duty, the certain, though dangerous test of friendship. He that could
see his friend persevering in a fatal error, without reminding him of
it, and striving to reclaim him, through fear that he might thereby
incur his displeasure, would little deserve the sacred name himself.
Such delicacy is not only false, but criminal. Were I not fully
convinced upon the most mature deliberation, that I am capable of,
that the temporal salvation of this province depends upon an entire
and speedy change of measures, which must depend upon a change of
sentiment, respecting our own conduct, and the justice of the British
nation, I never should have obtruded myself on the public. I repeat
my promise, to avoid personal reflection, as much as the nature of
the task will admit of; but will continue faithfully to expose the
wretched policy of the whigs, though I may be obliged to penetrate
the arcana, and discover such things as, were there not a necessity
for it, I should be infinitely happier in drawing a veil over, or
covering with a mantle. Should I be so unfortunate as to incur your
displeasure, I shall nevertheless think myself happy, if I can but
snatch one of my fellow-subjects as a brand out of the burning.
Perhaps some may imagine that I have represented too many of my
countrymen, as well as the leading whigs, in an unjust point of
light, by supposing these so wicked as to mislead, or those so little
circumspect as to be misled, in matters of the last importance.
Whoever has been conversant with the history of man, must know that
it abounds with such instances. The same game, and with the same
success, has been played in all ages, and all countries.
The bulk of the people are generally but little versed in matters of
state. Want of inclination or opportunity to figure in public life,
makes them content to rest the affairs of government in the hands,
where accident or merit has placed them. Their views and employments
are confined to the humbler walks of business or retirement. There
is a latent spark however, in their breasts, capable of being
kindled into a flame; to do this has always been the employment of
the disaffected. They begin by reminding the people of the elevated
rank they hold in the universe, as men; that all men by nature are
equal; that kings are but the ministers of the people; that their
authority is delegated to them by the people for their good, and they
have a right to resume it, and place it in other hands, or keep it
themselves, whenever it is made use of to oppress them. Doubtless
there have been instances where these principles have been inculcated
to obtain a redress of real grievances, but they have been much
oftener perverted to the worst of purposes. No government, however
perfect in theory, is administered in perfection; the frailty of man
does not admit of it. A small mistake, in point of policy, often
furnishes a pretence to libel government, and persuade the people
that their rulers are tyrants, and the whole government a system of
oppression. Thus the seeds of sedition are usually sown, and the
people are led to sacrifice real liberty to licentiousness, which
gradually ripens into rebellion and civil war. And what is still
more to be lamented, the generality of the people, who are thus made
the dupes of artifice, and the mere stilts of ambition, are sure
to be losers in the end. The best they can expect, is to be thrown
neglected by, when they are no longer wanted; but they are seldom so
happy; if they are subdued, confiscation of estate and ignominious
death are their portion; if they conquer, their own army is often
turned upon them, to subjugate them to a more tyranical government
than that they rebelled against. History is replete with instances
of this kind; we can trace them in remote antiquity, we find them
in modern times, and have a remarkable one in the very country from
which we are derived. It is an universal truth, that he that would
excite a rebellion, whatever professions of philanthropy he may make,
when he is insinuating and worming himself into the good graces of
the people, is at heart as great a tyrant as ever wielded the iron
rod of oppression. I shall have occasion hereafter to consider this
matter more fully, when I shall endeavour to convince you how little
we can gain, and how much we may lose, by this unequal, unnatural,
and desperate contest. My present business is, to trace the spirit
of opposition to Great Britain through the general court, and the
courts of common law. In moderate times, a representative that votes
for an unpopular measure, or opposes a popular one, is in danger of
losing his election the next year; when party runs high, he is sure
to do it. It was the policy of the whigs to have their questions,
upon high matters, determined by yea and nay votes, which were
published with the representatives' names in the next gazette. This
was commonly followed by severe strictures and the most illiberal
invectives upon the dissentients; sometimes they were held up as
objects of resentment, of contempt at others; the abuse was in
proportion to the extravagance of the measure they opposed. This
may seem not worth notice, but its consequences were important. The
scurrility made its way into the dissentient's town, it furnished his
competitor with means to supplant him, and he took care to shun the
rock his predecessor had split upon. In this temper of the times, it
was enough to know who voted with Cassius and who with Lucius, to
determine who was a friend and who an enemy to the country, without
once adverting to the question before the house. The loss of a seat
in the house was not of so much consequence; but when once he became
stigmatized as an enemy to his country, he was exposed to insult; and
if his profession or business was such, that his livelihood depended
much on the good graces of his fellow citizens, he was in danger of
losing his bread, and involving his whole family in ruin.
