Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Henry VIII., succeeded Mary, and,

though she professed Protestantism, long endeavored to retain in the

Church of England the magnificent rituals of the Romish Liturgy. She had

in her private chapel images, the crucifix, and tapers; she offered

prayers to the Virgin; insisted upon the celibacy of the clergy; invoked

the aid of saints, but left the doctrine of the real presence in the

Eucharist, which some had been burned for denying, and some for

asserting, as a question of national indifference. With such views,

Elizabeth regarded the Puritans with little favor, while they, having

nothing to fear from earthly power, valuing, as they did, their lives as

nothing in comparison with the maintenance of their principles, were

bold in the annunciation of their views. They claimed the right to

worship according to the dictates of their own consciences, and denied

the prerogative of the sovereign to interfere in matters of religious

faith and practice. They claimed the free exercise of private judgment

in such matters; and the Puritan preachers also promulgated the doctrine

of civil liberty, that the sovereign was amenable to the tribunal of

public opinion, and ought to conform in practice to the expressed will

of the majority of the people. By degrees their pulpits became the

tribunes of the common people, and their discourses assumed a latitude

in discussion and rebuke which alarmed the queen and the great body of

Churchmen, who saw therein elements of revolution that might overturn

the throne and bury the favored hierarchy in its ruins. On all occasions

the Puritan ministers were the bold asserters of that freedom which the

American Revolution established.

Position of Elizabeth.--The Separatists.--Persecutions.--Puritans in

Parliament.--James L--Robinson

441Elizabeth had endeavored firmly to seat the national religion midway

between the supremacy of Rome and the independence of Puritanism. She

thus lost the confidence of both, and also soon learned herself to look

upon both as enemies. Roman Catholic princes conspired against England,

while Puritan divines were sapping the foundations of the royal

prerogatives, and questioning the _divine right_ of monarchs to govern.

A convocation of the clergy was held; the "Thirty-nine Articles," which

constitute the rule of faith of the English Church, were formed, and

other methods were adopted, to give stability to the hierarchy; but

nearly nine years elapsed before Parliament confirmed the Articles by

act, and then not without some limitations, which the Puritans regarded

as concessions to them.

Rigorous orders for conformity were now issued. The Puritans, thoroughly

imbued with an independent spirit, assumed an air of defiance. Thirty

London ministers refused subscription to the Articles, and some talked

openly of secession. A separate congregation was at length actually

formed. The government was alarmed, and several of the leading men and

women were imprisoned for a year. Persecution begat zeal, and a party of

Independents, or Separatists, appeared, under a zealous but shallow

advocate named Brown. The great body of the Puritans desired reform, but

were unwilling to leave the Church. The Independents denounced the

Church as idolatrous, and false to Christianity and truth. Bitter enmity

soon grew up between them, the Puritans reproaching the Separatists with

unwise precipitancy, and they in return were censured for cowardice and

want of faith.

Persecution now began in earnest. A court of high commission was

established, for the detection and punishment of Non-conformists. Its

powers were almost as absolute as those of the Inquisition. Parliament,

particularly the House of Commons, in which was the leaven of

Puritanism, disapproved of the commission, and a feeling of general

dissatisfaction prevailed. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, a man

sincerely, but bigotedly, attached to the English Reformed Church, was

at the head of the hierarchy, and assumed to control the entire body of

the English Church. Conventicles were prohibited, yet, in a few years,

it was asserted in Parliament that twenty thousand persons in England

attended conventicles. Some were banished, others imprisoned, a few were

hanged. The Separatists were nearly extinguished, while the more loyal

branch of the Puritans still suffered contumely and persecution.

Elizabeth died, and the Puritans hailed the accession of James of

Scotland, where independence of thought and action had taken deepest

root, as a favorable event. It was thought that his education, the

restraints from profligacy which the public morals of Scotland imposed,

and his apparently sincere attachment to Protestantism, would guaranty

to them fair toleration, if not actual power. But they were in error. He

was thirty-six years old when he ascended the throne, and, in the

freedom of self-indulgence which his new position afforded, exulted in

gluttony, idleness, and licentiousness. Incapable of being a statesman,

he aimed to be thought a scholar, and wrote books which courtiers lauded

greatly, while wise men smiled and pitied. Bacon pronounced him

incomparable for learning among kings; and Sully of France, who knew his

worth, esteemed him "the wisest fool in Europe." A profligate dissembler

and imbecile coward, he was governed entirely by self-interest, vanity,

and artful men. He loved flattery and personal ease, and he had no fixed

principles of conduct or belief. Such was the man upon whom the

Puritans, for a moment, relied for countenance; but he had scarcely

reached Loudon before his conduct blighted their hopes. "No bishop, no

king," was his favorite maxim; and in 1604 he said of the Puritans, "I

will make them conform, or I will harrie them out of the land, or else

worse; only hang them, that's all." During that year three hundred

Puritan ministers were silenced, imprisoned, or exiled.

Among the exiled ministers at this period was John Robinson. Eminent for

piety and courage, his congregation was greatly attached to him, and

they contrived to have secret meetings every Sunday. But the pressure of

persecution finally determined them to seek an asylum in Holland,

"where, they heard, was freedom of religion for all men." Thither Mr.

Robinson and his little flock, among whom was William Brewster (who

afterward became a ruling elder in the Church), went into voluntary

exile in 1608 They landed at Amster-

Character of the Puritan Pilgrims.--Preparations to sail for America.--

Departure from Delfthaven.--The May Flower

442dam, and then journeyed to Leyden, feeling that they were but

Pilgrims, with no particular abiding-place on earth. They were joined by

others who fled from persecution in England, and finally they

established a prosperous church at Leyden.

While the Pilgrim Puritans were increasing in strength in Holland, and

winning golden opinions from the Dutch on account of their purity of

life and lofty independence of thought, companies were forming for

settling the newly-discovered portions of America, north of the mouth of

the Delaware. Toward the Western World the eyes and hearts of the

Pilgrims were turned, and John Carver and Robert Cushman repaired to

England, to obtain 1617 the consent of the Virginia Company to make a

distinct settlement in the northern part of their territory. Sandys,

Southampton, and other liberal members of the House of Commons,

prevailed upon the king to wink at their heresy. A patent was granted in

1619, and James promised, not to aid them, but to let them alone. This

was all they required of his majesty. Now another difficulty was to be

removed: capital was needed. Several London merchants advanced the

necessary sums. The famous Captain John Smith offered his services, but

his religious views did not suit them. His notions were too

aristocratic, and he complained of their democracy--complained that they

were determined "to be lords and kings of themselves." They were,

therefore, left "to make trial of their own follies." In 1620 the

Pilgrims purchased two ships, the Speedwell, of sixty tons, and the May

Flower, of one hundred and eighty tons; and as many of the congregation

at Leyden as could be accommodated in them left Delfthaven for

Southampton, England. There they were joined August 5, 1620by a few

others, and, with a fair wind, sailed for America. But the captain of

the Speedwell and his company, becoming alarmed, and pretending that the

ship was unseaworthy, put back to Plymouth, and the May Flower, bearing

one hundred and September 6, 1620 one men women, and children, the

winnowed remnants of the passengers in the two vessels, again spread her

sails to an eastern breeze. Their destination was the country near the

Hudson, but adverse winds drove them upon the more northerly and barren

coasts of Massachusetts Bay, after a boisterous voyage of sixty-three

days. Land was espied on the 9th of November, and two days afterward the

May Flower was safely moored in Cape Cod Bay. Before they landed, as we

have already noticed, they formed themselves into a body politic by a

solemn voluntary compact. "In the cabin of the May Flower humanity

recovered its rights, and instituted government on the basis of 'equal

laws' for the general good." John Carver was chosen governor for the

year. Democratic liberty and independent Christian worship were at once

established in America. *

The ocean now lay between the Pilgrims and the persecuting hierarchy,

and the land of promise was before them. Yet perils greater than they

had encountered hovered around that bleak shore, already white with the

snow of early winter. But

"They sought not gold nor guilty ease

Upon this rock-bound shore--

They left such prizeless toys as these

To minds that loved them more.

They sought to breathe a freer air,

To worship God unchain'd;

They welcomed pain and danger here,

When rights like these were gain'd."

Inspired with such feelings, the Pilgrims prepared to land. The shallop

was unshipped, but it needed great repairs. More than a fortnight was

employed by the carpenter in making it ready for sea. Standish,

Bradford, and others, impatient of the delay, determined to go ashore

and explore the country. They encountered many difficulties, and

returned to the ship. When the shallop was ready, the most bold and

enterprising set out upon a cruise along the shore, to find a suitable

place at which to land the whole company. They explored every bay and

inlet, and made some discoveries of buried Indian corn, deserted wig-

* Baem, Barlow, Hume, Hallam, Bancroft.

Exploration of the Const. Attacked by Indians. First Sabbath of the

Pilgrims in New England. Landing on Plymouth Rock.

443wams, and an Indian cemetery. The voyage was fruitless of good, and

they returned to the May Flower. Again Carver, Standish, Bradford,

Winslow, and others, with eight or ten seamen, launched the shallop in

the surf. The day was very cold, and the December 6, 1620 spray froze

upon them and their clothes like iron mail. They passed that night at

Billingsgate Point, at the bottom of Cape Cod Bay, on the western shore

of Wellfleet Harbor. The company divided next morning, but united at

evening, and encamped at Namskeket, or Great Meadow Creek. The next

morning, as they arose from their knees in the deep snow, when their

matin devotions were ended, a flight of arrows and a war-whoop announced

the presence of savages. They were of the Nauset tribe, and regarded the

white people as kidnappers. * But the Indians made no further attacks,

and the boat proceeded along the coast a distance of some forty miles.

Suddenly a storm arose. Snow and rain fell copiously; the heavy swells

snapped the rudder, and with oars alone they guided the frail shallop.

Darkness came on and the storm increased. As much sail as possible was

used to reach the shore; it was too much; the mast broke in three

pieces, and the fragments, with the sail, fell overboard. Breakers were

just ahead, but, by diligent labor with the oars, they passed safely

through the surf into a smooth harbor, landed, and lighted a fire. At

dawn they discovered that they were upon an island, in a good harbor. *

There they passed the day in drying their clothes, cleaning their arms,

and repairing their shallop. Night approached; it was the eve of the

Christian Sabbath. The storm had ceased, but snow nearly eighteen inches

in depth lay upon the ground. They had no tent, no shelter but the rock.

Their ship was more than fifteen leagues away, and winter, with all its

terrors, had set in. Every personal consideration demanded haste. But

the next day was the Sabbath, and they resolved to remain upon that

bleak island and worship God, in accordance with their faith and

obligations as Christians. In the deep snow they knelt in prayer; by the

cold rock they read the Scriptures; upon the keen, wintery air they

poured forth their hymns of thanksgiving and praise. In what bold relief

does that single act present the Puritan character. *

"And can we deem it strange

That from their planting such a branch should bloom

As nations envy?

Oh ye who boast

In your free veins the blood of sires like these,

Lose not their lineaments. Should Mammon cling

Too close around your heart, or wealth beget

That bloated luxury which eats the core

From manly virtue, or the tempting world

Make faint the Christian's purpose in your soul,

Turn ye to Plymouth's beach, and on that rock

Kneel in their footprints, and renew the vow

They breathed to God."

Mrs. Sigourney.

On Monday morning the exploring party pushed through the surf, and

landed December 22, 1622 upon a rock on the main. *** The neighborhood

seemed inviting for a settlement, and in a few days the May Flower was

brought around and moored in the harbor. The whole company landed near

where the explorers stepped ashore: the spot was called New

* The Indians of Cape Cod and the vicinity had experienced the treachery

of the whites, for it must be remembered that the Pilgrims were not the

discoverers of that region. Both French and English ships had visited

the coast. Six years before the landing of the Pilgrims, an Englishman

named Hunt had inveigled several Indians on board a ship, and carried

them to England.

** This island, within the entrance of Plymouth Harbor, has been called

Clarke's Island ever since. It was so named from Clarke, the first man

who stepped ashore from the shallop. The cove in which they were in such

danger lies between the Gurnet Head and Saguish Point, at the entrance

of Plymouth Bay.--Moore, i., 35. The May Flower afterward made two

voyage's from England to America, bearing Emigrants.

