[1] “In writing a ballad the secrets of success are definiteness of aim,
directness of execution, and singleness of idea. The language must be
simple, but so vigorous that every word tells; the metre must also be
simple, but the versification demands a musical swing, a rush of rhyme,
the talent for which is rare. To smell of the lamp is fatal to the
ballad; it should have all the spontaneity of an impromptu. The author
must forget himself, for ballad poetry is essentially objective, and a
touch of subjectivity spoils it. Each incident must be related as though
the writer had taken part in it, and seeing with his mind’s eye, he must
paint as vividly as though that described were before him in very truth.
It is not an easy thing to write a ballad in these days, when the drift
of poetic thought is quite in the opposite direction.”—_Philadelphia
Inquirer_, 1876.
[2] In 1761, “America knew that the Board of Trade had proposed
to annul colonial charters, to reduce all the colonies to royal
governments.”—_Bancroft’s Hist. U. S._, vol. iv., ch. 18, p. 414. “The
king, the ministry, the crown officers all conspiring against her
liberties ... there was no help unless from Parliament.”—_Idem._, vol.
v., ch. 11, p. 236.
[3] “Franklin looked for greater liberties than ... Parliament might
inaugurate. Having for his motto ‘Join or die,’ ... sketching the
outline of a confederacy.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 5, p. 116. “William
Penn in 1697 had proposed an annual Congress ... to regulate commerce.
Franklin” in 1752 “revived the great idea, and breathed into it enduring
life.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 5, p. 125.
[4] “The Board of Trade had proposed ... collecting the duties ... the
justice of the restrictions on trade was denied and their authority
questioned; and when the officers of the customs asked for ‘writs of
assistance’ to enforce them, the colony regarded its liberties in peril.
This is the opening scene of American resistance. It began” in 1761 ...
“in a court-room ... James Otis ... stood up ... the champion of the
colonies.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 18, p. 414.
[5] “‘I am determined,’ such were his words, ‘to sacrifice estate ...
life in opposition to a kind of power, the exercise of which cost one
king of England his head and another his throne.’ ... Tracing the
lineage of freedom to its origin, he opposed the claims of the British
officers by the authority of ‘reason,’ and that they were at war with the
‘Constitution’ he proved by appeals to the Charter of Massachusetts, and
its English liberties.... ‘An Act of Parliament against the Constitution
is void,’ he said.... ‘The crowded audience seemed ready to take up
arms.’”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 18, pp. 415-6.
[6] “The true interests of Great Britain and her plantations are mutual.
Otis in 1763.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 5, p. 90.
[7] See the Representations of the General Assembly at New York to the
King, concerning the administration of justice in that province, 1762,
mentioned in _Idem._, vol. v., ch. 5, p. 84. “By the laws of nature and
of nations, the voice of universal reason and of God, by the statute
law and the common law, this memorial claimed for the colonists the
absolute rights of Englishmen, ... such were the views of Otis sent by
Massachusetts” in 1764 “to its agent in London.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch.
10, pp. 198-9.
[8] “Less than forty were willing to receive the petition of Virginia. A
third from South Carolina, a fourth from Connecticut, ... a fifth from
Massachusetts, ... shared the same refusal. That from New York, no one
could be prevailed upon to offer.... The House of Commons would neither
receive petitions nor hear council.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 11, p. 246.
This was in Feb., 1765.
[9] In 1763 Brown, the Governor of South Carolina, “assumed the
power of rejecting members whom the House declared duly elected
and returned.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 8, p. 150. In May, 1765, “The
Lieutenant-Governor” of Virginia “dissolved the Assembly.”—_Idem._,
ch. 13, p. 277. “Fearing a general expression of the sentiments of the
people, through their representatives ... Tyron issued a proclamation in
October proroguing the Assembly which was to meet on the thirtieth of
November, until the following March. This act incurred the indignation
of the people.”—_Lossing’s Field Book of the Revolution_, vol. ii., p.