One particular set of members, in committee, always prepared the
resolves and other spirited measures. At first they were canvassed
freely, at length would slide through the house without meeting
an obstacle. The lips of the dissentients were sealed up; they
sat in silence, and beheld with infinite regret the measures they
durst not oppose. Many were borne down against their wills, by the
violence of the current; upon no other principle can we reconcile
their ostensible conduct in the house to their declarations in
private circles. The apparent unanimity in the house encouraged the
opposition out of doors, and that in its turn strengthened the party
in the house. Thus they went on mutually supporting and up-lifting
each other. Assemblies and towns resolved alternately; some of them
only omitted resolving to snatch the sceptre out of the hands of our
sovereign, and to strike the imperial crown from his sacred head.
A master stroke in politics respecting the agent, ought not to be
neglected. Each colony has usually an agent residing at the court of
Great Britain. These agents are appointed by the three branches of
their several assemblies; and indeed there cannot be a provincial
agent without such appointment. The whigs soon found that they could
not have such services rendered them from a provincial agent, as
would answer their purposes. The house therefore refused to join
with the other two branches of the general court in the appointment.
The house chose an agent for themselves, and the council appointed
another. Thus we had two agents for private purposes, and the expence
of agency doubled; and with equal reason a third might have been
added, as agent for the Governor, and the charges been trebled.
The additional expence was of little consideration, compared with
another inconvenience that attended this new mode of agency. The
person appointed by the house was the ostensible agent of the
province, though in fact he was only the agent of a few individuals
that had got the art of managing the house at their pleasure. He knew
his continuing in office depended upon them. An office, that yielded
several hundred pounds sterling annually, the business of which
consisted in little more than attending the levees of the great, and
writing letters to America, was worth preserving. Thus he was under a
strong temptation to sacrifice the province to a party; and ecchoed
back the sentiments of his patrons.
The advices continually received from one of the persons, that was
thus appointed agent, had great influence upon the members of the
house of more moderate principles. He had pushed his researches deep
into nature, and made important discoveries: they thought he had done
the same in politics, and did not admire him less as a politician,
than as a philosopher. His intelligence as to the disposition of his
majesty, the ministry, the parliament and the nation in general, was
deemed the most authentic. He advised us to keep up our opposition,
to resolve, and re-resolve, to cherish a military spirit, uniformly
holding up this idea, that if we continued firm, we had nothing to
fear from the government in England. He even proposed some modes of
opposition himself. The spirited measures were always ushered into
the house with a letter from him. I have been sometimes almost ready
to suspect him of being the _primum mobile_, and, that like the man
behind the curtain at a puppet-shew, he was playing off the figures
here with his own secret wires. If he advised to these measures
contrary to his better knowledge, from sinister views, and to serve
a private purpose, he has _wilfully_ done the province irreparable
injury. However, I will do him justice; he enjoined it upon us to
refrain from violence, as that would unite the nation against us;
and I am rather inclined to think that he was deceived himself,
with respect to the measures he recommended, as he has already felt
the resentment of that very government, which he told us there was
nothing to fear from. This disposition of the house could not have
produced such fatal effects, had the other two branches of the
legislature retained their constitutional freedom and influence. They
might have been a sufficient check.
The councellors depended upon the general assembly for their
political existence; the whigs reminded the council of their
mortality. If a councellor opposed the violent measures of the whigs
with any spirit, he lost his election the next May. The council
consisted of twenty-eight. From this principle, near half that
number, mostly men of the first families, note and abilities, with
every possible attachment to their native country, and as far from
temptation as wealth and independence could remove them, were tumbled
from their seats in disgrace. Thus the board, which was intended to
moderate between the two extremes of prerogative and privilege, lost
its weight in the scale, and the political balance of the province
was destroyed.
Had the chair been able to retain its own constitutional influence,
the loss of the board would have been less felt; but no longer
supported by the board, that fell likewise. The Governor by the
charter could do little or nothing without the council. If he called
upon a military officer to raise the militia, he was answered,
they were there already. If he called upon his council for their
assistance, they must first enquire into the cause. If he wrote to
government at home to strengthen his hands, some officious person
procured and sent back his letters.