*** A portion of this rock was conveyed to a square in the center of the

town of Plymouth in 1774, where it still remains, and is known as The

Forefathers' Rock.

Founding of Plymouth.--Destitution and Sickness.--Death of Carver.--

Election of Bradford.--Defiance of the Indians

444Plymouth, in memory of the hospitalities which they had received at

Plymouth, in England, and in a few days they commenced the erection of

dwellings. The exposure of the explorers, and of others who had reached

the shore by wading, had brought on disease, and nearly one half of the

company were sick when the first blow of the ax was struck in the

primeval forest. Faith and hope nerved the arms of the healthy, and they

began to build. "This was the origin of New England; it was the planting

of the New England institutions. Inquisitive historians have loved to

mark every vestige of the Pilgrims; poets of the purest minds have

commemorated their virtues; the noblest genius has been called into

exercise to display their merits worthily, and to trace the consequences

of their daring enterprise." *

The winter that succeeded the landing of the Pilgrims was terrible for

the settlers. Many were sick with colds and consumptions, and want and

exposure rapidly reduced the numbers of the colony. Governor Carver's

son died soon after landing, and himself and his wife passed into the

grave the next spring. ** William Bradford was elected to fill his

plaee. The living were scarcely able to bury the dead, and at one time

there were only seven men capable of rendering any assistance. Forty-six

of the one hundred died before April, yet not a murmur against

Providence was heard.

The colonists had been apprehensive of an attack from the Indians, but

not one approached the settlement until March, when a chief named

Samoset boldly entered the rude town, exclaiming, in broken English,

which he had learned from fishermen on the coast of Maine,

"Welcome, Englishmen! welcome, Englishmen!" He gave them much

information, and told them of a pestilence that had swept off the

inhabitants a few years before. This accounted for the deserted wigwams

seen by the explorers. Samoset soon afterward visited the colony with

Squanto, a chief who had been carried away by Hunt in 1614; and in April

Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoags, was induced to make the English

a friendly visit. Treaties of amity were made, and, until the breaking

ont of King Philip's war, fifty years afterward, were kept inviolate.

But Canonicus, a powerful chief of the Narragansets, who lived on the

west side of the Narraganset Bay, regarded the English as intruders, and

sent to them the ominous token of hostility, a bundle of arrows wrapped

in a rattle-snake's skin. Governor Bradford *** at once sent the skin

back to Canonicus, filled with powder and shot. The chief understood the

symbol, and, afraid of the deadly weapons in which such materials were

used, sent them back; the Narragansets were awed into submission.

Massasoit, who lived at Warren, Rhode Island, remained the fast friend

of the English, and his sons, Alexander and Philip (the celebrated King

Philip), kept the bond of friendship unbroken until 1675.

After many difficulties, and receiving some accessions from immigration,

the settlers pur-

* Bancroft, i., 313.

** John Carver was among the English emigrants to Leyden. He was chosen

the first governor of the colony, by a majority of the forty-one male

adults that sailed in the May Flower. There were twelve other candidates

for the honor. On the 23d of March, 1621, a few laws were enacted, and

Carver was regularly inaugurated governor of the new colony. He was

taken suddenly ill in the fields, while laboring, on the 3d of April. A

violent pain in his head ensued, and in a few hours he was deprived of

the use of his senses.

He lived but a few days, and his wife, overcome by grief, followed him

to the grave in about six weeks. He was buried with all the honors the

people could bestow. His broad-sword is preserved in the cabinet of the

Massachusetts Historical Society.

*** William Bradford, the second Governor of Plymouth Colony, was born

at Ansterfield, in the north of England, in 1588. The first Puritan

principles were instilled into his young mind by a minister named

Richard Clifton, and when he was of legal age he was denounced as a

Separatist. He followed Mr. Robinson to Holland, and came to America in

the May Flower. While he was absent, with others, searching for a spot

on whieh to land, his wife fell into the sea and was drowned. He was

appointed governor on the death of Carver, being then only thirty-three

years of age. His energy was of great value to the colony, and so much

was he esteemed, that he was annually elected governor as long as he

lived, except occasionally, when, "by importuning, he got off," as

Winslow says, and another took his plaee pro tempore. His idea of public

office was, "that if it was of any honor or benefit, others besides

himself should enjoy it; if it was a burden, others besides himself

should help him to bear it." Present politicians consider such doctrine

a "barbarous relic." Governor Bradford died in May, 1657, having served

the colony as chief magistrate twenty-five years of the thirty of his

residence in America.

Condition of the Colony.--Further emigration from England.--Winslow.--

Standish.--Seulement of Weymouth.--Shawmut.

445chased the rights of the London merchants who had aided them with

funds, for nine thousand dollars, and the colony thus severed the last

link of pecuniary interest that bound it to Old England, beyond the

claims of commercial transactions. There was one drawback upon their

prosperity--the non-existence of private property. There was a community

of interest in all the land and its products. Thence arose, on the part

of some, an unwillingness to labor, and of others the discontent which

the industrious feel while viewing the idleness of the lazy, for whose

benefit they are toiling. It was now found necessary to enter into an

agreement that each family should plant for itself, and an acre of land

was accordingly assigned to each person in fee. Under this stimulus, the

production of corn became so great that from buyers the colonists became

sellers to the Indians. *

Civil government being fully established to the satisfaction of all, and

news of the fertility of the soil and the beauty of the climate having

reached England, in the following autumn other adventurers prepared to

come to America. In the mean while Edward Winslow, one of the most

accomplished of the colonists, made a journey to the residence of

Massasoit to strengthen the friendship that existed, by presents, and by

amicable agreements respecting future settlers that might come from

England.2 The visit was fruitful of good results. Soon afterward Captain

Standish ** marched against the village of Corbitant, one of Massasoit's

sachems, who held an interpreter in custody, and threatened the tribe

with destruction. The whole country was alarmed at this movement, and on

the 13th of September, 1621, ninety petty sachems came to Plymouth and

signed a paper acknowledging themselves loyal subjects of King James.

New settlers now began to arrive, and new explorations of the coast were

made. Sixty adventurers from London, under the auspices of a merchant

named Weston, began a plantation in the autumn of 1622, at Weymouth,

twelve miles southeast from the present city of Boston, and the whole

coast of Massachusetts Bay was explored. They discovered a spacious

harbor, studded with islands, and inclosing a peninsula remarkable for

three hills, called by the natives Shawmut (sweet water). This was the

harbor and site of the city of Boston. ****

* Hildreth, i., 171.

** Edward Winslow was born in Worcestershire, England, in 1594. While

traveling on the Continent, he became acquainted with Mr. Robinson at

Leyden, joined his congregation, sailed to America in the May Flower,

and was one of the party that first landed on Plymouth Rock. He made

Massasoit a second visit, and found the sachem very sick, but by means

of medicine restored him to health. Grateful for his services, the chief

revealed to Winslow a plot of some savages to destroy a small English

settlement at Weymouth. Winslow went to England that fall, and in the

spring brought over the first cattle introduced into the colony. He was

appointed governor in 1633. He was very active in the colony, and made

several voyages to England in its behalf. In 1655 he was appointed one

of the commissioners to superintend the expedition against the Spaniards

in the West Indies. He died of fever on his passage, between Jamaica and

Hispaniola, May 8th, 1655, aged sixty years. His body was cast into the

ocean.

*** Miles Standish is called the "Hero of New England." He served for

some time in the English army in the Netherlands, and settled with

Robinson's congregation at Leyden. He was not a member of the Church--

"never entered the school of Christ, or of John the Baptist." He came to

America in the May Flower, and was appointed military commander-in-chief

at Plymouth. His bold enterprises spread terror among the Indians, and

secured peace to the colony. In allusion to his exploit in killing

Pecksnot, a bold chief, with his own hand, Mr. Robinson wrote to the

governor, "O that you had converted some before you killed any!"

Standish was one of the magistrates of the colony as long as he lived.

Ho died at Duxbury in 1656, aged about seventy-two years.

**** The Peninsula of Shawmut included between six and seven hundred

acres of land sparsely covered by trees, and nearly divided by two

creeks into three islands when the creeks were filled by the tides. From

the circumstance of the three hills, the English called the peninsula

Tri-mountain, the modern Tremont. These three eminences have since been

named Copp's, Fort, and Beacon Hills. The name of Tri-mountain was

changed to Boston, as a compliment to the Rev. John Cotton, who

emigrated from Boston, in Lincolnshire, England.

Settlement of Endicott and others at Salem.--Arrival of Winthrop.--

Founding of Boston.--Progress of free Principles

446In 1628 a company, under John Endicott, settled at Salem (Na-nm-

keag), and were joined by a few emigrants at Cape Ann, sixteen miles

northward. They received a charter from the king, and were incorporated

by the name of the "Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New

England."

In 1630 about three hundred Puritan families, under John Winthrop,

arrived, and joined the Massachusetts Bay colony. They established

themselves at Dorchester, Roxbury, Watertown, and Cambridge. A spring of

pure and wholesome water induced some families, among whom was Mr.

Winthrop, to settle upon Shawmut. Winthrop was the chosen Governor of

the colony of Massachusetts Bay; the whole government, including

Plymouth, was removed to the new settlement, and thenceforth Boston

became the metropolis of New England.

I have thus traced, with almost chronological brevity, the rise of the

Puritans in England, their emigration to America, and the progress of

settlement, to the founding of Boston in 1630. It is not within the

scope of this work to give a colonial history of New England in all its

important details, and only so much of it will be developed as is

necessary to present the links of connection between the early history

and the story of our Revolution. That Revolution, being a conflict of

_principle_, had its origin more remote even than the planting of the

New England colonies. The seed germinated when the sun of the

Reformation warmed the cold soil of society in Europe, over which the

clouds of ignorance had so long brooded; and its blossoms were unfolded

when the Puritans of England and the Huguenots of France boldly

asserted, in the presence of kingly power, the grand postulate of

freedom--the social and political equality of the race. These two

sections of independent thinkers brought the vigorous plant to America--

the Puritans to New England, the Huguenots to the Carolinas. The

Covenanters of Scotland, and other dissenting communities, watered it

during the reigns of the Charleses and the bigot James II.; and when the

tactics of British oppression had changed from religious persecution to

commercial and political tyranny, it had grown a sturdy tree, firmly

rooted in a genial soil, and overshadowing a prosperous people with its

beautiful foliage. The fruit of that tree was the American Revolution--

the fruit which still forms the nutriment that gives life and vigor to

our free institutions. * 1

* This is a fac-simile of a map of Boston Harbor and adjacent

settlements in 1667, and is believed to be a specimen of the first

engraving executed in America. Instead of the top of the map being

north, according to the present method of drawing maps, the right hand

of this is north.

The Puritan Character.--Witchcraft. English Laws on the Subject.--The

Delusion in New England.--Effects of the Delusion.

447

"The Pilgrim spirit has not fled;

It walks in noon's broad light,

And it watches the bed of the glorious dead,

With their holy stars, by night.

It watches the bed of the bravo who have bled,

And shall guard the ice-bound shore,

Till the waves of the bay, where tbo May Flower lay,

Shall faint and freeze no more."

Pierpont.

The persecutions of the Quakers, the proceedings against persons accused

of witchcraft, * the disfranchisement of those who were not church

members, and many other enactments in their civil code, considered

alone, mark the Puritan as bigoted, superstitious, intolerant, unlovely

in every aspect, and practically evincing a spirit like that of Governor

Dudley, expressed in some lines found in his pocket after his death.

"Let men of God in courts and churches watch

O'er such as do a toleration hatch,

Lest that ill egg bring forth a cocatrice,

To poison all with heresy and vice.

If men be left, and otherwise combine,

My epitaph's, 'I died no libertine!'"

But when a broad survey is taken of the Puritan character, these things

appear as mere blemishes--spots upon the sun--insects in the otherwise

pure amber. In religion and morality they were sincerely devoted to

right--"New England was the colony of conscience." ** Their worship was

spiritual, their religious observances were few and simple. To them the

* A belief in witchcraft, or the direct agency of evil spirits through

human instrumentality, was prevalent among all classes of Europe toward

the close of the seventeenth century, and this superstition had a strong

hold upon the metaphysical Puritans in America. A statute, enacted in

the reign of Henry VIII., made it a capital offense for a person to

practice the arts of witchcraft. The first James was a firm believer in

witchcraft and sanctioned some severe laws against its practitioners.

