope your excellency does not mean openly and publicly to threaten us with a deprivation of our charter privileges, merely for exercising them according to our best judgment."

"No branch of the legislature," insisted the council, "has usurped or interfered with the right of another. Nothing has taken place but what has been constitutional and according to the charter. An election duly made, though disagreeable to the chair, does not deserve to be called a formal attack upon government or an oppugnation of the king's authority."

Mayhew, of Boston, mused anxiously over the danger, which was now clearly revealed, till, in the morning watches of the next Lord's Day, light dawned upon his excited mind, and the voice of wisdom spoke from his warm heart, which was so soon to cease to beat. "You have heard of the communion of churches," he wrote to Otis; "while I was thinking of this in my bed, the great use and importance of a communion 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 foundation for this has been laid by the congress at New York; never losing sight of it may be the only means of perpetuating our liberties." The patriot uttered this great word of counsel on the morning of his last day of health in Boston. From his youth, he had consecrated himself to the service of colonial freedom in the state and church; he died, overtasked, in the unblemished beauty of manhood, consumed by his fiery zeal, foreseeing independence. Whoever repeats the story of American liberty renews his fame.

1766.

June.

The time for intercolonial correspondence was not come; but, to keep up a fellow-feeling with its own constituents, the house, setting an example to be followed by all representative bodies, opened a gallery for the public to attend its debates. It sent a grateful address to the king, and voted thanks to Pitt and to Grafton; and, among many others, to Conway and Barré, to Camden and Shelburne; to Howard, who had refused to draw his sword against the colonies; to Chesterfield, who left retirement for their relief. But, as to compensating the sufferers by the late disturbances, it upheld its right of deliberating freely, and would only promise at its next session to act as should then appear just and reasonable.

Connecticut, overjoyed at the repeal of the stamp act and expressing satisfaction at being connected with Great Britain, took the precaution to elect as its governor the discreet and patriotic William Pitkin, in place of the loyalist Fitch. The legislature of South Carolina, retaining, like Georgia, its avowed sentiments on internal taxation, marked its

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