It was not the person of a Bernard or Hutchinson that made them
obnoxious; any other governors would have met with the same fate, had
they discharged their duty with equal fidelity; that is, had they
strenuously opposed the principles and practices of the whigs; and
when they found that the government here could not support itself,
wrote home for aid sufficient to do it. And let me tell you, had
the intimations in those letters, which you are taught to execrate,
been timely attended to, we had now been as happy a people as good
government could make us. Gov. Bernard came here recommended by the
affections of the province over which he had presided. His abilities
are acknowledged. True British honesty and punctuality are traits in
his character, too strongly marked to escape the eye of prejudice
itself. We know Governor Hutchinson to be amiable and exemplary
in private life. His great abilities, integrity and humanity were
conspicuous, in the several important departments that he filled,
before his appointment to the chair, and reflect honour on his native
country. But his abilities and integrity, added to his thorough
knowledge of the province, in all its interests and connexions,
were insufficient in this case. The constitution itself was gone,
though the ancient form remained; the spirit was truly republican.
He endeavoured to reclaim us by gentle means. He strove to convince
us by arguments, drawn from the first principles of government; our
several charters, and the express acknowledgments of our ancestors,
that our claims were inconsistent with the subordination due to Great
Britain; and if persisted in, might work the destruction of those
that we were entitled to. For this he was called an enemy to his
country, and set up as a mark for the envenomed arrows of malice and
party rage. Had I entertained a doubt about its being the governor,
and not the man that was aimed at, the admirable facility with which
the newspaper abuse was transferred from Gov. Hutchinson to his
humane and benevolent successor, Gen. Gage, almost as soon as he set
foot on our shore, would have removed it.
Thus, disaffection to Great Britain being infused into the body
of the people, the subtle poison stole through all the veins and
arteries, contaminated the blood, and destroyed the very stamina of
the constitution. Had not the courts of justice been tainted in the
early stages, our government might have expelled the virus, purged
off the peccant humors, and recovered its former vigour by its own
strength. The judges of the superior court were dependant upon the
annual grants of the general court for their support. Their salaries
were small, in proportion to the salaries of other officers in the
government, of less importance.
They had often petitioned the assembly to enlarge them, without
success. They were at this time reminded of their dependance.
However, it is but justice to say, that the judges remained unshaken,
amid the raging tempests, which is to be attributed rather to their
firmness than situation. But the spirit of the times was very
apparent in the juries. The grand jurors were elective; and in such
places where libels, riots, and insurrections were the most frequent,
the high whigs took care to get themselves chosen. The judges pointed
out to them the seditious libels on governors, magistrates, and the
whole government to no effect. They were enjoined to present riots
and insurrections, of which there was ample evidence, with as little
success.
It is difficult to account for so many of the first rate whigs
being returned to serve on the petit jury at the term next after
extraordinary insurrections, without supposing some legerdemain
in drawing their names out of the box. It is certain that
notwithstanding swarms of the most virulent libels infested the
province, and there were so many riots and insurrections, scarce one
offender was indicted, and I think not one convicted and punished.
Causes of _meum et tuum_ were not always exempt from party influence.
The mere circumstance of the whigs gaining the ascendency over the
tories, is trifling. Had the whigs divided the province between
them, as they once flattered themselves they should be able to do,
it would have been of little consequence to the community, had
they not cut asunder the very sinews of government, and broke in
pieces the ligaments of social life in the attempt. I will mention
two instances, which I have selected out of many, of the weakness
of our government, as they are recent and unconnected with acts
of parliament. One Malcolm, a loyal subject, and as such entitled
to protection, the evening before the last winter sessions of the
general court, was dragged out of his house, stript, tarred and
feathered, and carted several hours in the severest frost of that
winter, to the utmost hazard of his life. He was carried to the
gallows with an halter about his neck, and in his passage to and
from the gallows, was beaten with as cruel stripes as ever were
administered by the hands of a savage. The whipping, however, kept
up the circulation of his blood, and saved the poor man's life. When
they had satiated their malice, they dispersed in good order. This
was transacted in the presence of thousands of spectators; some of
whom were members of the general court. Malcolm's life was despaired
of several days, but he survived and presented a memorial to the
general assembly, praying their interposition. The petition was
read, and all he obtained was leave to withdraw it. So that he was
destitute of protection every hour, until he left the country, as
were thousands beside, until the arrival of the king's troops. This
originated from a small fracas in the street, wherein Malcolm struck,
or threatened to strike a person that insulted him, with a cutlass,
and had no connection with the quarrel of the times, unless his
sustaining a small post in the customs made it.