Pretenders, called Witch-detectors, arose, and, during the commonwealth,

traveled from county to county, in England, making accusations, in

consequence of which many persons suffered death. The "Fundamentals" of

Massachusetts contained a capital law against such offenses, founded

upon the Scripture injunction, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."-

-Exodus, xxii., 18. Increase Mather, father of the celebrated Cotton

Mather, in a work called "Remarkable Providences," enumerated all the

supposed cases of witchcraft that had occurred in New England. The high

standing of the author turned public attention to the subject, and it

was not long before a real witch was discovered in the person of an old

woman at Newbury, whose house was alleged to be haunted. This was in

1686, and from that time until 1693, when King William's veto on the

Witchcraft Act prevented any further trials, and all accused persons

were released, the colonies were greatly agitated. Chief-justice Hale

had given the weight of his opinion in England in favor of the delusion,

and the Mathers, father and son, of Boston, eminent for their piety and

learning, had written, and preached, and talked, and acted much under

the belief in the reality of witchcraft. Cotton Mather published a book

in 1692, called the "Wonders of the Invisible World," giving a full

account of all the cases and trials, and stimulating the authorities to

further proceedings. The delusion was now at its height, and no class of

society was exempt from suspicion. The wife of Hale, minister of

Beverly, was accused, at the very time when he was most active against

others, and almost every ill-favored old woman was regarded as a servant

of the devil. A son of Governor Bradstrcet was accused, and had to flee

for his life; and even Lady Phipps, the wife of the Admiral Sir William,

the newly-appointed Governor of Massachusetts, was suspected. When royal

authority broke the spell, practical witchcraft ceased to act, and the

people of Massachusetts recovered their senses. Mather, in his

"Magnalia," confessed that things were carried a little too far in

Salem, but never positively renounced his belief in the reality of

witchcraft. His credulity had been thoroughly exposed by a writer named

Calef, who addressed a series of letters to the Boston ministers on the

subject. At first Mather sneered at him as a "weaver who pretended to be

a merchant but Calef laid his truths and sarcasms so strongly over the

shoulders of Mather, that the latter called him a "coal from hell," to

blacken his character, and afterward commenced a prosecution against him

for slander. The mischief wrought by this delusion was wide-spread and

terrible. Society was paralyzed with alarm; evil spirits were thought to

overshadow the land; every nervous influence, even every ordinary

symptom of disease, was ascribed to demoniac power. When the royal veto

arrived, twenty persons had been executed, among whom was a minister of

Danvers named George Burroughs; fifty-five had been tortured or

terrified into a confession of witchcraft, one hundred and fifty were in

prison, and two hundred more had been accused.

** John Quincy Adams.

Religious Character of the Puritans.--Mildness of their Laws.--The

representative System.--Influx of Immigrants

448elements remained but wine and bread; they invoked no saints; they

raised no altar; they adored no crucifix; they kissed no book; they

asked no absolution; they paid no tithes; they saw in the priest nothing

more than a man; ordination was no more than an approbation of the

officers, which might be expressed by the brethren as well as by the

ministers; the church, as a place of worship, was to them but a meeting-

house; they dug no grave in consecrated earth; unlike their posterity,

they married without a minister, and buried their dead without a prayer.

Witchcraft had not been made the subject of skeptical consideration,

and, in the years in which Scotland sacrificed hecatombs to the

delusion, there were but three victims in New England.

Rigorous in their moral and religious code, the Puritans were mild in

their legislation upon other subjects. For many crimes the death penalty

was abolished, and the punishment for theft, burglary, and highway

robbery was more mild than our laws inflict. Divorce from bed and board

was recognized by their laws as a barely possible event, but, during the

first fifty years after the founding of New England, no record of such

an occurrence is given. * Adultery was punished by death, the wife and

paramour both suffering for the crime; while the girl whom youth and

affection betrayed was censured, but pitied and forgiven, and the

seducer was compelled to marry his victim. Domestic discipline was

highly valued, and the undutiful child and faithless parent were alike

punished. Honest men were not imprisoned for debt until 1654; cruelty to

animals was a civil offense, punishable by fine. The people, united in

endurance of hardships during the first years of settlement, were

equally united when prosperity blessed them. They were rich in affection

for one another, and all around them were objects of love. Their land

had become a paradise of beauty and repose, and, even when the fires of

persecution went out in England, none could be tempted to return

thither, for they had found a better heritage. Their morals were pure,

and an old writer said, "As Ireland will not brook venomous beasts, so

will not that land vile livers." Drunkenness was almost unknown, and

universal health prevailed. The average duration of life in New England,

as compared with Europe, was doubled, and no less than four in nineteen

of all that were born attained the age of seventy years. Many lived

beyond the age of ninety, and a man one hundred years old when our

Revolution broke out was not considered a wonder of longevity.

Such were the people who fostered the living principles of our

independence--the parents of nearly one third of the present white

population of the United States. Within the first fifteen years--and

there was never afterward any considerable increase from England--there

came over twenty-one thousand two hundred souls. Their descendants are

now not far from four millions. Each family has multiplied, on the

average, to one thousand souls. To New York and Ohio, where they

constitute half the population, they have carried the Puritan system of

free schools, and their example is spreading it throughout the civilized

world. **

In 1634 the colony had become so populous that it was found inconvenient

for all the freemen to assemble in one place to transact business. By

the general consent of the towns, the representative system was

introduced, and to twenty-four representatives was delegated the power

granted to the whole body of freemen by charter. The appellation of

general court was also applied to the representatives. It was about this

time that Hugh Peters, afterward Cromwell's secretary, and Henry Vane,

afterward Sir Henry Vane, who was made governor, came to the colony,

with a great number of immigrants. It was about this time, also, that

Roger Williams occasioned disturbances, and was banished. These

circumstances will be noticed hereafter.

In 1637 the Pequot war ensued; and about 1640, persecutions having

ceased in England, emigration to the colonies also ceased. The

Confederation was effected in 1643. From that time the permanent

prosperity of the colonies may be dated. *** Their commerce, which

* Trumbull's History of Connecticut, i., 283; Bancroft's United States,

i., 465.

** Bancroft, i., 467-8.

*** Captain Edward Johnson, in his "Wonder-working Providence of Zion's

Savior in New England," writing in 1650, seven years after the union,

says, "Good white and wheaten bread is no dainty, but every ordinary man

hath his choice, if gay clothing and a liquorish tooth after sack,

sugar, and plums lick not away his bread too fast, all which are but

ordinary among those that were not able to bring their own person over

at their first coming. There are not many towns in the country but the

poorest person in them hath a house and land of his own, and bread of

his own growing, if not some cattle. Flesh is now no rare food, beef,

pork, and mutton being frequent in many houses; so that this poor

wilderness hath not only equalized England in food, but goes beyond it

in some places for the great plenty of wine and sugar which is

ordinarily used, and apples, pears, and quince tarts, instead of their

former pumpkin pies. Poultry they have plenty." At that time thirty-two

trades, were carried on in the colony, and shoes were manufactured for

exportation.

Trade of the Colony.--First coined Money.--Marriage of the Mint-master's

Daughter.--The Quakers' Conduct and Punishment

449first extended only to the Indians, and to traffic among themselves,

expanded, and considerable trade was carried on with the West Indies.

Through this trade bullion was brought into New England, and "it was

thought necessary, to prevent fraud in money," to establish a mint for

coding shillings, sixpences, and threepences.

On the first coins the only inscription on one side was N. E., and on

the other, XII., VI., or III. In October, 1651, the court ordered that

all pieces of money should have a double ring, with the inscription

Massachusetts, and a tree in the center, on one side, and New England,

and the year of our Lord, on the other. The first money was coined in

1652, and the date was not altered for thirty years.

In the year 1656 a few fanatics in religion, calling themselves Quakers,

began to disturb the public peace, revile magistrates, and interfere

with the public worship of the people. They assumed the name and garb of

Quakers, but had no more the spirit and consistency of life of that pure

sect than any monomaniac that might declare himself such. The Quakers

have ever been regarded, from their first appearance, as the most order-

loving, peaceful citizens, cultivating genuine practical piety among

themselves, and, with few exceptions, never interfering with the faith

and practice of others, except by the reasonable efforts of persuasion.

Quite different was the character of some of those who suffered from the

persecution of the Puritans. They openly and in harsh language reviled

the authorities in Church and State; entered houses of worship, and

denounced the whole congregation as hypocrites and an "abomination to

the Lord," very much after the fashion of the wall-placarding and

itinerant _prophets_ of our day; and shocked public morals by their

indecencies. ** They were

* This is a fae-simile of the first money coined in America. The mint-

master, who was allowed to take fifteen pence out of every twenty

shillings, for his trouble in coining, made a large fortune by it. Henry

Sewall, the founder of Newbury, in Massachusetts, married his only

daughter, a plump girl of eighteen years. When the wedding ceremony was

ended, a large pair of scales was brought out and suspended. In one disk

the blushing bride was placed, and "pine tree shillings," as the coin

was called, were poured into the other until there was an equipoise. The

money was then handed to Mr. Sewall as his wife's dowry, amounting to a

handsome sum in those days. There are a few pieces of this money still

in existence. One which I saw in the possession of a gentleman in New

York was not as much worn as many of the Spanish quarters now in

circulation among us. The silver appeared to be very pure.

** Hutchinson mentions many instances of fanaticism on the part of the

so-ealled Quakers. Some at Salem, Hampton, Newbury, and other places,

went into the meeting-houses in time of worship, called the ministers

vile hirelings, and the people an abomination. Thomas Newhouse went into

the meeting-house at Boston with two glass bottles, and, breaking them

in the presence of the whole congregation, exclaimed. "Thus will the

Lord break you in pieces." Mary Brewster went into meeting, having her

face smeared with soot and grease; another young married woman, Deborah

Wilson, went through the streets of Salem perfectly naked, in emulation

of the Prophet Ezekiel, as a sign of the nakedness of the land. They

were whipped through the streets at the tail of a cart. Ann Hartley

declared herself a prophetess, and had many followers who seceded from

the congregation of Boston, and zealously propagated schism. A Quaker

woman entered a church in Boston, while the congregation were

worshiping, clothed in sackcloth, with ashes on her head, her feet bare,

and her face blackened so as to personify small-pox, the punishment with

which she threatened the colony.--See Hutchinson's History of

Massachusetts, i., 202--4.

** Whipping was the usual punishment. Marmaduke Stephenson, William

Robinson, Mary Dyer, and Will iam Leddra were hanged. Mary Dyer was

publicly whipped through the streets of Boston. Dorothy Waugh was three

times imprisoned, three times banished, and once whipped, and her

clothes sold. William Brand was four times imprisoned, four times

banished, twice whipped, and branded. John Copeland was seven times

imprisoned, seven times banished, three times whipped, and had his ears

cut off. Christopher Holden was five times banished, five times

imprisoned, twice whipped, and had his cars cut off. These four were the

leading characters who suffered in one year.--New England's Ensigne, p.

105.

Origin of the Quakers.--Their Peculiarities.--Sufferings in America of

those calling themselves Quakers.

450first tenderly dealt with and kindly admonished. Penalties ensued,

and life was finally taken, before some of them would cease interference

with the popular ceremonials of religion. The exercise of power to

maintain subordination finally grew to persecution, and the benevolent

Puritan became, almost from necessity, a persecutor. Enactments for the

preservation of good order were necessary, but the sanguinary laws

against particular doctrines and tenets can not be defended.

