Aug.

CHAP. would become "usurpers of power" and enemies to IX. the province, even though they bore the commission 1774. 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 unconstitutional courts were to be forbidden to proceed, and their officers to be detested as "traitors cloaked with a pretext of law." It was known that Gage had orders to make arrests; each individual patriot was therefore 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.

Gage began to show alarm. He looked about him for more troops; he recommended the repair of Crown Point; and a strong garrison at Ticonderoga; a well-guarded line of communication between New York and Canada. He himself 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

IX.

executed a written covenant not to put their commis- CHAP. sions in force; Worthington resigned his office of councillor; those of the lawyers who had sent an ad- 1774. Aug. dress to Gage, atoned for their offence by a written confession. Williams, the tory of Hatfield, and others were compelled 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,

Aug.

CHAP. as established by act of parliament, perished in the IX. presence of the governor, the judges, and the army. 1774. 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 reinforce 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, 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 congress. "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

IX.

yet undaunted; sensible that he can never die too CHAP. 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.

1774.

Aug.

CHAPTER X.

THE SUFFOLK COUNTY CONVENTION.

X.

لم

Sept.

SEPTEMBER, 1774.

CHAP. THE province kept its powder for its militia at Quarry Hill on a point of land between Medford 1774 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