568. Later, “Townshend’s revenue, so far as it provided an independent
support for the crown officers, did away with the necessity of
colonial legislatures.... Governors would have little inducement to
call assemblies, and an angry minister might dissolve them without
inconvenience to his administration.”—_Bancroft’s U. S._, vol. vi.,
ch. 29, p. 85. “An act of Parliament” in 1767 “suspended the functions
of its (N. Y.) legislature till they should render obedience to the
Imperial Legislature.”—_Idem._, p. 84. “Bernard ... prorogued them,
and then dissolved the Assembly. Massachusetts was left without a
legislature.”—_Idem._, vol. vi., ch. 34, p. 165.
[10] “This commission ... established a military power throughout the
continent independent of the colonial governors and superior to them ...
in 1756 the rule was established ... that troops might be kept up in the
colonies and quartered on them at pleasure without the consent of the
American Parliaments.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 9, pp. 229-30. In Feb.,
1765, “Welbore Ellis, Secretary of War ... made known his intention ‘that
the orders of his commander-in-chief and ... the brigadier generals ...
should be supreme, and be obeyed by the troops as such in all the civil
governments of America.’ ... These instructions rested, as was pretended,
on ... the commission” (mentioned above) “... prepared for ... troops in
time of war.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 11, p. 235.
[11] In 1762 “was consummated the system of subjecting the halls of
justice to the prerogative. The king ... instituted courts, named the
judges, removed them at pleasure, fixed the amount of their salaries,
and paid them out of funds that were independent of legislative
grants.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 19, p. 440.
[12] About 1762 “a fund of two thousand pounds was subscribed to
a society which the legislature of Massachusetts had authorized
for promoting knowledge among the Indians; but the king interposed
his negative, and reserved the red man for the Anglican form of
worship.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 18, p. 430. In 1765 “In North Carolina
... the legislature were even persuaded ... to make provision for
the support of the Church of England.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 13, p.
271. “For New York, the Lords of Trade refused to the Presbyterians
any immunities but such as might be derived from the British Law of
Toleration.”—_Idem._, vol. vi., ch. 29, p. 84. “O poor New England, there
is a deep plot against both your civil and religious liberties, and they
will be lost.”—Whitfield in 1764, _Idem._, vol. v., ch. 10, p. 193.
[13] In Jan., 1750 ... “Mayhew summoned ... defensive war against
‘tyranny and priestcraft.’ ... He preached resistance.”—_Idem._, vol.
iv., ch. 3, p. 60. In Aug., 1765, “Choosing as his text ... Ye have
been called to liberty ... he preached fervently in behalf of civil and
religious freedom.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 16, p. 312.
[14] “The act seemed sure to enforce itself. Unless stamps were used,
marriages would be null, notes of hand valueless, ships at sea prizes
to the first captors, suits at law impossible, transfers of real estate
invalid, inheritances unclaimable.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 11, pp. 251-2.
[15] “The publishers of newspapers ... were ... called upon to stand the
brunt in braving the penalties of the act.... Timothy Green ... publisher
of the _New London Gazette_ ... fearlessly defended his country’s
rights.... On Friday the first day of November, his journal came forth
without stamps.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 19, pp. 352-3.
[16] Speaking of Samuel Adams in 1764, “On his motion and in his words,
Boston ... asserted ... ‘If taxes are laid upon us ... without our having
a legal representation ... are we not reduced ... to the miserable state
of tributary slaves?’”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 10, p. 197.
[17] “The strength of the people in America” in 1748 “consisted also in
the exclusive right of its assemblies to levy and to appropriate colonial
taxes ... in America, the rapacity of the governors made it expedient to
preserve their dependence for their salaries on annual grants.”—_Idem._,
vol. iv., ch. 1, p. 19.
[18] See note 27.
[19] March, 1763, “it became lawful ... for each ... armed vessel to
stop and examine and, in case of suspicion, to seize each merchant ship
approaching the colonies, while avarice was stimulated by hope of large
emoluments to make as many seizures ... as possible.”—_Idem._, vol. v.,
ch. 5, p. 92.
[20] “The penalties and forfeitures for breach of the revenue laws were
to be decided in courts of Vice-Admiralty, without the interposition of a
jury, by a single judge, who had no support whatever but in his share of
the profits of his own condemnations.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 12, p. 268.