The Quaker sect sprang up in England about 1650, under George Fox, and

received their name from the peculiar shaking or quaking of their bodies

and limbs while preaching. They went further than the straitest Puritans

in disregarding human authority when opposed to the teachings of the

Bible, yet they were allowed full liberty of action during the

protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. They denounced war, persecution for

religious opinions, and, above all, the slavish idolatry demanded by

rulers in Church and State of those under their control. They condemned

all ordained and paid priesthoods, refused to take oaths, and thus

struck a direct blow at the hierarchy. They differed from the Puritans

in many things, and became noxious to them. They derived their system of

morals and politics chiefly from the New Testament, while the Puritans

took theirs from the more sanguinary and intolerant codes of the old

dispensation. Laying aside the falsehoods of politeness and flattery,

they renounced all titles, addressed all men, high or low, by the plain

title of Friend, used the expressions yea and nay, and thee and thou;

and offices of kindness and affection to their fellow-creatures,

according to the injunction of the Apostle James, constituted their

practical religion. "The Quakers might be regarded as representing that

branch of the primitive Christians who esteemed Christianity an entirely

new dispensation, world-wide in its objects; while the Puritans

represented those Judaizing Christians who could not get rid of the idea

of a peculiar chosen people, to wit, themselves." *

The English Puritans had warned their brethren in America against these

"children of hell," and the first appearance in the colony of Mary

Fisher and Ann Austin, who came from Barbadoes, and professed the new

doctrine, greatly alarmed the New England theocracy. A special law was

enacted, by which to bring a "known Quaker" into the colony was

punishable with a fine of five hundred dollars, and the exaction of

bonds to carry him back again. The Quaker himself was to be whipped

twenty stripes, sent to the House of Correction, and kept there until

transported. The introduction of Quaker books was prohibited; defending

Quaker opinions was punishable with fine, and finally banishment; and in

1657 it was enacted that for every hour's entertainment given to a

Quaker the entertainer should pay forty shillings. It was also enacted

that every male Quaker should lose an ear on the first conviction, and

the other on a second; and both males and females, on a third

conviction, were to have their tongues bored through with a red-hot

iron. In 1658 the death penalty was enacted. Under it those who should

return to the colony a second time, after banishment, were to suffer

death. From unwillingness to inflict death, it was provided by a new

law, in 1658, that any person convicted of being a Quaker should be

delivered to the constable of the town, "to be stripped naked from the

middle upward, and tied to a cart's tail, and whipped through the town,

and thence be immediately conveyed to the constable of the next town

toward the border of our jurisdiction, and so from constable to

constable, to any the outermost town, and so to be whipped out of the

colony." In case of return, this was to be twice repeated. The fourth

time the convict was to be branded with a letter R on the left shoulder,

and after that, if incorrigible, to incur the death penalty. Chiefly

through the instrumentality of King William, these penal laws against

the Quakers were abrogated by royal authority, and that sect became an

important element in American society during the eighteenth century. In

Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as we shall hereafter see, the Quakers had

a strong controlling influence during the Revolution.

In 1675 King Philip's war commenced, and almost all the Indians in New

England were involved in it. This will be noticed when we are

considering my visit to the neighborhood

* Hildreth, i., 404.

Arrival of Andross.--His Extortions.--Revolution in England.--Government

of Massachusetts.--Hostilities with the French.

451of Mount Hope, the residence of the great sachem. Upon the heels of

this war, when the colonies were much distressed, the ministers of the

second James conspired, as we have seen, to destroy popular government

in America, and consolidate power in the throne. A decision was procured

in the High Court of Chancery, declaring the American charters

forfeited, because of the alleged exercise of powers, on the part of the

colonial governments, not recognized by those charters.

Sir Edmund Andross, who came with the title of governor gen oral, and

empowered to take away their charters from the colonists, made Boston

his head-quarters. He came with the fair mask of kindness, which was

soon cast off. Fees of all officers were increased; public thanksgivings

without royal permission were forbidden, the press was restrained; land

titles were abrogated, and the people were obliged to petition for new

patents, sometimes at great expense; and in various ways Andross and

others man aged to enrich themselves by oppressing and impoverishing the

inhabitants. The free spirit of New England was aroused, and the people

became very restive under the tyrant. Secret meetings were held, in

which the propriety of open resistance was discussed; but before the

people of Boston, afterward so famous for their bold opposition to

imperial power, lifted the arm of defiance, the news came that James was

an exile, and that William and Mary were firmly seated on the throne of

England. Boston was in great commotion. People flocked in from the

country, and cries of "Down with all tyrants" were mingled with the

notes of joy rung out by the church-bells. Andross, alarmed, fled to the

fort, * but was soon arrested, imprisoned, and, as already noticed, sent

home for trial. A new charter was received in 1692, when the territories

of Plymouth, Maine, and Nova Scotia were added to Massachusetts. By that

charter the governor was appointed by the crown, and a property

qualification was necessary to procure the privilege of the elective

franchise in choosing the members of the General Court or Assembly. Such

was the government that existed when the Revolution broke out.

About this time the French, who had settled upon the St. Lawrence, began

to excite the Northern and Eastern Indians against the English

settlements in New England. Dover and Salmon Falls in New Hampshire,

Casco in Maine, and Schenectady in New York were desolated. The colony

fitted out a force, under General Winthrop, to attack Montreal, and a

fleet, under Sir William Phipps, to besiege Quebec. The expedition was a

failure, and for seven years, until the treaty of peace between France

and England was concluded, the frontier was scourged by savage

cruelties. During this time military operations exhausted the treasury

of Massachusetts, and the government emitted bills of credit, the first

_paper money_ issued in the American colonies.

From the beginning of the eighteenth century until the treaty of Paris,

or, rather, of Fontainbleau, in 1763, the New England colonies were

continually agitated by successive wars

* The first fort was upon one of the three eminences in Boston, called

Cornhill, from the circumstance that the first explorers found corn

buried there. The fort was completed in 1634. It had complete command of

the harbor. It is now a green plat, two hundred feet in diameter, and

called Washington Place The eminence is called Fort Hill.

* Another of the eminences is called Beacon Hill, from the circumstance

that on the top of it was a beacon pole, with a tar barrel at its apex,

erected in 1635, which was to be fired, to give an alarm in the country,

if Boston should be attacked by savages. Upon a crane was suspended a

basket containing some combustibles for firing the barrel. This beacon

was blown down in 1789, and the next year a plain Doric column of brick

and stone, incrusted with cement, was erected. It was about sixty feet

high, on an eight feet pedestal. On the tablets of the pedestal were

inscriptions commemorating the most important events from the passage of

the Stamp Act until 1790. This pedestal is preserved in the State House

of Boston. The monument stood a little north of the site of the present

State House. A view of the old beacon is given above.

First American Paper money.--Prowess of Colonial Troops.--The French and

Indian War.--The Revolutionary Era.

452with the French and Indians, by jealousies concerning colonial

rights, which acts of Parliament from time to time seemed to menace with

subversion.

For the wars they furnished full supplies of men and money, and it was

chiefly by the prowess of colonial troops that French dominion in

America was destroyed. During these wars the colonists discovered their

own strength, and, doubtless, thoughts of independence often occupied

the minds of many. The capture of Louisburg, the operations in Northern

New York and upon Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and the final

passage of Quebec and Montreal into the hands of the English, have been

noticed in former chapters. The campaign against the French posts on the

Ohio and vicinity, when Washington first became distinguished as a

military leader, will receive our attention hereafter.

We have now reached the borders of our Revolutionary era, and Boston,

our point of view, where the first bold voice was heard and the first

resolute arm uplifted against measures of the British Parliament that

tended to abridge the liberties of the colonists, is a proper place

whence to take a general survey of events immediately antecedent to, and

connected with, that successful and righteous rebellion.

First Step toward Absolutism.--Democratic Colonies.--Board of Trade.--

Courts of Vice-admiralty.--Commercial Restrictions.

453We have already observed, that after the expulsion of Andross a new

charter was obtained by Massachusetts, but the governor thereafter was

appointed by the crown.

This was the first link forged for the chain of absolutism with which

England for nearly a century endeavored to enslave her American

colonies. Such was the condition of all the colonies, except Connecticut

and Rhode Island, whose original charters had never been surrendered.

The other chartered communities were governed by men appointed by the

king, but Connecticut and Rhode Island always enjoyed the democratic

privilege of electing their own chief magistrates. These royal

governors, by their exactions and their haughty disregard of public

opinion in America, were greatly instrumental, it will be seen, in

arousing the people to rebellion. Discontents, however, arising from an

interference of the imperial government with the commerce of the

colonies, had already begun to excite suspicions unfavorable to the

integrity of the home government.

Among the first acts of Parliament, after the restoration of Charles II.

in 1660, was the establishment of a board of commissioners, to have the

general supervision of the commerce of the American colonies. This

commission was afterward remodeled, and the _Board of Trade and

Plantations_, consisting of a president and seven members, known as

Lords of Trade, was established. This board had the general oversight of

the commerce of the realm; and, although its powers were subsequently

somewhat curtailed, it exercised great influence, particularly in

America, down to the time of the Revolution, and was the strong right

arm of royalty here. It was the legalized spy upon all the movements of

the people; it watched the operations of the colonial assemblies; and in

every conceivable way it upheld the royal governors and the royal

prerogatives. Under its auspices courts of Vice-admiralty were

established throughout the colonies, having powers similar to those of

our United States District Courts, in which admiralty and revenue cases

were tried without jury. These often exercised intolerable tyranny.

Previous to the establishment of the first commission, the acts of trade

had so little affected the colonists that they were hardly a subject of

controversy; but after the Restoration, the commercial restrictions,

from which the New England colonies were exempt during the time of the

commonwealth, were imposed with increased rigor. The harbors of the

colonies were closed against all but English vessels; such articles of

American produce as were in demand in England were forbidden to be

shipped to foreign markets; the liberty of free trade among the colonies

themselves was taken away, and they were forbidden to manufacture for

their own use or for foreign markets those articles which would come in

competition with English manufacturers. In addition to these oppressive

commercial acts, a royal fleet arrived at Boston, bringing

commissioners, who were instructed to hear and determine all complaints

that might exist in New England; and they also had full power to take

"such measures as they might deem expedient for settling the peace and

security of the country on a solid foundation." The people justly

regarded this commission as a prolific seed of tyranny planted among

them. The colonists were alarmed, yet none but Massachusetts dared

openly to complain. She alone, although professing the warmest loyalty

to the king, openly asserted her chartered rights, and not only refused

to acknowledge the authority of the commissioners, but protested against

the exercise of their delegated powers within her domain. So noxious was

the commission to the whole people, that it was soon abolished. In this

boldness Massachusetts exhibited the germ of that opposition to royal

authority for which she was afterward so conspicuous.

In 1672 the British Parliament enacted "that if any vessel which, by

law, may trade in the plantations shall take on board any enumerated

articles [mentioned in the act of 1660], and a bond shall not have been

given with sufficient security to unlade them in England, there shall be

rendered to his majesty, for sugars, tobacco, ginger, cocoa-nut, indigo,

logwood, fustic, cotton, wool, the several duties mentioned in the law,

to be paid in such places in the plantation, and to such officers as

shall be appointed to collect the same; and, for their better

collection, it is enacted that the whole business shall be managed and

the imposts shall be levied by officers appointed by the commissioners

of imposts in England." This was the

First Act of Oppression.--Colonial Claims to the Eight of

Representation.--The Right acknowledged.--Governor Burnet

454first act that imposed customs on the colonies alone; this was the

initial act of a series of like tenor, which drove them to rebellion.

The people justly complained, and as justly disregarded the law. They

saw in it a withering blight upon their infant commerce: they either

openly disobeyed its injunctions, or eluded its provisions; Barbadoes,

Virginia, and Maryland, in particular, trafficked without restraint.

The colonies in general now began to regard the home government as an

oppressor, and acted with a corresponding degree of independence. Edward

Randolph, afterward the surveyor general during the reign of William and

Mary, writing to the commissioners of custom in 1676, iterated the

declarations of the people that the law "made by Parliament obligeth

them in nothing but what consists with the interests of the colonies;

_that the legislative August 16 Power is and abides in them solely_."

Governor Nicholson, of Maryland, writing in 1698, said, "I have observed

that a great many people in all these colonies and provinces, especially

those under proprietaries, and the two others under Connecticut and

Rhode Island, think that no law of England ought to be in force and

binding to them without their own consent; for they foolishly say _they

have no representative sent for themselves to the Parliaments of

England_; and they look upon all laws made in England, that put any

restraint upon them, to be great hardships." Earlier than this the

doctrine that the colonies should not be taxed without their consent was

recognized by Lord Berkley and Sir George Cartwright, and not questioned

by the king. These distinguished men purchased New Jersey of the Duke of

York (afterward James II.), which he had taken from the Dutch by the

authority of his brother Charles.