The other instance is much stronger than this, as it was totally
detached from politics. It had been suspected that infection had
been communicated from an hospital, lately erected at Marblehead,
for the purpose of innoculating the small-pox, to the town's people.
This caused a great insurrection; the insurgents burnt the hospital;
not content with that, threatened the proprietors, and many others,
some of the first fortunes and characters in the town, with burning
their houses over their heads, and continued parading the streets,
to the utmost terror of the inhabitants several days. A massacre and
general devastation was apprehended. The persons threatened, armed
themselves, and petitioned the general assembly, which was then
sitting, for assistance, as there was little or no civil authority in
the place. A committee was ordered to repair to Marblehead, report
the facts, and enquire into the cause. The committee reported the
facts nearly as stated in the petition. The report was accepted, and
nothing farther done by the assembly. Such demonstrations of the
weakness of government induced many persons to join the whigs, to
seek from them that protection, which the constitutional authority of
the province was unable to afford.
Government at home, early in the day, made an effort to check us
in our career, and to enable us to recover from anarchy without
her being driven to the necessity of altering our provincial
constitution, knowing the predilection that people always have for
an ancient form of government. The judges of the superior court had
not been staggered, though their feet stood in slippery places, they
depended upon the leading whigs for their support. To keep them
steady, they were made independent of the grants of the general
assembly: but it was not a remedy any way adequate to the disease.
The whigs now turned their artillery against them, and it played
briskly. The chief justice, for accepting the crown grant, was
accused of receiving a royal bribe.
Thus, my friends, those very persons that had made you believe that
every attempt to strengthen government and save our charter was an
infringement of your privileges, by little and little destroyed
your real liberty, subverted your charter constitution, abridged
the freedom of the house, annihilated the freedom of the board,
and rendered the governor a mere doge of Venice. They engrossed
all the power of the province into their own hands. A democracy
or republic it has been called, but it does not deserve the name
of either; it was, however, a despotism cruelly carried into
execution by mobs and riots, and more incompatible with the rights
of mankind, than the enormous monarchies of the East. The absolute
necessity of the interposition of parliament is apparent. The good
policy of the act for regulating the government in this province,
will be the subject of some future paper. A particular enquiry
into the despotism of the whigs will be deferred for a chapter on
congresses. I shall next ask your attention to a transaction, as
important in its consequences, and perhaps more so, than any I have
yet mentioned; I mean the destruction of the tea, belonging to the
East-India company. I am sensible of the difficulty of the task, in
combating generally received opinions. It is hard work to eradicate
deep-rooted prejudice. But I will persevere. There are hundreds, if
not thousands, in the province, that will feel the truth of what
I have written, line by line as they read it, and as to those who
obstinately shut their eyes against it now, haply the fever of the
times may intermit, there may be some lucid interval, when their
minds shall be open to truth, before it is too late to serve them;
otherwise it will be revealed to them in bitter moments, attended
with keen remorse and unutterable anguish. _Magna est veritas et
prevalebit._
MASSACHUSETTENSIS.
ADDRESSED
_To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay_,
January 2, 1775.
MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN,
Perhaps by this time some of you may enquire who it is, that suffers
his pen to run so freely? I will tell you; it is a native of this
province, that knew it before many that are now basking in the rays
of political sunshine, had a being. He was favored not by whigs
or tories, but the people, with such a stand in the community, as
that he could distinctly see all the political manoeuvres of the
province. He saw some with pleasure, others with pain. If he condemns
the conduct of the whigs, he does not always approve of the conduct
of the tories. He dwells upon the misconduct of the former, because
we are indebted to that for bringing us into this wretched state,
unless the supineness of the latter, at some periods, and some
impolitic efforts to check the whigs in their career, at others,
that served like adding fuel to the fire, ought to be added to the
account. He is now repaying your favors, if he knows his own heart,
from the purest gratitude and the most undissembled patriotism, which
will one day be acknowledged. I saw the small seed of sedition, when
it was implanted; it was, as a grain of mustard. I have watched the
plant until it has become a great tree; the vilest reptiles that
crawl upon the earth, are concealed at the root; the foulest birds of
the air rest upon its branches. I now would induce you to go to work
immediately with axes and hatchets, and cut it down, for a twofold
reason; because it is a pest to society, and lest it be felled
suddenly by a stronger arm and crush its thousands in the fall.