[21] “The first American ship that ventured to sea with a rich cargo
and without stamped papers was owned by the Boston merchant, John
Hancock.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 20, p. 374.
[22] “The merchants of New York, ... unanimously bound themselves to
send no new orders for goods or merchandise; to countermand all former
orders; and not even to receive goods on commission unless the Stamp Act
be repealed.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 19, pp. 351-2.
[23] “Isaac Sears, the self-constituted, and for ten years the
recognized, head of the people of New York.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 19, p.
355.
[24] “The colonists could not export the chief products of their industry
... to any place but Great Britain ... nor might any foreign ship enter
any colonial harbor.... In all other respects Great Britain was not only
the sole market for the products of America, but the only storehouse
for its supplies.... That the country which was the home of the beaver
might not manufacture its own hats, no man ... could be a hatter or a
journeyman at the trade unless he had served an apprenticeship of seven
years. No hatter might employ ... more than two apprentices. America
abounded in iron ores ... slitting mills, steel furnaces, and plating
forges ... were prohibited.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 12, pp. 265-7.
[25] “‘We will none of us import British goods,’ said the traders in the
towns.... North Carolina set up looms ... and South Carolina was ready to
follow.... ‘We will have homespun markets of linen and woollens,’ passed
from mouth to mouth.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 14, p. 288.
[26] “New England and Pennsylvania had imported nearly one half as much
as usual. New York alone had been perfectly true to its engagements,”—the
state of things in 1770.—_Idem._, vol. vi., ch. 44, p. 365.
[27] “The fourteenth of August,” 1765, “saw the effigy of Oliver,”
Boston’s stamp agent, “tricked out with emblems of Bute and Grenville,
... prepared by Boston mechanics, true-born Sons of Liberty, Benjamin
Edes, the printer, ... Thomas Chase, a fiery hater of kings.”—_Idem._,
vol. v., ch. 16, p. 310. “Just after dark an ‘amazing’ multitude ... made
a funeral pyre for his effigy.... So the considerate self-seeker ... gave
it under his own hand that he would not serve as stamp officer.”—_Idem._,
vol. v., ch. 16, pp. 310-12.
[28] “Everywhere, ... of themselves, or at the instance of the people,
amidst shouts and the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon, or
... with rage changing into courtesy on the ... submission of the
stamp-master, ... the officers resigned. There remained not one person
duly commissioned to distribute stamps.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 19, p. 351.
[29] “‘I am resolved to have the stamps distributed,’ wrote Colden.... On
the thirty-first of October, Colden and all the royal governors took the
oath to carry the stamp-act punctually into effect.... The governor of
Rhode Island stood alone in his patriotic refusal.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch.
19, p. 350.
[30] “The SONS OF LIBERTY ... organized at this time throughout the
colonies.”—_Lossing’s Pic. Field Bk. of the Rev._, vol. ii., p. 787.
“The association in New York had a correspondent ... in London, ... from
whom they ... regularly received intelligence of the movements of the
ministry.”—_Idem._, note.
[31] “Friday, the first morning of November,” 1765, “broke upon a people
unanimously resolved to nullify the Stamp Act. From New Hampshire to the
far south the day was introduced by the tolling of muffled bells, ... a
eulogy was pronounced on liberty and its knell sounded, and then again
the note changed as if she were restored to life.”—_Bancroft’s U. S._,
vol. v., ch. 19, p. 352.
[32] “In New York the whole city rose up as one man.... The sailors came
from their shipping; the people flocked in ... by thousands.”—_Idem._, p.
355.
[33] “The leader of the popular tumult was Isaac Sears.”—_Idem._
[34] “‘I will cram the stamps down their throats with the end of my
sword,’ cried the braggart James, Major of Artillery, ... ‘will drive
them all out of town.’”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 17, p. 332.
[35] “The arbitrary invasion of private rights ... by the illegal and
usurped authority of a military chief was the great result of the
campaign. The frontier had been left open to the French; but the ...
example had been given ... of quartering troops in the principal towns at
the expense of the inhabitants.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch. 10, p. 241.