These "lords proprietors," for the better settlement of the pioneers,

stipulated in their agreement with those who should commence plantations

there that they (the proprietors) were "not to impose, or _suffer to be

imposed,_ any tax, custom, subsidy, tallage, assessment, or any other

duty whatsoever, upon any color or pretense, upon the said province or

inhabitants thereof, _other than what shall be imposed by the authority

and consent of the General Assembly._" * In 1691 the New York General

Assembly passed an act declaring "that no aid, tax, tallage, &c.,

whatsoever shall be laid, assessed, levied, or required of or on any of

their majesties' [William and Mary] subjects within the provinces, &c.,

or their estates, in any manner of color or pretense whatsoever, but by

the act and consent of the governor and council, and representatives of

the people in General Assembly met and convened." In 1692 the

Massachusetts Legislature made a declaration in almost the same

language, and almost all the colonies asserted, in some form, the same

doctrine. Thus we see that, nearly one hundred years before the

Revolution, the fundamental principle upon which the righteousness of

that rebellion relied for vindication--taxation and representation are

inseparable--was boldly asserted by the governed, and tacitly admitted

by the supreme power as correct.

As early as 1729 the conduct of Massachusetts caused a suggestion in the

House of Commons that it was the design of that colony "to shake off its

dependency." Governor Burnet, of New York, was appointed chief

magistrate of the province in 1728. The display that attended his

reception at Boston, and the appearance of general prosperity on every

hand, determined him to demand a fixed and liberal salary from the

Assembly, a demand which had involved Shute, his predecessor, in

continual bickerings with that body. Burnet made the demand in his

inaugural address, and the Assembly treated it in such a manner that

immediately afterward the Council expressed their reprehension of the

undutiful conduct of the members. So bold was the Assembly in denying

royal prerogatives and refusing obedience 1731 to laws, that when

Massachusetts petitioned the House of Commons, praying that they might

be heard by counsel on the subject of grievances, that body resolved

"That the petition was frivolous and groundless, a high insult upon his

majesty's [George I.] government, and _tending to shake off the

dependency of the said colony upon this kingdom, to which, in law and

right, they ought to be subject._" *

In 1739 a proposition was made to Sir Robert Walpole to tax the American

colonies, but

* Smith's History of New Jersey, p. 517.

** Smith's History of New York, p. 75.

Wisdom of Robert Walpole.--Restraining Acts.--Loyalty and Patriotism of

the Colonics.--Heavy voluntary Taxation

455that statesman took an enlightened and liberal view, and said,

smiling, "I will leave that to some of my successors who have more

courage than I have, and are less friends to commerce than I am. It has

been a maxim with me, during my administration, to encourage the trade

of the American colonies in the utmost latitude; nay, it has been

necessary to pass over some irregularities in their trade with Europe;

for, by encouraging them to an extensive growing commerce, if they gain

five hundred thousand pounds, I am convinced that in two years afterward

full two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of their gains will be in his

majesty's exchequer, by the labor and produce of this kingdom, as

immense quantities of every kind of our manufactories go thither; and as

they increase in their foreign American trade, more of our produce will

be wanted. This is taxing them more agreeably to their own Constitution

and ours." Had these views continued to prevail in the British cabinet,

George III. might not have "lost the brightest jewel in his crown had

Walpole yielded, the republic of the United States might have existed

almost half a century earlier.

Walpole's successors _were_ "more courageous" than he, and "less friends

to commerce," for in 1750 an act was passed, declaring "That from and

after the 24th of June, 1750, no mill or other engine for slitting or

rolling of iron, or any platting forge to work with a tilt-hammer, or

any furnace for making steel, shall be erected, or, after such erection,

continued, in any of his majesty's colonies in America." The Navigation

Act of 1660 was retained in full force. Hatters were forbidden to have,

at one time, more than two apprentices; the importation of sugar, rum,

and molasses was not allowed without the payment of considerable duties;

and the felling of pitch-pine-trees not within inclosures was

prohibited. True, these revenue laws were administered with much laxity,

as Walpole acknowledged, and the colonies were not much oppressed by

them, yet they practically asserted the right to tax the Americans--a

right that was strenuously denied. These things were, therefore, real

grievances, for they foreshadowed those intentions to enslave America

which were afterward more boldly avowed.

I have noticed the Colonial Congress (page 303) held at Albany in 1754,

when Dr. Franklin submitted a plan for the union of the colonies for the

general good, and when Massachusetts, ever jealous of her rights,

instructed her representatives to oppose any scheme for taxing them. The

war that had then just commenced (the Seven Years' War) soon diverted

the attention of the colonists from the commercial grievances of which

they complained, and as the common dangers multiplied, loyalty

increased. Cheerfully did they tax themselves, and contribute men,

money, and provisions, for that contest. They lost by the war twenty-

five thousand of their robust young men, exclusive of sailors. Upon

application of Admiral Saunders, the squadron employed against Louisburg

and Quebec was supplied with five hundred seamen from Massachusetts,

besides many who were impressed out of vessels on the fishing banks.

During the whole war Massachusetts contributed its full quota of troops

annually, and also, at times, furnished garrisons for Louisburg and Nova

Scotia in addition. That colony alone contributed more than five

millions of dollars, in which sum is not included the expense of forts

and garrisons on the frontiers. Besides these public expenditures, there

must have been almost an equal amount drawn from the people by extra

private expenses and personal services. The taxes imposed to meet the

pressing demands upon all sides were enormous, * and men of wealth gave

freely toward encouraging the raising of new levies. This, it must be

remembered, was the heavy burden laid upon one colony. Other provinces

contributed largely, yet not so munificently as Massachusetts. Probably

the Seven Years' War cost the aggregate colonies twenty millions of

dollars, besides the flower of their youth; and in return Parliament

granted them, during the contest, at different periods, about five mill-

* Such was the assessment in Boston one year during the war, that, if a

man's income was three hundred dollars, he had to pay two thirds, or two

hundred dollars, and in that proportion. If his house was valued at one

thousand dollars, he was obliged to pay three hundred and sixty dollars.

He had also to pay a poll tax for himself, and for every male member of

his family over sixteen years of age, at the rate of nearly four dollars

each. In addition to all this, he paid his proportion of excise on tea,

coffee, rum, and wine, if he used them.--Gordon.

Designs of the British Ministry.--Expenditures of the British Government

on Account of America.--Accession of George III

456ions four hundred and nine thousand dollars. * Yet the British

ministry, in 1760, while the colonies were so generously supporting the

power and dignity of the realm, regarded their services as the mere

exercise of a duty, and declared that, notwithstanding grants of money

had been made to them, they expected to get it all back, by imposing a

tax upon them after the war, in order to raise a revenue. Such was the

language of Mr. Pitt in a letter to Lieutenant-governor Fauquier, of

Virginia. The war ended favorably to Great Britain, and Massachusetts

and other colonies looked forward with the full hope of uninterrupted

prosperity. New men were at the helm of State. The old king was dead,

and his grandson, the eldest October 26, 1760 son deceased Frederic,

prince of Wales, had ascended the throne with the title of George III.

This was the prince who ruled Great Britain sixty years, in which time

was included our war for independence.

* Parliament subsequently voted one million of dollars to the colonies,

but, on account of the troubles arising from the Stamp Act and kindred

measures, ministers withheld the sum.--Pictorial History of the Reign of

George III., i., 36.

* The following is a list of "The grants in Parliament for Rewards,

Encouragement, and Indemnification to the Provinces in North America,

for their Services and Expenses during the last [seven years] War:

* "On the 3d of February, 1756, as a free gift and reward to the

colonies of New England, New York, and Jersey, for their past services,

and as an encouragement to continue to exert themselves with vigor,

voted $575,000.

* "May 19th, 1757. For the use and relief of the provinces of North and

South Carolina, and Virginia, in recompense for services performed and

to be performed, $250,000.

* "June 1st, 1758. To reimburse the province of Massachusetts Bay their

expenses in furnishing provisions and stores to the troops raised by

them in 1756, $136,900. To reimburse the province of Connecticut their

expenses for ditto, $68,680.

* "April 30th, 1759. As a compensation to the respective colonies for

the expenses of clothing, pay of troops, &c., $1,000,000.

* "March 31st, 1760. For the same, $1,000,000. For the colony of New

York, to reimburse their expenses in furnishing provisions and stores to

the troops in 1756, $14,885.

* "January 20th, 1761. As a compensation to the respective colonies for

clothing, pay of troops, &c. $1,000,000.

* "January 26th, 1762. Ditto, $666,666.

* "March 15th, 1763. Ditto, $666,666.

* "April 22d, 1770. To reimburse the province of New Hampshire their

expenses in furnishing provisions and stores to the troops in the

campaign of 1756, $30,045. Total, $5,408,842."

* In a pamphlet entitled The Rights of Britain and Claims of America, an

answer to the Declaration of the Continental Congress, setting forth the

causes and the necessity of their taking up arms, printed in 1776, I

find a table showing the annual expenditures of the British government

in support of the civil and military powers of the American colonies,

from the accession of the family of Hanover, in 1714, until 1775. The

expression of the writer is, "Employed in the defense of America." This

is incorrect, for the wars with the French on this continent, which cost

the greatest amount of money, were wars for conquest and territory,

though ostensibly for the defense of the Anglo-American colonies against

the encroachments of their Gallic neighbors. During the period alluded

to (sixty years) the sums granted for the army amounted to $43,899,625;

for the navy, $50,000,000; money laid put in Indian presents, in holding

Congresses, and purchasing cessions of land, $30,500,000; making a total

of $123,899,625. Within that period the following bounties on American

commodities were paid: On indigo, $725,110; on hemp and flax, $27,800;

on naval stores imported in Great Britain from America, $7,293,810;

making the total sum paid on account of bounties $8,047,320. The total

amount of money expended in sixty years on account of America

$131,946,945.

Death of George II. announced to his Heir.--Influence of the Earl of

Bute.--Cool Treatment of Mr. Pitt.

457

CHAPTER XX.

"In a chariot of light from the regions of day

The goddess of Liberty came,

Ten thousand celestials directed the way,

And hither conducted the dame.

A fair budding branch from the garden above,

Where millions with millions agree,

She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,

And the plant she named Liberty Tree.

"The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground,

Like a native it flourish'd and bore;

The fame of its fruit drew the nations around,

To seek out this peaceable shore.

Unmindful of names or distinction they came,

For freemen, like brothers, agree;

With one spirit indued, they one friendship pursued,

And their temple was Liberty Tree.

"But hear, O ye swains ('tis a tale most profane),

How all the tyrannical powers,

Kings, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain

To cut down this guardian of ours.

From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms,

Through the land let the sound of it flee;

Let the far and the near all unite with a cheer

In defense of our Liberty Tree."

Thomas Paine.

HE intelligence of the death of his grandfather was communicated to

George, the heir apparent, on the morning of the 25th of October, while

he was riding on horseback, near Kew Palace, with his inseparable

companion, the Earl of Bute. William Pitt, afterward Earl of Chatham,

was the prime minister of the deceased king. He immediately repaired to

Kew, where the young sovereign (then in his twenty-third year) remained

during the day and night. On the 26th George * went to St. James's,

where Pitt waited upon him, and presented a sketch of an address to be

pronounced by the monarch at a meeting of the Privy Council.

The minister was politely informed that a speech was already prepared,

and that every preliminary was arranged. He at once perceived that the

courtier, Bute, the favorite of the king's mother, and his majesty's

tutor and abiding personal friend, had made these arrangements, and that

he would doubtless occupy a conspicuous station in the new

administration.

