CHAP. Prescott and his companions, and they never forgot VIII. their pledge.

1774.

Aug.

Everywhere the rural population of Massachusetts were anxiously weighing the issues in which they were involved. One spirit moved through them all. From the hills of Berkshire to the Penobscot, they debated the great question of resistance as though God were hearkening; and they took counsel reverently with their ministers, and the aged, the pious, and the brave in their villages. Adjoining towns held conferences. The shire of Worcester in August set the example of a county congress, which disclaimed the jurisdiction of the British house of commons, asserted the exclusive right of the colonies to originate laws respecting themselves, rested their duty of allegiance on the charter of the province, and declared the violation of that charter a dissolution of their union with Britain.

Thomas Gardner, a Cambridge farmer, promised a similar convention of the county of Middlesex. "Friends and brethren," he wrote to Boston, as if at once to allay anxiety and prophesy his own approaching end, "the time is come that every one that has a tongue and an arm is called upon by their country to stand forth in its behalf. I consider the call as the call of God, and desire to be all obedience. The people will choose rather to fall gloriously in the cause of their country than meanly submit to slavery." The passion for liberty was felt to be so hallowed, that in a land, remarkable for piety, a father of a family in his last hour would call his sons about his death-bed and charge them on his blessing to love freedom more than life.

VIII.

In June there had been a review of the Boston CHAP. regiment. The patriots speculated on the total number of the militia. After searching the rolls of the 1774. Aug. several towns, the population of the province was estimated at four hundred thousand souls, and the number of men between sixteen and sixty years of age, at about one hundred and twenty thousand, most of whom possessed arms, and were expert in their There could be no general muster; but during the summer, the drum and fife were heard in every hamlet, and the several companies paraded for discipline. One day in August, Gage revoked Hancock's commission in the Boston cadets; and that company resented the insult by returning the king's standard and disbanding.

use.

Putnam, of Connecticut, famous for service near Lake George and Ticonderoga, before the walls of Havana, and far up the lakes against Pontiac, a pioneer of emigration to the southern banks of the Mississippi, the oracle of all patriot circles in his neighborhood, rode to Boston with one hundred and thirty sheep, as a gift from the parish of Brooklyn. The "old hero" became Warren's guest, and every one's favorite. The officers whom he visited on Boston Common bantered him about coming down to fight. "Twenty ships of the line and twenty regiments," said Major Small, "may be expected from England in case a submission is not speedily made by Boston." "If they come," said the veteran, "I am ready to treat them as enemies."

وو

The growing excitement attracted to New England Charles Lee, the restless officer whom the Five Nations had named the Boiling Water. As aide-de-camp

VOL VII. 9*

Aug.

CHAP. to the king of Poland, he assumed the rank of a maVIII. jor-general, which on occasion of his visit was univer1774. sally acknowledged; so that of all who were likely to draw the sword for America, he had the precedence in military rank. He paid court to the patriots of Massachusetts, and left them confident of 1 is aid in the impending struggle. He on his part sav in the New England yeomanry the best materials for

an army.

Meantime the delegates of Massachusetts to the general congress were escorted by great numbers as far as Watertown, where many had gathered to bid them a solemn and affectionate farewell. As they reached Connecticut river, they received a letter of advice from the great patriot of Northampton. "We must fight," wrote Hawley, "we must fight, if we cannot otherwise rid ourselves of British taxation. The form of government enacted for us by the British parliament is evil against right, utterly intolerable to every man who has any idea or feeling of right or liberty. There is not heat enough yet for battle; constant and negative resistance will increase it. There is not military skill enough; that is improving and must be encouraged. Fight we must finally, unless Britain retreats. But it is of infinite consequence that victory be the end of hostilities. If we get to fighting before necessary dispositions are made for it, we shall be conquered and all will be lost for ever. A clear plan for an adequate supply of arms and military stores must be devised. This is the main thing. Men, in that case, will not be wanting. Our salvation depends upon a persevering union. Every grievance of any one colony must be held as a grievance to the

VIII.

whole, and some plan be settled for a continuation of CHAP. congresses, even though congresses will soon be declared by parliament to be high treason.'

Hawley spoke the genuine sentiments of western Massachusetts. When on Tuesday, the sixteenth of August, the judges of the inferior court of Hampshire met at Great Barrington, it was known that the regulating act had received the royal approval. Before noon the town was filled with people of the county and five hundred men from Connecticut, armed with clubs and staves. Suffering the courts of justice to sit, seemed a recognition of the act of parliament, and the chief judge was forced to plight his honor that he and his associates would do no business. When it became known that a great effort to execute the new statute was designed to be made at Worcester, the uncompromising inhabitants of that town purchased and manufactured arms, cast musket-balls, and provided powder for the occasion; and as Gage meditated employing a part of his army, they threatened openly to fall upon any body of soldiers who should attack them.

The mandamus councillors began to give way. Williams of Hatfield refused to incur certain ruin by accepting his commission; so did Worthington of Springfield. Those who accepted dared not give advice.

Boston held town meetings as before. Gage reminded the selectmen of the act of parliament, restricting town meetings without the governor's leave. "It is only an adjourned one," said the selectmen.

66

By such means," said Gage, "you may keep your meeting alive these ten years." He brought the sub

1774.

Aug.

VIII.

1774.

CHAP. ject before the new council. "It is a point of law,' said they, "and should be referred to the crown lawAug. yers." He asked their concurrence in removing a sheriff. "The act of parliament," they replied, "confines the power of removal to the governor alone." Several members gave an account of the frenzy which was sweeping from Berkshire over the province, and might reach them collectively even in the presence of the governor. "If you value your life, I advise you not to return home at present," was the warning received by Ruggles from the town of Hardwicke, whose freemen with those of New Braintree and of Greenwich so resented his accepting a place in the council, that they vowed he should never again pass the great bridge of the town alive.

By nine o'clock on the morning of the twenty-sixth, more than two thousand men marched in companies to the common in Worcester, where they forced Timothy Paine to walk through their ranks with his hat off as far as the centre of their hollow square, and read a written resignation of his seat at the council board. A large detachment then moved to Rutland to deal with Murray. The next day at noon Wilder of Templeton and Holden of Princeton brought up their companies, and by three in the afternoon, about fifteen hundred men had assembled, most of them armed with bludgeons. But Murray had escaped on the previous evening, just before the sentries were set round his house and along the roads; they therefore sent him a letter requiring him to resign. The temper of the people brooked no division; they held every person that would not join them an enemy to his country. "The consequences of your proceedings