[36] “Washington had left the service on account of a regulation by
which the colonial officers were made to rank under those of the regular
army.... Urged by General Braddock to accompany him, he consented to do
so ... as a volunteer.... Through the stubbornness of that general, his
contempt of the Indians, and the cowardice of many of his regular troops,
an army of thirteen hundred men was half destroyed. Braddock fell,
and the whole duty of distributing orders devolved upon the youthful
colonel.”—_Lossing’s Pic. Field Book of the Rev._, vol. ii., pp. 477-9.
[37] “The King in council ... having thus invited a conflict with France
by instructions necessarily involving war, ... neither troops, nor
money, nor ships of war were sent over.”—_Bancroft’s U. S._, vol. iv.,
ch. 4, p. 102. “_They protected by YOUR arms?_ They have nobly taken up
arms in your defence ... for the defence of a country whose frontier
was drenched in blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little
savings to your emolument.”—Barré debating on the Stamp Act in the House
of Commons.—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 11, p. 240.
[38] “Colden himself retired within the fort.... He would have fired on
the people, but was menaced with being hanged.”—_Bancroft’s U. S._, vol.
v., ch. 19, p. 355.
[39] “Colden pleaded his oath ... that ... the Act should be
observed, ... the contempt into which the government would fall by
concession.”—_Idem._, p. 357. “In Connecticut, Dyer ... entreated Fitch
(the governor) not to take an oath ... contrary to that of the governor
to maintain the rights of the colonies.”—_Idem._, p. 351.
[40] “Isaac Sears and others, leaders of the Sons of Liberty, who had
issued strict orders forbidding injury to private property, endeavored to
restrain the mob.”—_Lossing’s Pic. Field Book of the Rev._, vol. ii., p.
788.
[41] “A party of volunteers sacked the house occupied by James, and bore
off the colors of the royal regiments.”—_Bancroft’s U. S._, vol. v., ch.
19, p. 356.
[42] “In the evening a vast torchlight procession carrying, ... two
images, one of the governor; the other of the devil, ... broke open the
governor’s coach-house, took out his chariot, carried the images upon it,
... to burn them with his own carriages and sleighs before his own eyes
on the Bowling Green.”—_Idem._
[43] “He has bound himself,” they cried, “to be the chief murderer of our
rights.” “He was a rebel in Scotland, a Jacobite.” “He is an enemy to his
king, to his country, and mankind.”—_Idem._ “In the opinion of ... Colden
... the democratic or popular part of the American Constitution was too
strong.... His remedies were a perpetual revenue, fixed salaries, and an
hereditary council of priviledged landholders.”—_Idem._, vol. iv., ch.
16, p. 371.
[44] “The council questioned” (_i.e._, the colony’s council) “his
authority to distribute the stamps, and unanimously advised him to
declare that he would do nothing in relation to them, but await the
arrival of the new governor, and his declaration to that effect ...
was immediately published. But the confidence of the people was
shaken.”—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 19, p. 356.
[45] “‘We will have the stamp papers,’ cried Sears to the multitude,
‘within four and twenty hours,’”—_Idem._
[46] “Colden invited Kenedy to receive them on board of the Coventry....
Gage being appealed to, avowed his belief that a fire from the fort would
be the ... commencement of civil war.”—_Idem._, 356-7.
[47] “Colden, perceiving further resistance ... unavailing, ordered
the stamps to be delivered to the Mayor (Cruger) and Common Council,
the former giving a receipt for the same, and the corporation agreeing
to pay for all the stamps that should be destroyed or lost. This was
satisfactory to the people.”—_Lossing’s Pic. Field Book_, vol. ii., p.
789.
[48] “In all the streets were heard the shouts of Liberty, Property, and
no Stamps.”—_Bancroft’s U. S._, vol. v., ch. 19, p. 357.
[49] “The press continued its activity.”—_Idem._
[50] “I rejoice that America has resisted.”—William Pitt in the House of
Commons.—_Idem._, vol. v., ch. 21, p. 391.
[51] “On ... the joyful intelligence of the repeal of the Stamp Act
... the city was filled with delight. Bells rang ... cannon roared
... the Sons of Liberty drank twenty-eight ‘loyal and constitutional
toasts.’”—_Lossing’s Pic. Field Book of the Rev._, vol. ii., p. 789.