Bute was originally a poor Scottish nobleman, possessed of very little

general talent, narrow in his political views, but favored with a fine

person and natural grace of manners. He was a favorite of George's

father, and continued to be an inti-

* George the Third was the son of Frederic, prince of Wales. His mother

was the beautiful Princess Augusta, of Saxe Gotha. He was born in London

on the 24th of May, 1738 He was married in September, 1761, nearly a

year after his accession, to the Princess Charlotte, of Mecklenberg

Strelitz, daughter of the late duke of that principality. Her character

resembled that of her husband. Like him, she was domestic in her tastes

and habits, decorous, rigid in the observance of moral duties, and

benevolent in thought and action. George was remarkable for the purity

of his morals; even while a young man, in the midst of the licentious

court of his grandfather, and through life, he was a good pattern of a

husband and father. He possessed no brilliancy of talents, but common

sense was a prime element in his intellectual character. He was tender

and benevolent, although he loved money; and his resentments against

those who willfully offended him were lasting. He was always reliable;

honest in his principles and faithful to his promises, no man distrusted

him. Their majesties were crowned on the 22d of September, 1761, soon

after their marriage, and a reform in the royal household at once

commenced. Their example contributed to produce a great change in

manners. "Before their time," says M'Farland, "the Court of St. James

had much of the licentiousness of the Court of Versailles, without its

polish; during their time it became decent and correct, and its example

gradually extended to the upper classes of society, where it was most

wanted." For two years, from 1787 to 1789, his majesty was afflicted

with insanity. The malady returned in 1801, and terminated his political

life. He died on the 29th of January, 1820, aged nearly eighty-two

years, this being the sixtieth year of his reign. His queer died in

1818.

* Waldegrave's Memoirs

Character of Bute.--His Influence over the King.--Discontents.--

Resignation of Pitt

458mate friend of the king's mother after Prince Frederic's death.

Indeed, scandal uttered some unpleasant suggestions respecting this

intimacy, even after the accession of George.

"Not contented with being wise," said Earl Waldegrave, "he would be

thought a polite scholar and a man of great erudition, but has the

misfortune never to succeed, except with those who are exceedingly

ignorant; for his historical knowledge is chiefly taken from tragedies,

wherein he is very deeply read, and his classical learning extends no

further than a French translation." * Such was the man whom the young

monarch unfortunately chose for his counselor and guide, instead of the

wise and sagacious Pitt, who had contributed, by his talents and energy,

so much to the glory of England during the latter years of the reign of

George II. Like Rehoboam, George "forsook the counsel which the old men

gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with

him, that stood before him."

It was a sad mistake, and clouds of distrust gathered in the morning sky

of his reign. The opinion got abroad that he would be ruled by the queen

dowager and Bute, and that the countrymen of the earl, whom the English

disliked, would be subjects of special favor. Murmurs were heard in many

quarters, and somebody had the boldness to put up a placard on the Royal

Exchange, with these words: "No petticoat government--no Scotch

minister--no Lord George Sackville."

Thus, at the very outset of his reign, the king had opponents in his own

capital. A general feeling of discontent pervaded the people as soon as

it was perceived that Pitt, their favorite, was likely to become

secondary among the counselors of the king, or, which seemed more

certain, would leave the cabinet altogether. The latter event soon

followed. Disgusted by the assurance and ignorance of Bute, and the

apathetic submission of George to the control of the Scotch earl, and

perceiving that all his plans, the execution of which was pressing his

country forward in a career of glory and prosperity, were thwarted by

the

Secret Agents sent to America.--Writs of Assistance.--Opposition.--James

Otis.--Episcopacy designed for America

459supple tools of the favorite, he resigned his office. The regrets of

the whole nation followed him into retirement, while George, really

esteeming him more highly than any other statesman in his realm, in

testimony of his appreciation of his services, granted a peerage to his

lady, and a pension of fifteen thousand dollars.

Greater discontents were produced in the colonies by the measures which

the new administration adopted in relation to them. By the advice of

Bute, who was the real head of the government, George set about "a

reformation of the American charters." Secret agents were sent to travel

in the different colonies, to procure access to the leading men, and to

collect such information respecting the character and temper of the

people as would enable ministers to judge what regulations and

alterations could be safely made in the police and government of the

colonies, in order to their being brought more effectually under the

control of Parliament. The business of these agents was also to

conciliate men of capital and station, hoping thereby to enlist a large

number of dependents; but herein they erred. Unlike men in a similar

condition in England, the man of wealth here could influence very few;

and in New England such was the general independence of the people, that

such agency was of no avail. The object of the agents was too apparent

to admit of doubt; the proposed reform was but another name for

despotism, and the gossamer covering of deceit could not hide the

intention of the ministry.

The first _reform_ measure which aroused the colonies to a lively sense

of their danger _was the issuing of Writs of Assistance._ These were

warrants to custom-house offi1761cers, giving them and their deputies a

general power to enter houses or stores where it might be suspected that

contraband goods were concealed. The idea of such latitude being given

to the "meanest deputy of a deputy's deputy" created general indignation

and alarm. It might cover the grossest abuses, and no man's privacy

would be free from the invasion of these ministerial hirelings. Open

resistance was resolved upon. In Boston public meetings were held, and

the voice of the fearless James Otis the younger called boldly upon the

people to breast any storm of ministerial vengeance that might be

aroused by opposition here. The Assembly sided with the people, and even

Governor Bernard was opposed to the measure. Respectful remonstrances to

Parliament and petitions to the king were sent, but without effect. That

short-sighted financier, George Grenville, was Bute's Chancellor of the

Exchequer. An exhausted treasury needed replenishing, and ministers

determined to derive a revenue from the colonies, either by direct

taxation or by impost duties, rigorously levied and collected. They had

also determined in council upon bringing about an entire subservience of

the colonies, politically, religiously, and commercially, to the will of

the king and Parliament. *

* Dr. Gordon says he was informed by Dr. Langdon, of Portsmouth, New

Hampshire, that as the Rev. Mr. Whitfield was about leaving that place,

he said to Dr. Langdon, and Mr. Haven, the Congregational minister, "I

can't, in conscience, leave this town without acquainting you with a

secret. My heart bleeds for America. O poor New England! There is a

deep-laid plot against both your civil and religious liberties, and they

will be lost. Your golden days are at an end. You have nothing but

trouble before you. My information comes from the best authority in

Great Britain. I was allowed to speak of the affair in general, but

enjoined not to mention particulars. Your liberties will be lost."--

Gordon, i., 102. It was known that, among other reforms, the Puritan, or

dissenting, influence in religious matters was to be curtailed, if not

destroyed, by the establishment of Episcopacy in the colonies. The

throne and the hierarchy were, in a measure, mutually dependent. In 1748

Dr. Seeker, the archbishop of Canterbury, had proposed the establishment

of Episcopacy in America, and overtures were made to some Puritan

divines to accept the miter, but without effect. The colonists, viewing

Episcopacy in its worst light, as exhibited in the early days of the

American settlements, had been taught to fear such power, if it should

happen to be wielded by the hand of a crafty politician, more than the

arm of civil government. They knew that if Parliament could create

dioceses and appoint bishops, it would introduce tithes and crush

heresy. For years controversy ran high upon this subject, much acrimony

appeared on both sides, and art was brought in requisition to enforce

arguments. In the Political Register for 1769 is a picture entitled "An

attempt to land a Bishop in America." A portion of a vessel is seen, on

the side of which is inscribed The Hillsborough. * She is lying beside a

wharf, on which is a crowd of earnest people, some with poles pushing

the vessel from her moorings. One holds up a book inscribed Sidney on

Government; another has a volume of Locke's Essays; a third, in the garb

of a Quaker, holds an open volume inscribed Barclay's Apology; and from

the mouth of a fourth is a scroll inscribed No lords, spiritual or

temporal, in New England. Half way up the shrouds of the vessel is a

bishop in his robes, his miter falling, and a volume of Calvin's works,

hurled by one on shore, about to strike his head; from his mouth issues

a scroll inscribed, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in

peace." In the foreground is a paper inscribed, "Shall they be obliged

to maintain bishops that can not maintain themselves?" and near it is a

monkey in the act of throwing a stone at the bishop. This print well

illustrates the spirit of the times.

* William Livingston, afterward governor of New Jersey, seems to have

been one of the most eminent writers against Episcopacy, and Dr.

Chandler and Samuel Seabury (afterward bishop) were among its chief

supporters. An anonymous writer, whose alias was Timothy Tickle, Esq.,

wrote a series of powerful articles in favor of Episcopacy, in Hugh

Gaines's New York Mercury, in 1768, supposed by some to be Dr. Auchmuty,

of Trinity Church. The Synod of Connecticut passed a vote of thanks to

Livingston for his essays, while in Gaines's paper he was lampooned by a

shrewd writer in a poem of nearly two hundred lines. Livingston wrote

anonymously, and the poet thus refers to the author:

"Some think him a Tindall, some think him a Chubb, Some think him a

Ranter that spouts from his Tub; Some think him a Newton, some think him

a Locke, Some think him a Stone, some think him a Stock--But a Stock he

at least may thank Nature for giving, And if he's a Stone, I pronounce

it a Living."

* Episcopacy was introduced into America, took root, and flourished; and

when the Revolution broke out, seven or eight years afterward, there

were many of its adherents found on the side of liberty, though,

generally, so intimate was its relation, through the Mother Church, to

the throne, its loyalty became a subject of reproach and suspicion, for

the Episcopal clergy, as a body, were active or passive Loyalists.

* Lord Hillsborough was then the Colonial Secretary, and it was presumed

to be a plan of his to send a bishop to the colonies.

Enforcement of Revenue Laws.--Resignation of Bute.--Grenville Prime

Minister.--Opposition to Episcopacy

460The idea of colonial subserviency was, indeed, general in England,

and, according to Pitt, "even the chimney-sweepers of the streets talked

boastingly of their _subjects_ in America." *

The admiralty undertook the labor of enforcing the laws, in strict

accordance with the letter, and intrusted the execution thereof to the

commanders of vessels, whose authoritative habits made them most unfit

agents for such a service against such a people. Vessels engaged in

contraband trade were seized and confiscated, and the colonial commerce

with the West Indies was nearly annihilated.

From causes never clearly understood, Lord Bute resigned the premiership

on the 8th of April, 1763, and was succeeded by George Grenville, who,

for a time, had fought shoulder to shoulder with Pitt, but had deserted

him to take office under the Scotch earl. Grenville is represented as an

honest statesman, of great political knowledge and indefatigable

application; but his mind, according to Burke, could not extend beyond

the circle of official routine, and was unable to estimate the result of

untried measures. He proved an unprofitable counselor for the king, for

he began a political warfare against the celebrated journalist, John

Wilkes, which resulted in the most serious partisan against the Stamp

Act, by which Great Britain lost her colonies.

* Parliamentary Debates, iii., 210.

** George Grenville was born in 1722, and in 1750 became a member of the

House of Commons, where he was distinguished for his eloquence and

general knowledge. He was made Treasurer of the Navy in 1754, and in

1760 was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. He became First Lord of

the Treasury, or prime minister, in 1763, and the next year originated

the famous Stamp Act. He resigned his office to Rockingham in 1765, and

died on the 13th of November, 1770, aged fifty-eight years. He married

the daughter of Sir William Wyndham. The late Marquis of Buckingham, who

inherited the family estates in Buckinghamshire, was his eldest son.

The Stamp Act proposed.--Right to tax the Americans asserted.--Stamp Act

not new.--Postponement of Action on it

461Grenville found an empty treasury, and the national debt increased,

in consequence of recent wars, to nearly seven hundred millions of

dollars. To meet the current expenses of government, heavy taxation was

necessary, and the English people were loudly complaining of the burden.

Grenville feared to increase the weight, and looked to the American

colonies for relief. He conceived the _right_ * to draw a revenue from

them to be undoubted, and, knowing their ability to pay, he formed a

plan to tax them indirectly by levying new duties upon foreign articles

imported by the Americans. A bill for levying these duties passed the

House of Commons in March, 1764, without much notice, except from

General Conway, who saw in it the seeds of further encroachments upon

the liberties of the colonists. The Assembly of Massachusetts, acting in

accordance with instructions given to the Boston representatives, had

already denied the right to impose duties. Mr. Otis had published a

pamphlet called "The Rights of the British Colonists asserted," which

was highly approved here, and a copy was sent to the Massachusetts agent

in England. In that pamphlet Mr. Otis used the strong language, "If we

are not represented we are slaves!"

Thatcher, of Boston, also published a tract against Parliamentary

taxation, and similar publications were made by Dulaney, the secretary

of the province of Maryland, by Bland, a leading member of the House of

Burgesses of Virginia, and "by authority" in Rhode Island.

