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rights and liberties, as under God, to render it im- CHAP. possible to destroy them. But we apprise you of your danger, which appears to us imminently great. Dec. The minute men, not already provided, should be immediately equipped, and disciplined three times a week, or oftener. With the utmost cheerfulness we assure you of our determination to stand or fall with the liberties of America." With such words they adjourned, to keep the annual Thanksgiving which they themselves had appointed; finding occasion in the midst of all their distress to rejoice at "the smiles of Divine Providence" on "the union of their own province and throughout the continent."

As ships of the line successively arrived, they brought for the land service no more than six hundred recruits, which only made good the losses by sickness and desertion; so that altogether Gage had scarcely three thousand effective men. Before the middle of December, it became known that the king in council had forbidden the export of arms to America; at once men from Providence removed more than forty pieces of cannon from the colony's fort near Newport; and the assembly of Rhode Island and its merchants took measures to import military

stores.

At Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, the fourteenth of December, just after letters were received from Boston, members of the town committee, with other Sons of Liberty, preceded by a drum and fife, paraded the streets till their number grew to four hundred, when they made their way in scows and "gondolas" to the fort at the entrance of the harbor, overpowered the few invalids who formed its

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CHAP. garrison, and carried off upwards of one hundred barXVI. rels of powder, that belonged to the province. The 1774. next day, without waiting for a large body on the way from Exeter, John Sullivan, who had been a member of the continental congress, led a party to dismantle the fort completely; and they brought away all the small arms, a quantity of shot, and sixteen small pieces of artillery.

The condition of Massachusetts was anomalous; three hundred thousand people continued their usual avocations, and enjoyed life and property in undisturbed tranquillity without a legislature or executive officers; without sheriffs, judges, or justices of the peace. As the supervision of government disappeared, each man seemed more and more a law to himself; and as if to show that the world had been governed too much, order prevailed in a province where in fact there existed no regular government; no administration but by committees; no military officers but those chosen by the militia. Yet never were legal magistrates obeyed with more alacrity. The selectmen continued their usual functions; the service in the churches increased in fervor. From the sermons of memorable divines, who were gone to a heavenly country, leaving their names precious among the people of God on earth, a brief collection of faithful testimonies to the cause of God and his New England people was circulated by the press, that the hearts of the rising generation might know what had been the great end of the plantations, and count it their duty and their glory to continue in those right ways of the Lord wherein their fathers walked before them. Their successors in the minis

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try, all pupils of Harvard college, lorded over by no CHAP. prelate, with the people, and of the people, and true ministers to the people, unsurpassed by the clergy 1774. of an equal population in any part of the globe for learning, ability, and virtue, for metaphysical acuteness, familiarity with the principles of political freedom, devotedness, and practical good sense, were heard as of old with reverence by their congregations in their meeting-houses on every Lord's day, and on special occasions of fasts, thanksgivings, lectures, and military musters. Elijah's mantle being caught up, was a happy token that the Lord would be with this generation as he had been with their fathers. Their exhaustless armory was the Bible, whose scriptures were stored with weapons for every occasion; furnishing sharp words to point their appeals, apt examples of resistance, prophetic denunciations of the enemies of God's people, and promises of the divine blessing on the defenders of his law.

But what most animated the country was the magnanimity of Boston; "suffering amazing loss, but determined to endure poverty and death, rather than betray America and posterity." Its people, under the eyes of the general, disregarding alike his army, his proclamations against a provincial congress, and the British statute against town-meetings, came together according to their ancient forms; and with Samuel Adams as moderator, elected delegates to the next provincial congress of Massachusetts.

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CHAPTER XVII.

THE KING REJECTS THE OFFERS OF CONGRESS.

DECEMBER, 1774 JANUARY, 1775.

CHAP. "IT will be easy to sow division among the delegates XVII. to the congress," said Rochford to Garnier, "they 1774 will do nothing but bring ridicule upon themselves

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by exposing their weakness." Their firmness, moderation, and unanimity took the ministry by surprise, when just before the adjournment of parliament their proceedings reached England. "It is not at all for the interests of France that our colonies should become independent," repeated Rochford. "The English minister," reasoned Garnier, "thinks, that after all they may set up for themselves."

Franklin invited the colonial agents to unite in presenting the petition of congress, but he was joined only by those who were employed by Massachusetts. Dartmouth received it courteously, and laid it before the king, who promised that after the recess it should be communicated to parliament. Barrington, the military secretary, was the first to confess the weakness of his department and to re

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monstrate against war. British industry made every CHAP. able-bodied man of so much value, that considerable enlistments at home were out of the question; rank in the army was bestowed by favor, or sold for money, so that even boys at school sometimes held commissions; and under the corrupt system, not one general officer of that day had gained a great name. Aristocratic selfishness had unfitted England for war, unless under a minister who could inspirit the nation. Barrington, therefore, who had in advance advised, "that the seven regiments in Boston should be directed to leave a place where they could do no good, and without intention might do harm," and who was persuaded that the navy by itself was able to worry Massachusetts into "submission without shedding a drop of blood," once more pressed his opinions upon the government. "The contest," said he, "will cost more than we can gain by success. We have not strength to levy internal taxes on America; many amongst ourselves doubt their equity; all the troops in North America are not enough to subdue the Massachusetts; the most successful conquest must produce the horrors of civil war. Till the factious chiefs can be secured, judicial proceedings would confer the palm of martyrdom without the pain;" and he urged an immediate withdrawal of the troops, the "abandonment of all ideas of internal taxation," and such "concessions" as could be made "with dignity."

Lord North was disquieted. He rejected the propositions of congress, which included the repeal of the act regulating Massachusetts, but he was ready to negotiate with the Americans for the right to tax

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