On the 5th of May Mr. Grenville submitted to the House of Commons an act

proposing a stamp duty,8 at the same time assuring the colonial agents,

with whom he had conferred, that he should not press its adoption that

session, but would leave the scheme open for consideration. He required

the colonies to pay into the treasury a million of dollars per annum,

and he would leave it to them to devise a better plan, if possible, than

the proposed stamp duty. The idea was not original with Mr. Grenville.

It had been held out as early as 1739, by a club of American merchants,

at the head of whom were Sir William Keith, governor of Pennsylvania,

Joshua Gee, and others. In the colonial Congress at Albany, in 1754, a

stamp act was talked of, and at that time Dr. Franklin thought it a just

plan for taxing the colonies, conceiving that its operations would

affect the several governments fairly and equally. Early in January

(1764) Mr. Huske, a native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who had

obtained a seat in Parliament, desirous of displaying his excessive

loyalty, alluded to the proposition of a stamp duty made at the Albany

Convention, and delighted the House by asserting the ability of the

colonists to pay a liberal tax, and recommending the levying of one that

should amount annually to two and a half millions of dollars. *** With

these precedents, and the present assurance of Huske, Grenville brought

forward his bill. It was received, and, on motion of the mover, its

consideration was postponed until the next session.

When the new impost law (which was, in fact, a continuation of former

similar acts) and the proposed Stamp Act reached America, discontent was

every where visible. Instead of being in a condition to pay taxes, the

colonies had scarcely recovered from the effects of the late war; and

the more unjust appeared the Stamp Act, when the previous act was about

* Early in March, 1764, it was debated in the House of Commons whether

they had a right to tax the Americans, they not being represented, and

it was determined unanimously in the affirmative. Of this vote, and the

evident determination of ministers to tax the colonics, Mr. Mauduit, the

agent of Massachusetts, informed the Assembly, and that body immediately

resolved, "That the sole right of giving and granting the money of the

people of that province was vested in them as the legal representatives;

and that the imposition of taxes and duties by the Parliament of Great

Britain, upon a people who are not represented in the House of Commons,

is absolutely irreconcilable with their rights--That no man can justly

take the property of another without his consent; upon which original

principle the right of representation in the same body which exercises

the power of making laws for levying taxes, one of the main pillars of

the British Constitution, is evidently founded."

** It provided that every skin, or piece of vellum, or parchment, or

sheet, or piece of paper used for legal purposes, such as bills, bonds,

notes, leases, policies of insurance, marriage licenses, and a great

many other documents, in order to be held valid in courts of law, was to

be stamped, and sold by public officers appointed for that purpose, at

prices which levied a stated tax on every such document. The Dutch had

used stamped paper for a long time, and it was familiar to English

merchants and companies, but in America it was almost wholly unknown.

*** Gordon, i., 110; Jackson's letter to Lieutenant-governor Hutchinson,

December 26th, 1765.

Opposition to Taxation by the Colonies.--Instructions to their Agents.--

The Stamp Act introduced in Parliament. Townshend

462to intercept their profitable trade with the Spanish main and the

West Indies, whence they derived much of their means to pay a tax. The

_right_ to tax them was also strenuously denied, and all the colonial

Assemblies, wherever the subject was brought up, asserted their sole

right to tax themselves. New England passed strong resolutions of

remonstrance, and forwarded earnest petitions to the king to pause; and

Virginia and New York adopted the same course, using firm, but

respectful, language. They demonstrated, by fair argument, that the

colonies were neither actually nor virtually represented in the British

Parliament; they declared that they had hitherto supposed the pecuniary

assistance which Great Britain had given them (the Parliamentary grants

during the war) offered from motives of humanity, and not as the price

of their liberty; and if she now wished a remuneration, she must make

allowance for all the assistance she had received from the colonies

during the late war, and for the oppressive restrictions she had imposed

upon American commerce. They plainly told Great Britain that, as for her

protection, they had full confidence in their own ability to protect

themselves against any foreign enemy.

Remonstrances and petitions were sent by the colonies to their agents in

London (some of whom had not opposed the Stamp Act), with explicit

instructions to prevent, as far as they had power to act, the adoption

of any scheme for taxing Americans. At this crisis Franklin was

appointed agent for Pennsylvania; and other colonies, relying upon his

skill and wisdom in diplomacy, his thorough acquaintance with government

affairs, his personal influence in England, and, above all, his

fearlessness, also intrusted him with the management of their affairs

abroad. When he arrived in London, Grenville and other politicians

waited upon him, and consulted him respecting the proposed Stamp Act. He

told them explicitly that it was an unwise measure; that Americans would

never submit to be taxed without their consent, and that such an act, if

attempted to be enforced, would endanger the unity of the empire. Pitt,

though living in retirement at his country seat at Hayes, was not an

indifferent spectator, and he also consulted Franklin upon the important

subject.

No doubt the expressed opinion of Franklin delayed, for a while, the

introduction of the Stamp Act into the House of Commons, for it was not

submitted until the 7th of February following. In the mean while

respectful petitions and remonstrances were received from America,

indicating a feeling of general opposition to ministers, and a

determination not to be sheared by the "Gentle Shepherd." * The king, in

his speech on the opening January 10, 1765 Parliament, alluded to

American taxation, and the manifest discontent in the colonies; yet,

regardless of the visible portents of a storm, recommended the adoption

of Grenville's scheme, and assured Parliament that he should use every

endeavor to enFebruary 7, 1765 force obedience in America. The bill,

containing fifty-five resolutions, was brought in, and Mr. Charles

Townshend, the most eloquent man in the Commons, in the absence of Pitt,

spoke in its favor, concluding with the following peroration: "And now

will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our

indulgence until they are grown to a degree of strength and opulence,

and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to

relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?"

Colonel Barré arose, and, echoing Townshend's words, thus commented:

"_They planted by your care!_ No, your _oppressions_, planted them in

America. They fled from your tyranny, to a then uncultivated and

inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the

hardships to which human nature is liable, and, among others, to the

cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle, and I will take upon me to

say, the most formidable of any people upon the face of God's earth;

yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all

hardships with pleasure compared with those they suffered in their own

* In the course of a debate on the subject of taxation, in 1762, Mr.

Grenville contended that the money was wanted, that government did not

know where to lay another tax; and, addressing Mr. Pitt, he said, "Why

does he not tell us where we can levy another tax?" repeating, with

emphasis, "Let him tell me where--only tell me where!" Pitt, though not

much given to joking, hummed in the words of a popular song, "Gentle

shepherd, tell me where!" The House burst into a roar of laughter, and

christened George Grenville The Gentle Shepherd.--Pictorial History of

the Reign of George III., i..

Barré's Speech rebuking Townshend.--His Defense of the Americans.--

Effect of his Speech.--Passage of the Stamp Act

463country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends.

_They nourished up by your indulgence_! They grew by your _neglect_ of

them.

As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in

sending persons to rule them in one department and another, who were,

perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members of this House, sent to

spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon

them--men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of those

sons of liberty * to recoil within them--men promoted to the highest

seats of justice; some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a

foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of public justice in

their own. _They protected by your arms!_ They have nobly taken up arms

in your defense; have exerted a valor, amid their constant and laborious

industry, for the defense of a country whose frontier was drenched in

blood, while its interior parts yielded all its little savings to your

emoluments. And believe me--remember I this day told you so--that same

spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany

them still; but prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows

I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver

are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me, in

general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this House may

be, I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and

been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly

loyal as any subjects the king has; but a people jealous of their

liberties, and who will vindicate them if ever they should be violated.

But the subject is too delicate; I will say no more." For a moment after

the utterance of these solemn truths the House remained in silent

amazement; but the utter ignorance of American affairs, and the fatal

delusion wrought by ideas of royal power and colonial weakness, which

prevailed in that assembly, soon composed their minds. *** Very little

debate was had upon the bill, and it passed the House after a single

division, by a majority of two hundred and fifty to fifty. In the Lords

it received scarcely any opposition. On the 22d of March the king

cheerfully gave his assent, and the famous Stamp Act--the entering wedge

for the dismemberment of the British empire--became a law. The protests

of colonial agents, the remonstrances of London merchants trading with

America, and the wise suggestions of men acquainted with the temper and

resources of Americans were set at naught, and the infatuated ministry

openly declared "that it was intended _to establish the power of Great

Britain to tax the colonies._"

"The sun of liberty is set," wrote Dr. Franklin to Charles Thom-

* This was the origin of the name which the associated patriots in

Ameriea assumed when the speech of Barré reached the colonies, and

organized opposition to the Stamp Act was eommenced.

** Isaac Barré was born in 1727. His early years were devoted to study

and military pursuits, and he attained the rank of colonel in the

British army. Through the influence of the Marquis of Landsdowne he

obtained a seat in the House of Commons, where he was ever the champion

of American freedom. For several years previous to his death he was

afflicted with blindness. He died July 1st, 1802, aged seventy-five

years. Some have attributed the authorship of the celebrated Letters of

Junius to Colonel Barré, the Marquis of Landsdowne, and Counselor

Dunning, jointly, but the conjecture is unsupported by any argument.

*** The apathy that prevailed in the British Parliament at that time

respecting American affairs was astonishing, considering the interests

at issue. Burke, in his Annual Register, termed it the "most languid

debate" he had ever heard; and so trifling did the intelligent Horace

Walpole consider the subject, that, in reporting every thing of moment

to the Earl of Hertford, he devoted but a single paragraph of a few

lines to the debate that day on America. Indeed, Walpole honestly

confessed his total ignorance of American affairs.

Excitement in America.--A Congress proposed.--The Circular Letter of

Massachusetts.--Mrs. Mercy Warren

464son * the very night that the act was passed; "the Americans must

light the lamps of industry and economy."

When intelligence of the passage of the Stamp Act reached America, it

set the whole country in a blaze of resentment. Massachusetts and

Virginia--the _head_ and the _heart_ of the Revolution--were foremost

and loudest in their denunciations, while New York and Pennsylvania were

not much behind them in boldness and zeal. All the colonies were shaken,

and from Maine to Georgia there was a spontaneous expression of

determined resistance.

In October, 1764, the New York Assembly appointed a committee to

correspond with their agent in Great Britain, and with the several

colonial Assemblies, on the subject of opposition to the Stamp Act and

other oppressive measures of Parliament. ** In the course of their

correspondence, early in 1765, this committee urged upon the colonial

Assemblies the necessity of holding a convention of delegates to

remonstrate and protest against the continued violation of their rights

and liberties. Massachusetts was the first to act upon this suggestion.

That action originated with James Otis, Jr., and his father, while

visiting a sister of the former one evening at Plymouth. *** The

recommendation of the New York committee was the subject of

conversation. It was agreed to propose action on the subject in the

General Assembly, and on the 6th of June the younger Mr. Otis, who was a

member of the Legislature, made a motion in the House, which was

adopted, that "It is highly expedient there should be a meeting, as soon

as may be, of committees from the Houses of Representatives, or

burgesses, in the several colonies, to consult on the present

circumstances of the colonies, and the difficulties to which they are,

and must be, reduced, and to consider of a general address--to be held

at New York the first Tuesday in October." The following circular letter

was also adopted by the Assembly, and a copy ordered to be sent to the

Speaker of each of the colonial Assemblies in America:

"Boston, June, 1765.

"Sir--The House of Representatives of this province, in the present

session of general court, have unanimously agreed to propose a meeting,

as soon as may be, of committees from the Houses of Representatives, or

burgesses, of the several British colonies on this continent, to consult

together on the present circumstances of the colonies, and the

difficulties to which they are, and must be, reduced by the operation of

the acts of Parliament for levying duties and taxes on the colonies; and

to consider of a general and united, dutiful, loyal, and humble

representation of their condition to his majesty and to the Parliament,

and to implore relief.

"The House of Representatives of this province have also voted to

propose that such meeting be at the city of New York, in the province of

New York, on the first Tuesday in October next, and have appointed a

committee of three of their members to attend that service, with such as

the other Houses of Representatives, or burgesses, in the several

colonies, may think fit to appoint to meet them; and the committee of

the House of Representatives of this province are directed to repair to

the said New York, on the first Tuesday in October next, accordingly;

if, therefore, your honorable House should agree to this proposal, it

would

* Mr. Thompson was afterward the Secretary of the Continental Congress.

In reply to Franklin's letter he said, "Be assured, we shall light

torches of another sort," predicting the convulsions that soon followed.

** This committee consisted of Robert R. Livingston, John Cruger, Philip

Livingston, William Bayard, and Leonard Lispenard. Mr. Cruger was then

mayor of the city and Speaker of the Assembly.

*** This sister was Mrs. Mercy Warren, wife of James Warren, Esq., of

Plymouth, one of the members of the General Court. She wrote an

excellent history of our Revolution, which was published in three

volumes in 1805. She was born September 5th, 1728, at Barnstable,

Massachusetts. Her youth was passed in the retirement of a quiet home,

and reading, drawing, and needle-work composed the bulk of her

recreations. She married Mr. Warren at the age of twenty-six. The family

connections of both were extensive and highly respectable, and she not

only became intimately acquainted with the leading men of the Revolution

in Massachusetts, but was thoroughly imbued with the republican spirit.

Her correspondence was quite extensive, and, as she herself remarks of

her home, "by the Plymouth fireside were many political plans

originated, discussed, and digested." She kept a faithful record of

passing events, out of which grew her excellent history. She wrote

several dramas and minor poems, all of which glow with the spirit of the

times. Mrs. Warren died on the 19th of October, 1814, in the eighty-

seventh year of her age.

Assembling of a Colonial Congress in New York.--Defection of Ruggles and

Ogden.--The Proceedings. Stamp-masters.

465be acceptable that as early notice of it as possible might be

transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of this

province."

This letter was favorably received by the other colonies, and delegates

to the proposed ConOctober 7, 1765gress were appointed. They met in the

city of New York on the first Monday in October. The time was earlier

than the meeting of several of the colonial Assemblies, and,

consequently, some of them were denied the privilege of appointing

delegates. The Governors of Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia

refused to call the Assemblies together for the purpose. It was,

therefore, agreed that _committees_ from any of the colonies should have

seats as delegates, and under this rule New York was represented by its

corresponding committee. Nine of the thirteen colonies were represented,

and the Assemblies of New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, and

Georgia wrote that they would agree to whatever was done by the

Congress.'

The Convention was organized by the election, by ballot, of Timothy

Ruggles, of Massachusetts, as chairman, and the appointment of John

Cotten clerk. It continued in session fourteen consecutive days, and

adopted a _Declaration of Rights, a Petition to the King, and a Memorial

to both Houses of Parliament_, in all of which the principles that

governed the leaders of the soon-following Revolution were clearly set

forth. These documents, so full of the spirit of men determined to be

free, and so replete with enlightened political wisdom, are still

regarded as model state papers. **

All the delegates affixed their signatures of approval to the

proceedings, except Mr. Ruggles, the president, and Mr. Ogden, of New

Jersey, both of whom thus early manifested their defection from a cause

which they afterward openly opposed. The conduct of the former drew down

upon him a vote of censure from the Massachusetts House of

Representatives, and he was reprimanded, in his place, by the Speaker.

He and Otis were the leaders of the opposite parties, and as the

Revolution advanced Ruggles became a bitter Tory. ** Ogden was also

publicly censured for his conduct on that occasion, was burned in

effigy, and at the next meeting of the Assembly of New Jersey was

dismissed from the Speaker's chair, which honorable post he held at the

time of the Congress. The deputies of three of the colonies not having

been authorized by their respective Assemblies to address the king and

Parliament, did not sign the petition and memorial. All the colonies, by

the votes of their respective Assemblies, when they convened

subsequently, approved the measures adopted by the Congress; and before

the day on which the noxious act was to take effect, Amer November

1,1765 ica spoke with one voice to the king and his ministers,

denouncing the measure, and imploring them to be just..

On the passage of the Stamp Act officers were appointed in the several

colonies, to receive and distribute the stamped parchments and papers.

The colonial agents in England were consulted, and those whom they

recommended as discreet and proper persons were appointed. The agents

generally had opposed the measure, but, now that it had become a law,

they were disposed to make the best of it. Mr. Ingersoll, whom I have

mentioned in

* The following delegates were present at the organization of the

Convention:

Massachusetts.--James Otis, Oliver Partridge, Timothy Rugeles.

New York.--Robert R. Livingston, John Cruger, Philip Livingston, William

Bayard, Leonard Lispenard New Jersey.--Robert Oteden, Hendrick Fisher,

Joseph Borden.

Rhode Island.--Metcalf Bowler, Henry Ward.

Pennsylvania.--John Dickenson, John Morton, George Bryan.

Delaware.--Thomas M'Kean, Cæsar Rodney.

Connecticut.--Eliphalet Dyer, David Rowland, William S. Johnson.

Maryland.--William Murdock, Edward Tilghman, Thomas Ringgold.

South Carolina.--Thomas Lynch, Christopher Gadsden, John Rutledge.

** The Declaration of Rights was written by John Cruger; the Petition to

the King, by Robert R. Livingston; and the Memorial to both Houses of

Parliament, by James Otis.

***In Mrs. Warren's drama called The Group, Ruggles figures in the

character of Brigadier Hate-All. He fought against the Americans, at the

head of a corps of Loyalists, and at the close of the war settled in

Nova Scotia, where he has numerous descendants.

Franklin's Advice to Ingersoll.--Arrival of the Stamps.--Patrick Henry's

Resolutions.--"Liberty Tree."--Effigies.

466a former chapter as stamp-master in Connecticut, was in England at

the time. Franklin advised him to accept the office, adding, "Go home

and tell your countrymen to get children as fast as they can"--thereby

intimating that the colonists were too feeble, at that moment, to resist

the government successfully, but ought to gain strength as fast as

possible, in order to shake off the oppressions which, he foresaw, were

about to be laid upon them. But little did he and other agents suspect

that the stamp-masters would be held in such utter detestation as they

were, or that such disturbances would occur as followed, or they would

not have procured the appointments for their friends. The ministry,

however, seem to have anticipated trouble, for a clause was inserted in

the annual Mutiny Act, authorizing as many troops to be sent to America

as ministers saw fit, and making it obligatory upon the people to find

quarters for them.

During the summer and autumn the public mind was greatly disturbed by

the arrival of vessels bringing the stamps, and the first of November

was looked forward to with intense interest--by some with fear, but by

more with firm resolution to resist the operations of the May 30, 1765

oppressive act. Virginia rang the alarum bell, by a series of

resolutions drawn up by Patrick Henry, sustained by his powerful

oratory, and adopted by the House of Burgesses. Of these resolutions,

and of Henry's eloquence on that occasion, I shall hereafter write. So

much did the notes of that alarum sound like the voice of treason, that

a manuscript copy which was sent to Philadelphia, and another to New

York, were handed about with great privacy. In the latter city no one

was found bold enough to print the resolutions, but in Boston they soon

appeared in the Gazette of Edes and Gill, and their sentiments, uttered

in the Assembly, were echoed back from every inhabited hill and valley

in New England.

Before any stamps had arrived in America symptoms of an outbreak

appeared in Boston.

A large elm-tree, which stood at the corner of the present Washington

and Essex Streets, opposite the Boylston Market, received the

appellation of "Liberty Tree," from the circumstance that under it the

association called Sons of Liberty held meetings during the summer of

1765. From a limb of this tree several of the Sons of Liberty *

suspended two effigies early on the morn-. ing of the 14th of August.

One represented Andrew Oliver, secretary of the colony, and just

appointed stamp distributor for Massachusetts; the other was a large

_boot_, intended to represent Lord Bute, with a head and horns, to

personify the devil peeping out of the top. A great number of people

were attracted to these effigies in the course of the day, the

authorities in the mean while taking no public notice of the insult, for

fear of serious consequences. Indeed, Sir Francis Bernard, the royal

governor, had thus far been almost non-committal on the subjects that

were agitating the colonies, although he was strongly suspected of

secretly encouraging the passage of the Stamp Act and kindred measures.

In the evening the effigies were cut down

* John Wery, Jr., Thomas Crafts, John Smith, Henry Wills, Thomas Chase,

Stephen Cleverly, Henry Ross, and Benjamin Edes.

** I am indebted to the Hon. David Sears, of Boston, for this sketeh of

the "Liberty Tree," as it appeared just previous to its destruction by

the British troops and Tories, during the siege of Boston in August,

1775. Mr. Scars has erected a row of fine buildings upon the site of the

old grove of elms, of which this tree was one; and within a niche, on

the front of one of them, and exactly over the spot where the Liberty

Tree stood, he has placed a sculptured representation of it, as seen in

the picture. From the time of the Stamp Act excitement until the armed

possession of Boston by General Gage and his troops in 1774, that tree

had been the rallying-place for the patriots, and had fallen, in

consequence, much in disfavor with the friends of government. It was

inscribed "Liberty Tree," and the ground under it was called "Liberty

Hall." The Essex Gazette of August 31st, 1775, in describing the

destruction of the tree, says, "They made a furious attack upon it.

After a long spell of laughing and grinning, sweating, swearing, and

foaming with malice diabolical, they cut down the tree because it bore

the name of liberty. A soldier was killed by falling from one of its

branches during the operation." In a tract entitled "A Voyage to

Boston," published in 1775 the writer thus alludes to the scene:

"Now shined the gay-faced sun with morning light, All nature gazed,

exulting at the sight, When swift as wind, to vent their base-born rage,

The Tory Williams and the Butcher Gage Rush'd to the tree, a nameless

number near, Tories and negroes following in the rear; Each, axe in

hand, attack'd the honor'd tree, Swearing eternal war with Liberty; Nor

ceased his stroke till each repeating wound Tumbled its honors headlong

to the ground; But ere it fell, not mindless of its wrong, Avenged, it

took one destined head along. A Tory soldier on its topmost limb; The

genius of the Shade look'd stem at him, And mark'd him out that self-

same hour to dine Where unsnuff'd lamps burn low at Pluto's shrine, Then

tripp'd his feet from off their cautious stand; Pale turn'd the wretch--

he spread each helpless hand, But spread in vain--with headlong force he

fell, Nor stopp'd descending till he stopp'd in hell."

Riot in Boston.--Destruction of private Property.--Attack on

Hutchinson's House.--Destruction of "Liberty Tree."

467and carried in procession, the populace shouting, "Liberty and

property forever! No stamps! No taxation without our consent!" They then

proceeded to Kilby Street, and pulling down a small building just

erected by Oliver, to be used, as they suspected, for selling stamps,

they took a portion of it to Fort Hill and made a bonfire of it. The mob

then rushed toward Oliver's house, beheaded his effigy before it, and

broke all the front windows. His effigy was then taken to Fort Hill and

burned. Returning to his house, they burst open the door, declaring

their intention to kill him, and in brutal wantonness destroyed his

furniture, trees, fences, and garden. Mr. Oliver had escaped by a rear

passage, and the next morning, August 15,1765 considering his life in

danger, he resigned his office. Four months afterward he was compelled

by the populace to go under Liberty Tree, and there publicly read his

resignation. In the evening the mob again assembled, and besieged the

house of the late Chief-justice Hutchinson, now lieutenant governor of

the province. They did but little damage, and finished their evening's

orgies by a bonfire on the Common.

On the 25th the Rev. Jonathan Mahew, minister of the West Church in

Boston, preached a powerful sermon against the Stamp Act, taking for his

text, "I would they were even cut off which trouble you. For, brethren,

ye have been called unto liberty: only use not liberty for an occasion

to the flesh, but by love serve one another." * On Monday evening

following a mob collected in King Street, and, proceeding to the

residence of Paxton, the marshal of the Court of Admiralty, menaced it.

The owner assured them that the officer was not there, and, conciliating

the populace by a present of a barrel of punch at a tavern near by,

saved his premises from injury. Maddened with liquor, they rushed to the

house of Story, registrar of the Admiralty, and destroyed not only the

public documents, but his private papers. They next plundered the house

of Hallowell, the controller of customs; and, their numbers being

considerably augmented and their excitement increased, they hurried to

the mansion of Lieutenant-governor Hutchinson, ** on North Square.

Hutchinson and his family escaped

* Galatians, v., 12, 13.